Genesis 3:13

​Remember being taught that boa constrictors kill their prey by literally squeezing the breath out of them? Well, scientists now know this isn't true at all.

As a recent National Geographic article points out, "Boa constrictors were long thought to kill their prey by suffocation, slowly squeezing the life out one ragged breath at a time. But a new study reveals that these big, non-venomous serpents, found in tropical Central and South America, subdue their quarry with a much quicker method: Cutting off their blood supply."

The study was conducted by vertebrate ecologist Scott Boback and his research team at Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. After feeding lab rats to boa constrictors, they found that the snakes were killing their prey by stopping the flow of blood – a much faster killing method than death by strangulation. Boback theorizes that killing by circulatory arrest gives constricting snakes an evolutionary advantage. After all, the quicker the prey dies, the less chance that it will bite the snake.

That's what it's all about, isn't it? Evolution. Isn't it interesting that evolution was also given credit when science mistakenly thought that suffocation was the means of death? The important thing to evolutionary scientists is not how boa constrictors kill their prey. The important thing for them is giving evolution full credit.

When creationists observe the animal kingdom, we praise God. When evolutionists observe the animal kingdom, they, too, give praise, but to a different "god" entirely.

Notes: Jason Bittel, "Why We Were Totally Wrong About How Boa Constrictors Kill," National Geographic, 7/22/15. Photo: (Wikimedia Commons). Creation Moments, Inc., P.O. Box 839, Foley, MN 56329 www.creationmoments.com

The Bible was given to reveal God to man, and He is a God like no God that man could devise. He is one God, but He is a Trinity. He is Spirit, but He became a man. He is a lion and a lamb. He is a Judge and a Saviour. He is a tender father and a consuming fire. He is the God of heaven and hell. The most amazing side of God is His tender mercy. God is so merciful that He humbled Himself to become a man, to come into this sin cursed world, to live among sinners, to live as a poor man, to live as a Servant, and to allow Himself to be shamefully treated and crucified in order to atone for the sins of His enemies. God is meek and lowly in heart (Mat. 11:29). He is so merciful that He humbles Himself to seek sinners and to call them to His feast of salvation. He humbly knocks on the door of the rebel, desiring him to open the door so that He might sup with him (Rev. 3:20). God is so merciful that He weeps over sinners even when He knows they won’t repent. “And when he was come near, he beheld the city, and wept over it” (Luke 19:41). “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under herwings, and ye would not!” (Matthew 23:37).

(Friday Church News Notes, December 25, 2015, www.wayoflife.org, [email protected], 866-295-4143)

Proverbs 30:28

Have you ever stood at a construction site watching cranes lift heavy objects suspended by steel cables? Well, a spider in Madagascar can do the same thing. They routinely lift snail shells 20 times their weight using stronger-than-steel cables made of spider silk. This would be like a 180-pound piano mover lifting a piano weighing 3,600 pounds!

Olios coenobitus is an elusive spider that lives in snail shells which it hoists high up in bushes to protect itself from predators. Though the snail shell spider was first discovered in 1926, it wasn't until 2011 that a BBC camera crew was able to film it as it raised a snail shell off the jungle floor using a network of silk threads.

The spider begins by attaching a silk thread to the branch of a bush and then sticking the other end on the shell. He then attaches another silken strand but makes it a bit shorter than the first. Each time he makes the thread shorter and shorter. After doing this multiple times, the shell lifts off the ground and then heads upwards, where it will eventually become a roomy shelter for the spider.

With a brain no bigger than a grain of rice, this spider is able to pull off one of the most amazing engineering feats ever! How did that spider survive before it started hoisting shells many times its weight? And who taught it such complex engineering skills? The answer is obvious. But evolutionists stubbornly refuse to admit it.

Notes: Ella Davides, "Madagascar's elusive shell-squatting spider filmed," BBC Earth News, 2/8/11.
Creation Moments, Inc., P.O. Box 839, Foley, MN 56329 www.creationmoments.com

Jeremiah 29:13

In an interview with Britain's The Guardian newspaper in 2011, famed physicist Stephen Hawking warned that the efforts by the SETI Institute to actively "contact possible intelligent life out there is way too risky and dangerous."

In a report on why he fears contact with alien life, Hawking wrote: "I imagine they might exist in massive ships, having used all the resources from their home planet. Such advanced aliens would perhaps become nomads, looking to conquer and colonize whatever planets they can reach. If aliens ever visit us, I think the outcome would be much as when Christopher Columbus first landed in America, which didn't turn out very well for the Native Americans."

