I Believe and Am Thankful

Marco Rubio is getting beaten up by the press for not decisively and convincingly saying he thinks the world is billions of years old. The press gave Barack Obama a pass for largely the same answer. This issue has become the new litmus test in the media for conservative politicians. Believing what was believed to be literally true for a few thousand years is now nutty. Christian homeschool kids, often taught that the world is not as old as some believe and who routinely kick the rear ends of the ivy prep kids in academics, are considered stupid.Truth be told, I think the world is billions of years old, but I have no doubt God created it. I believe the same word that many interpret as “days” in Genesis can also honestly be interpreted as “phases,” which I do, i.e. a day at the beginning was not a day as we know it now. But I don’t doubt there were six phases of creation and then a seventh of rest. I certainly don’t have a problem with people who think the world was created in six 24 hour days. For all any of us know, it could have been. God said “Let there be light,” and I think the result was a big bang. I think that God set evolution in motion and over time we have changed and evolved by His own design and plan.But I’d be foolish to think I actually know it for sure.

Who is this that obscures my plans with words without knowledge? Brace yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer me. “Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation? Tell me, if you understand. Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know!”

This is just what I believe and I know for certain I could be wrong. I reject evolution for the sake of evolution and reject that life on this planet, let alone the existence of this universe, is some random act. I reject that we are little better than the animals we evolved from because I reject that we evolved from anything other than God’s own mind. We were created in his image. We did not evolve into it. The only people certain in their belief on this matter are those who accept theory as fact and Truth as mythology.

[Y]ou knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.

The difference between the atheist and secular set on the left and even the right is that while they and I can think the Earth is billions of years old and they and I can think there was a big bang starting it all, we really do not know for sure and they absolutely do not know what came before the big bang. But I do.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

Faith and science do not have to be mutually incompatible. I am a big believer in both Christ and science. The only people who are pushing to insist that one is incompatible with the other are the secularists who’ve substituted science for God in toto. Some of the great advances of science, however, were made by Christians, including Georges Lemaître, a Catholic priest who came up with the theory of the big bang. His theory was initially rejected by many scientists, including Albert Einstein.But let’s not stop with creation. Because once every Christian politician in the country has answered that question, the secular set will just move on. Let me move on first.Yes, I believe there was an Adam and I believe there was an Eve.Yes, I believe there were two cities named Sodom and Gomorrah and yes I do believe they were destroyed for rampant sin including deviating from God’s intentions sexually.Yes, I believe there was a man named Noah who spent 100 years building a giant boat and I do believe there was a great flood and the survivors of which were all on that boat.And yes, I do believe there was a man named Jonah who was swallowed up by a great big fish and survived.Above all those things, I do believe God came down to Earth in the form of Jesus

who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried: He descended into hell; the third day he rose again from the dead; he ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty; from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.

I absolutely believe it. I absolutely believe if by that time a person has not chosen Christ, he will end up in a very bad place. I believe in Heaven and Hell and the battle that rages between the two on a higher plane than we can often see.Meanwhile, these secularists and atheists cannot even be honest about when life begins.

✻ ✻ ✻Many of the things I believe are miracles. Many of the things I believe have come to pass. Christ told us that those who were with him would be opposed by this world. The secularists of this world, I believe, can embrace fully contradictory things like support for gay rights and the advance of Islam into the Western World, because those things come from this world, not from Christ. The left is perfectly capable of contradiction and hypocrisy because they believe in nothing so much as themselves and the things of this world. Therefore, to them, there can be no contradiction and no hypocrisy in their world unless it comes from those who fail to meet the standards set by the faith of so many Christians.There is no difference between the believer and the atheist “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”. It’s just that only the believer is held, in the secular world, to account because only the believer embraces the standards of the faith.Meanwhile, we believers are just passing through.

If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you.

Take the miracle of Jonah. The secularists of this world would have us believe that no man could ever be swallowed by a giant fish and survive. They would be right. That would be precisely the point. No man could and yet it happened. It is one of the many miracles of the Bible. These very same people who mock and scoff at Christian belief and ridicule our profession of faith will more than likely one day suffer tragedy in their lives. A loved one may fall ill or be dying. They themselves may fall ill or into poverty or on other hard times. They will, at that time, after science has failed them and their self-defined reason has left them, seek out a miracle whether they understand it as such or not. But up to and even during that time, they will go right on denying the rest of us the right to believe in miracles.While I think science and reason and religion can most often be reconciled, if you do not believe in the miraculous, you are not a Christian; it is as simple as that.

✻ ✻ ✻Christians in politics must understand these things. There was once a time when most everyone in public life professed a faith in the things of the Bible. That time is more and more becoming unacceptable to those who shape the news. These secularists have made a concerted effort to turn the world hostile to that faith and belief and have allied themselves with weak theologians to turn young Christians into more worldly, secularly focused milquetoast weepers worshiping an effeminate Christ who only hugs kids and cries, but does not fight, does not take sides, and is accommodationist to the world and its amorality and increasing immorality because, dude, he hung out with prostitutes and cried about another dude dying. They want to define the Christ they prefer to believe in, rather than believe the Christ that is.

All men will hate you because of me, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved.

