Psalm 81:15
"The haters of the LORD should have submitted themselves unto him: but their time should have endured for ever."
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   The animal we feature on today’s Creation Moments is so new to science it hasn’t even been classified according to genus as this is written. Yet the mimic octopus is the talk of the scientific world.
   Found in the Indo‑Pacific area, the mimic octopus has proportionately longer arms than other octopuses. The mimic octopus also has a very narrow waist that aids in its disguises. When approached, one mimic octopus mimicked a flounder, flattening its body and pointing its legs in one direction. Then it began to swim with undulating motion over the bottom, just as a flounder would. Mimic octopuses have also been seen to mimic starfish, jellyfish, giant crabs, lionfish, seahorses, anemones, stingrays and other creatures. One researcher was studying what he was convinced was a new species of mantis shrimp. It turned out to be a mimic octopus. If the possible threat is not fooled, a mimic octopus will morph through a variety of animals. Octopuses are generally seen as intelligent animals. However, the ability of the mimic octopus to mimic both the form and behavior of a range of animals puzzles scientists.
   According to evolutionary theory, such high intelligence evolves only in social animals, and mimic octopuses are solitary creatures. So where did such intelligence come from? We can easily explain that its intelligent Creator gave it the intelligence it needed to fool predators for its own survival.

www.creationmoments.com/sermons/screen-actor-octopus-3/

Psalm 40:5
“Many, O LORD my God, are thy wonderful works which thou hast done; and thy thoughts which are to us-ward: they cannot be reckoned up in order…”

   Often the most productive science is done when scientists, as one founder of modern science put it, “Think God’s thoughts after Him.” For example, while antibiotics have saved millions of lives, they have proven to be only a temporary solution. In addition, there are some bacterial infections that move too fast for antibiotics to be effective.
   Vibrio vulnificus is one such bacterium. It is typically found in oysters. The bacterium has little effect on healthy people, but those whom it infects are most likely to be dead within 24 hours. How do we combat such a fast-working deadly bacterium by thinking God’s thoughts after Him? By finding something that is even faster at infecting the bacterium and killing it. That’s exactly what medical researchers have done. They have found a virus that infects the bacteria, rapidly reproducing inside the bacterium until it causes the bacterium to burst. Once the bacteria are all dead, the virus can no longer reproduce. Researchers infected eight mice with Vibrio vulnificus. If they had not at the same time infected the mice with the virus, all would have been dead within 18 hours. As a result, five of the mice never became ill. This approach is also being successfully used to treat bacteria that cause skin infections.
   The successes that come from thinking God’s thoughts after Him demonstrate that God is the Author of science and all that it studies.

www.creationmoments.com/sermons/faster-than-the-speed-of-light-3

Hebrews 11:3
“By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible.”

   Let’s go back to the very first moment that the supposed Big Bang took place. Evolutionists say that at that very first moment, everything was up to chance. The size and charge of electrons, protons, the structure of atoms or whether they would even exist could have been anything.
   Now let’s move forward to what we actually know about the various atoms and their structure. Life as we know it is based on the carbon atom. Its structure makes it the only atom with almost unlimited ability to share pairs of electrons with other atoms. This makes possible the rich range of biological molecules needed for life. No other atom can do carbon’s job. The oxygen atom’s structure causes it to bind together in pairs. This type of bonding leaves unpaired electrons that allow oxygen to bind with iron. This feature makes hemoglobin capable of carrying oxygen in the blood. There are several other atoms that could replace iron in hemoglobin, but they would hold the oxygen either too tightly or too loosely. So there are no substitutes for iron. Likewise, the zinc atom is the only atom that can allow proteins to do the crucial job of identifying their own unique DNA sites.
   The precise structure of atoms was clearly not the result of chance. Each was carefully designed by the Creator to support the life He would form only days after He made the atoms.

www.creationmoments.com/sermons/structure-of-atoms-3/

Exodus 20:11
“For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.”
 
