![]() Genesis 1:16 “He made the stars also.” In a previous Creation Moment, we discussed the giant planet Uranus and its anomolous motion. The tilt of the planet’s rotational axis is at 98° to the Solar System Normal. By “Normal”, we mean a line drawn perpendicular to the plane, on which most of the planets of the Solar System orbit. As a comparison, the Earth’s rotational axis is at 23° to the Normal. Additionally, the planet Uranus is rotating clockwise, as seen above its North Pole, whereas the Earth and most other planets rotate counter-clockwise. In that previous Creation Moment, we opined that no one knows how this anomalous rotation and tilt came about. That is still true, but evolutionary astrophysicists have recently suggested a catastrophic reason. Some half a billion years, after the initial formation of the planets from stellar dust, an object about twice the size of Earth crashed into Uranus. It was a glancing blow but sufficient to cause the planet’s current tilt and rotation. This idea was suggested after a large number of computer simulations were run by researchers. The reason for proposing this catastrophe is clear. Current evolutionary theories require the Solar System to have congealed from dust, in which case angular momentum would have had all objects rotating in a nearly similar way. The anomaly that is Uranus spoils this story. As creationists, we do not need to search for such speculations. We do not need to expect that God created all the planets with the same spin or axial tilt. creationmoments.com/sermons/catastrophe-on-uranus ![]() “Many of America’s top colleges and universities are now offering courses designed to ‘advance a liberal agenda, malign conservatives and their values, and shut out ideological diversity,’ asserts a new report from Young America’s Foundation (YAF). YAF argues the curriculum at a wide range of American schools, from Harvard University to Columbia University to Swarthmore College, seems to target conservative and Christian values in some shocking ways. ‘Many of the courses and descriptions listed in this year’s report may seem comical at first glance, but the situation that continues to unfold on America’s campuses is hardly a laughing matter. Beyond the inane, identity- and intersectionality-obsessed topics, these classes advance a liberal agenda, malign conservatives and their values, and shut out ideological diversity,’ said YAF spokesman Spencer Brown, author of the 25th annual Comedy and Tragedy Report. The report examines the curriculum of approximately 50 top schools. One of the most unsettling classes from a Christian perspective may be Swarthmore's religion class called ‘RELG 033—Queering the Bible.’ Here's the description: ‘This course surveys the queer and trans readings of biblical texts. It introduces students to the complexity of constructions of sex, gender, and identity in one of the most influential literary works produced in ancient times. By reading the Bible with the methods of queer and trans theoretical approaches, this class destabilizes the long held assumptions about the Bible—and religion—says about gender and sexuality.’ There’s a similar course at Pomona College called ‘RLST 184—Queer Theory and the Bible.’ Here's what it teaches: ‘This course will look at how the Bible can be read productively through queer theory. We will examine biblical passages that are central to prohibitions on homosexuality and the larger discourses of heteronormativity (constructed around gender, sexuality, class, national identity, state formations, kinship, children, etc.) in which homophobic readings of the Bible emerge. We will also look at the ways in which these discourses and the identities they shore up can be queered, as well as at biblical texts that can be read as queer friendly. This process of queering will allow and require us to approach the biblical text in new ways.’ According to Brown, the schools' goal in presenting such subject matter is clear—to indoctrinate the younger generation with left-wing ideology. ‘Peel back the shiny veneer colleges and universities place on themselves in the name of “higher” education to reveal a stark reality: campuses devoid of intellectual diversity populated with leftist professors, faculty, and administrators intent on indoctrinating the rising generation in the ways of the Left,’ he charged.” “Queer and Trans Readings,” CBNNews, Feb. 19, 2019 ![]() Genesis 3:8-9 “And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden. And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou?” Genesis chapter 3:8 is both a beautiful verse, and a worrying verse. We read “they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day”. This sounds so pleasant. The way it is worded suggests to me that this event had occurred