"Husband" of Democrat Presidential Contender Will Call Himself "First Gentleman" if Partner Wins1/31/2020
 “Chasten Buttigieg, the husband of South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg, currently refers to himself as the ‘First Gent of South Bend’ on Twitter and refers to himself as the ‘First Gentleman’ when he discusses what he will do if husband Pete becomes president of the United States. In the heading of his Twitter page, Chasten Buttigieg refers to himself as follows: ‘Teacher, First Gent of South Bend, husband to @Pete Buttigieg, doggo dad to @firstdogssb. All things theater, inclusion & education. Let hate sit alone. he/him.’”
“Peter Buttigieg’s Husband,” CNSNews, Dec. 27, 2019  “The Washington Post hacked into a Chevy Volt several days ago with the help of a automotive technology expert to find out just how much automakers are spying on their owners and discovered that vehicles are recording their owners’ every move. The Post used a 2017 Chevy Volt for its experiment and learned that the car collected a wide range of highly precise data ranging from the vehicles location to information about the driver’s cell phone, including call records--noting that many vehicles copy over personal data the moment that a smart phone is plugged into the vehicle. The Post went to Jim Mason, who has a PhD in engineering and reconstructs car accidents for a living by hacking into vehicles, for help hacking into the Chevy Volt. The Post found that Chevy collected the following information: ‘There on a map was the precise location where I’d driven to take apart the Chevy. There were my other destinations, like the hardware store I’d stopped at to buy some tape. Among the trove of data points were a detailed log of phone calls from the previous week. There was a long list of contacts, right down to people’s address, emails and even photos. For a broader view, Mason also extracted the data from a Chevrolet infotainment computer that I bought used on eBay for $375. It contained enough data to reconstruct the Upstate New York travels and relationships of a total stranger. We know he or she frequently called someone listed as Sweetie, whose photo we also have. We could see the exact Gulf station where they bought gas, the restaurant where they ate (called Taste China) and the unique identifiers for their Samsung Galaxy Note phones.’”
“Washington Post Hacks into Chevy,” The Daily Wire, Dec. 26, 2019  1 Chronicles 29:13-14
“Now therefore, our God, we thank thee, and praise thy glorious name. But who am I, and what is my people, that we should be able to offer so willingly after this sort? for all things come of thee, and of thine own have we given thee.” It will not have escaped the notice of regular listeners to these Creation Moments that I have quite a considerable partiality for good coffee. This is in spite of the fact that I was raised in the Northwest of England at a time when the only coffee available had already been brewed once, then dried out into powder, and swept, probably with other dust, into a jar. So, when I recently saw a brand new science article on coffee, I was pleased to read something new in it! I have been continually impressed with the amount of science that goes into the various methods of producing coffee. Earth.com recently carried an article, showing that if beans are subject to wet processing, they undergo a fermentation similar to that of cabbage when producing sauerkraut (another favorite of mine). It appears that lactic acid producing bacteria protect the quality of the coffee by preventing the growth of undesirable micro-organisms that lead to a poor taste. The article suggests that a lot more research needs to be done on how exactly the lactic acid works to enhance the best flavors, producing the most acceptable sensory experience, and I, for one, would be happy to help with that research. All levity apart, it is fascinating that God has made such an incredible creation, that there is interest and adventure to be found in the most seemingly mundane areas, and supposedly everyday processes. https://creationmoments.com/sermons/brewing-coffee-with-lactic-acid/  “When Garrett Rigg moved from a ‘transitional living program’ facility near Chicago last month into a group home, it was a major milestone for the 27-year-old, who traveled 1,000 miles from his home in Denver to get treatment after a cannabis-induced psychotic break five years ago. Rigg had to leave his hometown because it lacked suitable long-term treatment, according to his mother, Connie Kabrick. The three marijuana dispensaries at the intersection a half block from her home are the reason why she says he can't move back. As marijuana increasingly becomes legalized, parents of children who make up the mounting cases of cannabis-induced psychosis and other mental illness say treatment is far less available than the pot they say is linked to the conditions. Rutgers University opened an Adolescent Substance Evaluation Service in July at the Robert Wood Johnson Medical Center in New Brunswick, New Jersey. The staff includes fellows in child and adolescent psychiatry who refer patients to providers at the hospital or in the community. Wun Jung Kim, a child psychiatrist and professor at the Rutgers medical school, estimates at least half of young people come in because of marijuana-related conditions. He says, ‘I don’t think society takes use of marijuana seriously in kids.’ Parents struggle to convince their young adult children that marijuana led to or worsened their condition. Some, including Sharon Burns Southard, lost the battle. Her 24-year-old son started having ‘schizophrenic episodes’ six months before he died by suicide in July 2018.”