In another Creation Moment, we discussed how Martin Luther’s commentary on Genesis insists that the Earth is less than 6,000 years old. Such an opinion is not compatible with the theory of evolution. We can conclude, therefore, that, although Luther did not have to engage with the theory of evolution, his strong Scriptural opinion would have been to side with creationism rather than evolutionism.

A second topic that Luther addresses in the same vein is that of the length of the Creation Week. Once again, Luther tackles Augustine’s views.

Hilary and Augustine, two great lights in the church, believed that the world was made on a sudden and all at once, not successively during the space of six days. Augustine plays upon these six days in a marvelous manner in explaining them. He considers them to be mystical days of knowledge in the angels, and not natural days….

For as he is not instructing us concerning allegorical creatures and an allegorical world, but concerning essential creatures and a world visible and apprehensive by the senses, he calls, as we say in our trite proverb, “a post, a post;” that is, when he says morning or day or evening, his meaning is the same as ours when we use those terms, without any allegory whatever.

Luther had a withering word for those who feel the need to treat the days of creation allegorically in order to continue with their presupposed long age views. He said:

Let us rather confess our ignorance in the matter than wrest the words of Moses from the circumstances which he is recording.

To which I say Amen!

​https://www.creationmoments.com/sermons/luthers-six-days/

Isaiah 40:28
“Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his understanding.”

There is a common view abroad which suggests that so-called Young Earth Creationism is an invention of the 20th Century and that no such creationist ideas existed in centuries earlier. It is not difficult to test whether such an opinion is correct or not. All we have to do is check some early commentaries on Genesis.

Martin Luther wrote an extensive commentary on Genesis. He did not mention the theory of evolution once! That, however, is not surprising, considering he published the work in 1545, whereas Darwin’s Origin of Species was published in 1859. Nevertheless, there are a number of issues relevant to creationism, where Luther had strong views. One of these was the age of the Earth. On this subject, Luther wrote:

From Moses however we know that 6000 years ago the world did not exist.

A theistic evolutionist might retort that this was what everyone believed in Luther’s day. Not so. Luther comments on those who have other views, saying:

Aristotle leaves the problem in doubt whether or not the world is eternal, yet he is inclined to the opinion that it is eternal.

Luther understands that a biblical position is in opposition to the prevailing philosophical opinions of his time. Augustine, for example, had developed an elaborate allegory to explain Genesis. Luther made short work of that view.

With respect therefore to this opinion of Augustine, we conclude that Moses spoke literally and plainly and neither allegorically nor figuratively.

So Martin Luther’s commentary appears to leave no opening for those who want to suggest that the world is millions of years old.

Ref: Luther’s Commentary on Genesis, (Project Gutenberg), < http://www.gutenberg.org/files/48193/48193-h/48193-h.htm >, accessed 12/30/2017. Image: Public Domain.

Proverbs 15:6
“In the house of the righteous is much treasure: but in the revenues of the wicked is trouble.”
 
Forty-five minutes’ drive from either Birmingham Airport, England, or Birmingham’s New Street Station, you can reach Kinver Edge – a beautiful spot just outside Kidderminster. There is a small parking lot from which you take a trail uphill to climb the Edge. The view over this part of the West Midlands is spectacular, but you have not just come for the view of the countryside below. You have come to see the Holy Austin Houses.

From the outside, these houses look fairly normal. There is a brick elevation and windows. One of the buildings has a chimney stack. A surprise awaits you, however, when you open the front door and enter.

What magic is this? In a scene something like Doctor Who’s Tardis, you realize that the inside is bigger than the outside. Then you notice that the walls are made of stone. The front elevation merely covers the front of a large cave. These houses are actually cave houses.

The Holy Austin houses are, today, owned by the National Trust – a non-profit organization that helps protect and administer historic monuments around the United Kingdom. The Holy Austin houses are open to the public and are furnished as they would have been when they were occupied. That occupation is fairly recent, by historical standards. They were only abandoned in 1962. Up until 1962, families lived in the houses. I guess you could say that they were cave men and women.

