God’s Talent Search 2/28/99
Matthew 25: 13 – 30
Page 1451 Come Alive Bible
Jesus Christ gives us all opportunities. What we do with them is our gift to Him.
In each teaching of Christ are many lessons. In the story of the talents is found the principle of aggressively pursuing your opportunities. Jesus wants you to be an achiever. He desires for you to have the fulfilling satisfaction that in all things you have done your best.
The parable of the talents is the story of assets and abilities well used and the tragedy of wasted opportunity. Each of us finds our self typified by one or the other.
Nineteenth-century American poet John Greenleaf Whittier wrote: “FOR ALL SAD WORDS OF TONGUE AND PEN, THE SADDEST OF THESE: ‘IT MIGHT HAVE BEEN!’”
Living up to our potential is the challenge that awaits us with the dawning of each new day. It is a stretching exercise lasting all day every day. Enjoy it.
In the spirit of Whittier’s statement comes the line from the movie “Rocky,” spoken by an aspiring fighter: “I could have been a contender. I could have been somebody.”
The exciting thing about what our Lord expects is not that we be the best at anything, but that we be our best at everything.
Consider the parable in Matthew 25: 13 – 30.
Jesus spoke of the “kingdom of heaven.” It is a term used for the rule of Christ in the lives of His people on earth. All three people in the parable are believers. That is further indicated by the expression the “man traveling,” being a reference to Christ, “who called his own servants.” All three were believers.
A “talent” was not a reference to ability though it is used to illustrate our use of our ability. A talent wasn’t a coin. It was a weight. Balancing scales were used in that day like those depicted as being held by “Miss Liberty.” The value of a talent was dependent upon what was being weighed. If it was a talent of gold it had one value. If lead another.
The fact “talents,” that is a weight of measure are used to illustrate “talents,” that is abilities is a bit confusing. Keep that in mind. Some were given:
I. RISK TAKERS
One was given two talents and one five talents. They had different abilities but similar opportunities. Their numbers of talents was “to each according to his own ability” (Vs. 15).
Each traded wisely and doubled their talents. Both were equally faithful. It doesn’t matter one made five and one two talents. The important thing is both made 100%. To make such gain they had to be risk takers.
A risk taker is a humble person willing to sacrifice his ego. Most people don’t believe that. They think people who venture big and attempt big things are ego centered. Consider this. What is the basis of egotism? It is our own ego. Egotistical people are concerned about themselves, their reputation, their safety, their image. They want to avoid embarrassment or failure. Therefore they play it safe. They don’t want to risk humiliation or discomfort.
The risk taker has to be humble because like a turtle his or her neck is always exposed. The egotist keeps his or her head safe in the shell.
Are you willing to venture for Christ? Will you dare stick your neck out for Him? Will you speak up for Him when all others are mute or critical? Will you work for His cause and run the risk of being criticized?
Our abilities aren’t equal. But our efforts should be.
In the parable one was a:
II. REASON FAKER
The one given the stewardship by his master of one talent buried it. Like the turtle with his head in the sand he wasn’t going to risk anything. Instead he played the now popular “blame game.”
“Then he who had received the one talent came and said, ‘Lord, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you have not sown, and gathering where you have not scattered seed. And I was afraid, and went and hid your talent in the ground. Look, there you have what is yours'” (Matthew 25:24, 25).
He was a reason faker. He blamed the master who gave him the talent. He didn’t have his master’s will in mind.
Instead of blaming others thank the Lord for that with which He has entrusted you. One talented person is just as vital, important, and strategic in the kingdom as five talented people.
Lessons of lives unwilling to blame others and cop out are numerous.
Ernestine Schumann was born to poor parents. Her father was Austrian and her mother Italian. As a teenager she aspired to be an opera singer. At age 18 she married. This set in motion a series of heartbreaks. Her husband lost his job. After the birth of their third child her husband Paul left her and the children.
Ernestine went from stage to stage begging for a job. Finally the director of the Hamburg Opera Company hired her for ten dollars a month. With that she had to provide for herself and her children.
