Wallace G. Smith

[The text below represents an edited transcript of this Tomorrow’s World program.]

Shining the Light on Four Flaws in Evolutionary Theory

It’s been called one of the most powerful and influential scientific theories in history: the theory of evolution by natural selection, first published well more than a century ago by Charles Darwin.

And its powerful influence on life—in virtually every realm of understanding—would indeed be hard to overestimate.

But is it true?

Many would respond—Of course! Evolution has been proven true a thousand times over! All the evidence we have says evolution is a fact of nature!

But is the evidence really that solid? Is the theory of evolution really indisputable?

No, it is not. And today, we’ll pull back the curtain on some of the evidence that many evolutionists would prefer you not see.

Join us for this episode of Tomorrow’s World where we will expose some of Evolution’s Dirty Little Secrets.

A Theory Supported by Shaky Evidence

Welcome to Tomorrow’s World, where we help you understand your world through the pages of the Bible. And our topic today might seem far removed from those pages: the theory of evolution. It is, perhaps, one of the single most influential scientific theories in history—with immeasurable impact on science, philosophy, education, politics, and religion. And we are assured by many that it is undoubtedly true—that no one of any intelligence or education would even dare to question it.

Well, today we will dare to question it. Because while evolution puts up a good front, it has a long list of dirty little secrets that you don’t tend to hear about in your classrooms or television programming. And the more you learn about what evolution has to hide, the more you wonder why so many put faith in an idea that remains unproven. It’s a big topic, and we’ll only scratch the surface today.

Now, before we begin, let’s understand what we mean by “evolution.”

Claiming that life began in a vastly simpler form—similar, perhaps, to a microscopic bacterium—the theory of evolution says that over billions of years, life changed slowly; that the struggle for survival rewarded slight, random variations in the descendants of that life form that gave them an edge, perhaps allowing them to find food faster or reproduce more successfully, and, similarly, punished those descendants whose random adaptations were less favorable for survival.

In this way and through this unintelligent, unguided process, evolution says those microscopic bacteria-like organisms a few billion years ago have been able to turn into the astonishing variety of lifeforms we see today, including us—no divine Designer or Creator necessary.

Not long ago, Sotheby’s, the famous auction house, offered a first edition of Charles Darwin’s book On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or The Preservation of Favored Races in the Struggle for Life, published in 1859—the book in which he first published the theory of evolution. Now, at least when I saw it, Sotheby’s recommended estimate for the book was 250 to 300 thousand dollars.

You might think, why so high? It’s just a book! Well, there are numerous factors, but the book’s role in human history is perhaps the greatest. Sotheby’s calls the book “one of the greatest achievements of scientific discovery.” Referring to Darwin’s book, science historian Bern Dibner once wrote, “This, the most important single work in science, brought man to his true place in nature” (Heralds of Science, 1955, p. 92).

High-sounding praise to be sure.

But is it accurate? That depends, of course, on whether the theory is true. If all life as we know it today is the result of nothing but mindless processes, then, yes, Darwin’s book is a towering achievement in human history—a monumental discovery that does, truly, put man in his place as nothing special, nothing remarkable, just a random lifeform on a random planet. And life, it turns out, has no real meaning at all.

Again—if that theory is true.

Of course, many claim it is true—and claim so very loudly! Evolutionary apologist Jerry Coyne writes in his popular book Why Evolution Is True, “Evolution is a fact. And far from casting doubt on Darwinism, the evidence gathered by scientists over the past century and a half supports it completely, showing that evolution happened, and that it happened largely as Darwin proposed, through the workings of natural selection” (2009, pp. xiii–xiv).

Of course, many WANT it to be true. Evolution has become an “escape hatch” for those who want to explain away the beautiful diversity and complexity of life without a Creator.

As famous biologist Richard Dawkins once said, “Darwin made it possible to be an intellectually fulfilled atheist” (The Blind Watchmaker, 2015, p. 10).

Is he right? Again, only if evolution has been proven true.

And, in fact, it has not.

Despite claims that all the evidence supports it completely, the truth is that evolution has a whole host of dirty little secrets that our classrooms and popular science programs don’t talk about too loudly.

Cells and DNA—Impossible to Evolve

The first dirty little secret of evolution is this: Even the simplest living cell is devastating to the theory of evolution.

In Darwin’s day, little was known about cells. Single-celled organisms like amoebas were described by Charles Darwin’s contemporary George Henry Lewes as simply a “a microscopic lump of jelly-like substance, or protoplasm…. entirely destitute of texture, and consequently destitute of organs” (Problems of Life, 1887, p. 38).

In other cells, such as those in our body, a nucleus could be seen, but its purpose was a mystery, and the cell seemed otherwise generally featureless.

In such days, when the smallest, simplest unit of life seemed THAT simple—just a bit of jelly with a few boring features—it was easy to imagine that somehow, within that mysterious “life-giving” jelly, anything could happen.

But as microscopes improved and techniques were developed to tease out the secrets of the inner world of the cell, we have discovered that this supposedly simple, “jelly-like substance” is filled with machinery of astonishing complexity, ingenuity, and design.

The world of the human cell, for instance, is one in which approximately one billion chemical reactions take place every single second. And these are not random chemical reactions! A human cell is filled with thousands upon thousands of proteins of 10,000 different varieties—molecular machines designed to work together to achieve specific purposes, manipulating their surroundings, creating new structures, and dismantling old ones, in a dynamic dance of complexity that would make the Space Shuttle seem simple.

