There's been a horrible tragedy in my eldest brother's family Sunday. His brother-in-law Brandon Abeita was murdered in Sweetwater during an argument with an acquaintance of his who shot him in the throat. He would later die on his way to the hospital. Luckily they found the one responsible and is currently in jail. It's believed that someone I once went to school with sold the gun to the guy that killed Brandon and it's believed the killer may be part of a local gang around this area. Hopefully they'll all wind up behind bars soon.
When my sister-in-law found out about her brother's murder she was hysterical and her mother was actually admitted to the hospital herself because of how high her blood pressure got from hearing about her son's death. She may never fully recover from this ordeal. So please say some prayers for my brothers family and mine too.
Greg Bollinger's Posts (13)
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Last saturday we had our Wind Festival. A new burger place had opened up here in town called The Lumberyard; because it used to be the old lumberyard building. We had all kinds of venders and entertainment. But there was also a tragedy that day. An 8th grade boy was killed. My sister told me that he chased up a tree by some kids and he fell out of it and broke his neck. My sister-in-law said that he hanged himself because he was being picked on at school. I also found out that this boy was a friend of my nephew Alec.
Please keep his family in your prayers as they deal with the loss of their son, and the students and faculty of the school as well.
Last week we finally got a new pastor at our church. He's from Arkansas and his name is Adam Davis. Before he came we had had an interim pastor named Dr. James Shields, who is a teacher at Abilene Christian University, for about 11 months.
One of the things I'm really looking forward to is sunday night when he gets into things like apologetics and other things like that. He wants to mix things up on sunday and wednesdays nights so everything won't be so routine all the time. That would be a nice change in pace, I'm kind of tired of the same routine all the time.
In the meantime I may try to get the position of youth minister, because we really need one.
And speaking of jobs, in 2 weeks I may get a job at the Nolan County Animal Control Office with another friend of mine named Shawn.
We also had Cinco de Mayo in town today. They had a parade and live music. They had a little more stuff this year than they had in the last couple of years. I even got to check out a new store that opened up in town called the Roscoe Emporium.
And I also have some news about our trip to Israel. We were originally gonna go on the LeSea tour of Israel but they added an additional $500 charge for fuel. But Mom and Dad's pastor found a cheaper flight and we'll stop in Atlanta, Georgia instead of New York before going non-stop to Israel. We'll have more sights to see in this tour than in the LeSea tour.
SYNOPSIS
The film’s premise relies upon a massive ejection of solar neutrinos from the sun which interact with the earth’s core, which in turn increase its temperature-a scenario of doubtful scientific validity, if not scientifically impossible. The increase in temperature causes the earth’s crust to expand and initiates a massive crack which propagates across the earth (similar to the CPT model!). This causes massive earthquakes around the world and horrendous disasters as the entire crust of the earth begins to become unstable and rotate around the poles(with Wisconsin being at the south pole). This in turn starts massive global tsunamis which spread across the earth. Along the earthquakes, volcanic activity is also taking place. In one scene the supervolcano under Yellowstone National Park becomes active; causing geisers to erupt all over the park before the whole landscape itself start to swell up like a giant bubble then finally blows up as the supervolcano erupts, spewing lava, fireballs and pyroclastic flows and ashes for miles around. A devastating cloud of ash from the eruption goes as far as Washington D.C. blackening the sky and rains ash all around like snow. Another scene shows a jet flowing over the Hawaiian islands only to find it literally engulfed in lava as the earthquakes have obviously triggered the volcanoes on the islands(I might actually use a scene like this in my manga comic The Last Days)
During this entire process viewers can easily become emotionally involved through the lives of the characters of the plot and their families. It’s a race for survival as they track down four massive (would you believe it) arks, of biblical proportions being built in secret somewhere in China. During one scene where our heroes have crash landed in a newly-located Himalayan continent, there is a fleet of helicopters transporting giraffes, (the archetypal animal for an ark!), elephants and other animals to the ark docking site. Thousands of other people also flock to the arks, mostly comprising the world’s richest people who have purchased tickets with their entire livelihoods in order to escape the coming disaster and re-populate the earth; leaving everyone else to die.
There was one very powerful scene, during the film, where the door to one of the arks remained shut, while outside, thousands clamoured to be let on board. This was followed by an intensely emotional dialogue inside the ark among world leaders as to whether to let them board, but luckily mercy won the day. The door was opened and the people surged on board. One touching scene showed a father (who was a selfish Russian billionaire) sacrificed his life to get his two sons on board the ark. Then the tsunami breaks over the Himalayas and after further drama and tension, involving selfless actions to save lives and avoid crashing into the peak of Mt. Everest, the arks float into the sunset to await the retreat of the waters, from an emerging new world!
