Luke 19:40

Here at Creation Moments we have mentioned a few examples of fossils that, without argument, were formed recently. We have been trying to show that when you see a fossil or hear the word, you should not automatically think millions of years. In an attempt to maintain the illusion that fossils automatically must be millions of years old, evolutionists dismiss the examples of young fossils as freaks of nature. However, there are many examples of recent fossils.

It was low tide when a circular rock was discovered on a western Australian beach. A little over two feet in diameter, the wheel-shaped rock weighed 165 pounds. It was hard and solid, even ringing like a bell when struck. Examination proved that the rock was a dense high-calcium sandstone. Even before it was cut open for study, the rock seemed unusual. Once it was cut open it became clear that this was fossilized fence wire. Further analysis identified the wire as "Number 8" fence wire that was used at a nearby sheep station between 1920 and 1970. It was standard practice that after 10 years, old fence wires were replaced. The old wire was coiled and often thrown into the sea. This fossil could have been only about 30 years old and not more than 80 years old!

The existence of fossils does not disprove the Bible's account of history that dates the Earth at only about 6,000 years old. If fossils can form in a relatively few number of years, 6,000 years are more than enough time to form all the millions of fossils discovered.

Notes: Creation, 6/8/98, p. 6, "Fascinating Fossil Fence Wire." Photo: Courtesy of Col Lewis and Creation Ministries International. Creation Moments, Inc., P.O. Box 839, Foley, MN 56329 www.creationmoments.com

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said this week that Israel will not survive another 25 years (“Iran Deal,” Breitbart, Sept. 9, 2015). On Twitter, Khamenei said, “God willing, there will be nothing as Zionist regime by next 25 years.” Khamenei is a big user of Twitter. November 8, 2014, he tweeted, “This barbaric, wolflike & infanticidal regime of Israel which spares no crime has no cure but to be annihilated.” In an address to an assembly of tens of thousands of Basij militiamen in November 2013, Khamenei declared that Israel was doomed to fail and characterized the “Zionist regime” as the “sinister, unclean rabid dog of the region.” He said Israelis “cannot be called human beings.” Footage of the event showed the crowd shouting “Death to America” and “Death to Israel.” In an address in Tehran in September of this year, General Moshen Kazzemeinni said, “The Islamic Revolution will continue enhancing its preparedness until it overthrows Israel and liberates Palestine” (“Commander: Iran Continues Military Enhancement until Collapse of Israel,” Fars News Agency, Sep. 2, 2015). This is the outfit with whom the Obama administration has made a life or death treaty. The Bible tells us exactly what is going to happen, both to Iran and to Israel. Israel will be deceived by the Antichrist and one-third of the Jews will be converted during the Tribulation and enter Christ’s kingdom when He returns. A converted Israel will be at heart of that kingdom. Iran, which is ancient Persia, is going to join the Gog/Magog military coalition described in Ezekiel 38 and be destroyed on Israel’s mountains. “And say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal: And I will turn thee back, and put hooks into thy jaws, and I will bring thee forth, and all thine army, horses and horsemen, all of them clothed with all sorts of armour, even a great company with bucklers and shields, all of them handling swords: Persia, Ethiopia, and Libya with them; all of them with shield and helmet. ... And I will plead against him with pestilence and with blood; and I will rain upon him, and upon his bands, and upon the many people that are with him, an overflowing rain, and great hailstones, fire, and brimstone” (Ezekiel 38:3-5, 22).