Her husband had accumulated significant debts. According to German law the wife was responsible for the debts of the husband. As a result her furniture was taken away.
Destitute and in despair she took her baby in her arms and leading her children set out for the railroad tracks. She knew the schedule and what she proposed would be swift and certain. As the train drew near and blew its whistle she knelt. It was cold and the shivering children began to cry. August her son squeezed her hand. Lotta, her oldest daughter cried, “Mamma, mamma, I love you. I love you. Take me home!”
Love and duty triumphed in her motherly heart and she arose and trudged back to their dreary home.
She became resolute not to bury her talent. She wrote Pollini the director of the Hamburg Opera a letter of appeal and gained an interview. She later recounted the interview.
“Well, I got your letter Heink,” Pollini said, “and I laughed when I read it. It was too funny.”
“Herr Direktor,” I cried, “you say you read my letter and you laughed, because it was funny?”
“Yes,” he said, and got up and walked toward me laughing. “You asked that I let you sing the big contralto parts –- you? (And he pointed his finger at me). “Why,” he said, “you are nothing! You will never be a first contralto, never — never — never!” and he shook his finger right in my face and laughed again.
“I can make you, maybe, a good comedienne. Yes, that I can do— but first contralto — ach, Gott! Never!”
Ernestine continued: “Oh I was furious! I went up to him close, my face to his, and I said: ‘Herr Pollini, now I will tell you something! I will be the first contralto —- not only of Germany, but I will be the first contralto in all the world! Mark that!”
Ernestine Schumann-Heink did sing again in Hamburg. As first contralto she sang lead roles in Das Rheingold and Tristan. In Chicago she sang Lohengrin and that audience gave her not one standing applause but demanded she return for twenty curtain calls.
Madam Schumann-Heink did indeed become the first contralto of the world because she not only refused to bury her talent but she would not allow anyone else to bury it either.
From the world of sports comes inspiring stories of those who refused to bury their talent. Some even having only one talent.
From Tanzania came John Stephen Akhwari to run in the 1968 Olympics. With his right leg bloody and bandaged he staggered into the stadium more than a hour behind the winner of the marathon. When asked why he didn’t quit long before he said,
“My country did not send me to Mexico City to start the race. They sent me to finish the race.”
Our Lord hasn’t saved us that we might engage in starts and fits of faithfulness but to finish faithfully.
Don’t hide your talent, invest it for the Lord. Don’t keep it to yourself. Give it to Jesus.
In the parable some were —-
III. RECORD BREAKERS
Two multiplied the talents entrusted to them.
It is faithfulness in little things that make or break us. It is the little things of the hour not the great things of the ages that make us.
It is the constant sunbeam not flashing lightening that makes life flourish. It is the calm cool clear water of a quiet stream that refreshes. Not the nosy torrent of a flooded river that quenches thirst.
It is day-in-day-out loyalty to the Lord that makes for a rewarding life.
It really doesn’t matter what talents you have. The important thing is to maximize your opportunities. Each of the faithful ones returned the optimum. The excuse maker, had he been faithful, and the two talented recipients, had they not been faithful would have returned the same.
In sports a person with ability grading 80% who extends a maximum effort will achieve more than a person whose ability grades 90% but only extends a 75% effort. You can be an achiever for Christ regardless of your ability.
In the parable some were:
IV. REVELRY MAKERS
There is joy inerrant and as a result of a job well done. One of the best definitions of happiness I have ever been able to concoct is: “Happiness is a beautiful by-product of a job well done.”
The faithful servants engaged in various delights.
One of the blessings of doing a job well is the satisfaction of having done your best.
Many people live for the weekends, vacation, or time off. When these times of imagined enjoyment finally come they aren’t enjoyed. There is a simple formula explaining why.
We are prepared to enjoy our leisure in direct proportion to the extent we feel we have deserved it.
Some having goofed and worked half-heartedly know they haven’t earned and don’t deserve time off and they don’t enjoy it. These faithful servants had a sense of fulfillment.
