In 1994 my family moved from New Jersey to Wuxi, China. At the time I was 14 years old and had just started a monthly newsletter. For the next two-and-a-half years I continued the newsletter, chronicling our many adventures in the land of China. If you’re reading this, I invite you to sit back, relax, and enjoy my family’s experiences. You will read tales of flies and plumbers, of furniture being delivered on the back of a bicycle and of houses being built by people who knew nothing about building houses. I hope you enjoy this collection!

The entire 109-page book can be downloaded free-of-charge right here: The Jon Monthly.

Printed copies are also available, for those who would rather have a hard copy. The book is available in full color at this page.

This morning I was reading an article online and noticed that its author made a very peculiar comment. He stated that when Genesis 1:26 says we were made in the image of God, what that means is that God looks just like we do – that He has a head, two arms, and two legs. “God doesn’t look like a puppy,” he explained. “He looks like us.”

What was especially appalling is that this person was a Bible scholar. He had actually written a wildly popular book in an attempt to correct people’s misconceptions about the Bible. What’s even worse is that people actually believed him. They thought what he was teaching made a lot of sense.

I think that just goes to show how many Christians are illiterate when it comes to the Bible. The ignorance is just appalling. We’re not talking about predestination here, folks. The idea that God is a spirit and doesn’t have a body is an extremely simple and basic concept. This is something everyone should have learned in Sunday School.

First of all, God is a Spirit:

John 4:24: “God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.”

Second, spirits do not have bodies. We know this because Jesus told us this after He was raised from the dead:

Luke 24:39: “Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have.”

It’s really a pretty open-and-shut case. God is a spirit and spirits do not have bodies. He, therefore, does not have a head, arms, legs, bones, blood vessels, and all the rest. How could God have said it any more clearly? When God said “Let us make man in our image” He wasn’t talking about the physical body. He was focused on the spiritual side. We are made in the likeness of God spiritually, not physically. People are unique in that they have a spiritual component and are capable of having a relationship with God. We can experience God in a way that no other creature can.

If Jesus was already a physical being then there was nothing particularly special about His becoming a man, for He would have been a man all along. But if He was a Spirit, and if the boundless, eternal Presence (which the universe itself could not contain!) descended and entered human form, then that truly was a remarkable thing. Jesus became something He was not before – a physical being. A human. A creature with flesh and bones and skin and appetites and hair.

Paul points out that God is actually invisible:

I Timothy 1:17: “Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen.”

Solomon went on to explain that the entire universe is too small a thing to contain the presence of God:

1 Kings 8:27: “But will God indeed dwell on the earth? behold, the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain thee; how much less this house that I have builded?”

God Himself echoed that very thought through the prophet Jeremiah:

Jeremiah 23:23: “Am I a God at hand, saith the Lord, and not a God afar off?
24 Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him? saith the Lord. Do not I fill heaven and earth? saith the Lord.”

So God is a Spirit – eternal, immortal, and invisible; He is so vast that the universe itself cannot contain him, and He fills Heaven and Earth. He does not have a head, arms, and legs.

Now, there is one side-note to all of this. The Trinity is composed of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. In the beginning all three were spirit (Genesis 1:1-2). However, about two thousand years ago something astounding happened: God the Son became a man. Jesus was born in Bethlehem, lived, and was executed for our sins. When He died His physical body was buried, and three days later it came back to life. Jesus then ascended bodily into Heaven as the God-Man – fully God and yet fully Man. Jesus does have a physical body, and to the best of my knowledge He will always have it. But He did not have it when He uttered the words “Let us make man in our image” in Genesis 1. Only Jesus became a man; God the Father and God the Holy Spirit are still spirits.

That brings up another point. The Holy Spirit is definitely a spirit; very few people would dispute that. Ask yourself this: does it have a body? Does the Holy Spirit (which each Christian has living inside them!) have a head, arms, and legs? The author of the article I was reading claimed that the God-spirits still look like people; they just have bodies made out of “spirit stuff”, with heads and legs and all the rest. Does that match any description of the Holy Spirit found in the Bible? Does it even make sense?

I rest my case.

I just wanted to let everyone know that the first Stryker book, On the Edge of Eternity, is now available in Amazon’s Kindle store! You can find it in Amazon’s Kindle library.

The download costs $0.99.

I just wanted to let everyone know that I have added a lot of new material on the Free Books page! The book Master of Shadows is back, along with all five volumes of the Starman Appendices (some of which were not previously available in any format). Take a look – you might find something interesting!

Our text is Mark 2:1-12, but before we get to that I want to establish a bit of context. Mark 2 takes place in Capernaum, and I’d like to talk a bit about this place before we get started.

Capernaum was a small village on the Sea of Galilee. At most it was home to around 1500 people. The city lasted for almost a thousand years; it was established in the second century BC and lasted until the seventh century AD.

Interestingly, Jesus made Capernaum His home during the early days of His ministry. After being baptized by John the Baptist He was driven into the wilderness to be tempted by Satan, and after the period of temptation was over He left Nazareth and moved to Capernaum:

Matthew 4:12: “Now when Jesus had heard that John was cast into prison, he departed into Galilee;
13 And leaving Nazareth, he came and dwelt in Capernaum, which is upon the sea coast, in the borders of Zebulun and Naphtali:
14 That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying,
15 The land of Zebulun, and the land of Naphtali, by the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles;
16 The people which sat in darkness saw great light; and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up.
17 From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

As the passage indicates, this was done in fulfillment of an Old Testament prophecy.

The Lord did a number of notable miracles there. For example, in Capernaum the Lord demonstrated His power over demons, to the astonishment of those around Him:

Mark 1:21: “And they went into Capernaum; and straightway on the sabbath day he entered into the synagogue, and taught.
22 And they were astonished at his doctrine: for he taught them as one that had authority, and not as the scribes.
23 And there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit; and he cried out,
24 Saying, Let us alone; what have we to do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth? Art thou come to destroy us? I know thee who thou art, the Holy One of God.
25 And Jesus rebuked him, saying, Hold thy peace, and come out of him.
26 And when the unclean spirit had torn him, and cried with a loud voice, he came out of him.
27 And they were all amazed, insomuch that they questioned among themselves saying, What thing is this? What new doctrine is this? For with authority commandeth he even the unclean spirits, and they do obey him.
28 And immediately his fame spread abroad throughout all the region round about Galilee.”

The fact that Jesus could drive out demons was proof that He came from God. That is what so disturbed the crowd that was in the synagogue that day. You see, miracles cannot be done apart from the power of God:

John 9:29: “Then they reviled him, and said, Thou art his disciple; but we are Moses’ disciples.
29 We know that God spake unto Moses: as for this fellow, we know not from whence he is.
30 The man answered and said unto them, Why herein is a marvelous thing, that ye know not from whence he is, and yet he hath opened mine eyes.
31 Now we know that God heareth not sinners: but if any man be a worshiper of God, and doeth his will, him he heareth.
32 Since the world began it was not heard that any man opened the eyes of one that was born blind.
33 If this man were not of God, he could do nothing.
34 They answered and said unto him, Thou wast altogether born in sins, and dost thou teach us? And they cast him out.”

The man that was born blind put his finger right on the real issue. The Pharisees could criticize the teachings of Jesus, but the problem was that Jesus’ teachings were backed up by awesome power – a power that could only come from God. It’s hard to criticize someone who claims to be God when He then turns around and does things that cannot be done without God’s help – things like casting out demons or raising the dead.

Verse 22 is interesting. Whenever the scribes taught they would quote other people as their authority, telling the Jews that they should live their lives a certain way because so-and-so says they should. Jesus never taught that way; He gave commands and issued doctrine as if He was the one in charge. This astonished people because Jesus was acting as if He was God. Jesus acted this way, of course, because He really was God. Jesus demonstrated this through His many miracles, which in turn brought Him widespread fame. No one had ever heard such teachings or seen such power. It was something new and strange.

It was immediately after this scene in the synagogue that the incident with the paralyzed man happened:

Mark 2:1: “And again he entered into Capernaum after some days; and it was noised that he was in the house.
2 And straightway many were gathered together, insomuch that there was no room to receive them, no, not so much as about the door: and he preached the word unto them.
3 And they come unto him, bringing one sick of the palsy, which was borne of four.
4 And when they could not come nigh unto him for the press, they uncovered the roof where he was: and when they had broken it up, they let down the bed wherein the sick of the palsy lay.
5 When Jesus saw their faith, he said unto the sick of the palsy, Son, thy sins be forgiven thee.
6 But there were certain of the scribes sitting there, and reasoning in their hearts,
7 Why doth this man thus speak blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God only?
8 And immediately when Jesus perceived in his spirit that they so reasoned within themselves, he said unto them, Why reason ye these things in your hearts?
9 Whether it is easier to say to the sick of the palsy, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Arise, and take up thy bed, and walk?
10 But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins, (he saith to the sick of the palsy,)
11 I say unto thee, Arise, and take up thy bed, and go thy way into thine house.
12 And immediately he arose, took up the bed, and went forth before them all; insomuch that they were all amazed, and glorified God, saying, We never saw it on this fashion.”

Once again we see a familiar pattern. The scribes are upset that Jesus forgave sins because only God could forgive sins. If Jesus really had the power to forgive sins then that would mean He was God, and they rejected that idea. Jesus then demonstrated that He really was God by doing something only God could do – namely, instantly healing a paralyzed man. He was making it very clear that He really was the Messiah.

Nor were those the only miracles He did in Capernaum. That is where Jesus healed the Centurion’s servant:

Matthew 8:5: “And when Jesus was entered into Capernaum, there came unto him a centurion, beseeching him,
6 And saying, Lord, my servant lieth at home sick of the palsy, grievously tormented.
7 And Jesus saith unto him, I will come and heal him.
8 The centurion answered and said, Lord I am not worthy that thou shoudst come under my roof: but speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed.
9 For I am a man under authority, having soldiers under me: and I say to this man, Go, and he goeth; and to another, Come, and he cometh; and my servant, Do this, and he doeth it.
10 When Jesus heard it, he marveled, and said to them that followed, Verily, I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel.
11 And I say unto you, That many shall come from the east and west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven.
12 But the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
13 And Jesus said unto the centurion, Go thy way; and as thou hast believed, so be it done unto thee. And his servant was healed in the selfsame hour.”

That is also where Jesus healed the nobleman’s son:

John 4:46: “So Jesus came again into Cana of Galilee, where he made the water of wine. And there was a certain nobleman, whose son was sick at Capernaum.
47 When he heard that Jesus was come out of Judea into Galilee, he went unto him, and besought him that he would come down, and heal his son: for he was at the point of death.
48 Then said Jesus unto him, Except ye see signs and wonders, ye will not believe.
49 The nobleman saith unto him, Sir, come down ere my child die.
50 Jesus saith unto him, Go thy way; thy son liveth. And the man believed the word that Jesus had spoken unto him, and he went his way.
51 And as he was now going down, his servants met him, and told him, saying, Thy son liveth.
52 Then inquired he of them the hour when he began to amend. And they said unto him, Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him.
53 So the father knew that it was at the same hour, in the which Jesus said unto him, Thy son liveth: and himself believed, and his whole house.
54 This is again the second miracle that Jesus did, when he was come out of Judea of Galilee.”

Notice what Christ said in verse 48. When the nobleman came and told Jesus that his son was dying the Lord responded by saying “Except ye see signs and wonders, ye will not believe.” Jesus came to Earth to seek and to save them which were lost. The nobleman may have been concerned about his son, but Jesus was concerned about his soul. Jesus wanted to meet the nobleman’s real need – his need for a savior. Jesus performed many signs and wonders so that people would believe that He was the Messiah.

But many people refused to believe that Jesus was the Messiah. Even though He performed countless breathtaking miracles they still did not believe. His own hometown, Nazareth, rejected Him:

Luke 4:21: “And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up; and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up for to read.
…
21 And he began to say unto them, This day is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears.
22 And all bare him witness, and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth. And they said, Is not this Joseph’s son?
23 And he said unto them, Ye will surely say unto me this proverb, Physician, heal thyself: whatsoever we have heard done in Capernaum, do also here in thy country.
24 And he said, Verily I say unto you, No prophet is accepted in his own country,”

Even the people of Capernaum rejected Him, despite the fact that they had seen Jesus do astonishing things:

John 6:24: “When the people therefore saw that Jesus was not there, neither his disciples, they also took shipping, and came to Capernaum, seeking for Jesus.
25 And when they had found him on the other side of the sea, they said unto him, Rabbi, when camest thou hither?
26 Jesus answered them and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Ye seek me, not because ye saw the miracles, but because ye did eat of the loaves, and were filled.
27 Labor not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you: for him hath God the Father sealed.
…
34 Then said they unto him, Lord, evermore give us this bread.
35 And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.
36 But I said unto you, That ye also have seen me, and believe not.
37 All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.
38 For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me.
39 And this is the Father’s will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day.
40 And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day.
41 The Jews then murmured at him, because he said, I am the bread which came down from heaven.
42 And they said, Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How is it then that he saith, I came down from heaven?”
…
59 These things said he in the synagogue, as he taught in Capernaum.
60 Many therefore of his disciples, when they had heard this, said, This is an hard saying; who can hear it?
…
66 From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him.”

Even though John the Baptist had testified that Jesus was the Messiah, and even though Jesus had testified that He was the Messiah, and even though Jesus had performed countless miracles that proved He came from God, many people still rejected Him. They simply refused to believe.

Because these people had seen the power of God demonstrated and yet had still refused to repent, Jesus told them that their punishment would be great:

Matthew 11:20: “Then began he to upbraid the cities wherein most of his mighty works were done, because they repented not:
21 Woe unto thee, Chorazin! Woe unto thee, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works, which were done in you, had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes.
22 But I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in at the day of judgment, than for you.
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.
24 But I say unto you, That it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom, in the day of judgment, than for thee.”

Jesus told Capernaum that they were worse than Sodom because even Sodom would have repented if they had seen the works that Jesus had done. They had no reason to doubt that Jesus was exactly who He claimed to be, but they still would not repent.

This was a common theme all throughout Christ’s ministry. Jesus powerfully demonstrated that He was God, both in word and deed, and yet He was rejected. When He told people plainly that He was from God He was accused of being demon-possessed:

John 8:45: “And because I tell you the truth, ye believe me not.
46 Which of you convinceth me of sin? And if I say the truth, why do ye not believe me?
47 He that is of God heareth God’s words: ye therefore hear them not, because ye are not of God.
48 Then answered the Jews, and said unto him, Say we not well that thou art a Samaritan, and hast a devil?”

These people had seen Jesus perform astonishing miracles, on a scale never before seen in history, but rather than humbling themselves and repenting they blasphemed Jesus and rejected Him. They mocked Him and said He was demon-possessed – the very man they had watched cast out one demon after another.

When Jesus plainly told them that He was God they tried to stone him:

John 8:57: “Then said the Jews unto him, Thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen Abraham?
58 Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, before Abraham was, I am.
59 Then took they up stones to cast at him: but Jesus hid himself, and went out of the temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed by.”

(“I am” is the name that God gave to Moses. In verse 58 Jesus is saying that He was the great I AM that Moses spoke of. This was the truth, but the Jews hated Jesus for saying it.)

