In an informal seven-minute video that has been posted to YouTube, Pope Francis calls for the unity of all Christians. The context is even more instructive. The video was recorded on a smartphone owned by Anglican Episcopal charismatic bishop Anthony Palmer when he visited the Vatican recently. Palmer has known the pope since the latter was an archbishop in Argentina. The pope’s video clip was recorded to be played at a Pentecostal pastors conference hosted by Kenneth Copeland, a man laden down with heresies who falls on the floor and laughs hysterically while “drunk in the spirit.” The pope said that all Christians are to blame for disunity, and that God has begun the miracle of Christian unity and will finish it.

In his remarks at the Copeland crusade before the pope’s video was played, Palmer showed that he is a passionate and effective one-world church builder. He has a personal testimony of conversion experience, says he believes in salvation by God’s grace alone, and is well spoken and personable. But he could not be more deceived. Consider the following statements carefully that Palmer made as a prelude to the pope’s remarks: “I come tonight in the spirit of Elijah, which is the spirit of reconciliation. ... I've come to understand that diversity is divine; it’s division that is diabolic. ... It’s the glory that glues us together, not the doctrine. If you accept that the presence of God is in me and the presence of God is in you, that’s all we need. God will sort out all our doctrines when we get upstairs. ... Division destroys our credibility. ... I believe we will see more people go out into the churches in the spirit of Elijah. We need to throw as much resources and energy into the ministry of reconciliation as we do to the ministry of evangelization. I challenge you to find a bridge builder and back him.”

Nothing could be more dangerous and unscriptural than to replace Bible doctrine with experience as the basis of unity. This is the heart and soul of the charismatic delusion, and now we see it being proposed by the pope of Rome as the foundation for a one-world church. In his own call for unity, Palmer said nothing about the heresies of the papacy, the priesthood, sacramentalism, infant baptism, baptismal regeneration, the mass, mariolatry, purgatory, the saints, prayers to the dead, nunnery, monasticism, and a host of other heresies. He said nothing about Copeland’s Word-Faith heresies. With his philosophy of “Elijah reconciliation,” none of that matters as long as an individual loves “Jesus,” believes the “gospel,” and has the “spirit.” We aren't allowed to examine WHAT Jesus, WHAT gospel, or WHAT spirit. That type of examination would spoil the unity and bring us right back to division, which, we are led to believe, is diabolic.

What spiritual deception! How late the hour is! No wonder Jesus warned that false teachers will become so subtle that “if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect” (Mat. 24:24). Be not deceived, the following verse singlehandedly destroys the call for end-time unity: “Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints” (Jude 3).

(Friday Church News Notes, February 28, 2014, www.wayoflife.org [email protected], 866-295-4143)

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.”

What has eight legs, fangs, ridges on its underside, and is one of the “creeping things” that God created? No, it’s not a spider, it’s a daddy-long-legs.

More than just the ridges on its underside have set the daddy-long-legs apart from the spiders. Spiders have two body sections, while the daddy-long-legs have only one. Under a microscope, you would find that while spider fangs have two sections, the fangs of a daddy-long-legs have three sections.

God has also given the daddy-long-legs some very special abilities to protect itself. When it is attacked, it is most likely to be grabbed by one of its long legs, but its legs detach quite easily. A young daddy-long-legs will be able to re-grow the missing leg, while still getting around quite easily on the other seven. It has very good eyesight, and those eyes are placed on top of its body so that it can better see attackers. Most attacks are likely to come from above. The daddy-long-legs can also spray a nasty-smelling gas to protect itself.

God made three varieties of daddy-long-legs and gave this insect the important job of cleaning the forest floor of dead insects and decaying vegetation. Death and decay are the result of sin, so God must have anticipated Adam’s sin and created the daddy-long-legs, one of the creeping things, just before He created Adam.

Notes: Joanne E. DeJonge, Bats & Bugs & Snakes & Slugs (Baker Book House), pp. 7-9.
Photo: Courtesy of Charlesjsharp. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
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“The fire of the burnt offering never went out (Lev. 6:12-13). What does that imply? When we have been in the glory of God for innumerable ages, we shall be there on the same ground as that upon which we are now accepted--namely, the value of the work of Christ before God. When God brings in the new heavens and the new earth, wherein dwells righteousness, the foundation of the sweet savor of the sacrifice of Christ before God is as fresh as ever, and in that we are accepted. Does that sweet savor ever alter? Never! Therefore the believer's acceptance never alters.”



(R.F. Kingscote, Christ as Seen in the Offerings)

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.”

Scientists have tried to tackle the job of creating a machine that is able to see as well as the human eye. In the process, they are gaining a new appreciation for the wonderful gift of sight.

