Puritan Corner - Altering the relish of the soul

"That is spiritual knowledge which alters the relish of the soul; for

we must know there is a bitter opposition in our nature against all saving truths; especially, there is a contrariety between our nature and that doctrine which teaches us we must deny ourselves and be saved by another. The soul must relish before it can digest."
by Richard Sibbes (1577-1635)
No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon. Luke 16:13

Sun Worship

"When the people of God apostatized from him, it was always some form of sun worship that seduced them. 

When Job would plead his peculiar uprightness, he urges the fact that he had never worshiped the sun or the moon. 

He says: Job 31:26,37,28  If I beheld the sun when it shined, or the moon walking in brightness, And my heart has been secretly enticed, or my mouth has kissed my hand, This also were an iniquity to be punished by the Judge; for I should have denied the God that is above. 

Kissing the hand was a common act of reverence to the gods. 

In the Octavius, of Minucius Felix, chapter 2,15 the writer, in speaking of a walk which he and his friend were taking on the banks of the Tiber, says: Caecilius, observing an image of Serapis, raised his hand to his mouth, as is the custom of the superstitious common people, and pressed a kiss on it with his lips. 

It is from this custom that we get our word “adore,” Latin ad orem—to the mouth.

The prophet Ezekiel was given a view of the abominations that they were committing, which he describes in chapter 8. 

He beheld them practicing abominable rites in the temple, weeping for Tammuz, the Assyrian Adonis, and lastly, greatest of all the

abominations, worshiping the sun. 

Ezekiel 8:15,16 Then said he unto me, Have you seen this, O son of man? turn yet again, and you shall see greater abominations than these. And he brought me into the inner court of the Lord’s house, and, behold, at the door of the temple of the Lord, between the porch and the altar, were about five and twenty men, with their backs toward the temple of the Lord, and their faces toward the east; and they worshiped the sun toward the east. Thus it appears that sun worship in some phase was the special form of false religion with which in all ancient times the true religion had to contend." 

E.J. Waggoner

IN the NEWS - "Earth Sabbath"?

I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel: Galatians 1:6

"Earth Sabbath is a climate advocacy group that is seeking to implement a day of rest for the environment. They just produced another video calling upon people to heed Pope Francis’ call to protect the environment by having a day of rest. In the video, 

Earth Sabbath praises Pope Francis for his leadership in the climate movement and attributes the idea of a weekly day of rest for the environment to Laudato Si’.

The video highlights the following:
• “Pope Francis has been a powerful voice calling for immediate action. Perhaps the action needed is a weekly Earth Sabbath.”

• “The concept of a weekly Earth Sabbath was introduced in his encyclical Laudato Si’.”
• “The pope has met with world leaders, urging binding climate targets.”
• “Pope Francis has called for a phase-out of coal, oil, and gas.”
• “At the UN climate change conference, the pope urged decisive action.”
• “Pope Francis urged world leaders to end divisions and unite."
• “The time for action is now. We must heed the Pope’s call.”
• “It’s time for everyone to put into action the keeping of a weekly earth Sabbath.”

What we are seeing here is a dangerous mixing of politics and religion with the goal of bringing people together to work collectively on environmental issues. The foundation of this movement will be Sunday. This is a call to implement the policies of Laudato Si’, including a day of rest for the earth." 

AdventMessenger

Creation Moment 5/31/2024 - Simplifying Why "Junk DNA" is a Myth

And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day. Genesis 1:31
The Myth of Junk DNA -- supposed left over DNA from your past, like when your ancestors supposedly had tails or fins, was no longer functioning (obviously) and was thought to be "fossilized" DNA. Now we see it does code and is not Junk. .... oops for Evolution.

"Junk DNA genetic arguments for common human–ape ancestry have also come under significant critique in recent years due to the discovery of mass-functionality for non-coding or “junk” DNA in the human genome. 

A major 2012 Nature paper by the ENCODE consortium reported “biochemical functions for 80%” of the human genome (ENCODE Project Consortium 2012, p. 57). 

Lead ENCODE scientists predicted that with further research, “80 percent will go to 100” since “almost every nucleotide is associated with a function.” (Yong 2012). 

In the wake of this research, the journal Science published an article titled “ENCODE Project Writes Eulogy for Junk DNA” which stated that these findings “sound the death knell for the idea that our DNA is mostly littered with useless bases” (Pennisi 2012, p. 1159). Evidence of functions for non-coding DNA has continued to mount at a high pace. 

