Bible Study

Messianic Jews, sacred names
human mind, creation

Fred R. Coulter—April 15, 2009

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• (A) Use Sacred Names?
• (B) Jewish Traditions
• (C) Book - Ultra Mind Solution
• (D)  The Brain And Prayer
• (E) Creation - Recreation

I have in my hands a copy of some pages from a new translation of the first five books of the Bible, The Five Books of Moses by Robert Alter. I bring this up from the point of view that several people have asked, 'Why didn't you use Jehovah or YHVH or YHWH and Elohim, and things like this?' I think he gave really the best answer. So let me read it to you.

The God of Israel is referred to through a variety of names in these texts… [That is the first five books.] …and it is by no means self-evident how to render the names in English. The most difficult of them is the Tetragrammaton…. [The YHWH or VH.] …Modern Biblical scholarship has agreed to represent this as Yahweh, but there are problems with using that form in translation. The original Hebrew text of the Bible were entirely consonantal….

All consonants. By the way, that's how I do speedwriting. I leave out all the vowels. So if you get writer's cramps sometime, try developing your own speedwriting by just dropping out the vowels. I can go back forty years ago and read my notes. Whereas, if you took shorthand you couldn't do that. So it works almost as fast as shorthand. So that's how it is, all the vowels are out.

Later, vowel pointing was added over a millennial, after the original composition of the text. Because by then the Tetragrammaton was deemed ineffable by Jewish tradition.

So if it is ineffable, how can a Jew tell you how to pronounce it?

It was re-vocalized to be pronounced as though it read Adonai, or Lord. The confidence of Biblical scholarship that the original pronunciation was in fact Yahweh, may not be entirely warranted.

Amazing!—isn't it?

In the case of Yahweh would have given the English version a certain academic archeological coloration that I prefer to avoid… [Because that is a transliteration. What we have in English is a translation.] …and it would have introduced a discomfort at least, for some Jewish readers of the translation. I rejected the option of using YHWH, or Yahweh, because it cannot be pronounced. Whereas, the dimension of the sound seemed to me vital in the translation. I have, therefore, followed the precedent of the King James Version in representing YHWH as Lord, with small upper-case letters to indicate that like Adonai, it is an anomaly, a substitution for another name. Likewise with the name Elohim.

Let's talk a little bit about sacred names, because everybody gets hit by sacred names here and there. What you're going to find is that Messianic Jews feel as though they have the upper hand to teach other people who are not Jews. The way you confront them is this: you go to Mark 7. So let's go there. And this is quite an important section. By the way, Phil Neal, our editor, is writing a new book entitled, Judaism is Not the Law of Moses. Not only is it going to cover Judaism, but in the case of traditions, it's going to cover all religions.

Let's come to Mark 7. How many have the series, Judaism vs. Scripturalism? I did that one a long time ago, so if you want that one, be sure and write in for it, or call the office, or email us and we'll send it to you. What it is, it is a survey of the book of Matthew all the way through to show that Jesus was never a Jew in the sense that Jews today claim Jews are. What they do: They claim that everything in the Old Testament is Jewish. It isn't, it's from God. What they intended to do with the traditions‑‑and Phil has a really great chapter on where did the oral traditions come from? And if they're oral traditions, why did they have to be written down, couldn't you remember them? So as you go along and these things come up, you need to have your thinking cap on, and challenge them on the very premise of what they're doing.

By the way, just as an aside, Jesus never attended a Rabbinical school. Jesus was taught by the Father; He said so. Hold your place here in Mark 7 and let's read something very interesting. Let's come back to Isaiah 50. If He was never taught in a Rabbinic school, stop and think of this a minute. Since the scribes and Pharisees were so against Jesus, what do you think they would have done to the rabbi who taught Him, had He been taught by a rabbi? They would have crucified him, too—right? Yes! So don't swoon and fall at the feet of Messianic Jews. Now the Messianic Jews fall into two categories:

• Sunday keepers
• Sabbath keepers

—but they never give up the traditions of the fathers. I've only met one Jew that has, I mean completely.
How was Jesus taught? Here's a prophecy about Jesus was taught beginning at the very earliest part of His life. Isaiah 50:4: "'The Lord GOD has given Me the tongue of the learned, to know to help the weary with a word. He awakens Me morning by morning, He awakens my ear to hear as one being taught…. [That's how Jesus was taught—by the Father.] …The Lord GOD has opened My ear, and I was not rebellious, nor turned away backwards'" (vs 4-5). Then it jumps ahead into the time of His crucifixion.

Another thing about the Old Testament: The Old Testament is not written in a straight-line reading. Do this some time: go through any of the Prophets, any of the Psalms. You might do this with the Psalms: go through and pick out the words that apply to David personally. Then pick out the words that apply as a prophecy to Jesus. You will see it is all jumbled in and out together. That's the way the Old Testament is written. Just like we have the infancy and teaching of Jesus in Isaiah 50:4-5, then in v 6 He gives His 'back to the smiters,' which jumps clear ahead to the time of the day of His crucifixion.

