The Fear Factor

The goal of evangelism is to lead a person to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. The goal of apologetics should be the same. So what is the difference between the two? In summary, apologetics is a distinct but inseparable part of evangelism.

Evangelism is concerned with the presentation of the gospel, and the methods used to do so. Apologetics is concerned with answering objections to the gospel, clearing away obstacles, and commending the Christian faith as the only legitimate answer to man’s predicament.

Imagine an All Wheel Drive car. Usually the front tires do all the work, but when they begin to slip, the rear wheels kick into motion and stabilize the car. When you are sharing the good news of Jesus Christ, you are evangelizing. However, when someone raises objections against the Christian faith, apologetics kicks in and answers the objections so that you can return to evangelizing.

Now as you know I normally teach apologetics, proving the word of God to be infallible, the absolute truth, and the best way to prove anything is through our actions, and those actions come from faith, fearless faith.

Fear is the great stumbling block to evangelism, and apologetics.

FEAR

If I turn the lights off in here, so that it is entirely dark, can we have light at the same time?

It’s impossible isn’t it?

It is the same with fear, if we live in the darkness of fear the light of faith can’t exist.

Fear and faith cannot occupy the same mind, the same space, for they are opposing forces.

It is attributed to Einstein that total darkness is the absence of light and in that regard, that true faith is the absence of fear.

President Franklin Roosevelt famously asserted, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”

I think he was right:

With fear we can’t have the courage we need to fight the good fight, or any fight for that matter.

A simple and useful definition of　fear　is:　An anxious feeling, caused by our anticipation of some imagined event or experience.

And there are only　five basic fears, out of which almost all of our other so-called fears are manufactured. These are:

Extinction—the fear of annihilation, of ceasing to exist.

Mutilation—the fear of losing any part of our precious bodily structure; the thought of having our body’s boundaries invaded, or of losing the integrity of any organ, body part, or natural function.　Anxiety　about animals, such as bugs, spiders, snakes, and other creepy things arises from fear of mutilation.

Loss of Autonomy—the fear of being immobilized, paralyzed, restricted, enveloped, overwhelmed, entrapped, imprisoned, smothered, or otherwise controlled by circumstances beyond our control

Separation—the fear of abandonment, rejection, and loss of connectedness; of becoming a non-person—not wanted,

Ego-death—the fear of humiliation, shame, or any other mechanism of profound self-disapproval giving us a since of worthlessness.

FEAR!!! Why must we resist it?

I have heard fear is our friend; it keeps us from being burned, or getting hit by a car, or some other catastrophe. But, really is that fear, or educated awareness of danger to be resisted?

As Gary Richardson titled his book, Fear is not our friend.

What does fear do to us?

The consequences of being fear-based or operating from fear are extremely varied and insidious.

One consequence is that we tend to become narcissistic. When we’re caught in fear of being negatively impacted physically, financially, or psychologically. We automatically divert our focus from others or the environment and bring it into ourselves.
However God tells us to practice agape love, this means we put others needs above our own, which is in direct opposition to being narcissistic, which means being self-serving to the exclusion of all others.

We can also be drawn into a victim-like stance where we see ourselves as being unfairly taken advantage of or impacted by other people or circumstances. If we have given our lives to God, and then we know it is God that has been offended, not us, besides, we are blessed beyond compare.

When we come from fear, anger, guilt sadness, etc. the result is that we become a source of negative energy. We will never draw people to the truth through negative energy.

When we come from fear we tend to be more judgmental and critical of those people and situations we fear. Love doesn’t judge, fear does. Being judgmental is against God’s will. Do not judge, that is God’s job.

Fear limits our world view and life’s infinite possibilities. When we find ourselves in a difficult situation, fear can blind us to all the possibilities except a few versions of the old fight or flight alternatives

Inevitably when we undo the fear, we find a different way of “being” with the situation and other alternatives arise.

Another way that fear limits us is by shutting us off from the opportunity to try new endeavors, and meet new people, which we need to do to follow the command to take the word to the world, and being ready to prove it.

Fear’s voice is not our own even though it operates in our head. The great thing is that we don’t have to listen to it or follow it any more than we have to listen to a person who constantly lies to us and tries to mislead us. We must learn to listen to the voice of Truth, the Holy Spirit.

There is another part of our mind that knows that fear is not needed or helpful in most situations. For instance when we are suddenly confronted with a situation, such as a potential car accident, we automatically deal with it to avoid it, the fear doesn’t set in until we think about it later. Fear is all in the mind.

Fear of death, which many have said is our greatest fear. However, when someone absolutely knows they are about to die and there’s no way out, the fear of death can disappear and be replaced with perfect peace, clarity and calm.

When Jody and I worked as chaplains, one of our initial fears was how we would deal with someone facing death, the emotional part of it, however, what we found was there was no fear, no sorrow, no judgment, and no sadness. There was nothing but an amazingly profound presence of Love which was felt by everyone.

So again, I believe that part of our mind knows that fear is an illusion and we can step out of it at critical moments.

Another aspect of fear is that it takes us out of the present. We start dealing with a future potential problem, when in truth all we have is this moment in time. And, personally I have found the perceived problem isn’t nearly as bad as I expected.

What does the Bible say?

