​Ecclesiastes 1:14

We get lots of interesting letters and e-mails here at Creation Moments. Most of them are positive, but occasionally we hear from someone who disagrees with us. One such writer told us that there are, and I quote, "thousands upon thousands of articles written in medical journals about how evolution has been of enormous benefit in medicine."

Want to hear how we responded? We began like this:

How many of those thousands of articles have you read? We've read some, and the references to evolution appear to have been added without thought or reason. Evolution has had absolutely nothing to do with medicine. In fact, Bible-believing surgeons in the past learned from the Bible how to wash their hands under running water. Evolution had nothing to do with the development of antiseptics. Actually, that comes from Joseph Lister, a Bible-believing scientist. Evolution had nothing to do with X-rays or Magnetic Resonance Imaging. Actually, it was a Bible-believing Christian who invented the MRI.

Evolution has played no part in the science that has given us modern technology, medicine and so much more. Evolution didn't even have anything to do with putting a man on the moon. In fact, it was a combination of applied scientists and engineers who accomplished this.

So what has evolution given mankind? Well, it has given us thousands of scientists who make their living writing about evolution and teaching it. Yes, it has created quite an industry for itself. But it has advanced science not one inch.

Notes: Courtesy of Jan Ainali. (CC BY 3.0). ​Creation Moments, Inc., P.O. Box 839, Foley, MN 56329 www.creationmoments.com

Kong Hee, founder and senior pastor of a Pentecostal megachurch in Singapore, has been sentenced to eight years in prison for misappropriating church funds to support his wife’s pop singing career. Five other church leaders were given sentences ranging from 21 months to six years. The sum misappropriated by the leaders of City Harvest Church (CHC) was a whopping $35 million. Corruption of this magnitude is rare in this city state which has a well-deserved reputation for law and order. Leave it to a charismatic pastor to set the bar of corruption high and make Christianity a laughing-stock before the entire nation! The pop singer, Ho Yeow Sun, was recently ordained as a pastor of the church. She will be able to carry on the family business while her husband is in prison. Michael Scales of New York’s Christian College performed her ordination, speaking the nonsensical words, “I pray when she speaks, fire will come out of her belly.” Ho Sun is a popular Chinese pop singer who lives a pop star’s lifestyle, complete with immodest dress, champagne parties, and very sensual rock videos. A friend who provides information that helps with my research said, “I looked at a few of her videos but could not present them because of their vile content.” A Baptist pastor friend in Singapore wrote, “It was just last weekend that I came to know that her horrible and slutty music video (‘China Wine’) was actually aired live in church at CHC when it first came out. It is hard to imagine any husband willingly showing off his wife in church dressed like a whore, dancing like one, and worse, a pastor’s wife.” Kong Hee and other leaders of City Harvest who have been convicted in Singapore’s no-nonsense courts still proclaim their innocence, though it was proven that they put millions of dollars into sham bond investments and tried to hide their deeds from the law. According to the Gospel Herald for Oct. 29, 2015, the church is standing with its crooked leaders (“City Harvest Founder Kong Hee Thanks Congregation for ‘Grace and Love’ as Wife Sun Ho Is Ordained as Pastor,” Oct. 29, 2015). This demonstrates a lack of integrity across the entire congregation. They have been blinded and morally numbed by a heaping dose of mindless demonic mysticism served up through rock music, charismatic experiences, and false doctrine. Kong Hee follows in the footsteps of many other prominent Pentecostal-Charismatic leaders who have brought reproach upon the name of Jesus Christ before a mocking world, as we have documented extensively in the book The Pentecostal-Charismatic Movements: The History and the Error. Last year, David Yonggi Cho, founder of Yoido Full Gospel Church in Seoul, South Korea, long billed as the world’s largest church, was sentenced to three years for breach of trust and corruption (“David Yonggi Cho,” The Gospel Herald, Feb. 21, 2014). Cho, one of Kong Hee’s mentors, was found guilty of causing $12 million in losses to the church by having officials buy stocks owned by his eldest son, Cho Hee-jun, at nearly four times market value. David Cho’s three-year sentence was suspended because of his age and prominence, but he was ordered to pay a penalty of US $4.7 million, and Cho Hee-jun’s three-year sentence was not suspended.