Mark 7:1: "Then the Pharisees and some of the scribes from Jerusalem came together to Him. And when they saw some of His disciples eating with defiled hands (that is, unwashed hands), they found fault. For the Pharisees and all the Jews, holding fast to the tradition of the elders, do not eat unless they wash their hands thoroughly" (vs 1-3). Now how many have the Code of Jewish Law? The Code of Jewish Law is about 800 pages of laws of tradition in which they try to explain how you can be righteous. What they say is this: 'these oral traditions were given and now written down to keep you from breaking the Ten Commandments and these laws are kind of a fence or guard around the Ten Commandments and the Word of God.' However, a fence works both ways: it can keep something in and keep someone out. And when it does, when they get into studying the depths of Judaism, it keeps people out of the Word of God.

So when you're dealing with the Messianic Jews, ask them, 'What traditions do you teach?' They'll probably just gush all over you and thank you and say, 'Oh, well, we do this and we do that and we do the other thing.' Prayer shawls.

I was coming back on a flight last year from Manchester and I got off to change planes in Chicago. Here is a Jew with his prayer shawl over his head, his prayer book in his hand, and he had a rosary. The Jews have rosaries. They don't call them rosaries, they're prayer whatever. Muslims have rosaries. That reminds them how to pray. God wants your prayer from your heart. He wants it with your understanding and relationship with God from the heart. That's how you pray. You don't go along doodle, doodle, one bead; doodle, doodle, two bead; doodle, doodle, three beads. And he had his two little boys there, and it looked absolutely silly and pathetic. Here he's there in public, rocking back and forth, and having his prayer book. I suppose he was praying for a safe trip. I don't know. And here's his two little boys out there trying to do the same thing, looking around at all the people, and wondering what is all of this.

The traditions were designed to set people apart, but what it does, it keeps them from the Word of God and keeps them from God. So let's read on. "Even when coming from the market, they do not eat unless they first wash themselves. And there are many other things that they have received to observe, such as the washing of cups and pots and brass utensils and tables. For this reason, the Pharisees and the scribes questioned Him, saying… [This has nothing to do with clean or unclean meats.] …questioned Him, saying, 'Why don't Your disciples walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat bread with unwashed hands?'" (vs 4-5). Now you do that all the time don't you? Sure you do. If you're out working, you have a sack lunch or a lunch-bucket, you open it up, get out your sandwich, start eating it. What does that have to do with eternal life, which also brings up another thing that's important to understand. Don't squabble over little things that do not matter for salvation.

Let's read on. "And He answered and said to them, 'Well did Isaiah prophesy concerning you hypocrites, as it is written, "This people honors Me with their lips, but their hearts are far away from Me…. [Why make a fuss about unclean hands when in your heart you're planning to kill Him? Which is greater: unclean hands or murder in your heart? Murder in your heart.] …But in vain do they worship Me, teaching for doctrine the commandments of men'" (vs 6-7).

Now let's stop here for just a minute and understand something. Men always like to improve upon God. Cain was the first one to do it. He didn't want to bring an offering the way that God said, as Abel did. He wanted to bring his own. Whatever he thought was good to him, he would bring that to God. And he got all upset because God didn't accept it. What did God tell him? He said, 'If you do well… [that is do right] …you will be accepted, but if not, sin lies at the door.' Now that is referring to where the altar was, which was right before the east entrance to the Garden of Eden after they were kicked out. And the door was into the Garden of Eden where God was still living until the Flood, and had cherubim protecting it. So sin lies at the door. What he brought was sin. He said, 'If you do well, you will be accepted, but if not sin lies at the door.' So He told him, 'Go repent, Cain, and I'll accept you.' But he didn't want to do it. He got all angry and mad and that led to killing of Abel.

Whenever you add to the Word of God, you make your own tradition. The Catholic Church is full of it. The Protestants are full of it. The Muslims are full of it. Buddhists, Hindus, they all have traditions. And as a clue to infiltrators within the Church set to change doctrine, what was one of the approaches that they used? 'Our tradition was to keep Saturday.' That's how they began to mentally prepare people to accept Sunday. Sabbath is not a tradition, it's a commandment of God. Because when you do that you're teaching the commandments of men.

"'For leaving the commandment of God, you hold fast the tradition of men… [Isn't that what happens? Yes. I've got a quote in the occult holiday book right out of the Catholic catechism, where the priest who was writing the catechism bragged and said, 'Well, we could preach the gospel without the Bible.' Shows you what they think about the Word of God. The truth is, Catholics have never been Christian. They may practice some Christian things, but it's all the traditions of men.] …such as the washing of pots and cups; and you practice many other things like this.' Then He said to them, 'Full well do you reject the commandment of God, so that you may observe your own tradition. For Moses said, "Honor your father and your mother"; and "The one who speaks evil of father or mother, let him be put to death." But you say, "If a man shall say to his father or mother, 'Whatever benefit you might receive from me is corban' (that is, set aside as a gift to God), he is not obligated to help his parents." And you excuse him from doing anything for his father or his mother, Nullifying the authority of the Word of God by your tradition which you have passed down; and you practice many traditions such as this'" (vs 8-13).

