On the Jim Bakker Show in December 2015, Tom Horn promoted his book Zenith 2016 in which he predicts that the Antichrist will appear this year. Like many others, Horn specializes in speculative prophecy. To look at world events and see the “day approaching” (Hebrews 10:25) is biblical, but to engage in prophetic speculation about the timing of the Tribulation and Christ’s return is not biblical, though it does sell books and videos and draw traffic to web sites. Conveniently, Horn also sells survivalist “Prepper” materials, including gas masks and off-grid supplies. There are some fundamental biblical reasons why I know that all date setters and semi-date setters are wrong and not worth listening to. (Semi-date setters are those who present dates for prophetic events as strong possibilities rather than absolutes.)

First, Christ said that no man knows the day of His return (Mat. 24:36; Mark 13:32). If it is not possible to know the day of Christ’s return, then it is not possible to know the time of the Antichrist’s appearance, since Christ’s return can be prophetically dated from that event.

Second, the Bible says that “he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way” (2 Th. 2:7). The context is the devil’s mystery of iniquity program to put the Antichrist on the throne of the world, and the One who restrains this program is God the Holy Spirit. Paul is saying that the Spirit of God will restrain the forces of evil until He is ready to allow the final events to proceed to fulfillment. The times are always in God’s hands (Dan. 2:21). 2 Thessalonians 2:7 has some wonderful implications. For one, regardless of how brightly the prophetic signs glow, we can never know when the church age will end and Daniel’s Seventieth Week will begin. Another implication of 2 Thessalonians 2:7 is that God’s people never have to get into a fret about the times (Psalm 37:1-4).

​Third, Jesus taught His people to focus on the Great Commission, not on speculative prophecy (Acts 1:6-8). This doesn’t mean that the study of prophecy is without value. In fact, a large part of Scripture consists of prophecy, and it has great value. Acts 1:6-8 is a warning that constant speculation about the “times and seasons” is the wrong emphasis, at best.

These three biblical truths have helped me through the years. Not only have they enabled me to reject every date setter but also to avoid being swept up in various hysterias, such as Y2K. Jim Bakker is presenting himself these days as a “seer.” He was called this by Tom Horn in December, and he has been presenting his own dreams as divine revelations and warnings for America, but he has a long history of being full of baloney. In 1989, Bakker went to prison for defrauding the followers of his PTL Club empire out of $158 million. Bakker also committed adultery with his secretary and paid more than a quarter of a million dollars in an attempt to hush up the matter. Bakker’s wife and co-host of the PTL Club, Tammy Faye, divorced Jim while he was in prison and married Roe Messner, an old family friend whose company helped build PTL’s resort complex. After his imprisonment, Bakker got a new wife. Through Christ’s blood, God forgives sin that is confessed and repented of by true and sincere believers, but preachers who have brought this level of public reproach upon the cause of Jesus Christ should be content to keep their mouths shut and to stay out of the ministry, even if they are sound in doctrine, which Bakker certainly isn’t.

(Friday Church News Notes, January 29, 2016, www.wayoflife.org, [email protected], 866-295-4143)

Liberty University and Thomas Road Baptist Church have been on the “slippery slope” of compromise for decades. They have been building dangerous bridges ever since Jerry Falwell turned his back on separatism and strict obedience to God’s Word for the sake of pragmatism (bigness, influence, prestige, political power, etc.). They are now yoking together with emerging preachers. Rich Wilkerson Jr., pastor of Vous Church near Miami, spoke at Liberty’s chapel service on January 20, and Erwin McManus, pastor of Mosaic of Los Angeles, is scheduled to speak on February 3. Wilkerson is so cool that he is close friends with foul-mouthed, blasphemous rapper Kanye West, who appeared as a thorn-crowned Jesus on the cover of Rolling Stone in 2006. His 2013 album was titled Yeezus, which is a play on West’s nickname Yeezy and the name Jesus. The cover art depicts West being crowned king by angels. In the song “I Am a God,” he raps, “I just talked to Jesus/ and he said, ‘What up, Yeezus?’/ ... I know He the Most High/ But I am a close high/ ... I am a god.” The Book of Zeezus: A Bible for the Modern Day, published in 2015, is a version of the book of Genesis that replaces every mention of God with the rapper’s name. Wilkerson performed West’s marriage to pop icon and Playboy model Kim Karshashian. Wilkerson says he collaborates with West on a number of projects, including the “Yeezus Tour.” In a promotional video for his reality show Rich in Faith, Wilkerson says, “I come from a different perspective. I don’t think people are interested in a bunch of religion, like tell me what I can and can’t do. But I think people are interested in having a relationship with a higher power.” Wilkerson doesn’t warn about sin and judgment. He says, “I don’t know who’s going to Hell. I just know that followers of Jesus are going to Heaven--that’s what the Bible says. My message isn’t ever who’s going where” (“Liberty University Welcomes Reality Show ‘Pastor,’” ChristianNews.net, Jan. 20, 2016). Wilkerson doesn’t explain how his “Jesus” differs from the false christs that Paul warns about (2 Cor. 11:1-4). Erwin McManus is author of The Barbarian Way, in which he urges Christians to reject rules and boundaries. As “evidence” he shows his complete disregard for sound principles of biblical interpretation by citing John the Baptist’s statement in Matthew 3:11 that Jesus would “baptize us in both Spirit and fire.” McManus’s amazing interpretation is that “Barbarians are guided by the wind of God and ignited by the fire of God” and that “the way of the barbarian can be found only by listening to the voice of the Spirit” (The Barbarian Way, p. 13). This is blind mysticism divorced from the protection of “sola Scriptura,” but it has nothing to do with what John was teaching in this passage. In fact, the baptism with fire is interpreted by John himself in the very next verse as eternal judgment, something that the emerging guys don’t talk much about. Mosaic is one of the many Southern Baptist Churches that have been taken into an emerging direction by a new generation of worldly cool pastors. Jerry Falwell Jr., pastor of Thomas Road and head of Liberty University, would pretend that his associations aren’t indicative of his own beliefs and that he has liberty in such matters, but the Word of God exposes this lie. “Can two walk together, except they be agreed?” (Amos 3:3), and, “Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them” (Romans 16:17), and, “Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners” (1 Corinthians 15:33).