Part of their reward was more work to do. We are our most contented when we have a meaningful task. It is challenging and gratifying. Knowing there is more rewarding work to do gives a sense of purpose. Its fulfilling.
The ultimate reward and fulfillment in the parable is found in verse 21: “His lord said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord'” (Matthew 25:21).
Joy is the natural result of being a good and faithful servant.
The ultimate joy is reserved to the end. It is heaven.
We must by love be compelled to give our best our all for our Lord.
It was a big and busy street along which the hurrying feet of a poor little newsboy walked rapidly. He had little interest at this moment in selling papers. It was his mother’s birthday and he was on his way to a nearby florist shop. He had fingered the thirty seven cents he had in his right pants pocket. His invalid was his one concern. Traffic ignored the little guy and he ignored traffic.
As he entered the floral shop the owner said, “Thanks, son, but I don’t need a newspaper today.”
“I didn’t come to sell newspapers. I came to buy some flowers. The lad spoke, “You see, mister, Mom’s birthday is today, and I’m going to buy her the best bouquet in the world. I’ve been saving penny after penny and now I’ve even got a nickel. Mister, I’ve got thirty-seven cents and I want the best bouquet in the store. Daddy’s been gone since I was a boy and now my sister is with the Lord. It’s just Mom and me left. She loves flowers. I’ve been saving and I want to take her flowers.”
The man listened attentively to the little urchin and said, “Alright, son, she will have the most beautiful bouquet in this city today.”
Like an artist the florist added bud after bud and wrapped it well.
“How much is it,” said the child, as he confidently put down his thirty-seven cents.
“Let me see,” said the proprietor, “that will be exactly thirty-seven cents.”
As the elated child walked out the florist said, “Remember, tell your mother happy birthday for me.”
Moments later as the quick-footed boy rushed across the street with the flowers partially blocking his vision the sound of the shrieking of heavy steel brakes on the city rail car was heard. The limp body of the mangled child was placed in an ambulance with the flowers and newspapers.
In the hospital the large eyes of the child searched the white room and finally focused on a man standing over him.
“You are a doctor, aren’t you mister?” “Yes, I am.”
The child’s nervous hand felt across the bed where his leg should have been.
“Well, doc, I suppose I didn’t make it did I?” “No.”
In his pitiful condition he said, “Where is that big bunch of flowers?” The doctor handed them to him.
“Doctor,” the boy smiled through tears he tried to keep back, “today is Mom’s birthday and now I can’t bring her these flowers. Would you take ‘em to her? Would you please? We live on the last street in the East-Side Settlement.
“Tell Mother the flowers are only thirty-seven cents worth, but it’s the best I could do … and tell her I love her.”
The trained eye of the doctor saw life slipping away. Seeing the child’s lips move he bent over to try to hear what he was saying. He heard him repeat, “thirty-seven cents worth … not much … but the best I could do … and I love her … love her … love.” The voice went silent and the soul went skyward.
The doctor went to the project searching for the mother. As he entered the hall he heard the mother call out, “Sonny boy, are you home already —-?”
Seeing the doctor she exclaimed, “Doctor, what are you doing here?” “I brought you some flowers. I merely brought them. They are from your son on this your birthday.”
It was hard for the doctor to tell what had happened. Her sturdy faith calmed her broken heart as she asked, “What were my boy’s last words?”
She heard words which became etched in her memory: “Thirty-seven cents’ worth … not much … but the best I could do … and I love her … love her … love.”
Heart to heart … have you ever given Jesus your best, your thirty-seven cents worth?” Do now.
“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service” (Romans 12:1).
Angels Watching Over Me? Part One
Hebrews 1: 13, 14
JESUS CHRIST believed in angels. Do you?
Angels announced the forthcoming birth of Jesus Christ.
Angels proclaimed His arrival in Bethlehem.
Angels attended Christ during His exhausting wilderness temptations.
Angels attended Him in the hour of His grief in Gethsemane.
Angels were battle ready awaiting His orders while He hung on the cross.