(Friday Church News Notes, November 27, 2015, www.wayoflife.org, [email protected], 866-295-4143)

Ronnie Floyd, President of the Southern Baptist Convention, is scheduled to speak in December at International House of Prayer’s OneThing 2015 (ihopkc.org/onething/speakers-worship-leaders). This demonstrates how deeply the SBC has drunk of the false charismatic spirit and how spiritually dangerous this denomination is. It is a fearful hodgepodge of truth and error. IHOP was founded in 1999 by Mike Bickle, joined by Bob Jones (not the Bob Jones of BJU), John Paul Jackson, Paul Cain, David Parker, and Francis Frangipane and other so-called prophets of a latter-day miracle revival movement. Bickle’s emphasis is a Latter Rain signs and wonders ministry in preparation for Christ’s return. IHOP hosts 24/7 prayer meetings which are mystical contemporary worship “encounters” powered by rock music. They are weird charismatic free-for-alls. IHOP’s 24/7 prayer sessions have been described as “euphoric worship ... mesmeric, musical worship, repeating the same phrases over and over.” I can confirm this from my visit in October 2014 to an IHOP conference. IHOP’s 24/7 “prayer” is not about thoughtful, biblical prayer or quiet, thoughtful meditation on Scripture. It is about charismatic mysticism whereby God is allegedly “encountered” in and beyond Scripture. It is about “experiencing” God. It is about bringing in the kingdom of God through signs and wonders. This is why IHOP is attracted to Roman Catholic contemplative prayer, as evidenced by the fact that their bookstore features dozens of contemplative titles. Contemplative prayer has the same mystical objective as IHOP’s 24/7 prayer: an experience with God and direct revelation from God beyond Scripture. But when you go beyond Scripture, you go beyond the God of Scripture, and you open yourself to angels of darkness masquerading as angels of light. This is why charismatic worship and contemplative prayer lead to association with Rome, the heart and soul of apostasy, and ultimately to universalism, pantheism, panentheism, and idolatry, as we have documented in the book Contemplative Mysticism. IHOP is so deceived that it believes it will literally direct God’s judgments on earth during the Tribulation. For more on this see “The International House of Prayer”.

(Friday Church News Notes, November 27, 2015, www.wayoflife.org, [email protected], 866-295-4143)

Isaiah 45:12

Scientists who reject the Bible believe that man's ability to see light from distant stars and galaxies can be likened to a deadly torpedo that sinks the ship of young earth creationism. But they are not taking into consideration that there are many possible solutions to how light from distant stars could reach the Earth very quickly.

One such theory is explained by Creation Moments Board Member Dr. Donald Clark, who holds a PhD in physical biochemistry. He cites both Isaiah 42:5 and Isaiah 45:12 as evidence that the heavens are not uniform but have been "stretched out" by God.

Now if the very fabric of space is stretched in parts, he explains, then light would travel much faster through these "stretchy" parts than through the non-stretched parts. He uses a guitar string as an analogy. Tightening a string produces a higher-pitched sound when plucked because it causes the sound wave to travel faster through the string. In a similar way, stretched space would cause light to travel faster through it.

In his article, "Making Sense of Light from Distant Stars," Dr. Clark writes: "Using Einstein's General Relativity equations, Mark Amunrud at the August 2013 International Conference on Creation suggested that light from the most distant galaxies … would reach Earth in just about one week."
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So while Scripture doesn’t directly say that light travels much faster between the galaxies to arrive on Earth quickly, it does give us enough clues to piece together one solution to the distant-starlight dilemma.

Notes: http://www.creationmoments.com/resources/blog/201407/making-sense-light-distant-stars. Dr. Donald Clark, Ph.D., "Making Sense of Light from Distant Stars", 7/7/14. Photo: Courtesy of Adam Evans. (CC BY 2.0).
Creation Moments, Inc., P.O. Box 839, Foley, MN 56329 www.creationmoments.com

“Someone asked a mother whose children had turned out very well the secret by which she had prepared them for usefulness and for the Christian life. Without hesitation she answered: ‘When I washed my children, I prayed that they might be cleansed by the Saviour’s precious blood. When I put on their garments, I prayed that they might be arrayed in the garments of salvation and in the robe of God’s righteousness. When I gave them food, I prayed that they might be fed with the Bread of Life. When I started them on the road to school, I prayed that their faith might be as the shining light, brighter and brighter to the perfect day. When I put them to sleep, I prayed that they might be enfolded in the Saviour’s everlasting arms.’ No wonder her children were early led to a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ and became adornments to the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things! What a joy to that mother’s heart when her children rise up and call her blessed! Now that her secret has been revealed, may hosts of other mothers follow it”

(Moments for You, May/June, 1988)

​Revelation 22:18

As we all know, there are 66 books in the Bible – no more, no less. And yet, from the way that many people interpret the first chapter of Genesis, it appears that they have added a sixty-seventh book to the Bible – a special "book" they use to interpret the other 66 books of the Bible.

The name of that sixty-seventh book is "science". Many pastors – and even entire denominations – now interpret Bible texts in a way to make them compatible with this sixty-seventh book. For example, since this "book" contends that the Earth is billions of years old, Genesis must be reinterpreted to make it "fit" into an old universe. One way they try to do this is the "day-age theory."

