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Song of Solomon 2:1 I am the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys.
Bible
J. C. Ryle lived from 1816-1900 and was one of the old Anglicans that believed the Bible to be the very Words of the living God. The following is the first part of his message on the subject of Sickness. May the Lord bless as you read this thought provoking message.
“He whom thou lovest is sick.” — John 11:3
I. THE UNIVERSAL PREVALENCE OF SICKNESS
I need not dwell long on this point. To elaborate the proof of it would only be multiplying truisms, and heaping up common-places which all allow.
Sickness is everywhere. In Europe, in Asia, in Africa, in America; in hot countries and in cold, in civilized nations and in savage tribes, men, women, and children sicken and die.
Sickness is among all classes. Grace does not lift a believer above the reach of it. Riches will not buy exemption from it. Rank cannot prevent its assaults. Kings and their subjects, masters and servants, rich men and poor, learned and unlearned, teachers and scholars, doctors and patients, ministers and hearers, all alike go down before this great foe. “The rich
man’s wealth is his strong city” (Pro 18:11). The Englishman’s house is called his castle; but there are no doors and bars which can keep out disease and death.
Sickness is of every sort and description. From the crown of our head to the sole of our foot we are liable to disease. Our capacity of suffering is something fearful to contemplate. Who can count up the ailments by which our bodily frame may be assailed? Who ever visited a museum of morbid anatomy without a shudder? “Strange that a harp of thousand strings
should keep in tune so long.” It is not, to my mind, so wonderful that men should die so soon, as it is that they should live so long.
Sickness is often one of the most humbling and distressing trials that can come upon man. It can turn the strongest into a little child, and make him feel “the grasshopper a burden” (Ecc 12:5). It can unnerve the boldest, and make him tremble at the fall of a pin. We are “fearfully and wonderfully made” (Psa 139:14). The connection between body and mind is curiously close. The influence that some diseases can exercise upon the temper and spirits is immensely great. There are ailments of brain, and liver, and nerves, which can bring down a Solomon in mind to a state little better than that of a babe. He that would know to what depths of humiliation poor man can fall, has only to attend for a short time on sick-beds.
Sickness is not preventible by anything that man can do. The average duration of life may doubtless be somewhat lengthened. The skill of doctors may continually discover new remedies, and effect surprising cures. The enforcement of wise sanitary regulations may greatly lower the deathrate in a land. But, after all, whether in healthy or unhealthy localities,
whether in mild climates or in cold, whether treated by homeopathy or allopathy,1 men will sicken and die. “The days of our years are three-score years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be four-score years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away” (Psa 90:10). That witness is indeed true. It was true 3300 years ago. It is true
still.
Now what can we make of this great fact, the universal prevalence of sickness? How shall we account for it? What explanation can we give of it? What answer shall we give to our inquiring children when they ask us, “Father, why do people get ill and die?” These are grave questions. A few words upon them will not be out of place.
Can we suppose for a moment that God created sickness and disease at the beginning? Can we imagine that He who formed our world in such perfect order was the Former of needless suffering and pain? Can we think that He who made all things “very good,” made Adam’s race to sicken and to die?
The idea is, to my mind, revolting. It introduces a grand imperfection into the midst of God’s perfect works. I must find another solution to satisfy my mind. The only explanation that satisfies me is that which the Bible gives. Something has come into the world which has dethroned man from his original position, and stripped him of his original privileges. Something
has come in, which, like a handful of gravel thrown into the midst of machinery, has marred the perfect order of God’s creation. And what is that something? I answer, in one word, It is sin. “Sin [has] entered into the world, and death by sin” (Rom 5:12). Sin is the cause of all the sickness, and disease, and pain, and suffering, which prevail on the earth. They
are all a part of that curse which came into the world when Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit and fell. There would have been no sickness, if there had been no Fall. There would have been no disease, if there had been no sin.
