Genesis 11:6

A misunderstanding of some of the history recorded in Genesis has led some people to conclude that we are repeating the sins committed at the Tower of Babel. After all, we build huge cities and incredibly high skyscrapers. English is now virtually a universal language, and the Internet has led to the international pooling of knowledge.

The truth is that a universal language was not the reason God confused the language at Babel, although it contributed to the problem. Nor was creating a large tower the problem, although it too was a symptom of the people's pride. Pride certainly was a problem, and it led to the core sin committed at Babel. The core sin the people committed was defying God's command to subdue or inhabit the whole Earth. In failing to spread over the globe, they were only inhabiting a small part of it. God's command that people spread over the entire Earth was for our protection. He knew that if we were all one people, a dangerous, dictator-led government could not be kept in check. God also knew that if one nation was infected with dangerous false philosophies there would be no other people who knew the truth.

In confusing their language at the Tower of Babel, God protected us from all of this. While we may not always understand the reason for God's commands, He always has our well being in mind. That's because He is our loving Creator.

Creation Moments, Inc., P.O. Box 839, Foley, MN 56329 www.creationmoments.com

Last week, the Tennessee Administrative Office of the Courts said that it was replacing “mother” and “father” with “Parent 1” and “Parent 2” on official documents. After a public outcry, the office reversed the decision, at least for now, saying that it was consulting with the Domestic Committee of the Tennessee Judicial Conference (Todd Starnes, “Tennessee Courts Reverse Ban,” Fox News, Aug. 19, 2015). This is the latest in a stream of nutty laws and regulations pandering to homosexual rights and thus destroying the rights of others. In 2008, California replaced “bride” and “groom” with “First Person” and “Second Person” on new marriage licenses. The parties have the option of further identifying themselves as “bride and groom,” “bride and bride,” or “groom and groom.” In 2007, Scotland’s National Health Service approved a policy for hospital workers forbidding the use of historic and biblical terms such as “mother,” “father,” “husband,” and “wife,” labeling this “homophobic language” (Ed Vitagliano, “There is only one acceptable way to talk about homosexuality -- SILENCE!” OneNewsNow.com, May 31, 2007). Since 2008, teachers in some major cities in Scotland have banned Father’s Day cards so as not to offend students who live with single mothers and lesbians (“Father’s Day Cards Banned,” London Telegraph, June 20, 2008). In 2011, the U.S. State Department removed the words “mother” and “father” from passport applications. In 2013, the words “mother” and “father” were dropped in favor of “parent” from Scottish matrimonial law under First Minister Alex Salmond’s plans to redefine marriage (“‘Mother’ and ‘Father’ to Be Scrapped,” christian.org.uk, Feb. 11, 2013). In 2013, the U.S. Department of Education redesigned student loan applications to replace “mother” and “father” with “parent 1” and “parent 2.” In 2014, a public school system in Lincoln, Nebraska, asked teachers to avoid the words “boys” and “girls” to make their classrooms more gender-inclusive (ChristianHeadlines.com, Oct. 13, 2014). In June 2015, a corporate note to employees of Goldman Sachs investment firm informed them that they must “help create an environment for open and honest dialogue” by using inclusive language and avoiding descriptors such as “wife,” which should be replaced with “partner” (“Goldman Sachs Tells Employees ‘Wife’ Insults Gays and Transgenders,”Breitbart, Jun. 21, 2015). Todd Starnes observes that the true motive behind the gay marriage activists is to deconstruct the traditional American family, concluding, “I reckon it’s only a matter of time before Tennessee completely conforms to the demands of the gender-neutral crowd and begins referring to children as ‘Thing One’ and ‘Thing Two.’”

(Friday Church News Notes, August 28, 2015, www.wayoflife.org, [email protected], 866-295-4143)

The Empire State building in New York City was recently used as a screen for the projection of the image of the Hindu goddess Kali. This was part of a light show entitled Projecting Change that was intended to raise awareness about wildlife extinction. The image of Kali was interspersed with images of animals. Kali, a gruesome, black goddess who is depicted with a lolling, blood-drenched tongue, a necklace of skulls and a loin cloth of severed arms, is supposed to be both a wild, insatiable devourer and a tender mother. Sacrifices are made to appease the goddess and to obtain various objectives, such as general good fortune, health, wealth, revenge on an enemy, a male offspring, or deliverance from demons. Until 200 years ago, a male child was sacrificed daily in the Kali temple in Calcutta (Alex Perry, “Killing for ‘Mother’ Kali,” Time magazine, Jul. 22, 2002). Though driven underground by laws against human sacrifice, the practice continues in India and Nepal. One commentator observed that Kali is a fitting image for New York City with its wholesale murder of unborn black babies. “New York City is the only city in America where more black babies are murdered than are born. They are not as fortunate as the snow leopard, snake or bird whose images were projected across 33 floors of the Empire State Building. Black New Yorkers didn’t receive $33 million in funding to protect their survival and weren’t even on the ‘Black Lives Matter’ campaign’s radar. (In fact, the very organizations claiming to aid minorities, including blacks, under the guise of ‘health’ programs, are primarily committed to advancing eugenics-based population control among the poorest communities worldwide--in order to reduce them.) Disturbing as the plight of chained elephants is, nothing is more disturbing than the U.S. government legalizing and funding half of an organization’s $1 billion budget to dismember living human beings. ... Like Kali, Planned Parenthood’s knives drip with blood from the tissue and parts of babies’ feet, hands, livers, eyes, skin and other organs--in exchange for $23 million in ‘financial donations.’ (Fetal liver cell prices, for example, range from $488 to $24,250.) Rather than wield a sword to chop off heads, Planned Parenthood suctions off heads of living babies, after they have writhed in excruciating pain” (“Planned Parenthood’s Goddess Projected,” Charisma News, Aug. 20, 2015).

