Daniel 3:1a
"Nebuchadnezzar the king made an image of gold, whose height was threescore cubits, and the breadth thereof six cubits…"

Why do 60 seconds make a minute? Why does an hour have 60 minutes? After all, there are no natural reasons for this. A year is a natural time measurement, based on the sun's position in the sky. Well, believe it or not, there may be connection between the length of an hour and the golden statue built by King Nebuchadnezzar that Daniel and his friends refused to worship.

King Nebuchadnezzar's statue was 60 cubits high and 6 cubits wide. This is probably because the Babylonians used a counting system built on the number 60 and many of their buildings are measured in units or sub units of 60. By 1300 B.C. the Egyptians had divided the day into 12 hours of daylight and 12 hours of darkness. Under this system, the 12 daylight hours were longer in the summer than winter daylight hours. But this system worked reasonably well, since Egyptians kept track of the time with sundials. It is believed that this system, along with the base-60 method of counting was borrowed from the Babylonians. The designation of 12 hours appears to have come from the Babylonians, since 12 is a factor of 60. The system passed on to the Greeks, who gave it to the Romans. It is thought that by the 13th century A.D., when accurate mechanical clocks were invented, the hour was finally divided into 60 minutes.

That our method of accounting time goes back over 3,000 years illustrates that ancient man was no less advanced than modern man. Over 3,000 years ago, man was smart enough to invent a time accounting system that serves us well today.

Notes: Odyssey, Fall 1998, "Inventing Time, How on earth did we get a 60-minute hour?" p. 6.
Illustration: Engraving on an eye stone of onyx with an inscription of Nebuchadnezzar II. (PD)
Creation Moments, Inc., P.O. Box 839, Foley, MN 56329 www.creationmoments.com

Genesis 2:17
"But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die."

The consequences of man's sin have touched every part of the creation. After God made us, He declared His entire creation "very good," which by God's standards is perfect. But human rebellion against God set at work the forces of death throughout the creation. The gnat like jewel wasp is a good example of this. Under the microscope the jewel wasp lives up to its name, showing patterns of iridescent colors that change with the light. But that's about all there is about the jewel wasp that reflects its perfect creation.

The female jewel wasp, ready to lay her eggs, seeks out fly pupae, most readily found in the corpses of dead animals. There she injects the fly pupae with venom to kill them and then lays 20 to 40 eggs in each pupa. After one or two days, the eggs hatch and the hatchlings feed. The males, which have no wings, mate with the females and die where they were born. The females then fly off to repeat the cycle. Interestingly, the female has a special organ which controls whether the egg she lays is fertilized or not fertilized. Unfertilized eggs result in sons, while fertilized eggs result in daughters. This works to balance out the population.

Though the jewel wasp is beautiful and has amazing abilities, it has taken over the necessary job of corpse disposal. Thankfully, in Christ we can eagerly await that day when Christ, Who has overcome death, will return to give to all who believe in Him the blessings of eternal life.

Notes: Jack Werren, "Genetic Invasion of the Insect Body Snatchers", Natural History, 6/94, p. 36.
Photo: Courtesy of Muhammad Mahdi Karim. (GNU-FREE 1.2)
Creation Moments, Inc., P.O. Box 839, Foley, MN 56329 www.creationmoments.com

HarperCollins has apologized for omitting Israel from an atlas it published in early 2014 for sale in schools in the Middle East. The Collins Primary Geography Atlas for the Middle East is advertised as providing “in-depth coverage of the region and its issues,” including “its socio-economic development and inter-relationships with neighboring regions and the wider world.” On December 31, HarperCollins UK issued an apology stating, “HarperCollins regrets the omission of the name of Israel from their Collins Middle East Atlas. This product has now been removed from sale in all territories and all remaining stock will be pulped. HarperCollins sincerely apologizes for this omission and for any offence caused.” In 2013, Scholastic publishing house erased Israel from a map in the book Thea Stilton and the Blue Scarab Hunt. A lot of people would like to join HarperCollins and Scholastic in removing Israel from the map, but it won’t happen. According to Bible prophecy, Israel’s future holds more trouble before the dawn of Christ’s kingdom, but God put her back in the land and she isn't going away.

(Friday Church News Notes, January 9, 2015, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143)

Luke 12:24
"Consider the ravens: for they neither sow nor reap; which neither have storehouse nor barn; and God feedeth them: how much more are ye better than the fowls?"