Fast forward now to July of 2015, and you'll see that professor Hawking has become much more hawkish in searching for extraterrestrial life. Stephen Hawking joined tech investor Yuri Milner and famed astrophysicist Lord Martin Rees in announcing the launch of Breakthrough Initiatives. Over the next 10 years, Milner will invest $100 million in this project that will give scientists access to some of the best telescopes in the world. This, they feel, is one giant step forward in the search for extraterrestrial life.

However, they will come up just as empty-handed as the SETI project did after decades of fruitless searching. Breakthrough Initiatives is searching for the wrong thing, you see. If they searched for God – the giver of all life – they would find Him when they searched with all their heart.
​
Notes: Dave Masko, "UFO sightings warn of alien invasion, states Stephen Hawking who fears SETI's search," HULIQ, 5/28/11. Heather Kelly, "Search for alien life gets $100M and Stephen Hawking's blessing," CNNMoney, 7/21/15.
Creation Moments, Inc., P.O. Box 839, Foley, MN 56329 www.creationmoments.com

The last official recorded action of the Inquisition in Italy was in 1858, when the Catholic authorities seized a six-year-old boy, Edgardo Mortara, from a Jewish family. Since he had supposedly been secretly baptized by his Catholic nursemaid when he was in danger of death, the little boy was considered a Catholic and a Christian! It being illegal in the Papal States for a Catholic child to be raised by Jews, police and a Catholic inquisitor entered the house one evening in June and seized the boy. He was taken to Rome and adopted by Pope Pius IX. His parents were not allowed to see him for weeks, and afterward they could visit him only under supervision. The boy’s distraught father, Momolo Mortara, spent years seeking help “in all quarters,” but it was in vain. He was informed that they could only have Edgardo back if the family would convert to Catholicism, which they refused to do. They had seven other children. The outcry against the pope’s actions was loud, but he called his detractors “dogs.” In a speech in 1871, he said, “Of these dogs, there are too many of them at present in Rome, and we hear them howling in the streets, and they are disturbing us in all places” (Kenneth Stowe,Popes, Church, and Jews in the Middle Ages, pp. 57-58). Edgardo became a Catholic priest, traveling widely in an attempt to convert Jews, though largely unsuccessfully.

(Friday Church News Notes, December 25, 2015, www.wayoflife.org, [email protected], 866-295-4143)

Genesis 3:14

​Did you hear the exciting news about the scientist who found a snake with four legs? Well, actually it wasn't a snake. It was a fossil that British paleontologist David Martill from the University of Portsmouth discovered in an almost-forgotten box at a museum in Germany.

After the fossil's discoverer announced: "I realized we'd actually got the missing link between lizards and snakes", it didn't take long for tabloid-style headlines like these to start appearing:

•    "Four-legged fossil holds secret of snake's slithering origins"
•    "Weird 4-legged snake was transitional creature" and
•    "Snakes' four-legged missing link"

Headlines like these are very misleading, to say the least. For one thing, this fossil is not the earth-shaking discovery that science publications would like us to believe. Have you ever heard of worm lizards? Did you know that many snakes with two legs have been found? The only thing different about this fossil is that it has four rather than two legs. Some scientists, in fact, aren't even convinced it's a snake at all. They think it's just a reptile.

Here at Creation Moments, we think it's quite possible that this four-legged snake fossil is hard evidence for what creationists have been saying all along about snakes. For as the Bible tells us in Genesis 3:14, God punished the serpent for deceiving Eve by making it crawl on its belly. This clearly suggests that snakes had legs before the curse.

Notes: "Four-legged snake fossil found", ScienceDaily, 7/23/15. Photo: Taken by Dave Martill. Courtesy of the University of Portsmouth. (Fair Use). Creation Moments, Inc., P.O. Box 839, Foley, MN 56329 www.creationmoments.com