(Friday Church News Notes, September 11, 2015, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143)

Pastor Rick Warren of Saddleback Church (Southern Baptist), author of The Purpose Driven Life, is scheduled to speak at Pope Francis’ World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia this month. Warren announced this to his church on Sunday, August 30, saying, “I’m not a Catholic, and we have many differences with Catholics. But they love the Lord and we have much in common with that--we believe in the Bible, and the Trinity, and in Jesus and the resurrection. There are probably going to be a million people in Philadelphia at this final event with Pope Francis, and he’s asked me to be the final speaker” (“Pontiff Invites Rick Warren,” The Gospel Herald, Sep. 1, 2015). As a demonstration of their biblical ignorance and spiritual blindness, the Baptist congregation cheered and applauded. I would ask Pastor Warren and Saddleback Church two questions: First, if a man prays to Mary, trusts her intercession and help, considers baptism the new birth, and believes that a piece of bread is the very body and blood of Jesus (as the pope does), does he “love the Lord,” or is he following another gospel, another christ, and another spirit? Second, why did Paul say the Galatian heretics were cursed even though they believed in the Bible, the Trinity, Jesus, and the resurrection (Galatians 1:6-8)? Last November, Rick Warren spoke at a Vatican interfaith conference on marriage and the family. You can be sure that he did not reprove Rome’s enforced “celibacy, which 1 Timothy 4 identifies as a doctrine of devils. Rick Warren is one of the most influential preachers in the world, yet he is the blind leading the blind. The fact that the Southern Baptist Convention has not publicly reproved his error and compromise and removed his church from its rolls is irrefutable proof of that Convention’s rebellion to God’s Word.

(Friday Church News Notes, July 24, 2015, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143)

When an elderly woman in eastern China recently dug up her buried 100,000 yuan (US $15,600) life savings, she found that the banknotes crumbled into pieces when they were handled (South China Morning Post, Aug. 31, 2015). Four years ago, she placed the money in a plastic bag, put it in a metal box, and buried it under her kitchen floor, but when she dug it up to help pay for her son’s wedding, it was in a clumped mess. A banknote expert at the People’s Bank of China said there is little chance to redeem the ruined banknotes. This reminds us of Jesus’ words: “Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also” (Matthew 6:19-21).

(Friday Church News Notes, September 4, 2015, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143)

Psalm 94:10

Researchers at Purdue University are demonstrating that parrots are capable of intelligent communication. Their carefully designed experiments have convinced even skeptics that the two parrots under study are not just giving conditioned responses. Their results are challenging the accepted scientific knowledge about animal intelligence and the evolutionary claim that intelligence is one of the traits that separate us from animals.

The parrots' names are Griffin and Alex. Researchers can show Alex two triangles, one red and one green. They ask what's different about them. Alex will answer, "Color." When asked what's similar about them, he will answer, "Shape." If there is nothing similar, Alex even understands the concept of nothing. Asked what's similar about the shapes, he will answer, "None." Researchers say that about five percent of the time someone will mistakenly tell Alex that he has given a wrong answer when he has not. Alex, however, insists that his answer is right until the questioner discovers the mistake.

Both parrots can identify a wide range of objects. Both parrots are even picking up words they have not been systematically taught and are using them correctly. Once, when Griffin was having trouble pronouncing a new word, Alex turned to him and said, "Speak clearly."

Evolutionists are now having to rethink the idea that intelligence separates us from animals. The fact that we were created in God's image to have a relationship with Him is what really separates us from the animals.

Notes: Discover, 1/00, "Polly Want a PhD?" Photo: (Fair Use).
Creation Moments, Inc., P.O. Box 839, Foley, MN 56329 www.creationmoments.com

