CONCORD & HARMONY is the ministry of Alan and Ellen Ives. Their music has recently been put online for mp3 download at concordandharmony.com. GLORY AND HARMONY MUSIC is the ministry of John Randall, son-in-law of Alan and Ellen Ives. They have a recording studio and are producing new music which is available for download. He says, “We have a recording studio in our home so that Christians can record conservative music at a drastically reduced cost.” They publish an audio hymnal of over 500 mp3 songs for churches that do not have a pianist. See gloryandhonormusic.com.

(Friday Church News Notes, October 25, 2019, www.wayoflife.org, [email protected], 866-295-4143)

Isaiah 13:22
“And the wild beasts of the islands shall cry in their desolate houses, and dragons in their pleasant palaces: and her time is near to come, and her days shall not be prolonged.”

British comedian Milton Jones once claimed he had been raised in the wild by hyenas. “They were difficult times,” he claimed to remember, “but we had a lot of laughs.”

Hyenas look very like dogs and behave in similar ways. They tend to hunt in packs, though they are much more likely to scavenge food rather than kill their own. In the early days of classification, hyenas were indeed classed as members of the dog family – canidae.

However, in the last few decades, evolutionists have changed their classification. They are now classed as their own family, being one of the smallest families of mammals. Evolutionists place them in the suborder feliforma – a suborder which also includes felidae – the cat family.

Hyenas, therefore, give us a good lesson in the placing of the term baramin in the accepted classification system. A baramin, or created kind, will generally be equivalent to the family, but in some cases, it might be equivalent to the subfamily, and in others the suborder. For example, the pig and peccary families are both part of the suine suborder, and the suine suborder is considered to be the baramin. In the case of hyenas and cats, however, evolutionists see relational links between them, whereas creationists do not – other than coincidental. Sometimes they seem like half dog and half cat, but they are neither – they are their own created kind, created separately by God, and a pair of hyenas must have been on the Ark.

creationmoments.com/sermons/half-cat-half-dog

The return of Jesus Christ is a major New Testament doctrine, and the preaching and teaching of it is essential for holy living. It was emphasized by Christ (Mt. 24:29-31; Mr. 13:24-27). It was a theme of apostolic preaching in the book of Acts (Ac. 1:11; 3:19-20). It is mentioned in nearly every Epistle (Ro. 11:26; 1 Co. 1:7-8; Php. 1:6, 10; 2:16; 1 Th. 1:10; 2:19; 3:13; 4:15-17; 5:23; 2 Th. 1:7-9; 2:1, 8; 3:5; 1 Ti. 6:14; 2 Ti. 4:1, 8; Tit. 2:13; Jas. 5:7-9; Heb. 9:28; 10:37; 1 Pe. 1:7; 5:4; 2 Pe. 3:10-13; 1 Jo. 2:28; 3:2; Jude 14-15; Re. 1:7; 19:11-21; 22:7, 12, 20). The imminent return of Christ must, therefore, be a fundamental part of every believer’s worldview, a major theme of all biblical preaching, a constantly-emphasized doctrine of every church. But there are signs that preaching on Bible prophecy is being neglected even among “fundamentalist” churches. The following is from a reader: “About three years ago I was speaking with another fundamental Baptist pastor here in the area. I mentioned that I truly believed the Lord was coming soon. He said, ‘You know, everybody was preaching on this back in the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s and thought surely Christ would come before 2000. I really don’t preach that much any more.’ I about fell on the floor and responded to him, ‘If Christ did not come by then, how much closer now?’ I said, ‘I preach His coming regularly trying to wake people up to holiness and living for Christ so that they won’t be ashamed at His coming.’ Speaking to a missionary friend who spoke at our church recently, I mentioned this story. His words were, ‘I have heard more from you today about the second coming then I have for months in other fundamental Baptist churches. This is from a man from a large missions ministry who preaches regularly across the country. Our people live in denial of this truth and unfortunately our preachers are also.” Another reader sent the following comment: “Fundamental Baptist preachers seem very reluctant to delve into prophecy. I don’t think I have ever heard a really solid message from an IFB preacher from the mountain of Old Testament prophecies with momentous future fulfillment.” Another reader commented, “I was talking to my wife recently about how that prophecy preaching has all but gone away.” This is a serious matter. Preachers who neglect the return of Christ are rebels against God’s Word and are not qualified for the ministry. The mindset of always looking for Christ’s return was modeled by the church at Thessalonica, which “turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God; and to wait for his Son from heaven...” (1 Th. 1:9-10).