“As marijuana-induced psychosis rises, parents say treatment for young people hard to find,” USA Today, Jan. 6, 2020  1 Timothy 6:20
“O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called:” I became a government school science teacher in 1983. One syllabus that I was handed for teaching a basic biology unit to a class of 12-year-olds illustrated the supposed truth of evolution by referring to peppered moths. Naturally, I informed the other teacher that Kettlewell’s famous experiments have been invalidated, as the famous photographs of the moths were taken by gluing dead specimens to tree trunks. A recent study by scientists at Exeter University was published and a popular science website headlined its report with: “Moth study confirms Darwin’s theory of evolution”. One of the scientists said, “This is one of the most iconic examples of evolution, used in biology textbooks around the world, yet fiercely attacked by creationists seeking to discredit evolution.” If there is anyone not up to speed with this issue, let me explain that the original experiment was designed to show that light peppered moths would be spotted on dark polluted backgrounds in Birmingham, England, by predatory birds, who would eat them, leading to a greater population of dark moths. As industrial pollution decreased, it was the dark moths who became visible and vulnerable. If this scenario is shown to be true, it is of no problem to creationists because it does not and never has confirmed evolution. For one, moths changing into moths is not evolution, and for another, the process is clearly reversible. What creationists rightly pointed out is that fraud was originally used to obtain the result that the original experimenter desired. https://creationmoments.com/sermons/peppered-moths-yet-again/  The following report describes the latest in a long series of archaeological discoveries confirming the accuracy of biblical history. While archaeology cannot prove that Jesus was born of a virgin or that He walked on the water or that His death was an atonement for sin or that He rose bodily from the dead, it can demonstrate that the Bible’s history is accurate and can thus give confidence that whatever the Bible says is true. The following is excerpted from “Second Temple era marketplace,” The Jerusalem Post, Jan. 6, 2020: “A rare tabletop used for measuring liquids is among the finds uncovered by archaeologists at a site they believe may have been the location of a major town square en route to the Second Temple 2,000 years ago. Excavations in the City of David National Park by the Israel Antiquities Authority have brought to light dozens of stone measurement weights of various sizes, in addition to the tabletop, indicating that the site was once a bustling marketplace in what was known as Jerusalem’s lower city. The agora (market) appears to have served as a focal point of trade and commerce along the Pilgrimage Road in Jerusalem, as well as housing the offices of the ‘Agoranomos,’ the official in charge of regulating weights and measurements in the city. The key find is a section of a ‘standard volume’ table featuring two deep cavities, each with a drain hole at the bottom. The hole could easily be plugged, the cavity filled to the brim giving a standard volume, and the plug then removed to allow the liquid to drain into a container, said Prof. Ronny Reich, who is researching the find. Meanwhile, Nahshon Szanton, Moran Hagbi and Meidad Shor of the Israel Antiquities Authority, who directed the excavations along the Pilgrimage Road, have uncovered a large open paved area on the street that led up to the Second Temple. The area appears to have served as the main square of the lower city, which would likely have attracted tradespeople and customers alike.” (See also “Great Archaeological Discoveries in Israel,” Jun. 4, 2019, www.wayoflife.org.)
(Friday Church News Notes, January 24, 2020, www.wayoflife.org [email protected], 866-295-4143)  Psalm 84:3-4
“Yea, the sparrow hath found an house, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, even thine altars, O LORD of hosts, my King, and my God. Blessed are they that dwell in thy house: they will be still praising thee. Selah.” If there is one type of bird that we just take for granted without actually noticing it, it must be the sparrow. Where I grew up, in the industrial northwest of England, sparrows were two-a-penny. It did not matter where you looked. If I walked into the woods, they were there. In our own yard, they were there too. And at high school, which was in the heart of Manchester – England’s second city – they were there too. Nor were they particularly noticeable. The plumage of the male Old World House sparrow is a dull brown, though with a highlighted dark brown, nearly black beak. The female is lighter, and even less distinctly marked. These sparrows live in such close proximity with people, especially in cities, that they show little fear, dodging between the legs of pedestrians to pick up morsels of discarded food. They have prettier relatives, however – all the various species of sparrows appear to be in the same created kind, or baramin, as finches. The Bible illustrates many important points by reference to the ubiquity of sparrows. In Psalm 84, David refers to the desirability of being in God’s house, remarking that even the sparrow finds a home there, close to God’s altar. And Jesus used sparrows to remind us how much God cares for us, as not a single one falls to the ground without the Father knowing. “Fear ye not therefore,” He said. “Ye are of more value than many sparrows” (Matthew 10:31). https://creationmoments.com/sermons/even-the-sparrow-finds-a-home/  “A new study showing the United States has the world’s highest rate of children living in single-parent households is being called a ‘national tragedy’ by one sociologist. The Pew Research Center study of 130 countries and territories shows that 23 percent of U.S. children under the age of 18 live with one parent and no other adults--more than three times the global average of 7 percent. Children in European countries are generally more likely to live in single-parent homes than those in Asia, but still less likely than children in the U.S. The percentages for the United Kingdom (21 percent), France (16 percent) and Germany (12 percent) are all lower than the U.S.”