Nor was this the only time that happened. Jesus kept telling them that He was God and the Jews kept trying to murder Him for it:

John 10:27: “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me:
28 And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.
29 My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand.
30 I and my Father are one.
31 Then the Jews took up stones again to stone him.
32 Jesus answered them, Many good works have I showed you from my Father; for which of those works do ye stone me?
33 The Jews answered him, saying, For a good work we stone thee not; but for blasphemy; and because that thou, being a man, makest thyself God.”

The reason Jesus made Himself out to be God was because He really was God. Jesus demonstrated this in many ways, but many responded with hatred and murder. The very people that tried to kill Him had seen the miracles He performed, but they chose to reject Him anyway. Even the resurrection of Lazarus made no difference to them:

John 11:43: “And when he thus had spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth.
44 And he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with graveclothes: and his face was bound about with a napkin. Jesus saith unto them, Loose him, and let him go.
45 Then many of the Jews which came to Mary, and had seen the things which Jesus did, believed on him.
46 But some of them went their ways to the Pharisees, and told them what things Jesus had done.
47 Then gathered the chief priests and the Pharisees a council, and said, What do we? For this man doeth many miracles.
…
53 Then from that day forth they took counsel together for to put him to death.”

Let’s put all of this into perspective. Jesus was born right where the Old Testament prophesied the Jesus would be born, and a host of angels announced His birth. John the Baptist prepared the way for the Lord, telling people that the Messiah was coming. When Jesus came to see John he pointed Him out, telling people that the Messiah had arrived.

Jesus then went on to perform many miracles, including acts of power that had never been seen before in the history of the world. Jesus told people that He was the Messiah, that He came from God, and that He actually was God. And to top it all off, Jesus went into a graveyard, found a man who had been dead so long he had started to decay, and raised him from the dead. If you have the power to go to a graveyard and raise the dead back to life then there is something really special about you, because only God can raise the dead. That is as clear a demonstration of godlike power that anyone could ever want. Jesus told people that He had the power to grant everlasting life, and He proved it.

And in response to all this did the Pharisees fall on their knees and repent of their sins? Did they humbly beg for forgiveness? No. They decided Jesus was becoming a real pain and put together a plan to execute Him. Yes, they decided to execute someone who could raise people from the dead. They rejected Jesus as thoroughly as anyone possibly could.

Because of this the Lord pronounced judgment upon those who had seen His power firsthand and yet had rejected Him:

Matthew 23:27: “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For ye are like unto whited sepulchers, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness.
28 Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.
29 Woe unto you, scribe and Pharisees, hypocrites! Because ye build the tombs of the prophets, and garnish the sepulchers of the righteous,
30 And say, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.
31 Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves, that ye are the children of them which killed the prophets.
32 Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers.
33 Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?
34 Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes: and some of them ye shall kill and crucify; and some of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city:
35 That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zechariah son of Berechiah, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar.
36 Verily I say unto you, All these things shall come upon this generation.
37 O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!
38 Beyond, your house is left unto you desolate.
39 For I say unto you, Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.”

Since that generation saw Jesus and rejected Him as their Messiah, the Lord judged them. That generation was not interested in God’s forgiveness, so instead they faced His wrath. Forty years after this conversation the Roman army crushed Jerusalem, slaughtering more than 1 million Jews. The Lord had indeed left their house desolate. The nation of Israel would not exist again until 1948.

On top of that, the Lord took away the kingdom from them and gave it to the Gentiles:

Matthew 21:43: “Therefore say I unto you, The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof.”

On the day of Pentecost the Church came into being. It accepted Jesus as its Messiah, and for almost two thousand years it has done what the Israelites failed to do – follow Jesus. But Israel’s rejection of Jesus will not last forever. Paul explained this in Romans:

Romans 11:1: “I say then, Hath God cast away his people? God forbid. For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin.
2 God hath not cast away his people which he foreknew. …
11 I say then, Have they stumbled that they should call? God forbid: but rather through their fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles, for to provoke them to jealousy.
12 Now if the fall of them be the riches of the world, and the diminishing of them the riches of the Gentiles; how much more their fulness?”

What Paul is saying is that Israel’s rejection of Jesus was a blessing to the world because it led to the salvation of the Gentiles. The kingdom has been taken from them, but that is just temporary. God still loves Israel and longs to see them saved. One day the Church will be completed and then things will change:

Romans 11:25: “For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in.
26 And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Zion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob:
27 For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins.”

In Matthew 23:39 Jesus told the Israelites that He would not return until they accepted Him as their Messiah. Romans 11:25 tells us that Israel will continue to reject Jesus until the “fullness of the Gentiles be come in” – in other words, until the Church is completed. What this means is that once the Church adds its last member (for God knows who will be saved and who will not) the blindness will stop and the entire nation of Israel will repent. Zechariah speaks of the day when the Israelites will realize what they have done and will whole-heartedly turn to Jesus:

Zechariah 12:10: “And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn.
11 In that day shall there be a great mourning in Jerusalem, as the mourning of Hadad-rimmon in the valley of Megiddon.
12 And the land shall mourn, every family apart; the family of the house of David apart, and their waves apart; the family of the house of Nathan apart, and their wives apart;
13 The family of the house of Levi apart, and their wives apart; the family of Shimei apart, and their wives apart;
14 All the families that remain, every family apart, and their wives apart.”

After Israel repents Jesus will return to Earth, rescue Israel, and defeat His enemies. The Bible talks a great deal about how the Lord will turn Israel’s heart back to Him and what happens after Jesus returns, but that is a topic beyond the scope of this paper.

All of this brings us back to Mark 2 and the paralyzed man that was brought to Jesus. You see, in Capernaum that day there were two groups of people. There were the scribes, who rejected Jesus, and the paralyzed man, who accepted Him. The paralyzed man left with his sins forgiven; the scribes left still in their sins. One received mercy while the other received wrath and judgment.

Jesus offers forgiveness and mercy to all who repent and accept Him as their Lord and Savior. What choice are you going to make? Are you going to be like the paralytic, who humbly came to Jesus, or are you going to reject Him as the scribes did? If you are not willing to accept God’s mercy then you will face His wrath; those are your only two choices. Choose wisely, for once Jesus comes for you it will be too late to change your mind.

First, let’s take a look at the passage we’re going to be discussing. This is a very familiar portion of Scripture. It can be found in Exodus 3:

Exodus 3:1: “Now Moses kept the flock of Jethro his father in law, the priest of Midian: and he led the flock to the backside of the desert, and came to the mountain of God, even to Horeb.
2 And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush: and he looked, and, behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed.
3 And Moses said, I will now turn aside, and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt.
4 And when the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here am I.
5 And he said, Draw not nigh hither: put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground.”

Before we go any further let’s put this passage into context. We need to understand what is actually going on before we can see the full significance of this event.

Centuries before Moses was born, the Lord appeared to his ancestor Abraham. God told Abraham that his descendents would be enslaved for hundreds of years, but then the Lord would come and deliver them:

Genesis 15:13: “And he said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years;
14 And also that nation, whom they shall serve, will I judge: and afterward shall they come out with great substance.
15 And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace; thou shalt be buried in a good old age.
16 But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again: for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full.”

All of these things came to pass. In the day’s of Abraham’s grandson Jacob a mighty famine arose. The Lord used Jacob’s son Joseph to save their lives by bringing all of them to Egypt:

Genesis 46:1: “And Israel took his journey with all that he had, and came to Beer-sheba, and offered sacrifices unto the God of his father Isaac.
2 And God spake unto Israel in the visions of the night, and said, Jacob, Jacob. And he said, Here am I.
3 And he said, I am God, the God of thy father: fear not to go down into Egypt; for I will there make of thee a great nation:
4 I will go down with thee into Egypt; and I will also surely bring thee up again: and Joseph shall put his hand upon thine eyes.
5 And Jacob ruse up from Beer-sheba: and the sons of Israel carried Jacob their father, and their little ones, and their wives, in the wagons which Pharaoh had sent to carry him.
6 And they took their cattle, and their goods, which they had gotten in the land of Canaan, and came into Egypt, Jacob, and all his seed with him:
7 His sons, and his sons’ sons with him, his daughters, and his son’s daughters, and all his seed brought he with him into Egypt.”

So the entire family of Jacob ended up in Egypt. At first things went well but then that changed:

Exodus 1:6: “And Joseph died, and all his brethren, and all that generation.
7 And the children of Israel were fruitful, and increased abundantly, and multiplied, and waxed exceeding mighty; and the land was filled with them.
8 Now there arose up a new king over Egypt, which knew not Joseph.
9 And he said unto his people, Behold, the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we:
10 Come on, let us deal wisely with them; lest they multiply, and it come to pass, that, when there falleth out any war, they join also unto our enemies, and fight against us, and so get them up out of the land.
11 Therefore they did set over them taskmasters to afflict them with their burndens. And they built for Pharaoh treasure cities, Pithom and Ramses.
12 But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew. And they were grieved because of the children of Israel.
13 And the Egyptians made the children of Israel to serve them with rigor:
14 And they made their lives bitter with hard bondage, in mortar, and in brick, and in all manner of service in the field: all their service, wherein they made them serve, was with rigor.”

As the Lord told Abraham, the children of Israel became a nation of slaves. Things got so bad that Pharaoh commanded all males born to the Israelites be killed:

Exodus 1:22: “And Pharaoh charged all his people, saying, Every son that is born ye shall cast into the river, and every daughter ye shall save alive.”

It was into these circumstances that Moses was born. I don’t have the time here to recount that entire story – how the Lord miraculously spared his life and how he ended up being raised in the royal household of Pharaoh.

What I want to focus on is Moses. He knew that the Israelites had been slaves for centuries. It’s very likely that he knew about the prophecy – that after four hundred years the Lord would visit His people and deliver them. He knew that the Lord had saved him from an early death and caused him to be raised in the royal household. In short, he knew he was a special person, called for a special mission. Notice what Hebrews had to say about Moses:

Hebrews 11:24: “By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter;
25 Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season;
26 Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompense of the reward.”

As tempting as it would have been for Moses to live out his days in Pharaoh’s household, he chose instead to reject that lifestyle and serve God. He would rather suffer with God’s people than “enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season”. Moses was determined to use his life to serve God. He had no interest in living a life of sin and self-gratification.

Not only did Moses have faith in God, but he also believed that he had been chosen to deliver the Israelites out of bondage. This is what Acts has to say about it:

Acts 7:22: “And Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was mighty in words and in deeds.
23 And when he was full forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brethren the children of Israel.
24 And seeing one of them suffer wrong, he defended him, and avenged him that was oppressed, and smote the Egyptian:
25 For he supposed his brethren would have understood how that God by his hand would deliver them: but they understood not.”

Moses believed that he was the Lord’s chosen vessel – that God had saved his life for a reason and intended to use him to rescue the Israelites. So when Moses was 40 years old he went out to visit his people and saw an act of injustice being done. He responded by defending the Israelite and killing the Egyptian – and as a result he was forced to flee the country. The Israelites were not delivered and Moses lost everything.

If this had happened to me I would have been crushed. Had I been in Moses’ place I would have expected that to be my defining moment – the day when the Lord rose up and rescued His people. After all, I was the chosen one! I was hand-picked by God – only instead of delivering them, disaster struck. I was run out of the country. On top of that the Israelites now despised Moses. Look at the way they reacted to him the following day:

Acts 7:26: “And the next day he showed himself unto them as they strove, and would have set them at one again, saying, Sirs, he are brethren; why do ye wrong one to another?
27 But he that did his neighbor wrong thrust him away, saying, Who made thee a ruler and a judge over us?
28 Wilt thou kill me, as thou didst the Egyptian yesterday?”

It was a complete, total, abject failure. No one was rescued, nothing good happened, and Moses was forced into exile. I’ve seen no indication that God commanded Moses to kill the Egyptian. Moses may well have taken things into his own and and been presumptuous; I don’t know. I do think he meant well and was genuinely trying to free the Israelites. But it didn’t end well.

Moses then spent the next forty years in the desert, tending sheep:

Acts 7:29: “Then fled Moses at this saying, and was a stranger in the land of Midian, where he begat two sons.
30 And when the forty years were expired, there appeared to him in the wilderness of mount Sina an angel of the Lord in a flame of fire in a bush.”

It’s worth noting that being a shepherd would have meant something special. You see, to the Egyptians, shepherds were an abomination:

Genesis 46:33: “And it shall come to pass, when Pharaoh shall call you, and shall say, What is your occupation?
34 That ye shall say, Thy servants trade hath been about cattle from our youth even until now, both we, and also our fathers: that ye may dwell in the land of Goshen; for every shepherd is an abomination unto the Egyptians.”

So not only did Moses fail to deliver the Israelites, not only was he forced to flee into a foreign country, but he also spent the next forty years in the desert tending sheep – a profession his people back home believed was an abomination. Moses had hit rock-bottom and he stayed there for a long, long time.

If all of these things had happened to me I would have been convinced that my life was over. By this point Moses was 80 years old. I would have been thinking that I’d had my chance to deliver the Israelites, and in my haste and presumption I blew it. My life had come and gone and all I had to show for it was a bunch of lousy sheep. I was a complete, utter failure. God had forgotten about me.

But that was not the case. When most people turn 80 their life is coming to an end, but Moses was just getting started. God had a plan for him:

Exodus 3:6: “Moreover he said, I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And Moses hid his face; for he was afraid to look upon God.
7 And the Lord said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I knew their sorrows;
8 And I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land unto a good land and a large, unto a land flowing whith milk and honey; unto the place of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites.
9 Now therefore, behold, the cry of the children of Israel is come unto me: and I have also seen the oppression wherewith the Egyptians oppress them.
10 Come now therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth my people the children of Israel out of Egypt.”

It’s pretty clear that Moses wasn’t expecting this! The first thing he told God was that He must have gotten the wrong number:

Exodus 3:11: “And Moses said unto God, who am I, that I should go unto Pharaoh, and that I should bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt?
12 And he said, Certainly I will be with thee; and this shall be a token unto thee, that I have sent thee: When thou hast brought forth the people out of Egypt, ye shall serve God upon this mountain.”

I’m sure I don’t have to tell you the rest of the story – how the Lord used a mighty hand to free the Israelites, and how His plagues devastated the land of Egypt. What is worth noting is that the Israelites were delivered right on time – not a day early or a day late:

Exodus 12:40: “Now the sojourning of the children of Israel, who dwelt in Egypt, was four hundred and thirty years.
41 And it came to pass at the end of the four hundred and thirty years, even the selfsame day it came to pass, that all the hosts of the Lord went out from the land of Egypt.”

(As a side-note, one might ask, why does Genesis 15 say 400 years while Exodus 12 says 430 years? It’s worth nothing that Genesis 15 says they would be afflicted for 400 years, while Exodus 12 says that their stay in Egypt lasted 430 years. The Israelites were in Egypt for quite some time before trouble started; it wasn’t until Joseph and his generation had died that the slavery began.)

In other words, despite everything that had happened, the Israelites were still rescued right on time – down to the very day. God’s plan hadn’t been ruined. He still intended to use Moses, and He did. Moses’ long wait in the desert was a part of the plan – God was simply waiting for the right time. When that time came He called Moses and used Him to deliver the Israelites.

The point of all this can be summed up as follows:

Romans 8:28: “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.”

