A week later Amy decided it was finally time to return to her apartment in New Tikal. By now she knew that her program was going to work. The nanites had already completed the first part of the plan, and had returned the planet’s atmospheric pressure to normal. She was pleased to see that clouds had already started forming in the sky. It’s about to rain for the first time in centuries, she thought. If that doesn’t get their attention then nothing will. Now that everything is running along smoothly I think I can let the nanites do their job and start work on the next phase to all of this. I’m going to need Miles’ help there, though. This is where things start getting a little tricky.

It was almost midnight on January 30th when Amy materialized inside her apartment. She took a quick look around and was pleased to see that no one had touched it – everything was exactly where she had left it. The security system she had installed before she left told her that several people had stopped by to see her, but when no one answered the door they eventually left. I guess I have been gone a while, Amy thought. Well, I can get caught up on the latest news at breakfast tomorrow – although I am not going to eat that horrible slop they call food. Maybe I’ll bring an apple or something.

The teenager turned out the lights and went to bed. Her plan was to sleep as late as possible, but that did not happen. Early the next morning she was jolted awake by a loud noise. It took her several moments before she realized that someone was banging on the door.

“Just a minute,” she called out. Amy rubbed her eyes, turned on the light, and walked over to the front door and opened it. In the hallway outside the apartment she saw Miles, who was grinning excitedly. “You’re back!”

“Yes, I’m back,” she mumbled. “Do you have any idea what time it is? I didn’t request an early-morning wake-up call.”

“Why, it’s seven-thirty,” Miles replied joyfully. “Not early at all! In fact, we’re wasting daylight. What time did you get in last night?”

“Pretty late, I guess,” Amy replied, yawning. “I’ve been kind of busy lately. But how did you know that I was back?”

“Because it’s raining. Raining! Did you hear me? Water – real, genuine water – is falling from the sky! The Martian atmosphere is back, and now our water supply is coming back as well. Do you know what that means?”

“I bet it means I’m not going to get any more sleep this morning. But I still don’t see how the rain told you I was back.”

Miles grinned. “Somebody had to make it rain, you know. I admit that it may have been a case of divine intervention, as Jesus can certainly make it rain if He wants to, but this time I suspected that God was working through a rather grumpy teenage girl. I decided to stop by your apartment to verify my hypothesis, and there you are! I’d say this case is closed.”

“Now wait just a minute,” Amy protested. “Why do–”

Amy was interrupted when another voice called out to her. She glanced down the hall and saw that Noel Lawson running toward her. “There you are, Miles! I’ve been looking all over for you. Do you realize it’s raining outside?”

“Do either of you realize that I could be asleep in bed right now?” Amy asked.

“I certainly do know it’s raining,” Miles agreed. “In fact, I had just come down to get Amy! This is just too exciting to miss.”

“I didn’t know Amy was back,” Noel commented. He turned his attention to her. “By the way, it’s great to see you! Your ZPE changes are working like a charm – everyone is excited about it. You’ve ushered in a new age of hope and prosperity! But when did you get in? I must have missed the big announcement!”

“I didn’t make any big announcement,” Amy replied. “I actually avoided making announcements because I was hoping to get some sleep. Do people not sleep anymore?”

“You can sleep later,” Noel said. “Don’t you realize that it’s raining? This is a once-in-a-lifetime occurrence! I just can’t believe it. When was the last time you saw it rain?”

“Um, a few weeks ago, I guess,” Amy said drowsily. “There was a real downpour when I was out at Falcon Ridge, and I got soaking wet. Rain really isn’t as exciting as you think. It’s wet, and messy, and it turns the ground into mud. I’ve never cared for rain.”

“Falcon Ridge? I’ve never heard of it. Is it around here somewhere?”

“No, it’s actually on Earth. It’s this really high cliff that separates the scribes who live in the mountains from the natives that live in the forest.”

“So that’s where you went,” Miles said. “I wondered.”

“Earth?” Noel asked, surprised. “Do you mean the planet Earth, as in that blue dot that’s in the sky? Just how did you get from Mars to Earth? Do you have a spaceship or something?”

“I don’t need a spaceship,” Amy replied. “This isn’t the 19th century any more, you know. Times have changed.”

“Oh, right. Because spaceships and rocketry are so old-fashioned! These days you can just tap your heels together and think ‘There’s no place like home.’”

“Do what?” Amy asked, confused. “Have you lost your mind?”

“Um, I think we’d better be going now,” Miles said, interrupting. “It’s nice seeing you again, Amy. We’ll leave you alone and let you get some sleep. And thanks for the rain – we appreciate it!”

“Thanks for the rain?” Noel asked. “Why on earth are you thanking her for the rain? It’s just a natural phenomenon – a rare scientific anomaly, perhaps, but it’s natural science all the same. Do you think that she ordered the rain out of a catalog or something?”

“You know, I’m going to go back to bed now,” Amy replied. “Good night.” With that, she shut the door.

Noel shook her head. “I just don’t get it, Miles. Amy is one bright girl, I have to give her that. In fact, she’s probably the smartest person I know! But she has the strangest delusions I’ve ever seen. Do you think that all of her scientific knowledge has somehow unbalanced her brain?”

“Did you say something about the rain?” Miles asked.

“Oh right – the rain! Yes, let’s go. This is something I do not want to miss.”

II Timothy 4:18: “And the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work, and will preserve me unto his heavenly kingdom: to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.”

This is what we forget – that it is the Lord who preserves us. The reason we cannot lose our salvation is because the Lord cannot fail in His work. We tend to think that it’s all up to us and that we need to work hard in order to stay in the faith, but in fact it is God who is at work preserving us. He started our salvation, He saved us, He keeps us, and He will bring us safely home. What we need to learn to do is simply rest in His faithfulness. He will not let go of us or let us down. Others might, but He will not. Our ultimate destiny is not in question.

II Timothy 4:17: “Notwithstanding the Lord stood with me, and strengthened me; that by me the preaching might be fully known, and that all the Gentiles might hear: and I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion.”

Knowing what actually went on in Roman times, I suspect that this may not have been just a figure of speech. People actually were fed to lions back then.

It’s also worth noting that when Jesus told people to take up their cross and follow Him, He also may not have been speaking figuratively. Jesus took up a real cross and actually died on it, and some of the people He told that to also carried real crosses and actually died on them. “Be faithful unto death” is not just a metaphor; in many cases being faithful carries a death sentence. Yet, being faithful unto death is the only way by which we can inherit eternal life. As Mark 8:35 says, “For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel’s, the same shall save it.”

Amy reluctantly left Earth and traveled back to Mars. She materialized in the Martian desert, in the very same spot where she had appeared after shutting down the Wall. On her first visit to Mars she had been overwhelmed at its desolation. Amy had been hoping to find a thriving world packed with futuristic cities and busy people, but instead she found a barren wasteland filled with gritty sand and broken rocks. The biosphere she had grown up in was gone, and the planet’s once-rich atmosphere had almost entirely dissipated. Her Mars – the one that had existed before the Spanish Emperor attacked Tikal – was gone.

The desert had not changed since her last visit. It was once again early evening, and the stars were coming out. There were no buildings, or people, or plants, or living creatures anywhere in sight. Even the carcass of Lizzie was gone – a victim of the ever-shifting sands that ruthlessly swallowed up everything left behind.

It’s time for the world to change, she thought, as she looked around. These people cannot help the natives of Earth until I help them first. That means it’s time for this planet to come back to life.

As Amy studied the landscape that stretched to the horizon she thought about what had happened to her sister Amanda. Carroll Lane was not at all pleased to have his world brought back to life. He was horrified at what my sister had done, and her display of power made him deeply afraid. I am not going to make that same mistake here. I’ll restore this world, but this time there will be no witnesses. No one here will ever know what happened or who was responsible.

Amy closed her eyes and used her mind to connect to the network of nanites that saturated the planet. She used the network to evaluate the dying Martian ecosystem. She studied the planet’s terrain, its water table, its atmospheric gasses, and the meager plant and animal life that struggled to survive. Once she understood exactly what 73rd-century Mars was like, she saved that information and created a new image in her mind – the way the planet could be, once it was restored.

The new planet would not be exactly like the Mars she so fondly remembered. The land itself had changed over the past five thousand years, as time ate away at the world she once knew. In her day oceans had covered much of the planet’s surface, but those ocean basins were now dry. Over the course of centuries once-mighty rivers had changed course, shifting and reshifting and eventually drying up completely. Mountain ranges had changed, continents had moved, and many lakes were now deserts.