I have heard it said, and have repeated it that the bible says do not fear in one form or another, 365 times one time for each day. A book I recently read claimed 366 times, so there would be one extra for leap years..

There are two things to point out here:

* The Bible does tell us – lots of times – not be afraid. This message is not in doubt. God tells us to fear nothing and no one except for him and when we are told to fear God that is to respect Him, to respect His power. We are not to live in fear.

* Is it important how many times the bible tells us not to fear? No – it is not important to salvation, but not fearing is important to our salvation.

Prayer without faith is not heard

How do we learn to resist fear?

So, is there a formula for dealing with fear, to turn the fear in our hearts and minds into faith in God?

First, have we really bought into who Christ is?

Have we really accepted God’s word as the ultimate truth, and His will as the best for us?

Do we mistake our desires for God’s will.

As Christians have we truly given our lives over to God, because if we have, it is no longer our life, but His, He gave it to us to do with as we pleased in the beginning (at birth) and now we have given it back to Him.

Remember there is one thing we should reject that has been offered by God; free will; we no longer accept free will, but God’s will in our lives.

So now we know it is His life to do with as He pleases, and what He wants us to do, will happen, remember Jonah and the big fish? We will end up in our Nineveh.

God will also use these times to teach us, and develop us until we are ready for His final plan for us.

In Your case, the environment you were previously in before coming here probably wasn’t open to God’s will for You, so He allowed Your situation to change, so you would have time to focus on Him for a bit.

As I have told you in previous lessons, God separates His people from the world, so step one has been accomplished, you have been separated from your people, your world, and now have time to give God your undivided attention, a time to learn, a time to grow. He does have a plan for you. Rest assured, it will happen, you will find your Nineveh.

He has a way to make all work to your good, if you love Him.

Romans 8:28 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. King James

James 2:18 Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works.

How do these two verses fit together? First of course, God makes all things work to the good of those who love Him, and in the second we can know our faith, by the works we are doing.

Most often people look at this as how we demonstrate our faith to others, which is true, however I believe it is also how we demonstrate to ourselves we are a child of God, we do not always know why we are in the situation we are in, or doing the things we are doing, however, our faith that He is in control tells us we are in His will, because as His servant, His adopted child, all things will work to our good, and so we are either doing His will, or are in the molding phase for a future work.

I would like to quote from the book “Fear is Never Your Friend” by Gary L Richardson [page 89 – 90]:

“The Bible tells me that as human beings we will fail and make bad decisions that will cause us to despair. But we also find that through those experiences, we will learn and grow” Gary L Richardson

And:

“When we accept salvation, we give up our will – what we want – in order to serve our Savior and live in His perfect will. And that’s the only truly fulfilling choice.“

And:

Gary quotes from Oswald Chambers who in his bestseller, My Utmost for His Highest, says;

“Joy comes from seeing the complete fulfillment of the specific purpose for which I was created and born again, not from successfully doing something of my own choosing.”

So at this I think we have established a few facts;

Fear and Faith cannot occupy the same space at the same time

Accepting faith over fear allows you to reject fear because you understand everything that happens to you, and the reason you do anything, good or bad, has been caused or allowed by God’s will for your own good.

Ok, this is probably the big question in most minds,

HOW???

How do we really allow faith to occupy the only space we have?

How do we resist the fear that is common among all men?

Our fear is based on what we experienced in the past, the things we see happening around us and our thoughts that usually imagine the worst.

For example: If opposition to the Christian faith is increasing around us, we worry that we might have to quit our evangelizing work and remain silent.

If a friend betrayed our trust, we are afraid it will happen again.

If we start thinking about the possibilities of political turmoil, travel accidents, persecution, martyrdom, family problems, difficulties in our marriage, failing health, disunity in the church, power struggles among the prisoners—and a thousand other terrible things—we will not have a single peaceful day.

Allow me to share one more story with you:

What has helped me is:

Through study of both Scriptures, and a study of apologetics, I have gained an “intellectual” faith, I know in my mind it is all true, for it has been proven.

I have prayer, and continue to pray for the Holy Spirit to speak to me reminding me when I am tempted to fear something, to resist that fear, to replace it with faith, true faith, knowing this trouble will also pass.

An African tribe teaches its children that when they are chased by a devouring monster they must stop running, turn and face it, and hold out their hand and say, “Give me a gift.”

I learned this 30 or 40 years ago and tried it, and it works.

My father in law, Ted Rauh, now pushing 90 real hard, and we are now facing the challenge of dementia, was one of the strongest men I have ever met, always seemed completely fearless.

He lied about his age when world war II started, and joined the Army, found himself under the command of General George Patten.

By age 17 he had won the bronze star for bravery, and the purple heart.

He spent 20 years in the federal prison system as a guard. As a devout Christian he was not allowed to bring the bible to the prison to teach to the prisoners, so he memorized literally hundreds if not thousands of verses, he could quote verses for more than a half hour at machine gun speed. But he did this so he could take the message to the prisoners without the help of written material.

Anytime something worrisome or fearful would rear its ugly head he would say “come on trouble where are ya? ”

He always claimed he feared neither man nor beast and I never saw the look of worry or fear in his eyes.

Somewhere along the line he made a decision to resist all fear, this was a choice we can all make.