Do you remember how much milk is in your refrigerator? Do you remember which leftovers you have in there, and where you put them? This kind of memory is called episodic memory. It allows you to travel back in time with your mind to remember the details of a past action. Until now, it was thought that only humans had this kind of memory, although some researchers were convinced that monkeys and rats had episodic memory.

Now, to researchers' surprise, several species of birds that store food have convincingly displayed episodic memory and more. The scrub jays' favorite food is waxmoth larvae. Researchers allowed some of the jays to learn that the larvae rot after a few days. The jays also like peanuts. Researchers gave scrub jays the larvae to hide in sand filled ice cube trays. After five days the jays were given peanuts to hide. Later, the birds were allowed to collect their buried treasures. The birds who had learned that the larvae rotted after a couple of days didn't even bother to collect them. They looked only for peanuts, and remembered where to look for them. The jays who didn't know that the larvae rotted looked for them first.

In another research project, Clark's nutcrackers remembered where they had buried food morsels nine months earlier. This is something evolutionary scientists never expected in what they consider animals that are lower forms of life than we are. God has seen to the food needs of these species by not only providing them with food, but also by giving them extraordinary episodic memory like ours.

Notes: S. Milius, "Birds can remember what, where, and when", Science News, v. 154, p. 181.
Creation Moments, Inc., P.O. Box 839, Foley, MN 56329 www.creationmoments.com

On Christmas morning, Astronaut Barry Wilmore took some beautiful photos of Israel from the International Space Station. I particularly like the one taken from the direction of the Sinai Peninsula looking north across the entire length of Israel, Lebanon, and Syria, to Turkey in the distance. [Click Here for larger image] A large portion of the Mediterranean is also visible. This shows the entire portion of land God gave to Abraham and his descendants, from Egypt to the Euphrates. It doesn’t look like much today, even after the wonderful transformation that modern Israel has wrought, but one day this land will be the joy of the whole earth. Mt. Zion will be the city of the great King, and the place of His nail-scarred feet will be glorified beyond imagination. “Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised in the city of our God, in the mountain of his holiness. Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, is mount Zion, on the sides of the north, the city of the great King. God is known in her palaces for a refuge” (Psalm 48:1-3).

(Friday Church News Notes, January 9, 2015, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143)

Proverbs 20:17
"Bread of deceit is sweet to a man; but afterwards his mouth shall be filled with gravel."

You may be aware that the common cuckoo does not feed or raise its own young. Instead, it lays its eggs in the nests of other birds. The adoptive parents feed and raise the young cuckoo as their own until the cuckoo gets larger than the foster parents and flies away without so much as a "thank you."

One common adoptive parent for the young cuckoos is the reed warbler, whose behavior pattern is quite different from the cuckoos. For example, reed warbler parents recognize hungry baby birds by their persistent calling. Cuckoos typically lay but one egg in an adoptive nest. Once this egg hatches, the young cuckoo throws the reed warbler eggs out of the nest. So how does one little baby cuckoo manage to convince the parent reed warbler that it is half a dozen reed warbler babies to be fed? Researchers have finally learned the amazing answer to that question. They say that the baby cuckoo fools its adoptive parents by sounding like as many as eight baby reed warblers. The act is so convincing that it gets all the food it wants.

Who teaches the baby cuckoos this trick? Certainly not the mother cuckoo who, incidentally, misses out on all the fulfillment of family life. The cuckoo reminds us that deceit robs us of good experiences in our lives. That's why it is comforting when our perfect God of truth tells us that He never changes.

Notes: L.H., "Cuckoos beg doggedly to trick hosts", Science News, 3/6/99, v. 155, p. 158.
Photo: Courtesy of Aaron Siirila. (CC-BY-SA 2.5)
Creation Moments, Inc., P.O. Box 839, Foley, MN 56329 www.creationmoments.com

