Puritan Corner - Lovely

"No pen, no words, no image can express to you the loveliness of my only Lord Jesus."

by Samuel Rutherford (1600-1661)
....yea, he is altogether lovely. 

Song of Solomon 5:16

2 signs of a Falling Away: Nehemiah Case Study

"Nehemiah promptly corrected these abuses. 

He gathered together those who had forsaken the service of the house of God, 

---and caused the tithes and offerings to be restored.

---Another result of intercourse with idolaters was disregard of the

Sabbath. Heathen merchants and traders from the surrounding country had been intent upon leading the children of Israel to engage in traffic upon the Sabbath.
Many dared openly to violate the Sabbath. 

While some engaged in traffic with the heathen, others were treading in wine presses, and others bringing in sheaves upon the Sabbath day. In those days saw I in Judah some treading wine presses on the sabbath, and bringing in sheaves, and lading asses; as also wine, grapes, and figs, and all manner of burdens, which they brought into Jerusalem on the sabbath day: and I testified against them in the day wherein they sold victuals. There dwelt men of Tyre also therein, which brought fish, and all manner of ware, and sold on the sabbath unto the children of Judah, and in Jerusalem. Nehemiah 13:15,16

Nehemiah rebuked them for their shameful neglect of duty, which was largely responsible for the fast-spreading apostasy. 

What evil thing is this that you do, and profane the Sabbath day?

–he sternly demanded. Did not your fathers thus, and did not our God bring all this evil upon us, and upon this city? yet you bring more wrath upon Israel by profaning the Sabbath. He gave command that when it… ...began to be dark before the Sabbath, the city gates should be shut, and that they should not be opened till the Sabbath was past. Nehemiah 13:17-19

And, having more confidence in his own servants than in those the magistrates of Jerusalem might appoint, he stationed them at the gate to see that his orders were enforced." 

E.G.W.

The "Really" File - ("Hot" Jesus?)

And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. Genesis 6:6

"Jesus is punching the devil on Facebook.
The two are in a boxing ring. Jesus is wearing a pair of white boxing shorts with his name embroidered on the waistband. He is ripped

beyond belief; not only does he have six-pack abs, but every muscle on his body is bulging. Jesus is hitting the devil directly on the chin, a knockout blow. “Nunca te arrepentiras de darle me gusta a esta foto”—“You will never regret liking this photo”—the caption reads in part, followed by a bunch of spam hashtags.
In another image, Jesus has icy-blue eyes. A bloody cross adorns his forehead. He looks like the actor Jared Leto.
Hot AI Jesus hath risen. 

The son of God, as rendered by modern artificial intelligence, is chiseled and has startlingly good hair.

From the "Really" File

These depictions of Christ are at times extremely popular on Facebook and Instagram. Jesus, hot or not, is a significant motif in this era of online AI junk; he is to AI Facebook spam as water lilies are to Monet, and dancers to Degas. Spend enough time scrolling the AI wastelands of social media, and you will likely encounter him, in all his glory.
Hot Jesus appears to be catnip for users on Facebook, where he is routinely posted to generate engagement.
The mysterious people running these AI-junk Facebook pages must have some financial incentive to create this spam, though it’s unclear precisely how they’re profiting from them." Atlantic

REALLY?

Psalm 46:1 & Time

"As God inhabits eternity, so that all time is present with Him, so all His promises and blessings for men are in the present tense. There can be no future or past time to Him. 

This makes Him "a very present help in trouble," (Ps. 46:1) for we can live only in the present. We cannot live one moment in the future." 

E.J. Waggoner

Creation Moment 6/30/2024 - Truths from Creation

"Yet being made in God’s image and likeness is only one truth. 

The other truth is this: we were made from dust.

This truth tells us that we are not gods. 

It tells us that we are only creatures—part of the stuff that God created. This humbling, constraining truth tells us that there are limits on how we can image, or reflect, God.

God will always be the great and mighty Creator. 

We will always be His dependent and finite creatures.

Our world hates this truth. Remember, the serpent tempted Eve by falsely promising, “You will be like God” (Genesis 3:5)." 

AIG

Health Note - Mummified infant shows how a lack of sunlight can kill

Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest...be in health,..

