Puritan Corner - Riches

 "Riches are . . .
  long in getting — with much pains,
  hard in keeping — with much care,
  quick in losing — with more sorrow. "

by Thomas Fuller (168-1661)

For riches are not for ever: and doth the crown endure to every generation?

Proverbs 27:24

Land Bridges, Island Hopping & Rafting

"....uniformitarian scientists concluded that many plants and animals did not arrive on the separated continents or oceanic islands until well after the break-up of the supercontinent.

This implies that the plants and animals had to transverse water, and in some cases oceans.

Evolutionists are left with three main mechanisms: 

(1) connections by now submerged land bridges; 

(2) island hopping across a series of adjacent islands, if close together; and 

(3) rafting on vegetation, sometimes across vast oceans.

Land bridges and island hopping have not become popular ideas, though the Bering Land Bridge is an exception. 

As a result, many scientists have no choice but to opt for the third option, rafting dispersal, despite it being considered impossible a few decades ago. 

---There have been several recent observations of successful rafting of lizards on pieces of floating vegetation after storms, giving support for rafting. When a hurricane ripped up vegetation on Caribbean islands, some lizards survived on vegetation rafts, and colonized other islands in the area.

----Log mats or possibly very large pumice rafts can explain some of the perplexing biogeographic observations^..... these could aid post-Flood dispersion: “Another application [of the log mat model] is that some of the floating debris likely survived the Flood.”

Millions of logs of various sizes likely floated on the oceans for a few hundred years after the Flood.

Transport would begin when a log mat beached, for instance at low

tide. Animals would meander onto it. When the log mat resumed floating, possibly after a storm or the rising of the tide, currents would carry the animals to distant shores. 

However, it is questionable that very large Ice Age mammals, like mammoths, could be transported long distances on log mats. The only alternative is dispersal by land bridges.

.... it is unlikely that God would have told Noah and the animals to spread over the earth knowing there was no way to accomplish this:

“Bring out with you every living thing that is with you of all flesh—birds and animals and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth—that they may swarm on the earth, and be fruitful and multiply on the earth” (Genesis 8:17, ESV).

Three land bridges have been proposed: 

(1) the connection between continental Europe and England at the Dover Strait; 

A land bridge once existed across the Dover Strait connecting the United Kingdom with continental Europe early in the Ice Age. Sonar features of the bottom of the English Channel at and near Dover Strait the closest approach of England and France.

(2) the connection between Asia and North America across the Bering Strait; 

The Bering Land Bridge aided dispersal of animals to the Americas. This land bridge not only exposed the Bering Strait, but also exposed much of the continental shelves of Siberia and Alaska creating a path into the Americas.

(3) the connection or near connection between South-east Asia and Australia."

CMI

That New Moral Taste

"Nothing but divine power can regenerate the human heart and imbue souls with the love of Christ, which will ever manifest itself with love for those for whom He died. 

When a man is converted to God, a new moral taste is supplied and he loves the things that God loves.... Love, joy, peace, and inexpressible gratitude will pervade the soul, and the language of him who is blessed will be, Thy gentleness hath made me great (Psalm 18:35)."

E.G.W.

2 Corinthians 4:6 Shines

For God, 

 --who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, 

--hath shined in our hearts, 

to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God 

in the face of Jesus Christ.

2 Corinthians 4:6

Creation Moment 7/31/2022 - Genesis Account Teaches....

God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil... Genesis 3:22

"The Genesis account teaches that there is a universal morality, and that ‘good’ and ‘evil’ 

are objective entities, 

not social constructs. 

....humans are created in the image and likeness of God, and so have the capacity for holiness.
Humans have free will. 

There is an ultimate meaning to existence." CMI

Thursday, Friday, Sunday.....

 But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God... Exodus 20:10

"We don’t keep Friday in honor of the crucifixion, we don't keep Thursday in honor of the "Holy Communion."  