(Friday Church News Notes, October 25, 2019, www.wayoflife.org, [email protected], 866-295-4143)

James 1:17
“Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.”

Listeners to these Creation Moments programs may recall that I have previously confessed to a liking for a hot beverage, made by brewing the roasted cherry pits from the plant coffea arabica. But, apparently, evolution means that I shouldn’t like it. This must be one more reason to praise the Lord that I am a creationist.

A recent study from Northwestern University – presumably the department of insufficient work – have been researching the relationship between the bitterness of coffee and how much people like it. Apparently, evolution has produced bitter tastes as a warning to us about substances which do us harm. So when we taste a bitter chemical – such as, for example, caffeine – all of the evolution within our brains is screaming at us to spit it out.

“You’d expect that people who are particularly sensitive to the bitter taste of caffeine would drink less coffee,” says one of the senior researchers. Amazingly, however, their research has found that the extra bitterness has the opposite effect. It seems to make some people drink more coffee. And even worse news for English people, increased coffee consumption means reduced consumption of tea.

“Our study suggests coffee consumers acquire a taste or an ability to detect caffeine due to the learned positive reinforcement (i.e. stimulation) elicited by caffeine.” So we have evolved to like coffee even though we were supposed to evolve to dislike it. I hope that’s clear. Now it’s time I had a cup of tea.

creationmoments.com/sermons/the-evolution-of-a-coffee-drinker

“All Illinois public schools must now teach LGBT history. They can only buy history textbooks that include it. And not just LGBT history. A very specific idea of that history. The ‘Inclusive Curriculum Law’ was signed in August. It goes into effect on July 1, 2020, to let teachers prepare the lessons for the 2020-21 school year. The law also covers women and minority group history. California, Colorado, New Jersey and Oregon have already passed similar laws. Why? The head of LGBT lobby group Equality Illinois explains. ‘As a former first grade teacher, I know how an inclusive education system can create change within a community.’ The law only enforces what many schools systems do already. Evanston/Skokie schools, for example. The school system posts its LGBT week curriculum online. Preschoolers and kindergarteners will ‘explore concepts of families, gendered toy and clothing stereotypes, colors and meaning, flags, allyship and identity.’ 1st graders will learn to use the pronoun ‘they’ for an individual. 4th and 5th graders will watch a PBS documentary about a girl who dreams of leading the boy-only Hula troop. The curriculum teaches these children to approve of families headed by same-sex parents. One way it does that is to compare them with mixed-race and adoptive families. A second way is simply to normalize them. In one video, a boy says he has two dads and two moms. Materials include pictures of same-sex couples with children, which prompt students to label them as families. The curriculum portrays transgenders as making a perfectly normal decision. But studies have shown that 20% of transgenders revert back to their birth sex. This frequently happens after a young person has taken hormones and had sex change surgery. They then deeply regret having made the physical changes. The curriculum does not warn children about this. They are not told that many transgenders realize they were wrong and revert back. Nor are children told that 41% of transgenders attempt suicide. Nor that mental illness affects 60-90% of transgendered people. And what of other points of view? Many parents disagree strongly with the ideas behind transgenderism. Christians, Jews, and Muslims hold different beliefs about what male and female are. The curriculum offers no alternatives to the LGBT idea. It doesn’t explain how some religions object to those lifestyles. It’s one-sided ‘education.’ It doesn’t teach children to think about the issue. No dissent is acceptable. Children are only allowed to express approval of the LGBT lifestyle, and they are pushed hard to do so.”

“Illinois Schools Promoting Transgenders to Preschoolers,” The Stream, Oct. 14, 2019

Genesis 11:9
“Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the LORD did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the LORD scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.”

Sometimes, as I research these Creation Moments, a headline screams to be noticed even before I have read the article concerned. One such headline that I noticed declared: “Prehistoric cave art suggests ancient use of complex astronomy.” There are so many presuppositions in that headline. The first is the use of the word prehistoric. The word historic refers to the timescale of human beings, so prehistoric implies something from before there were human beings on the Earth. However, the Bible does not allow for any prehistory – well, except perhaps 5 days. What the headline is getting at is that the art it is about to describe was supposedly done by creatures that were not fully evolved into modern humans. Secondly, the headline refers to “complex astronomy”. The astronomy concerned should have been too complex for these primitive cave men.

