In This Edition:

Holy Disgust

Are You Laboring In Vain?

Grateful for What We Prayed For

Grace And Peace

What We Believe

As the Wheel Turns

The Power of Will

How Do You Wrestle a Spirit?

Many Voices, One Sound

Big Bang Inflation Officially Bites the Dust

Pray Through And Only Believe

“We need to read up once more on Eldad and Medad (Numbers 11:26-29) and the disciples who complained about an “outsider” who was casting out demons (Mark 9:38-41). Sam Jones said, “It’s mighty hard to say ‘Amen’ in the other fellow’s meeting!””

~Vance Havner

The rebuke of sectarianism (Luke 9: 49-50)

And John answered him, saying, Master, we saw one casting out devils in thy name, and he followeth not us: and we forbad him, because he followeth not us. But Jesus said, Forbid him not: for there is no man which shall do a miracle in my name, that can lightly speak evil of me. For he that is not against us is on our part. For whosoever shall give you a cup of water to drink in my name, because ye belong to Christ, verily I say unto you, he shall not lose his reward.

Mark 9:38-41 — King James Version

“A family member, discussing a distant relative, said, “He’s getting on in the world.” From her chair, Grandmother asked, “Which world?””

~Vance Havner

Holy Disgust

By Vance Havner

Therefore I will look unto the Lord; I will wait for the God of my salvation: my God will hear me.
Micah 7:7

“Therefore” looks back to Micah’s complaint, found in the preceding verses. It was an evil time. Micah found no good man about him. Men in authority worked in collusion to do evil. No confidence could be put in people, even in one’s family. It reads like the morning newspaper!

But Micah was not left without an alternative. He looked unto the Lord. It is a fine thing when a man in high and holy disgust and distrust of the world around him turns to the world above him. Tired of all else, he thirsts for the living God in a dry and thirsty land where no water is.

Are You Laboring In Vain?

by Pastor Ricky Kurth

“Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord” (I Corinthians 15:58).

What wonderful words of assurance! Who among us has not felt, at some time or another, that our labor for the Lord is in vain? At such times, what a comfort it is to rest in this unconditional, unqualified, God-given guarantee that our labors for Him are not in vain!

But how could Paul say such a thing, in light of his words to the Galatians, where he said,

“I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain” (Galatians 4:11).

Here the apostle seems to fear that his labors to establish the Galatians in the doctrines of grace would be in vain if they continued to hanker after the Law.

And what about Philippians 2:16, where Paul exhorts the Philippians to be:

“Holding forth the word of life; that I may rejoice in the day of Christ, that I have not run in vain, neither laboured in vain.”

Here it sounds as if Paul’s labor would be in vain if the Philippians failed to hold forth the word of life, and follow his other instructions in this passage.

Then to top it off, there is also I Thessalonians 3:5 to consider, where Paul told the Thessalonians,

“…I sent to know your faith, lest by some means the tempter have tempted you, and our labour be in vain.”

Here again, Paul appears apprehensive that all of the labor he had bestowed upon God’s people might be in vain if the temptations of the tempter succeeded in luring the Thessalonians away from the faith.

In view of statements like these, how could Paul state so categorically that the labor of the Corinthians was not in vain? Did they do better work than he did? Surely not! We feel the answer lies in the assurance Paul gave them that their labor was not in vain “in the Lord.” While it was possible that the labor of even the great apostle Paul might be in vain in the Galatians, in the Philippians, and in the Thessalonians, it is not possible that any of our labors are in vain in the Lord.

Why is that? Well, remember that Paul says of the Judgment Seat of Christ that “every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labour” (I Corinthians 3:8). Notice that we are going to be rewarded according to our labor, not according to the fruit of our labor. That is, God intends to reward us based upon our faithfulness, not on the faithfulness of those upon whom we bestow our labor. If this were not so, even Paul’s rewards would be few, for after all of the labor he extended in Asia, all in Asia turned away from him (II Timothy 1:15).

And so if the unfaithfulness of the ones upon whom you bestow your spiritual labor has you thinking that all of your efforts have gone for nought, remember that your labor might be in vain in them, but your labor is not in vain in the Lord. You have God’s Word on it!

Of course, if there isn’t going to be a Judgment Seat of Christ, then your labor for the Lord is in vain. If the reader is wondering why we might say something like that, remember that some among the Corinthians were insisting that there is no such thing as the resurrection of the dead (I Corinthians 15:12). And if there is no resurrection, there will be no Judgment Seat to follow, and if there isn’t going to be a Judgment Seat, then our labor is in vain! This progressive faulty reasoning was threatening to bring all labor for the Lord in Corinth to a screeching halt! No wonder the apostle begins this resurrection chapter by first assuring the Corinthians that their faith was not “in vain” (15:2,14,17), then moved on to assure them that their labor was not in vain.