As we go about our daily lives, it’s easy to lose track of this vital truth. All things work together for good – even the times when we completely blow it. Joseph made that very point to his brothers, who had sold him into slavery:

Genesis 50:15: “And when Joseph’s brethren saw that their father was dead, they said, Joseph will peradventure hate us, and will certainly requite us all the evil which we did unto him.
16 And they sent a messenger unto Joseph, saying, Thy father did command before he died, saying,
17 So shall ye say unto Joseph, Forgive, I pray thee now, the trespass of thy brethren, and their sin; for they did unto thee evil: and now, we pray thee, forgive the trespass of the servants of the God of thy father. And Joseph wept when they spake unto him.
18 And his brethren also went and fell down before his face; and they said, Behold, we be thy servants.
19 And Joseph said unto them, Fear not: for am I in the place of God?
20 But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive.”

Selling their brother into slavery was a horrible thing to do – but God used that act of sin to save all of their lives.

That is not to say that sin has no consequences; it certainly does. After Joseph’s brothers sold Joseph into slavery they lived in fear for years, and when Joseph’s father finally died they were terrified that Joseph would finally get their revenge. But what they meant for evil, God used for good. Our sin does have consequences, but God is greater than our sin, and is able to forgive us.

There may be times when we find ourselves in the desert tending sheep, as one year after another goes by. We may think that God has forgotten about us, and that there is just no way we could ever be used again. We may be tempted into despair. But God loves us dearly.

Our lives are lived by grace, not works. We don’t have to earn favor with God – He gives to us freely, thanks to the death of Jesus. He just wants us to ask forgiveness for our sins and walk humbly with Him. He doesn’t want us to despair, but to believe.

Sometimes it may seem like not much is happening in our lives; sometimes it may feel like God has forgotten us, but He hasn’t. If we walk with him, and have faith, our sorrows will be turned into joy, and our bitterness into laughter. Sometimes we may have to wait much longer than we’d like to wait. After all, Moses did spend forty years keeping sheep in the desert. But no one who has ever waited on God until the very end has ever been disappointed. Isaiah makes that promise clear:

Isaiah 40:27: “What sayest thou, O Jacob, and speakest, O Israel, My way is hid from the Lord, and my judgment is passed over from my God?
28 Hast thou not known? Hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? There is no searching of his understanding.
29 He giveth power to the faint; and to him that have no might he increaseth strength.
30 Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall:
31 But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.”

If you are weary, and cast down, and tired, then don’t despair. Don’t give up. Just wait upon the Lord. The Lord doesn’t promise to immediately remove the difficult circumstances (although He will do that when the time is right, for no trial lasts forever). What He does promise is to renew your strength – to give you what it takes to get through it, to His honor and glory. He may not take away the 40 long years in the desert, but He will give you the grace to endure them – and there is joy on the other side.

TOM SWIFT JR felt himself slowly regaining consciousness. His head was throbbing and he realized he was lying on the floor. He opened his eyes and wearily sat up. Over in the far corner of the room he saw that Bud was beginning to stir.

“What happened?” Bud asked groggily.

A voice behind them thundered to life. “You have been defeated by the mighty nation of Kranjovia! Bow down and tremble, weaklings.”

Tom weakly stood up and turned around. He and his friend were still in the kronolator room, but it was now filled with soldiers wearing the signature brown-and-gold uniform of the Kranjovian Army. In front of them was a proud man whose chest was covered with ribbons and metals.

“Wow,” Tom said, surprised. “Kranjovians! I was expecting the Brungarians. I haven’t seen you guys in a while.”

“The Brungarians had a scheduling conflict,” Bud quipped. “Somebody else had to step up and be the evil villain.”

“Silence, you insolent dogs!” the general barked. “I am General Volnas, supreme commander of the mighty starship Predator. You are now our prisoner, Swift! And you will do whatever we say, or there will be consequences to you and your pitiful crew. Grievous consequences!”

“Tell you what,” Bud said. “Since this is your first offense in a long time we’ll go easy on you. If you agree to surrender now we won’t press charges – we’ll just let you go and say this was all a big misunderstanding. But if you don’t then we’re going to have to get rough, and you don’t want that.”

General Volnas burst out laughing. “Your assistant has lost his mind, Swift! There are thirty powerful Kranjovian soldiers on board this pitiful ship, and all of them are armed with deadly weapons. You, on the other hand, do not even have a single handgun! In fact, you are so breathtakingly stupid that this ship isn’t even armed. Truly, you Americans are as dumb as rocks.”

“Only the weak need guns,” Bud replied. “C’mon! Surely you guys know your own history? Don’t you remember what happened when Ivor Bronich went after Tom’s atomic earth blaster? Or maybe you remember that unfortunate time when you guys tried to steal the the space cache we’d recovered with our subocean geotron. You guys don’t stand a chance! Tom Swift is so amazing that he could take on the entire Kranjovian Army with half his brain tied behind his back, just to make it fair.”

“Silence!” the general screamed. “You will learn respect, young moron, or you will soon be dead!”

Bud yawned. “Been there, done that. What else have you got?”

“Bud,” Tom said warningly. He turned to the general. “So what evil villainy are you up to this time? You had better not have harmed my crew, because if you have–”

“Enough!” General Volnas shouted. “It is you who is the villain, young Swift. The Kranjovian Army is appalled by your racism. You have refused to share your kronolator technology with the citizens of our great empire. I have come to teach you manners and liberate this knowledge so that all might enjoy its benefits.”

“You mean you want to steal Tom’s invention so you can ruthlessly oppress other star systems,” Bud replied.

General Volnas smiled. “We prefer to see it as spreading the truth of Kranjovia to other, less fortunate planets. There are so many worlds that need us to look after them.”

“That explains why your own citizens would rather die trying to escape Kranjovia than stay there,” Bud remarked.

“Look, you guys have got it all wrong,” Tom replied. “I can understand your interest in the kronolator, but as you can see it’s not exactly in working order! I’ve spent weeks trying to repair it – that’s the whole reason I came out here, as you must know. Surely you can see that this machine is far from being in working order.”

The general scowled. “But the Cosmotron Express left days ago! Surely you must not think me so stupid as to believe you would let her return to Earth while this ship was still helpless.”

“I didn’t say the Challenger was stranded,” Tom replied. “We can still return to Earth using its repelatron drive. But the kronolator is ruined. Look at it – it’s in pieces all over the floor!”

“Then you will fix it!” General Volnas stared at Tom intently. “I will give you 24 hours to fix this ship, Swift. If you fail then I will shoot your moronic assistant – and if that does not persuade you then I’ll find other friends of yours to shoot. All of your men on this ship have been captured, and they would make most excellent targets – especially the loud-mouthed fat one from Texas. His shirts are an offense to humanity.”

The general walked to the door, and then turned around to look at Tom. “You have twenty-four hours, Swift. Not a minute more! Do not play games with me.”

After finishing his tirade the general and his troops marched out of the room. He left two guards outside the door and stationed another one inside the room. All three guards were heavily armed.

Bud looked at Tom quizzically. “So what now?” he asked in a low voice.

Tom picked up the wiring diagrams for the kronolator and stared at them intently. Several minutes went by. “Tom?” Bud asked. “I hate to interrupt, but we’re in a tight spot here. What’s our next move? How do we–”

“Hold on,” Tom replied. “Just give me a minute.” He removed a pencil from his pocket and began making changes to the diagram. Bud watched in silence.

“Go ahead and get started,” Tom said at last. “This is a bit complicated. We’re going to need to work together on this.”

“Sure, genius boy, not a problem. But what am I supposed to do? I missed the part where you told me your master plan.”

Tom gestured toward a power coupling that was partially reassembled. “You can start by putting that back together. None of this is going to work until we’ve got power. Once you finish that, go ahead and put it back on the main unit. I’ll make the final calibrations after the basic work is done. We can proceed from there.”

For the next few hours Bud worked alone while Tom feverishly worked over the diagrams. At last he sighed, put away his pencil, and shook his head. “I just don’t know,” he said at last. “This is going to be a bit interesting, chum.”

“In a good way?” Bud asked in a low voice, eying the guard loitering near the door.

“I don’t really have all the parts I’d like,” Tom explained. “I wasn’t expecting on running into a hard deadline, and I don’t really have the time to do this. The ride could get a bit bumpy.”

“You mean we’re going to give General Hotshot what he wants?” Bud asked, surprised. “We’re actually going to fix the kronolator?”

“Unless you want to get shot,” Tom replied. “I think those guns have real bullets in them.”

“Not really,” Bud replied. “I’m no genius, but I have a feeling that getting shot may be hazardous to my health.”

“Then let’s get this done. He does have the rest of the crew held hostage, you know. A lot of lives are in danger and we don’t have a lot of options. The general wants a working kronolator, so let’s give him one.”

“If you say so,” Bud said dubiously.

Over the rest of the day the two teenagers worked feverishly on the giant machine, staying up far into the night. Bud was surprised at the number of wiring changes Tom made. He could tell that the young inventor was not happy, but he didn’t ask any questions. He had a feeling that even if Tom had been able to speak freely, Bud wasn’t going to like the answers.

The next morning a fresh guard came to take the place of the one that had watched them through the night. General Volnas accompanied him to see their progress. He was not pleased. “What is this?” he thundered, as he saw partially-built components scattered all over the floor. “Do you take me for a fool, Swift? Or do you simply not understand the gravity of the situation?”

“We’re a bit tired,” Bud explained. “And we could use a good breakfast, too. I don’t suppose you’d consider letting Chow rustle us up some food, would you?”

“You can eat and sleep after you finish repairing this monstrosity,” the general snapped. “In fact, should you fail to complete this task then you will sleep the eternal sleep of death! Your pitiful efforts to stall for time bore me.”

“You don’t understand,” Tom protested. “The kronolator is a very delicate instrument that uses a terrific amount of power to warp time itself. If we do something wrong it could easily kill all of us when it engages! We could even end up with a zero-five on our hands.”

“I am not interested in your inane babble,” General Volnas replied coldly. “You have until this afternoon to finish. Not a moment longer!”

With that, the general stormed out of the room, leaving a guard behind.

“What now, skipper?” Bud asked, as soon as the general had left.

The young inventor yawned and rubbed his eyes. “Only one thing to do, fly boy. Hand me that flux capacitor, will you?”

Bud looked around, puzzled. “You mean this?” he asked, picking an odd-shaped bit of circuitry off the ground.

“That’ll do,” Tom replied. He quickly snapped it in place and then nodded with satisfaction. He walked over to the control panel and placed his hand on the master switch. He then called to the guard. “Hey, do you know what a zero-five is?”

The guard by the door shook his head. “I do not care about you or your machine, you stupid American. I am just here to shoot you if you try to leave.”

“It’s a really a fascinating condition,” Tom explained. “You see, sometimes when a ship engages its warp drive it doesn’t quite work. Instead of cleanly entering hyperspace the ship only makes it partway through. Believe it or not that actually happened to the Arabian Prince – you can still see its ghost image out past Jupiter! As best I can tell that ship is spread across many dimensions but isn’t fully manifested in any of them. Its passengers are forever stuck in time.”

“I care not,” the guard snarled.

Tom shrugged. “All right! Then I’ll just go ahead and engage the drive. After all, what could go wrong?”

The guard’s eyes grew wide as Tom flipped the switch. He opened his mouth to scream an order but the kronolator instantly surged to life! The machine engaged with a massive jolt of energy, filling the room with a brilliant white light. The guard froze, unable to finish his sentence. He remained stuck in time, locked in the motion of attempting to stop Tom.

Preterism teaches that the New Testament prophecies regarding the end of the world were fulfilled in 70 AD during the destruction of Jerusalem. They believe that the book of Revelation has already been fulfilled. This is how Wikipedia defines preterism:

Preterism is an interpretation of Christian eschatology which holds that most or all of the biblical prophecies concerning the End Times refer to events which have already happened in the first century after Christ’s birth. The system also claims that Ancient Israel finds its continuation or fulfillment in the Christian church at the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70. The term preterism comes from the Latin praeter, which is listed in Webster’s 1913 dictionary as a prefix denoting that something is “past” or “beyond.” This signifies that either all or a majority of Bible prophecy was fulfilled by 70 A.D. Adherents of Preterism are sometimes known as Preterists.

Preterists fall into two camps. Full preterists believe that all prophecy has been fulfilled, including the Resurrection, the Second Coming, and the Final Judgment. They believe there is no unfulfilled prophecy and that all of Revelation has already happened. They base their theory on this verse:

Matthew 24:34: “Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled.”

They believe that “this generation” refers to the generation alive when Christ was speaking. Since Christ talked about the “great tribulation” (Matthew 24:21), the Second Coming (Matthew 24:30), and the final judgment where the elect are gathered (Matthew 24:31), they believe that all of those things must have happened to that generation.

Partial preterists find it difficult to believe that the Second Coming and the Final Judgment have already happened. They teach that the real Second Coming and Final Judgment are still in the future, and that Matthew 24 was talking about something else. Both views agree, though, that most of the prophecies in the New Testament were fulfilled in 70 AD, and that the pre-millennial beliefs regarding the Rapture, Tribulation, and Antichrist are a lot of nonsense.

For the purposes of this paper I’m mainly going to focus on why I disagree with partial preterism. If you are a full preterist and honestly believe that the resurrection of the dead, the Second Coming, and the Final Judgment has already happened then there’s probably no hope for you. I just can’t take that seriously.

So let’s get started. I’m going to write this paper from the perspective that you are already fairly familiar with preterism. You’ve heard the arguments for it. Now I’d like to present the arguments against it.

Dates

Preterism teaches that Revelation foretells the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD. In order for this to be true the book must have been written before 70 AD. However, the overwhelming weight of evidence suggests that the book was written decades after 70 AD – specifically, around 96 AD.

We know this because Irenaeus told us this in his work Against Heresies, which was written in the mid to late 100’s. Irenaeus was a student of Polycarp, who in turn studied under the apostle John. Irenaeus testified that book of Revelation was written toward the end of the reign of Domitian, who ruled from 81 – 96 AD. There are others who testified of this date as well. Even more significantly, no one suggested an earlier date for hundreds of years. The oldest manuscripts and letters say it was written decades after 70 AD.

But there is more. Note this passage in Revelation:

Revelation 2:13: “I know thy works, and where thou dwellest, even where Satan’s seat is: and thou holdest fast my name, and hast not denied my faith, even I those days wherein Antipas was my faithful martyr, who was slain among you, where Satan dwelleth.”

Antipas was the bishop of Pergamum, the very church to whom this letter was written. In this passage the martyrdom of Antipas is seen as a past event. When did Antipas die? He was martyred by Domitian in 92 AD. Since he died before Revelation was written, Revelation must have been written after 92 AD.

That’s not all! John testified that he was on the island of Patmos when he received the vision:

Revelation 1:9: “I John, who also am your brother, and companion in tribulation, and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was in the isle that is called Patmos, for the word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus Christ.
10 I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet,
11 Saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last: and, What thou seest, write in a book, and send it unto the seven churches which are in Asian; unto Ephesus, and unto Smyrna, and unto Pergamos, and unto Thyatira, and unto Sardis, and unto Philadelphia, and undo Laodicea.
…
19 Write the things which thou hast seen, and the things which are, and the things which shall be hereafter;”

Why does this matter? Because John was exiled to the isle of Patmos by Domitian, who reigned from 81 – 96 AD. If John received the vision on the isle of Patmos then he couldn’t possibly have written it before 70 AD because he hadn’t been exiled to Patmos yet!

To me this absolutely destroys preterism as a serious theory. Revelation can’t possibly be foretelling the destruction of Jerusalem because its destruction was old history by the time it was written. It’s an open-and-shut case. But there are many other reasons to seriously doubt preterism.

