Author Archives: Duane Caldwell

About Duane Caldwell

Duane has served in many different capacities including pastor, elder, project coordinator and flight instructor. He is an ordained minister of the gospel of Jesus Christ by the Evangelical Church Alliance and holds a Master of Divinity from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, a Trinity International University school and a BS in Aeronautics from Parks College, St. Louis University.

An Ontological Argument for Hell (and a plea – Be saved!)

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Heaven or hell. Both exist. Choose life! Choose heaven.

Perhaps you’ve heard of the ontological argument for the existence of God. If not, I’ve written about it here[1], here[2] and here[3]. But this time, I’m not speaking of the existence of God, I’m speaking of a corollary necessary truth: the ontological argument for the existence of hell.

I should dispense with a technicality up front. “Hell” is actually the holding place of torment for unbelievers until the final judgment (Luke 16.23, Rev 20.13 KJV). Unbelievers are held in hell until the final judgment at the Great White Throne Judgment (Rev 20.11),  whereupon those who have not believed God and trusted in Christ for salvation, but instead have repeatedly rejected God’s gift of salvation, will be tossed in the Lake of Fire (Rev 20.15), there to spend eternity in torment. Since both are places of torment, for the purposes of this article, I will call both “Hell”, though technically, the final, eternal destination of the lost is the Lake of Fire.

Why, you might wonder, would you ever want to prove the existence of hell – that most feared place among those who truly understand it? There are two simple reasons: Continue Reading

The Self-Refuting Dino to Bird Theory

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Sinosauropteryx fossil Note dark region on along the back - claimed by evolutionists to be feathers.

Sinosauropteryx fossil Note dark region on along the back – claimed by evolutionists to be feathers.

Don’t laugh, but dyed-in-the-wool evolutionists believe that therapod dinosaurs like T-Rex evolved into birds. In fact they don’t stop there. They also believe that dinosaurs didn’t really go extinct. They’ll tell you when you’re looking at birds, you’re looking at dinosaurs. “We don’t have to talk about how dinosaurs went extinct anymore because they’re all around us. Once you realize that, you can never look at a bird the same way again”[1] says ornithologist and evolutionary biologist  Rick Prum. A recent article on the topic of dino to bird evolution states in the subtitle “Birds aren’t descended from dinosaurs, They are dinosaurs.”[2] So yes, they really believe dinosaurs evolved into birds. Continue Reading

The Gilgamesh Epic – A problem for the flood?

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Gilgamesh cube vessel

Correct proportions of the vessel in the “Gilgamesh Epic – a cube, not a ship

The Gilgamesh Epic is a series of Sumerian poems that tell heroic stories about the Sumerian god Gilgamesh. Included in the poems is a story of a global flood. That story is named after the people in Mesopotamia who occupied the land after the Sumerians – the Babylonians. The stories are written in clay tablets in cuneiform – one of the oldest, if not the oldest, form of writing known. Thus the Epic of Gilgamesh has come to be known as the Babylonian flood epic, and is one of the oldest written stories known.

Secularists who (true to form) deny the existence of the supernatural of course do not believe the Babylonian flood epic either. But they use it as a means to try to disprove the Biblical flood epic since that is clearly a symbol of divine judgment. Using the story of Pandora as an example, their logic goes something like this:

The story of Pandora and the closed box of evil that she opens which releases all manner of evil upon the world is myth, not to be believed.

The story of Eve in the garden of Eden who takes a bite of the forbidden fruit, which releases all manner of sin and evil upon the world is borrowed from the story of Pandora, and thus is also a myth, not to be believed.

Continue Reading

Miracles: Impossible or Improbable?

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Matthew (writer of the gospel) - upon witnessing the miraculous catch of fish

Matthew – “It’s impossible.” The Chosen Episode. 4 “The Rock On Which it is Built”

In “Evidence is for believers, not mockers” I make the case that miracles, one of the strongest proofs of the truth of the gospels, and a validation of the message and ministry of Jesus, is meant for those who already believe, or are ready to believe. They are not meant for mockers like hardened atheists and agnostics or doubters not really looking for the truth. This is true for a number of reasons which I list in the article, so I won’t repeat them here.  I’ll simply encourage you to read the article for the detailed reasons.

As I watched The Chosen (an excellent series I highly recommend about the life of Jesus starting with the call (the choosing) of the disciples) I noticed that they gave a strong defense for why that thesis is true – that miracles are for believers, not unbelievers and mockers. The difference in the approach between those willing to believe and those unwilling to believe a miracle can be seen in how they answer this question: Was that impossible, or merely improbable? Continue Reading

Coronavirus and the microcosmos – a microcosm of evolutionary lies

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Corona Virus

The Discovery TV series “How The Universe Works” (HTUW) purports itself to be a science series focusing on cosmology. In actuality it plays the same role for secular scientists that the main stream media plays for the left. That is to say it is a propaganda outlet. It promotes evolution expressed as Big Bang cosmology and Neo-Darwinism – just as the Main Stream Media have become nothing more than a large megaphone for left wing causes and talking points. I tune in to HTUW from time to time because they do manage to show some science in the process, but for the most part I watch to see the latest lies they’re using to prop up the failed theories of Darwinian evolution and the Big Bang.