When we take a broad view of this, this is important for us to understand. Don't let any Messianic Jews come around and bamboozle you. Ask them the question, just like Jesus asked questions of the scribes and Pharisees. See what they come up with. See how much they know of the Word of God.

Verse 14: "And after calling all the multitude to Him, He said to them, 'Hear Me, all of you, and understand. There is nothing that enters into a man from outside which is able to defile him… [That is through what? Unwashed hands.] …but the things that come out from within him, those are the things which defile a man. If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.' Now when He went into a house away from the multitude, His disciples asked Him concerning the parable. And He said to them, 'Are you likewise without understanding? Don't you perceive that anything that enters into a man from outside is not able to defile him? For it does not enter into his heart, but into the belly, and then passes out into the sewer, purging all food'" (vs 14-19).

Now the NIV blatantly mistranslates this and says: "Thus He declared all meats clean." I remember hearing a young Protestant preacher, he was preaching on this, and he was preaching out of the NIV, and read that and said, 'Where has that been all the time?' Well, it wasn't in the King James. This is a literal translation of it. The King James says, 'Goes out into the draught.' In Korea they call that the honey-bucket. So don't let them get you into sacred names.

With that, let's just touch a little bit on sacred names. Did all the disciples understand Hebrew and Aramaic? Yes. Are there Bibles today produced with so-called sacred names in them? Yes. Did God inspire the Bible, the New Testament—let's start with the New Testament and then we'll get to the rest of the Bible here in just a minute—to be preserved in Greek? Yes. He didn't preserve it in Hebrew, because just think what the Jews would have done to the New Testament after rejecting Jesus. God knew ahead of time it wouldn't be preserved in Hebrew. There is no such thing as an original Hebrew New Testament manuscript or Aramaic New Testament manuscript. It all comes from the Greek.

So with all the disciples, and all the apostles, and especially the Apostle Paul, we find several accounts there, we just read one this morning, where God spoke to Paul in Hebrew, but He inspired the New Testament to be preserved in Greek. When Paul was later arrested, and the crowds were ready to kill him, but the Roman soldiers rescued him from the crowds killing him, he asked the centurion, 'May I speak to the people?' Since he was standing on the second or third step, he said, 'Go ahead.' He put up his hands to still the crowd, and they were still, and he spoke to them in Hebrew, but it's preserved in Greek. When he came to the word Gentiles, remember that, what happened? They had a riot, shouting, yelling, screaming, throwing dirt in the air, you know, you've seen the riots over there with the Palestinians. Just picture that. That's what happened.

Now, the word YHVH, Jesus endorsed it in the Greek Himself personally. After He told them that the first and greatest commandment was to love God with all your heart, mind and soul, and being, love your neighbor as yourself and then all the law and the prophets hang on that. Matthew 22:41 "While the Pharisees were assembled together, Jesus questioned them, saying, 'What do you think concerning the Christ? Whose son is He?' They said to Him, 'The Son of David.' He said to them, 'How then does David in spirit call Him Lord… [the Greek is 'Kurios.'] …saying, "The LORD [Kurios] said to my Lord [Kurios] 'Sit at My right hand, until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet'"? Therefore, if David calls Him Lord [Kurios] how is He his Son?'" (vs 41-45). They weren't able to answer.

Now you will see that about four or five times the Psalm 110:1 is quoted in the New Testament. Originally in the Hebrew, both Lord's read YHVH, and if you have a Bullinger Bible you can find out that Bullinger listed a 134 Scriptures in the Old Testament where they changed the name from YHVH to make it read Adoni, and they could do that by putting the vowel points where they wanted to put them, instead of where they should have been put. So the New Testament endorses Lord, Father. Now we do have one transliteration of Father—don't we? Anyone remember where that is? In Greek father is pronounced pater. In Italian it's pronounced papa. In German it is pronounced vater. It's translated once in Rom. 8, where we call out Abba, which is Hebrew for Father. Abba Pater. Now, think on that!

Since Paul put it in that one place, why didn't he put it everywhere in the New Testament, if we were supposed to have sacred names? He didn't, because we are a family, and when we pray Jesus taught us to what? How do we start the prayer? Our Father. Not 'our Elohim,' or 'our Yahweh,' or whatever. Our Father, because we have been called into a family relationship with God.

Now those of us who are here in family, do you walk up to your father and say, 'Mr. So-and-So.'? No, you say dad or father—right? Same way with your mother: mom or mama. So what he said here is true, plus the Jews don't know how to pronounce the name. So if pronouncing the name correctly is essential for salvation, don't you think God would have really made that known? But when you have salvation by sacred name, you no longer have salvation by faith. You have to have salvation by faith and belief in Jesus Christ.