I pause for a moment at this point, and yet in pausing I do not depart from my subject. I pause to remind my readers that there is no ground so untenable as that which is occupied by the Atheist, the Deist, or the unbeliever in the Bible. I advise every young reader of this paper, who is puzzled by the bold and specious arguments of the infidel, to study well that
most important subject, the Difficulties of Infidelity. I say boldly that it requires far more credulity to be a infidel than to be a Christian. I say boldly that there are great broad patent facts in the condition of mankind, which nothing but the Bible can explain, and that one of the most striking of these facts is the universal prevalence of pain, sickness, and disease. In short, one of the mightiest difficulties in the way of Atheists and Deists, is the body of man.
You have doubtless heard of Atheists. An Atheist is one who professes to believe that there is no God, no Creator, no First Cause, and that all things came together in this world by mere chance. Now shall we listen to such a doctrine as this?
Go, take an Atheist to one of the excellent surgical schools of our land, and ask him to study the wonderful structure of the human body. Show him the matchless skill with which every joint, and vein, and valve, and muscle, and sinew, and nerve, and bone, and limb, has been formed. Show him the perfect adaptation of every part of the human frame to the purpose
which it serves. Show him the thousand delicate contrivances for meeting wear and tear, and supplying daily waste of vigour.
And then ask this man who denies the being of a God, and a great First Cause, if all this wonderful mechanism is the result of chance? Ask him if it came together at first by luck and accident? Ask him if he so thinks about the watch he looks at, the bread he eats, or the coat he wears? Oh, no! Design is an insuperable difficulty in the Atheist’s way. There is a God.
You have doubtless heard of Deists. A Deist is one who professes to believe that there is a God, who made the world and all things therein. But he does not believe the Bible. “A God, but no Bible! a Creator, but no Christianity!” This is the Deist’s creed. Now, shall we listen to this doctrine? Go again, I say, and take a Deist to an hospital, and show him some of the awful
handiwork of disease. Take him to the bed where lies some tender child, scarce knowing good from evil, with an incurable cancer. Send him to the ward where there is a loving mother of a large family in the last stage of some excruciating disease.
Show him some of the racking pains and agonies to which flesh is heir, and ask him to account for them. Ask this man, who believes there is a great and wise God who made the world, but cannot believe the Bible, ask him how he accounts for these traces of disorder and imperfection in his God’s creation. Ask this man, who sneers at Christian theology and is too wise to
believe the fall of Adam, ask him upon his theory to explain the universal prevalence of pain and disease in the world. You may ask in vain! You will get no satisfactory answer. Sickness and suffering are insuperable difficulties in the Deist’s way.
Man has sinned, and therefore man suffers. Adam fell from his first estate, and therefore Adam’s children sicken and die. The universal prevalence of sickness is one of the indirect evidences that the Bible is true. The Bible explains it. The Bible answers the questions about it which will arise in every inquiring mind. No other systems of religion can do this. They
all fail here. They are silent. They are confounded. The Bible alone looks the subject in the face. It boldly proclaims the fact that man is a fallen creature, and with equal boldness proclaims a vast remedial system to meet his wants. I feel shut up to the conclusion that the Bible is from God. Christianity is a revelation from heaven. “Thy word is truth” (Joh 17:17).
Let us stand fast on the old ground, that the Bible, and the Bible only, is God’s revelation of Himself to man. Be not moved by the many new assaults which modern skepticism is making on the inspired volume. Heed not the hard questions which the enemies of the faith are fond of putting about Bible difficulties, and to which perhaps you often feel unable to give an answer. Anchor your soul firmly on this safe principle, that the whole book is God’s truth. Tell the enemies of the Bible that, in spite of all their arguments, there is no book in the world which will bear comparison with the Bible, none that so thoroughly meets man’s wants, none that explains so much of the state of mankind. As to the hard things in the Bible, tell
them you are content to wait. You find enough plain truth in the book to satisfy your conscience and save your soul. The hard things will be cleared up in one day. What you know not now, you will know hereafter.’ This is from John C. Ryle’s booklet SICKNESS and may be downloaded at https://www.chapellibrary.org/search
‘Yesterday the New York Times reached out to me for a comment on Gab’s recent growth. I’ve never had any luck with getting the New York Times to describe Gab accurately or fairly over the years, so I opted to use my new standard reply for all dishonest and corrupt media publications: “Jesus is King, speak freely on Gab.com.”
