Piltdown Superman

Some folks get jaded with Christmas, reading or hearing readings of the birth of Jesus, the arrival of the Magi, the census taken while Quirinius was governor, and more. Same old thing every year, right? Some of us terribly miss the "same old" that we will never have again... If we slow down and pay attention, there is a great deal to give us a sense of wonder. Hundreds of years before, Isaiah prophesied that Jesus would be born of a virgin . Micah 5:2 prophesied where. Ironically, some prophesies were fulfilled by unbelievers. Nativity of Jesus figurines, Pexels / Susanne Jutzeler We can also find out that there are many misconceptions surrounding Christmas (especially that "Christmas is pagan and you can't celebrate it" nonsense ). That bad old innkeeper who turned Mary and Joseph away, but his kindhearted wife attended to the delivery — never happened. The Magi were powerful king makers, and there was probably an entourage, not just three (three gifts  are me...

Study on it a while. Jesus is God the Son, the second person of the Trinity. God is perfect in holiness and majesty, and everything in creation belongs to him. Jesus is the Creator (John 1:1-3, Heb. 1:2-3, Col. 1:16). He was born in the jerkwater town of Bethlehem, and lived in Nazareth — which was not exactly the Gangnam District of Seoul, savvy? We have all sinned against God, and are deserving of death (Rom. 3:23, 6:23). This began with Adam and Eve (Gen. 3:1-7). God could have simply made the world go away. The Adoration of the Shepherds   /   Giorgione, 1505-1510 (they all look very white, though) The gap between creation and Creator is unfathomable, so why would he want to come to Earth? Out of love (Rom. 5:8), he emptied  himself , giving up his glory and took human form (Phil. 2:5-8). He was born of a virgin in humble circumstances. He was never regal in his earthly life. One reason for that is that Jesus was acceptable to the common man, not someone only ca...

That beloved story by Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol , is superficially a story about the conversion of Ebenezer Scrooge from selfishness to kindness and altruism. According to fundamental evolutionism, Darwin intended his theory to be selfish and purposeless in its operation. Because evolution is made of squishy pliable stuff, Darwin's disciples appeal to teleology and design (using Natural Selection and Evolution as entities) and get away with it. This Scrooge of science cannot account for altruism in birds or in animals . Not just niceness out of convenience, but taking risks as well. If you study on it, evolution cannot account for altruism in humans, either. Scrooge looking at his dressing gown, A Christmas Carol  illustration by Arthur Rackham , 1915 Secularists try to evosplain kindness and altruism as something that animals do so they can have better "fitness" and increase their survivability, so animal behavior is a virtue. (Except when it's not. They...

It is readily apparent that everything in the universe was designed, from celestial objects to humans to single-celled organisms. A commonly used argument by apologists is that a building requires a builder, a painting requires a painter, so all these things with specified complexity require a Creator. However, that argument from intelligent design is all right for a starting point, but it does not go far enough . You may convince a skeptic that there is a higher power, but then what? Made at PhotoFunia Through his creation, the Master Engineer has made himself known from the beginning. It is a good thing for us that we don't have to speculate; he made himself known through special revelation. The Maker is the God of the Bible, and he has given us gifts for Christmas. The Creator of the world and all that is in nature has been identified! He speaks every language on earth. Here is the English version of what he said: Take a look over at " Nature’s Maker Identified ."

No, the title is not an attempt to put forward some Gnostic idea that the Mary we know about in the Bible is not actually the mother of Jesus. Unfortunately, many traditions and false teachings have been presented for a couple of millennia. We should examine who she is according to the source documents. Credit: Free Christian Illustrations Mary seemed to be just another Hebrew girl. The Bible shows us that she was obedient to God, knowledgeable of the Scriptures, had faith, willing to face the hardships of being unmarried and pregnant in that culture — and she was not perfect. She said herself that she needed a Savior. It must have been almost overwhelming to give birth to God the Son, the Second Person of the Trinity that became flesh and is the Creator of the universe! Let's find out more. We can see in church history that unbiblical traditions started to accrue about Mary, the mother of Jesus, as early as the second century. This means that some of our thoughts about her...

