Reign of sin

"Where sin abounded, Romans 5:21 says that “sin has reigned.” And to reign is: 

• to hold and exercise sovereign power; 

• to exercise commanding influence; 

• to dominate; 

• to exercise control over; 

• control as by right or superior force; 

• to prevail irresistibly; exist widely or to the exclusion of something else. 

That is what the word of God says that sin does in men and with men as they are of themselves. 

And until that fact is recognized, no man can be delivered from the

power of sin. The word used, and translated “reigned,” is a word that signifies and relates to governments and the reign of sovereigns. 

And when the Word of God thus speaks, it wants us to understand that men in sin are under the government and sovereign power of sin, just as men who are in an earthly kingdom are under the power of that government. 

Again: the Scripture describes the condition of the sinner thus: Romans 7:14 I am carnal, sold under sin. In these times a man who was sold was a slave, and was in all things absolutely subject to his master." 

A.T. Jones

SDA News - Ben Carson's Response to 2nd assassination attempt of Trump

Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. John 8:44

"Yesterday, Dr. Ben Carson posted on X the following message:
"This is a dark day in American history, and I fear we are not

grasping the gravity of the situation. Two assassination attempts in two months. It’s unacceptable.
Your ideals and beliefs should never present a threat to your life in the United States of America.
We are in the midst of a severe moral and spiritual crisis in this nation. This cannot be the society our children and grandchildren inherit.
I am praying that God will give us the fortitude and wisdom to navigate ourselves out of it. I’d ask that all of you join me in those prayers today." F7

Again? Trump Reported Safe After Gunfire Near His Location
Don Jr: AK-47 Found at West Palm Beach Golf Course
“President Trump is safe following gunshots in his vicinity,” Trump
campaign Communications Director Steven Cheung said in a

statement. “No further details at this time.” According to one report, the gunshots were fired while Trump was at Trump National Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida, where he was golfing today. Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr., said a suspect has been apprehended and an AK-47 rifle was found in the bushes at Trump National, citing law enforcement officials.
Update 5:56 p.m.: Multiple media outlets have identified the suspect as Ryan Wesley Routh.
Update 4:51 p.m.: The FBI now says it is investigating what appears to be an attempted assassination of Trump. The shots came from "a few hundred feet from where Trump was playing," according to Fox News. "It was the Secret Service that fired the gunshots" after they

saw a man carrying a long gun, Fox reported. He reportedly dropped the gun and ran and was apprehended by Secret Service. 

The 58-year-old apparently has an unusual past which includes a criminal conviction, trying to recruit US-trained Afghan fighters to join the Ukrainian military, and writing a self-published book, in which he ponders, among other things, why Russian President Vladimir Putin “has not been killed yet.” "Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, the alleged attempted assassin who was
apprehended Sunday after trying to kill former President Donald Trump, reportedly had a Harris-Biden bumper sticker on a truck outside his home in Hawaii."

Breitbart

Creation Moment 9/19/2024 - Duons & tRNAs

I will praise Thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made:
marvellous are Thy works;
Psalm 139:14

"Researchers over the past decade have been characterizing new, previously hidden genetic codes embedded within the same sections of genes that code for proteins—utterly defying all naturalistic explanations for their existence.

This same linear sequence of genetic information that encodes multiple programming languages with different instructions is truly evidence of supernatural engineering that can only be ascribed to the all-powerful and all-wise Creator.

Protein-coding genes contain key information to make proteins and contain the most studied type of genetic code. Some of the most important chunks of code in protein-coding genes, called exons, are those segments that specify the actual template for protein sequences.

In exons, three consecutive DNA letters form what is called a codon, and each codon corresponds to a specific amino acid in a protein.

Long sets of codons in genes contain the protein-making information that ends up being represented in an RNA copy of the gene used to translate (create) entire proteins, which may be hundreds of amino acids in length, using cellular machinery (ribosomes).

In the early days of molecular biology, when the genetic code was being deciphered, codons initially appeared to possess some redundancy. This was because there are 61 codons in contrast to only 20 amino acids. As far as specifying a particular amino acid, the first two bases in the codon structure are the same, but the third base can vary.

