Bible Simply Written By Men

 

Was the Bible Simply Written By Men?

Bodie Hodge, M.Sc., B.Sc., PEI

Biblical Authority Ministries, May 8, 2024

Is the Bible the inspired Word of God, or was it simply written by men? Do you know how to respond to this question?

All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work. (2 Timothy 3:16-17, NKJV)

A Bigger Problem Than You Might Think

It truly is a secular age. I had the opportunity to be at a state school a couple of years ago for a student led club. I began answering some questions that the students had at the end of the lecture. Even though there was a very negative tone coming from many of the questioners, I remained courteous in each response.

Most of the questions were common and fairly easy to answer. The questions first began with the creation-evolution debate, dealing with dinosaurs and radiometric dating. After those were answered, the questions became more impassioned and were directed towards God and the Bible: "Who created God?" and "Isn’t the Bible full of contradictions?" At the end, one question came up that I did not have an opportunity to answer. A student asked "Was the Bible written by men?" The bell rang and out they went. I wished this question would have come up sooner because it gets closer to the heart of the issue.

I didn’t realize the importance of this question until I saw a statistical analysis of young people who had walked away from the church. Out of 1,000 young adults who have left church, 44% of them said that they did not believe the accounts in the Bible were true and accurate. When asked what made them answer this way, the most common response (24%) said that the Bible was written by men (not God, albeit inspiring men). The remaining results are shown below.[1]

Even though 24% question the accuracy of the Bible because it was written by men, there are other related answers in this study. For example, 11% believe the Bible contains errors. This implies that “God could not have been involved,” since God does not make errors (Psalm 12:6; Deuteronomy 32:4; Hebrews 6:18). Also, 15% claim that the Bible contradicts itself. This implies that God was not involved since God cannot deny Himself (2 Timothy 2:13) and, thus, contradict Himself. So at least 50% would, in one way or another, dispute that a perfect God was responsible for the Bible!

So What Is The Answer?

When it comes to authorship of the Bible, of course men were involved. Christians would be the first to point this out. For example, Paul wrote letters to early churches that are included in the Scriptures (2 Peter 3:15–16). David wrote many of the Psalms. Moses wrote the Pentateuch, or the Torah (the first five books of the Bible). In fact, it is estimated that over 40 different human authors were involved.[2] So, this is not the issue.

The issue is this: did God have any involvement or not? Did God inspire the authors of the Scriptures?[3] When someone claims that the Bible was written by men and not God, this is an absolute statement that reveals something extraordinary.

It reveals that the person saying this is claiming to be transcendent! When one claims that God was not inspiring the human authors of the Bible, that person is claiming to be omniscient, omnipresent, and omnipotent!

1. Omniscient: they are claiming to be an all-knowing authority on the subject of God’s inspiration, to refute God’s claim that Scripture was inspired by Him (2 Timothy 3:16).
2. Omnipresent: they are claiming that they were present, both spiritually and physically, to observe that God had no part in aiding any of the biblical authors.
3. Omnipotent: they are claiming that if God had tried to help the biblical authors, then they had the power to stop such an action.

So, the person making the claim that the Bible was written by men is claiming to be God; but these three attributes belong solely to God. This is a religious issue of humanism versus Christianity. The person is claiming (perhaps inadvertently) that they are the ultimate authority over God and are trying to convince you that God is subservient to them. This needs to be addressed in responding to them.

What Is A Good Response?

I like to respond in ways that reveal this issue in a question—and there are several ways to do it. For example, you can address “omnipresence” by asking, “Do you really believe that you are omnipresent? The only way for you to prove that God had no involvement in the writing of the Scriptures is for you to be omnipresent.” Then point out that he/she is claiming to be God when they made the statement that God had no involvement in the Bible.

Or perhaps respond with the question, “How is it that you are powerful enough to stop God from inspiring the authors of the Bible?” Or you can direct the question to the rest of the listeners by simply asking, “Do the rest of you think that this person is God? The only way to refute that God inspired the Bible is by claiming attributes of God for yourself, such as omnipresence, omnipotence, and omniscience.” You may have to explain further at this point so that the listeners will better understand.

You can always lead them down the path by first asking an easier question: “How do you know that God was not involved?” But then you will have to listen to their response in order to know how to proceed after that.

