Tuesday, September 17, 2024

Osborn, Nebraska Man, And The ACLU

 


As I was doing some research for a previous blogpost, [1] I came across an article from Creation Ministries International (CMI) printed back in 1991 claiming evolutionist Henry F. Obsorn to be a Marxist and a prominent member of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) [2] The article was also reprinted by Answers In Genesis. [3]
 
For those of you who do not know who Henry F. Osborn is, he was a renown paleontologist who had served as both head of paleontology for the American Museum of Natural History, of which he was later a curator and while I did not find any evidence confirming that Osborn himself was a Marxist or a member of the ACLU, the ACLU, in its early years, was no doubt run by either Communists or Communist sympathizers as confirmed by a report issued by a joint fact committee of un-American activities in 1943:
 
 
 
The American Civil Liberties Union may be definitely classed as a Communist front or “transmission belt” organization.  At least 90 percent of its efforts are expended on behalf of Communists who come into conflict with the law.  While it professes to stand for free speech, a free press, and free assembly, it is quite obvious that its main function is to protect Communists in their activities of force and violence in their program to overthrow the government. [4]
 
 
 
Marxist or not, Osborn involved himself in defense of evolution in the infamous John Scopes Monkey Trial of 1925 which challenged the Tennessee Butler Act which forbade the teaching of biological evolution in the public school.
 
The ACLU acted behalf of John Scopes against William Jennings Bryan who was serving as the prosecutor of the case. The case put more than just John Scopes on trial, but it also put the theory of evolution on trial.  Osborn believed that a certain fossil that was submitted to him served as strong evidence in favor of evolution according to a book he had written called, The Earth Speaks To Bryan, that he had dedicated to John Scopes. [5] In it, he stated:
 
 
 
The Earth spoke to Bryan in his own native State of Nebraska, in the message of a diminutive tooth, the herald of our knowledge of anthropoid apes in America.  This Hesperopithecus tooth is like the “still small voice” ; its sound is by no means easy to hear.  Like the hieroglyphs of Egypt, it requires a Rosetta stone to give a key to interpretation…By this means this little tooth speaks volumes of truth---truth consistent with what we have known before, with all that we have found elsewhere. [6]
 
 
 
Hesperopithecus is best known as Nebraska man; a proposed missing link between man and ape, but despite his professed belief that the tooth from an intermediate form between man and ape, at the time of the scopes trial, Osborn previously professed skepticism of the find that was submitted to him 3 years before the Scopes Trial:
 
 
It is hard to believe that a single small worn tooth…can signal the arrival of anthropoid apes in North America in Pliocene time. [7]
 
 
But he considered it to be evidence of a close biological relationship between the wildlife of east Asia and that of North America:
 
 
 
We have been eagerly anticipating some discovery of this kind, but were not prepared for such convincing evidence of the close faunal relationship between east Asia and western North America as is revealed by this diminutive specimen. [8]
 
 
 
In response to those who thought he had declared Nebraska man to be a transitional form between ape and man he stated:
 
 
 
I have not stated that Hesperopithecus was either an Ape-man or in the direct line of
human ancestry, because I consider it quite possible that we may discover anthropoid apes (Simiidre) with teeth closely imitating those of man (Hominidre)… Until we secure more of the dentition, or parts of the skull or of the skeleton, we cannot be certain whether Hesperopithecus is a member of the Simiidre or of the Hominidre. [9]
 
 
 
But in the year of the Scopes Trial, Osborn had become a firm believer that the one tooth by which Nebraska man is known or imagined was from a missing link between man and ape, but only for the tooth be from nothing more than an extinct pig known at that time as Prosthennops Serus. [10-11]
 
As for the ACLU, the organization purged itself of its Communist and Communist sympathizing members after its main founder had become disillusioned with Communism [12-13] but has never abandoned its crusade against theistic religion, Christianity in particular, as has been made plain by its own record which is why this writer calls the American Civil Liberties Union the Anti-Christ Legal Union and the same Anti-Christ spirit at work within the ACLU is also the same Anti-Christ spirit that has been at work in Communism and which was at work in the likes of Henry Fairfield Osborn and others of like-mind.  It is a spirit that opposes the authority and truth of God from the very beginning and that opposition began when a certain angelic being who had once served before the throne of God was lifted up in his pride and thought he could take for himself that which belonged to God alone and as a consequence, he and those who sided with him were cast from the positions they had once held in Heaven. (Is. 14:11-21, Ezek. 28:12-19)
 
