Psalm 84:11
“For the LORD God is a sun and shield: the LORD will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.”

   When the Bible talks about oil, it means olive oil, but when we talk about oil today, we think of engine oil. Products like engine oil, machine oil, gasoline, kerosene, and diesel oil are all petroleum products. They are all obtained by the fractional distillation of petroleum – or crude oil, as it is often known. The word petroleum reveals its origin. Petros means rock, and oleum is oil. Hence, petroleum is rock oil.
   We cannot help but be amazed at the versatility of petroleum – the large number of products which can be obtained from it. Petroleum is largely made up of hydrocarbons, which are a compound of hydrogen and carbon only, and can be found in bewildering complexities, with different numbers of carbon atoms in the molecules’ chains or rings.
   We rely on petroleum products, not only for the fuels and lubricants mentioned, but also as precursors for plastics, fabrics, and artificial materials of many sorts. From the times of early discoveries of oil in the rocks, people have learned to separate it into simpler materials. Then, as it became apparent that petroleum yielded too much of the heavy materials and not enough of the lighter fractions, methods were developed to convert the less useful molecules to more useful ones.
   We cannot help but marvel at the way God has provided for our needs through resources like petroleum.

creationmoments.com/sermons/oil-in-the-rocks/

Genesis 1:27
“So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.”
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   There are some arguments common in certain creationist circles which creationists should not use. Some people seem to worry when I make such statements, as if I am conceding that some part of evolution is true. I am not. I am also aware that many popular-level evolutionist spokespeople use specious arguments of their own. That, however, does not excuse creationists. We have the truth on our side and can have confidence in that. Remember that if you present a truth to someone else, there is no guarantee that they will accept it. They may have too much invested in their personal worldview to be able to back down.
   Sometimes, after a meeting, someone will approach me and say something like, “Evolutionists can’t answer this question: If evolution is true, why are there still monkeys?”
   This is not a good argument for creation. The statement starts by hypothesizing “if evolution were true…” That conditional statement should introduce an accurate corollary of evolutionary theory. But evolution does not suggest that humans evolved from monkeys. Apes are not monkeys. In fact, evolution does not suggest that humans evolved from apes either. It suggests that apes and humans – and monkeys – have a common ancestor. But even if it did suggest we evolved from apes, even that does not imply that ALL apes should have become humans.
   It is not difficult to refute human evolution. We should concentrate on the impossibility of the necessary information in humans arising by chance. The existence of that information makes perfect sense, given that we are directly and divinely created.

creationmoments.com/sermons/why-are-there-still-monkeys/

Exodus 27:20
“And thou shalt command the children of Israel, that they bring thee pure oil olive beaten for the light, to cause the lamp to burn always”.

   While compiling a chemistry textbook on the subject of oil, I thought it would be instructive for students to look at what the Bible says about oil. The sort of materials that we usually think of as oil usually come from petroleum, the crude mineral oil obtained from the ground. Hence, the name petroleum comes from the Greek words for Rock Oil.
   However, oil in the Bible is always olive oil. In fact, the words oil and olive have the same etymology, so the word oil is originally derived from the word for olive. Truly, the olive tree could really be called the oil tree. Our comparison of oily properties, therefore, begins with olive oil.
   The first use of oil in the Bible is as an anointing to an altar. After Jacob wakes from his vision of a stairway leading up to heaven, he took the stone that he had used to rest his head and poured oil over it as he named the place the House of God (Bethel).
   Oil appears quite frequently in the laws given by Moses. One of its most important uses is to anoint people. In Exodus 29:7, God told Moses, “Then shalt thou take the anointing oil, and pour it upon his head.” Such anointing with oil was more particularly used to anoint a king. Samuel anointed David as king in this way. The reason for such anointing is that oil is symbolic of the anointing by the Holy Spirit. Its use in anointing and its use for giving light when burnt is a picture of how the Holy Spirit works through us.