Other methods of responding are to undercut the entire position by pointing out that any type of reasoning apart from the Bible is merely arbitrary. So, the person trying to make a logical argument against the claims of the Bible (i.e., that God inspired the authors) is doing so only because he/she is assuming the Bible is true—that logic and truth exist! It is helpful to point out these types of presuppositions and inconsistencies.[4]

Someone may respond: “What if I claim that Shakespeare was inspired by God—then you would have to be omniscient, omnipresent, and omnipotent to refute it.”

Actually, it is irrelevant for me to be omniscient, omnipresent, and omnipotent to refute it. God, who is omniscient, omnipresent, and omnipotent, refutes this claim from what He has already stated in the Bible. Nowhere did God self-authenticate Shakespeare’s writings as Scripture. However Christ, the Creator-God (John 1; Colossians 1; Hebrews 1), approved the Old Testament prophetic works and the New Testament apostolic works. The canon is already sealed.[5]

God has repeatedly authenticated the supernatural character of Scripture through prophecy. In Isaiah 40–46, God states that He is distinguished from the other so-called gods in many ways (He is the Creator; He is the One who sits above the circle of the earth; etc.). God alone can tell the future (see especially Isaiah 41:21–29). Since the Bible alone contains detailed predictive and fulfilled prophecy, it alone can qualify as being authenticated by God.

Conclusion

Sadly, in today’s society, children (churched or not) are being heavily exposed to the religion of humanism, which reigns in state schools. So, it is logical that the next generation would be thinking in terms of humanism and apply that to the Bible.

The student about whom I previously spoke was applying the religion of humanism (i.e., man is the authority, not God) to the Bible when he claimed that it was written merely by men. He viewed himself as the authority and not God. He further reasoned that there is no God at all, and, therefore, the Bible could not have had God’s involvement. Therefore, his statement that the Bible was written by men was a religious claim—he was claiming to be God. Many follow this same thought process but fail to realize its implications and problems.

You shall have no other gods before Me (Exodus 20:3, NKJV).

If one can expose the false religion of humanism, then others may be more open to realizing the deception. After all, the person is not the enemy; rather, it is the false principalities and dark powers that are at work trying to deceive (Ephesians 6:12) that we must demolish (2 Corinthians 10:5).

Originally published: https://answersingenesis.org/bible-questions/was-the-bible-simply-written-by-men/. Reprinted with Permission.

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[1] Ham, Ken & Beemer, Britt, Already Gone, Master Books, Green Forest, AR, 2009, p107.

 

[2] McDowell, Josh, A Ready Defense, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville, TN, 1993, p. 27.

 

[3] That is, did he give them the words to pen as His own Words?

 

[4] Lisle, Jason, Feedback: Put the Bible Down, Answers in Genesis Website, December 5, 2008, http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/2008/12/05/feedback-put-the-bible-down.

 

[5] Hodge, Bodie, A Look at the Canon: How Do We Know that the 66 Books of the Bible Are From God?, Answers in Genesis Website, January 23, 2008, http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/aid/v3/n1/look-at-the-canon.

 

Force

 

God vs. The Force

Bodie Hodge, M.Sc., B.Sc., PEI

Biblical Authority Ministries, May 3, 2024

 

“May The Fourth Be With You”

 

Echoing off of the famous Star Wars line, “May the force be with you”, May 4^th, has become synonymous as Star Wars Day. It’s hard to believe how much a science fiction movie series has captured the world at large. It is rightfully listed among other highly influential fictional series like Harry Potter (based on the religion of witchcraft), Lord of the Rings (based in Christian-themed paganism), and others.

When Geroge Lucas’s Star Wars hit theaters in 1977 (it was the first movie I saw in a theater!), incredible spaceships, realistic laser weapons, and of course lightsabers had us in awe—not to mention the special effects that transformed the world of movie-making.

But it was the Force that seemed to get people to stop and think. An all-powerful “force” that binds the all things together, has prophecies, and good and evil “prophets” if you will, who wield that power (Jedi and Sith).

Western Culture In The Late 1970s

 

Now stop for a moment and understand the culture that we were in at that time. 1977 was the emergence of the first fully immersed generation in the USA that didn’t have the Bible in the classroom (yanked out in the 1960’s). No longer was the Bible viewed as the standard of truth in education and culture at large.

When Christianity was kicked out of the classroom, religion wasn’t kicked out of schools. It was replaced with godless religion of secular humanism and its various brothers and sisters—like various forms of paganism and eastern mysticism like New Age that were hitting the scene. In classrooms, evolutionism was taught as fact and few realize this is just a rehashed ancient pagan religion called Epicureanism. Paul argued against these Epicureans in Acts 17 at Mars Hill in Greece.