Afterward, he then entered into a newly created world in which there was no death, no evil, no decay, and no suffering, nor misery, nor pain or grief of any sort.  There was only peace, joy, and contentment with a perfect harmony between God, man, and nature with a perfect uninterrupted unity between God and man.  It was a world over which man was initially given dominion (Gen. 1:26) and nothing was withheld from him except one thing: the fruit from a certain tree called the tree of the knowledge of good evil having been warned that in the day that they ate the fruit thereof, they would surely die (Gen. 2:16-17, 3:3) but that evil spirit who had rebelled against God whom he had once served, deceived the first woman whom God had created whose name was Eve, who was the wife of the first man Adam, into eating of that forbidden fruit (Gen. 3:4-5) and after having eaten of that forbidden fruit, she gave some to her husband Adam who was the first man whom God had created and he ate of it also. (Gen. 3:6)
 
The lies with which the serpent caused man to commit the first recorded transgression against God was as follows:
 
He falsely assured them that they would not die and caused them to doubt the Word of God.
And he deceitfully told them that they would become more divine and enlightened thus causing them to think that God was withholding them from their complete and optimal potential.
 
But when they ate of that fruit the only thing that they were enlightened to was a nakedness of which they were embarrassed and ashamed. (Gen. 3:7) They never felt any superior or any more powerful than they had been before they had eaten of that forbidden fruit.  If anything at all, they felt lower and inferior than they had before.  And worst of all, the sentence of death was pronounced upon them just as they were warned (Gen. 3:19) because when they had eaten of that forbidden fruit, something, a condition, entered into man that was not intended for them and which inwardly corrupted him and thereby brought upon him the sentence of death, but the sentence of death did not stop with Adam or his wife Eve.  The inward corruption which entered into them was then passed down to all of mankind (Rom. 5:12) since it is from Adam and Eve all of mankind descends and since we are all descendants of Adam and Eve, the corruption that entered into them has also been passed down to all of us, thus also making us into that which God never intended us to be and as a consequence, we all die (Rom. 6:23) and that ultimate cause of death is that corrupted condition of our very nature; that condition being what the Bible calls sin and it is into sin we are all born and by sin do we all die, but the consequences of Adam’s disobedience did not confine themselves to him or mankind, but the effects of sin have spread throughout all of creation because sin taints, distorts, corrupts, and perverts more than we can possibly comprehend which is why it is written that the earth groans and travails in pain to this day. (Rom. 8:19-22)
 
And because of Adam’s disobedience, the dominion that mankind would have had over all of the earth (Gen. 1:26) was diminished because the transgression of Adam gave Satan justification to claim lordship over the people, nations, kingdoms, and empires of the world. (Mt. 4:8-9, Lk. 4:6-7) which is why he is called the prince of this world (Jn. 12:31, 16:11) and the same spirit that with a lie caused Adam and Eve to eat of that forbidden fruit of which they were warned not to eat from which caused sin to enter into them and bring about their eventual deaths and not only their deaths, but the death of every person after them because of the sin we have inherited from Adam and Eve, caused a curse to come upon all of creation, and the dominion of man over the earth to be diminished is also the same spirit behind the lie of Darwinism and the lie of Communism; both of which suppress the knowledge of God in their wickedness and which seek to blind those whose minds and hearts they have taken captive from the very truth that can only come from God and hide from them anything that might lead and persuade them to the worship and service of Almighty God.
 