While some spiritual leaders avoid teaching doctrine because doctrine is, in their minds, not very practical, the apostle Paul was of another mind. Disbelief in the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead was threatening to put a stranglehold on the faith and labor of the saints at Corinth, but the airtight case Paul made for the resurrection in this blessed chapter explains why he could say we “therefore” have all the incentive we need to be “always abounding in the work of the Lord.”

And so if sometimes it feels like you are just spinning your wheels and getting nowhere with people as you labor for the Lord, we close with yet another unconditional promise from the apostle of grace:

“And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not” (Galatians6:9).

Grateful for What We Prayed For

May 29, 2015

A certain man of Zorah, named Manoah, from the clan of the Danites, had a wife who was childless, unable to give birth. The angel of the LORD appeared to her and said, “You are barren and childless, but you are going to become pregnant and give birth to a son.” — Judges 13:2–3

The Torah portion for this week is Naso, which means “count,” from Numbers 4:21–7:89, and the Haftorah is from Judges 13:2–25.

I recently read an inspiring story about an Israeli couple, Shlomo and Shiraz, who had struggled for years with fertility issues. Finally, after six years of disappointment, the couple found out that they were expecting twins! Their prayers had been answered abundantly, and when the time came, two healthy children – one girl and one boy – were born. But the story does not stop there.

Shortly after the birth of the twins, Shlomo and Shiraz discovered that their son had Down syndrome. However, these joy-filled parents explained how they never felt despair from the news — only endless love and gratitude for the gift of their child. Shiraz admits that without the six hard years of longing for a child, she may not have been able to handle the news as gracefully as she did. In fact, studies have shown that approximately one-third of parents who give birth to children with Down syndrome abandon their babies in the hospital. But for Shlomo and Shiraz, their son was a gift that they greatly cherished even if he came in packaging that was different than expected.

The title of Shlomo’s new book which tells the family’s story, This Is the Son That I Prayed For, says it all. Sometimes our prayers are answered in ways that we didn’t expect, but they are answered nonetheless. Moreover, sometimes God waits for the right moment to answer our prayers – sometimes a very long time – so that we might recognize His answer for the blessing that it truly is.

In this week’s Haftorah reading, we learn about another Israelite woman who struggled with having children. We know her only as the wife of Manoah and future mother of Samson, the great hero of Israel. She, too, prayed for many long years for a child. Finally, an angel appeared to her and told her that while she was technically barren, she would become pregnant and give birth. However, there was a caveat. Her son would be a Nazarite from even before his birth, and many restrictions would apply to him and her as well.

He would be dedicated to God from birth and would be destined to lead Israel. Perhaps, had Samson’s mother received such news the first time she prayed for a son, she might have been upset. Why must her child be singled out from the rest? Why must he be taken from her and given over to God? Yet after years of praying and waiting, all she could feel was joy and gratitude.

Friends, don’t be discouraged when prayers aren’t answered right away. Sometimes, it’s just not the right time. Keep praying and keep believing – and then be thankful for what you have prayed for!

With prayers for shalom, peace,

Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein

Grace And Peace

by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam

For many years this writer, along with the mass of religious people, supposed that the Bible phrase “grace and peace be unto you” was simply a beautiful, spiritual salutation. Thank God we have come to learn that it is much more than a salutation. It is an official proclamation.

Every single one of the epistles signed by the Apostle Paul opens with the declaration: “Grace be unto you and peace, from God the Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.” This was the theme of the message which he, as a duly appointed ambassador, had been sent to proclaim.

To appreciate this fully we must remember that God had declared in prophecy that He would reply to the world’s rejection of Christ with judgment. Psalm 110:1 pictures the Father saying to the Son: “Sit Thou at My right hand, until I make Thine enemies Thy footstool.” Psalm 2:5 declares: “Then shall He speak unto them in His wrath, and vex them in His sore displeasure.”

After the crucifixion and ascension of Christ it seemed that all was ready for the judgment to fall. As the signs of Pentecost appeared Peter declared: “This is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel” (Acts 2:16) and it did indeed look as if the rejected Lord was about to return to “judge and make war,” as Revelation 19:11 puts it. But now, instead of judgment and war, St. Paul proclaims grace and peace. Does this not indicate that in grace God interrupted the prophetic program to bring in the present dispensation under which God’s ambassadors proclaim with Paul:

“But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound; that as sin hath reigned… so might grace reign” (Romans 5:20,21).