(Friday Church News Notes, January 29, 2016, www.wayoflife.org, [email protected], 866-295-4143)

1 John 4:6

​In a recent study of over 4,000 children in the United Kingdom and more than 1,420 children in the United States, researchers concluded that bullied children have similar or worse mental health problems later in life than those who have suffered emotional or even physical abuse.

Yes, bullying is a very serious issue, and it's not just other kids who are doing the bullying. Sometimes it's a teacher who pounds his desk and shouts, "I've been a science teacher for over 30 years, and I tell you that evolution is not a hypothesis or even a theory – it's a fact!" Most students are reluctant to say anything for fear of receiving a failing grade. Besides, their teachers have studied such matters far longer than they have, so what right do they have to say anything?

But here's another way of looking at this. By rejecting the Bible as the authoritative source of knowledge, such teachers have a distorted understanding of the world around them. And the longer they look through this distorted "lens", the more hardened they become in their error.

So, Christian students, don't let yourself be silenced by arrogant science teachers. Remember that their long years of study proves nothing. After all, the Bible – unlike science textbooks – doesn't need to be constantly updated and revised. The Bible's truths are true for all time. So the longer you study the Bible – the reliable source of knowledge and wisdom – the greater your understanding of the world around you will be.

Notes: "Back off, bullies!" ScienceNews for Students, 5/12/15. Steve Schwartz, "We're Not Worthy! We're Not Worthy!" 10/26/09,
Creation Moments, Inc., P.O. Box 839, Foley, MN 56329 www.creationmoments.com

​As the frontline disciplers in their children’s lives, Christian parents should teach their children how to act in church and how to profit from church attendance. As soon as the children are old enough (and that is much younger than many think), parents should teach children to listen to sermons and Bible lessons instead of playing games and disturbing other people. Children can learn how to take notes, how to listen for something helpful for their own lives, how to jot down questions and seek answers. When they are old enough to read, the children should be taught to open the hymnbook and sing along with the congregation. It is dishonoring to God for older children to play around and daydream or sleep during the services. The parents should help them understand the words to the hymns and the meaning so they can sing with understanding (Psa. 47:7). I find it very sad to see reading-age children who are allowed to ignore the singing and sermons in church. This is a sin against the children, but many parents simply aren’t tuned into this. We would also warn that the parents should not be overbearing and harsh in these things so that the Bible and church and family altar, etc., become an unpleasant chore in the child’s life. Serving the Lord should not be a burdensome thing, because Christ is wonderful and His burden is light. See Matthew 28:28-30. Parents must strive to teach the children that serving the Lord is a joyful, thrilling thing, and they do that first of all by what they model in their own lives.



(Friday Church News Notes, January 22, 2016, www.wayoflife.org, [email protected], 866-295-4143)

Genesis 1:24

​On a previous Creation Moments program, we told you about the elephant's trunk with its 40,000 muscles. This is 70 times the number of muscles in your entire body! And that amazing trunk can bulldoze a tree or pick up a pin.

But why does an elephant have a trunk in the first place? For the answer to that question, we looked in a very old book called Natural Theology. It was written by William Paley in 1802. Yes, that's the same William Paley who came up with the famous analogy of a person who finds a watch and deduces that the watch must have had a watchmaker.

According to Paley, "The short unbending neck of the elephant is compensated by the length and flexibility of his proboscis," or trunk. "He could not have reached the ground without it." In other words, the elephant needed such a trunk to reach food and water. But, then, a person could ask why does the elephant have such a short and unbending neck? Paley answers that he needed such a neck to support such a heavy head!

Obviously, the elephant was given its trunk by a very wise Creator. As Paley so well pointed out, if the elephant had waited millions of years for his trunk to grow, "how was the animal to subsist in the meantime… until the prolongation of its snout was completed?" It is a question that evolutionists today are still unable to answer.