3 John 1:2

"A team of scientists based in Germany examined the mummified remains of an infant from the 17th century, found in a crypt reserved for the Austrian aristocracy. The crypt’s conditions, along with

having a complete lack of sunlight, allowed for natural mummification, preserving the soft tissues, which provided crucial information about the child’s health and cause of death.

The child was identified as likely being Reichard Wilhelm, the first-born son of a Count of Starhemberg, who lived during the Renaissance-a period marked by significant scientific and artistic advancements.

The virtual autopsy revealed that the child was overweight for his age, indicating he had sufficient food intake. However, his ribs

showed malformations known as rachitic rosary, typically associated with severe rickets or scurvy, conditions resulting from vitamin D deficiency (which happens, amongst other methods, from having a lack of sunlight). This paradox of being well-fed yet malnourished underscores the complexity of nutritional health at the time.

The human body synthesizes vitamin D when exposed to sunlight, specifically ultraviolet B (UVB) rays. In the case of the mummified infant, a lack of sunlight exposure was identified as the primary cause of the vitamin D deficiency, leading to rickets and ultimately contributing to pneumonia, which proved fatal."
TheHeartySoul

Sunday Keeping Today is NOT the Mark of the Beast -- yet

"Seventh day Adventists do not say that everyone who keeps Sunday

has the mark of the beast. We do not place anyone, dead or alive, under condemnation. Note this authoritative statement from the writings of the best recognized of Adventist writers, Ellen G. White:

“Christians of past generations observed the Sunday, supposing that in so doing they were keeping the Bible Sabbath: and there are now true Christians in every church, not excepting the Roman Catholic Communion, who honestly believe that Sunday is the Sabbath of divine appointment. God accepts their sincerity of purpose and their integrity before Him. 

---But when Sunday observance shall he enforced by law, and the world shall be enlightened concerning the obligation of the true Sabbath, then whoever shall transgress the command of God, to obey a precept which has no higher authority than that of Rome, will thereby honor popery above God. He is paying homage to Rome, and to the power which enforces the institution ordained by Rome. He is worshiping the beast and his image.’”— “No one has yet received the mark of the beast. The testing time has not yet come. There are true Christians in every church, not excepting the Roman Catholic communion. None are condemned until they have had the light and have seen the obligation of the fourth commandment. But when the decree shall go forth enforcing the counterfeit Sabbath, and the loud cry of the third angel shall warn men against the worship of the beast and his image, the line will be clearly drawn between the false and the true. Then those who still continue in transgression will receive the mark of the beast.” — Evangelism, pp. 234-35. The Great Controversy, p. 449.

Paul said to the ancient, idolatrous Athenians, “The times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commands all men every where to repent.” Acts 17:30. It is not what we do ignorantly that brings God's condemnation, but what we do willfully after we have a clear knowledge of the truth. “Therefore to him that knows to do good, and does it not, to him it is sin.” James 4:17."

F.D. Nichols

ARCHAEOLOGY: Darkened Hearts led to Slaughtering of Sons

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 discovered the bodies of over 100 young children at Chichen Itza in 1967. All were in a chultun — a bottle-shaped underground storage chamber. 

For the new study, researchers analyzed the genomes of 64 of the skeletons. They were looking specifically for a genetic legacy of the Salmonella enterica pandemic that swept across Mexico in 1545.

To their surprise, all the victims were boys. They re-ran the tests to be sure. Myths depicted young maidens as the main sacrifice to the gods. The Mayans believed that blood was their gods’ ultimate source of nourishment. The subterranean chambers acted as links to the underworld.

The 64 boys included two sets of twins. Over a quarter of the

children were closely related to another child. 

---The Mayans may have believed that offering the gods closely related individuals would bring good fortune. 

---Twins are particularly lucky in Mayan mythology, which is likely the reason for their ritual slaughter.

“Twins occur spontaneously in only 0.4 percent of the general population,” the authors commented. “The presence of two sets of identical twins…is much higher than would be expected by chance.”

