Prepared for Persecution

This is a Problem!
I found this story on the AIG website and thought it was a great example of how Christian's rights are being neglected in schools. This isn't just a freak thing, it happens all the time. In fact, I'm just going to be blunt and say that Christians are persecuted by peers an teachers more often than others. This can't be excused by saying that the teacher was being religiously neutral by being atheist or agnostic, because even the most devout scientist base their lives on faith assumptions. I'm not saying that people of different faith are never persecuted, or that it's always Christians getting picked on. But the persecution of Christians is an especially big problem that needs to be addressed.

Prepared for Persecution
by Kelsey H., Class of 2008
On the first day of my college philosophy class, the students in the class introduced themselves. Along with telling our names, we had to tell where we were from and the most important thing we have learned in our lives. When everyone finished, our professor told us her name and what was important to her. She ended by saying, “If any of you are Christians, don’t plan on being one when this class is done.” My jaw dropped when I heard this; I wasn’t quite sure what I was getting into. I reminded myself that this was a class I needed for my major, so I had to stick with it.
Throughout the year, we talked about all the different religions; it seemed like every day Christianity got thrown into the discussion. There was never anything positive that was said about Christianity. My professor said that the Bible is a cute little story but has no real meaning.
. . . At the end of the semester we had a final project. We had to give a ten-minute presentation and write a four-page paper on our presentation, and these two things were worth 50% of our final grade. I decided to write my paper/presentation on the “Seven C’s of History” by Answers in Genesis. The “Seven C’s of History” is a brief history of the Bible and includes Creation, Corruption, Catastrophe, Confusion, Christ, Cross, and Consummation.
The big day came and I had spent hours working on my presentation and paper with my dad. I was the first one to present that day and had everyone’s attention the whole time, which was very unusual. Normally kids are texting or doing other homework. When I was done, I thought I had done well, especially since I had everyone’s attention; but little did I know what was in store for me. For the next forty minutes of class, my professor picked apart my presentation and was furious. She yelled at me for saying that on the last day God will judge all the people and there will be a separation between the believers and the unbelievers. She thought those were my words and didn’t understand that that is what the Bible tells us. She also thought that it was too harsh. She went through every “C” and found something about it to pick apart. I wasn’t even able to stand up for myself or for Christianity, because there was no break in her anger.
I found this class period interesting because two weeks before, I stayed after class talking with her and two other students; and she had told us that it was wrong of us to think that Christians get persecuted. Rather, we (Christians) are the ones persecuting others.
After the class, all the students handed me their evaluation forms. When I went through them, I noticed that I received high marks, and all A’s from the class, except two which gave me B’s. I had one girl come up to me after class and tell me that she was sorry for how the class went and that our professor went overboard. I told her it was okay, and thanks. She then asked me, “What do you mean it was okay?” I told her, “I’m a Christian, and I’m going to get persecuted for standing up for what I believe in (Matthew 5:10–12).” She shook her head, and said, “Wow, I can’t believe you found something positive to take out of this last class.” Hearing her say that really showed me that I did do something right, and even though I had many people against me, I know that God was with me and proud of me, and He was the only one I cared about.
When we got our final grades, I received a “No Grade” on my presentation and paper. My professor said that she was too heartbroken to give me a grade, because I obviously didn’t do any of the readings or take anything from this class. I emailed her and told her that just because I don’t believe everything that was taught in this class, doesn’t mean I didn’t learn anything. I did, in fact, learn a huge lesson, and that was to stand up for what I believe in, even if I’m the only one.
I don’t think I have ever dug as deeply into my Bible as I did this past semester. I found so many verses telling me that this would happen, and that there is a reward for those who share God’s Word. Some of the verses I read numerous times were, Matthew 5:10–12, Matthew 28:18–20, Mark 13:13, and John 3:16. Although I didn’t learn the lessons my professor wanted me to, I learned an even bigger lesson that I will carry with me for the rest of my life.
As I look back on this event, I’m thankful for the Christian home and high school that helped prepare me for this. It is great to have role models to look back on as I face new situations in my life.

Is God Scientific?