“National Tragedy,” Christian Headlines, Dec. 17 2019 CONCLUDING NOTE: The breakup of the American home is a product of the pop/hip-hop culture with its me first philosophy, no-fault divorce, and the welfare state, among other things. The most fundamental cause is the apostasy of America’s churches. Even the most “fundamentalist” typically are not building strong Christian homes through producing fathers who are the spiritual heads, mothers who are keepers, and children who are properly disciplined and discipled. (For more on this see Keeping the Kids: How to Keep the Children from Falling Prey to the World and The Discipling Church: The Church That Will Stand until Jesus Comes, available from www.wayoflife.org.) (Friday Church News Notes, January 24, 2020, www.wayoflife.org, [email protected], 866-295-4143)  Genesis 1:21
“And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good.” There are quite a number of birds that cannot fly. This sometimes surprises us, but it shouldn’t. We tend to wonder how they “lost” the ability to fly, but, although there are some species that might possibly have lost an ability to fly (as losing such an ability usually involves loss of information, not spontaneous creation), there is no reason to suppose that many have lost an ability. After all, we do not wonder at mammals that fly (i.e., bats), and we accept that these were created on Day Five, whereas most mammals were made on Day Six. In the same way, most flightless birds seem to be perfectly designed the way that they are. Ratite birds, for example, have no keel on their sternum. The keel is what anchors muscles to the wings, to enable flight. But birds like ostriches, rheas, emus and kiwis show no evidence, either in extant species or in the fossil record, to suggest that they ever had a structure. Therefore, they have not evolved into such a state – they were designed like that by God because that is the best design for us. Other birds are flightless for other reasons. Penguins, for example, do not fly, but they do sort-of fly through water! Again, this requires a particular type of design that could not arise by itself. God designed penguins just perfectly for their habitat and their lives. Flightless birds do not support evolutionary ideas. God created them as He saw fit. https://creationmoments.com/sermons/birds-that-cant-fly/  Pastor Wang Yi “A Chinese court sentenced a pastor to prison for nine years Monday after the pastor called the Chinese Communist Party ‘morally incompatible with the Christian faith.’ The court sentenced 46-year-old Pastor Wang Yi, who led Early Rain Covenant Church in the Chinese city of Chengdu, for incitement of subversion of state power and for illegal business operations, according to The Wall Street Journal. The Chinese government often uses those charges against religious leaders and against those who disagree politically with the government, according to the WSJ. Wang wrote a 2018 essay titled ‘Meditations on the Religious War’ in which he wrote that the ideology of the Chinese Communist Party is ‘morally incompatible with the Christian faith and with all those who uphold freedom of the mind and thought.’ Wang’s church had been one of the most politically active churches in China for years, holding a service every year commemorating the 1989 massacre at Tiananmen Square, even though the government severely restricts the observance of this massacre, the WSJ reports. But the church was closed in 2018 as the Chinese government cracked down on religious houses of worship.”
