In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. John 1:1-3

It amazes me that people say that science and the Bible contradict each other. When you use the scientific method the way it was intended, investigating the facts and arriving at an unbiased conclusion (not starting with a theory and bending the facts to back it up), you are faced with the undeniable conclusion that all creation was designed by an extremely powerful and intelligent being.

As an example, I want to look at DNA, but before I do, let me say that I am in no way an expert. I'm not a biologist or a chemist. My background is in electrical engineering. So I apologize in advance for any mistakes I might make when diving into this very complex subject. That being said, let's look at what we know.

Dawinism claims that life evolved from simple life forms into more complex forms, although this is in complete contridiction to the law of entropy. But DNA is an extremely complex molecule that in many ways still defies understanding by even the most knowledgeable in the field. So, let's look at what it takes to make up DNA.

DNA is a string of molecules made up of  four nitrogenous bases: Adenine, Thymine, Guanine, and Cytosine, abbreviated as A T G C. .(Uracil -U is substituted for Thymine in the RNA) Three of them are used at a time to make up 64 possible combinations. 61 combinations are used to make the 20 amino acids in the DNA strand. These amino acids are assembled into over 100,00 various proteins. The last 3 are like punctuation. They are start and stop codes. (See Figure 1)

The combinations of various proteins, tied together with sugar molecules, are sequenced in specific ways to hold the information needed to create the various cells in the body. It's interesting to note that the code for, say, a brain cell is not all together. It is spaced out and has to be detected and assembled to get the information needed. This is patterned exactly like the skip sequence codes found in the original Greek and Hebrew texts of the Bible. When all this information is assembled together it looks like this:

To get an idea of how complex this is, take a look at the list of amino acids needed to make up a single blood cell. (See Figure 2) With all these components, in exactly the right order and the right quantity, it's amazing that a blood cell could even exist. Using these amino acids in this set of quantities, there are 7.4×10⁵⁰³ possible ways to combine them. That's 1,000,000….(503 zeros)! Only 1 possible combination makes a hemoglobin cell. Anything out of order would be fatal. This is what sickle cell anemia is.

It is generally accepted that any chance occurance greater that 1×10³² is impossible.

Keep in mind that evolution claims that this incredibly complex string of coded information that is imbedded in every "simple cell" formed over a period of time accidentally. Besides the law of entropy, I already mentioned, it ignores the fact that if ANY piece of this puzzle is missing, the cell would die and could not evolve into anything else. In order for DNA to work it has to be ALL there from the start.

In the Beginning God created the heavens an the earth… Genesis 1:1

Randy Reed Creation, Evolution, General Notes

It’s been a bit of a break, but I’d like to finish out the discussion on covenants. The first two parts were on unconditional covenants. This post will cover conditional covenants, one in particular.
Just a quick definition:

• Unconditional covenants are made from God to man with no terms. These are promises given by God that can’t be negated by anything man does. Examples we covered are the Abrahamic and Land Covenants.
• Conditional covenants, on the other hand, depend a great deal on our willingness to step up and meet those conditions. There are examples all through the bible and I’ll cover a few later, but the main one is the promise of salvation.

So, what exactly is this covenant? In short, it is way in which we can go to Heaven. Easily said, but what does that mean? What is Heaven? Are we all just going to sit around playing harps like in the movies? Why would I want to do something for eternity that I don’t want to do now? How boring is that? It’s sad to look at our world and see how the media has sculpted our beliefs. I’m not talking about violent, slasher or sex films. Those are easy to dismiss as “bad”. The biggest problem is the films and tv programs that seem to be religious in nature that, by trying not to offend anyone, give the viewer a skewed idea of what life, death and salvation is really all about. Even “The Passion Of The Christ”, which I really liked, never explains what the reason behind all that suffering really was. TV programs have portrayed friendly angels helping people in times of need, but never explain man’s greatest need. The best way to destroy your enemy’s credibility is to pretend you are one of them.
If we were to base our beliefs on what we’ve seen in the media then we don’t really need any “saving”. After all, good people go to Heaven and bad people go to hell, don’t they? If that’s all there is to it, then hell would be pretty empty. Even the worst of us will tell ourselves that we’re really a good person. After all, isn’t hell just for murderers and rapists? (Enough of my opinionated ranting, back to the subject)
The subject of hell is too big a subject to cover here, maybe I’ll do another post on it later. But let me say this, hell was not created to punish man. It was created as a prison for Lucifer and his followers (angels that fell with him). Unfortunately, if you aren’t spending eternity in the presense of God, there is nowhere else for you.

So, what does it mean to be in the presense of God and how do we get there?

I don’t think we really have a firm grasp on what it means to stand in the presence of God. The Bible paints an amazing picture of just what that means. Look a Psalm 68, especially at verse 2.