Todd Bentley, the discredited healing evangelist of “Lakeland Outpouring” infamy, is back at it. Now he claims to be raising the dead in Pakistan. A “healing” crusade in Karachi was allegedly attended by 500,000 Muslims, 290,000 of whom “accepted Christ as their Saviour.” The highlight, though, was the raising from the dead of three people, including a boy who had been dead for “20 minutes.” In a YouTube clip, Bentley says, “The Archbishop over the Anglican, Presbyterian and Methodist churches of Pakistan was on the platform. And he came like the Pope himself to Pakistan to welcome us into the country” (“Controversial Evangelist,” Christian Post, Dec. 18, 2015). Bentley was the “evangelist” of a Pentecostal healing “revival” at Ignite Church in Lakeland, Florida, in 2008, where he made all sorts of outrageous claims, such as a man being able to see out of a glass eye. His ministry was unable to document any of the healing miracles. After weeks of hoopla, the meeting shut down when it was learned that Bentley had an “unhealthy relationship” with a female staffer and was engaged in “excessive drinking.” He subsequently divorced his wife and married the staffer. Bentley’s meetings have a sideshow feel with raucous music and the grossly-tattooed “evangelist” crying out, “Come and get some,” and “[Miracles are] popping like popcorn.” He claims to know what is happening in the audience, calling out things like, “Someone’s getting a new spinal cord tonight.” He “flings” the Spirit upon people while weirdly yelling, “blah, blah, blah, blah.” “Holy laughter,” spiritual drunkenness, violent shaking, and “falling under the power” are an integral part of the “revival.” Bentley claims to have seen many angels, including “financial angels” who spread prosperity to him and those who attend his meetings. One of his angels is named “Emma,” though there are no female angels in Scripture. My friends, God is not dead, but He has given us clear instructions in Scripture about healing. If someone is sick, he is to call the elders of the church and confess any sins, and they are to anoint him with oil and pray over him (James 5:13-16). This assumes, first, that the individual is born again through repentance and faith in Jesus Christ. It assumes, second, that he or she is a member of a Bible-believing church. James 5 does not describe a “healing crusade.” We believe in divine healing for today through prayer, but we don’t believe in Pentecostal showmen. See the reports “I Believe in Miracles” and “Todd Bentley and the Lakeland Deception” at www.wayoflife.org.

(Friday Church News Notes, December 25, 2015, www.wayoflife.org, [email protected], 866-295-4143)

“Right now, an American hero is fighting for his right to make that decision from his hospital bed at Houston Methodist Hospital. David Christopher “Chris” Dunn is one of countless Texans who have been victimized by the draconian Texas Advance Directives Act (TADA), enacted by the Texas Legislature in 1999. The law--which benefits the medical lobby and jeopardizes medically vulnerable Texans--protects the financial and discriminatory interests of hospitals and physicians by abrogating the civil liberties of patients. When a hospital or physician determines for any reason that they disagree with a patient’s decision about his or her own medical treatment and invokes TADA, Texas law protects those healthcare providers as they remove life-sustaining treatment from the patient even when doing so means overriding the patient’s desire and right to life--and even when the treatment is benefiting the patient. The law does not require that the hospital inform the patient or family about the reasons or basis for the removal of treatment, which could include financial reasons, discrimination, or subjective quality of life value judgments about the life of the patient. Chris, who has served Texas and the nation as an EMT, in the Harris County Sheriff’s office, and Homeland Security employee, received his death sentence when Methodist invoked the TADA statutory process last month. After the hospital announced that care would be forcibly removed from Chris against his will, Chris’s family contacted Texas Right to Life, and, with legal aid, an extension of the ten-day waiting period was secured.  ... A Harris County judge has granted two consecutive two-week extensions thus far, but Houston Methodist Hospital has countered these interventions with additional court filings to remove Chris’s mother from the process.  His mother, Evelyn, has been vigilant in protecting Chris since he is intermittently sedated. ... What makes the Texas Advance Directives Act even more despicable is the airtight power of the hospital to kill patients without any recourse to appeal the death sentence imposed by the hospital committee. That’s right--the final arbiter over the hospital’s fatal decision is the hospital!”

​“Striking video shows patient begging to stay alive,” LifeNews.com, Dec. 7, 2015

Note: Before the pro-life group had a chance to get Dunn to a hospital that would provide him appropriate medical care and treatment, Dunn passed away on December 22, 2015.

On December 11, an appeals court in the United Kingdom overturned the conviction of a street preacher who quoted from the Bible against homosexuality. Michael Overd was convicted in March of offending public order because he quoted Leviticus 20 in a public conversation. The homosexuals who brought the accusation had actually instigated the conversation in an apparent attempt to antagonize Overd. He was fined $300 and ordered to pay compensation and costs totaling $1800 for causing “emotional pain.” Now this conviction has been overruled by Taunton Crown Court Circuit Judge David Ticehurst, who upheld Overd’s appeal. He was defended by Christian Concern. In comments following the reversal of his conviction, Overd said: “I give thanks to God for today’s vindication. I have known God’s peace and presence throughout this difficult time. Today the Court was faced with the farcical situation of a witness telling the judge that he couldn’t even remember what I had said, but simply asserting that it was ‘homophobic’--as though the mere assertion that something is ‘homophobic’ is enough to curtail free speech. In this country, we are now in the ludicrous situation where the slightest accusation of a ‘phobia’, be it ‘homophobia’ or ‘Islamaphobia’, is enough to paralyse rational action by the police and authorities. The highly politicised dogma of ‘phobias’ now too often results in trumped up charges and legal action. There is a chilling effect. Reasonable, law-abiding people now feel that they can’t say certain things and that is dangerous. Totalitarian regimes develop when ordinary people feel that there are certain things that can’t be said” (“Christian preachers wins appeal,” Christian Concern, Dec. 11, 2015).