A 2021 article in Nature reported that over 130,000 specific

“genomic elements, previously called junk DNA” have seen specific functions identified (Gates et al. 2021, p. 215), followed by a paper in Genome Biology and Evolution which concluded, “The days of ‘junk DNA’ are over” (Stitz et al. 2021, p. 11). 

There is still much we do not understand about the genome and there are many specific genetic elements for which no function has yet been discovered. Nonetheless, this evidence suggests a strong trendline in the research literature away from non-functionality for “junk” DNA." 

EN&V

ARCHAEOLOGY: Where Darkened Hearts & Vain Imaginations Led

Because that, when they knew God,

they glorified Him not as God,

neither were thankful;

but became vain in their imaginations,

and their foolish heart was darkened.

Romans 1:21

"Moral Reforma is a Maya city from the Classic period, located in the municipality of Balancán in the Mexican state of Tabasco.

Occupation of the site dates from around AD 300, emerging as an important trading center along the San Pedro Mártir River.
The city reached its peak during the years AD 622 to 756, covering an area of 215 acres with palaces, plazas, and several pyramid complexes.

In April 2023, INAH archaeologists announcement the discovery of 13 burials directly in front of the stairwell of Structure 18, a pyramidal monument located south of the main temple complex.
Researchers have now conducted a physical anthropological study of the burial remains, confirming that at least two of the individuals were decapitated as ritual offerings during the Late Classic Period

(AD 600 to 900).

One of the two skulls has traces of horizontal cut marks in the craniocervical junction, which is made up of the occipital bone (the bone that forms the base of the skull) and the first two bones in the upper spine.
Several of the burials also had skulls with signs of tabular oblique deformation, a form of artificial cranial modification to indicate an elevated social status. 

The researchers have proposed that the burials, arranged in terms of depth and style, were possibly intended as offerings to a Mayan underworld deity, as part of a ritual to sanctify the temple." 

HeritageDaily

Sunday - Day of the Sun

"The Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia says of it: Sunday (Dies Solis, of

the Roman calendar; “day of the sun,” because dedicated to the sun), the first day of the week, was adopted by the early Christians as a day of worship. 

The North British Review styled Sunday, ...the wild solar holiday of all pagan times.

And Dr. Chambers in the Old Testament Student, says that Dies Solis, day of the sun, was… ...its old astronomical and heathen title.

Q: Now what appears from all this? Just this: That whenever the Jews apostatized from God and plunged into some form of sun worship, they ignored God’s memorial, the Sabbath, and instead performed superstitious and lascivious rites on the day of the sun, the first day of the week, which was “the wild solar holiday of all pagan times.” 

Their worship was not solemn and spiritual, but was hilarious, and was marked by festivities. Their feast-days to their gods were holidays, not sacred days. 

Since sun worship was the prevailing religion in the Roman Empire, it is easy to imagine what would be the tendency of those members of Christian churches that should apostatize, or were only partially converted from heathenism. 

The same circumstances would produce the same results after Christ as before Christ.

God wants His works to be remembered, because it is only by these that He can be kept in mind as Creator and Sanctifier; and the Sabbath is that which He has made as the memorial of His works. 

Ezekiel 20:12 Moreover also I gave them my Sabbaths, to be a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am the Lord that sanctify them."
E.J. Waggoner

Papal Notes - Too Much What at Catholic Seminaries?

And there were also sodomites in the land... 1 Kings 14:24

"Pope Francis has allegedly shocked bishops in Italy by using an offensive slur when saying that homosexual men should not be

admitted to church seminaries because there is already ‘too much’ gay sexual activity.
The pontiff told a closed-door meeting at an episcopal conference at the Vatican that homosexual men should not be allowed into colleges to train for the priesthood, Italian media reports.
Bishops at the meeting were reportedly taken aback by the language the 87-year-old used to make the statement – the derogatory word ‘frociaggine’, which roughly translates to f*ry.
Italian news agency Adnkronos, citing sources, reported that the

Pope said in the speech: 'Look: there is already an air of f*****ry around that is not good. There is today's culture of homosexuality with respect to those who have a homosexual orientation [who] are better off not being accepted [into the seminary].'
Francesco Lepore, a former priest who is now a gay rights activist, said he was 'stunned' by the comments allegedly made by Francis, who is also known by his birth name Jorge Mario Bergoglio.
He added: 'The Pope is right that the number of homosexual seminarians and clerics is very high. But the simplicity of language has nothing to do with vulgarity.'" 

