Daily Devotional – August 31

History

Ancient people were great movers of stone - as evidenced by Egypt’s pyramids, Easter Island’s megalithic head statues and England’s Stonehenge. Yet, the largest cut stone has been found near Baalbek, Lebanon, in the ruins of an ancient city known as Heliopolis. Amidst these ruins is found the Temple of Jupiter with 70-foot columns that date back to the peak of the Roman Empire (~2000 years ago). They had quarried these columns in Egypt, barged them to Lebanon, and hauled them across the mountains in order to erect them. Quite a feat!

But the base upon which the columns stand is the real marvel. At the base of this Temple are three hewn stones called the “trilithon.” It is believed that these stones were in place before the Romans arrived, and they simply engineered their building on this foundation. Each of these foundation stones weigh over a million pounds. The individual limestone blocks measure 10 feet by 13 feet by 60 feet long. These stones were quarried three-quarters of a mile away and raised 26 feet into the air. We don’t even know how the builders transported these massive objects to their final location. Surprisingly, an even larger stone was found at the quarry measuring 14 feet high, 13 feet wide and 70 feet long - weighing an estimated 1.7 million pounds!

Compare the ingenuity of early man with NASA’s movement of a similar weight object in 1965 – the giant Saturn V rocket. This rocket weighted approximately 400,000 pounds. It was moved from its construction building to the launch pad on a giant tracked vehicle called the Crawler-transporter. This object weighted only half what these ancient stones weighted yet required a specially design vehicle to move it. People 3000 - 4000 years ago moved stones weighing twice as much WITHOUT modern crawler-transporters! Students are routinely given the impression that ignorant, Stone Age “hunter-gatherers” from this period were little more than bumbling cavemen. Hardly! Ancients were quite intelligent; just look at the stone structures they left behind. Man was created intelligent from the beginning.

There is no remembrance of former things; neither shall there be any remembrance of things that are to come with those that shall come after.

~ Ecclesiastes 1:11

Professing to be wise, they became fools.

~ Romans 1:22

“[An evolutionary origin of the human brain] is difficult to understand, because, unlike a computer, it was not built with specific purposes or principles…[no designer] only natural selection, the engine of evolution, is responsible.” - Gerald Fischbach, Scientific American, Vol.267, No.3, p.24.

Source: "Pearls in Paradise" by authors Bruce Malone and Jule Von Vett

References for this devotional.

Daily Devotional – August 24

History

Often, we think man is more intelligent now than in the past. Have you considered when man began to write?

• One of the great wonders of the ancient world was the library of Alexandria built in 300 B.C. and located in Alexandria, Egypt. This vast library contained over a million scrolls.
• In 900 B.C., King Solomon writes in Ecclesiastes, “my son, be admonished: of making many books there is no end….” (Ecclesiastes 12:12).
• In 2000 B.C., Job wrote, “Oh that my words were now written! Oh that they were printed in a book!” (Job 19:23). Here we see Job, writing some 500 years before Moses (1500 B.C.), contemplating printing a book!
• Going back further, we find in Babylon, on one of King Ashurbanipal’s tablets, a comment that he “loved to read the writing of the age before the Flood.” His library had over 100,000 volumes! Arguments that writing did not exist in the time of Moses are not true. Here a king records that he was reading writing prior to the Flood of Noah’s day (2348 B.C.).
• Another Babylonian tablet lists the ten kings of Babylon who lived before the Flood, in the Bible; Noah was the tenth generation from Adam. Man was created intelligent from the beginning! The evolutionary idea that man started as a caveman who was an unintelligent, knuckle-dragging idiot is not true. Man was created intelligent from the beginning.

Man was made in the image of God to communicate, using both speech and writing, from the very beginning. Oh that my words were now written!

Oh that they were printed in a book! That they were graven with an iron pen and lead in the rock forever!

~ Job 19:23, 24

Source: "Pearls in Paradise" by authors Bruce Malone and Jule Von Vett

References for this devotional.