However, we need a path, direction to how to make the right decision concerning fear, worry, or anxiety.

In the face of all these real-life threats, the Bible tells us:

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice! (Philippians 4:4)

Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God (Philippians 4:6).

Rejoice always; pray without ceasing; in everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus (1 Thessalonians 5:16–18).

Are we to close our eyes to reality? The truth is, the world we live in is not getting better, we live in a fallen world that is on a downhill slope to the depths of hell.

We are surrounded by wars, terrorism, persecution, sickness. As Christians, we are not immune to life’s struggles as long as we live in this fallen world.

In addition, Satan is our enemy, and we are constantly engaged in a spiritual battle.

God doesn’t ask us to close our eyes to reality or pretend that nothing negative can ever happen to us.

Instead, God wants us to change our focus from the fearful things of this earth to Him.

Only when I look at my heavenly Father can I put all the threatening things that surround me in this world in the right perspective.

It then will become real to me that:

My heavenly Father loves me: “… for the Father Himself loves you” (John 16:27).

He knows every one of my needs: “… for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things” (Matthew 6:32).

He cares for me: “… casting all your anxiety upon Him, because He cares for you” (1 Peter 5:7).

He bears my burden: “Blessed be the Lord, who daily bears our burden” (Psalm 68:19).

He doesn’t want me to worry: “Be anxious for nothing” (Philippians 4:6).

He invites me to tell Him all my concerns: “… in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God” (Philippians 4:6).

He is all-powerful: “For nothing will be impossible with God” (Luke 1:37).

He is well able to rescue me from whatever I face: “… our God whom we serve is able to deliver us” (Daniel 3:17).

If He chooses for me to go through trials, He is with me and brings me safely through: “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil; for Thou art with me” (Psalm 23:4).

There is nothing He would not do for me: “He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?” (Romans 8:32).

Learning to focus on my heavenly Father will replace my fear with faith. Faith will enable me to rejoice and give thanks, like the apostle Paul wrote in 1 Thessalonians 5:16–18, because I trust Him to have a solution for me.

It will give me peace in the midst of a storm, because I know He can handle my situation.

It assures me that He knows all the unknowns of my life and that I am safe in His arms.

Faith is what pleases God and what moves His hand to work on my behalf (Hebrews 11:6; Matthew 21:22).

Faith is the shield with which I must protect myself during an attack from Satan. With it I will be able to extinguish all the flaming missiles of the enemy (Ephesians 6:16).

I challenge you to practice replacing your fear with faith.

Each time your circumstances or imagination fills you with fear, stop entertaining your fearful thoughts.

Instead, meditate on each of the Bible verses I listed about focusing on our heavenly Father.

Face your real fears, and your imaginary fears with the same force, demand a gift from it… the gift of fearless faith from the father.

As you do, look at your situation or fear in the light of each verse, and ask God to make His Word alive to you. If going through these Scriptures once is not enough to replace your fear with faith, do it five, 10 or 20 times—until your spirit is able to believe God’s Word. If the same fear attacks you two days, three weeks or five years later, go through the Scriptures again.

This is what I do when I am afraid or when faced with problems. The Scriptures I cling to may vary with different situations, but the end result must be faith; otherwise, there will be no victory.

After you have learned how to replace fear with faith, teach it to others so that they too will become strong in the Lord our God.

We also serve at the county jail, and yesterday between the men’s jail, and the ladies jail there were 85 new souls added to the kingdom through baptism.

The following members of our jail ministry team include Jody Gilkey,  Theresa Hawkins, Carol Siling, Elaine Russel, Alison Valentin, Francisco A. Davila, and Jim Pinkston

Apologetics is best seen as either pre-evangelism or as part of the process of evangelism.

It removes barriers to belief and prepares the ground for the seed of the gospel to be sown.

 

One more time, just to make sure we get this:

It removes barriers to belief and prepares the ground for the seed of the gospel to be sown.

You could compare it to the farmer who is plowing his field preparing it for seed. This is apologtices.

Then you see the same farmer planting the seed, after the field has been prepared. This is evangelism.

What comes next is the harvest: New Christians, looking forward to eternal life without pain, without tears, never growing old. It will be one of those Christians who do not fall away as almost 80 to 85 % do.

This is the ground Christ spoke about in his parable: Matthew 13: 3

Then He spoke many things to them in parables, saying: “Behold, a sower went out to sow. 4 And as he sowed, some seed fell by the wayside; and the birds came and devoured them. 5 Some fell on stony places, where they did not have much earth; they immediately sprang up because they had no depth of earth. 6 But when the sun was up they were scorched, and because they had no root they withered away. 7 And some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprang up and choked them. 8 But others fell on good ground and yielded a crop, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. 9 He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”

Will you have a better harvest if you plow the ground before you attempt to plant the seed…..or not?

 

Thank you for having me, and may all Glory be to God that I am able to stand before you and give you this message, and may it be blessed by God, and received by His church in truth and spirit.

Jim Pinkston has given me this time to discuss with you the upcoming class in Christian defenses, or also known as Christian apologetics.

In a couple of weeks you will start seeing posters placed around the prison announcing this new study, to begin April 4th.

This course will present the historical facts that will provide undeniable proof of our faith in several ways.