A recent episode was titled “Aliens of the Microcosmos.” Since they usually focus on matters pertaining to outer space I tuned in to see what they’d be saying about these micro “aliens.” The motivation for this episode was quickly revealed as they showed a detailed depiction of the coronavirus. (above) This was apparently going to be “How the Universe Works explains the coronavirus.” But the goal was the same – to apply the same evolutionary lies to the microcosmos – which they succeeded in doing handily, hitting or paralleling all the major lies. For example, just as evolutionists wind up telling us we’re descendants of some apelike creature, this episode wound up telling us we’re likely descendants of viruses. I know that’s a bit hard to believe (at least I found it to be a stretch), so I’ll include a clip of planetary scientist Jani Radebaugh, astronomer Michelle Thaller and astrobiologist Kathryn Bywaters all telling us how we might be descendants of viruses.  I’ll drop that in below. Continue Reading

Who Can See the Resurrection? (A meditation)

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The risen Messiah is revealed to Mary Magdalene

Jesus reveals himself to Mary Magdalene at the empty tomb. “The Bible”, Ep 10 “Courage”

A resurrection day meditation 

In the palm Sunday service this past Sunday, the pastor at my church mentioned that “the great crowd” (John 12.12) that had come out to see Jesus was huge. He mentioned it was likely multiple tens of thousand of people, something I hadn’t considered before. That’s a staggering number. So like a good Berean (Acts 17.11), I got out my Bible history to check.

Sure enough, in “Jerusalem in the Time of Jesus” in an excursus on the number of visitors to Jerusalem during the Passover, Bible historian Jeremias summarizes: Continue Reading

Distant Starlight Unlikely Solutions Part 2: ASC – Questions for Dr Lisle

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Demonstration of how to test Lisle's ASC theory

At the conclusion of my first two-part series (part 1, part 2) on distant starlight, it seemed clear to me that I should revisit this topic. I want to address specifically the issues with Lisle’s ASC theory. I initially thought it provided the best solution to the distant starlight problem. But after much study on the matter I came to the conclusion that not only does Lisle’s theory fall to Occam’s razor, if a key required stipulation is not true concerning light, it doesn’t even qualify to explain a 6,000 year old creation. I was thus forced to conclude Danny Faulkner’s Dasha theory (essentially God did it somehow – we don’t know how) is the best answer. But I wanted to return to Lisle’s ASC and look more closely at what I consider the failings of the theory that I thought when I started the previous series would be the preferred solution to the distant starlight problem. Continue Reading

Question Evolution Day 2021 Questions: The Mimic Octopus

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The Indonesian Mimic Octopus

So here we are at another February 12th, Question Evolution day. Since it’s already late in the day I’ll try to keep this short. But to put things in context, I need to preface my questions for Darwinian evolution believers with a question. Consider the following:

Concerning Purpose

A student is given an assignment to write a 1,000 word essay. The student completes the assignment and turns in the essay. The essay sounds familiar to the teacher so the teacher checks a plagiarism checker and as suspected, the student has plagiarized another work. The teacher confronts the student and says, “Your paper, is almost precisely word for the word the same as this published work. You’re guilty of plagiarism and will get no credit for your paper.”

Continue Reading

As Obvious as the Falsity of Evolution

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With the events of the past week concerning the capitol and the president that we’ve all seen to some degree or another, what I’m about to say is already obvious. But since I had already planned to write this article, I’ll go ahead and say it anyway. Content warning: I’ll be speaking much more bluntly than I normally do regarding both the gospel and the country. Given the topic and the times, this is no time to mince words. Continue Reading

The Conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn: A Christmas Meditation

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Jupiter (the brighter object) and Saturn, December 8, 2020 – getting closer to their closest approach on December 21, 2020 – The Darkside Observatory

Christmas is a time of intersections. Think back to the first Christmas. God intersected with man in the person of Christ. Angels intersected with shepherds. Wisemen intersected with the human appointed King of Judah, as well as the divinely appointed King of kings. And if I’m right about the star of Bethlehem (see my meditation on it last year here) God announced the work he was about to do with a number of intersections concerning the star of Bethlehem. One of those intersections was the triple conjunction of Jupiter with Saturn, which I argued was understood by the wise men as a King (as in God’s king) was coming to Judah. That happened about the time that Jesus the Messiah, the Christ, was born.

Interestingly enough, there are some striking parallels between the intersections then, and intersections today, which though not perfect, make for some interesting thoughts to consider and meditate on – which of course is the purpose of a meditation. Let’s start with the king who was ruling at the time of the first advent: Herod, known as the Great, King of Judea. Continue Reading