First of all, they have learned that no computer chip can be made today which could begin to do what the retina does. The retina is a thin membrane, like a small slip of clingy food wrap at the back of the eye. It contains the rods and cones and converts the picture from the lens into chemical signals that are sent to the brain. The retina is believed to contain the equivalent of twenty-five billion transistors! One expert has estimated that a computer chip that could begin to do what your retina does would be about half-a-million times bigger than your retina, contain over a million transistors and weigh in at about 100 pounds. It would also need a cooling system! Even with all of this, it couldn't see very well. It would only be able to resolve a square area of about two thousand pixels, while your eye can resolve five times that much!

Truly, modern science offers elegant testimony to the fact that the eye could not have been produced by evolution and that it could have only been created by a very wise Creator!

Photo: Human eye. The light circle is where the optic nerve exits the retina. Courtesy of Alexander Churkin. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license.
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“Belgian lawmakers voted overwhelmingly on Thursday for a child’s ‘right to die,’ extending the country’s euthanasia law to people younger than 18. The law empowers children with terminal ailments who are in great pain to ask to be put to death by their doctor if their parents agree and a psychiatrist or psychologist certifies they are conscious of what their choice signifies. ... Belgium’s euthanasia law, passed in 2002, previously applied only to legal adults. The neighboring Netherlands allows euthanasia for children as young as 12, providing their families agree.”

(“Belgium Votes Overwhelmingly,” The Blaze, Feb. 13, 2014)

Proverbs 26:2
“As the bird by wandering, as the swallow by flying, so the curse causeless shall not come.”

The small bird, known as the chimney swift, is unmatched in its flying ability. These little birds are so adapted to the air that they have only small, weak feet that do not permit them to walk or perch like other birds. In fact, their Latin name even means “without feet.”

When swifts do come to rest, they do so against a vertical surface like a wall. They are often found resting inside the protection of chimneys, which led to their English name, chimney swift. A large flock of swifts may sight a chimney and begin circling it in smaller and smaller circles. Finally, the birds closest to the chimney enter it, followed by the rest. One person reported seeing a flock of 10,000 swifts enter one chimney over a period of 37 minutes!
   
When David was cursed by Shimei, he realized that the curse would be of no effect because he was innocent of murdering members of Saul's family. In Proverbs 26:2, his son, Solomon, compares unjust curses to a bird which never lands, meaning that when people speak evil of us, or curse us, if what they say is untrue or unjust, their words will have no effect. It is God's wisdom to think of unjust things that are said about us as being like the swift, always in flight and never landing upon us.

Notes: Tom Malone, “Swifts are masters of the air but nearly helpless on ground,” Minneapolis Star Tribune, Sunday/June 4/1989/3E.
Photo: Several chimney swifts inside a chimney in Perryville, Missouri. Courtesy of Greg Schechter. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.
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The United Nations Security Council recently voted to authorize the use of force by European Union troops in the Central African Republic. That was a reasonable move, since troops need to defend themselves and to protect the public, and guns are required for that, but it is a hypocritical stance. Outside of the U.N. headquarters in New York City are many statements of pacifism and disarmament. There is a statue of a handgun with its barrel twisted. There is a statue of a man beating a sword into a plow. There are the words of Isaiah 2:4 inscribed on a wall -- “... and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.” They totally ignore the context of those words, which is the return of Christ and the establishment of His global kingdom. Note the full passage: “And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the LORD'S house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it. And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more” (Isaiah 2:2-4). Most disarmament activists are hypocrites. President Obama, for example, is making it increasingly difficult for schools, homeowners, and shopkeepers to be armed, but he is happy for his family to be under the 24/7 protection of well-armed Secret Service agents. (And we wonder if the Secret Service agents guarding Obama are restricted by the onerous rules of engagement imposed by the Commander in Chief on U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan and elsewhere?) That is hypocrisy and it is idiocy. Guns can stop evil, just as they did in World War II, and just as they do every day in the hands of law-abiding citizens who defend themselves against criminals.

(Friday Church News Notes, February 21, 2014, www.wayoflife.org [email protected], 866-295-4143)

Luke 10:33-34
“But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw him, he had compassion on him, And went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him.”

Altruism – helping one another – is a real puzzle to those who explain the world of living things in terms of materialistic evolution. Evolution is supposed to work on the selfish survival-of-the-fittest principle, so there should be no reason for any creature, including man, to develop a helping attitude. In fact, there is no way to explain how the genetic code could possibly develop and pass on a trait such as altruism.