But the backdrop of the USA and other Western nations was a secular and pagan takeover and Christianity was seen as “old news”.  Now take an entire generation of kids who have little basis in Bible knowledge (outside of their “Bible stories” at Sunday school and church if they still attended) and have been taught years of secular forms of humanism and paganism and see what happened when they watch Star Wars.

Many loved it and immersed themselves into it. I loved it but I had to remind myself it was fiction. But others, starting thinking about it from a religious perspective very soon after the movie release!

The Religious Love Affair of Star Wars

 

Frank Allnutt wrote a book in 1977 called The Force of Star Wars.[1] In the book, he draws out many comparisons to Christianity. Again, rightfully so:

·        Good vs. evil (a Christian concept)

·        Jedi are likened to prophets in one sense

·        The force is likened to “God”

·        Many other things

Although these concepts are borrowed from the Bible, this doesn’t make Star Wars “Christian” by any means. Allnutt recognizes this throughout the book, but uses these concepts as springboard to discuss Christian things.  

A closer look at Jedi and Sith reveal they are nothing like the godly prophets of old. I’m reminded of the quote from Obi-wan in Episode 3, “only a Sith deals in absolutes”, which is an absolute and thus self- refuting. The Force is impersonal unlike the personal God of the Bible.

Like many false gods, they echo or model after certain aspects of God (i.e., they counterfeit). But they are not God nor in a position to be competition for the true God. The point is that even though there are a few minor similarities between the Force and the God of the Bible, it is really just a pagan religion. But in reality, it is more than that. Let’s evaluate the religious thrust in Star Wars a little more closely.

 

The Jedi Church—A Dualistic Religion

 

Did you know that the Star Wars universe is now fully religious. For example, in New Zealand, there is a registered religion call the Jedi Church. This is not to be confused with church (the bride of Christ discussed extensively in Scripture). But like the Church of Scientology, they borrow the name from the Bible but church mean something different in their belief systems.

Though pagan in many respects, Star Wars branches out and mixes with other religions too. The Jedi Church website says in its welcome:

“The Jedi Church believes that there is one all powerful force that binds all things in the universe together. The Jedi religion is something innate inside everyone of us, the Jedi Church believes that our sense of morality is innate. So quiet your mind and listen to the force within you!”[2]

If this sounds like an Eastern religion like Hinduism or New Age, there is a reason for that. It is an Eastern religion. Eastern religions have an impersonal god who cannot communicate with man by revelation (communication is a personal attribute). Morality is innate which is a common pagan belief (i.e., you dictate your own morality and you are basically good enough to do that). When they say that the “force is within you!”, this is part of monism, a common belief in Eastern mysticism religions.

They want to borrow from the Bible that the Force is all powerful (an attribute of the God of the Bible) but the Force is not omniscience (knowing is a personal attribute anyway).  

Another aspect of this religion is that it is dualistic in its fictional universe. Both good and evil are equal and opposite.

Some might mistakenly think Christianity is like this too—having both God (good) and Satan (evil). However, this is not at all the case in light of Scripture. God is all-powerful, and Satan, a created being, rebelled and sinned and his power is next nothing compared to God who created him and sustains his very existence. God wins and Satan loses. Satan has an eternity of God’s wrath upon him in Hell.

Dualism is the name of this religious style (dualism is form of paganism by the way going back to its leading proponent—Plato) and it is intimately intertwined in the “Star Wars universe”. Although Allnutt recognized that Star Wars borrowed certain Christian elements and themes, the fact is that this is a pagan religion modelled after Eastern Mysticism.

Reminder—It’s Fiction

 

What we need to do is be discerning. Remember, Star Wars books and movies are openly fiction. Nothing more. They rehash pagan ideas, Eastern ideas, and even borrow Christian elements and themes for the purpose of entertaining (and money making too!).

Can I sit down with some popcorn and enjoy a Star Wars movie? Of course I can—the movies often offer great entertainment value. Simply put, keep it at that. For at the end of the day, it is still fiction. And remember God really does uphold and sustain all things into existence. With that, I bid you farewell and , “May the Lord be with you”.

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[1] Frank Allnutt, The Force of Star Wars, Bible voice, Inc., Van Nuys, California, 1977.

[2] Jedi Church, Welcome, accessed May 3, 2024, https://www.jedichurch.org/.

6000 or 10000

About 6,000 Years or 10,000 Years—Does It Matter?