According to a January 2 Wall Street Journal report entitled “Europe’s Empty Churches Go on Sale,” the secularization of England and Europe continues. “The Church of England closes some 20 churches a year, while approximately 200 Danish churches have been deemed nonviable, and the Catholic Church in Germany has shut down about 515 churches in the past ten years. In the Netherlands the situation is grimmer still, and Catholic leaders estimate that two-thirds of their 1,600 churches will be out of commission in a decade, with 700 of Holland’s Protestant churches expected to close within four years” (“Europe Sells Off Churches,” Breitbart, Jan. 5, 2015). Of course, Europe’s Christianity has long been unsound, being composed largely of apostate Roman Catholicism and dead Protestantism. England’s Christian history is somewhat better, with its more significant tradition of Baptist, Methodist, Brethren, and other “non-conformist” churches that were separate from the state church. But England is nearly equal to Europe today in the apostasy of its churches. This is a fulfillment of Bible prophecies such as 2 Timothy 4:3-4. Replacing the Catholic and Protestant forms of “Christianity” is a New Age spirituality. “Christians” and non-Christians are uniting by means of joint social-justice endeavors and shared consensus that the “kingdom of God” must be built by human hands. The hour is very late.

(Friday Church News Notes, January 9, 2015, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143)

The call for sexual license has been the heart and soul of rock music from its inception, and this is brazen rebellion against God’s holy law of marriage. The rock world is a sleazy, filthy world. From the 1950s until today, rock music has been filled with immorality. It is impossible for a Bible-believing Christian to watch the Grammys or to read Rolling Stone and other rock magazines or even to browse the Walmart pop music department or the pop music section of the Apple iTunes store without seeing the continual flaunting of nakedness and the glorification of sexual license. The lives of popular rock musicians have been filled with profanity, fornication, adultery, multiple marriages, homosexuality, lesbianism, alcohol abuse, drug abuse, tumult, and suicide. This fact alone should cause Bible-believing Christians to avoid rock as they would avoid the devil himself. The very idea of using this sensual music to worship a holy God is spiritual insanity. Consider some statements by the rock and rollers themselves in which they testify of the character of rock music: “Rock and roll is the darkness that enshrouds secret desires unfulfilled, and the appetite that shoves you forward to disrobe them” (Timothy White, Rock Lives, p. xvi). “Everyone takes it for granted that rock and roll is synonymous with sex” (Chris Stein, Blondie, People, May 21, 1979). “Rock music is sex. The big beat matches the body’s rhythms” (Frank Zappa of the Mothers of Invention, Life, June 28, 1968). “The sex is definitely in the music, and sex is in all aspects of the music” (Luke Campbell of 2 Live Crew). “Rock ’n’ roll is synonymous with sex and you can’t take that away from it. It just doesn't work” (Steven Tyler of Aerosmith, Entertainment Tonight, ABC, Dec. 10, 1987). “Rock ‘n’ roll is 99% sex” (John Oates of Hall & Oates, Circus, Jan. 31, 1976). “Pop music revolves around sexuality” (Adam Ant, From Rock to Rock, p. 93). “Perhaps my music is sexy ... but what music with a big beat isn't?” (Jimi Hendrix, Henderson, cited from his biography ‘Scuse Me While I Kiss the Sky, p. 117). “... rock music has one appeal only, a barbaric appeal to sexual desire” (Allan Bloom, The Closing of the American Mind, p. 73). “Rock ‘n’ roll is sex. Real rock ‘n’ roll isn't based on cerebral thoughts. It’s based on one’s lower nature” (Paul Stanley of KISS, cited from The Role of Rock, p. 44). “That’s what rock is all about—sex with a 100 megaton bomb, THE BEAT!” (Gene Simmons of Kiss, Entertainment Tonight, ABC, Dec. 10, 1987). “Rock ‘n’ roll is all sex. One hundred percent sex” (Debbie Harry of Blondie, cited by Carl Belz, “Television Shows and Rock Music,” The Age of Communication, Goodyear Publishing Company, 1974, p. 398). “We respond to the materiality of rock’s sounds, and the rock experience is essentially erotic” (Simon Frith, Sound Effects, New York: Pantheon Books, 1981, p. 164).