(Friday Church News Notes, August 28, 2015, www.wayoflife.org, [email protected], 866-295-4143)

Psalm 36:9

The usual theories for the origin of life have the first genetic material assembling itself by chance in a hot setting. Some have suggested that this may have happened in an undersea thermal vent or the side of a volcano. Trying to explain the origin of life without God suffers from many scientific problems. New research has now uncovered yet another problem.

Researchers at the University of California at San Diego examined how stable the chemical bases of genetic material are under various conditions. Origin of life theories must assume that wherever life began, these chemical bases had to build up to a concentration to make it likely that they would find enough of each other to make meaningful genetic material. This, they theorize, would have taken hundreds of thousands, or even millions, of years. Researchers discovered that heat breaks down the four bases that make up genetic material. This effectively rules out thermal vents as a source for the first life. In a temperature at the boiling point of water, one of the bases lasts only 19 days. None of them lasts long enough to build up enough concentration for life to start. Even at 75 degrees none of these chemical bases lasts long enough to be geologically important to evolution. Only freezing conditions allow the bases to last long enough.

All attempts to explain the origin of life without God's direct action and design are doomed to failure. Perhaps this is why evolutionists now suppose that life began in outer space!

Notes: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 7/98, pp. 7933 7938.
Creation Moments, Inc., P.O. Box 839, Foley, MN 56329 www.creationmoments.com

“I found the book Keeping the Kids one of the most helpful tools for parenting. My wife doesn’t speak English so I translated portions. It really stirred our hearts how many blessed truths of the Bible had been obscured to us earlier by Christians, about whom since we learned that they are new evangelicals. An example is the promises regarding proper child discipline and training found in the book of Proverbs; we never before dared to think of them as you explained in the book, but those explanations made everything clear to us, and the Lord deepened our faith and trust in Him. ... In Hungary almost every Christian circle has been infected by the psychoheresy of Dobson, Campbell, Chapman and many others. My dear wife and I decided not to use those books about child training because we got disappointed. However, we started to look for sound Christian books on raising children. ... then the Lord gave us your book and the videos with the lectures. Since then I tried to share the blessings we received with other pastor friends and parents. ... We really appreciated the rarely-seen focus of your book: how to keep the children in these last days. We found the basics on which the practical applications were laid thoroughly biblical. The practical consequences were very helpful, and we liked the examples drawn from many families you contacted. ... We are thankful to our heavenly Father that He enabled you and the families you work with to release this book! May the Lord uphold you and your ministry until He comes, for His name’s sake and glory!” (Keeping the Kids is available in print and eBook editions from www.wayoflife.org.).

(Friday Church News Notes, August 21, 2015, www.wayoflife.org, [email protected], 866-295-4143)

Acts 21:2

Today we look back on the European migration to North America as one of the results of a more enlightened age. When we do this, we forget that the American Indians migrated to North and South America from Asia and built their own culture long before the Europeans. If what a Texas Christian University linguist says is true, the Olmec Indians of the American Southwest and Central America may not have been Indians at all.

Linguist Mike Xu has spent several years studying 3,000 year old Olmec jade, stone and pottery relics. The Olmec civilization appeared abruptly, as if from out of nowhere, about 1200 B.C. As he examined the hundreds of symbols on the relics, it struck him that the Olmec symbols look very much like the Chinese writing of the same period. Olmec art is also very much like the Chinese art of the same period. He added that Olmec religious practices were very similar to Chinese religious practices of the time. For example, both cultures put jade beads in the mouths of the dead to ward off evil. Xu concludes, "The similarities are just too striking to be a coincidence."

An entire civilization begun and perhaps supported by ships sailing from China implies a sophisticated transpacific shipping system. Perhaps we need to revise our evolutionary system for evaluating ancient history and give credit to people who were just as curious and resourceful as we are today.