(Friday Church News Notes, December 25, 2015, www.wayoflife.org, [email protected], 866-295-4143)

Job 29:3

As Creation Moments has reported in the past, evolutionists were dead wrong when they told us that viceroy butterflies evolved to look like toxic monarch butterflies to trick predators into thinking that they, too, are toxic. As it turned out, viceroy butterflies really are toxic – more toxic than monarchs.

Despite the facts, the myth of viceroy butterfly evolution was taught to millions of unsuspecting children. And it worked so well, evolutionists are at it again. According to National Geographic News, the rare L. luckae cockroach evolved the ability to glow in the dark "to mimic the bioluminescent click beetle, whose glow warns predators of its toxicity."

The only evidence they've got for this is that the wavelengths of light released from both bugs are identical. That's it? That's the best evidence they've got?

The National Geographic News article admits that the cockroach's bioluminescence also gives it a disadvantage, evolutionary speaking, because it makes it easier for predators to spot them. But evolutionary biologist Olivia Judson already has an answer for that: "Bioluminescence is like any evolutionary tool – there is no single use for it. It can attract, deter, or even be used as an invisibility cloak of sorts."

It's been said that when all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. In the same way, when all you have is a godless natural world, everything – including a bioluminescent cockroach – looks like it can be used to trick people into believing that evolution caused it.
​
Notes: N. Mott, "Glowing Cockroach Mimics Toxic Beetle," National Geographic News, 8/30/12. Photo: Courtesy of Peter Vrsansky, Slovak Academy of Sciences. (Fair Use). Creation Moments, Inc., P.O. Box 839, Foley, MN 56329 www.creationmoments.com

Leviticus 11:19

​Imagine this – you're a carnivorous pitcher plant with no scent to attract insects. Even worse, though most pitcher plants are designed to kill insects in their pool of digestive fluids, you don't have enough fluid to do the job. What's a poor pitcher plant to do?

Well, God didn't forget about the needs of the Nepenthes hemsleyana. He gave it a unique ability to "call out" to bats that are looking for lodging. Once the bat and its family are checked in for the night, they pay for their room by depositing enough nitrogen-rich guano to keep the plant healthy and alive.

So how exactly does a plant without vocal cords call out to bats? The plant's leaves are actually shaped in a way that reflects sonar. As bats fly through the jungles of Borneo – using echolocation to get around – their "clicks" are reflected to them by the leaves of this plant. They take this as an open invitation to bed down for the night.

If you ever look inside one of these plants, you won't find insects in various stages of decomposition. Instead, you'll find the Hardwicke’s woolly bat roosting comfortably inside, either alone or with her whole family.

Here at Creation Moments, we never tire of telling others about the amazing plants and animals God has created. Judging from the fact that we've been doing this for over 50 years, many of you feel the exact same way. So tell your friends about Creation Moments, won't you?

Notes: Schöner, Schöner, Simon, Grafe, Puechmaille, Ji & Kerth. 2015. "Bats Are Acoustically Attracted to Mutualistic Carnivorous Plants", Current Biology http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2015.05.054. Photo: Courtesy of © Ch'ien C. Lee.
Creation Moments, Inc., P.O. Box 839, Foley, MN 56329 www.creationmoments.com

Another one of the seven new female Church of England bishops appointed since December 2014 is Karen Gorham, Bishop of Sherborne, a supporter of nudist colonies. Part of her ecclesiastical territory is the Studland nudist beach where her family experienced “naturism” when she was a child (“Church of England appoints nudist bishop,” Breitbart, Nov. 30, 2015). Though Gorham allegedly “stopped going nude while she was a teen,” she has written a treatise supporting the practice and urging “the Church” to remove “false taboos.” “Unto Adam also and to his wife did the LORD God make coats of skins, and clothed them” (Genesis 3:21). “And they come to Jesus, and see him that was possessed with the devil, and had the legion, sitting, and clothed, and in his right mind: and they were afraid” (Mark 5:15).

(Friday Church News Notes, December 18, 2015, www.wayoflife.org, [email protected], 866-295-4143)

Ephesians 5:6

​While doing some research on how the non-venomous hognose snake is able to mimic the behaviors of the deadly rattlesnake, we happened to come across a website with an interesting article on biological mimicry.