Angels are mentioned in 34 books of the Bible for a total of 273 times (108 in the Old Testament and 165 in the New Testament.)
There has been a dramatic resurgence in belief in angels. The hungry human spirit that has been stifled by humanism and materialism instinctively knows there is a spiritual dimension to life.
Books related to angels have reached sales totals approaching five million copies. Publishers Weekly religious best-seller list shows five of the top ten paperbacks are about angels.
A subculture has sprung up around them. There is even an “Angel Watch Network” based in Mountainside, N.J., with 1,800 members who monitor angel activity.
The Angel Collection Club of America has over 1,600 members. Joyce Berg of Beloit, Wisconsin holds the known record with 10,455 different angel artifacts.
TV, movie, and secular magazine articles are a poor source for knowledge of angels most often. David Neff, managing editor of “Christianity Today,” wrote: “The angels of popular culture are more like celestial versions of the fairy godmother from Disney’s Cinderella…. The angels of the tabloids are cosmic mascots who use magical powers to make our lives just a little sweeter than they might have been.” Such concepts trivialize the work of angels. They are God’s messengers. They come into our lives to do God’s will, not to grant us three wishes.
Belief in angels is an ageless conviction. The earliest reference to them is found on a five by ten slab of limestone at Ur-Nammus which dates back to 2250 BC.
Plutarch, the Greek historian said, “Alongside of each man there are two angels, one good and one bad.”
Plato and Aristotle believed God used angels to govern the world.
Epictetus said, “God assigns to every man a guardian angel.”
Seneca and Virgil believed in angels.
Recent Gallup polls reveal that 76% of today’s teens believe in angels.
A “Time” survey revealed that the vast majority of Americans of all ages believe in angels.
People often ask me if I believe there is extraterrestrial life. Are we human beings alone in this vast universe? No, the universe is full of supernatural beings. I not only believe in extraterrestrial intelligence, I believe in extra-cosmic beings, called angels.
The Bible tells us that countless beings fill the vastness of space around us. Actually, since the dawn of creation they have mingled in human affairs. They have in yours. Hebrews 13:2 notes, “Some have entertained angels unawares.” Some have “unwittingly entertained angels.”
Billy Graham wrote in his book entitled, Angels: God’s Secret Agents, “I am convinced that these heavenly beings exist and that they provide unseen aid on our behalf… I do not believe in angels because I have ever seen one — because I haven’t. I believe in angels because the Bible says there are angels; and I believe the Bible to be the true Word of God.”
Based on a similar lack of experience and a kindred confidence in the Bible, I also believe in angels.
I Have Kept the Faith and the Faith Has Kept Me: Part Four
II Timothy 4: 6 – 8
The expression “kept the faith” means I have competed in life’s marathon according to the rules. The athletes of the era in which this was written took a solemn oath before the games that they would compete honorably and honestly.
When you accept Christ as Savior, He makes a commitment to you. He commits Himself to forgive your sins, to be your constant companion through life, and to receive you unto Himself in heaven. He keeps His word.
In coming to Christ you, too, make a commitment to Him. In summary, it is to give Him your life. That means you will keep your vision focused on Him and strive to please Him in all you do. Keep the faith contract.
It was a fog-shrouded morning, July 4, 1952, when a young woman named Florence Chadwick waded into the water off Catalina Island. Her goal was to swim the channel from the island to the California coast. Long-distance swimming wasn’t new to her. She was the first woman to swim the English Channel in both directions.
The water was numbing cold that day, but that would not deter her from her goal. Several times intimidating sharks had to be scared away by rifle fire. They would not cause her to miss her goal. A fog so thick she could hardly see the boats accompanying her shrouded the area.
After 15 hours of swimming, she asked to be taken out of the water. Her trainer pleaded with her to continue since her goal was so close. All Florence could see was the fog. She quit … only one-half mile from her goal.
Many times we too fail, not because of peer pressure or because of anything other than the fact we lose sight of our goal. That is why Paul later described himself by saying, “I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” (Phil. 3: 14)
Well-conditioned runners come to the moment of competition to extend themselves. As they near the finish line with muscles on the verge of cramping, their lungs on fire begging for air, their nostrils strutted, their eyes straining, and their jaws open, they stretch out to the finish line.