This theory holds that each "day" in Genesis 1 (in Hebrew yom) is a long period of time rather than 24 hours. It is important to note, however, that whenever yom appears in the Old Testament with a number attached to it, it always means a literal 24-hour day. In addition, whenever yom is modified with "evening and morning" – as it does 38 times outside of Genesis 1 – it always means a 24-hour day.

God's people must get back to the careful handling of God's Word. This means that we throw out the sixty-seventh book and that we start taking the Bible for what it says – not reinterpreting it in light of the latest pronouncements of so-called "science."

Notes: Old earth creationist Hugh Ross, founder of Reasons to Believe, teaches the day-age theory and has likened nature to the sixty-seventh book of the Bible. Courtesy of Brandon Medeiros/Reasons to Believe. (CC-BY-SA 3.0).
Creation Moments, Inc., P.O. Box 839, Foley, MN 56329 www.creationmoments.com

“How I thank God for my Christian parents, for my Sunday School teachers, and especially for my Preacher. He never cheated on his wife; he never lied; he never stole from the church; he never turned a blind eye to a song leader having an affair with the pianist or even the janitor playing his guitar in a beer joint. He discerned the difference between good and evil and never mingled them together. He preached on hell, on separation, on dancing, on movies, and on bad language. He preached a saving gospel with fire and power; he challenged the Sunday School teachers to visit more and study harder and teach better. He saw our church grow when every other church in town went into decline during the summer months. He had virtue and integrity and morals and godliness and Christian ethics! He knew what was right and stuck to it, and we loved him for it! He was our preacher for thirteen years. We never had better! ... It was because of our preacher and his helpers that I saw through the hypocrisy and deceitfulness of the pastors who had virtually no Christian ethics: Men who spent church money on themselves and were asked to leave; men who kept a mistress; men who smilingly lied to their congregations; men who stole sheep from other churches; men who covered up for each other when they were caught; men who slandered those who questioned their immoral conduct; men who stole faith promise money for missions and spent it; men who did their best to split another pastor’s church; men who lied to the tax department; and men who shut struggling churches down, sold the building, and pocketed the money, ad infinitum, ad nauseum.”

​“The Vanishing Ethics of the Ministry” by Buddy Smith, Heads Up! Sept. 18, 2015

​1 John 4:6

Many people – especially those who believe in creation – avoid watching science shows on TV because these programs are usually saturated with unscientific claims favoring evolution. However, even Darwinian soapboxes like Nova can be worth watching, just as long as you do so with a discerning eye.

You especially need to pay close attention to the unwarranted assumptions and faulty logic you'll often encounter. For instance, there's "Kings of Camouflage" – a Nova program about the cuttlefish's amazing ability to instantaneously change the color and texture of its skin. The program did a good job of describing the color disks that expand or shrink in size.

But then the scientist added: "My guess is that their skin evolved for camouflage, because as soon as they got rid of the big shell, they had to hide from predators." Well, Mr. Scientist, why did the cuttlefish discard its shell in the first place if it was beneficial to its survival? And why didn't the cuttlefish just evolve its old shell back? Instead, evolutionists guess that the cuttlefish evolved the most complex skin of any creature on the planet as well as an amazingly complex eye and nervous system that allows it all to work.
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So when you watch science shows on television, learn what you can from the true science. Enjoy the breathtaking photography as you marvel at the wondrous creatures that God has designed. And teach your children how to spot the atheistic philosophy that's camouflaged to look like true science.

Notes: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/nature/kings-of-camouflage.html. Photo: Courtesy of João Carvalho. (CC-BY-SA 2.5). Creation Moments, Inc., P.O. Box 839, Foley, MN 56329 www.creationmoments.com

The Ottomans had a horrible practice called devshirme, whereby the sultan’s agents would periodically take one-fifth of all boys from Christian families. Also called Blood Levy, it was introduced by Sultan Orkhan (1326-1359). “On a fixed date, all the fathers were ordered to appear with their children in the public square. The recruiting agents chose the most sturdy, handsome, and intelligent children. Any father who shirked his duty to provide children was severely punished. This system was open to all kinds of abuse. The recruiting agents often took more than the prescribed number of children and sold the ‘surplus’ children back to their parents. Those unable to buy back their children had to accept their being sold into slavery” (Ibn Warraq, Why I Am Not a Muslim, 1995, p. 231). Parents who resisted were killed. Some parents deliberately mutilated their children to make them unattractive to the recruiting agents. Some of the strongest and fittest of the children enslaved through devshirme were raised to join an elite military corps called Janissaries (“new soldier”) that formed the Sultan’s guard. It lasted from about 1350 to 1826. The slave boys were forced into Islam and trained in strict discipline and warfare. In 1826, Sultan Abdul Mahmud II slaughtered many of the Janissaries and disbanded it as a fighting force.

