FSTDT

YOU, Burn_your_bible@imagine_NO-religion.com, your time is always ready! But let us imagine a happier place for you...

#2452 Struck By Lightening
Bible Truth Publishers

[The name of the subject in the following message has been changed from the original that we might imagine a better outlook for the Usenet user posting as "burn_your_bible@imagine_NO-religion.com"]

It was Sunday afternoon, and the good news of salvation had just been presented to young people in the gospel hall. Burn_your_bible@imagine_NO-religion.com hurried out with the preacher's words still ringing in his ears: "He, that being often reproved [stiffens] his neck, shall sud-denly be destroyed, and that without remedy" (Proverbs 29:1).

Many times in his life, Burn_your_bible@imagine_NO-religion.com had definitely been "reproved" by the Spirit of God--"convinced" of his sinful nature, of his complete lack of righ-teousness, and of the judgment that would result if he continued in his present direction. Parents who honored and respected God and read the Word of God every day had brought him up. He knew that his parents prayed earnestly every day for his salvation.

Satan, the enemy of our souls, was quick to re-mind Burn_your_bible@imagine_NO-religion.com, "If you admit you are a sinner and be-lieve in Jesus as your Saviour, think of all the good times you will have to give up. You are young... wait until you are older!"

And Burn_your_bible@imagine_NO-religion.com did wait. Deliberately smothering the still, small voice of his conscience, he headed down to the lakeshore. There the usual Sunday af-ternoon visitors strolled around or sat on the grass. Some were reading newspapers and books, and others chatted with friends. Burn_your_bible@imagine_NO-religion.com avoided looking for any friends this time. Instead, he sat by himself looking out over the lake.

He noticed the white caps riding on wind-whipped waves. As he sat, black clouds rolled up from the horizon, covering the afternoon sun and rapidly hiding the clear blue of the sky. A storm was quickly approaching. Zipping up his jacket against the rising wind, Burn_your_bible@imagine_NO-religion.com quickly got up and hurried along the walkway.

Farther on was a big oak tree that he could stand under for some protection from the imminent storm. As he headed to the leafy shelter, Burn_your_bible@imagine_NO-religion.com saw two men hurrying toward the same tree, evidently also looking for shelter.

Jagged flashes of lightning and the clap of thun-der made Burn_your_bible@imagine_NO-religion.com break into a run. As he ran, he re-alized that sitting and watching the approaching storm instead of heading home had been unwise.

Suddenly, with an instantaneous lightning flash and an ear-splitting crash of thunder, the storm broke. Half blinded by the sudden downpour, Burn_your_bible@imagine_NO-religion.com ran for the tree where he had seen the two men take shelter. Were they still there? Would there be room for him under the tree? Straining to see through the blinding rain, Burn_your_bible@imagine_NO-religion.com could not see them until he was almost upon them.

What he saw was chilling! Flat on the ground at the foot of the tree lay the body of one man, killed instantly by the bolt of lightning. Kneeling at his side and sobbing was the other man.

The last part of the Bible verse the preacher had read earlier that day flashed across Burn_your_bible@imagine_NO-religion.com's mind: "Shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy." Suddenly the full importance of his own narrow escape burst into his mind. Supposing he had reached the tree and stood in its shelter, in-stead of this man now lying lifeless on the ground! In all honesty, he had to admit that if he were in this man's place--suddenly swept into eternity-- his soul would have been lost, because he was still in his sins. Broken down but grateful, Burn_your_bible@imagine_NO-religion.com thanked the Saviour for sparing him so that he could accept the salvation that is made possible by Christ's payment on the cross.

As you finish reading this true account, we re-mind you that your life has no guarantee. The next heartbeat may be your last. Are you ready to meet a holy God?

He gave His dear Son to die in your place. Christ died that you might live. Will you accept this gift of salvation that He is offering to you right now?

"Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation" (2 Corinthians 6:2).

"The wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord" (Romans 6:23).

"It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: so Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for Him shall He appear the second time without sin unto salvation" (Hebrews 9:27-28).

On Sun, 2 Dec 2001 15:53:46 -0500
"n7...@swbell.net" <n7...@swbell.net> wrote:
> I have been following this thread with a mixture of amusement and exasperation - amusement that intelligent people like Linus, who ought to know better, are spouting this evolution stuff, and exasperation that some people think that because someone's an expert in one thing, they are an expert in all things.

No offense toward anyone but I find that many non-religious people can be found in the CompSci area of expertise. I'm not sure why this is but besides myself and another friend all the other people I know in that general field are atheists. It would only make sense that we would hear atheist type remarks within these discussions just as we would hear Christian remarks in another field of expertise that seems to attract Christians.

>
> The idea of genetic evolution itself is complete nonsense - biological systems don't evolve genetically, they evolve environmentally. Biological systems change as a result of random mutation, and what doesn't work doesn't survive. What people try to pass off as evolution is simply the less fit not surviving to pass on their bad genes. Sort of like the hundred monkeys idea.

True. Many mutations in human DNA cause the resulting human to be unable to reproduce once they reach the age where a normal human could do so.

>
> But that is all completely irrelevent to coding, since it is extremely inefficient for systems to "evolve" based on trial and error. The way modern systems evolve is based on (hopefully) *intelligent* selection - I write a patch, submit it to Linus. He doesn't accept it, throw it in the kernel, and that's it - he looks at it, what it does, and decides if it fits in the Grand Scheme of things - kernel efficiency, speed, flexibility, extensability, and maintainability - and *then* decides if it makes it in. They key difference is that in nature, mutation is random because it can afford to be - in coding, it isn't because we don't have thousands or millions of years to find out whether or not something works or not.

We have a way of being able to direct the evolution of our code as we can control the bad parts and teh good parts and what gets added and what doesn't. We have no control over our DNA (human genetics may have proven me wrong already but if not, it shouldn't take more than a few months more) so mutations in the human race are more random.

>
> That being said, I am well aware that "genetic programming" has made some progress in that direction, mainly because it doesn't take millenia to figure out what works and what doesn't. But that's a long way from "evolving" an entire operating system. I don't believe for a moment that homo sapiens "evolved" from pond scum although I might believe that some fellow homo sapiens *are* pond scum!) -

*finally* someone who doesn't believe in evolution of the human race. As a side note, i've heard some people say that a bolt of lightning triggered some proteins to start growing into single celled organisms and then into what we now call today human beings. I take offense that I came from a single celled organism. I believe the more complex an object or system is the less randomness can be added in order to arrive at the current/final version. I think we all agree the human body is the most complex object in the universe so how can we say that our existence was an accident?

An operating system is a complex system as well. We all know code doesn't evolve on its own to generate an operating system right? :) It has to be created and as time goes on code forks are sometimes introduced. In humans that could be somewhat akin to whites, blacks, asians, etc. But they were all created from the code that God started with. He just released his source code(dna) a little later in the development tree than some people may have wanted so there was no point in letting us evolve into something more as we were already different enough. :)

>it only makes sense that we are a created species, and that Homo Erectus ans all the rest were early genetic > experiments. Who created homo sapiens is beyond the scope of this discussion ;)

It is beyond the scope. If we attempted that topic we would be branded as close-minded even though the others (read: non-religious) can do it and they defend themselves by saying its free speech.

my time is out for this post.
brandon