2 Timothy 2:15
“Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.”

One of the largest families of mammals defined by evolutionists is the bovidae – the cloven-hoofed ruminants. This is a very large family of widely diverse animals that do seem to have a large number of similarities. Evolutionists divide the family into a large number of sub-families, such as antelopes, hartebeests, cattle, and caprinae (the sheep and goat subfamily).

Creation biologists have no more certainty in the classification of these groupings than evolutionists. The biblical definition of a baramin is that group of animals which have developed from the original animals created by God. But the boundaries of these baramins requires a lot of research. Creation biologists have developed an entire sophisticated branch of their science called baraminology. It should not be a surprise that the boundaries of certain baramins have not yet been discovered.

One of the clues we use to suggest that two species are in the same baramin is the possibility of hybridization. There appears to be no evidence of hybridization between the various subfamilies in the bovidae family. So, creation biologists tentatively suggest that each subfamily is a separate baramin.

Sheep and goats are in the same subfamily, and hybrids, while rare, are possible, so we place them in one baramin. But cattle are in another baramin even though there is some disputed evidence that there might be hybrids between goats and cattle.

This uncertainty in classification should not be an embarrassment. On the contrary, it illustrates the very real research science that is carried out by creationists.

​creationmoments.com/sermons/of-cattle-and-goats

Rutgers Presbyterian Church in Manhattan is on the radical side of the one-world church. It brings together Presbyterians, Roman Catholics, Jews, New Agers, even atheists around the themes of social justice and saving the earth (“What Draws Atheists, Jews and Catholics to a Presbyterian Church,” New York Times, Sept. 6, 2019). The congregation is involved in such things as climate change activism, homosexual rights, and Black Lives Matters. Tibetan Buddhist prayer flags adorn the church, and visitors can choose from a variety of buttons to wear declaring their “gender identity: he/him, she/her, they/them.” One female attendee, Clare Hogenauer, appeared some years ago in Times Square topless to protest the death penalty. She told the New York Times that she does not consider herself a Christian, but she does “believe Jesus was a good guy.” When she shares her health issues with the congregation, she doesn’t ask for prayers. The one-world church is a big house with many rooms, and the walls are permeable. Evangelicals are in a different part of the house, but they share some fundamental things with Rutgers, particularly an emphasis on social justice and kingdom building and a judge not philosophy. A Rutgers’ member said that the church is constantly thinking about “ways to make the world right,” and, “It’s not just through proselytization and pointing fingers, but by working.” They all misinterpret Matthew 7:1, “Judge not, that ye be not judged.” (See The Judge Not Heresy, a free eBook available from www.wayoflife.org.)

(Friday Church News Notes, September 27, 2019, www.wayoflife.org [email protected], 866-295-4143)

Romans 3:4
“God forbid: yea, let God be true, but every man a liar; as it is written, That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when thou art judged.”

Sometimes evolutionists seem to have their classifications correct. This is not surprising because creation biologists have shown that animals can be grouped into baramins – the original created kinds made by God. Species of animals have developed within these baramins by selection from an existing gene pool in a manner that we used to call micro-evolution but now refer to as speciation in order to avoid confusion with Darwinian evolution. In another Creation Moment, we have shown that two evolutionary families – peccaries and pigs – are actually part of the same baramin.

According to evolutionary taxonomy, the relationship of the whale and hippopotamus families would be as close as that between pigs and peccaries. Yet, while it makes sense that pigs and peccaries are in the same baramin, the idea that whales and hippos have a common ancestor defies all logic. It is a classification driven not by scientific research but by a need to impose evolutionary dogma in defiance of common sense.