Indeed, Paul the former persecutor was himself the living demonstration of God’s grace to a Christ-rejecting world. In I Timothy 1:15,16 he declares:

“This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief.

“Howbeit, for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show forth all longsuffering, for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on Him to life everlasting.”

What We Believe

by Pastor Paul M. Sadler

Scripture Reading:

“Who also hath made us able ministers of the New Testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.”
— II Corinthians 3:6

We have been hearing from a good number of our readers who are confused, perplexed and even concerned over the doctrine of the New Covenant. Apparently there are a number of strange teachings floating around the Grace Movement on this subject, which has given rise for alarm among some of the brethren.

It is our firm conviction that the Body of Christ falls under the umbrella of the New Covenant. Paul clearly teaches in Romans that we are partakers of Israel’s spiritual blessings (Romans 15:27 cf. Ephesians 1:3-14). There is absolutely no possibility that this could refer to anything other than the New Covenant. One thing that should never be overlooked, however, is the fact that Israel received it by promise whereas we are the glad recipients of it by grace (Jeremiah 31:31 cf. Titus 2:11).

As we know, one of the principal blessings of the New Covenant is the blood of Christ. This particular element can never be divorced from the covenant nor should it be. We have often said that if the Body of Christ has no connection to this covenant whatsoever, then our Savior must return a second time to die for the Gentiles. To us this is unthinkable. Christ died “once for all” (Hebrews 10:9-12). Furthermore, the New Covenant shows that there is a connection between the two programs of God which highlights His eternal purpose. Surely, He is Lord of all.

Who could fail to see that Paul charges us to remember the blood of this covenant until the Lord comes: “This cup is the New Testament [Covenant] in my blood: this do ye… in remembrance of me. For as often as ye [Members of His Body] eat this bread and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord’s death till He come” (I Corinthians 11:23-26).

As the Wheel Turns

May 31, 2015

It is God who judges:
He brings one down, he exalts another. — Psalm 75:7

A Jewish folktale is told about a young couple who lived around the 12^th century. The couple was newly married and still getting to know each other. The wife knew that her husband had previously been extremely poor to the point where he was a beggar. The husband knew that his wife had been previously married but was abandoned by her spouse. Now, the new husband was an extremely successful businessman, and the two were very happy.

The wife had a tradition. Every day she would prepare a feast for lunch and her husband would close his business to come home and enjoy the meal with his wife. One day, as they had just begun to eat, there was a knock at the door. The husband opened the door to find a beggar pleading for food. The husband, who remembered what it was like to be in such dire circumstances, told the poor man that he could enjoy the entire meal prepared by his wife; then once the poor man finished eating every last morsel, he was sent away with a bag full of coins.

After the beggar left, the husband noticed that his wife looked pale and he asked her what was wrong. She replied: “In my first marriage, I also prepared an exquisite lunch just as I do for us. One day, a beggar came to our door as I sat down to eat with my husband. My husband, however, yelled at the poor man and sent him away with nothing. After that, we lost all of our money and my husband left me.”

The wife continued, “That beggar who came today was my previous husband.” Her husband replied, “I know.” “But how?” asked the wife. Her husband replied: “I was the beggar that came to your door.”

In Psalm 75 we read: “It is God who judges: He brings one down, he exalts another.” The Jewish sages comment that riches and poverty are from God. Often, when a rich man misuses his resources, God impoverishes him and enriches someone more deserving.

For those of us who have been blessed with much, the message is that our material possessions and wealth can all be gone in a moment. Therefore, it is our duty to use what God has given us appropriately. For the less fortunate, the underlying message is that God can change our situation around in just one moment. Life is not stagnant; think of it like a wheel that turns. What is up today can be down tomorrow.

It is best to always keep in mind that our current situation is not necessarily our permanent destination — no matter what our situation may be today. Our job is to serve God as best as we can within the circumstances that we find ourselves in today – knowing that everything can be completely different tomorrow.

With prayers for shalom, peace,

Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein

The Power of Will

June 1, 2015

But some of them could not celebrate the Passover on that day because they were ceremonially unclean on account of a dead body. So they came to Moses and Aaron that same day and said to Moses, “We have become unclean because of a dead body, but why should we be kept from presenting the LORD’s offering with the other Israelites at the appointed time?” — Numbers 9:6-7

The Torah portion for this week is Behaalotecha, which means “when you raise up,” from Numbers 8:1–12:16, and the Haftorah is from Zechariah 2:14–4:7.