During the course of the film I noticed many religious themes running throughout; mainly the Mayan Calender[2] which foretold this cataclysmic event which this movie,and most other films of the apocalyptic genre, is largely based upon. Another is the End of Days foretold in Scripture, though I found these disasters in the film to be a bit inconsistant with the disasters that the Bible foretold would occure; namely the global flood that appears at the end of the film. Several scenes involve many people around the world, including the President of the United States, praying before the destruction came. One scene included the President of America praying in his private chapel; he then decided to stay behind with his people and not take ‘Air Force One’ to the arks. Sadly in the end he dies as one of the massive tsunamis sweeps into the nations capitol. I thought faith in God was given a respectful and fair treatment throughout the film(which is unusual in the movie industry) and was often contrasted with people’s selfish attitudes and a desire for the survival of the fittest (or the richest!).
BIBLICAL PARALLELS
Even though the film is mostly based on the alledged doomsday prophecy of Mayan Calender, many of the disasters in 2012 were actually consistant in many ways with the calamities that the Bible predicts will happen before the Second Coming of Jesus Christ to reign on Earth for 1,000 years and then for eternity. In the film earthquakes are common throughout and Catastrophic Plate Movements are the source of them; this is fairly consistant with the earthquake activity predicted to take place during the Tribulation period. Revelation 6:12-17 tells of a great earthquake so powerful it will move islands and mountains out of their places and the people of the earth will actually ask the mountains to fall on them in order to escape the wrath of Lamb. Accompanying this earthquake will be possible volcanic activity and meteor showers. In the film, volcanic activity follows the earthquakes in a scene that shows the supervolcano under Yellowstone erupts causing devastation across North America; along with the Hawaiian islands covered completely in lava. Possible scenarios during the Tribulation period. Revelation also speaks of another earthquake that will occur at the end of the Tribulation just before Christ's return that will be the most powerful earthquake the world will ever see. This earthquake will level all the world's mountains flat and sink all the worlds islands.(Revelation 16:18-20)
Interestly, Jesus told His disciples that one of the signs of the last days would be earthquake activity that would be increase in frequency and intensity; which He discribed as birth pangs. In light of the recent 8. earthquake that hit Chile a few weeks ago[3], the earthquake that devastated Haiti and other seismic disasters, the end may be very close.
The film also featured the tectonic plates actually shifting and moving around on the Earth's mantle; causing the state of Wisconsin to end up at the south pole. This could've been a possible mechanism that caused the cataclysmic Genesis Flood(Genesis 7:10-11) as the foundations of the deep breaking open would've caused the landmasses to shift in catastrophic ways causing massive earthquakes, tsunamis and volcanic eruptions worldwide[4]. This cataclysm would've rearranged the entire planets' surface.
One disaster in the film, however, was inconsistant with the Bible. As the continents shift they cause monstrous tsunamis all over the world so great it causes a global flood. We read in Genesis that after God destroyed the earth in the Flood, leaving only Noah, his family and the animals on the Ark alive and caused the waters to recede He promised Noah He would never destroy the earth again with water(Genesis 9:11 and Genesis 8:21-22). But later we read that there will be another worldwide judgement on the earth like it, but this time with fire; after the Millenial Kingdom has run its course(2 Peter 3:5-7). While we know the world will come to an end someday, we don't have to worry about any global floods.
At the end of the film the survivors onboard the arks wait for the waters to abate and set foot back on dryland. When the water finally recede a new world emerges with the worlds highest mountains now in the new African continent in what used to be South Africa. The Bible also predicts a new world that will soon come, a new heavens and a new earth infact. The last chapters of Revelation(Revelation 21-22) shows the creation being restored to the perfect conditions of the pre fall world God had originally created in Genesis 1-2. But this time it will be even better as the curse that marred the previous creation is permenantly removed.
CONCLUSION
In my opinion, there is enough powerful Christian imagery running through the film to enable someone to present the gospel. One could spend a great deal of time having discussions with family and friends, saved or unsaved, on creation/evolution issues including Catastrophic Plate Tectonics, accelerated nuclear decay and the connection between the Flood, fossils and rock layers, and how it all relates to the gospel. What a great film, and if you don't have a week stomach or a sensative disposition I would recommend seeing the film with friends and using it as a conversation starter to share the message of salvation through Christ!