Beyond Nature
“It is obvious we cannot examine God in a test tube or test him by the usual scientific methodology. Furthermore, we can say with equal emphasis that it is not possible to prove napoleon by the scientific method. The reason lies in the nature of history itself, and the limitations of the scientific method. In order for something to be proved by the scientific method, it must be repeatable…” (Know Why You Believe by Paul E. Little) You know, so many people today classify God as something totally separate from science. In a way, his supernatural nature defies science. But is this really a reason to question his existence? Science has limitations, it can only relate to measurable, repeatable, material things. God is none of these things. But if God really does exist, why wouldn’t we put science into perspective with God? Perhaps God himself isn’t provable by science, (He isn’t exactly from our universe, or confined by it’s laws) but since he created our universe, he would have drastic effects on all branches of science.

Cause and Effect
A good example of this comes from the law of cause and effect. The law of cause and effect basically says that nothing ever (EVER) happens without a cause. This applies to everything in our universe, and even our universe itself. Ok, so let’s say you fall off a cliff. (This seams to be my favorite illustration… ok, I’m not very creative) let’s say the cause of this effect was a brake failure. The brake failure is a cause, but also an effect of a clumsy mechanic. The mechanics clumsiness is the effect of staying awake till 4:00 in the morning three nights in a row. And the Cause of this… Let’s just say that this could go on for days! Eventually you would have to arrive at something called an “Uncaused Cause”. Now, In our universe, an uncaused cause is a scientific impossibility. Never the less, we know that there was one somewhere down the line. So how do scientists explain this uncaused cause? There are only three ways to explain this. (1) The uncaused cause was not from our universe, or confined by its laws. This is the general definition of “God” don’t you think? (2) the law of cause and effect is false, (this goes against reasoning, and hundreds of years of science). (3) Time has existed forever, thus eliminating the need for an uncaused cause. But there are several problems with explanation #3, which point to an uncaused cause.

Time
Imagine a timeline pointing in two directions
< --------O------- >
the present time is marked by the “O”. Time spans in each direction infinitely. Here’s the problem, If time has existed infinitely, how did we ever arrive at the present time? Let me explain. Lets say you went back in time to the beginning of eternity. When would you arrive? The answer of course is never. But what if you started an eternity ago and headed toward our present time. When would you get there? Never. This strongly suggests that it is impossible for time to exist infinitely. Even Stephen Hawking said, "Time itself must have had a beginning". So this disproves the idea that no un-caused cause was needed due to infinite time. In fact, Time in itself is evidence for a God. We cannot create, reverse, stop, or destroy time in any way. Only an infinite power could have set in motion such a unique and almost unexplainable dimension.

Fibonacci Numbers
Another evidence for God is found in every corner of the universe. Fibonacci numbers are found in spiraling galaxies, flowers, the human hand, musical notes, tree trunks, sea shells, and thousands of other natural designs. Fibonacci numbers are a sequence of numbers starting at zero, and then one, and adding the last two numbers of the sequence to get the next. 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144… So what is so special about these numbers? They happen to be very beautiful when incorporated into design. In fact, artists use them in a variety of ways to create stunningly beautiful masterpieces like the Mona Lisa. So are Fibonacci numbers just chance? And why do we have such a strange attraction to them? The best explanation would be that the ultimate artist who created our universe liked the way they looked, and used them multiple times throughout his creation. This isn’t rocket science, but it makes sense.

Personal Challenge
Although we cannot prove scientifically that God exists, or prove that he created our universe, God fills in an empty hole in science that makes everything make sense. To anyone who scoffs at people who believe in God, and think we need to directly prove that there is a God before our schools can teach intelligent design, I want to challenge you to commit to your own expectations and prove scientifically that there is not a God. Just because something can’t be seen, repeated, or tested in a laboratory, does not mean it doesn’t exist.

Setting a High Standard

Combating Low Expectations
In the forward to “Do Hard Things” by Alex and Brett Harris, Chuck Norris says, “Today we live in a culture that promotes comfort, not challenges. Every thing is about finding ways to escape hardship, avoid pain, and dodge duty. ... Today, our culture expects very little from teens - not much more than staying in school and doing a few chores.” As a teenager, I find this statement to be true for my generation. We, as teens, tend to meet the expectations set before us, and no more. If the expectations are set high, we rise to the occasion. However, if they are set low, unfortunately, we stoop to the standard. I want to change the mindset of teens from the idea that we only need to do what is required and nothing more, into one that says that we can and should rise far above the standard. If teens got this, we would realize our God-given potential and make an impact on the world.