Researchers from the University of Edinburgh, examining yet again the cave drawings at Lascaux, France, determined that these early people understood the precession of the Earth’s orbit, and an ancient comet strike.

We have discussed before that the reason these people were living in caves is not because they were primitive, but because they had only just arrived at the area, having migrated after the Tower of Babel incident. The drawings show how highly civilized they were, and their knowledge of complex astronomy confirms this. These astounding examples of cave art and science are fully understandable within a biblical worldview, whereas those using an evolutionary worldview are constantly taken by surprise.

creationmoments.com/sermons/astronomy-in-the-petroglyphs

The following is excerpted from “In U.S., Decline of Christianity Continues at Rapid Pace,” Pew Research Center, Oct. 17, 2019: “The religious landscape of the United States continues to change at a rapid clip. In Pew Research Center telephone surveys conducted in 2018 and 2019, 65% of American adults describe themselves as Christians when asked about their religion, down 12 percentage points over the past decade. Meanwhile, the religiously unaffiliated share of the population, consisting of people who describe their religious identity as atheist, agnostic or ‘nothing in particular,’ now stands at 26%, up from 17% in 2009. The data shows that the trend toward religious disaffiliation documented in the Center’s 2007 and 2014 Religious Landscape Studies, and before that in major national studies like the General Social Survey (GSS), has continued apace. The changes underway in the American religious landscape are broad-based. The Christian share of the population is down and religious “nones” have grown across multiple demographic groups: white people, black people and Hispanics; men and women; in all regions of the country; and among college graduates and those with lower levels of educational attainment. Religious ‘nones’ are growing faster among Democrats than Republicans, though their ranks are swelling in both partisan coalitions. And although the religiously unaffiliated are on the rise among younger people and most groups of older adults, their growth is most pronounced among young adults.”

​CONCLUDING COMMENT BY BRO. CLOUD: The root problem is not in society at large; the root problem is with lukewarm, worldly, spiritually dead, and apostate churches.

(Friday Church News Notes, October 25, 2019, www.wayoflife.org, [email protected], 866-295-4143)

​Psalm 36:6
“Thy righteousness is like the great mountains; thy judgments are a great deep: O LORD, thou preservest man and beast.”

The red panda has to be one of the world’s most attractive animals, with a cute white face and a ginger red body. As its name suggests, it was once thought to be closely related to the giant panda, with whom it shares a number of traits, including a diet of bamboo. However, the giant panda has been placed in the same family as bears, while the red panda was thought to have been part of raccoon family. Even evolutionists now think the relationship between giant pandas and red pandas is remote, and the red panda has now been placed in a family all of its own, with no other extant species – called ailuridae. Creationists treat ailuridae as a baramin, and it causes us no problem to accept that this baramin is a single stick in the creationist orchard of life – a baramin containing only one species.

Red pandas are supposed to be a good proof of evolution. Evolutionists like to class them as meat eaters because of their teeth and claws. However, their diet consists almost entirely of bamboo. If this is supposed to be the result of the upward march of evolutionary natural selection, then it seems to be an unusual route. Their bodies cannot digest bamboo well, so they have to eat a great deal of it in order to get the nutrients that they need.

The uniqueness of the red panda is, however, the sort of thing we would expect in a creation made by God.

creationmoments.com/sermons/not-all-pandas-are-giant

“Communist officials demolished a church in China's Henan province for engaging in ‘illegal fundraising’ after forcibly removing congregants, injuring two elderly people in the process.  According to Chinese persecution watchdog Bitter Winter, True Jesus Church was razed to the ground completely. A new lawn with saplings was planted in place of the church, bearing no trace of its existence. After thoroughly searching the church, the police took away a piano and four air-conditioning units. Then, eight excavators began demolishing the church, worth about 10 million RMB (about $1,400,000). Authorities continued to persecute church members even after the church was demolished. In September, it was reported that Chinese government officials demanded that clergy affiliated with the state-sanctioned Protestant church base their sermons on a new book that blends biblical teachings with the teachings of Confucius, one of the most influential philosophers in Chinese history. In early 2018, the communist regime passed new regulations on religious affairs in China that banned ‘unauthorized’ religious teachings. Recently, it was alleged by the China Tribunal at a meeting of the United Nations Human Rights Council that the Chinese government has murdered ‘hundreds of thousands’ of members of the Uighur Muslim minority and Falun Gong to harvest their organs. Open Doors USA ranks China as the 27th worst country in the world when it comes to Christian persecution on its 2019 World Watch List.”