Notes: Discover, 2/00, p. 20, "Chinatown 1000 B.C." Photo: Courtesy of John Hill. (CC-BY-SA 3.0).
Creation Moments, Inc., P.O. Box 839, Foley, MN 56329 www.creationmoments.com

The following statement is from Adam Nicholson, God’s Secretaries, pages 210, 211. It refutes the nutty Ruckmanite position that the KJV is advanced revelation over the Hebrew and Greek and there is no longer a need to study the biblical languages, but it wisely affirms the KJV as an excellent and unique translation that is faithful to the original languages. The chief reason the King James Version is such an excellent version is that the peerless team of translators aimed to create in English a version faithful to the preserved Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek texts. They weren’t willing to bend the original to fit English according to the prominent “dynamic equivalency” doctrine of our day. Rather they bent English to fit the original. They “pushed English toward the condition of a foreign language.” Nicholson writes, “[The] English is there to serve the original not to replace it. It speaks in its master’s voice, and is not the English you would have heard on the street, then or ever. It took up its life in a new and distinct dimension of linguistic space, SOMEWHERE BETWEEN ENGLISH AND GREEK (OR, FOR THE OLD TESTAMENT, BETWEEN ENGLISH AND HEBREW). These scholars were not pulling the language of the scriptures into the English they knew and used at home. The words of the King James Bible are just as much English pushed towards the condition of a foreign language as a foreign language translated into English. It was, in other words, more important to make English godly than to make the words of God into the sort of prose that any Englishmen would have written, and that secretarial relationship to the original languages of the scriptures shaped the translation.”


(Friday Church News Notes, August 21, 2015, www.wayoflife.org, [email protected], 866-295-4143)

Genesis 1:16

Let's assume for a moment that the evolutionary explanation for the origin of the Earth and sun is correct. The sun formed about 4.6 billion years ago. Let's imagine that evolutionists are right in saying that life originated on Earth about 3.5 billion years ago. This scenario creates many scientific problems, but today we want to focus on one problem that is seldom mentioned.

One implication of these assumptions is that the sun today is about 40 percent brighter than it was 4.6 billion years ago. This means that 3.5 billion years ago, the sun was bathing the Earth with considerably less energy than we receive today. Under those conditions, life as we know it today could not have existed on Earth. Yet, we are told it was under these conditions that life supposedly evolved. Evolutionists are aware of this problem. In an attempt to solve it, they theorize that the early Earth had more greenhouse gases that would have held the sun's heat more efficiently and produced the same temperature range that life enjoys today. They then theorize that the mix of these gases gradually changed to the atmosphere we have today, perfectly matching the increase in the sun's energy output to Earth. This explanation is so unlikely that one scientific paper actually referred to it as the "Goldilocks syndrome"!

There is a much less fantastic solution to this problem. The Earth and sun are not billions of years old and life was created relatively recently to live under the conditions we enjoy today.

Notes: Impact [ICR], 6/98. Creation Moments, Inc., P.O. Box 839, Foley, MN 56329 www.creationmoments.com

Louis Farrakhan’s Nation of Islam was founded in the 1930s by Wali Fared (or W.D. Fard), who disappeared in 1934. The leadership passed to Elijah Robert Poole who changed his name to Muhammad and taught a racist theory of black-white separatism. After Elijah Muhammad’s associate, Malcolm X, denounced the Nation of Islam and rejected black racism, he was murdered by Nation of Islam members in 1965. Louis Farrakhan led a break-away group in 1979 after Elijah Muhammad’s son also rejected black separatism and opened the organization to whites. Farrakhan claims that the original and superior race was black and that an inferior race of white people was created by a renegade scientist known as Yacub. Farrakhan calls for America to provide blacks with a separate territory for their own nation and to fund it for 25 years “until we are able to produce and supply our own needs.”

(Friday Church News Notes, August 21, 2015, www.wayoflife.org, [email protected], 866-295-4143)

Mark 8:24

When Jesus healed people, they were usually immediately and completely healed. In several instances, He wasn't even in the presence of the person He healed. Then we come to a curious instance of a healing in the Gospel of Mark. Mark 8:22-25 tells us that Jesus was asked to heal a blind man in Bethsaida. After spitting on His hands and touching the man's eyes, He asked the blind man if he could see anything. The man announced that people looked like trees. After Jesus touched his eyes again, the man could see clearly.

Why couldn't Jesus, Who created everything in six days, Who could raise the dead, heal this man instantly and completely? Of course, He could have done that. But He seemingly chose not to. Perhaps He wanted to send a special message to people today. First-century medicine knew of no way to restore sight to those born blind, but modern medicine can sometimes restore the sight of those born blind. On receiving their sight, such people usually suffer from a condition known as agnosia. They can see, but their brains have not yet developed the connections necessary to interpret what they are seeing. Such people often say, when seeing for the first time, that people appear upside down and look like trees. Over time, the connections form between perception and reality.