For example, the codons GGU, GGC, GGA, and GGG all encode the same amino acid called glycine. When scientists first discovered this phenomenon, they called the variation in the third base a “wobble”
and, out of ignorance, simply relegated the variability as redundant or degenerate. In other words, they assumed that all the different codon variants for a given amino acid were functionally equivalent.

Until recently, scientists believed that the protein-coding regions of genes had mysterious signals other than codons that told the cell machinery how to regulate and process the RNA transcripts (copies of genes) prior to making the protein. Researchers originally thought that these regulatory codes and the protein template codes containing the codons operated independently of each other, but they no longer think this. These codes are embedded in the “wobble” base.

In 2013, a study was published in which researchers mapped the locations of where transcription factors were binding in active genes. They were surprised to discover that a significant proportion of the binding sites contained codons and that the third base in a codon contained information for the binding of a specific type of transcription factor in addition to coding for an amino acid. This initial discovery of a dual-use codon was labeled a duon. In humans, they discovered that about 15% of codons were dual-use codons, or duons.

This research showed that multiple overlapping or parallel codes in exons not only exist but also that these codes actually work both separately and together.

To summarize this remarkable discovery, the researchers said, “Our results indicate that simultaneous encoding of amino acid and regulatory information within exons is a major functional feature of complex genomes,” and the “information architecture of the received genetic code is optimized for superimposition of additional information.”

So, not only does a codon provide the information for which specific

amino acid to add in the making of a protein, but the variant of that codon also influences the information needed to regulate its folding at multiple levels. Thus, you have two different sets of information encoded in different languages in the same section of DNA. The researchers of the translation pausing paper note, “Dual interpretations enable the assembly of the protein’s primary structure while enabling additional folding controls via pausing of the translation process.” What was once thought to be meaningless redundancy or wobble has now been proven to be exactly the opposite.

Another discovery in 2016 showed that the third base of codons regulates rates of gene transcription, levels of mRNA copies made from a gene, and the corresponding amounts of protein produced. In other words, the amount of mRNA output produced from a gene is directly related to the specific DNA sequence in codons.

Gene output must be highly controlled and regulated in the cell, just like a cruise control mechanism in a car regulates its speed. If genes are not properly regulated, cellular dysfunction would result in disease or death. In addition to the many other types of DNA codes in and around genes that control transcription, now it is known that the specific sequence of codons, including the third base, plays a key role in gene regulation by controlling the rate of transcription.

Transfer RNAs (tRNAs) are specialized adaptor molecules composed of RNA, typically 76 to 90 nucleotides in length, that serve as the physical link between the mRNA and the amino acid sequence of proteins. The tRNAs do this by carrying a specified amino acid to the protein-synthesizing machinery—the ribosome. The complementation of a three-nucleotide codon in an mRNA by a three-nucleotide anticodon in the tRNA attached to the specified amino acid enables protein synthesis at the ribosome based on the mRNA code.

Like factories that make multiple products, all the assembly lines need a steady supply of the correct parts, and the processes involved in doing that need to be perfectly orchestrated. The tRNAs are the key parts in the protein assembly process that provide the correct amino acids at the ribosome when a protein is being synthesized. This complex coordination and resource distribution is affected by the third base in codons. Thus, the third base of a codon must be accurately coded or fine-tuned to produce the correct amount of a specified protein." 

ICR

IN the NEWS - Special Sunday?

But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: 

Exodus 20:10

"The Evangelical Alliance and the Church of England have partnered with a number of trade unions and retail alliances to work to keep

Sunday special in society throughout the United Kingdom. Members of the National Federation of Retail Newsagents, the Federation of Wholesale Distributors, the National Federation of Sup-Postmasters, the Association of Convenience Stores, the Union of Shop, Distributive, and Allied Workers, and other organizations have banded together to act in defense of Sunday.

Retailers and labor unions have supported the church’s efforts to establish Sunday as the day of rest for society.

All this is helping to fulfill the following prediction made in the Spirit of Prophecy:
“There will be a universal bond of union, one great harmony, a confederacy of Satan’s forces. ‘And shall give their power and strength unto the beast.’ Thus is manifested the same arbitrary, oppressive power against religious liberty—freedom to worship God according to the dictates of conscience—as was manifested by the papacy, when in the past it persecuted those who dared to refuse to conform with the religious rites and ceremonies of Romanism.” (Selected Messages, Vol. 3, p. 392).