“Pastor Imprisoned for Nine Years,” The Stream, Dec. 30, 2019  Rheas Isaiah 13:21
“But wild beasts of the desert shall lie there; and their houses shall be full of doleful creatures; and owls shall dwell there, and satyrs shall dance there.” I remember a news report on a local radio station in Bridgend, Wales, which said that there was an ostrich on the loose, running through the town center. There wasn’t. But a local park had an enclosure where they kept a few rheas. One of these birds had got loose and was running through Bridgend’s downtown. The rhea is a big, flightless bird from South America but quite a bit smaller than an ostrich – both species of which are African. However, they resemble ostriches – as do emus from Australia. The resemblance is so great that they were, for many years, grouped into one family – the ratites. However, it does not appear possible to hybridize across these species, and yet hybrids between the two extant species of ostrich are certainly possible. Evolutionists have now placed these three types of birds in separate families. They still believe they are related, however, but more distantly than previously thought. Creationists accept the different families but now accept these as separate baramins. This means that God created ostriches, emus and rheas separately, and there is no common ancestor of the three types. The classification changes to these flightless birds shows how evolutionary research can be used by creationists with a constructively critical analysis. The apparent similarity in appearance between these created kinds is no more significant than the similarity between different families of, for example, monkeys. Apparent similarity is never an argument in favor of evolution, which is not consistent with the Bible, and is scientifically impossible. https://creationmoments.com/sermons/in-the-ostrich-family/  Job 39:13-15
“Gavest thou the goodly wings unto the peacocks? or wings and feathers unto the ostrich? Which leaveth her eggs in the earth, and warmeth them in dust, and forgetteth that the foot may crush them, or that the wild beast may break them.” Ostriches are certainly comical looking birds. Whenever I see a picture of one, it certainly makes me smile. Mind you, if you meet one up close, you might not laugh so much because they can cause a lot of damage with their legs, and particularly with their feet. But where ostriches come to our notice, as biblical Christians, is that many people think that the Bible is completely mistaken about ostriches, and, therefore, these supposed errors invalidate Scripture. The main contentious verse is in Job 39. In this chapter, God is telling Job about the various things that He has created to silence Job and show him that his complaints are irrelevant. In verses 14 and 15, the accusation is that the ostrich is pictured as stupid for leaving its eggs in the sand and accidentally crushing them. Then, we are told, the Bible tells us that the mother ostrich forgets, or even neglects, her young. Actually, much of this is based on a false anthropomorphism. We should not expect that an animal is going to show human characteristics. In any case, the mother ostrich does tend to leave her young because the care of newly hatched chicks seems to be the job of the father ostrich, so there is no error in what the Bible is claiming. So when were ostriches created? They are clearly birds, but they appear designed to live on land. We must assume, therefore, that God made them on Day Six. https://creationmoments.com/sermons/are-ostriches-stupid/  Thylacines at Beaumaris Zoo, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia Genesis 1:25
“And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good.” Tasmanian tigers were not cats. They weren’t even tigers. Many people refer to them as Tasmanian wolves because they look and act like dogs. But they aren’t dogs either. And their more correct name is thylacine. Perhaps we need to retrace our steps a bit. I am not even sure whether to use the present or past tense. The last known living thylacine died in Hobart Zoo in Tasmania, Australia, on September 7, 1936. However, since then, there have been a number of alleged sightings – the last recorded being in 2008. The thylacine was a marsupial – like koalas, wombats and kangaroos. Its babies were born relatively undeveloped and continued their development in their mother’s pouch. They were carnivorous animals – they hunted their prey in a manner similar to wolves, which they resemble. The tiger moniker was due to their stripes. Evolutionists consider dogs to be highly evolved animals. Marsupials, on the other hand, are considered by evolutionists to be primitive. So which is it to be? Their dog-like carnivorous behavior is at odds with their status as marsupials. For paradoxes such as this, evolutionists talk about ‘convergent evolution’. But this simply seems to be putting a label to something that they cannot explain. Evolutionists have to place the thylacine in a family all of its own because, while they believe in common ancestry, they cannot suggest what this might look like. Creationists have no such problem. God made all animals, including thylacines, to reproduce after their kind. https://creationmoments.com/sermons/tasmanian-tigers-were-not-cats/  While speaking recently of the importance of Israel’s presence in Judea and Samaria, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was interrupted by Rabbi Yehuda Glick to call for the building of the Third Temple. At the Kohelet Policy Forum on January 8, Netanyahu said, “If Israel is not present on the hills of Judea and Samaria, Islamists will take over instead.” Rabbi Yehudu Glick immediately yelled, “Same with the Temple Mount!” (“Rabbi Glick,” Breaking Israel News, Jan. 8, 2020). Glick told the media afterward that they must keep the idea of the Third Temple alive. “You have to keep saying it. If you don’t say