The same spirit that falsely assured Adam and Eve that they would become like God and would not face death if they had eaten of that forbidden fruit which God told them to not eat is also the same spirit that tries to convince people that there either is no god and that there is no right or wrong and that there is no judgment to be feared and if he is not successful at that, tries to lead them to worship and place their faith in anything that is not God but in false gods and if he cannot succeed in convincing them that there is no judgment to be feared, he will present to them a remedy that is not the remedy and means of escape that the Lord God has made for any other remedy other than what our Creator has prescribed will be a failure because it does not meet the requirements needed to deliver man from coming judgment and reconcile mankind to their Creator and what God has required is a remedy that we ourselves cannot attain by our own efforts and the reason why it is unattainable by our own efforts is because it is remedy that is the work of one who is without sin (2 Cor. 5:21, Heb. 4:15) who, because He is without sin was able to be that perfect unblemished sacrifice needed to be offered up on behalf of sinful mankind, (Heb. 7:26-27) all of whom have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. (Rom. 3:23)
 
Because of sin which dwells within us, there are no amount of good works that we can perform that can deliver us from the everlasting judgment and punishment of unrelenting torment that is to come upon all who remain in their sins because as it is written, we are already inwardly defiled by sin within us (Mt. 15:11, 17-20).
 
Sin is not merely defined by just our actions, behavior, conduct and the words that we speak.  It also influences our very thoughts, motives, and the attitude of our hearts which is why when all men stand before God, it will not be just their actions, behavior, and words by which they will be judged, but their thoughts, motives, and attitude of their hearts that will also be taken into account as well and when we take time to examine ourselves before God and before the law He has set before us, as written in His divinely inspired Word, (2 Tim. 3:16) and when we do this, it may be the most humbling experience that we may ever have because we then discover that we are not as good as we might believe we are in the eyes of our Creator, but at the same time it can also be the most terrifying experience you might ever have knowing that you will have to give an account before God for all things that have been said and done in this life and that even the condition of your inward person will also be taken into account as well and that your own goodness may fall short of the goodness of God because God does not compare our goodness to that of another person but compares the goodness of each and every one of us to His goodness of which we, because of sin, all fall short and if the goodness of even the best of us falls short of the goodness of God, then except for the grace and mercy of God, it is impossible for anyone to be admitted into the Kingdom of Heaven and it is at that point that we come to understand why it is that we need a Redeemer on our behalf to take upon Himself the demanded penalty for sin and in His love for us, God has sent us such a Redeemer, because He is not willing that anyone should perish and be forever damned, but that all would come to repentance (2 Pet. 3:9) because the God who made us is a God of love and mercy, taking no pleasure in punishment, but in demonstrating and showing love, mercy, compassion, kindness, and goodness to His creation to His creation and in His love, He has provided us redemption in His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ (Jn. 3:16) who offered Himself up on our behalf to take away our sins which He did through the shedding of His blood on the cross upon which He was crucified and on which He had died and after having paid the demanded penalty for sin in His death, was raised from the dead so that we in Him would be justified by our faith in Him (Rom. 4:25) fully trusting in His redemptive work on our behalf and believing with all our hearts that He rose from the dead. (Rom. 10:9)
 
For those willing to call upon the name of Christ, in sincere faith and repentance, for the forgiveness of sins, with the cleansing of the soul of sin comes a reconciling (2 Cor. 5:18) with our Creator as we are made anew in Christ (2 Cor. 5:17) and it is that regeneration and spiritual transformation that we receive in Christ that causes us to no longer desire to follow after selfish and worldly pursuits but after those things that pertain to the Kingdom of Heaven, (Mt. 6:33)
to no longer take pleasure in those things that are evil and displeasing in the sight of the Lord, but in that which is good, right, and pleasing in His sight,
to no longer desire to walk in the lies of this present world, but only in the truth that comes from Christ Almighty, (Jn. 14:6) no longer placing our hopes in the things of this present world, but looking forward to that new and better world to come, (Rev. 21-22)
to no longer rely on worldly resources, men, or even our own power, abilities, skills, and wisdom for our needs and provision but upon God who is able to meet all of our needs, (Mt. 6:25-33) recognizing that the resources of this world and even the people He brings into our lives are but instruments and vessels through which God meets our needs and that the skills, power, knowledge, and wisdom by which we might acquire our provision are provided and instilled in us by God,
to no longer fear what men can do to us, but rather fearing the God before whom we will have to one day give an account for how we lived our lives, (Mt. 10:28)
to no longer look to corruptible institutions within our society for direction and order in our lives but to God who, by His written Word has given us laws and precepts to be applied to our lives and which serve to produce and maintain an ordered life, and who, by His Holy Spirit which comes to dwell within us upon repentance, establishes in our lives a course and direction in our lives to pursue for His glory,
to no longer seek our own glory but the glory of God,
to no longer rally behind corruptible men, but instead behind the incorruptible God in Heaven bearing in mind that those men and women God raises up for our edification are but instruments and servants of His for that respective purpose to which He has called them,
to no longer seek to align ourselves with the things of darkness but only with the things of the light,
to no longer trust in the wisdom of the world but only on the wisdom and knowledge that comes from above, nor depend on corruptible earthly authorities to swiftly administer justice, but only in the power of God to deliver us from evil.
 