“China: Authorities forcibly demolish ‘illegal’ church,” Christian Post, Oct. 15, 2019

Colossians 2:18
“Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshipping of angels, intruding into those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind,”

I do not refer to myself as a Creation Scientist. That is not because I don’t like the term. It is simply because I am not and never have been a professional scientist, as I do not have a doctorate. But I know a lot of creationists who have both, so they could genuinely be called creation scientists.

Yet there is still an accusation labeled against such eminent creationists by evolutionists, and it is this: If creation science were real, then why do you not publish your arguments against evolution in a scientific journal?

Whenever such a question is raised, one should always unpick the presuppositions before answering the question. The presumption behind the question is that the secular scientific journals are unbiased and that anyone can publish in them. This is not so. Such journals are peer-reviewed. What this means is that a paper submitted to the journal will be reviewed by other scientists in a similar field with equivalent qualifications. Let it be admitted that there is much value in this. After all, who can judge new research better than someone else engaged in research? But, as the prevailing paradigms of the institutions publishing such research are evolutionary, it follows that submissions will be judged against evolutionary standards. There are legions of examples of eminent research papers refused publication, judged unscientific because of an alleged anti-evolutionary heresy.

Ultimately, God is our judge. That is why creationists have set up their own peer-reviewed journals, where submissions can ultimately be judged against Scripture.

creationmoments.com/sermons/if-creation-scientists-were-real​

“My own experience is that the Bible is dull when I am dull. When I am really alive, and set in upon the text with a tidal pressure of living affinities, it opens, it multiplies discoveries and reveals depths even faster than I can note them. The worldly spirit shuts the Bible. The Spirit of God makes it a fire, flaming out all meanings and glorious truths”

​(Horace Bushnell, cited from Josiah Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers, 1895, p. 39).

“Baylor, a private Christian university located in Waco, Texas, is known as the largest Baptist university in the world with approximately 17,200 students on its 1,000-acre campus and is affiliated with the Texas Baptist Convention, which is subsequently connected to the Southern Baptist Convention. Baylor launched a website on sexuality last week which appears to take a softening stance on homosexuality. The website states that it is ‘committed to providing a caring, loving and supportive community for students in all aspects of their lives, including the development of their sexuality.’ ‘We acknowledge the complexity of issues surrounding human sexuality and desire to engage in this conversation with humility, prayerfulness and convicted civility.’ One can only ask, what is so complex about it? Homosexuality is a result of the fall and homosexual desire, identity, and activity is an abomination to God. Yet, the school is intent on offering support services to those who identify as LGBTQP+. The university president, Linda Livingstone, announced in a letter to students, faculty, and staff that students would not be disciplined for identifying as LGBTQ and that the university would provide resources for LGBTQ students through the Title IX Office, Bias Response Team, Chaplain’s Office and Spiritual Life, and the Counseling Center. In 2015, Baylor removed language from their code of conduct that characterized homosexual acts as ‘misuses of God’s gifts.’”

“Baylor University Says They Are Committed,” reformationcharlotte, Sept. 3, 2019

Matthew 10:29
“Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father.”

I remember my mother taking me into the fishmonger’s store. She was particularly interested in buying plaice. The store had a number of offerings, all of which had spots. She chose one with faint orange spots. On the walk home, I asked why she hadn’t gone for one of those with pretty deep red spots. She told me that the deeper the spots, the older the fish – and that the red spotted specimens were too old to eat.

So I wonder what she would have made of the Greenland sharks that appear to be the oldest vertebrate animals on Earth. They do not have convenient red spots to help date them, so a two-pronged approach is used. First, scientists catch younger specimens, born in the 1960s, at the time when many great powers were testing nuclear weapons. The fallout was absorbed by the sharks’ eyes, and so a pretty accurate age for the fish can be calculated. The scientists can plot how fast these sharks grow. So one Greenland shark was estimated to have been at least 272 years old. This is only the lower limit. The uncertainties in the calculation mean that the shark could actually be over 500 years old and was possibly swimming around Greenland before the Mayflower Pilgrims landed in the New World and before the King James Version of the Bible was translated.