There is spiritual and moral danger even in G- and PG-rated movies and television programs that don’t have open sex and filthy language, because the following false, godless things are emphasized continually and in the most subtle, enticing manner: Christians are depicted as self-righteous, hypocritical, ungracious, selfish, lacking in practical wisdom, weird, foolish, and fearful. Immoral people, agnostics, and atheists are depicted as sympathetic, kind, understanding, reasonable, and wise. Christianity is depicted as a religion that teaches salvation by good works and self-righteousness. (Sadly, the vast majority of Christianity today fits that description because it is false, but the difference between false and true Christianity is never made clear by Hollywood.) According to Hollywood, the purpose of life is self-fulfillment and fun (“eat, drink, and be merry”). The pursuit of self-fulfillment justifies anything. Death is the end. If death is not the end, heaven is for everyone. Hell, if there is such a thing, is only for the most despicable. Salvation, if there is a need for such a thing, is by good works, “sincerity,” and a “good heart.” No one can know for sure about God, the true meaning of life, or what lies beyond death, so one shouldn’t worry about it (agnosticism). Live in the present and don’t worry about the future. A God of judgment is not a good God. The Bible is not always true, and the wisest people don’t believe it is. Morality is relative and situational. Man is basically good. Wishing is powerful. Vengeance is good. There is such a thing as good magic. Evolution is true. “Love” purifies and justifies any sexual relationship. A major part of effectively discipling young people is for Christian families to unplug from Hollywood. “Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ” (Colossians 2:8).

(Friday Church News Notes, September 4, 2015, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143)

Jeremiah 17:14

You may remember the "ice man" discovered in a glacier in the Alps in 1991. His frozen body had been preserved in the ice for thousands of years. Even his hair, beard and skin were largely intact. While there is some debate about when he lived, he is easily dated, in the biblical framework, to within several centuries after the Flood.

Researchers at the University of Graz in Austria have been studying his body in hope of learning more about life in the distant past. They found that the ice man has 15 groups of tattooed lines on his body. They could find no reasonable explanations for the tattooed lines until they compared the tattoos to the traditional acupuncture points. The ice man's tattoos corresponded to the acupuncture points used to treat stomach upset and backache. X-rays of the ice man's body showed that though he was only middle-aged, he did indeed have arthritis in his hips, knees, ankles and spine that would produce backache. Further study showed that he had a high level of parasites called whipworms in his intestines! The ice man lived 2,000 years before any known use of acupuncture by the Chinese. Could it be that acupuncture is ancient knowledge that came into use today by way of Noah himself?

Any medical treatment that works is a blessing in this life. However, only the healing provided by the Gospel of Jesus Christ can bring true spiritual health now and in eternity.

Notes: Discover, 2/00, p. 61, "The Ice Man Healeth." Photo: © South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology. (Fair Use).
Creation Moments, Inc., P.O. Box 839, Foley, MN 56329 www.creationmoments.com

MTV, which launched in August 1981, is a window into the filthy Western pop culture that has spread across the world through the electronic media to become a global culture. I have visited 36 countries, and young people everywhere, from New York City or London to a village in Nepal or South Africa, love the same music, movies, attitude, fashion, video games, etc. There is the same “generation gap,” a foolish and ungodly thing that rock & roll created in the 1950s. Youth in Bible-believing churches everywhere face the same enticements. When measured by eternal biblical values, the MTV world is empty and foolish in the extreme, but when measured by fleshly appetites it is enticing. MTV has promoted and acclaimed every vile, anti-Christ thing that has come on the music scene, including Madonna and her blasphemous “Like a Prayer,” Marilyn Manson (an androgynous reprobate who rips up Bibles, burns Bibles, and spits on pictures of Jesus), and Kurt Cobain (who spray-painted his neighborhood with the words “Abort Christ” and “God is Gay” and later blew his brains out with a shotgun). Cobain was honored with an MTV tribute in 1994. MTV has championed homosexual rights. It basically created the annual orgy called “Spring Break.” MTV has made a mockery of holy things, while justifying and glorifying every sin against God’s holy law, particularly fornication, lasciviousness, adultery, homosexuality, divorce, lying, cursing, and blasphemy. “Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!” (Isaiah 5:20).

(Friday Church News Notes, September 4, 2015, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143)

Exodus 3:7

The Bible tells us that at the beginning of the Israelites' 430-year stay in Egypt, they were well respected for Joseph's sake. Later, when the Egyptian leadership forgot how Joseph saved Egypt, it began making their lives difficult.