before. Therefore, it is likely that Adam and Eve had been experiencing close fellowship with the Lord God. If He was walking, then this must have been a theophany – a pre-incarnate appearance of the Second Person of the Trinity. It would literally have been paradise just to walk with Jesus in the cool of the day, having fellowship with Him. But on this occasion, there was no longer close fellowship. “Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden.” Where there had previously been sweet fellowship, now there was fear, guilt, and shame. But, as David noted in the Psalms, there is nowhere we can go to hide from the presence of the Lord. So God calls, “Where art thou?” Why does God ask questions like this? God knows exactly where Adam and Eve are, and what they have done. The answer to this question will not be of benefit to Him, so it can only be of benefit to the man and his wife. God is offering them the chance to repent, and by the subsequent events, He shows them a way back to fellowship again. creationmoments.com/sermons/the-lord-god-walking-in-the-garden ![]() “A baby boy born in Tokyo is believed to be the world’s smallest recorded preemie. He has recently been discharged from the hospital in good health, having survived delivery at 24 weeks. Weighing ‘the same as a large onion’ at 268 grams, the baby was so small he fit into an adult’s cupped hands. He was delivered by emergency C-section in Keio University Hospital after he reportedly stopped growing in the womb. He spent 5 months in the hospital for treatment in intensive care. When released last week, two months after his initial due date, he had grown to a weight of 3.2 kg, and is ‘now feeding normally,’ BBC News reports. The doctor who treated the infant, Doctor Takeshi Arimitsu, told the BBC that according to a database compiled by the University of Iowa of the world’s smallest surviving babies, the boy was the littlest infant born on record to be released from a hospital. The doctor said he wanted people to know that ‘there is a possibility that babies will be able to leave the hospital in good health even though they are born small.’ Before this latest record, the smallest surviving baby boy was in Germany, weighing 274 grams. The smallest surviving baby girl was born in 2015 in Germany and weighed 252 grams.” “World’s Smallest Baby,” ChristianHeadlines.com, Feb. 28, 2019 ![]() “More than two decades ago, a doctor published a study claiming that vaccines can cause autism. Despite the fact that that study was later completely discredited and debunked—and the doctor behind it barred from practicing medicine—the belief continues to persist throughout society. Now, a massive study of more than half a million children has confirmed what those in the medical community have been saying for two decades: vaccines don’t cause autism. But in an era when fringe theories can continue to spread online in spite of overwhelming counter-evidence, some worry that studies alone won’t be enough to effectively address the world’s vaccine crisis. In a paper published on Tuesday in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine, researchers from Denmark’s Statens Serum Institut describe how they analyzed data about 657,461 children born in Denmark between 1999 and 2010, with regular checkups on the kids’ health. Of all the children, 6,517 were diagnosed with autism. The researchers then compared the mumps, measles, and rubella (MMR)-vaccinated children in that group with the MMR-unvaccinated children. Their conclusion: ‘The study strongly supports that MMR vaccination does not increase the risk for autism, does not trigger autism in susceptible children, and is not associated with clustering of autism cases after vaccination.’ Of course, this isn’t the first study to conclude that vaccines almost certainly don’t cause autism. However, it is one of the largest and longest, and it arrives at a time when vaccine fears are leading to measles outbreaks across the globe.” “Massive Study” Futurism.com, Mar. 5, 2019 ![]() Genesis 2:8-9 “And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.” Theologian Peter Enns begins an article about the first two chapters of Genesis thus: “The book of Genesis includes two very different creation stories.” This is a common statement made by a lot of people – usually those, such as liberal Christians, or atheists – who want to undermine belief in the Bible. But Enns claims to be a Bible-believer. He just accepts the idea of two creation stories as self-evident. Why? He says that God meant them to be understood as pointing to realities deeper than the merely historical. These sorts of statements are of concern to us. The apparent story does not have to be true. The “real truth” is deeper. To me, this sounds like saying: “God is telling