(Friday Church News Notes, November 20, 2015, www.wayoflife.org, [email protected], 866-295-4143)

​Jeremiah 9:5

It is common for evolutionists to dismiss a lot of great work by creationists, saying that their papers do not appear in their own peer-reviewed journals. But now, editors of the two most prestigious peer-reviewed medical journals have gone on record as saying that the peer-review process doesn't mean much anymore.

Several years ago, Dr. Marcia Angell, a physician and longtime editor of one of the most trusted medical journals in the world, wrote this: "It is simply no longer possible to believe much of the clinical research that is published, or to rely on the judgment of trusted physicians or authoritative medical guidelines. I take no pleasure in this conclusion, which I reached slowly and reluctantly over my two decades as an editor of The New England Journal of Medicine."

More recently, Dr. Richard Horton, editor of The Lancet, wrote the following in his own magazine: "The case against science is straightforward. Much of the scientific literature, perhaps half, may simply be untrue." He added that "science has taken a turn towards darkness" and said that this is caused by "flagrant conflicts of interest." He also said something we've been saying for years: "In their quest for telling a compelling story, scientists too often sculpt data to fit their preferred theory of the world."

So never let an evolutionist throw the peer-review process in your face as a mark of the superiority of evolution over biblical creation. Unlike peer-reviewed publications, the Bible is never wrong.

Notes: http://www.thelancet.com/pdfs/journals/lancet/PIIS0140-6736%2815%2960696-1.pdf. Marcia Angell, "Drug companies and doctors: A story of corruption." January 15, 2009. The New York Review of Books.
​Creation Moments, Inc., P.O. Box 839, Foley, MN 56329 www.creationmoments.com

Rush Limbaugh is a conservative political commentator and entertainer who makes no profession of being a born again Christian, to my knowledge, but many Baptist pastors don’t seem to be much wiser than he is on political and social issues. Limbaugh understands the problems and he understands politics, but he doesn’t understand the root issues and the fundamental elements of how to solve the problems, because these are spiritual rather than political and social. Problems such as the homosexual agenda, abortion rights, feminism, liberal economics, racial disharmony, Islamic terrorism, and the gross lack of wisdom in the political realm can be effectively addressed only if one understands the underlying causes and spiritual realities. One must understand such facts as God’s holiness and justice, His hidden activity in world events toward the fulfillment of His eternal program, man’s fallen nature, the reality of the devil and demonic powers, the Great Commission and the church as God’s program for this age, and the mystery of iniquity, the end times, and other elements of Bible prophecy. It is my understanding of such things that makes me dramatically different in my thinking than any unsaved conservative American pundit, from Rush Limbaugh to Shawn Hannity, from Breitbart to Fox News. I see the same problems that they see, but I know that the solution is beyond the reach of politics and social action. I don’t share their frustrations, because I know that God is ultimately in control and that His plans cannot be thwarted. I have His promises for today and His prophecies of the future. I am well informed about current events, but I know that I can do more to help America by keeping my focus on fulfilling the Lord’s Commission of world evangelism and building sound churches and being a prayer warrior than the efforts of all of the conservative political action committees and news agencies combined.

(Friday Church News Notes, November 20, 2015, www.wayoflife.org, [email protected], 866-295-4143)

​Proverbs 29:20

Though they are less than a half inch in length, recent studies have shown that Habronattus jumping spiders have eyesight that, in some ways, rivals our own. In fact, they can do something even your family pooch can't do – see colors.

According to Nathan Morehouse of the University of Pittsburgh, "The eyes of jumping spiders could not be more different from those of butterflies or birds, and yet all three tune the color sensitivities using pigments that filter light." Scientists call this "spectral filtering," and until now, nobody suspected that a spider would be capable of it.

ScienceDaily, of course, jumps to the conclusion that the jumping spider's ability to see colors "is a remarkable example of evolutionary convergence." According to evolutionists, convergent evolution is the independent evolution of similar features in species that aren't closely related. For example, evolutionists tell us that flying insects, birds and bats evolved the ability to fly independently of one another. They are said to have "converged" on this useful trait.

This term, however, explains absolutely nothing. Evolutionists are unable to demonstrate how even one kind of creature evolved the ability to fly. Their problem is compounded when they have to explain how flight evolved three times in unrelated creatures.

The real reason why these jumping spiders see color is the same reason why bats, butterflies and birds are able to fly. Because their Designer made them that way. This isn't jumping to conclusions. It is simply taking God at His word.