One example to illustrate the idea that teens will rise up to meet the expectations set before them is an experience I had in my scout troop. The meals our patrols used to plan and cook were simplistic and disgusting. We cooked things like hot dogs for every meal. However, when we instituted patrol cooking competitions, we started to cook better and better. We went from “shake-n-bake” pancakes, to chocolate-cherry cobblers and breakfast burritos. The rise in expectations forced us to improve our planning and cooking abilities; and now we actually look forward to the delicious food.

Another example of how high expectations can spur a person on to success can be seen in Charles F. Kettering. He was an American engineer who invented the electric starter. He is quoted as saying, “High achievement always takes place in the framework of high expectation.” This is shown through his achievement of the inventing of the electric starter. He set a high goal, and he met it. As a result our lives are made simpler.

Some people believe conversely. They say that high expectations set a child up for failure, while low expectations foster a sense of success. They believe that experiencing failure leads to low self esteem. I found a web site that presented suggestions as to the appropriate chore levels for all ages. In the section “11 years and older”, one of the suggestions was for the kid to “clean room with direction”. This site also said, “One kid may be fully ready to handle sorting the laundry at 13 while another kid will still be putting red clothes with the whites at 16, wondering why the clothes keep coming out tinted pink.” Zach Hunter started a campaign in 7th grade to free slaves around the world. Through his “Loose Change to Loosen Chains” (LC2LC) he has raised money to end modern day slavery. Zach Hunter is just one example of what a teen is capable of and how our culture expects far to little from us teens.

The main thing I’m getting at here is that the ridiculously low expectations set for us teens need to be defeated. They must be defied. If my generation doesn’t, we will become a bunch of lazy adults who don’t do anything with excellence. The point I’m making is not that we, teens, are lazy bums; it is that if we don’t start showing the world what we are capable of, we will never get practice at doing anything great. I say that regardless of age setting low expectations sets one up for failure, because the low expectations are not a realistic example of the demands of real life.


Works Cited

Harris, Alex and Brett Harris. Do Hard Things. Colorado Springs: Multnomah Books,
2008.

McNulty, Joanne. “Age Appropriate Chores for Kids.” freeprintablebehaviorcharts.com.
2007

ThinkExist.com Quotations. “Charles F. Kettering quotes”. ThinkExist.com Quotations
Online 1 Feb. 2009.

The Evolutionary Worldview

Everyone Has One
Everyone has a religion of some sort that they follow. You may doubt this because when you think of religion you think of Angels and harps, or misled old people at a tent revival shouting “hallelujah!” But that’s not what I’m talking about. In fact, religion is a tricky word to use because of the way people view it. Maybe “Worldview” is a better word. A religion (or worldview) is a set of primary assumptions about our world. Worldviews can go hand in hand with science, as people try to prove their assumptions right. And the Assumptions of your Worldview will decide how you live your life. Based on what I have just said, you may still be wondering how evolution fits into all this.

It starts with assumptions…
The primary assumption in evolution is that there is no God. Now here’s the interesting part, from this one assumption we can use a solid line of reasoning to figure out what evolutionists think about a number of worldview questions. From the assumption that there is no God we can conclude that we must have come about by some natural process. And if we came about by natural processes, we must be accidents, and if we are accidents, there is no one to tell us what to do. And finally, if there is no one to tell us what to do, who cares what we do? So, from the primary assumption that there is no God, we have found the evolutionary view of ethics; “there is no right and wrong”. In the same way we can conclude that, after death we rot (that’s all), mankind is blameless, the meaning of life is to have fun, and evil and suffering are natural, you can’t blame those who inflict it because they have no set of ethics to follow.