Bodie Hodge, M.Sc., B.Sc., PEI

Biblical Authority Ministries, April 29, 2024

Brief Introduction

In a culture that demands Christians give up the Bible and accept the secular humanist age of the earth at billions of years, it seems the discussion about 6,000 years vs. 10,000 years gets left behind. Yes, biblical creationists unite to battle the secular dating system and that is the “bigger fish to fry,” but at times, we can’t ignore the little fish in the bucket that needs to be cooked up too.

Where Is the Debate?

Statements of Faith from various ministries can range, depending on their ministerial focus—and rightly so. But the foundation of our faith goes back to the early pages of Genesis, so I encourage Christians to take a stand on biblical creation and have a statement to reflect it. Many times, we applaud the way these statements on creation are stated, and in other cases we groan.

Some Christians try to avoid the subject by generically stating that God created. Of course, that leaves room for Christians who mix their Christianity with certain tenets of other religions like humanism’s origins account. For example, when Christians deviate from the Bible in Genesis and deny biblical origins, they are trading it for secular humanistic origins such as evolution, millions of years, and/or the big bang.

But another issue crops up as well. Have you ever seen statements of faith declaring that creation occurred “6,000–10,000 years ago”? Sometimes people put a range because they haven’t researched the subject. But regardless, they want to leave open the possibility of an extended age of the earth. Why? I’ve talked to others who profess to believe the earth is 20,000–30,000 years old. I’ve even spoken with other Christians who claim to believe in biblical creation (i.e., a young earth and six-day creation), but they really believe the earth is about 50,000 years old!

It is the issue of trying to stretch as much time out in the Bible as you can. Why? Is it because we are still influenced by the secular world inundating us with long ages? Do we really think that if we stretch out some dates in the Old Testament we will look better to the world? I suggest not. The world wants you to doubt God’s Word because they doubt God’s Word.

Getting into the Meat—or the “Little Fish” Anyway

So, what is the earth’s age? About 6,000 or 10,000 years or what? Biblical Authority Ministries (as well as Answers in Genesis and others) has carefully placed in the Statement of Faith that:

Scripture teaches a recent origin for man and the whole creation, spanning approximately 4,000 years from creation to Christ.[1]

Why do we say it this way? The Bible spans from the beginning of time (creation) until the New Testament was complete, so the logical place for a calculation based on the Bible is from creation to Christ; then we can add in the time from Christ until today. So, we work out the approximate calculation from creation to Christ.

This range from creation to Christ is placed at about 4,000 years, not on a whim but for a very precise reason. We limited the earth’s age to 4,000 years in this stretch in the Statement of Faith because of virtually every chronology based on ancient original language texts (e.g., Masoretic, but also consulting the Samaritan Pentateuch and Dead Sea Scrolls) as well as the Aramaic translations (which are very similar to Hebrew; Aramaic Peshitta, and Aramaic Targum of Jonathan). When calculated, we arrive at the date of about 4,000 years between Creation and Christ.[2]

We have biblical genealogies and chronological data from father to son, given precisely from Adam to Jacob (Israel). Jacob’s grandfather was Abraham.

Abraham is like the pivot point. Both Christian and secular scholars agree that Abraham lived about 2,000 years before Christ. And simple math reveals about 2,000 years from Adam to Abraham. See the chart:

Even from a rough calculation, you only get about 6,000 years when you tally:

 

• Creation to Abraham about 2,000 years
• Abraham to Christ about 2,000 years
• Christ to today about 2,000 years.

You can try to get an extra 1,000 years or so from the Greek translation of the Old Testament, known as the LXX (Septuagint), which was translated just over 2,000 years ago. But it has glitches.[3] For instance, if you add up the translation’s inflated ages in Genesis, Methuselah lived for about a decade after the Flood without being on the Ark. But that is about the extent of it. You still don’t even come close to 10,000 years. The Latin Vulgate follows the Hebrew original and Aramaic translations being other early witnesses to the 4,000 years.

Few realize that to get 10,000 years, you need to put a gap between every single person from Adam to Christ because, really, you are doubling the 4,000 years to 8,000 years between Adam to Christ. No one tries to add 4,000 years from Christ to today and say that Christ lived 6,000 years ago! But if you put an additional person between every name from Adam to Jesus, that would be over 70 missing people in the Luke 3 genealogy. Furthermore, this does damage by neglecting that Jude clearly stated that Enoch was the seventh from Adam (Jude 14).