it, you’ll forget it.” Glick, a member of Netanyahu’s Likud party, survived an attempted assassination in 2014 when he was shot four times in the chest by Muslim terrorist Mutaz Hijazi. Hijazi, a member of the Islamic Jihad who had spent 11 years in Israeli prisons, was killed four days later in a shoot out with Israeli police. Glick is the author of Arise and Ascend, a guidebook for Jewish visitors to the Temple Mount. He is associated with the Temple Mount Faithful, which is one of the organizations preparing to build the next temple. In an interview in 2015, Rabbi Yisrael Ariel, head of the Temple Institute, said that all of the materials for the operation of the temple are “all ready in crates in the basement, so that when we reach Jerusalem there will be trucks that unload everything, and we can get to work” (“Ariel’s Jerusalem,” Arutz Sheva, May 7, 2015). In Jewish tradition, the rebuilding of the temple is associated with the coming of the Messiah. According to Moshe ben Maimon (Maimonides or Rambam) (1135-1204), one of the highest rabbinical authorities, any Jew of the family of David that starts rebuilding the temple is a potential Messiah. Maimonides was looking for a Messiah who would rebuild the temple “on its original site.” Other rabbis have broadened this so that it is not necessarily required that the temple builder be of the lineage of David. Shimon ben Kosiba was considered a Messiah in the second century when he led a revolt to recapture Jerusalem and rebuild the temple. He was named Bar Kokhba (“Son of the Star”) based on the Messianic prophecy of Numbers 24:17, and a coin was struck depicting the temple with the ark of the covenant inside and the Messianic star on the roof. By this tradition, it is simple to see how the Antichrist or his false prophet will be looked upon as the Messiah. Israeli tour guides, though most of them are “secular Jews” as opposed to “religious,” talk about the coming of the Messiah from the Mount of Olives. One told us in 2019, “You Christians are looking for the Messiah to come again, and we are looking for him to come. It is a difference of only one word. We are all looking for him to come to the Mount of Olives.” The Jews in Israel are primed to accept a Messiah who comes from the Mount of Olives and establishes peace between Israel and her neighbors and announces the rebuilding of the temple. The Antichrist described in Bible prophecy will fit this bill with perfection. Probably he will come across to Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives to make this point. (For more on the Third Temple building preparations see Jews in Fighter Jets: Israel Past, Present, and Future , available from Way of Life Literature, www.wayoflife.org.)
(Friday Church News Notes, January 17, 2020, www.wayoflife.org [email protected], 866-295-4143)  Ligers Genesis 7:2
“Of every clean beast thou shalt take to thee by sevens, the male and his female: and of beasts that are not clean by two, the male and his female.” It might seem obvious to people today to suppose that tigers are cats. We classify them as part of the cat family. But what does this mean in practice? Genesis 1 explains that all animals were created according to their kinds. In creation science, we refer to these kinds as baramin – a word made from the Hebrew words for “created kind”. God brought two of each baramin to Noah for the Ark, and after the Flood, these animals would have multiplied according to their kinds. The cat family comprises of two subfamilies – small cats (felinae) and big cats (pantherinae). Small cats include domestic cats, lynxes and cougars – the largest of the small cats. Pantherinae include lions, leopards and tigers. We know that if animal species can interbreed, then they must be part of the same baramin, and, hence, had common ancestors on the Ark. There are numerous hybrids existing within the felinae, and well-known big cat hybrids – such as the liger, a lion-tiger cross. Hybrids between the two subfamilies are rarer – possibly because of physical size differences – but they do exist. One of the best known is a cross between a cougar (felinae) and a leopard (pantherinae); the biggest small cat with one of the smallest big cats! Taken altogether, this evidence of hybridization tells us that all cats – big and small – are part of the same baramin – the cat baramin – and are all descended from a single pair of felines that were on the Ark. https://creationmoments.com/sermons/tigers-are-cats/?v=7516fd43adaa  The Bible states that the coming of the Lord is “at hand” (Ro. 13:12; Php. 4:5; 1 Pe. 4:7). This is from eggizo, meaning “near, approaching.” The English phrase is a metaphor to indicate something that is close by, at the ready, like your hand. It is used to describe the location of Jesus’ tomb, which was “nigh at hand” to the place of His crucifixion (Joh. 19:42). Paul used it to describe his imminent death (2 Ti. 4:6). The coming of Christ for church-age saints is always at hand; it is imminent, impending. It can happen at any time. This teaches us that the Rapture described in 1 Thessalonians 4 and 1 Corinthians 15 precedes Daniel’s 70th Week (Da. 9:27). If it occurred at any time during that seven-year period, it could not be imminent, because the events are laid out clearly in Scripture. It begins with the Antichrist’s seven-year covenant with apostate Israel -- “And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week.” During the first three and a half years, the third temple will be built (Re. 11:1-2), the preliminary judgments will occur as described in Revelation 6 (war and famine that will destroy one-fourth of the earth’s population, a great earthquake, signs in the heavens), the 144,000 Jewish evangelists will preach and produce a great harvest of souls in the midst of terrible persecution (Re. 7), and the two witnesses will prophesy in Jerusalem (Re. 11:3-6). After three and a half years, the