Psalm 68 (New King James Version)

To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David. A Song.
1 Let God arise,
Let His enemies be scattered;
Let those also who hate Him flee before Him.
2 As smoke is driven away,
So drive them away;
As wax melts before the fire,
So let the wicked perish at the presence of God.
3 But let the righteous be glad;
Let them rejoice before God;
Yes, let them rejoice exceedingly.

Notice it didn’t say God did anything to “melt” the wicked other than just being there. Psalm 68 shows that the earth, itself, is effected by His presence.

Psalm 68 (New King James Version)

7 O God, when You went out before Your people,
When You marched through the wilderness,  Selah
8 The earth shook;
The heavens also dropped rain at the presence of God;
Sinai itself was moved at the presence of God, the God of Israel.

Psalm 5 (New King James Version)

4 For You are not a God who takes pleasure in wickedness,
Nor shall evil dwell with You.
5 The boastful shall not stand in Your sight;
You hate all workers of iniquity.

Psalm 5 says that even the boastful can’t stand in front of Him.

What I see from the descriptions in the Bible is a being so powerful, so pure and so righteous that nothing can stand to even be in His presence without self-destructing, unless… that person is as pure and righteous as God, Himself.
But, according to Jesus in the sermon on the mount, that’s not possible. The law said that it was a sin to kill. Jesus said that if you hate you have committed an equally serious sin. I think I can be pretty safe in assuming that if ANYONE looked at the list Jesus gave us, and was honest with himself, that nobody could ever claim to be righteous enough to stand in the presence of God.

Matthew 5 (New King James Version)

20 For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.

In Matthew 5 Jesus doesn’t say “as righteous as”. He says that unless your righteousness exceeds the Pharisees…

The Pharisees were obsessive in the way they followed every single nuance in the law that Moses passed to them. And, yet, Jesus says they will “by no means enter the kingdom of heaven”.
So, bottom line is… No matter what you do, no matter how good you are, there is absolutely no possible way that any of us could survive standing in the presence of God. Except one.

Enter the Covenant

I don’t have time to go into what it meant when Jesus went to the cross. After all, 95% of the Bible talks about just that. Forget for a moment the whole issue of original sin. Forget about Adam and Eve. These are important parts of the price paid on the cross, but just for now put those issues aside and think about yourself. Unless you are as pure and righteous as God, Himself, there is no way you can stand in His presence.
So how do you become as righteous as God? I don’t know about you (although I bet I could guess) but there’s no way I could.

The righteousness of God had to be given to man. He couldn’t become righteous enough on his own. Here are just a few verses that show that the righteousness of God is given to man through Jesus Christ.

Philippians 3 (New King James Version)

8 Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith

2 Corinthians 5 (New King James Version)

20 Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God. 21 For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

Matthew 6 (New King James Version)

33 But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness

So what does that mean? Man is able to stand in the presence of God because he is made as righteous and pure as God through Jesus. This is not just a New Testament idea. There are many places in the Old Testament, but Isaiah is especially clear. Notice the wedding reference.

Isaiah 61 (New King James Version)

10 I will greatly rejoice in the LORD, My soul shall be joyful in my God; For He has clothed me with the garments of salvation, He has covered me with the robe of righteousness, As a bridegroom decks himself with ornaments, And as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.

Okay, so righteousness is transferred to man from God. This makes it possible for man to enter Heaven and live in the presence of God. But there’s a catch. Remember, this is a “conditional” Covenant. That means there must be something WE have to do be able to receive God’s righteousness. We’ve already seen that no matter how hard we try, there’s no way we can make ourselves clean enough through our own thoughts and actions. What kind of impossible hurdle has God put in front of us to earn His righteousness?

Romans 10 (New King James Version)

8 But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart”[a](that is, the word of faith which we preach): 9 that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

It’s as “simple” as that. Believe it and speak it. I put “simple” in quotes, because this is the hard part. You have to actually believe. But it all comes down to believe it and speak it. The most impossible feat since the creation of the universe is accomplished by believing and speaking. But the key is the believing part. You can say it all you want, but if you don’t believe it, it’s meaningless.

Randy Reed Bible Covenants, Faith

It’s been a pretty busy couple of weeks and I’ve gotten a little behind on things. A while ago I posted a notice on the forum that I would be closing it down on July 15 because, well, nobody is using it. It dawned on me that the notice probably didn’t get seen by anybody because it was on the forum and … nobody is using it.

So I’m postponing the end date until August 1st. If the forum is still dead by then I will take it offline. I hate to see it go, I had high expectations for it. This site, however, is doing well and even if it wasn’t I would continue to keep it current as much as possible.

Which brings me to my next point. I have to apologize for the lack of posts during the last couple of weeks. Like I said, it’s been pretty busy around here with my on-line business and I’ve let this site sink on my priority list. That’ll change. After all, this is where my heart is and should be my number one priority. Expect to see more posts soon.