Life is impossible without these complex machines, and even small changes to organisms, as hypothesized by evolution, requires changes to these machines—even the design of NEW machines. And that is as unlikely as it sounds.

Biochemist Douglas Axe has examined the probability of even one protein—of any significant functionality at all—forming by chance, and estimated it to be 1 in 10-to-the-64. That is, 1 out of a number that is a “1” followed by 64 zeros.

Along with colleague Ann Gauger, Axe explored the possibility that one protein could evolve from another, similar one, based on just a handful of necessary changes to DNA, and found that—at currently understood rates of mutation—it would take 10-to-the-27 years for such a change to take place… again, a “1” followed by 27 zeros. Impressive, given that scientists think our universe is only 13 billion years old—or about a “1” followed by ten zeros. In other words, it’s just not going to happen apart from intelligent intervention.

Again, even the simplest living cell is devastating to the theory of evolution.

We mentioned DNA a moment ago—and the nature of DNA is another of evolution’s dirty little secrets. Because DNA represents an abstract coding system that points to intelligence.

Deoxyribonucleic Acid, or DNA for short, was unknown in Darwin’s day and is the molecule responsible for carrying the information needed to build all of the proteins that make life possible. Each nucleus in each individual, normal cell in your body contains about two meters of DNA, packed into a microscopic dot—all of it containing the information needed to build YOU.

DNA uses base pairs combining four different compounds that act like the 1’s and 0’s in computer code, detailing to the cellular machinery the information needed to build all of the complex proteins life requires. Information from the DNA is carried from place to place, where proteins read the code and assemble new proteins from precisely sequenced amino acids based on that information—making every one of your cells a complex chemical factory, creating purposefully arranged nanoscopic machinery and some of the most complicated chemical compounds found anywhere in the universe.

But where did this abstract programming code originate? Evolution can’t take credit. It’s a mindless, purposeless process, remember?

In fact, where did DNA come from? You can’t build proteins without DNA—and yet, DNA is, itself assembled by proteins!

The discovery of DNA should have been a great success for evolution! The secret to how the characteristics of life are passed on to our descendants was finally unveiled! But it has been a disaster. The idea of a massive, information-rich molecule containing an abstract programming code capable of bearing the information needed to build all the complex machinery of life is incompatible with the idea that life has supposedly grown in complexity through mindless, natural processes.

Evolutionists cannot avoid the fact that DNA represents an abstract coding system that points to intelligence.

No Good Explanation for Missing Fossils or Gradually Developing Organs

Our next dirty secret of evolution is an opportunity to turn the tables a bit. In short, the gaps in the fossil record since Darwin’s day have gotten worse, not better.

The theory of evolution depends on the slow and steady accumulation of small variations—since large “jumps” in changes would imply an active designer or planner. The result should be a smooth transition in the fossil record, with animals gradually, almost imperceptibly “turning into” new animals through small, smooth changes.

But this isn’t what the fossil record shows. Instead of a smooth, continuous transition of creatures, the record indicates gaps between different kinds of creatures.

As Michael Denton wrote in his seminal work, Evolution: A Theory in Crisis,

“The overall picture of life on Earth today is so discontinuous, the gaps between the different types so obvious, that, as Steven Stanley reminds us in his recent book if our knowledge of biology was restricted to those species presently existing on earth, ‘we might wonder whether the doctrine of evolution would qualify as anything more than an outrageous hypothesis.’ Without intermediates or transitional forms to bridge the enormous gaps which separate existing species and groups of organisms, the concept of evolution could never be taken seriously as a scientific hypothesis” (1985, pp. 157–158).

Of course, seemingly “continuous” lines of some animals are trotted out for display to pretend the gaps are not nearly as damaging as they are. For instance, you will see theoretical sequences for whale, horse, and human evolution.

Yet, not only are these sequences themselves deceptive and not proven lines of descent at all. The fact remains that if evolution is true, these sorts of sequences should be the norm, not the rare exception.

Ironically, evolutionists often accuse believers of having faith in a “God of the Gaps” who magically does all the things they cannot explain. Such a misunderstanding aside, the unexplainable gaps in the fossil record—a thorn in Darwin’s side that remains just as thorny more than 150 years later—turn the tables and put evolutionists in the place of wielding blind faith and believing in a “Darwin of the Gaps.”

For our next dirty secret, all you need to do is look in the mirror at your remarkable, evolution-defying eyes. Because evolution continues to offer no good explanation for how new organs can form.

In the Psalms King David praises God and proclaims to His creator, “I am fearfully and wonderfully made” (Psalm 139:14). And we see part of that wonder in the organs of the bodies, such as the eye.

After all, organs represent not just specialized “tissues,” but interwoven systems, often systems upon systems, finely tuned and exquisitely structured to work together. If one part is missing, the whole can fail. And improving the entire organ would often involve each piece or part evolving in conjunction with all the other pieces in a coordinated way—a coordination that evolution does not allow.

