Dave PowellDirector Truth of Genesis This month, as we celebrate black history, we would like to commemorate a black scientist who was a person of God as well as a person of science—George Washington Carver. Carver was born into slavery near the town of Diamond, Missouri July 12th, 1864.1 An interesting and tragic fact is that the infant George and his mother were kidnapped by civil war guerillas, like William Quantrill or Jesse James. These men fought against union or anti-slavery sympathizers like George’s future foster father Moses Carver. Moses sent a Union scout after the pair to rescue them from the bandits. Only George was able to be found, and his mother’s fate was never known. The Carvers took George and his brother Jim into their home and raised them as their own.
George was a sickly child and spent time helping his foster mother Susan Carver around the house and in the garden. George became known around the village of Diamond as the “Plant Doctor.”2 The Carvers recognized George’s special gift for learning and applying his inquisitive nature. They did what they could to educate him and nurture his interests. However, George felt the need to pursue learning and life elsewhere beginning at the age of 14. Despite his foster parents’ objections, he set out on an adventure that would find him meandering around Kansas. His path was not a straight one. He did many things to support himself over the next decade including cooking, housework, laundry service, working at a grocery, homesteading etc. He seemed to find encouragement and assistance most everywhere he went and wrote affectionately of the people in the places he lived. But he also ran into the harsh reality of racism and mob justice during an instance where he witnessed the lynching of a black man who had been pulled out of jail after being arrested for the rape of a 12-year-old white girl. He left town immediately afterward. During his time in Kansas, he took a brief trip back home to see his family. A short time later, his brother Jim (the stronger and healthier of the two brothers) died of smallpox. Gone was his only known blood relative. About five years after being rejected by a college because of his skin color, he was encouraged by a Christian family, who he met attending a church in Winterset, Iowa to apply again to another school. Thankfully, he was accepted with open arms into Simpson College in Indianola, Iowa in 1890. He enjoyed his time there and studied piano and art for which he had a talent. He took no science classes. His art teacher noticed his affection for botany because he was always drawing plants. “As it happened, she was the daughter of a horticulture professor at Iowa State College of Agriculture and Mechanical Arts…”3 and as the story goes, the rest is history. He continued to paint at Iowa state, with one of his paintings being chosen to represent the state in the 1893 fair called, the “World’s Columbian Exposition”, also known as the “Chicago World’s Fair”. But he felt as if God was calling him to greater things. He worked with an expert on plant disease and co-authored several scholarly papers while at Iowa State. Carver graduated with a bachelor’s degree in 1894 and then a master’s degree in Agriculture two years later. As a master’s student they gave George a graduate teaching position with freshman as he had a gift for teaching. Iowa State didn’t want to lose him, but he had several job offers. The one he accepted was from Booker T. Washington of the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute, now known as Tuskegee University. The reason was clear. He wanted to help black Americans gain economic prosperity. According to Adair, “He believed that the sort of education Tuskegee provided ‘is the key to unlock the Golden door of freedom to our people.’”4 Washington had started an annual conference to help farmers. Carver turned it, the results of his study, and work at the Tuskegee experiment station into a monthly “Farmers Institute”.5 Carver excelled as a teacher, wanting his students to be actively involved in their learning and discover for themselves, stating, “each individual, no matter of what his color or creed, has his particular task to do in life”.6 He linked his Christian beliefs with his work as a scientist. “He talked about the