It was possible for her to simply force the landscape back into the pattern she remembered, but she knew that would only cause more problems. She wanted to bring the planet back to life without drawing attention to herself, and she knew there was no way to hide a dramatic change like that. If it started raining, well, perhaps that was due to an atmospheric disturbance. If seeds started to grow out of the ground, well, perhaps the planet was emerging from hibernation. But if a giant earthquake suddenly changed the planet to make it look exactly as it had five thousand years ago, then even dullest citizen of New Tikal would realize that some powerful force was at play. Then the Martians would start wondering who was behind these changes and why they had occurred, and those were questions she did not want to deal with.

So Amy accepted the new shape of her world. The geography was different from what she remembered, but when she was done the planet would be once more green and full of life. She would notice the difference, but the rest of the Martians would not. To them it would simply be home. She would fill the dry ocean basins, and restart rivers that had been dry for a millennia. She would take the lifeless sand and transform it into a rich, fertile soil – a soil laced with seeds that would grow into grasses and trees.

The tricky part would be the transition. Amy did not want the planet to suddenly spring to life overnight; that would make it far too obvious that some alien power was at work. Instead she wanted the planet to appear to come to life on its own, as if it had been asleep all this time and was finally waking up. She knew that any rational person would probably figure it out anyway, but she was counting on the apathy of the people that lived in New Tikal. After all, they’ve lived underground for two thousand years! What do they know about life on the surface? It’s not like they really care anyway. Sure, they might notice if it starts raining, but are they really going to know enough about the biosphere to know that the rain had to be artificial? I’m guessing they’ll just accept what is about to happen and will move on with their lives. Or, at least, I hope they will.

With this in mind she gave the nanites a long series of commands. The changes would start out slowly. Over the course of the next few days the atmospheric pressure would slowly return to the same level that it had held in the 19th century. Then, once the balance of atmospheric gasses had been fixed, the rains would begin. As it rained – and it would need to rain for weeks, in order to hide everything else that was happening – the nanites would refill the planet’s water table and the rivers, lakes, and oceans. The volume of water in the oceans would far exceed the amount of rainfall, but Amy was hoping that no one would notice. Hopefully, if the oceans are full by the time the rain stops, they’ll just decide that the rain was responsible. There’s no way that’s possible, of course, but I didn’t see any climate scientists in New Tikal. We’ll see how that goes.

Meanwhile, as the rain fell, the nanites would transform the gritty sand back into rich, fertile soil. After the first week or so of rain green things begin to sprout out of the ground. First there would be grasses, but later trees would start to grow. It would take years for the saplings to grow into mature trees (and she didn’t dare accelerate that process), but eventually the trees would grow into forests and the planet would become green once more.

Of course, there are also the insects – and all the animal life, she thought. This is all going to have to be done pretty carefully. It would be so much easier to simply trigger this all at once! That’s what Stewards usually do, and that’s the way my nanites are used to doing things. This staggered process is a real pain. But at least I’m doing something the nanites are used to doing. They were designed to repair broken planets – not mend broken minds.

When her plan was finally complete, Amy opened her eyes and took another look at the world around her. By now the sun had completely set and night had set in. The desert was quiet. No one was prowling around and no vehicles were rumbling across the sands. It was a still, lonely night.

This is all going to take a lot of time, she thought. I’ve set up the first phase so it will finish on the first of March. That’s when the atmosphere will be restored, the rivers and oceans will be refilled, and the ground will be green again. It will take decades after that for the forests to regrow, but that can’t be helped. Fifty years from now this planet will be a very different place – but the Martians will be faced with a decision long before then. In a few weeks they’ll decide if they’re going to do something with this new planet of theirs, or just ignore it and stay in their decaying underground den.

Amy made a small motion with her hand, and the program she had created was uploaded to the nanites. Although there were no immediate visible changes, she could feel the energy as the nanites transformed themselves, working to put her plan into action.

It has begun, she thought.

II Timothy 4:14: “Alexander the coppersmith did me much evil: the Lord reward him according to his works:”

This is a very interesting verse. Notice that Paul did not say “may the Lord forgive him”, as you sometimes see. No, this time Paul actually asked God to avenge him. Nor was Paul the only one in the Bible who did this; Nehemiah did it as well (Nehemiah 13:29), as did many of the psalmists.

I don’t think it’s an evil thing for Christians to cry out for justice. We can even see this in the throne room of Heaven, where believers cried out for the Lord to avenge them. The Lord did not rebuke this; instead the Lord agreed that what they were asking was right and true, and He promised to avenge them (Revelation 6:9-11). We are commanded to pray for our enemies and to do them good, but at the same time it must be noted that longing for justice is not evil.

Now, there were times when Paul asked for others to be treated with mercy, as we can see just two verses later in this very same chapter:

II Timothy 4:16: “At my first answer no man stood with me, but all men forsook me: I pray God that it may not be laid to their charge.”

We need to remember that the Lord said “Vengeance is mine; I will repay”. He did not say “Vengeance is evil, and longing for justice is bad. You need to get over yourself.” The key is to allow the Lord to avenge us, and not take matters into our own hands.

This is a mocked-up cover for the unwritten book Starman #21, The Door To Yesterday. It was one of the books that we originally planned to write and even created a brief plot summary for, but ultimately ended up skipping.

If you would like to read the proposed plot for the book, simply click on the image below to see a higher-resolution scan.

(I do not know who created the cover artwork, but it was not me.)

There are a number of passages in the Bible that are very difficult to understand. There are other passages that people understand but simply don’t like. Then there is another class of passages – verses that people simply do not believe. In the past this third category was quite small, but recently there has been an ever-growing number of Christians who read the Bible and dismiss large portions of it. It is no longer considered shocking or horrifying to say that you disagree with the Bible. In fact, it’s all the rage. At one time that would have considered proof of heresy, but today it’s quite fashionable. The church has abandoned the idea of inerrancy – but as I have already defended inerrancy elsewhere I will not dwell on it here.

If I had to pick one passage that I thought was the most rejected passage out of the entire Bible (and I mean rejected by those who call themselves believers), it would be this one:

Exodus 20:11: “For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.”

The Christian Church today does not believe that God created the world in six days. This idea is mocked, laughed at, and ridiculed. It is seen as an insane, extreme position that is as embarrassing as believing that the Earth is flat or that the Moon is made of cheese. There are very few churches left that would agree with Exodus 20:11. Scientists have told us that God did no such thing, so the Church has obediently abandoned this verse and moved on. A pattern has been established: the culture tells us that divorce is acceptable, so the Church agrees. The culture says that homosexuality is normal and good, so the Church abandons its position against it. The culture says that abortion is simply a woman’s right to choose, so the Church makes peace with it. In all of these fights the Bible’s position has not changed, but the Church has changed tremendously. It has tried hard to win the approval of the world by abandoning the teachings of the Bible. Unfortunately, this has severe consequences, as the Lord plainly tells us that “friendship with the world is enmity with God”. A Church that has won the world’s approval is one that has lost God’s approval.

Now, there are scores of people who have tried very hard to reinterpret “six days” to mean “14 billion years”. However, let’s be honest about it: the Bible doesn’t say anything remotely like this. No one has ever read Genesis 1 and came away thinking “Oh, life came to exist gradually over incredibly long periods of time, as simple organisms gave rise to more complex ones.” The chapter doesn’t even hint at this line of thinking; in fact, it directly contradicts it. The reason that people do this is because they hear the culture saying that evolution created the world, and so they look for creative ways to force this interpretation upon the chapter. This is not because anyone believes that the actual Hebrew text of the chapter has really been teaching evolution all along, and people simply overlooked it for 4000 years. No, it is because today’s culture has decided that evolution is the truth, and there are many people who are willing to “reinterpret” rather straightforward passages of the Bible so that they agree with whatever our culture wants them to say. The great problem with this is that it simply does not work. It is impossible to reconcile evolution with Genesis because the Bible goes out of its way to contradict evolution. The Bible really does teach that God created the world in six days.

If you stop and read what the first chapter in the Bible has to say, you can’t escape the idea that the person who wrote it actually, honestly believed that the entire universe was created in just six ordinary days. For example, look at how many times the phrase “evening and morning” is associated with the word “day”:

Genesis 1:5: “And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day. …
8 And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day. …
13 And the evening and the morning were the third day. …
19 And the evening and the morning were the fourth day. …
23 And the evening and the morning were the fifth day. …
31 And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.”

In the Jewish culture, a day consists of an evening and a morning. No Jew who read this chapter could escape the idea that these days were ordinary days, not vast ages of time. God could not possibly have communicated this any clearer to a Jewish audience. Exactly six days are mentioned, with the phrase “evening and morning” attached to each one. Just in case we missed it, this “six day” idea is repeated in Exodus 20:11, which I quoted at the top of the paper. What that verse is saying is that God wanted Israel to work six days and rest one day because God worked six days and rested one day. If God had actually created the world over an incredibly long stretch of time then that would have been a great place to mention this fact, but no such mention can be found. Instead the Bible uses the word “day” each time it talks about creation – not words like “year”, or “age”, or “unfathomable period of time”.