DailyMail

Creation Moment 5/30/2024 - Experiment with genes of E. coli bacteria with genomes showed.....

Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created these things.... Isaiah 40:26

"Phys.org gives some context:

"A team of researchers at Cambridge University has replaced the genes of E. coli bacteria with genomes they synthesized in the lab. In their paper published in the journal Nature, the group describes replacing the genome and removing redundant genetic codes [–> three letter 4-state elements have 64 possibilities but only 20 are needed for typical protein AA’s, AUG codes for an AA and serves as START, there are three STOP codons] . . . . In this new effort, the researchers had two goals: The first was to synthesize the genome of an E. coli bacterium in their lab—all four million letters of it. The second was to find out what would happen to such a specimen if some of its DNA redundancies were removed . . . ."

The researchers report that it took longer for the special bacterial specimen to grow, but other than that, it behaved just like unedited specimens. They suggest that in future efforts, it might be possible to replace the redundancies they removed with other sequences to create bacteria with special abilities, such as making new types of biopolymers not found in nature.

In short, they confirmed that the choice of “synonym” has a regulatory effect.

Q: Where are we today, then?
First, we have definitive demonstration of the intelligent design of a genome. Yes, they obviously have not created a de novo cell body (a much more difficult task), but we see that intelligent design of life here definitively passes the Newton test of observed actual cause. Further, we see that DNA functions as an information system in the cell, supporting the significance of this conceptual representation, based on Yockey’s work:

Let’s zoom in on Yockey’s contribution, on the code-communication system as applied to protein synthesis, which underscores the linguistic nature of what is involved.

Where, Crick understood this from the beginning in 1953, witness p. 5 of his letter to his son Michael, March 19, 1953:Crick’s letter

"At this stage, we definitively know that using nanotech molecular biology and linked computational techniques it is feasible to construct a genome based on intelligently directed configuration. AKA, design.

Therefore, intelligent design, as of right not sufferance, sits at the table for study on origin of life and of body plans.

Where, we separately know on configuration space search challenge, that it is maximally implausible to construct in excess of 500 – 1,000 bits of functionally specific complex organization and/or associated information."

Intelligent Design of life is demonstrated to be feasible and actual in the here and now, as of this investigation. Therefore, as of right, it is a serious candidate to explain what we see in the world of life; especially as regards origin of cell based life and origin of main body plans."
UncommonDescent

His Gospel

Only let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel of Christ. Philippians 1:27

"THE word "conversation" does not merely mean our talk and converse with one another, but the whole course of our life and behavior in the world. 

Q: What sort of conversation is this? 

In the first place, the gospel is very simple. So Christians should be simple and plain in their habits. There should be about our manner, our speech, our dress, our whole behavior, that simplicity which is the very soul of beauty. 

The gospel is pre-eminently true, it is gold without dross; and the Christian's life will be lustreless and valueless without the jewel of truth. 

The gospel is a very fearless gospel, it boldly proclaims the truth, whether men like it or not: we must be equally faithful and unflinching. 

But the gospel is also very gentle. Mark this spirit in its Founder: "a bruised reed He will not break. (Isaiah 42:3) " Some professors are sharper than a thorn-hedge; such men are not like Jesus. Let us seek to win others by the gentleness of our words and acts. 

The gospel is very loving. It is the message of the God of love to a lost and fallen race. Christ's last command to His disciples was, "Love one another." 

We must not forget that the gospel of Christ is holy. 

It never excuses sin: it pardons it, but only through an atonement. 

For His sake, for our own sakes, and for the sakes of others, we must strive day by day to let our conversation be more in accordance with His gospel." 

Charles Spurgeon

Creation Moment 5/29/2024 - The Artist

...from the beginning of the creation which God created unto this time... Mark 13:19

"Human art demands an artist. 

The artistry of the beauties of nature is surely no less than that of

any painting in The Louvre. 

Q: What are we to make of this? 

Dubay sees in this evidence of foresight and planning: “One bluebird ‘in its way absolutely perfect’ is staggering evidence of art and design.” 

UncommonDescent

How was Scripture Studied in Christ's Day?