But God, who knows every sparrow, even when it falls to the ground, certainly knows about this old shark.

creationmoments.com/sermons/aging-fish

Franklin Graham, head of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and Samaritan’s Purse, is more outspoken for what he believes than a great many fundamental Baptist preachers. It doesn’t appear that he believes Romans 16:17; 2 Timothy 3:5; Jude 3; and 2 John 8-11 in any literal sense, for that would force him to renounce the ecumenical agenda, but what he does believe, he stands up for publicly. Most recently he posted the following on Facebook: “CNN hosted an ‘Equality in America’ town hall Thursday night focusing on gay & lesbian issues and asking questions of candidates running in the 2020 Democratic presidential race. Beto O’Rourke threatened that if any church, religious organization, university, etc., did not go along with their LGBTQ platform including same-sex marriage and gay/transgender rights, they should lose their tax-exempt status--the audience cheered. This gives you a clue of what the progressive, socialist-leaning Democratic Party is going to try to force on our nation if they win any election. They will create laws and ‘consequences’ that would punish those who do not agree with them. These socialists in the Democratic Party are a threat to religious freedom and free speech. This would be a step toward silencing the voice of the church and the influence of Christian universities and organizations. This is what godless socialism did in Eastern Europe, shutting down the churches and imprisoning pastors who disagreed with the Communists. As for me, I will not bow down at the altar of the LGBTQ agenda nor worship their rainbow pride flag. I’m going to stand with the Word of God, the Holy Bible, which is truth from cover to cover.”

(Friday Church News Notes, October 18, 2019, www.wayoflife.org [email protected], 866-295-4143)

Genesis1:21
“And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good.”

As a boy, I was always taught that it is rude to eat with your mouth open. It would be even ruder just to sit still with your mouth simply hanging open. But some sharks do precisely that.

Basking sharks, as their name suggests, spend a lot of time doing very little. They are very large – up to 20 feet in length, making them the second largest sharks, after the whale shark. They swim very slowly most of the time – about 2 miles per hour – with their mouths wide open. They do this in order to feed because they eat marine invertebrates and zooplanckton (little fish). These are filtered by their gill rakers.

One of their most unusual behaviors is that they will breach the surface. There are other fish that do this, such as salmon. There are also sharks that do this – the great white shark is known to breach the surface at great speed. If we do an internet search for breaching behavior, we find that fish do this in order to feed. For example, a white shark would breach in order to catch a seal.

In order to breach, basking sharks reach a speed of 11 mph, expending 45 kilocalories of energy. There has been speculation that they might be jumping out of the water to dislodge parasites, but it is interesting that the reason for this behavior is not yet known. There are still mysteries to solve regarding so many parts of God’s creation.

creationmoments.com/sermons/jumping-basking-sharks

“A recent five-year research study has revealed that an overwhelming majority of biologists from 1,058 academic institutions confirm that ‘a human’s life begins at fertilization.’ Steven Jacobs was a University of Chicago, PhD. candidate who recently successfully defended his dissertation, ‘Balancing Abortion Rights and Fetal Rights. A Mixed Methods Mediation of the U. S. Abortion Debate.’ For his research, Jacobs recruited 5,502 academic biologists to participate in his thesis study, ‘Biologists Consensus on When Life Begins.’ The biologists identified themselves as ‘very pro-choice, very pro-life, very liberal, very conservative, strong Democrats and strong Republicans.’ After five years, the research showed that 95% (5212 out 5502) of the biologists affirmed the biological view that a human’s life begins at fertilization, revealing that biology professors in American academia overwhelmingly agree with this pro-life position. During the survey, Jacobs asked the biologists to agree or disagree with two ‘implicit statements.’ (1) ‘The end product of mammalian fertilization is a fertilized egg (zygote), a new mammalian organism in the first stage of its species’ life cycle with its species’ genome.’ Approximately 90% agreed the development of a mammal begins at the moment of fertilization. (2) ‘The development of a mammal begins with fertilization, a process by which the spermatozoon from the male and the oocyte from the female unite to give rise to a new organism, the zygote.’ More than 75% agreed that fertilization marks the beginning of a human’s life. Then the participants were given an open-ended essay question and asked to answer, ‘From a biological perspective,’ the question ‘When does a human’s life begin?’ Ninety percent of biologists who described themselves as ‘very-pro-life’ said at the moment of fertilization. Almost 75 % of those who called themselves ‘pro-choice’ and approximately 60% of those who identified themselves as very ‘pro-choice’ answered the same.”