According to the website, "Biological mimicry occurs when a group of organisms – the mimics – have evolved to share common perceived characteristics with another group – the models – through the selective action of a signal-receiver – or dupe." In this instance, the hognose snake is the mimic, the rattlesnake is the model, and the creature that missed out on having the hognose snake for lunch is the dupe.

They go on to say that mimicry in most cases is advantageous to the mimic and harmful to the dupe. With this in mind, I would like you to consider the proposition that evolutionists themselves are "mimics". They mimic the "model" scientists who deal with real science – that is, those involved in empirical, observable and repeatable science.

Meanwhile, these mimics in white lab coats get paid handsome salaries and receive government grant money, so they enjoy all the advantages of appearing to be scientists engaged in real science. At the same time, however, they are harming other people – the dupes – by getting them to believe a lie. Worse yet, they make it easy for the dupes to abandon belief in God.

In a world that fails to distinguish between real science and a godless philosophy masquerading as science, let us all be diligent in teaching others how to tell the two apart.

Notes: "Biological Mimicry", The Encyclopedia of Earth website, 9/24/09. Photo: Courtesy of Benny Mazur. (CC-BY 2.0).
​Creation Moments, Inc., P.O. Box 839, Foley, MN 56329 www.creationmoments.com

CHURCH OF ENGLAND BISHOP SAYS GOD SHOULD NOT BE REFERRED TO AS “HE”  - The Church of England has appointed seven female “bishops” since last December. One of those, Rachel Trewood, Bishop of Gloucester, said that it is wrong to refer to God as “He” because God is “gender neutral” (“God is not a he or a she,” The Guardian, Oct. 24, 2015). Trewood is one of the House of Parliament’s “26 Lords Spiritual,” which is sad because she doesn’t believe the Lord Jesus Christ, who said, “After this manner therefore pray ye: OUR FATHER which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name” (Matthew 6:9). Trewood also says that she is not comfortable with the term “mother.” “There is something about the whole connotation of ‘mother’ that has a sense of dependency for me. It’s not how I want to be looked at. I see myself as a leader, as leading from among the people.”

(Friday Church News Notes, December 18, 2015, www.wayoflife.org, [email protected], 866-295-4143)

Genesis 8:19

Many of us would enjoy watching a redheaded woodpecker bang bang bang his head into a tree trunk. But today I'd like to tell you about another redheaded creature that would probably have many of us running in the opposite direction. I'm talking about the giant redheaded centipede.

After the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department posted a picture of the creepy crawler on its social media pages, the photo quickly went viral. To see one in real life, you would have to travel to northern Mexico or the southern United States. But we have a better idea. Check out the photo at the Creation Moments website.

As their name makes abundantly clear, these centipedes are really big – their bodies are typically eight inches long. And with 21 to 23 pairs of long yellow legs, they are able to get around quickly. Those legs aren't just for locomotion, by the way. They can actually inject venom after making tiny incisions in human skin. Plus, the centipede has a pair of fangs that can inject a painful toxin. While it has not been confirmed, there are reports of one person dying of a heart attack after being bitten.

Though the giant redheaded centipede might send shivers up our spine, it reminds us that we live in a fallen world. As the Bible tells us, we long for a better country, a heavenly home where there is no pain, no suffering, and … I sincerely hope … no giant redheaded centipedes!
​
Notes: Elizabeth Palermo, "Giant Redheaded Centipede Photo Goes Viral, Horrifies the Internet", Live Science, 7/10/15.
​Photo: Courtesy of Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.
Creation Moments, Inc., P.O. Box 839, Foley, MN 56329 www.creationmoments.com