"For dozens of centuries, the tradition has been 

--to read through the Torah over a year, 

--and to read a corresponding passage from the Prophets.
Q: Is that what Jesus would have known? 

A: Yes and no. 

The Torah and Prophets were read each week, but the current liturgy was developed around 400 years later in synagogues in Babylon.

Before that, an older, earlier tradition existed that was largely unknown to scholars until about a century ago. discovery of the “triennial” tradition of reading the Torah was a surprise to Jewish scholars, who had been following an annual liturgy for 1500 years. 

It had been developed by rabbis in Babylon, while the older triennial tradition persisted in Israel, Egypt and northern Africa until the annual cycle became universal around 1100 AD.

In the annual tradition, the preassigned readings from the Prophets usually focused on Israel’s past, connecting the events in the Torah with other historical accounts in Scripture.
In the earlier tradition, however, the readings focused on the future, on God’s promised messianic reign over the world. Every week, synagogues were listening to God’s word and asking how God’s redemptive plans would come to pass.

Q: What did this sound like? 

A: When Genesis 1 was read, the traditional Haftarah was Isaiah 65:17-25:
“See, I will create new heavens and a new earth.
The former things will not be remembered,
nor will they come to mind…
The wolf and the lamb will feed together,
and the lion will eat straw like the ox,
and dust will be the serpent’s food.
They will neither harm nor destroy
on all my holy mountain,”
says the Lord. (Isaiah 65:17, 25)

--Notice how this passage begins by echoing the words of Genesis 1:1, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth,” and then ends with a wonderful promise of the New Creation. 

--As the ancient readers meditated on the beginning of history, they would think ahead to God’s vision of a redeemed earth.

In Galatians 4, we find Paul using Sarah and Hagar’s story in his discussion, and then pulling in Isaiah 54 at the end. It is thought that he did this because these passages were already linked in people’s minds, having been read together regularly in the synagogue." 

Lois Tverberg

IN the NEWS - More Join SDA in Jail

For where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them. Matthew 18:20

"Two Ukrainian conscientious objectors who refused the country’s mandatory mobilization during the war with Russia have been sentenced to three-year jail terms, according to a report in the Eurasia Review. Serhy Stadnitsky, a Protestant, and the other man, an unnamed Jehovah’s Witness, have appealed their convictions on religious grounds.

If convicted, the two would join Seventh-day Adventist conscientious objector Dmytro Zelinsky who is serving a three-year sentence while waiting for his appeal to be heard by the Ukrainian Supreme Court on June 13.

The Ukrainian constitution and the United Nations Human Rights Committee call for non-military alternatives for those who object to military service on religious bases, but Ukraine’s Defense Ministry has argued that during wartime, the limited alternative services provided during peacetime do not exist.

Baptist conscientious objectors Ernest Pavlenko and Ilya Nikolenko were forcibly taken to a military unit in Zhytomyr Region. “Appropriate measures will be taken against them,” an official of the regional department of the Military Law-Enforcement Service told Forum 18. “Whether they will face criminal prosecution depends on how they behave.” Asked why they cannot be released and allowed to do an alternative civilian service as they have requested, the official responded: “Because there’s a war”.

On the morning of 30 April, Forum 18 asked Viktor Yelensky, head of the State Service for Ethnic Policy and Freedom of Conscience:
– why jail terms and trials continue for those who cannot serve in the military on grounds of conscience and who have expressed willingness to perform alternative civilian service;
– and what progress there has been on introducing an alternative civilian service where individuals can, for example, work in a hospital." 

EurasiaNews

IN the NEWS - Missionaries Slaughtered in Haiti

..... the LORD will abhor the bloody and deceitful man. 

Psalm 5:6

"U.S. Embassy in Haiti confirmed that at least two American citizens

were brutally murdered due to gang violence in Haiti on Thursday. Missouri state Rep. Ben Baker said his daughter, Natalie, and her husband, Davy, died in the attack. One other missionary was killed; however, it was unclear if the person was a U.S. citizen. According to FoxNews, "Davy and Natalie Lloyd, full-time missionaries to Haiti, were shot and killed at 9 p.m. Thursday".

---Police said Davy and Natalie were attacked by armed gangs in three cars while they were on their way back from church in a neighboring town. 

---The gangs also looted the missionaries' house. 

