Featured Should Christians celebrate Christmas?

Sorry, captain, but the "deep time" fact has been proven. Light, radio waves, electricity, etc. all move at the same maximum speed of over 185K miles/second. Nothing natural moves faster. Those rays/waves can be slowed down, but not sped up past that max.

Proof? When men walked on the moon, it took ablut 1.5 seconds for a radio signal to travel either way. So, the farther an object is from us, the longer it takes its light or radio waves to reach us.

God allowed man to discover the speeda light for a reason. And the Andromeda galaxy, our closest galactic neighbor, is so far away it takes light from it over a million years to reach us. Now, there's simply NO disproving that FACT!

God, being eternal & having always existed, has had plentya time to make His plans & execute them. There's simply no Scriptural reference to God's Shekinah glory being shown us from space. The magi, who were astrologers, said it was a star, & I believe they knew a star when they saw one.

 

The yearly "always winter and never Christmas" thread~!

 

You guys have to stop with this myth. It's just not true.

 

But no CORRECT ones.

God has left us proof of earth's great age all over. I live near one such proof - the APPALACHIAN MOUNTAINS. Geologists have determined from their inner layers & bases that they once stood as high as the Rockies. It took a great deal of time to erode them down to their present sizes. They're all deeply covered in soil; any force powerful enough to have eroded them quickly woulda washed away all detritus & soil from them.

Same for the Grand Canyon. Any force strong enough to have cut it quickly woulda washed away EVERYTHING, there wouldn't be a canyon; there'd be a huge valley with a flat bottom.

And mosta us have split open lumps of coal & found the fossils of many extinct plants & of those that haven't grown for millions of years in areas where the coal came from. For instance, West Virginia bituminous coal often contains fossils of tropical plants!

Remember, God has greatly increased our knowledge in these end times & He's allowed us to discover FACTS about the planet right under our feet. He has allowed us to discover the speeda light, land on the moon, measure the distances to many stars, among other things. He did not cause us to discover those things to deceive ourselves!

Evidence shows otherwise. There are stars being formed even now, and there are stars of all different ages close enough to be observed. AND, GOD IS STILL CREATING SPECIES OF PLANT/ANIMAL LIFE!

Now, while God likely created A & E, & all life fully mature so it could reproduce, eat, & be eaten, remember, Scripture sez the earth was without form and empty, but that the Holy Spirit moved over the face of THE DEEP, which shows earth was already here. And there's no denying that dinosaurs & many other animals & plants existed before man did.

The distance between Jerusalem & Bethlehem is only 5.52 miles. And there's a lotta difference between God's Shekinah glory and a star. Since the magi were astrologers, they certainly knew a star when they saw one.

 

Yes. There's evidence of it found all over earth, such as seashells near the summit of Mt. Everest.

The angle from which we view the stars changes as earth revolves around the sun. just as it changes as earth rotates on its axis. these motions of earth make it appear to us that the sun & stars are moving, as, due to relativity, we don't feel those motions, as we are undergoing the same motions also. If you're driving a vehicle at 80 MPH on a windless day & you open a window, it seema an 80 MPH wind is blowing by outside. If you have a fly buzzing around in your vehicle as you drive 80 MPH with all windows up & you pass a stationary pedestrian, if he/she could see that fly, it'd appear to be flying at 80 MPH, which no fly can do. Same with our relative view of the stars at different timesa year.

Now, howda YOU explain the disappearance of many animals such as dinosaurs, woolly mammoths, which were better-equipped to survive than today's elephants, or "cave bears", which were better-equipped than today's bears, when Noah took male & female of EVERY land animal into the ark?

 

Being born and raised in a Christian home, my brother and I knew of the idea of Santa and the Easter bunny up until a certain point. I can't ever recall my mom saying "yes, they are real." She would remind us of the true Spirit of the season and why we celebrate. How sad is it that the word "Christmas" is associated with false idols, greed, commercialism, money, and spoiling the child, and Easter is associated with a magic rabbit that leaves chocolate everywhere. (if you're a rabbit owner, there's a joke in there ).

I think Satan will use his power to put a spin on things to pull us away from God but we know what we believe is true and that there's a true, living God and He will protect us in this sinful world. It's just sad that I can look around and none of the people seem to be God-fearing anymore.

 

Well, actually, remember some mammoths have been found largely intact in Siberia. These carcasses were largely intact, and meat from some of them has even been sold in the USA!

These mammoths were found with GRASS in their mouths & digestive tracts, and grass has not grown in that part of the world within man's memory. Also, the memmoths had DIED ON THEIR FEET, SUDDENLY, & the condition of their bodies show they were QUICK-FROZEN, and THAT was the apparent cause of death. They showed no sign of distress, seeming to have been unaware of any danger beforehand. And they appear to have been frozen by a cold far-greater than is found even in northern Siberia.

There's a theory that the north pole axis was once in Greenland. If one takes a globe & turns it so Greenland is at the top, one can see Siberia woulda been in the temperate zone. that same theory also says that earth's rotation was suddenly disturbed, moving both its rotational axis and magnetic poles. Besides the mammoths, another piece of evidence for this theory is that frozen plants have been found in the depths of the soil of Antaectica, species of plants that cannot live there now.

Part of the theory says that this disturbance of rotation caused some of the super-cold upper atmosphere th be hurled to the earth's surface in places, just a few miles in circumference, as mammoth bodies are only found in a few small areas in Siberia, but the shift in the axis placed much of Siberia above the Arctic Circle, keeping the mammoths frozen.