way ‘the Creator’ was revealed in the wonders of nature. He believed that science and religion in no way contradicted one another. “‘We get closer to God’, he wrote years later, ‘as we get more intimately and understandingly acquainted with the things he has created.’”7 As a scientist, he made a tremendous impact upon the time in which he lived and thereafter. He designed a mobile demonstration lab which was known as the “Jesup Wagon” after Morris K. Jesup, a New York banker who helped fund the project. The project became so successful that it took the notice of the USDA who later took over the project. A student of Carver’s became the USDA’s first black demonstration agent. Dr. Carver (honorary degree) had a servant’s heart, which manifested itself in doing everything he could for the poorest and most vulnerable farmers. He set up trainings, extensions and wrote pamphlets. He knew that the subsistence farmer was very vulnerable to weather, crop disease, and poor soil as well as lack of nutrition. It is one reason he promoted crops other than cotton, which robbed the soil of nutrients, replacing it with crops such as soybeans, peanuts, and sweet potatoes. Those crops and their promotion took him away from his teaching, spending more time in the lab trying to help people by extending the market for their products with 300 or so uses for the peanut and 100 for the sweet potato. This is where he gained his fame and notoriety. His efforts took him so far away that one day he ended up testifying before congress in Washington, D.C. They told him he had ten minutes to speak. He so captivated them with his wit and wisdom that the Republican Chairman of the committee said, “Go ahead brother, your time is unlimited.”8 Carver’s testimony helped the committee decide to implement a tariff on imported peanuts. Yet, despite a drastically reduced classroom teaching influence he continued a close relationship with his students and those he mentored. Passing on what he learned was part of that servant’s heart. He taught his “boys,” as he called them, more than agriculture and science. It should be noted that “In many cases, it is clear that Carver's personal example did indeed change minds that had previously held to prejudiced notions of black inferiority. ‘You have shown me the one race, the human race’, one of his boys wrote. ‘Color of skin or form of hair mean nothing to me now’.”9 Believing deeply in the Golden rule, Carver felt that love would win out over racial prejudice in the end. While Carver is most famous as an agricultural scientist and inventor, especially for uses of the peanut (he did not invent peanut butter) and sweet potato, he impressed me most for his character and service to those in need. And despite conditions and experiences that could have left him bitter and resentful, he was known for his Godly character. According to author Gene Adair, “In his speeches and interviews, he almost always referred to the Bible and divine guidance. His accomplishments, he was fond of saying, were not his doing but we're the work of God.”10 Born into slavery, a teacher, school administrator, scientist and science ambassador, George Washington Carver was a man that all Americans should know about because he exemplified Christ to many…I know he did to me. 1 Tuskegee University “The Legacy of George Washington Carver.” https://www.tuskegee.edu/support-tu/george-washington-carver 2George Washington Carver National Monument “Not Just The Peanut Man”. George Washington Carver National Monument (U.S. National Park Service) (nps.gov) 3Adair, Gene “George Washington Carver. pp33-34 4 Ibid, p. 41 5 Ibid, p. 59 6 Ibid, p. 85 7 Ibid, p. 54 8 Ibid, p.14 9 Ibid, p. 87 10 Ibid, p. 83 Morris, Henry "Men of Science Men of God" by Terri KammerzellTruth of Genesis Ministry Partner Today is the start of the Jewish holiday Rosh Hashanah, also known as the Jewish New Year, or the Feast of Trumpets. Did you know there are many Christians, especially Messianic Jews (Jewish people who believe in Jesus as the Messiah), who are inclined to believe that the Rapture will coincide with the blowing of the shofar (trumpet) at this holiday? There are a lot of interesting aspects to this belief, but I am not a theologian and am not going to attempt to weigh in on that, one way or another.