---The U.S. State Department has recovered and transported their bodies to the U.S. Embassy.....former President Trump paused for a moment to pay his respects to the "great families" of Natalie and Davy during a speech at the Libertarian Convention. In stark contrast, there has been no official direct mention of the murders of American citizens in Haiti from the White House by Biden." 

PJMedia

Creation Moment 5/28/2024 - Dangers to Humanity of Darwinists who want to Reverse God's order in Gen. 1:28

And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. 

Genesis 1:28

"A good example of the ugly consequences of lousy ideas came out in an ABC (Australia) Radio National program last December. The December 10 Ockham’s Razor, hosted by the antitheist Robyn

Williams, featured a talk by Melbourne neuroscientist Dr John Reid. Williams, with hardly a word of comment, simply reproduced a talk Reid had given earlier (contrast this with his hostility to Christians, even going as far to boast about lying to a creationist).

Reid is convinced that planet earth is grossly overpopulated, and unless we take some radical steps, like culling the human race, we are all doomed. I kid you not. Let me give you his own words on the issue.

Reid begins his talk—which he entitled ‘Apocalypse now’—by offering the usual doomsday scenarios: ‘The fact is, Planet Earth cannot support the present human population.’ And he makes clear early on that he shares the worldview of the philosophical naturalists:
"Many people would say the character that most distinguishes human beings from all other animals is language. I suggest the only attribute that really distinguishes our species from all others is our ability to delude ourselves. Human beings are self-deluders. We can convince ourselves, in the face of irrefutable evidence to the contrary, that black is white and heat can flow from a cooler to a hotter body. It is this power of self-delusion that leads us to believe that somehow we will find a way to fix the problem of our unsustainable consumption of the Earth’s resources."

Then he starts to let the cat out of the bag: ‘I believe the problem of overconsumption/overpopulation will not be solved by civil means.’
Instead, we ‘in the affluent world will have to accept substantial reductions in our standard of living. … To achieve this, income and wealth distribution within our societies will have to become much more equal. The higher up the tree one is, the greater the sacrifice one will have to make.’

And it is all bad news if you happen to drive a car: the fleet of fossil-fuel-burning motor vehicles ‘will have to be reduced to no more than about 10% of the present number.’

Q: Will this be voluntary, or at the barrel of a gun?
Q: And will Reid be the first to give up his car?

And just to make sure that we have not missed his socialist and coercive agenda, he tells us:

"And private property rights will be severely curtailed to prevent landowners from engaging in environmentally-damaging behaviors. And many, many more such infringements on what we now regard as our rights will have to be accepted."

Nice of him to so glibly suggest how many rights must be stripped away from us.

Now for the really totalitarian and barbaric side to Reid’s proposals:

"The population of the world must be very quickly reduced to 5 billion (that is, if 6 billions equals 120% of capacity, then 5 billions equals 100%). And then, as the average level of affluence rises, fairly quickly reduced further to, say, 2 to 3 billion."

Well folks, there you have. Half of the human race needs to go.

He finishes his cheery picture on the fate of humanity with a misotheist rant:

"My plea is that we should face reality and begin to discuss the

unspeakable. Humanity must undergo a mind-shift. If you must have a God, at least recognize he/she/it did not give humanity license to trash the planet, whatever the Bible may tell you. Indeed, humanity has been all too compliant with the Biblical injunction to be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth. The precepts of the Abrahamic religions, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam represent the quintessential perversion of the human mind. They must be abandoned and the notion of the sanctity of human life must be subjugated to the greater sanctity of all life on Earth."

Well there you have it folks." 

CMI

Hartford City, IN Obituary Lesson: Just riding in the buggy...then [1896]

To day if ye will hear His voice, harden not your hearts,
as in the provocation.
Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow.
Q: For what is your life?
A: It is even a vapor,
that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.
Hebrews 3:15/James 4:14

HELLYER, WILLIAM
Found Dead In His Buggy HARTFORD CITY, Ind June 1—William

Hellyer was found dead In his buggy in this city to-day. 

The horse was walking leisurely along and the old man had fallen to one side, but still held the lines. It is not known where his death took place, as he was several blocks from home when the horse was stopped. He was one of the pioneers of this county, having settled here in 1861. He was seventy-eight years old and is supposed to have died ot heart disease. 