 
 
And every soul won over to Christ is a soul that is liberated from what would otherwise be an everlasting torment to which there is no end and no relief and is a soul transformed from that which took pleasure in sin and who was once aligned with the things of darkness into that which takes pleasure in goodness and righteousness and desires a kingdom better than that of the kingdom of this world and every soul won to Christ is a defeat for the kingdom of Satan because the more souls are won over to Christ, the weaker and of lesser influence Satan becomes which is why he has fought and still continues to fight and all the more so as the end of the age draws ever nearer each day against the message of salvation and anything that might lead anyone to receive the Gospel message for that matter by not only suppressing any knowledge and information that might open the eyes of those blinded to the truth that leads to salvation but also attempting to silence those who would dare preach that message of salvation through ridicule, social ostracization and discrimination, attempted censorship, civic punishments of varying degrees and violence including death and when that fails, the adversary will try to infiltrate the ranks of the saints and then deceive and corrupt them with false doctrines so as to remove them from the pure doctrine that they had once received, cause them to doubt the truthfulness of their faith through various means and eventually cause them to abandon the faith that they had once embraced, and lead them into committing sinful and wicked acts that should not even be so named among them so as to discredit their testimony of the work of Christ in their lives and disgrace them as representatives for the Kingdom of God because every soul who comes to the Lord is not only liberated from eternal damnation, but they are also a changed person no longer taking pleasure in the things of sin but in godliness, no longer aligned with the powers of darkness but with that which is of the light, and no longer blinded by the lies of Satan but enlightened by the truth which is of God who Himself is truth and the source thereof. (Jn. 14:6)
 
Bondage, tyranny, and oppression can begin by nothing other than lies and it was by a lie that the bondage and tyranny of sin and death began and it is by truth that freedom, true freedom begins (Jn. 8:32) and it is the spiritual freedom that must take place before the other freedoms we seek can take place for as it is written, “seek ye first the kingdom of heaven and these things shall be added unto you,” (Mt. 6:33) for if enough people are made free spiritually in Christ, eventually we will see economic, academic, political and social freedoms attained and restored but a greater freedom still is promised to us that will be made manifest when, just as our souls have been cleansed from sin, we will also be liberated from bodily death when our bodies are changed from that which is corruptible and in which sin dwells into that which is incorruptible and in which sin does not dwell (1 Cor. 15:51-55, 1 Thess. 4:13-18) and then after that, shall the usurper of earth face his final defeat and be cast out of the world along with all who have followed him. (Rev. 20:10-15)
 
And finally, the creation itself shall be liberated from the curse that came upon it because of the sin of man when it is made anew and when it is made anew, it shall be a new and better world in which there is no sin, no death, nor any decay, nor any evil, darkness, suffering, grief, pain, sorrow, misery, hardship, or adversity, but only unity, harmony, love, peace, contentment, happiness, and joy before the Lord God Almighty. (Rev. 21-22)
 
Today decide for yourself whether or not you are a free soul under God or the property of another entity because you will be conformed to one master or another and if you would be a free soul under God, and if you have not done so already, then I would urge you reader to call upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ who is able to make you into a free soul under God.  It is but a sincere simple prayer of repentance away:
 
 
 
“Lord Jesus I need you.
 
 
I realize that I am a sinner
who has fallen short of the glory of God
and that my goodness falls short
of your standard of Moral perfection.
 
Please forgive me of all of my sins.
Come into my heart and into my life
to be the Savior and Lord of my life.
Make me into the servant and follower
that you want me to be.
In your name Lord Jesus, I pray.
 
 
Amen.”
 
 
Know that God is not concerned with the words that you use to call upon Him forgiveness, but with the attitude of your heart and if you have, with all sincerity, have asked Christ to forgive you of your sins, placing your trust in Him only for your salvation and in nothing else, then your sins are forgiven and your place in Heaven is certain.
 
