They’ve been trying to shut us up for 2,000 years!

So they called for them and ordered them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus.

(Acts 4:18 CSB17)

Ever since our Lord Jesus Christ gave us His Great Commission, the devil has been working through evil people, false religions, and perverted governments to try to keep us from talking about Jesus.

We see this throughout the books of Acts and the rest of the New Testament, and we see it in our world today. In the book of Acts, after a lame man is miraculously healed in the name of Jesus, the religious leaders order the apostles not to speak about Jesus (Acts 4:18).  The Apostles respond by calling a prayer meeting and praying for boldness to keep speaking. As the gospel spreads, the religious leaders have the apostles arrested. This time, the apostles are flogged and again “they ordered them not to speak in the name of Jesus” (Acts 5:40). But the Apostles don’t shut up. Instead, “they continued teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Messiah” (Acts 5:42). This pattern continues throughout the book of Acts. Some of the Christians, like Stephen and James, are even killed. Others are imprisoned, beaten, and sometimes are forced to flee from town to town. But they never stop speaking the truth about Jesus and all that Jesus commanded.

Paul wrote about this widespread, persistent effort to keep Christians from speaking to others about Jesus:

They displease God and are hostile to everyone in their effort to keep us from speaking to the Gentiles so that they may be saved. In this way they always heap up their sins to the limit. (1 Thess. 2:15b-16a NIV)

 In 1 Thessalonians 2:16 quoted above, the Greek word translated as “Gentiles” is ethnos. This is the same word which in the Great Commission is translated “nations” (see Matthew 28:19 and Luke 24:27). Realizing this helps make it even more clear that the devil is working through evil people specifically to try to stop the completion of the Great Commission. Thankfully, the enemies of the gospel failed to silence either Paul or the new believers in Thessalonica.

Based on the warnings given by Christ, the examples we see in Acts, the teaching throughout the New Testament epistles, and the visions given to John recorded in the book of Revelation, we know that this opposition to Christians speaking God’s truth will continue until Christ returns.

It’s happening in our world today

Enemies of the gospel (even if they don’t think of themselves that way) continue to try to pressure Christians to shut up. In the US and similar nations, this opposition may take the form of being slandered, shouted down, excluded from groups, ridiculed, and occasionally even fired from a job. In many nations around the world, in addition to the above forms of pressure, speaking God’s truth may result in physical attacks, imprisonment, and even death.

To be sure, there are certain parts of God’s truth which are tolerated in certain settings. But there are other parts of God’s truths which are strongly opposed. Consider these examples:

1.  It’s not acceptable for teachers to share the truth of the Bible or pray with students in public schools.

2.  Any mention of God’s standards for sexual purity, especially with regards to homosexual sins, is strongly opposed by western culture.

3.  Sharing that salvation is found in Christ may be somewhat unpopular, but sharing that salvation is only found in Christ is ridiculed and attacked (watch a sermon I preached on this topic here).

4.  Any efforts by scientists to suggest that evidence for a great Intelligent Designer can be seen in nature can result in ridicule and even loss of opportunities and jobs in the scientific community.

5.  In Muslim nations, teaching that Jesus is Lord and Savior can result in threats, physical violence, and death. Any criticism of Muhammad is likely to be met with intense and violent attacks.

6.  Even among Christians (or at least among those claiming that name) parts of God’s truth have sometimes been taboo. Have you even been attacked by other Christians for speaking God’s truth? I have. And so have many courageous believers throughout history.

The Biblical Solution

What we need in this situation is Holy Spirit empowered parresia.

Parresia is a Greek word. It is a noun which basically means “boldness” or “courage”. The closely related verb, parresiazomai, often means “to speak openly and clearly without being cowered by threats and opposition.” Here are a few examples from the New Testament (I’ve put in bold red the words or phrases which translate parresia or parresiazomai, sometimes alone, and sometimes in phrases with additional Greek words):

NIV Acts 4:13  When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus.

NIV Acts 4:29  Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness.

NIV Acts 4:31  After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.

NIV Acts 9:27  But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles. He told them how Saul on his journey had seen the Lord and that the Lord had spoken to him, and how in Damascus he had preached fearlessly in the name of Jesus.

NIV Acts 9:28  So Saul stayed with them and moved about freely in Jerusalem, speaking boldly in the name of the Lord.

NIV Acts 13:46  Then Paul and Barnabas answered them boldly: "We had to speak the word of God to you first. Since you reject it and do not consider yourselves worthy of eternal life, we now turn to the Gentiles.

NIV Acts 14:3  So Paul and Barnabas spent considerable time there, speaking boldly for the Lord, who confirmed the message of his grace by enabling them to perform signs and wonders.

NIV Acts 18:26  He began to speak boldly in the synagogue. When Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they invited him to their home and explained to him the way of God more adequately.

NIV Acts 19:8  Paul entered the synagogue and spoke boldly there for three months, arguing persuasively about the kingdom of God.

NIV Acts 28:31  He proclaimed the kingdom of God and taught about the Lord Jesus Christ-- with all boldness and without hindrance!

NIV Eph. 6:19  Pray also for me, that whenever I speak, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel,

NIV Eph. 6:20  for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should.