Researchers have studied a bird called the white-fronted African bee-eater. Members of this species help each other, sometimes even at the sacrifice of their own life. For example, one bird will face a spitting cobra to defend another, and scientists have been puzzled to know how this altruistic trait can possibly be passed on, when it often results in death. Another common altruistic habit of the African bee-eater is that one female will put off starting her own family to help another bee-eater raise her young. Some argue that such behavior is limited to birds that are related. But they admit that even adopted orphaned bee-eaters will help their adopted parents in this way.

While it is often denied, the theory of evolution has yet to adequately explain altruism. Altruism is a demonstration of that commandment given by our Creator to “love our neighbor.”

Notes: Kathy A. Fackelmann, “Avian Altruism,” Science News, Vol.135, June 10, 1989, pp. 364-365.
Photo: Courtesy of Luc Viatour. Licensed under the GNU Free Documentation 1.2 License.
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“While two polygamist families are attempting to prove critics wrong and convince people that they live a normal lifestyle, at least one former polygamist wife is speaking out against the practice. The state of Utah recently ruled that a law against cohabitation was a violation of the First Amendment's right to freedom of religion, allowing polygamist families more freedom. Marion Munn was part of a plural marriage for 18 years after converting to Mormon fundamentalism. Munn was not happy with the arrangement and is now speaking out about the dangers of the polygamist lifestyle. ‘The only way that I can explain it is like living with adultery on a daily basis, and having the woman come home. On top of that you have to smile and pretend that everything's okay because that's part of the culture too. So for me going into it, I didn't personally want to live it, but I felt compelled to as a matter of faith,’ Munn told Daily Mail. ... [Last November’s ruling allowing] more freedom for polygamist families ... made at least one well-known polygamist family, the Brown family, very happy. ... The Brown family stars in the popular TLC series ‘Sister Wives,’ which seeks to refute the negative perceptions of polygamist living. TLC has also ordered a new series ‘My Five Wives,’ which features another polygamist family; it is scheduled to air later this year.”

(“Former Polygamist Wife,” Christian Post, Feb. 10, 2014)

Philippians 4:6-7
“Be careful for nothing … And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”

Here, medical missionary Dr. David Livingstone speaks to us from his diary, written in 1872. He tells about God’s mercy as he experienced being the intended victim of a lion, “red in tooth and claw.”

“I heard a shout. Starting and looking half around, I saw the lion just in the act of springing upon me. I was on a little height; he caught my shoulder as he sprang and we both came to the ground below together. Growling horribly close to my ear, he shook me as a terrier does a rat. The shock produced a stupor similar to that which seems to be felt by a mouse after the first shake by a cat. It caused a sort of dreaminess in which there was no sense of pain or feeling of terror, though quite conscious of all that was happening. It was like what patients partially under the influence of chloroform describe, who see all the operation but feel not the knife. This singular condition was not the result of any mental process. The shake annihilated fear, and allowed no sense of horror in looking around at the beast. The peculiar state is probably produced in all animals killed by carnivora; and if so, is a merciful provision by our benevolent Creator for lessening the pain of death.”



Notes: Livingstone, David, 1872. Adventures and Discoveries in the Interior of Africa (Philadelphia: Hubbard Brothers. pp. 96, 102, 103).
Photo: David Livingstone memorial at Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe. Courtesy of Tim Rogers. Licensed under the GNU Free Documentation 1.2 License.
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A February 10 report in the New York Times was entitled “Camels Had No Business in Genesis.” The report cites the claim of Tel Aviv University archaeologists Erez Ben-Yosef and Lidar Sapir-Hen that “camels probably had little or no role in the lives of such early Jewish patriarchs as Abraham, Jacob and Joseph.” The view is based on a lack of camel bones dating to that period. This is the old discredited argument from silence. You won't find the bones of bison in the American West either though millions of them lived there in the past. In fact, there is archaeological evidence for camels in Egypt, Mesopotamia, and Syria dating to before the time of Abraham. (See K.A. Kitchen, Ancient Orient and Old Testament, Chicago: InterVarsity, 1966, pp. 79-80) Since Abraham was from Mesopotamia (Ur and Haran), it is not difficult to see that he brought the camels with him when he relocated to Canaan. Further, the Bible doesn't say that camels were used widely in Canaan. It doesn't say that the Philistines used them, for example. The word “camel” appears 25 times in Genesis, and in each case it refers to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Dr. Andrew Steinmann, professor of Hebrew at Concordia University-Chicago, points out that the error is on the part of the Tel Aviv University archaeologists in misreading the Bible. They are assuming that the Bible is saying that camel use was widespread in Canaan during the days of Abraham, but it doesn't say that (“Does the Camel Study Really Prove,” Breitbart.com, Feb. 17, 2014). Skeptical archaeologists have often tried to discredit the Bible on the basis of silence from archaeological digs and extra-biblical sources. This was a prominent method used by liberals in the early part of the 19th century. Since, for example, they had no extra-biblical evidence then of writing prior to about 1000 B.C., they claimed that Moses could not have written the Pentateuch, and since there was then no extra-biblical evidence for the Hittites or Ur or the Philistines or King David, they must not have existed. In these cases and countless others, archaeology has subsequently provided extra-biblical evidence and the argument from silence has fallen apart. Yet silence is still trotted out to discredit the Bible. One must give the skeptics credit for persistence. It reminds me of what a positive-minded woman once replied when challenged as to what good thing could be said for the devil. She said, “He’s always on the job.”