a lie in order to tell us the truth.” “But it’s not meant to be read as history”, they object, to which I reply, “Why not?” Enns gives a number of reasons why he thinks the two stories are different. We will object to the term “story” and refer to both as “accounts”. He states that the order of events in the first two chapters of Genesis is different. In chapter 1, the creation of plants precedes the creation of man, whereas in chapter 2 the creation of man precedes that of plants. Is this the case? Most emphatically not! Genesis 2:5 refers to types of plants – not plants in general – that God was to plant in the Garden. Genesis 2 presupposes Genesis 1 and is best understood as an expansion of the events of Day Six. creationmoments.com/sermons/two-creation-accounts-or-one ![]() “Despite reports surfacing that Meghan Markle and Prince Harry have learned they are having a boy, the royal pair don’t plan to let that change how they will raise their child. A source recently revealed to Vanity Fair, that Meghan has expressed wanting to raise her baby without gender stereotypes. ‘Meghan has been talking to some of her friends about the birth and how she and Harry plan to raise their baby. Her exact word was fluid,’ the source said. ‘She said they plan to raise their child with a fluid approach to gender and they won’t be imposing any stereotypes.’ While there are many definitions of fluid, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex may choose not to restrict what toys they buy their child or what sports they play based on sex. They may also go for a gender-neutral approach when dressing their child, avoiding pinks and blues. This is also the approach the parents-to-be are taking for the baby’s nursery. One of the major renovations happening at the couple’s new home of Frogmore Cottage is a neutral nursery. A source told VF in February that Meghan is planning for a natural, at-home delivery. ‘Meg wants a natural birth if she can have one,’ they said. ‘Her mother is very into anything that is holistic and natural, and having been brought up with yoga and mindfulness, it’s all very much part of Meghan’s birth plan.’” “Meghan Markle and Prince Harry,” Yahoo.com/lifestyle, Mar. 1, 2019 ![]() I Corinthians 15:21-22 “For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.” I saw a video on the BioLogos website entitled Paul’s Adam. Even the title caused concern. The apostle Paul alludes to Genesis in a number of places in his epistles, but two places in particular refer directly to Adam. These are Romans 5 and 1 Corinthians 15. In both cases, Adam is compared to Jesus. When I watched the video, I heard the featured theologians say that Paul got it wrong. These supposedly Bible-believing theologians were explaining that Adam was never a real person, but that they did not expect the apostle Paul to know that, and, therefore, the lesson drawn by Paul is still true. The lesson that Paul draws, in brief, is this: Adam was our representative in Eden. Jesus was our representative on the cross. “For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.” The analogy made between Adam and Jesus in both passages is so close that logic would tell us that the lesson would be undermined if Adam did not exist. It seems that some self-avowed conservative theologians are playing with fire these days. The idea that “it’s okay, if Paul was wrong” is not an acceptable answer. The more humble approach is to acknowledge that if Paul, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, told us that Adam was real, then he most certainly was. creationmoments.com/sermons/pauls-adam ![]() “There are at least 787 students at Pennsylvania’s Honesdale High School—but only one of them seemed to know about a major change in the school’s rules. The others found out the most traumatic way possible—when they walked into the girls’ locker room and found a teenage boy in women’s underwear. Turns out, the students weren’t the only ones who’d never been notified about the policy. Still in shock, the parents called the principal and Wayne County superintendent. Neither was particularly sorry about the girls’ experience. And to prove it, they refused to lift a finger to help. The girls’ only option was to wait outside the locker room—a place designated for them—until the boy inside was finished. Just to the south, in Boyertown, Alexis Lightcap ran into the same situation. ‘No one prepared us, warned us, or counseled us’ about the boys they’d find in their restrooms and locker rooms. And they were just as unsympathetic when the girls complained about it. Like this sophomore, Alexis thought the adults’ job was to protect students. Instead, she got the same cold shoulder from administrators, who seem to be more concerned about looking politically incorrect than guarding their girls’ privacy. Because of that, these girls are being put in an impossible position, lawyer Andrea Shaw argues in her formal complaint to the U.S. Department of Education. ‘Given the culture’s treatment of LGBT issues, she has to choose between her privacy and ostracism.’ Now that Wayne County is taking the boy’s side, girls are ‘unbearably uncomfortable’—and not just her client. Other students have come forward from the cross-country team and said they object to changing in front of him. Parents are worried about ‘overnight trips and whether the male will be assigned the same hotel room.’ Girls aren’t using the restroom during school because they’re worried they’ll run into male classmates. And others are concerned that ‘the teachers will retaliate’ if they bring up how uneasy they are. Congressional Democrats want to open up everyone’s locker rooms, showers, and bathrooms to men under the so-called Equality Act.” “High School Girls,” The Stream, Mar. 21, 2019 “This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves … unholy … without natural affection … incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good … heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God” (2 Timothy 3:1-4). ![]() Psalm 119:89 “For ever, O LORD, thy word is settled in heaven.” When I taught science, I drilled into my students important aspects of scientific method. Take two tubes, each containing a different clear solution. We then mix the solutions, and they turn green. If we do the same experiment tomorrow, with the same amounts of solutions, at the same concentrations, at the same temperature – in other words, all the conditions are the same – then we will get the same result. We would not expect the same materials to gently turn green one day, and explosively turn orange the next. That is why it is a point of principle that scientific experiments are repeatable. This is also why, as science teachers, we got students to write down their experiments. We always did so in a regimented format, noting the Apparatus and Materials used, then the Method (how we did the experiment), the Observations (it turned green), and finally the Conclusion – what we had learned from the experiment. Evolution is not like that. An evolutionist supposes that inorganic molecules turned into a cell, or that an ape-like ancestor became human. These things are not repeatable. That fact alone does not falsify the event. God made birds on Day Five, but we cannot repeat that event, either. Both are, scientifically, suppositions of one-off events in the past, so we call them historical science, as opposed to the former being operational science. The true event is the one where we have the eye-witness account – and the only eye-witness was God Himself, recording what He actually did in Genesis 1. creationmoments.com/sermons/what-science
Brian Snider has published a video presentation “Debunking Steven Anderson” in two parts.
See also What About Steven Anderson? a free eBook available for viewing and download.
(Friday Church News Notes, April 5, 2019, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) ![]() 1 Corinthians 14:33a “For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace… “ Erwin Schrödinger had a cat. Or perhaps he didn’t. At any rate, we don’t know whether it is alive or dead. Or still in the box. Confused? Let me explain. Physicist Erwin Schrödinger devised a thought experiment in order to try to explain quantum theory. He imagined putting a cat in a box. There is a radioactive atom in the box which may, or may not, decay. If it does decay, it will release an alpha particle, which will hit a sensitive mechanism, able to release a hammer. The hammer will hit a vial of poisonous gas, killing the cat. The radioactive atom’s decay is a quantum event, so, whether the cat lives or dies, is also now a quantum event. If we have not opened the box, we do not know if the cat is alive or dead. In fact, before decay, a radioactive atom is assumed, by quantum theory, to exist in all possible states. Therefore, the cat is both alive and dead. Of course, once the box is opened, there is no doubt because we can see whether the cat is dead or alive. The purpose of Schrödinger’s thought experiment was to criticize the whole concept of Quantum Theory. Surely, it was not possible for something to be and not to be at the same time. This simplistic version of Quantum Theory suggests a universe which is not understandable. No wonder that early scientists based their discoveries on the solid truth of God’s word. creationmoments.com/sermons/does-the-cat-exist ![]() Since Israel’s return to the land at the turn of the 20th century, a slew of artifacts have been unearthed that support the biblical record. The latest, announced this week, is a seal