Re: http://townhall.com/columnists/AlanSears/2010/09/17/sunrise,_sunset_our_future_is_only_as_certain_as_religious_freedom

This article from Alan Sears brought to remembrance the words of Jeremiah the prophet who speaks of a greater covenant than what God has established in the laws of celestial motion. This is the New Covenant established and sure by the shedding of the blood of the Lamb of God.

  

The Reason why our Reformers were Burned

By J C Ryle http://salmun.cwahi.net/histry/rel/chrch/prot/wwrb/wwrb.htm#03

 

In these words Dr. Luther declared his belief in the absolute authority of God’s revelation of Himself in the Bible. Armed only with his Bible he stood against the combined powers of the anti-Christian church and state. The open Bible became the power of the Reformation by giving the common man access to God’s Law which became the foundation for the principle of the rule of law that overthrew the tyrannies of both church and state hierarchies.

The Great Awakening in colonial America was a renewal of Reformation thought that had come to America brought by the spiritual descendants of the Protestant Reformers. Again, the people armed with their Bibles rose up against tyranny for the advancement of liberty for 'we the people' would be governed by the consent of the governed under a covenant of law.

   
            A mighty fortress is our God, 
            a bulwark never failing; 
            our helper he amid the flood 
            of mortal ills prevaling. 
            For still our ancient foe 
            doth seek to work us woe; 
            his craft and power are great, 
            and armed with cruel hate, 
            on earth is not his equal.




            Did we in our own strength confide, 
            our striving would be losing, 
            were not the right man on our side, 
            the man of God's own choosing.
            Dost ask who that may be? 
            Christ Jesus, it is he; 
            Lord Sabaoth, his name, 
            from age to age the same, 
            and he must win the battle.




            And though this world, with devils filled, 
            should threaten to undo us, 
            we will not fear, for God hath willed 
            his truth to triumph through us. 
            The Prince of Darkness grim, 
            we tremble not for him; 
            his rage we can endure, 
            for lo, his doom is sure; 
            one little word shall fell him.




            That word above all earthly powers, 
            no thanks to them, abideth; 
            the Spirit and the gifts are ours, 
            thru him who with us sideth. 
            Let goods and kindred go, 
            this mortal life also; 
            the body they may kill; 
            God's truth abideth still; 
            his kingdom is forever.

Now, who is it that attacks the authority of the Scriptures or undermines their authority?

These are the great enemies of liberty. They exalt human reason and in so doing make a mockery of the Natural Law, which undermines our constitutional republic in undermining the foundation for law.

Here are some examples we will consider…

1. Neo-science
2. Leftist ideology
3. Merit rather than grace based religion

Note the Biblical Theology contained in this work. The state of man in his corruption after the Fall into sin has left his reason untrustworthy, thus giving the necessity of revelation. Also, note his view of happiness and how it relates to the American Declaration of Independence.

Blackstone was opposed to the Revolution, but his commentaries were widely read in America and were used by some as justification for rebellion because of the King’s repeated abuse of Natural Law….

1. LAW, in it's most general and comprehensive sense, signifies a rule of action; and is applied indiscriminately to all kinds of action, whether animate, or inanimate, rational or irrational. Thus we say, the laws of motion, of gravitation, of optics, or mechanics, as well as the laws of nature and of nations. And it is that rule of action, which is prescribed by some superior, and which the inferior is bound to obey.

2. THUS when the Supreme Being formed the universe, and created matter out of nothing, he impressed certain principles upon that matter, from which it can never depart, and without which it would cease to be. When he put that matter into motion, he established certain laws of motion, to which all moveable bodies must conform. And, to descend from the greatest operations to the smallest, when a workman forms a clock, or other piece of mechanism, he establishes at his own pleasure certain arbitrary laws for it's direction; as that the hand shall describe a given space in a given time; to which law as long as the work conforms, so long it continues in perfection, and answer the end of it's formation…

3. But laws, in their more confined sense, and in which it is our present business to consider them, denote the rules, not of action in general, but of human action or conduct: that is, the precepts by which man, the noblest of all sublunary beings, a creature endowed with both reason and freewill, is commanded to make use of those faculties in the general regulation of his behavior.