E. H. Fowler. [Date: 1896-06-03; Paper: Indiana State Journal]

ARCHAEOLOGY: Human Sacrifice and the Crescent Moon

Because that, when they knew God,

they glorified Him not as God,

neither were thankful;

but became vain in their imaginations,

and their foolish heart was darkened.

Romans 1:21

"Archaeologists from Bournemouth University have uncovered an Iron Age victim of human sacrifice in Dorset, England.

The sacrificial victim was found lying at the bottom of a pit and placed on carefully arranged animal bones. A study of the skeletal remains indicate that she died during her late twenties from a stab wound to her neck.

Dr Martin Smith said: “The young woman was found lying face down on top of a strange, deliberately constructed crescent shaped arrangement of animal bones at the bottom of a pit, so it looks like she was killed as part of an offering,”

The isotopes in her teeth suggests that she originated from a settlement around twenty miles away.
A section of her spine exhibits significant degeneration and arthritic changes, suggesting she endured a physically demanding life that took a toll on her body." 

HeritageDaily

Origen -- father of Christian mysticism

"ALL the disciples of the new Platonic philosophy, Origen was by all means the greatest, both in learning, according to the popular standard, and in the position which he held in the church.

Killen rightly calls him… ...the father of Christian mysticism; –and

Waddington says that he was the founder of the scholastic system of theology. His direct teaching inculcated many errors; but his views in regard to the Scriptures tended to undermine the whole fabric of Christianity. 

His idea was that... ...as man consists of body, soul, and spirit, so in the same way does Scripture. 

The “corporeal” sense, which is the simple meaning of Scripture, he did not wholly despise, but he built the most on the “psychical” sense, or the soul, and the “spiritual sense,” neither of which could be deduced from the words. 

This “spiritual” sense which Origen lauded was not that understanding of the Scriptures which the Holy Spirit alone can reveal, but that which was evolved solely by human speculation. 

It was arrived at by the method adopted by Ammonius in common with other pagan philosophers, of evolving some notion from one’s “inner consciousness,”..... 

Of course, in order to get this “psychical” and “spiritual” sense out of the Bible, that is, to get out of it something that was never in it, much violence had to be done to the sacred record. Origen paved the way, not only for the reception of his vagaries, but for the utter disuse into which the Bible very soon fell, by boldly declaring that the Bible contains many falsehoods.

Acts 17:21 ...spent their time in nothing else, but either to tell, or to hear some new thing." 

E.J. Waggoner

Creation Moment 5/27/2024 - Peering Through Darwinian Lens at Bergmann’s Rule

And God made the beast of the earth after his kind. 

Genesis 1:29

"A recent study of dinosaur sizes claims to break Bergmann’s rule. Bergmann’s rule was named after biologist Carl Bergmann, who in 1847 noticed that warm-blooded animals tended to be larger in cold climates compared to the same animal in a warm climate. Larger body mass tends to help an animal retain more heat, helping animals survive in the cold.

“The fossil record provides a window into completely different ecosystems and climate conditions, allowing us to assess the applicability of these ecological rules in a whole new way,” said Jacob Gardner, a co-author of the new paper.

Led by scientists from the University of Alaska, the team studied 339 dinosaurs and 62 fossil mammals, placing them at perceived paleolatitudes and under assumed climates at the time of burial. Some of the dinosaur fossils studied were found in rocks in northernmost Alaska, in contrast to an earlier study that claimed they lived near the North Pole (about 80°–85° north latitude). 

Publishing in Nature Communications, the evolutionary scientists found no compelling evidence to suggest dinosaurs and fossil mammals followed Bergmann’s rule. 

However, the group also studied extant birds and mammals. Here, they found climatic temperatures did indeed have a small effect on body size, following Bergmann’s rule as expected.

Q: Is this new study sufficient grounds to throw out a 150-year-old biologic rule like the study’s scientists suggest? 

A: The answer is no because their results are based on faulty assumptions, making it unlikely they conducted a valid test. 

They make at least three unverifiable assumptions:
1. The science team assumes there was no global Flood. Conventional scientists disregard the historical accuracy of the book of Genesis and any reference to a catastrophic global Flood. It was the Flood that buried the dinosaurs and mammals outside the Ark, possibly moving them from their original locations.
2. They assume dinosaurs were warm-blooded. There are a lot of published reports that indicate dinosaurs were cold-blooded. Cold-blooded dinosaurs likely could not have thrived in extreme cold climates or north of the Arctic Circle as claimed.
3. They assume dinosaurs and mammals lived in high latitudes millions of years ago and were found as fossils near where they lived. Dinosaurs found in supposedly polar climates have baffled conventional paleontologists due to the cold conditions they would have faced and the long periods of darkness. Conventional reconstructions place the Alaskan dinosaurs in about 120 days of total darkness each year, making it difficult for any dinosaur to survive.

