Sir Isaac Newton on Prophecy & Discernment

I was perusing some of Isaac Newton’s writings on prophecy over at the Newton project and it dawned on me how similar his view was to mine. Keeping in mind my last post here, read Newton’s thoughts on the value of end time prophecy:

“If then the Prophesies which concerned the Apostolique age were given for the conversion of the men of that age to the truth & for the establishment of their faith, & if it was their duty to search diligently into those Prophesies: why should we not think that the Prophesies which concern the latter times into which we  are fallen were in like manner intended for our use that in the midst of Apostacies we might be able to discern the truth & be established in the faith thereof, & consequently that it is also our duty to search with all diligence into these Prophesies. And If God was so angry with the Jews for not searching more diligently into the Prophesies which he had given them to know Christ by: why should we think he will excuse us for not searching into the Prophesies which he hath given us to know Antichrist by? For certainly it must be as dangerous & as easy an error for Christians to adhere to Antichrist as it was for the Iews to reject Christ. And therefore it is as much our duty to  indeavour to  be able to know him that we may avoyd him, as it was theirs to know Christ that they might follow him.

Thou seest therefore that this is no idle speculation, no matters of indifferency but a duty of the greatest moment. Wherefore it concerns thee to look about thee narrowly least thou shouldest in so degenerate an age be dangerously seduced & not know it. Antichrist was to seduce the whole Christian world and therefore he may easily seduce thee if thou beest not well prepared to discern him. But if he should not be yet come into the world yet amidst so many religions of which there can be but one true & perhaps none of those that thou art acquainted with it is great odds but thou mayst be deceived & therefore it concerns thee to be very circumspect.” Source: The Newton Project

The point that Newton makes about God holding them accountable for understanding the prophecies is true.  Daniel had written the 70 weeks prophecy specifically enough that the Pharisees should have recognized when Jesus entered Jerusalem on a donkey presenting himself as Messiah. Jesus certainly held them accountable for knowing the prophecies,

“Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. For the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation.”  (Luke 19:42–44, ESV)

Newton wrote  “Antichrist was to seduce the whole Christian world and therefore he may easily seduce thee if thou beest not well prepared to discern him.” Might Jesus hold you accountable as well?

Why Apologetics?

I switched career paths from what would have been a  lucrative opportunity in IT to go to seminary.  Now I am passionate about studying theology, apologetics and philosophy. The number one reason is that I truly believe God called me.  I also think I know why I was… well, drafted.

It’s a war and “No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him. ” (2 Timothy 2:4, ESV)

I truly believe we are in the very last days prior to the return of Christ. There are many compelling evidences for this; the primary being Israel’s reestablishment as a nation after nearly 2000 years of Diaspora.  The Bible warns us to expect widespread deception and a falling away from orthodoxy. For this reason, apologetics is now more important than ever.

In Matthew 24  Jesus characterizes the time leading up to his return as one of unprecedented deception and emphatically warns “See that no one leads you astray…”

Scripture is chock full of admonitions concerning the deceptive nature of the last days.

“But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. ” (2 Timothy 3:1, ESV)

“knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires. ” (2 Peter 3:3, ESV)

“Let no one deceive you in any way. For that day will not come, unless the rebellion comes first, …. ” (2 Thessalonians 2:3 a , ESV)

The word rebellion is rendered from ἀποστασία apostasia;  defection, revolt:—apostasy(1), forsake(1).  (New American Standard Hebrew-Aramaic and Greek Dictionaries :  1998).

So is this occurring?

In the new American Religious Identification Survey (ARIS) the percentage of people who call themselves “Christian” has dropped more than 11% in a generation. The report states “the challenge to Christianity … does not come from other religions but from a rejection of all forms of organized religion.” The percentage of Americans that claim no religion at all is 15%, up from 8% in 1990.

Back in 1994, Dr. William Lane Craig wrote concerning the trend toward postmodernism,

If the situation is not to degenerate further, it is imperative that we turn the whole intellectual climate of our culture back to a Christian worldview…our churches are filled with Christians who are idling in intellectual neutral. One result of this is an immature, superficial faith…The results of being in intellectual neutral extend far beyond oneself. If Christian laymen don’t become intellectually engaged, then we are in serious danger of losing our children, (William Lane Craig, Reasonable Faith, 1994).

So here we are in 2010, was Dr Craig’s prediction correct? In a 2007 Barna study, it was observed that Americans ages 16 to 29 were far more skeptical and resistant to Christianity than the same age group ten years before. Only 16% have a positive view of Christianity. Dr Frank Turek says we have a 75% rate of attrition,

What about those who haven’t left the church? The 2008 Pew Forum research indicated “Americans are very open. In terms of various paths to heaven, the majority tell us that there is not just one way to heaven. 70% of Americans including 57% of ‘evangelical Protestants’ believe this, while 68% believe there is more than one true way to interpret the teachings of their religions.”

Another revealing finding by the Pew Forum reflecting the dramatic postmodern turn is that 50% of Americans now say homosexuality should be accepted by society, while only 40% do not (“Massive Study Finds Most Americans Devout, Tolerant,” The Boston Globe, June 23, 2008). The recent decision by the Evangelical Lutheran Church to endorse openly homosexual pastors comes to mind.

In addition, Pew’s 2008 U.S. Religious Landscape Survey of 35,000 Americans also found a astonishing dismissal of orthodoxy: 70% said “many religions can lead to eternal life” and 68% said “there’s more than one true way to interpret the teachings of my religion.”  Unfortunately for the majority Jesus really did not leave that option open to us.

“Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few. ” (Matthew 7:13–14, ESV)

This is spiritual warfare and the hour is late.

Mormonism

This looks like a good one to share with your Mormon friends. I really like the documentaries produced by this ministry. Jerricho Unearthed is a fave!

Also check out my Mo Joe video.

Creation is a Scientific Fact

I finally got around to editing my 4 part you tube series into a 45 minute documentary format. This is the series that helped knock some of the intellectual sheen off of being an atheist on you tube.  In my experience most of the pseudo-atheists that prop up their agnosticism (posturing as atheism) by positing scientific consensus on things like Darwinism retreat to donning aluminum haberdashery when confronted with the evidence from physics. Sorry fellas, time and space had a beginning and there’s no evidence for atheism.

It is free for download here: Creation is a Scientific Fact from Logos Apologia on Vimeo.  I encourage you to share it widely. Atheism is not the intellectual high ground that its proponents pretend it to be.

Everything that begins to exist has a cause.The universe began to exist. Therefore the universe has a cause.

Why couldn’t natural forces have produced the universe? Because there was no nature and there were no natural forces ontologically prior to the Big Bang—nature itself was created at the Big Bang. That means the cause of the universe must be something beyond nature—something we would call supernatural. It also means that the supernatural cause of the universe must at least be:

•spaceless because it created space
•timeless because it created time
•immaterial because it created matter
•powerful because it created out of nothing
•intelligent because the creation event and the universe was precisely designed
•personal because it made a choice to convert a state of nothing into something (impersonal forces dont make choices).

Turek & Geisler. I Don’t Have Enough Faith To Be An Atheist. CrosswayBooks; 2004.

I really like Turek and Geilser’s book!