A large part of the justification for this classification is the misinterpretation of a fossil skull of an animal called pakicetus. In 1983, this skull was reconstructed wrongly to show a blowhole on its snout, and the animal was considered to be a transitional whale. But in 2001, the rest of the skeleton was discovered, and the animal looked nothing like its previous reconstruction. This false classification reminds me of that verse in Romans: “Let God be true, but every man a liar.”

creationmoments.com/sermons/of-whales-and-hippos

Countless times over the years I have heard “second degree” separation mocked as unscriptural and extremist. For example, to separate from Billy Graham because he associated with modernists and Roman Catholics or to separate from Jerry Falwell or Ed Stetzer or whoever for similar associations is labeled “second degree separation.” As long as a man holds sound doctrine himself, we are not supposed to reprove him on the basis of his associations, but this is not what we see in Scripture. A prophet of God was sent to reprove king Jehoshaphat solely on the basis of his wrong associations. Jehoshaphat followed the true and living God and even had enough zeal for the truth to destroy idols, but because he joined hands with an enemy of the truth, Ahab, he was reproved sharply and judged. “And Jehu the son of Hanani the seer went out to meet him, and said to king Jehoshaphat, Shouldest thou help the ungodly, and love them that hate the LORD? therefore is wrath upon thee from before the LORD. Nevertheless there are good things found in thee, in that thou hast taken away the groves out of the land, and hast prepared thine heart to seek God” (2 Chronicles 19:2-3). If Jehu the son of Hanani were to exercise his ministry of godly reproof today, he would be labeled an extremist, a trouble maker, perhaps even a “fruitless blogger.” He would be told to “take off the gloves and pick up a towel,” as I was told by Warren Wiersbe in the 1980s. The “Jehoshaphat camp” would say, “Doesn’t Jehu know that Jehoshaphat is a good man who loves the Lord and does many wonderful works? Who does he think he is? And how many souls has this Jehu led to Christ? He’s probably jealous of the king’s good ministry.” And if Jehoshaphat were a big-name Independent Baptist leader, he would just ignore “the criticism,” stay above the fray, treat it like bubble gum, perhaps pray for Jehu to get rid of the “critical eye.”

(Friday Church News Notes, September 20, 2019, www.wayoflife.org [email protected], 866-295-4143)

Genesis 1:25
“And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good.”

God created animals to reproduce according to their kind. As the Hebrew word for created is bārā, and that for kind is min, creation biologists use the term baramin to describe the entire created kind that God made on days five and six. God made the first animals in each baramin with the genetic ability to adapt, so that over the millennia, these have changed into multiple species, especially after the Flood.

Creation biologists suggest that the baramin is usually equivalent to the evolutionary taxonomic level known as the family. There are, however, some exceptions to this rule.

In the Americas, there is a family of animals known as peccaries. These look very similar to Old World pigs. The confusion is exacerbated by pigs having been imported to the Americas by European settlers, and then having become feral.

Evolutionists emphasize that peccaries and pigs are two different families, although they think they must have had a common ancestor within the suborder known as suina. It is true that there are some morphological differences between the two families, and no hybrids have so far been discovered between pigs and peccaries. Yet, peccaries look unmistakably like pigs. Both have a two-chambered stomach – though this is more complex in peccaries. Also, both families have a duplicated gene which is not found in any other mammals. For these reasons and more, creation biologists are surely correct in considering the whole suborder to be one baramin, created by God on Day Six.

creationmoments.com/sermons/of-pigs-and-peccaries

“A study published today in the journal JAMA Psychiatry suggests that teenagers who spend more than three hours a day on social media are more likely to develop mental health problems including depression, anxiety, aggression, and antisocial behavior. The study: Nearly 6,600 12- to 15-year-old Americans self-reported how much time they spent per day on social media, as well as whether they had any mental health problems. The effects of social-media consumption on teens manifest in two main ways, according to the study’s authors: internally (depression and anxiety, for example) and externally (aggressive behavior or antisocial behavior). The latter were essentially nonexistent among teens who reported that they didn’t use social media. Teens today are way less likely to use Facebook and more likely to flip through TikTok. They’re also using social media differently, Snapchatting or Instagram DMing pals text-message style, which could explain why some teens are on social media so much in the first place. It’s the study’s broader point that Kira Riehm [a PhD student at Johns Hopkins and the lead author of the study] says is worth remembering: excessive time on social media doesn’t help people’s mental state.”

