Voice of a Vessel

Someone who has a tongue, has an evil thing.
Unclean, both physically and spiritually, it moves about longing to produce futile words. It is as an axe, though sometimes useful, it is ultimately a tool for destruction.

Someone who speaks must first learn to tame human tendencies. Speech left unbridled communicates the essence of our carnality, but if guided by the bit can please both God and man. Like an animal that has not been broken, so is the fleshly nature of our speech.

Someone who teaches is in danger of the judgment.
Be sure that the teaching is in line with the Truth, so that you may rest in knowing that you have sown a seed that is free from penalty. A seed springs forth from the ground, yet it is only deemed worthy by its roots below, the soil in which it was planted and the fruit that it yields over a time.

Someone who is a voice, however, is a worthy vessel.It goes beyond the vanity of words and subtle non-verbal suggestion. A vessel that receives understanding, stores up wisdom and has the ability to distribute these same things is worthy of being called a voice.

copyright 2005. travis marshall iv

A Personal Note From the Blog Author

A search for truth through discussion was the original vision of this blog. I have seen it turn into a heated debate with neither side willing to relent, each viewing the other side as ill-informed and narrow-minded. Nevertheless, let the will of God be so. It only strengthens the abilities and resolve of all parties involved.
When I began this blog, it was with the hope (yes, hope and not necessarily faith) that it would meet the receptive ears of those teetering on their decision regarding salvation or perhaps, strengthen the understanding and feed the desire of those who had already given their lives to Christ. Praise be to God for those that fall into one of these above categories. Though, as I reflect upon some of the posted comments, it seems that the credibility of the ideals supported in this blog are under attack. It is called the “burden of proof”, and Christians are constantly being sucked into the vortex of “defending their faith”. It is a crippling strategy, administering blow after blow, through endless questioning always keeping your opponents “on the ropes”. Sorry – not to be smug – but to coin a phrase, “the best defense is a good offense”, so you will have to meet me in the middle of the ring.
I am growing sick with boredom, but I see the need, so let us have a bit of fun. If you have patience for facts, the following blog titled, Tactical Maneuver Deployed should be of some use to you, one way or the other. If you have enjoyed former posts which dealt with life on more philosophical and inspirational terms, fear not, they will continue by the grace of God. However, there is a bit of business that needs tending to first.

copyright 2005. travis marshall iv

Tactical Maneuver Deployed

Those of you from the creationist standpoint, enjoy…and the evolutionist, chew slowly:

Phillip E. Johnson, in Evolution as Dogma: The Establishment of Naturalism, states:

In fact, there is a great deal more to the creation/evolution controversy than meets the eye, or rather than meets the carefully cultivated media stereotype of “creationists” as Bible-quoting-know-nothings who refuse to face up to the scientific evidence. The creationists may be wrong about many things, but they have at least one very important point to argue, a point that has been thoroughly obscured by all the attention paid to Noah’s flood and other side issues. What science educators propose to teach as “evolution”, and label as fact, is based not upon any incontrovertible empirical evidence (scientifically proven facts, ed.), but upon a highly controversial philosophical presupposition. The controversy over evolution is therefore not going to go away as people become better educated on the subject. On the contrary, the more people learn about the philosophical content of what scientists are calling the “fact of evolution”, the less they are going to like it.


By the way, Mr. Johnson is a 1st Amendment attorney, teaching law at the University of California, Berkley and NOT observing from a Christian worldview…moving on…


G.A. Kerkut, in Implications of Evolution, states:

There are seven basic assumptions that are often not mentioned during discussions of evolution. Many evolutionists ignore the first six assumptions and only consider the seventh. The assumptions are as follows:
1. The first assumption is that non-living things gave rise to living material, i.e., spontaneous generation occurred.
2. The second assumption is that spontaneous generation occurred only once.
3. The third assumption is that viruses, bacteria, plants and animals are all related.
4. The fourth assumption is that protozoa (single-celled life forms) gave rise to metazoa (multiple-celled life forms).
5. The fifth assumption is that various invertebrate phyla are interrelated.
6. The sixth assumption is that the invertebrates gave rise to the vertebrates.
7. The seventh assumption is that within the vertebrates the fish gave rise to amphibia, the amphibia to reptiles and the reptiles to birds and mammals.