The Bible never suggests Sunday keeping in honor of the resurrection."4thCommandment.com

Greek "koimeterion"

These things said he: and after that he saith unto them, Our friend Lazarus sleepeth; but I go, that I may awake him out of sleep.

John 11:11

 

"The etymology of our English word “cemetery” is instructive.
Cemetery comes from the Greek a word, koimeterion, which is derived from the very same Greek word for sleep, koimao, in the passages (Matthew 27:52, John 11:11, Acts 13:36, I Cor. 15:20, I Cor 15:51 and I Thess. 4:14).  

So, in both English and in Biblical Greek, cemetery means “sleeping place”, much as the word “dormitory” is from the Latin word for sleep." Fulcrum7

Creation Moment 7/30/2022 - Those Hot Jupiters

Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear. Hebrews 11:3

"Astronomers have discovered a Jupiter-sized extrasolar planet (exoplanet) orbiting so close to its host star that it is “perilously close” to the distance where it can be torn apart by gravitational forces.

Astronomers call these planets “hot Jupiters” because they are rather large planets with masses comparable to that of Jupiter, and their nearness to their host stars causes them to have high temperatures.

 

This particular “hot Jupiter,” designated as NGTS-10b, is about 1,000 light-years from Earth. Planets with smaller orbits take less time to go around their host stars than do planets with larger orbits. NGTS-10b orbits its host star in just 18 hours!

Dr. Daniel Bayliss, one of the astronomers making the discovery, said,

Everything that we know about planet formation tells us that planets and stars form at the same time. The best model that we’ve got suggests that the star is about ten billion years old and we’d assume that the planet is too. Either we are seeing it in the last stages of its life, or somehow it’s able to live here longer than it should.

The suggestion that the planet can “somehow” remain and “live” at this distance from the star “longer than it should” seems odd. 

 

Q: Why would astronomers not just simply accept that the planet is

in its last stages of its planetary “life”? Why even bring up the possibility that some unknown process could preserve the planet at this destructive distance for a long time?

A: The reason involves secular astronomers’ belief in billions of years. Scientists estimate that hot Jupiters so close to their parent stars will be destroyed in millions of years. In this particular case, they estimate that NGTS-10b will be destroyed in 38 million years, although there is considerable scatter in this number. This is a long time, but it is only a tiny fraction of the ten billion years of this planet’s supposed lifetime. For this reason, it seems unlikely that astronomers would be “lucky” enough to observe hot Jupiters in their death throes:

Back in 1996, when the very first hot Jupiters had been discovered, Fred Rasio and his colleagues predicted that their orbits could very slowly decay due to tidal interactions with their parent stars. However, the rapid change in WASP-12b’s orbital period implies that we’re observing the planet at the last moments [here “moment” means a million years!] of its inspiral. That might seem a rather improbable coincidence, but David Latham says, “one such case could be the result of a lucky accident.” [comment by author]

 

Perhaps this single case is a lucky accident. However, astronomers

have detected several hot Jupiters that apparently have already started their “death spirals” into their host stars. 

This is true even for hot Jupiters having periods longer than a day, such as WASP-12b, mentioned in the above quotation. Some of these planets have undergone measurable decreases in the lengths of their orbital periods.

One such hot Jupiter is thought to only have 550,000 years left before it is destroyed! And there could potentially be many more dying hot Jupiters that we simply don’t know about yet.

Dr. Bayliss noted,

We are either very lucky to catch them [“hot Jupiters”] in this short period orbit, or the processes by which the planet migrates into the star are less efficient than we imagine, in which case it can live in this configuration for a longer period of time.”

Yes, perhaps we are “very lucky.” And it should be acknowledged that hot Jupiters are relatively easy for astronomers to detect. 

Q: But if a “selection effect” is a sufficient explanation for the observation of multiple “dying” hot Jupiters so close to their host stars, why would astronomers talk about being “very lucky” to see them? And why would they make the ad hoc suggestion that these planets can “somehow” remain close to their host stars for longer than expected?