Twins are central to the “Popol Vuh,” a sacred Mayan text. The myth speaks of twins Hun and Vucub Hunahpu, sacrificed to the gods after defeat in a ball game. After the killing, Hun Hunahpu’s head hung from a tree and impregnated a woman who gave birth to another set of twins. These twins went to the underworld to avenge their father and uncle.

Researchers think the boys were sacrificed in pairs to mimic the story of the hero twins." 

ExplorersWeb

SDA Issues - Who let the Beer Logo into the Camp Meeting?

"In many places, the church’s standards have disappeared. 

On Sabbath, June 15, 2024, during a worship service at the 2024

Allegheny West Conference Camp Meeting, the band featured a drummer who was proudly wearing a Coors Beer Brewing Company hat as the people were singing songs to God. And the 2024 Allegheny West Conference camp meeting turned into a forum for promoting the alcohol industry’s brand visibility by raising awareness of its marketing—pure and simple.

Asking people to dress appropriately for church is not a way to point fingers or make criticism; rather, it is a matter of spiritual guidance to maintain the sanctity of worship. 

--There are standards and expectations regarding attire in many professional and business contexts, including courtrooms. 

--If you were in front of a judge at a court proceeding, you wouldn’t wear a Coors beer hat. You would be ejected from the courtroom in a heartbeat. 

But at our holy camp meetings, where people appear before the Judge of the universe, it is acceptable to promote beer through clothing.

What happened at this Adventist camp meeting was a catastrophic failure on many levels." 

AdventMessenger

And the Lord said unto him, Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof. And to the others he said in mine hearing, Go ye after him through the city, and smite: let not your eye spare, neither have ye pity: Slay utterly old and young, both maids, and little children, and women: but come not near any man upon whom is the mark; and begin at my sanctuary. Then they began at the ancient men which were before the house. Ezekiel 9:4-6

SDA Issues - Andrews Giving Beer as a Prize?

Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit. Ephesians 5:18

"Andrews University hosts an Annual Trail Challenge for hikers. You can win prizes too. But the prizes are a concern. I mean, coffee?? And beer. Yeah, I don’t think that’s in our health message." 

Fulcrum7

Papal Notes - Pope's Way vs. God's Way

Pope Francis' Way:

"Pope Francis asserted this week Christians, Jews and Muslims, all worship the one God and are “brothers and sisters.”

“Jesus taught us to welcome one another as brothers and sisters,” the pontiff told a delegation from the Bologna Mosque in northern Italy. “And this is true first of all for us, Christians, Jews, and Muslims, who worship the One God.”
Members of all three faiths refer to Abraham as “our father in faith,” he said, “albeit in different ways.” “In today’s world, our witness of fraternity is indispensable and very precious,” he added." Breitbart

God's Way:

Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me. 

John 14:6

Pope Francis' Way:

"Every believer “must feel free to propose – never impose! – his

religion to other people, believers or not,” he said. “This excludes any form of proselytism, .....”
In addition, “marriages between people of different religions should not be an opportunity to convert the spouse to his or her religion,” he declared." Breitbart

God's Way:

Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Matthew 28:19

Creation Moment 6/29/2024 - Leading Darwinists Admit Weakness of Darwinism

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

"Bret Weinstein and Heather Heying are well-known evolutionary biologists (and husband and wife) with a podcast, the DarkHorse Podcast. 

Recently Weinstein posed a provocative question, “Is intelligent design a competitor to Darwinian evolution?” His answer may surprise you: Yes.
No, he’s not about to come over to the dark side. Weinstein is confident that Darwinism will meet the challenges that ID has set, about the Cambrian Explosion and more, but he concedes that it hasn’t done so yet.

He describes conversations with Richard Dawkins and Jerry Coyne, asking them why evolutionary biology hasn’t had a breakthrough since 1976 when Dawkins published The Selfish Gene. 

Dawkins and Coyne, separately, both answered that it was because all the big questions had already been answered, and all that was left was a “clean up” operation. 

Weinstein recognizes that that is just so much blowing smoke, and the work of Stephen Meyer and his “high-quality colleagues” in the ID research community has exposed the problems that Darwinists need to be working on to solve.

