Monday, November 16, 2015

A Christian Plea Per Matthew 18: Behold Now Behemoth and Genesis The Movie

All images used via the Fair Use Act

UPDATE, 11/20/2015: People on Facebook have begun to weigh in, and so far the majority of the small number offering opinions agrees with our view about the unlikely similarities between Eric Hovind's "Genesis The Movie" (2015) and our "Behold Now Behemoth" (2008). If you also agree with how we feel about this and want to witness on our behalf as commanded in Matthew 18, we suggest that you do so on Eric Hovind's Facebook page so he can respond and that of his movie, Genesis The Movie, so that account can respond. Thank you so much for your growing moral support. We'll keep you continually posted. God Bless. 

This is long but please read. CLICK ON EACH IMAGE IF YOU WANT TO SEE IT FULL SCREEN.

You may have seen me raise this question before: "Why Does Eric Hovind's "Genesis the Movie" look so much like my "Behold Now Behemoth"?  Yes, this matter concerns my own interests, but  that doesn't cheapen my motives given the circumstances, and I'm sure you'll agree with that, because there is also a possible issue of plain old-fashioned right and wrong, here.



It's funny that my name is David, insomuch as this is, IMO, a true David and Goliath situation. On the one hand is the independent producer, myself, with his modest Behold Now Behemoth, well-received in 2008, and the other is a mega-money-ministry which apparently brings in millions of dollars a year and has raised nearly half a million dollars for.....? Well, how you define what they are trying to produce is really the issue.

I'd not heard of Genesis the Movie before starting the crowdfunding for volumes 2 and 3 of Behemoth. Unlike Eric Hovind, for whom Creationism is apparently his daily business and bread-and-butter, I have been restricted by time and other constraints. But it was time for Behemoth volumes 2 and 3. Then the crowdfunding goes nowhere for once-well-received Behemoth. Why? In my opinion this is the answer: a nearly identical video being launched with well-funded publicity which has already raised nearly half a million dollars has basically sucked the air - and the capital -out of Behemoth. Sour grapes? No. It might be if it were not for the fact that their video/movie appears in my opinion to be so identical to Behemoth has to be almost an unauthorized tribute - and perhaps even makes Behemoth to the casual viewer look like a cheap copy of Genesis and that hurts my interests and the interests of all Creationists for whom a fair playing field is always at a premium.

If it is what it looks like, it is also plain just not right.

I brought up this question directly on Hovind's Facebook page and in an interesting response they asked me to observe Matthew 18 and discuss this with them in private. When Hovind's account which gets signed "The Team" (so I have no idea with whom I was communicating, although I have the screenshots) reached out in a private message, I responded. They wanted me to email Eric Hovind - but failed or refused to give me the email address in the private message - so he could tell me "personally" why the two films are in no way connected to one another. I told them I was not born yesterday and that if expecting me top believe that the two films were not in any way connected is what they were after, they were wasting our time, but I wanted to and was very willing to communicate with Hovind in private on the larger issue.

Well, so much for Matthew 18: "Goliath" Hovind removed all my and other comments from the thread in question,  blocked my ability to comment on the page and blocked any more direct messages - direct messages for which they asked and initiated. So the question remains: "WHY DOES THEIR NEW GENESIS THE MOVIE LOOK SO MUCH LIKE MY SLIGHTLY OLDER BEHOLD NOW BEHEMOTH"? This is a question Hovind appears not to want to answer publicly and now not even privately.


Since Hovind has suspended all communication with me - which his account initially requested - I believe I, and in my opinion all of the Flock, have the obligation to follow Matthew 18: we tried to do it privately, but Hovind will not hear us. So to follow Matthew 18 which Hovind's account recommended on this very issue, the next step in following Matthew 18 is that we need to talk to Hovind about it as a group, and if that does not work, announce this problem to the world.

Matthew 18: 

"Moreover if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone: if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother.  But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established. And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church: but if he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a publican".


Please click on the image for full size, save and share this graphic and politely inquire of Hovind and others involved in Genesis the Movie - as well as your friends and acquaintances on Facebook - how such an overwhelming preponderance of similarities could have taken place by accident. And please state your opinions here, too, regardless of who they favor - I feel genuinely righteous on this issue.
 