So the healing of the man born blind was really two miracles. Perhaps Jesus wanted those of us who live in a time when such knowledge is available to recognize that these stories of miracles are not just simplistic stories. They are medically accurate.

Notes: Creation, 9/11/99, pp. 54 55, "Walking Trees." Painting by Andrey Mironov (2009). (CC-BY-SA 4.0).
Creation Moments, Inc., P.O. Box 839, Foley, MN 56329 www.creationmoments.com

Nation of Islam founder Louis Farrakhan, a black supremacist, has again called for the murder of white people. Speaking from the Quran before a packed-out auditorium in a very deceived Baptist church, Farrakhan told his enthused audience that he is looking for ten thousand men who will disdain death and retaliate against alleged oppression of black people. Preaching from the pulpit of Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist Church in Miami, Florida, the Muslim leader said, “I’m looking for ... ten thousand men who say, Death is sweeter than continued life under tyranny. ... [The Quran says,] ‘Retaliation is prescribed in matters of the slain.’ Retaliation is a prescription from God, to calm the breast of those whose children have been slain. So if the federal government will not intercede in our affairs, then we must rise up and kill those who kill us. Stalk them and kill them and let them feel the pain of death that we are feeling” (Facebook.com, OfficialMinisterFarrakhan). Congregants shouted agreement and gave the delusional man a standing ovation. No one is stalking black people in America more than black people themselves. A frightful number of blacks are killed every year, but for the most part they are being killed by their fellow blacks in the violent neighborhoods created by their belly-serving, socialistic, race-baiting leaders who preach endless victimization. Massive numbers of black babies are killed in the womb by their own mothers and the abortion industry led by Planned Parenthood. Farrakhan has long been calling for violence, though he has never personally stepped up to the plate to “count death sweeter than continued life under tyranny.” In November last year he used foul language in calling on the students at a black college in Baltimore (Morgan State) to “tear this ---- country apart.” He urged black parents to teach their children how to throw Molotov cocktails, claiming that whites will only listen to black concerns through murder and violence. In September last year, Farrakhan claimed that whites in the CIA invented Ebola to kill blacks (“Farrakhan crawls out from under rock,” Truth Revolt, Oct. 1, 2014). This choice piece of nuttiness was stated in a hateful, error-filled rant called “Justifiable Homicide, Black Youth in Peril.” In 2013, Farrakhan preached a year-long series of sermons on his wild-eyed views such as the “Mother Wheel,” which is a gigantic spaceship that will rescue the Nation of Islam from the earth, and a “shadow government” called “Final Call” that will destroy America for her treatment of blacks. As for tyranny, we suggest that Farrakhan sell his mansion in Hyde Park, Chicago (in the same exclusive neighborhood as President Obama’s mansion), and relocate to the Islamic State or some other Muslim entity that takes the Quran seriously so he can learn more perfectly about Islam, violence, and tyranny.

(Friday Church News Notes, August 21, 2015, www.wayoflife.org, [email protected], 866-295-4143)

Genesis 1:1

People who believe that God used evolution to bring about all living things claim that the Bible and evolution are telling the same story using different words. They say that everything in both stories happens in the same order. But is this really true?

In the Bible, the Earth was made before the sun, while evolution insists that the sun existed before the Earth. Genesis tells us that sea creatures, which would include whales, were made a day before land animals. Evolution says that whales evolved from preexisting land animals. For that matter, the Bible says that land plants were made before life in the ocean, while evolution claims that life – including plants – started in the ocean. Genesis tells us that fruit trees were the first living things created. Evolution claims that fruit trees evolved fairly recently in geological history. The Bible teaches that birds were created before land animals. Evolution says that birds evolved from earlier land animals.

We could go on with still more contradictions between Genesis and evolution. It should be clear that they are not telling the same story. And there is one more, and most important, contradiction between the two stories. While the Bible teaches that death is a result of our sin, evolution says that death is natural and was part of the evolutionary process. Evolution offers us no eternal hope. The Bible teaches that Jesus' death on the cross does offer us hope through salvation and eternal life.

Notes: Back to Genesis [ICR], 6/99, p. d, "Could Evolution and Creation Be Telling the Same Story in Different Ways?"
Photo: (CC-BY-SA 3.0). Creation Moments, Inc., P.O. Box 839, Foley, MN 56329 www.creationmoments.com

Jack Ma, China’s richest man, said in a speech this year that he was happier working as a teacher for $12 a month than he is now as a billionaire. Ma’s company, Alibaba, was valued at $25 billion when it was listed on the New York Stock Exchange last September. In a speech before the Economics Club in New York City, he spoke about the burden of being ultra-rich. He said that when you reach $10 million, “you’ve got troubles” (“Jack Ma, China’s richest man, was happier earning $12 a month,” Business Insider, Jun. 9, 2015). Ma told CNBS that there is a lot of pressure that comes with the responsibility of great wealth. The Bible says: “But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world,and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and raiment let us be therewith content. But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows” (1 Timothy 6:6-10). The Bible also says, “Wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not? for riches certainly make themselves wings; they fly away as an eagle toward heaven” (Proverbs 23:5).