4. MAN, considered as a creature, must necessarily be subject to the laws of his creator, for he is entirely a dependent being. A being, independent of any other, has no rule to pursue, but such as he prescribes to himself; but a state of dependence will inevitably oblige the inferior to take the will of him, on whom he depends, as the rule of his conduct: not indeed in every particular, but in all those points wherein his dependence consists. This principle therefore has more or less extent and effect, in proportion as the superiority of the one and the dependence of the other is greater or less, absolute or limited. And consequently as man depends absolutely upon his maker for every thing, it is necessary that he should in all points conform to his maker's will.

5. THIS will of his maker is called the law of nature. For as God, when he created matter, and endued it with a principle of mobility, established certain rules for the perpetual direction of that motion; so, when he created man, and endued him with freewill to conduct himself in all parts of life, he laid down certain immutable laws of human nature, whereby that freewill is in some degree regulated and restrained, and gave him also the faculty of reason to discover the purport of those laws.

6. CONSIDERING the creator only as a being of infinite power, he was able unquestionably to have prescribed whatever laws he pleased to his creature, man, however unjust or severe. But as he is also a being of infinite wisdom, he has laid down only such laws as were founded in those relations of justice that existed in the nature of things antecedent to any positive precept. These are the eternal, immutable laws of good and evil, to which the creator himself in all his dispensations conforms; and which he has enabled human reason to discover, so far as they are necessary for the conduct of human actions. Such among others are these principles: that we should live honestly, should hurt nobody, and should render to every one it's due…

7. BUT if the discovery of these first principles of the law of nature depended only upon the due exertion of right reason, and could not otherwise be attained than by a chain of metaphysical disquisitions, mankind would have wanted some inducement to have quickened their inquiries, and the greater part of the world would have rested content in mental indolence, and ignorance it's inseparable companion. As therefore the creator is a being, not only of infinite power, and wisdom, but also of infinite goodness, he has been pleased so to contrive the constitution and frame of humanity, that we should want no other prompter to enquire after and pursue the rule of right, but only our own self-love, that universal principle of action. For he has so intimately connected, so inseparably interwoven the laws of eternal justice with the happiness of each individual, that the latter cannot be attained but by observing the former; and, if the former be punctually obeyed, it cannot but induce the latter. In consequence of which mutual connection of justice and human felicity, he has not perplexed the law of nature with a multitude of abstracted rules and precepts, referring merely to the fitness or unfitness of things, as some have vainly surmised; but has graciously reduced the rule of obedience to this one paternal precept, that man should “pursue his own happiness.” This is the foundation of what we call ethics, or natural law. For the several articles into which it is branched in our systems, amount to no more than demonstrating, that this or that action tends to man's real happiness, and therefore very justly concluding that the performance of it is a part of the law of nature; or, on the other hand, that this or that action is destructive of man's real happiness, and therefore that the law of nature forbids it.

8. THIS law of nature, being co-eval with mankind and dictated by God himself, is of course superior in obligation to any other. It is binding over all the globe, in all countries, and at all times: no human laws are of any validity, if contrary to this; and such of them as are valid derive all their force, and all their authority, mediately or immediately, from this original.

9. BUT in order to apply this to the particular exigencies of each individual, it is still necessary to have recourse to reason; whose office it is to discover, as was before observed, what the law of nature directs in every circumstance of life; by considering, what method will tend the most effectually to our own substantial happiness. And if our reason were always, as in our first ancestor before his transgression, clear and perfect, unruffled by passions, unclouded by prejudice, unimpaired by disease or intemperance, the task would be pleasant and easy; we should need no other guide but this. But every man now finds the contrary in his own experience; that his reason is corrupt, and his understanding full of ignorance and error.