Remember, additionally, what we are called upon to do in Deuteronomy 13:14:

"Then shalt thou enquire, and make search, and ask diligently; and, behold, if it be truth, and the thing certain, that such abomination is wrought among you;"

Please don't be shy: please post this wherever Genesis The Movie is being discussed, ask Hovind and those around him about this directly per Matthew 18  and investigate per , Deuteronomy 13:14 and say what God tells you in your mind and heart to be true. Our Lord Jesus has said it on all such matters.

Remember also, on a more earthly level, if this is what it looks like, if it can happen to me, it can happen to you.

Thank you for your patience and your anticipated social media moral support, per Matthew and Deuteronomy.

God Bless.

- David


Behold Now Behemoth review from 2008


If you like what you see and read on CreationDino, please help us continue our work as well as additional installments of the video Behold Now Behemoth by giving a "Christian Payment Offering" for the dollar amount of your choice with the dropdown menu on the Paypal button on the upper right hand side of the screen for what you read and watch on CreationDino. We could really use the help right about now.

Tuesday, November 10, 2015

WHY CHRISTIANITY? The Answer, Scientifically and Historically

All quotes and images used via the Fair Use Act.

Having essentially, for all practical purposes, proven to them that the miracles in the Bible are all scientifically possible, categorically, and that even 6-day creation is scientifically possible (both via quantum physics), I now find that atheists on social media are responding to these arguments more and more with a particularly shill, but frankly entirely legitimate, response: "Why Christianity? With the other faiths that exist, why Christianity?" They mean that question from the fact-based and even scientific view point which is the manner of CreationDino. Okay. I will answer that, for those atheists and for everyone else, and the facts are true, qualified, undeniable and fascinating.

Let's tackle this with the Old Testament first, then with the New Testament. This will only take a few minutes.


OLD TESTAMENT

SCIENTIFIC FOREKNOWLEDGE in the Bible basically proves the veracity of the Old Testament to be read literally and as a reliable scientific and historical text. No other "religious" text (with the exception of some lines in the New Testament) contains scientific foreknowledge. Also, I believe we have here at least one and probably two instances which are new examples of scientific foreknowledge in the Bible and so we hope no matter who you may be, CreationDino  is providing new information which is new and significant, for you.

Many Christians and most Creationists are aware of the line about "the circle of the earth..... suspended upon nothing" accurately describing the sphere of the earth, suspended within a larger environment by invisible forces, which is entirely accurate. However, there are other - and frankly more concrete - examples of scientific foreknowledge in the Bible....

1. WHERE SHAME ORIGINATES IN THE BRAIN AREA
(A probable CreationDino first)

Jeremiah 3:3
Therefore the showers have been withheld, and the spring rain has not come; yet you have the forehead of a whore; you refuse to be ashamed.

(Therefore the showers have been withholden, and there hath been no latter rain; and thou hadst a whore's forehead, thou refusedst to be ashamed. - KJV)

There are other quotes which similarly describe the forehead as being the area in which rational decisions are made. This is amazingly important and so simple to check, too. Note the diagram of the brain-area-to-function map, below, and you will see that "shame" originates in the exact physical area of the brain where it is described to originate in the Bible: the forehead. Since mapping of brain-to-function is extremely recent in human history, this tiny passage stands as a startling piece of scientific foreknowledge in the Bible. It's extremely difficult to over-estimate the importance of this small but incredibly specific - and entirely accurate - reference.  If humankind had been aware of that area of brain function in the general population for even a few decades before now, we, too, would likely speak colloquially the exact same way as that idea is phrased in the Bible. And sooner or later in the future, that reality is certain to come to pass. But it was nevertheless written that way in the Old Testament 3,500 years before brain-area-to-function was understood and mapped.




2. The HYDROLOGICAL CYCLE

Job 36:27
For he maketh small the drops of water: they pour down rain according to the vapour thereof: Which the clouds do drop [and] distil upon man abundantly.