(Friday Church News Notes, January 9, 2015, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143)

“The problem of evil is the skeptic’s most frequently raised objection. He points to suffering in the world as ‘obvious proof’ that a loving all-powerful God cannot exist. How does the woolly bear caterpillar provide illustrative insight about the problem of pain? Of course pain has value. It serves as a warning system to protect the body from injury for one thing. But what about seemingly purposeless pain or horrible evil? Is that evidence that God cannot exist? A moth’s torturous struggle to exit a woolly bear cocoon looks painful and completely unnecessary. So much so that some cut cocoons open to ‘help’ the moth. But this removal of ‘suffering’ dooms the moth. It needs to struggle through the tiny aperture to develop strength and force fluid from its abdomen throughout its body. Without the struggle, it dies. Is it possible that likewise there is a beneficial purpose to human suffering and evil? Could removal of an ‘evil’ cancel a much greater good as illustrated by the moth? Just because we don’t understand God’s purpose for suffering does not mean that a good purpose does not exist. ‘My ways are higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts, declares the Lord’ (Isaiah 55:8-9). Demonstrating the purpose for some cases disproves the skeptic’s claim that there is no purpose to suffering and evil."

William Pelletier, Ph.D., is from Bible Science Guy, BibleScienceGuy.WordPress.com, March 8, 2010

Joshua 11:11
"And they smote all the souls that were therein with the edge of the sword, utterly destroying them: there was not any left to breathe: and he burnt Hazor with fire."

The Bible tells us that in conquering Canaan, Joshua destroyed the city of Hazor, which was the chief city in the area. Bible critics are usually skeptical of the claims made by the Bible, especially when it comes to Israel's conquest of Canaan. Excavations at Hazor began in 1955 and have gone on sporadically ever since. Archaeologists wanted to know when Hazor was destroyed and who it was that destroyed it. Doubting that Israel could have caused the destruction, some suggested Hazor was destroyed by the Philistines, by another Canaanite city, or the Egyptians.

New excavations during the 1990s revealed some interesting answers. The city was clearly destroyed by fire, as attested by the remaining ashes of the city, which are 3 feet deep in some places. This is consistent with Scripture's account. Because of the large amount of olive oil stored in large jars in the palace, the fire was especially bad there, reaching temperatures estimated at over two thousand degrees Fahrenheit. In addition, statues and idols were smashed, which is what the Israelites typically did in obedience to God. The idols destroyed were gods worshiped by the Philistines, Canaanites and Egyptians, making them unlikely as the destroyers. The pattern of destruction is the same as described by Scripture, leaving the only conclusion, say those closest to the excavations, that only Israel could have done this! It's good to see that even those who doubt the truth of Scripture can be convinced of its truth by history itself.

Notes: Amnon Ben-Tor and Maria Teresa Rubiato, "Did the Israelites Destroy the Canaanite City?", Biblical Archaeology Review, May/June 1999, p. 22.
Creation Moments, Inc., P.O. Box 839, Foley, MN 56329 www.creationmoments.com

One of the most effective ways to witness is to give your personal experience of being converted, of a changed life, of answer to prayer. Testimonies must be very effective, since they are modeled in the Bible (Acts 2:22-36; 4:8-12; 5:29-32; 9:10-22; 10:34-43; 13:16-38; 17:22-31; 26:1-23). We are commanded to be witnesses for Jesus (John 15:27; Acts 1:8). Peter used personal testimony (2 Pet. 1:16-19). John used it (1 Jn. 1:1-3). A testimony is accepted in courts of law. In fact, positive testimony can overthrow negative testimony. If two men are sent into the woods to gather mushrooms and one returns and says he saw no mushrooms while the other returns and says he saw mushrooms, which one will the people believe? Likewise, if one man says he has never experienced God while another says that He has, the positive testimony will be more memorable.

(Friday Church News Notes, January 2, 2015, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143)

Proverbs 12:25
"Heaviness in the heart of man maketh it stoop: but a good word maketh it glad."

The Bible frequently warns against anxiety. Modern science agrees that anxiety produces all sorts of negative changes in the body. A study on rats some years ago suggests that the damage done by anxiety begins practically at the onset of anxiety.

In the study, scientists used electrodes on some of the rats to simulate what happens in the brain when learning takes place. Then they put all the animals through a learning exercise. The rats were to learn to find and swim to a submerged platform in a water tank. Scientists found that those rats whose learning centers were overstimulated did much more poorly at learning than those who had not been overstimulated.

Learning normally takes place as new experiences strengthen connections between nerve cells. However, scientists concluded that over-stimulation prevents those connections from being strengthened. In practical terms, this means that there is a limit to how quickly we can absorb new information. In other words, the student who stays up all night cramming for final exams will end up less able to learn than the non anxious student who sleeps peacefully the night before finals.