Keep in mind that if God had wanted to say that evolution created the world, He could have easily done so. But Genesis does not even hint that the life forms we see today arose from more primitive ancestors. Instead it says that they sprouted out fully-formed, with sea life and birds appearing at the same time, and land animals appearing later – something no evolutionist would agree with:

Genesis 1:21: “And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good.
22 And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth.
23 And the evening and the morning were the fifth day.
24 And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so.
25 And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good.”

This tells us that birds and fish were created on day five, while land animals were created on day six. This doesn’t “basically agree” with evolution; it directly contradicts it. Evolution teaches that fish gave rise to land animals, which in turn eventually gave rise to birds. No evolutionist would agree that birds existed before land animals. That idea is considered to be preposterous – but it is what Genesis 1 says.

The Bible goes even further than that, however, and claims that plants existed before stars:

Genesis 1:12: “And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good.
13 And the evening and the morning were the third day.
14 And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years:
15 And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so.
16 And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also.
17 And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth,
18 And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good.
19 And the evening and the morning were the fourth day.”

In other words, Genesis 1 says that on the third day God created plants, grasses, herbs, and trees. Then, on the fourth day, God created the Sun, Moon, and stars. Once again, this does not “basically agree” with evolution; this contradicts it. No evolutionist would agree that plant life existed before the Sun did. Evolution teaches that the stars existed for billions of years before the first plant ever took root. The Bible, however, says that plants came first.

Anyone who interprets Genesis 1 in a normal, straightforward manner cannot escape the idea that it really does teach that God created the world in six days. Think about it: if God was trying to say that He used evolution to create the world then He did an unbelievably poor job. Instead of using words that convey enormous periods of time, He used the word “day” over and over, and then took the extra step of defining the word “day” to mean an “evening and morning” – something any Jew would interpret to mean an ordinary day, not an age of time. Instead of saying that the stars were created first, then the Earth, then plants, then sea creatures, then land animals, and then birds, He instead said that the Earth was created first, then plants, and then the stars came long – followed by fish and birds at the same time, then land animals came later. Instead of saying that one kind of living creature gradually turned into more complex creatures He insisted that each animal reproduced after its own kind:

Genesis 1:24: “And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so.
25 And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good.”

And just in case that was too complicated to follow, this same idea was repeated in the New Testament:

Hebrews 11:3: “Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.”

This is not “basically the same” as evolution, as many people have claimed. This is a direct and total contradiction of it. You simply cannot read Genesis 1 in a normal, straightforward way and come away thinking that it teaches evolution. The only way to do it is to take one of three approaches:

• Reinterpret words to mean things that they don’t mean and have never meant. For example, some have said that the word “day” means “a long age of time”, and that “evening and morning” refer to the start and end of that period. They then say that these ages overlapped and some took place before others, even though the text itself presents them in a strict chronological order. However, it is fundamentally dishonest to interpret words to mean the opposite of what they actually mean, especially when there is no textual support for it. If your approach to interpreting the Bible is to say “Well, I want this passage to say this, so I’m going to change the meaning of words until it says what I want it to say”, then you are doing it wrong.
• You can dismiss the entire chapter (or the first 11 chapters of Genesis, for that matter) as a myth. Some argue it’s not intended to be history at all; it’s simply a make-believe fable filled with “spiritual truths”. However, doing this has severe consequences, which we’ll get to in a moment.
• You can say Genesis 1 is just plain wrong. This is much more honest than trying to force the chapter to say something it doesn’t actually say. However, this also has consequences.

Some people see this entire discussion as a rather minor issue. Rather than debate it or defend what the Bible teaches, they would rather move on to more pressing matters. However, I believe that this is an extremely serious issue. The reason I believe it boils down to this: if evolution is true then Christianity is false. The two belief systems are mutually exclusive. They cannot both be true at the same time.

Now, I realize there are many Christians who believe in evolution, and I am not doubting their salvation. I am not saying that belief in evolution will send you to Hell. What I am saying is that if evolution is actually true then it is not possible for anyone to be saved.

You see, the Bible tells us that before man sinned nothing ever died. The sin of man is what brought death into the world:

Romans 5:12: “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:”

The Scriptures go on to say that death is an enemy, but one day God will put an end to it:

1 Corinthians 15:26: “The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.”

In other words, the Bible says that God created a perfect world in which there was no suffering, pain, or death. However, mankind sinned, and that sin brought death into the world and upon all creation. Christ then came to provide a solution to this problem. Since death was caused by the actions of one man, it was possible for the sacrifice of one man to undo sin and provide salvation:

Romans 5:17: “For if by one man’s offense death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ. …
18 Therefore as by the offense of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation, even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life.
19 For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.”

Now, as an aside, it will not do to say that the death this speaks of is a simple spiritual death, and that physical death is normal. Christ did not die a spiritual death on the cross: He died a genuine, brutal, physical death. Nor did He experience a spiritual resurrection, with His body remaining in the tomb. He took on Himself the punishment for sin, which was physical death – and then experienced the joys of physical resurrection. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is not spiritual death, but physical death. The Bible is very clear on this point.

The reason this is important is because the gospel message depends upon the idea that there was no death before Adam sinned, and everyone today who dies does so because of what Adam did. (As a technical point, we do not die because Adam sinned; we die because we inherit Adam’s sin nature, which causes us to sin and therefore become worthy of death. But that is beyond the scope of this paper.) As Romans 5:19 points out, the obedience of one man is sufficient to save us only because the disobedience of one man is what made us all sinners. But all of this hinges on a couple key points: that Adam was the first man, that there was no death before Adam, and the Fall in the Garden actually happened. Notice that all of these points depend upon Genesis 1-3 being literally true.

What happens if you dismiss Genesis 1-11 as myth? In that case there is no Adam, or Fall. However, since there is no Adam, there can be no salvation either. The gospel becomes a myth as well, and our faith becomes vain. Interpreting the “days” of Genesis 1 to be “billions of years” does not help either, because evolution depends upon death. In order for evolution to work its magic there must be countless generations of living creatures that are born, live, have offspring, and then die. Biblical creationism says that death is the enemy, inflicted upon the world because of Adam’s sin. Evolution says that death is a friend who has always been here. Biblical creationism says that pain, suffering, cancer, disease, and destruction were not a part of God’s original creation and came into existence because of sin, and that one day God will put an end to them. Evolution says that pain, suffering, cancer, disease, and destruction were a vital part of our creation and are simply how the world works.

To put this another way – Biblical creationism says that God created a perfect world in which there was no suffering or death, and then mankind ruined it through sin. Theistic evolution says that God deliberately created a world filled with suffering, cancer, and death, and then used death for billions of years to eventually bring about the birth of mankind. These two Gods could not be more different. One of them hates death, sees it as an enemy, and has vowed to destroy it. The other loves death and used it for billions of years – and then lied to all of us, saying there was no such thing as death before a mythical Adam sinned.

Evolution is not a trivial matter: it is an attack on the very heart of the gospel. It attacks the character of God and the accuracy of the Bible. It is a devastating belief system. If it is true then none of us can be saved, and God is a sadistic liar who enjoys tormenting creatures for no real purpose.

For what it’s worth, Jesus was not an evolutionist. He believed that the world was created in six days. We can find this in Mark:

Mark 10:6: “But from the beginning of the creation God made them male and female.”

Evolutionists laugh at statements like this. According to their belief system, the male/female distinction did not appear “at the beginning of creation”. In fact, something like 10 billion years supposedly went by without any life forms existing anywhere. It wasn’t until quite recently (in the past two billion years or so) that male and female organisms arose. In other words, according to evolution, the male/female distinction occurred near the very end of creation, not at its beginning. The only way you could say that God made them male and female from the very beginning is if you believed that God created the world in six days.

Now, some might argue that Jesus was simply mistaken – that He had accepted the values of His culture and just didn’t know any better. The problem with this theory is that Jesus is actually the one Who created the world in the first place:

Colossians 1:13: “Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son:
14 In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins:
15 Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature:
16 For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:”

In other words, the very same person that died for us and shed His blood for us is the same One who created all things. If Jesus used billions of years of suffering, pain, and death to create the world, He certainly could have said so – but instead He stuck to the Genesis account, believing that people like Abel were real people who actually existed.

