As far as we have been able to discover, Pastor John Rose of Attleborough Baptist Church of Norfolk, England, has not made a public statement about its “hell sign,” and there is nothing about it on either of the church’s web sites when I checked on June 10. I wrote the church but didn't get a reply. I found a report that Rose is 69 years old and was ordained as the church’s pastor in February of this year. The matter has been reported widely in the British press (including The Times, The Mirror, The Express, and The Daily Mail) and beyond, and since the pastor has the world’s attention, it seems like a hugely missed opportunity to preach the gospel. But then again, I couldn't find the gospel anywhere on the church’s web site, and it appears that they are more into social work than gospel work. In fact, it appears that they are associated with the liberal Baptist Union of Great Britain. Even though Attleborough Baptist Church appears to be shaky in its position, this is still a major, major freedom of religion issue. Where are the Bible-believing churches of England? They could use the opportunity to preach the gospel as well as to push back against the growing persecution. Why not post similar signs all over the country, accompanied by the Good News that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, took the sinner’s just punishment when He suffered so horribly and died on the cross, and the resurrected Christ offers eternal salvation to every individual who will receive it? The Creator with whom we have to do is most definitely a holy Judge, but what He loves most is to be a Saviour for those who repent. Of course, the sad reality is that there are so few true Bible-believing churches in England. Even the “evangelicals” have jelly for spiritual conviction and backbone. An example is Mark Fairweather Tall, pastor of Norwich Central Baptist Church. In an opinion piece published by Network Norfolk, Tall supported Attleborough Baptist Church’s freedom of speech, but he hurried on to state that he doesn't believe that preaching on hell is relevant and seemed to indicate that Rob Bell’s position that God doesn't send people to hell is viable. He wrote, “In recent years there has been renewed controversy (particularly through the book by Rob Bell, ‘Love Wins’) over the long-term debate about whether a loving God would actually send people to hell. Whatever side of the argument you might come down on, I believe we have to seriously question whether the message of hell is the message we should be sharing” (“What message do church notice boards send?” Network Norfolk, n.d.). By the way, there is a Christian baker in Colorado who is bolder and braver in the face of persecution than a whole host of modern pastors. (See the report “Christian Baker Refused to Be Bullied” in upcoming post this Tuesday.) (Friday Church News Notes, June 13, 2014, www.wayoflife.org, [email protected], 866-295-4143) A Baptist church in Britain was investigated three weeks ago after posting a message on its outdoor sign board stating, “If you think there is no God, you’d better be right,” above a photograph of burning flames. After a complaint by an “offended” person, the police opened a “hate crimes” investigation against Attleborough Baptist Church of Norfolk, and Pastor John Rose agreed to take down the offending sign. A police spokesman said the matter “has been recorded as a hate incident” (“Police investigate Attleborough church ‘hate incident,” Wymondham and Attleborough Mercury, June 9, 2014). Robert Gladwin, the “offended” party who brought the complaint, said, “I was just astounded really. We live in the 21st century and they have put that message--that non-Christians will burn in hell--up to try and scare people into joining their mentality. It is my basic understanding that Christianity is inclusive and loving in nature.” Mr. Gladwin fails to understand even the ABCs of the nature of God and the gospel of Jesus Christ, and that is no surprise considering the apostate condition of the vast majority of England’s churches. Hell is not a warning; it is a law of God and a reality of man’s existence, like gravity and death. God is holy and just and He will punish sin. From man’s earliest days, God has warned that the wages of sin is death, and this is both physical death and eternal death in the lake of fire. The Lord Jesus Christ, love incarnate, preached about hell frequently, far more than He preached about heaven, and that is because He loves men and wants to save them from hell. If an individual has cancer, a loving doctor will not withhold the bad news. If a bridge is out in a storm, a loving individual will not stand by and let his neighbors drive on to destruction without trying to warn them. If a Christian believes in the reality of hell, he will not refrain from warning his fellow man. (Friday Church News Notes, June 13, 2014, www.wayoflife.org, [email protected], 866-295-4143) Job 37:10 “By the breath of God frost is given: and the breadth of the waters is straitened.” According to evolutionary theory, all matter and energy were the result of a huge explosion called the “Big Bang.” The laws that matter and energy must follow are also the result of that same great explosion. As a further result of these beliefs, evolutionists are convinced that things behave the way they do quite accidentally. The first question that comes to mind is: How could an accident have