(Friday Church News Notes, February 21, 2014, www.wayoflife.org [email protected], 866-295-4143)

William Seymour and Charles Parham have been called “the co-founders of world Pentecostalism” (Antonio Arnold, We Are Living in the Finished Work of Christ, p. 143), but Parham did not accept the Azusa Street experience as a movement of God. Seymour was part of Parham’s Apostolic Faith movement and was a student in Parham’s Bible School in Houston when he received the call to move to Los Angeles. “Tongues speaking” had broken out in 1901 at Parham’s Bethel Bible School in Topeka, Kansas, before he moved to Houston. We even have a description of the exact words spoken in “tongues” by one of Parham’s Topeka students as recorded by a reporter for the Topeka State Journal. I found a copy of this newspaper on a visit to the Kansas Historical Society in 2002: “Mr. Parham called Miss Lilian Thistlethwaite into the room and asked her if she could talk some. She ... began to utter strange words which sounded like this: ‘Euossa, Euossa, use rela sema calah mala kanah leulla ssage nalan. Ligle logle lazie logle. Ene mine mo, sah rah el me sah rah me’ (“Hindoo and Zulu Both Are Represented at Bethel School,” Topeka State Journal, Jan. 9, 1901). It was pure gibberish. Lilian even forgot the meene in “Ene meene mine mo”! When Parham visited the Asuza Street meetings in October 1906, he was dismayed by the “awful fits and spasms” of the “holy rollers and hypnotists.” He said the Azusa Street meetings were largely characterized by manifestations of the flesh, spiritualistic controls, and the practice of hypnotism (Sarah Parham, The Life of Charles F. Parham, Joplin, MO: Tri-state Printing, 1930, p. 163). When Parham arrived in Azusa Street in 1906, he began his first sermon by telling the people that “God is sick at his stomach” because of the things which were occurring at Azusa (Charles Shumway, A Study of the “Gift of Tongues,” A.B. thesis, University of California, 1914, pp. 178, 179; cited by Goff, Fields White Unto Harvest, p. 131). According to Parham, two-thirds of the people that professed Pentecostalism in his day were “either hypnotized or spook driven” (Sarah Parham, p. 164). (For more on this see The Pentecostal-Charismatic Movements: The History and the Error, available in print and eBook editions from Way of Life Literature.)

(Friday Church News Notes, February 21, 2014, www.wayoflife.org [email protected], 866-295-4143)

On February 22 a walk of remembrance will be held in Los Angeles to commemorate the anniversary of the birth of Pentecostalism at the Azusa Street Mission. The tour will be led by Mel Robeck of Fuller Theological Seminary. One hundred and eight years ago William Seymour started the Azusa Street Mission to teach his many heresies, including sinless perfectionism, the guarantee of healing, end-time apostolic miracle revival, and tongues speaking as “initial evidence of the baptism of the Holy Spirit.” The Azusa Street meetings continued for more than three years, with large numbers of people attending in search of their personal “Pentecost” and subsequently taking the theology and experiences back to their homes across America and beyond. The services were confusion personified. Usually no one was leading. “Whoever was anointed with the message would stand and deliver it. It might be a man, woman, or child” (Larry Martin, The Life and Ministry of William J. Seymour, p. 186). People sang at the same time but “with completely different syllables, rhythms, and melodies” (Ted Olsen, “American Pentecost, Christian History, Issue 58, 1998). People jumped, fell down, jerked, uttered strange animal noises, laughed hysterically. Seekers would be “seized with a strange spell and commence a gibberish of sounds.” A sympathetic biographer of William Seymour admits that “at times the meetings would become so boisterous that the police were called” (Martin, The Life and Ministry of Seymour, p. 188). One man shook so violently under Seymour’s ministry that an ambulance was called. When the man who was shaking told the doctor, “Don’t touch me, this is the power of God,” the doctor wisely replied, “If that is the power of God it is giving you a devil of a shaking” (Martin, p. 306). “Spirit slaying” was also a large part of the Azusa Street meetings. Seymour fell down “like he was dead” when he first spoke in tongues, and “at times men would fall all over the house, like an army slain on the battle field...” (Martin, pp. 148, 179)

(Friday Church News Notes, February 21, 2014, 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.”