It is Testable by Science…
To most, Evolution means science,and nothing else. Actually, evolution is an attempt to prove scientifically that the evolutionary worldview is true. Think about it, what are scientists who develop elaborate evolutionary charts, and search endlessly for missing links trying to prove? They are trying to prove that our world did not need to have a supernatural creator, (God). If you read the posts on this blog with an open mind, I don’t think you can come to the conclusion that science supports evolution. Rather, our world shows evidence of design by a loving, wonderful, creative, superpower. So evolution really isn’t about science, because if you started with science you wouldn’t arrive at the evolutionary worldview. But if you start at the Worldview of evolution, you would be forced to believe in the supposed science behind it.

It Decides How You Live…
No matter what you say, blindly believing in evolution will have a huge affect on how you live your life. And you know what? I think we see evidence of this everywhere we look. For generations, kids all over the world have been taught evolution in schools as a scientific fact, and have been forced to accept the Worldview that follows. This is why we need to let America’s kids hear both sides of the case in our schools. If we let them hear both evolution, and intelligent design, we won’t be forcing anything on them. They will be free to believe whichever worldview they think is most supported by science. But as it is, we are forcing “religion” on them in the form of “science”. Do you realize how destructive this has been? A blog series that I have been publishing lately called, “Evolutionary Concepts” explains some of the catastrophes that have resulted from the worldview of evolution. In short, I want you to realize that even evolutionists who claim faith and reason are incompatible, have based their entire lives, and risked eternal suffering, on the blind faith that there is no God. They have blinded themselves to the overwhelming evidence for a creator, and instead prefer to view themselves as worthless accidents.

Click here to read my personal worldview.
http://culturaldeceptions.blogspot.com/search/label/Elijah%27s%20World%20View

Separation of Church and State

Jefferson’s Letter
This topic one of the most misunderstood topics in America today, so be prepared to hear this in a way you may have never heard it before. Today, separation of church and state is an argument that is used by the ACLU to outlaw Christian idea’s and symbols from anything associated with government. The actual phrase was coined from a letter written by Thomas Jefferson to the Danbury Baptist Association in 1802. The story goes like this; the Danbury Baptist Association was concerned that in their state, religious rights were not recognized as “Inalienable Rights” but as “Privileges” granted by the government. In response, Jefferson wrote a letter that basically says that he thinks government should have as little to do with enforcing religion as possible. Here is what he said.

…"Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between man & his god, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legitimate powers of government reach actions only, and not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, thus building a wall of separation between church and state”…

Did you catch that? Sure the phrase is in there, “wall of separation between church and state”. But what about the context? It says that legislature should make no law prohibiting the free exercise of religion. That’s exactly what the ACLU is trying to do. It appears that those who use this phrase are severely taking it out of context to fit their anti-Christian agenda.

The First Amendment
Anyone who has heard the phrase “separation of church and state” will have probably heard of the first amendment of the constitution, (even if they didn't know what it was). In fact, most people associate separation of church and state directly with the first amendment.

“The Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

When I read this, my suspicions were confirmed. Separation of church and state, as it has become today, is unconstitutional. By writing the first amendment, our founding fathers weren’t making our government religiously neutral, (which is in fact, an impossible task) they were making sure that the government didn’t control our religion. As Jefferson’s letter says, “legitimate powers of government reach actions only, and not opinions”.

“Offending Someone”
Today the ACLU is pressuring our government to reach further than actions. Already it is illegal to pray in schools, wear Christian T-shirts in schools, display the Ten Commandments in courthouses and soon, “in God we trust” may be removed from our currency. Why? Because it might “offend someone”. For this same reason I’ve heard that a library is Colorado is refusing to fly our nation’s flag! Strangely enough, the same people who are pushing Christianity out of our country, (with separation of church and state), have no problem with Muslim prayers, songs about Hanukkah, and homosexual awareness days in schools. I heard that a school near where I live was actually studying the Muslim “steps to heaven” or something like that. I have nothing against Muslims, (except the extremists who want to kill me), but it cannot be right to Give them the freedoms that Christians are loosing. The American constitution supports freedom of religion, not freedom from religion. So anyone who is offended by the ten commandments needs to, (pardon the expression) suck it up and deal with it. Nowhere will freedom ever be complete while offending someone is considered a crime.