(Friday Church News Notes, August 21, 2015, www.wayoflife.org, [email protected], 866-295-4143)

Archaeologists at the site of the ancient Philistine city of Gath (Tel Tzafit) have unearthed another exciting find. This year an expedition from the Bar Ilan University discovered the ancient gate which is mentioned in the Bible (1 Sam. 21:13). Professor Meir Ettinger says the gate is among the largest ever found in Israel (“Goliath’s Humongous Gate Found,” Israel Today, Aug. 6, 2015). Gath, one of the five major Philistine cities of the Old Testament era, is mentioned more than 30 times in Scripture, and archaeological research since 1996 has confirmed the Biblical record in many interesting ways. First, evidence was found of a Dagon temple with two central pillars. Judges 16:23-30 says the Dagon temple at Gaza had two central pillars. While the temple at Gaza has not been found, the Philistine temples found at Gath and Qasile had central pillars that were close enough together for a large, supernaturally-empowered man to have pushed them apart. Second, evidence was found for the mid-eighth century earthquake mentioned in Amos 1:1. Third, evidence was found for the sieges and destruction of the city in the ninth century, which agrees with the biblical account of sieges by Hazael (2 Ki. 12:17) and Uzziah (2 Ch. 26:6). Fourth, two names “etymologically similar” to “Goliath” were found inscribed on pieces of pottery in “Proto-Canaanite” letters. Though the inscriptions might not refer to the Goliath of Scripture, they prove that this name was in common usage at the time.

(Friday Church News Notes, August 21, 2015, www.wayoflife.org, [email protected], 866-295-4143)

Job 11:18
"And thou shalt be secure, because there is hope; yea, thou shalt dig about thee, and thou shalt take thy rest in safety."

Over the years, Creation Moments has brought you countless examples of plants and animals that appear to have been designed because they really were designed! Nowhere is this easier to see than in the design of bird eggs.

As we mentioned on an earlier program, the shape and coloring of bird eggs are no accident. God designed them that way for a specific purpose. Today we're going to mention two other design features seen in some bird eggs.

The first are the eggs of the African jacana. These long-legged shorebirds build a flimsy nest that floats on water. When the male jacana lands in the nest to incubate the eggs, the whole nest sinks into the water. It's a good thing, then, that God created the eggs to be waterproof. This is a design feature the eggs must have had from the very beginning.

Or take the eggs of the common murre. According to BBC Earth, "The eggshells have cone-like structures that make the eggs 'self-cleaning'." This is useful, they say, because murre colonies are tightly packed and the eggs get showered in bird droppings. "When water lands on an egg, its water-repelling shell causes the water to gather into spherical drops" which then roll off the egg and clean it.

We could mention many other design features of bird eggs, and we will share these with you in the future. But we close today's program with praise to the God of creation who cares for all of His creatures – especially you and me!

Notes: "The 13 birds with the most amazing eggs," BBC Earth. http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20150319-the-birds-with-super-powered-eggs. Photo: Courtesy of Magnus Manske. (CCA 2.0 Generic).
Creation Moments, Inc., P.O. Box 839, Foley, MN 56329 www.creationmoments.com

We are living in a weird age. Thousands of husbands and wives have been virtually abandoned for make-believe games played in cyberspace. An article on MSNBC.com was titled “Game Widows Grieve Lost Spouses.” Consider an excerpt: “Though their spouses and partners haven’t gone to the great beyond, these particular widows and widowers say their loved ones have gone someplace that’s almost as distant and unreachable. Some have left this world for the World of Warcraft, others have forsaken this life for Second Life and still others have been taken away by EverQuest, Final Fantasy XI, and Dark Age of Camelot. ... As the ranks of those playing video games in general--and massively multiplayer online games in particular--continue to grow, so grow the ranks of those who refer to themselves as ‘game widows.’ They are the husbands, wives, girlfriends and boyfriends of gamers whose playing habits have consumed their lives. The bereaved say their mates have suffered a kind of digital death that has left only the shell of the person they loved behind. And like a real death, it has left the people who remain heartbroken, scared and angry.” The article listed the five most addictive games as World of Warcraft, EverQuest, Peggle, Doom, and Tetris. Three of these are multiplayer online role-playing games. World of Warcraft, which boasts millions of subscribers, allows players to be “mythical characters with incredible powers,” and players band together to go on raids in large scale battles. Because of EverQuest’s addictive power it is known by its fans as “EverCrack” and “NeverRest.” I wouldn’t be surprised if some people are becoming demon possessed through these dark games. “And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them” (Eph. 5:11).