Heying cites the 2019 public defection from Darwinism of Yale computer scientist David Gelernter, who pointed to Meyer’s writing as his primary reason for “Giving Up Darwin.” "

EN&V

CONSECRATION

"CONSECRATION is simply the constant recognition of the fact that we are the Lord's and not our own. 

He who learns that this is a fact and lives in the constant living presence and recognition of it as the great fact,—he is consecrated, and this is consecration. 

Nor is this a hard thing to do in itself. 

People make it hard for themselves, by thinking it to be something that it is not, and trying to accomplish it in a way that is not the Lord's way, and even then they miss it. 

And, in truth, going about it in another than the Lord's way, they cannot possibly do anything else than miss it. Is it a fact, then, that we are the Lord's?—Of course it is; for it is written: " Ye are bought with a price." 1 Cor. 6:20. And the price is, " the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot." 1 Peter 1: 19. For He " gave Himself for us." Titus 2:14. 

But He cannot save us in our sins. He will save us from our sins. And as our whole self is sin and sin only, in order to get us, in order to buy us, He had to buy our sins also. 

So in giving Himself for us, He gave Himself for our sins too. And as we are His, because He bought us with that great price, so also our sins are His, for He bought them with the same great price. 

Q: Then will you let Him have the sins which He has bought? or will

you hold on to these yourself ? 

Q: Will you let Him have what is His own? 

Q: Will you let Him do what He will with His own ? 

Q: And what will He do with these sins? 

A: Oh, He will forgive them ! 1 John 1:9. He will make them as white as snow. Isa. 1:18. He will put them away."
The Present Truth

Papal Notes - Brother Sun?

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

"On June 21, 2024, the Pope issued an apostolic letter to the

administrators of Vatican City State, authorizing them to carry out the necessary steps to transition the 110 acres it controls and bring its city-state in line with Laudato Si’. In his letter, he orders the building of a solar power plant, called an agrivoltaic plant, to provide all the energy needed to sustain the Vatican City State. Basically, Rome is transitioning away from fossil fuels by papal decree.

In the title of his apostolic letter, Pope Francis refers to the sun as Brother Sun, signifying the pantheistic heresy that emphasizes that humans and the natural world are part of one interconnected family. The Pope’s letter, Fratello Sole, says:
• “With the Encyclical Letter Laudato Si’ on the care of our common home of 24 May 2015, I invited all humanity to become aware of the need to make changes to their lifestyles, production and consumption, in order to counteract global warming and the global economy which sees, among its main causes, the pervasive use of fossil fuels.”
• “Therefore I entrust to you, dear Brothers, in your respective capacities as President of the Governorate of the Vatican City State and President of the Administration of the Heritage of the Apostolic See, the task of building an agrivoltaic plant located within the extraterritorial area of ​​Santa Maria di Galeria which ensures not only the electrical supply of the radio station existing there, but also the complete energy sustenance of the Vatican City State.”
• “Finally, I order that the Secretariat of State facilitate every request.”

Laudato Si’ is the Jesuit agenda for the world to follow and Fratello Sole (Brother Sun) is the papal decree mandating that Laudato Si’ is followed.
In Pope Francis’ encyclical Laudato Si’, both Sunday and the

Eucharist hold significant importance in conveying his climate message. Sunday, as a day of rest, invites people to pause, reflect, and appreciate the beauty of creation, fostering a deeper sense of gratitude and responsibility towards the environment. The Pope also presents the Eucharist as a celebration to unite ourselves with God and others in order to heal our relationships." 

Advent Messenger

Creation Moment 6/28/2024 - Carbon and the Groaning of Creation

For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. Romans 8:22 ESV

"Scientists previously believed that the path to dissolved organic matter involved a slow process with many sequential reactions. However, the current study suggests that the transformation occurs relatively quickly.

The team examined dissolved organic matter from four tributaries of the Amazon River and two lakes in Sweden. They employed a technique called nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) to analyze the structure of millions of diverse molecules. Remarkably, regardless of the climate, the fundamental structure of the dissolved organic matter remained consistent.