Clearly, multiple ultra-short period hot Jupiters this close to their host stars surprised secular astronomers. Hence, the ad hoc suggestion that they can “somehow” remain close to their host stars for long ages. 

----Of course, there is another possibility they seem unwilling to consider. Perhaps these hot Jupiters and their host stars simply are much younger than secular astronomers assume. If our universe is young, it wouldn’t be at all surprising to observe multiple hot Jupiters having already begun their death spirals.

----Observations of hot Jupiters so close to their host stars makes more sense if the stars and planets are young instead of old, just as we would infer from a straightforward reading of Scripture." ICR

IF the argument of Sabbath Opponents were applied to the other 9 Commandments...

"Some say If There is no record of seventh day Sabbath observance from its institution in Genesis 2:1-3 until we reach the Jews in the Book of Exodus. God’s commandments never existed prior to Mount Sinai. 

 

TRUTH:  If that argument were applied to the other nine

commandments, it would mean that all those men between Adam and Moses were liars, thieves and profaners of the Lord’s name because we cannot find where the Lord ever told them not to do these things!  Centuries before Moses, God judged His people by His law. 

Because that Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws. Genesis 26:5."

4thcommandment.com

IN the NEWS - Babel 2024 in the name of Mother Earth?

Modern Day Throwback to Babel---a city where man tries to save himself & the earth. And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth. Genesis 11:4

 

"Saudi Arabia shared an advertisement for a titanic megacity project

it has proposed.

The project, simply referred to as “The Line,” is a smart megacity project being proposed in the planned city of Neom, in the northwestern part of the country. 

The ambitious project will be just about 650 feet wide and 1,600 feet tall, but is planned to stretch for just under 106 miles long. The project’s website claims that once it is completed, the city will be home to some 9 million residents.

 “For too long, humanity has existed within dysfunctional and polluted cities that ignore nature,” a promotional video for the project says. “Now, a revolution in civilization is taking place. Imagine a traditional city, and consolidating its footprint, designing to protect and enhance nature.”

The Line’s website promotes the futuristic megacity as operating on

100% renewable energy, and preserving 95% of the surrounding land for nature. The city will be built as a series of individual nodes connected by a high-speed rail system that can travel the length of the city in just 20 minutes. The city is divided into three layers: two layers underground for transportation and infrastructure, and the surface layer, which will be exclusively for pedestrians. There will be no cars or roads, and the website claims that all residents will be able to access their daily necessities within 5-minute walk neighborhoods.

The promotional video further explains that the city will be surrounded by a mirrored glass facade, and will provide “equitable views” and an “immediate access to nature.”

According to Bloomberg, earthwork on the city began in October 2021, and the first residents are projected to move in by 2024.

 “Saudi Arabia figured out a way to cram all the city-dwelling libs into a giant wall that they never have to leave and convinced them it’s really cool and progressive,” The Daily Wire’s Michael Knowles added." DailyWire

The "Really" File - (Woke Unleashed on the Blind)

 But shun profane and vain babblings... 2 Timothy 2:16

"Speaking to a group of disability advocates Tuesday, and wanting to be thoughtful of those who were blind or vision impaired, Vice President Kamala Harris began her talk by saying, “I am Kamala Harris, my pronouns are she and her, I am a woman sitting at the table wearing a blue suit.” But what, exactly, did she mean by those words?

From the "Really" File

To be sure, others found VP Harris’s comments to be quite
condescending, including Mary Chastain, who describes herself as nearly vision impaired.

Writing on the Legal Insurrection website, Chastain stated that “my main problem with Harris is her introduction of herself to the table of blind and visually impaired people. It’s patronizing and dumb. We’re not stupid.” Lifesite

Creation Moment 7/29/2022 - The Groaning Observed: Not Evolution

For we know that the whole creation groaneth....

Romans 8:22

 

"I turned to a headline from last week at the news site Big Think, “Humans are evolving a new artery.” Oh, really? Darwinian evolution is producing a novel functional structure before our eyes? That would be remarkable if it were true. In fact, the headline at best greatly overpromises. The author, Kristin Houser, makes that clear immediately. She calls the phenomenon mere “microevolution.”