This I do know: Jesus, Who came once to die for all men (and women), will be coming back to claim those who have believed on Him. And I also know there will be a judgment day, and it would be a terrible thing to arrive at that day without having your name written in the book of life. Or, as Hebrews 10:31 puts it, “It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God!” (HCSB). Of all of my 49 Fun Facts, I think the answer to this one may have been just about the hardest one for my students to memorize, and yet, I have one student who, to this day—four years later—can recite this Fun Fact word for word. And to be honest, if he couldn’t recite any of the other 48, I am blessed to know I at least impressed this particularly important one on him: Who is Jesus? Fully God and fully man, Jesus is the Creator incarnate Who stepped down into creation to die on a cross to redeem us for eternity. His New Testament words repeatedly confirm the Creation account as told in Genesis. When discussing or debating on the topic of origins, Creation apologists often point out the difference between observational science and historical science. Truth be told, there is no person on the planet who was around to see (observe) the forming of our universe, planet, or the first human beings. So, we rely on historical data to make determinations. For Christians, we know that there actually was Someone Who did observe the beginning: the Creator Himself. This is why His own words in verses such as Mark 10:6, which says “But from the beginning of creation God made them male and female” (HCSB), are so key to seeing that Jesus—fully God—confirmed the veracity of the historical account of Genesis. And this is why this Fun Fact is included in the set of 49. But it wasn’t just Jesus’ words that confirmed Genesis. All throughout the Bible (God’s Word, inspired by Him), the writers had an obvious belief of the events of Genesis. They believed them to be historical, and that their impact was ongoing, with spiritual and theological consequences. In Psalm 8:3-4, David wrote, “When I observe Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You set in place, what is man that You remember him, the son of man that You look after him?” (HCSB). In Proverbs 3:19-20, Solomon wrote, “The Lord founded the earth by wisdom and established the heavens by understanding. By His knowledge the watery depths broke open, and the clouds dripped with dew” (HCSB). In Amos 4:13, Amos wrote, “He is here: the One who forms the mountains, creates the wind, and reveals His thoughts to man, the One who makes the dawn out of darkness and strides on the heights of the earth. Yahweh, the God of Hosts, is His name” (HCSB). And John starts his gospel with, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. All things were created through Him, and apart from Him not one thing was created that has been created” (John 1:1-3 HCSB). Indeed, the writers of the Scriptures knew and confirmed the Creation account of Genesis. They knew that God was there at the beginning and will be at the end. Jesus is the Alpha and the Omega. He is the Almighty One. He is the Advocate, the Bread of Life, the Deliverer, the Good Shepherd, the Great High Priest, Faithful and True, the King of Kings, the Lamb of God, the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, the Redeemer, the Rock, the Son of the Most High, Yeshua, the Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. He is truth. And He is love. That’s who Jesus is. But why do we need Him? Those last two attributes for Him (truth and love) have a way of confounding people. Last week, in my post, “The Value of a Man,” I mentioned the culture we are living in, and how the message of the world tells us we can make all our own choices now: choose your own ethnicity, your own gender, your own age, your own value. But the sad truth is that message hasn’t just fallen on the ears of people who have never believed in God. It has fallen on the ears of many professing Christians. A message wrapped in a bow of love. Jesus is love. And love covers it all. You be you, love is love, and Jesus will love you no matter what. Jesus will love you no matter what, but the Bible also tells us that God will not be mocked. Paul says in Galatians 6:7, “Don’t be deceived: God is not mocked. For whatever a man sows he will also reap” (HCSB). One way that we mock God is by knowingly or intentionally sinning, taking advantage of His promise of forgiveness. 