produced the seemingly careful designs we see in the way certain important materials behave? Consider water, for example. Water is essential to life. Water, which is the basis of our blood, carries dissolved food to the deepest cells in our bodies along with oxygen so that our cells can live. Water dissolves the wastes and behaves in just the right way so that other organs can remove those wastes from our bodies. Is it an accident that only water, the very same material basic to the materials of life, also can do all these other unique jobs? Water also refuses to act like most other materials. For example, we all know that when any material is turned from a liquid to a solid, it becomes more dense and therefore heavier. But when water freezes into ice, it doesn't do this; it gets lighter. If it got heavier, ice would sink in our northern lakes when it formed, and they would quickly freeze solid, killing all life in them. The unique properties of water are only a few of the millions of so called accidents that had to happen “just so” – in harmony with millions of other details – in order to make life possible. All by itself, simple water testifies to a wise Creator. Creation Moments, Inc., P.O. Box 839, Foley, MN 56329 www.creationmoments.com “The Lord Jesus was a true man. Blood flowed in His veins. But what blood! Not a drop of Joseph’s blood flowed in Jesus’ veins, for Joseph was only His foster father, and Jesus was in his family only by adoption. There was no drop of Mary’s blood in His veins either; the blood that flows through the veins and arteries of a babe still in its mother’s womb is not its mother’s blood. It is the baby’s own blood. Only after the embryo has been impregnated does the baby’s blood--like any other cell in the body--begin to develop. ... the blood type of the Lord Jesus was like no other. It was the blood of an absolutely unique, completely sinless Person, blood rare beyond all imagining. The Holy Spirit calls it ‘precious blood’” (John Phillips, commentary on 1 John). Romans 1:20 “For the invisible things if him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:” If you give a design problem to ten different engineers to solve, chances are you will not get ten different solutions. In fact, you are likely to end up with ten solutions that look very much alike. Now suppose 10,000 years from now someone found your ten sheets of problems, each with the design solutions offered by the ten engineers. Since they are practically the same, this person might conclude that each of the solutions was offered by the same person. He would account for their differences by saying that as each solution was tried, better ideas were developed. He would conclude that the solution most familiar to his own day was the final and most advanced solution. When evolutionists compare creatures like humans with apes, noting the similarities, they are falling into the same trap as our theoretical researcher from the future. Certainly there are some similarities between humans and apes. However, the structure of the human eye is most similar to the eye of the octopus! The general pattern of the functional structure of hemoglobin in human blood differs by only one atom from the chlorophyll found in plants. And the protein in human milk is most like the juice of the soybean plant. None of these comparisons offers any evidence for evolution. What they illustrate is that any good designer will solve similar problems with similar designs – they offer evidence that the creation is the work of a wise and powerful Designer! Photo: Ham, a 3-year-old chimpanzee in the biopack couch for the MR-2 suborbital test flight, Jan. 31, 1961. Courtesy of NASA. Creation Moments, Inc., P.O. Box 839, Foley, MN 56329 www.creationmoments.com U.S. Federal Judge: Laws Supporting Biblical Marriage Should Be Thrown on "The Ash Heap of History"6/11/2014
“Pennsylvania’s ban on gay marriage was overturned by a federal judge Tuesday in a decision that legalized the practice throughout the Northeast and sent couples racing to pick up licenses. U.S. District Judge John E. Jones III called the plaintiffs--a widow, 11 couples and one couple's teenage daughters--courageous for challenging the constitutionality of the ban passed by lawmakers in 1996. ‘We are a better people than what these laws represent, and it is time to discard them into the ash heap of history,’ the judge wrote. The judge declined to put his ruling on hold for a possible appeal by Republican Gov. Tom Corbett, so it went into immediate effect. The governor, who opposes gay marriage, did not issue a statement or indicate whether he would appeal. However, his state party chairman complained that an ‘activist’ judge had usurped the power of the Legislature.” (OneNewsNow.com, May 21, 2014) Psalm 139:14 “I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvelous 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. They have learned, first of all, that no computer chip can be made today that could begin to do what the retina does. But, if it could be made, it would have to be something like half a million times bigger than your retina. One computer scientist has estimated that a computer chip that could begin to do what your retina does would have to weigh in at about 100 pounds! The retina, which is something like a small slip of clingy food wrap, weighs less than a gram. It occupies only 0.0003 inch of space. On the other