REFERENCES
1. Yellowstone National Park is actually sitting on top of a dormant supervolcano, the scientists predict will erupt sometime in the future and it will cause devastation for hundreds of miles and cover almost all of North America in ash.
2. Despite all the media hype over the alledged 2012 doomsday scenario predicted in the Mayan Calender, the Mayans themselves didn't even believe the earth would end on Dec. 21 2012. The Calender mentions nothing of a doomsday scenario but rather the end of an age, not the world.
3. I recently heard a report on the radio that the earthquake that hit Chile actually caused the Earth to move off it's axis, causing the rotation of the Earth to be slowed down by a milisecond. And another earthquake has recently struck Taiwan.
4. According to the movie, the Catastrophic Plate Tectonics that caused the disasters occurs every 600,000 years. According to the biblical timeline, however, CPT would've occured more recently(perhaps around 4,000 years ago) about the time of Noah.
A pro-evolution group called the International Darwin Day Foundation, administered by the American Humanist Association, are encouraging people on their website to sign a petition making Feb. 12 Darwin Day. This is because this day is the anniversary of the birthday of Charles Darwin. February of last year, evolutionists, humanists, atheists and others celebrated the 200th anniversary of Darwins birthday.
Here's what they state:
"Please sign our petition urging President Obama to recognize Darwin Day. We need our elected leaders to speak out about the importance of scientific knowledge and its contribution to the advancement of humanity, and send a signal that religious infiltration into our science classrooms will not be tolerated. That’s why we’re asking you to sign our petition urging President Obama to recognize Darwin Day . . ."
If they want to 'speak out about the importance of scientific knowledge and its contribution to the advancement of humanity' why not have send out a petition to recognize a holiday commemerating Sir Isaac Newton, Gregor Mendel, Johann Keplar, Galileo Galilei, Francis Bacon, Blaise Pascal, Pasteur or others since they're the guys who really set the foundation for modern science instead of just Charles Darwin? It's because the IDDF is really out to promote the religion of Darwinism.
Here's what they said to President Obama:
"Dear President Obama,
As an American who values scientific inquiry and integrity, I urge you to issue a presidential proclamation recognizing Darwin Day on February 12. Darwin Day is celebrated every year on the anniversary of Charles Darwin’s birthday in 1809, and is a day in which people gather together to commemorate his life and work. Charles Darwin was the first to propose the groundbreaking scientific theory of evolution by natural selection—a theory that has done more to unify and bring understanding to the life sciences than any other—and Darwin Day is a celebration of this discovery and of scientific progress.
I believe that issuing this proclamation will send a powerful message that scientific discovery and integrity in our society are top priorities—priorities that are needed now more than ever as extremists with narrow ideological agendas are attempting to undermine science in our schools. We must not water down the significance of Darwin’s theory, nor the breadth of evidence supporting it, and we must at every turn challenge efforts to undermine science(i.e. Darwinism) so that we can keep alive in our children and grandchildren the wonder of discovery and the eagerness to obtain knowledge."
Again, if they want to recognize a holiday commemorating the advancement of science why not have Isaac Newton Day or Francis Bacon Day celebrating the lives of the men who actually set the foundation for modern science?
So, a group of secularists (primarily atheists), a minority in the culture, is attempting to pressure the President of the United States to recognize “Darwin Day.” But will President Obama actually sign the petition? Well, since President Obama does believe in molecules-to-man evolution it seems very likely:
"But I also believe our schools are there to teach worldly knowledge and science. I believe in evolution, and I believe there’s a difference between science and faith. . . . And I think it’s a mistake to try to cloud the teaching of science with theories that frankly don’t hold up to scientific inquiry."
Apparently President Obama is oblivious to the fact that that belief in evolution is as much a faith-based position as belief in creation is. He also seems unaware of the fact that a growing number of people, both religious and non-religious, in the scientific community are starting to question evolution; mainly Darwinian evolution. And they're beginning to realise it doesn't hold up to scientific scrutiny. Even some of evolutions biggest promoters are starting to admit that Darwins theory of evolution crumbles under scientific scrutiny.
But considering that these secularist(primarily atheists and humanists) are such a small minority in the culture, the President may not sign the petition. But since President Obama himself believes in molecules-to-man evolution, and given his track record as the most radical and liberal president in U.S. history, I guest you never know.