Daily Devotional – August 23

History

Of all the fish in the world, the ‘o’opu ‘alamo’o (opu) - native only to the island of Hawaii, is one of the most amazing. This fish only lays its eggs far inland from the ocean in the upper reaches of the Kolekole stream. Once the eggs hatch, the larvae are swept downstream by the swift current of the river and flushed into the warm, clear waters of the Pacific Ocean, where they mature into colorful 5-inch-long fish. To produce the next generation of fish, the female must swim back upstream to lay her eggs in the fresh water of the mountain stream. Here is where the miraculous occurs! Between where the mother lays her eggs and her ocean habitat is the Akaka Waterfall - which plummets 440 feet from a narrow opening on a sheer cliff wall. How can a fish swim up a 440 foot waterfall?

Unique to all the fish in the world, this particular species has a special set of fins fused together to form a suction cup directly between its front pectoral fins. The Opu laboriously attaches its suction cup fins to the water-slickened surface of the falls, and drags itself upward against the force of the flowing water, and reattaches itself again. Moving a fraction of an inch at a time, over many days, she literally free-climbs the 440 foot falls against the flow of the water to the top of the stream where she lays her eggs.

The following question arises; how did this fish learn to do this? Without the suction-cup shaped fins, the climb would be impossible! The Opu had to have the ability to climb with suction cups from the beginning or no more Opu fish. God created the Opu fish to delight us in His creative ability. Only God could create a waterfall climbing fish!

For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:

~ Colossians 1:16

Source: "Pearls in Paradise" by authors Bruce Malone and Jule Von Vett

References for this devotional.

Daily Devotional – August 12

History

What do Australian Aborigines and people of India have in common? Apparently, they are related. Recent genetic testing found strong DNA similarities between them. The large number of similar genetic markers across the genome gives a clear signal that the people of India and Australia intermarried 4,000 - 5,000 years ago. This would also help explain the many linguistic similarities between the peoples of southern India and many of the Aboriginal tribes. How is this viewed from a biblical perspective? After the Flood of Noah’s time, the people built a tower of Babel and then were dispersed (Genesis 10, 11). The dispersion of the people from the tower of Babel may have happened several hundred years after the Flood (over 4,000 years ago). As a result, some groups of people would have settled in India, and others traveled further on to Australia. Modern DNA testing confirms this migration and the corresponding dates. Science finally catches up with the Bible.

Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the LORD did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the LORD scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.

~ Genesis 11:9

Source: "Pearls in Paradise" by authors Bruce Malone and Jule Von Vett

References for this devotional.

Daily Devotional – August 2

History

The ancient Chinese possessed an unusual knowledge of Bible history that’s they incorporated into their written pictograph language. The most ancient of Chinese writings are called oracle bones in which the pictographs are inscribed on bones and tortoise shells. The inventor of the original Chinese characters obviously had knowledge of the Genesis account. For example, the word for desire or covet is made up of two characters, trees and woman:

Woman + Trees = Desire, Covet

There were two trees in the Garden of Eden, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (the forbidden tree) and the tree of life. In the Genesis account, Eve saw the fruit of a forbidden tree and desired it.

The word difficulty, trouble is made up of tree and garden

Trees + (Garden) Enclosure = Difficulty, Trouble

When Adam and Eve ate of that forbidden fruit in the garden, difficulty resulted. Now there would be thorns and thistles and difficulty during childbirth.

Not only was the Earth cursed, but now death would enter in. The character meaning, to die, perish is:

Hands + Trees = Mulberry Tree + Mouths = To Die, Perish

Note how the two mouths (Adam and Eve) indicating eating fruit from the forbidden tree produced death.

These are just a few examples of how the knowledge of the first eleven chapters of Genesis is imbedded in the Chinese pictograph language. When witnessing to the Chinese, you can show them that Christianity is not just a Western religion but that their ancient fathers knew and believed in the One true God of the Bible. The Chinese language is a silent witness to the knowledge of Genesis 1-11.

“The tree of life [was] also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil…And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired [covetable]… she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.”