“Key to the findings was the unconventional use of NMR in ways allowing studies of the deep interior of large dissolved organic molecules – thereby mapping and quantifying the chemical surroundings around the carbon atoms,” explains Siyu Li, a scientist at the Helmholtz Zentrum and lead author of the study.
In biomolecules, carbon atoms can be connected to four other atoms, most often to hydrogen or oxygen. However, to the team’s surprise, a very high fraction of the organic carbon atoms was not connected to any hydrogen but instead primarily to other carbon atoms. Particularly intriguing was the large number of carbon atoms bound specifically to three other carbons and one oxygen atom, a structure being very rare in biomolecules.

“This discovery helps explain the substantial organic carbon sinks on our planet, which reduce the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere,” says David Bastviken.
According to David Bastviken, professor of environmental change at Linköping University, this renders the organic matter stable, allowing it to persist for a long time and preventing it from rapidly returning to the atmosphere as carbon dioxide or methane."
SciTechDaily

Isaiah 61:1 SERIES Page

The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; 

because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; 

He hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, 

to proclaim liberty to the captives, 

and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; 

Isaiah 61:1

The Meek

Dig Deeper: Isaiah 61:1 SERIES: The Meek (master1844-dc.blogspot.com)

The Broken-Hearted

Dig Deeper: Isaiah 61:1 SERIES: The Broken-Hearted 

Liberty to the Captives

Dig Deeper: Isaiah 61:1 SERIES: Liberty to the Captives 

Opening of the Prison

Dig Deeper: Isaiah 61:1 SERIES: Opening of the Prison 

Modern vs. Scriptural Preaching Method

And when He was alone, they that were about Him with the twelve asked of Him the parable. Matthew 11:29 

"THE Canadian Independent has the following about preaching, which is worth reading:— "The preaching of the first two or three centuries was more like the teaching now in a ' Bible class.'

Questions were frequently asked and answered. 

When it was not conversational it was expository. Every one will testify that his thirst for information is best satisfied and the matter learned sticks best in the memory when the information is obtained at the very moment the mind is excited on the subject." 

So much the worse for the "modern methods." It would seem that there ought not to be much hesitation about letting a modern method go, and returning to the scriptural method. 

It is certain that the preaching of Christ and the apostles was of the conversational or teaching style." 

The Present Truth 1893

Creation Moment 6/27/2024 - Your all-wheel drive Cellular Trains

I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: Psalm 139:14

"Looking under the microscope, a group of cells slowly moves forward in a line, like a train on the tracks. The cells navigate through complex environments.

The majority of the cells in the human body cannot move. Some specific ones, however, can go to different places. For example, in wound healing, cells move through the body to repair damaged tissue. 

They sometimes travel alone or in different group sizes.

The first thing the scientists in Austria looked at was the speed of the cell trains. The simulation revealed that the speed of the trains is independent of their length, whether they consist of two or ten cells. “Imagine if the first cell did all the work, dragging the others behind it; the overall performance would decrease,” says Hannezo. “But that’s not the case. Within the trains, all the cells are polarized in the same direction. They are aligned and in sync about their movement and smoothly move forward.” In other words, the trains operate like an all-wheel drive rather than just a front-wheel drive.

From an efficiency standpoint, it sounds like moving in clusters is not ideal. However, the model predicted that it also had its benefits when cells navigate through complex terrain, as they do, for instance, in the human body.
Naturally, the question arises: when do cells move in clusters, and when do they move in trains? The answer is that both scenarios are observed in nature.

“Our model doesn’t only apply to a single process. Instead, it is a broadly applicable framework showing that placing cells in an environment with geometric constraints is highly instructive, as it challenges them and allows us to decipher their interactions with each other,” Hannezo adds." 

SciTechDaily

Isaiah 61:1 SERIES: Opening of the Prison

The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; Isaiah 61:1

"And the opening of the prison to them that are bound." 

The accomplishment of this promise can only be fulfilled in the

resurrection of the just, when the graves will be opened, and all the bodies of the saints who have slept will come forth. See 1Cor.xv. 54,55: "So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?" Then will death have no dominion over them, and the bonds of the prisoners will be loosed." 