Church History

Preterism teaches that the prophecies of the New Testament were fulfilled in 70 AD when Jerusalem was destroyed. One might ask, is that what the early church believed? The answer is no. The list of people in the early church who believed that Revelation had not yet been fulfilled is actually quite long. To quote one site:

Second, all Christian writers in at least the first two centuries of the church were futurists, not preterists. Even most partial preterists will concede this point. Am I to conclude that they all were wrong, that the Holy Spirit has now revealed something to us that He did not reveal to them? People such as Ignatius, the third bishop of Antioch and one who was personally acquainted with the apostles themselves; Papias, the bishop of Hieropolis (across the valley from Colossae), a friend of the apostle John; and Polycarp, the bishop of Smyrna and another person who knew the Apostle John, were strong futurists. Did they misunderstand what they had been taught? Ignatius writes to Polycarp and urges him to “Look for Him who is above all time, eternal and invisible, yet who became visible for our sakes . . .” (Chapter 3). The Epistle of Barnabas, written around 100 A.D., anticipated the coming of the Antichrist and the return of Christ (Chapter 4). Polycarp writes “He comes as the Judge of the living and the dead” (Epistle to the Philippians, chapter 2). Papias writes that there will be a millennium after the resurrection of the dead when the personal reign of Christ will be established on the earth (Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History, Book 3, Chapter 39). Justin Martyr who lived from 110 to 165 A.D. writes: “But I and others, who are right-minded Christians on all points, are assured that there will be a resurrection of the dead, and a thousand years in Jerusalem, which will then be built, adorned and enlarged, as the prophets Ezekiel and Isaiah and others declare” (Dialogue with Trypho, Chapter 80). Ireneus states that those who heard Jesus teach testified that Jesus taught a future literal millennial reign on the earth, a time when the earth will yield a richness unimagined. Irenaeus goes farther to state that the coming of Christ will be preceded by the Antichrist reigning 3 and 1/2 years in Jerusalem, setting Himself up as God Himself. Irenaeus also tells us that there there will be 6,000 years of this earth before Jesus returns and sets up His thousand year reign. Irenaeus states all of this in the second century A.D.

Even closer to the apostles, Clement of Rome, who may have been the Clement mentioned in Philippians 4:3, and who probably was with Paul at Philippi, expected the return of Christ. The preterists and partial preterists will argue that Clement wrote before 70 A.D., because he speaks about sacrifices being offered in Jerusalem. But most scholars disagree and date Clement’s letter around 90 A.D. In any event, the unbroken view of those closest to the apostles and those who had a reason to understand what the apostles taught on the subject were all futurists. There is not a preterist among them.

(taken from http://truthsaves.org/doctrine/preterist.shtml)

The point of all this is that if Revelation, the Second Coming, the Tribulation, and all the rest were fulfilled in AD 70, it is astounding that the early church missed it entirely. Even people who studied under the apostles themselves believed that it had not yet been fulfilled. If preterism is true then that is really quite shocking. I think the reason the early church was not preterist is because the apostle’s didn’t teach them preterism – and they didn’t teach preterism because it is not true.

The Olivet Discourse

As we’ve already mentioned, preterists believe that the Olivet Discourse in Matthew 24 has already taken place. Let’s take a look at this passage and see what that actually entails.

Matthew 24:14: “And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.”

Was the gospel actually preached in all the world, to all nations, before 70 AD? That seems unlikely; even two thousand years later the gospel hasn’t been preached in all the world. There are countless groups that have not yet been reached. But let’s move on:

Matthew 24:15: “When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:)
16 Then let him which be in Judea flee into the mountains:”

Here Christ talks about something called the “abomination of desolation” that was going to stand in the Holy Place of the temple. The disciples would have instantly understand what he meant because this had happened before. During the Maccabean Revolt (168 BC – 135 BC) Antiochus IV Epiphanes outlawed Jewish sacrifices, pillaged the temple, and set up altars to Greek gods inside the temple. A statue of Zeus was actually placed on the altar of the temple. Not only did he loot the temple, but he repurposed it for the service of false gods.

Some would say that the “abomination of desolation” mentioned in Matthew 24:15 is a reference to the Maccabean revolt, but notice that Christ commands His disciples to be looking for it. He depicts it as a future event – a sign they need to be watching for. This tells me that the fulfillment of that prophecy was still in the future when Christ gave it.

This creates a problem for preterists because when the Romans invaded Jerusalem in 70 AD they didn’t repurpose the temple, they destroyed it. They did not set up alters to false gods in its Holy Place. The events Christ described simply did not happen at that time.

But it gets even better. Look at what the next verses say:

Matthew 24:21: “For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.
22 And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened.”

Do you see what Christ said? He plainly told his disciples that this period of “great tribulation” – which preterists say is a reference to the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD – is the worst event to ever happen in all human history. Nothing worse would ever happen. This means it was a bigger disaster than the Flood that wiped out the entire planet. It was worse than World War II, or the Holocaust. Am I really supposed to believe that the destruction of one city in the Middle East in 70 AD is the most terrible, epic disaster that the world has ever seen?

But Christ actually goes on to say that if He did not divinely step in and put and end to this “great tribulation” it would actually kill every living thing on the planet. Jesus actually said “except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved”. Were the lives of every single living creature on Earth put into grave danger when the Romans sacked Jerusalem in 70 AD? Hardly.

Not only did it not imperil the entire planet, and not only was it not the worst event in world history, but it wasn’t even the worst event in Jewish history. Yes, one million Jews died when the Romans destroyed Jerusalem in 70 AD, but six million Jews died in the Holocaust, which wiped out 2/3rds of their entire population.

Not only that, but the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD wasn’t as bad as the fall of Jerusalem in 586 BC. In 586 BC the Jews were scattered all over the world, and they were still scattered in 70 AD. When Jerusalem was destroyed in 70 AD it was devastating, but Jews kept living in Jerusalem after that until the Bar Kochba rebellion of 136 AD. Plus, the Jews had synagogues and local populations all over the world – unlike 586 BC.

By no stretch of the imagination can you possibly say that Matthew 24:21-22 has been fulfilled yet. It’s just ridiculous.

Of course, the passage goes on:

Matthew 24:29: “Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken:
30 And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.
31 And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.”

Notice that verse 29 says that these things will happen immediately after the tribulation of those days. This is why full preterists teach that the Second Coming and the Final Judgment happened in 70 AD – after all, if verses 5 through 28 happened in 70 AD then it’s only consistent to say that these things happened then as well, since verse 29 does use the word “immediately after.” Partial preterists realize how ridiculous it is to say that the Second Coming and Final Judgment have already happened and distance themselves from this, saying that “immediately” doesn’t actually mean “immediately,” or that this is talking about a different Second Coming. They say that Christ did come back in 70 AD, even though no one actually noticed (despite the fact that verse 30 makes it pretty clear everyone will notice).

To me this is just more evidence that preterism doesn’t make any sense.

Nero

The New Testament is very clear that there will be an Antichrist; Revelation has a lot to say about this. Preterists teach that these passages are all speaking of Nero. As evidence, they offer the fact that in Latin his name does add up to 666. However, there are huge problems with this theory.

First, Nero’s name only adds up to 666 if you use his Latin name. The New Testament, though, was written in Greek, and Nero’s name doesn’t add up to 666 in Greek. When the early church speculated about the identity of the Antichrist (for they didn’t believe in preterism!) they used the Greek alphabet, not the Latin one.

But that’s a minor point. 2 Thessalonians 2 offers a detailed description of what the Antichrist is going to do. Let’s compare that to the life of Nero:

2 Thessalonians 2:3: “Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;
4 Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshiped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.
5 Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things?
…
8 And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming;
9 Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders,
10 And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.”

Here we find out that the Antichrist is going to go into the temple of God and proclaim himself to be God. This is a reference to the “abomination of desolation” that Christ mentioned in the Olivet discourse.

Did Nero do this? Absolutely not. In fact, he never even visited Jerusalem. On top of that, Nero committed suicide in 68 AD, so he wasn’t even around in 70 AD. He didn’t march to Jerusalem with his armies, as the Scripture taught, to take over the temple and sit in its holy place. None of that happened. In fact, as I pointed out earlier, nobody did that. No one in 70 AD even came close to matching the biblical description of the Antichrist.

But there is a great deal more. Revelation talks about what the Antichrist (which it calls “the beast”) will do:

Revelation 19:19: “And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse, and against his army.
20 And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshiped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone.”

In 70 AD did the “kings of the earth” make war against Jerusalem? No – only the Roman Empire did. Did Nero make war against Jerusalem in 70 AD? No – he was dead at the time. Was Nero cast alive into the lake of fire? No – he committed suicide. Did the Roman army battle the armies of Heaven and lose? No – the Roman army sacked Jerusalem and destroyed it.

It’s worth noting that 2 Thessalonians teaches that when the Lord returns He will immediately defeat the Antichrist (2 Thes. 2:8). But in 70 AD there was no Antichrist, and the details of the battle don’t come close to matching the events described in Revelation.

Soon

Preterism rests pretty much its entire argument on this passage:

Revelation 1:1: “The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to show unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass; and he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John:
2 Who bare record of the word of God, and of the testimony of Jesus Christ, and of all things that he saw.
3 Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand.”

They teach that “must shortly come to pass” means the events in Revelation must have happened long ago, when the book was written. After all, almost two thousand years has gone by since the book was written! How could that possibly be “soon”?

This is actually a very good point – in fact, I think it’s their strongest argument. However, it is worth noting that whenever the Old Testament talks about the coming “great tribulation” (which it often refers to as the Day of the Lord), it also uses words like “soon” and “near,” even though the events were at least centuries away:

Ezekiel 30:1: “The word of the Lord came again unto me, saying,
2 Son of man, prophesy and say, Thus saith the Lord God, Howl ye, Woe worth the day!
3 For the day is near, even the day of the Lord is near, a cloudy day; it shall be the time of the heathen.”

Joel 1:15: “Alas for the day! For the day of the Lord is at hand, and as a destruction from the Almighty shall it come.”

Joel 2:1: “Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain: let all the inhabitants of the land tremble: for the day of the Lord cometh, for it is nigh at hand;
2 A day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness, as the morning spread upon the mountains: a great people and a strong; there hath not been ever the like, neither shall be any more after it, even to the years of many generations.”

Notice that Joel makes it plain he is speaking about a very special event – this “Day of the Lord” will be unlike anything anyone has ever seen. Nothing like it has ever happened before, and nothing like it would ever happen again. This exactly matches the description of the “great tribulation” that Christ spoke of in Matthew 24:21. And yet in Joel’s day it was said to be “at hand” – centuries before Christ! To use preterist logic, since it was “at hand” in Joel’s day, does that mean the things Christ spoke of happened centuries before He was born in Bethlehem? Of course not.

If these were the only passages that said the “Day of the Lord” was near, that would be enough to show that the preterist interpretation of Revelation 1:1-3 is wrong. But there are others. In fact, whenever the Old Testament talked about the “Day of the Lord” it was very common for them to say that it was at hand:

Obadiah 1:15: “For the day of the Lord is near upon all the heathen: as thou hast done, it shall be done unto thee: thy reward shall return upon thine own head.”

Zephaniah 1:7: “Hold thy peace at the presence of the Lord God: for the day of the Lord is at hand: for the Lord hath prepared a sacrifice, he hath bid his guests.”

Zephaniah 1:14: “The great day of the Lord is near, it is near, and hasteth greatly, even the voice of the day of the Lord: the mighty man shall cry there bitterly.
15 That day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of wasteness and desolation, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness.”

I think I’ve made my point. This time of great trouble (or “tribulation”) that Christ spoke of in Matthew 24 was actually talked about extensively in the Old Testament by the prophets. It was common for them to say that it was at hand, just as is written in Revelation. In other words, the prophets of God have said that the “great tribulation” is near for centuries.

How can that be? I realize preterists don’t like this passage, but the answer can be found in 2 Peter 3:

2 Peter 3:7: “But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.
8 But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.
9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
10 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.”

These verses tell us that God seems time differently than we do. To Him, the passage of a thousand years is like the passage of a single day. From God’s vantage point very little time has passed since these prophecies were given.

Preterists object to that use of this passage, but notice verse 10. What is Peter talking about? Why, he’s talking about the day of the Lord. He’s addressing this very issue! Other people were wondering why the Lord said He was coming soon when so much time passed without anything happening. Peter explained that to God it hasn’t been very long, and the reason He has waited is because He is “not willing that any should perish.” He wants to give men an opportunity to repent and be saved. I think this passage is highly relevant to the discussion.

Habakkuk has this to say:

Habakkuk 2:3: “For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry.”

I think that sums it up pretty well.

There is a great deal more I could say about preterism but I think I’ve made my point. I believe preterism does a very poor job of interpreting the Scriptures and is blatantly wrong. Preterism simply falls under the weight of evidence. For these reasons and many others, it cannot be the correct interpretation of end-times prophecy.

When it comes to end-times there are an incredible amount of views to choose from. People range from pre-millenial to post-millennial, from preterist to amillennial. Given the widespread confusion and disagreement, some people have chosen to be “pan-millennial” – they believe it will “all pan out in the end” and leave it at that. After all, this entire end-times discussion involves things that take place in the future, and whatever’s going to happen will happen. What difference does it really make?

I think it does make a difference and can impact the way we live our lives. It’s worth noting that this idea of “it’ll all pan out in the end” can’t be found in the Bible. In fact, Revelation actually has a special blessing to those who read and pay attention to it:

Revelation 1:3: “Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand.”

It’s also worth noting that God didn’t have to give us any of these prophecies. In fact, Jesus told us that the very fact the Lord has given us these teachings indicate that we have a special relationship with God:

John 15:15: “Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you.”

The Lord wants us to know His plans for history – not just the things He has done, but the things He is going to do. He’s told us where history is going and how it will end. That’s a pretty awesome thing to be told, and it’s definitely something we couldn’t have known ahead of time unless God revealed it to us. He’s given us an amazing glimpse into the future.

So how do your end-times beliefs impact the way you live? Well, let’s look at a few cases and see.

If you are pan-millennial then you believe that everything will pan out in the end. You aren’t really too concerned about the end of time. The end of the world isn’t something that is a great concern to you; it’ll happen whenever it happens. Meanwhile, you’re going to keep living your life day-by-day, trying to deal with whatever challenges life throws at you.

If you are a preterist then you believe that all of the scary end-times events in Revelation happened in AD 70, hundreds of years before you were born. You’re not the least bit concerned about the Tribulation or the Antichrist, and you think all this talk about a Rapture is just a lot of nonsense. If you are what’s called a “full preterist” then you believe that the final judgment, the resurrection, and the Second Coming have all already happened. Jesus isn’t going to come back, and the world is just going to go on the way it is now.

You don’t believe that Israel has any special place in the plan of God. All of the events in the Middle East have no special prophetic significance. Life is just going to keep going on the way it is now, day after day, year after year. All prophecy has been fulfilled and God’s plan is finished. You’re not really looking for anything else to happen.

If you are postmillennial then you believe that the world is going to keep getting better and better until the world becomes a perfect place, just before Christ returns. Since the world is an awful place right now and since Jesus won’t come back until the world is perfect, that means Jesus isn’t going to come back for a long time – probably not in your lifetime. You’re not looking for Jesus to come back anytime soon. The world may look bleak right now, but you just know things are going to get better.

You’re not looking for a Tribulation or Antichrist or anything like that, and you certainly don’t believe in a Rapture. On the contrary, you’re looking for a massive worldwide revival! It hasn’t happened yet but you know it will, someday.