The Waldenses lived in northern Italy and France and had congregations in many other parts of Europe through their missionary work. The name “Waldenses” encompassed a variety of doctrine and practice, but most Waldenses held the Bible as the sole authority for faith and practice and rejected Rome’s errors. Many, if not most, were baptistic (prior to the Reformation). For this reason, they were bitterly and terribly persecuted for hundreds of years. They believed in salvation by God’s grace alone without works and loved the Bible as God’s infallible Word. They read the Bible, memorized the Bible, and taught the Bible. One of their Bible colleges was in Piedmont in northern Italy. A beautiful, full-size model of the multi-room stone building can be seen in the Waldenses museum in Valdes, North Carolina, where a group of Waldenses settled in 1893. Their most ancient Bible was in the Romaunt language, a common language of the south of Europe from the 8th to the 14th centuries. It was the language of the troubadours, nobles, knights, and men of letters. Only seven of the Waldensian Romaunt New Testaments survived Rome’s burnings, and I have examined two of these, one at Cambridge University and one at Trinity College, Dublin. They were based on the Latin text, and as a result they have the Trinitarian “comma” in 1 John 5:7, but they lack “God” in 1 Timothy 3:16, which was preserved in Greek but not in Latin. For many centuries, Rome forbad the Bible to be translated into and read in the common languages. Well into the 19th century, the popes continued to hurl curses at the Bible societies for the “sin” of distributing the Bible among the people, even though those Bibles were usually “without note or commentary.” Rome cursed the Waldo Romaunt, the Olivetan French, and the Diodati Italian. But in the 1970s, the Waldenses joined hands with the Roman Catholic Church to produce an “interconfessional Bible” based on the corrupt Egyptian text of ancient heretical origin. It is this corrupt interconfessional Bible that Pope Francis kissed in his visit to the Waldenses of June 2015. (Our studies on the Waldenses can be found in the book Rome and the Bible: Tracing the History of the Roman Catholic Church and Its Persecution of the Bible and Bible Believers, available from www.wayoflife.org.)

(Friday Church News Notes, December 18, 2015, www.wayoflife.org, [email protected], 866-295-4143)

Isaiah 5:20

As Creation Moments has pointed out in the past, evolution is a fundamental corruption of truth with far-reaching consequences – working to undermine and subvert morality, cultures and people.

That's why we weren't surprised when outspoken atheist and evolutionist Richard Dawkins defended what he called "mild pedophilia". He says he experienced it himself as a boy, adding that other children in his school had been molested by the same teacher. He excused it, however, by saying, "I don’t think he did any of us lasting harm."

The Religious News Service reports that Dawkins believes that the fear of pedophilia is overblown by society. After all, if he and his schoolmates didn't experience lasting harm from childhood sexual abuse, how bad could it be?

But, of course, Dawkins can never miss an opportunity to take a pot shot at God. He said that fundamentalist religious beliefs, like those found in the Bible, are actually a worse way to abuse a child. In Dawkins' own words, "Thank goodness, I have never personally experienced what it is like to believe…in hell. But I think it can be plausibly argued that such a deeply held belief might cause a child more long-lasting mental trauma than the temporary embarrassment of mild physical abuse."

As you can see, evolution really has far-reaching consequences that touches every area of our lives. It tosses absolute standards of morality out the door. And it can even turn an Oxford professor into a defender of pedophilia.
​
Notes: Aby Ohlheiser, "Richard Dawkins Defends 'Mild' Pedophilia, Again and Again", The Wire, 9/10/13. Photo: (CC-BY 2.0). Creation Moments, Inc., P.O. Box 839, Foley, MN 56329 www.creationmoments.com

Earlier this year, Pope Francis became the first pope to visit a Waldensian church. On June 22, he visited Turin, Italy, and spoke in the church there. He even kissed the Bible which was banned and burned by his infamous predecessors. For 600 years, the Roman Catholic Church hounded and slaughtered Waldenses in their home territory in the Cottian Alps in northwest Italy, in France, and elsewhere. This is a fact of history that was documented by Waldensian pastors who were on the receiving end of the Inquisition. For many years I collected these histories, and we eventually published them in the Fundamental Baptist Digital Library. As late as 1690, Waldenses were being killed for their faith at the hands of Roman armies, and they did not receive full religious liberty in Italy until 1848. Since then, they have apostatized. In 1947, the Waldenses built the Agape ecumenical center, and beginning in the early 1980s, it hosted “ecumenical conferences for homosexuals” (You Are My Witnesses: The Waldenses across 800 Years, p. 303). In 1975, the Waldenses in Italy merged with the liberal Methodists and joined the World Council of Churches, which promotes unity among all churches and religions. In 2003, David Brown, Brian Snider, and I visited the Waldensian Museum in Torre Pellice, not far from Turin, and the woman in charge told us that she doesn’t believe in heaven or hell. She said that heaven is a metaphor. When asked how a person can be saved, she replied that “the main task we have is to live our life and when we are dead, God will think about us. Just try to be faithful to your vocation that God calls you to do.”