For that is what cave men are. They are men who live in caves. So, when people ask how we fit cave men into the Bible, we can easily explain it.

Ref: < https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/kinver-edge-and-the-rock-houses >, accessed

Psalm 139:13-16
“For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast covered me in my mother’s womb. I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well. My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them.”

One of the most famous and beautiful passages in the Bible, concerning unborn children, is found in Psalm 139.

God "possessed my reins" and "covered me". None of these developments was hidden from God. They were all put together by Him for His glory. These verses tell us that the days were already formed for him before the baby had seen any of them. Therefore, this Scripture is telling us that the baby inside his mother’s womb is human.

Previously, in a Creation Moment, we talked about the baby being human because of the way he was put together. Psalm 139 has expressed that same thought in a song of worship. We worship God for the physical life He has given us and for the spiritual life that He has created. Evidence today suggests that unborn babies react to external stimuli such as light and sound; further confirmation of their unique life apart from the mother.

Ref: Taylor, P.F. (2010), Abortion: Is It Really a Mattter of Life and Death? In The New Answers Book 3, (Green Forest, AR: Master Books), pp. 119-128. Image: Adobe Stock Images, licensed to author.

Jeremiah 1:4-5
“Then the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.”
 
The Bible does not directly refer to abortion. Of course, there are many other issues on which the Bible does not give a specific comment. However, in many cases, it is clear what the biblical position is. I believe the same is true with the subject of abortion. And the Bible does have a great deal to say about the status of life before birth. For example, in Jeremiah 1:4-5, we read the following:

Now the word of the LORD came to me, saying, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.”

God was giving a number of important pieces of information to the prophet. He made clear that He knew Jeremiah even before he was formed in the womb. Furthermore, He tells Jeremiah that his growth in the womb was as a result of being formed by God Himself.

The passage implies that there was a person-hood associated with the unborn Jeremiah. Therefore, the unborn child should be considered as a full human being, with all the implications for the value of his life that this entails.

The word fetus sounds impersonal, yet it simply means little one. Abortion kills the little one in the mother’s womb – the little one who has a personality already, given by God.

Ref: Taylor, P.F. (2010), Abortion: Is It Really a Mattter of Life and Death? In The New Answers Book 3, (Green Forest, AR: Master Books), pp. 119-128. Image: Adobe Stock Images, licensed to author.

Genesis 7:19-20
“And the waters prevailed exceedingly upon the earth; and all the high hills, that were under the whole heaven, were covered. Fifteen cubits upward did the waters prevail; and the mountains were covered.”

I grew up with the strong impression from family, school, and church, that what we read in Genesis is not literally true. So it did not occur to me that anyone would believe that water really covered the whole Earth. After all, preachers at the church my family attended did not believe it. But one minister suggested that there might be a grain of truth behind the story. Maybe, he opined, there was some sort of a big flooding event in the Middle East, perhaps between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. That was all the world they knew at the time, so maybe the flood myth in Genesis was, in fact, a distorted memory of a disastrous local flood.

For those of us who take the Bible seriously, there are some major problems with the concept of a local flood, however. Here are just two.

The Bible says that all the high mountains were covered to a depth of about 22 feet. How could a localized flood cover mountains to such a depth? Water will find its own level. It defies scientific reason to suppose that water could be piled up in a local area to cover such high hills.

Not only that, but the Ark was to hold birds and other flying creatures, as well as land animals. Yet, if the flood were only local, it would not be too difficult for birds to fly away to an area that was not being flooded.

I wish those church ministers from my youth had simply believed what the Bible teaches. That is the most logical and scientific position.

Ref: Ham, K. (2010), The New Answers Book 3, (Green River, AR: Master Books), p. 59. Image: Adobe Stock Images, licensed to author.