Notes: "Jumping spiders are masters of miniature color vision," ScienceDaily, 5/18/15. Daniel B. Zurek, Thomas W. Cronin, Lisa A. Taylor, Kevin Byrne, Mara L.G. Sullivan, Nathan I. Morehouse. "Spectral filtering enables trichromatic vision in colorful jumping spiders," Current Biology, 2015; 25 (10): R403 DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2015.03.033. Photo: Courtesy of Kaldari. (CCO-1.0 UNIVERSAL PD). Creation Moments, Inc., P.O. Box 839, Foley, MN 56329 www.creationmoments.com

The animal rights organization PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) has sued photographer David Slater who published photos of a monkey using his camera to take selfies. PETA claims that the monkey should be the legal owner and should receive proceeds from the sale of the photo (“PETA’s Lawsuit over a Monkey Selfie,” Petapixel.com, Nov. 12, 2015). This is a publicity stunt by a nutty organization, but it is also probably an attempt to get some court somewhere to accept an animal as a legal entity and thus try to set a precedent. “Nutty” is definitely an accurate description of these people. PETA founder Ingrid Newkirk said, “The smallest form of life, even an ant or a clam, is equal to a human being,” and, “there really is no rational reason for saying a human being has special rights.” She says, “A rat is a pig is a dog is a boy.” She likens the death of broiler chickens to the Nazi’s murder of Jews. In 1990, she told Reader’s Digest that humans “are the biggest blight on the face of the planet.” As elitists, though, she and her friends haven’t volunteered to step up to the plate to decrease the human population. PETA types also haven’t answered this question: “If evolution is true, as you say, and man is merely an animal and we came from nothing and are nothing and go to nothing and there is no ultimate meaning or absolute morality, why does it matter what we do, and why don’t you, therefore, mind your own business?”

(Friday Church News Notes, November 20, 2015, www.wayoflife.org, [email protected], 866-295-4143)

The following is adapted from some thoughts on the recent terrorist assaults by Hughie Seaborn of Cairns, Queensland, Australia, a former Pentecostal who is today a friend of the Truth and a friend of the editor of the Friday Church News Notes: “The Babylonians and Syrians are now well entrenched amongst the peoples of the nations who have rejected the God of the Bible and refuse to retain Him in their knowledge. The events of 9/11 in New York City are happening today in other countries because they’ve rejected the God of the Bible and made a ‘god’ of their own imaginations. The nation’s leaders make strange and dangerous decisions about immigration, because they’ve rejected God and He gives them over to think strange thoughts and to make strange decisions, so it says in Romans chapter one. God brings His enemies upon them to cause those who claim to be His people to reconsider their evil ways. Sometimes they repent, like in the book of Joel, but sometimes they get worse, like what’s happening in France. A man brings his mobile piano to the scene of the crime, where people had been ‘innocently’ enjoying a filthy Death Metal concert just hours before, and plays John Lennon’s blasphemous, God-rejecting song ‘Imagine’ (“Man bikes grand piano to attacked Paris concert hall, plays Lennon’s Imagine,” CBCNews, Nov. 14, 2015). The song says we should ‘imagine that there’s no Heaven or Hell, and no religion too’ (especially not that narrow-minded Bible type). Maybe the man should drag his piano over to Iraq or Syria and play that song to ISIS. Not to be outdone, Pope Francis responds to the Paris attacks by shuffling to the window overlooking St. Peter’s Square and offering a prayer of world peace to ‘Mary, Mother of mercy’ (“It’s blasphemy to use God’s name to justify violence,” Zenit.org, Nov. 15, 2015). The pope called the French nation ‘the eldest daughter of the Church, all of Europe and the whole world,’ referring to the long history of the Catholic Church in France. Doesn’t sound like anyone’s going to repent any time soon, does it?”

(Friday Church News Notes, November 20, 2015, www.wayoflife.org, [email protected], 866-295-4143)

I love good music, and I particularly love a good symphony orchestra. It is one of the most wonderful things that fallen man has invented, and it invariably turns my thoughts to music in Christ’s kingdom. I love the beauty of the sound, the unity, the complexity, the depth, the flexibility, the variety, and the brilliance and technical expertise required to write and perform a symphony piece. It is said that music is the language of the emotions, and what emotions a symphony orchestra can evoke! André Rieu and the Johann Strauss Orchestra with its repertoire of beautiful symphonic music can attract 65,000 listeners at one performance even in this shallow age of pop music. The following observation on the symphony orchestra is by the late Klaus Roy, program annotator for the Cleveland Orchestra, founded in 1918 and one of America’s “Big Five” orchestras: “What more miraculous creation of mankind is there than the symphony orchestra--a hundred musicians collaborating flawlessly in the creation of a single sonority from moment to moment, under the guidance of a single and singular mind who conveys the sound image of another’s tonal imagination, and carrying with it a single listener as it carries a thousand or two thousand? We tend to take for granted the skill and sensitivity of such a performing organism, and we should take time to marvel afresh that such a joint effort is possible for human beings, so rich in communication, beauty and meaning.” The symphony orchestra is evidence for the divine creation of man for those who have eyes to see.