Notes: William Paley, DD, Natural Theology, 1809, p. 140. (The Works of William Paley, Ward Lock & Co.). Creation Moments, Inc., P.O. Box 839, Foley, MN 56329 www.creationmoments.com

“Professor Dr. Friedrich Karl Ewert is a retired geologist and data computation expert. He has painstakingly examined and tabulated all NASA GISS’s temperature data series, taken from 1153 stations and going back to 1881. His conclusion: that if you look at the raw data, as opposed to NASA’s revisions, you’ll find that since 1940 the planet has been cooling, not warming. According to Günter Ederer, the German journalist who has reported on Ewert’s findings: ‘From the publicly available data, Ewert made an unbelievable discovery: Between the years 2010 and 2012 the data measured since 1881 were altered so that they showed a significant warming, especially after 1950. […] A comparison of the data from 2010 with the data of 2012 shows that NASA-GISS had altered its own datasets so that especially after WWII a clear warming appears--although it never existed.’ Apart from Australia, the planet has in fact been on a cooling trend ... But the activist scientists at NASA GISS – initially led by James Hansen, later by Gavin Schmidt – wanted the records they are in charge of maintaining to show warming not cooling, so they began systematically adjusting the data for various spurious reasons using ten different methods. ... Ewert’s findings echo that of US meteorologists Joseph D’Aleo and Anthony Watts who examined 6,000 NASA weather stations and found a host of irregularities both with the way they were sited and how the raw data had been adjusted to reflect such influences as the Urban Heat Island effect. Britain’s Paul Homewood is also on NASA GISS’s case. He shows the shocking extent of the adjustments they have made to a temperature record in Brazil which has been altered so that a cooling trend becomes a warming trend.”

“German Professor: NASA has fiddled climate data,” Brietbart, Nov. 24, 2015

Romans 1:20

Though Creation Moments doesn't agree with everything that Christian author and apologist Eric Metaxas believes about origins, we have to congratulate him on his excellent op-ed piece that appeared in The Wall Street Journal – "Science Increasingly Makes the Case for God."

Metaxas pointed out, "Today there are more than 200 known parameters necessary for a planet to support life – every single one of which must be perfectly met, or the whole thing falls apart."

He followed that up by asking such pertinent questions as: "Can every one of those many parameters have been perfect by accident?" And: "Doesn't assuming that an intelligence created these perfect conditions require far less faith than believing that a life-sustaining Earth just happened to beat the inconceivable odds to come into being?"

Naturally, an op-ed piece like this was sure to anger atheists and evolutionists. One prominent atheist – Lawrence Krauss – wrote a letter to the editor stating what we've heard many times before: "The appearance of design of life on Earth is overwhelming, but we now understand, thanks to Charles Darwin, that the appearance of design is not the same as design."

Following in Richard Dawkins' footsteps, Krauss discards what he himself calls the "overwhelming" evidence of design. But atheists like Krauss and Dawkins must toss out this evidence only because their godless worldview demands it. Thanks but no thanks. Creationists prefer real science over the atheistic philosophy of evolutionism. Things that appear to be designed really were designed!

Notes: Eric Metaxas, "Science Increasingly Makes the Case for God," The Wall Street Journal, 12/26/14, p. A11.
Creation Moments, Inc., P.O. Box 839, Foley, MN 56329 www.creationmoments.com

Russia has completed a new national military facility that “can take control of the entire country in case of war” (“Russia launches ‘wartime government’ HQ,” RT.com, Russia’s 24/7 English news channel, Dec. 1, 2014). The new National Defense Control Center (NDCC) is staffed round-the-clock by more than 1,000 of Russia’s best officers. It monitors all of Russia’s military assets, including the state of oil refineries and weather conditions, and controls the ballistic missile system and the deployment of nuclear weapons. At its heart is a new computer system “with state-of-art data encryption and multiple backup sites.” Russia is engaged in a dramatic upgrade of its military in other ways, as well. It could be that the old Israel-hating Gog is unknowingly preparing for her big part in prophecy! “And thou shalt come up against my people of Israel, as a cloud to cover the land; it shall be in the latter days, and I will bring thee against my land, that the heathen may know me, when I shall be sanctified in thee, O Gog, before their eyes” (Ezekiel 38:16).

(Friday Church News Notes, January 22, 2016, www.wayoflife.org, [email protected], 866-295-4143)

Genesis 1:28

​If you held a salpa maggiore in one hand and looked at it closely, what you would see is … your hand! That's because this strange marine invertebrate is transparent! Put it back in the water, and it would almost completely disappear. A fisherman who found one floating near the top of the water said, "It felt scaly and was quite firm, almost jelly like, and you couldn't see anything inside aside from this orange little blob inside it."

Paul Cox, director of conservation and communication at the National Marine Aquarium, said: "The salp is barrel-shaped and moves by contracting, pumping water through its gelatinous body. It strains the water through its internal feeding filters, feeding on phytoplankton from the upper sunlit layer of the ocean. They have an interesting life-cycle with alternate generations existing as solitary individuals or groups forming long chains."