Does that depict the extent to which you are willing to compete in the moral, ethical, and spiritual competition to reach your goal of pleasing Christ?
Two months after her failure, once again Florence Chadwick walked off the same beach into the same cold shark-infested channel and heroically swam the distance, setting a new speed record because she could see the land, her goal, all the way. One of these hopefully distant days when your life reaches its conclusion, may you be able to happily say, “I have kept the faith.”
If you keep your faith in Christ, the Christ of your faith will keep you.
Whose That Swinger in Your Family Tree? 10/24/99
JESUS CHRIST spoke of a future time and said, “For in those days there will be tribulation, such as has not been from the beginning of creation which God created until this time, nor ever shall be” (Mark 13: 19).
Jesus believed in creation and was emphatic in saying “creation which God has created.”
Disciples of Charles Darwin “Amen” his statement, defining evolution as “the belief that all animals and plants are descended from some single primordial form.”1
This has led an unknown poet of less lyrical ability than Poe to write:
Once I was a tadpole beginning to begin.
Then I was a frog with my tail tucked in.
Soon I was a monkey swinging from a tree.
Now I am a doctor with a PhD.
The theories of evolution and creation have different roots. One is as much of a science as the other. Without anyone to have historically observed evolution, with no fossil evidence to confirm it, with Mendel’s Laws of heredity to refute it, with no observable evolution now in progress, being unable to devise scientific experiments to demonstrate the process, and with God’s Word to dispute it, evolution isn’t much of a science.
A classical absurdity is the belief that the doctrine of special creation is a religious belief because it is based on faith in the Bible account and the theory of mega-evolution is scientific because it is based on facts. Both can ONLY be accepted by faith.
Consider WHAT IF?
What IF evolution is true and all life forms evolved over millions of years from a single primordial swamp. Why aren’t various stages still observable today? Suppose man was a tadpole 250 million years ago, an ape 100 million years ago, and an ape/man 75 million years ago. All of those creatures are around today. Why don’t we find the same process in action today. Why are there no living intermediate stages? Why aren’t there any specimen of tadpole-apes or ape-men today? Even the kind of primordial swamp we supposedly came from exists today. Why aren’t earlier life forms still evolving into near men? Why are there no fossil evidences that it once happened?
The fruit-fly, Drosophilia, multiplies very rapidly and has been used in countless experiments to try to achieve evolution. Because many generation can be observed in a few years it is a “fast motion” example of what would have been required for there to have been evolution. It has been bred in lavatories for thousands of successive generations. Radiation bombardment of the insect has produced a great variety of mutational deformities, but it always emerges as a fruit-fly.
The idea that man descended from an ape has had many scientific challenges. One has been made by Dr. Geoffrey Bourne, director of the Yerkes Regional Primate Center of Emory University in Atlanta. He is an Australian-born, Oxford educated, cell biologist, anatomist, and nationally respected primatologist. He advocates apes and monkeys are the evolutionary descendants of man.2
He based his “flip-flop” theory on the fact that some fossil evidences indicate that man pre- dated his supposed ape-like ancestors. Leakey’s discoveries reveal man to be older than the apes. This leaves man with no ape-like ancestors.3
If evolution is a fact your family tree should have some interesting personalities in it. Allegedly it does. One inevitable question relates to Adam and Eve. If God created them male and female and they had two sons, where did Cain get his wife?
WHERE DID CAIN GET HIS WIFE?
The Bible doesn’t say it but Cain was probably the oldest son of Adam and Eve. Genesis 14: 7 notes that after Cain killed his brother Abel he left home and went into the land of Nod and “Cain knew his wife, and she conceived, and bare Enoch…”
Adam was 130 years old when Cain was born (Genesis 5: 5). An obscure truth is often overlooked in Genesis 5: 4: “the days of Adam were eight hundred years; and he begot son and daughters.”