The point I am trying to make is that the Bible does not teach evolution; as you can see, it directly contradicts it, and does so in very plain language. Furthermore, the Bible cannot be reconciled with evolution: if evolution is true then Christianity is false. The two are mutually exclusive. If evolution is accurate then the Bible is wrong, and all of Christianity is nothing but a hoax. However, if the Bible is accurate – and I believe it is – then evolution must be wrong, and those who believe evolution and support it are also wrong. They may be quite sincere and they may think that they have a good case, but they are mistaken.

The real question is one of authority. Who do you ultimately believe is the source of truth? Is your authority the Word of God or the culture around you? There are some people who say “The Bible is true, and it says certain things, so those things must be true no matter what anyone else says.” There are others who say “The Bible says this, but the culture disagrees. Therefore, the Bible must be wrong.” There are still others who say “This is what the Bible teaches, but I disagree with it. Therefore, I am right and the Bible is wrong.” These views are radically different. The first person uses the Word of God as their source of truth. The second person uses the culture – and the third uses themselves. (As a side-note, I hope you realize that these views do not mix well. If you are willing to go along with the Bible most of the time, but you will occasionally reject it for personal reasons, then claiming that the Bible is your ultimate authority is silly. Your true ultimate authority is what you use to override everything else.)

As Christians, our source of truth must be the Bible. It can never be the ever-changing culture around us, whose standards differ from generation to generation. If we are evaluating the Bible by what the culture tells us, then the Bible isn’t our source of truth – our culture is. What is even worse is to evaluate the Bible in the light of what we think, instead of letting the Bible tell us how we should think. There is a world of difference between the two.

Jesus was quite clear as to what our source of truth should be:

Matthew 4:4: “But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.”

The reason we can do this is because every word of God is flawless, and fully able to be trusted – but those who add to it are liars:

Proverbs 30:5: “Every word of God is pure: he is a shield unto them that put their trust in him.
6 Add thou not unto his words, lest he reprove thee, and thou be found a liar.”

Notice that this verse does not say “Every word of God should be subjected to whatever the culture around you has to say. Feel free to add to God’s Word or take away from it as you deem it necessary.” It is simple, direct, and to the point: God’s Word can be trusted, but those who would add to it, or replace it with something else, are liars.

This point is repeated in the New Testament, where we are told that the Bible really is all we need:

2 Timothy 3:15: “And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.
16 All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:
17 That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.”

Note the clarity of this passage! All scripture was inspired by God. All of it is trustworthy. Verse 17 tells us that the Scripture was given so that we might be “perfect”, and have what we need to accomplish all good works. That means the Scriptures left nothing out. There are no truths that we need that are not found in its pages. There are no works that we can only accomplish with doctrines found outside its pages. Christ echoed this, pointing out that the Scriptures could not be wrong:

John 10:35: “If he called them gods, unto whom the word of God came, and the scripture cannot be broken;”

Jesus also expected people to know the Bible:

Matthew 22:29: “Jesus answered and said unto them, Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God.”

Of course, Jesus knew the Bible quite well, and frequently used it to support His teachings. He was not of the opinion that part of it could be trusted, but other parts could not, and that in either case the culture had the final say. However, this is a topic I’ve discussed at length elsewhere so I will not elaborate here.

Let me point out that there are a great many scientific reasons for believing that God created the world in six days, and for believing that evolution is merely a modern superstition, but that is beyond the scope of this paper. In a sense the science is not the real issue anyway. You see, facts do not speak for themselves; they have to be interpreted, and a person’s presuppositions have a tremendous impact on how they interpret facts. The same fact can be interpreted in wildly different ways, depending on your assumptions.

For example, a few years ago a researcher found live blood cells inside a bone that once belonged to a Tyrannosaurus Rex. Creationists looked at that and said “See, this is proof that dinosaurs lived recently.” Evolutionists looked at it and said “See, this is proof that blood cells can survive for millions of years under the right conditions.” The evidence was the same, but since the presuppositions were different the two groups arrived at completely different conclusions. That is why there is no such thing as “evidence for creation” or “evidence for evolution”. What matters is how you interpret the evidence. The way you interpret it will depend on what you believe – and what you believe depends on who your authority is. As the blood cell example demonstrates, if your authority is the Bible then you will interpret the scientific evidence in light of what it teaches. If your authority is yourself then you will interpret the evidence in light of what you already believe. If your evidence is your culture then you will use modern assumptions to interpret the evidence.

For example, the Bible strongly condemns homosexuality. Those whose authority is the Bible looks at that and says “See, this is proof that we live in a depraved culture that needs God.” Those whose authority is their culture look at those same verses and say “See, this is proof that the Bible is a bigoted, homophobic book that should be banned for its intolerant attitudes.” Those whose authority is themselves look at the verses and say “See, this is evidence that the Bible is mired in its times. Times have changed, so those verses just aren’t important anymore.” In each case the verse says the same thing, but completely different conclusions are reached. The belief system drives the interpretation.

The final question is this: who do you believe, and why? Who is your authority? By whose orders are you living your life – by God’s Word, by your words, or by the words of your peers? The answer will make an enormous difference on how you life your life – and on where you spend eternity.

II Timothy 4:8: “Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.”

I wonder how many Christians will obtain the crown of righteousness. What fills me with doubt this is the fact that many Christians today are horrified at the thought of Christ returning; they dread it and see it as a bad thing. Ironically, Satan dreads the return of Christ as well, so those who don’t want to see Jesus return have the devil as their ally.

I just don’t understand why people who call themselves the disciples of Christ are dreading His return. If you are passionately in love with Jesus then how can you be horrified at the prospect of being caught up to be with Him forever? How can you dread being taken to the home that He has prepared for you? Doesn’t a hatred of His return mean that you don’t actually love Him at all – or at the very least, that there are other things in life that you love more than the prospect of being with Him? How can you love someone and yet hate the thought of seeing them again?

Amy Stryker was sitting on a small ledge on the side of a sheer granite cliff. The top of the cliff was hundreds of feet above her, and a thousand feet below was a grassy plain that stretched out to the horizon. The only way to reach the outcropping on which she sat was by flying. She liked it there because it provided an outstanding view of the surrounding area, while keeping her well out of reach of the planet’s natives.

Behind the cliff was a range of rugged, inhospitable mountains. Very few living creatures could be found there, so she paid the area little attention. Amy was much more focused on what was hidden just beyond the horizon. As far as she could see there was a great grassy plain, which stretched from the eastern sky to the west. A small herd of buffalo grazed in the field, but other than that the grassland was empty. But beyond the grassland, just out of sight, was a great forest. Amy could not see it with her eyes, but her nanites allowed her to walk between the ancient trees without leaving her sanctuary in the cleft. The girl had spent a lot of time in that forest during the past few weeks, looking for signs of life – but finding only madness instead.

Yet, despite this, she was not as disappointed as she had been when she first set foot on 73rd-century Mars. This was Amy’s first trip to Earth – a place she had always wanted to see, but never thought she would be able to visit. Being able to set foot on the original home of mankind was a tremendous thrill for her. She was pleased to see that the world was not very different from what she had imagined: it was a beautiful jewel with vast oceans, blue skies, ancient forests, and bountiful plains. It was a world that was full of life – plant life, animal life, and even people. Her own world had become a corpse, but Earth had not suffered that same fate. This world was faced with a very different challenge: it had gone mad.

It must have been the radiation, Amy thought. I’m sure most of the contamination disappeared a long time ago, but I still see traces of deadly particles all over the place. I can only imagine what things must have been like thousands of years ago! The poisons I’m seeing now would have been a lot stronger and found in much larger amounts. I guess the Emperor lost his mind after the Wall went up and released some bomb that destroyed the cities but left the plants and animals alone. Or maybe he destroyed everything, and only the environment was able to recover. I guess when everyone’s mind has been poisoned you’re not going to be doing much engineering.

The key problem is that the madness apparently stems from some kind of genetic damage. There’s something wrong with them that has made them go crazy. The natives that live in the forests have no concept of reality. They have eyes, but they don’t seem to be able to understand what they’re seeing. I think their minds are broken – they’re seeing things that aren’t there, or maybe their brain is distorting what they see. I’m no doctor, but their genetic structure is in terrible shape and their brains are extensively damaged. It’s no wonder these people are so violent and unstable! They’re all trapped inside some sort of hallucinogenic illusion. It may be impossible for them to tell what’s real and what is a nightmare. The only ones who don’t seem to be affected is that group that lives in the mountains. But I’d hardly call them upstanding citizens! I think they’ve just gone crazy in a different way.