William Miller

Lesson from Zerubbabel

"When Zerubbabel was trying under very adverse circumstances to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem, he came to a time when the

difficulties appeared like mountains before him. Then the Lord sent His prophet Zechariah with a message to help and encourage him. Zechariah was given a view of the golden candlesticks, and was also shown whence the oil came that supplied the lamps. He saw two olive-trees, one on the right side of the bowl and the other on the left side, which through golden pipes kept the lamps supplied with oil, that they might burn brightly.

Zechariah asked the angel the meaning of what he saw. In reply the angel said: “This is the word of the Lord unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts” (Zech. 4:6). Then he gave a message to Zerubbabel to go forward, and said that the mountain of difficulties would become a plain before him, and that as surely as his hands had laid the foundations of the house of the Lord, so surely would he finish it.

Zerubbabel was walking by faith in the words of the prophets who had foretold how and when Jerusalem would be rebuilt (2 Chron. 36:20-23; Jer 25:12). But those prophets were dead, and he faced difficulties that he might think the prophets never expected would arise. Then God sent a living prophet with a message of encouragement, to keep the light burning, and enable Zerubbabel to press forward and complete the work prophesied.

We cannot comprehend the word of the Lord without the Spirit to enlighten our minds. The light shines to the degree in which we believe the word and risk our all upon it: and as we come into difficulties in following the instruction given through the dead prophets, the Lord sends messages of strength and encouragement through the living prophet, to enable us to press forward to victory." Stephen Haskell

Lessons from Mount St. Helens Eruption

"Mount St. Helens volcano in Washington State, north-west USA,

would be one of the most studied volcanoes on earth. On 18 May 1980, at 8:32 am, a surge of magma deep underground triggered an avalanche on the mountainside. Like a cork popped from a bottle of soda, the pressure inside the mountain unleashed the deadliest and costliest volcanic disaster in the history of the US: 57 lives were lost.

One remarkable effect of the Mount St. Helens eruptions is that geologists are now more accepting of catastrophic geologic processes. 

---Previously they were wedded to the idea that geological features

formed slowly over millions of years. But their ideas changed after they saw that thick beds of ash, deposited in less than an hour, displayed fine laminations. That proved that long periods of time are not essential for fine layers to form.
---Radioactive dating of rock that formed since the 1980 eruption gave ‘ages’ of hundreds of thousands, even millions of years, showing that the fundamental assumptions behind radioactive-dating were wrong.

During Noah’s Flood, 4,500 years ago, water not only rained from the heavens but also burst from underground from “the fountains of the great deep” (In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the windows of the heavens were opened. Genesis 7:11). These fractures and upheavals in the earth’s crust caused great volcanic activity. It was many hundreds of years after the Flood ended before the earth settled down.

During Noah’s Flood some volcanic eruptions covered enormous areas, such as the Columbia River Basalt Group in north-western

USA. Here, as many as 300 individual lava flows engulfed some

63,000 sq. miles of the countryside to a depth of more than 1.1 miles.

The lava gushing from the earth was so hot and runny that it flowed across the landscape for vast distances. The flood waters were still around when the eruptions took place, and they deposited sediment, as well as wood (now petrified) and gravel, between some of the lava flows. The individual flows followed each other so quickly that there was not much erosion between them. But when the lava finally stopped, as the waters of Noah’s Flood receded into the ocean they eroded deep valleys into the basalt complex.

Molten rock, while it is inside the earth, is called magma, but once it erupts onto the surface is called lava. Rocks that harden from magma are called plutonic (after the Greek god of the underworld, Pluto), and usually have large crystals, while rocks hardening from lava are called volcanic, and usually have very fine crystals. The composition of the magma depends on the source rock and how much of it melted.

Magma that is rich in magnesium and iron is described as mafic. It is highly fluid (thin, runny) and gushes out of fissures in the ground at

over 1,000 °C. This lava solidifies into a black rock called basalt (if the magma cools inside the earth, it forms gabbro). Like a fountain, basaltic eruptions in Hawaii and Iceland spray red-hot lava into the air, which then flows in glowing red streams into nearby valleys or the ocean. These eruptions are placid and predictable, and popular as tourist attractions. The lava forms large, flat cones called shield volcanoes.
Magma with less iron and magnesium is less fluid, and can solidify into a grey rock called diorite. If this type of magma becomes lava, it will solidify into andesite.