“Teens are anxious,” MIT Technology Review,” Sep. 11, 2019

Genesis 1:17-18
“And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth, and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good.”

You have probably heard of dark matter. Astrophysicists tell us that there is a lot of dark matter out there. What is it, and how do they know it is there?

The universe is, or at least was, expanding. Red shift measurements show how fast objects are moving away from us, and Hubble’s Law shows that the further objects are from us, the greater they are red shifted. The concept of the expansion of the universe is biblical, as we have observed on a number of previous Creation Moments. We read that God stretches the heavens like a curtain. We also know that the word used for expanse or space in Genesis 1 implies a stretching out.

However, under the Big Bang theory, there is a problem in predicting exactly how fast space should be expanding. The fact is that there is nowhere near enough mass from all the available or projected visible stars and galaxies in the universe.

So Big Bang theorists have proposed that there must be dark matter in the universe, to make up the rest of the mass. When we refer to dark matter, we are referring to the fact that it is devoid of light. So it could be dark because it does not reflect light, or maybe its darkness is simply referring to the fact that it cannot be seen – perhaps it is transparent.

It is interesting that the various biblical creationist cosmogonies do not require dark matter. Probably because it does not exist.

creationmoments.com/sermons/too-dark-to-see

Romance novels exploded in popularity in the 1970s. By 2008, sales reached 74 million. Many romance novels have a strong sexual content. A recent example is Fifty Shades of Grey, which even delves into sadomasochism. “These novels were written to be titillating, and I really don’t think there’s a huge difference between this and porn. It’s ‘soft porn,’ and indeed many women find themselves far more aroused by reading something like this than they would be watching porn on a computer. So women who devour novel after novel like that aren’t that much different from men who watch porn all night” (“Romance Novels: Dangerous, Harmless, or Just Fun?” Jan. 16, 2012, tolovehonorandvacuum.com). Even G-rated romance novels take the reader into an unrealistic world typically populated by strong, beautiful heroines and handsome, caring men who “fall in love.” They can create addiction to a fantasy world and dissatisfaction with real life. In 2011, the Journal of Family Planning and Reproductive Health in Britain reported that romance novels “are a cause of marital breakdown, adulterous affairs and unwanted pregnancies.” As with anything of an addictive nature, there is the danger of progression. “I’ve known so many Christian teens who just devoured all the romances in the church library, and then headed to the public library for more, and ended up almost addicted to really steamy stuff” (“Romance Novels: Dangerous, Harmless, or Just Fun?” Jan. 16, 2012).

(Friday Church News Notes, September 20, 2019, www.wayoflife.org [email protected], 866-295-4143)

Genesis 1:24
“And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so.”

Listeners may not be aware that a huge amount of research has been done by creation scientists into how species of animals can be grouped into baramins. The word baramin comes from two Hebrew words – bārā and min – which together mean created kind. The largest amount of such research has been invested in which kinds were on the Ark, as, in most cases, only one pair of a baramin would have gone aboard – though seven pairs of clean animals were saved.

Some baramins are quite obvious. We think that we are aware of what creatures form part of the cat or the horse baramin. In these cases, appearance is often enough to help us group them. In other cases, the existence of a hybrid between two species tells us that they are in the same baramin. But others seem less obvious on the surface. In most cases, the creationist concept of baramin is the same as an evolutionary family, but not always. Sometimes, a baramin is at the superfamily level (pigs and peccaries) and sometimes at the order level (elephants).

Evolutionists have long placed weasels, badgers and otters in the same taxonomic family. Hybridization between members of the weasel order, such as martens and polecats, is known. But a hybrid between a badger and a weasel seems less plausible. Nevertheless, it makes sense that these should be grouped together, in which case all badgers, otters and weasels descended from one pair of animals which emerged from the Ark.

creationmoments.com/sermons/weasels-badgers-and-otters

​Genesis 1:24
“And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so.”