This week’s reading finds us exactly one year after the Exodus from Egypt. In the desert, the Israelites celebrated the second Passover in history. From that time onward, Passover would be celebrated every year in an unbroken chain of tradition.

However, unlike other holy days prescribed in the Bible, there is something unique about Passover. Scripture teaches that if someone was unable to celebrate the holiday at the designated time – which in those days meant bringing the Passover offering along with the other traditions still observed today – they could celebrate the holiday one month later. In Temple times, there were certain conditions which designated a person as unfit to bring a sacrifice, such as coming into contact with a dead body. Or perhaps someone simply wasn’t able to make it to the Temple on time. In those cases, individuals were given a second chance to observe the holiday. In Hebrew, the date of this “Second Passover” is called Pesach Sheni, and it is a day that we remember even today.

Yet, the question begs to be asked: Why is this holy day given a make-up date when no other holiday on the Jewish calendar is afforded such a convenience? There is no second Day of Atonement, no second Day of Judgment, no second Feast of Tabernacles. If you missed it, you missed it.

The answer is very simple. A look at Numbers Chapter 9 reveals that the people asked for it. There was a group of people who weren’t able to celebrate Passover during its designated time, but their desire to serve the Lord in this manner was so great that they begged Moses for a second chance. After checking with God on the matter, the request was granted.

Consider the fact that the sincere desire of these people to serve God had the power to literally shape the Word of God! Had they never asked, the day would never have existed. Had they never ached to serve God, the opportunity would not have been created. Such power our desire to serve God has!

Thousands of years ago, there was a Torah academy that only admitted students who truly desired to serve God. How could the Jewish sages tell who was sincere? They placed locks on the doors of the study hall. Those who really wanted to learn figured out a way to get in. Nothing stood in their way.

In Judaism, there is a saying, “Nothing can stand in the face of one’s will.” If a person really wants to accomplish something, nothing can stand in his or her way. Next time you perceive an obstacle in your way, know that you can overcome it. All it takes is desire, determination, and most importantly, the will to persevere.

With prayers for shalom, peace,

Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein

How Do You Wrestle a Spirit?

by Pastor Ricky Kurth

“For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places” (Ephesians 6:12).

Wrestling is a sport that is usually associated with boys and men, only a few of whom engaged in organized wrestling in high school or college.  But whether you are a man or a woman, the Apostle Paul says that you are engaged in a life-long wrestling match against the members of Satan’s host.

But did you ever wonder how you are supposed to wrestle a spirit?  And what is this wrestling match all about, anyway?  Paul doesn’t say, but we believe he was thinking of Daniel 10.  Here an angel was sent to Daniel to deliver a message from God, but a fallen angel “withstood” him for 21 days (vv. 11-14).  Since Paul says of our wrestling match that we must “withstand” (Ephesians 6:13), we feel he had this passage in mind, especially when we consider what was happening in Daniel 10.  The Prince of Persia, one of “the rulers of the darkness of this world,” was fighting to keep a message from God from getting through to a man of God.  It is our firm conviction that “the rulers of the darkness of this world” are still fighting to keep a message from God from getting through to men and women of God—the grace message.  Today, however, God is not using angels to deliver His message to His people, He is using grace believers.  Because of this, the members of Satan’s host are no longer withstanding angels, they are withstanding us.

And so if you’ve been wondering how you are supposed to wrestle against the devil’s principalities and powers, wonder no more.  Every time you share the grace message with someone, you walk out onto the wrestling mat.  Every time you try to “make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery” (Ephesians 3:9), you engage your wicked opponent.  And every dollar you invest in grace ministries helps defeat the adversary’s attempts to keep men and women of God from obtaining the message that unlocks the Scriptures, the preaching of Jesus Christ according to the revelation of the mystery.  Why not reach someone with the message today, and know the thrill of pinning a Satanic combatant to the mat, and liberating a bewildered believer from the dark shackles of religious tradition that envelope every saint who has not yet learned to rightly divide the Word of truth.

Many Voices, One Sound

June 2, 2015

“When you go into battle in your own land against an enemy who is oppressing you, sound a blast on the trumpets. Then you will be remembered by the LORD your God and rescued from your enemies. Also at your times of rejoicing—your appointed festivals and New Moon feasts—you are to sound the trumpets over your burnt offerings and fellowship offerings, and they will be a memorial for you before your God. I am the LORD your God.” — Numbers 10:9–10

The Torah portion for this week is Behaalotecha, which means “when you raise up,” from Numbers 8:1–12:16, and the Haftorah is from Zechariah 2:14–4:7.