creationmoments.com/sermons/oil-in-the-bible/

I Chronicles 1:1-4
“Adam, Sheth, Enosh, Kenan, Mahalaleel, Jered, Henoch, Methuselah, Lamech, Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth."
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   First Chronicles starts in a most unusual way by simply listing the generations of people from the time of Adam onwards. What can such a list of names possibly mean?
   When we read genealogies like this in the Bible, we often forget that in Bible times the name that someone was given meant something. So it would be interesting to see what the names of these patriarchs in 1 Chronicles 1:1-3 means.
   Adam means Man. Seth means appointed. There are a couple of places in the Bible where puns are used on a person’s name, which we miss in English. For example, Genesis 4:25 reads:
   "And Adam knew his wife again; and she bare a son, and called his name Seth (which means appointed): For God, said she, hath appointed me another seed instead of Abel, whom Cain slew.”
   Enosh means mortal, reminding us that as sinners we will not live forever. Kenan means sorrow – reminding us that death has brought us sorrow. Mahalalel means the God who is to be praised. Jared means he shall come down. Enoch means teacher. Methuselah means His death will bring it about. It is interesting that Methuselah died the same year that the Flood came. Lamech means weary, and Noah means peace. When we put all these together, we read “Man is appointed mortal sorrow, but the God who is to be praised shall come down teaching that His death shall bring the weary rest”. Those names read like a statement of the Gospel of Jesus Christ!

creationmoments.com/sermons/names-of-the-patriarchs/

John 5:46-47
“For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me: for he wrote of me. But if ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe my words?”
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   Numerous passages in the New Testament state that Genesis was written by Moses. But how could Moses have written Genesis? James Ussher, the famous chronologist and historian, dated the Exodus at 1491 BC. Since Moses was about 80 years old at the time, it is likely that he was born about 1571 BC, which equates to 2433 AM (Anno Mundi, years since the creation of the world). Yet Genesis closes with the death of Joseph, about 1635 BC, or 2369 AM. So the last event in Genesis finished 64 years before Moses was born, with over 2,000 years of history to record. Modern historians would turn to earlier writers, but we believe that Moses was inspired by God.
   While posing this problem, we must start our answer by acknowledging that we believe what the inspired New Testament writers wrote about the authorship of Genesis. Whatever answer we give must be consistent with that starting point. Scholars fall into error when they allow such questions to cause them to doubt the veracity of Scripture.
   It is, of course, possible that Moses received direct revelation from God on what to write down. Another theory, however, which I favor, is that God inspired a number of writers over time to write the various “generations” of Genesis, which Moses then edited under divine inspiration. For example, Genesis 5:1 suggests that the section following was compiled by Adam, while Noah wrote the section starting in Genesis 6:9.
   Whatever we believe about HOW Moses wrote Genesis, we accept that he did and that God inspired him to do so.

creationmoments.com/sermons/how-did-moses-write-genesis/

John 5:46-47
“For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me: for he wrote of me. But if ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe my words?”

   There is a theory that Genesis and the other books of the Penteteuch were actually compiled long ago by four authors. Although this theory is now accepted far less in academic circles than it used to be, the message has not got through to writers of popular-style books, so the idea is perpetuated. The alleged four authors are identified by the letters JEPD, so this theory of the authorship of the first five books of the Bible is called the JEPD Theory.
   J is alleged to be the so-called Yahwist author. He is identified by referring to God as Yahweh – or Jehovah. JEPD theorists suggest that J wrote Genesis 2, about Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. They maintain that this is a completely different account from Genesis 1, which they suggest was written by E – the Elohist author, who refers to God as Elohim. They suggest that Genesis, Exodus, and Numbers were compiled from mixtures of these two accounts, while P, the Priestly author, contributed to Leviticus, and D wrote Deuteronomy.
   There seems to be a desire both to suggest that Moses had nothing to do with writing Genesis and to relegate it to the realm of mythology. Yet, no evidence of J, E, P, or D has been found. Moreover, New Testament authors affirm their belief that Moses wrote the Penteteuch. For example, Jesus, in answering the Sadducees’ erroneous question about death, quoted from Genesis and Exodus in His reply. The New Testament testifies that Genesis is what it claims to be – a biblical book, inerrant and inspired by the Holy Spirit.