In a previous Creation Moment, we discussed how a discovery of some teeth and some ankle bones, or tarsals, at Dormaal in Belgium, has led to evolutionary scientists believing they have found a missing link between dogs, cats and bears. They picture a little two-pound creature, scurrying through the branches of trees; yet, not a single complete or even nearly complete skeleton has been found.

Creationist researcher Dr. Elizabeth Mitchell has explained the evolutionary thinking process involved. Evolutionary researchers made a number of assumptions which simply do not add up.

First, evolutionists assume that the fact that there is a wide variety of animal species on the planet, that this is actually proof that they have a common ancestor. Common ancestry is, therefore, assumed and is a basic, unshakeable belief without any real proof whatsoever.

Second, they assume that comparing the features of various fossils can enable them to line them up in an evolutionary history. This is despite the fact that there has never been an observation of one kind of animal evolving into another.

Third, millions of years have to be assumed in order to give time for the alleged evolution, which has never been actually observed to take place.

Dr. Mitchell says, “There is no biological evidence for the divergence of canines, cats, and bears from a common carnivorous ancestor… There is no scientific justification for insisting that in the unobservable past they evolved into more complex and divergent kinds of animals from a common ancestor.”

creationmoments.com/sermons/teeth-and-tarsals

“While the youth of Hong Kong march for freedom and democracy, the Communist Party of China (CPC) subjects China’s youth to a brutal campaign of oppression and tyranny, barring Chinese youth from any and all religious practice and venues. The insidious Chinese Communist Party has declared that religious venues, churches, practices, education, and worship are no-go zones for all Chinese children under the age of 18. Chinese youth are being denied the right to religious freedom—a right enshrined in the Chinese constitution and a human right embodied and protected under Articles 2, 14 and 30 of the U.N. Convention of the Rights of the Child, signed and ratified by the People’s Republic of China in 1992. So much for the Chinese honoring international treaty obligations! According to the U.S. State Department, ‘The revised religious regulations implemented in February (2018) and policies enacted by the Chinese state-sanctioned religious associations inhibit children under the age of 18 from participating in religious activities and religious education.’ Religious freedom and human rights watchdog groups such as Save the Persecuted Christians, Bitter Winter, Open Doors, and China Aid are tracking and reporting on Xi’s country-wide crackdown prohibiting children from attending and participating in any religious services and worship. The no-go zones for Chinese children extend to all phases of the child’s life, from school to summer camps to the home. As primary and secondary Chinese schoolchildren broke for summer holidays between June and August, the Communist Party wasted no time enforcing the no religion rule. CPC officials sent letters to parents, reminding them to prevent their children from going to religious places for Bible study classes or any other religious study. The enforcement grew increasingly aggressive as religious-sponsored summer camps were raided and closed down by the police. The indoctrination campaign employs school teachers to advise their impressionable students that as good Chinese citizens, they are not to believe in God. This past June, Congressman Chris Smith (R-N.J.) testified at a congressional hearing on religious freedom and warned that ‘under Sinicization, all religions and believers must comport with and aggressively promote communist ideology—or else.’ Smith acknowledged that ‘it’s never been worse than it is right now.’ Rep. Smith also cautioned that the Chinese government has imposed facial recognition cameras, restricted religious expression online, and prohibited people under the age of 18 from participating in religious services Plus, the government is rewriting the Bible. The UN Human Rights High Commissioner has not moved to enforce the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. There is largely silence from international governance groups on this insidious campaign of spiritual genocide.”

Elizabeth Yore, “China’s War on Children,” Breitbart, Sep. 12, 2019

Genesis 1:24
“And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so.”

God made animals according to their kind. We refer to these kinds as baramins – from two Hebrew words for created kind. God did not make lions, tigers, pumas, etc. He made felids – the technical word for members of the cat family, or felidae.