The problem was summarized not long ago in an article in The Guardian. First, the paper gives the traditional explanation for the supposed evolution of the eye—given by thousands of teachers over the decades to tens of thousands of students. Animals that have light-sensitive cells for some reason experience a series of slight mutations that increasingly give them survival advantages, such as a slight cupping of the flesh around the cells that helps to focus the light, a clear covering of some sort eventually, to seal the space, which slowly becomes a lens. Then, muscles arrive to shape and focus the lens better, etc.

The Guardian continues:

“This is the basic story of evolution, as recounted in countless textbooks and pop-science bestsellers. The problem, according to a growing number of scientists, is that it is absurdly crude and misleading.

For one thing, it starts midway through the story, taking for granted the existence of light-sensitive cells, lenses and irises, without explaining where they came from in the first place. Nor does it adequately explain how such delicate and easily disrupted components meshed together to form a single organ. And it isn’t just eyes that the traditional theory struggles with. ‘The first eye, the first wing, the first placenta. How they emerge. Explaining these is the foundational motivation of evolutionary biology,’ says Armin Moczek, a biologist at Indiana University” (“Do we need a new theory of evolution?,” June 28, 2020).

In short, evolution promises us it can explain how the organs of our bodies supposedly formed gradually over millennia, but, in reality, it hasn’t a clue.

Our fourth dirty little secret, the fact that evolution continues to offer no good explanation for how new organs can form is devastating to a theory that was developed more than 150 years ago to explain that very fact.

The True Origin of Life, the Universe, and You

You know, let me confess something. I know it’s considered a cinema classic, but I’ve never been a big fan of the Wizard of Oz. Frankly, when I first saw it, I was a little kid, and the flying monkeys were pretty spooky!

But as I have grown older, one scene has remained with me and has become a real favorite. It’s close to the end of the movie, as Dorothy and her band are confronting the terrifying Wizard for the fact that he is failing to keep his promises. As they do so, flames shoot out, thunder crashes, and the Wizard speaks to them as a giant, green, monstrous head hovering in the air in front of them, shouting, “Do not arouse the wrath of the great and powerful Oz!”

Meanwhile, Dorothy’s dog Toto makes his way to a green curtain off to the left and pulls it aside to reveal a small, white-haired old man, using a machine to create the illusion they are all looking at and speaking into a microphone to amplify his voice and make it sound terrifying.

My favorite part in that scene is when the old man turns around, notices they can see him, and turns back to the microphone to demand, “Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain!”

Well, the forces arrayed to convince people not to question the theory of evolution are very similar. There is a lot of thunder and flame—impressive proclamations about “proof” and “evidence” and a lot of theater designed to make you think there is nothing to doubt.

But like the Wizard, evolution has not kept its promises. The theory promises an explanation of your origins—an explanation that needs no God, no intelligence at all, just an initial microbe; careless natural processes; and a few billion years.

We need to be willing to pull back the curtain—to not be so impressed by the theater that we don’t question what we’re shown, and to not be so intimidated that we aren’t willing to stand up and call evolution out for not keeping its promises.

Or to borrow from another fiction, it might have been a hard day when you first learned Santa Claus wasn’t real. But that realization brought you that much deeper into the real world and much further from a world of make-believe.

Recognizing the dirty little secrets of evolution can help you step away from the world of make-believe as well.

Yet, the questions evolutionists seek to answer remain: Where do we come from? How did life come to be? Is there any purpose to it all? And if so, what might that purpose be?

Unclouded by the evolutionary theater, you can seek the real answer to those questions. And if you really seek with an open mind and an open heart, with God’s help you will find your way to the only possible starting place in the search for those answers: The very first sentence of the Bible,

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1).

I hope you will find the courage to look behind the curtain more often.

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[The text below represents an edited transcript of this Tomorrow’s World program.]

Answering Common Claims of Atheists

Belief in God was once taken for granted by many, but now, not so much. In fact, a breed of “militant atheist” has arisen, inspired by the likes of evolutionist Richard Dawkins and the late Christopher Hitchens.

Such atheists claim to hold the high ground in terms of intellect and reasoning, saying that only the ignorant or the foolish would continue to believe in God in the modern era.

Today, we’ll look at THREE COMMON OBJECTIONS that atheists make concerning the existence of God, and we’ll put them to the test. So join us for today’s episode of Tomorrow’s World, “When Atheists Attack!”

God Had NO Beginning—And Needed No Creator

Greetings, and welcome to Tomorrow’s World, where we help you make sense of your world through the pages of the Bible. Today, we’re going to address three common objections atheists give concerning belief in God. We’re also going to give you an opportunity to request our free resource The Real God: Proofs and Promises. Be sure to note the contact information you might need to get your free copy when it appears on your screen.

An atheist is someone who believes there is no God—as distinct from theists, who believe there is a God, and agnostics, who are uncertain one way or the other.

Of course, God’s opinion about atheists is made plain in the Bible, as in Psalm 14:1, where He inspired King David to write,

“The fool has said in his heart, ‘There is no God.’”

God liked that statement so much, He had it essentially repeated in Psalm 53.

Still, God’s take on their lack of wisdom has not deterred some. In the early 2000s, the so-called “New Atheism” hit—championed by biologist Richard Dawkins, author Christopher Hitchens, neuroscientist Sam Harris, and philosopher Daniel Dennett—or as some have called them, the “Four Horsemen” of New Atheism.

But in reality, the only thing “new” about the “New Atheism” was the attitude: more militant, more aggressive—but otherwise presenting the same old questions as the old atheism.