Christian News, July 29, 2019

Genesis 1:21
“And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good.”

I have had a very irritating song floating around in my head for the last few days. It is a children’s song which mentions a lot of sharks. You know the one. But at least it got me thinking about sharks.

Everyone knows that sharks are ferocious meat-eating killers, right? With a bite that will take your leg off. I am not minimizing the danger of an encounter with a shark in any way when I tell you about a shark reported in New Scientist which eats seagrass.

At first, it was thought that the bonnethead shark was just removing the seagrass to get at the tasty animal morsels hidden within. However, scientists at the University of California Irvine studied some captive bonnetheads and discovered that after a meal of seagrass, the creatures’ digestive system showed evidence of enzyme activity designed specifically to digest plant material. Isotope markers were used to check the progress of certain chemicals from the seagrasss, and it was discovered that 50% of the nutrients from the plants were absorbed by the shark. This is a remarkable degree of efficiency and comparable with known omnivorous and herbivorous fish.

It seems to be common for us to discover that animals once thought to be nearly perfectly carnivorous can have plants in their diet. While evolutionists cannot explain this, creationists would point to the fact that God made all animals originally to eat plants. Meat eating arose only after Adam’s sin polluted the world.

creationmoments.com/sermons/veggie-shark

“In the latest edition of La Repubblica, Pope Francis’ longtime atheist friend and interviewer, Eugenio Scalfari, claims that the Pope told him that once Jesus Christ became incarnate, he was a man, a ‘man of exceptional virtues’ but ‘not at all a God.’ The teaching of the Catholic Church and most Christian churches is that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, was incarnated as fully man and fully God. According to the highly respected Catholic blog, Rorate Caeli, and Radio Spada in Italy, Scalfari states in the Oct. 9 edition of La Repubblica (behind paywall) the following: ‘Those who, as it has happened many times with me, have had the luck of meeting him and speaking to him with the greatest cultural intimacy, know that Pope Francis conceives Christ as Jesus of Nazareth, man, not God incarnate. Once incarnate, Jesus stops being a God and becomes a man until his death on the cross.’ In a March 2018 interview with Scalfari, Pope Francis reportedly said, ‘There is no Hell, there is the disappearance of sinful souls.’ The Pope himself never denied what Scalfari reported and the article never ran a correction or removed the article from its website.”

“Scalfari: Pope ‘Francis Told Me That Jesus Incarnate Was ‘a Man,” CNSNews.com, Oct. 9, 2019

Genesis 1:21
“And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good.”

The late evolutionary biologist and paleontologist Stephen J. Gould is rumored to have once said, “There is no such thing as a fish.” What, you might ask, would make such a man say this? Has he not been to the aquarium?

Gould was making a serious point. Although we would have disagreed with him about his evolutionary position, there is no doubt that Gould knew a great deal about fish. He had studied them all his life. So the point he was making is this: The classification “fish” is far too broad to be meaningful.

When I became a public school teacher in 1983, we taught the students that there were five classes of vertebrates: animals with backbones – and these were mammals, reptiles, birds, amphibians and fish. By this, students were taught that the supposed common ancestor of all vertebrates evolved into these five classes. Following Gould’s work, evolutionists now believe that fish actually comprise three classes – jawless fish, cartilaginous fish and bony fish, which are as different from each other as they are from mammals, rendering the term fish useless.

Creationists think that even the term mammal is too broad. Wolves and lions, for example, have no common ancestor, though lions and tigers do. So higher grouping into classes is merely for convenience. Gould did creationist biologists an unwitting favor by discarding the term fish. In contrast, biblical classification of animals groups them by clear similarities, which is why God made whales the same day as all fish.