Evolutionists believe in a phylogenetic tree, showing a common ancestry of animals. Creationists do not accept this common ancestry, but neither do they accept a fixity of species because species is a relatively modern concept. We would see a phylogenetic orchard where there is a branched tree for felidae, another for canidae, or dogs, and another for ursidae, or bears.

However, evolutionists wish to find a common ancestor for these three families of carnivores, and they believe they have found it in a fossil bed near Dormaal, in Belgium.

Originally, two teeth were found, and this suggested to the discoverers a whole new type of creature. Then some ankle bones were found, and these were assumed, because of their proximity, to be from the same animal type. So they named the creature dormaalocyon latouri and claimed it to be the ancestor of wolves, tigers and bears. Judging from its ankle bones, they have decided that the creature lived in trees, weighed two pounds and looked like a cross between a panther and a squirrel. They would appear to be led by what they desire to find. There is no evidence of this being any sort of link between these three kinds of animals.

creationmoments.com/sermons/wolves-tigers-and-bears

“Today, an estimated 529,000 to 869,000 black men, women, and children are still slaves. They are bought, owned, sold, and traded by Arab and Muslim masters in five African countries. This statistic estimates those enslaved in Algeria, Libya, Mauritania, and Sudan. It excludes Nigeria, for which there are no tangible estimates. Western human rights organizations and the mainstream media are practically and painfully silent on this matter. It does not fit with their focus on Western white sin. Here is a brief survey of this quasi-taboo topic. In Sudan, slavery remains a painful vestige of the Second Sudanese Civil War (1983–2005). That’s when the Arab Muslim government in the north of the country declared a jihad upon the black, largely Christian south. They killed perhaps 2.5 million people and enslaved as many as 200,000. Slaves rescued by grassroots abolitionists tell horrific stories. Abduction. Beatings. Forced conversion to Islam. Grueling labor. Female genital mutilation. Malnutrition. Rape. In Mauritania, the very structure of society reinforces slavery. Over the centuries a cruel class system has evolved. The lighter-skinned Arabs (beydanes) and Arabized Berbers rule over the black former slaves. Those slaves have been forcibly Arabized over time (haratin). The free blacks in the south who refuse Arabization and call themselves ‘Negro-Africans’ and the black chattel slave class (abid) are at the bottom. The country is entirely Muslim. Islam theoretically forbids the enslavement of one Muslim by another. However, in this case, Arab racism supersedes adherence to the Shari‘ah (Islamic law). In 1993, a U.S. State Department report estimated that between 30,000 and 90,000 blacks lived as slaves owned by private masters. In 2012, a CNN investigation estimated that the number could be as high as 340,000 to 680,000. Sub-Saharan Africans fleeing violence and poverty for Europe are enslaved by Algerian and Libyan Arabs as they try to cross the Mediterranean. Today, according to the Global Slavery Index, around 106,000 black Africans are estimated to be enslaved in Algeria. Migrant women, but also children (both male and female), risk being forced into sexual slavery. In Nigeria, the long-running civil war between the Muslim majority and the 40% Christian minority involves the enslavement of Christian Nigerians. The taking of Christian slaves has become a source of compensation for Islamic fighters.”

“Black Slavery Exists Today” by Charles Jacobs, President of the American Anti-Slavery Group, The Stream, Sept. 4, 2019

Genesis 1:24
“And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so.”

I once visited the home of two colleagues who were vegetarians. I was surprised to find that they kept cats. “Can you give them a vegetarian diet?” I asked the husband, naïvely. He shook his head. “We have the choice not to eat meat,” he explained. “Cats do not – they are obligate carnivores.”

An obligate carnivore is one whose diet absolutely requires nutrients that can only be found in meat. Dogs, in contrast, are omnivores. When hiking, I have often come across the scat of local coyotes where traces of berries are clearly visible. But members of the cat family – felids – are almost perfectly carnivorous, probably only usually getting plant material by ingesting the stomach contents of their prey. Unlike less strict carnivores, like dogs and bears, cats cannot synthesize their own taurine.