One of the most enlightening archaeological finds from the period of Israel's captivity is a settlement called The Village of the Place of Truth. Excavators at the city have found homes, letters, notes, court records, work diaries and wills dating from this period. The village was home to those who built the royal tombs. While there is no evidence that the Israelites ever lived in the village, what has been found has revealed much about life in Egypt when Israel was there. We learn that Egypt had a tradition in which every citizen put in at least one year of service to the government. Those out of favor could be forced into years or even a lifetime of forced labor. However, it was considered an honor to work on the royal tombs, and it seems unlikely that the Israelites had much to do with them. The Bible tells us that the Israelites did, however, make bricks. That could include the very bricks that built the Village of the Place of Truth. Finally we learn that pigs were a staple among such workers, which certainly would be repugnant to the Israelites.

Archaeologists have concluded that the biblical record of Israel's stay in Egypt has too many accurate details about Egypt to be nothing more than a legend.

Notes: Biblical Archaeology Review, 1/2/99, pp. 36 45, "Pharaoh's Workers." Photo: Courtesy of Steve Cameron. (CC-BY 3.0). Creation Moments, Inc., P.O. Box 839, Foley, MN 56329 www.creationmoments.com

“According to Niaj.com, Samuel Dali, president of the Church of the Brethren in Nigeria, said, ‘Seventy percent of our churches have been destroyed in Adamawa, Yobe and Borno states by Boko Haram; over 8,000 of our members were killed; one hundred and seventy-six of the girls kidnapped in Chibok are our members.’ While Dali kept up hopes that the Nigerian military will be able to finally defeat the terror group, which has waged war on the government and the country’s Christians since 2009, he noted that many church facilities across Adamawa, Yobe and Borno states have been destroyed in various raids. With the wide-spread destruction of churches and slaughter of church members, he added that most of the pastors under his care have lost their jobs. Boko Haram’s fighters have been struggling for control of towns with the Nigerian military in the northeast, and continue carrying out deadly acts of terror on villages where they slaughter dozens, sometimes hundreds of people, and kidnap women and children.”

“Boko Haram Has Killed 8,000,” The Christian Post, Aug. 24, 2015

Genesis 8:2

Did you know that radiocarbon dating may offer supporting evidence for Noah's Flood? Many think that carbon dating provides evidence that the Earth is millions of years old, but this is not true. Radiocarbon dating can only reliably date things that are less than 3,000 years old.

Let's say that you are a frog in a pond. High above your head, cosmic rays are striking nitrogen-14 atoms and changing them into radioactive carbon-14 atoms. That carbon eventually finds its way into your food and becomes part of you. Throughout your life it continues to accumulate in you. When you die, it stops accumulating. Being unstable, carbon-14 decays over time. Researchers measure the carbon-14 that remains in something that was once alive to determine how old it is. To do so, however, they must assume that the Earth is over 50,000 years old. That's how long it would take for the amount of carbon-14 being produced to equal the rate of carbon-14 decay. But we now know that there is more carbon-14 being produced than is decaying, meaning that the Earth must be less than 30,000 years old! In addition, the processes at work during Noah's Flood would have lowered the availability of carbon-14 to living things, which would also help account for the shortage of carbon-14.

In short, carbon dating cannot possibly tell us anything contrary to the Bible, and it seems to support the Bible's account of Earth's history.

Notes: Back to Genesis [ICR], 7/98, p. d, "Doesn't Carbon Dating Prove the Earth Is Old?"
Creation Moments, Inc., P.O. Box 839, Foley, MN 56329 www.creationmoments.com