And we should highlight here at the start: Questions are good! We SHOULD ask questions! But when we do, we need to be OPEN to the answers—even if they aren’t the answers we were expecting or the answers we wanted. And we should be willing to put those answers to the test—especially in a day and age like ours, a period prophetically described in the Bible as a time when “truth is fallen in the street” (Isaiah 59:14), and convincing lies are far easier to come by.

So, what do you do when an atheist comes to YOU with questions? Well, frankly, you should evaluate the scenario first. Sometimes someone doesn’t really want answers—they are just looking to “score points,” and even if you answer their question, it goes in one ear and out the other. Yet, we should be ABLE to answer, and the Apostle Peter encouraged Christians in the first century to make sure they were ready to do so, to the best of their ability. In chapter 3 and verse 15 of his first letter, Peter writes that we should

“sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear…” (1 Peter 3:15).

And, really, being ready for that defense is not just for the sake of your inquisitor. YOU need to know, for yourself, that God exists, that He is real, and that He is involved in both world affairs and your life.

So—how do you answer when someone questions your faith in God? For the rest of today’s program, we’re going to tackle three common questions atheists ask.

Here’s the first:

“If God made everything, who made God?”

We’re starting with this one, because it is a quick one! Someone who asks this is making a classic category error. The world around us—all the matter, space, and energy—had a beginning. Both the most up-to-date science and most rational lines of inquiry agree: The universe and all the matter, space, time, and energy that is in it had to have a beginning—whether that beginning was the famous Big Bang or something else. And, having a beginning, it had to have a CAUSE of some sort.

But God HAS no beginning. He is not among the things that are “made”—and having no beginning, He requires no creator. The Bible makes the distinction in these categories plain in John 1:3. Speaking there of the pre-incarnate Jesus Christ, through whom the Father created all things, John writes,

“All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made” (John 1:3).

There are those things that are made, and then there is God, who existed before and apart from those things.

The world around us—matter, space, time, and energy—had a beginning, and, therefore, HAS to have a cause—a reason for it to come into existence. I like to quote from Julie Andrews’ character Maria in The Sound of Music on this point: “Nothing comes from nothing. Nothing ever could.”

Therefore, there must be a CAUSE for the universe that exists apart from the universe’s matter, space, time, and energy—a timeless cause that precedes all matter, space, and energy—and God fits that description. And, asking what made him is to misunderstand what and who God is.

The Gaps in Evolutionary Theory

Welcome back! In the first part of today’s program, we addressed the question, “If God made everything, who made God?” We can summarize the answer: “No one. Unlike the physical universe, God is eternal and had no beginning.” The person who asks misunderstands, or misrepresents, what the word “God” even means. In fact, you could add, “Without something fitting God’s description, there would be no universe at all.”

That last point is important, because sometimes atheists accuse believers of hiding behind a “God of the Gaps”—that is, claiming that believers only use “gaps” in scientific knowledge as evidence that God exists, but that, as those “gaps” are filled, the evidence for God supposedly evaporates. You could imagine this as saying that someone ignorant of how the water cycle works on earth might believe that a divine being just creates rain from nothing and, thus, rain becomes a “proof” that God exists.

Then, when scientists discover the water cycle, that “proof” evaporates, like a shallow puddle on the sidewalk on a hot day.

It is the “God of the Gaps” fallacy that many atheists have in mind when they ask the following question:

“Why do we need God if evolution explains everything?”

After all, evolution is the reigning scientific dogma of the day and is considered by many to be one of the crowning achievements of science and human reasoning. So, if evolution really does explain everything, why do we need God?

In answering this question, we need to recognize at least three mistakes revealed by the question. First, the theory of evolution doesn’t explain “everything.” The origin of the universe, the laws of physics and mathematics, consciousness, objective morality—the list of things for which a transcendent God remains the best explanation is LONG! When they say “everything,” they usually mean evolution explains LIFE. And I can understand why someone would be sensitive about this. The existence of life on planet earth definitely demands some sort of explanation!

But does EVOLUTION explain it? That is the questioner’s second mistake. The theory of evolution is FAR from sufficient to explain the wondrous variety of life we see on earth, let alone the origin of that life!

Finally, when we take an honest look at the complexity of life—it’s interwoven systems of dependence, the collection of complicated organs and nerve networks that must work together in a mind-bogglingly coordinated way, the abstract coding and error-checking systems of DNA—again, when we take an honest look at life’s complexity, we find that the current theory of evolution is FAR from able to explain that coordinated complexity.

In fact, the idea that evolutionary theory DOES currently explain all of these things is generally a façade, and there is currently a great deal of debate about how to address the theory’s persistent shortcomings.

The UK newspaper The Guardian recently reported on the turmoil in the evolutionary sciences:

“Strange as it sounds, scientists still do not know the answers to some of the most basic questions about how life on Earth evolved. Take eyes, for instance. Where do they come from, exactly? The usual explanation of how we got these stupendously complex organs rests upon the theory of natural selection” (“Do we need a new theory of evolution?” TheGuardian.com, June 28, 2022).

Then, after summarizing the usual evolutionary tale of the gradual development of the eye, the article continues:

“This is the basic story of evolution, as recounted in countless textbooks and pop-science bestsellers. The problem, according to a growing number of scientists, is that it is absurdly crude and misleading.”