Naturally, gapping would call into question the integrity and accuracy of the Bible in Genesis 5, Genesis 11, 1 Chronicles 1, Luke 3, and others—which makes this a serious biblical authority issue. It would also call into question the majority of accounts where fathers and sons are discussed as overlapping in the text too. If you can’t trust the Bible in the area of genealogies, then why trust it anywhere? This would be a dangerous step toward unbelief, especially if taught to unsuspecting children.

Others have tried to allege that there are gaps between Noah’s sons and those listed in Genesis 10 at Babel (the splitting of languages where the people were divided on the earth). Again, this doesn’t comport with the lineages given in the Bible.The genealogies are very specific in giving the age of the father when the son is born. However, in some translations of Luke 3:36, there seems to be an extra Cainan. Because of this, some have proposed that there may be gaps in the genealogies. However, one needs to understand this specific instance better. Expositor Dr. John Gill points out,

"This Cainan is not mentioned by Moses in #Ge 11:12 nor has he ever appeared in any Hebrew copy of the Old Testament, nor in the Samaritan version, nor in the Targum; nor is he mentioned by Josephus, nor in #1Ch 1:24 where the genealogy is repeated; nor is it in Beza’s most ancient Greek copy of Luke: it indeed stands in the present copies of the Septuagint, but was not originally there; and therefore could not be taken by Luke from thence, but seems to be owing to some early negligent transcriber of Luke’s Gospel, and since put into the Septuagint to give it authority: I say “early,” because it is in many Greek copies, and in the Vulgate Latin, and all the Oriental versions, even in the Syriac, the oldest of them; but ought not to stand neither in the text, nor in any version: for certain it is, there never was such a Cainan, the son of Arphaxad, for Salah was his son; and with him the next words should be connected."[4]

This appears to have been one of a few copyist mistakes that have crept into the manuscripts after Luke wrote the original, inspired manuscript.[5] Early Luke manuscripts do not have this extra reference to Cainan. Others have pointed out how this error could have occurred rather easily.[6]

If one proposes gaps in Genesis 5, the chronological data in the Bible is false, and you are back to the same problem of having an untrustworthy Bible. There is no legitimate reason to introduce gaps into the genealogies—other than the desire to extend the dates based on extra-biblical ideas.

Conclusion

When you leave open the possibility for the earth to be 10,000 years old, you are suggesting that God erred in numerous places in the Bible. My humble suggestion is to be more precise based on the biblical data that is given. It is better to “err” on the side of Scripture than the side of sinful, fallible man’s ideas about the past.

Don’t let the world influence you to doubt the genealogies and chronological data in the Bible. There is no need for stretching—it isn’t going to help anyway. It’s time to reel in that little fish and cook it too!

Further Reading:

• Larry Pierce and Ken Ham, “Are There Gaps in the Genesis Genealogies?,” chapter 5 in The New Answers Book 2, edited by Ken Ham, Green Forest, AR: Master Books, 2008, https://answersingenesis.org/bible-timeline/genealogy/gaps-in-the-genesis-genealogies/
• James Ussher, The Annals of the World, Green Forest, AR: Master Books, 2003.
• Floyd Nolen Jones, Chronology of the Old Testament, Green Forest, AR: Master Books, 2005.
• Augustin Calmet, “A General Chronological Table of the Holy Bible,” in Dictionary of the Holy Bible, 947–987

Originally Published at: https://answersingenesis.org/why-does-creation-matter/about-6000-years-or-10000-years-does-it-matter/. Reprinted and Updated with Permission.

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[1] See: “Statement of Faith”, Biblical Authority Ministries,  https://www.biblicalauthorityministries.org/p/blog-page.html; see also “Statement of Faith,” Answers in Genesis, https://answersingenesis.org/about/faith/.

 

[2] Ken Ham and Bodie Hodge, A Flood of Evidence (Green Forest, AR: Master Books, 2016), 45–51.

 

[3] Bodie Hodge, The LXX Genesis Chronologies—A Closer Look, Biblical Authority Ministries, April 4, 2024, https://www.biblicalauthorityministries.org/2024/04/lxx-vs-hebrew-genesis-5.html.

[4] Dr. John Gill, commentary notes on Genesis 3:36, adapted from the Online Bible.

[5] Copyist mistakes do not affect inspiration or inerrancy. It is the original manuscripts that were inerrant. Even though fallible copyists made mistakes, these things can be traced via textual criticism to preserve the text.

[6] Ken Ham, ed., The New Answers Book 2 (Green Forest, Arkansas: Master Books, 2008), 296–297.

Earth Day

 

Earth Day—Principles That Go Back To Genesis?