But at any rate, this is just a theory, but the mammoth bodies & frozen Antarctic plants are REAL!

 

But, when looked at with science & common sense, those answers are mostly wrong. Remember, God didn't cause us to discover those facts in order to deceive ourselves.

The great age of the earth is discerned by the evidence of events such as those I mentioned earlier that simply could NOT have occurred in only 6K years. The Bible shows us earth was already here when God made it into what it now is, as His spirit moved over THE FACE OF THE DEEP.

The La Brea tar pits near Los Angeles, CA contain the remains of hundreds of animals that are now extinct, & were better-equipped to survive than are many of today's species. Also, there are animals there that could not live in that area's present climate.

And there's no evidence that earlier creatures such as most known species of dinos were here when man first was. However, many peoples that didn't know of each other's existence "back in the day" have dragon legends they could not have picked up from elsewhere.

there's simply too much opinion and guesswork on that link vs. proven facts from elsewhere.

 

So, if we believe Scripture as originally written, free of man-made private interps & poor translations, we see earth was in place before God made it into its present configuration. We see there are many species of plants & animals that have not existed since before God made man. We see most areas of earth once had a different climate than they now have. We see events such as the formation of coal & the fossilization of plant/animal remains that simply could NOT have happened rapidly. Every time we travel a road cut thru a hill or mountain we see bent and wavy rocks that could NOT have been bent quickly without breaking. We see the Appalachian Mountains eroded away, largely covered with soil that could not be there had those mountains been quickly eroded.

Again, these are FACTS-not guesswork nor imagination-that God has allowed us to find, not to deceive us, but to enlighten us & show proof of His existence & power.

And again, the magi who sought young Jesus were astrologers from northern Persia who studied the stars every night, and certainly knew a star when they saw one. There's a possibility their ancestors heard the Messiah prophecy frrom Ishmael, who'd heard it from Abraham. Most likely, God first gave it to Abe, who'd passed it to Ish & Ike, who'd passed it to Jake, as, on his deathbed, Jake spoke of Shiloh to his sons as if they'd heard of Shiloh earlier. The magi were almost certainly Zoroastrians, and as such, believed in one god (but not the TRUE God) and a coming Messiah. Zoroaster could well have gotten his beliefs handed down from Ishmael, although they were distorted from worship of the REAL God. BUT THE MAGI CERTAINLY KNEW THE DIFFERENT HEAVENLY OBJECTS APART! As Scripture says the object they saw was a star, it certainly appeared to be a star, and remember, the Chinese saw a new star at the same time that lasted about 3 years.

 

Following the spirit of Romans 14:5, I believe Christians and Christian families can individually celebrate Christmas, but need to keep the non-biblical elements (of which there are many) out of church.

 

For one, the killing of the preserved mammoths by dust storms. Those that were found largely intact showed no signs of distress at their deaths. It appears something almost-instantly killed them, without warning. I'm not ruling out some electrical event, but a dust storm wouldn't've killed them so quickly, & they would have shown some signs of distress, or some escape attempt, and their mouths & lungs woulda been fulla dust.

As for ice ages, there's evidence that four of them have occurred, with some mini-ages in between. There may well have been such an age after the flood, but one thing against this is that God told Noah & crew to be fruitful & multiply, and animals quickly spread all over earth.

While Prof. Oard has done some commendable research, he's so-focused on trying to establish a "young earth" that he's overlooked some equally-painstaking research by others, & has added his imagination to the FACTS.

I'm not at all saying there weren't meny species of animals that didn't become extinct after the flood. behemoth may well have been one. There's no known critter now fitting its description, especially an herbivore with a large, powerful tail. It coulda been a megatherium, the largest of the ground sloths, which could reach 20 feet in length, able to stand 15 ft. high, was a herbivore, & had a fairly-short, but powerful tail. There's no explanation as to why this well-adapted creature became extinct.

As for leviathan, I believe it was either a salt-water croc, which can grow to well over 20 ft. long, or some aquatic sauropod such as tylosaurus that survived the flood. (It's unknown if tylo had scales.)

(BTW, did you know ancient alligators could reach a length of 50 feet, & the first horses were no bigger than collies? No specimans of either of those animals of those sizes have been seen by man at any time. Howdya explain those positively-verified FACTS?)

 

Howdya know Herod didn't see it? There's no evidence he was an astrologer, & therefore coulda seen it but not noted it. Same for most other people. They woulda noted it only if it'd been unusually bright, or was otherwise unusual in appearance for a star or planet. After the sun & moon, the brightest ordinary objects were,& are, Venus, Jupiter, & Mercury, with Sirius being the brightest star. All were well-known to most people. Almost certainly, the magi noted where the star first appeared in the sky in evening, concluded it was the Messiah's star, & set out to find Him. They knew to keep journeying toward the star, & noted it appeared more-overhead as they progressed. (They likely made their trip on camels, which usually aren't speed demons.) And, of course, God, wanting the magi to find Jesus, could well have intervened at that point & moved the star, planet, or whatever it was, directly over Joe & Mary's home.

As for what the light was, it coulda been a planet or large, bright asteroid. And it apparently wasn't significant to the Jews, as they also coulda found the home.

But I believe God's Shekinah glory woulda been much-brighter than any other object in the sky except the sun & moon.

 

A very good idea!

I get tickled at some of my neighbors trying to outdo each other with large, elaborate outdoor light and/or inflatable displays. But I'm pleased with one that has a "Nativity" scene, with the illuminated words, "THE REASON FOR THE SEASON".