I'll give just a couple more examples here and then we'll move on. Jesus is called, Jesus Christos, or Jesus Christ. So we have our Father and the Son Jesus Christ or our Lord Jesus. Those are the sacred names that we use. Now remember in Rev. 7 we have the 144,000 that are sealed, plus what else? The great innumerable multitude from nations and languages and tongues—right? Would you say that when they were sealed with the seal of God that they were converted? Of course! Did they have time to learn sacred names? Well, I think not, in the middle of the tribulation. Are you going to have a Jewish rabbi run down there with his hat and his beard and his phylacteries, and everything, and say, 'Here's the sacred name. By the way, we don't know how to pronounce it, but here it is.'

One final thing—let's come back here to the book of Exodus—Moses gave a summary of all the history from creation down to his time, so he used the names that God revealed to him. But let's find something here very, very interesting. Exodus 3:13: "And Moses said to God, 'Behold, when I come to the children of Israel, and shall say to them, "The God of your fathers has sent me to you," and they shall say to me, "What is His name?" What shall I say to them?' And God said to Moses, 'I AM THAT I AM…. [Now that carries through, especially in the book of John, as you'll see how it is translated there. Which is interesting, because the two words used in the Greek, 'ego'—which means I AM; and 'eimi'—which means I AM is an emphatic that I AM THAT I AM. When referred to Christ, it means what it says right here:] …And He said, 'Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, "I AM has sent me to you"'" (vs 13-14).

Let's come over to Exodus 6:2 and see something also interesting. "And God spoke to Moses, and said to him, 'I am the LORD. And I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob as God Almighty…. [El Shaddai] …But I was not known to them by My name JEHOVAH'" (vs 2-3). Or YHVH. Now let's ask a question: If the proper pronunciation of YHVH determines your salvation, then we would have to conclude, based upon that logic, that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob will not be in the Kingdom of God. However, they will be—won't they? Yes! Jesus said to the Jews, 'You yourselves will be thrust out, but you will see Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdom of God.' Now with that, it's awfully hard to build a case that sacred names are absolutely essential. If you speak Hebrew, fine. If you speak English, what we have in the translation, even as this Robert Alter has done the translation rather than a transliteration, that conveys to us what God wants us to know. Salvation is of the heart.

Now let's shift gears a little bit here. Let me recommend a book to you. I first saw in on Glenn Beck's program—I do watch Glenn Beck—he is good, he comes close. As far as the world is concerned, he's doing pretty good, and he's bringing up many valid points. But he does not realize that we have the government we have as punishment for the sins of the nation. So that's why, until there's repentance, not a 9-12 movement, there will be no change. He had a man, Mark Hyman M.D., on, and he wrote this book, The UltraMind Solution. I recommend everyone get this book and read it from cover to cover. Many of us are suffering from various ailments, and so forth, this helps you with it. But his basic premise is: however your gut is, that's how your brain reacts. It works both ways. However you think, that's how your gut reacts. Have you ever been so upset that your stomach is just churning, you can't digest any food, you're miserable, you can't think, you're emotionally distraught, your emotions are carrying you away. Maybe you spend a day or two and all you can do is cry, and boohoo, and bawl. Every body goes through something like that.

I remember a time in church experience after I left Worldwide, I was so down that I just drove out north of Hollister and found a little hill out there and climbed up on top of it and got down on my knees, and just said, 'God, heal my soul.' Part of the difficulties that we go through with men doing this to us, is because they transferred to men the loyalty and love which should have gone to God. So when men go bad, you get disillusioned. But all men go bad. The only way you can prevent that from happening is to every day stay right with God, through His way.

He wrote this book, which I think is absolutely a very, very good book. So you get it and see how you're eating, and see how your brain is doing. It is The UltraMind Solution, Mark Hyman M.D. Let me give you the ISBN number, you can get it on Amazon.com. ISBN number 978-1-4165-4971-0. I want to read to you just a little bit what he says about your brain.

Let's focus for a minute on why this is true in the brain. You are only as healthy as your cell membranes. Changes in your cell membranes affect the health of your entire body. The healthier your cell membranes are, the healthier you will be. Let's focus on this for a minute on why this is true in the brain. Your brain weighs about three pounds, or two-percent of your body weight, but it consumes twenty-percent of the oxygen you breathe, and about twenty-percent of the calories you consume.

So a fifth of your dinner's already gone. Now notice this:

Your brain contains 100-billion brain cells.

'Oh, that just came from slime.' Never happen. Fantastic creation of God.

With trillions supportive cells to protect and defend them called glial cells, the immune cells of the brain. Each brain cell is connected to every other brain cell by about 40,000 connections called synapses.
So let's see: 40,000 times 1-trillion. That's how many connections there are in your brain and they are all sending messages constantly. Now you want to know how big a figure that is, right down forty, and then put fifteen zeros after it. All right there in the brain. And the brain is made to learn, to function, to repair itself, provided it is fed proper diet and proper thoughts.