It will prove the unchanged consistency and accuracy of the word, and we will prove it with evidence and eye witness testimony from sources favorable to Christianity, indifferent to Christianity, and the enemies of Christianity.

I want to share a fact with you, and this is one you need to hear and remember because all truth hangs in the balance.

This is the first fork in the road of knowing the truth that will set you free.

 

We are here by one of two options, either evolution or creation, there is no other option, so we do not have to worry about proving one against many, just one against the other.

 

Once you realize evolution is impossible, and creation is the only option you will then have to make a choice among many…which teaching of God’s word is the absolute truth.

That is the second fork in the road.

There can only be one absolute truth, and this course will prove beyond any shadow of a doubt that Christianity is the absolute truth, and by default will eliminate all other options.

That is what this first course will focus on, we will go with the assumption that creation is the only alternative that makes sense, or is scientifically possible, and prove our faith is grounded upon historical facts, and absolutely provable beyond a shadow of a doubt.

Considering this course will cover the issue concerning which faith is the correct one to follow, tonight we will just talk about a few interesting facts indicating creation is the only option, because our course will not cover much in this area.

First if we are here due to evolution, where over several billion years we merely developed through mutations and natural selections, means there was no Adam and Eve, and no fall of mankind, and therefore no need for a savior… we just developed this way through no fault of our own, we have no personal responsibility for our actions.

OR

We are here due to creation, which means there was a creator, there was an Adam and Eve, there was a garden of Eden, and there was a fall, and we are responsible for our actions, and therefore need a savior who will open up heaven for us, and reunite us with the Creator.

 

Much of the world today believes that evolution is a scientific fact, and that creation is a fairy tale, because that is what their being taught in the public schools today.

Imagine that you are looking at a luxury liner moving through calm waters. To your amazement, about a dozen people jump off the ship and cling to a lifeboat. You watch as the rest of the passengers stand on the ship and laugh at them.

You can understand their reaction. What those few people did was foolish. It made no sense. Suddenly, the ship hits an unseen iceberg and sinks, taking with it all who stayed on board.

Now you see that those who seemed like fools were wise, but those who stayed on the ship and seemed to be wise, were fools. We have in the Bible a command to jump off the luxury liner of this world.

 

Before people criticize Christians, they should ask themselves if there is any proof that its claims are true. That is merely common sense. If the people who stayed on the luxury liner had asked why, rather than just laugh, and had been given compelling evidence the ship was about to sink, they would have joined the others on the life boat.

Many of the people you deal with everyday are like the people on the luxury liner, and it is our job, and should be our passion to convince them to come to the lifeboat called Christianity.

But like those on the luxury liner in the story, they will need compelling evidence to do something that may look foolish to them, but in reality is wise. For it is the wise man that gives his life to Christ, and by doing so accomplishes two things, he gains eternal life in heaven, and avoids eternal life in punishment.

Christ, and the apostles all used apologetics with the Jewish leaders, by giving evidence that Christ fulfilled prophesies about Him, the miracles that were performed for this purpose, and of course His teachings.

And, many of the Jewish leaders believed Him, and followed Him, and many didn’t, they just wanted to cling to the luxury liner they had known and loved all their lives.

The early church leaders were called apologists because this was the focus of their message, proving that Christ was the long awaited messiah the prophesies had spoken about.

So what compelling evidence could we give to a non-believer, or one who belongs to a false faith?

This is what Christian Apologetics is all about, being able to give compelling evidence to anyone who asks us for a reason for our Christian faith, compelling evidence that will cause them to join us on the lifeboat.

Christian apologetics, and Christian evangelism go hand in hand, as you will soon see, and should be a part of all Christians knowledge, but over the past couple of centuries we haven’t had the need to defend the faith in America for the most part, most people were Christians, or respected the Christian faith not giving us the need for defending it.

Times have changed, we are now under attack, and we must learn to defend the faith in a way that makes sense to non-believers, because in short, our faith is not a blind faith, but a faith based up historically reliable facts, and those facts are provable, absolutely provable

1 Peter 3:15 is a command,

But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear:

The word answer in the verse comes from the Greek word apologia, which means to give a defense and some would say a legal defense.

Apologist Paul Coulter defines it this way: The task of developing and sharing arguments for the truth and rationality of Christianity and the falsehood and irrationality of alternatives with the aim of strengthening the faith of believers and provoking non-believers to consider Christ.

Let me put that in my language:

 

1. Proving the truth of Christianity
2. Proving the rationality of Christianity
3. It strengths our own faith
4. It reveals the irrationality in other religions
5. It reveals the falsehood in other religions
6. It gives an atheist reason to look deeper into their convictions.

it’s the job of learning how to defend our faith, and teaching others how to do so as well:

by learning apologetics, and then teaching apologetics we are attempting to strengthen the faith of the believer, and give a good reason to non-believers to consider Christ.

And when you have the opportunity to be confronted with one of the non-believers, even one of those real smart guys that seem to have all the answers, and may be well-informed, and well educated, if you can answer his objections to the faith, not only from your personal conviction of the spirit, but also with solid, provable historical, and scientific facts, you have a chance to turn him into at least a guy who might start considering the Christian faith, and spend a little time himself studying it, and that’s all were looking for, to get some people who profess to be atheist, and those of other faiths believing in false gods to reconsider their position.