Getting back to its transparency, Cox observed, "In common with other defenseless animals that occupy open water … the translucence presumably provides some protection from predation. Being see-through is a pretty good camouflage in water."

Indeed it is. And the salpa maggiore couldn't have acquired such camouflage through mutations no matter how many billions of years you allow for evolution to take place. In the hands of an all-powerful Creator, however, such remarkable camouflage is no problem at all. In fact, God specializes in creating animals and plants that shut the mouths of evolutionists and open the mouths of His followers with words of praise!

Notes: Leon Watson, "Now that's a jelly fish! Stunned fisherman catches wobbly shrimp-like creature that's completely see-through," DailyMail.com, 1/21/14. Photo: (Fair Use).
​​Creation Moments, Inc., P.O. Box 839, Foley, MN 56329 www.creationmoments.com

Most of the fathers of modern science were Christians of some sort and believed in the God of the Bible, many of them believed in a six-day creation, but it should also be noted that in some cases the seeds were sown in the 17th century and earlier for the apostasy that came in the 19th century in the form of theological liberalism and Darwinian evolution. Some of the very men who were influenced by a biblical worldview and did a lot of good in the field of science also entertained incipient strains of skepticism that eventually bore bitter fruit. This reminds us of the truth of Galatians 5:9, “A little leaven leaventh the whole lump.” Consider, for example, Roger Bacon, who is known as the father of the scientific method. A Roman Catholic friar, he wrote against atheism, rejected Aristotle’s philosophy which was promoted in English universities of that day, believed in a six-day creation, and said that human knowledge should redound to the glory of God. But he also set the stage for a rationalistic approach to science with his method of investigation in that he taught that man must depend upon his own investigations rather than any other authority, including divine revelation. He said it is “folly” to “build a system of natural philosophy on the first chapter of Genesis, the book of Job, and other parts of Scripture; seeking thus the dead amongst the living” (Bacon, Novum Organum). Bacon encouraged scientists to throw away all prior certainties, which would include the Bible, as well. ‘If a man will begin with certainties, he shall end in doubts; but if he will be content to begin with doubts, he shall end in certainties” (Ibid.). This is a denial of the superiority of God’s Word over human observation and a blatant rejection of the necessity of faith (Hebrews 11:6). Bacon held the great error of compartmentalizing religion and science. He said that the Bible should be trusted in matters of the spirit, but science in matters of the physical world, ignoring the fact that the Bible has a lot to say about the physical world, such as how it originated (Genesis 1:1) and how it consists and is upheld (Colossians 1:17; Hebrews 1:3). As Carl Wieland and Jonathan Sarfarti observe, “Bacon’s stance paved the way, first, for old-Earth geologists to reject the Flood and Biblical chronology in Genesis 11. And then, for Darwin to undermine the Bible completely, since Darwin expressly applied the Baconian method to biology” (Wieland and Sarfati, “Culture Wars: Bacon vs. Ham, Part 1,” creation.com).

(Friday Church News Notes, January 22, 2016, www.wayoflife.org, [email protected], 866-295-4143)

Exodus 10:22

​In the early 19th century, a papyrus was found in Egypt – called the Ipuwer papyrus – that appears to be an actual eyewitness account of the events recorded in the book of Exodus. Of course, nearly all secular archaeologists attempted to say the papyrus does not describe these events. After all, their worldview is opposed to the historic reliability of the Bible.

But Rabbi Mordechai Becher, senior lecturer for the Gateways Organization, points out on his webpage that "the papyrus accurately describes violent upheavals in Egypt, starvation, drought, escape of slaves (with the wealth of the Egyptians), and death throughout the land." He goes on to write, "The papyrus was written by an Egyptian named Ipuwer and appears to be an eyewitness account of the effects of the Exodus plagues from the perspective of an average Egyptian."

Here are just a few eyewitness observations from the Ipuwer papyrus that match the events in the book of Exodus: plague is throughout the land, the river (Nile) becomes blood and men thirst for water, grain has perished on every side, the hearts of animals weep while cattle moan, the land is without light, the children of princes have died, and precious metals and stones are "fastened on the neck of female slaves."

In all, Rabbi Becher points out 18 similarities where the Ipuwer papyrus lines up with the Scriptures. For us, the evidence couldn't be more convincing. The events described in the book of Exodus – like the events recorded in Genesis – are historically accurate.