(Friday Church News Notes, August 14, 2015, www.wayoflife.org, [email protected], 866-295-4143)

Genesis 37:3
"Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children, because he was the son of his old age: and he made him a coat of many colours."

The rainbow eucalyptus tree is undoubtedly the most beautiful tree ever. Its bark looks like it was painted by an artist using a palette full of pastel pigments. Surprisingly, this tree's coat of many colors actually comes from the way its bark peels off the tree.

According to research botanist LariAnn Garner: "As the newly exposed bark slowly ages, it changes from bright green to a darker green, then bluish to purplish, and then pink-orange. Finally, the color becomes a brownish maroon right before exfoliation occurs." She also notes that "since this process is happening in different zones of the trunk and in different stages simultaneously, the colors are varied and almost constantly changing. As a result, the tree will never have the same color pattern twice, making it like a work of living art."

The rainbow eucalyptus is also among the fastest-growing trees. It begins as a seed smaller than an ant and grows as much as eight feet per year, eventually rising up to a height of a hundred feet. And here's a surprising fact. These rainbow-colored trees are used mainly to make white paper!

Though evolutionists attribute the tree's colors to natural selection, we must point out that there are many other kinds of trees with peeling bark – including several varieties of maple trees – but the bark of these trees do not undergo a color transformation like this. Evolution had nothing to do with it. These trees are, indeed, a living piece of art painted by their Creator!

Notes: L. Garner, "Under the Rainbow", Ornamental Outlook, 9/06. This website features many photos of the rainbow eucalyptus tree: http://www.lovethesepics.com/2013/01/living-rainbow-rainbow-eucalyptus-most-beautiful-tree-bark-on-earth-36-pics/.
Photo: Courtesy of Amelia. (CC-BY-SA 2.0). Creation Moments, Inc., P.O. Box 839, Foley, MN 56329 www.creationmoments.com

1 Peter 3:15b
"…be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear:"

Not long ago, a member of our Creation Moments staff went under the surgeon's knife. Cancerous growths had been discovered through a routine colonoscopy, so to keep the cancer from spreading, the growths and his ascending colon was surgically removed.

During the pre-op office visit, the surgeon smiled and told our intrepid creationist: "Look on the bright side," he said. "In addition to removing part of your colon, I will also be removing your appendix so you'll never have to worry about appendicitis."

The patient agreed that this was, indeed, a very good thing. But his smile quickly turned to a frown when the surgeon added, "You won't miss your appendix. It's just a vestigial organ that you never really needed." What a thing to say to a creationist! Without missing a beat, our staff member asked the doctor if he was aware of studies showing that the appendix is not a vestigial left-over from our supposed ape-like ancestors. He added that the appendix is now known to be an essential part of our body's immune system.

But the surgeon wouldn't budge because this is what he had been taught in medical school. Rather than argue with the surgeon who would soon be cutting him open, our staff member decided it would be best to continue the conversation on another day. And so it shall. But he learned a valuable lesson that day. He learned that opportunities to share the truth of biblical creation can arise at anytime … even during a routine doctor's visit.

Notes: This is one of the articles our staff member is sharing with his surgeon: http://www.drweil.com/drw/u/QAA401080/Do-You-Need-Your-Appendix.html. Creation Moments, Inc., P.O. Box 839, Foley, MN 56329 www.creationmoments.com

Euthanasia has proven to be a slippery slope wherever it has been practiced. It begins with “irremediable” physical suffering and ends with psychological suffering. It begins with adults and ends with children. It begins with personal consent and ends with the consent of second parties. In February 2014, Quebec became the first province in Canada to legalize euthanasia, and immediately doctors began calling for less restrictions. In fact, before the bill even passed, Yves Robert, secretary of Quebec’s College of Physicians, said, “It’s only a step. There are many questions that are still unanswered” (“As Quebec set to legalize euthanasia, doctors already looking to expand who qualifies,” National Post, Feb. 13, 2014). The “questions” are not “about who is receiving euthanasia but who is being denied it.” He used the example of an advanced Alzheimer’s patient who would not be eligible because he is no longer capable of giving consent. He also addressed the requirement that the individual be an adult, implying that those who are younger should be eligible. “We will have to think about that, not only for [incapable] adults but obviously for youngsters who face terminal diseases,” Dr. Robert said. Belgium is leading the way. It legalized euthanasia in 2002, and already it has extended the practice to minors and has euthanized “people suffering depression and a set of deaf twins who were losing their eyesight.”