creationmoments.com/sermons/there-is-no-such-thing-as-a-fish

The following is a testimony we received from a reader recently: “My father pointed me to your materials, and at first I was hesitant, as you are more hard-lined in what you believe than Ravi Zacharias, Frank Turek, and others who I was listening to. With time, I jumped into your materials as well, and you have made me much more confident in my faith than anyone else. Your hard stance on God’s Word is not harsh, but simply true. Your method of citing all claims you make with Biblical references is unlike virtually anyone else I have read. And to think I was close to purchasing Mere Christianity before reading your e-book on CS Lewis! Your work is completely necessary in such a confused and Biblically illiterate world, and I just want to thank you, as a brother in Christ, for the hard work you put into what you do. I have also built up a habit of daily Bible reading, which has now developed into a daily Bible study, using commentaries, the Way of Life Encyclopedia, and Strong’s Concordance along with my reading. I also am reading strictly King James, which is something I never thought I’d be doing (your e-book, ‘Why We Hold to the King James Bible’ changed my heart in the matter). For the first time in my life, I can say that my faith in God is truly grounded in actual conviction, repentance, and a love for Him and His Word, and you are a big reason for it. So again, I sincerely love the work you continually put out, and I pray daily for your various ministries as well.”

(Friday Church News Notes, October 18, 2019, www.wayoflife.org [email protected], 866-295-4143)

​Genesis 1:21
“And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good.”

As far as we know, the blue whale is the largest animal that has ever existed. Every statistic that we find about these giants is overwhelming.

A blue whale’s tongue is larger than an elephant. Its flipper can be about six feet long – as long as a man is tall. A baby blue whale is the size of two minivans. Their mouths could hold 400 people. Yet the creatures they eat – krill – are only about half an inch long. They swallow vast amounts of water, then filter it back through their baleen – the strange keratin filter-like structure that they have in their mouths. They eat four tons of krill a day. That is 4 million of the tiny creatures. Babies consume 50 to 100 gallons of milk per day. The blue whale’s tail is as wide as a soccer net. One of these whales can dive to nearly 1,000 feet, and they can stay there for 30 minutes, without needing a breath. The water that they blow through their blowhole can jet up to 30 feet high.

In short, these are magnificent animals, clearly illustrating the greatness and the beauty of God’s creation. We read in Genesis 1:21 that God made them on the fifth day of creation. What beautiful, amazing giants of the ocean.​

creationmoments.com/sermons/the-amazing-blue-whale

Matthew 12:39
“But he answered and said unto them, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas.”

 Jesus talked about “the sign of the prophet Jonah” when He was being asked about signs. He said it was the only sign that would be given to that generation. He then proceeded to tell them what the sign meant. It refers to the fact that Jonah was inside the big fish for three days and three nights. Jesus related this to Himself by stating that, in the same way, the Son of Man (that is, Jesus) would be in the ground for three days and three nights and then would rise again.

By referring this matter to Himself, Jesus was also validating the truthfulness of the account of Jonah and the big fish in Jonah chapter 1. Yet many people prefer to think of the account of Jonah and the big fish as a fairy tale.

The Bible has many other examples of God using animals to do His will on different occasions. For example, He made Balaam’s donkey speak in order to get Balaam’s attention and to tell him exactly what he was to say. And He used various animal examples to Job in order to explain how Job had not grasped the purpose of God’s creation.

Jonah was taken by the creature to Ninevah – a gentile town, which repented for that time. It is fitting that Jonah was used as a type of the death and resurrection of Christ because it is by Christ’s death and resurrection that all peoples of the world are able to be reconciled to God.