Southern Baptist leader Frank Page warns that contemporary worship doesn’t affect the quality of Christian lives. Page, president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Executive Committee, wrote the following in the introduction to Hungry for Worship: Challenges and Solutions for Today’s Church: “[Worship] has become a big claim in the twenty-first century church; but, based on the reality of people’s lives, the worship that we claim to be experiencing is not truly affecting the quality of our lives, our families, and our witness.” Though Page identifies a major reality and problem in regard to contemporary worship, he and the authors of this new book don’t have an inkling about the true cause or solution. The reason that contemporary worship produces such poor fruit is that it is worldly and fleshly. Though maintaining a “form of godliness,” it is fundamentally of the world. Unlike “traditional” or sacred worship, contemporary worship, even in its most conservative form with biblical lyrics, sounds like the world, looks like the world, and smells like the world. Further, it is experience oriented, being a product, largely, of touchy-feely charismaticism. Evangelicalism has been invaded by the charismatics since the 1960s, and the charismatic’s unscriptural, sensual experience orientation has permeated even the most staunchly Calvinistic evangelicals, such as John Piper’s Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis and John MacArthur’s youth ministry. Any church that wants to avoid the slippery slope of spiritual compromise will reject contemporary worship as the exceedingly dangerous thing that it is, which is a bridge to the world and the one-world “church.” The popular position that says you can safely mess around with contemporary worship in its more “conservative” aspects is unscriptural and will bring spiritual destruction to the next generation.

(Friday Church News Notes, September 4, 2015, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143)

Job 41:20

Warm-blooded creatures need to be able to vent excess heat or they begin to suffer heatstroke. One of the ways in which warm-blooded animals do this is through the nasal cavities. As they breathe, the air passes through sheets of mucous membranes that are designed to increase the surface area over which the air passes. These membranes have a rich blood supply. When too much heat builds up, the membranes vent excess heat into the passing air, thus protecting the brain. The ingenious design of this system is an argument for an all wise Creator.

Far from being "primitive," even large dinosaurs seem to have had this cooling system. Moreover, there is increasing evidence that many dinosaurs were warm-blooded. Researchers recently examined a Triceratops skull with a CT scanner and found that the nasal passages of the Triceratops occupied half of the skull. Skulls of smaller species of dinosaurs showed that they had disproportionately smaller cooling passages. It is believed that if the dinosaurs were warm blooded, then the very large dinosaurs would indeed have required very large cooling passages.

As we have noted on earlier Creation Moments programs, there is good evidence that the leviathan described in the book of Job was a large dinosaur. Large dinosaurs would need nasal cavities that transferred heat from their blood to the air they exhaled. Perhaps when Job describes smoke coming from leviathan's nostrils, he is describing heated, moisture laden air hitting the colder air of the atmosphere as leviathan exhaled.

Notes: Discover, 2/00. p. 13, "Paleo Pinocchios." Photo: Courtesy of Zachi Evenor. (CC-BY 3.0).
Creation Moments, Inc., P.O. Box 839, Foley, MN 56329 www.creationmoments.com

The Internet is a communication system like the world has never seen, and it is a tool both for good and for evil. The moral dangers are great and must not be discounted, and the danger is not only for youth; it is for all ages. Recently the “cheating” web site Ashley Madison was hacked and 32 million names were exposed. One was Josh Duggar, the oldest of the 19 children of the Duggar family whose television program on The Learning Channel made them famous representatives of the Christian faith. After R.C. Sproul, Jr., son of the famous Reformed theologian and author, admitted that he visited the site, he was placed under a one-year suspension from the ministry. He is a father and grandfather. Southern Baptist leader Ed Stetzer said as many as 400 pastors and church workers could resign because of the exposure (“400 Church Leaders,” Relevant, Aug. 27, 2015). The elderly father of a pastor friend recently committed adultery with a younger member of the pastor’s church. The two met when the father visited his son’s church and developed the relationship and planned their alliance on Facebook. The father was caught when the son borrowed his cell phone and found the illicit communication. In our new course The Mobile Phone and the Christian Home and Church, we give many suggestions for how to protect ourselves and our children in the smartphone age. This book will be published in a couple of weeks, the Lord willing, and it will also be a part of theYouth Discipleship Library we are preparing to publish.