The same aggressive measures that were used to enforce health mandates during the pandemic will soon be used to enforce Sunday rest. This will lead to the ultimate destruction of our civil and religious liberties. This “Keep Sunday Special” initiative is being driven by churches. They are fighting to secure Sunday by petitioning lawmakers across the UK. They are asking fellow church goers to get involved in the fight to keep Sunday special." AdventMessenger

Creation Moment 9/18/2024 - Is the Mind Like a Computer?

I will praise Thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made:
marvellous are Thy works;
Psalm 139:14

"Last week, University of Sussex cognitive philosophy prof Andy Clark was Robert Lawrence Kuhn’s guest on Closer to Truth on the question, “Is the Mind Like a Computer?”
Q: Does the mind work like a computer? 

Q: Are mental processes the product of computation in that information processing is the essence of mind or consciousness? 

This view is popular among computer scientists but rejected by most philosophers. 

Q: What can we learn about the mind by considering this computational theory?

Clark, the author of The Experience Machine: How Our Minds Predict and Shape Reality (Pantheon 2023), sees the brain as a “powerful, dynamic prediction engine, mediating our experience of both body and world.” Clark:… I am a computationalist so I think the question isn’t Is the brain a computer? but What kind of computer is the brain?

And it’s a very special sort of computer, solving very special

kinds of problems. It’s a probabilistic machine and what it does is deeply entwined with moving the body around so as to simplify the problems that it’s trying to solve.

This is pretty different to our original picture of a big Mainframe (that) sat in the corner doing its stuff. I think those are the important differences — though not in whether it’s a computer or not but just what’s it doing and how’s it doing it.

Kuhn then asks for something more specific about the mind.
Clark: You know, I think, at the bottom level, it could be zeros and ones. It is just a question of, if you like, What are the interesting program-level descriptions that are being implemented by that

underlying structure? And I think once we start to think that, the descriptions at the levels that will matter for the sciences of the mind are descriptions in terms of something like multi-level probabilistic encodings with distributed representation …

So it’s not like a little symbol for a concept like cat but instead it’s a widespread pattern of activity that can be more or less. There doesn’t have to be kind of all or nothing.
Once you start to think in those terms, then you’re beginning to look at this sort of very small corner of the class of possible computational mechanisms where I think we humans and biological animals in general live.

So if you think about some of the things we do — like we like to upload stuff and look at it … most of our computers don’t do that, you know. They don’t want to print something out and have a look at it and think about it some more. What good’s that going to do with them?
So somehow we have to understand that special corner of computational space in which you get real boosts from printing stuff out, if you like, and looking at it.

Indeed, we do have to understand that because that is, specifically, the mind at work. Pressed once again for a “new kind of computational theory of mind,” Clark points to Google’s work on Deep Mind, in which the system accesses external as well as internal resources to solve problems." 

MindMatters

The High Admiral of our seas of Life

There were also with Him other little ships. Mark 4:36

"Jesus was the Lord High Admiral of the sea that night, and His presence preserved the whole convoy.
It is well to sail with Jesus, even though it be in a little ship. 

When we sail in Christ's company, we may not make sure of fair weather, for great storms may toss the vessel which carries the Lord Himself, and we must not expect to find the sea less boisterous around our little boat. 

If we go with Jesus we must be content to fare as He fares; 

and when the waves are rough to Him, 

they will be rough to us.

It is by tempest and tossing that we shall come to land, as He did

before us. When the storm swept over Galilee's dark lake all faces gathered blackness, and all hearts dreaded shipwreck. When all creature help was useless, the slumbering Savior arose, and with a word, transformed the riot of the tempest into the deep quiet of a calm; then were the little vessels at rest as well as that which carried the Lord.

Jesus is the star of the sea; and though there be sorrow upon the sea, when Jesus is on it there is joy too. May our hearts make Jesus their anchor, their rudder, their lighthouse, their life-boat, and their harbor. His Church is the Admiral's flagship, let us attend her movements, and cheer her officers with our presence. 