That’s a lot of ASSUMPTIONS. Another special note, G.A. Kerkut writes from the standpoint of an EVOLUTION indoctrinated scientist, yet still renders the application of faith to his “Science”.
But wait…there’s more…much, much more…


Dr. Harrison Matthews, the writer of the “Introduction” to Charles Darwin’s Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life, states:

The fact of evolution is the backbone of biology, and biology is thus in the peculiar position of being a science founded on an unproved theory – is it then a science or a faith? Belief in the theory of evolution is thus exactly parallel to belief in special creation – both are concepts which believers know to be true, but neither, up to the present, has been capable of proof.


Okay, perhaps one more from the EVOLUTION SCIENTIST COMMUNITY'S own words for this post…then, if need be, more in the future…


Dr. Ernst Mayr, in Omni Magazine, February, 1983, p. 78, states:

We had an international conference in Rome in 1981 on the mechanisms of speciation. It was attended by many of the leading botanists, zoologists, paleontologists, geneticists, cytologists and biologists. The one thing on which they all agreed was that we still have absolutely no idea what happens genetically during speciation. That’s a damning statement, but it’s the truth.


This posting has been exhaustively long for the average reader, though, I’m still only scratching the surface, “You really have no idea how much information is out there.”…I remember hearing that somewhere.

To conclude, I found this amusing, from a well-known and respected authority on science backed by a Christian world view:

Dr. Henry Morris, in Unlocking the Mysteries of Creation, states:

Unknown chemicals in the primordial past…through…
Unknown processes which no longer exist…produced…
Unknown life forms which are not to be found but could through…
Unknown reproduction methods spawn life…in an…
Unknown atmospheric composition…in an…
Unknown oceanic soup complex…at an…
Unknown time and place.


What you must admit is that evolution theory is only a predilection, the same as creation theory. We can both see the facts – the “What”, but we interpret the “When”, “How”, “Where”, “Who” behind them differently. Furthermore, the holding to our respective “Why” is what locks us so controversially into the realm of faith.

copyright 2005. travis marshall iv

Faith and Hope

Faith and Hope are entwined after the fashion of the Spirit and the body. They are united by the wisdom of God because he has “sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts crying, Abba, Father”. Just as such, one should be the servant of the greater, namely hope unto faith. The manner in which you worship, praise, pray and live your life for Christ is determined upon whether you hope, have faith or balance carefully between the two.

This point or these points are meant to be elements only of a much more exhaustive dialogue concerning the full extent of their meanings. Nevertheless, we see the superiority of faith in its very own Biblical definition. It is “the substance of things hoped for…” When you submit to God through repentance moving towards salvation, you are doing so hoping to find something better than your previous experiences. What you find is faith. What you hoped for is faith, something only revealed at the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

To continue, faith is “the evidence of things not seen”. Christians are ridiculed by non-believers for worshipping what is not so apparently visible or seemingly intangible. Even by mere acknowledgement is the ideology mocked. Yet these foolish hypocrites will, in turn, believe and misplace their faith (rather their hope) on their own private and agenda driven interpretation of “scientific facts” they so admiringly refer to as logic. Where are the sub-atomic particles? I ask you, where do they reside? What is their make-up? What is the appearance of their parts? We cannot see them at this point in time, however we see their workings, their activity. Their effects, their actuality through manipulation and our perception are a clear witness of their existence. So wise men of “science”, on this point do not condescend a Christians choice to respond through faith in the activeness of Christ in them and in the world around.

Faith is an actuality waiting on its investor to act, ready with the reward waiting to be attained. Hope, though noble in cause, is not always so forthcoming in its effect. Hope is investing in the possibility while still retaining a cloud of doubt. Hope is manifested from the flesh while Faith is revealed from the Spirit. It is important to remember that our flesh must submit to the actuality of the Spirit as we are called to exercise both, “that our faith and hope might be in God.”

copyright 2005. travis marshall iv