Adam lived to be 930 years old. Characteristic of people before the flood changed the atmospheric conditions people live longer lives and were very prolific. If very conservative birth rates are used it can be calculated that in the life time of Adam the earth’s population at the time of Adams death could well have been around twenty million.
There is only one explanation as to where Cain and a lot of his brothers got their wives. Initially they had to marry their own sisters. Remember, this was before disease and genetic disorder had developed as in the modern era and consequently feeblemindedness and deformity was not the rule of that day as it is ours. When created “God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good” (Genesis 1: 31). That means the genes of Adam and Eve were perfect. Later things began to degenerate.
The laws of incest did not originate until the days of Moses (Leviticus 18 – 20). Approximately 2,500 years lapsed between Adam and Moses. During this time gene degeneration had progressed to the point incest was forbidden.
If it takes faith to accept that account of creation and development, it takes more faith to accept the theory as proposed by evolution. The evolutionists has to answer how could man ever progress to higher forms by mutations, in light of that process being based on everyone’s children being deformed? Mutations which are required in the theory of evolution are genetic deformities. That would not result in higher forms resulting from lower forms.
WHERE DO CAVE MEN FIT IN?
Some suggest there is a cave man swinging somewhere in your family tree. Where does the cave man fit in?
First, there always have been and still are cave men today. In every period of history there have been persons to live in caves.
Most references to “cave-men” relate to Neanderthal man and Cro-Magnon man. A false picture has been painted of them. Reputable anthropologist now acknowledge they were true Homo Sapiens, human beings. They represent extinct tribes no different from present-day tribes.
Their fossil remains are found in the so-called Pleistocene of recently deposited strata. This indicates they lived after the flood.
Archaeological discoveries reveal they were not brutish ape/men. They did fine paintings in their caves, cultivated flowers (which many of us have difficulty doing), and buried their dead.4
We tend to see what we expect to see. Since Darwin postulated his theory of evolution secular anthropologists have been seeking evidence to confirm it. Physical anthropology has been dramatically influenced by subjective factors. Many present the evolution of man as a certainty without objective proof.
George F. Howe, Ohio State University PhD, wrote of our tendency to see what we want to see: “The only information available about each fossil man is the shape of the bones and any tools that may have been buried with the bones. The rest of the picture is merely a figment of the artists imagination. Depending on what the particular artist believes, it would be easy to make the same fossil look either intelligent or non-human.”5
Anthropologist E. A. Hooten says you can take the Neanderthal skull and by adding plaster in the right places you can make it look like “a chimpanzee… a philosopher… so put not your faith in reconstruction.”6
SOME ALLEGED SWINGERS IN YOUR FAMILY TREE
Some who allegedly predated us in the evolutionary process are worth considering.
JAVA MAN, Pitheocanthropus Erectus, was found in Java in 1891 and 1892. The discovery consisted of a skullcap, a fragment of a left thighbone and three molar teeth. They were found over a period of one year scattered over fifty feet in a river bed mingled with debris.
Modern anthropologist now consider him to be essentially identical to modern man. The skull is believed to be that of a small woman. The femur is conceded to be completely human. The teeth were concluded not to belong to the other remains.7
PILTDOWN MAN was discovered in the southern part of England by Charles Dawson in 1912 and long called “Eoranthropus” (dawn man). He reputedly lived 100,000 to 500,000 years ago. When found, publicity flooded the world classifying him as being second only to Pithecanthropus Erectus. It was all a hoax. The Smithsonian Institute of Washington, D.C. gives this detail account in “The Great Piltdown Hoax.”
“Careful ‘detective’ work done by Dr. J.S. Weiner, and others, revealed that ‘the lower jaw and canine tooth are actually those of a modern anthropoid ape, deliberately altered (filed down by a joker) so as to resemble fossil specimens.’ The faker had cunningly ‘fossilized’ the jaw and teeth by staining them a mahogany color with an iron salt and bichromate!”8
Piltdown Man was actually an ape that had died 50 years earlier. Yet, today there are still 300 reproductions of him in museums. It is estimated that annually more than one million people visit the American Museum of National History in New York to view Piltdown Man as an ancestor of modern man.