 Bodie Hodge, M.Sc., B.Sc., PEI

Biblical Authority Ministries, April 22, 2024

Happy “Dominion over the Earth” Day as it should be (or simply “Earth Day”). Today is a “holiday” where people use their God-given dominion to declare a day to honor and consider the way we, as mankind, live on earth.

Whether people realize it or not, this goes back to Genesis—though the “holiday” itself is new. The principles are found in Genesis. A ruling God made man in God’s image (Genesis 1:26-27[1]). Thus, He gave us something to rule over. In Genesis 1:28[2], God gave man and woman (man collectively) dominion over creation—the earth, the animals and so on.

Dominion means to look after the earth and care for it but use it in responsible ways. In the same way, if a parent gives a new bicycle or vehicle their child, that child now has dominion to rule over it. In doing that, they take care of it, maintain it, but also use it—for good.

Historically, man broke God’s law and sinned and rebelled against God (Genesis 3). God cursed the dominion of man which directly resulted the animals and the ground being cursed (i.e., the earth). Man was also sentenced to die. The world is broken, which means we have to work extra hard to work the ground (Genesis 3:17-19[3]) and take care of the earth.

In our culture, sadly, we have people who reject God and reject that we are made in God’s image and want to replace those concepts with secular ideas. Like the pagans of old, they want to worship the creation instead of the Creator (e.g., Romans 1:25[4]). They want to worship the earth and ourselves instead of God.

Our sin against God, which includes these errors, have eternal consequences—an eternal Heaven or Hell (Daniel 12:2[5])! The earth can’t save you and you can’t save the earth in any eternal way. It is God who can do that (e.g., John 5:24[6], 6:40[7]). He promised to make a new heaven and a new earth (collectively call “Heaven”; Isaiah 65:17[8]; 2 Peter 3:13[9]; Revelation 21:1[10]), but while we remain in this sin-cursed and broken world, we are still to exercise a caring dominion over it.

Do I like clean water, clean air, recycling, using technology to make cleaner coal, using technology to make renewable oil, and blend with clean energy based on new technologies? Of course. However, we need to make sure we don’t do it at the expense of attacking humanity and worshipping nature (e.g., the climate cult, environmentalism, etc.). These false religions can lead many astray. There needs to be a balance when it comes to using the earth responsibly.

Did you notice that I put “holiday” in quotes earlier in reference to Earth Day? A holiday is a Holy Day, which is predicated on a Holy God existing and making things holy (that is, sanctified and pure). So, can those who reject a holy God really have anything holy? Not consistently! As image bearers, we mimic a holy God when we develop holidays. For instance, there is man-made holiday developed between the Old and New Testament (e.g., the Festival of Lights/Feast of Dedication/Hannukah). Jesus attended, which shows us a freedom we have in the Lord to make new holidays.

God prescribed certain holidays in the Bible and one of them (Passover) happens to start today (on April 22, 2024—FYI Passover tends to move around a little on our modern Gregorian calendar). Passover is a type and shadow of the Lord’s crucifixion and resurrection where Jesus Christ was offered once for all as our unblemished, eternal Passover lamb/sacrifice (1 Corinthians 5:7[11]). It is only through the blood of Jesus Christ that we can be saved for all eternity and enjoy a new heavens and new earth in a perfect state enjoying God’s goodness forever.

I hope you not only ponder how man uses the earth currently; but seek to understand how this earth is broken due to sin. In light of this, I would also love for you to consider how we can be saved in Jesus Christ and thereby look forward to a new earth in a perfect state forever.  

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[1] Genesis 1:26-27 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. NKJV.

[2] Genesis 1:28 Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” NKJV.

[3] Genesis 3:17-19 Then to Adam He said, “Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat of it’: “Cursed is the ground for your sake; In toil you shall eat of it All the days of your life.  Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, And you shall eat the herb of the field. In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread Till you return to the ground, For out of it you were taken; For dust you are, And to dust you shall return.” NKJV

[4] Romans 1:25 who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. NKJV.

[5] Daniel 12:2 And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, Some to everlasting life, Some to shame and everlasting contempt. NKJV.

[6] John 5:24 “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life. NKJV

[7] John 6:40 “And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day.” NKJV.

[8] Isaiah 65:17 “For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; And the former shall not be remembered or come to mind. NKJV.

[9] 2 Peter 3:13 Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. NKJV.

[10] Revelation 21:1 Revelation 21:1 Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also there was no more sea. NKJV.

[11] 1 Corinthians 5:7 Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us. NKJV.