As creationists, we believe that felids could have adapted by speciation, but not evolved from creatures outside their baramin, or created kind. Additionally, we see that God created all animals originally to eat plants. Presumably, cats before the Fall were able to survive on a herbivorous diet, which is impossible for them today.

After the Fall, which affected all life, genetic mutations would have occurred, and it is possible that a degenerative mutation caused cats to be unable to make their own taurine. Or perhaps their preferred plant food used to contain taurine, but mutated to stop doing so. The fact remains that cats must have changed, and further research on the reason why will always be interesting.

creationmoments.com/sermons/carnivorous-cats

Paul describes the love of money and its consequences. “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 6:9-10). Note that they “pierced themselves.” They are not victims. The many sorrows come because of a sinful lifestyle. Many contemporary churches offer grace and forgiveness without repentance and supernatural conversion. They have church members who live the unholy rock & roll lifestyle and pursue wealth in the midst of the filthy pop music/entertainment industry. Invariably they pierce themselves through with many sorrows in that context, but they consider themselves victims. Instead of repenting of their sin, they become “vulnerable” by sharing their problems before the church. They don’t distinguish between suffering that comes because of sin and suffering that comes in the will of God. Pop star Justin Bieber is an example. He is a member of the contemporary Churchome in Beverly Hills, California, pastored by a husband wife team. He told the church, “It says in the bible count it ALL JOY when you face trials of various kinds. Sounds insane considering when u face trials u feel terrible. But if we are grateful and worship god for what we do have in that season there is so much power in that whatever pain you are going through just keep telling yourself THIS WONT LAST!” (“Justin Bieber Leads Worship,” CBN News, Aug. 30, 2019). Note that he says nothing about faith in the blood of Christ or sin or repentance or conversion. Everything is generic and undefined. He spends a lot of time justifying himself by the fact that he was plunged into popularity at a young age. In contrast, Peter makes a sharp and repeated distinction between suffering for Christ’s sake and suffering for sin. “If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye; for the Spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you: on their part he is evil spoken of, but on your part he is glorified. But let none of you suffer as a murderer, or as a thief, or as an evildoer, or as a busybody in other men’s matters” (1 Pe. 4:14-15). See also 1 Peter 2:19-20; 3:17. The great promise of Romans 8:28 is not for anyone in any circumstance. It is for those who “love God, who are the called according to his purpose.” It is for those who are born again by repentance and saving faith and are walking according to God’s calling and will.

(Friday Church News Notes, September 13, 2019, www.wayoflife.org [email protected], 866-295-4143)

Genesis 1:24
“And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so.

“Johnny,” shouts the teacher, waking him up from his daydream. “Which family does the lion belong to?”

“I dunno, Miss,” replies Johnny. “No family on our street has one.”

If Johnny had been listening, he would have learned from the teacher that there is a “cat family”, better referred to as felidae, which includes lions, tigers, jaguars, pumas, cheetahs and pet cats too. All these felids had evolved from a common ancestor millions of years ago. Surely there are enough similarities to suggest that this teacher is right.

In fact, it is completely biblical to suggest that all cats had a common cat ancestor. The Bible states that animals were created according to their kind. We refer to these Kinds as baramins, from the Hebrew words for “created kind”. God did not, in fact, directly create tigers and lions, etc. He created felids with all the genetic information necessary for the wide adaptation we see in the baramin today. Noah took a pair of felids on to the Ark – not two tigers, two lions, two leopards, etc. So we agree with this teacher that all these cat species have developed from a common pair of felids, but this is not Darwinian evolution because no new genetic material was made, and, in any case, those felids could not have given birth to horses or other animals outside the baramin. Similarly, this did not happen millions of years ago, but about 4,500 years ago, after the Flood.