10. THIS has given manifold occasion for the benign interposition of divine providence; which, in compassion to the frailty, the imperfection, and the blindness of human reason, hath been pleased, at sundry times and in divers manners, to discover and enforce it's laws by an immediate and direct revelation. The doctrines thus delivered we call the revealed or divine law, and they are to be found only in the Holy Scriptures. These precepts, when revealed, are found upon comparison to be really a part of the original law of nature, as they tend in all their consequences to man's felicity. But we are not from thence to conclude that the knowledge of these truths was attainable by reason, in it’s present corrupted state; since we find that, until they were revealed, they were hid from the wisdom of ages. As then the moral precepts of this law are indeed of the fame original with those of the law of nature, so their intrinsic obligation is of equal strength and perpetuity. Yet undoubtedly the revealed law is (humanly speaking) of infinitely more authority than what we generally call the natural law. Because one is the law of nature, expressly declared so to be by God himself; the other is only what, by the assistance of human reason, we imagine to be that law. If we could be as certain of the latter as we are of the former, both would have an equal authority; but, till then, they can never be put in any competition together.

11. UPON these two foundations, the Law of Nature and the Law of Revelation, depend all human laws; that is to say, no human laws should be suffered to contradict these. There is, it is true, a great number of indifferent points, in which both the divine law and the natural leave a man at his own liberty; but which are found necessary for the benefit of society to be restrained within certain limits. And herein it is that human laws have their greatest force and efficacy; for, with regard to such points as are not indifferent, human laws are only declaratory of, and act in subordination to, the former. To instance in the case of murder: this is expressly forbidden by the divine, and demonstrably by the natural law; and from these prohibitions arise the true unlawfulness of this crime…If any human law should allow or enjoin us to commit it, we are bound to transgress that human law, or else we must offend both the natural and the divine…

12. IF man were to live in a state of nature, unconnected with other individuals, there would be no occasion for any other laws, than the Law of Nature, and the Law of God. Neither could any other law possibly exist; for a law always supposes some superior who is to make it; and in a state of nature we are all equal, without any other superior but him who is the author of our being. But man was formed for society; and, as is demonstrated by the writers on this subject, is neither capable of living alone, nor indeed has the courage to do it. However, as it is impossible for the whole race of mankind to be united in one great society, they must necessarily divide into many; and form separate states, commonwealths, and nations; entirely independent of each other, and yet liable to a mutual intercourse. Hence arises a third kind of law to regulate this mutual intercourse, called “the law of nations;” which, as none of these states will acknowledge a superiority in the other, cannot be dictated by either; but depends entirely upon the rules of natural law, or upon mutual compacts, treaties, leagues, and agreements between these several communities: in the construction also of which compacts we have no other rule to resort to, but the law of nature; being the only one to which both communities are equally subject…

THUS much I thought it necessary to premise concerning the law of nature, the revealed law, and the law of nations…

 

 

1. The Creator of heaven and earth governs His creation according to nature law.

2. There is design according to purpose in the creation. As image bearers of God men bear witness to their creator whenever they design and build tools according to intended use.

3. As there are laws governing motion of objects so there are laws governing the behavior of men in their works of sin and righteousness.

4. Man is dependent on his creator, not the state. This is the change in world-view that is transforming America into a socialist state.

5. Men as image bearers of God have been given the faculties to know the will of his maker called the natural law.

6. The nature law testifies to God’s justice.

7. Human happiness is found in adherence to the natural law which is consistent with man’s own self interest.

8. Here is the seed of revolution against the unlawful magistrate who makes a practice of violating the natural law.

9. The affects of Adam’s sin includes the universal corruption of his seed, including his will and reason. This is a fundamental difference between the secularist and the Christian view of man. The consequences of this departure cannot be overestimated. One leads to rule of natural law and constitutionalism given the reality of sin; the other leads to utopianism from the denial of man’s sin nature and the belief that man is perfectible given the means of human effort and autonomous reason.

10. Blackstone makes an appeal to Hebrews 1 for his belief in revelation. He also makes an appeal to 1 Corinthians 1 concerning the revealing of the eternal wisdom in Christ. He assumes the reader has knowledge of the Scriptures as authoritative and consistent with the natural law.

11. He uses the case of life to illustrate the agreement of divine law with natural law. It is obvious that our culture has rejected both, which has put us on a course of lawlessness and its fruits.

If there is truth, then how are men to discover it in the midst of gross error and idolatry? How can any man know truth? This has always been a question before the mind of men. But modern man has declared that there is no truth, and starting with himself he is right. The humanistic philosophers have finally arrived at the truth that finite man cannot know truth apart from revelation.