Notes: Rabbi Mordechai Becher, "The Ten Plagues Live from Egypt", http://ohr.edu/838.
​Creation Moments, Inc., P.O. Box 839, Foley, MN 56329 www.creationmoments.com

Printing by moveable type was invented in 1452, and by 1500 an estimated 20 million books and materials had been printed (Christopher Anderson, Annals of the English Bible, I, p. lx). The publication of Bibles exploded. The first printed book was a complete Latin Bible in 1455. By 1520, no less than 199 editions of the entire Bible had appeared, and this was just the bare beginning of the Bible printing revolution. Suddenly, for the first time in church history, common people could afford to own a Bible and they were eager to do so. The printing press was little used by Muslims, though. According to Islam, Arabic is the holy language and the translation of the Quran is discouraged. Historically, Muslim nations have not been friends of printing. Consider the Ottoman Empire (1299-1923). The Ottomans “were no friends to public education, independent news media and the printed word” (“Arab Media: The Web 2.0 Revolution,” Carnegie Reporter, Fall 2008). Books and printed matter were unknown in Turkish and Arabic before the end of the 18th century, and prior to 1840, “an average of only eleven books a year were published in the capital of Istanbul” (Ibid.). Jews, Greeks, and Armenians had printing presses in the Ottoman Empire, but they were not allowed to print materials in Turkish or Arabic. In 1900, 90% of Muslims were illiterate. In 2008, about 35% of Muslims (50% of women) were still illiterate. Only 350 books are translated into Arabic annually. Saudi Arabia did not have a high school until after 1930 and still has only 250 public libraries to serve 26 million people (and until 2006, females were not allowed to hold readers cards). There are about 550 universities among the 57 Muslim nations of the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) compared with more than 5,700 in the U.S. and 8,400 in India.

(Friday Church News Notes, January 22, 2016, www.wayoflife.org, [email protected], 866-295-4143)

According to a new report, 83% of Israeli children aged 8-15 are in possession of a smartphone, and 93% use their mobile devices for at least four hours every day (“Israeli kids and their smartphones,” Israel Today, Jan. 8, 2016). Half say they are online within 15 minutes after waking, “connecting with friends via social networks like Facebook, Whatsapp, Instagram, and Snapchat.” Half also say they receive in excess of 100 Whatsapp messages daily. Other surveys show that Snapchat is used by 60% of smartphone users aged 13-34. It is used to send a photo, video, or drawing that disappears in 1-10 seconds (user determined). The messages are called “snaps” and over a billion are sent daily. “It is popular for ‘teasing/sexting’ as teens think the pic cannot be saved.” Our youth discipleship course The Mobile Phone and the Christian Home and Church deals extensively with electronic media.

(Friday Church News Notes, January 22, 2016, www.wayoflife.org, [email protected], 866-295-4143)

The recent death of rock star David Bowie reminds us of the entertainment industry’s audacity at mocking God and thumbing its nose at God’s holy laws, even while holding out hope of heaven. The last Twitter account that Bowie followed before his death of cancer at age 69 was “God,” the account of the blasphemous Broadway play An Act of God. Vanity Fair called it “a sinfully funny divine comedy,” while Hollywood Reporter called it “wickedly funny and irreverent.” BBC observed that Bowie’s “fans are pleased he followed God and think it was a genius move” (“The last person David Bowie followed on Twitter was God,” BBC Newsbeat, Jan. 12, 2016). Fans pretending to be God tweeted, “David Bowie was the God I always wanted to be,” and, “Hanging out with David Bowie is even cooler than I thought it would be.” An Italian petition to God with more than 4,800 signatures protested David Bowie’s death. Bowie is extolled for his “groundbreaking firsts,” but these “firsts” were largely attempts to influence society to reject God’s laws. He was one of the first to promote androgyny with his “sexually ambiguous” Ziggy character in 1972. The irreverent Bowie enjoyed God’s merciful blessings even while shaking his fist at God, but in one of his last songs, “Lazarus,” Bowie sang, “Look up here, I’m in heaven.” It was probably done tongue in cheek, but he doubtless has now learned that God isn’t a joke and that no one goes to God’s heaven without being born again, as Jesus Christ so plainly stated in John 3:3. Comedian Jimmy Fallon delivered a sober tribute to Bowie, concluding with, “I’m just going to email you, David Bowie, and if you can check your email in space or heaven or wherever you are, you don’t have to email me back. ... Just read it and enjoy what I put in there.” This crowd intends to create moral anarchy on earth, then move on to heaven to continue its godless career. It wins them accolades in this wicked world, but ultimately it is a foolish and losing proposition. God will have the last laugh. “The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD, and against his anointed, saying, Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us. He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision” (Psalm 2:2-4).

(Friday Church News Notes, January 22, 2016, www.wayoflife.org, [email protected], 866-295-4143)

1 Kings 4:30

​"Have you ever heard the claim 'all smart people are atheists', or maybe its inverse: 'people who believe in God are dumb'?" So begins a column at Examiner.com by a writer who decided to see if this is true by taking a closer look at the ten highest IQs ever recorded. His conclusion is that the most intelligent people on the planet believe in God.

Of course, we don't have time today to tell you about all 10, but we will give you a glimpse into the amazing mind of Andrew Magdy Kamal. Just before he turned 17, Andrew was found to have the highest IQ ever recorded – 231.734. According to the columnist, Andrew "is a staunch conservative and a member of the Republican Tea Party. He is also the founder of the Coptic Orthodox Messianicans Group." Andrew said he "hopes to use his talents and intelligence to spread the news of Messiah Yeshua (Jesus Christ) his hero."