If they are going to print something with my name attached to it, at a minimum it will be glorifying to Christ and promoting Gab at the same time so that readers can visit the site for themselves and make their own judgements.
Predictably the New York Times referred to Gab as a “haven for racist memes and content,” but to my surprise they did indeed print my comment of “Jesus is King, speak freely on Gab.com” and even linked to my recent blog post about Gab’s explosive growth. USA Today also called Gab a “repository of toxic content” this week, which added more fuel to our fire and provided free advertising to promote our growing community.’https://news.gab.com/2020/11/12/the-peoples-media-revolution-and-the-digital-civil-war/
I am waiting for Australia to have another wave of China Virus when we depart summer and enter winter in June, 2021. If it does occur it will be interesting what ‘silly’ illogical rules our politicians will seek to have enforced. In the UK ‘On Thursday 5 November, England entered a second national lockdown.
Churches have been deemed unsafe and have been banned from meeting for worship with threat of criminal sanction. Church is considered unsafe and a danger to communities.
But as lockdown began, Health Secretary Matt Hancock clarified to the House of Commons that one ‘reasonable’ reason for leaving home is travelling abroad to commit suicide.‘https://christianconcern.com/comment/church-too-dangerous-but-travelling-abroad-to-commit-suicide-is-reasonable/
A Christian or conservative opinion is not wanted in many circles and there is often a price to pay.
‘Mary Douglas had served as a Conservative councillor in Salisbury for nearly 15 years before being removed from her portfolio role for skills and social mobility in November 2019 as a result of the stance she took against the use of public money to fund a Pride event.
Supported by the Christian Legal Centre, Mary challenged the council’s decision to bring code of conduct proceedings against her on the allegation that she acted in a manner which ‘contravened the public sector equality duty’. Following the hearing, the council concluded that Mary did have the right under Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights to express her opposition.
Mary commented: “I am relieved and thankful for this outcome. If the council had found against me, it would have set a precedent that I and other public officials are not allowed to disagree with groups of people, events or political messages with which we disagree. Such a verdict would effectively end conversation, debate and the ability to express a belief and opinion.
“To disagree is not to disrespect. In fact, to take the trouble to express disagreement with someone is a mark of respect. Across UK society, we must be able to disagree with each other while also holding each other in the highest esteem. To be able to say what we think and believe is vital for democracy, community cohesion and good decision making.”‘https://christianconcern.com/cccases/mary-douglas/
For a more thorough reading on this case go to https://christianconcern.com/news/council-admits-christian-councillor-was-free-to-oppose-pride-grant/
Psalm 104:16-17 “The trees of the Lord are full of sap; the cedars of Lebanon, which he hath planted; Where the birds make their nests: as for the stork, the fir trees are her house.”
‘There are many incredible designs around us that are unlikely to exist if everything is the result of mindless chance. Many birds eat insects through the summer. While such high protein diets like this are good in mating and reproductive season, they do not prepare the birds to survive the cold weather of winter.
What they need to do is build a layer of fat both for calorie storage as well as insulation. So, as winter nears, the berries that have been growing and ripening all summer on various shrubs become more numerous. The high sugar content of the berries’ juice helps the birds to quickly build up fat. The freeze on cold fall mornings even helps to increase the sugar concentration in the berries. Even more amazing is that the various types of berries eaten by the birds ripen in a staggered fashion so that berry season is long and the supplies are always available. For example, as the elderberry supply is just about consumed, highbush cranberries are in production. Often, the summer’s hatchlings’ plumage doesn’t reach full color until they eat the various pigments in the berries, and those pigments are incorporated into the new feathers. In exchange, the birds spread the seeds in the berries.