Acknowledging it as micro- rather than macro-evolution is a retreat from the headline.

---It turns out what we have here isn’t “evolution.” Even “micro-evoluton” doesn’t capture it. It is what biologist Michael Behe calls “devolution.” Genes break and sometimes that provides an advantage. Other times not. Either way, it’s not the creative “evolution” that Darwin had in mind.

 

Reporting in the Journal of Anatomy, scientists in Australia had

uncovered that more adults now possess a “median artery of the forearm,” contrasted with studies over the past two centuries.

Prevalence of this additional artery may be of significance to modern medicine, because sometimes the “the median artery, when present, passes through the carpal tunnel, thus it can compress the median nerve, causing carpal tunnel syndrome.” 

---Given that millions of us struggle with carpal tunnel syndrome in our device-infested world, this is potentially a legitimate cause for concern.

 

Setting aside for a moment the small sample size (as the authors

acknowledge), let’s assume that the numbers reported in this study and in prior studies back to the mid 1800s are reflective of a genuine trend in the prevalence of the forearm median artery. Let’s further assume that the researchers’ projections for the future increase of this prevalence are spot on and that everyone born after 2100 will carry a median artery. What does this demonstrate about evolution? After all, it isn’t sufficient to simply observe a biological change and then declare that, therefore, humans are “evolving.” We must look at the underlying cause to understand what is really happening.

The authors of the study acknowledge that the cause of this change is unknown, but suggest it is likely the result of a mutation in a regulatory structure. Specifically, the median artery is “an embryonic structure, which normally regresses around the 8th week of gestation.” 

The median artery is therefore a perfectly normal aspect of human

anatomy, present during early embryonic development and then typically fading or disappearing altogether as the radial and ulnar arteries on either side of the forearm develop and take over the job.

If we pause here and consider the facts, we can already see the clear outlines of a rational fact-based answer to the question at hand. The median artery is a normal (presumably essential) part of early embryonic development. After the artery has done its job, the developing embryo shuts down the median artery as it develops the radial and ulnar arteries. This speaks clearly to regulation and control. The kinds of things that are consistent with a planned and purposeful process. Indeed, the authors recognize that a regulated system is at work: “The mechanism for the regression of the median artery is initiated and regulated by specific genes. Persistence of the median artery into adulthood indicates the failure of the expression of these genes” (emphasis added). The researchers go on to suggest that this failure of the regression process “could have resulted from alteration of or damage to genes by mutations,” or perhaps an environmental factor, such as an infection of the mother, could have disrupted the regression process.

 

References to evolution are sprinkled throughout the paper. 

Yet despite the clear implication that the failure of median artery regression is due to a hitch in a sophisticated control process, little additional attention is paid to this fact. The authors do not mention “regulation” again, and there is no discussion of controls or outlines of additional research that could be pursued along these lines. Instead, the observations are shoehorned into a mental box of Darwinian thinking, with vague appeals to “selection pressure” as the cause of the observed change. There seems to be a collective blindness to the evidence right under our noses…what we seem to be observing in the case of the human median artery is a breakdown of a pre-existing system and a failure of a regulatory process to proceed along its pre-programmed lines." EN&V

La Quintrala and the 2nd Resurrection

 La Quintrala (1604-1665) was A colonial nightmare for those
around her in Chile of German, Spanish & Inca descent. 

She was a well connected woman of Chilean nobility whose family connections would keep her out of prison and from the hangman's noose during her lifetime (although she'd be arrested but released occasionaly for her evil crimes).

Her older sister Maria was expelled to Peru for attempted murder early on--so her and her sister shared in the evil heart.

La Quintrala's first suspected murder was that of her own father whom her own relatives tried to have her charged with.

She married multiple times suspected of killing some of her husbands. Also, some of her lovers she would stab to death and blame a slave who would be executed for it.