Now let's come to Ecclesiastes 3 and let's see something here. This is just like talking to these ignorant scientists and they say, 'Well, the big bang.' All right, where did the big bang come from? How about this: All you scientists who think you're so smart and smug, because you're accepted by all of the evolutionists in the world, and you all are in the same little clique and circle, and the only way you're going to be approved by your peers is that you agree with them. With the exception of a few creationists, and there are becoming more and more creationists, they all believe the nonsense that this evolved.

But here in Ecclesiastes 3:11 (pg 836), let's read it here. "He [God] has made everything beautiful in its time; He has also set eternity in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God makes from the beginning to the end." Now the King James translates that world, I translated it eternity. That's probably more correct—eternity; considering all of the cells that we have in our minds.

(go to track #2)

Let's continue on here. Let me just mention something else, because I'm looking for an opportunity again to continue the series, Controlling the Human Mind: The Last Frontier. I haven't had a chance to start it again, because there've been so much economic and political news come along, that it's hard to do. But they have discovered, because they're running brain tests—so many in so many different places—that they're coming up with all kinds of information and knowledge. But one thing was very interesting, which is this: They put the electrodes on the head and figured out [that] where the brain heats up is where it's most active. When people pray, there's a certain part of the brain that really gets active. That's because God put that there, so that people can pray to Him. It registers on our spirit, because all of us have a 'spirit of man' within us. So when they analyze the brain, they still haven't come to the understanding that there is a spirit, though they talk about spirit, I don't think they really comprehend like the Bible teaches, there is a 'spirit in man.' By the Spirit of God we are created in the womb. So that's why children are very special to God and that's why women are created very specially the way that they have been, so that they participate. They do the work of bearing the creation of God within them. So think of that. That's quite a marvelous thing!

The whole process of procreation that God has given human beings follows through in the Spirit. Because when we receive the Spirit of God, that unites with our human spirit, and makes us as complete as we can be in the flesh. So that's something! That is our direct connection to God. With that then—

• with God's Spirit
• with His laws
• with His commandments
• with His Word
• building and developing the very character and mind of Christ

—what we are doing, we are fulfilling the purpose of our lives, for which God created the human mind to be as it is.

Just as an aside; all evolutionists pay attention. Don't look at the monkey family, or ape family or chimpanzee, or orangutan or gorillas, and think that we evolved from them—because you're making the wrong conclusion. God created them very similar to human beings. And, yes it is true, you can find almost the same genes in the primate family—I think that's interesting, isn't that what they call the pope? He's wearing the wrong costume.

It is true that they find the genes very similar, but that does not prove evolution, that proves God created them, so that you could see and know and understand that these very limited creatures in intelligence can never think human thoughts. Remember this: if they have 95-percent human genes, they are not human. It's like an analogy: if you're jumping across the canyon that's 4,000-feet deep, with very steep sides, and you give all your effort, all of the evolutionary effort you could want, and you make it 95-percent to the other side, you have failed. So God made them that way to prove the superiority of His creation of man, man made in His own image; man made a little lower than God—not the other way around.

Now it is true, sometimes human beings act like apes and chimpanzees, but that is not a reversion down the evolutionary ladder. So God made us very, very special that way. That's a tremendous thing to understand, so I want to get back to doing that series. The comment was made that demonstrates God has a sense of human. Yes, He does, He has a sense of humor. The carnal mind wants to do everything to get rid of God, not yield to God, not admit that He exists. One day God is going to take them up on it. Let's hope they all have a Job conversion.

A question came up: w\Was the earth created six-thousand years ago? Let's come back to Genesis 1:1. Isn't it interesting how that sooner or later we get back to the beginning? "In the beginning… [ Now notice the is in italics, meaning that the original did not have the definite article 'ha'for the.] …God created the heavens and the earth. And the earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep [water] and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters" (vs 1-2). When did God create the earth? We're not told! This is why we have to search out in the Scriptures to find what else He tells us. Now first of all, let's read it again. "In the beginning God created the heavens…"

Stop! Were the heavens far more complicated than the earth? Since light travels at the speed of a 186-thousand miles per second, and the light from the stars reaching the earth are, some of them hundreds of thousands, even millions, of light years away; in some cases billions of light years away. How could the light get to us today if the heavens and the earth were created at the same time, 6,000 years ago? The light couldn't get to us—right? Now, since we know for scientific fact that's how fast light travels, then we have to ask the next question. If it was only 6,000-years ago, and God is eternal and lives forever, what was He doing all that time up to 6,000 years ago? If He is Creator, why wasn't He creating until only 6,000-years ago? Because He created the heavens first, and then the earth. But the question is: How old is the earth? The Bible doesn't tell us, but we'll look and see some things that give us some information to tell us that it was before man was created, by a considerable length of time.

Let's understand something else: How about fossils? If these tests that they run; there are argon and carbon-14 tests. Now the various ones say there are faults and problems with the tests. There may be some faults and problems with the tests. However, what happens when you put bones—or in the case we were talking about the other night with Leon and Carol and Scott—logs. Ever heard of petrified wood? What happens with petrified wood? It's buried in the sediment that becomes stone and there is an exchange of the wood for the minerals in the stone—correct? It becomes petrified.