Mainstream science second-guessed this, formulating many wrong and subsequently disproved hypothesis. The first published thinker to assert that rainfall alone was sufficient for the maintenance of rivers, lakes and the oceans was Bernard Palissy (1580). Palissy's theories were not tested scientifically until 1674.  Interesting how the Bible seems to directly infer the vapor carries the water back to the clouds and then drops it down again. Watching rain fall is one thing. Understanding the rest of it 3,500 years ago based on zero human science and direct observation only is quite another thing entirely. Scientific foreknowledge communicated by God, yet again.





3. DEPRESSION IS PHYSICALLY HARMFUL
(Another probable CreationDino original catch)

Proverbs 17:22
A merry heart doeth good [like] a medicine:  but a broken spirit drieth the bones. 
(Drieth the bones is a common poetic reference of the time to debilitating ailment)

From this medical link, below:

"Long-term depression is also known to negatively impact the heart. Depression causes inappropriate release of adrenaline which, over time, damages the cardiovascular system. An increase in artery and blood vessel stress are further health effects of depression. This can increase the risk of blood clots and heart attack.... The effects of depression cause an overall increase in mortality, where those with depression may die 25 years sooner than the average person. This is thought to be due to both the physical and social side effects of depression."




4. THE JET STREAM

Ecclesiastes 1:6
The wind goeth toward the south, and turneth about unto the north; it whirleth about continually, and the wind returneth again according to his circuits.

First discovered in the mid-20th century.   All you need do is compare the TV weather report image, below, of the jet stream to the Biblical quote, above. 'Nuff said. Extremely clear. Pretty good "guess" considering there were no satellite images 3,500 years ago to otherwise qualify it.





5.  OCEAN CURRENTS AS "PATHS"

Psalms 8:8
The fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, [and whatsoever] passeth through the paths of the seas.

Isaiah 43:16
Thus saith the LORD, which maketh a way in the sea, and a path in the mighty waters;

The "paths of the sea" is considerably more specific than simply roughly describing the fact of currents and flows. It was not until the mid-1800's when Matthew Fontaine Maury, nicknamed "Pathfinder of the Seas" and later, "Scientist of the Seas," basically proved the "paths of the seas" when inspired to do so by that very verse in the Bible. Here the Bible not only pointed the way to a scientific fact, but someone actually followed the clues in the Bible to confirm the facts. Well done, Captain Maury! Bravo!




6. ADAM AND EVE PROVED VIA CHROMOSOME DISCOVERIES

BOOM! Suddenly humankind is no longer a million years old. Just like that, after many decades of self-righteous fist-pounding from the secular science orthodoxy demanding acceptance of the idea that mankind is a million years old. Even among mainstream science, a struggle persists in the last year or so as to whether Adam and Eve existed between 50,000 years or 135,000 years. Remember the articles HERE and HERE at this site, CreationDino? I suspect someday soon even mainstream science will have to admit that Adam and Eve "might possibly" have sprung into being within the last 10,000 years after all. Seriously, what's shedding a mere 40,000 years off the timeline when you have already chucked a supposedly previously "proven and known" 950,000 years off the timeline in one toss with a single chromosome discovery?




7. TIME AND SPACE INFERRED INDIVISIBLE
1 Timothy 1:8-9

"Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me His prisoner, but share with me in the sufferings for the gospel according to the power of God, who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began,"

While time was certainly understood 3,000 years ago as it mostly remains understood today, according to its measurement, the scientific notion of time beginning and ending as an absolute quantity is a comparatively scientifically recent concept. Note that time and physical matter begin in the Bible on the first day, right in-line with time and space being indivisible (though, on a quantum physics level, infinitely malleable, but in tandem).




There are many other examples and maybe some day I'll list them all on one post. But this is not meant to be an encyclopedia on the subject, just written to prove that it's safe to say that scientific foreknowledge being found all through the Bible is an indisputable fact. "Interpretation" does not enter it at all to any reasonable, common-sense mind. Scientific foreknowledge runs all through the Old Testament. True. Fact.

So we know the Old Testament has something no other faith or "religion" has: utterly  scientific foreknowledge. There can be no debate about it. None whatsoever.