In the comedy Short Circuit, robot Number Five was struck by lightning and became alive. He had a personality and was able to think. When he accidentally killed a bug, he had trouble understanding that the bug could not be made alive again. The Nativity by Jacques Stella, 1639 If you study on it, life is actually difficult to define. Naturalists define it in a chemical manner with cells processing, physiological activity happening, and all those rather mechanical procedures. All the ingredients of Number Five's dead bug were still there, but life had ceased. For that matter, Number Five was not alive (despite his protestations) according to naturalistic definitions. Materialists cannot explain the origin of consciousness , but they still search for the physical location of the soul and free will . When misotheists complain that something is evil or wrong (such as claiming that by refuting Darwinism, creationists are "lying" about evolution), they are inconsistent. Ath...

by Cowboy Bob Sorensen  It may be a surprise to learn that that extremely famous Christmas hymn "Joy to the Word" was not written by Isaac Watts to be about Christmas. He wrote it about the return of Christ. Like many other hymn writers, it was based on Scripture. In this case, the 98th Psalm. So many things work together when singing this song at Christmas. Credit: Pixabay / Ria Sopala Indeed, there is a great deal of strong theology in many hymns, especially those about Christmas. (I think that's one reason that cults like the Jehovah's Witnesses isolate their people; you won't have them coming along to your Christmas Eve service. After all, they may hear, "Hail the incarnate Deity!" and similar lyrics.) Dr. James R. White pointed out that "We Three Kings" is also deep, despite the erroneous traditions that we do not know how many "kings" there were, only that there were three gifts. A line in the song " When He Come...

In Genesis 1:1, we see that God created time, space, and matter. God the Son, the second person of the Trinity, made everything (John 1:1-3, John 1:10, Colossians 1:16). After the six literal days of creation, God ceased his creative work. However, he had something else planned — he was going to do a "new thing". The Adoration of the Shepherds / Giorgione, 1505-1510 This new thing was that God the Son was going to enter his creation as the seed of a woman (Jeremiah 31:22, Genesis 3:15). Study on that a moment. Man, who was created in the image of God, sinned, so the Creator of the universe chose to enter creation. God the Son became the man, Jesus (Colossians 2:9, Romans 5:17, Matthew 1:23). He died on the cross for our sins and bodily rose from the dead. The only begotten Son made it possible for us to become adopted sons and daughters (Romans 8:15, John 1:12). These are amazing reasons to celebrate Christmas. Hail the incarnate Deity! As they celebrate Jesus’ com...

I hope you are having an excellent Christmas. At the moment, I'm sitting at the dining room table, using a weak laptop and listening to Christmas music instead of holing up at my usual work station. This thing will get my by if the main computer crashes. Surprisingly, I do not have a great deal to say for this particular weblog, partly because I felt that I would be repeating things I have said before. But I do have three links to some other things. This excellent image of what I take to be a cross and the Christmas star is by Gerd Altmann at Pixabay For those of you who want to read some Christmas material I posted: Earning Gifts from Santa (because this idea promotes a kind of salvation by works) Poinsettia, the Christmas Plant Christmas and Creationists (God the Son, our Creator, took on human form and was humbly born, an article that I think is one of my better efforts) That's about it, aside from the music video below. Regular posts are scheduled for tom...

by Cowboy Bob Sorensen  Th is article contains links to several items that are articles, videos, and audi o. I realize that this is a busy time of year for many, but if you have some time, I hope you 'll delve into the material. Or maybe save some of the items for a more convenient time. Although there is dispute about the actual day, most people who identify as Christians celebrate Christmas on December 25. No, we are not commanded to celebrate Christmas or Easter, we have the liberty to celebrate or leave it alone . (Saying it's wrong to celebrate because we're not commanded to do so is the argument from silence fallacy. Also, Jesus celebrated Hanukkah, John 10:22–39, although it was not a required observance. Nor are we required to observe Hanukkah , but some think it's a good idea .) We commemorate the day that Jesus Christ, God the Son, our Creator, humbled himself and took on human form for our redemption. Creationists have many reasons to celebrate the day ....