They will consider jumping off the luxury ship, and into the life boat.

There is another benefit to knowing the facts of apologetics, along with knowing scripture, it gives you the self-confidence to stay in the battle, and be convinced you can “win” an atheist over to a point where he (the atheist) is willing to take the next step in looking at all the facts, and possibly become a brother or sister in Christ.

Self Confidence is the key to success in almost all fields, but especially in the area of bringing another person to your way of believing.

A salesman with no confidence in his product, or his company, or himself will ultimately fail.

The young man pursuing his love interest without confidence will most likely fail.

Apologetics is best seen as either pre-evangelism or as part of the process of evangelism.

It removes barriers to belief and prepares the ground for the seed of the gospel to be sown.

Now this is the main issue and I do not want you to miss this or forget this:

It removes barriers to belief and prepares the ground for the seed of the gospel to be sown.

It removes barriers to belief and prepares the ground for the seed of the gospel to be sown.

One more time, just to make sure we get this:

It removes barriers to belief and prepares the ground for the seed of the gospel to be sown.

You could compare it to the farmer who is plowing his field preparing it for seed. This is apologtices.

Then you see the same farmer planting the seed, after the field has been prepared. This is evangelism.

What comes next is the harvest: New Christians, looking forward to eternal life without pain, without tears, never growing old. It will be one of those Christians who do not fall away as almost 80 to 85 % do.

This is the ground Christ spoke about in his parable: Matthew 13: 1 On the same day Jesus went out of the house and sat by the sea. 2 And great multitudes were gathered to Him, so that He got into a boat and sat down; and the whole multitude stood on the shore.

3 Then He spoke many things to them in parables, saying: “Behold, a sower went out to sow. 4 And as he sowed, some seed fell by the wayside; and the birds came and devoured them. 5 Some fell on stony places, where they did not have much earth; they immediately sprang up because they had no depth of earth. 6 But when the sun was up they were scorched, and because they had no root they withered away. 7 And some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprang up and choked them. 8 But others fell on good ground and yielded a crop, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. 9 He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”

Will you have a better harvest if you plow the ground before you attempt to plant the seed…..or not?

I want to share one more thing with you concerning apologetics, and then I want to share some extremely interesting facts with you, I call them fun facts, but in reality they are serious, and they can seriously convince people to reconsider the bible as more than just an old book from several millenniums ago.

“Buckethead and Bubba,

by Russell L. Ford is about his apologetical experiences in prison, and his articles appeared in the magazine “This Rock” between 1994 and 1998. This excerpt is from an article which was the cover story for “This Rock” in the November 1992 issue.

And this is where the rubber meets the road:

Russell was an inmate for many years, and his idea of defending the faith was with his fists, Russell stated “I’m over six feet tall, weigh 225 pounds, and had quite a reputation for being less than patient with antagonists.

In those days, my idea of apologetics was to say, “Shut yer face while ya still got one!” “however he later overcame that and spent many of those years as an apologetics Evangelist, and he made the following accurate observation concerning prison apologetics.

Now this is important, and so if the person next to you has successfully fallen asleep, now would be a good time to wake him up.

He (Russel) Stated:

I finally realized I had to become a competent apologist or we would never see Christ’s most forsaken children come to the warm embrace of his Church.

And

Our goal is to systematically strengthen you, the believers, and give you the tools you need for evangelizing other inmates. It would be wonderful if all of you could become Apologetics evangelists as Russell Ford did, but even if you don’t the information, the knowledge you will gain from this course will give you super human faith. You will know both spiritually, and intellectually your faith is well grounded upon solid rock.

Lastly, there is one group I have not mention so far.

Would someone read Revelation 3:16?

So, because you are lukewarm–neither hot nor cold–I am about to spit you out of my mouth.

17’Because you say, “I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing,” and you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked,…

This group needs this maybe more than any other group, and that is the luke warm, those who consider themselves Christians because grandma was, they are passive, apathetic, and spend their time chasing after worldliness and will be spewed out at judgment day. We need to set these folks on fire, and apologetic teaching is one of the best tools we have available for this task.

So on to the fun facts for tonight which concerns evolution vs creation:

Evolutionist hate mathematicians, so I want to share a couple of mathematical facts with you that totally prove evolution is impossible. And I would like to tell you that I could spend hours with you going over facts from mathematics, science, archeology, prophesies that have fulfilled, and historical facts all proving beyond a shadow of a doubt that creation is the only logical answer to why we exist.

Let’s take a look at some mathematics:

Any one in here ever gambled? In gambling, the best game to play is blackjack, the house only has a 1% advantage, and that is only if you know the odds, and how to work them to your advantage.

So with that in mind how many of you would feel comfortable playing a game that has 50 to 1 odds against you. We all know you are not likely to go home with a profit.

Now let’s consider this a 200-component functioning organism requires, at least, 200 successive, successful “mutations,” each of which is highly unlikely. Even evolutionists recognize that true mutations are very rare, and beneficial mutations are extremely rare—not more than one out of a thousand mutations are beneficial, at the very most.

But let us give the evolutionist the benefit of every consideration. And I have really shortened this mathematical equation down to the last sentence out of many.