The events in Israel are interesting but, like the preterists, it doesn’t have any prophetic significance. Israel is just another nation trying to get by in these troubled times. The fact that it’s a nation of Jews is kind of neat, but these days the Church is God’s people.

If you are amillennial then you believe that all of the scary events in Revelation are just symbolic. There’s not actually going to be a real Antichrist or Rapture or Tribulation or any of that; those verses were just talking about the struggle between good and evil. The millennium is also symbolic of the church age. You believe that things are going to keep on going the way they are now, until Jesus comes back and puts an end to it. You don’t really know when Jesus will come back, or even if His return is getting closer. It will happen when it happens. Meanwhile, you try to deal with life day by day. The end of time is interesting but there’s no way to tell how close it is, so it’s not a pressing matter. Chances are it’s a long way off.

Like the preterists, you don’t attach any special significance to the nation of Israel. It’s just another troubled country in the Middle East.

Before I talk about pre-millennialism, I’d like to point out that the four beliefs I’ve discussed so far all have several things in common: those who hold to them aren’t really concerned about the end of time, attach no significance to Israel, and aren’t expecting Jesus to return anytime soon. It’s not that they are indifferent (well, except for the pan-millennial crowd, I guess); it’s just that, according to their beliefs, Jesus either isn’t going to come back at all or isn’t going to come back for a long time. They don’t expect the world to come to a sudden and abrupt end. Life is just going to keep going on, and all this talk about an Antichrist and Rapture is just silly. In that respect it doesn’t matter which of these four beliefs you hold because you’re going to live your life the same way regardless.

But pre-millennialism is quite different. Those who hold to that school of thought believe that Israel’s rebirth in 1948 was a huge prophetic sign – a key indicator that these are the last days. They look at the events surrounding the Jews and see prophecy being fulfilled in the recapture of Jerusalem in 1967, in the way the whole world has turned against Israel, in Turkey’s allying itself with Israel’s enemies, and even in the Palestinian crisis. They believe that all of these things (and more) are a sign that there’s very little time left.

They really are looking forward to a Rapture, and a Tribulation, and a real Antichrist followed by a real thousand-year period where Christ reigns on Earth from Jerusalem. Of far greater concern, however, is that pre-millennialists have reason to believe that Christ may very well come back in our lifetime. The reasons for this are beyond the scope of this paper (and I’ve discussed them elsewhere), but regardless, they are looking for the Rapture in the near future, followed by the awful period of the Tribulation.

If you believe that the Church is in its last days and has only a short time before the Lord takes it to Heaven and pours out His wrath upon the Earth, are you going to live differently than someone who believes that Jesus will never return at all or won’t return for centuries? I would certainly hope so! If the world is rapidly coming to an end then we have very little time to act before it’s too late. In that case, being “pan-millennial” is a great tragedy because that philosophy leaves you ignorant to the fact that you are almost out of time. People who believe that they have a thousand years left to reach a lost world aren’t going to make the same decisions as people who believe that the end is near.

Of course, things brings up another question: is pre-millennialism actually true? What does the Bible have to say about these different points of view? Is there good reason to believe one over the other?

I think there is, but that is a topic for another paper. All I wanted to do here is point out that yes, the end-times belief you hold can make a difference in the way you live your life now. It does matter. Pan-millennial is a terrible thing to believe if the world is about to come to a sudden end. After all, if the pre-millennial crowd is right and the return of Christ is at hand, isn’t that something you would like to know before it’s too late to do anything about it? Do you really want to wait and see how things pan out, only to think “Man, I wish I’d known I only had a short time left! I would have made very different choices.”

It’s worth thinking about.

THE FOLLOWING WEEK was a busy one. To Tom’s immense relief, the logistics surrounding the Challenger‘s repair were finally worked out. Ned Newton at the Swift Construction Company manufactured the final replacement parts Tom needed and shipped them to the Swift’s spaceport at Fearing Island, where they were loaded onto the Cosmotron Express. The mighty spaceship was scheduled to depart for Neptune the following day. If all went well it would not return for several weeks.

Bud Barclay oversaw the final preparations for departure, which allowed his friend Tom to stay at Swift Enterprises and work in his laboratory. He flew back to Shopton the night before the expedition left. He planned to spend the night with the Swifts and then fly Tom to Fearing Island early the next day.

Tom met Bud at the company airstrip and offered him a ride home. Soon the two friends were speeding down the highway in a silver atomicar, headed toward the Swift residence. It was almost midnight and the sky above was cloudless and clear. There was no moon. The winter stars shone brilliantly, but their beauty was lost on the young inventor. His mind was far away, brooding over the many problems that faced him.

“Hey, thanks for taking care of everything for me,” Tom said at last. “There’s been so much going on here at the plant that I just haven’t had the time to get away. If you hadn’t gone to Fearing for me I don’t know what I would have done!”

“No problem, skipper,” Bud replied. “But say, how did today’s meeting with the Barclay Group go? Anything good happen?”

Tom shrugged. “It went fine, I guess. Dad has really been more involved with that project than I have. He’s been working with them on their design for Astronopolis.”

Bud shook his head. “Don’t tell me that’s what they decided to call the City of the Future! That’s a terrible name. Do they not have a marketing department?”

“It’s better than Swiftopolis,” Tom said, smiling. “Besides, it’s ancient Greek for ‘star city’. It kind of makes sense.”

“I don’t know if you realize this, chum, but people don’t really speak ancient Greek anymore. Why not just call it ‘Star City’ and be done with it?”

“I think the Brungarians have already taken that name. It’s what they call the place where they train their cosmonauts. Besides, do you have any idea how hard it is to get a committee to approve a name? I’d rather tackle the Black Cobra than a well-entrenched committee any day!”

“I know what you mean,” Bud agreed. “So what’s their plan?”

“They’ve got their work cut out for them,” Tom remarked thoughtfully. “The main thing they need right now is a starship. Over the past few days I’ve put together a rough design for something that should meet their needs. When I presented it this morning they were happy with it, so I’ve sent it off to Ned Newton so his team can flesh out the details and begin construction. The ship should be ready in a couple months. While the Behemoth is being constructed the Barclay Group is going to put together all the equipment they need. They seem to be a pretty well-run organization, so I imagine by the time the ship is ready they’ll be ready too.”

“What about your claytronic stones?” Bud asked. “Are those going to be ready in time?”

Tom sighed. “They asked me the same question. The truth is, Bud, that project is not going very well. I’ve made progress on getting the stones to form shapes but they’re unbelievably slow. Yesterday I started another small-scale experiment that I think might actually work – but it won’t be finished for another four days. At that rate it would take the rest of time to create anything as large as a city! It’s just a mess.”

“You’ll figure it out,” Bud said confidently.

“I’m sure,” Tom said absently. “I’m actually much more concerned about what to do with Irene. I really thought Tom IV would help me. Now that he’s turned me down, well, I’m kind of at a loss.”

“What are you going to do?” Bud asked.

Tom shook his head. “I don’t know. For now I guess I’ll go get the Challenger. Then – well, we’ll see. Maybe I can get him to come around, or maybe something else will come up. There’s just got to be a way I can save her, Bud. There’s just got to be.”

“You know, I’m a little surprised at all this,” Bud remarked. “For the longest time you had moved on, skipper. You hadn’t even mentioned Irene for ages, and now she’s all you can think about. What changed?”

“I found out it might be possible to get her back,” Tom replied. “That’s what changed. Now it’s all I can think about. I’m going to rescue her, Bud, one way or another. I won’t rest until I do.”

Tom pulled into the Swift residence and the two left the car and headed inside. Tom was soon fast asleep.

The next morning Tom got up early. After taking a quick shower he went downstairs to the kitchen and ate breakfast. He was surprised to see that there was no one else there. His mother was not in the kitchen, but she had gotten up earlier and fixed the family waffles and bacon.

As he ate his father came downstairs and entered the room. “Good morning, son,” he said cheerfully. After going outside to get the newspaper he settled down at the kitchen table with a cup of coffee. “Are you and Bud ready to go to Neptune?”

“I think so,” Tom replied. “It’ll take a while to fix the Challenger, but at the same time it will be a great learning experience. We’ve never had to repair a ship in space before – at least, not on this scale. This is a great opportunity to develop skills that will be priceless in the future.”

“I agree,” Mr. Swift said. “I wish I could go with you but I’m afraid BG Industries needs me here. They’ve licensed just about everything we’ve ever built, and the challenge of transferring all of that knowledge is quite significant! After all, it’s one thing to purchase an atomicar, but it’s an entirely different matter to manufacture them. Fortunately Ned Newton has been extremely helpful in that regard.”

Tom looked up in surprise. “They’re going to be building atomicars?”

Mr. Swift nodded. “They’re going to be building everything, son! After all, once they reach Epsilon Eridani they’re going to be a long way from home. They have no desire to build a colony that is dependent upon Earth for survival, so they are looking for ways to manufacture everything they need once they get there.”

“They’re going to have a rough time getting started,” Tom remarked. “After all, the planet they found doesn’t even have a breathable atmosphere! I’m sure my atmosphere makers can supply one but given the size of that planet it’s not going to happen overnight. It will be many years before they’ll be able to walk on the surface without a spacesuit.”

“It will also take time to build the city and the factories that will support it,” Mr. Swift added. “But at least they don’t have to worry about finding raw materials to work with. Your space solartron will be able to supply them with everything they might need.”

“And they can always make a quick trip back to Earth if they’ve forgotten something,” Tom added. “That star is only ten light-years away, which is just a short jump for my kronolator.”

“True, but they’re hoping that won’t be necessary. Part of the idea behind this is to learn how to build colonies far from home. Ed wants to use this as a dry-run for building colonies in remote corners of the galaxy, far beyond the point where they could return to Earth for anything they might have forgotten. BG Industries sees this as the first step in a much larger project.”

Their conversation was interrupted when Sandra Swift came into the kitchen. She helped herself to some waffles and sat down at the table. “You and Bud are leaving today, aren’t you?” she asked.

Tom nodded. “Got a big trip ahead of us! We’ll probably be gone for at least a month, sis. I’ve never had to repair a kronolator before.”

“I wish I could go with you,” she said jealously.

Tom smiled. “You’re welcome to join us but I’m afraid it’s not going to be like last time! I think the days of battling the Space Legion have finally come to an end. This time all we’re going to be fighting are fried circuits and damaged wiring. If you’re not familiar with a soldering gun then you’ll probably be bored to tears.”

“But aren’t the Space Friends coming?” Sandy asked.

“They are, but I doubt we’ll see them. As soon as we get to Neptune we’re going to drop them off and let them do their own thing. They’re going to spend the entire trip scouring the Space Legion’s Neptunian base for who-knows-what. You could join them, I guess, but I don’t know how interesting that would be either.”

His sister sighed. “I guess you’re right. Still, at least take me with you the next time you go see Tom Swift IV. I’d really like to get to know Mandy a little better! We never get to see each other.”

Mr. Swift looked up in surprise. “I didn’t realize you’d been to see him recently. Did he need something?”

Tom shook his head. “No, Dad. I went to ask him about using his time trigger.”

Mr. Swift frowned. “Isn’t that dangerous, son? If I recall-”

“He said no,” Tom finished. “As you said, he felt time travel was too dangerous.”

“I agree,” Mr. Swift replied. “I believe that there are some areas Man is not intended to touch, and time travel is one of them.”

Bud Barclay walked into the kitchen. He grabbed a handful of waffles and looked at Tom. “Say, we’ve got to get going, boss! If we don’t leave we’re going to be late. We’ve got a flight to catch.”

Tom stood up. “I’m right behind you, fly-boy!”

“Take care, Tom,” his father called out. “Contact me when you get there.”

“I will,” he promised.

The flight to Fearing Island was uneventful, and the launch went off on schedule and without incident. The Cosmotron Express was packed with equipment and personnel. Tom and Bud oversaw the operation of the crew while Charles Winkler set up shop in the ship’s galley. After the spaceship had left Earth and was on its way the Texan cook wandered onto the bridge. “Well, brand my boots, but it’s shore good to have a lot of mouths to feed,” he remarked to Tom.

“We’re just glad you came, pardner,” Tom replied. “And the good news is that if we ever get lost out in space we can just tell the rescue party to be on the lookout for that shirt of yours. I bet they can see it from Earth!”

Chow beamed. He had a penchant for wearing brightly-colored shirts and this one was no exception. The bright red shirt was covered in neon-yellow sequins that glinted in the light. The sequins formed the pattern of an eagle, rendered in a classic Native American design. Tom wondered briefly where he had found such an outlandish shirt, and decided he really didn’t want to know.

Thanks to the spaceship’s kronolator it took them less than half an hour to reach Neptune. As soon as they entered orbit around the gas giant they dropped off their Space Friends and started scanning for the Challenger. It didn’t take them long to find it.

“It’s just where you thought she would be,” Bud remarked.

Tom nodded. “That’s orbital mechanics for you! The math works out every time. It looks like she’s been deserted ever since we left.”

The young inventor gave the command to approach the derelict ship, and they were soon within visual range. The Challenger was truly a depressing sight. Tom knew the Space Legion had done a lot of damage to his beloved spaceship, but he had forgotten just how bad she looked. Large portions of the ship’s hull were deeply scarred, and there were multiple places where the hull plating had been vaporized entirely. Few of the ship’s repelatron dishes were intact.

The first order of business was to obtain a complete damage report. After the Cosmotron Express was maneuvered into position opposite the Challenger Tom began giving orders. He personally led a team of people over to the derelict and they began cataloging all of the systems that needed repair.

“Our first assignment will be to restore hull integrity and life support systems,” Tom remarked to Bud. “There’s just no way we’re going to be able to repair the ship’s kronolator while wearing a spacesuit. Once we’ve got life support restored everything should be much easier.”

“Lead the way, boss!” Bud replied. “Just tell me what to do and I’ll get to work.”

It took nine days of intense, tiring work to patch up the ship’s battered hull, and it took several more days after that to jury-rig the ship’s life support systems to the point where they would work again. After the system was operational Tom turned the repairs over to his crew so he and Bud could focus on the burnt-out kronolator. It took the crew five more days to finish repairing communications, navigation, sensors, propulsion, and the other interior systems. When they had done all that they could do Tom thanked them and they returned to the Cosmotron Express. After Chow and a small skeleton crew had transferred to the Challenger the Cosmotron Express left Neptune and returned to Earth.

“There’s no point in making all those people stay out here any longer,” Tom pointed out. “After all, the only system left to fix is kronolator and that’s really just a two-person job.”

“Or a two-genius job, you mean,” Bud quipped. “I don’t even begin to understand how this thing works, and here I am trying to repair it! I feel like a dim-witted baboon that’s trying to fix a jet aircraft engine with a banana and a couple of leaves.”

Tom laughed. Before he could say anything, however, Chow walked into the room, pushing a cart laden with food. Tom looked up in surprise. “Wow! Thanks, Chow, I appreciate the service. But you didn’t have to do that!”

The balding cook shook his head. “Y’all are quite a sight, you know that? I don’t know how you two keep from starving. I fixed dinner three hours ago, Tom! Brand my skillet, if I didn’t come down here and feed you y’all would waste away to nothing.”

“I guess we lost track of time,” Tom remarked. “Sorry about that – and thanks.”