creationmoments.com/sermons/a-family-of-cats

The Seeker’s Bible Study is a Bible study for unbelievers and non-Christians. It explains the gospel of Jesus Christ, repentance, and faith. It begins with a study of the gospel in 1 Corinthians 15:3-4 which deals with the Bible, Christ, sin, Jesus’ atoning death for sin, Jesus’ burial and bodily resurrection. The study on the gospel is followed by practical studies on repentance and faith. The last section answers the question, “When Is Jesus Coming?” The Bible study is designed to be used as a multi-week, one-on-one teaching course. In our church, we assign a qualified believer to go through the course with every willing visitor. The teacher is instructed to try to grow the class by involving family, neighbors, and friends of the original student. The teacher’s notes can be found in the file “Seeker’s Bible Study - Teacher’s Notes” at www.wayoflife.org.

(Friday Church News Notes, September 13, 2019, www.wayoflife.org [email protected], 866-295-4143)

Genesis 1:30
“And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so.”

In his famous poem about the tiger, William Blake begins:

     Tyger Tyger, burning bright,
          In the forests of the night;
     What immortal hand or eye,
          Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

Blake has an appreciation of the nature of a tiger, which is both magnificent and frightening. It is the largest of the big cats, and only the lion approaches it in ferocity. Blake’s problem with the tiger, as a poet, is working out where it came from. Living in a time before Darwinian Evolution was a thing, he nevertheless is puzzled by how and why God could make such a deadly creature, that is yet so beautiful. In the fifth stanza, he muses:

     When the stars threw down their spears
          And water’d heaven with their tears:
     Did he smile his work to see?
          Did he who made the Lamb make thee?

The answer is straightforward. God did not make the tiger to tear flesh. Genesis 1:30 tells us that He created all animals to eat plants. Moreover, the tiger is part of the cat kind. So God made cat-like creatures, not tigers, and a pair of these were taken on the Ark. God had created in them all the variety of genes necessary to adapt to differing environments, so tigers, lions and other cats developed from the Ark pair after the Flood, and perhaps the pre-Flood cats had already begun to eat meat after Adam’s Fall. So it is completely biblical to admire the tiger’s magnificent appearance, and to fear his teeth and claws.

creationmoments.com/sermons/burning-bright

Hillsong is a coalition of churches, loosely headquartered at Hillsong Sydney where Brian and Bobby Houston are the senior co-pastors. The Hillsong churches produce some of the most popular and influential contemporary worship music, but their brazen worldliness is breathtaking. In August 2019, Hillsong Gold Coast in Australia put on a worldly circus. “Level-headed biblically-minded Christians have oft referred to Hillsong as a circus. But what they may not realize is that Hillsong isn’t just a circus metaphorically speaking--Hillsong is literally a circus. Hillsong Gold Coast, led by James & Elida Turner, recently put on a circus performance at their campus. Not kidding. In a program they call #SundayNightAtTheMovies, they put on such an outlandish and ridiculous stunt that even the most biblically-ignorant unbelievers can look at this and tell it has absolutely nothing to do with Christianity. It’s a freak show” (“Hillsong Puts on Circus Performance,” Reformationcharlotte.org, Aug. 23, 2019). In May 2016, Hillsong New York City hosted a Hillsong Women’s Conference that featured, among other things, scantily-dressed ‘cheerleaders,’ an Elvis impersonator, and a naked cowboy wearing only a cowboy hat, boots, and a guitar. The cowboy was Hillsong New York City’s own youth pastor, Diego Simla. This year (2019) Yelp identified Hillsong Los Angeles as one of the top ten “gay friendly churches” in the city. “This says something about Hillsong. A homosexual can walk in, sit down, be entertained, and not have their conscience pricked by the preaching of the biblical gospel and a call to repent of sins and come to Christ” (“Hillsong Listed in Top Ten,” Reformationcharlotte, Sept. 3, 2019).

(Friday Church News Notes, September 13, 2019, www.wayoflife.org [email protected], 866-295-4143)

Genesis 8:22
“While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.”