Assume that, at each mutational step, there is equally as much chance for it to be good as bad. Thus, the probability for the success of each mutation is assumed to be one out of two, or one-half.  Now remember the true odds are 1 out of a thousand, not 1 out of 2. However,

Elementary statistical theory shows that the probability of 200 successive mutations being successful is 1 chance out of the number 1 followed by sixty “0”s

In other words, the chance that a 200-component organism could be formed by mutation and natural selection is less than one chance out of a trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion!  And, we thought 1 out 50 was a bad bet. The odds against evolution are getting greater everyday as we discover new evidence against it, which is why they keep increasing the age of the earth, it would take a very very long time for even a hope of evolution to even be possible.

By the way, lest anyone think that a 200-part system is unreasonably complex, it should be noted that even a one-celled plant or animal may have millions of molecular “parts.” Now consider the human body….we don’t have numbers that high!

Now for a little more mathematical fun. Let’s talk about population growth.

Now during certain periods of time the population has doubled for instance, we start with two, and then very soon afterward there was 4, and then 8 and so on until we reached the population of 2 billion people on the earth in 1922.

Now some people will say something like, you have to take the great diseases of time, or the great wars that killed so many people, but when you are simply looking at it in this fashion, it takes into account all of that, because at one time we only had 2 people, and by 1922 we had 2 billion, simple as that.

So you may ask what the point is, and the answer is this.

Science is based upon observable facts, in fact we have two test groups we can observe, test groups that also went through those plagues, and wars, and they are namely the Israelites, and the sons of Ismael who for the most part are all the other middle eastern peoples, and mostly Muslim.

Both of these groups are sons of Abraham, and we know when they began, and today their populations have double app 29 times, and that is an average of 165 years to double until they reached todays population. Remember that is just an average, it could not have taken 165 years to double the first few times, only a few years, and then due to the various wars, diseases, and etc, it slowed down, until we had an average number.

So we have two groups whose populations have double every 165 years. If we take that same number and apply it to world population we go back to the time of Noah…. Hmm interesting isn’t it?

And, if we take that on back another 1,400 years until the time of creation we would have an addition 2 billion people on earth for each one of us. Did you get that? Not just an additional 2 billion people, but 2 billion additional people for each person alive today.

The earth will only support approximately 10 billion people. So it is impossible for mankind to have been around billions of years, in fact it is silly to suggest that.

By the way, since 1922 which is around 90 years ago and from 1922 to 2016 our population has tripled… it is literally exploding, and in another 10 to 30 years we will have surpassed the number of people the earth can feed.

There are many scientific facts that point to the need of a creator, however, I’m not going to discuss all the facts of science that points towards the Creator, but the scientific facts the Creator gave us in His word, long before modern Scientists discovered them. Long, before mankind could have known them proving divine intervention and revelation.

Did you know the bible also has scientific facts in it? And, they were stated many years before scientists discovered them: I could go on for hours, but time doesn’t allow so let’s just hit a few of them.

 

1. there was a time when it was believed that the earth sat on a large animal or a giant (1500 B.C.), the Bible spoke of the earth’s free float in space: “He…hangs the earth upon nothing” (Job 26:7). Science didn’t discover that the earth hangs upon nothing until 1650.
2. The Scriptures Speak of an Invisible Structure. Only in recent years has science discovered that everything we see is composed of things that we cannot see—invisible atoms. In Hebrews 11:3, written 2,000 years ago, Scripture tells us that the “things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.”
3. The Scriptures tell us that the earth is round: “It is he that sits upon the circle of the earth” (Isaiah 40:22). The word translated “circle” here is the Hebrew word chuwg, which is also translated “circuit” or “compass” (depending on the context). That is, it indicates something spherical, rounded, or arched—not something that is flat or square. The book of Isaiah was written sometime between 740 and 680 B.C. This is at least 300 years before Aristotle suggested, in his book On the Heavens, that the earth might be a sphere. It was another 2,000 years later (at a time when science believed that the earth was flat) that the Scriptures inspired Christopher Columbus to sail around the world.
4. Matthew Maury (1806–1873) is considered the father of oceanography. He noticed the expression “paths of the sea” in Psalm 8:8 (written 2,800 years ago) and said, “If God said there are paths in the sea, I am going to find them.” Maury then took God at His word and went looking for these paths, and we are indebted to his discovery of the warm and cold continental currents. His book on oceanography remains a basic text on the subject and is still used in universities.
5. God asked Job a very strange question in 1500 B.C. He asked, “Can you send lightnings, that they may go, and say to you, Here we are?” (Job 38:35). This appears to be a scientifically ludicrous statement—that light can be sent, and then manifest itself in speech. But did you know that all electromagnetic radiation —from radio waves to x-rays—travels at the speed of light? This is why you can have instantaneous wireless communication with someone on the other side of the earth. The fact that light could be sent and then manifest itself in speech wasn’t discovered by science until 1864 (3,300 years later), when “British scientist James Clerk Maxwell suggested that electricity and light waves were two forms of the same thing” (Modern Century Illustrated Encyclopedia).
6. In Genesis 6, God gave Noah the dimensions of the 1.5 million cubic foot ark he was to build. In 1609 at Hoorn in Holland, a ship was built after that same pattern (30:5:3), revolutionizing shipbuilding. By 1900 every large ship on the high seas was inclined toward the proportions of the ark (verified by “Lloyd’s Register of Shipping” in the World Almanac).
7. The Scriptures describe a “cycle” of air currents two thousand years before scientists discovered them: “The wind goes toward the south, and turns about unto the north; it whirls about continually, and the wind returns again according to his circuits” (Ecclesiastes 1:6). We now know that air around the earth turns in huge circles, clockwise in one hemisphere and counterclockwise in the other.

