EVOLUTION IS A RELIGION

The creation versus evolution debate has raged for years now. And there is no doubt it will continue on for many more to come. And for most it is an issue of science versus religion or science versus the bible. Creation vs. Evolution is a more accurate statement, the battle is far from being one between religion and science, but as I will seek to prove this is a battle between two religious systems.

The creation vs. evolution debate is a question of origins. How did we get here? Were we created or did we evolve randomly? Are we the product of purposeful intelligence or are we merely the end result of countless cosmic accidents? Everyone has their own opinion. The question is what is the basis for that opinion? The truth of the matter is no one was there to test and observe the origin of the universe to provide conclusive evidence. All religious systems have presuppositions where they start from.

What is religion?

The concise oxford dictionary defines religion as “a belief in a superhuman controlling power, especially a God or gods” “a particular system of faith and worship” or “a pursuit or interest followed with great devotion”. (Concise oxford English dictionary 11^th edition). These two definitions are quite instructive for our understanding of what a religion consist of.  Anything that a person pursues with great interest and undeterred devotion is his religion. Furthermore any system that has a set of faith that they adhere to and strongly hold to makes a religion. If one was to judge based on these three definitions then both Christianity and evolution qualify to be religions with one major exception, the belief in the existence of God. In other words the two systems are religions with opposing beliefs. Namely Christianity believes in God while evolution rejects the idea of God. This invariably affects what they believe about origins. Whereas Christianity believes in God as the supreme creator, evolution believes everything was an act of chance. Logical or not one thing is clear the two systems are religions.

The religion of evolution strongly proclaims that our universe, though majesty in beauty, enormous in size, sophisticated to fully comprehend, organized and orderly in operation and glorious in design, was an act of chance, a big bang or explosion, a freak accident. The light nature teaches that explosion do not bring about design. Explosion or big bangs always destroy!

They further preach that these explosions happened millions or billions of years ago, but somehow whatever exploded existed before. Now the laws of nature teach us that nothing happens without a cause, hence the law of cause and effect. Living things produce living things nothing produces exactly that, nothing.

Is the debate between religion and science? Is the issue biblical truth versus scientific evidence? Is the argument between faith and reason? The answer is no to all the questions. This has never been a scientific issue necessarily. This debate is not about fundamental religious fanatics holding on to their beliefs despite the obvious and overwhelming scientific evidence. This debate is and has always been between two conflicting religious systems that hold on to their beliefs with unwavering faith.

The therefore is which religion makes sense? Which religion is logical? And which religion requires a lot of faith? 

WHY I HAVE NO APOLOGIES FOR DESIRING MARRIAGE

My wedding is coming up in the next 59 days! And of course I am excited and the countdown is well and truly under way. As you would expect a lot of people have been giving us a lot of advice and offering their opinions. Some of the things being said are very insightful, helpful and biblical; however, we have also got some weird ones. But the comments that have really disturbed me have come from youths and the single. Their line of reasoning has been you are young and have a lot of ahead of you. Why commit yourself for the rest of your life? And the comments go on, almost making one feel ashamed. I however, disagree and have no apologies for desiring marriage and I have 5 reasons to give!

It is not good for man to be alone. Throughout the six days of creation, when God finished creating on each day he concluded by saying it was good and everything God created was good. However in Genesis 2:18 God looked at Adam alone with animals and he says IT IS NOT GOOD FOR MAN TO BE ALONE. And the all wise God decided to create a woman to be a helper suitable to the man. Surely if the Lord says it is not God for man to be alone, who are you O man to question the creator?

Not only did God create a woman to be a companion to the man He further ordained marriage. Later on in chapter 2:24-25 God then says a man shall leave his parents and be joined to his wife and the two shall become one. Marriage was not a man’s invention, it was the all wise creator who ordained it and blessed it.