Many people think that the greatest of the dinosaurs were the largest creatures ever to live on Earth. But while a few of the very largest dinosaurs may have been longer than the blue whale, the blue whale has the largest actual body size of any creature that ever lived.

The blue whale can reach a length of 100 feet and weigh up to 170 tons. That’s about as much as a whole town of twenty-seven hundred people! It has to eat a million calories a day, which is equivalent to about 1,000 banana splits. The blue whale’s tongue weighs more than an elephant and its arteries are big enough for a man to swim through. Its heart, which has to pump the whale’s entire supply of eight tons of blood, weighs 1,000 pounds.

In addition to its great size, the whale is intelligent. Besides showing forth God’s great creative power and imagination, the whale also shows us that neither size nor other standards of human measurement give us an indication of how God places value on things. Though we human beings are not the largest, nor the only intelligent creatures on Earth, we are the only ones responsible to God for the way we live. That is why, when sin separated us from our Creator, He sent His only Son to save and restore us to Himself.

Notes: “So You Think a Dinosaur is Big.” Does God Exist? May-June, 1989.
Photo: Skeleton of a blue whale, Canadian Museum of Nature, Ottawa, Ontario. Courtesy of D. Gordon E. Robertson. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
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Acts 17:26-27
“And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation; That they should seek the Lord, if haply they hope that they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us.”

History flows like a river, unstoppable by any man, from the creation to the final judgment.

Man is by nature rebellious and is reluctant to acknowledge a Creator far superior to himself. In his rebellion, man has tried to transform God’s creating hand into the dice of chance. But chance events cannot create what mind and fingers make. Man may argue that Christ could not have risen from the dead because our most able scientists cannot raise the dead. Man may even claim that the educated have risen above a so-called Christian “religious myth” – but he cannot deny that when he does so, he creates a new religious myth.

All of history finds its meaning in Jesus Christ, and all the fixtures of history are covered with the fingerprints of God. So long as man is allowed to be free to see, that fact will never be hidden by the proud claims of humanity’s science.

Men may deny that God is in control of all history or deny that Jesus Christ is the theme of all history. They can try to pollute the river of history or even hide it from view, but they cannot deny that while futile attempts have been made, history remains numbered in years before and after Christ, B.C. and A.D. He, and no man, is the true Lord of history.

Photo: The Sermon on the Mount by Carl Heinrich Bloch (1834–1890).
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"The better we know God's thoughts about Christ, the better we know God's thoughts about us, who are in Christ, according to the verse in 1 John 4, 'As He is, so are we in this world.' There is not a single grace, not a single beauty, not a single perfection of the Lord Jesus that we see brought out in the Gospels respecting which we, as believers, may not say, 'That is mine.' Do you ask how this can be? I reply, Is not Christ your life? 'When Christ, who is our life, shall appear' (Col. 3: 4). Do you want to see what your life is in its perfection? You must not look at yourselves or your fellow-Christians; you must look at Christ here on earth. 'For the life was manifested'--shown out (1 John 1: 2). What life? The eternal life. That is the life you and I possess as believers. ... You must not look at me to find it out, because very often a great deal that is not the life of Christ comes out; very often the sin, the Adam-nature, shows itself. No, if you wish to see the eternal life that I possess perfectly manifested, you must look at the Lord Jesus Christ as a man on earth."

(R.F. Kingscote, Christ as Seen in the Offerings)

2 Peter 3:9
“The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.”

A recently released study on patience and reward echoes what the Bible has to say about patience, reward and temptation.

The study involved four-year-old children, and the researchers offered them cookies as the reward. The children were offered a choice of either a couple of cookies immediately or, if they were prepared to wait 15 minutes, they could have five pretzels, which was the much larger treat. They were allowed to see the treats beforehand and were told that they could sound a buzzer at any time and receive the smaller treat. After the study, researchers examined how well the various children did in school for the next 10 years. Their conclusions were that those children who waited patiently for the larger treat as four-year-olds also did better in school than the children who could not wait. They also found that talking about the treats during the 15-minute waiting period caused more of the children to give in to temptation and abandon patience. Researchers suggested that teaching children self-control will help them in school and in their social relationships later in life. 

These findings are exactly in line with what the Bible teaches about patience, finding its reward, and the caution to flee from the opportunity for temptation.