All of these complex, interrelated systems depend on each other in an elegant, fine-tuned design.’https://creationmoments.com/sermons/an-elegant-quilt-of-relationships-2/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=an-elegant-quilt-of-relationships-2&mc_cid=083d9935d8&mc_eid=00c1dcff3c
Target is as Woke as any company can get and is only one of many examples that ‘...it doesn’t take much to make a major corporation give in to the Church of Progressivism these days, does it? Target became the latest company to prostrate itself before the altar of the woke after a Twitter user complained about a book in its inventory.
On Thursday, Target posted a tweet stating that it will stop selling “Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters,” by Abigail Shrier because it discusses the transgender movement and its effect on young girls. The company made its decision after a user informed it of the anti-woke content in the book.
“Thank you so much for bringing this to our attention. We have removed this book from our assortment,” the company tweeted after being confronted by an activist whose account is now locked.’https://redstate.com/jeffc/2020/11/13/target-removes-book-critical-of-transgenderism-after-progressive-wokesplains-n279401
This guy at the top in the Vatican is definitely out of step with what the Roman organization once held as far as sanctity of life. One example of this is that ‘Pope Francis reportedly congratulated former vice president Joe Biden Thursday, the Biden transition team claimed, even though Biden hasn’t officially won the disputed election and supports unlimited abortions.
Here’s more:
Biden spoke with the Holy Father and thanked him for “extending blessings and congratulations,” according to Axios. Biden also praised the pope for “promoting peace, reconciliation, and the common bonds of humanity around the world,” the publication reported.
“The president-elect expressed his desire to work together on the basis of a shared belief in the dignity and equality of all humankind on issues,” Biden’s transition team said in a statement, Axios reported.
The publication noted that these issues include “caring for the marginalized and the poor, addressing the crisis of climate change, and welcoming and integrating immigrants and refugees into our communities.”
If Pope Francis mentioned Biden’s pro-abortion views and how they are out of step with pro-life teachings, neither the Biden team nor any media outlets report such a conversation having taken place.’https://www.lifenews.com/2020/11/13/pope-francis-reportedly-congratulates-joe-biden-even-though-hes-pro-abortion-and-hasnt-won/
Most people at least say they love babies and it used to be a political thing for politicians to kiss babies. Well, have times changed! Now, the Progressive Left want to kill the unborn and even make room for murder of the babe for a period of time after birth! Well, under Sleepy Joe and that other person’s watch ‘Americans can expect to be forced to send hundreds of millions of tax dollars to pro-abortion groups if Joe Biden is confirmed to be the winner of the White House.
Biden, a pro-abortion Democrat, promised to reverse President Donald Trump’s progress for life when he takes office, including ending the Mexico City Policy and restoring Title X funds to Planned Parenthood.
These two executive orders alone defunded Planned Parenthood and the British-based abortion chain Marie Stopes International of more than $200 million U.S. tax dollars.
But they are just a few of the targets of a pro-abortion Biden administration, and abortion advocacy groups already are pressuring him to do more.
Jacqueline Ayers, vice president of government relations and public policy for Planned Parenthood Action Fund, told The Hill that they hope Biden will restore funding to her abortion chain on his first day in office.
“We think many of these issues actually could be addressed day one, in an executive order that explicitly talks about the new administration’s commitment to sexual reproductive health care,” Ayers said.’https://www.lifenews.com/2020/11/13/joe-biden-promises-to-reverse-trumps-pro-life-executive-orders-force-americans-to-fund-abortion/
Claims of 100-Million-Year-Old Bacteria Unfounded from Institute for Creation Research on Vimeo.