impression (bulla) that reads “Belonging to Nathan-Melech, servant of the king” (“2,600 Year Old Seal Discovered in City of David,” Jerusalem Post, Apr. 1, 2019). This name is mentioned in 2 Kings 23:11 in connection with King Josiah’s revival. “And he took away the horses that the kings of Judah had given to the sun, at the entering in of the house of the LORD, by the chamber of Nathanmelech the chamberlain, which was in the suburbs, and burned the chariots of the sun with fire.” We aren’t told specifically that Nathanmelech was complicit with the worship of the sun, but it seems probable since he apparently had allowed this idolatry to be carried out by his own chamber. The Greeks and Romans worshipped the sun god Helios, whose chariot was supposedly drawn by four horses. This image has been found on the mosaic floors of two ancient synagogues in Israel (Tiberias and Zippori). “Jarchi says, that those who adored the sun had horses, which they mounted every morning, to go out to meet him at his rising. The kings of Judah had imitated these idolatrous customs, and kept the horses of the sun even at the entrance of the temple of the Lord! (Treasury of Scripture Knowledge). The prophet Jeremiah, whose ministry began in the days of Josiah, would have been a witness to these things (Jer. 1:3). The Nathanmelech seal impression, which is dated to the 7th century BC, was found on the western slope of the City of David south of the Temple Mount in a building that shows evidence of having been destroyed by the Babylonians in the 6th century. Thus it is exactly the right time and place for a direct connection with the individual named in Scripture. The seal joins others that have been discovered in the area of David’s palace bearing the names of people mentioned in the books of Jeremiah, Kings, and Chronicles who lived or worked in the palace just before it was burned by Nebuchadnezzar. These include Jehucal the son of Shelemiah (Jer. 37:3), Gedaliah, son of Pashur (Jer. 38:1), Gemariah the son of Shaphan (Jer. 36:10), and Azariah the son of Hilkiah (1 Ch. 9:11). Some of these are in the Israel Museum. (For more on this see, “Great Archaeological Discoveries in Israel,” www.wayoflife.org.) (Friday Church News Notes, April 5, 2019, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) ![]() Genesis 1:24 “And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so." Douglas Adams, in his comic masterpiece The Hitchhikers’ Guide to the Galaxy, has one talk radio presenter enthusiastically stating, “We’ll be saying a big hello to all intelligent lifeforms everywhere and to everyone else out there, the secret is to bang the rocks together, guys.” The joke is that the use of stone tools was supposedly one stage on the evolutionary progress of human beings. We remember movies from our youth – now criticized even by evolutionists – showing Neanderthal-type people who could only say “Ug!”, but who could make and use axe heads and arrow heads made of flint. So when the New Scientist magazine opines in a heading that, “Some monkeys in Panama may have just stumbled into the Stone Age”, it makes us sit up and notice. It turns out that there are capuchins in Panama which open nuts and shellfish, using stones. Yet, other neighboring populations of the same species do not use such tools. The article is implying that these monkeys could be entering a stone age, which would, presumably, allow them to evolve into more intelligent forms. “Perhaps it takes a single hyper-intelligent individual to make the leap and begin using stone tools”, suggests the article’s author. Yet, it is not only primates who use tools. Some sea otters use stones, while some crows can even manufacture simple tools from sticks or even wire. But at no time do these animals evolve into something new. God has created abilities to adapt and develop, but this is not evolution. creationmoments.com/sermons/stone-age-monkeys ![]() Christ’s quick coming is repeated three times in the last chapter of Revelation (Re. 22:10, 12, 20), and once in Revelation 3:11. Twice in Revelation we are told that these things will “shortly come to pass” (Re. 1:1; 20:7). And twice we are told that “the time is at hand” (Re. 1:3; Re. 22:10). The eight-fold repetition is divine emphasis. Christ is coming! Christ is coming! The words “quickly” and “shortly” and “at hand” emphasize the imminency of Christ’s coming. It is an emphasis on the importance of ever watching. The Bible is saying, “Wake up! Be ready! Look up!” This is a major theme of the New Testament from Matthew to Revelation. It must be a major theme in every believer’s life, and it must be a major theme of every church. It must be a major theme of preaching. Any preaching ministry that lacks the theme of the imminent coming of Christ is not a biblical