But some will say that we can discover truth through our science? Mr. Hawking as one of the leaders of the neo-science community has just declared the new doctrine of ‘spontaneous creation out of nothing’. This is as absurd as was spontaneous generation in its day. The end of autonomous reason is absurdity upon absurdity.

Re: http://townhall.com/columnists/JamesAllen/2010/09/05/we_are_not_fighting_a_physical_battle

Mr. Gerson, are you now to the point of appealing to Harris and Hitchens in order to support your arguments? What about the threat of anti-theism? Will you consider that the real assault on the Constitution is coming from the secularists?

Have the secularists come up with a better plan to govern that does not appeal to the authority of Natural Law and Nature’s God? No! but they undermine our Constitution at every turn. They have no authority other than themselves. The autonomous man is who we need fear, not the Bible believing Christians.

The Big Bang was the result of the inevitable laws of physics and did not need God to spark the creation of the Universe, Stephen Hawking has concluded.

But Mr. Hawking what is your explanation for the existence of the ‘inevitable laws of physics’?

The scientist has claimed that no divine force was needed to explain why the Universe was formed.

OK, why was the universe formed? What is the purpose of our existence? Or is the universe and life on earth without design and purpose?

In his latest book, The Grand Design, an extract of which is published in Eureka magazine in The Times, Hawking said: “Because there is a law such as gravity, the Universe can and will create itself from nothing. Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something rather than nothing, why the Universe exists, why we exist.”

Spontaneous creation from nothing except ‘a law such as gravity’. Is the law of gravity eternal? Where did it come from? Can you even explain what it is?

He added: “It is not necessary to invoke God to light the blue touch paper and set the Universe going.”

Neo-science doesn’t need God to explain anything. It is capable of its own miracles.

In A Brief History of Time, Prof Hawking's most famous work, he did not dismiss the possibility that God had a hand in the creation of the world. He wrote in the 1988 book: "If we discover a complete theory, it would be the ultimate triumph of human reason — for then we should know the mind of God.”

No! You would be doing what Newton and the early scientists said, that is, discovering God’s thoughts after Him. We can only know the mind of God in what He has revealed in creation and in Jesus Christ.

In his new book he rejects Sir Isaac Newton's theory that the Universe did not spontaneously begin to form but was set in motion by God.

Newton had an answer for why scientific law exists and can be discovered by man. Hawking is a neo-scientist that has confused his radical naturalism for science.

In June this year Prof Hawking told a Channel 4 series that he didn't believe that a "personal" God existed. He told Genius of Britain: "The question is: is the way the universe began chosen by God for reasons we can't understand, or was it determined by a law of science? I believe the second. If you like, you can call the laws of science 'God', but it wouldn't be a personal God that you could meet, and ask questions."

An outright rejection of Jesus Christ who said, “He who has seen Me has seen the Father” [John 14:9].

Until his retirement last year Prof Hawking was Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge, a post previously held by Newton.

This is classic fulfillment of the Romans 1 that when men suppress the knowledge of God, they are given over to a debased mind. The fruits of neo-science have resulted in intelligent men believing in ‘spontaneous creation’ from nothing. This should remind us of the idea of spontaneous generation as an explanation for the origin of life.

Re: http://townhall.com/columnists/JonahGoldberg/2010/09/01/glenn_becks_ecumenical_moment/

Least we make the Constitution into an idol and become idolaters, should we not consider the origins and meaning of constitutionalism?

Secularism must divorce the Constitution from its religious heritage. With its reliance on man and his radical naturalism, it has declared that ‘God is dead’, freeing man from the bounds of divine law.

So what is the effect of this on a Constitution that appeals to the authority of the Laws of Nature and Nature’s God? The secularist undermines the authority of the Constitution and begins to exchange its reliance on divine law to that of autonomous wisdom.

They enjoy the fruits of constitutionalism, but just as their science has no answer for the existence of scientific law, they have no answer for morals, ethics, law and knowledge other than the limits of their own mind of which they have no answer for its existence. Therefore, their allegiance to the Constitution is subject to revisionism, having separated it from its original authority that gives it a reference to the absolute.