She was most famous for killing her slaves through various tortures she'd think up. One time when most of her slaves ran off because of her cruelty (this was after she had killed one for fun and left the corpse to rot in the open for 2 weeks) she tracked them down and gleefully had them tortured.

She was well known around town for bribing officials who would investigate her crimes including her abuse of her slaves.

In her will she left her money from her estates to the Church including large sums to pay for many masses for her soul. She also left some for the Augustinian order of the Church.

*Sadly for  La Quintrala NO AMOUNT OF MONEY can save her soul. 

You cannot BUY your own forgiveness. And unless she had a true repentance as she lived and died alone in her home in the end - she will find out the hard way during the second resurrection.

And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, (1st resurrection) and some to shame and everlasting contempt (2nd resurrection)....But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished (2nd resurrection).... And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation. (2nd resurrection).

Daniel 12:2/Revelation 20:5/John 5:29

Creation Moment 7/28/2022 - " Whatever is" of evolutionary theory is "deceitful"

The heart is deceitful above all things, 

and desperately wicked: who can know it?

Jeremiah 17:9

 "Evolutionary theory contains no ethics. Whatever is, evolved." CEH

Throwing "Legalist" at Sabbath Keepers

Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams.

1 Samuel 15:22

 

"If one believes that God’s Ten Commandment Law is complete,

eternal and unchangeable and that sincere obedience to this law is New Testament doctrine, than one can also be accused of being a “legalist.”  ---However, the same law that commands us not to steal also commands us to keep the seventh day holy.  

Q: Would it be reasonable to accuse someone who refuses to commit murder, a legalist?" 

4thCommandmentTruths

Ohio Obituary Lesson: He Was Just Playing [1895]

 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. 

For what is your life? It is even a vapor, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.  Hebrews 3:15/James 4:14

 

"SMITH, DAUGHTER

Killed While Playing Indian

The 11-year-old son of Joe Smith of Columbus Grove, Ohio, while

playing Indian with a shotgun, shot and blew the entire head off his little 5-year-old sister. The girl, while nursing her 5-months-old brother, noticed her elder brother advancing toward her with gun cocked, and exclaimed: "Charley, drop that gun",  whereupon the boy dropped the gun, the trigger striking a chair and discharging the load, tearing the girl's head horribly. 

Some of the shot grazed the little baby's head, which will recover, but the girl died instantly. 

The mother was near by when the horrible act occurred. [The World Decatur March 13 1895 ]."

Papal Notes - Participating in the "course of this world"

Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world,  

according to the prince of the power of the air,

the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience...

Ephesians 2:2

 

 "During the first full day of his visit with Canada’s Indigenous communities, Pope Francis attended a “healing dance” that appeared to direct worship to “Mother Earth.”....the Master of Ceremonies for the event explained that a “healing dance” was about to occur, while outlining that the drum involved is “the heartbeat of Mother Earth, the drum is life .” 

Francis, along with four Indigenous Chiefs donning traditional headdresses and garb, sat on a stage slightly above the dance, giving them a view of the happenings. 

The MC for the event spoke about the importance of the number “four” as the ritual continued, referencing the “elements,” the “four directions,” the “four stages of life” and the “four living life forms.....Mother Earth is all the plant life, Mother Earth, our mother, is also the mother of all insect life, Mother Earth is also the mother of all animals on the ground, in the water, in the air.”....this is not the first time Francis has attended or participated in what seems to be pagan-styled worship."

Lifesite

Creation Moment 7/27/2022 - Astronomer said it......

When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained;...

Psalm 8:3

 

"All human discoveries seem to be made only for the purpose of confirming more and more strongly the truths come from on high and contained in the sacred writings."

 John Herschel (1792 - 1871), leading British astronomer and philosopher

Description of Death - Oldest Book in Bible, Paul & Christ all say....