ministry. The fading away of imminent Second Coming preaching is evidence of a slide toward apostasy. (Friday Church News Notes, March 29, 2019, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) ![]() “China’s mass surveillance operation has a new target: distracted high school students. In March, Hangzhou Number 11 High School in east China installed a ‘smart classroom behavior management system’ (or ‘smart eye’) in one of its classrooms. The smart eye uses facial recognition technology to monitor students, and by this summer, administrators plan to install the Big Brother-esque system in every classroom. Here’s how it works. Every 30 seconds, three cameras installed in the front of the room scan each student’s face to determine their expression: surprised, sad, antipathy, angry, happy, afraid, or neutral. The cameras also record each student’s actions throughout the class, noting whether they are reading, listening, writing, standing up, raising hands, or leaning on the desk. Smart eye then notifies the teacher in real-time if it notices that a student appears distracted. The teacher can also view a report at the end of the class that provides an average of each student’s expressions.” “Not Paying Attention in Class?” Futurism.com, May 17, 2018 ![]() “An Iranian man applying for asylum to the U.K. had his application denied because he converted from Islam to Christianity. According to a report from The Times, U.K. immigration officials wrote back to the man after he sent in his applications, explaining why they were discriminating against him. Immigration officials cited biblical passages from the books of Revelation and Leviticus. The Times reports: Immigration officials wrote to the man citing violent passages from the Bible to prove their point. They said that the Book of Revelation was ‘filled with imagery of revenge, destruction, death and violence.’ According to the report, the immigration officials were condemned by the Church of England for their ‘lack of religious literacy.’ Iran is one of the most hostile countries in the world toward Christians. Last year, Iran arrested more than 100 Christians shortly before Christmas as the faithful were celebrating the birth of Jesus. Iran has also made a point to target pro-Israel Christians. In 2017, four Iranian Christians were arrested and sentenced to ten years in prison for ‘promoting Zionist Christianity.’ Arrests for vague crimes such as ‘blasphemy’ are also frequently used by the theocratic state to target Christians” (“Iranian Convert Refused,” The Daily Caller, Mar. 21, 2019). In conclusion, John Zmirak made the following comments about this report: “Whoever made the decision to send back that helpless, harmless Iranian Christian to a regime that executes apostates from Islam? He did it out of malice, and spite. He did it to make a political point. To mock the legitimate worries of Westerners at the influx of Islamists. I’m sure when he signed the order, he snickered to himself all the way home. He’s lucky there was no jihadist on his tram” (“Iranian Christian Barred,” The Stream, Mar. 22, 2019). ![]() Genesis 1:1-2 “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.” An excellent article in the New Scientist magazine aims to explain the concept of entropy. The article starts with the quote: “Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.” Of course, the phrase is not a biblical phrase. It is from the Funeral Service contained in the 1662 Book of Common Prayer. The concept certainly is biblical, however. It reminds us that God made man from dust, and Job talks about returning one day to dust and ashes. The New Scientist article asks us to imagine a video of an explosion. A solid object disintegrates before our eyes, while dust and pieces of the object are thrown outwards. Then the magazine asks us to imagine that the film is played backwards. The dust and pieces fly inward until we obtain a solid-looking, ordered object. We instinctively know that the first video is possible, but the latter is impossible. The dust is thrown out by energy, which has come from the chemical explosive. No energy has been destroyed, but Humpty Dumpty still can’t be put back together. This is because, although no energy is destroyed, some of it is now unusable. This energy has, for all intents and purposes, been lost. Probably, some of the dust is slightly warm, but such low-temperature heat is really wasted energy. The universe is like that. It is running down. In no way could a universe have started by itself, with the dust gathering up into molecular order. https://creationmoments.com/sermons/ashes-dust-and-entropy/ ![]() The following is excerpted from “Can you go to jail for ‘misgendering’?” Spectator, Mar. 19, 2019: “Another woman in Britain is facing a police