(Friday Church News Notes, November 13, 2015, www.wayoflife.org, [email protected], 866-295-4143)

​Titus 1:2

A scientific paper called "DDT: A Case Study in Scientific Fraud" was published a few years ago in the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons. Though the author deals with scientific fraud related to the banning of DDT, he also gives insights into how some scientists are committing fraud to support other matters, like global warming and evolution.

The paper's author provides several examples of scientific fraud, but today we have time to deal with only one. Environmentalists wanted to portray DDT as a hazardous substance that was endangering birds. One scientist was able to show that the shells of bird eggs were thinner and more fragile after being exposed to the pesticide.

But here is the rest of the story. The scientist behind the thinning egg shell claim had changed the birds' diet, reducing their calcium levels from the normal 2.5 percent to just 0.56 percent. It was this radical reduction in calcium from their diet that caused the egg shells to get thinner – not the DDT! When this fact was presented to Science magazine, the editor refused to publish it, saying that "they would never publish anything that was not antagonistic toward DDT."

Scientific fraud – like all lies – comes from the father of lies. How different is our God. He cannot lie. And that means you can believe the Bible when it tells you that you can have eternal life when you repent of your sin and put your trust in what Jesus did for you on the cross.

Notes: J. Gordon Edwards, Ph.D , "DDT: A Case Study in Scientific Fraud," Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons, Volume 9, Number 3, Fall 2004, pp. 83-88. http://www.jpands.org/vol9no3/edwards.pdf. Photo: (CC CC0-1 PD).
​Creation Moments, Inc., P.O. Box 839, Foley, MN 56329 www.creationmoments.com

Theodore Roosevelt, 26th President of the United States (1901-09), wrote the following in 1916: “Christianity was saved in Europe solely because the peoples of Europe fought. If the peoples of Europe in the 7th and 8th centuries, and on up to and including the 17th century, had not possessed a military equality with, and gradually a growing superiority over the Mohammedans who invaded Europe, Europe would at this moment be Mohammedan and the Christian religion would be exterminated” (Roosevelt, Fear God and Take Your Part). Islam’s attempt to conquer Europe in the eighth century was thwarted in the east by the Byzantines and in the west by the Franks.

(Friday Church News Notes, November 13, 2015, www.wayoflife.org, [email protected], 866-295-4143)

​Deuteronomy 14:12, 18

Don't mess with the hoopoe – especially the female! Their Creator blessed this bird with an oil gland that produces a really foul-smelling liquid. When rubbed into their plumage, it smells like rotting meat and deters not only predators but parasites as well. In fact, it also acts as an antibacterial agent.

Thanks to this nasty-smelling liquid, most predators stay far away from the hoopoe's nest. But even when a predator ignores the stench and comes looking for a meal while mama hoopoe is away, the nestlings are not defenseless. Even when they are just six days old, they can produce the same liquid and shoot it accurately into the face of predators.

With such an awful smell, perhaps it was a great blessing that God placed the hoopoe on His list of animals that were not to be eaten by His people. By the way, the King James version of the Bible refers to the hoopoe as the lapwing but we're still talking about the hoopoe. Since this bird is listed in Deuteronomy as an unclean animal, isn't it rather odd that the modern state of Israel would choose the hoopoe as their national bird?
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Like the hoopoe, every person ever born is unclean in God's sight. This is why Jesus Christ, the sinless lamb of God, submitted Himself to die on the cross as our substitute. He will make you clean in God's sight when you repent of your sins and put your trust in Jesus!