(Friday Church News Notes, December 18, 2015, www.wayoflife.org, [email protected], 866-295-4143)

The Internet is too powerful a communication device to be left alone by thought police, and I am convinced that it is only prayer and the grace of God that has kept it free in most parts of the world thus far. A reminder of what many want to do came recently when Eric Schmidt, Executive Chairman of Google, wrote in the New York Times that he wants to use technology to “filter-out extremist material.” He said, “We should build tools to help de-escalate tensions on social media--sort of like spell-checkers, but for hate and harassment.” But who is to define “hate and harassment”? Many Islamists define any negative view of Islam as hate. Many homosexuals define support for traditional marriage as hate. Many feminists define anti-feminist speech as hateful harassment, and many economic liberals and socialists define speech opposing the welfare state as hate. In fact, on some college and university campuses, ANY “offensive” speech is hateful.

(Friday Church News Notes, December 18, 2015, www.wayoflife.org, [email protected], 866-295-4143)

In a portent of the times, a pastor is going to trial in Northern Ireland for comments about Islam in a sermon. Pastor James McConnell of Whitewell Metropolitan Tabernacle in Belfast called Islam “Satanic” and “heathen,” both of which are true according to the Bible’s teaching. Pastor McConnell is charged by God to “preach the Word, reprove, rebuke, exhort” (2 Timothy 4:2), and that is what he was doing. The Irish government has become so audacious as to try to rule over the content of Bible preaching. Because the sermon was streamed online, the 78-year-old pastor is being prosecuted under the 2003 Communications Acts for allegedly “causing a grossly offensive message to be sent by means of a public electronic communications network” (“Pastor to go on trial,” RTE News, Dec. 14, 2015; RTE is Ireland’s national broadcasting service). Hundreds of Christians have attended the pre-trial hearings to show their support of the preacher and their protest of this brazen attack on the freedom of religion and the freedom of speech. Pastor McConnell isn’t cowed. He told the press, “It’s a good day for hanging--particularly to hang the prosecution.” “Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD, and against his anointed, saying, Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us” (Psalm 2:1-3).

(Friday Church News Notes, December 18, 2015, www.wayoflife.org, [email protected], 866-295-4143)

John 6:29

​In a typical anti-creationist op-ed piece for Scientific American, columnist John Horgan begins by explaining why he titled his column: "Pssst! Don't tell the creationists, but scientists don't have a clue how life began."

Horgan looks at an Arizona State University status report on research into the origin of life. In Horgan's own words, the scientists concluded, "Geologists, chemists, astronomers and biologists are as stumped as ever by the riddle of life."

He also notes that he was most startled by the revelation that more scientists than ever are believing in the directed panspermia theory. As we've mentioned on a previous Creation Moments broadcast, this is the notion proposed by DNA co-discoverer Francis Crick that aliens came to Earth in a spaceship and planted the seeds of life here billions of years ago. I guess that's like saying that ET didn't phone home after all but started a family of his own here on Earth.

Though he admits that this notion fails to explain how those aliens came into existence, Horgan quickly claims that creationists have the same problem in explaining how life first began. After all, he says, "What created the divine Creator?"

Of course, this is a question that was answered centuries ago. God is the uncreated Creator. Of course, columnist Horgan won't agree with this answer. But he should stop misleading his readers by claiming that creationists are just as perplexed about the origin of life as evolutionists are.

Notes: Brian Thomas, M.S., "Pssst! Don't tell the creationists, but scientists don't have a clue how life began," Scientific American, 2/28/11. Photo: (CC-BY 2.5). Creation Moments, Inc., P.O. Box 839, Foley, MN 56329 www.creationmoments.com

Psalm 25:5

Evolutionists were so sure that dinosaur fossils are too old to contain any carbon-14, they never even bothered to check. Or perhaps they were afraid of what they would find. In any case, creationist scientists are now boldly going where evolutionists have feared to tread.

An article in the spring 2015 edition of the Creation Research Society Quarterly presents never-before-seen carbon dates for 14 different fossils, including a Triceratops and other dinosaurs. As ICR scientist Brian Thomas points out, "Because radiocarbon decays relatively quickly, fossils that are even 100,000 years old should have virtually no radiocarbon left in them. But they do."

Using the services of five different commercial and academic laboratories, the research team tested seven dinosaur bones and detected carbon-14 in them all. The team also looked at several dozen published carbon-14 results for fossils, wood and coal throughout the geologic column and found radiocarbon in almost 50 samples.

Evolutionists, of course, try to explain it all away by saying the samples were contaminated. Nice try, but if this were true, how could it be said that any radiocarbon dating results are accurate? Evolutionists can't just toss out data they don't like!