hand, the scientists’ theoretical “seeing” chip would fill 10,000 cubic inches. And while your retina operates on only 0.0001 watt of power, the synthetic “seeing” chip would require 300 watts of power and a cooling system. Even with all this, it couldn't see very well. It would be able to resolve a square area of only about 2,000 units of vision – called pixels – while your eye can resolve five times that much! Such a chip would have the equivalent of about 1 million transistors, while your retina has the equivalent of 25 billion transistors! Truly modern science offers elegant testimony to the fact that the eye could not have been produced by evolution – and that it could have been created only by a very wise Creator! Creation Moments, Inc., P.O. Box 839, Foley, MN 56329 www.creationmoments.com “In a ruling that human rights groups are calling historic, India's Supreme Court on Tuesday granted the country's transsexual and transgender individuals the right to self-identify their gender. The ruling means transsexual and transgender people and those who identify as belonging to the ‘third gender’ will not be required to submit medical evidence of their sexuality to be recognized by the government as a member of that gender, said Tripti Tandon, a lawyer for one of the plaintiffs. A plea was filed before the Supreme Court by India's National Legal Services Authority in 2012 on behalf of the transsexual and ‘hijra,’ or third-gender, communities. ‘The Supreme Court ruled that everyone has the fundamental right to have their gender identified and recognized in the law without any discrimination,’ Tandon said. ‘And it's self-identification of the gender as opposed to medically or surgically assigned one.’ ... The ruling states that ‘gender identity is integral to the dignity of an individual and is at the core of personal autonomy and self-determination.’ Hijras, the ruling said, must be considered a third gender ‘over and above binary genders under our Constitution and the laws.’”
(“Indian Court Recognizes Gender Self-identification,” CNN, April 16, 2014) Job 12:9-10 “Who knoweth not in all these that the hand of the LORD hath wrought this? In whose hand is the soul of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind?” We've all heard it said that we are made up of about 98 cents worth of chemicals. However, the living matter that makes up our bodies is very different from non living matter. Our growing understanding of biochemistry continues to close doors to evolutionary theory and open doors to the Bible’s claims about the origin of life. Many evolutionary scientists are admitting that to say life is simply the right kind of chemistry is like saying that a computer is simply the right kind of plastic, metal and electricity. Growing knowledge of the intricate information codes in living things has led many evolutionists to search for other theories, and some have even considered creation. Creationism is not growing in influence because it has good funding – it certainly doesn't. Creationism is gaining followers because it is becoming increasingly clear that no known principles can account for the development of living things. If science is proving anything, it is proving that life is impossible and should not exist! This is exactly what the Bible tells us. Without God’s direct activity within the world, life could not have come about – only God can be the source of life. This clear fact should steer all of us to the rest of God’s message in Scripture. There, God tells us that life is more than just food and drink – the material things of life. Full and complete life that satisfies the whole being is found only in Jesus Christ. Photo: Colossus was the first electronic digital programmable computing device – just the right kind of plastic, metal and electricity. Creation Moments, Inc., P.O. Box 839, Foley, MN 56329 www.creationmoments.com “A 75-year-old Irish preacher was subjected to a police probe after he condemned Islam in a sermon and was accused of ‘hate mongering.’ James McConnell, pastor of the Whitewell Metropolitan Church in North Belfast, Ireland, discussed the religion of Islam during an evening sermon on Sunday, May 18th. During the sermon, McConnell denounced Islam and said the contrast between it and Christianity is stark. ‘The God we worship and serve this evening is not Allah,’ he proclaimed, according to a video of his sermon. ‘The Muslim god--Allah--is a heathen deity. Allah is a cruel deity. Allah is a demon deity.’ McConnell then criticized the ‘foolish’ British government for attempting to appease Muslims financially, saying Islam is ‘a doctrine spawned in hell.’ He also noted that Christians around the world are persecuted for their faith by the ‘fanatical worshipers’ of Allah. According to the Belfast Telegraph, McConnell’s remarks were inspired by the current plight of Meriam Ibrahim--a professing Orthodox Christian woman in Sudan. As previously reported, Ibrahim was sentenced to hang after she was convicted of apostasy for refusing to deny her faith and convert to Islam. Following McConnell’s May 18th sermon, the Police Service of Northern Ireland investigated the preacher for allegations of hate crime. Northern Ireland’s Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness described the preacher’s comments as ‘hate mongering’ and said the anti-Muslim statements ‘must be condemned in the strongest possible terms.’ ... Others have supported McConnell through social media. ‘What Pastor McConnell said is simply the correct Christian standpoint, accurately reflecting the Biblical evaluation of good and evil,’ one commenter noted. ‘Sometimes the cold truth is what is needed,’ another wrote. ‘If it does not exalt the name of Jesus then it is spawned in hell. Continue to stand for the gospel and shame on any man of God who turns on another for speaking truth.’” (“Irish Pastor Under Investigation,” Christian News Network, May 31, 2014) Matthew 6:22-23a “The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness.” Computer scientists, in trying to build a machine that sees like we do, have been studying how the eye works the miracle of vision. What they are discovering provides more scientific evidence that evolution is nothing more than a modern fairy tale for adults. Computer scientists have learned that before one single image is ever sent to your brain, each cell of your retina must perform a huge number of calculations. Each second every cell of your retina performs 10 billion calculations! And you thought you couldn't do math! What’s more, these are not simple calculations. Dr. Joseph Calkins, professor of ophthalmology at Johns Hopkins University, estimates that the fastest computer in the world would require many hundreds of hours to do what the cells in your retina do each second! It is easy to understand why a scientist who studies eyesight cannot accept the idea that the eye simply evolved. The eye is witness to more than the fact of the Creator. The clear vision of His involvement with humanity begins when Jesus Christ gives us clear spiritual sight in cleansing us from our sins. Just as many people must wear glasses to see clearly, because of our sin, we cannot clearly see our Creator who seeks us. Yet He is not far away, and He desires more than anything else that we come to Him in the Name of Jesus Christ. In Christ you will see miracles greater than vision! Photo: Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. Creation Moments, Inc., P.O. Box 839, Foley, MN 56329 www.creationmoments.com “Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, a member of the Southern Baptist Convention, has enrolled its first Muslim student and is defending its decision to accept the applicant despite concern and criticism. According to reports, Ghassan Nagagren, a Palestinian Muslim, recently completed his first year of studies at the Christian seminary as he is pursuing a doctorate in archaeology. Nagagren has been volunteering with the seminary for the past six years at an archaeological site in Israel. Wade Burleson, pastor of Emmanuel Baptist Church in Enid, Oklahoma, wrote about the matter on his personal website Friday, decrying the seminary for enrolling Nagagren and urging the Southern Baptist Convention to address the issue. ‘Something very strange and bizarre is happening at Southwestern and Southern Baptists should intervene before we lose our seminary to evangelical irrelevancy,’ he wrote. ‘The admission of a practicing Muslim who prays toward Mecca five times a day, who refuses to acknowledge Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior and who will leave the School of Theology and presumably work against the good news of Jesus Christ is something that should concern every Southern Baptist who funds theological education with Cooperative Program money.’ ... ‘Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary’s own policy forbids enrolling anyone who refuses to acknowledge Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior,” Burleson stated. ‘The campus is abuzz. Many faculty are upset. Yet, most are afraid to say anything because of repercussions. Following Burleson’ post, Southwestern President Paige Patterson issued a statement about the matter, explaining that the seminary accepted Nagagren because he agreed to abide by Southwestern’s Code of Conduct. ... Burleson said that Patterson’s explanation was startling. ‘Think about this. According to President Patterson, one no longer has to accept Jesus Christ as personal Lord and Savior to be a student at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, but one must accept our moral code of conduct.’” (“Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary Enrolls First Muslim Student,” Christian News Network, May 21, 2014) The number of baptisms in Southern Baptist Churches has declined for many years, from 419,300 in 1999 to 310,300 in 2013 (the fewest since 1948). The number of baptisms actually peaked in 1972 at 445,725. In 2013, 60 percent of the churches reported no youth baptisms (ages 12 to 17); 80 percent had one or zero baptisms among young adults (ages 18-29); and 25 percent had no baptisms of any age. I grew up in Southern Baptist churches and saw little power of God even in the 1950s and 1960s. It was common for kids to go through the motion of making a profession of faith and being put on the church membership roles, but all too often it was an empty religious ritual with no life-changing power. I don’t recall one young person that had a dynamic testimony of salvation, that was separated from the world, and that was seeking God’s perfect will. Even the preachers’ kids and the deacons’ kids were worldly reprobates. The membership roles of Southern Baptist churches are filled with the names of people who give evidence that they are unregenerate. And Independent