Climate scientists in Britain have been in the forefront of so-called expert opinion on global warming. At every opportunity, therefore, there are items of news in the British media about how weather in the UK has become more extreme in recent years.

One recent report in the New Scientist magazine claimed that in the last 10 years high temperatures in summer have been getting higher, while low temperatures in winter are not so high. Apparently, the hottest day in each of the years 2008 – 2017 were 0.8°C hotter than the hottest days in each year from 1961 – 1990. In addition, the report claims that “the chilliest extremes of the year are not quite as biting as they were in the past, with the lowest temperature of the year 1.7°C milder in the last decade than it was in the three decades up to 1990.”

It is understandable that official figures are not yet available for 2018. It is my understanding that the hottest British day of 2018 was also the hottest day on record. However, when I was visiting the UK in February 2018, the country was going through a severe cold snap.

Notice also that no comments are made about temperatures between 1990 and 2008. This is because global temperatures – including those in Britain – fell during those years, but this article fails to report that!

God’s perspective on global warming is this: “While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.”

creationmoments.com/sermons/warmer-in-britain

Psalm 33:7
“He gathereth the waters of the sea together as an heap: he layeth up the depth in storehouses.”

Every so often, one comes across an evolutionary article that makes your jaw drop as you consider how the author could really believe what he is writing. One such article which I came across recently suggested that the water in the seas, lakes and rivers of the Earth is actually older than the Earth itself!

The article rehearses all the usual tales about the evolutionary formation of Planet Earth. It suggests that the Earth was formed by gravity pulling together lumps of dust, orbiting the young sun, about 4.6 billion years ago. We have previously discussed how such gravitational accretion does not happen in the real universe. Then they state that another planet, called Theia, crashed into the Earth some 3.9 billion years ago. Earth was completely vaporized, so would have lost any original water. Out of the wreckage, both the Earth and Moon were formed. Again, the lack of logic is overwhelming, but evolutionary cosmologists are committed to explaining everything without God.

Every element consists of more than one isotope. Elements on the Earth would contain a characteristic ratio of isotopes. The amount of 2H in Earth’s water is different that that of the Earth itself, yet coincidentally similar to water vapor found in interstellar space. By this reasoning, these scientists have decided that our oceans are older than the land! A better explanation would be that Earth was not formed this way, but by the direct creation of God.

creationmoments.com/sermons/earths-water-older-than-the-earth

The pragmatism that has characterized the vast majority of larger Baptist churches since the 1960s was already showing its ugly head in the 19th century. “While it is true that a Baptist church is, in theory, a body of regenerated, baptized believers, it can hardly be doubted that, in our wild scramble for numbers, we of this generation--preachers and people--are becoming less and less disposed to insist upon what our fathers used to call the marks of a genuine ‘grace experience’ on the part of those who offer themselves as candidates for baptism and church membership. If a long church-roll were any evidence of efficiency, or if large numbers were indication of large graces, it would be easy to understand this all-prevailing anxiety for numbers. But when it is perfectly clear to the dullest apprehension among us, that such is not the case, it must be confessed that this wild desire for counting up our hosts is too highly suggestive of David’s sad sin in numbering Israel” (J.C. Hiden, “Looseness of Discipline,” Working Christian, Mar. 22, 1877).

(Friday Church News Notes, September 6, 2019, www.wayoflife.org [email protected], 866-295-4143)

“Sentimentality is an enemy of church discipline. Sentimentality is the love of man divorced from the love of truth. Under the specious guise of broadened sympathies it cloaks a big lot of hypocrisy and moral decay. The church sentimentalist is so kind to his fellow church member that he is willing to ignore the plain instructions of the Book of his faith rather than bring him to account for unchristian conduct. ‘Judge not that ye be not judged,’ he quotes, but he forgets to quote 1 Corinthians 5:12, 13, ‘Do not ye judge them that are within, whereas them that are without God judgeth’”

Victor Masters, “Church Discipline,” Baptist Courier, South Carolina, Aug. 21, 1902