In contrast, ICR’s Column Project team has mapped out the

megasequences and sedimentary rocks across multiple continents, using actual rock data to reconstruct the pre-Flood land masses and their environments. It resulted in a pre-Flood world that resembled Pangaea and was centered at the equator. In fact, nearly all land was at latitudes of less than 45° north or south of the equator.
Our reconstruction places the dinosaurs in Alaska at about 35°–40° north in the pre-Flood world—not at 80°–85° where researchers placed them. This provides a much more moderate climate where dinosaurs could have thrived.

Because dinosaurs were most likely cold-blooded and never lived at extreme northern latitudes, the evolutionary scientists failed to properly test Bergmann’s rule. Their assumed paleotemperatures are simply erroneous assumptions, invalidating their findings. 

Most of the pre-Flood world was likely warm and tropical to subtropical based on the fossils we find globally. 

This is why they found no correlation of size to paleotemperature in dinosaurs or mammals. The temperature likely didn’t vary enough to show any body size effect until after the Flood during the Ice Age.
Making poor assumptions leads to poor results." 

ICR

God is NOT Casual

God is NOT Casual....God is NOT your "buddy". He is a HOLY GOD who is both your CREATOR and REDEEMER,
Ye offer polluted bread upon Mine altar; and ye say,
Wherein have we polluted Thee? In that ye say,
The table of the LORD is contemptible.
And if ye offer the blind for sacrifice, is it not evil? (it was to be  without blemish)
and if ye offer the lame and sick, is it not evil?
---offer it now unto thy governor; will he be pleased with thee, or accept thy person? (God says you do to Me what you would not do to a worldly leader).
Malachi 1:7,8

To those who reject the Sabbath because the Jews kept it

"When God had made the world in six days, He rested from His work

on the seventh day, and thus the seventh day became His rest-day, or Sabbath day. 

He then "blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it ; because that in it He had rested from all His work which God created and made." Gen. 2 : 1-3 ; Ex. 20 : 8-11. 

Thus the seventh day became God's blessed and sanctified rest-day, or Sabbath day, and a memorial of His rest from His works. 

--It will not do to call the Sabbath Jewish, and give it to the Jews, simply because the Jews kept it. 

--The Jews had the same God that we have, 

--and looked forward to the same Messiah that we believe in. 

--Christ and the apostles were Jews. 

--Our Bible comes from the Jews. 

The advantage of the Jews was " much every way ; chiefly because that to them were committed the oracles of God" (Rom. 3: 1, 2), i. e., what God spoke or delivered orally, the ten commandments. (See Webster's definitions of oracle and oral.) Acts 7 : 38 ; Deut. 4 : 8- 13. In short, the Savior says, "Salvation is of the Jews." John 4:22. 

Q: Shall we reject these blessings simply because the Jews enjoyed them?"
D. T. Bourdeau

Creation Moment 5/26/2024 - Rocket Scientist Said It

For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God. Romans 1:20 NLT

"While the admission of a design for the universe ultimately raises thequestion of a Designer (a subject outside of science), the scientific method does not allow us to exclude data which lead to the conclusion that the universe, life and man are based on design. To be forced to believe only one conclusion—that everything in the universe happened by chance—would violate the very objectivity of science itself."
Wernher von Braun, rocket pioneer, 1972

IN the NEWS - Internet "Saints"

For false Christs and false prophets shall rise, and shall shew signs and wonders, to seduce, if it were possible, even the elect. 

Mark 13:22

"Pope Francis has recognized a miracle attributed to Blessed Carlo Acutis, clearing the way for him to become the first millennial saint of the Catholic Church.

Known affectionately as the “patron saint of the Internet,” Carlo was born on May 3, 1991, in London, England, grew up in Milan, and died on October 12, 2006, in Monza, Italy, succumbing to leukemia at the age of 15.

In 2020, Pope Francis traveled to Assisi for the beatification ceremony that set Carlo on the road to sainthood.
Catholic Church requires an authenticated miracle attributed to the intercession of a beatified individual in order to pass to canonization, at which point the Church recognizes the person as a saint.