Tom and Bud quickly dug into their three-inch-thick steaks. As they were eating Chow spoke up. “Hey, boss, Donnie gave me a message for you. Said somethin’ about seein’ a dot on a scope. He thinks there might be someone else out there.”

“Really?” Tom asked. “That’s odd. He must have spotted another vessel. I wonder who it could be?”

“Maybe it’s our Space Friends,” Bud suggested.

Tom shook his head. “I talked with them just this morning. They haven’t left the Space Legion’s base yet and aren’t planning on leaving anytime soon. That dot must be something else. I think I’ll go talk to him.”

“Not until you finish eating, pardner,” Chow warned. “Ya gotta eat sometime, Tom.”

“I will – I promise.” The Texan gave him a warning look and then left the room. The two quickly finished eating and then went up to the bridge, where they found Donnie McGinnis at the helm. They asked him what was going on.

“It happened just a few minutes ago,” Donnie reported. “We’re pretty far away from home so I’ve been keeping a close watch on the scope. Ever since we got here the only vessels I’ve seen have been ourselves and the Cosmotron Express, and now that she’s gone back to Earth there’s just us. But a few minutes ago another ship appeared. I couldn’t get a good reading on it, boss, but it seemed to be a lot smaller than the Challenger. It was hard to get a fix on it.”

“Was it at the extreme end of our range?” Tom asked.

Donnie shook his head. “Not at all – it was kind of close, actually. But the reading was faint. It was almost like the ship wasn’t really there. After about a minute the dot disappeared and I haven’t seen it since.”

Tom frowned. “You know, there might be something wrong with the scope. It was pretty badly damaged in the fight and could easily be picking up phantom readings. It could also be detecting bits of debris left over from our battle with the Space Legion – it’s just hard to say without more information. Let me know if it happens again, will you? I’d hate for us to collide with something we didn’t know was out there.”

“I will,” Donnie promised.

Over the next twenty-four hours Tom and Bud made rapid progress. All of the kronolator’s damaged components were finally replaced, and the two teenagers began putting the monstrous machine back together again.

“We should have her operational by the end of the day,” Tom said at last.

“It’s about time!” Bud remarked. “Let me tell you, skipper, doing a complete tear-down and rebuild of a warp drive is no cakewalk. I don’t know how you keep all those tiny wires straight.”

“It’s all right here in the circuit diagrams,” Tom said. “The tricky part is going to be testing it before we turn the drive back on. If something goes wrong – well, anything could happen.”

“Let’s hope it doesn’t,” Bud replied. “Say, whatever happened to that dot that Donnie saw? Did anything ever come of it?”

“I’m not sure what to think. He’s seen it a couple times since but it always goes away after a few moments. I’ve checked the unit and as far as I can tell it’s functioning normally. It may be that a bit of space debris is floating out there and every so often it’s at just the right angle for us to spot it. I’m really not too worried about it.”

Bud was about to say something when Tom suddenly held up a hand. “Do you smell something?”

Bud stopped. “Hey, now that you mention it, I do! It smells kind of like strawberries. I didn’t realize we could smell the galley from here.”

“We can’t,” Tom said. He suddenly felt dizzy and nauseated. The room began to swirl. Instantly a feeling of panic shot through him. “Bud! I think we’re being poisoned! That gas must be-”

He never finished his thought. A moment later Tom and Bud slumped to the ground, unconscious!

THE TRIP THROUGH the vortex took only a moment. When the initial feelings of discomfort had subsided, Tom Swift Jr. and Bud Barclay found themselves standing in a brightly-lit scientific laboratory. The room was filled with futuristic equipment, much of which was unfamiliar to them. One entire wall was taken up by a giant computer, and the rest of the room was littered with robotic components and fragments of half-built machines. Over to one corner was a set of leather furniture, where a blond-haired teenager was engrossed in a book. Tom immediately recognized him as Tom Swift IV, the inventor of the Negative Zone.

Bud was the first to speak. “I’m never going to get used to that,” he said uncertainly. “I feel like I lost some vital organs somewhere.”

Tom IV put his book down and stood up. “Believe me, guys, it’s a whole lot better than it used to be! You should have been there the first time I tried it. Not only did it trash my lab, but the trip nearly killed me. It actually knocked me unconscious.”

“I remember reading about that in the files you gave us,” Tom Swift Jr. remarked. “You ended up in a parallel universe and an evil ‘Thomas Swift’ appeared in your laboratory. It was quite an adventure.”

“This technology has come a long way since then,” Tom IV agreed. “But I’m sure you didn’t come here to discuss that. Here – have a seat! What’s on your mind?”

Tom and Bud sat down on an overstuffed leather couch, and Tom IV took a seat across from them. “How are Rick and Mandy?” Tom asked. “I was expecting them to be here this evening.”

“Oh, just fine,” Tom IV replied. “And it’s actually morning here, by the way – four in the morning, to be precise. I imagine Rick and Mandy are still in bed, like civilized people everywhere.”

Tom winced. “Sorry about that. I keep forgetting the time difference between our worlds.”

Tom IV nodded. “The really odd thing is that the time difference changes. It’s almost like time itself is flowing at different rates in our universes – or maybe it’s just a side-effect of the Negative Zone. I’ve looked into it but haven’t found any answers yet. But what brings you to this corner of the multiverse?”

Tom leaned forward. “I’ll get right to the point. I’d like to borrow your time trigger.”

Tom IV nodded. “That’s what I thought. I wondered how long it would take for you to ask for it. In fact, I’m kind of surprised it’s taken this long! I’m sure you instantly realized the possibilities the moment you found out about that invention.”

Tom nodded. “I would have been here sooner but I’ve had a lot of other things to take care of. The time trigger alone won’t save Irene, of course. I also needed a way to cure her of her radiation poisoning. I’ve finally got that squared away, though. All I need now is your time travel device.”

“You do realize that I don’t actually have a time machine anymore, right?” Tom IV asked. “You must know that the very last thing I ever did with it was go back in time and stop Reisenbach from ever inventing it. In this timeline the technology was never developed.”

Bud spoke up. “You know, I’ve been meaning to ask you something. If time travel was never developed then how did you find out that you had developed it? That’s never made sense to me.”

Tom IV smiled. “When I went back into the past to get iridium for my time warp detector I left a series of footprints behind. By pure bad luck those footprints fossilized and were eventually discovered. As you can imagine, the guy who dug them up was quite surprised!”

Bud laughed. “I’ll bet he was! He probably had no idea that dinosaurs wore sneakers.”

Tom IV nodded and then continued. “Anyway, the paleontologist – I think his name was Dr. DiGanda – asked us to examine the fossils to see if they were genuine. I took one look at them and realized the tread pattern looked exactly like the prints made by the SuperSoles shoes I had just purchased the day before. I checked it out and they did match – exactly! It was my size and everything.

“So, of course, we dismissed the fossil it as a ridiculous fraud. But then I started wondering. If it was a fraud then where did that fossil come from? Who made it, and why? What could possibly be the point of creating fossilized sneaker prints? So I decided to do a little investigating of my own.”

Tom’s eyes lit up. “You built a device that could look backwards in time!”

Tom IV nodded. “That’s exactly what I did. It was nothing like the time trigger, although I eventually found out it operated on a similar principle. Since nothing was actually being transported to the past, however, it didn’t damage the fabric of spacetime. Plus, you didn’t have to worry about someone going back and messing up the timestream.”

“I don’t remember hearing about this,” Bud remarked.

“That’s because I’ve never told anyone about it,” Tom IV said. “After I found out that the fossilized footprint was genuine, I kept looking and eventually discovered the whole story – including why I convinced Reisenbach to destroy time travel. I was afraid that if I let the world know about my chronoscope some bright person might find a way to adapt the principles behind it to build an actual time machine.”

“So the technology isn’t lost,” Tom replied. “It is possible to recover it.”

Tom IV nodded reluctantly. “In theory yes, it could be recovered. And I have no doubt that you’ve got what it takes. But Tom, as much as I’d like to help you here, this is one time when I have to say no. Whatever you do, you must not build a time machine.”

“I understand your concerns, but I really think the danger would be minimal at best,” Tom countered. “I only want to use it once and I’ll destroy it after that. Plus, there’s no danger of it being stolen by the Black Dragon. No one is going to try to use it to blow up the entire world.”

“That’s true,” Bud agreed. “Since the Black Cobra bought the farm and the Space Legion was defeated, the only real opponent you’ve got left are the hapless Brungarians, who barely have the intelligence to get out of bed in the morning. Things have actually been kind of quiet lately.”

“The point is that the technology itself is a bad idea,” Tom IV said. “Even if you set aside the enormous problems you get when you start messing with timelines, you’re still left with the fact that the mere act of traveling back in time has the potential to destroy the universe itself! As you well know, time travel tears apart the very structure of spacetime. The Black Dragon used it to cause a resonance cascade, where space itself began collapsing – destroying not only this planet, but time as well. The time trigger is the most insanely dangerous machine anybody has ever made and it should never be used again. I know how much you miss Irene but you cannot justify risking the lives of everyone in the entire universe just so you can have a chance to save the life of one person. It’s madness!”

Tom glanced at Bud, who shook his head. “Sorry, skipper, but I’m with him on this one. This isn’t a good idea – I’ve said that from the start. There are some places even you shouldn’t go.”

Tom sighed. “But look, guys, I can prove that it’s safe! We know it’s not going to destroy the universe because you have already traveled into my past, and yet we’re all still here.” Tom removed a photograph from his jacket and tossed it to Tom IV, who looked at it curiously. “Where did you get this picture?” Tom IV asked.

“It was taken by a security camera several years ago,” Tom replied. “It was taken on the day that I met Bud – which was also the day before Irene died. You can’t tell me that’s not you sitting in your TANC. That truck of yours is unmistakable! In my universe we don’t build monster trucks like that.”

“No, I don’t deny it,” Tom IV said slowly. “But I don’t understand! The Negative Zone didn’t even exist several years ago. Besides, I just made contact with you recently. We haven’t known each other that long and I definitely haven’t been time-traveling in your universe.”

“Exactly,” Tom replied. “But there’s more. I remember this event very well. On that day I was outside waiting on Irene to get something for me when you drove up. You asked me where Bud was and I said I didn’t know – I hadn’t met Bud yet and had no clue who you were talking about. You then told me that my Dad was waiting to see me. I went up to his office and found him there. I was surprised because my Dad was in New York at the time. The person I met in the office let it slip that he was my Dad from the future. As best I can tell, you brought me, Bud, my father, and yourself back to the day before Irene died. It must have been a rescue attempt. There’s just no other explanation.”

Tom IV looked at him, astonished. “Are you telling me that I introduced you to Bud?”

Tom nodded. “That’s exactly what happened. I’m sure I would have met him anyway, as we needed a hyperplane pilot that day and he was the only one around, but you short-circuited the process. This proves that time travel is safe – you did take us back in time and nothing bad happened.”

“There’s got to be some other explanation,” Tom IV said. “There is just no way I would ever agree to take you back in time. Maybe something else is going on here.”

“But look at the picture!” Tom insisted. “That is clearly you, in my past, sitting in TANC, which is your time machine. I didn’t build that monster truck – you did. And there you are, using it. This seems pretty straightforward to me.”

Tom IV handed the photograph back to Tom. “You’ve got me there, Tom. I really can’t argue with the evidence. I don’t understand it, but for now I’ll accept your interpretation of events. That being said, I’m still not going to do it. I’m not going to rebuild my time trigger, or install it on TANC, or go to your universe and rescue Irene. It’s far too dangerous.”

“This picture says you will,” Tom replied. “Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but you are going to bring all of us back in time.”

“I don’t believe in fate,” Tom IV replied evenly. “I have a choice to make and I’m making it here and now. Time travel very nearly wiped out my entire universe. I’m not going to put yours in danger.”

“What if this was all about Mandy?” Tom asked quietly. “What if your girlfriend had died? Would you really resist the temptation to go back and save her? Would you just let it go when you knew you could do something about it?”

“I’m sorry, Tom,” Tom IV said sadly. “I really am. I know how much this means to you and I wish I could help you, but I just can’t. My answer is no.”

NINETEEN-YEAR-OLD Tom Swift Jr. sighed in frustration. He gazed at the large glass aquarium in front of him, his eyes fixed on a shapeless mass floating in the center of the tank. Behind the tank was a three-foot-tall device that looked vaguely like a Tesla coil. The coil emitted a soft hum and gently crackled with a faint blue energy. The young inventor dejectedly reached over and switched it off. “It’s just not working,” he said aloud. “After all this time it’s still not working.”

“What’s not working, skipper?” a cheery voice said behind him. Tom turned his head and saw his friend Bud Barclay step into the laboratory. Bud quickly closed the door and walked over to his friend. “Now there’s something new! Have you finally decided to set up that saltwater aquarium Phyl has been talking about? I always thought this lab could use a little sprucing up! No offense, pal, but you’ve never really been much of an interior decorator.”

Tom smiled in spite of himself. “I’m afraid this setup doesn’t have anything to do with fish! This is actually a test chamber for my claytronic stones. At least, it was supposed to be. The problem is I just can’t seem to get it to work.”

Bud took another step toward the tank and peered inside it. “Are you talking about that disgusting blob of floating green goo? What happened to it?”

“Disaster! Look. You’re familiar with my claytronic experiments, right?”

Bud shook his head. “Sorry, I’ve been kind of distracted lately. I guess I’ve been so focused on preparing for our upcoming jaunt to Neptune that I’ve let my subscription to Swift Inventions Monthly lapse.”

“I think Sandy may have had more to do with that than our upcoming trip to rescue the Challenger,” Tom replied, teasing. “You’ve been spending a lot of time with her lately.”

“I haven’t been going out with her that often,” Bud said defensively. “Besides, she’s quite a girl! You’ve got to admire the way she traveled to Neptune to rescue us from the Space Legion. That took real guts.”

Tom smiled. “I’m happy for you, Bud, I really am. And you’re right – my sister is a fine girl. But anyway, about these stones.” The young inventor reached over to his workbench and picked up a small green cube. “This is what the stones look like in their inert state.”

“Right. I’ve seen those things lying around your lab. Aren’t you trying to get them to turn themselves into other shapes?”

Tom nodded. “That’s the idea! These stones are actually composed of an incredible number of really, really tiny machines. When activated by a remote power source and given commands, the stones are supposed to organize themselves into other forms. I call them claytronic stones because these objects are designed to be as malleable as clay.”

Bud snapped is fingers. “I remember now! We have talked about this. Anything built out of that claytronic material could instantly transform into anything else. You could have cars that could turn into houses, or books that could become repelatrons. You could even have a whole closet of stones that you could turn into whatever gadget you happened to want at the time.”

“It gets even better than that,” Tom said. “These stones are designed to use the elements around it to create additional claytronic stones. So, in theory, you could take a single stone and tell it to build an entire city – all through the magic of replication! This would allow us to colonize the galaxy on an unprecedented scale. Not only could we built deep-space probes that could construct entire civilizations on distant planets, but the probes themselves could replicate. It boggles the mind!”

“So what’s the problem?” Bud asked. “How did that green stone become that shapeless mass?”

Tom sighed. “There are actually a whole host of problems. First, the transformation process is extremely slow. It actually took three days for a single claytronic stone to become that floating blob you see in the tank. Second, the stones do a terrible job of organizing themselves. I was trying to create a vase, but you can see what I ended up with! I just don’t have a good way to tell the material what pieces should go where.”

Bud nodded. “I can see that. When you’ve got trillions of soldiers it’s hard to give each of them their own marching orders. But why is it floating in a fish tank?”