The highest IQ ever recorded for an adult in the "advanced IQ test" was attained by Abdessellam Jelloul. He scored an adult IQ of 198. When asked about his religious beliefs, he replied that he "believes in God, a Supreme Architect of the universe."

Obviously, there are intelligent people who do and who don't believe in God. In the end, it is important to remember that it is not one's intellect that can put a person into a right relationship with the God of the universe. It is faith in Jesus Christ.

Notes: S. Williams, "Of 10 highest IQ's on earth, at least 8 are Theists, at least 6 are Christians," Examiner.com, 7/10/14.
​Creation Moments, Inc., P.O. Box 839, Foley, MN 56329 www.creationmoments.com

1 Samuel 4:21

​Some of you listening to me today are too young to remember the glory days of NASA – when the U.S. space agency put a man into Earth orbit and, a few years later, on the surface of the moon. NASA had brains and guts in those days – as evidenced by the remarkable story of Apollo 13 … or when astronauts weren't afraid to read passages from Scripture in their transmissions from space.

All of that has changed. One of NASA's main missions now is helping Muslims feel better about their scientific accomplishments. NASA is also trying to find life on other planets to prove that evolution can happen anywhere. And the space agency is spending millions of taxpayer dollars to prove that man-made global warming is real.

So how are these missions working out? Well, a few years ago a NASA rocket, carrying a satellite called Glory, was launched, only to plummet a few minutes later into the Pacific Ocean. How sad, considering that its mission was to gather data supporting man-made global warming!

According to the Associated Press, the Glory represented "the second-straight blow to NASA's weakened environmental monitoring program. The same thing happened to another climate-monitoring satellite [two years earlier] with the same type of rocket." A NASA official noted that "the loss of Glory will mostly hurt projections and modeling of future climate change."

Truth be told, the glory departed long ago when NASA became focused on missions supporting such pseudo-sciences as man-made global warming and evolution.

Notes: Steve Schwartz, "NASA – The Glory Has Departed," 3/9/11. www.creationmoments.com/resources/blog/201103/nasa-%E2%80%93-glory-has-departed. Creation Moments, Inc., P.O. Box 839, Foley, MN 56329 www.creationmoments.com

“It is now long ago that I learned this lesson from General Samuel Chapman Armstrong, and resolved that I would permit no man, no matter what his color might be, to narrow and degrade my soul by making me hate him. With God’s help, I believe that I have completely rid myself of any ill feeling toward the Southern white man for any wrong that he may have inflicted upon my race. I am made to feel just as happy now when I am rendering service to Southern white men as when the service is rendered to a member of my own race. I pity from the bottom of my heart any individual who is so unfortunate as to get into the habit of holding race prejudice.”




Up from Slavery, Booker T. Washington (1901)

Esther 1:11

​In Italian, its name means beautiful woman. The belladonna plant first received this name because it was used to make eye-drops for women in ancient Rome. Belladonna made the women appear more seductive by dilating the pupils of their eyes.

Today, the plant is often called the deadly nightshade, and it certainly lives up to that name. The deadly nightshade is one of the most poisonous plants known. It is particularly dangerous because its glistening black berries are tempting to children. But they can also be fatal to an adult who foolishly consumes as few as two of the berries. Ingesting even one leaf can kill an adult, but the roots are the deadliest part of all.

The deadly nightshade is one of a group of hallucinogenic plants that are known to produce a sensation of flight. According to the book Secrets of the Natural World, "Witches were thought to have used [the] plants in their potions, which may explain why witches are typically portrayed flying through the night sky."

Creation Moments believes that the deadly nightshade represents a collaboration of sorts between God and Adam. God originally created the plant with berries that could be eaten without harm. After all, God called His creation "very good." But after Adam took that fateful bite of the forbidden fruit, God cursed the ground. This is when we believe that the chemistry of the harmless belladonna was changed into a plant that can kill with one bite.

Notes: Secrets of the Natural World (Reader's Digest/Dorling Kindersley, 1993), p. 122. Photo: Courtesy of Karelj. (CC-BY-SA 3.0). Creation Moments, Inc., P.O. Box 839, Foley, MN 56329 www.creationmoments.com