NIV Phil. 1:20  I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death.

NIV 1 Thess. 2:2  We had previously suffered and been treated outrageously in Philippi, as you know, but with the help of our God we dared to tell you his gospel in the face of strong opposition.

How do we get this courage to speak in a world which is hostile to God’s truth? It comes from the Holy Spirit. We can connect with it more deeply and fully through the following means:

1.  Asking for courage in prayer for ourselves and for others (notice that Paul asked other Christians to pray that he would have this boldness in Ephesians 6:19-20).

2.  Reading and thinking about biblical examples of this type of boldness. The whole book of Acts is full of such examples. So is the book of Daniel!

3.  Reading about examples of courageous Christians throughout history.

4.  Encouraging one another in Christ.

You don’t have to be a naturally “bold” person to have the type of biblical boldness we need. In fact, natural boldness, which can be just plain obnoxious or rash at times, really doesn’t help much at all. Holy Spirit boldness comes together with Holy Spirit guidance and wisdom. It comes with gentleness, patience, and faith. Sometimes the Holy Spirit will lead us to be quiet in a certain situation. Following Holy Spirit given wisdom is a far cry from being cowered by the world’s threats.

Closing Prayer: Lord, there are still people and forces trying to intimidate us into silence. The enemy is still working to keep us from speaking Your truth. Your church needs courage today. Please give it to us.

Hebrews 13:16 And do not forget to do good and to share with others . . .

Octopi from Outer Space!

A serious, foolish, helpful scientific article arguing that octopi may have come here as aliens from outer space recently appeared in the scientific journal, Progress in Biophysics and Molecular Biology. This is not a joke. The article is a joint effort by over thirty authors from scientific organizations around the world. What does the article actually say? Why would they believe something like this? How does it help Christians who believe that God created the octopus? Keep reading to find out!

Panspermia: A New Article about an Old Theory

The article proposes that the origin of octopi might not be normal neo darwinian evolution. Instead it suggests that the tiny eggs of octopi (or octopus-like creatures which then experienced relatively small amounts of evolution) were frozen in ice particles on a comet which splashed into an ocean on the primitive earth. After explaining the extreme difficulty of evolution accounting for octopi, the authors write:

One plausible explanation, in our view, is that the new genes are likely new extraterrestrial imports to Earth - most plausibly as an already coherent group of functioning genes within (say) cryopreserved and matrix protected fertilized Octopus eggs.

Thus the possibility that cryopreserved Squid and/or Octopus eggs, arrived in icy bolides several hundred million years ago should not be discounted . . .

The article is not just about octopi, although they use them as an example. The article proposes that both the bacterial cells and “pretty much all major life forms” may have arrived here from space. They are not arguing that in all cases eggs or baby creatures arrived on comets, but rather that somehow the information needed to produce new organisms arrived on comets. One possibility they mention is that viruses carried on the comets carried the genetic information which produced evolution. They explain that retroviruses may have carried genetic information needed to produce new types of animals, eventually including you and me. According to the authors, retroviruses from space “now appear to be important viral-drivers of major evolutionary genetic change on Earth over the past few hundred million years.”

In other words, we’re all literally descended from aliens!

The theory that life on earth came from cells or genetic material from outer space is called panspermia. It’s actually not a new theory.  In fact, various panspermia theories trace back well into the 19^th century (see the Wikipedia article on Panspermia for details). Perhaps the most famous proponent of panspermia was Francis Crick, who together with James Watson discovered the structure of the DNA molecule. In Crick’s case, he proposed directed panspermia could account for life on earth. The word “directed” means that rather than believing the needed material arrived by chance on comets or space dust, he believes it may have been intentionally sent to earth by intelligent aliens.

The Problems with Evolutionary Theory that Prompt Belief in Panspermia

Why would serious scientists suggest such nonsense? Well, they’re desperate. Many scientists are committed to a completely materialistic explanation of everything in our world, including all the fish and birds and you and me. “Completely materialistic” basically means they believe God had nothing to do with it. How do they explain butterflies and dolphins without God? Well, the main story has been that molecules somehow joined up to make living cells which then evolved into more and more complex life all the way up to giraffes and people. But even the materialistic scientists are seeing more and more reasons why it is simply impossible that this could have happened on earth.

With regard to the first step of chemicals turning into living cells (called abiogenesis), the authors explain that this idea . . .

. . . was developed at a time when the earliest living cells were considered to be exceedingly simple structures that could subsequently evolve in a Darwinian way. These ideas should of course have been critically examined and rejected after the discovery of the exceedingly complex molecular structures involved in proteins and in DNA. But this did not happen.

Skepticism that life could have arisen on earth unaided is not new. In 1981, Francis Crick wrote:

An honest man, armed with all the knowledge available to us now, could only state that in some sense, the origin of life appears at the moment to be almost a miracle, so many are the conditions which would have had to have been satisfied to get it going.