There’s a story in the Jewish tradition about a renowned elder rabbi who escorted his wife to the doctor. As the elderly couple sat before the doctor, he inquired why they had come, and the rabbi replied, “Our foot is hurting us.” Such was the unity between this husband and wife. Her pain was his pain, and they worked together to find a cure.

In this week’s Torah portion, we learn that God had commanded Moses to create two silver trumpets. These trumpets were to be sounded in unison before battle, at times of travel, and also to usher in festive times such as the New Moon, the festivals, and when the fellowship offerings were brought. What was the purpose of these trumpets? And why was it necessary to have two?

The Jewish sages explain that the trumpets were a call to prayer. During all the aforementioned times, prayer was appropriate. Before battle, when danger was palpable, the people were called to turn to God. When it was time to travel, not a simple or necessarily safe feat in ancient times, it was time to turn to God in prayer. Likewise, in joyful times, prayer was appropriate as a sign of gratitude and to bring glory to God’s name.

The sages also point out that the Hebrew word for trumpets – chatzotzrot – is the combination of two other Hebrew words: chatzi and tzurot, which means “half bodies.” This play on words teaches us that each trumpet alone was only half of a whole. Only when the two trumpets were blown together was the sound full and whole. This is why two trumpets were necessary at these momentous occasions. Only together could the two trumpets have the desired power and influence over the people.

Similarly, when we pray, our own voices are only “half bodies.” But when we pray in unison with others, our “half body” becomes whole. Just as two pieces of wood can bear more weight together than the sum of what they can each bear on their own, so, too, are our prayers stronger together. When a group of people all pray for the same thing, our prayers are stronger and more powerful than if we were each praying on our own.

Friends of Israel, I invite you to pray together with us. I hope that the pain of Israel is your pain and that the joys of Israel are your joy. Let’s all join together in praying for the peace of Jerusalem. Together, our voices will sound out like the trumpets and our prayers will be heard.

With prayers for shalom, peace,

Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein

Big Bang Inflation Officially Bites the Dust

The Rise and Fall of Bogus Evidence

In March of 2014, a wave of media attention was given to an announcement by cosmologists who gathered data at the South Pole using a special telescope (BICEP₂). The headlines were bold.

• “Theory No More? Scientists Make ‘Big Bang’ Breakthrough with Find” (2014, emp. added).
• “Space Ripples Reveal Big Bang’s Smoking Gun” (Overbye, 2014, emp. added).
• “Big Bang’s ‘Smoking Gun’ Confirms Early Universe’s Exponential Growth” (Vergano, 2014, emp. added).
• “Scientists Find Cosmic Ripples from Birth of Universe” (2014, emp. added).
• “First Wrinkles in Spacetime Confirm Cosmic Inflation” (Cho and Bhattacharjee, 2014, p. 1296, emp. added).
• “The recent discovery of gravitational waves emerging from the Big Bang may point a way forward” (Afshordi, et al., 2014, p. 40, emp. added).
• “Detecting primordial gravitational waves is the closest thing to a proof of inflation that we are ever going to get” (Clark, 2014, p. 34, emp. added).

Apparently, inflation was proven. The facts were in. Empirical evidence for the beginning moments of the Big Bang had finally surfaced.

Under the Big Bang model, the Universe is theorized to be expanding outward from the point in space where the cosmic egg allegedly “exploded.” During the first moments after the Big Bang, Universal expansion occurred faster than the speed of light, according to the theory, and this is known as inflation. However, no direct evidence has ever substantiated the claim that the Universe inflated in the violent way implied by the Theory—only circumstantial evidence. According to the model, gravitational waves would accompany the initial, rapid expansion immediately after the “bang,” but no direct evidence has ever surfaced for their existence. The new discovery was hailed as the “first direct evidence” of Universal inflation (“Theory No More?…,” 2014; “Scientists Find Cosmic Ripples…,” 2014; Landau, 2014).

Subsequently, we published an article responding to the claims (cf. Miller, 2014). In typical fashion, we highlighted the rashness of modern naturalists and the media, who make wild claims without adequate evidence. The announcements are loud, and the retractions tend to be soft. Sure enough, within three months, by June of 2014, the alleged findings were studied further, and the excitement of the celebration began to rapidly evaporate. Nature published an article titled, “Big Bang Finding Challenged,” arguing that the signal from the alleged gravitational waves

was too weak to be significant, studies suggest…. [T]he new analyses suggest that the twisting patterns in the CMB polarization could just as easily be accounted for by dust in the Milky Way…. [W]hen the dust is fully accounted for, the signal that can be attributed to gravitational waves either vanishes or is greatly diminished (Cowen, 2014, emp. added).