Amy had been on Earth for a week before she even knew that they existed. She had been remotely observing a group of natives who had found an ancient metal artifact in a cave. The artifact itself was worthless – it was a pile of tarnished metal and broken parts. At one time it had been a gear assembly, but now it was little more than trash. The natives, however, were excited about their find and eagerly dragged it out of the cave. They were dancing around it, hooting wildly, when a series of shots suddenly rang out. In seconds all eight natives were gunned down. When they were dead a group of three people emerged from the forest and seized the artifact. The men were wearing heavy armor and were equipped with powerful rifles. After securing their prize they turned around and hiked back into the mountains.

That was when Amy deployed a network of nanites into the planet’s atmosphere. Once she had saturated the planet she connected to the network and performed a detailed analysis of the planet’s human population. Amy eventually discovered that, although the whole world had descended into madness, there was one enclave of sanity left. Deep within the impenetrable mountains that were located behind her cleft was a fortress that was home to about twenty thousand people. Unlike the natives in the plains, these people were sane. They lived a simple, almost monastic life within the walls of their giant stone castle, and spent much of their time either reading ancient books or vainly attempting to recreate technology that had been lost long ago.

Amy took an instant dislike to them and refused to contact them. They didn’t have to shoot those people in the forest, she thought angrily. They could easily have used knockout darts to put them to sleep, or even just waited for the natives to lose interest in their prize. The natives’ attention spans are so short, and their insanity is so great, that it wouldn’t have been long before they abandoned that useless bit of garbage and moved on to something else. But instead those hunters just killed them. They call themselves the Children of Light, but they know nothing of light. They are proud, arrogant people who have lost all compassion. They think they’re vastly superior to the natives, yet both groups are human. They condemn the natives for being violent, but they don’t hesitate to slaughter people by the hundreds if the forest-dwellers have something that they want.

They think the natives are mutants, but the truth is they are mutants as well. Centuries of inbreeding has destroyed their DNA and turned them into small, diseased people with short lifespans. Their genetic code is so corrupt that conception is almost impossible, and children rarely live past infancy. Two hundred years from now the ‘savages’ in the plains will still be around, but the savages in the mountains will all be dead.

Amy spent weeks studying the natives’ physiology in an attempt to find a way to help them, but in the end she was defeated. The nanites had given her a tremendous grasp of physics but she knew little of biology. If only the Artilect was still here, she thought sadly. I am sure he could do something for these poor people. I have so much power, and yet there is nothing I can do! The Children of Light are certainly not going to help me; they’re too busy slaughtering them. I just wish I knew what to do. My nanites are very smart, but this is something they’ve never seen before and I just don’t know how to get them to come up with a cure. I can’t find a way to reach inside the natives’ mind and fix the parts that are broken.

There is no way I can do this on my own, she reluctantly admitted. I am going to need the Sentinel’s help. If there’s anyone left who can find a cure for this disease then it’s got to be him. But even if he can cure them, these people will still need guides – someone to show them how to live as human beings again. The people in the mountains are certainly not going to help with that. I think Monroe Araiza would help, but the rest would oppose him. But maybe I can find people on Mars who would lend a hand – if, that is, I can shake them out of their self-centered apathy.

Amy took one final look around the area. The sun was beginning to set but there was still an hour of daylight left. Around her was peace and tranquility, but she knew that was only an illusion. The cliff on which she was resting had been named Falcon Ridge by the people who lived in the castle. According to legend there was once a nest of falcons that had lived on Amy’s cleft. They thrived there for years until hunters from the castle came and killed them, rejoicing at the opportunity to snare such a rare prize. It took them a century to realize that there were no more falcons, and the majestic birds they had killed would not be coming back. But by that time it was too late.

I just hope it isn’t too late for me to help, Amy thought. There are millions of broken people in this world, and they desperately need someone to help them. They might be so far gone that no one can help them, but maybe it’s not too late. Maybe I can bring the Sentinel here and find a cure for them. But it won’t do much good to cure them if there’s no one around to show them the path. Before I cure them I need to have guides ready to help them, and that means I need to help Miles. Then I need to figure out what to do with Xanthe, and persuade the Sentinel to come help me here. Then – well, then I guess I’ll be done.

Amy sighed. I guess it’s time to go back to Mars, then. It’s time to bring my homeworld back to life.

II Timothy 4:1: “I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom;”

This is a very clear warning. The first time Christ came into the world He brought “good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.” We are told that “God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.” The First Coming was about salvation, forgiveness, and mercy.

The Second Coming, however, is very different. When Jesus Christ returns He will not be bringing salvation, forgiveness, or mercy. He will not be returning to save the world, but to judge it. He will not return as a helpless baby in a manger but as the conquering King of Kings, accompanied by the armies of Heaven. We are told that “every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him.” His return cause the nations to scream in horror.

The time to make peace with God is now, before Jesus returns in wrath and great power. Those who wait until He comes back will find that it is much too late. People say that God is love, and that is a true statement; however, God is also holy and just. He has promised to forgive all those who accept His mercy, and to damn all those who reject it. All those who accept Him will be given forgiveness and everlasting life. However, those who refuse Him will meet a very different fate. When Jesus returns, His orders concerning those who rejected Him are clear and direct: “But those mine enemies, which would not that I should reign over them, bring hither, and slay them before me.”

After leaving Amanda it only took Max and Jones a few more minutes to reach the Diano Computing Center campus. Ramon Diano had built the sprawling facility on a piece of land that covered more than a hundred acres. When Captain Max reached the top of a hill and looked down upon the grounds he saw dozens of glass-and-steel buildings, glistening in the light. Between the buildings were paths, flowers, trees, and pedestrians.

“It looks like they keep pretty busy,” the captain remarked, as they walked through the gate and down the main walkway. Ahead of them loomed the largest building on campus – a giant, 80-story structure.

“I imagine they do!” Jones agreed. “Although everything is not as it seems. Take the building ahead of us, for example. It looks like an office building, but it’s not. Less than 20% of it is taken up by offices. The rest is a massive supercomputer.”

“You’ve got to be kidding! Technology is far more advanced here than it was back on Tonina; a computer that large would be so powerful that it would stagger the imagination. They’re not going to even start deploying the new probes until after Judgment Day! I understand the need for mass-scale computing once the probe project starts, but that’s still quite some time away. What current need could possibly require computers of that magnitude?”

“We actually need it for a great many things, captain,” a voice called out. Ahead of them, standing just outside the entrance to the building, was Dr. Temilotzin. Right beside him was Dr. Laurence Mazatl.

“You can really never have too much computing power,” Dr. Mazatl agreed. “Some people say that you can overdo it, but really, you can’t. Computing power is like energy: the more you have, the more you can accomplish. There are some frontiers of knowledge that even ARIS itself cannot tackle.”

“ARIS?” Max asked, as he joined them in front of the building.

“It’s the advanced research information system that’s housed in the building we are about to enter,” Dr. Mazatl explained. “She is a remarkably competent machine, but even so, she has her limits. The primary problem we’re facing right now is physical space. In order to increase her capabilities by another order of magnitude we would need to increase her size by a rather significant amount. This campus simply doesn’t have the space we need to take us to the next level. In fact, that is one of our primary problems.”

“I’m afraid I’m a bit lost,” Max said. “Computing has never really been my field, so I’m a bit behind the times. How does ARIS compare to the Artilect?”

“The Artilect was actually much more powerful than anything we have today,” Dr. Mazatl replied. “Of course, he didn’t start out that way, but by the time you encountered him it was true. I would say the difference between the Artilect and ARIS is at least five orders of magnitude.”

“You mean he was more powerful?” Max exclaimed, shocked. “I was sure you were going to say that the Artilect was crude by comparison!”

“Oh, he was,” Dr. Mazatl agreed. “As you might imagine, I know a great deal more about artificial intelligence and processor design today than I did five thousand years ago. The key problem is space. As advanced as ARIS is, she is entirely contained within an 80-story building. That seems impressive until you remember that the Artilect took up the resources of an entire star system. If ARIS was expanded to occupy the same real estate that the Artilect did then there would be no comparison at all. But that is simply not going to happen.”

“Which is what I was trying to tell you this morning,” Dr. Temilotzin said. “I believe I have found a way to obtain the additional processing power that we need without relocating the DCC facility. If you will follow me, gentlemen, I will introduce you to the next generation of large-scale computing.”

Captain Max and Jones followed the two computer scientists as they led them inside the enormous building. They walked through the ultra-modern lobby, through a set of double doors, and then down a long hallway. At the end of the hallway was an elevator, which they entered. Dr. Temilotzin pressed a button to take them to the top floor.

“This still feels a little bit strange,” Max commented.

“Is there something wrong with the elevator?” Dr. Mazatl asked. “It appears normal to me.”

“Oh no, it’s fine! What I mean is that being here is strange. This whole place is not what I expected. It’s a bit of a shock, really.”