So, if you have ever had times when you thought that your brain just couldn't absorb more information, you were probably right. So now we have yet another reason why God, in His Word, urges us not to be anxious, but to cast all our cares on Him. After all, if He sent His only Son to rescue you from sin, death and the devil, will He not also carry you through whatever makes you anxious?

Notes: J.T., "Rats have too much on their minds", Science News, 10/17/98, v. 154, p. 250.
Photo: Courtesy of Maxwell GS. (CC-BY-SA 2.0)
Creation Moments, Inc., P.O. Box 839, Foley, MN 56329 www.creationmoments.com

“I have been warning you and warning you: It takes just one judge, wanting to make history, to kick the props out from under our tottering societal embrace of human exceptionalism. In Argentina--next door to Brazil, where a judge was previously poised to grant a writ of habeas corpus to a chimp, when the animal died--a court has declared an orangutan a ‘person.’ From the Reuters story: ‘An orangutan held in an Argentine zoo can be freed and transferred to a sanctuary after a court recognized the ape as a “non-human person” unlawfully deprived of its freedom, local media reported on Sunday.’ ... One hopes this will be overturned on appeal. If it isn't, some will simply shrug. Others will laugh and roll their eyes. But indifference is the enemy of maintaining a righteous society and there is nothing funny about erasing human exceptionalism. ‘Breaking the species barrier,’ as Peter Singer put it in The Great Ape Project, will have a calamitous impact on human self-regard, and eventually, freedom. The animal rights agenda--completely unnecessary to protect animal welfare--won’t elevate animals to the level of humans, but will reduce us to the value of animals. And that means that the weakest and most vulnerable--the disparaged and the outcast--will eventually lose their inherent protections based simply on being human. I don’t have time here to make the argument again: It took an entire book to engage in my A Rat Is a Pig Is a Dog Is a Boy.”

“Court Declares,” Wesley J. Smith, Dec. 21, 2014, evolutionnews.org

Psalm 139:14
"I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well."

Most people know that the most important molecule in our bodies is DNA. But another large molecule called ATP is what keeps you and your DNA alive. ATP is the primary energy system within your body. It generates the electricity in your nerves, making it possible to move your muscles. ATP's operation should remove any doubt that it is a product of a wise and intelligent Creator.

ATP converts the energy in the food you eat to just the right level needed most of the time by your cells. When ATP delivers its energy within your cell, it loses a group of phosphate atoms and becomes ADP. ADP is immediately recycled back into ATP within your mitochondria to again deliver its energy. On the average, each ATP is recycled like this three times per second. Despite the fact that each of your one hundred trillion cells have one billion ATP molecules, you would die within a few minutes if anything interfered with this recycling. During the course of a day, your body will recycle 400 pounds of ATP! Within your mitochondria are what have been described as molecular "water wheels." When working at its peak, this "water wheel" spins as fast as 200 revolutions per second, generating 600 ATP molecules during that second!

The Psalmist was right when he praised God because he recognized that he was fearfully and wonderfully made.

Notes: Jerry Bergman, "ATP: The Perfect Energy Currency for the Cell", Creation Research Society Quarterly, 6/99, v. 36, p. 2.
Illustration: Courtesy of QuteMol. (CC-BY-SA 3.0)
Creation Moments, Inc., P.O. Box 839, Foley, MN 56329 www.creationmoments.com

According to a new Pew Research study, less than half of children in the U.S. currently live in a traditional family (referring to two married heterosexual parents in their first marriage) (“Less than half of U.S. kids,” PewResearch.org, Dec. 22, 2014). In 1960, 73% of children lived in traditional families. Many factors have combined to produce this frightful change, including no fault divorce, the rock & roll philosophy of “do your own thing,” the welfare state, the feminist movement, and above all, apostasy, spiritual compromise, and worldliness in the churches.





(Friday Church News Notes, January 2, 2015, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143)

Revelation 4:11
"Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created."

Are you shy or bold? Actually, if we are honest with ourselves, we must admit that we all have areas where we are bold, and other things we're shy about. A person can be bold in willing to fly in any aircraft, and at the same time terrified when crossing a high bridge.