He Himself is the great attraction; let us follow ever in His wake, mark His signals, steer by His chart, and never fear while He is within hail." 

Charles Spurgeon

Creation Moment 9/17/2024 - Mental Maps

I will praise Thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made:
marvellous are Thy works;
Psalm 139:14

"As you travel your usual route to work or the grocery store, your

brain engages cognitive maps stored in your hippocampus and entorhinal cortex. These maps store information about paths you have taken and locations you have been to before, so you can navigate whenever you go there.

New research from MIT has found that such mental maps are also created and activated when you merely think about sequences of experiences, in the absence of any physical movement or sensory input.

This is the first study to show the cellular basis of mental simulation and imagination in a nonspatial domain through activation of a cognitive map in the entorhinal cortex.
"These cognitive maps are being recruited to perform mental navigation, without any sensory input or motor output. We are able to see a signature of this map presenting itself as the animal is going through these experiences mentally," says Mehrdad Jazayeri, an associate professor of brain and cognitive sciences, a member of MIT's McGovern Institute for Brain Research, and the senior author of the study.

A great deal of work in animal models and humans has shown that representations of physical locations are stored in the hippocampus, a small seahorse-shaped structure, and the nearby entorhinal cortex. These representations are activated whenever an animal moves through a space that 

--it has been in before, 

--just before it traverses the space, 

--or when it is asleep.
"The brain goes through these bumps of activity at the expected time

when the intervening images would have passed by the animal's eyes, which they never did," Jazayeri says. "And the timing between these bumps, critically, was exactly the timing that the animal would have expected to reach each of those, which in this case was 0.65 seconds."

The researchers also showed that the speed of the mental simulation was related to the animals' performance on the task: When they were a little late or early in completing the task, their brain activity showed a corresponding change in timing." 

MedicalXpress

By the WORD of God

"In the Christian life everything depends upon the Word of God. 

It is true that God is able, and desires, to keep us from sinning; but this must be done through His Word. 

So it is written, Psalm 17:4 By the word of Your lips I have kept myself from the paths of the destroyer. 

Psalm 119:11 Your word have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin against You. 

This is the way that God has appointed, and there is no other way to have this thing accomplished." 

A.T. Jones

Creation Moment 9/16/2024 - The Brain's “airport security checkpoints”

I will praise Thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are Thy works;
Psalm 139:14

"The human brain is one of the most complex structures nature has ever devised, and that means there’s a lot we still don’t know about the three pounds of neurons and fat that rests between our ears.

Case in point, scientists only discovered how the organ removes

waste from the deep brain in 2013. The glymphatic system is responsible for removing waste that builds up in the brain while we sleep. First discovered in 2013, scientists are still trying to understand how it works.
In a series of new papers, experts have pieced together the mechanism that “pumps” cerebrospinal fluid through the brain, as well as how the waste traverses the barrier separating brain tissue and the bloodstream.

Named the “glymphatic system,” this waste system uses cerebrospinal fluid to wash away waste products in the brain. It is especially good at clearing out protein aggregates called amyloids.
“We knew that sleep is a time when the brain initiates a cleaning process to flush out waste and toxins it accumulates during wakefulness. But we didn’t know how that happens,” Kipnis said in a press statement. “It is critical that the brain disposes of metabolic waste that can build up and contribute to neurodegenerative diseases.”

While that answers how waste migrates from the deep brain to its outer edges, it still doesn’t put together how the waste was then entering the bloodstream (and eventually being filtered by the liver and kidneys).

In another study published earlier this year, Kipnis announced the discovery of structures similar to “airport security checkpoints” that allow molecules and fluid to move across the arachnoid barrier separating brain tissue and the bloodstream."

Popular Mechanics

Almost Christians....

"Multitudes are in the “valley of decision” (Joel 3:14), and all those who remain too long in the valley of decision will die there.

“The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not

saved!” Jeremiah 8:20

“Again He designates a certain day, saying in David, ‘Today,’ after such a long time, as it has been said: ‘Today, if you will hear His voice, do not harden your hearts.’ ” Hebrews 4:7." 