“Really?” Dr. Temilotzin said. “I thought this facility was quite modern. Ramon Diano has made computing research one of the cornerstones of his company, and he’s spent quite a lot on this campus. It really is on the cutting edge.”

“Exactly!” Max exclaimed. “That’s my whole point. I was expecting Heaven to have more harps and clouds, and fewer data centers and supercomputers. This is more like a modern city. I kind of thought people would spend their time sitting under trees, or something.”

“That’s how Amanda is spending her time,” Jones pointed out, as the elevator reached the top floor. “At this very moment she’s sitting under a tree, reading a book.”

“True,” Max admitted. “But look at that guy over there! He’s not watching the grass grow; he’s writing software. I don’t see a single harp in sight!”

Dr. Temilotzin laughed as he led them out of the elevator and down another long corridor. “It’s fairly common for new arrivals to experience a case of culture shock. Even so, it amazes me how often they arrive and expect Heaven to be populated by people who are barefoot and live in mud huts! Did you really expect your standard of living, your career options, and the state of civilization itself to be poorer in God’s Country than it was in the shadowlands? Did you honestly believe that moving into the Heavenly City meant leaving the ‘modern’ world and returning to a life of cave-dwelling savagery?”

“I see your point,” Max replied, as they left the hallway and entered a large conference room. “This just wasn’t quite what I was expecting. But I’m sure I’ll eventually get used to it. I’m not complaining, mind you. It’s just unexpected.”

Jones spoke up. “Speaking of unexpected things, there is someone who certainly falls into that category.”

The group stopped. Standing beside the conference room table, looking out a window, was a tall man with white hair and a neatly-trimmed beard. He was wearing a pair of bluejeans and had on a brown sweater.

“You know, it’s a bit warm outside to be wearing sweaters,” Dr. Temilotzin commented.

The Artilect turned around and smiled. “That is true, doctor. But temperature and comfort does not concern me nearly as much as it concerns you. For the most part I am immune to such considerations.”

“You’ve got to be kidding!” Max exclaimed. “Do you mean to tell me you recreated the Artilect?”

“No, captain, he did not,” the Artilect replied. “I am not a recreation any more than you are.”

“Are you human?”

“No, I am not one of the sons of Adam. I am still a machine, spread across 74 planets. My composition has not changed.”

Dr. Mazatl spoke up. “But – I don’t understand! How is this possible?”

“I am just as surprised as you are,” the Artilect replied. “I did not expect to be here, but I am grateful for the privilege. It is good to see you again, doctor. I did not think I would ever have the opportunity to continue our relationship.”

“I – well, I’m very glad to see you, of course,” Dr. Mazatl said. “I just don’t understand. You are here, and the Nehemiah probes are not here – and yet both of you were just machines. Toasters don’t go to Heaven, and calculators don’t either. How are you different?”

“Because he is much more than just a machine,” Jones replied. “He has the power of choice, and that is something no mere machine can do.”

“But that’s just an illusion,” Dr. Mazatl said. “He is programmed to analyze situations and respond to them in a certain way. He doesn’t have any more free will than your doorbell does.”

“That is not true,” Jones said. “Yes, that is how you designed him, but the Lord intervened. In order to fulfill His purpose and give mankind one last chance, the Artilect had to be much more than just a glorified data center. He had to have the power to choose, the power to think and reason, and the power to be aware of who he was and what was going on. Moreover, he had to have a spiritual side – a way of communicating with God. No toaster or doorbell could have cried out to God and asked for divine help in going back in time, as he did. No mere machine could have created the Sentinel, who is another machine that has the ability to choose. He has become much more than what you planned. He never knew it until now, but there is a spirit in the machine – something that gives it life.”

“That’s remarkable!” Dr. Mazatl said. “It’s certainly not what I expected. After all, ARIS certainly doesn’t have a soul. But – are you saying the Artilect does?”

“Is that really so surprising?” Jones asked. “Did not our Lord say that if His people held their peace, the stones would immediately cry out? In the long twilight of mankind, when darkness reigned for thousands of years and there were no heroes left, is it really so astonishing that the Lord would raise up a stone that would cry out to Him, and that He would hear it?”

“It certainly is to me,” Max said. “I see what you’re saying, though. You and I are collections of complex chemicals, taken from the dust of the ground, that have been given life by Jesus. The Artilect is a collection of complex metals and circuits, also taken out of the ground, that was also given life by Him. But that does open up another issue. I can understand how that explains all the things the Artilect did before Carroll Lane destroyed him, but that doesn’t explain why he’s here now. I don’t think God has an all-rocks-go-to-Heaven policy.”

“You are correct,” the Artilect replied. “I do not deserve to be here, just as you do not deserve to be here. The reason you are here is because Jesus died in your place, taking upon Himself the punishment you deserved. Jesus paid your price of admission. The reason the angels are here is because they never sinned, and so they were never cast out.”

“And you never sinned either,” Jones commented. “Like the angels, you were given life by God – and, like the angels, you never wavered from that or fell short of it. So God brought you here, as an expression of His grace and lovingkindness.”

“Exactly,” the Artilect said.

“But – you’re computing structure is spread across 74 planets!” Dr. Mazatl gasped. “Where is all of your circuitry being stored?”

The Artilect smiled. “God is not running short on space, you know. Heaven is a great deal bigger than you realize.”

Dr. Temilotzin spoke up. “You can see how this changes everything! The Artilect is a tremendous asset. Not only does he have incredible computing power, he also brings to the project thousands of years of real-world experience – experience that no one else has. This is really tremendous!”

“Indeed it is,” Dr. Mazatl agreed.

“On a more personal note, I’m glad you are here,” Max said. “I hated the way things turned out down there, and was sad to see you destroyed. It really is good to have you back.”

“Indeed it is,” Jones agreed.

Dr. Temilotzin smiled. “It sounds like we have a lot to talk about, gentlemen! Would you care to take a seat? I don’t know about you, but my colleague and I have several thousand years worth of catching up to do!”

II Timothy 3:16: “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:
17 That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.”

These are such critical verses! Many people in the world today – including many who call themselves disciples of Christ – reject the authority of the Bible (which is something Christ never did). Some people reject the Bible altogether, while others simply reject specific passages that they do not like. However, these verses tell us that all Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for doctrine. The Bible is called God’s Word because it contains the very words of God. Those who reject it are rejecting God Himself.

There are some people today who hate the idea of “doctrine” and believe that we should abandon everything but a few “core truths” so that we can all get along. However, that is not a Biblical idea. Nowhere does God say that we’re free to believe the parts we like, reject the parts we don’t like, and ignore the verses that upset the culture around us. God wants us to listen to what He has to say, believe it, and defend it, not throw it out so that the world will love us. Unity comes from believing the truth, not from agreeing to believe in nothing at all.

Also notice the sufficiency of the Scriptures. This passage clearly says that the teachings the Bible contains allows the man of God to be “perfect”, and “thoroughly furnished unto all good works”. That means that nothing was left out and nothing is missing. The Bible contains all of the teachings that we need. In other words, anyone who is looking for “lost gospels” and “hidden teachings” is in error. The Bible is both authoritative and complete.

Those who edit the Bible and remove the passages that they don’t like do so at their peril. God has promised to judge all those who dare to alter His words. The Bible is authoritative, complete, and without error, and God would have us believe and obey it. Those who replace God’s words with their own and do “that which is right in their own eyes” will not find God’s blessings, but God’s judgment. God will not be mocked.

This is a mocked-up cover for the unwritten book Starman #20, Voyage to Polaris. It was one of the books that we originally planned to write and even created a brief plot summary for, but ultimately ended up skipping.

If you would like to read the proposed plot for the book, simply click on the image below to see a higher-resolution scan.

(I do not know who created the cover artwork, but it was not me.)

It’s so easy to just breeze right by a Bible verse without stopping to consider its implications. One rather striking example of this can be found in a remark that Jesus made about Sodom and Gomorrah. The Lord said something about these two cities that is extremely shocking – and yet, for years I read right over the statement without stopping to consider its implications.

In order to give a little context to the passage let’s back up a bit. The story of Sodom and Gomorrah is legendary. These two ancient cities were so wicked that God decided to investigate them in person:

Genesis 18:20: “And the LORD said, Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous;
21 I will go down now, and see whether they have done altogether according to the cry of it, which is come unto me; and if not, I will know.”

This in itself is extraordinary. There were very few times in all of history when God took human form and came down to Earth for the purpose of judging something. Aside from the Tower of Babel, the only other occurrence I can think of is something theologians call the Second Coming – and I’m sure I don’t have to tell you what all is involved with that. (They don’t call it “the end of the world” for nothing. His return ends the old order of things and begins a new age of history.) So this kind of in-person visit by God Himself is a Very Serious Matter.