~ Genesis 2:9, 3:6

Source: "Pearls in Paradise" by authors Bruce Malone and Jule Von Vett

References for this devotional.

Daily Devotional – July 26

History

It is widely and routinely taught in Bible colleges that the Exodus from Egypt never happened. This is one of the most longstanding criticisms of the accuracy of the Old Testament – based on the fact that no Egyptian documents mention the Hebrew slaves and their exodus from Egypt. In addition, the books of Moses (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy) make no mention of specific pharaohs of Egypt. Thus, Bible skeptics assume there was no exodus from Egypt and that the Bible cannot be trusted to mean what it says.

To understand this omission from Egyptian documents, we need to understand the Egyptian culture.

1. The Egyptians were infatuated with the afterlife, and their religious dogma convinced them that if they were forgotten by the living, they lost their immortality in the afterlife. This is why they spent enormous effort to record their names and images on monuments throughout Egypt.
2. Egyptians despised their enemies. To not even mention the names of their enemies was the ultimate in contempt and disrespect.
3. Egyptian hieroglyphics alter and ignore historical events to favor Egyptians. Revisionist history (to fit the viewpoint of the historian) is indeed a very old practice.
4. For Moses to not name the pharaohs would be his way of rejecting their authority over him – a practice he may have adopted having been raised in Egypt.

Thus, when the entire nation of Egypt was decimated by a series of plagues; followed by the lowest members of society walking away with much of the wealth of the nation; followed by Egypt’s powerful military being drowned in the Red Sea – it is little wonder that all records of the people responsible for these events (the Israelites) would be purged from Egyptian records and monuments.

The justification used by theologians and skeptics to ignore God’s Word are excuses, not facts. God’s word speaks the truth; there was an Exodus.

And the waters returned, and covered the chariots and the horsemen, and all the host of Pharaoh that came into the sea after them; there remained not so much as one of them.

~ Exodus 14:28

Source: "Pearls in Paradise" by authors Bruce Malone and Jule Von Vett

References for this devotional.

Daily Devotional – July 15

History

What happened to the dinosaurs? The biblical explanation is that the majority were killed during the Flood of Noah. This is the reason why we find their fossilized bones buried in the rock layers that formed during the Flood. Yet, Noah was told to take land-dwelling, air-breathing creatures upon the Ark, and this would have included young, small dinosaurs. These creatures must have gone extinct after the Flood. But why? Let’s look at two modern examples; the demise of the Asian elephant and the tiger.

Today, across Asia, wild elephants are killing hundreds of people every year. Here are some accounts from just the last few years:

• In Thailand, an elephant stomped three rubber plantation workers to death.
• In Nepal, 11 people were killed by elephants in one week while gathering firewood.
• In Vietnam, a herd of elephants killed at least 10 people.

In response, villagers are fighting back, and the elephant population is shrinking with each passing year.

Back in 1819, Singapore was primarily swampland and teeming with tigers. By 1840, tigers were killing 200-300 people a year. As the city grew, 600-800 people a year were reported being killed by tigers, and a certain area was even called “Tiger Resort.” Desperate authorities offered bounties, and by 1930, the last wild tiger was shot in Singapore. It took less than 100 years for the most fearsome predator of mankind to go from killing almost 1000 people per year to complete extinction in an entire region of the world!

The parallel between the extinction of dinosaurs and the localized “extinction” of elephants and tigers is obvious. As the human population grew, dangerous dinosaurs had to be eradicated. What happened to the dinosaurs? They were quite likely hunted into extinction.

[Into the Ark went] every beast after his kind, and all the cattle after their kind, and every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind, and every fowl after his kind, every bird of every sort. And they went in unto Noah into the ark, two and two of all flesh, wherein is the breath of life. ~Genesis 7:14-15

Source: "Pearls in Paradise" by authors Bruce Malone and Jule Von Vett

References for this devotional.

