AN
As is my policy, I am posting my reply to your private message
[Above: St. Peter Baptizing the Roman Centurion Cornelius, by Francesco Trevisani, 1709, Wikipedia]
on a creation (including Christianity), evolution or intelligent design topic, to my blog CreationEvolutionDesign , after removing your personal information.
----- Original Message -----
From: AN
To: 'Stephen E. Jones'
Sent: Sunday, April 22, 2007 4:12 AM
Subject: Mivart and Pusey
>Steve,
>
>When are you going to publish the third part of "Dr. Pusey was mistaken in imagining that I wrote the 'Origin ' with any relation whatever to Theology' (Darwin)"? What about Mivart critiques to Darwin's natural selection theory? Have you given up?
Thanks for reminding me. First, as for "Mivart critiques to Darwin's natural selection theory," you are presumably referring to my post of 22-Feb-06 "Mivart's `On the Genesis of Species'" (1871), where I said that I "will ... try to include a Mivart quote at the foot of each post ... ." But the last such Mivart `tagline' quote I posted was on 07-Apr-06: "Discovered: the missing link that solves a mystery of evolution."
And at the end of a post of 30-Aug-06: "Asimov on photosynthesis," I stated, "I have decided to quote a different verse from the Bible on creation as my `tagline' for each post," which I have done so ever since. I also reiterated that on 11-Nov-06, at the end of my FAQ post: "What I believe about Creation, Evolution and Design," and explained, "These quotes may form the basis of a chapter, "Creation in the Bible" in a future book I may write, "Progressive Creation."
And no I haven't "given up." My problem is just lack of time, what with: 1) spending more time on my morning `quiet time' study on "The Second Coming of the Lord Jesus Christ"; 2) walking ~7 kms a day (about an hour and a half) to reduce my weight down from ~87 kgs to ~70 kgs these last ~11 months, and aiming for ~64-66 kgs; 3) ~3-4 hours a day writing my book "Problems of Evolution;" and 4)trying to keep up with reading a never-ending stream of science news articles and saving the more important ones.
Also, my wife and I have become `addicted' over the past year or so, to playing "Settlers of Catan" (highly recommended) with our daughter and her husband one night a week.
In addition to the "Pusey" post of 26-Mar-07 above, I have a number of uncompleted parts of multi-part posts that I hope to get to eventually, including continuations of the following:
15-Feb-07: `The claims of chemical evolution are unreal ... that ... codes, transcription and translation ... and more, appeared in probiotic waters' (Keosian)
17-Feb-07: `the strange skeletal support of the lobe-finned fishes looks as if it had been evolved ... to support a crawling vertebrate' (Broom)
11-Mar-07: `Our confidence in the fact of evolution rests upon copious data that fall, roughly, into three great classes' (Gould) #1
20-Mar-07: Re: Carnivorous plants as "Behe's mousetrap" #1
and an as yet unposted response to a private message: "Evolution and Original Sin by Robin Collins-what seems to be his position on scripture? Your own ideas about Original Sin?" based on his chapter in the book, "Perspectives on an Evolving Creation" (2003).
>Just a bit curious - why this `spiritual' emphasis on your last posts?
I presume you are referring to my "Re: Thoughts on your web page - Jesus' return #1", #2 and #3? My answer is simple, I am a Christian who happens to think that Christianity is true (i.e. irrespective of whether it is believed or not) and I was responding to a question I was asked in a message about my web page, "The Second Coming of the Lord Jesus Christ," and was obeying the Apostle Peter's exhortation to: "Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have." (1 Peter 3:15).
Since you brought up the subject of "this `spiritual' emphasis" in my posts, here is a quote of one of the Apostle Peter's sermons in ~40AD, i.e. only ~10 years after Jesus' crucifixion in ~30 AD, that I re-discovered the other day:
Acts 10:34-43. 34Then Peter began to speak: "I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism 35but accepts men from every nation who fear him and do what is right. 36You know the message God sent to the people of Israel, telling the good news of peace through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all. 37You know what has happened throughout Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John preached- 38how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and how he went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with him. 39"We are witnesses of everything he did in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They killed him by hanging him on a tree, 40but God raised him from the dead on the third day and caused him to be seen. 41He was not seen by all the people, but by witnesses whom God had already chosen-by us who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. 42He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one whom God appointed as judge of the living and the dead. 43All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name."
Note the public facts that Peter refers to prefacing them with "You know", i.e. what he says is common knowledge that: 1) "Jesus of Nazareth .... went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil" thus showing that "God was with him"; 2) Peter and the other disciples were personally "witnesses of everything he did in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem"; 3) Jesus was "killed" but "God raised him from the dead on the third day"; 4) and "caused him to be seen"; 5) Peter and the disciples even "ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead"; and 6) "All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name" (my emphasis).
These are eye-witness facts that are otherwise inexplicable (try to imagine a monotheistic Jew claiming that someone he had kept close company with, day in day out, was "Lord of all", i.e. Yahweh, let alone someone who had been publicly executed as a common criminal by crucifixion) unless they are true.
That is, "Jesus Christ" really is, "Lord of all" and "the one whom God appointed as judge of the living and the dead," irrespective of whether or not it is believed, since it will be believed, either willingly or unwillingly, by everyone (Philippians 2:10) when Jesus returns!
>Cheers from ...,
>
>AN
Stephen E. Jones, BSc. (Biology).
PS: As part of my quoting Bible verses on creation, I am also documenting those many verses where God supernaturally intervenes in the physical world, i.e. not including dreams, visions or words. For example (see below), "The LORD descended to the top of Mount Sinai." Clearly if God has repeatedly supernaturally intervened in the physical world at strategic points in human history, then there is no reason why He may not have similarly repeatedly supernaturally intervened in the physical world at strategic points in natural history.
Exodus 19:9,16-21. 9The LORD said to Moses, "I am going to come to you in a dense cloud, so that the people will hear me speaking with you and will always put their trust in you." Then Moses told the LORD what the people had said. ... 16On the morning of the third day there was thunder and lightning, with a thick cloud over the mountain, and a very loud trumpet blast. Everyone in the camp trembled. 17Then Moses led the people out of the camp to meet with God, and they stood at the foot of the mountain. 18Mount Sinai was covered with smoke, because the LORD descended on it in fire. The smoke billowed up from it like smoke from a furnace, the whole mountain trembled violently, 19and the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder. Then Moses spoke and the voice of God answered him. 20The LORD descended to the top of Mount Sinai and called Moses to the top of the mountain. So Moses went up 21and the LORD said to him, "Go down and warn the people so they do not force their way through to see the LORD and many of them perish.
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