by Cowboy Bob Sorensen I disremember how I came across this 2012 article, " Should Humanity Take Religion On Interstellar Space Voyage? ", but thought it had some things that needed addressing. It's obviously written from a secularist perspective, and the token Christian that they interviewed certainly did not express an understanding of the Bible. He said we have to leave behind Earth-based religions. I reckon he doesn't know about religion, history — and people. Modified image from Pixabay / falco and clip art from Clker It's one thing to leave behind our political views or other things that we select, but the Christian faith is who we are, it's not like choosing a hat or something. A Christian has been changed by God (2 Cor. 5:17) and is adopted as one of his children (John 1:12, Rom. 8:15, Heb. 12:7). Several astronauts are Christians, including James Irwin , Jack Lousma , Rick Husband and Michael Anderson (who perished in the 2003 Columbia  di...

At this time of year, many Christians read our Bibles for the Christmas story. And I reckon many of us read the genealogies in Matthew and Luke (and other ones) very quickly, if at all. I don't know many people who actually like them because we want to get to the "good parts". But they're important nonetheless. Biblical creationists maintain that the Ussher chronologies are reliable , and an indicator that the earth is young (our foundation is God's Word, you know). There are several detailed lists in Scripture. But there are some marked differences between the listings in Matthew and Luke, and mockers who don't bother to research claim that they're contradictory.  Not hardly. The genealogies are there for a purpose, and are reliable. Many Bible readers are tempted to just skip over the long lists of names that sometimes seem to interrupt the narrative of Scripture. These genealogies appear often in Genesis, Chronicles, and other places in the Old ...

by Cowboy Bob Sorensen Yes, I know that there are many misconceptions about Christmas. Jesus was probably not born on or about December 25. Isn't that reason enough for Christians to ignore celebrating ? Not hardly!  Also, the "three wise men" were unlikely to have shown up at the manger. Instead, it may have been quite a while later. And three? The Bible doesn't say, but it names three gifts. I won't discard them from the creche scene, though. "No room at the inn" implies that the hotels were booked. The "inn" is more accurately rendered "guest quarters" ( the International Standard Version has it right ), or "lodging place" ( Young's Literal Translation and the Holman Christian Standard Bible ). Still, I cowboy up and ride along. I'm not going to fight with people about traditions, or even if Christians are wrong for celebrating Christmas. Here's a corral-load of links with historical information and ...

On Christmas Eve, 1968, the Apollo astronauts did a live television broadcast from near the moon. They read the first ten verses of the Bible. (Naturally, atheopath Madalyn Murray O'Hair filed a lawsuit. Atheists protest a lot of things Christians do that threaten their worldview. Intolerant lot.) This is still a popular event all these years later. So I will let this video (which has some great music) be my Christmas greeting to you. May the Creator of the universe, who humbled himself and took on the form of a child, died for our sins, was bodily raised on the third day, become a very real part of your life. Have a blessed Christmas! — Cowboy Bob Sorensen

Gotta start sometime, yes? And there's no improvement without starting. Some of these will be more directly associated with creation science, evolution, logic, atheism, apologetics and so on than others. But hey, a bit of variety helps. I do not intend to post things about political candidates and so forth. Video formats are easier to share on social media, but I plan on giving links to the audio for people who want to download and listen while they drive, do their household chores, work at data entry or whatever. So, let's see how it goes. Click here for the audio-only version . Video embed is acting up, click here to go directly to YouTube .

Disclosure: I was given an advance copy of The War on Christmas: Battles in Faith, Tradition and Religious Expression , edited by Bodie Hodge, for review purposes. There was no requirement for me to write a favorable review. It is available in paperback at Answers In Genesis, New Leaf Publishing, Barnes and Noble, Amazon and others. What is going on, anyway? Christmas has been a part of Western culture for many years, and we did not need to worry about people getting "offended" at the use of the "C word". To be blunt, saying "Happy Holidays" is disingenuous; if there were no Christmas, there would be no "Black Friday" to get retailers back into the black, no gift exchanges, no special family gatherings. We all know what the holiday is! Now, the cashier where you buy your Christmas gifts can, in many cases, get in trouble for saying "Happy Christmas". Businesses have a "Holiday Party" in December and exchange gifts, but...