Notes: Bruce Bower. “Preschool Self-Control and Pretzel Logic.” Science News, May 27, 1989, p. 325.
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Following last week's debate between creationist Ken Ham and evolutionist Bill Nye, Pat Robertson, head of The 700 Club, said he does not agree that the earth is 6,000 years old ("Christian Leader Pat Robertson Shuts Down Ken Ham on Creationism," The Blaze, Feb. 5, 2014). Robertson said the same thing in 2012 in a reply to a Christian mother who is concerned that her sons and husband are abandoning the biblical faith for the lies of evolutionary philosophy parading as science ("Pat Robertson Says Dinosaurs Prove Young Earth Creationists Are Wrong," Christian Post, Nov. 28, 2012). She got a horribly-wrong answer from Robertson, which is not surprising as he has long been in doctrinal never-never land ever since he received the bogus charismatic "baptism in the Holy Spirit" in the late 1950s. He errs in thinking that evolutionary science, including its dating methods, is real science. Evolutionary science is not real science; it is an interpretation of the facts of science through the eyes of willful skepticism. It is based upon nothing more solid than evolutionary presuppositions. Real science supports the Bible, and this has been documented by many highly qualified scientists, such as the Ph.D's that we list in Testimonies of Scientists Who Believe the Bible, available as a free eBook from www.wayoflife.org. It is essential to understand that evolution does not rate as a theory or even as a hypothesis. As David Stone, Ph.D. physics, says, "Scientific theories involve quantitative modeling, experimental data, and repeated validation by prediction and observation. In any aspect of the philosophy / fantasy of evolution, there is no 'theory.' There is no theory for formation of the first protein, first DNA, first cellular sub-structures, first cell, multi-celled creatures, transitions between kinds, etc. Just stories. There are no genetic data, not a single observed case of mutations and natural selection producing new, complex tissues, organs, or creatures. ... Evolution qualifies merely as a philosophical, even a religious idea, void of scientific support, and intended to replace biblical truth with stories" (Dr. Stone, e-mail to David Cloud, August 21, 2011). There is nothing "poetic" about the Bible's creation account. "An evening and a morning" does not add up to millions of years. Back in 1922, William Jennings Bryan wisely said, "It is no light matter to impeach the veracity of the Scriptures in order to accept, not a truth--not even a theory--but a mere hypothesis" (In His Image, 1922, p. 94). Bryan was correct in this statement, but he too erred by giving credence to a "long day" view of Genesis 1, thus undermining the biblical account. This is exactly what men such as Pat Robertson are doing in our day, and it is destructive to the cause of Jesus Christ.

(Friday Church News Notes, February 14, 2014, www.wayoflife.org [email protected], 866-295-4143)

2 Corinthians 11:14-15
“And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works.”

The spider’s web is more than simply a sticky net that catches insects. Scientists have recently learned that the spider’s web is also a clever lure that uses ultraviolet light.

Unlike humans, most insects can see ultraviolet light. They use this ability to locate the sun when it is behind clouds as well as to locate certain flowers that offer rich ultraviolet hues. Spider silk is able to reflect ultraviolet light. This is especially true of silks used for web-making, as opposed to silks created by the spider for lining burrows or protecting eggs. The garden spider even weaves decorations into its web that increases ultraviolet reflection. In fact, webs that have extra decorations increase ultraviolet light reflection and increase the garden spider’s catch by 58 percent. Scientists also think that extra reflective decorations in the web serve as a warning to birds that can also see ultraviolet light and are not welcome in spider’s webs!

Just as the spider’s web is as much a lure as it is a trap, the devil too, uses lures to catch us in his traps. He lures us to them with things that will catch our attention. The knowledge of how he works is given in the Bible. God gave us His Son that He may teach us how to effectively spot, avoid and escape the devil’s traps.

Notes: I. Wickelgren. “Spider Webs: Luring Light May Be a Trap.” Science News, Vol. 135, p. 330.
Photo: Spiders build their webs with great skill unless they’re under the influence of caffeine.
Creation Moments, Inc., P.O. Box 839, Foley, MN 56329 www.creationmoments.com

Just nine years ago Trinity Baptist Church of Jacksonville, Florida, began dabbling with contemporary Christian music. The changes have been fast and furious. Today the church obviously cares nothing about earnestly contending for sound doctrine and has renounced the Bible's command to separate from error and end-time apostasy (e.g., Romans 16:17; 2 Timothy 3:5). In April, Trinity is scheduled to host the Rend Collective Experiment for a second time (the first was in 2012). This group is hooked intimately into the emerging church via its close association with and support of emergent leaders such as Tony Campolo, David Crowder, and Shane Claiborne (http://rendcollective.com/bio). In January 2012, Crowder led worship for the send-off of Rob Bell at Mars Hill Bible Church in Grandville, Michigan. Crowder thus put his blessing on Bell's rank heresies, including his denial that the Bible is the infallible Word of God and his rejection of the eternal judgment of hell. In his 2011 book Love Wins, Bell preaches near-universalism, as well as a false god, a false christ, a false gospel, a false heaven, and a false hell. Adrian Thompson of Kingsway music publishers says, "Rend Collective Experiment are ... the musical equivalent of what people like Rob Bell and Francis Chan are trying to do with the Church." These are extremely dangerous spiritual waters. Joining the Rend Collective Experiment at Trinity in April is Pentecostal Kari Jobe, who claims to have a "prophetic ministry." She described growing up in a Pentecostal atmosphere: "We would go places where people were giving prophetic words and I would receive prophetic ministry. Many of those prophetic words have come to pass or are coming to pass" ("Kari Jobe Talks Prophetic Ministry," Examiner.com, March 16, 2012). In November 2012, Trinity Baptist Church hosted the Roman Catholic contemporary worship singer Audrey Assad.