"In Job, believed to be the oldest book in the Bible, death is again referred to as sleep: 

Job 7:21: “Now shall I sleep in the dust”

Job 14:12:  “They shall not awake, nor be raised out of their sleep”.

 

Jesus described death as “sleep”: 

Matthew 9:24:  “The maid is not dead but sleepeth.”

Mark 5:39:  “The damsel is not dead but sleepeth”

Luke 8:52:  “She is not dead but sleepeth”

John 11:11:  “Our friend Lazarus sleepeth”

 

Paul describes death as sleep: 

I Cor. 15:20:  “Christ is risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that sleep”

I Cor. 15:51:  “We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed”

I Thess 4:13:  “I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope”

I Thess. 4:14:  “If we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus”."

 John Anderson/F7

Creation Moment 7/26/2022 - Who Created the Function of the Fibonacci Sequence?

The Creator made the Fibonacci Sequence that is used and just think, well actually we observe within science, what the Creator can do with these....and imagine what He does with the mystery of Time.....Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast understanding. Job 38:4

"Physicists demonstrated a way of storing quantum information thatis less prone to errors by subjecting a quantum computer’s qubits to quasi-rhythmic laser pulses based on the Fibonacci sequence.

Physicists have created a remarkable, never-before-seen phase of matter by shining a laser pulse sequence inspired by the Fibonacci sequence at atoms inside a quantum computer. Despite there still being only one singular flow of time, the phase has the benefits of two time dimensions, the physicists reported on July 20 in the journal Nature.

This mind-bending property offers a highly desirable benefit: Information stored in the phase is far more protected against errors than with alternative setups currently used in quantum computers. As a result, the information can exist for far longer without getting garbled, an important milestone for making quantum computing viable, according to study lead author Philipp Dumitrescu.

The approach’s innovative use of an “extra” time dimension “is a completely different way of thinking about phases of matter,” says Dumitrescu.

Each of those atomic ions function as what physicists dub a quantum

bit, or ‘qubit.’ As opposed to conventional computers that quantify information in bits (each representing a 0 or a 1), the qubits used by quantum computers leverage the strangeness of quantum mechanics to store even more information. Just as Schrödinger’s cat is both dead and alive in its box, a qubit can be a 0, a 1, or a mashup — or ‘superposition’ — of both at the same time. That additional information density and the way qubits interact with one another promise to allow quantum computers to solve computational problems far beyond the reach of traditional computers." SciTechDaily

Refuting The "Sabbath is for the Jews" Claim

"Jesus said, “The Sabbath was made for man (Mark 2:27),” i.e., for mankind.  

The Bible also says that “woman was made for man ( I Corinthians 11:9).”  

---So if the Sabbath is only for the Jews than marriage would only be for the Jews as well!  

The seventh day Sabbath is no more exclusively Jewish than is the institution of marriage.  

---God blessed and sanctified them both and they are equally just as universal as is mankind."

4thCommandmentTruths

Creation Moment 7/25/2022 - Moth Lesson

And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life.... Genesis 3:14

It seems that all the Creation - Plants, animals and of course humans -- were tweaked after the fall -- and each given a survival skill in this fallen world....below is an example for moths...

 "Bats pierce the shadows with ultrasonic pulses that enable them to

construct an auditory map of their surroundings, which is bad news for moths, one of their favorite foods.

However, not all moths are defenseless prey. Some emit ultrasonic signals of their own that startle bats into breaking off pursuit.

Many moths that contain bitter toxins avoid capture altogether by producing distinct ultrasounds that alert bats to their foul taste. Others conceal themselves in a shroud of sonar-jamming static that makes them hard to find with bat echolocation.

While effective, these types of auditory defense mechanisms in moths are considered relatively rare, known only in tiger moths, hawk moths and a single species of geometrid moth.

“It’s not just tiger moths and hawk moths that are doing this,” said Dr. Akito Kawahara, a researcher at the Florida Museum of Natural History.

“There are tons of moths that create ultrasonic sounds, and we hardly know anything about them.” SciNews