But what about The New Testament? That's easy:



NEW TESTAMENT: CHRIST WAS AN HISTORICAL FIGURE UNDERSTOOD HISTORICALLY FOR HIS AMAZING WORKS.

Even ever-secular/liberal wikipedia admits, "There is "near universal consensus" among scholars that Jesus existed historically .... critics do support the historicity of Jesus, and reject the theory that Jesus never existed."


A few historical references to Christ outside of the words of the Apostles:

Josephus' Antiquities of the Jews, written around 93–94 AD, includes references to the Biblical Jesus. Josephus scholar Louis H. Feldman has stated that "few have doubted the genuineness" of Josephus' reference to Jesus in Antiquities 20, 9, 1.

"And when Pilate, at the suggestion of the principal men amongst us, had condemned him to the cross, those that loved him at the first did not forsake him; for he appeared to them alive again the third day." 




Roman historian Tacitus referred to 'Christus' and his execution by Pontius Pilate in his Annals (written ca. AD 116), book 15, chapter 44. Tacitus' negative tone about Christians make the passage even more likely to be entirely genuine.

"Consequently, to get rid of the report, Nero fastened the guilt and inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class hated for their abominations, called Christians by the populace. Christus, from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilatus...."







Pliny the Younger was governor of Bithynia in Asia Minor. Pliny wrote ten books. The tenth around AD 112, and mentions Christ.

"They (the Christians) were in the habit of meeting on a certain fixed day before it was light, when they sang in alternate verses a hymn to Christ, as to a god, and bound themselves by a solemn oath, not to do any wicked deeds... never to commit any fraud, theft or adultery, never to falsify their word, nor deny a trust when they should be called upon to deliver it up; after which it was their custom to separate, and then reassemble to partake of food but food of an ordinary and innocent kind."






Suetonius (69-140AD) was a Roman historian of the Imperial House under the Emperor Hadrian. He wrote about Christians and about Christ (41-54AD):

“Because the Jews at Rome caused constant disturbances at the instigation of Chrestus (Christ), he (Claudius) expelled them from the city (Rome).” 





Lucian of Samosata (115-200 A.D.), an extremely cynical Greek satirist who, though speaking cynically, confirmed that Jesus and His followers were real people.

"The Christians, you know, worship a man to this day—the distinguished personage who introduced their novel rites, and was crucified on that account…. and worship the crucified sage, and live after his laws.”

Jewish Talmud (400-700AD) Early Talmudic writings of Jewish Rabbis

“Jesus practiced magic and led Israel astray” 




Not to mention, of course, the written words of the Apostles themselves. Many classical, secular historians agree that devoutly-held Book of God or no, the New Testament should be treated like any other historical series of documents from the time - and treated with the same respect and regarded with the same validity as any other historical text. There is certainly plenty of secular - even antagonistic - historical writing outside of the Bible that confirm the Jesus existed, had followers, performed miracles and was crucified.

No other religion has all this. Some have elements, while others, the older ones, such a Hinduism, are admittedly little more than pagan rituals with no god or set structure of belief as admitted by the Indian Supreme Court itself (with India being mostly Hindu, that declaration by the India Supreme Court is a big surprise, but they said it just the same.)

Undeniable and extremely specific examples of scientific foreknowledge - sometimes surprisingly casually referenced -  in most cases over a full 3,000 years before understood by modern science.  An historic figure whose teachings, death, influence and most important of all, miracles, are documented in secular historical record. It is difficult to know what more any honest thinker would need to know to understand that God's word is real, true and verified and that His Son, Jesus Christ, came to earth and did all that the Apostles claim for Him.

No one need read or hear more, though there is certainly more available. If that isn't good enough for anyone to know that Christianity is the way, according to science and historical fact, then those rare people just don't want to know, and there's nothing anyone can do about that. But you have the information. Never let it be said by anyone who read this that he or she was not told. Scientifically and historically. There you have it.


If you like what you see and read on CreationDino, please help us continue our work as well as additional installments of the video Behold Now Behemoth by giving a "Christian Payment Offering" for the dollar amount of your choice with the dropdown menu on the Paypal button on the upper right hand side of the screen for what you read and watch on CreationDino. We could really use the help right about now.