Notes: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoopoe. Photo: Courtesy of Arturo Nikolai. (CC-BY-SA 2.0 GENERIC).
​Creation Moments, Inc., P.O. Box 839, Foley, MN 56329 www.creationmoments.com

Tight clothing is at least as much a potential moral stumbling stone for men as skimpy clothing. When we invited feedback on this issue in 2007 while writing the book Dressing for the Lord, most of the men who responded indicated that TIGHT SKIRTS, TIGHT BLOUSES, FORM-FITTING JEANS, AND ONE-PIECE BATHING SUITS hold a “VERY great potential” for lust. Since then it has become popular for females to wear tights under a tiny skirt or long shirt and think they are modest since they are “covered up,” but this is incredibly seductive attire. It makes me wonder what prostitutes do today to set themselves apart from the crowd. In our survey, one man said tight clothing is “very inviting and a potential for lust.” Another said, “You don’t even need to see skin; they provide all the curves.” Another said: “I would say the number one problem is any garment that is form fitting, be it jeans, pants, skirt, dress, shirt, whatever. Anything that is tight, no matter how long it is, leaves nothing to the imagination, and that defeats the whole purpose of covering the skin in the first place!” Another said: “One thing I see in my church is tight clothing. It is revealing the shape in a woman. This can be even more tantalizing to a man.” Another wrote: “The point is that it is not the type of clothing that can trip a man up, rather it is the amount and the level of cling to the body.” Some of the men also mentioned low-riding jeans as a cause for concern, not only because they totally emphasize the woman’s figure but also because they are suggestive of a bare midriff even if covered with a T-shirt. The T-shirt in such a case is invariably tight, of course.


(Friday Church News Notes, November 13, 2015, www.wayoflife.org, [email protected], 866-295-4143)

​2 Corinthians 10:5

On today's Creation Moments broadcast, we're going to give you a little quiz, so put on your thinking cap!

Picture in your mind that our planet is as smooth as a billiard ball and is exactly 25,000 miles around at the equator. Now picture a 25,000-mile-long circle of rope lying on the ground that completely encircles the planet. Here's the puzzle: If you wanted to lift this unstretchable rope to a height of one foot all around the Earth, how much rope would you need to add?

What's the right answer? Would you need to add more than ten miles of new rope? Would just a mile be enough? Less than a mile?

Most people say they would need to add more than ten miles of rope or only a mile. But hardly anyone ever gives the correct answer that less than a mile of rope is required. Even more surprising is that only six point two feet of new rope is required to lift the whole rope one foot high! Though this may be hard to believe, to arrive at the correct answer, use the mathematical formula for determining the circumference of a circle – 2 π R.
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So why does nearly everyone get it wrong? Because people are prone to say what seems right without thinking it through. That's why Christians, especially students, need to approach such topics as evolution with a thinking mind that chooses the right answer over the popular answer.

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

“On CNN, November 1, TV host Fareed Zakaria interviewed atheist/religious zealot Richard Dawkins. And no surprise, Dawkins, in his usual disparaging style, derided anyone who believes God created the universe and all life and who reject the fairy-tale belief that all life arose by natural processes. Dawkins particularly disparaged Dr. Ben Carson, running for US President. In this interview, Dawkins made the false claim (that he’s made many times) that ‘evolution is the bedrock of biology and biology is the bedrock of medicine.’ He went on to say this about Dr. Carson: ‘He clearly doesn’t understand the fundamental theorem of his own subject. That is a terrible indictment.’ Actually, by making such an ignorant and nonsensical statement, Dawkins is disproving his own accusation! Obviously, Dr. Carson didn’t need to believe in evolution to become a world-renowned pediatric neurosurgeon with sophisticated skills at age 33, receive 67 honorary doctorate degrees, separate conjoined twins, become a member of the Alpha Honor Medical Society, be named to the Horatio Alger Society of Distinguished Americans, be picked by Time magazine as one of the nation's 20 foremost physicians and scientists, for the Library of Congress to select him as one of 89 ‘Living Legends’ ... along with many other accomplishments. How does that impressive list line up with what Richard Dawkins has accomplished in this world? And if Dr. Carson can achieve all these accomplishments without believing in evolution, what then does evolution have to do with medicine? As I challenged TV’s Bill Nye ‘the Science Guy’ (and I have also challenged Dawkins), name one technological advancement (including one medical advancement) that could not have come about without a belief in evolution? Well, there are no such examples. Evolution is not the ‘bedrock’ of biology or medicine! Evolution is a fairy tale, akin to Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs!”

​“Richard Dawkins Chides a Real Scientist,” Ken Ham, Answers in Genesis, Nov. 2, 2015

Proverbs 4:14

When he was just a little boy, people could tell that Charlie was a problem child. By his own admission later in life, the boy was a sadist who experienced a great deal of pleasure from torturing and killing animals. One of his favorite things to do was killing birds by pounding on their heads with a hammer.

As a teenager, Charlie continued behaving like a twisted individual. When he was 17, he dedicated his summer and autumns to killing animals, not for the meat but for the sheer joy of killing. When he started making plans for an ocean voyage that would take him to many exotic lands, he decided to bring along several guns, hoping to find cannibals so he could kill them.