On Thursday, Cardinal Marcello Semeraro, Prefect of the Vatican’s Office for the Causes of Saints, met with Pope Francis, who approved the necessary miracle for the canonization of young Carlo.
A Costa Rican woman named Liliana traveled to Assisi in 2022 and prayed for her daughter Valeria at Blessed Carlo’s tomb.
Valeria had fallen off her bicycle in Florence, where she was attending university. The fall resulted in severe head trauma, which required craniotomy surgery and the removal of the right occipital bone to reduce pressure on her brain.

Doctors said the young woman had a very low chance of survival.
On July 8, the day Liliana made her pilgrimage to Carlo’s tomb in Assisi, the hospital informed her that Valeria had begun to breathe spontaneously. The following day, she began to move and regain her speech.
Ten days later, a CAT scan showed that Valeria’s hemorrhage had completely disappeared, and, the following month, Valeria was moved to rehabilitation therapy.
On September 2, Valeria and Liliana together made a pilgrimage to Assisi to thank Blessed Carlo for his intercession.
In his post-synodal apostolic exhortation Christus Vivit (Christ Is Alive), addressed to young people, Pope Francis held up Carlo Acutis as a model for how to use the Internet and communications media for good." 

Breitbart

Seeping of Paganism into Christendom

"VERY early in their history the Christian churches that were

founded by the apostles came under heathen influence. 

These churches were, outside of Judea, planted in the midst of the heathen, and were largely composed of converts from heathenism. To the heathen they looked for their accessions. The apostles had to warn the flock continually against the subtle influence of the heathen philosophy. 

To the Colossians Paul wrote: Colossians 2:8 Beware lest any man

spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the traditions of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. 

To Timothy he gave this warning.
1 Timothy 6:20 O Timothy, keep that which is committed to your trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called; 

21 Which some professing have erred concerning the faith.

These two texts describe in terms as accurate as they are brief the philosophy of the heathen world. It was this philosophy, so flattering to human pride, that was responsible for the gross abominations of idolatry, as the principle on which it was based was responsible for idolatry itself.

Romans 1:21 Because that, when they knew God, they glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations and their foolish heart was darkened.

It is not necessary here to give a detailed account of the pagan

philosophy. The text just quoted sufficiently indicates that it was wholly of man—the product of the unregenerate human heart. 

While those who taught the people took the title of “philosophers”—lovers of wisdom— they had not, nor did they profess to have, any sort of an idea as to what wisdom is. Nor did they think that it is possible for man to find out. Their philosophy, therefore, was simply vain and idle speculation as to the cause of things. As the inspired history says of the Athenians: 

They Acts 17:21 ...spent their time in nothing else, but either to tell, or to hear some new thing.

he Platonists believed that all men are not simply the offspring of Deity, but that they are a part of Him—that every man is essentially divine. 

--It follows from this that they believed in the pre-existence of souls.

--Further, since divinity is always the same, the divine essence in man must have had as great wisdom before it entered into the human body as it ever could have. 

--Therefore, they held that all knowledge is inherent in man, but latent until it is developed by circumstances. The man, therefore, who would know wisdom, according to this philosophy, must simply look within.

The learned Mosheim, writing of the first century, says that... 

"..it is not to be denied, that even in this century the perverse Jewish custom of obscuring the plain language of Scripture by forced and frigid allegories, and of diverting words from their natural and proper meanings, in order to extort from them some recondite sense, found admirers and imitators among Christians."

Thus early were men beginning to depart from the simplicity of the word. 

--But it was not till in the second century, after all the apostles had passed away, that we find very marked evidences of degeneracy.

One of the most noted of these philosophers who came over to

Christianity was Justin Martyr, who lived from about 110 to 165 AD. Bishop A.C. Coxe, in his laudatory preface to the writings of Justin, says that: "After trying all other systems, his elevated tastes and refined perceptions made him a disciple of Socrates and Plato. So he climbed toward Christ."

As well talk of climbing toward the stars by burrowing in the ground. But this shows that Justin’s Christianity, when he at last joined the church, was simply a matter of philosophical taste. 

Bishop Coxe himself says as much in the same preface, remarking that: "He wore his philosopher’s gown after his conversion, as a token that he had attained the only true philosophy." 

E.J. Waggoner