(Friday Church News Notes, February 14, 2014, www.wayoflife.org [email protected], 866-295-4143)

Psalm 104:30-31
“Thou sendest forth thy spirit, they are created; and thou renewest the face of the earth. The glory of the LORD shall endure for ever: the LORD shall rejoice in His works.”

Several years ago, Dr. Francis Hitching gave us his book The Neck of the Giraffe and in this he writes that Darwinism is in a lot of trouble. He laments, and I’m using his own words, that evolution “has not, contrary to general belief, and despite very great efforts, been proven.”

Hitching points out that fossils do not show any history of evolutionary development. He says, creatures “come into the fossil record seemingly from nowhere – mysteriously, suddenly, fully formed and in a most un-Darwinian way.” He admits that the systematic gaps in the fossil record will never be filled with evolutionary ancestors and that it can no longer be claimed that someday scientists will find the missing creatures. He confesses that in the history of life, plants and animals must be treated as though they came into existence fully formed – in the forms we know today. Hitching also notes other problems and complains that science has no idea how the genetic code could have formed without a Creator, while mutations cannot explain the supposed changes of evolution.

Hitching insists that there can be no debate that evolution actually took place. After all, he says, we are here and that is proof enough. But his statements are an honest and bottom-line admission that the theory of evolution has no support from the scientific facts.

Notes: Francis Hitching. “Was Darwin Wrong?” Life, April, 1982.
Photo: Magazine cover of issue that included article by Francis Hitching.
Creation Moments, Inc., P.O. Box 839, Foley, MN 56329 www.creationmoments.com

"During my recent debate with Bill Nye 'The Science Guy' at the Creation Museum, Mr. Nye ... made a false claim about our state of Kentucky and its medical technology. It caught the eye of a diagnostic radiologist, who wrote a letter to Bill Nye to correct him [about the] false charge that the state of Kentucky does not have a nuclear medicine program within its borders. Apparently it was Nye's attempt to show that the Creation Museum's home state is backward technologically, and that the museum has supposedly been contributing to scientific illiteracy in Kentucky. ... 'Bill, I thank you for your time and effort in participating in the debate with Ken Ham. I am a Bible-believing Christian and a physician--a diagnostic radiologist, in fact. I graduated from MIT with a degree of biology, and went on to New York University for my medical school. I was not a believer of Christ then, but I am a believer now. ... You state: "Right now, there is no place in the Commonwealth of Kentucky to get a degree in this kind of nuclear medicine.”... You could have used the website of the Nuclear Medicine Technology Certification Board, the governing body for certifying individuals to be a nuclear medicine technologist. In their list of accredited schools for nuclear medicine technologists, Kentucky has two: one in Louisville at Jefferson Community College, and the other in Lexington at Bluegrass Community & Technical College. ... If you go further down the list for the State of Washington (where Nye Labs LLC is located, as per your Contact Bill Nye webpage), there is only one, at Bellevue College in Bellevue, WA. So, by your argument (of using the number of nuclear medicine technology schools as a reflection of that state's scientific sophistication), perhaps you should be worried that your state of Washington is a bit behind Kentucky in technological and scientific sophistication, and I hope that you find that "troubling" and hope you're "concerned" about that. By your argument, Kentucky is twice as scientifically literate as Washington. ... Perhaps you owe an apology to the citizens of Kentucky in the live and Internet audience regarding your comment about their state.'"