Steps to Life

“There are some who seem to be always seeking for the heavenly pearl. But they do not make an entire surrender of their wrong habits. They do not die to self that Christ may live in them. Therefore, they do not find the precious pearl. 

They have not overcome unholy ambition and their love for worldly attractions. They do not take up the cross and follow Christ in the path of self-denial and sacrifice. 

Almost Christians, yet not fully Christians, 

they seem near the kingdom of heaven, 

but they cannot enter there. 

Almost but not wholly saved,

 means to be not almost but wholly lost.” 

 E.G.W.

Creation Moment 9/15/2024 - CMI responds to A.E. from Egypt

Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, .... 2 Timothy 2:15

"A.E. from Egypt sent in quite a lot of requests to address some recent papers claiming to solve the intractable problems of chemical evolution (aka abiogenesis). Most of them are addressed on our website already. Despite this, he sent in more papers. So we thought it was a good place to take apart some representative papers, as well as deal with what we think is the real issue.
He writes:

"There is a recent study titled RNA-catalyzed evolution of catalytic RNA which published in (PNAS) on March 4, 2024, Which says “RNA polymerase ribozyme that was obtained by directed evolution can propagate a functional RNA through repeated rounds of replication and selection, thereby enabling Darwinian evolution. Earlier versions of the polymerase did not have sufficient copying fidelity to propagate functional information, but a new variant with improved fidelity can replicate the hammerhead ribozyme through reciprocal synthesis of both the hammerhead and its complement, with the products then being selected for RNA-cleavage activity . Two evolutionary lines were carried out in parallel, using either the prior low-fidelity or the newer high-fidelity polymerase, Did this study really provide good evidence that supports the RNA world hypothesis?"

CMI’s Shaun Doyle responds
Dear A.,
Thanks for writing in.
I have to be frank: do you even understand the abstracts of these PNAS articles that are giving you so much grief? Take the first sentence of the abstract you quote from in this comment:
An RNA polymerase ribozyme that was obtained by directed evolution can propagate a functional RNA through repeated rounds of replication and selection, thereby enabling Darwinian evolution.

First, how did they obtain the RNA polymerase ribozyme? “Directed evolution”. 

Q: Does this mean it evolved via natural mechanisms? 

A: It means the opposite; it was engineered. 

It’s a protein engineering method that generates mutants from which the researchers select the mutants that best fit what they’re looking for, replicate those, subject them to more rounds of mutagenesis and selection, until they find what they’re looking for. 

Q: Why does this matter? 

A: It shows that the RNA polymerase ribozyme was engineered to replicate a functional ribozyme. All this paper shows is that this is the best example they’ve managed to engineer so far. An interesting exercise in organic chemical engineering, to be sure.
But relevant to chemical evolution? Not at all. For it to be relevant, it has to be assumed that this thing could plausibly arise solely via mindless causes. But there’s no reason for us to assume that. In fact, the very difficulty of generating it is evidence against mindless causes.

Second, have they actually shown RNA self-replication? No. The RNA polymerase ribozyme facilitated the replication of a different ribozyme. As the commentary states:

"Here, a twofold change in the error rate of the RNA polymerase ribozyme led to the first RNA-catalyzed ribozyme replication and evolution cycle. This new functionality is heading toward something profound: RNA self-replication. If the RNA polymerase ribozyme could complete a full replication cycle of not only the hammerhead ribozyme, but of its own sequence, the system will meet a widely accepted definition of life as a “self-sustaining chemical system capable of Darwinian evolution”."

This is not a self-replicating RNA system. 

Third, why think Darwinian evolution from such a system could eventually produce a free-living cell? A free-living cell is clearly the last universal common ancestor (LUCA). That’s the target they’re aiming at. These studies have to show natural causes plausibly suffice to generate the LUCA from abiotic materials in the timeframe and conditions they posit. 

However, the system the paper investigates is solely RNA. 

Q: What sort of mutations could allow it to bring in entirely different classes of biomolecules, such as polysaccharides, DNA, lipids, and proteins, to create a much more complex system? 