(Friday Church News Notes, August 14, 2015, www.wayoflife.org, [email protected], 866-295-4143)

1 John 5:12
"He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life."

Not long ago Creation Moments brought you a news report about NASA's search for extraterrestrial life and how they are quite sure they'll find it by the year 2035. The primary way they're searching for life is by looking for planets and moons with water. Where there's water, they hope to find life.

But now scientists are also looking for alien life by seeking a certain kind of heat. One research team doing this is a joint project of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratories and Caltech, and they are basing their research on information from NASA's orbiting observatory – the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer.

However, after studying 100,000 galaxies, they have found no obvious signs of life on any of them.

One researcher, a professor from Penn State University, said that "the idea behind our research is that if an entire galaxy had been colonized by an advanced space-faring civilization, the energy produced by that civilization's technologies would be detectable in mid-infrared wavelengths." He likened it to the basic physics that causes your computer to radiate heat when it is turned on.

Even though no signs of alien life have been found among the 100,000 galaxies, the researchers did find fifty galaxies they plan to look at more closely. They want to see if the heat from these galaxies is coming from natural sources or from advanced civilizations.

Creation Moments could tell them the answer right now, but I'm sure they wouldn't listen. Their search for life must go on because their evolutionary worldview depends on it.

Notes: "Scientists find no obvious signs of life in 100,000 galaxies," Popular Science, 4/16/15.
Illustration: Courtesy of NASA. Creation Moments, Inc., P.O. Box 839, Foley, MN 56329 www.creationmoments.com

In February, the Supreme Court of Canada unanimously struck down the federal prohibition against physician-assisted euthanasia, ruling that it violates Canadians’ Charter rights to “life, liberty and security of the person” (“Supreme Court Strikes Down,” Global News, Feb. 6, 2015). Federal and provincial governments are given a year to introduce legislation to permit the practice. The Supreme Court laid out some conditions: the individual must be an adult, must consent to his own death, must have a “grievous and irremediable” medical condition which can be an “illness, disease, or disability,” the condition must cause “endless suffering,” and this suffering can be either physical or psychological. It is very difficult for most people to see a right to die in the language of “the right to life, liberty, and security,” but for these judges it is as clear as crystal. It is as clear as the right to abortion and the right to homosexual marriage. In truth, these are not rights guaranteed either by Canada’s Charter or by the American Constitution. They are rights invented by judges. A 2014 survey by Ipsos Reid found that 84% of Canadians approved of doctor-assisted suicide. That same year, the Canadian Medical Association voted to allow its members to “follow their own conscience” in regard to helping people kill themselves. Euthanasia would make sense if there were no God and no eternity, but God knows better than man, and His law says, “Thou shalt not kill” (Exodus 20:13).

(Friday Church News Notes, August 14, 2015, www.wayoflife.org, [email protected], 866-295-4143)

Exodus 8:2
"And if thou refuse to let them go, behold, I will smite all thy borders with frogs:"

"What a delicious-looking tomato," you say to yourself. But as you reach for it, that bright red tomato suddenly comes to life and jumps away in pursuit of its own lunch! That "tomato" you almost grabbed is actually a tomato frog, a creature found only on the island of Madagascar.

Just before the frog jumped out of your reach, it puffed up its shiny red body because it regarded you as a threat. Fortunately for you, the frog came nowhere near your lips. You see, when a predator bites down on a tomato frog, the frog's skin secretes a thick substance that gums up the predator's mouth and eyes – a superb defense mechanism that reminds us of the mucus secreted by hagfishes.

According to a book called Astonishing Animals, evolution is the reason why the tomato frog is bright red in color. The authors say it is mimicking the bright color of the poison arrow frog of Central America. But wait a minute! There are no poison arrow frogs on the island of Madagascar, so how could the tomato frog's bright color be attributed to mimicry? It can't mimic a frog that no creature on the island has ever seen!

Once again, when you're an evolutionist, evolution accounts for absolutely everything in nature. Creationists reject that kind of thinking. We believe that God blessed the island of Madagascar with many unique and colorful creatures. And each one was given just the right combination of characteristics by its Creator.

Notes: "Tomato frog," Astonishing Animals, T. Flannery and P. Schouten (Atlantic Monthly Press, New York), pp. 122-123.
Photo: Courtesy of © Alfeus Liman. Creation Moments, Inc., P.O. Box 839, Foley, MN 56329 www.creationmoments.com