Thirty-seven years later, the authors of the article in Progress in Biophysics and Molecular Biology appear to agree with Crick’s assessment. They wrote:

The transformation of an ensemble of appropriately chosen biological monomers (e.g. amino acids, nucleotides) into a primitive living cell capable of further evolution appears to require overcoming an information hurdle of superastronomical proportions (Appendix A), an event that could not have happened within the time frame of the Earth except, we believe, as a miracle.

It’s not just the initial appearance of life which the scientists who wrote the article find problematic. They also feel that evolution as normally explained just isn’t capable of producing the vast variety of life we see both in the fossil record and living today. And one example which they focused in on happened to be the octopus.

Since they believe evolution could not have produced life on earth, they have seriously proposed that life came to earth from outer space. But could panspermia really work?

Problems with Panspermia

It turns out there are many reasons to doubt that panspermia could work. Here are just ten of the enormous difficulties this strange theory faces. I’m saving the biggest and most obvious problem for last.

1.  Ejection is brutal. The poor little octopus eggs (or bacteria) would have to survive being blasted off their home planet in some type of huge explosion.

2.  No air in space.  They then have to survive in the vacuum of outer space.

3.  No liquid water. While the rock they began on could in theory include some water, there would be no liquid water available during the whole journey to earth.

4.  Super cold. Space is really, really cold.

5.  Radiation is a killer.  The earth’s magnetic field and, to some extent, our atmosphere shield us from the harmful effects of radiation. Radiation would likely do a lot of damage to any DNA flying through space for long periods of time.

6.  The journey is really long. There are no planets in our solar system where life is more likely to have arisen than on our own earth. Travelling from a distant star would take a really, really long time. It’s true that some objects in the galaxy travel at near light speed. However, the processes that accelerate them to such speeds (such as ejection from a solar system being swallowed by a black hole or possibly being blasted to incredible speeds by a supernova) are not exactly friendly to life. The alternative is a trip that could easily take many millions of years. That’s a long time for the little octopi eggs to survive!

7.  Reentry is tough. A couple of years ago my wife and daughter talked me into driving out into a farm field around 2 am to watch a meteor shower. I admit, it was worth it. We saw quite a few meteors. Do you know how many of those impacted the earth? None. They were all vaporized by the extreme heat produced by super-fast moving meteors impacting the atmosphere. Even if a meteor makes it to earth, it is heated to extreme temperatures on the way down. Poor baby octopi!

8.  It has to land in the right place at the right time. What if the octopi eggs survived ejection from their home planet, persevered through the long, frigid, irradiated journey through deep space, and were buried deep enough in the rock to not be burned up on reentry, only to end up landing in a field in Kansas? Or, what if they arrived at the wrong time in earth’s history? According to evolutionary theory, the types of creatures that octopi eat have only been around the last 500 million years or so. If the poor baby octopi arrived anytime during the first 3.5 billion years they would have been very hungry!

9.  No alien life has been found. It should be pointed out that panspermia is a theory based on wild speculation. No actual octopi eggs (or even bacterial cells) have been found in outer space!

10.  The first nine problems are easy compared to the final one we will list. You probably already thought of it. If evolution can’t work on earth, then why should we think it should work elsewhere? How did the alien octopi (and other life forms) arise somewhere else? The scientists who promote panspermia honestly have no clue how to answer this question. They just basically say that maybe something we haven’t thought of was different and somehow it happened.

Why not just believe in God?

The scientists are absolutely correct to reject the possibility of abiogenesis and evolution producing life on earth (see some arguments for why this is true here). But why do they choose to believe in aliens as the explanation for life on earth? Why not believe in God?

I don’t know the hearts and motives of the scientists that wrote the particular article I’ve been discussing. But I do know a little about human nature, both because I am one, and because God’s Word teaches us about ourselves. Most of the human race are living in rebellion against their maker.

John 3:19 This is the judgment: The light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil.

 20 For everyone who does evil hates the light and avoids it, so that his deeds may not be exposed.

Aliens don’t tell us what we should think, how we should treat our enemies, what our priorities should be, or who we can sleep with. God does. So if you’re a human being wanting to live outside God’s will, it’s a lot more convenient to believe in octopi from outer space than it is to believe in a God who not only created us, but who has a revealed will for how we should live.

Of course, those of us who have come to know God through our Lord Jesus Christ feel very differently. We want to know and obey God’s will. We believe His will is best for us and we have learned that we can trust Him more than we trust ourselves. We know both that He is wise, and also that He loves us.

We often struggle to obey him, but at least we want to obey Him.

And so we rejoice to see evidence of our great Creator whenever we look at a flower, deer, or even an octopus!

To learn more . . .

I did not find the article about panspermia directly myself. I don’t generally read Progress in Biophysics and Molecular Biology. I wouldn’t understand most of it if I did. But scientific evidence for the existence of God is an intellectual hobby of mine and so I do often look at articles on the excellent Evolution News website. It was there that I found two articles about alien octopi which reference the article I discussed above. You may find those articles here and here.

How countless are your works, Lord!

In wisdom you have made them all; the earth is full of your creatures.

Here is the sea, vast and wide,

 teeming with creatures beyond number-- living things both large and small.

(Ps. 104:24-25 CSB17)

  Hebrews 13:16 And do not forget to do good and to share with others . . .