“For one thing, it starts midway through the story, taking for granted the existence of light-sensitive cells, lenses and irises, without explaining where they came from in the first place. Nor does it adequately explain how such delicate and easily disrupted components meshed together to form a single organ. And it isn’t just eyes that the traditional theory struggles with. ‘The first eye, the first wing, the first placenta. How they emerge. Explaining these is the foundational motivation of evolutionary biology,’ says Armin Moczek, a biologist at Indiana University. ‘And yet, we still do not have a good answer. This classic idea of gradual change, one happy accident at a time, has so far fallen flat.’”

In fact, one could go so far as to say that, if random mutation and natural selection really DID create all life on earth, then evolution would have to be evidence that God DOES exist, because all of the giant, coordinated, improbable LEAPS evolution would have to take would require a DIVINE BEING to help it along!

It seems that, to prop up their own faith, evolutionists tend to depend on their own “God of the Gaps.” Or, perhaps, their “Darwin of the Gaps.”

In actuality, the complexity of life positively and forcefully argues for an INTELLIGENT SOURCE behind its creation! Only intelligence has ever been observed to be able to create such complicated, PURPOSE-ORIENTED structures as what we see within even the SIMPLEST of lifeforms!

Appealing to God’s existence and agency as an explanation for life is not hiding behind a “God of the Gaps.” Quite the contrary—the intelligent design present in all life is POSITIVE EVIDENCE for the existence of intelligence BEHIND life.

God is Not to Blame for Mankind’s Problems

In the first part of today’s program, we addressed the question, “If God made everything, who made God?” We can summarize the answer: “No one. Unlike the physical universe, God is eternal and had no beginning.” In fact, SOMETHING fitting God’s description is needed even to HAVE a universe to begin with. Then, in the last segment, we tackled the question, “Why do we need God if evolution explains everything?” And we noted that “Evolution doesn’t explain everything and, in fact, fails even to explain what it is supposed to: life.” Frankly, believing all the claims of evolutionists takes more faith than believing in a Creator.

But the third common attack you might hear from an atheist neighbor or acquaintance comes with an emotional wallop, which is often the source of its strength:

“How can God be good if there is so much evil in the world?”

Of course, history certainly records many great evils—the Holocaust inflicted on the Jews, the Soviet starvation of Ukranians in the 1930s, and chattel slavery in the pre-Civil War American South are just a few examples. And for many of our viewers, the presence of evil in the world hits home in a personal way. Many of you have been robbed, assaulted, or abused.

There is no getting around it—our world is filled with evil. But if so, the atheist asks, how can God be good? After all, why would a good God allow such things? Is He too weak to stop it? Or is He just unaware that evil things happen? If so, then He isn’t really “God.” Yet, if He is all-powerful and all-knowing, and yet He does nothing, then they claim He isn’t “good,” and therefore isn’t really “God” that way, either. They claim this dilemma simply means there is no all-seeing, all-powerful, GOOD God to begin with.

So, what do we make of this?

Well, it’s interesting how quick people are to put the blame on GOD for mankind’s evil—and, frankly, that is exactly what the devil would want us to do! It’s interesting that when Adam and Eve first sinned by disobeying God and eating from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, the first thing they both did was try to pass the buck. After God asks them about it, we read their responses in Genesis 3 [vv. 12–13]:

“Then the man said, ‘The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate.’ And the LORD God said to the woman, ‘What is this you have done?’ The woman said, ‘The serpent deceived me, and I ate’” (Genesis 3:12–13)

So, Adam blamed Eve, and Eve blamed the devil. In fact, if you look more closely, Adam blamed GOD. Note, he said, “The woman whom YOU gave to be with me”! And to this day, people continue to blame God for the evil mankind is responsible for.

Consider the evils we mentioned earlier, the Holocaust, the cruelty of the Soviets, and slavery—or, for that matter, robberies, assaults, or abuses. Those are evil actions inflicted by human beings. And the blame for them should lie with those human beings.

Still, the question remains, why does God ALLOW such human beings to commit evil? Part of that answer is founded upon the need for humans to have FREE WILL—which must include the ability to choose to do the wrong thing. God’s purpose for us requires growing in CHARACTER—specifically, learning to possess God’s OWN character—to choose the right over the wrong. And growing in CHARACTER requires the ability to make choices—free-will choices, which includes the possibility of choosing evil and causing suffering, along with the possibility of choosing the good and to endure suffering.

When you understand the purpose of God, you come to understand that the eternal good that God is producing through His plan of developing His own righteous character in human beings is of such reality-altering significance, that it will outweigh all the evil mankind has ever committed or experienced. In fact, the Apostle Paul says just that in Romans 8:18:

“For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope; because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God” (Romans 8:18–21).

Notice—the current sufferings we experience aren’t even worthy to be compared to the glory to come. In fact, notice too that Paul says that creation itself is suffering and will be delivered in that day to come. One of the curses of mankind’s sin in the Garden of Eden was that we removed God as the caretaker of creation, as if we can do it all ourselves without Him. God explains to Adam in Genesis 3:17–19 that creation will no longer be accommodating to man in any special way but will go its own course. Mankind needs to learn the full lesson that we NEED God, and that attempting to build a world without Him leads only to suffering—as we are then left vulnerable to the afflictions of nature, our own evils, and the twistings and persecutions of the devil.