‘Evolutionary scientists recently claimed to have discovered bacteria that are 101.5 million years old. In 2010 researchers collected deep-sea sediment cores in the South Pacific as part of the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program, with the goal of examining seafloor life and habitability in one of the lowest-productive ocean areas. Sediment samples used in the analysis were taken from depths of up to 75 meters below the seafloor at several sites in water between 3,700 and 5,700 meters (12,100 to 18,700 feet) deep.1
Publishing in Nature Communications, Yuki Morono of the Kochi Institute for Core Sample Research, Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, and his colleagues added a special blend of nutrients to nearly 7,000 individual bacteria collected from the sediments. This food source contained a unique mix of carbon and nitrogen isotopes that allowed scientists to see if the bacteria were actively feeding.1 Co-author Steven D’Hondt, a University of Rhode Island oceanographer, said of the bacteria, “We didn’t know whether we had fully functioning cells or zombies capable of doing very few things.”2
Within 68 days, the distinctive tracer isotopes began showing up in the bacteria cultures, indicating the bacteria were feeding on the nutrients. The bacteria also reproduced, “increasing total numbers by four orders of magnitude” during the study.1
The scientists found this truly amazing since the bacteria had been taken from mud trapped between layers of impermeable porcellanite, a microcrystalline variety of quartz that no microbe could penetrate.1,2 This led the study’s authors to suggest the microbes could be as old as the sediments they were found in, essentially having been trapped in a time capsule. Colin Barras of NewScientist observed:
Many biologists are unsettled by the idea that individual bacterial cells could survive for 100 million years. There have been a handful of claims for even older microbes on Earth. One team claimed in 2000 to have resurrected microbes trapped inside 250-million-year-old salt crystals, but some researchers suspect that the microbes were seen as a result of sample contamination, which is unlikely to be the case in the new study.2
Claiming that bacteria can survive trapped in sediment for over 100 million years seems like science fiction. And yet, scientists have found cells, proteins, and flexible blood vessels in dinosaurs and other animals dated by secular scientists at 66 to over 500 million years.3 These discoveries question the great ages assigned to these creatures and instead suggest these fossils are just thousands of years old.
In light of these other fossil discoveries, there appear to be two possible solutions for these deep-sea bacteria: 1) the bacteria were not trapped for 101.5 million years, suggesting that there were fractures or conduits in the porcellanite that allowed bacteria to migrate in at a more recent date; or 2) these sediments and the bacteria found in them are not really millions of years old.
Either one of these scenarios better explains the presence of living bacteria in deep-ocean sediments compared to the tale spun by secular scientists. However, the earlier discoveries of so many original proteins and cells found in so-called ancient rocks makes solution number two the most likely one.
These bacteria, if indeed trapped in sediment at the time of deposition, are only thousands of years old. The ocean sediments, and possibly the bacteria too, were deposited during the global Flood described in Genesis. Claiming these bacteria are over 100 million years old is not based on empirical science but on a secular, deep-time worldview.
References
- Morono, Y. et al. 2020. Aerobic microbial life persists in oxic marine sediment as old as 101.5 million years. Nature Communications. 11: 3626.
- Barras, C. Bacteria dug up from beneath the seabed may be 100 million years old. NewScientist. Posted on newscientist.com July 28, 2020, accessed August 1, 2020.
- Thomas, B. and S. Taylor. 2019. Proteomes of the past: the pursuit of proteins in paleontology. Expert Review of Proteomics. 16 (11-12): 881-895.
* Dr. Clarey is Research Associate at the Institute for Creation Research and earned his Ph.D. in geology from Western Michigan University.
Cite this article: Tim Clarey, Ph.D. 2020. Claims of 100-Million-Year-Old Bacteria Unfounded. Acts & Facts. 49 (11).’https://www.icr.org/article/claims-of-100-million-year-old-bacteria-unfounded/
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