The Incredible Book of Job

 

1. Book of Job (1520 B.C.)—Filled with Scientific Facts “The study of the Book of Job and its comparison with the latest scientific discoveries has brought me to the matured conviction that the Bible is an inspired book and was written by the One who made the stars.” Said Charles Burckhalter, Chabot Observatory
2. The Book of Job and Air Mass “Scripture tells us in Job 28:25 that there is ‘a weight for the wind.’ Long before it was recognized that the air had weight (sixteenth century), the Bible said that it did. It also tells us that water has weight. The fact that so much water covers the earth means that the effects of the sun and moon’s gravity are balanced perfectly. The energy is dissipated in the water—the weight of the water is precisely measured.” Richard Gunther
3. This is my favorite from the Book of Job and the Earth’s Rotation: For ages, scientists believed in a geocentric view of the universe. The differences between night and day were believed to be caused by the sun revolving around the earth. Today, we know that the earth’s rotation on its axis is responsible for the sun’s rising and setting. But 4,000 or more years ago, it was written, “Have you commanded the morning since your days; and caused the day spring [dawn] to know his place?…It [the earth] is turned as clay to the seal” (Job 38:12,14). The picture here is of a clay vessel being turned or rotated upon the potter’s wheel—an accurate analogy of the earth’s rotation.
4. The Book of Job and Springs of the Sea “Modern deep-sea-diving cameras have discovered amazing hot-water vents on the floor of the oceans— ‘the springs of the sea,’ which are mentioned in Job 38:16. These thermal vents release huge amounts of mineral-rich, super-heated water—springs in the darkness.” Richard Gunther
5. The Book of Job and Light “Sir Isaac Newton studied light and discovered that white light is made of seven colors, which can be ‘parted’ from the white (see Job 38:24), and then recombined to make white again. Science discovered this in 1650.” Richard Gunther The Book of Job and the Way of Light The Book of Job 38:19 asks, “Where is the way where light dwells?” Modern man has only recently discovered that light (electromagnetic radiation) has a “way.” In empty space this speed is approximately 186,000 miles per second.
6. The Bible and Laws of Hygiene Encyclopedia Britannica documents that in 1845, a young doctor in Vienna named Dr. Ignaz Semmelweis was horrified at the terrible death rate of women who gave birth in hospitals. As many as 30 percent died after child birth. Semmelweis noted that doctors would examine the bodies of patients who died, then, without washing their hands, go straight to the next ward and examine expectant mothers. This was their normal practice, because the presence of microscopic diseases was unknown. Semmelweis insisted that doctors wash their hands before each examination, and the death rate immediately dropped to two percent. Look at the specific instructions God gave thousands of years ago to His people for when they encountered disease: “And when he that has an issue is cleansed of his issue; then he shall number to himself seven days for his cleansing, and wash his clothes, and bathe his flesh in running water, and shall be clean” (Leviticus 15:13). Until recent years, doctors washed their hands in a bowl of water, leaving invisible germs on their hands. However, the Bible says specifically to wash under “running water.”
7. The Bible and the Correlation of Mind and Body Medical science has come to understand that there is a strong relationship between a person’s mental and physical health. The Bible revealed this to us with these statements (and others) written around 950 B.C.: ● “A sound heart is the life of the flesh: but envy is the rottenness of the bones” (Proverbs 14:30). ● “The light of the eyes rejoices the heart: and a good report makes the bones fat [healthy]” (Proverbs 15:30). ● “Pleasant words are as an honeycomb, sweet to the soul, and health to the bones” (Proverbs 16:24). ● “A merry heart does good like a medicine: but a broken spirit dries the bones” (Proverbs 17:22).
8. The Bible and Bacteria “And…neither shall you eat any flesh that is torn of beasts in the field; you shall cast it to the dogs” (Exodus 22:31). Thousands of years before modern science identified bacteria, God made provision for Israel by banning the eating of meat that may be spoiled by bacteria.” Richard Gunther
9. The Bible and the Immune System The Bible instructs that male babies are to be circumcised on the eighth day (Genesis 17:12). Medical science has now discovered that this is the day that the coagulating factor in the blood, called prothrombin, is the highest. It reaches its peak on the eighth day, then drops. Medical science has also discovered that this is when the human body’s immune system is at its peak.
10. The Bible and Laws of Quarantine Long before medical science discovered the importance of quarantine of persons with infectious diseases, the Bible instigated them. In 1490 B.C. the Scriptures tell the children of Israel what to do if a man has leprosy: “All the days wherein the plague shall be in him he shall be defiled; he is unclean: he shall dwell alone; without the camp shall his habitation be” (Leviticus 13:46). Laws of quarantine were not instigated by modern man until the seventeenth century. “During the devastating Black Death of the fourteenth century, patients who were sick or dead were kept in the same rooms as the rest of the family. People often wondered why the disease was affecting so many people at one time. They attributed these epidemics to ‘bad air’ or ‘evil spirits.’ However, careful attention to the medical commands of God as revealed in Leviticus would have saved untold millions of lives. Arturo Castiglione wrote about the overwhelming importance of this biblical medical law: ‘The laws against leprosy in Leviticus 13 may be regarded as the first model of sanitary legislation’ (A History of Medicine).” Grant R. Jeffery, The Signature of God