The earth had to be there before the log ended up in the dirt—correct? You'd have to say that, otherwise you couldn't have petrified log. You can't have a log sitting out there, a little dust every year comes on it, and then finally after millions of years it's covered with dust. I don't think the wood would last long enough. So you measure the age of the petrified wood and it's a 150-thousand years old. How does that square with the 6,000-year creation? You can't square it, because the wood is not as old as the strata in which it is in, but has assumed the age of the strata because it has had an exchange of the wood for minerals and has become petrified. I'm sure you all follow that.

Same way with bones. You put bones in the earth, what was there first? The earth had to be there, the soil had to be there before the bones could be put into the earth. So likewise, the same thing happens to the bones. There's an exchange of minerals between the bones and the soil around it, and the bones can be measured to be older than what they actually are, because of the material that is around it. Now you've heard them say, 'Well, we found sculls of humanoids in east Africa that are two or three million years old.' You think, 'How could that be?' So you're stuck with a conundrum here. How could that be, because we know that human beings and mammals did not exist until approximately 6,000-years ago. And by the way, in some of the creationist things, and I've seen it—I was watching one for about an hour and listening very careful, and he says, 'We know that the earth was created 6,000-years ago, because there is a gradual degradation of the magnetic field.' Then I got into about an hour and a half of it, and he said, 'But there are times when it regenerates itself.' Hello! your theory has just been lost. Because if it regenerates itself, how do you know how many times it regenerated itself before you started with the beginning of 6,000-years? You all follow that?

So that's why when you listen to some of these things, you have to listen very carefully to what they say. I got to the point where they showed the only place on earth where they have it, and it's in Texas, where there are supposed dinosaur footprints and human footprints side-by-side in soil that became hardened, which used to be mud. Isn't that the one they show? That's why it pays to watch National Geographic and Discovery and History Channel.

I saw a very interesting program which showed this: It showed that dinosaurs have almost, nearly identical, the structure of their legs, their thighs and going on down to the rest of their legs and to their feet, identical to ostriches. And those footprints in the mud with human footprints alongside them are of that category of footprint, which tells you: You cannot absolutely be dogmatically sure that those footprints were made by dinosaurs; they could have been made by ostriches or giant emus, they have the same structure, exactly. Now they're beginning to think that a lot of those kind of dinosaurs may have been warm blooded, rather than cold blooded—possible. So what does this tell you? This tells you the scientists are making guesses, but they haven't followed it through with any proof.

Now let's look in the Bible and let's see something about the creation of the earth. Let's come back here to the book of Job. Now the book of Job has a lot of scientific information in it. It says even in one place, Job said, 'God hangs the earth on nothing.' That is nothing visible. How is the earth suspended in space? By magnetism from the sun, and that's balanced out with the magnetism of Jupiter. Jupiter is the great asteroid-vacuum, to keep asteroids from hitting the earth, plus there is a magnetic shield around the earth. That's visible in the wintertime with the Northern Lights, and the equivalent of it in the wintertime on the southern pole. Because what you're seeing is the magnetic energy coming from the sun. That's what keeps it turning, that's what keeps it in its place. Extra energy is generated when the sun has sunspots and they have explosions going way out from the sun. When that happens, frequently we have global warming. When we come to a time when we don't have sunspots, very frequently, we have global cooling. Someone needs to tell poor Mr. Al Gore, we have just entered into a time of low sunspot activity, just in time to ruin what you think you're going to do, provided Obama doesn't make it happen. How many have seen on the History Channel the mini-ice age? Watch it, very interesting—isn't it? Yes, indeed.

Job kept saying, 'Oh, I wish the Lord would talk to me, come down here, and I need an umpire to help referee this, because I'm so good.' He forgot that no one has any goodness apart from God and you have nothing you didn't receive—isn't that correct? Yes, indeed! Job 38:1: "Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said, 'Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge? Now gird up your loins like a man; for I will demand of you, and you shall answer Mr. Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Declare it, if you have understanding!.... [All you atheistic scientists, where were you? Tell us! Don't start with soil, get your own, because that belongs to God! Don't start with a big bang, because if that's how God started it, it is His big bang, not yours. So go get your own firecrackers.] …Who has determined its measurements, if you know? Or who has stretched the line upon it? On what are the foundations fastened to? Or who laid its cornerstone, When the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy?" (vs 1-7). Now what is this telling us?

• God laid the foundation of the earth, after He created the heavens; time wise it has to be.
• The angels witnessed the creation of the earth, because they are the stars, and the sons of God sang for joy.

