Part 1. The Bible's Required Intellectual Doctrines

God Is, and He Rewards
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“He that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that seek after him.” – Hebrews 11:6 ASV

God rewards them who do His will, just as an employer today rewards those who serve him well. And just as an employer does not put on the payroll those who oppose him; so God lets the atheist and the religious wicked go their ways.

Concerning the atheist Peter says, “In the last days mockers shall come with mockery, walking after their own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of his presence? for, from the day that the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. For this they wilfully forget, that there were heavens from of old, and [1] an earth held together out of water and amidst water vapors, by the word of God; by which means the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished” (2 Peter 3:3-6 RVIC [2]).

Concerning the religious wicked the Psalmist says, “unto the wicked God saith, What hast thou to do to declare my statutes, And that thou hast taken my covenant in thy mouth?  Seeing thou hatest instruction, And castest my words behind thee” (Psalms 50:16-17).

Astrophysics found FAITH waiting for it at the Finish Line

“The heavens declare the glory of God; And the open sky showeth his handiwork… The testimony of Jehovah is sure, making wise the simple.” (Psalms 19:1, 7 RVIC). God had created the heavens and the earth already before He began preparing the Earth with “And God said, Let there be light” (Genesis universe had no beginning. Now, from satellite measurements, there is rather general agreement that the universe began with a Big Bang nearly 14 billion years ago. Simple faith in the Bible is rewarded.

The probability that by random chance a universe could sustain intelligent life, at even one planet within it, has been conservatively estimated to be less than one chance in 10²¹⁷ – incredibly small.[3]

What are the probabilities that human intelligent life could come into existence solely by random chance? Cellular biologist Dr. Michael Behe notes that for just one protein pair essential to the blood-clotting cascade, plasminogen and its activator t-PA (Tissue Plasminogen Activator), the chances of them forming together are less than one in 10¹⁸×10¹⁸ = 10³⁶. (The whole earth consists of only 10⁵⁰ atoms.) Consider that these proteins are only two of more than twenty in the irreducibly-complex cascade, and that there are many additional subsystems: liver, kidneys, circulation, brain, etc., etc., and the improbabilities quickly multiply to incredibility. Behe concludes, [4] “The result of these cumulative efforts to investigate the cell – to investigate life at the molecular level – is a loud, clear, piercing cry of ‘design!’ The result is so unambiguous and so significant that it must be ranked as one of the greatest achievements in the history of science.” God has left abundant evidence that “He is.”

I AM, I WILL BE, or I CAUSE TO BE? (Exodus 3:14)

When the sons of Israel would ask Moses, What is God’s name, God replied (in Hebrew), “Ehyeh asher ehyeh.” This is often weakly translated, “I AM THAT I AM,” inexactly following the Greek Septuagint (Greek, Egō eimi ho Ōn), “I am the Being” (Exodus 3:14).  However, the Hebrew original is in the future tense, [5] although some consider it to be causative. If causative (‘hiphil’), in English it would be, “I CAUSE TO BE WHATEVER I CAUSE TO BE,” which could fit the context well. Otherwise, the kal (meaning, “all”) future tense means something like, “I WILL BE WHATEVER I WILL BE.” The Hebrew Students Manual defines the verb (root “hayah”), “came to pass” and adds secondarily, “was, i.e., existed; never used as the logical copula, is, was” [for which case the verb is omitted]; and so it is used concerning the creative “days” in Genesis 1. Likely a better English translation is, “I WILL BECOME WHATEVER I WILL TO BECOME.”[6] The evident meaning is an assurance to Israel that He can do, and will do, everything He wishes in order to deliver Israel from the oppression. Surely no man could have even imagined the ten plagues and the six-hour parting of the sea, but it was effective beyond any plan that man could have devised. And He who did that for the millions of Israelites then, is capable of doing so for Earth’s billions in the age to come!

1. Or possibly, earth having been formed by the word of God up above the water and under cover of mist; Compare Genesis 1:6,7; 2:5,6.

3. Dr. Hugh Ross [astronomer], The Creator and the Cosmos (1993, 2001), updated in subsequent seminars, considering 202 require ments. For comparison, there are fewer than 10⁸⁰ atoms in the universe.

4. Michael J. Behe, Darwin’s Black Box, The Biochemical Challenge to Evolution; New York: Simon and Schuster, 1996, Chapter 4, and pp. 232-233.

5. Hebrew has no present tense, only past (the common form) and future. The “past tense” is used of things past, present, and/or future, while the “future tense” may be used for any thing more recent than the “past tense” is speaking of. The tenses might better be called “any time tense” and “subsequent tense.”

7. Ammenemes III (Amenemhet III; B.C. 1842-1797), was the greatest king of Egypt’s Middle Kingdom.  During his reign the stone quarries at Hamamat were shut down B.C. 1839-1825 (per R.A. Parker chronology), evidently to the benefit of agriculture until the fourteen years of plenty and famine were finished.