“The water is actually a carefully-balanced solution of minerals,” Tom explained. “I was trying to get the stones to draw on the water’s nutrients to replicate themselves. That part didn’t work very well either. The whole process is just too slow and disorganized, and all my improvements only serve to make the entire process even slower.”

Bud frowned. “Even if you sped it up, skipper, how are you going to keep them supplied with nutrients? The last time I checked, the wild places of deep space don’t have a lot of nutrient-filled aquariums.”

“Well, eventually the stones will need the ability to use whatever’s around them as fuel. I haven’t even attempted that yet, though. In fact, I may never get that far! Right now even a basic transformation is out of reach. This time I may have bitten off more than I can chew.”

Bud slapped his friend on the back. “I’m sure you’ll figure it out, genius boy. Say, that reminds me! The reason I came over was to remind you that you’ve got a meeting in a few minutes with the Barclay Group. Your dad had a vague feeling that you were on the verge of missing it.”

Tom looked puzzled. “The Barclay Group? Are these your relatives or something?”

Bud shook his head. “Very funny, Tom. C’mon, you know who these people are! They’re the outfit from London that’s been using your inventions to help third-world countries in Africa and South Asia. You can’t tell me you haven’t heard of them! They’re one of your biggest customers. Ned Newton would be appalled!”

“Oh, you must mean BG Industries! Yes, I’ve heard of them. Do you mean to tell me that the B in BG stands for Barclay? Are you related to these people?”

Bud shook his head. “Of course not! I don’t have any eccentric billionaires in my pool of ancestors – unless you count your dad, I guess, but since Sandy and I aren’t married yet I technically can’t count the Swifts in my family tree.”

“Do you mean to tell me you’re engaged to Sandy?” Tom asked, surprised. “When did that happen? I know I’ve spent a lot of time lately in my lab, but-”

“Woah, woah, slow down,” Bud interrupted. “We are not engaged, nor are we about to be. I don’t even have an engagement ring. That’s what I was trying to say! Besides, I’ve only known her for a few years. There’s no hurry. She’s not going anywhere.”

Tom paused for a moment. His mind wandered back to Irene. I’ve still got the engagement ring I made for her, he thought sadly. I never thought she would die before I could give it to her. Aloud he said “It’s none of my business, Bud, but if you’re going to make your move you might want to make it sooner rather than later. You never know what might happen. You really don’t want to go through what I did.”

“We can talk about that later,” Bud replied hastily. The very last thing he wanted to do was bring up Irene Goddard. He had seen Tom brooding in the past few weeks and had a feeling that she was weighing heavily on Tom’s mind. “The point is, you have a meeting with these Barclay people in five minutes and we need to get going.”

“Who scheduled this meeting?” Tom asked. “I don’t remember any of this. Are you sure I need to be involved?”

“See, this is why you need your own personal secretary,” Bud commented. “You actually scheduled this three months ago, when you met them at that conference in San Diego.”

A light suddenly went off in Tom’s mind. “Good night! You’re right, Bud. I had completely forgotten! I’ve been so wrapped up in things that I’ve lost track of time. Do you mean to tell me that meeting is today?”

“Sure is!” Bud replied. “And we need to get going now. The conference building is on the other side of Swift Enterprises – a four-mile drive from here.”

Tom nodded, and after grabbing a coat the two of them left Tom’s private laboratory and stepped outside. It was mid-February and the weather in upstate New York was very chilly. A light dusting of freshly-fallen snow covered the grounds, and a bitter wind blew between the buildings. The two teenagers made a beeline to Bud’s silver atomicar, and Tom climbed into the passenger seat as Bud slid behind the wheel. The sleek sportscar was soon headed across the campus toward the compound’s ultramodern convention center.

“How long is this meeting supposed to last?” Tom asked. “I’ve got an urgent appointment at 8pm that I can’t miss.”

“I think this is supposed to be a week-long planning session, but I’m sure they’ll let you bail out early tonight if you need to. After all, you’re Tom Swift Jr.! But I didn’t realize you had plans for tonight. What’s up?”

Tom paused to collect his thoughts. “For a number of months now I’ve been working on a project – ever since that day we talked at the Citadel. Do you know what’s going on?”

“Of course,” Bud said confidently. “We’re about to rescue the Challenger. The Space Legion did a real number on it, and-”

Tom shook his head. “That’s just one piece of the plan. Yes, we’re going to rescue the Challenger, but that’s because I need it. We have a job to do.”

“We do?”

Tom nodded. “I’m going to mount a rescue expedition. We’re going after Irene.”

Bud’s eyes widened. “You can’t be serious! She died years ago. In fact, her grave is-”

“I’m very serious,” Tom said quietly. “Thanks to the Negative Zone I now have access to time travel technology. When we rescue the Challenger I’m going to install the time trigger on it and then go back in time and rescue her from that hyperplane. The ship’s Transmittation should be able to pull her out quite easily.”

“But she died of radiation poisoning!” Bud protested. “How do you plan on curing that?”

“I’ve already borrowed a Translator from our Space Friends,” Tom explained. “Now that they’ve been freed from it they don’t need it anymore. Do you remember what it did for us on Thanatos? I have no doubt it can help her just as it helped us.”

Bud frowned. “But skipper, Tom Swift IV doesn’t have a time trigger for you to borrow. He destroyed it because it was too dangerous. In fact, it almost destroyed his entire universe!”

“I know,” Tom admitted. “But at eight o’clock tonight I’m going to go and talk to him about it. I think if we worked together we could recover the technology.”

Bud deftly navigated his silver atomicar into a parking place and turned it off. “I don’t think he wants to recover that technology, chum. I’m pretty sure his whole intention was to make sure it was never recovered.”

“I just want to use it one time,” Tom said. “Just one time. It’ll be a simple trip – we’ll go back in time, rescue her, and return to the future. What could possibly go wrong?”

Bud winced. “I don’t even want to think about it.”

Three hours later Tom Swift Jr. found his mind wandering. It wasn’t because of the conference itself; as it turned out the meeting was quite interesting. A number of important representatives from the Barclay Group were present, including its charismatic leader Edgar “Ed” Gamino. Tom was surprised at how passionate he was about using Swift technologies to change the world. Still, he kept thinking about his upcoming appointment. I know it will work, he thought to herself. I know I can save her! All I need is that time trigger.

Tom’s father spoke up, interrupting his thoughts. “Let me see if I understand you correctly, Ed. You want to license our technology so you can colonize another planet?”

“Precisely!” Ed boomed. “Now that your amazing son has perfected his kronolator, the possibilities are extraordinary. Extraordinary! It is finally practical to travel to other worlds, to other stars! And I propose we do it. Swift Enterprises is a fine group, sir – a fine group indeed – but it lacks the drive, the ambition, to use the marvels you have created. You do a fine job of development but a poor job of implementation. We at BG Industries want to show you what sort of world your marvels can create. We want to bring civilization into an entirely new era.”

Mr. Swift nodded. “It’s an intriguing idea. Your credentials are impeccable – I’ve followed your progress for years and have been pleased at the way you’ve adapted our line of products. Millions of lives have been improved thanks to the work you’ve done.”

“But we are only getting started!” Ed thundered enthusiastically. “We want to create a model city on a planet orbiting Epsilon Eridani. This fantastic metropolis of the future will implement your technologies to the fullest extent possible. Why, the repelatron alone is an astounding device! Imagine if a whole city was designed around it. It would be a breathtaking advance for mankind. Civilization would never be the same.”

“Which is what you’ve been telling us about this evening,” Mr. Swift continued. “I must admit that your plans for the city are very well thought-out, although I think naming it ‘Swiftopolis’ is a bit over-the-top.”

“We can name it something else, if you’d prefer,” Ed replied. “Your modesty is most humbling and sets a true example for us all. Even so, that is a trivial detail that we can discuss later. What we really need to know is whether or not we have your full cooperation on this. In order to make this a reality we will need your vast technical expertise.”

“And a starship with a kronolator,” Tom Swift Jr. added.

“Right,” Ed agreed. “A large ship – something much larger than even your famous Cosmotron Express. It will need a cargo capacity great enough to carry everything necessary for the construction of a mighty city, along with the thousands of lucky people that will inhabit it.”

Bud spoke up. “Or you could just carry a closet full of Tom’s claytronic stones.”

Ed looked puzzled. “What stones? I haven’t heard about this! Is this some sort of new invention?”

Tom shot Bud a disapproving look. “It’s really nothing,” he began. “It’s just something I’ve been working on. Right now it doesn’t work at all.”

Mr. Swift spoke up. “That’s actually a good idea, Bud. I realize that the technical problems are significant, but claytronics may be precisely what BG Industries needs.”

“What are they?” Ed asked. “Pardon my unspeakable ignorance, but I can’t say that I’m familiar with that field.”

“Claytronics is a form of programmable, self-replicating matter,” Tom explained. “If I can get them to work, my stones will have the ability to turn themselves into anything you could want. In theory you could drop a single stone on a planet and it could replicate itself into a fully-functional city.”

Ed’s eyes grew wide. “Why, that’s remarkable, boy! Truly remarkable! I never dreamed that such a thing was even possible. You astound me!”

“Right now it’s not possible,” Tom said wryly. “In fact, at the moment it’s a dismal failure.”

“But that’s only temporary, I’m sure!” Ed interrupted. “Please keep me informed on the progress of this magical device. Claytronics could change everything! You have done many amazing things, my boy, but this one would top them all. It would truly be the ultimate invention – the greatest triumph of the modern era, built by its greatest inventor!”

Privately Tom felt that nothing workable would ever result from his stones, but he decided to keep his reservations to himself. Aloud he said, “I’ll keep you posted. Incidentally, I hate to break this up but it is getting late. Can we adjourn this meeting and continue in the morning?”

“Tom is right,” Mr. Swift said. “There will be plenty of time to discuss this tomorrow. I know we still have a lot to talk about but I can say without hesitation that BG Industries has my full support. If there is anything Swift Enterprises can do to help you, Ed, we will do it.”

Ed beamed. “Most gratifying, sir. Most gratifying indeed! We won’t let you down.”

As soon as the meeting broke up Tom Swift Jr. headed back to his laboratory. His friend Bud followed him. Tom attempted to talk him out of coming with him but Bud wouldn’t hear it. “Nothing doing, skipper! If you’re going to hop over to a parallel universe to discuss time travel I’m going to be right there with you. After all, somebody has to be there to rescue you when things go wrong!”

Tom smiled as he unlocked his laboratory and stepped inside. “Thanks, flyboy.”

The young inventor walked over to his workbench and moved a painting of Aurum City over to the left, revealing a small green panel. He firmly placed his right index finger on it and held it there for a second as it read his fingerprint. The panel emitted a soft white light and then clicked. As Tom returned the painting to its original position a metal plate descended over the lab’s only window. The lights in the lab dimmed and all the security cameras in the room went dead.

An unseen robot spoke in a quiet monotone. “The room has been secured.”

Bud shivered. “That gives me the creeps, boss. Makes me feel like we’re in some sort of top-security vault.”

“That’s exactly where we are,” Tom said. “Can you imagine what would happen if word of the Negative Zone ever got out? We do a lot of sensitive stuff here at the plant, but this is by far the most top-secret of all of our top-secrets. This is so classified that even its classification is classified!”

Bud nodded. “You’ll get no argument out of me!”

Tom walked over to the far wall of his lab and examined it for a moment, and then placed his palm firmly on a small section. At first nothing happened, but after a moment the outline of a doorway began to emerge on the featureless concrete wall. After ten seconds a door-sized portion of the wall had simply vanished. Through the hole they could see only blackness.

Tom removed a small device from his workbench and entered a sequence of numbers. A series of notes then sounded from the dark hole in the wall. A few moments ticked by, and then the utter blackness of the void was replaced by a deep, deep blue. A faint light appeared to emanate from small vortexes that swirled in its midst. Out of the void a deep note sounded.

“That’s our call,” Tom said. “The connection has been made. Are you ready?”

“Ready as I’ll ever be,” Bud said. The two of them stepped into the void – and vanished.

IRENE GODDARD glanced down at the instrument panel in front of her. Less than ten minutes had passed since she had lifted off from the Brungarian’s secret base, carrying a vital electronic component she hoped would prevent the Swift reactor in New York City from going critical. I’ve just got to make it there in time, she thought anxiously. If I don’t the reactor is going to destroy New York City and almost certainly trigger a nuclear war. Tensions between the United States and Brungaria are already at an all-time high, and destroying the country’s largest city is an act of war the government won’t overlook. If I fail the world as we know it will end today.

The red-haired teenager fought to stay focused. She could already feel the creeping effects of the radiation that poured out of the hyperplane’s nuclear reactor. At Mach 15 she would reach New York in less than half an hour – but at a cost of her own life. In fact, she wondered if she would even survive the next thirty minutes. She was already feeling nauseated.

The equipment has been prepared, she thought. It should be able to survive the drop. I’d better call Tom’s father and let him know I’m on the way.

Irene flipped a switch and attempted to contact New York. After a few moments she was able to reach Tony Markos at the Swift nuclear power plant. She talked with him for a moment and then asked for Mr. Swift. After a short delay his voice was heard over the radio. “Hello?”

“Tom?” the girl asked. “This is Irene. Can you hear me?”

“There’s a lot of static, but I can hear you,” Tom Swift replied. “Where are you?”

Irene glanced down at her instruments. She was briefly surprised at how much distance she had covered. I guess Mach 15 can get you where you need to go in a hurry! “I’ve just left Asia and am over the Pacific Ocean,” she said aloud. “This message is being relayed through California. I wanted to let you know that I’m bringing you the spare parts you need to fix your reactor.”

Irene heard Mr. Swift gasp. She knew that was the news he wanted to hear. “What kind of spare parts?”

“Xanthus built a duplicate reactor in Brungaria,” Irene explained. “He used it to figure out how to sabotage yours. I have his unsabotaged version of your electronic brain on board a jet and am flying your way. I should be there in less than half an hour.”

“Half an hour! How can you possibly get here so quickly?”

Despite a growing feeling of dizziness, Irene smiled. “Xanthus had a hyperplane that I decided to borrow. Given everything that has happened I didn’t think he would mind. After all, I’ve heard the authorities have him kind of tied up at the moment. He won’t be missing it.”

There was a slight pause, and then Mr. Swift spoke. “If you can arrive in the next thirty minutes we may still have a chance of saving the city. I can’t promise anything, but it’s worth a try. It’s the only hope we have.”

“I’ll do my best,” Irene replied.

“Are Tom and Bud with you?” Mr. Swift asked.

Irene hesitated. Now is not the time to explain what I’ve done, she thought to herself. I need to keep him focused on the crisis at hand. I’m sure he’ll eventually figure it out but right now we have other problems. Still, he does need to know that his son is safe. Aloud she said, “They’re on another flight. Bud found another nuclear jet in Brungaria that he decided to liberate. They’re flying a bit slower than me but they’ll get to New York safe and sound.”

She heard Mr. Swift breathe a sigh of relief. “I still can’t believe you went to Brungaria. That was a very foolhardy thing to do, young lady.”

If only he knew what I was doing now, she thought to herself. He’s not going to be happy about this. “Let’s save that talk for later, ok? Besides, it was your son’s idea. I’m going to go but I’ll contact you again when I’m almost there. I’m planning on performing an air drop since there’s no runway on the island.”