---And this assumes that such biomolecules could themselves develop naturalistically in the same environments as the RNA system. But evolving from an RNA system to a multi-biomolecule cellular system for which DNA, not RNA, is the prime information storage molecule, is a black box that dwarfs anything that supposedly evolved since the LUCA.

There is no reason to think this study has any relevance to how life supposedly arose from abiotic materials without intelligent input. 

It’s an engineered system. 

It still can’t self-replicate." 

CMI

Beware of Time Setting

“Beware of anyone who would set a time for the Lord to fulfill His word in regard to His coming, or in regard to any other promise He has made of special significance. 

"It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in His own power. (Acts 1:7)".... Time after time has been set for Christ to come, but repeated failures have been the result. The definite time of our Lord's coming is declared to be beyond the ken of mortals. 

Even the angels, who minister unto those who shall be heirs of salvation, know not the day nor the hour. “But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but My Father only. (Matthew 24:36).”
E.G.W.

The "Really" File - ("gay" Abe?)

And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. Genesis 6:5

"The left’s queering of Abraham Lincoln has begun in earnest.
Lover of Men — a new documentary currently in select cinemas, and coming to VOD on October 8 — seeks to answer the question: Was Abraham Lincoln gay? The answer it comes up with is: kind of,

maybe, sort of.
In addition, the current Broadway comedy Oh, Mary! depicts Lincoln as gay, with First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln serving as his “beard.” The play, which features drag performances, was written by a gender “non-binary” person named Cole Escola, who uses"they/them” pronouns, and plays Mary Todd.
Speculation over Abraham Lincoln’s sexuality has long been a niche obsession among LGBTQ historians and activists. But it has never been regarded as a serious line of historical inquiry — until now, as LGBTQ activism and woke identity politics have taken over the liberal arts.
Lover of Men: The Untold Story of Abraham Lincoln focuses on Lincoln’s relationships with four men, including his close confidant Joshua Speed, arguing that the friendships were intense and

From the "Really" File

emotional enough to qualify as “homosexual” by today’s standards.
Along the way, the filmmakers trot out a series of “experts” — some of them gay and transgender — to push the speculation forward. One even claims that Lincoln was attracted to a certain type of male — dashing and daring.
On Broadway, Oh Mary! has received rave reviews from establishment media critics, including The New York Times, which called the farce “dragtastic” and “one of the best summer comedies in years.”
The play is set to run through early November at the Lyceum Theatre in New York." Breitbart

REALLY?

SDA News - Ben Carson tapped as national faith chairman

"Dr. Ben Carson@RealBenCarson

“I am honored to serve as the national faith chairman for the campaign and my friend, @realDonaldTrump. It’s imperative that the faith community realizes what is at stake in this election. President Trump was a staunch supporter of the faith community and he will be again as our 47th President.”

We are not sure what Ben’s duties are as national faith chairman. We do believe it is significant that a Seventh-day Adventist member is asked to serve in such a capacity for a presidential candidate, and former president.

We hope Ben honors the Lord in this capacity and uses his Adventist understanding of eschatology and prophecy to share truth with other leaders." 

Fulcrum7

Creation Moment 9/14/2024 - Logic of Darwinism

Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,.... 

Romans 1:22

"Remember that Darwinism is 

--mindless, 

--aimless, and 

--impersonal. 

Nobody cares what happens. 

Nothing “evolves to” get better. 

Extinction is always the easiest way out of a struggle for existence, because, again, nobody cares. 

That is (and should be) the logic of Darwinism. 

Q: But if logic evolved, it isn’t logical, is it? 

A: Indeed, it can’t be." 

CEH

Is it reasonable.............?

"---Is it reasonable to suppose that God created man an immortal being, and yet never once in his holy word informed us of the fact? 

---Is it reasonable to suppose that if man naturally possessed immortality, God's word would recommend us to seek for it, as it does in Rom. 2:7?

---Is it reasonable to suppose, that if men were naturally immortal, God's word would so plainly assure us that "God only hath

immortality?" 1 Tim. 6:16. 

---Is is not far more reasonable to believe that immortality is the gift of God through Jesus Christ our Lord? Rom. 6:23.
---Is it reasonable to suppose that in all the vast multitude of passages in which Christ promised Life, Eternal Life, to his followers, he did not literally mean what he said? This he could not, if all men have immortal life by nature. In that case the wicked will live through eternity as well as the righteous."