Randy Reed General Notes

I’m still working on last week’s post (been a busy week), but I just saw a report I thought needed a quick note.

Since the formation of the European Union, Turkey has been trying to become a member. In 1999, eight years after Turkey applied for full membership, the EU recognized Turkey as a “candidate”. Turkey has been working hard to be accepted into the EU. They have initiated many sweeping reforms, including a rework of their penal system, but several roadblocks still are in place.

Two are especially noteable.

1. The Cyprus Problem
Due to a military action in 1974, the island of Cyprus has been divided. The northern half is controlled by Turkey and the southern portion is controlled by Greece. Friction between the two countries date back to the Trojan War. The northern half is now the independant Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, recognized by Turkey alone. The southern half was admitted into the EU in 2004 as the country of Cyprus.

2. The Muslim population
If Turkey joins the EU, it will be the second largest population block, behind Germany, in the EU. This would change the EU Muslim population in the EU from the current 3-5% to 20-25%. Already, Islam is the largest religious minority in the EU. This is especially alarming considering the decay of the Christian churches in Europe. There are still pockets of light, but the Christian church has been silenced in most of the EU.

So why am I getting all political on a Bible based blog?

Russia has just announced today that negotiations are moving ahead to build a major oil pipeline through Turkey to the Caspian Sea.The Russian Pipeline, called the South Stream Pipeline, is in a race with the proposed Nabucco Pipleine to be built by the European gas industry.

The proposal to place the South Stream through Turkey is a result of a massive deal by Russia to purchase gas from Azerbaijan (an extremely energy rich country) announced last week. Originally, the South Stream was to go from the Russian shore through the Black Sea. However it appears that the route may go directly through Turkey. If this deal is struck, it may prevent Europe from building the Nabucco Pipeline which was designed to bypass Russia and open new resources for the EU. Right now, 80% of Europe’s gas comes from Russia routed through the Ukraine. This resulted in large parts of the EU being left, literally, in the dark when Russia cut off supplies to the Ukraine for several weeks.

Part of the offer to Turkey involves Russia providing Turkey with at least one nuclear power plant. If Turkey signs this deal, it will align the country with Russian and Iran (already a Russian ally). This is significant since the only missing member of the Magog invasion force was Turkey.

Ezekiel 38

3 and say, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD: “Behold, I am against you, O Gog, the prince of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal. 4 I will turn you around, put hooks into your jaws, and lead you out, with all your army, horses, and horsemen, all splendidly clothed, a great company with bucklers and shields, all of them handling swords. 5 Persia, Ethiopia, and Libya are with them, all of them with shield and helmet; 6 Gomer and all its troops; the house of Togarmah from the far north and all its troops—many people are with you.

If the names in the verses above are strange, don’t worry. The names used are of the original inhabitants of the regions. The names may have changed over the centuries, but the lands mentioned are easily identifiable. To get a good look at the Magog invasion, read all of Ezekiel 38 & 39. There are elements of this battle that could not have possibly made sense before the introduction of nuclear weapons.

Ezekiel 39

11 “It will come to pass in that day that I will give Gog a burial place there in Israel, the valley of those who pass by east of the sea; and it will obstruct travelers, because there they will bury Gog and all his multitude. Therefore they will call it the Valley of Hamon Gog. 12 For seven months the house of Israel will be burying them, in order to cleanse the land. 13 Indeed all the people of the land will be burying, and they will gain renown for it on the day that I am glorified,” says the Lord GOD. 14 “They will set apart men regularly employed, with the help of a search party, to pass through the land and bury those bodies remaining on the ground, in order to cleanse it. At the end of seven months they will make a search. 15 The search party will pass through the land; and when anyone sees a man’s bone, he shall set up a marker by it, till the buriers have buried it in the Valley of Hamon Gog. 16 The name of the city will also be Hamonah. Thus they shall cleanse the land.”’

This section occurs after the battle is over. Notice that the burial east of the sea. This can be read as downwind. Now look closely at verses 14-15. Special teams of men are employed to bury the dead. Search parties are to look for bones, not bodies. This is during the first seven month following the battle. Flesh would have decomposed, but not disappeared entirely. The searchers are not to touch the bones. They are to just set a marker. I imagine that the buriers are specially equipped and, most likely, are dressed in hazmat suits.

Conclusion

Scripture makes it very clear that Turkey is a participant in the Magog invasion, but without a strong tie to Russia it didn’t make sense that they would join in a battle against Israel. Especially, when Turkey was working so hard to join the EU.

If the South Stream Pipeline is built through Turkey it would supply Turkey with all the energy and security the country would need. Turkey could give up on their bid to join the EU and reinstate a lot of the Islamic practices they did away with to appease the EU.

All the elements for the Magog invasion will be in place.

Randy

Randy Reed Bible Prophesy, Current Events, End Times