(Friday Church News Notes, September 4, 2015, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143)

An increasing number of Jews are visiting the Temple Mount in Jerusalem and calling for the building of the Third Temple. Elhanan Miller reports, “More and more religious Jews are visiting the holy site, part of a movement defying a centuries-old rabbinic ban and stoking tension with Muslims who also lay claim to the esplanade” (“On Temple Mount, some see a dome and imagine an altar, Times of Israel, Aug. 31, 2015). Visits by Jews to the Temple Mount have nearly doubled since 2009. It is called “a new revival movement sweeping Israel’s national religious community.” Yehudah Glick, a member of Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party, just published Arise and Ascend, a guidebook for Jewish visitors to the Temple Mount. (Glick survived an attempt made on his life last October.) The book is endorsed by Minister of Jerusalem Affairs Ze’ev Elkin and mainstream orthodox rabbi Shlomo Riskin. The Temple Institute is preparing the articles for the temple, including a menorah constructed of $2 million worth of gold, and is training priests in animal sacrifices. When asked, “What about the Dome of the Rock?” Temple Mount activist Elishama Sandman replies, “If a burglar entered your home and told you that you don’t own it, you wouldn’t think about getting along with him. You’d remove him and take the place. It’s the same here: The people of Israel own this place and it’s not our duty to consider those who stole it from us” (Times of Israel, Aug. 31, 2015). Aviya Fraenkel, a doctoral student in Assyriology and Bible, says she can’t completely explain her attraction to the Temple Mount. “Part of it has to do with the belief that there’s a next stage, that our ideals aren’t limited to a state--which is a lot--but that the state must manifest our religious yearnings of the past 2,000 years.” She doesn’t know it, but the “yearning” is God’s Spirit which is drawing the Jews into the fulfillment of Bible prophecy and the return of Christ Jesus, but first will come the Antichrist, who will probably make the building of the next temple possible and will then occupy it, setting himself up as God. “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 2:4).

(Friday Church News Notes, September 4, 2015, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143)

Ephesians 4:29

Scientists have long known that some ants communicate with one another using vibrations. They also know that these ants pick up vibrations through ears that are located in their knees. Ants in four subfamilies communicate using these vibrations. These ants tend to build nests with wood or dried pulp, which tend to carry the vibrations. Disturb a carpenter ant nest, and the vibrations will begin. An individual ant will send out as many as seven vibrations in 50 millisecond intervals. Other ants in the nest will hear these vibrations as they travel through the material that makes up the nest.

New research has raised interest among researchers about whether some ants can hear airborne sound. To their surprise, ant researchers discovered that some ants communicate through audible squeaks. If you hold a red desert ant up to your ear, you may hear tiny squeaks. The squeaks are produced by the last segment of the ant's body. The ant rasps two parts of the segment together in a principle similar to that used by crickets. Among the things communicated by squeaks are that dinner is ready or a good nest site has been found. Squeaks are also used to call for help after a cave in.

Communication is a wonderful gift of God, but the ability to communicate is not what makes us human. Rather, we are special in the creation because we were created in God's image and have been redeemed by His Son, Jesus Christ.

Notes: Science News, 2/5/00, pp. 92 94, "When Ants Squeak." Photo: Courtesy of Noah Elhardt. (CC-BY-SA 4.0).
Creation Moments, Inc., P.O. Box 839, Foley, MN 56329 www.creationmoments.com

“Imagine finding a tiny GPS unit that could navigate 3,000 miles with a destination accuracy of ten feet. Would you believe someone who claimed it had developed itself by random changes over millions of years? What if this GPS was found, not on a street, but inside the pinhead-sized brain of a monarch butterfly? Does the place where the unit was found, whether street or butterfly brain, alter the obvious conclusion that such an instrument must have been designed by a master intelligence?”

Bible Science Guy by William Pelletier, Ph.D., BibleScienceGuy.WordPress.com, Jan. 1, 2010.

Genesis 35:17

Sometimes the Bible seems to offer unnecessary or even impossible details as it recounts a historical event. Take, for example, the Genesis account of Rachel's death while giving birth to Benjamin.