Theoretical physicist of New York University and the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton, Raphael Flauger, examined the evidence and concluded that “there’s no evidence for the detection of gravitational waves” (as quoted in Cowen, 2014, emp. added). Based on two independent analyses of the evidence, Nature concluded, “The astronomers who earlier this year announced that they had evidence of primordial gravitational waves jumped the gun” (Cowen, 2014, emp. added). In Nature, theoretical physicist and professor at Princeton Paul Steinhardt said that “serious flaws in the analysis have been revealed that transform the sure detection into no detection” (2014). In an October follow-up, Nature reported in an editorial titled “Dust to Dust,”

More than six months after the initial announcement that scientists had found evidence of gravitational waves—echoes of the Big Bang itself—the claim is hanging by a thread. Subsequent analysis showed that much of the signal could have been contaminated by galactic dust. The predictions of Nobel prizes for the team have faded. The champagne has gone flat. Extraordinary claims, as the saying almost goes, demand more scrutiny than usual to make sure they stand up (2014, emp. added).

The other major science news magazines gradually weighed in as well, distancing themselves from the claims made by the researchers. In June, New Scientist had conducted an interview with Andrei Linde, who is credited as one of the originators of cosmic inflationary theory. Linde said “they were a bit over-optimistic, and claiming the discovery of gravitational waves may have been premature” (as quoted in Schilling, 2014, emp. added), although he was quick to allege that the growing skepticism about the gravitational waves discovery in no way disproves his theory of cosmic inflation. Then in October, 2014, New Scientist reported that the data results from the Planck telescope “suggest that dust could indeed account for the pattern BICEP₂ detected” (Slezak, 2014). The article, titled “The Rise and Fall of Cosmic Inflation,” stated, “Inflation is dead, long live inflation! The very results hailed this year as demonstrating a consequence of inflationary models of the universe…may now do the exact opposite. If the results can be trusted at all, they seemingly suggest inflation is wrong” (Slezak, emp. added). David Parkinson of the University of Queensland in Australia studied the waves to determine if they were the correct kind of waves to fit inflationary theory and discovered that they were not. “Contrary to what the BICEP₂ collaboration said initially, Parkinson’s analysis suggests that the BICEP₂ results, if legitimate, actually rule out any reasonable form of inflationary theory. ‘What inflation predicted was actually the reverse of what we found,’ says Parkinson” (as quoted in Slezak, emp. added). Not good for the Big Bang Theory, which relies on inflation to fix the Horizon and Flatness problems inherent in naturalistic cosmological theories.

In September, American Scientist chimed in, reporting that

cosmologists say the much-heralded claim may have been premature. The findings, if true, would provide the first direct observational evidence for cosmic inflation, a theory that posits that the universe expanded exponentially during the first fractions of a second of its existence…. New observations indicate that the team may have underestimated polarization from relatively nearby dust in our galaxy. Some or all of the signal originally attributed to primordial gravitational waves could be due to effects of local dust (Burke, 2014, emp. added).

Also in September, Science ran an article titled “Evidence for Cosmic Inflation Wanes,” with the sub-title, “The biggest result in cosmology in a decade fades into dust” (Cho, 2014, emp. added). In the issue, Princeton cosmologist David Spergel said, “We’ve gone from ‘They can’t prove that it isn’t dust’ to ‘It’s probably dust’” (as quoted in Cho). Cosmologist at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland Charles Bennett, mercifully said, “They just got overenthusiastic, but it’s tough to know when you really have something” (as quoted in Cho, emp. added).

Nature, New Scientist, American Scientist, Science, and finally, Scientific American jumped into the fray, reporting in October concerning the alleged gravitational waves discovery that

in the intervening months, the Planck satellite has reported new measurements that indicate the Milky Way may contain more dust than assumed by the BICEP₂ team. Several groups have…concluded that it is possible that dust could reproduce all (or most of) the claimed BICEP₂ polarization signal. Although these developments have dampened the exuberance of many in the physics community regarding the BICEP₂ result, the BICEP₂ team stands by its estimates—but it now admits that it cannot rule out a dust explanation (Krauss, 2014, p. 66, emp. added).