James White

Creation Moment 9/13/2024 - Darwin's Missing Book

Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools. 

Romans 1:22

"Spurred by Alfred Russel Wallace’s famous letter outlining a very

similar theory, Darwin — to avoid pre-emption — published On the Origin of Species (1859) as an abstract, promising a much longer book supplying the evidence for his thesis. 

But he never published that longer book, even though it was, Shedinger tells us, three-quarters written by that time. He went on to publish works on orchids and sexual selection instead.

Two Questions Arise
Q: Why didn’t Darwin publish the evidence for his momentous theory? 

Q: And why was his thesis hailed as one of the greatest ideas in science despite that fact?

Darwin often cited illness as a reason for not publishing. But Shedinger draws a different conclusion, based on reading the manuscript:

"Darwin, I want to suggest, knew that he did not have the kind of evidence necessary to prove the theory of natural selection, and his rhetoric of illness provided a ready excuse for his endless delays in presenting the promised evidence to the public. It was also a ready excuse for his absence from scientific meetings where he might be confronted by critics and have to defend his ideas. (p. 43)"

When the big book was eventually published in 1975, it promptly disappeared from public attention. Why?
Well, one reason, Shedinger says, is that it never did supply the promised evidence. Darwin continued to rely on artificial selection by humans as an analogy for unplanned natural selection. Instead of the promised long catalogue of facts, he offers ten proposed examples of natural selection, along with imaginary scenarios. From Schedinger: “Readers hoping to see a rich array of empirical evidence for the creative powers of natural selection would have been disappointed.” 

EN&V

Education & the REFORMATION

Start children off on the way they should go, and even when they are old they will not turn from it. Proverbs 22:6 NIV

"In 1528 Melanchthon drew up the 'Saxony School Plan,' which served as the basis of organization for many schools throughout Germany.

This plan dealt with the question of a "multiplicity of studies that were not only unfruitful but even hurtful... The teacher should not burden the children with too many books." (Painter, p. 152). 

These reformers realized that the strength of the Papal church lay in its educational system, and they struck a crushing blow at this system and, wounding it, brought the Papal church to her knees. 

The reformers established a system of Christian schools that made Protestants of the children. This wonderful revolution in education and religion was accomplished in one generation, in the brief space of one man's life. To give an idea of the power in that great Christian educational movement, the historian, speaking of several European countries, says: "The nobility of that country studied in Wittenberg--all the colleges of the land were filled with Protestants... Not more than the thirtieth part of the population remained Catholic... They withheld their children, too, from the Catholic schools. The inhabitants of Maniz did not hesitate to send their children to Protestant schools. The Protestant notions extended their vivifying energies to the most remote and most forgotten corners of Europe. What an immense domain had they conquered within the space of forty years..."

After the death of Luther and Melanchthon, the theologians, into

whose hands the work of the Reformation fell, instead of multiplying Christian schools, became absorbed in the mere technicalities of theology, and passed by the greatest work of the age. They sold their birthright for a mess of pottage. 

When the successors of Luther and Melanchthon failed to continue that constructive work, which centered largely in the education of the youth, who were to be the future missionaries and pillars of the church, internal dissension arose. Their time was spent very largely in criticizing the views of some of their colaborers who differed with them on some unimportant points of theology.

Protestantism degenerated into dead orthodoxy, and they broke up into opposing factions. The Protestant church, thus weakened, could not resist the great power of rejuvenated Papal education."
E. A. Sutherland

What is the "Lord's Day"?

"FROM the Bible we have fully identified the Lord’s day. Following

is a brief summary of the means by which it is done: The title Lord is applied to both Christ and the Father. 

Since these two are one, that which belongs to one must be the property of the other also; there can be no division between them. In Isaiah 58:13 (If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, From doing your pleasure on My holy day, And call the Sabbath a delight, The holy day of the LORD honorable, And shall honor Him, not doing your own ways, Nor finding your own pleasure, Nor speaking your own words) we learn that the Lord’s day is holy, and that it is the Sabbath; and this at once caused us to turn to the fourth commandment, where we found that the seventh day is declared to be the Sabbath. 

