Prof Zebulon No E99

A) Creation (The Canopy Protection)

I the Bible, when we read about people living 800, 900 years on earth, we have difficulty in grasping this concept to the point of even saying to ourselves: “Were these real years like ours today?” When the flood occurred, the Bible tells us that “I will cause it to rain forty days and forty nights and every living substance that I made will I destroy from off the face of the earth”(Gen 7:4b). As we have seen before, on day 2 of creation, God separated the waters that were under the firmament from the waters that were above the firmament (Gen 1:7). A thick blanket of water vapour covered the earth at this time; creation scientists have concluded that it wasn’t water because that would have created a surface temperature (too hot) on the earth unsuitable for humans. Therefore God let the waters of the fountain of the deep and the windows of heaven empty themselves to the point that the highest mountain was covered over with 15 cubits of water (Gen 7:29, 8:2). Why did people live so long before the flood? They were protected from the harmful rays of the sun because after the flood, the normal age for humans dropped to 120 years (Gen 6:3). Modern science today does not understand the aging process in humans; all they know is that we grow old and there is nothing we can do about it. Possibly a minor extension has been seen due to drugs and medical advances but the general consensus is that our bodies wear down and eventually expire. Aging and death is part of the curse of sin and no one can slip by. Knowing what comes after death is described in the Bible and the Christian message is to inform all who have ears to hear that our soul is eternal and, inevitably, there are only two places where we will end up – in heaven with God or in hell with Satan.

J) Doctrine (Calvinism - T)

As promised, here is the first of the Five Points of Calvinism – TOTAL DEPRAVITY. If the

Calvinistic view is to be considered, it must be fundamental with regards to salvation; that is, a correct assessment of man’s condition. If we have a deficient and light view about sin, then we will have a defective view about the salvation by grace. The Bible is replete of passages regarding man’s condition – here are a few: a) All men are dead “death passed upon all men” (Romans 5:12) b) All men are bound “that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil” (2 Tim 2:26) c) All men are blind and deaf “That seeing they may see, but not perceive and hearing they may hear and not understand” (Mark 4:12) d) All men are unteachable “But the natural man receivth not the things of the Spirit of God” (1 Cor 2:14) e) All men are naturally sinful “I was shapen in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me” (Psa 51:5). This then is man’s natural state and now we must ask – Can the dead raise themselves? Can the bound free themselves? Can the blind give themselves sight and the deaf hearing? Can the unteachable teach themselves? Can the naturally sinful change themselves? Man is just like Lazarus in his tomb – dead and bound. Just as there was no life in Lazarus, there is no “inner receptive spark” in man’s heart. But just as Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead in a supernatural way, “…while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom 5:8) Salvation by its very nature must be “of the Lord”.