Antichrist will break his covenant and set up the abomination of desolation in the temple as described by Daniel, by Jesus, and by Paul. “... and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease” (Da. 9:27). See also Matthew 24:15 and 2 Thessalonians 2:3-4. After the first three and a half years, the two witnesses will be killed and a great earthquake will destroy one-tenth of the city of Jerusalem (Re. 11:7-13). The events of the last half of Daniel’s 70th Week are described in other places in Revelation. These include the hail and fire that destroy one-third of the trees and grass (Re. 8:7), the third part of the sea turning to blood (Re. 8:8-9), the third part of the waters becoming Wormwood (Re. 8:10-11), the terrible locusts from the bottomless pit (Re. 9:1-11), the 200 million-man army from the east whereby one-third of mankind will be destroyed (Re. 9:13-21), the worldwide worship of the Antichrist and his dictatorial rule (Re. 13), the rivers and fountains turning to blood (Re. 16:4-6), the scorching of men with great heat (Re. 16:8-9), the darkness (Re. 16:10-11), the destruction of the Mystery Babylon religion (Re. 14:8; 17:16-18), the destruction of commercial Babylon (Re. 18:5-24), Armageddon (Re. 16:12-16). If the Rapture does not precede Daniel’s 70th Week, it could not be at hand, because it would be preceded by these events and its time would be known exactly as those events unfolded. Church-age saints are looking for Christ, not the Antichrist; we are looking for the Blessed Hope, not the horrible Tribulation. “For they themselves shew of us what manner of entering in we had unto you, and how ye turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God; and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come. But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness. For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Th. 1:9-10, 4-5, 9).
(Friday Church News Notes, January 17, 2020, www.wayoflife.org [email protected], 866-295-4143)  Bheem, The Royal Bengal Tiger at Kanha National Park Genesis 1:25
“And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good.” The author Gilbert Keith Chesterton had some wise things to say on the subject of evolution. While he would not be classed as a Bible-believing Christian or a young earth creationist, he certainly spotted many of the flaws behind evolutionary theory, of which he was highly critical. One of his more well-known anti-evolutionary quotes is to be found in his book Orthodoxy, in which he wrote: Darwinism can be used to back up two mad moralities, but it cannot be used to back up a single sane one. The kinship and competition of all living creatures can be used as a reason for being insanely cruel or insanely sentimental; but not for a healthy love of animals. Chesterton asked his readers to consider their reactions to a tiger. Evolution might lead one to suppose that humans and tigers are close. We are both mammals. We are both warm blooded. Therefore, we get over-sentimental about them, simply admiring their beauty and ignoring their claws. Another evolutionary response, however, sees tigers as examples. They tear apart their prey, so we, if we are to be as successful as tigers, may do likewise. Chesterton labels both responses as “mad”. He said, “The essence of all pantheism, evolutionism and modern cosmic religion is really in this proposition: that Nature is our mother.” The biblical approach is to recognize the tiger’s beauty, which comes from God, but not to imitate it because we are created for better things. creationmoments.com/sermons/the-morality-of-a-tiger/?v=7516fd43adaa  I love the Bible’s teaching about the Pre-tribulation Rapture. I have studied it for nearly half a century, and have no doubt that it is a Bible doctrine and that it is a fundamental doctrine. It is not based on any one verse; it is based on the totality of the Bible’s teaching on prophecy. If you interpret Bible prophecy in a consistent normal-literal manner, which is the only proper way to interpret it, you land on the clear distinction between the church and Israel, and you understand the 70 Weeks of Daniel 9 and Revelation 5-18 as Israel ground, not church ground. You understand that the doctrine of imminency, which is clearly taught and hugely emphasized throughout the Epistles (e.g., Ro. 13:12; Php. 4:5; 1 Th. 1:9-10; 5:4-9; Tit. 2:13; Jas. 5:8-9; 1 Pe. 4:7; Jude 1:21; Re. 1:3), demands that church-age saints be Raptured before Israel’s program is brought back to the fore. The Lord is at hand! As far as I’m concerned, the matter is settled. I have made the effort to look at all sides of the issue and the Pre-tribulation Rapture has resonated with me ever more strongly through the years. The first Bible course we published in the 1980s was on prophecy. In more recent years we have published Understanding Bible Prophecy ; The Future According to the Bible ; Jews in Fighter Jets: Israel Past, Present, and Future ; and other prophecy studies. Dispensationalism, as a system of theology, began in the 19th century, but the literal interpretation of prophecy and the imminent return of Christ and the distinction between Israel and the Church and the literal fulfillment of Israel’s covenants are clear Bible doctrines that were taught by the apostles and believed by the early churches. The Spirit of God restored this doctrine to prominence in the 1800s and it impelled a great spiritual revival of holy living and zeal for evangelism and world missions. The imminency of Christ’s coming has great practical implications for Christian living and ministry. It preaches holiness, watchfulness, and encouragement, and keeps a church’s focus on the Great Commission. We are seeing great fruit from preaching it, and I will do my best to keep the influence of preachers who reject the Pre-tribulation Rapture away from our church and family. I definitely consider it to be a separation issue.