1 Although the writers of the Old Testament confirmed the Creation account of Genesis and foretold the coming of the Messiah, many of the people around the time of Jesus’ birth misunderstood the prophecies. They were looking for a strong king and mighty warrior to save them. Many confused His second coming for His first and overlooked the humble Jewish Carpenter. In the same way, many people today are overlooking the fact that Jesus is not just love. He is truth. Not only is He truth, but He taught truth. In Matthew 5-7, Jesus delivered the famous Sermon on the Mount, a collection of instructions not just for the people of that day, but for all His followers from that day until He comes again. He taught us how to pray, how to love, how to give. He told us of the promises of blessings. He told us how He had come to fulfill the Old Testament law. But He also taught against hatred, against murder, against lust, and against sexual immorality. And He ended by describing those who listened to His words: anyone who acts on them He described as “a sensible man,” and anyone who doesn’t as a “foolish man” (Matthew 7:24-26). Jesus came because of His great love for us, and, as Paul said in Romans 5:8, “God proves His own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (HCSB). But Jesus was more than love. He didn’t accept us as sinners, condemned for all eternity. He didn’t condone our sin, and He still doesn’t today. He loved us enough to save us from our sin, from the terrible wrath of God, and from eternal damnation. This is a story that started in Genesis. Death did not exist before Adam sinned. Romans 5:12 says, that “sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, in this way death spread to all men, because all sinned” (HCSB). God’s holiness and justness demanded a consequence for sin, and only Jesus could be that sacrifice. He was blameless, without sin. But just as importantly, He was a human, in the flesh, who could be our Kinsman Redeemer. That’s why it had to be Jesus. Love was the atonement for our sin, the substitution for our death penalty. Love was not a license to sin. Let’s not misunderstand, lest we overlook His return, whether it coincides with Rosh Hashanah this year, another year, or not at all. Eventually, He will be coming, and no man knows the hour. The apostle Peter tells us “the Lord does not delay His promise, as some understand delay, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish but all to come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9 HCSB). If you are a Christian who has wandered down the path of the world’s wisdom and bought into the compromise of sin, take heart. Like the church in Ephesus, repent: “You have abandoned the love you had at first. Remember then how far you have fallen; repent and do the works you did at first” (Revelation 2:4b-5a HCSB). And if you have never placed your faith in the one true living God, today is the best day to do it. You can visit this website for step-by-step instructions and information to get you started on your relationship with Him. Don’t just take my word for it! Visit YouFormedMe.com/people/jesus.html to read, watch, and listen to supporting research and commentary from scientists, doctors, theologians, and more! This blog is from a special series of “Creation Fun Facts” by Terri Kammerzell, starting from June 10, 2020. Read the introduction at TruthOfGenesis.com/blogs/building-a-biblical-defense-of-creation. 1 In the Bible mockery is a behavior and attitude shown by the fool (Psalm 74:22), the wicked (Psalm 1:1), the enemy (Psalm 74:10), the hater of knowledge (Proverbs 1:22; 13:1), the proud (Psalm 119:51; Isaiah 37:17), and the unteachable (Proverbs 15:12). A mocker goes beyond mere lack of judgment to making a conscious decision for evil. Mockers are without a spirit of obedience, teachability, discernment, wisdom, worship, or faith. 1 https://www.gotquestions.org/God-is-not-mocked.html by Terri KammerzellTruth of Genesis Ministry Partner July 26 is “National All or Nothing Day,” and while the origin of the “holiday” is unclear, the philosophy is “seize the day!” Be all in or be all out. What dream, goal, project, or bucket-list item have you been putting off? This Sunday is the day to commit, make a plan, tell your friends, post it to social media, and get it done!
My goal is to remind my friends, family, and as many others as I can that this world and everything in it is owned by its Creator. (Psalm 24:1) But the phrase “all or nothing” reminds me of my favorite Fun Fact: What is irreducible complexity? Sometimes referred to as “all or nothing,” irreducible complexity is a system of interdependent parts: parts that rely upon each other in order to make the whole function. In this case, “all or nothing” is about the design of systems that require certain parts that depend on each other in order to function. And, when one or more of those parts are missing, the system cannot operate. One great example I like goes back to a sermon I heard as a young adult, when my pastor mentioned that an airplane is made up of so many parts—wings, stabilizers, rudders, flaps, engines, etc.