Why? Because this was to be their home until the time of the creation of man. So they sang for joy. What else does this also tell us? In order for the angels to see the earth being created, when God laid the foundation, they had to be created first—correct? You can't see something unless you exist—is that not correct? Yes! So therefore, after creating the heavens, God created the angels, and they all 'shouted for joy,' because that was their first estate. And that answers the question when you go into the geologic timetable why there are two floods. They show two floods. Because sometime after the creation of the earth, when the angels were here living however happily they were living before Lucifer decided to rebel, and it could have been how many hundreds of thousands of years? We don't know. So the angels were here. They rebelled. There was war in heaven (Rev. 12; Isa. 14, etc.)

Then we come to Genesis 1:2, and darkness covered the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God hovered above the waters at the time God was ready to re-create the earth. Now we'll go back and see that in just a minute. Let's ask another question: When Satan came into the garden, he already had rebelled against God and became the adversary—isn't that correct? Yes! So ask the 6,000-year creationists this:

• when did Satan rebel?
• when did the angels fall?
• when did the waters first cover the earth?

Show them these Scriptures. They can't answer these Scriptures, because these are quite clear. Now granted, it does not give us a precise timeframe, but it gives us a precise sequence:

• creation of the heavens
• creation of the angels
• creation of the earth
• rebellion of Satan and the angels

—because Satan appeared as already the fallen angel or serpent to Adam and Eve. So that means that when we come back to Genesis 2—let's go back there and read it—that the earth was already here. So there's a time-space between, "In the beginning God created the heavens… [There's a time-space there.] …and the earth…. [And there's a time-space there. He created the earth, the angels saw Him create it, He created it for them, they inhabited the earth, and they rebelled. And we have the witness of the Flood of Noah that God destroys things with a flood, when it's very serious. So then the next question is: How did the earth become, because the Hebrew 'hayah' can mean become? And going over this in detail with Michael Heiss, our Hebrew consultant, he said it could be translated either way: was or become. So I decided to put there was with a star showing in the center column become.] …And the earth was without form and void… [That is the Hebrew 'tohu'and 'bohu'—chaos and confusion. Well, God doesn't make anything in chaos and confusion.] …and darkness… [Which is what? Who is the prince of darkness? Satan! Darkness in this case could also be referring to sin, the result of sin.] …and darkness was upon the face of the deep… [water all over the earth] …and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, 'Let there be light.' And there was light. And God saw the light that it was good; and God divided between the light and the darkness. And God called the light day, and He called the darkness night. And the evening and morning were the first day" (vs 2-5).

So, you see, you've got vs 1 & 2 with all the other factors in the Bible that bear upon this verse, showing that the earth then was here, and the rebellion of the angels took place before He renewed the surface of the earth, and redid it for mankind. So there you have the answer for the atheists. Let's see, I gave you the answer for the Messianic Jews and now for the atheists.

The question is concerning dinosaurs. Can you imagine what a startling thing that was when they found the first fossils of dinosaurs? Now a very interesting thing concerning dinosaurs is that in paleontology is that all the dinosaur bones throughout the whole world, regardless of how deep or how shallow they are in the earth, because there have been thrusts up of the earth to raise some of them up to the surface—like they have found almost right on the surface in the Sahara Desert—they are all contained in what is called the Morrison Strata, throughout the whole world, which tells us they all died at once.

Now I have to ring my cowbell [meaning speculation]. So we look at the dinosaurs, and we look at these huge and some of them are unimaginably big, and one of the biggest ones, Tyrannosaurus Rex, it's got the biggest body and the smallest head. It's what you would call, a dim-witted tonnage, long-tailed something. How could you have a brain about this size to run a body that big? Look at an elephant, look at how big its brain is. I've often speculated this: that part of the sin of Satan—I have no dogmatic proof for it—except to say, that when God creates something, it is good. You look at those dinosaurs and you can some, 'Some of them really don't fit that category.' So what happened? Could it be that in Satan's rebellion, and trying to become like God, that he was doing exactly what he is doing today with genetics? Could it be that some of those monstrosity things that we see as dinosaurs are actually the result of the devious, evil mind of Satan the devil trying to create something to impress the rest of the angels, that he was as good as God? Don't know, we would have to put that in the realm of speculation. However, it certainly seems to fit so much better than any other explanation. And they all died, and they all died at once, showing that when God punished the angels for their rebellion, and covered the earth with a flood, that's when they must have died. Now we have something similar to that with the mammoths—don't we? During the Flood, when it was raining, what do you suppose it was doing at the North Pole and the South Pole? Snowing, freezing, because they died within just a short period of time.

Let's come here to Genesis 7:11: "In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on this day all the fountains of the great deep were broken up… [Boom! How much water is below the earth? Don't know. There's an awful lot. Did God also raise the ocean floor? That's a handy way to flood things—isn't it? Yes, indeed! It rained forty days and forty nights, as we'll see in a minute here.] …and the windows of the heavens were opened…. [Now what do we have out in space? We have huge asteroids of ice—right? Did God cause a lot of these asteroids to come close to the earth, and then they melted and became rain? Just think of the volume of rain that could come with that. This was something!] …the windows of the heavens were opened. And the rain fell upon the earth forty days and forty nights" (11-12).