This account offers a very curious detail. When Rachel's labor is at its peak – with the baby not yet fully born – Rachel's midwife makes a seemingly impossible statement. She announces to Rachel that Rachel should take comfort in the fact that she is having another boy. In a normal birth, the head emerges first, so it's impossible to tell whether the child is a boy or a girl until it is fully born. This detail might be enough for some to dismiss the account as nothing more than a fanciful legend. But a London physician has suggested that this account describes a breech birth. He suggested that Benjamin was born feet first, thus allowing the midwife to identify Benjamin as a boy as the largest part of his body was still emerging from the birth canal. This also explains why he was identified as a boy during the peak of labor. The physician further explains that in Rachel's day breech births commonly resulted in the death of the mother.

Knowledge is lost when we question the accuracy of the Bible's account of history. Details in the Bible that seem unnecessary have often proven to be correct. Details in the Bible that seem impossible are only so because they are beyond our understanding.

Notes: Bible Review, 2/98, p. 18, "Did Rachel Have a Breech Birth?"
Creation Moments, Inc., P.O. Box 839, Foley, MN 56329 www.creationmoments.com

Numbers 13:27

Honey has always been a popular food. For thousands of years it was a symbol of prosperity. Perhaps honey's continuing appeal is one of the reasons there is so much research on honeybees. A research team has released their findings that explain how honeybees learn how to navigate. Another team has released information showing how bees know how far they have traveled.

Before a honeybee can go out looking for food for the first time, it needs at least one training flight. Researchers cleverly attached tiny wires to bees to keep track of the bees' flight paths. They used radar tracking to make maps of the honeybees' flight paths. They found that after the trainee hovers in front of the hive, it makes a straight line away from the hive for a short distance, then returns. As training progresses, the trainee flies faster and farther, demonstrating progressive learning.

The Israelites had to endure 40 years in the wilderness because they did not faithfully trust God to do what He said. As believers wander through the wilderness that is this life, we need to learn from Israel and trust God's Word, even if we can't understand how God can keep His promises. His Word brings the message of salvation in Jesus Christ, which is sweeter than honey. Believing His promises will bring us to the promised land of heaven.

Notes: Science News, 2/5/00, p. 87, "Bees log flight distances, train with maps." Photo: Courtesy of Muhammad Mahdi Karim. (GFDL 1.2). Creation Moments, Inc., P.O. Box 839, Foley, MN 56329 www.creationmoments.com

The influential John MacArthur of Grace Community Church in southern California is facing two ways in regard to the heresy of “cultural liberalism.” On one hand he has reproved the emerging “new Calvinists” for their worldliness, while on the other hand he is engaging in that very thing. In an interview with Alex Crain of Christianity.com, which was posted on YouTube, Aug. 18, 2011, MacArthur said, “The fear is that the power of the world’s attraction is going to suck these guys and every generation after them, more and more into the culture, and we’re going to see a reversal of the Reformed revival. ... My fear is that the further this thing goes in trying to accommodate the culture, the less it’s going to be able to hang on to that core doctrine” (“MacArthur Predicts Reversal of the Reformed Revival - Part 1”).