Now scientists have surprised themselves by discovering that the same is true of sunfish, crabs and the octopus. Evolutionary scientists had always assumed that since "survival of the fittest" is the driving force behind evolution, evolution would favor boldness. But scientists found that when they introduced a novel object – a stick with a red tip – into a school of sunfish, about a quarter of the fish fled from it, while another quarter of the school boldly nipped at the stick. But those fish who were shy toward the stick were no more likely than any other individuals in the school to be shy when introduced to unfamiliar food. Those who nipped at the stick didn't prove any more likely to be bold when introduced to unfamiliar food.

Other researchers have concluded that studies show the same behavior in crabs and in the octopus. The researchers marveled that even so called simple animals showed individually unique traits just as humans do. As one said, "There must be something very special here."

There is something very special here. That these creatures have individual personalities says nothing about evolution. But it does remind us that all living things have but one divine Creator.

Notes: S. Milius, "Fish Nature: Sometimes shy, sometimes bold", Science News, 10/24/98, v. 154, p. 263.
Creation Moments, Inc., P.O. Box 839, Foley, MN 56329 www.creationmoments.com

A lesbian homosexual rights activist was appointed the new Dean for Religious Life at Stanford University this fall. Jane Shaw, an Episcopal priest who formerly served as the first openly lesbian dean of Grace Cathedral in San Francisco, said in a recent interview, “I don’t think church is to be more churchy. I think church is about, anyone should be welcome. I’m really interested in how you welcome many different kind of constituencies, certainly not convert them, not even necessarily to do religion all the time” (“First Person: A conversation with Jane Shaw,” Palo Alto Online, Dec. 22, 2014). According to the university press release, Shaw will “provide spiritual, religious and ethical leadership to the university community.” She is a founding member of the Chicago Consultation, which seeks “the full inclusion of LGBT people into the church and the worldwide Anglican Communion.” Dr. Shaw doesn’t want to “do religion all the time.” It’s too bad that “doing religion” is all that she has known, because there is no life-changing, eternity-changing power in any religion. Salvation is only found in a regenerating conversion experience through repentance and faith in the atonement of Jesus Christ. Having experienced this at age 23 and enjoyed the fruit of it for 40+ years, I highly recommend it to everyone.

(Friday Church News Notes, January 2, 2015, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143)

1 Corinthians 15:49
"And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly."

We have all heard that our ability to communicate our thoughts is one of the things that make humans unique. On the evolutionary scale of things, language was considered a sophisticated development. Supposedly, chickens didn't have any thoughts worth communicating anyway. Now, this view is being challenged by multiple studies of animal communication.

Most of the studies have looked to see if there is any pattern to various species' distress calls. For example, researchers have found vervet monkeys are very specific as they warn each other of danger. When the danger is a large monkey eating creature like a tiger, the danger call is "wrr." At this call, all the monkeys in earshot hurry up their trees. If an eagle threatens them, the alarm call is a grunt, causing the monkeys to dive into the underbrush. If the threat is a snake, the alarm call becomes chuttering sounds. This leads the monkeys to stand up and look around the ground for the threat. Researchers were amazed that specific sounds lead to specific actions, depending on the threat.

Other animals, like ring tailed lemurs, have been found to have their own pattern of communication. And yes, even the lowly chicken has a different warning call, depending on whether the threat is a raccoon on the ground or a hawk in the air!

So it's not our ability to communicate that makes us unique but the fact that we were created in God's image and we have been redeemed by Christ's blood.

Notes: Susan Milus, "The Science of EEEEEK!", Science News, 9/12/98.
Photo: Courtesy of SajjadF. (CC-BY-3.0 UNPORTED)
Creation Moments, Inc., P.O. Box 839, Foley, MN 56329 www.creationmoments.com