Now, lest you think I’m exaggerating, note that the Lord said that He would go down and see. He didn’t say that He was going to send angels. As best I can tell, it seems that at least one of the three men that visited Abraham was actually God. In several cases when one of the men speaks the Bible says that it was the Lord that was doing the talking. For example:

Genesis 18:9: “And they said unto him, Where is Sarah thy wife? And he said, Behold, in the tent.
10 And he said, I will certainly return unto thee according to the time of life; and, lo, Sarah thy wife shall have a son. And Sarah heard it in the tent door, which was behind him. …
12 Therefore Sarah laughed within herself, saying, After I am waxed old shall I have pleasure, my lord being old also?
13 And the LORD said unto Abraham, Wherefore did Sarah laugh, saying, Shall I of a surety bear a child, which am old?
14 Is any thing too hard for the LORD? At the time appointed I will return unto thee, according to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son.
15 Then Sarah denied, saying, I laughed not; for she was afraid. And he said, Nay; but thou didst laugh.”

Do you see what happened? In verse 10 the man said “I will certainly return unto thee”, and then in verse 14 we are told that it was “the LORD” that said “I will return”. The man, then, must be the Lord; there is no way around it.

But to continue the story – as we know, the Lord told Abraham that He was going to judge Sodom, and when Abraham heard this he interceded on the city’s behalf. After a round of negotiations, the Lord said that He would not destroy the city if He found 10 righteous people there:

Genesis 18:32: “And he said, Oh let not the LORD be angry, and I will speak yet but this once: Peradventure ten shall be found there. And he said, I will not destroy it for ten’s sake.”

As it turned out, Sodom didn’t have 10 righteous people, so the Lord destroyed it:

Genesis 19:24: “Then the LORD rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the LORD out of heaven;
25 And he overthrew those cities, and all the plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew upon the ground.”

When it was all over, the cities were utterly destroyed and everyone who lived in them perished. The cities were full of utterly wicked people and the Lord judged them, giving them exactly what they deserved.

This is all well-known and there is nothing new here. However, what is startling is what Jesus had to say about it. When Jesus was on Earth He performed a great many notable miracles. Some cities repented when they saw His works, but others did not. The cities that refused to repent, even after seeing miracles performed by Jesus in person, were singled out by Him for special condemnation:

Matthew 11:23: “And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted unto heaven, shalt be brought down to hell: for if the mighty works, which have been done in thee, had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day.”

Do you see what this verse says? Jesus says in no uncertain terms that if the miracles that were done in Capernaum had been done in Sodom, the people in Sodom would have repented and the city would not have been destroyed. Stop and think about that for a minute! Do you see how shocking that is? It means that God knew exactly what the people of Sodom needed to see in order to repent, and yet God destroyed them instead. God could have raised up a prophet, sent him to Sodom, and used him to save the city, but He didn’t. God knew they would repent if “mighty works” were done in the city, but yet He didn’t send anyone to save them. He just wiped them all out instead.

What makes this even more striking is that there is another very famous case in which an equally wicked city was on the verge of judgment, but instead of destroying them the Lord did send someone and saved the city. We all know that story, too – the city is Nineveh. This time, however, the Lord acted very differently. Instead of going down, finding the city was evil, and destroying it, the Lord sent Jonah to preach a message of repentance:

Jonah 1:2: “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before me.”

As we all know, Jonah did not want to go. He was not a willing participant in this missionary journey, and he did everything humanly possible to avoid going. His reasoning was very clear:

Jonah 4:2: “And he prayed unto the LORD, and said, I pray thee, O LORD, was not this my saying, when I was yet in my country? Therefore I fled before unto Tarshish: for I knew that thou art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentest thee of the evil.”

Jonah didn’t want to go to Nineveh because he knew that if he went and the city repented, the Lord would not destroy them – and Jonah desperately wanted to see the hundreds of thousands of people that lived there brutally killed and sent straight to Hell. But the Lord forced Jonah to go. Let me emphasize that fact: Jonah only went because the Lord forced him to go. God actually held Jonah hostage in the belly of a fish until Jonah finally gave in. Jonah was not a willing participant in any of this, but the Lord pushed him on anyway because God was determined to save Nineveh – which is exactly what happened:

Jonah 3:5: “So the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them.
6 For word came unto the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and he laid his robe from him, and covered him with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.
7 And he caused it to be proclaimed and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste any thing: let them not feed, nor drink water:
8 But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily unto God: yea, let them turn every one from his evil way, and from the violence that is in their hands.
9 Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not?”

As an aside, I have heard people say that God cannot use you unless you are 100% right with God. If you are backsliding or in sin then God can’t do anything with your life. You must be a paragon of holiness before God can use you. I think Jonah conclusively proves that this is not true. After all, Jonah was not at all right with God. Jonah had a deep and abiding hatred toward the people of Nineveh, and his heartfelt desire was to see them all burn in Hell – and when they repented Jonah got very, very angry. Yet the Lord still used Jonah to save them. This proves that it is the Lord who works, and not us. The Ninevites weren’t saved because Jonah wanted to see them saved, or because Jonah was a righteous man; they were saved because God decided to save them, and He saved them in spite of Jonah.

I say all of that to say this: both Sodom and Nineveh were exceedingly wicked cities. Jesus was clear that if a prophet had been sent to Sodom and performed great miracles, Sodom would have repented – but no one was sent and Sodom was destroyed, and all of its inhabitants perished and are in Hell today. However, in the case of Nineveh the Lord did send someone, and they did repent and were saved. The Lord did not treat Nineveh the way He treated Sodom – He saved one and destroyed the other.

Now, there was nothing evil about this. Sodom deserved to be destroyed, and the Lord destroyed it. Nor was there anything wrong with saving Nineveh – the Lord is under no obligation to save anyone, and no one deserves mercy. Yet it is impossible to escape the fact that God chose to save one city and He chose to destroy the other. In other words, this is a clear case of God deciding who is saved and who is lost. Both cities needed someone, but only one city was sent help. Nineveh would have been destroyed if God hadn’t sent Jonah, but God did send Jonah – in fact, God took great pains to send Jonah, despite Jonah’s best efforts to avoid going. That is something He did not do with Sodom, which was actually the point Jesus was trying to make. Sodom never got the help it needed.

This idea of divine choice may be shocking to us, but it shouldn’t be. Paul lays out the case for it in unmistakable terms:

Romans 9:14: “What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid.
15 For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.
16 So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy.
…
18 Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth.”

The point is that God never promised to have mercy on everyone. In fact, He is quite clear about this. Verse 18 is direct and to the point: God extends mercy to some people so that they will be saved, and others God hardens so that they will not be saved. You can go back and read those verses if you don’t believe me – God is quite up-front about this.

I’m sure that some would object to this, quoting the most famous verse in the Bible:

John 3:16: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

I agree with this verse completely. It is absolutely true that any and all who believe in Jesus will not perish but have everlasting life. However, it is also clear that the people of Sodom would have repented if the Lord had sent someone to demonstrate His power – but He didn’t, even though He did send someone in the case of Nineveh. The people of Sodom would have believed but God chose not to intervene on their behalf. Instead of sending someone to save them He sent them all to Hell.

Does God treat everyone the same? No – but then, God never promised that He would. God gives some people amazing talents while He gives others a life of disability and pain. Some people are given long lives while others die before they are even born. God moves miraculously to save some people, while He hardens others and sends them to Hell. And make no mistake about it – God does harden people’s heart to make sure they will not be saved. For example:

Exodus 4:21: “And the LORD said unto Moses, When thou goest to return into Egypt, see that thou do all those wonders before Pharaoh, which I have put in thine hand: but I will harden his heart, that he shall not let the people go.”

Exodus 7:3: “And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and multiply my signs and my wonders in the land of Egypt.”

Who hardened Pharaoh’s heart? The Lord did. He said this not once, but twice. The reason Pharaoh did not let the Israelites go is because the Lord hardened his heart – and then the Lord destroyed him. This hardening led to the destruction of Egypt, the death of all the firstborn in the country, and the death of Pharaoh himself. And it all happened because the Lord intervened and made it happen.

People today don’t like to hear this. They prefer a God that treats everyone the same. Many people say that God has given everyone a chance and it’s up to us to take it. If some people aren’t saved, well, it’s their own fault. God did all He could to save them and it just didn’t work out. God did His best.

But that’s not what the Bible says. Jesus clearly said that Sodom would have repented – but God destroyed them instead. Nineveh was on the same path to destruction but God did intervene to save them, over the strenuous objections of Jonah. Pharaoh might have left the Israelites go, but God hardened his heart so he wouldn’t. In other words, God chooses some people and does not choose others:

Romans 9:18: “Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth.”