Marriage is also a glorious picture of the relationship between Christ and the church. It is no wonder Paul in Ephesians 5:22-33 commands husbands to love their wives like Christ loved the church and the wife to submit to their husbands the way the church. Marriage is a picture of Christ’s relationship with the church. It is that glorious!

Marriage is the only biblical platform for reproduction. One of the commands God gave man is to be fruitful and multiply. The only biblical platform or avenue for reproduction is marriage. Part of the reason we have an increase in teenage parents is a failure to acknowledge and respect God’s ordained means of being fruitful and multiplying.

Companionship is of great value. We all crave companionship even those who despise marriage. No man is an Island they say and two are better than one Solomon says. It seems to me that a lot of people want the privileges of companionship but not the responsibility of the same.

Now I am not in any way saying everyone should be married and neither am I saying it is sin to be single. It is wrong for those marrying or married to impose on those who are not, but the opposite is also true. Those who are single and do not desire marriage should not look down on those who desire marriage. A number of young people have a negative attitude towards marriage and they may have their reasons (i.e. lack of good examples, what the married say about marriage, letting the world dictate our way of life) and some genuine concerns, however that should not mean they throw the baby with the bathing water and do away with a God ordained institution. It is for these reasons that i desire and plan to get married and i am not ashamed of it!

AFRICAN TIME VS GOD’S TIME

I was once involved in the organizing of a football tournament with a group of dear Christians. We were generally on top of things and seemingly on the same page as to what needed to be done. The day before the event we had our last meeting just to go over a few things and tie up loose ends.  Every item on the to do list was checked and as we were concluding I reminded everyone to come 30 minutes before the tournament started, to set up so that we do not delay with registration and the formalities. “You are not taking the time on the flier literally are you?” was the question a dear friend asked me.  “No one is coming that early!” was his second statement. We got engaged in a heated debate as to whether we should stick to the time we set and disqualify any team that comes late as we had warned we would on the flier. He then left me speechless (well not quite) when he smiled and asked me if I was serious, to which I replied in the affirmative then he said and I quote “ you will live a very frustrated life in Zambia with such principles”.

Unfortunately that is the sad reality! Stewardship of time is one area we have failed as Zambians and to a large extent Africans. People do not only come late to programs and appointments but they do so casually! The worst part is that whoever makes an issue of time is looked upon with scorn, it’s like you have fallen from planet Jupiter. I dread public functions like weddings, because you are almost guaranteed of wasting time. In my entire life I have only been to two weddings were time was kept. You can imagine how frustrating my life is (I couldn't resist)? Sadly even church meetings and programs are like that in some cases. They start late and end late!!!! There are meetings that have a starting time and no ending time stated.  It is the same with appointments, you agree to meet a specific time and someone comes thirty minutes late and they are totally unmoved. How can you progress and develop with such kind of attitude?

Now that I have vented and expressed my frustrations it is important at this point to ask what is wrong with African time. Does the bible give us any instructions and principles to apply with regard to time? There are actually several passages that teach us at least four principles about the use of time. The overarching theme concerning time is that whatever we do now affects eternity. How you use your time counts forever is a principle Moses brings out quite clearly in Psalm 90 as he shows that God is from everlasting to everlasting, while man is frail and short lived. And the everlasting God carries out judgment in His wrath. And Moses rightly prays in verse 12, “teach us to number our days that we present to you a heart of wisdom” In other words time is not African time is God’s. He created it and gave to us. We shouldn't make it African, European or any other people group.

The preciousness of time cannot be over emphasized. And as with all precious things it should be treated with utmost care. Time is precious because it is short Job 14:1 says, “man who is born of a woman is short lived and full of turmoil” in other words time is in short supply and on high demand. We have so little time to fulfill our God given purpose on earth and we cannot afford to waste any of it doing nothing in the name of African time. Especially that time lost can never be recovered.