Baptist churches as a whole aren't much better, particularly when so many of them claim large numbers of empty professions of faith as salvations. The compromise and apostasy in the churches is the root of America’s ills. The Southern Baptist Convention is the largest non-Catholic “denomination” in America. There is an SBC congregation on “every corner” in “the South,” yet “the South” is as wicked morally as any other part of the country. The salt has lost its savor. “Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men” (Matthew 5:13). (Friday Church News Notes, June 6, 2014, www.wayoflife.org, [email protected], 866-295-4143) “Genesis is the opening crescendo of Scripture, for God does not begin the book with a timid, tentative note or two. He begins it with the thunder of drums as worlds leap out of nowhere to populate the skies. He begins it with the crash of cymbals as the human race falls into sin. He begins it with the blare of trumpets heralding the inundation of a world.” (John Phillips, Exploring Genesis) Genesis 1:31 “And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.” Evolutionists, trying to answer creationist arguments, have suggested that there is an “error” in the design of the eye that any wise Creator would not have made. That “error” in design, as evolutionists call it, is that the retina of the mammal’s eye is “inside out” – the light entering the eye passes through other eye tissue before hitting the photoreceptors. But is this really an error in design? Dr. Joseph Calkins, a professor at Johns Hopkins University and a creationist, points out that the photoreceptors in mammal’s eyes need the extra tissue. It provides nutrients to the retina. This is crucial, because the eye’s receptors have a very fast rate of metabolism – they live out their entire lives in only about seven days! If you have ever looked at the sun and then experienced an after image, you have probably burned out some of your photoreceptors. However, because your photoreceptors have such a fast rate of metabolism and they receive those extra nutrients from the eye tissue, the damaged receptors are all replaced within a few days! Besides, as Dr. Calkins points out, the tissues that lie between the light source and your retina are packed in so tightly that they are separated by less than the wave length of light, making them completely transparent! It seems that the evolutionists’ claim that the eye is poorly designed – and thus a product of chance rather than a Creator – was based on their ignorance of how the eye needs to work. Again, the evolutionary argument falls in the light of scientific knowledge, and once more we see the witness to our Creator! Photo: Courtesy of Petr Novák. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Generic license. Creation Moments, Inc., P.O. Box 839, Foley, MN 56329 www.creationmoments.com Howard Books is releasing a new title by lesbian CCM artist Jennifer Knapp in defense of her stance that homosexuality is not contrary to Christian faith. In Facing the Music: Discovering Real Life, Real Love, and Real Faith, Knapp “talks about the importance of her faith, and despite the many who claim she can no longer call herself a believer, she maintains that she is both gay and a Christian.” Howard Books is a member of the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association (ECPA). Earlier this year, another ECPA member, Waterbrook Multnomah, published God and the Gay Christian: The Biblical Case in Support of Same Sex Relationships by Matthew Vines. The “God” who accepts homosexuals without repentance is not the God of Scripture who made man male and female and created holy matrimony between a man and a woman as the only legitimate sphere for sexual relationships. “Marriage is honourable in all, and the bed undefiled: but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge” (Hebrews 13:4). Homosexuality is another illicit lust of the fallen nature, like every other type of fornication. It can be forgiven and cleansed through the blood of Christ, but only if repented of. The justification of sin is a high road to eternal hell. (Friday Church News Notes, May 30, 2014, www.wayoflife.org, [email protected], 866-295-4143) Job 19:25-27 “For I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God: Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another; though my reins be consumed within me.” The human eye is so incredibly sensitive that it can actually detect a single particle of light – a photon. The truth is, the human eye is so sensitive that were it not for special features inside the eye that process the billions of pieces of information coming into the eye every split second, we would be overwhelmed. While the eye can detect even one photon of light, it will not pass an image on to your brain until at least six photons strike in the same area of the eye. If this weren't the case, on a dark night we would see nothing but static, since less than six photons could not be focused into an image and would appear to us as just static. This special provision makes one wonder if the eye was not designed by an all wise Creator. After all, how could mindless chance and mutations know about the basic laws of physics that control light’s behavior? The range of the eye’s sensitivity is also a million times greater than our modern photographic films, providing us with a dynamic range of 10 billion to one. While the greatest sensitivity is needed on dark nights, an internal control in the eye reduces that sensitivity for bright daylight. Science doesn't rule out God at all! Our knowledge of the eye’s working demands the conclusion that we are the creation of a wise and powerful God! Creation Moments, Inc., P.O. Box 839, Foley, MN 56329 www.creationmoments.com Filming is scheduled to begin in September on Christ The Lord, a movie based on Anne Rice’s book Christ The Lord: Out of Egypt. The christ of Rice’s books is not the Christ of Scripture. Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt “depicts Jesus as a seven-year-old boy who gets the things he wishes for, like the death of another young boy who annoys him.” In the sequel, Christ the Lord: The Road to Cana, Jesus falls in love with a beautiful woman and “struggles with a sense of restlessness of purpose.” Rice, best-selling author of erotic and vampire/witchcraft novels, turned from atheism to the Catholic Church in 1998. In 2010, Rice said that she had quit “being Christian.” Claiming to love Christ but not Christianity, she said that she refuses to be anti-gay, anti-feminist, anti-secular humanism, and anti-science, among other things. What Rice apparently doesn't know is that her beliefs and her christ would be acceptable in churches that worship The Shack god. In October 2008, Rice was interviewed on James Dobson’s Focus on the Family program in conjunction with the publication of her autobiography Called Out of Darkness. Dobson gave her a warm, non-judgmental reception, presenting her to his audience as a genuine Christian, no questions asked, even though she had clearly presented a false christ in her books and has no biblical testimony of salvation. In the strongest way possible, we would urge our readers to beware of the compromise of modern evangelicalism in general and of Focus on the Family in particular. (Friday Church News Notes, May 30, 2014, www.wayoflife.org, [email protected], 866-295-4143) Matthew 11:4-5 “Jesus answered and said unto them, Go and shew John again those things which ye do hear and see: The blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them.” The tiny computer chip – the basis of modern computers – is a thin wafer of silicon only about 7 millimeters across – about one fourth of an inch. This tiny chip might have the equivalent of 100,000 transistors built into it. Despite its size, hundreds of connections might be attached to it. The design of the computer chip is a marvel surpassed only by the amazing technology that can build it. If you were to find a silicon chip laying in the silicon sand at the beach (which would be quite an accomplishment because they are so small!), you would never be able to convince even one engineer that the chip had formed through the chance movements of all that silicon based sand! Now consider the human eye. The retina at the back of the eye is a very thin membrane, much thinner than even the clingiest food wrap. This retina contains not transistors but much more sophisticated photo receptors, each of which is a high gain amplifier. The retina doesn't have 100,000 of these, but rather it has 200,000 for each square millimeter of retina! But the greatest wonder of all is how any scientist can say that your miraculous eye is the result of unguided genetic mistakes that, just by chance, resulted in the eye. Indeed, God’s fingerprints are all over the creation, just as our human work is seen in the computer chip. How can one who can design only the computer chip dare question the One who can design the eye – and so much more?! Photo: Courtesy of Mikael Häggström. Creation Moments, Inc., P.O. Box 839, Foley, MN 56329 www.creationmoments.com A letter published by Planned Parenthood’s Clergy Advocacy Board (CAB) claims that God supports the decision to abort a child. The “Pastoral Letter to Patients” states, “The decision to have an abortion is personal. Though your reasons may be complicated and private, you’re not alone. As religious leaders from a number of religious traditions, we’re here to support you in your decision. Many people wrongly assume that all religious leaders disapprove of abortion. The truth is that abortion is not even mentioned in the Scriptures--Jewish or Christian--and there are clergy and people of faith from all denominations who support women making this complex decision. God loves you and is with you no matter what you decide.” Members of the CAB include two Reformed Jewish rabbis, three Episcopalians, two Baptists, a Presbyterian, three United Church of Christ clergy, a Unitarian, and a Muslim. As for the Bible, twenty times it forbids the shedding of “innocent blood” (e.g., Deut. 19:10-13; 2 Kings 21:16). This refers to killing a person without a just cause (1 Sam. 19:5). To put a murderer to death, for example, is a just cause, but to kill an innocent person is unjust. God hates those who shed innocent blood (Prov. 6:16-17). What person is more innocent than an unborn child? (Friday Church News Notes, May 30, 2014, www.wayoflife.org, [email protected], 866-295-4143) Hebrews 11:3 “Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.” Many people think that faith is strictly a religious matter and concerns unprovable issues such as angels, heaven and, of course, belief in the creation story. They further feel that belief in evolution is more reasonable, since it is based upon hard and proven facts. But is this true? Faith is what we add to the evidences we have in order to provide our worldview. The less evidence there is, the more faith we need. Evolutionary scientists often admit that they, too, interpret the world in the context of their faith. Their faith is that everything and everyone got here by means of evolution. Prof. L. H. Matthews, a well respected evolutionist, was honored by being asked to write a new introduction for the 1971 edition of Darwin’s Origin of Species. In his introduction – speaking of evolution – he admitted, “Most biologists accept it as though it were a proven fact.