("Answering Bill Nye," Around the World with Ken Ham, Feb. 8, 2014)

The following is reprinted from Friday News, November 2, 2012. Whether or not Mitt Romney wins the U.S. presidential election next week, one thing is certain: His candidacy has helped push forward the mainstreaming of Mormonism, which is something that the cult has been aiming for since Mormon leaders voiced their support for Promise Keepers in the 1990s. 1997 witnessed the publication of How Wide the Divide: A Mormon & an Evangelical in Conversation and former President Jimmy Carter stating at a national press conference that Mormons are Christians and should not be the targets of "proselytizing."  In 1998, AOG pastor Dean Jackson sent "a former declaration of repentance for prejudice against members of the Church of Latter Day Saints" to Mormon leaders in Provo, Utah. In 1999, Mormons were invited to participate in the annual March for Jesus in Salt Lake City. In 2001, Standing Together Ministries was founded by "evangelical" preacher Greg Johnson with the goal of furthering "dialogue between evangelical Christians and Latter-day Saints." In 2004, evangelical leaders such as Ravi Zacharias, Fuller Seminary president Richard Mouw, Biola University professor Craig Hazen, and CCM artist Michael Card joined "Latter Day Saints" in an "Evening of Friendship" in the Mormon Tabernacle in Salt Lake City. (See Way of Life's Advanced Bible Studies Series course Defense of the Faith for documentation of the previous facts.) In May 2012, CNN Belief Blog published a report on the growing influence of Mormons in Washington D.C., stating that "the nation's capital has become a Mormon stronghold, with Latter-day Saints playing a big and growing role in the Washington establishment." The growth of Mormonism in the nation's capitol was described as "an absolute explosion." In late October 2012, the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA) removed a longstanding reference to Mormonism as a cult from its web site after Billy and Franklin Graham met with Mitt Romney. We have long said that it is inconsistent and hypocritical for "evangelicals" to affiliate with the Roman Catholic Church while rejecting Mormonism, as both have a false gospel and a false christ. The mainstreaming of Mormonism is further evidence that the one-world "church" continues to gather stream.

(Friday Church News Notes, February 14, 2014, www.wayoflife.org, [email protected], 866-295-4143)

For the second time, Ravi Zacharias has spoken at the Mormon Temple in Utah to call for evangelicals and Mormons to stand together to save America from "lost morality." The two-day "Freedom and Friendship" meeting in January was attended by 3,500 "evangelicals" and Mormons ("Popular Christian Apologist," The Christian Post, Jan. 20, 2014). In his speech, Zacharias condemned "pragmatic philosophy," but that is exactly what he is pursuing in calling for unity between Bible believing Christians and Mormons with their false gospel and false christ. The Word of God forbids such a union (e.g., Romans 16:17-18; 2 Corinthians 6:14-18; 11:1-4; 2 Timothy 3:5; 2 John 7-11). The conference was sponsored by Standing Together, "a coalition of evangelical churches who seek to be a catalyst for uniting the Utah Christian community through relational efforts of prayer, worship, and strategic evangelism." Standing Together President Gregory Johnson told audience members, "Tonight is another night for us to meet, not as warring factions, but as friends." Zacharias was introduced by Jeffrey Holland, former president of Brigham Young University, who said that the thing that brings Mormons and Christians together is their "shared love for the Lord Jesus Christ." Zacharias spoke at the first Standing Together conference at the Mormon Tabernacle in 2004. At that time he joined Fuller Theological Seminary president Richard Mouw, Biola University professor Craig Hazen, and CCM artist Michael Card. The moral situation in America is dire, but this type of thing is the problem rather than the solution.

(Friday Church News Notes, February 14, 2014, www.wayoflife.org [email protected], 866-295-4143)

Proverbs 3:7-8
“Be not wise in thine own eyes; fear the LORD, and depart from evil. It shall be health to thy naval, and marrow to thy bones.”

At one time textbooks defined man as the only tool-using animal. But then they discovered a number of animals that do use tools. So the definition of man was changed to say that man was the only animal that uses and makes tools. Before long, however, scientists began to discover that many of those tool-using animals actually make their own tools.

For example, chimpanzees will make tools out of sticks and grass to help them fish termites out of logs and trees. Chimps chew leaves to make a sponge that comes in handy for soaking water out of hard-to-drink-from places. Gorillas have been seen using crooked sticks to pull ripe fruit into reach. Elephants use sticks for back-scratchers. The California sea otter uses a stone to break open clamshells. The Galapagos woodpecker finch uses a stick or cactus spine to fish for grubs in trees, and the satin bower bird makes a paint brush out of bark to paint the inside of its bower. But notice that more non-primates than primates make and use tools.

Our growing knowledge of the gift of intelligence that God has given to the animal world clearly shows that tool-making and tool-using have nothing to do with any supposed evolutionary development. But it does lead us to stand in wonder and thanksgiving at God’s goodness towards His Creation!

Notes: Jane Van Lawick-Goodall. “Tool-Using Bird: The Egyptian Vulture.” National Geographic, Vol. 133, No. 5, pp. 633-641.
Photo: Taken at the Zoological Center of Tel Aviv-Ramat Gan in Israel.
Creation Moments, Inc., P.O. Box 839, Foley, MN 56329 www.creationmoments.com