If you’re a parent, you understand what God is doing, if you think about it. How many times must parents allow a child to experience a taste of the results of their own bad choices before they know the lesson will sink in? Well, in God’s case, He’s not just teaching one child, but all of humanity—and the lessons need to make an impact for eternity. The stakes of these lessons could not possibly be higher.

Yet, we have God’s promise that, at the time of restoration of all things, the glory that is revealed in the children of God will far outshine any evil that has ever been committed and any suffering that has ever been experienced such that they will not even come to mind any more, forever. We should all pray that time comes quickly.

So, to summarize an answer to this third attack, “Evil in the world is a consequence of man’s free will. Yet God is using our choices to achieve an eternal good that will far outweigh any suffering mankind has ever experienced.”

A Challenge to Prove God Exists

The fact is, we are living in an increasingly skeptical world in which God is being effectively shoved into a corner as the movers and shakers in society seek to create a civilization that pretends He does not exist. Faith in God is under continued and sustained assault.

If you will seek to know the God of the Bible and will be willing to set aside your own preconceived ideas, your own selfish desires and outlook, and embrace the way of life that Jesus Christ commands of those who follow Him, you can become convinced and convicted of the REALITY of the God who inspired that Bible.

You will increasingly begin to see in your life, day by day, the fruit of your choices, and that fruit will become one of the most powerful proofs of God’s existence you could ever hope to possess. And it can strengthen you in a way few things can and enable you to stand strong and tall whenever atheists attack.

Just as God challenges us in Malachi 3:10 to put Him to the test by obeying Him, I challenge you today to do the same. You won’t regret it.

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[The text below represents an edited transcript of this Tomorrow’s World program.]

The Coming Ride of the Four Horsemen

Of all the mysterious symbols and prophecies of the Bible, few have captured the imagination of the broader culture like the FOUR HORSEMEN OF THE APOCALYPSE. Leaping from the pages of the book of Revelation, these horsemen and their colored horses have been used as metaphors for death, destruction, and world-ending calamity for centuries.

But they aren’t meaningless symbols to be used however WE want to use them or speculate about them. Jesus Christ revealed them to His servant John in a vision depicting our VERY REAL FUTURE—a future that is galloping toward us at full speed.

You need to understand the meaning of the four horsemen before their arrival catches you and your family off guard and unprepared. Join us today as we reveal Jesus Christ’s own meaning behind the COMING FOUR HORSEMEN.

Jesus Christ Revealed Specific Signs to John

Greetings, and welcome to Tomorrow’s World, where we help you make sense of your world through the pages of the Bible. Today we’re going to talk about the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse—some of the most infamous and imagination-stirring figures to enter our culture from the pages of the Bible.

Some of you may remember how the four popular, so-called “new atheists”—Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, Christopher Hitchens, and Sam Harris—were dubbed the “Four Horsemen” by many. Similarly, Google, Amazon, Facebook, and Apple have been called the “Four Horsemen of Tech.” In the movies, you might be familiar with Clint Eastwood’s film “Pale Rider”—or even the superhero movie “X-Men: Apocalypse” and its four “mutant” horsemen.

Such uses actually OBSCURE the very important FUTURE REALITY that Jesus Christ intended the Four Horsemen to represent. It is THAT LIFE AND DEATH REALITY that we lay out for you on today’s program.

To do that, we need to lay an important foundation first.

The four horsemen come to us from chapter 6 of the prophetic book of Revelation. In this passage, the Apostle John is seeing a vision of events in heaven, including the unsealing of a scroll with seven seals. Those seven seals represent future events, and of all in heaven and earth, Revelation 5 tells us that only Jesus Christ was found to be worthy of opening those seals and revealing the contents of God’s prophetic scroll.

And this leads us to a vital element we need to uncover the identity of these horsemen: JESUS CHRIST IS THE REVELATOR. The entire purpose of the book of Revelation is not to HIDE truth, but to REVEAL IT—after all, it is called the book of “REVELATION,” not the book of CONCEALING or HIDING. In fact, it gets that name from its own words. Look at them with me in Revelation 1:1:

“The REVELATION of JESUS CHRIST, which God gave Him to SHOW HIS SERVANTS—things which must shortly take place.”

Note several things here: First, it is the Revelation of JESUS CHRIST. If we want to understand the things it says, we need to consider what HE teaches us and shows us. Also note, God gave Him this revelation to SHOW HIS SERVANTS THINGS WHICH MUST SHORTLY TAKE PLACE. Not to hide those things so that they would not be understood, but to REVEAL THEM!

Keeping in mind that Revelation represents Jesus’ own revelation about the future, let’s turn to Matthew 24. This is another place in the Bible where Jesus discusses end-time events, and there is a pattern there that will help us immensely as we tackle the identities of the four horsemen.

Here in a prophecy, given by Christ on the Mount of Olives, Jesus explains much about world conditions leading up to His second coming and the end of this age. There we see an important pattern. Let’s start in verse 4. Here, He begins to answer His disciples’ questions about His return:

“And Jesus answered and said to them: “Take heed that no one deceives you. For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many. And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of sorrows” (Matthew 24:4–8).

While He mentions several things in this prophecy, take note of four PARTICULAR items in Jesus’ words here that occur in this order:

1. False Religion
2. Warfare
3. Famine
and
4. Pestilence

It’s important to note that Jesus says in v. 6, “the end is not yet.” Because, to a great extent, the things He mentions here have been happening since time immemorial.