An atheist United Church of Canada pastor is fighting the denomination’s effort to fire her. Gretta Vosper of West Hill United Church of Toronto, who was ordained in 1993 and has been at West Hill since 1997, says, “I don’t believe in ... the god called God. Using the word gets in the way of sharing what I want to share” (“Atheist Minister,” The Globe and Mail, Aug. 5, 2015). We have no idea what she wants to “share,” but she claims that the Bible and Jesus are “mythology,” so her highest authority is her own opinion. The Globe and Mail says Vosper has been teaching atheism and mythology at West Hill since 2001, but when she did away with the Lord’s Prayer in 2008, 100 of her 150 members left. The denomination did nothing until she wrote a letter this year to the Toronto Conference executive secretary stating that belief in God can motivate things such as the Charlie Hebdo massacre, making no distinction between faith in the God of the Bible and faith in Allah. As a result, the denomination is reviewing whether Vosper is being “faithful to her ordination vows” which include a belief in “God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.” An ecclesiastical court is to hear her case in the fall. This is a denomination that allows “pastors” to deny the historicity of the Pentateuch, the miraculous nature of Bible prophecy, the virgin birth, deity, substitutionary atonement, and bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ, and any number of other cardinal doctrines, but perhaps Vosper has gone a bit too far even for the United Church of Canada. We will see.

(Friday Church News Notes, August 14, 2015, www.wayoflife.org, [email protected], 866-295-4143)

The very popular T.D. Jakes is considered a great preacher, but in reality he is a great politician. When questioned on his position on the Trinity, he fudges and faces two ways. (See “The Elephant Room,” April 5, 2012, www.wayoflife.org.) When questioned about his position on homosexuality by a liberal secular newspaper, he fudges again. In a recent interview with the Huntington Post, he not only fudged about the issue of homosexuality, he also questioned the divine inspiration of Paul’s epistles, which is a fundamental error. Instead of plainly stating what the Bible teaches about homosexuality, Jakes described his views as “evolved and evolving.” To justify evolution in doctrinal and moral thinking, he used the example of the apostle Paul’s teaching in 1 Corinthians 11, saying, “Paul spends a lot of time wrestling back and forth, trying to understand should a woman wear a head covering, should you cut your hair. I mean, they grappled back then and we’re grappling now because we’re humans and we are flawed and we’re not God” (“T.D. Jakes Comes Out for ‘Gay Rights’ and ‘LGBT Churches,’” Christian News Network, Aug. 7, 2015). This is a frightful and terrible error on the part of a supposed Bible-believing pastor. Paul was not “grappling” with anything that he wrote in 1 Corinthians 11. He was writing under divine inspiration, which is why he prefaced the chapter by commending the church for keeping his teaching (1 Cor. 11:1-2). Yes, the preacher is human and not God, but the preacher has the infallible Word of God in the canon of Scripture, and he has the Spirit of God as his Interpreter, and he is solemnly commissioned to preach God’s Word without question and compromise, in season and out of season (2 Tim. 4:1-2). God has spoken on the issue of homosexuality. There is no more for a preacher to say than what God has already said. America’s preachers are her fundamental problem. America doesn’t fear God today because America’s preachers don’t preach the fear of God. Like T.D. Jakes, they are too busy building megachurches by preaching smooth things (e.g., motivational psychology). “Therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts concerning the prophets; Behold, I will feed them with wormwood, and make them drink the water of gall: for from the prophets of Jerusalem is profaneness gone forth into all the land. ... But if they had stood in my counsel, and had caused my people to hear my words, then they should have turned them from their evil way, and from the evil of their doings” (Jeremiah 23:15, 22).

(Friday Church News Notes, August 14, 2015, www.wayoflife.org, [email protected], 866-295-4143)

John 4:10
"Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water."

NASA never seems to tire of looking for signs of life throughout the universe. Though the space agency is no longer involved with SETI, the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Life, it continues searching for water because water is necessary for life as we know it.

NASA has found oceans of water on the moons of Jupiter and Saturn. They are finding water or ice on comets, asteroids and dwarf planets like Ceres. And when they don't find water, they search for signs that water might have been present in the past.

Sadly, NASA isn't only interested in expanding mankind's store of knowledge about the universe. Though they never come out and admit it, their other goal is to show that the Earth is not the special place God created and filled it with life. Our planet, they believe, has life simply because water is here. And once life has begun, evolution takes care of the rest.

Chief NASA scientist Ellen Stofan says that the agency's success at finding water "inspires us to continue investigating our origins and the fascinating possibilities for other worlds, and life, in the universe." She also said, "I think we're going to have strong indications of life beyond Earth within a decade, and I think we're going to have definitive evidence within twenty to thirty years."

We will hold you to that, Ellen. In the meantime, why don't you search for the living water that leads to eternal life? If you seek it, you will find it for sure!

Image: In NASA's words, "NASA is exploring our solar system and beyond to understand the workings of the universe, searching for water and life among the stars." Courtesy of NASA. (PD). Notes: "The Solar System and Beyond is Awash in Water", NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory news release, 4/7/15. "NASA Chief Scientist Ellen Stofan Predicts We'll Find Signs Of Alien Life Within 10 Years," Huff Post Science, 4/8/15. Creation Moments, Inc., P.O. Box 839, Foley, MN 56329 www.creationmoments.com