(Friday Church News Notes, January 17, 2020, www.wayoflife.org [email protected], 866-295-4143)  Genesis 1:20
“And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.” I remember watching a kingfisher, sitting on the branch of a tree, overlooking the pool beneath one of the waterfalls in Neath Valley in the heart of Wales. Its eyes were transfixed on the movements in the pool below. It was watching and waiting, and it had incredible patience. Then, it flew, diving down into the water, and emerging with a fish in its beak, back to the branch where it had previously been perched. It proceeded to beat the fish against the branch. Then it flew off to I know not where, along with its meal! This common kingfisher was distinctive – blue upperparts and orange underparts, along with its characteristic long bill. And it was doing what we expect kingfishers to do – catch fish! But not all kingfishers live on fish. One of the largest kingfishers – the kookaburra – lives in Australia and doesn’t tend to eat fish, preferring to eat mice and small reptiles, and even the young of other birds. The most well-known feature of the kookaburra is its characteristic laughing call. There are over a hundred species of kingfisher, many of which have bright plumage and are among the most beautiful birds that you will see. So how many kingfishers would God have brought to Noah to take on the Ark, considering there are so many species? The answer is just two. One pair of kingfishers, into which God had placed genetic information for a wide variety of adaptations. creationmoments.com/sermons/kingfishers-and-kookaburras/?v=7516fd43adaa  Scientists are trying to understand the language of the human nervous system to develop a new generation of medical implants. The heart pacemaker and deep brain stimulators for Parkinson’s disease are examples of preliminary efforts. The field of bioelectronics studies the electrical signals and chemical messages that control all of the major organs and tissues in the body in an attempt to interface with them to monitor health and deliver treatments through the stimulation of specific nerves. The problem is the incredible complexity of the neural network. “But neural data is incredibly noisy and complex. The human heart does not exist alone, its function is affected by other factors and messages coming from other organs, such as how fast you’re breathing, what you’ve just eaten and so on. To accurately decode all this information, we need more neural data and better interpretation techniques so we can listen to the right words needed to understand the language of the human body. Scientists have turned to a form of artificial intelligence known as machine learning to help them do this” (“How hacking the human heart could replace pill popping,” BBC, Dec. 17, 2019). Note that the human nervous system is called the “language of the human body,” and it is such a complex language that the most brilliant scientists stand in awe of it and can only understand it in a very rudimentary manner. For those who have not willfully closed their eyes, this is clear and irrefutable evidence for divine creation and against Darwinian evolution.
(Friday Church News Notes, January 10, 2020, www.wayoflife.org [email protected], 866-295-4143)  We need to pray for America in these evil, dangerous times. Almighty God, who is in control of all earthly authorities, has specifically instructed His people to pray for their governments. Surely, we can pray such a prayer in perfect faith that He will answer and help us. “Except the LORD build the house, they labour in vain that build it: except the LORD keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain” (Psalm 127:1). “I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty” (1 Timothy 2:1-2).
(Friday Church News Notes, January 17, 2020, www.wayoflife.org [email protected], 866-295-4143)  A study by the parenting app Jiminy published this month found that 15% of 8-year-old girls with smartphones are exposed to sexting, 24% by age 10, 37% by age 13, and 44% by age 16. Nearly 25% of 13-year-old children either requested or were asked to send nude photos of themselves (blog.jiminy.me). The report warned, “Sexting is quickly becoming a normative form of sexual exploration among preteens and teens. As such, parents should expect the real possibility that their children may be approached by others, known or unknown, or approach others in a sexually explicit manner.” Of course, biblical wisdom would teach any parent that no child should have a smartphone, iPad, laptop, or gaming device that has any connection whatsoever with the Internet. “Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners” (1 Corinthians 15:33). “The rod and reproof give wisdom: but a child left to himself bringeth his mother to shame” (Proverbs 29:15).