Notice that verse 18 does not say “God has mercy on everyone, but some people are rebellious and don’t listen”. No, what the verse actually says is “God has mercy on some people, and God hardens other people.” It is frighteningly clear.

Why would God do such a thing? As it turns out, the Bible tells us exactly why:

Romans 9:22: “What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction:
23 And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory,
24 Even us, whom he hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?”

I touched on this topic before in my paper on the age of accountability, but it bears repeating. What people do not realize is that God is glorified by those who are saved and those who are damned, because both groups of people allow God to demonstrate His character. Those who are saved glorify God by giving Him an opportunity to demonstrate His mercy and love, while those who are damned demonstrate God’s wrath and power – not to mention His justice.

The key to remember is that everyone deserves to spend an eternity in Hell. All have sinned, and the wages of sin is death. Hell is the just punishment for our immense crimes against God, and there is no one who deserves to be forgiven. No one can stand up and say “God owes me salvation” or “God owes me mercy”. It is a gift – and that means God has the right to give it to some people but not to others. As Paul said:

Ephesians 2:8: “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.”

We are saved through faith, and that faith is not of ourselves. God gives us the faith we need in order to be saved. However, God does not give that faith to everyone. There is nothing unrighteous about this, because no one deserves anything from God, nor has God promised to save everyone. Those who are saved are given a tremendous gift, because God has given them something they do not deserve and could never earn. My salvation did not happen because I decided to accept God; it happened by God’s divine choice, as He blessed me with saving faith. Had God chosen to harden me (as He did to Pharaoh), I would have been lost and there would have been absolutely nothing I could have done about it. My eternal fate – and the eternal fate of everyone – rests solely in the divine choice of God.

If this seems incredible to you, or if it seems like something God would never do, remember the cases of Sodom and Nineveh. One was saved, and the other was not, because God chose to have mercy on one city but withheld His mercy from the other.

Captain Max and his old friend Jones were walking down a quiet country lane. Earlier that morning they had discovered a narrow path, paved with gold, that meandered through a giant forest. The two men had been walking down that path for an hour now, enjoying its wonders. Although the giant trees that towered above them blocked out all sight of the sky, the forest was well-lit by a light that seemed to come from everywhere and yet nowhere. There were birds resting in branches and squirrels scurrying about, and once Jones had spotted a large black bear. Despite this activity the woods were largely quiet, save for the noise that the two of them made as they walked down the path.

The two of them were on their way to the Diano Computing Center, in response to an invitation from Dr. Temilotzin. When he invited them to drop by the Center they decided to simply walk there. Max and Jones were in no particular hurry, and neither of them ever grew tired of walking through Heaven’s woods. There was a sense of peace and serenity that seemed to permeate everything around them.

“So what’s all this about again?” Max asked. “I know Nehemiah wants to colonize stars, but I’m a little hazy about the details.”

“I know what you mean,” Jones agreed. “In a way we’re at a bit of a disadvantage. Dr. Temilotzin did not invent his probes until long after we left the 19th century, so we never had a chance to see them in action. When we arrived in the future we saw the results of their work, but we never witnessed the process itself. Our only actual interaction with his probes was Carroll Lane tried to murder us with them. So there’s a lot that we’ve missed.”

“I would certainly agree with that,” Max said.

“Of course, our friend realizes all this, which is why he’s asked us to drop by the DCC. He wants to introduce us to one of the key elements of his ambitious plan – the computing resources that he will use to drive the project. Mass-scale processing power is central to his colonization plans, just as it was last time.”

“It is? But why would that be the case? After all, things are quite different now! Our mental and physical abilities are vastly greater than they used to be. In fact, if you compare us now to what we were like before we died, we’re a race of super men! We can’t get sick, we can’t die, and – most importantly – we can’t become corrupt. In fact, civilization as a whole is completely different. Given how much has changed, why would he take the same approach that he took in the shadowlands?”

“Think of it this way, sir. There is something close to 500 billion galaxies in the universe, and those galaxies have billions upon billions of stars. In fact, the number of stars is on the order of 3 trillion times 100 billion. It’s quite a remarkable number! The number of planets is quite staggering as well.”

“It’s unimaginable,” Max commented.

“Quite so – and therein lies the problem! No matter how much smarter you may be now than you were before, it’s simply not possible for one man – or even a group of men – to keep track of the activities around 300 sextillion stars. The only way it could possibly be done is with a staggering amount of computing power. We are going to need the help of machines, sir – enormous, powerful machines, with capacities that dwarf anything the Artilect could have supplied. That is why the DCC was built. It is Ramon Diano’s answer to the staggering challenges presented by Dr. Temilotzin’s project.”

“I see what you mean,” Max replied. “The probes are going to be processing a lot of information, and that data has to go somewhere. But – well, who is this?”

The two men suddenly stopped. A dozen feet or so off the golden path, sitting under an apple tree, was Amanda Stryker. The girl looked quite content, and was reading a novel entitled Starlight. Beside her was a brown wicker basket that contained the food she was going to eat for lunch. When Max and Jones called out to her Amanda put the book down and looked up. “Hello there!” she called out.

“Why, good morning to you, miss,” Max replied. He stepped off the path and walked toward her, with Jones following closely behind. “Are you enjoying your day?”

“I am,” Amanda replied. “I like it here – this is a good place to be, if you know what I mean. Besides, I think some books were meant to be read outdoors, under a tree.”

“Quite so,” Jones commented. “For example, The Horse and His Boy is an excellent story to read outside. Personally, I recommend choosing a lazy summer afternoon.”

“Really?” Max asked. “I can’t say I’ve ever tried that! I really don’t do much reading, and now that I’m here I don’t see that changing. There’s just so much to do! There are old friends to talk to, and wonders to see, and all sorts of things going on. Heaven is a very busy place.”

“There’s always right now,” Amanda suggested.

“Actually, Jones and I are on the way to the DCC. A friend of ours invited us there to look at some computers. It’s part of a project that we’ve somehow gotten mixed up in.”

Amanda smiled. “Right – the colonization project! I’ve heard about it. I hope it works out – from what my brother has told me, Dr. Temilotzin’s plans are very ambitious. You two have your work cut out for you!”

“So it would seem,” Captain Max agreed.

“How is your sister doing? Jones asked.

“She’s – well, she’s pretty unhappy right now,” Amanda admitted. “Everyone wants something from her and she just doesn’t know what to do. Steve wants her to fix Xanthe and Miles wants her to fix Mars. She’s surrounded by all these demands and they’re frustrating her. She wants to help, but she doesn’t know how. Plus, she’s still pretty bitter over Adrian’s betrayal.”

“She is attempting the wrong task,” Jones replied. “That is the source of her problems. She needs to focus on what she can do, and not on what she cannot do.”

“What do you mean?” Amanda asked.

“The problems with Xanthe and Mars stem from the fact that the people on those worlds are corrupt, and that corruption has led to the situations they now face. It is impossible for Amy to cure that corruption. God can change them, but she cannot. All she can do is offer them one final chance. What they do with that chance is between them and God.”

“But they’ve had so many chances already! Mars could have changed two thousand years ago, when Miles built New Tikal – but they didn’t. Xanthe could have changed when I terraformed their planet and offered them a future, but they didn’t. They’ve had far more opportunities than other people have.”

“I know,” Jones said. “But you must understand that the judgment of the Lord is final and absolute. When He returns – and that return is nearer now than when we first believed – He will judge the world. On that day there will be no more second chances, no more offers of grace, no more pleas to accept His mercy. Those who accepted Him will go on to everlasting life, and those who refused to accept Him as Savior and Lord will go on to everlasting torment. Before He returns and puts an end to this age in history He is giving these three worlds – Xanthe, Mars, and Earth – one last chance to repent. Amy’s offer will be the last chance that they get.”

“And then what?” Amanda asked.

Jones smiled. “Then the Lord will create a new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwells righteousness. That day is coming too, you know. Amy will not have to deal with all of these problems forever. All she needs to do is finish the race that is set before her. It won’t be easy, but it will be worthwhile. Many lives – many souls – depend on it.”

“Will it take very long?” Amanda asked.

“It will take longer than you would like,” Jones replied. “I know how much you miss her. But you do not have to worry. One day it will become time for her to step through the Door.”

“The door?” Captain Max asked. “What door? Are you talking about her death?”

Jones smiled. “Give it time, sir. You will see what I mean when that day comes.”

“You know, speaking of time, we’d better be hustling along to the DCC! We don’t want to keep our friend waiting forever.”

Amanda spoke up. “He’s probably right, you know. I hope you two have a good time! Don’t work too hard.”

“We’ll see you again soon,” Jones promised.