investigation—and potentially, a jail sentence—because she wrote things online about sex, gender and a person who changed gender. So far, so familiar, but this tale has a significant feature. The woman is a journalist. A British police force is investigating a journalist over words that she published. Caroline Farrow, 44, is the subject of an investigation by Surrey Police over tweets she sent referring to the adult child of Susie Green, head of Mermaids, a charity concerned with transgender children. Farrow says the investigation arises because she ‘misgendered’ the child, who was born male but now identifies as female. Farrow is a columnist and occasional TV commentator. She writes and speaks from a Catholic perspective about a number of issues including education, family policy, euthanasia and gender. Farrow told me that on Monday this week an officer from a police station in Guildford had contacted her to tell her she was to be interviewed under caution in relation to tweets she sent last year some time after September, when she appeared on ITV’s Good Morning Britain with Susie Green of Mermaids, a charity. Farrow said: ‘I am being interviewed under caution for misgendering Susie Green’s daughter. It’s all rather Orwellian and rather scary.’ Susie Green said, ‘At four years old, my child told me that God had made a mistake, and that he should have been a girl.’” [Concluding comment from Friday News Notes editor: Susie Green’s son, Jack, underwent sex change surgery in Thailand at age 16 and he and his mom insist that the boy is now a girl named Jackie, and it is Susie’s position that anyone calling her “daughter” a “son,” or “her” a “him,” they are “misgendering” and should be punished.] (Friday Church News Notes, March 29, 2019, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 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.” The Encyclopaedia Britannica describes feathers as “the component structure of the outer covering and flight surfaces of all modern birds”, and goes on to say: “Unique to birds, feathers apparently evolved from the scales of birds’ reptilian ancestors”. Yet, Wikipedia does not believe feathers are unique to birds because they state in many articles that most, if not all, dinosaurs also had feathers, stating dogmatically: “Several non-avian dinosaurs had feathers on their limbs that would not have functioned for flight”. Even the Britannica article goes on to show a picture of a feathered dinosaur. Perhaps it is easier for evolutionists to believe that dinosaurs evolved into birds if dinosaurs also had feathers. But this merely moves, rather than solves, the problem that evolutionists have in trying to establish how feathers evolved in the first place. Britannica and Wikipedia both suggest that feathers evolved from reptilian scales; yet, Wikipedia reminds us that feathers “are considered the most complex integumentary structures found in vertebrates”. The barbs on feathers have to fit exactly into the barbules – which would be a remarkable coincidence for a chance random process. Moreover, scales, being simple structures, would have to divide over generations, in many various ways, to produce feathers. The minimum estimate is for eight evolutionary steps, none of which have been found in real life. The point must be understood – it is not that feathers are too complicated to evolve, but rather that the complexity of alleged intermediate forms is impossible to replicate without design. creationmoments.com/sermons/feathers ![]() “The US Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal from a Christian bed and breakfast owner who was ordered by a lower court to serve a lesbian couple despite it being a violation of her religious beliefs. The Supreme Court rejected the appeal Monday, thus upholding the lower court’s ruling in favor of the lesbian couple. Now, litigation will continue to determine what penalty the Christian business owner must face. Phyllis Young, the owner of Aloha Bed & Breakfast in Honolulu, Hawaii, refused to rent a room in her home to Diane Cervili and Taeko Bufford in 2007 due to her religious beliefs about marriage. Cervili and Bufford sued Young over her actions and accused her of discriminating against them because of their sexuality. Alliance Defending Freedom represented Young and argued that because she ‘only rented 1-3 rooms in her personal home she did not fall under the Hawaii public accommodations law that makes sexual-orientation discrimination unlawful.’ The conservative law firm also pointed out that the Constitution protects Young's right to not promote behavior that violates her faith or associate with people unwilling to respect her convictions. However, a state court found Young in violation of Hawaii's Civil Rights Commissions' public accommodation law. The law applies to hospitality, entertainment, and transportation services. The law makes it ‘illegal to deny a person access to or to treat them unequally in a place of public accommodation’ because of a person’s ‘religion,’ ‘sexual orientation,’ and ‘gender identity or expression.’” “Christian B&B Owner Forced to Serve Gay Couples,” CBNNews.com, Mar. 19, 2019 ![]() Job 39:26-27 “Doth the hawk fly by thy wisdom, and stretch her wings toward the south? Doth the eagle mount up at thy command, and make her nest on high?” I remember buying a foot pump to inflate the tires on my first car. My choice was between two pumps. On the cheaper model, the foot operated a piston entering a cylinder in which the air would be compressed and forced through a tube into the tire. When the foot was lifted, valves prevented air getting back into the cylinder from the tire, and, instead, dragged air in from the outside. Each depression of the foot repeated this operation. In a sense, the lungs of mammals and reptiles would resemble two such pumps side by side. The second model featured two pistons and cylinders angled in opposite directions. Pressing with the foot began the first stage of tire compression as before, but on releasing the foot, the second cylinder pushed air into the tire while the first refilled with external air. The next foot depression allowed cylinder 2 to refill while cylinder 1 pumped. Thus, there was air pumped into the tire on both depression and release of the foot. The two cylinders worked in tandem, in opposite directions. This second continuous pump is like the two lungs in a bird. Even some well-known evolutionary scientists have pointed out how impossible it would be for one mechanism to evolve into the other because the transitional form would not be able to process air for breathing at all, and would suffocate. So bird lungs could not have evolved from dinosaurs, but, instead, are designed by God for exactly their purpose. creationmoments.com/sermons/did-birds-lungs-evolve ![]() “On March 13, House and Senate Democrats introduced H.R. 5, the Equality Act, a proposal to expand protections in the 1964 Civil Rights Act to people based on their sex, sexual preference or gender identity. The sponsor of the bill, Rep. David Cicilline (D-R.I.), who is openly gay, said conservatives would ‘use fear’ to stop the legislation and asserted, ‘we cannot allow claims of religious freedom to be used to discriminate against an LGBT individual.’ At a Capitol Hill press conference alongside House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), Cicilline said, ‘We know that in the weeks ahead conservatives will do everything they can to kill this bill and block progress once again.’ The bill states that it is designed ‘to prohibit discrimination on the basis of sex, gender identity, and sexual orientation, and for other purposes.’ Democrats previously introduced the legislation in 2015 and 2017, with the initiative dying in committee both times.” “Rep. Cicilline,” CNSNews.com, Mar. 15, 2019 ![]() Isaiah 45:18 “For thus saith the LORD that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; he hath established it, he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited: I am the LORD; and there is none else.” I understand the excitement that evolutionists feel when they consider the subject of exoplanets. Exoplanets are planets orbiting stars other than our sun. It should be emphasized that we do not have direct observations of such planets. They are detected by noticing changes in brightness and movement of stars and assuming that these changes are caused by planets orbiting in front of the star. Sophisticated computer simulations based on such data can reveal a lot of further information. Let us grant, for the moment, that such estimates and inferences of data are correct. Let us suppose that an exoplanet is found which is the same size and mass as the Earth. Let us further suppose that there is liquid water on the planet. We will also concede that the planet could have an axial tilt and period of rotation similar to that of Earth, allowing for Earth-style days and for regular seasons. Such a prospect excites evolutionists because, they would say, if life evolved on Earth in those conditions, it could just as easily evolve elsewhere. This is a leap too far. Life did not evolve on Earth. Inorganic molecules cannot spontaneously get together and produce a living cell. DNA does not assemble itself and cause its own information at random. It is precisely because this did not happen here that it could not have happened on an exoplanet, no matter how Earth-like it is meant to be. Life is granted by God alone. creationmoments.com/sermons/exoplanets-and-evolution |
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