(Friday Church News Notes, January 10, 2020, www.wayoflife.org [email protected], 866-295-4143)  Discovery of Cruithne Genesis 1:16
“And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also.” “Big fleas have little fleas upon their backs to bite’em” begins the nursery rhyme. “Little fleas have lesser fleas, and so ad infinitum.” Does this sort of approach extend to objects in the Solar System? Does the Earth only have the Moon? “How many moons does the Earth have?” asked TV presenter Stephen Fry on the BBC comedy panel show QI. The obvious answer “One” caused the klaxon to sound. The correct answer, it seems, was “two”. But then he asked the same question again a couple of years later when the correct answer had changed to “three”. But when he asked a third time, the answer was supposed to be “zero”. The asteroid Cruithne is often considered to be Earth’s second moon, but it is not orbiting the Earth – it is merely influenced by the Earth’s gravitational pull. But one researcher was thrown by his four-year-old son who once asked “do moons have moons”? Throughout the Solar System, no such system has been found. Yet we know, for example, that the dwarf planet Pluto has at least five moons. Yet Pluto is smaller than the Moon – that is, our Moon, the one that orbits the Earth. Why could the Moon not have its own Moon? The child-like simplicity of such a question and yet the absence of a good answer for it underlines how much we have yet to discover. God has made a wonderful universe, and it is exciting that He has given talents to people to investigate it. creationmoments.com/sermons/many-moons/?v=7516fd43adaa  “A mother has opened up about the consistent pressure she received from doctors to abort her baby son, even at full-term, just because he has Down’s syndrome. Cheryl Bilsborrow wanted to speak out after figures published last week revealed that the number of babies born with Down’s syndrome has dropped by 30% in NHS hospitals that have introduced new non-invasive prenatal tests. Speaking to The Sun about her experience, the clinical reflexologist said: ‘These tests and the scary, negative way in which the results are currently framed are leading pregnant women to abort their much-wanted babies. My two-year-old son Hector is the most wonderful baby. He’s got beautiful white hair and blue eyes, and he is always smiling and laughing, blowing kisses and coming for hugs. But when I was pregnant I was made to feel like his life would have no value and that I should abort him. Why? Because he has Down’s Syndrome.’ Cheryl was 43 years old when she fell pregnant with her fourth child. Because of her age, she was encouraged by doctors to have a screening test for Down’s syndrome. Cheryl said that from the start the doctors’ perception of the condition was negative and that she was encouraged to have an abortion every time she had a midwife appointment. ‘There was no offer of counseling, no discussion about how my life might be enhanced by this baby. Abort and get rid seemed to be the only answer.’ ‘Even, at 38 weeks, when I went for a scan, the sonographer said: You do know we abort babies full term with Down’s syndrome. The message came loud and clear: babies with Down’s were of no value. Now, having had Hector, I know there was nothing to be frightened of. It breaks my heart to think that so many babies, like him, could be robbed of their chance to live happy lives.”
“Mother offered full-term abortion because her son had Down’s syndrome,” Right to Life UK, Dec. 24, 2019  Genesis 1:16
“And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also.” As a child, I was so enthralled by the Apollo moon landings. For many people, interest waned after Apollo 11 reached the Moon in 1969; not mine! I followed the adventures of every one. So it is of great interest to me that scientific news is still being made by researchers looking at rocks from the Moon gathered by the Apollo astronauts. Recent news has concerned a rock sampled by the astronauts of Apollo 14, who traveled to the Moon in 1971. Much of the interest, however, has concerned the supposed age of the rocks. One rock – sample 14321 – has been dated by the rubidium-strontium method to 4.1 billion years old. This method – similar to the uranium-lead method – relies on measuring the relative amounts of radioactive rubidium-87 and stable strontium-87. Rock 14321 has a piece in it that contains minerals that lunar geologists think do not normally occur on the Moon but do occur on the Earth. Therefore, they suppose that an object striking the Earth 4.1 billion years ago chipped a little piece of Earth away, which floated through space until it landed on the Moon. They further suppose that this little piece was re-melted by being struck by a meteorite. The whole cosmic game of pool described sounds far fetched but is the sort of story that can be woven in order to explain difficult observations. For our part, we accept that the Earth is, in fact, older than the Moon – by three days! creationmoments.com/sermons/a-rock-from-the-earth-from-the-moon/?v=7516fd43adaa |
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