All-Embracing Predestination

Dr. Abraham Kuyper:

“The determination of the existence of all things to be created, or what is to be camellia or buttercup, nightingale or crow, hart or swine, and equally among men, the determination of our own persons, whether one is to be born as boy or girl, rich or poor, dull or clever, white or colored or even as Abel and Cain, is the most tremendous predestination conceivable in heaven or on earth; and still we see it taking place before our eyes every day, and we ourselves are subject to it in our entire personality; our entire existence, our very nature, our position in life being entirely dependent on it. This all-embracing predestination, the Calvinist places, not in the hands of man, and still less in the hand of blind natural force, but in the hand of Almighty God, sovereign Creator and Possessor of heaven and earth; and it is in the figure of the potter and the clay that Scripture has from the time of the prophets expounded to us this all-dominating election. Election in creation, election in providence, and so election also to eternal life; election in the realm of grace as well as in the realm of nature.”

Evolution or Design? Part II

Science and Evolution:

(Continued from yesterday. . . .) Darwin made a huge leap of faith and everything he proposed after this was dependent on a simple, uncomplicated view of the cell. Darwin’s belief was that as things get smaller, they actually get less complicated. He assumed this simplicity for the basis of his theories of natural selection which later formed the foundation for the modern view of evolution. Darwin believed that somewhere in time there existed a primordial lake with all the basic ingredients for life. This lake was somehow energized in such a way that small changes occurred in the relationships between the elements of matter. The changes became more and more complex over time, resulting eventually in the formation of simple single cell organisms that eventually became the life we see today. However, in the many years since Darwin, our ability to look closely at the cell has advanced to the point that we now know that there is no such thing as a simple cell. We now know that a cell’s complexity is incredible. Modern microscopes show us that a single thimble filled with cultured liquid can contain over four billion single cell bacteria. Each is like a tiny machine packed with information and complexity that Charles Darwin never imagined! We now know that the simplest of cells are actually made of amino acids assembled into proteins which form the structure of all matter within the cell. Therefore, Darwin’s leap of faith stumbles before it can even walk. (Continue reading tomorrow. . . .)

Come Ye Blessed!

Jesus is the same gracious Savior that He was to our fathers. He is gracious to us today and will be so in the future. By faith we must accept this comfort. There is found no insufficiency in Christ. Thomas Adams writes:

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. (Hebrews 13:8 ESV)

Let the wicked flatter themselves that all is but talk of any coming to judgment; all is but . . . mere scare-babes. [T]hey have written lies, there is no such matter. But when they shall see that Lamb ‘whom they have pierced’ and scorned (Rev. 1:7), “they shall cry to the mountains and rocks, Fall upon us, and cover us,” Rev. 6:16. Now they flatter themselves with his death; Mortuus est, he is dead and gone; and Mortuum Caesarem quis metuit? Who fears even a Caesar when he is dead? But “He that was dead, liveth; behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen,” Rev. 1:18. Jesus Christ, yesterday, and to-day, and for ever. Quaesitor scelerum veniet, vindexque reorum. (The Judge of wickedness will come and punishment will be done.)

Here is matter of infallible comfort to us: “Lift up your heads, for your redemption draweth nigh,” Luke 21:28. Here we are imprisoned, martyred, tortured; but when that great assize and general jail-delivery comes . . . “There shall be no more death nor sorrow, but all tears shall be wiped from our eyes,” Rev. 21:4. “For it is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you. And to you who are troubled, rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven, with his mighty angels,” 2 Thess. 1:6, 7. We shall then find him the same;—the same Lamb that bought us shall give us a Venite beati, Come, ye blessed, receive your kingdom. “Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus,” Rev. 22:20. (“The Immutable Mercy of Jesus Christ”)