Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Lady Susan

     Last evening I read rather a good short story that was in the form of letters.  It was called Lady Susan and it is by Jane Austen.  I had never personally heard of the short story when I was first given it by a friend who was actually giving me Austen's Persuasion but Lady Susan came with it.  I do not know if it is a lesser known work but I think it is not a lesser well written work.  Before you jump to conclusions, I do not, would not, ever compare it to Jane Austen's five other novels by a long shot but I still think it is worthy of recognition as an insightful and enjoyable read.  Without giving away too much, for I want you to read the short story and if I spoil it you won't want to, I will give a short synopsis of it.  Lady Susan focuses on the character of, well... Lady Susan. :) However, unlike in Austen's other novels, Lady Susan is not a honorable woman.  She is of gentry status recently widowed with a sixteen-year-old daughter.  Lady Susan herself is roughly thirty-five.  Her chief crime is that she is a conniving flirt who knows it and doesn't care about the consequences as long as she can continue on as she always has.  Her other crime is that she is cruel to her daughter, who, unlike Lady Susan tries to make her out to be, is rather a sweet child.   Telling more would give it all away so you'll just have to read it to discover what happens.  As I mentioned before, the story is told in the form of letters but it is quite easy to follow.  You might want to take an index card and write down the names of the characters and who they are as you read so as to keep them straight.  There aren't too many of them but when Lord or Lady is attached to almost every name they all start to look like.  Pick it up and read it, you won't regret it.


Lois Johnson, avid writer, tea drinker, and reader but first and foremost, avid Christian.

Saturday, December 17, 2011

Literal 24-Hour Six Day Creation

     I am a Christian, which you have probably noticed if you have read my blog at all.  I believe in a literal 24-hour six day creation and I am going to explain why.  In a later blog post I will try to take the time to explain why I believe in creation at all but for today I am going to focus on the controversies surrounding a literal six day creation.  I am not a scientist so my knowledge is stolen from multiple CMI (Creation Ministries International) and AIG (Answers In Genesis) videos and articles as well as from Apologetics Press's articles.  I will include the links to all of the articles I use at the bottom of this post and will put in quotations anything that is not in my own words.  I hope that as I am a non-scientist, my arguments will be clear to everyone.

     To begin with, why do theistic evolutionists even doubt the literal 24-hour six day creation account in Genesis 1?  According to an article posted on Creation Ministries International's website, "If people use Scripture to try to justify that the days of creation are long periods of time, they usually quote passages such as 2 Peter 3:8, ‘… one day is with the Lord as a thousand years …’. Because of this, they think the days could be a thousand years, or perhaps even millions of years. However, if you look at the rest of the verse, it says, ‘… and a thousand years as one day’. This cancels out their argument! The context of this passage concerns the Second Coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. This particular verse is telling people that with God, waiting a day is like waiting a thousand years, and waiting a thousand years is like waiting a day because God is outside of time—He is not limited by natural processes and time. This has absolutely nothing to do with defining the days of creation. There is no reference in this passage to the days of creation."

     Theistic evolutionists will make the claim that the 6 days of creation depicted in Genesis 1 were not literal 24-hour days.  However, there is a great deal of evidence that refutes this already rather far out claim.  "Yom", the Hebrew word used for day in the Bible, when used with a numeral in front of the word always means a literal 24-hour day.  In Genesis 1, there is ALWAYS a numeral in front of the word day.  Also as Apologetics Press says, "The words “evening” and “morning” are used together in the Old Testament with the word yom over 100 times in non-prophetic passages, and each time they refer to a 24-hour day. Furthermore, if the “days” of Genesis 1:14, were “eons of time,” then what were the years? And, if a “day” is an “age,” then what is a “night”?"  In Mark 10:6 and Matthew 19:4, Jesus teaches that God created them male and female from the beginning.  A non-literal 24-hour six day creation is also a scientific impossibility because, as Apologetics Press says, "...if the “days” of Genesis were not days at all, but long geological periods, then a problem of no little consequence arises in the field of botany. Plants came into existence on the third day (Genesis 1:9-13). If the days of Genesis 1 were long geological ages, how did plant life survive millions of years of total darkness? Also, how would the plants that depend on insects for pollination have survived the supposed millions or billions of years between “day” three and “day” five (when insects were created)."   Answers in Genesis, in an article on their website say, "... in Exodus 20:8–11 God commanded the Israelites to work six literal “days” and rest on the seventh because He created in six “days” (using the same Hebrew word)."  Again we see the impossibilities of theistic evolution being true. 

I will close with some words from Apologetics Press, "Finally, one must ask, if God wanted us to know that He created the world in six literal days, what words would He have used? Or if a person wanted to explain to someone else that God created all things in a literal six days, what words would he use? The answer?—the exact words used in Genesis 1."

If you have any questions about a literal 24-hour six day creation take a look at these great articles, which I posted the links to below and/or go to Creation Ministries International's, Answers in Genesis's, or Apologetic Press's websites for more such articles.  Hail to the King!


http://www.apologeticspress.org/APContent.aspx?category=9&article=824&topic=64

http://creation.com/the-necessity-for-believing-in-six-literal-days

http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/am/v5/n2/six-literal-days


Lois Johnson, avid writer, tea drinker, and reader but first and foremost, avid Christian.
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