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Genesis 50:2
“ And Joseph commanded his servants the physicians to embalm his father: and the physicians embalmed Israel.”
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   Most of us were amazed when we first learned that physicians in ancient Egypt did brain surgery. Even more amazing is that the skulls of their patients showed healing: they accomplished such complicated surgery without killing their patients. That physicians had the knowledge to do such delicate operations thousands of years ago challenges the modern, evolutionary view that humans began as primitives.
   Where did such knowledge come from? How did man learn that relieving fluid pressure on an injured brain prevented further damage and promoted healing? Obviously, according to the modern view, the first would‑be physician to try brain surgery had no idea what he was doing. However, history paints a very different picture. Recently, archaeologists in west central China discovered a skull of someone who had brain surgery over 4,000 years ago. A large hole in the center of a series of cracks had been made by scraping through the bone. The skull shows that healing took place after the surgery, indicating some degree of success. Even older examples of successful brain surgery have also been found in eastern Europe. Creationist dating would place these examples to within several centuries after the Flood.
   That the knowledge and skill to do successful brain surgery was so widespread so long ago suggests that man had such knowledge and skill even before the Flood. Noah may even have passed on knowledge that had been passed down to him from Adam himself!

creationmoments.com/sermons/was-noah-a-brain-surgeon-3/

Titus 2:4
“That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children….”
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   It should be obvious that attentive parents are a blessing to their children. However, as we look around us, we see too many examples of inattentive parenting. Now scientists in Canada have experimentally demonstrated one of the benefits of attentive parenting.
   Researchers divided 32 female rats into two groups. One group was made up of naturally attentive mothers who paid a great deal of attention to their newborns. The other group was made up of mothers that were careless and inattentive to their newborns’ needs. Once the young rats were grown, they were tested for memory and intelligence. They were placed in a swimming maze that required them to find a submerged platform in the tank. On the first day, all the rats did about the same. But on the second day, and for the rest of their lives, the rats whose mothers had paid attention to them scored much higher. Researchers found that the rats who were carefully nurtured had extra connections in the part of their brains called the hippocampus and had more receptors for a neurotransmitter important for learning. These features of the brain form during the first days after birth. In short, a caring mother spurs brain development that benefits the child for the rest of its life. Researchers say that since human development is similar, attentive human mothers give their children a life‑long gift.
   Children are a great gift and trust we receive from God. Now science has shown us one of the ways parents can bless their children for life.

creationmoments.com/sermons/attentive-parents-give-a-lasting-gift-3/

Hebrews 3:4
“For every house is builded by some man; but he that built all things is God..”
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   For 75 years, scientists have been trying to figure out how the gecko can walk across a ceiling. Scientists ruled out suction or glue. Then it was thought that perhaps the tiny hairs on its feet were able to grasp microscopic imperfections in the surface in which it walks. However, the gecko can not only walk across a polished glass ceiling, it can even hang by just one toe.
   Geckos have tiny hairs on their feet called setae. From these tiny hairs grow even tinier hairs called spatulae. These spatulae are so tiny that there are about a billion of them on each foot. Researchers have found that these tiniest hairs are so small that they contact the molecules of a surface so closely that they actually use the very forces that hold the molecules together! Scientists have tested the strength of these forces, called van der Waals forces, for the first time. They found that these forces are much more powerful than first thought. As the gecko walks across a surface, it unrolls its toes, bringing the spatulae into contact with the surface. Then it gives a tiny tug that aligns the spatulae parallel to the surface, increasing their hold by ten times. As the gecko lifts its foot for the next step, it levers the spatulae off the surface, breaking the bond. Based on this research on the gecko’s trick, scientists are working to develop glues based on the same principle.
   While geckos and chance evolution know nothing about van der Waals bonds, the Creator Who made them both has left His signature in this unique and elegant design.