Now the bible has many other “proofs” such as prophesy, and it’s fulfillment, it’s history which archeologists have proven to be reliable, and it’s wisdom books, undeniably wisdom at it’s best.

Hopefully all of you will join us in our study of Christian apologetics, which will focus on the historical reliability of the scriptures, and even including proving Christ not only lived, but that He is the son of God, and we can prove His resurrection.

Thank you for having me, and hopefully I will start seeing you every Monday.

 

by Jim Carmichael

I often wonder if any of you are curious about what happens when we go to the prison. So I thought I would just share a little bit of the experience with you. It takes about an hour to get there, and normally Jim Pinkston drives, which greatly improves my prayer life. When we arrive at the prison we have to make sure we leave everything in the

car, if you happen to carry your cell phone in with you, well, that’s a felony, you may end up staying there. We had just arrived the other day, had gone through the first two gates, and Jim P’s phone rang, so he got to go through the gates a couple of unplanned times.

Well in any case when we first arrive at the prison we see the tower, and all the razor wire. The header photo on my website is exactly what it looks like.

Well then we have to go through the first two gates, they lead into an outdoor holding chamber, so when you go through the first gate you are in a chain link pen much like a dog pen, except it’s about 12 feet high with razor wire all around it.

Once inside the holding area they close the first gate and then open the 2^nd, which allows us to approach the building, which as soon as we are inside we have to remove all metal objects, belts and etc, and sometimes our shoes and then proceed through the gate that scans for metal devices and all your belongings are put into a plastic bucket of sorts, and passes through an x-ray machine.

Then we enter in an area with the title “sally gate” over it. It’s a heavy steel door that a guard behind glass opens for us, once we enter this area, they close the first door, and then the 2^nd door opens and we enter the prison yard.

We then walk completely through the prison yard to a gate at the far end, and then once through that we head to the chapel, where we experience the most spiritual worship one can imagine with men who have committed every crime there is to commit, and some have been in for over 30 years, some just got there, and many will never get out.

And we worship God, unbelievably moving, and when Booker can make it to lead singing, the guys really get it going, because Mr. Booker is the most spiritually alive, most motivating song leader you will ever meet. He displays more energy at 82 than most men a third his age.

Generally Elaine comes with us, and will sing a solo for the men, and with her beautiful voice, it is one of the high lights of their night.

Jim delivers his sermon, sometimes a little more singing, and then we repeat the process in reverse. Of course now it is dark, and generally I do not prepare for the weather. Here a while back when we were leaving a rain storm hit us, and I mean a hard one, and I didn’t bring an umbrella, and the only one who did was Booker, and guess who made fun of the rest of us?

But here’s the really cool thing about that, those men will come stand in that pouring rain to worship with us. I heard a preacher say once that for every drop of rain, five people will not come to worship, well he wasn’t speaking about the prison, almost nothing short of a lock down will keep them from coming to worship with us.

We are so blessed by this work, I hope many of you reading this will find your way to a prison ministry, and join, learn true worship. I never wanted to go into a prison, but when there, you really don’t want the worship to end, just keep going on and on for eternity as it will someday.

I have to confess; when I first went to the prison there was an element of fear. My grandfather died in Lansing Penitentiary, and my father was incarcerated in Hutchinson Reformatory, and going to that prison for the first time I felt like Jonah, I wanted to catch the next ship out of town. But I went, now all three generations of my family have been in prison, except I go to worship, and they bless me, God blesses me, and what I feared turned into one of my greatest blessings.

Maybe you can be blessed by it as well.

 

New Life Behavior

Jim Pinkston, and Elaine Russell

New Life Behavior

Dick Conner’s Correctional Center

Tulsa County Jail

918-627-3201

jpinkston@parkplaza.org

 

 

Celebrate Recovery Every Friday Night 6:00 pm – Dinner 7:00 pm – Large Group Worship 8:00 pm – Small Group 9:00 pm – Cross Talk Cafe’   5925 E 51st St Tulsa, OK 74135 918-627-3201 ext 6802

Celebrate Recovery

Terry Finch
Prison Minister
Celebrate Recovery
918-627-3201
tfinch@parkplaza.org

Defending the Faith

Jim Carmichael
Teaching Christian Apologetics
Dick Conner’s Correctional Center
918-960-1815
jim.prisonapologetics@gmail.com

Booker Murphy
Song Leader
Dick Conner’s Correctional Center

www.facebook.com/prisonapologetics

Visit our website at

 

http://prisonapologetics.org

 

We hope you will join us at Park Plaza Church of Christ Jenks at 8:30 this morning, and be sure to stop by our booth.