Or maybe they can. In this way, they are acting like police officers telling bystanders, "Nothing to see here, folks. Just move along." If anything, this type of behavior strongly suggests that something really is going on! And in this case, it's proof positive that dinosaurs are thousands and not millions of years old!
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Notes: Brian Thomas, M.S., "Carbon-14 Found in Dinosaur Fossils," 7/6/15. http://www.icr.org/article/carbon-14-found-dinosaur-fossils/. Photo: Courtesy of Allie Caulfield. (CC-BY-SA 3.0).
​Creation Moments, Inc., P.O. Box 839, Foley, MN 56329 www.creationmoments.com

“Worry is unnecessary; there is no need for us to bear the burdens when He is willing and able to bear them for us. Worry is futile; it hasn’t solved a problem yet. Worry is sin. A preacher once said: ‘Worry is sin because it denies the wisdom of God; it says that He doesn’t know what He’s doing. It denies the love of God; it says He does not care. And it denies the power of God; it says that He isn’t able to deliver me from whatever is causing me to worry.’” “Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God” (Philippines 4:6). “Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you” (1 Peter 5:7).





​William MacDonald’s Believer’s Bible Commentary

Psalm 8:8-9

Though the fish story I'm about to tell you is absolutely true, it goes against what we've always been taught about fish being cold-blooded. Scientists have just discovered the very first warm-blooded fish. Though fish typically require heat from the environment to stay warm, the opah is able to elevate its own temperature without the help of its environment.

So how does the opah pull off this trick? Biologist Nick Wegner tells us, "The opah appears to produce the majority of its heat by constantly flapping its pectoral fins, which are used in continuous swimming." But the opah's real secret was discovered when scientists examined the opah's unique gills.

As an article at Live Science explains, "The blood vessels are set up so that the vessels carrying cool, oxygenated blood from the gills to the body are in contact with the vessels carrying warm, deoxygenated blood from the body to the gills. As a result, the outgoing blood warms up the incoming blood, a process called counter-current heat exchange."

Hey, wait a minute! Doesn't this sound like the "wonder net" heat-exchange system in birds that we described in a Creation Moments program called "Why birds don't need socks"?
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Evolutionists will have to say that this heat-exchange system evolved not only in birds but in fish as well. But we have a much better explanation. The same God who created birds on the fifth day of creation used the same design on the opah, which He also created on day five.

Notes: "First Warm-Blooded Fish Found," Live Science, 5/14/15. Photo: Courtesy of NOAA Fisheries, Southwest Fisheries Science Center. (Fair Use). ​Creation Moments, Inc., P.O. Box 839, Foley, MN 56329 www.creationmoments.com

Kent Dobson, who took the pastorate of Mars Hill Church in Grand Rapids after its founder left in 2012, has resigned, saying that he is uncomfortable around “too much God talk” and that he isn’t sure who God is. “I’ve always felt restless and a bit homeless when it comes to church and when it comes to God talk. When I hear too much God talk, I start to feel like (shudders) [it’s] too much religion. I don’t know; it gives me a restless feeling. ... I have always been and I’m still drawn to the very edges of religion and faith and God. I’ve said a few times that I don’t even know if we know what we mean by God anymore. That’s the edges of faith” (“Too Much God Talk,” Christian News, Nov. 25, 2015). This poor man is as deceived as Mars Hill founder Rob Bell. Not knowing “what we mean by God” is not the “edges of faith”; it is wicked unbelief, because God has revealed Himself in the clearest manner possible in the Scriptures. The emerging church is a bewildering conglomerate of doctrines and practices, and it has “conservative” elements as well as the most liberal and radical. As we explained in the book What Is the Emerging Church?, it is the logical outgrowth of New Evangelicalism and its non-judgmental, broad tent philosophy. Contemporary Worship Music is a bridge to the emerging church in all of its forms, and those who cross that bridge can never know where they will end up. They could end up in the radical camp occupied by the Rob Bells and Brian McLarens. Both are “interspiritualists.” In 2008, Bell joined the Dalai Lama for the New Agey Seeds of Compassion InterSpiritual Event in Seattle which brought together Episcopalians, Roman Catholics, Buddhists, Sikhs, Muslims, and others to dialogue on “the themes common to all spiritual traditions.” In his book Velvet Elvis, Bell gives a glowing recommendation of New Age philosopher Ken Wilber, who believes that man is God. Bell recommends that his readers sit at Wilber’s feet for three months! Emerging leader Brian McLaren also recommends Wilber’s work. McLaren has said that the emergents are targeting the children and grandchildren of today’s “fundamentalists,” and when I consider the weakness of the average independent Baptist and “fundamentalist” church and the shocking ignorance of so many pastors, I am convinced that the emergents will indeed succeed in this endeavor.

(Friday Church News Notes, December 11, 2015, www.wayoflife.org, [email protected], 866-295-4143)