Since the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord, 

and the Sabbath is the Lord’s holy day, 

it necessarily follows that the seventh day is the Lord’s day." 

E.J. Waggoner

Creation Moment 9/12/2024 - Doctrine of creatureliness

"Doctrine of creatureliness. This teaching states that humans are not

self-creators but creatures in a given and good (although fallen) creation.

Fundamentally, the word creatureliness implies the presence of three components: a Creator, a creature, and a context.

---Genesis introduces God as the Creator.
---This God fashioned Adam and Eve in his own image and gave them “dominion” over the earth (So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. Genesis 1:27). People are therefore part of creation yet also set apart from it.
---As contingent creatures in a universe we did not create, humans have not only moral limitations but also material limitations. We are physical creatures subject to physical laws. 

So we are not omnipresent. 

Even with technologies that expand the scope of realities with which we interact, our bodies locate us finitely in time and space. 

We are also not omnipotent. 

Natural constraints limit our abilities to manipulate anything but tiny fragments of an unfathomably vast universe. 

Neither are we omniscient. 

Apart from revelation, our knowledge is limited to what our senses perceive." AIG

Q & A on immortality

"Q: Who is immortal? 

A: "The King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God." 

l Tim. 1:17:2. 

Q: Are not all men possessed of immortality? 

A: "The blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings and Lord of lords: who only hath immortality." 

1 Tim. 6:16. 

Q: Are not all men created immortal? 

A: God "only hath immortality." 

l Tim. 6:16."

James White

Creation Moment 9/11/2024 - Misuse of 2 Peter 3:8

But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. 2 Peter 3:8

“But how can the days of creation in Genesis 1 be ordinary days when the Bible says a day is like a thousand years?

I have found the main reason many Christians try to reinterpret the word day in Genesis and use this passage from 2 Peter 3:8 to justify this is that they really are trying to fit the false millions of years belief into Scripture. 

But how will making each day 1,000 years help accommodate millions of years—it won’t! 

The Hebrew word for day, yom, is used hundreds of times in the Old Testament, but I don’t hear anyone questioning what those days mean by claiming a day is like a thousand years. 

Q: So why is it that they only single out the use of the word day in Genesis 1? 

A: Again, it’s because they’re impacted by millions of years, and they’re trying to fit long ages into Genesis 1. 

Q: Do we ever hear anyone claiming Jonah was in the great fish for 3,000 years because a day is like a thousand years? 

A: Of course not.

Now, if we take Genesis 1 as written, and look at the context for the word day, yom, for each of the days of creation, we can come to no other conclusion than those days are ordinary approximately 24-hour days. 

When yom is qualified by night, evening, morning, or number, it always means an ordinary day. 

All six days have yom qualified by evening, morning, and number. Day one also qualifies yom with night, and day seven is qualified with a number. 

All seven days in Genesis 1 are ordinary days. Yes, the days in Genesis were ordinary days! We need to take Genesis 1 naturally—as written and not try to reinterpret the days because of outside influences." 

Ken Ham

On the Cross: Christ -- zig zagging through the Sanctuary

Christ walked into the outer court to the Altar of Sacrifice (that was for the Forgiveness of sins) and said Father Forgive Them.

He then proceeded to the Brazen Laver (representing Baptism) and said Today thou shalt be with Me in paradise, as He was about go through the Baptism of Death.

He then entered the inner court and went to the Table of Bread (that contained the cups for the drink offering) and said I thirst.

He then crossed over to the 7 Branch Candlestick and said Woman,
Behold Thy Son.

He then went to the Altar of Incense (representing the Prayers of God's people) and communed with the Father -- My God, My God, Why hast Thou Forsaken Me?

He then entered the Most Holy Place and approached the Ark of the

Covenant (where the Law of God was placed -- the Law that requires complete submission) and uttered a Prayer of total submission Father into Thy Hands I commit My spirit.

Finally, He climbed up on the Judgment Seat and gave a decree while wearing a Crown of Thorns -- It Is Finished.

Then He bowed His head and gave up the ghost.