The demeaning of America that we see today started with the demeaning of the Pilgrim and Puritan Fathers that brought the Protestant Reformation to New England; a Reformation that was continued in the Great Awakening. Maintaining America’s religious heritage is essential for the maintaining of constitutionalism. Due to the curse of original sin, men must be governed by law that limits the extents of man’s depravity to rule over other men and deprive them of their liberty as image bearers. For the rule of law to continue there must be consensus in the equity of law. This comes from an open Bible and a knowledge of the self-revealed God.

Re: http://townhall.com/columnists/JillianBandes/2010/08/28/faith,_hope,_and_honor_at_glenn_becks_8-28_rally

Have some men forgotten or have they never heard of Israel’s release from Egyptian bondage by the hand of Moses? Did Moses bring the ten plagues on Egypt and part the Red Sea or did Jehovah deliver the people through Moses?

Moses spoke to the people of Israel of another prophet who was to come…

“The LORD your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from your midst, from your brethren. Him you shall hear…I will put My words in His mouth, and He shall speak to them all that I command Him. And it shall be that whoever will not hear My words, which He speaks in My name, I will require it of him. [Deuteronomy 18:15-19]

Now that the One greater than Moses has come, will He not do greater works than Moses?

What about the New Covenant? A multiple of men that no man can number from every nation, Jew and Gentile, have been redeemed by the prophet who became priest and offered up His own blood for the atonement of sin once for all. He makes great promises to His people: they all shall know God even to the least of them; they all shall receive the forgiveness of sins and the righteousness of God through faith alone; they all shall know the truth and the truth will make them free. This is the substance of which Moses was a type. Real liberty is the freedom from the bondage of a sinful heart. God demonstrates His power in grace in each one who hears the words of the prophet who became king with all authority given to Him for the good of His people.

But the darkness of unbelief and ignorance is with us still, and unbelieving men do greater err, not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God...

“…if you believed Moses, you would believe Me; for he wrote about Me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe My words?” [John 5:46-47]

 

Re: http://townhall.com/columnists/DavidLimbaugh/2010/08/27/so_is_he_a_christian

“You will know them by their fruits” [Matthew 7:15-20].

And what is Paul’s meaning in 2 Corinthians 5:17…

‘If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.’

The understanding of what it means to be a Christian must be defined by the New Testament, not by the secular culture. To profess Christ does not make a man a Christian…

“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’ [Matthew 7:21-23]

You are right that we suffer from a plague of spiritual darkness and that the only remedy is spiritual awakening. It is written that ‘out of the heart come the issues of life’ [Proverbs 4:23]. And this is the doctrine of Christ…

“…out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies. These are the things which defile a man…” [Matthew 15:19-20]

The secularists deny the most basic truth that evil resides within the human heart. What have their political solutions done but to aggravate problems by giving opportunity for increased lawlessness? The welfare state is the best example of enabling fraud and destroying those it was intended to help.

How long will they cling to their failed policies? How long will they spread misery and joblessness and call it economic recovery? How long will they divide America by promoting class envy and fiscal irresponsibility? When will the people come to their senses and rise up and put off this tyranny?

Then you say that ‘preachers must preach to individuals with a desire to see them transformed internally and spiritually’. We can agree with you here because to acknowledge that transformation is necessary implies the need for faith and repentance.

But will you preach the same gospel that Edwards and Whitefield preached at the first Great Awakening in the mid 1700s? Their gospel did indeed transform the heart of men and their gospel was visited with power so that a whole culture was transformed. Liberty, duty and honor was valued more than self. Is this something we really want?

Will our churches forsake the broken cisterns of a man centered religion and return to the old paths of living waters? When will we return to the Bible that proclaims a sovereign God who is full of mercy and has spoken peace in Jesus Christ?

There is no peace except the peace given by Christ because He alone has the power of life to transform the spiritually dead heart and reconcile men to God. He has promised grace to all who will call upon His name. He will see of the travail of His soul and be satisfied; none of the given ones will be lost. He has answered yes to all the promises and sealed them with His own blood. Will you preach a conquering Christ who won the victory over sin and death? Will you preach the Christ of the Bible who has all authority and does all things according to the counsel of His own will for the good of His redeemed people?