MacArthur was warning about what Mark Driscoll called being “theologically conservative and culturally liberal.” It is not a new thing, as it has long been a major element of New Evangelicalism. It entails such things as Christian rock, drinking, champagne dance parties, beer brewing lessons, gambling nights, hula “worship,” analyzing R-rated movies for “edification,” and performing secular rock in the context of “worship.” What MacArthur says about the danger of cultural liberalism is true, but his condemnation of it is grossly ineffective and hypocritical because he is guilty of it. Camp Regeneration, a youth camp hosted by MacArthur for “churches throughout the nation each July,” is rife with cultural liberalism. High school boys and girls dress immodestly, engage in questionable activities (such as girls getting covered with wet mud in the presence of boys), and rock out to rap music performed by ear-ringed, tattooed hip-hop artists in an atmosphere of darkened auditoriums, flashing lights, and smoke. The Master’s College, which is headed by MacArthur, hosted a hip-hop concert in December 2011 featuring Lecrae, Trip Lee, Tadashii, Sho Baraka, DJ Official, and THI’SL. Master’s College students produce pop/rap/country rock videos with full blown dance routines and covers of secular rock songs. They host a Fall Thing event that is extremely worldly. In 2011 the theme was “Unrestricted Reality,” with the students donning costumes imitating characters from Star Wars, sci-fi fantasy, super heroes, and the pop culture in general. This plays right into the hands of the culture’s fascination with fantasy and the devil’s use of it to corrupt men’s minds. The young people wouldn’t want to dress this way unless their minds and hearts were already in love with Hollywood. The Master’s College’s annual Week of Welcome features beach activities and pool parties complete with girls in tight and very skimpy bathing suits. (All of this is evident from the photos placed at the Flickr pages owned by the camp and school and from YouTube clips. See http://www.pccmonroe.org/2011/10.htm.) MacArthur is correct in observing that cultural liberalism will ruin the youth and eventually destroy sound doctrine, and his own flock will be the proof of it, as will the flocks of every foolish pastor that follows in his footsteps. Many fundamental Baptists are on the same destructive path, as we have documented in the free eBook “Biblical Separatism and Its Collapse among Fundamental Baptists.” See www.wayoflife.org/freebooks.

(Friday Church News Notes, August 28, 2015, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143)

Proverbs 10:14

Modern evolutionists often give us the impression that evolution was accepted by the scientific community of Darwin's day. But the scientists of Darwin's day didn't hear his theory, slap themselves on the forehead, and say, "Of course!" In fact, some of the most influential scientists of the day were hostile to Darwinian evolution.

Take Adam Sedgwick, for example. Although he taught field geology to Charles Darwin, he flatly rejected Darwin's theory. After reading Darwin's book, he wrote to Darwin that parts of it were completely false and filled him with sorrow. Astronomer Sir John Herschel also rejected Darwin's theory. A fellow of the prestigious Royal Society, he called Darwinian evolution, "the law of higgledy piggledy." Evolution claims that life developed spontaneously by time and chance, but Louis Pasteur was motivated to prove that life only comes from life. Science philosopher William Whewell would not allow Darwin's book into the Cambridge University Library. James Clerk Maxwell strongly opposed Darwinian evolution.

Ironically, it was the churchmen of Darwin's time who embraced Darwinian evolution. And when those who grew up in evolutionist churches got their science degrees, all they knew was that "everyone" had always supported evolution. This illustrates how a church's lack of faithfulness can change the worldview of an entire culture for the worse.

Notes: Creation, 9/11/99, pp. 26 27, "Holy War?"
Creation Moments, Inc., P.O. Box 839, Foley, MN 56329 www.creationmoments.com

“A Danish politician has been convicted of ‘racism’ and ordered to pay a fine for offending Muslims under a law which makes insulting someone’s religion a criminal offense. Former European Parliament member Mogens Camre, who currently serves as a Danish People’s Party councilor in Gladsaxe, was hit with a fine of 8,000 DKK (1186 USD), for a tweet in which he compared radical Islam to Nazism. ‘Muslims continue where Hitler stopped. Only the same treatment that Hitler got will change the situation,’ Camre tweeted last July. ... After the tweet was reported, Camre was charged under the Criminal Code racism clause 266 b paragraph 1, which makes it a crime to offend, ‘a group of people (who) were threatened, insulted or degraded on account of race, color, national or ethnic origin, religion or sexual orientation.’ The law is based on a United Nations directive. ... 79-year-old Camre refused to comment after the verdict but has indicated that he will appeal the conviction via the Danish High Court. The politician is a long term critic of Islam, remarking previously that the religion cannot be allowed to dominate Europe because it is, ‘incompatible with our values.’”

“Danish Politician Convicted,” Infowars.com, Aug. 18, 2015