Yet, the pattern of items Jesus establishes here will prove vital to confirming the final, FUTURE events of world history, as they are repeated in a larger scale in the future four horsemen He reveals to the Apostle John—and to us.

False Religion and a Global War of Conquest

Now, as we turn to Revelation 6 and the vision of the four horsemen, we’ll find that they fit the same pattern Jesus mentioned in Matthew 24, with the difference that the four horsemen of the apocalypse represent cataclysmic, end-time extremes of these four conditions that will build, one upon the other. How cataclysmic? Revelation 6:8 says that “… power was given to them over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword, with hunger, with death, and by the beasts of the earth.”

Now as we record this program in 2022, world population is projected to soon hit eight billion people, so a fourth of the earth at this time would be around TWO BILLION PEOPLE—truly a vast number!

So, what does each horseman represent? Let’s begin with the first horseman, who is revealed as the first prophetic seal is opened. We read of that in Revelation 6, beginning in verse 1:

“Now I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals; and I heard one of the four living creatures saying with a voice like thunder, ‘Come and see.’ And I looked, and behold, a white horse. He who sat on it had a bow; and a crown was given to him, and he went out conquering and to conquer” (vv. 1–2).

Here is a vision of a white horse, whose rider is wearing a crown, holding a bow, and conquering.

This rider corresponds to the first element in our list of items Jesus mentioned in Matthew 24: a (Global) False Religion.

Of course, corrupt, false religion has been with mankind virtually from the beginning, after the devil deceived Adam and Eve to take the forbidden fruit. When the Apostle John warned first-century Christians of a coming final Antichrist, in 1 John 2:18, he also noted that many antichrists were ALREADY in the world, in HIS OWN TIME. Satan has been counterfeiting Christianity since the very beginning.

Yet in the days still ahead, this final incarnation of the devil’s “counterfeit” Christianity will turn far more aggressive and militant, described in Revelation 6 as going out to “conquer.” Not simply willing to “win hearts and minds,” it will seek to forcibly convert the whole world.

Some confuse this first horseman on a white horse with Jesus Christ, claiming it represents the TRUE religion conquering the world. Are they right?

Consider the description of Jesus in Revelation 19, beginning in verse 11:

“Now I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse. And He who sat on him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and makes war. His eyes were like a flame of fire, and on His head were many crowns. He had a name written that no one knew except Himself. He was clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God. And the armies in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, followed Him on white horses. Now out of His mouth goes a sharp sword, that with it He should strike the nations. And He Himself will rule them with a rod of iron. He Himself treads the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. And He has on His robe and on His thigh a name written: KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS” (vv. 11–16).

That THIS rider in Revelation 19 is Jesus Christ should be obvious! And a white horse, crowns, a weapon, conquering. Surely this rider is the same as the first horseman, right?

Wrong! The devil is a creature of subtlety, and it is in the subtleties that we see the difference. When you read closely, you notice that they both ride a white horse, but Christ brings a sword, the word of God, while the first horseman uses a bow. Also, the first horseman is described as wearing a crown, but Christ is described as wearing MANY crowns—not just a King, but the KING of KINGS.

The first horseman represents a militant, dangerous counterfeit Christianity aggressively spreading across the earth and conquering new adherents in a way the world has never seen before—led by the one the Apostle John called “the Antichrist,” who is the culmination of the many antichrists who have preceded him.

His religion is already present in the earth, but in the final years leading up to Christ’s return, it will wield unheard of influence and power.

So then, who is the NEXT horseman—the second horseman? He’s described next, in Revelation 6, beginning in verse 3:

“When He opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature saying, ‘Come and see.’ Another horse, fiery red, went out. And it was granted to the one who sat on it to take peace from the earth, and that people should kill one another; and there was given to him a great sword” (vv. 3–4).

Again, this matches the pattern Christ mentioned in Matthew 24, and this horseman refers to warfare. But this end-time horseman’s ride indicates an extreme level of warfare unlike anything humanity has known before. Note that the horseman is given a “great sword,” and he is granted to remove peace from the entire earth.

This corresponds well with the description of the great Beast of Revelation, found in Revelation 13. In verse 4, we read of the people of the world worshipping him and, by design, the devil who empowers him:

“So they worshiped the dragon who gave authority to the beast; and they worshiped the beast, saying, ‘Who is like the beast? Who is able to make war with him?’”

The scale of warfare that is coming in the end times, represented by this dangerous second horseman, is almost unimaginable. Even for a world that has seen two world wars climaxing in two mushroom clouds, past conflicts will pale in comparison to the global warfare to come.

It is not without cause that Jesus says in Matthew 24:22 of the days ahead that “… unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect’s sake those days will be shortened.”

Through chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons, the potential for mankind to end all life on the planet has steadily grown. The coming of the second horseman heralds the time when that potential becomes a chilling reality.

Surging Scarcity and Pestilence Follows Destructive Conflicts

The first and second horsemen of the apocalypse will unleash terrifying forces on planet earth, but the tale of their soon-coming ride does not end there. After the second horseman, the third and fourth horsemen follow shortly after. Let’s continue reading in Revelation 6:

“When He opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, ‘Come and see.’ So I looked, and behold, a black horse, and he who sat on it had a pair of scales in his hand. And I heard a voice in the midst of the four living creatures saying, ‘A quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius; and do not harm the oil and the wine’” (vv. 5–6).