—none of which can fly on their own, but when put together, the whole system can transport almost anything you can think of. God, the creative Engineer, built complex systems too: He designed us, the animals, and most of nature around us, both visible and invisible! We’ve already discussed some examples of irreducible complexity, such as the giraffe and the bombardier beetle. Both are animals that defy evolution because their complex designs could not have gradually evolved to what they are. In the giraffe, if his heart didn’t beat as powerfully as it does, and if the spongy tissue at the base of his brain was missing, and if the valves didn’t have a pressure-check system, then the supposed ancestor of the giraffe we see today would not have survived long enough to produce offspring to evolve. All those features had to be in place at once. All or nothing. Similarly, the bombardier beetle, with his gas chambers and his high-pressure nozzle sprayer, could not have evolved one part at a time. From the beginning, the complex system had to be designed just that way. In future weeks, we’ll discuss other amazing examples of irreducible complexity, such as the chuckwalla lizard, the woodpecker, and the human eyes, ears, heart, and brain. But this week, let’s talk more specifically about irreducible complexity in the cells of living beings. Did you know that the average human body is made up of at least 30-40 trillion cells?! And that within each cell are compartments called “organelles.” These compartments are not only carefully organized, but they are interconnected and networked to move calcium, lipids, proteins, sugars, and more to keep you alive! Scientists are discovering that these organelles cannot function independently. Right from the start they had to be designed to work together. Someone had to design them that way! There are many more examples of irreducible complexity even outside my Fun Facts. I would encourage you to visit the page on my website for this Fun Fact, and explore the links I have gathered that will take you to articles, videos, and audio clips about the complexity found in human tears, the knee joint, hemoglobin, blood clotting, the electrical design of the nervous system, weedy plants, fungi, and even the long-time debate of the chicken vs. the egg. In my mind, irreducible complexity is just about the strongest evidence for a Creator. Just like engineers have to design an airplane with all its required parts in order for it to be able to fly, the Engineer had to design our cells, our bodies, and countless systems in animals and nature all over the earth in order for them to function properly. That’s why this is my favorite Fun Fact! And that’s why I wanted to seize the opportunity to tell you about it! Don’t just take my word for it! Visit YouFormedMe.com/humanBody/complexity.html to read, watch, and listen to supporting research and commentary from scientists, doctors, theologians, and more! This blog is from a special series of “Creation Fun Facts” by Terri Kammerzell, starting from June 10, 2020. Read the introduction at TruthOfGenesis.com/blogs/building-a-biblical-defense-of-creation. by Terri Kammerzell Truth of Genesis Ministry Partner With Father’s Day coming this Sunday and graduates being honored this month, how about adding one more reason to celebrate: the giraffe! This Sunday happens to be World Giraffe Day. It’s actually an annual event every June 21, chosen specifically to draw attention to the longest-necked animal (currently living) in the world on the longest day (depending on your hemisphere) of the year.
by Pam BenderTruth of Genesis OK, I’ll admit it. I’m a romantic when it comes to Christmas. It gives me such joy to hear Christmas songs about Jesus on secular radio and in the stores. I find myself singing Christmas songs all day long. “O Come Let Us Adore Him,” “O Holy Night,” “Hark, the Herald Angels Sing,”…all the traditional songs. One of my favorites is more contemporary. It’s “Immanuel” by Michael Card. The lyrics, the musical arrangement and his voice; to me it’s the perfect Christmas song.
When we think of the Christmas story, we remember Jesus as the baby in the manger. We can quite easily forget that this is the same Jesus that spoke Creation into existence. His perfect Creation was ruined by our sin and he willingly chose to become our Savior. Such perfect love. The Word of God, the Great Creator, humbling himself to become human; the Word made flesh for us. Christmas time makes it easier to share with others the birth of Jesus. And to talk about why we need a Savior in the first place. As you prepare for parties, guests, presents and holiday foods, take a few moments to read the Christmas message in Luke 1:26 through Luke 2:40. Then turn to John 1:1-17. Jesus the baby and Jesus the Word made flesh. Immanuel, God with us. Merry Christmas from all of us here at Truth of Genesis! Laura and Dave PowellMinistry Directors - Truth of Genesis A few days ago, our son asked us, “What time can I get you up on Christmas morning if I can’t sleep? Is five too early?” For many years Joshua has found the night time hours between Christmas Eve and Christmas Day to be challenging. He’s so excited about the upcoming exchange of presents, slumber doesn’t come easily, if at all. So, in our pajamas we patter downstairs, at the wake of day, and read the story of the birth of Jesus in the book of Luke. It’s one of the traditions that helps our family focus on the reason for the celebration of such an amazing day in history when love came down and brought hope and joy into the world.