Re: http://townhall.com/columnists/TerryJeffrey/2010/08/25/why_does_obama_tell_muslims_america_is_nation_of_non-believers

Secularists reject any concept of a transcendent Creator in favor of materialistic evolution. They believe that the universe is a closed system. There is nothing above and beyond the universe. Man is responsible for himself. He defines law and morality. He must save himself and the world through science and social justice. His goal is to unite mankind into a one-world order and redirect the course of evolution according to his own image. Humanity is their god.

Most people in America would not consider themselves to be atheists. They profess belief in God. But, the vague sentimental God that people believe in has nothing to do with the God of the Bible. God is thought to have indiscriminate love for everyone, but loves no one in particular. is the ticket to heaven. People have set up a false god that tolerates sin and makes little or no demands on them. Being born again is initiated by men in baptismal or decisional regeneration. This is the practical atheist’s view of God and his doctrine of salvation.

Men cannot avoid the responsibility to believe and serve God because God has revealed Himself in such a way as to leave all men without excuse. There is no neutrality. We must serve the self revealed God of the Bible as He has revealed Himself or we become a nation of unbelieving idolaters. Obama is right on this one for how else could he have been elected. The idea of self governing liberty is rooted in the Bible’s promise of the coming of Messiah and the New Covenant in His blood that separates the authorities of church and state under His authority.

Christ has all authority. He is head of His Church and ruler of the nations. He rules in the midst of His enemies while He gathers the elect from every nation. The kingdom of God exists now where ever His authority is recognized. On the last day all men will come to recognize His authority in mercy and in judgment.

We thank Star Parker for getting to the heart of the matter. The religion she references is Biblical Christianity because the Bible alone reveals the eternal truth of Christ and His doctrine.

And the word of truth continues, “Whoever commits sin is a slave of sin…if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed” [John 8].

Freedom that begins to make men free is in the person of Jesus Christ. The man that does not feel his bondage will not see the deliverer as glorious nor freedom as most precious.

But it is written that ‘the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it’ [Isaiah 40:5].

The secularists in their idolatry of man and their vain philosophies regarding his evolution think they can discern prehistoric histories while they are unable to discern the history of the American founding of less than 300 years ago. What they call tolerance is prideful and unrestrained lawlessness and they confuse freedom with a willing bondage to sin. They have forsaken the way of righteousness to walk in the counsel of the wicked and to stand in the path of sinners and sit in the seat of the scoffer.

 
"Woe to you when all men speak well of you,
For so did their fathers to the false prophets" [Luke 6:26].

From these words of Christ, we would do well to consider who it is that agrees or disagrees with us. Let’s consider this saying from the perspective of the old earth creationism (OEC).

Who are the common dissenters against the idea of young earth creationism (YEC)? And why is their dissent wrapped in such contempt as if YEC is too incredible for anyone to seriously consider. In this a false division is made between science and the Bible.

Modern man thinks that he has proven the Bible to be myth. He disregards its message that autonomous wisdom is not to be trusted because man is fallen and held captive in a state of sin and deception.

What is it that the OEC and the darwinites have in common? Is it not that both groups deny the Genesis Flood as presented by Moses and confirmed by Jesus Christ and His Apostles? Specifically, that the flood was global in scope resulting in the mass destruction of all air breathing life, except for those on the ark with Noah.

Now why are they so adamant in the denials of the Genesis Flood? Answer: If the geologic column was laid down as a consequence of the flood, then their theories of the fossil record requiring long ages to accommodate the evolution of life becomes so much nonsense.

They hang their hat on radiometric dating methods, saying that this evidence is conclusive proof that the geologic column is ancient. We will show that radiometric dating is less than conclusive and that there are other evidences of young earth as would be expected from the biblical framework of science. We will use the ICR Rate report and answer the questions it raises with Walt Brown’s new work on the origin of radioactivity.

For those who love the Scriptures, let us not be deceived. Peter warns us of the mockers who will come denying the judgment of water as also they deny the pending judgment by fire…

Beloved, I now write to you this second epistle (in both of which I stir up your pure minds by way of reminder), that you may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us, the apostles of the Lord and Savior, knowing this first: that scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts, and saying, “Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation.” For this they willfully forget: that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of water and in the water, by which the world that then existed perished, being flooded with water. But the heavens and the earth which are now preserved by the same word, are reserved for fire until the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. [2 Peter 3]