Christians must still believe. Christians must still engage the political process. There can be no sitting on the sidelines in the fight between Heaven and Hell and that fight takes place as much in the political arena as it does in the homeless shelter or the pulpit. Even now in the 21st century after the birth of Christ, there is still true Good and there is still true Evil and there is still true Truth.

Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. In fact, the reason I was born and came into the world is to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.”“What is truth?” retorted Pilate.

Christians can eschew partisan sides, but they must not eschew God’s side. They must not eschew Truth. Unfortunately, some within the center-right coalition and the left, as it expands within the Democratic Party, increasingly make that party hostile to matters of faith and Christ and have eagerly embraced a moral relativism that teaches the only real choice is embracing abortion, tolerating the subversion of marriage to a secular culture, and embracing a social gospel that has objectively made more and more dependent on government while relegating the Church and its mission to the margins. Young Christians who have decided their path is to avoid the political fights that implicate the beliefs of their faith and old Christians who have grown weary of the fight must still fight and must still pick a side whether they think they must or not. The world continues to be at war with Christ and increasingly that fight takes place in the political arena. From Health and Human Services regulations to ridicule of believing politicians to Democratic Convention attendees opposing the inclusion merely of the word “God” in the Democratic Party platform, we are seeing that fight from the higher plane come down to eye level.

Now when Joshua was near Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing in front of him with a drawn sword in his hand. Joshua went up to him and asked, “Are you for us or for our enemies?” “Neither,” he replied, “but as commander of the army of the Lord I have now come.”

I am thankful because I believe. I know that my Redeemer lives. I know he provides for me even in hard and dark times. I feel sorry for those who put their faith in this world. It will only ever ultimately let them down as this world only ever ends in death. That’s the reality of life. Even when the left wins in politics — even after 2008 when the left controlled both the White House and Congress — they were angry. They are angry now as are some in the center-right coalition perpetually kindled waiting for a breeze to turn them into an inferno. Too many of them do not possess the peace that transcends all understanding because they do not believe in that which will one day come and are openly hostile to it. They choose to turn political discourse in this country against the one true faith as well they attempt to shame and embarrass Christians for believing in God’s own Word.My prayer for you this year is that you not be angry. Many of you are because of the outcome of the November election. I encourage you to be happy warriors still. Be joyful and of good cheer because ultimately we who travel together home to eternity may not know when the last day is, but we know that on that last day we win because Christ wins.

For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

For all of that and for all of you who make up the community of RedState, for my family and friends, and for all the front page editors here at RedState I am very thankful this Thanksgiving.Have a wonderful and blessed Thanksgiving Holiday.

✻ ✻ ✻Watching fun reaction of the secular set roll in to prove my point:

One of the most disgusting things I have read in a while redstate.com/2012/11/20/i-b…

— Carlos Lopes (@Lopesy20) November 20, 2012

very dumb quote: “Believing what was believed to be literally true for a few thousand years is now nutty. ” y yes! trunc.it/lubgt

— Razib Khan (@razibkhan) November 20, 2012

@ewerickson i believe in unicorns, can i get a show on cnn?

— emPulse (@DJ_emPulse) November 20, 2012

@ewerickson Says lots of wise, humble things but then claims to “absolutely know” “what came before the big bang.” redstate.com/2012/11/20/i-b…

— Dave Bry (@davebry9) November 20, 2012

Pretty sure @ewerickson is referencing the construction and endless, problematic last cruise of the USS Enterprise (CV-63). #bibleisreal

— Stephen Rodrick (@stephenrodrick) November 20, 2012

In Navy version, Noah was dismissed for showing raunchy videos in ready room and his goodbye party was at Raffles Hotel in Singapore.

— Stephen Rodrick (@stephenrodrick) November 20, 2012

My new avatar pic was taken on the fifth day of creation. (You can see him in background). God invented Gore-Tex on day three. Thank God.

— Stephen Rodrick (@stephenrodrick) November 20, 2012

@ewerickson the flat earth theory was around for a long time too. should that be kept? how do you determine that?

— Jacob Weindling (@pollisguy) November 20, 2012

@ewerickson Lot’s of religions have creation myths…but unfortunately science doesn’t support them.

— Benjamin Fahlgren (@benfahlgren) November 20, 2012

.@ewerickson writes a proud manifesto for a party of science deniers. Welcome back to the Middle Ages. bit.ly/TacYFW

— Steve Silberman (@stevesilberman) November 20, 2012

I have no idea what this Erickson rant is about, but I’m pretty sure Rubio is still wrong about the age of the Earth redstate.com/2012/11/20/i-b…

— Dan Amira (@DanAmira) November 20, 2012

Ape-descendant Erick Erickson has little use for your earthly science. bit.ly/TacYFW

— Simon Maloy (@SimonMaloy) November 20, 2012

Only sane response to redstate.com/2012/11/20/i-b… is to crush them utterly and completely. Defend civil society!

— Kendall Clark (@kendall) November 20, 2012

Eric Erickson: “God set evolution in motion…by His own design & plan” “there was an Adam and…Eve” Um…can’t both be true bit.ly/TedrKy

— Kevin T. Keith (@KTKeith) November 20, 2012

And my personal favorite of the day:

@ewerickson If you truly believe in science, you cannot take anything in the Bible literally.Adam and Eve was just a story ok?

— Robert Wesley (@NYmoderate) November 20, 2012