Yesterday our son attended his last day of school before Christmas break. Keeping with school tradition, the closing chapel was a holiday hymn sing. Each class picks a song, and everyone sings while the organ or piano accompanies the Preschool through Eighth grade students and their parents and grandparents. Holiday hymns help us to focus on the prophecies fulfilled by the Savior’s birth, if we concentrate on the lyrics as we sing. Many prophecies are mentioned in the song, “O Come, O Come Emmanuel.” The virgin birth, reclaiming Israel as His own, and the promise that “God is with us,” all are sung about in these rich lyrics. Our pastor recently did a sermon about this song and its ties to scripture to help bring back the song’s purpose, rediscover its meaning and refresh our understanding about why Jesus needed to come into our world. Isaiah 7:14 is where we learn about the virgin birth of Jesus and He is given the tittle, “Immanuel” or “God with us.” “We Three Kings,” helps us to remember the Magi. Today we give gifts at Christmas because the “wise men” opened their treasures and “…offered Him gifts”. But why did they do that? The answer is to fulfill prophesy. Psalm 72: 10 says, “May the kings of Tarshish and of the coastlands render him tribute; may the kings of Sheba and Seba bring gifts!” This was not only accomplished in Bethlehem with Jesus but also fulfilled in the line of David through his son Solomon when he received gifts from the Kings of the world in 2 Chronicles 9:24. To keep the musical theme going on just a bit longer, the song “O little town of Bethlehem” has deep roots in Micah 5:2. This scripture identifies the small town, which is where King David was born, to be the birthplace of the Messiah. Of course, it is well known that Jesus was born in Bethlehem, but did you know that the timing was the result of a tax bill that had been ordered and then appealed by the Jewish people? Four years before the birth of Jesus, a tax had been ordered by Caesar Augustus on some of the territories that he had conquered. To my knowledge there is no Christmas song about taxes. The Jews, like many of us today, didn’t take kindly to the new tax and because the local governor had no authority to address the issue, representatives had to appeal it all the way to Rome. The tax was enforced despite the delegation sent to Caesar, and the tax collectors worked their way South and East. Mary and Joseph reported to their ancestral home (they were living in Nazareth) just in time to report to the census and for the Messiah to be born exactly as the word of God said. Finally, the root, or promise of Jesus the Savior, extends all the way back to Genesis 3. Here sin entered the world and the need for salvation became apparent. The blood of bulls and goats was not enough to cover us. Romans 5:12–21 explains the overall problem of sin and God’s solution of grace through Jesus Christ. The promise of the Redeemer is given in Genesis 3:15, known by many as “the first gospel”. It wasn’t until approximately 2000 B.C, a few thousand years after creation, that the hope of a Savior was repeated to Abraham in Genesis 12: 1-3 and Genesis 21:12. On Christmas morning we will celebrate a baby. The Son of God given to mankind to take away the sins of the world. Maybe we should add a new tradition along with our Bible reading. Verse three of “Joy to the World,” gives us the perspective of our condition. No more let sins or sorrows grow, nor thorns infest the ground. He comes to make His blessings flow far as the curse is found. There is great joy to be found in recognizing the fulfillment of prophecies through Christ’s birth, including the one that showed us from the beginning that a Savior would make a way for us to be right with the Father. Let earth receive Her King! References: The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles. Matthew Henry Commentary on the Whole Bible. Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary page 810. The Promise, Hal Lindsey 1974. by Dave PowellTruth of Genesis, Founder and Director Earth Day is just like it sounds. It is a day dedicated to protecting planet Earth from the negative impacts of harmful environmental concerns. Earth Day occurs each year on April 22, which signifies the anniversary of the start of the environmental movement in 1970. Gaylord Nelson, a U.S. Senator from Wisconsin, is the founder of Earth Day. He founded the day after realizing the impacts of a massive oil spill in Santa Barbara, California.
|
Archives
December 2020
Categories
All
|