Clothed With The Sun
And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars: And she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered. And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads. And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born. And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne. And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days.
(Revelation 12:1-6) KJV
The Bible must account for everything we see around us today: in the heavens above and in the earth below. Otherwise God’s lying. Since God can’t lie we use deduction to show how the pieces fit together.
Yesterday we used deductive reasoning to develop the idea that Women, as a class of biological entities, were created in heaven on the fourth day. This gave us an insight as to why certain groups of birds are in a list of Levitical dietary restrictions. Our passage today confirms that a progenitor of women existed first in a heavenly form. We’ll see how this plays out on the sixth day when man, Adam, was created from the dust of the Earth.
The Beauty of Deduction
In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began;
(Titus 1:2) KJV
We spent practically the whole month of April, the fourth day, writing about physics. We didn’t really touch on the biological diversity that was created in the heavens. This month, May, we’ve been looking at the biodiversity created in the hydrosphere and atmosphere on the fifth day and contemplating the origin of it. This led us back into the fourth day and we had to pick up the thread from there. This is the beauty of our deductive process:
- We’ve been given the Holy Bible,
- we’ve been told that God can’t lie,
- therefore the Bible has to account for all physical evidence and empirical observations in a way that’s logical and makes sense.
This is what we’re doing with Matty’s Paradigm: accounting for everything in a way which reconciles the Bible with the world around us.
The End From the Beginning
Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure:
(Isaiah 46:10) KJV
We have a requirement that we must be able to relate all observed effects to a cause. This means that we have to know the end from the beginning and the beginning from the end. How can we know what an observation means unless we know the cause? How can we understand a cause without realizing the connected effects? This may seem like circular reasoning but it’s based on deduction, which means that the conclusion is logically certain.
Deductive reasoning, also deductive logic, logical deduction or, informally, “top-down” logic, is the process of reasoning from one or more statements (premises) to reach a logically certain conclusion. It differs from inductive reasoning or abductive reasoning.
– Deductive Reasoning, definition (Wikipedia)
Our “top down,” logic starts with the Word of God as being dependable and reliable, based on God’s own testimony about his character and nature. Our null hypothesis is:
Why would we worship a God who lies?
– Null Hypothesis
The Perils of Induction
O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called: Which some professing have erred concerning the faith. Grace be with thee. Amen. {The first to Timothy was written from Laodicea, which is the chiefest city of Phrygia Pacatiana.
(1 Timothy 6:20-21) KJV
The problem with the alternative, the mainstream science narrative of godless existence (SciPop), is that it has no such accountability. No cause has to be specified. Indeed, when you press on this issue that’s the response you get: there is no proof that the universe needs a cause. It is an abdication of intellectual integrity.
The primary purpose of SciPop is the rationalization of human existence without presupposing a supernatural cause. In SciPop the starting point is rejection of the word of God. Since the universe has a supernatural cause, the truth must be rejected as the very first step in the scientific process. As such deduction isn’t possible. Whatever conclusions are reached aren’t deduced, they’re induced from whatever false premise you start from:
Inductive reasoning (as opposed to deductive reasoning or abductive reasoning) is reasoning in which the premises are viewed as supplying strong evidence for the truth of the conclusion. While the conclusion of a deductive argument is certain, the truth of the conclusion of an inductive argument is probable, based upon the evidence given.
– Inductive Reasoning, definition (Wikipedia)
SciPop begins by rejecting the truth and it refuses to acknowledge the necessity of cause. This is the reason why the Bible refers to it as “science falsely so called.”
Popular science (SciPop) is an attempt to rationalize human existence in such a way that no supernatural cause is required, however, since the universe has a supernatural cause then the first step in the logic process is to reject the truth out of hand. It’s makes use of induction (inductive reasoning) where a premise is used to supply evidence for its own conclusion.
– Popular Science (SciPop), definition
Falling Away
Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him, That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand. Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.
(2 Thessalonians 2:1-4) KJV
Most Christians, even fundamentalists, whether they realize it or not accept a world view which is based on the SciPop paradigm. All modern theology is likewise based on having capitulated with SciPop. The apologetics which is written within this paradigm is well-meaning but misguided. Against this backdrop we see the rise of atheism and the decline of the church.
Unbelievers hoot with delight when they produce statistics that show the rise of atheism. It’s sadly ironic since it was prophesied 2,000 years ago and it’s a sign of the impending day of the Lord. SciPop is the religion where cause and effect aren’t linked, theoretical physics is scripture, and there are no consequences for our actions. There’s no accountability, either in science or in our lives.
ICHABOD?
And she named the child Ichabod, saying, The glory is departed from Israel: because the ark of God was taken, and because of her father in law and her husband.
(1 Samuel 4:21) KJV
We have a pastor friend whose Facebook posts make it seem as if he wishes that the church would just hurry up and die. Given that we’re facing what looks like a rising tide of insurmountable opposition we can sympathize. However, our approach is significantly different. We’ve been called upon to destroy the opposition, no matter how much collateral damage this causes. It’s really fun. The choice before us is this:
- Do we give up?
- write ICHABOD over the doors of the church,
- dig ourselves a nice deep grave, and
- lie down in it to wait for Jesus to come back?
- OR establish a foundation for the next 1,000 years of ministry
- because God may be merciful and give us more time
- if we repent.
- because God may be merciful and give us more time
Today’s image is from here.
Salvation
- Call upon the name of Jesus Christ,
- believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead,
- confess your sin.
Read through the Bible in a year
| Reading plan | May 25 | |
| Linear | Psalms 1-3 | |
| Chronological | 1 Chronicles 23-25 |
Matty's Paradigm 