creationmoments.com/sermons/the-sign-of-jonah

“Last week, Reformation Charlotte reported that a well-known CRU (formerly Campus Crusade for Christ) leader, speaker, and author, Matt Mikalatos had been actively seeking to import Roman Catholicism and Native American mysticism into the Evangelical Church by inviting people who hold to these aberrant religions to speak at CRU events. Mikalatos, a CRU leader out of Portland Oregon, invited the self-described ‘Native American Mystic’ and Pagan, Kaitlin Curtice, to speak at an event to which, thankfully, she declined. Mikalatos had also been exposed for attempting to get Catholic priests to come and speak at other events. It is beyond sound reason why anyone who claims to hold to the biblical doctrine of salvation which is expressed in the Five Solas of the Protestant Reformation would find it acceptable to invite Roman Catholics, tree-worshiping mystics, and other aberrant religious speakers to address Christian students. It goes without saying--for any Bible-believing Christian--that those who oppose Christ’s way of salvation are opposed to Christ Himself--and certainly, the Roman Catholic Church is opposed to salvation by Grace Alone through Faith Alone. Further, the Roman Catholic Church anathematizes Protestants who do hold to a biblical soteriology. Yet, Mikalatos doesn’t stop there. Keep in mind that Mikalatos is a man with a significant amount of influence over young Christian students. Inside and outside of CRU circles, Mikalatos is a gifted and sought after speaker. Yet, despite his gift, the aberrant theology that he carries with him continues to damage the Church. Mikalatos has followed in the footsteps of one of his colleagues we reported about previously, Rachel Gilson, and has completely affirmed ‘gay Christianity.’ In an article titled ‘How Do I Talk to LGBTQ Friends about the Gospel?’ Mikalatos says, ‘Practice Saying This: “You Can Be Gay and Follow Jesus.”’ But he didn’t stop there; he completely affirmed that godless notion that coming to Christ doesn’t require repentance of sin. He actually said, ‘We all have a laundry list of sins in our lives, and repentance requires acknowledging only one of them.’ In complete and total affirmation of ‘gay Christianity,’ Mikalatos writes, ‘There are a good number of LGBTQ people who are already followers of Jesus. There may even be a gay person in your church who is following Jesus, just like you are. Don’t assume that because someone is Queer they are not already connected spiritually, maybe deeply connected!’”

“No Need to Repent,” reformationcharlotte.org, Sept. 30, 2019

Jonah 1:17
“Now the LORD had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.”

Most people are familiar with the story of Jonah and the whale. However, by calling it a story, some people want to cast doubt upon the key event of the account. Jonah, having run away and boarded a ship bound for Tarshish – probably the same as modern Spain – eventually ends up in the sea, and God sends a whale to swallow him and take him to Ninevah.

People throw up all kinds of problems here. How could a large sea creature have swallowed Jonah? Would it not have chewed him first? Would there have been enough room in the creature’s stomach? How did Jonah escape being eaten away by the animal’s digestive juices? And surely there aren’t any large whales of suitable size to be found in the Mediterranean Sea!

But I have to throw one big problem back at the naysayers. In Matthew 12:40, Jesus confirms that Jonah was indeed inside the whale for three days and three nights, and then Jesus uses the event to apply to His own death and resurrection to come.

Accepting that this event is accurate history is important because it is in the Bible and its authenticity is underlined by Jesus Himself.

creationmoments.com/sermons/jonahs-journey

“Big tech, it’s notorious. For what? For banning and suspending people on the right. These supposedly objective platforms have a clear political agenda. And it’s not friendly to conservatism. One person refusing to take this prejudice lying down is investigative journalist Laura Loomer. She recently filed a lawsuit against Apple, Facebook, Google and Twitter for conspiring to silence her political views. She has been banned from, you won’t believe this. From Twitter. And Facebook. And Instagram. And Periscope, PayPal, Venmo, GoFundMe, Chase Bank, Lyft, Medium, TeeSpring, Uber, and Uber Eats. Uber Eats? Really? They banned her, she says, mostly for her critical statements about Islam. She refers to herself as ‘the most banned woman in the world.’ ‘I plan on suing all of the Left wing terrorists and tech tyrants who are trying to shut me down simply because I am a Conservative Jewish woman who speaks truth about Islam,’ she said in a social media post. ‘I have nothing to lose anymore, so trust me when I say I will stop at nothing to make sure justice is served for the way Silicon Valley has disenfranchised me, falsely accusing me of being a white supremacist, a Nazi, anti-Muslim, a racist, a bigot, and every other smear in the book.’ A D.C. federal judge initially dismissed the case. She appealed to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. It allowed the suit to go ahead. Loomer also claims that the tech giants have breached the Sherman Act, which prohibits monopolies. She says they’ve violated D.C.’s public accommodations law, which prohibits denying people access to public accommodations for discrimination reasons. Facebook and Twitter have become so popular that some argue they are public utilities. And public utilities with a monopoly on communication. As such, they are subject to government regulation. A spokesperson for Facebook said in response that the company bans individuals or organizations that ‘promote or engage in violence and hate, regardless of ideology.’ They apparently think her comments apply. However, Facebook and Instagram have not banned Antifa or ISIS from having accounts on their platforms. Antifa doesn’t engage in violence? ISIS doesn’t engage in violence and hate? Who are they kidding?”

“Investigative Reporter Laura Loomer’s Lawsuit against Big Tech for Banning Her Allowed to Proceed,” The Stream, Aug. 28, 2019