“A Canadian court has upheld the right of two Christians to distribute literature on university campuses despite dislike for their message, and has found the men not guilty of a mischief charge following their arrest this past spring. As previously reported, in April Peter LaBarbera, the director of the U.S.-based Christian ministry Americans for Truth about Homosexuality, and Canadian activist Bill Whatcott were placed in handcuffs and escorted off the University of Regina campus when they refused to leave and stop distributing pamphlets on homosexuality and abortion. ... When Whatcott and LaBarbera proceeded with their outreach, they were arrested, charged with mischief and later released. ... A trial was held in October, and on Monday, Judge Marylynne Beaton found both men not guilty, releasing a 27-page opinion that upheld the Christians’ right to disseminate their views under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. ‘I find that the purpose of Mr. Whatcott and Mr. LaBarbera attending the University of Regina was to communicate information and their actions were passive and non-aggressive,’ she wrote. ‘Therefore, notwithstanding that the university may be private property, I find that [the Charter] may be used as a defense to a finding of mischief by interfering with university property as they had the right to communicate in a peaceful manner on university property.’ Beaton also stated that the university’s reasoning to remove the men and stop them from sharing their message in order to ‘prevent students from feeling discriminated against’ was improper. ... LaBarbera says that he is pleased with the decision and hopes that it will be used as a precedent for other free speech matters in the country. ‘Hopefully, this ruling will open up the door to a resurgence of true tolerance and freedom in Canada,’ he wrote in an update on Tuesday. ‘The Left in Canada, as in the United States, does not want debate but rather control. They fear unfettered exposure to moral truth and compelling facts about homosexuality--hence their campaign to silence Christians and others who speak out against sexual immorality and gender rebellion.’”“

Canadian Court Upholds Right,” Christian News Network, Dec. 24, 2014

Russell Wilson is in place to become the National Football League’s (NFL) next $100 million quarterback. Over the last three seasons the superstar performer made a “measly” $2.2 million as a drafted player, but now he is eligible for a new contract and is predicted to be offered $131 million for a six-year deal. Of that, an estimated $64 million will be guaranteed, with the rest dependent on various bonus factors. Currently, there are five quarterbacks with guaranteed contracts of $54 million and above. Of course, this doesn't include advertising endorsements, etc. Peyton Manning, for example, makes an estimated $15 million a year in addition to his football contract. In 2013, the 100 top athletic endorsement earners made a collective $772 million. That athletes and other entertainers can make this type of money is a testament to the idolatry of modern society. The average person is wasting the fleeing hours of this life to vanities, oblivious that he will give account to God for every idle word, the believer at Christ’s Bema and the unbeliever at the Great White Throne.

(Friday Church News Notes, January 2, 2015, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143)

According to the London Telegraph, Britain’s National Health Service (NHS) will ask doctors to identify anyone who has put on weight and is at risk of diabetes so they can be placed under “close monitoring to ensure that they are eating healthily and exercising more” (“Doctors told to report patients who put on weight,” The Telegraph, Dec. 25, 2014). Businesses will be asked to reward employees who lose weight with shopping vouchers. It’s part of a new program to fight obesity, which has risen from 15% in 1993 to 25% today, and the NHS spends ten billion pounds a year treating diabetes. This type of thing is the natural product of nationalized healthcare. For the government to encourage weight loss is one thing, but government “monitoring” is another thing altogether. We are reminded that government largess always comes with government control. No nation has the resources to provide every type of modern medical care that every person needs, so care is rationed, and people’s lives are monitored for “the system’s sake.”

(Friday Church News Notes, January 2, 2015, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143)

Psalm 14:1
"The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good."

How did life get started? We all know that the Bible tells us that life got started when God created it. But we have also learned, perhaps in school, or reading the news, that evolutionists believe that life could have started in the distant past all by itself if the conditions were right. Perhaps you have read that scientists can form amino acids in the laboratory. Besides the fact that amino acids are a long way from life, the amino acids made in the laboratory are the wrong kind for life. The idea that life can form spontaneously under the right conditions places modern evolutionary scientists in a very precarious position.

One assumption of evolutionary scientists is that the early Earth had no oxygen. Oxygen destroys amino acids. Yet geologists tell us that oxidation even in the oldest rocks proves that the Earth has always had an oxygen atmosphere. Besides, if the Earth didn't have an oxygen atmosphere when the first amino acids formed, that means there was no ozone, a form of oxygen, to protect those amino acids. Amino acids are quickly destroyed by ultraviolet light from the sun. So, you see, with or without oxygen, amino acids can't begin to form. The truth is that the Bible offers the only sensible explanation for the origin of life. As the great scientist Louis Pasteur said, "Life can only come from life," while the Bible tells us that eternal life can only come from the eternal life-giver – Jesus Christ.

Notes: David Rosevear, "The Myth of Chemical Evolution", ICR, 7/99.
Creation Moments, Inc., P.O. Box 839, Foley, MN 56329 www.creationmoments.com