You can be guaranteed one thing: It wasn't a drizzle; a lot of water, unbelievable amounts of water. What did that do to the whole surface of the earth? It broke it all up. Then we find: "And the flood was upon the earth forty days, and the waters increased and bore up the ark, and it was lifted up above the earth. And the waters prevailed and increased greatly upon the earth; and the ark floated upon the face of the waters. And the waters prevailed exceedingly upon the earth, and all the high hills that were under the heavens were covered. The waters prevailed fifteen cubits upward, and the mountains were covered…. [Fifteen cubits, that's 45-feet.] …And all flesh that moved upon the face of the earth died—of birds, of livestock, of animals, and of every crawling thing that crawls upon the earth, and every man—And all who breathed the breath of life, and all that was upon the dry land—died…. [The big fish must have really had a feast.] …And every living thing which was upon the face of the earth was destroyed, from man to livestock, and to the crawling things, and the fowls of the heavens. And they were destroyed from the earth, and only Noah remained alive, and those that were with him in the ark. And the waters prevailed upon the earth a hundred and fifty days" (vs 17-24).

When the waters started receding, as they got lower and lower, there were tides. The water was coming and going. When you look at waters where there was flood, and then it goes down gradually, you find this: You find that something as big as the ark had to rest in the saddle of a mountain; because it came to rest on the mountains of Ararat—not on Mount Ararat. So the ark is not at the top of Mount Ararat, because with waters coming and going, it could never have rested at that place.

Now with the comings and goings of the water, and all of the earth and soil and rocks that were all floating in it, and of course, after a hundred and fifty days, they settled. Then you have currents, and then you have tides, and then you have waves, you have these things going, and as it went down, went down, went down, went down, it laid out new strata, just like what happened at Mount St. Helens. They were astonished, 30-40 feet of different strata laid down in two days. BANG! All the glaciers had melted, all the waters was there, it was all fluid, logs of trees were standing up perpendicular and they were buried in the strata this way. That had to make all the scientists do a complete re-evaluation of what they had thought about with the archaeology and paleontology and how the earth came to be, and how strata is made. Because they said, 'Oh, it happened over millions of years.' No it didn't, it happened in two days, or in the case of the Flood it happened in a hundred and fifty days.

Now there were other times when things took place. I'll just relate this. When I was pastoring in Salt Lake in the late 1960s, early '70s I used to go visit brethren clear out in Wyoming. When you start out at Salt Lake you're at 4,400-feet and you go east and you go up toward Wyoming, up toward Rock Springs. How many have been up near Rock Springs? As you go up toward Rock Springs, did you ever observe the strata? The strata points east and it shows that it was lifted up and then sections broke down. When you get past Rock Springs, the strata points west. So going east they point east, when you're going west they point west, and they switch right there at Rock Springs. Rock Springs is one of the high points on the Rocky Mountains, about the highest. But just before you get to Rock Springs, you can go out on any of the hills there, because by time you're up that high the mountains only look like hills, and I drove out on one of those roads. I got up to where there was some sandstone, and I found trilobite fossils everywhere, right near the Continental Divide. You just lift up the stone and there they were, trilobites and seashells. Talk about amazing witness that there was a flood. There it was right there.

But also, this helps answer the question: How did the Grand Canyon form? Not by millions of years. Before this thrust up, that I just mentioned here, there had to be a great huge lake that was backed up. And maybe at the thrust up, because there was an earthquake and all of this wet soil was then eroded very quickly as it rushed out from the lake. That's probably how the Grand Canyon was made, not millions of years, probably in no more than several weeks.

So all of man's theory about how they explain the earth, and man without God really are very lacking. Now they would say, 'Oh, well, what you just said is very elemental and you have no proof.' My proof is:

• Look at the Bible. There were two floods.
• Go examine the rocks and how did they get thrust up. And yes, they had a lot of volcanic action, and yes, there was all of that going, too.

I remember flying up to Seattle and I counted, just looking out the window at one time on my right hand side, I counted seven volcanoes. I thought to myself, 'I wonder what would happen if all seven started to blow off at the same time.' Who knows?!

Scriptural References:

• Isaiah 50:4-5
• Mark 7:1-19
• Matthew 22:41-45
• Exodus 3:13-14
• Exodus 6:2-3
• Ecclesiastes 3:11
• Genesis 1:1-2
• Job 38:1-7
• Genesis 1:2-5
• Genesis 7:11-12, 17-24

Scriptures referenced, not quoted:

• Isaiah 50:6
• Psalm 110:1
• Romans 8
• Revelation 7
• Revelation 12
• Isaiah 14

Also referenced:

Sermon Series:

• Judaism vs. Scripturalism
• Controlling the Human Mind: The Last Frontier

Books:

• The Five Books of Moses by Robert Alter
• Judaism is Not the Law of Moses by Phil Neal
• The Code of Jewish Law by Solomon Ganzfried & Hyman Golden
• The Ultra-Mind Solution by Mark Hyman MD

FRC:lp
Transcribed: 7-17-09
Formatted: bo—7/29/09