The printers were relatively silent over the next few months until late January, 2015, when Nature announced the official demise of the gravitational waves discovery under the title, “Gravitational Waves Discovery Now Officially Dead” (Cowen, 2015, emp. added). The team of astronomers that thought they had found the waves withdrew their claim, acknowledging that what they thought was gravitational waves from the Big Bang “can be entirely attributed to dust in the Milky Way rather than having a more ancient, cosmic origin” (Cowen, emp. added).

What Can Be Learned From This Debacle?

It was fun while it lasted,” New Scientist reported in February (McKee, 2015), but what do we learn from the bumpy ride? At the risk of beating a dead horse, let us say yet again: the modern scientific (i.e., naturalistic) community and the liberal media are consistently rash in their claims to have found evidence for naturalistic theories, and sadly, the general populace is quick to believe whatever they say. By the time the retraction is made, the damage is done. Mainstream Americans, whose attention spans are shockingly short due to the many distractions in our lives, have already moved on, believing that the truth has been officially determined. Many times, the “truth” being proclaimed is contrary to the Bible. The result: more and more individuals distrust the Bible, when all the while, the story that instigated the disbelief was wrong in the first place.

Even the evolutionary scientific community has had to admit its rashness in this instance. In September, 2014, Science reported, “A beleaguered claim that appeared to reveal the workings of the big bang may instead say more about how science is done in an age of incessant news coverage” (Cho). Science, which was one of the first to announce the alleged discovery, proceeded to pass the blame to the researchers. “Some researchers say the BICEP team made its result seem much stronger than it was by announcing it in a press conference and a press release that proclaimed the ‘first direct evidence of cosmic inflation’” (Cho). The BICEP₂ team returned fire, arguing that they “felt pressure from the media to stake a definite claim, [University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, cosmologist Clement] Pryke says: ‘They’re trying to translate this into something that the public can understand, and they want a yes or no’” (Cho). In line with what we have long argued, Steinhardt concurred: “The sudden reversal should make the scientific community contemplate the implications for the future of cosmology experimentation and theory” (2014). Chiding the irresponsibility of the scientific community and the media for their rashness in reporting the gravitational waves discovery, he admonished that next time,

announcements should be made after submission to journals and vetting by expert referees. If there must be a press conference, hopefully the scientific community and the media will demand that it is accompanied by a complete set of documents, including details of the systematic analysis and sufficient data to enable objective verification (2014).

We are not holding our breath that the scientific community will listen to his admonitions. First, it is critical that researchers and media gain attention for  their discoveries or stories if they want to gain grant money, Nobel Prizes, or Pulitzers (and fame). And second, if solid, empirical evidence were required for every claim made by naturalists, the majority of evolutionary biological information would cease to exist, as well as all of Big Bang cosmology, modern paleoanthropology, and uniformitarian geology. Nature, acknowledging the blunder by the media in how the supposed discovery was handled, but simultaneously claiming innocence, reported a meeting in October of the Council for the Advancement of Science Writing, at which a panel of scientists and journalists would “search for ‘lessons learned by scientists and science writers involved with the BICEP₂’ story” (“Dust to Dust,” p. 274).

After citing the official retraction by the BICEP₂ team, New Scientist summarized the state of Big Bang inflation as it currently stands:

The discovery of the apparent gravitational waves was hailed as the “smoking gun” for a theory that the infant universe experienced an epic growth spurt known as inflation. Physicists popped corks in elation and dreamed of a Nobel prize. But 11 months later, this smoking gun has itself gone up in smoke, and researchers are nursing a hangover. “We are pretty much back to where we were before,” says Alan Guth of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who proposed the theory of inflation in 1981 (McKee, 2015).

So where were we before?

In the midst of the fray in 2014, Paul Steinhardt, “who helped develop inflationary theory but is now a scathing critic of it” (Slezak), wrote a stinging critique of inflation and its alleged evidence from the gravitational waves. He argued that “[p]remature hype over gravitational waves highlights gaping holes in models for the origins and evolution of the Universe” (Steinhardt, 2014). He said,

The BICEP₂ incident has also revealed a truth about inflationary theory. The common view is that it is a highly predictive theory. If that was the case and the detection of gravitational waves was the “smoking gun” proof of inflation, one would think that non-detection means that the theory fails. Such is the nature of normal science. Yet some proponents of inflation who celebrated the BICEP₂ announcement already insist that the theory is equally valid whether or not gravitational waves are detected. How is this possible? The answer given by proponents is alarming: the inflationary paradigm is so flexible that it is immune to experimental and observational tests…. [T]he paradigm of inflation is unfalsifiable…. [I]t is clear that the inflationary paradigm is fundamentally untestable, and hence scientifically meaningless (2014, emp. added).