“We’ll have a crew standing by to receive it,” Mr. Swift promised. “I can’t think you enough, Irene. You’re giving us hope. We had just about-”

Irene was suddenly pierced by a feeling of intense pain. She felt like she was about to pass out. “Thanks,” Irene said shortly. She hung up.

The young scientist fought to stay conscious. I can’t give up now, she thought. I’ve got one more call to make – and a package to deliver. Hold on, girl! You’re almost home.

It didn’t take long for Irene to contact Swift Enterprises. She talked with George Dilling for a moment and had him connect her to a recording device so she could leave a voice message for Tom Swift Jr. After she was connected and George had dropped off the call she took a deep breath and started talking.

“Hey there Tom,” she began. She coughed and then continued. “Do you remember months ago, when we had dinner by the lake? It was before you ever started the hyperplane project, right after your father perfected Tomasite. You were depressed that evening because the press made much of your father and treated you like a little kid. Do you remember that?”

Irene paused as her head started pounding. She knew radiation sickness was quickly killing her. She forced herself to concentrate on what she was saying. Tom needs to hear this. If I leave him without saying anything he’s going to be consumed with guilt. He needs to know that everything is ok. He’s got a bright future ahead of him, if only he’ll see that. “I told you that you could prove them all wrong. That you were a genius and had the rare ability to make your dreams come true. If you wanted to build rockets and explore outer space then you could do it.”

And you will do it, she thought. I just wish I could be there with you when it happens! She knew she was about to cry so she hurried on. “I still believe that, Tom,” she said, her voice wavering. “I know right now you’re really upset. I know you think your life has ended, but it hasn’t. I’m sorry I won’t be there to share that future with you. I really am. It breaks my heart. But that doesn’t mean the future doesn’t have to happen. You are still surrounded by people who love you and care a great deal about you. I don’t want you to throw away all that talent and spend the rest of your life sitting there, doing nothing.”

Irene glanced down at her control panel. She saw that she had almost crossed the entire Pacific Ocean and was about to enter American airspace. Almost there, she thought. “I love you, Tom. I’ve enjoyed spending my life with you. Thanks for being there for me. Take care of yourself.”

“And one last thing,” she added. “This is where my story ends. I know you’re going to be tempted to somehow fix what happened today, but don’t. Don’t live in the past. Look toward the future. You’ve got a world to make, so go out and make it.”

Irene took a deep breath. “Good bye, Tom, and good luck. I love you.”
She closed the connection and passed out.

The teenager awoke with a start. She struggled to open her eyes and glanced down at her position. The girl gasped when she realized that she was now soaring over the United States. I must have passed out, she thought to herself. The girl struggled to breathe. I feel so sick.

The early symptoms of radiation sickness were already taking their toll on her small frame. She felt severe nausea and was having trouble staying conscious. Her thoughts were erratic and she found it almost impossible to focus on flying the plane. My head is killing me. I feel so weak and disoriented.

Irene looked at the controls in her hands and forced herself to concentrate. With all of her remaining energy she corrected her course and began to cut her speed. There’s no way I can drop the package at Mach 15. I’ve got to slow way down if the computer is going to have any hope of surviving the drop. But slowing down means taking more time, and we don’t have any time to spare.

After she made the final adjustments to her course and speed she activated the timer. The cargo bay doors would open after a set number of minutes. If she calculated everything correctly the package should drop close to the nuclear plant. I wish I could double-check my figures but I just can’t think anymore, she thought sadly. But there is one more thing I have to do.

For the last time she contacted New York. This time Mr. Swift answered the call. “Hello?” She could hear the nervousness in his voice.

“Hey,” Irene said, struggling to speak. The very act of talking was almost impossible. She knew she had only a few moments left to live.

“Irene?” Mr. Swift said, with concern in his voice. “How are you feeling?”

The girl ignored his question. “I’m almost there. I’ve set up a timed drop. You should be able to track the package on radar after it leaves the plane. It should land near you.”

“We’ll be watching for it,” Mr. Swift replied. She heard him hesitate. “My son called. He wanted to know if there were any problems with your hyperplane.”

Irene smiled despite her pain. “So he figured it out.” She suddenly started coughing for a minute, but finally regained control of her voice. “He’s a smart kid. Yeah, the jet has some problems. I think this will be its final flight.”

“Where you are going to land?” Mr. Swift asked quietly.

This jet won’t be landing, she thought to herself. And I won’t be landing either. She paused and looked at the controls. The hyperplane was on course and functioning perfectly. She knew the plane was going to make it and she knew the drop would work. Somehow, she knew everything would be fine. Tom Swift would save the day and the world would be spared a nuclear holocaust. Life would go on, even though hers was about to end. She had made the right choice.

I might as well tell him, she thought. Aloud she said “I won’t be conscious that long,” she said quietly. “Sorry.”

“Can you eject?” Mr. Swift asked. She was about to speak when she suddenly felt a tingly sensation, as if something was pulling at her. A moment later she disappeared, leaving the hyperplane’s cockpit empty. Her last thought before vanishing was Oh, Tom, what have you done?

Recently I read a book entitled The Ultimate Proof of Creation by Dr. Jason Lisle. In it he presents an argument against evolution that cannot be logically refuted, which he calls the “ultimate proof”. The book is very thorough and well-done and I strongly recommend reading the entire thing. What I wanted to do here is give a brief summary of his arguments (which, sadly, do not do the book justice).

Sometimes, when creationists debate evolutionists, the debate turns into a contest to see who has the most evidence. Creationists bring out things they believe proves their case, and evolutionists bring out things they believe prove their case. They then try to see who has the most evidence on their side.

Dr. Lisle points out that evidence doesn’t work that way. Evidence does not speak for itself; it must be interpreted. To give you an example – last year I was watching the History Channel and saw a documentary on some dinosaur bones someone had dug up. To their surprise they found living blood cells inside those bones! Creationists argued that this proves that dinosaurs lived recently, and therefore creation is true. Evolutionists argued that this proves that blood cells can live for millions of years, because there they were, still alive after all that time! The evidence was the same but the interpretation was vastly different because evolutionists and creationists have different worldviews.

The worldview is all-important. An evolutionist believes that evolution is true and therefore interprets everything in that light. If he finds living blood cells in a dinosaur bone then to him that proves blood cells can live for million of years, since he assumes evolution is true. The idea that evolution is true is a founding assumption that he does not question. To him there can be no such thing as evidence against evolution – he can always find some way to explain away problems.

Dr. Lisle said that this is accomplished through something he called a “rescuing device”. The example he gave in his book was the Oort Cloud. Scientists know that comets can only last for a few tens of thousands of years before the Sun’s heat burns away all the comet’s ice and gasses and destroys them. If the solar system is billions of years old then there should no longer be any comets. Creationists argue that this is evidence for creation. Evolutionists say that since comets exist, that means there must be a cloud of comets on the edge of the solar system, and occasionally one gets disturbed and thrown into orbit around the Sun. They say this not because anyone has ever seen the Oort Cloud (they say it is too far away to be seen even with our best telescopes), but because this “rescues” their theory. In order for their theory to be true that must be the case. Therefore, the Oort Cloud exists.

So, while there is all sorts of evidence for creation, the evidence is not the real issue. The real problem is two competing worldviews – the Biblical one of creationists, and the evolutionary one of evolutionists. It is the worldview that needs to be addressed. No matter what evidence creationists bring to the table, evolutionists can always use a “rescuing device” to explain it away, as they do with comets and the Oort Cloud. In other words, the real battle is between competing worldviews. In order to disprove evolution once and for all you must show that the evolutionary worldview is irrational. That is what the ultimate proof of creation is all about.

This is how Dr. Jason Lisle defines the ultimate proof:

“The ultimate proof of creation is this: if biblical creation were not true, we could not know anything!” (Page 40)

He goes on to say that “only the Christian worldview…can rationally make sense of the universe.” Evolution cannot explain the laws of logic. It cannot give a reason for the uniformity of nature (the idea that physical laws apply equally everywhere, and will continue to work in the future). Nor can it give any basis for morality or even knowledge itself. This is how he puts it:

“In fact, if evolution were true, there wouldn’t be any rational reason to believe it! If life is the result of evolution, then it means that an evolutionist’s brain is simply the outworking of millions of years of random-chance processes. The brain would simply be a collection of chemical reactions that have been preserved because they had some sort of survival value in the past. If evolution were true, then all the evolutionist’s thoughts are merely the necessary result of chemistry acting over time. Therefore, an evolutionist must think and say that “evolution is true”, not for rational reasons, but as a necessary consequence of blind chemistry…

“Evolution is anti-science and anti-knowledge. If evolution were true, science would not make sense because there would be no reasons to accept the uniformity of nature upon which all science and technology depend. Nor would there by any reason to think that rational analysis would be possible since the thoughts of our mind would be nothing more than the inevitable result of mindless chemical reactions. Evolutionists are able to do science and gain knowledge only because they are inconsistent – professing to believe in evolution while accepting the principles of biblical creation.” (page 62)

This is not necessarily intuitive, so let me expound on this a bit. Let’s take the example of morality. If evolution were true there could be no such thing as right or wrong. After all, “right” means it conforms to a universal standard of behavior, and “wrong” means it falls short of that standard. This makes sense in a Biblical worldview because God sets the standard. Murder and theft and lying are wrong because they violates God’s standard. That is the only reason they are wrong.

However, in an evolutionary worldview there is no absolute moral standard. Nothing, therefore, can actually be wrong. Individuals may have their own personal beliefs about right and wrong, but there could never be a standard that applies equally to everyone. Person A may think that stealing is wrong while Person B thinks that stealing is right. Person A would have no grounds to condemn Person B because without God there cannot be a higher standard that applies equally to everyone. I’ve heard some argue that “Well, if it hurts people it’s bad”, but that is a Christian idea. If there is no God then why is hurting people bad? Why would one person’s definition of “bad” apply to anyone else? After all, in that case we’re all just chemical reactions. Does it matter what one chemical reaction does to another? Evolutionists claim that there is no real difference between an animal and a person – and if an animal kills another animal we don’t call it murder.

People inherently believe that things are right and wrong because there is a God, and He has set a very clear standard that He put into all of our hearts. In a Biblical worldview there is a reason to believe in morality. But in an evolutionary worldview there is no reason to believe in a universal standard of behavior. Therefore, if evolution were true, morality would be irrational. If an evolutionist believes in morality then he is borrowing from a Biblical worldview, as his own worldview provides no rational basis for that belief.

The same thing can be said about the laws of logic. Dr. Lisle points out that people believe in things such as the law of non-contradiction, which says that something cannot be both true and false at the same time. For example, I cannot say that my car is parked in my garage, and that at the same time my car is not parked in my garage. It must be one or the other. The laws of logic are foundational to our ability to perform science, make sense of the universe, and perform reason.

In a Biblical worldview there is a reason to believe in the laws of logic. This is what Dr. Lisle said:

“For the Christian there is an absolute standard for reasoning; we are to pattern our thoughts after God’s. And we know (in a finite, limited way) how God thinks because He has revealed some of His thoughts through His Word. According to Genesis, God has made us in His image (Gen 1:26) and therefore we are to follow His example (Eph. 5:1). The laws of logic are a reflection of the way God thinks, and thus the way He expects us to think. The law of non-contradiction is not simply one person’s opinion of how we ought to think, rather it stems from God’s self-consistent nature. God cannot deny Himself (2 Tim. 2:13), and all truth is in God (John 14:6, Col. 2:3), therefore truth will not contradict itself. Since God is constantly upholding the universe by His power (Heb. 1:3), the consistent Christian expects that no contradiction will ever occur in the universe.

“Laws of logic are God’s standard for thinking. Since God is an unchanging, sovereign, immaterial Being, His thoughts would necessarily be abstract, universe, invariant entities. In other words, they are not made of matter, they apply everywhere, at all times. Laws of logic are contingent upon God’s unchanging nature. And they are a prerequisite for logical thinking. Thus, rational reasoning would be impossible without the biblical God.” (Page 52)

Do you see what he is saying? In a Biblical worldview there is a reason to believe that the laws of logic are universal and unchanging because they reflect the character of God and are upheld by His power. However, an evolutionist has no reason to believe any of these things. He has no reason to believe that the laws of logic will not change this afternoon, or that they apply equally on Mars as they do on Earth, or that one day he will not come across a logical contradiction. He may believe that the laws of logic are universal, but he does not have a reason to believe this. Since he has no reason to believe in logic, logic is therefore irrational in an evolutionary worldview. If he believes in logic then he must borrow from a Biblical worldview, as evolution provides no rational reason to believe in logic.

The book has a great deal more to say about all of this but I’ll close with just one more point. Dr. Lisle states that if evolution were true science would actually be impossible. This is because science depends upon something called uniformity. It’s the idea that if you perform an experiment and get a certain result, you will always get that same result as long as the conditions are the same. In other words, the physical laws that we see today are going to be the same tomorrow, and next week, and next year, and the year after that. Physical laws do not change. Science is only possible because we believe that the experimental results we get today will never change. This allows us to make predictions about the future and actually learn how the universe works.

In a Biblical worldview there is a reason to believe in uniformity. This is how Dr. Lisle put it:

“The biblical creationist expects there to be order in the universe because God made all things (Gen 1:1; John 1:3) and has imposed order on the universe. Since the Bible teaches that God upholds all things by His power (Heb. 1:3), the creationist expects that the universe would function in a logical, orderly, law-like fashion. Furthermore, God is consistent (1 Sam. 15:29; Num. 23:19) and omnipresent (Psalm 139:7-8). Thus, the creationist expects that all regions of the universe will obey the same laws, even in regions where the physical conditions are quite different. The entire field of astronomy depends upon this important biblical principle.

“Moreover, God is beyond time (2 Pet. 3:8) and has chosen to uphold the universe in a consistent fashion throughout time for our benefit. So even though conditions in the past may be quite different than those in the present and future, the way God upholds the universe (what we could call the “laws of nature”) will not arbitrarily change. God has told us that there are certain things we can count on to be true in the future – the seasons, the diurnal cycle, and so on (Gen. 8:22; Jer. 33:20-21). Therefore, under a given set of conditions, the consistent Christian has the right to expect a given outcome because he or she relies upon the Lord to uphold the universe in a consistent way.” (Page 58)

Without the concept of uniformity science would become impossible. If the laws of physics changed arbitrarily, or if experimental results were constantly changing, then it would be impossible to know anything. In a Biblical worldview there is a reason to believe in uniformity. In an evolutionary worldview, however, there is no reason to believe this. Scientists may believe that uniformity is true but they must borrow from a Biblical worldview to believe this.

Some may say that “in the past things have always been the same, so I believe that will continue to be the case in the future,” but people who say that are just assuming their argument is true in order to prove their argument. As Dr. Lisle pointed out, you might as well say that I believe I will never die because I’ve never died in the past! They have no reason to believe in uniformity. Therefore, their belief in uniformity is irrational.

In conclusion, the Biblical worldview provides good reasons to believe in morality, in the laws of logic, and in uniformity. This is not the case for the evolutionary worldview. If evolution is true, then morality is irrational, logic is irrational, and even science has no rational basis. If evolution were true it would be impossible to know anything – our thoughts would just be chemical reactions in our brain, and a chemical reaction doesn’t “know” anything; it just is. Evolution destroys the very possibility for science or knowledge. Since it cannot rationally explain the universe it must be wrong – and since only Biblical creation can provide reasons for explaining the universe, it must be true. That is the ultimate proof.