“According to brand new rules that were just issued by the New York City Commission on Human Rights, you could potentially be fined $250,000 if you purposely offend someone that is transgender. This includes such offenses as calling a transgender woman ‘him’ when she wants to be called ‘her,’ or not allowing a transgender woman to use the women’s bathroom. These guidelines are particularly focused on the behavior of landlords, employers and businesses, but they will undoubtedly create a chilling effect on speech all throughout New York City. Needless to say, these new regulations will result in a flood of litigation as transgender individuals exercise their new ‘rights.’ According to the New York City Commission on Human Rights, employers must now use ‘an individual’s preferred name, pronoun and title’ when referring to that person. And some of the pronouns that were given as examples by the Commission were only recently introduced to the English language and many people don’t even know how to pronounce them. The following comes from the new “guidelines”: ‘The NYCHRL requires employers and covered entities to use an individual’s preferred name, pronoun and title (e.g., Ms./Mrs.) regardless of the individual’s sex assigned at birth, anatomy, gender, medical history, appearance, or the sex indicated on the individual’s identification. Most individuals and many transgender people use female or male pronouns and titles. Some transgender and gender non-conforming people prefer to use pronouns other than he/him/his or she/her/hers, such as they/them/theirs or ze/hir. All facilities in New York City will now also be required to allow transgender individuals to use whatever bathrooms and locker rooms they prefer.’ ... So what would stop some sick pervert from pretending to be transgender just so that he can go into the women’s locker room at the gym? Presumably nothing. ... This is just another example of our society’s growing obsession with political correctness. And if you think that it is bad now, just wait until the next generation takes over. Our colleges and universities have become political correctness indoctrination centers. One survey found that 62 percent of our colleges and universities have implemented ‘speech codes’ that ‘severely departed from First Amendment standards,’ and students are going to ridiculous extremes to try to insulate themselves from any language that could possibly be considered ‘racist,’ ‘sexist’ or threatening.”

​“You Could Be Fined $250,000,” InfoWars.com, Dec. 29, 2015

Psalm 136:25-26

​Judging from the things many of us choose to eat, you'd be right in thinking that we sometimes don't use our brains when it comes to making healthy food choices. But a tiny multicellular animal, which scientists call "Trix" for short, doesn't use its brain at all at mealtime. In fact, it doesn't have a brain or a single nerve cell in its whole millimeter-sized body.

So how is it that these tiny, brainless creatures are found worldwide, crawling across shallow seafloors on a belly covered in hairlike cilia in search of algae? Scientists have recently discovered that Trix have a whole bag of tricks that enable them to seek out algae with surprising sophistication.

According to an article in LiveScience, when scientists used light and electron microscopy to look up close at Trix, they found two previously unknown cell types, giving Trix a total of six body cell types in all. By contrast, humans have hundreds of different cell types. Scientists think that one of these new cell types – which they call "crystal cells" – allows Trix to sense their environment, thus enabling it to find its lunch on the seafloor.

Though scientists now know how Trix find food, they don't have a clue how they came to have these crystal cells to begin with. And they are utterly incapable of explaining how Trix survived before they supposedly "evolved" those cells. To creationists, however, it's crystal clear that God created this creature with all the cell types it needed to survive.

Notes: N. Weiler, "No Organs, No Problem: Weird Animal Hunts Without Nerves or Muscles," LiveScience, 9/2/15. Photo: Credit: Carolyn Smith. Creation Moments, Inc., P.O. Box 839, Foley, MN 56329 www.creationmoments.com

“Recently, I reported exciting news about a series of Hebrew-language testimonies promoting faith in Jesus by Messianic Jews on the front page of the popular Walla! News, one of Israel’s largest news corporations. With sadness, I must now report that the video series about Jesus has been cancelled, and all references to Jesus and Messianic Jews have been removed from the site. Walla! had taken a bold and calculated risk broadcasting a Messianic campaign that promotes interest in Jesus to their massive Israeli audience. We expected that there would be serious resistance to the unprecedented promotional by Messianic Jews on mainstream Israeli media. ... According to Erez Soref, president of the Israel College of the Bible and one of the project’s initiators, here’s what happened: ‘Walla! News received intense threats from some within the Ultra-Orthodox community, which banded together threatening to sue the company because of the exposure Walla! News provided to the name of Yeshua and to Messianic Jews. Walla! News received additional threats from Ultra-Orthodox representatives, threatening a major consumer boycott … Walla! News decided to remove the interviews from the site on Friday, the 25th of December.”

“Jesus Removed from Headlines in Israel,” Israel Today, Jan. 4, 2016

Exodus 22:21

On an earlier broadcast, I shared with you how Darwinism led to racism and horrendous acts that are comparable to what terrorists are doing today with unspeakable acts of violence. Though our broadcast today tells a far less gruesome story, it does show how Darwinism even played a part in America's early immigration policies.

At the turn of the twentieth century, when immigrants were flooding into North America, there were certain groups very hostile to Roman Catholicism, and they were looking for justification to exclude Catholics from the country on scientific grounds. Obviously, to have excluded them on religious grounds would have undermined the boast of America being "the land of the free" and would in any case have violated the Constitution.

However, Franz Boas, a German anthropologist, was asked to set up a team on Ellis Island where immigrants could be scientifically screened. Screening was carried out by measurement of head size and distance from fingertip to knee cap, all on the presumption that Man had evolved from the ape and that those closer to the ape's proportions were to be excluded. The "dark races" especially included those from Catholic countries. Many immigrants were turned back on the dubious grounds that their lower intelligence would dilute the general gene pool.