Again fitting the sequence Jesus revealed in Matthew 24, the next horseman depicts great famine—an utter lack of the necessities of life.

As recently experienced in Madagascar and Ethiopia, mankind has faced famine on and off for millennia. But this third horseman represents a level of famine and scarcity on a scale that humanity has never before experienced—and by peoples and nations who have never known it.

Revelation 6 says that the third horseman, holding a pair of scales in his hand, announces that a quart of wheat costs a denarius, which in the first century was a FULL DAY’S WAGES—an ENTIRE DAY’S WORK spent for the purchase of a bit of grain. What we have pictured here is the scourge of famine sweeping the whole world, when even the most basic of foodstuffs—grain and barley—are rare and precious.

Some in the affluent West have recently experienced a small, small taste of what it is like for the shelves to be briefly empty and the staples of life to be too expensive or hard to find.

What will the same nations do as the third horseman arrives, bringing permanently empty shelves, empty fields, and empty stomachs?

Of course, famines and lack often follow warfare, and the circumstances brought by the fourth horseman often follow famine. We read of him in verses 7–8:

“When He opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature saying, ‘Come and see.’ So I looked, and behold, a pale horse. And the name of him who sat on it was Death, and Hades followed with him….”

Once again, we find the pattern matches the sequence Jesus Christ, the revelator, GAVE us in Matthew 24, There, the Lord listed “pestilence” after “famine,” and the sickly, pale color of this horse suits Jesus’ words precisely as does the rider’s name, “Death,” and the fact that he is followed by “Hades,” or the grave.

Of course, in our own day, COVID-19 has turned many to thinking of just how great the scope of worldwide disease and pestilence could be.

Yet the testimony of prophecy—and therefore of Jesus Christ, since the testimony of Jesus IS the spirit of prophecy (Revelation 19:10)—is very clear: Relative to the pestilence and disease TO COME, COVID-19 is barely a warning shot across the world’s bow. The coming of the fourth horseman heralds the coming of diseases the likes of which no doctor, health organization, or world government is prepared to tackle.

Let’s consider these four horsemen in perspective. In the most common estimates, COVID-19 has killed millions. Some believe the bubonic plague killed 25 million in the Middle Ages. The greatest famine in history, China’s “Great Leap Forward” famine, killed 20 to 40 million people from 1959 to 1961. And World Wars I & II, by some estimates, killed 70 to 80 million people.

These numbers are horrifying. Yet, we must remind ourselves that Revelation 8:6 says that the coming four horsemen—false religion, warfare, famine, and pestilence—will be given power over ONE-FOURTH of HUMANITY. Right now, around 2 BILLION PEOPLE. That’s “BILLION” with a “B.”

The conflicts, famines, and diseases of the past and the present hardly compare to the ride of the horsemen to come.

That, my friends, is a grim picture, I know. Yet Jesus Christ reveals this knowledge for a REASON, and it isn’t to depress us or throw us into despair! What can you and your family DO about the times to come? Is there ANYTHING ANYONE can do?

Hope for the Future—Jesus Christ Will End Their Ride

My friends, I know the ride of the four horsemen sounds terrifying, and clearly Jesus Christ meant it to be so. But God has not left us without hope. Because there are MORE THAN FOUR HORSEMEN mentioned in the book of Revelation!

We read about the FIFTH HORSEMAN earlier in Revelation 19. JESUS CHRIST will return on a white horse. And He won’t be alone! He will be accompanied by His newly resurrected and glorified saints riding white horses of their own, and together they will vanquish the enemies of God and initiate the reign of the Kingdom of God here on earth!

We’ve seen the small tastes of the coming four horsemen that God has allowed the world to experience. The recent pandemic gave us a small taste of global disease, we’re beginning to see food prices skyrocket due to inflation and other causes. Warfare fills our news feeds—the war in Ukraine being only a recent example. And if we have eyes to see and ears to hear, the world’s counterfeit Christianity can be seen and heard for what it is as it is preached from behind the lecterns and on the stages of the most popular denominations and churches in the world.

Those circumstances should move us to act NOW, BEFORE the Four Horsemen are unleashed upon the world to bring apostasy, carnage, starvation, and pestilence in full measure.

NOW, RIGHT NOW, is the time to come under the protection of the FIFTH Horseman, that we may find ourselves riding one day alongside Him to heal the world.

For those who submit their lives to His rule today, He offers protection from what is to come tomorrow. For such individuals, the precursors to the Four Horsemen’s rides that we see on our news feeds—the daily reminders of what they will bring—do not have to be signs of despair. Quite the contrary, they can be signs of hope. Jesus Himself tells us so, just as He told His disciples 2,000 years ago. To those who commit their lives in obedience to Him today and who endure to that time in faithfulness, He says in Luke 21:36, “Watch therefore, and pray always that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man.”

May all of us be praying for the ride of that FIFTH Horseman, Jesus Christ, who is coming soon to usher in the Kingdom of God, forever! And may we seek His face TODAY—His way of life, His Work, and His desires—that we may one day accompany Him on white horses of our own, to help Him put the horses of the other Four Horsemen out to pasture for good.

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