With even less iron and magnesium the magma is thick and tacky. It is called felsic magma because it is rich in elements that produce feldspar and silica minerals. Felsic magma can erupt explosively or ooze like toothpaste to form a blob. The lava solidifies into a yellow, pink or pale-grey rock called rhyolite (the plutonic equivalent is granite). Mt St. Helens erupted into a lava dome of dacite, between andesite and rhyolite in composition." 

CMI

Creation Moment 6/26/2024 - Carbon Atom: the key element of living substance

Drop down, ye heavens, from above, and let the skies pour down righteousness: let the earth open, and let them bring forth salvation, and let righteousness spring up together; I the LORD have created it. Isaiah 45:8

"The carbon atom, the primary constituent of organic molecules, is, in several respects, uniquely fit for the assembly of the complex macromolecules found in the cell. 

First, due to the stability of carbon-carbon bonding, only carbon

can form long polymers of itself, forming long chains or rings, while also bonding to other kinds of atoms. Though silicon can also form long chains by bonding with itself, these bonds are significantly less stable than carbon-carbon bonds. 

Plaxco and Gross note that “while silicon-silicon, silicon-hydrogen, and silicon-nitrogen bonds are similar in energy, the silicon-oxygen bond is far more stable than any of the other three types. As a consequence, silicon readily oxidizes to silicon dioxide, limiting the chemistry available to this atom whenever oxygen is present. And oxygen is the third most common atom in the Universe.”

As Primo Levi explains, carbon “is the only element that can bind itself in long stable chains without a great expense of energy, and for life on earth (the only one we know so far) precisely long chains are required. Therefore carbon is the key element of living substance.”

Second, carbon is tetravalent — that is, each atom can form four covalent bonds with other atoms. 

Third, carbon possesses a relatively small atomic nucleus, entailing short bond distances, thereby allowing it to form stable bonds with itself as well as other atoms. This property is also possessed by the other small, non-metal atoms in period two. Carbon is able to form single, double, and triple bonds with other atoms. Nitrogen can also form single, double, or triple bonds and oxygen can form single and double bonds. Contrast this with the nonmetal atoms directly beneath them in the periodic table — silicon, phosphorus, and sulfur — which possess larger atomic radii and therefore form such bonds less easily due to multiple bonds having reduced stability.

Another property of organic bonds is that their strength sits

within a Goldilocks zone, being neither too strong nor too weak for biochemical manipulations in the cell. If the strength of those bonds were to be altered by a single order of magnitude, it would render impossible numerous biochemical reactions that take place in the cell. 

--If it were too strong, the activation energy needed to break bonds could not be sufficiently reduced by enzymatic activity (enzymes strain chemical bonds by engaging in specific conformational movements while bound to a substrate). 

--Conversely, if organic bonds were much weaker, bonds would be frequently disrupted by molecular collisions, rendering controlled chemistry impossible.

Another special characteristic of carbon is that there is not much variation in energy levels of carbon bonds from one atom to the next. Robert E. D. Clark explains that carbon “is a friend of all. Its bond

energies with hydrogen, chlorine, nitrogen, oxygen, or even another carbon differ little. No other atom is like it.”

Kevin W. Plaxco and Michael Gross further comment, “Carbon presents a fairly level playing field in which nature can shuffle around carbon-carbon, carbon-nitrogen, and carbon-oxygen single and double bonds without playing too great a cost to convert any one of these into another… Given all this, it’s no wonder that on the order of ten million unique carbon compounds have been described by chemists, which is as many as all of the described non-carbon-containing compounds put together.”
Jonathan McLatchie

Isaiah 61:1 SERIES: Liberty to the Captives

The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; Isaiah 61:1

"To proclaim liberty to the captives." This He was to proclaim or promise; not to do them, at His first coming, but to preach, as Paul has explained it, in Rom.viii.21-23: "Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption, into the

glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groaneth, and travaileth in pain together until now; and not only they, but ourselves also, which have the first-fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body:" which shows plainly that we are under bondage, until the redemption of the body, the resurrection of the just, when all captives will go free, and will be delivered into the glorious liberty of the children of God." 

William Miller