The other principle the bible teaches us is that time is uncertain. James 4:13-18 says, “Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit" yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes Instead you ought to say, "If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that." As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.” We are not granted of tomorrow we should do all we can while we have the time and James summarizes the thought by saying to him who knows to do good and does not do it to him it is sin.

The other problem with African time is that it has no regard for other people. It is quite self-centered. Wasting people’s time is esteeming yourself better than others; therefore you feel they can wait for you, since they do not have anything important to do with their time. It is lack of consideration and respect for other people. Especially that we rarely have genuine reasons for being late.

It is important to remember that we are Christians who also happen to be Africans and not Africans who happen to be Christians. African time is sin! We cannot continue living such a sinful attitude under the disguise of being African.  Let your yes be yes and your no be no. That is God’s time!

SOME MIRACLE WORKERS HAVE REAL POWER

SOME MIRACLE WORKERS HAVE REAL POWER

Yes you read right not all miracle workers are trick stars and not all of them put up a staged show with a motive to defraud and drag people into the depth of hell with their teaching. I sympathize with brethren who dedicate their lives and effort trying to show and prove that the miracles are fake and unreal, and clearly many of them are totally fake and boarder on the ridiculous. The problem I have however is when people operate with the assumption that it is totally impossible for these men to carry out supernatural powers. It is this faulty presupposition that makes many well-meaning brethren fall into the trap of scrutinizing every supernatural act that supposedly takes place trying to show whether it is real or not. That I believe is fighting a battle on the wrong front.  I strongly believe some of these miracle workers are carrying out real supernatural acts. There are two important questions to ask on this matter. The first is so what if a person performs a miracle? The second is by whose power are they carrying out that miracle?

So what if some man of God predicts the death of a president, or when a nation will go to war or silly enough who is going to win a game of football? So what if a barren woman bears a child after been prayed for? Or a sick man gets healed? Is it possible some of them have real power? Should I consider all of them fake? Does the bible give us an example of people who did supernatural acts who were not followers of Christ? The answer is clearly yes! Matthew 7:15-23 Jesus says many will come on that day saying they did many wonders in the name of Christ and He casts them away. In other words you may have done all these wonders but you are not my disciple. Acts 13:5 tells of Bar- jesus a sorcerer who obviously had magical powers. Later on in the book of Acts 16:15-17 you have a young lady who had the power of divination and was able to tell who Paul and the group were. And after been grieved Paul cast out the demonic spirit in her. Yes she was doing it through the enablement of demonic power!! In fact that’s what witch doctors do. They have powers of divination and can actually perform all kinds of wonders. Witchcraft is a common trend in Africa and those witches perform all kinds of wonders.

I am never surprised when I hear some man of God has predicted an event, or healed someone or was able to showcase powers of divination. I know some of them are fake and staged but I have no doubt that many of them are using real power. My biggest concern is that they are not doing by the power of the almighty God. Many of them are using the demonic and satanic powers, just like the miracle workers in Matthew 7, Bar-Jesus in Acts 13 and the young lady in Acts 16. And just like the witches who torment people with their witchcraft and the witch doctor with his magical powers.

They all have one thing in common- demonic enabled powers to perform wonders. Can you imagine the millions of souls that are being led astray by the activities and teaching of these men and women? This is where the battle lies. It is not whether they are real or fake but which god is enabling them and which god are they teaching. It is no wonder that the wealth and health gospel is closely associated with these miracle workers. Why is that? It is simple do you honestly think the work of the devil will propagate the true gospel of Jesus Christ? Do you honestly see these men and women telling people they are sinners lost in darkness and unable and unwilling to seek after God? (Rom 3:9-13) and that apart from Jesus Christ who died and paid for their sins they are headed for hell (John 3:16, 2 Corinth 5:17) clearly not! This brethren is where the battle lies, and is where our ammunition should be aimed at, to fight on the wrong front is to lose the battle!!

False teaching does not mean lack of power; it simply means a different source of power.

“In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake. For God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” 2 Corinthians 4:4-6