It is worth noting that the entire reconstruction of Piltdown Man was based on one single part of the anatomy, a jaw bone. It was not a complete fossilized skeleton.
Many proponents of evolution live by the philosophy, “Give us a tooth and we will construct the entire anatomy.” Though many fossil remains of complete human beings and apes have been found, not one complete fossil has been found of a supposed lower species of man. All models are based on a few fragments assumed to have looked a certain way.
NEANDERTHAL MAN was found near Dusseldorf on the limestone cliffs of the Dussel River. Since then other skeletal remains have been found across Europe. These are now known to be members of the Neanderthal race of human beings, suffering from rickets caused by a vitamin D deficiency. X-rays of the bones show characteristic rickets rings.9
Two scientists, Straus, and Cave, contend that if Neanderthal Man could be reincarnated and placed in a New York subway — provided that he was bathed, shaved, and dressed in modern clothes — it is doubtful whether he would attract any more attention than some present citizens.10
Living concurrently with the Neanderthal race in Europe was the Cro-Magnon race. They were superior to modern man in size and brain cavity capacity.
NEBRASKA MAN, Hesperopithecus, was fashioned around only a tooth. The tooth was introduced as evidence in the famous “Scopes Monkey Trial” in Dayton, Tennessee in 1925 as proof of evolution. Professor H.H. Newman of the University of Chicago made a monkey out of defense attorney, William Jennings Bryan, with this find. The popularity of this tooth was world wide. The “Illustrated London News” sent reporters over and they published pictures of the male and female of the race.
At a time when a million dollars was a lot of money, Dr. William K. Gregory, curator of the American Museum of Natural History, called it “the million dollar find.”
America’s greatest paleontologist of the day, Dr. William Osborn, placed Nebraska Man at the very bottom of the tree depicting man’s ancestors. At the Scopes trial, William Jennings Brian, with no scientific way to disprove the evidence mused that some day it might even be proven to be a pigs tooth.
Though it was part of the evidence that resulted in evolution being popularized in American education it was two years later determined to be the tooth of an extinct pig. Bryan proved to be a prophet, but the damage was done. The myth of evolution was given creditability.
Much scientific evidence reveals man has basically been degenerating rather than evolving to higher forms. The “Law of Morpholysis” (meaning loosing structure) indicates entropy universally tends to move downward not upward. The principal of deterioration can better be evidenced by facts than evolution.
Every physical characteristic found in the fragments from which man’s alleged ancestors have been constructed can be found in modern human beings. For example, there are many tribes which today resemble the Neanderthal race.
EAST AFRICAN MAN, skull 1470, “Zinjanthropus” was found by Richard Leakey in the Laetolil beds near the shore of Lake Rudolf in Kenya.
This revolutionary find prompted an article in “Science News” to herald, “Because of him (1470) every single book on anthropology, every article on the evolution of man, every drawing of man’s family tree will have to be junked. They are apparently wrong.”11
SKULL 1470 is now accepted as an extinct African ape, (Australopithecus). An evolutionary date of two million has been assigned the skull. “Tiny Lucy” as she was known was supposed to be one of our ancestors.
SKULL KNMR 1470 has now been found by Leakey. It is essentially the same as modern human beings. The skull wall is thin, its general conformation is human, and it is devoid of heavy brow ridges, supra-mastoid crests, and other ape like features.12
The problem is Leakey dates Skull KNMR as being over three million years old. That means this human being predates what have previously been considered man’s ancestors. Maybe the “flip-flop” theory is right! In reality it isn’t. However, these finds refute the idea that we have ape like ancestors in our family tree.
Professor Anthony Ostric of St. Mary’s College, South Bend, Indiana, said in an address to the Congress of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences, “To say there were pre human ape ancestors transformed into humans is speculative…Man’ unique biophysical and socio-cultural nature appears now to represent an unbridgeable abyss separating him from all other animals, even his closest ‘anthropoid relatives.’