… Although this conviction rests upon circumstantial evidence, it forms a satisfactory faith on which to base our interpretation of nature.” You see, this is nothing more than what Bible believing Christians do when they understand the world in the context of their faith. As Christians, we should not be intimidated into thinking that the faith of the evolutionist is somehow superior to ours for understanding the world! Photo: Title page of 1859 edition of On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life." Creation Moments, Inc., P.O. Box 839, Foley, MN 56329 www.creationmoments.com An imam at the Al Aqsa Mosque on the south end of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem is urging Arab armies to invade Israel and destroy the “hated Zionist entity.” Imam Raed Al-Daan’s sermon was broadcast by Al Jazeera. He said the Muslims who make up the Waqf in charge of the Temple Mount “await the legions of the conquerors ... from Tunisia, from Jordan, from Egypt, from Iraq, from the Maghreb [Morocco and Algeria], from the Hijaz [Saudi Arabia]” (“Jerusalem Imam,” Israel Today, May 15, 2014). He looks forward to the cries of Islamic victory rising up from Jaffa, Haifa, Beit Shean, and other Israeli cities. According to Bible prophecy, the Antichrist is going to come on the scene with a plan for world peace. He will solve the Middle East crisis temporarily, the Third Temple will be built, and he will occupy it, requiring the world to worship him. “Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God” (2 Thessalonians 2:3-4). “For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape” (1 Thessalonians 5:3). (Friday Church News Notes, May 30, 2014, www.wayoflife.org, [email protected], 866-295-4143) Hebrews 11:1 “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” What is faith? Is faith something we believe despite the facts, as many would tell us? Is faith a blind leap into the dark? Hebrews 11:1 says, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” Our Christian faith is not a blind leap into the dark. God has given us minds, and He honors that gift by giving us reason to believe that Jesus Christ is the promised Savior. Consider: God gave us hundreds of prophecies about this Savior, saw to it that each one was fulfilled in the life of Christ, and then made sure that people actually saw that the prophecies were fulfilled. That is indeed powerful evidence – more than reasonable cause for us to believe his Word. Our argument from Old Testament prophecy also shows that God does not expect faith to be a belief in something despite the facts. The world that the Bible talks about – the one God made as recorded in Scripture and the one science studies – is the real, material world in which we live. Because we know that the Word of God is true, we have every right to expect the facts about this world as related in Scripture to agree with facts established by experience. Faith, as the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen, is better grounded in God’s Word and the world we know than is the so called science of evolution – which is truly a faith in things unseen. Creation Moments, Inc., P.O. Box 839, Foley, MN 56329 www.creationmoments.com Pope Francis’ visit to Israel this week was a one-world “church” event from top to bottom. The pope was joined by Rabbi Abraham Skorka and Muslim Sheik Omar Abbud. He visited the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem and was accompanied to the Wailing Wall by the Chief Rabbi of Israel. After visiting Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew in Bethlehem, the pope visited the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, which allegedly encompasses the sites of Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection. At the Church, the pope was welcomed by leaders of various Orthodox groups (Coptic, Ethiopian, Syriac, Armenian) that share control of the building with the Catholic Church. Happily, they didn't get into a brawl while the pope was there, as they did in 2002, 2004, twice in 2008, and again in 2011. The 2011 melee involved 100 priests and monks, many wielding brooms! On my first visit to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, I was threatened with bodily harm by a fierce-looking Orthodox priest who objected to my photography. Pope Francis has been acclaimed by many evangelical leaders, but he doesn't believe God’s Word. If he did, he would renounce such blasphemous heresies as the papacy, the mass and Marian veneration. If he believed the Bible, he would also understand that the land of Israel belongs to Israel, not the “Palestinians,” and he would not be calling for a “two-state solution.” (Friday Church News Notes, May 30, 2014, www.wayoflife.org, [email protected], 866-295-4143) |
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