creationmoments.com/sermons/gecko-physics-3/

John 11:25
Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live.
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   We are all familiar with the evolutionary tree of life. It is supposed to depict how life began as a single‑celled organism and over immense periods of time mutated into all the various forms of life we see today. We have offered several Creation Moments programs recently that explained how new genetic studies simply don’t support this evolutionary tree.
   Those of us who accept young earth creationism are not the only ones who are beginning to notice this problem. Creatures that are completely unrelated, according to the evolutionary tree, have very similar genes. More often than not, DNA information disagrees with a creature’s supposed lineage as it is presented on the evolutionary tree of life. Very different creatures, unrelated according to the evolutionary tree, develop from very similar genes. Our genetic knowledge of creatures is most complete with the simpler organisms. Even evolutionists have admitted that microorganisms without a nucleus do not fit into any kind of evolutionary tree. The facts are killing the evolutionary tree of life. Some evolutionists are admitting that the history of life cannot be represented as a tree. Some even ask whether the history of life can ever be known with any certainty.
   In short, the new genetic information we are rapidly accumulating supports the Bible’s teaching that each kind of creature was separately created. New genetic information shows that there is not one trunk to the tree of life. The only real source of life is our victorious, risen Savior, Jesus Christ.

creationmoments.com/sermons/the-evolutionary-tree-of-life-is-dying-3/

Mark 1:31
“ And he came and took her by the hand, and lifted her up; and immediately the fever left her, and she ministered unto them.”

   Malaria is caused by infection by parasites called plasmodia. It is still a serious disease, killing over one million people in 1998. Malaria is most serious in developing countries where modern drugs that fight malaria are often hard to get. Now a biologist at the University of Washington may have come up with a simple, inexpensive solution.
   Plasmodia live in the bloodstream of the victims of malaria. Because they feed on blood, their bodies become loaded with iron‑rich molecules. Biologist, Henry Lai, found that a weak, oscillating, magnetic field in the lab causes the iron‑rich plasmodia to begin spinning. As the magnetic field continues, the plasmodia bodies spin fast enough to burst apart and die. Lai suggests that a coil of wire on the ceiling and another on the floor of a room plugged into a power supply could set up a magnetic field strong enough to kill the plasmodia in the blood streams of infected people. He believes that malaria could be kept under control if a person spent 12 hours a day in such a room. However, his theory has not yet been tested in the field.
   Malaria has been a problem since sin came into the world. It may even be the cause of some of the fevers we read about in the Bible. When our Creator made us, He gave us the intelligence to treat the diseases that would result from our sin. However, modern medicine cannot heal us spiritually. Only God’s Son, Jesus Christ, can do that when we trust in His sacrifice on the cross for us.

www.creationmoments.com/sermons/a-possible-treatment-for-malaria-3/

Genesis 6:15
“And this is the fashion which thou shalt make it of: The length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits, the breadth of it fifty cubits, and the height of it thirty cubits..”

   According to the Bible, Noah’s Ark was 450 feet long, 75 feet wide and 45 feet high. It was built of a type of wood called “gopher wood.” This may have been laminated wood, but it was wood. However, skeptics claim that even today wooden boats cannot be made that large simply because wood is not strong enough to endure the huge stresses generated by such a large structure; they say only iron can endure these stresses.
   That is, of course, not true. Ancient writers tell us of a sea battle in 280 B.C. in which the Leontifera participated. They describe the Leontifera in some detail. They tell us that she carried 1,600 rowers and 1,200 additional fighting men. From these and other details, the Leontifera has been estimated to have been between 400 and 500 feet long. Plutarch tells us of another ship built around 294 B.C. that had twice as many banks of oars as the Leontifera. In the late third century B.C., Ptolemy Philopator built a ship that took 400 sailors to run, in addition to 4,000 rowers. With additional soldiers on board, the ship carried 7,250 men. This battleship was 420 feet long, wider than Noah’s Ark and about the same height.
   The Bible is trustworthy in all that it teaches, even when it talks about historical fact or the natural world that science studies.

www.creationmoments.com/sermons/noahs-impossible-ship-3/