Even today there are people who believe that certain races of people are less evolved than others. But those people certainly did not get that notion from the Bible. The Bible affirms there is only one race – the human race!
​
Notes: Ian Taylor, "Scientific Racism," on file at Creation Moments. Photo: Courtesy of Ingfbruno. (CC-BY-SA 3.0).
Creation Moments, Inc., P.O. Box 839, Foley, MN 56329 www.creationmoments.com

“Two Israeli Arabs were indicted on Friday for planning to assassinate Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Hazam Sanduka, 22, an Arab resident of Jerusalem’s Old City, and Fahdi Abu Kia’an, 19, an Israeli Bedouin from the Negev, were arrested last month as part of a Hamas cell and charged with assisting an enemy at wartime, contact with a foreign agent, plotting a terrorist attack and manufacturing explosives. Prosecutor Anat Greenbaum wrote in the indictment that they had helped Hamas operative Ahmad Jamal Mousa Azzam. Azzam, a resident of Qalqilya in Samaria, rented an apartment in the Abu Dis neighborhood of East Jerusalem. Azzam and Sanduka acquired ingredients to make explosives and planned on carrying out several attacks. Sanduka, who had worked in a security firm in the past, initiated the plan to plant explosives under the stage in Jerusalem’s Payis Arena where Netanyahu was scheduled to speak. They also planned a large attack in Jerusalem for earlier this month. The plans were directed by Hamas in Gaza and the two men were in constant contact with the terror organization. Kia’an was identified as a supporter of the Islamic State (ISIS) and planned on transporting weapons from Judea and Samaria to the interior of Israel in order to carry out attacks against Israelis. He had also agreed to carry out a mass suicide attack by driving a car loaded with explosives.”

​“Plot to Assassinate,” breakingisraelnews.com, Jan. 8, 2016

Speaking from the a window of the Papal Palace overlooking St. Peter’s Square on January 10, Pope Francis urged his audience to celebrate the day of their baptism. The sermon was in celebration of Angelus, the feast of the baptism of Christ. The pope said that baptism “is the date of our rebirth as children of God” and the occasion when the Holy Spirit “destroys original sin” and “liberates us from the dominion of darkness, which is sin, and brings us into the realm of light” (“‘Do you celebrate the day of your baptism?’ Pope Francis asks,” EWTN News, Jan. 10, 2016). The pope concluded with a prayer to Mary that she would help the baptized to live out their baptism “with joy and fervor.” The majority of “evangelicals” would see this as a false gospel. Yet Pope Francis is widely upheld as a great man of God among evangelicals, including a large percentage of contemporary worship musicians. How can a man of God hold a false gospel? New Evangelical compromise of the late 1940s produced this spiritual confusion and blindness. The same compromise is pervading Independent Baptists today, and it will produce the same results, yet we wonder what percentage of fundamental Baptist church members (or even pastors) could pass a simple test on New Evangelicalism, such as the following: 

Who was the man who coined the term New Evangelicalism? 
In what year did that happen? 
What was the occasion when the term was coined?
What are four major principles of New Evangelicalism?
What are three ways that New Evangelicalism spread?
What are three prominent schools that promoted New Evangelicalism?
What evangelist did more than any other one man to popularize New Evangelicalism?
Other than this evangelist, who are four prominent Christian leaders who have popularized New Evangelicalism? 
What are three major organizations that have popularized New Evangelicalism?

(The answers to these questions can be found in New Evangelicalism: Its History, Characteristics, and Fruit, available in print and free eBook editions from Way of Life, www.wayoflife.org.)

(Friday Church News Notes, January 15, 2016, www.wayoflife.org, [email protected], 866-295-4143)

According to the latest Pew Research study, “traditional” two-parent households now account for less than 50% of American families. Whereas in 1960, 73% of children lived with two married parents in their first marriage, today only 46% are in this situation. Whereas in 1960, 83% of people younger than 50 were in their first marriage, today 67% are. Whereas in 1960, 9% of children were living in a single-parent home, today 26% are. Whereas in 1960, just 5% of births occurred outside of marriage, today out-of-wedlock births stand at 40%. And the racial divide in these social ills is great. Whereas 84% of Asian children and 78% of white children are living in a two-parent married household, only 38% of black children are in this situation (and only 22% of those are parents in their first marriage). There are many reasons for this dramatic change in American society, but three major ones are the apostasy and compromise of the churches, the public school system and its atheistic, amoral John Dewey agenda, and the pop culture with its “me, me, me” philosophy. But God’s people don’t have to flow with society or be destroyed with its destruction. We are pilgrims in a strange land, and we must march to a different tune. By God’s grace, my wife and I are planning to celebrate our 40th anniversary this year. Our children have good marriages. Our grandchildren are being raised for Christ in good churches. None of our children or grandchildren ever attended public school. The churches we lead and are associated with are producing the same good fruit. Divorce is almost unheard of among our church members unless they come to us already divorced. Many say we are too “strict,” but we aren’t stricter than God’s Word requires. We give liberty where God gives liberty, but there is no liberty for God’s people to flirt with the wicked things of this world, and the fruit of holy separation is good and generational. “And have NO fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them” (Ephesian 5:11).

(Friday Church News Notes, January 15, 2016, www.wayoflife.org, [email protected], 866-295-4143)