“It is not possible to see how biological, social or cultural forces or processes could transform any kind of prehuman anthropoid or ‘near- man’ into homo sapiens.”13
In your family tree you will find no near-humans. You will find a great variety of human beings each in keeping with his own “kind.”
Jesus’ question is relevant today: “Have you not read, that He which made them at the beginning made them male and female, and said, For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife…” (Matthew 19: 3 – 6.)
1 Origin of the Species, Charles Darwin, p. 253.
2 “Modern People,” Geoffrey Bourne, Vol. 8, April 18, 1976, p. 11.
3 “Christian Life,” “A Case for Scientific Creation,” David A. Kaufmann, June 1977, p. 69.
4 The Remarkable Birth of Planet Earth, Henry M. Morris, Creation- Life Publishers, San Diego, Calif. 1978, p. 46.
5 The Bible, Science, and Creation, Maxwell Coder and George F. Howe, p. 61.
6 Up From the Ape, E.A. Hooten, p. 332.
7 The Bible and Modern Science, Henry M. Morris, Moody Press, Chicago, 1968, p. 48.
8 Genesis and Evolution, M.R. Dehann, Zondervan, Grand Rapids, Mich. 1978, p. 87.
9 “Nature,” Francis Ivanhoe, August 8, 1970, p. 35.
10 “The Quarterly Review of Biology,” W. L. Straus, Jr. and A.J.E. Cave, December 1957, pp. 358, 359.
11 “Science News,” Vol. 102, 1972, p. 324.
12 “National Geographic,” R.E.F. Leakey, Vol. 143, 1973, p. 819.
13 “Los Angeles Times,” October 24, 1973, Part 1-A, p. 5.
I Have Kept the Faith and the Faith Has Kept Me: Part Three
II Timothy 4: 6 – 8
With anticipation the Apostle Paul wrote of the approaching end of life: “I have finished the race.”
The arena in Barcelona was filled with nearly 70,000 spectators awaiting the start of the men’s 400 meter race. The outstanding British runner Derick Redford, along with other competitors, awaited the starter’s gun. Streams of dreams of a lifetime were in that moment flowing into the pond of reality. Redford was running well when an athlete’s dream turned into a nightmare. He pulled a hamstring muscle. Pain of unimaginable extent caused this stalwart man to grimace and grab his leg as agony painted itself on his now tear-flooded face. Every move sent shock waves of pain through his leg. Nevertheless he hopped and hobbled toward the finish line. He fought off would-be medics who pleaded with him to quit and lie down. When it became apparent he couldn’t make it to the finish line alone, his dad rushed to his aid and putting his arm around him, helped his crippled son go those last yards to the finish line. He finished the race.
He did so because long before he even went to Barcelona he had his eye on that goal. Nothing could keep him from his goal. That is the will needed to follow Christ. When you have your mind set on pleasing Him, nothing will cause you to give up and quit.
The term used in our text does not speak of winning, but finishing. Marathoners know only one person will win. That is great, but there is honor and valor in finishing. You may not be a heralded “winner” in life’s race for Jesus, but be sure you are faithful and complete what you have begun.
Few who enter the great Peachtree Road Race have any thought of winning. With pride all of them wear their peach-colored T-shirts symbolizing they had finished the race. Doing so gives a sense of fulfillment and joy. The same should be ours each day as we conclude it having been faithful to Christ.
Write out your lifetime goal statement. Engrave it in the corridor of your mind through which all thoughts must pass and let them be influenced thereby. Such a goal statement is neither magic nor a cosmic exercise in clairvoyance. It is a Bible-based understanding of what our Lord wants of you. Resolve to finish the race.
I love non-word words. That is, words you won’t find in a dictionary but once you hear them you know what they mean. The Greek text translated “press toward the mark” means with all “stretchoutedness” I press toward the finish tape.
You determine your lifestyle. With Christ as your pattern, your goal, stick to the Jesus’ standard that it might please Him. Don’t neglect to obey the truth you claim to believe. Doing so will enable you to finish the good fight.