Daily Devotional – July 13

History

Did dinosaurs recently live in the Amazon? Vance Nelson, researcher/explorer, travels the world finding the untold secrets of planet Earth. On his latest expedition, he traveled to the Amazon River. In 1940, an American explorer traveled through this same region, and he reported that the indigenous people saw a strange creature that lived in the nearby river; the description fitting a sauropod dinosaur. Nelson hired a local, secular archeologist to guide him to the locations of rock art in the jungle.

One cave’s wall depicts a hunting scene with a large animal in the center surrounded by nine hunters with one of the hunters holding a raised spear. Obviously, these hunters were hunting a living creature; this creature had a long neck, small head, big body, and large tail. This is not a picture of a llama but of an animal very much like a longnecked, sauropod dinosaur. This indicates that the indigenous people saw and hunted dinosaurs very recently in the Amazon River Basin. This is one of the many untold secrets of planet Earth. It is not such a secret, after all, that dinosaurs and man lived together in the relatively recent past.

Behold now behemoth, which I made with thee; he eateth grass as an ox. Lo now, his strength is in his loins, and his force is in the navel of his belly. He moveth his tail like a cedar: the sinews of his stones are wrapped together. His bones are as strong pieces of brass; his bones are like bars of iron. He is the chief of the ways of God:

~ Job 40:15-19a

Source: "Pearls in Paradise" by authors Bruce Malone and Jule Von Vett

References for this devotional.

Daily Devotional – July 4

History

Throughout America’s Midwest are hundreds of raised mounds and earthworks. Radiocarbon dating places the age of artifacts found in these mounds around 3,000 years old. Archeologists believe an extinct race of settlers known as the Adena culture built them. In Lower Michigan, from 1850 to 1910, some of these mounds were excavated. A number of engraved plates made of slate, copper, and clay were recovered. A book published in 1910 photographically documented 40 engravings that reveal amazing knowledge of this ancient people.

One of the engravings shows a scene of people drowning during a heavy rainfall. The third panel on this engraving shows a boat and a bird flying away with a branch in its beak. The fourth panel shows the boat on shore with the animals coming off in pairs while a man and three sons raise their hands in praise. Sounds very similar to the biblical account of the Flood, doesn’t it? How did the Adena culture in America know of this event some 3,000 years ago? They or their ancestors left the tower of Babel with this knowledge. As they spread across the world, they took this knowledge of true history with them. These people knew of God and the Bible, then over time, this knowledge was not passed down to their children.

We need to make sure those following in our footsteps do not forget the God of the Bible and all that He has done for us.

And also all that generation were gathered unto their fathers:  and there arose another generation after them, which knew not the Lord, nor yet the works which he had done for Israel.

~ Judges 2:10

Source: "Pearls in Paradise" by authors Bruce Malone and Jule Von Vett

Daily Devotional – June 15

History

Have you considered that there are ancient depictions of dinosaurs in artwork from around the world? Ancient civilizations called these creatures “dragons” because the word dinosaur was not invented until 1841. In his book Dire Dragons, Vance Nelson documents many examples of this artwork throughout the world. These are but a few:

• On Bishop Bell’s tomb (1496) in Carlisle England, there is a brass plate on the floor of the Carlisle Cathedral showing two sauropods with their necks intertwined.
• On the back of a clergy chair at St. David’s Cathedral in Wales, there is a dragon which looks startlingly like a sauruopod found in Argentina known as Brachytrachelopan mesai.
• The Chateau Royal de Blois in France has 16th century carvings of a Plateosaurus dinosaur.
• Above the fireplace of the Azay-le-Rideau castle in France is a 16^th century carving of a dragon that looks remarkably like modern depictions of dinosaurs. Also, a beautiful table has one of its drawers carved with a dragon/dinosaur.
• St. George’s Chapel in Barcelona, Spain, “Palau de La Generalitat,” has an altar cloth from the 1600s showing St. George slaying a dragon/dinosaur.

Artwork from Medieval Europe supports the fact that man and dinosaurs did live together.

Praise the Lord from the earth, ye dragons, and all deeps:

~ Psalm 148:7

Source: "Pearls in Paradise" by authors Bruce Malone and Jule Von Vett

References for this devotional.