 
 
End notes:
 
 
 
1.  D.H. Manheim, “Though The Scientific, Rationale, And Moral Case For The Sanctity Of Life May Prevail In The Mind, Hearts Are Still Hardened,”  Contender’s Edge, May 31, 2024
https://contendersedge.blogspot.com/2024/05/though-scientific-rationale-and-moral.html
 
2.  Ian Taylor, “‘Nebraska Man’ revisited,” Creation Ministries International, September, 1991
https://creation.com/nebraska-man-revisited
 
3.  Ian Taylor,  “‘Nebraska Man’ Revisited,” Answers In Genesis; Originally published in Creation 13, no 4 (September 1991): 13
https://answersingenesis.org/human-evolution/piltdown-man/nebraska-man-revisited/
 
4.  “Un-American Activities In California,” Report / Joint Fact-Finding Committee on Un-American Activities in California, pg. 92, printed in California state printing office; George M. Moore state printer, 1943
https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.32106009839678&seq=96
 
5.  Henry Fairfield Osborn, “The Earth Speaks To Bryan,” Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1925
https://ia801509.us.archive.org/1/items/in.ernet.dli.2015.87116/2015.87116.The-Earth-Speaks-To-Bryan.pdf
 
6.  Ibid. pg. 40
 
7.  Henry Fairfield Osborn, “Hesperopithecus, The First Anthropoid Ape Found In America,”
American Museum Novitates, Number 37, pg. 1,  April 25, 1922
https://ia601402.us.archive.org/7/items/in.ernet.dli.2015.8169/2015.8169.American-Museum-Novitates-Vol-xxxvii-1922-23.pdf
 
8.  Ibid.
 
9.  Henry Fairfield Osborn, “Hesperopithecus, the Anthropoid Primate of Western Nebraska,”
Nautre, No. 2756, Vol. l10, pg. 283, August 26, 1922,
https://www.nature.com/articles/110281a0.pdf
 
10.  W. K. Gregory, “Hesperopithecus Apparently Not An Ape Nor A Man,”
Science, 66(1720),  pp. 579-581, December 16, 1927
https://sci-hub.se/10.1126/science.66.1720.579
 
11.  “Prosthennops,” Dinosaur Wiki
https://extinctanimal.fandom.com/wiki/Prosthennops
 
12.  John Rossomando, “The ACLU’s untold Stalinist heritage,” The Daily Caller, January 4, 2011
https://dailycaller.com/2011/01/04/the-aclu%E2%80%99s-untold-stalinist-heritage/
 
13.  Matthew Harwood, “Communist Dissonance: How An ACLU Founder Became An Apologist For Soviet Tyranny,” The Free Library, December 27, 2017
https://www.thefreelibrary.com/Communist+Dissonance:+HOW+AN+ACLU+FOUNDER+BECAME+AN+APOLOGIST+FOR...-a0519584229
 
 
 
Scripture references:
 
 
 
1.  Isaiah 14:11-21
 
2.  Ezekiel 28:12-19
 
3.  Genesis 1:26
 
4.  Genesis 2:16-17, 3:3
 
5.  Genesis 3:4-5
 
6.  Genesis 3:6
 
7.  Genesis 3:7
 
8.  Genesis 3:19
 
9.  Romans 5:12
 
10.  Romans 6:23
 
11.  Romans 8:19-22
 
12.  Matthew 4:8-9
 
13.  Luke 4:6-7
 
14.  John 12:31, 16:11
 
15.  Romans 3:23
 
16.  2 Corinthians 5:21
 
17.  Hebrews 4:15
 
18.  Hebrews 7:26-27
 
19.  Matthew 15:11, 17-20
 
20.  2 Timothy 3:16

21.  2 Peter 3:9
 
22.  Romans 4:25
 
23.  Romans 10:9
 
24.  2 Corinthians 5:18
 
25.  2 Corinthians 5:17
 
26.  Matthew 6:33
 
27.  John 14:6
 
28.  Revelation 21-22
 
29.  Matthew 6:25-33
 
30.  Matthew 10:28
 
31.  John 8:32
 
32.  1 Corinthians 15:51-55
 
33.  1 Thessalonians 4:13-18
 
34.  Revelation 20:10-15


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