If you haven't already guessed, I am talking about Charles Darwin. Not only was he a problem child obsessed with torturing and killing animals, he grew up to unleash a philosophy that would leave the whole world in ruins after the publication of his book On the Origin of Species.
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As Kevin Swanson points out in his book Apostate: The Men Who Destroyed the Christian West, Darwin came from a long line of apostates. This included his father, Robert, and his grandfather, Erasmus, who was a pioneering humanist and enlightenment thinker. But it was the apostate Charles who turned his back on his Creator and reaches out from the grave with a philosophy that continues to destroy countless millions of lives.

Notes: Kevin Swanson, Apostate: The Men Who Destroyed the Christian West, p. 128 (Generations with Vision, 2013).
Creation Moments, Inc., P.O. Box 839, Foley, MN 56329 www.creationmoments.com

A Colorado high school is being investigated by police for a massive sexting scandal after several hundred indecent images of students were found on cell phones. George Welsh, Superintendent of Schools in the Canon City School District south of Denver, said, “There isn’t a school in the United States probably at this point that hasn’t at some point dealt with the issue of sexting” (“Sexting Scandal,” CNN, Nov. 7, 2015). He is identifying a moral plague, but the authorities only address its symptoms. The root issue is the promotion of moral license at every level of society, particularly by the entertainment industry. It is impossible to effectually deal with sexting without putting moral controls on such things as music, television, movies, social media, and video games. At a deeper level, the issue is the lack of moral authority in a society that is still to a large degree “Christian,” and this is a problem that points to the apostasy and compromise in America’s pulpits. America doesn’t fear God because the fear of God is not preached from most of its pulpits. It was the lack of the fear of God and the spiritual powerlessness of America’s churches that allowed the public schools to be taken over by the godless.

(Friday Church News Notes, November 13, 2015, www.wayoflife.org, [email protected], 866-295-4143)

​1 Thessalonians 5:5

The best fishermen not only know where the fish are biting, but exactly what type of bait or lure is needed to catch the big ones. That's why I say that the best fisherman of all is not a man but a bird.

The black heron knows exactly where and when the fish are biting. He goes fishing for his food by wading into shallow lakes and ponds. But there's a problem. Fish avoid the water's surface to avoid the bright rays of the sun. Even if a fish does come close to the surface, the black heron is unable to see it because he is blinded by the sun's reflection.

But like I said, this bird is a master fisherman. What he does is shape his wings into a large black umbrella. He then crouches down until his wings are almost touching the water, effectively turning daylight into darkness, and attracting fish to the shade. Under cover of his umbrella, the black heron pokes his head into the water and comes out with a squirming fish in his beak.
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This kind of fishing is known as canopy feeding. How did the black heron learn to fish like this? Creationists know, but evolutionists have no reasonable answer. They only have a term. Yes, evolutionists are good at coming up with terms like "canopy feeding", but when it comes to explaining how such a thing originated in the first place, they are still very much in the dark.

Notes: http://thewebsiteofeverything.com/animals/birds/Ciconiiformes/Ardeidae/Egretta-ardesiaca. Photo: Courtesy of Steve Garvie. (CC-BY-SA 2.0 GENERIC). Creation Moments, Inc., P.O. Box 839, Foley, MN 56329 www.creationmoments.com

In Islamic Sharia law, blasphemy is punishable by death, but blasphemy is not limited to saying something against Allah. It also includes saying anything negative against Muhammad, the Quran, suggesting that the Sharia law is defective, or “refusing the decision of the ijma, which is the consensus of the Islamic community or umma” (Serge Trifkovic,The Sword of the Prophet, p. 106). The Sharia blasphemy law has often been used to target someone with a false accusation. This has happened frequently in Pakistan and other places in recent years. And Sharia often becomes mob rule, when Muslims take “justice” into their own hands and injure or kill those who are accused of blasphemy. No evidence is needed. In November 2014, a Christian husband and wife in Pakistan were burned alive by a mob on allegations of blasphemy. They were thrown into the brick kiln at the factory where they worked. The woman was pregnant with the couple’s fifth child. “As the couple was burning and crying their innocence, the mob was shouting ‘Allah hu Akbar,’ ‘death to blasphemer,’ ‘kill infidel Christians’” (“Christian Couple Burnt Alive,” Pakistan Christian Post, Nov. 7, 2014). Some other Sharia laws are as follows: A Muslim who leaves Islam is subject to death. A non-Muslim who leads a Muslim away from Islam is subject to death. A non-Muslim who marries a Muslim woman is subject to death. Theft is punishable by the amputation of the right hand. Testimonies of four male witnesses are required to prove rape against a woman. A woman who has been raped cannot testify in court against her rapist(s).

(Friday Church News Notes, November 13, 2015, www.wayoflife.org, [email protected], 866-295-4143)