And that, folks, is the state of inflationary theory—and, we might add, the Big Bang Theory, upon which it rests.

REFERENCES

Afshordi, Niayesh, Robert B. Mann, and Razieh Pourhasan (2014), “The Black Hole at the Beginning of Time,” Scientific American, 311[2]:36-43, August.

Burke, Katie (2014), “Big Bang Breakthrough Disputed,” American Scientist, 102[5]:329, September-October.

Cho, Adrian (2014), “Evidence for Cosmic Inflation Wanes,” Science, 345[6204]:1547, September 26.

Cho, Adrian and Yudhijit Bhattacharjee (2014), “First Wrinkles in Spacetime Confirm Cosmic Inflation,” Science, 343[6177]:1296-1297, March 21.

Clark, Stuart (2014), “The End of the Beginning,” New Scientist, 222[2966]:32-35, April 26.

Cowen, Ron (2014), “Big Bang Finding Challenged,” Nature, 510[7503]:20, June 5.

Cowen, Ron (2015), “Gravitational Waves Discovery Now Officially Dead,” Nature.com, January 30, http://www.nature.com/news/gravitational-waves-discovery-now-officially-dead-1.16830.

“Dust to Dust” (2014), Nature, Editorial, 514[7522]:273-274, October 16.

Krauss, Lawrence M. (2014), “A Beacon from the Big Bang,” Scientific American, 311[4]:58-67, October.

Landau, Elizabeth (2014), “Big Bang Breakthrough Announced; Gravitational Waves Detected,” CNNTech On-line, March 18, http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/17/tech/innovation/big-bang-gravitational-waves/.

McKee, Maggie (2015), “Big Bang Discovery Crumbles to Dust,” New Scientist, 225[3007]:10, February 7.

Miller, Jeff (2014), “Was the Big Bang Just Proven by Astronomers?” Reason & Revelation, 34[6]:81-83, June, http://apologeticspress.org/apPubPage.aspx?pub=1&issue=1156.

Overbye, Dennis (2014), “Space Ripples Reveal Big Bang’s Smoking Gun,” New York Times On-line, March 17, http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/18/science/space/detection-of-waves-in-space-buttresses-landmark-theory-of-big-bang.html?_r=0.

Schilling, Govert (2014), “Making Cosmic Waves,” One Minute Interview, New Scientist, 222[2974]:27, June 21.

“Scientists Find Cosmic Ripples from Birth of Universe” (2014), Fox News On-line, March 17, http://www.foxnews.com/science/2014/03/17/major-discovery-smoking-gun-for-big-bang-expansion-found/.

Slezak, Michael (2014), “The Rise and Fall of Cosmic Inflation,” New Scientist, 224[2989]:8, October 4.

Steinhardt, Paul (2014), “Big Bang Blunder Bursts the Multiverse Bubble,” Nature, 510[7503]:9, June 5.

“Theory No More? Scientists Make ‘Big Bang’ Breakthrough with Find” (2014), Fox News Mobile, March 18, http://www.foxnews.mobi/quickPage.html?page=22995&external=2582508.proteus.fma#quickPage_html_page_22995_content_102688773_pageNum_2.

Vergano, Dan (2014), “Big Bang’s ‘Smoking Gun’ Confirms Early Universe’s Exponential Growth,” National Geographic Daily News, March 17, http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/14/140317-big-bang-gravitational-waves-inflation-science-space/#.UymgsYXDWRg.

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Pray Through And Only Believe

By Vance Havner

And as he passed over Penuel, the sun rose upon him and he halted upon his thigh.
Genesis 32:31

The “Pray It Through” and “Take It By Faith” schools have argued through the centuries and many a soul has been confused thereby. Some have “sought” and “tarried” and exhausted themselves agonizing to no avail. Others have mistaken laziness of passivity and have made a feigned faith an excuse for not resolutely pressing through to God. There is truth in both schools: one must mean business and come to a point of crisis; but, still, all we get from God simple faith must take.

Jacob did not win by wrestling. God crippled him and he ended by clinging. Sunrise at Penuel found him limping, but he had power with God and men. Paul did not pray through until his thorn was removed, but he learned to take by faith grace sufficient for each day. Jacob meant business and so did Paul. But beyond that they walked by simple faith and obedience. It may take wrestling to reach the point of abandonment. After that we cling in humble dependence.