Puritan Corner - The Seed of Corruption is Within

"God, to prevent all escape, hath sown the seeds of death in our very

constitution and nature, so that we can as soon run from ourselves, as run from death. We need no feller to come with a hand of violence and hew us down; there is in the tree a worm, which grows out of its own substance, that will destroy it; so in us, those infirmities of nature that will bring us down to the dust."
by William Gurnall (1616-1679)
For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption... Galatians 6:8

On the Streets of Babylon: Loch Ness Monster "Prophecy" heard on the Streets

Babylon is fallen, is fallen,..

Come out of her, My people,
Revelation 14:8/18:4
There seems to be "Loch Ness Monster Prophecies" heard on the Streets of Babylon.......

"Prophetess Katie Souza’s bio says she was a “career criminal most of her life,” being “convicted of a number of felonies and sent to federal prison to serve almost twelve years” before God saved her nearly twenty years ago.

In reality, it should read that she’s still a career criminal, with her crimes no longer being drug possession and gun running, but rather a criminal mishandling of God’s word- certainly a theological felony- demonstrating that the grift never ended.
After leaving prison, she wrote a bunch of books and founded Katie Souza Ministries. She now hosts the TV show ‘Healing Your Soul,” where she practices and doles out healing miracles, prophecies, and teaches weird and wonky things like Christians can engage in ‘Time travel in the spirit.’
She may no longer be cooking crystal meth, but she’s definitely on something.
She is a liar and a fraud and does so in the weirdest way possible. Case in point, five months ago she prophesied that the Loch Ness monster would soon be discovered and that when it did, it would be a “Sea sign” of impending global economic collapse." 

Protestia

On the Streets of Babylon: A New "Gap Theory" Hits The Streets

Babylon is fallen, is fallen,..

Come out of her, My people,
Revelation 14:8/18:4

There seems to be a "new gap theory" emerging on the Streets of Babylon....

"When Kat Kerr, our favorite pink-haired charismatic meme-bot and “Dr. Michael Brown-approved prophetess” isn’t weaving an unbiblical tale of witchcraft and false theology by claiming that she has a picture of thousands of lioned-faced angels frog-marching chained demons across the sky in order to go to heaven for judgment, or she’s talking about how heaven is filled with giant 20ft sasquatches, unicorns, 200ft high cryptids, and other fantastical creatures- the result of visiting heaven “thousands of times,” she’s explaining that we’re living in the second earth, as there was a previous earth that God also destroyed with a worldwide flood. (No, another flood).
Kerr, speaking to chief-enabler and Steve Shultz on the Episode 31 of Wednesdays with Kat and Steve! explains that Dinosaurs did not live at the same time as Adam and Eve., at the behest of his question.

"The Bible) doesn’t mention the dinosaurs, but that was a new time
on the earth. You have to understand people, there was a whole different time. The dinosaurs were here before the Ice Age came.

…The dinosaurs existed when he made the earth the first time. There’s ‘in the beginning’, okay? God created the heavens and the earth. That was the beginning of time. There was a time on the earth where there wasn’t time being kept track of. When God made the earth the first time, he didn’t have the sun or the moon. And you need to understand verse one, verse two, there’s so much time in between that, the dinosaurs are some of the first things he put here. He he had 200 foot flowers, and trees that were 1000 feet high when he made the earth the first time and he put a water vapor shield around it because I happen to know reptiles cannot live outside the water. okay?"

So this is some time of bizzare katkerrified-version of the gap theory. She recounts that God put ‘watcher angles’ with the dinosaurs to care for them. But then satan was kicked out of heaven and made his way down to the earth where that devil “began to make the earth a wilderness, and God turned the light out. ” What light did he turn out? “His glory. And then God flooded the earth with water, then he froze it” creating the ice age. It was only after that ice age did humans come on the scene with the creation of Adam and Eve.
Keep in mind that Kerr did that all in one take." 

Protestia

Creation Moment 12/31/2024 - Common Sense Observation & Questions

For by Him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible.... Colossians 1:16

"There’s no reason to believe in right or wrong if man is just rearranged chemicals. 

---As the Creator, God has the right to make the rules.

Scientists assume things will continue to work the way they have in

the past. But why?

Q: In a universe where there were no laws and then there were some laws that changed (i.e., at the big bang), why assume the laws of nature won’t change tomorrow? 

Q: Why do the laws of nature exist if the universe is random and in flux in the first place?" 

AIG

In Christ alone

"It is in Christ alone that man can reach the full stature of moral character in the sight of God. 

Ephesians 4:13 Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. 

However hard a man may strive for righteousness by keeping the

law, yet, until he accepts Christ and finds in Him the righteousness which is of God by faith, against him the word will ever stand, You have “come short of the glory of God.”
Happily, we have the record of the best Pharisee that ever lived, and in his experience we have the inspired illustration of these words of Jesus. 

Says Paul of himself, Philippians 3:5,6 ...as touching the law, a Pharisee; ...touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless. 

Yet this was not enough; for as he says in another place: 

1 Corinthians 4:4 I know nothing against myself; yet am I not hereby justified; but He that judges me is the Lord. 

So even though he might, so far as he could see, be blameless, yet that was not proof that he was justified; for it is God who judges: it is God’s standard of righteousness, and not our own, that we must meet, to be justified; and that standard is the righteousness of Christ, to which we can attain only by faith." 

A.T. Jones

Creation Moment 12/30/2024 - Babies Know

So God created man in His own image.... Genesis 1:27

"Research has revealed that babies begin learning language in the

womb, and by the time they are born, they have already developed a preference for hearing their native language. The child does not yet know how to speak or understand what is being said. But it is familiar enough with the language that it can distinguish its parents’ language from others. A child in the womb can recognize when someone is speaking (for example) Japanese, rather than English or Arabic. This is just another piece of knowledge among many that highlights amazing design and the Biblical truth that the unborn child is a human being, made in God’s image." 

CMI

Santa vs. God's "Naughty & Nice List"

"All reasoning starts with axioms, or presuppositions, so we will seek to know the truth about God from the only totally truthful source on this entire planet—the Word of God, aka the Bible.
Keeps a list of who’s naughty or nice

Santa: No thinking adult would ever commit to an individual list-keeping Santa—or any other sort. He doesn’t exist. No matter where the original concept of Santa came from (St Nicholas for example), it is part of the Christmas Santa legend that has parents warning

children they will not receive anything for Christmas if they misbehave—because Santa is ‘making a list and checking it twice’. So, do children believe they will receive nothing even if they have misbehaved? Of course not. And naturally, they receive Christmas gifts even if their behavior (for a whole year) has been less than perfect.

God: He does keep a list of those who will have a home in Heaven with Him—it’s called the Lamb’s Book of Life—Revelation 20:12–15, 3:5; Philippians 4:3.

Being ‘nice’ is not the condition of entry—just as being ‘naughty’ does not exclude you. 

Inclusion in that list is because of God’s great mercy, by His grace through our faith in Jesus and His work—His sacrifice on the Cross." 

CMI

Being justified freely by His grace 

through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: 

Romans 3:24

ARCHAEOLOGY: Hong Kong "Surprise"

All in whose nostrils was the breath of life, of all that was in the dry land, died. Genesis 7:22

"The recent discovery of the first dinosaur fossils in Hong Kong came as a surprise to evolutionary paleontologists. It was totally

unexpected since most of the rocks in Hong Kong are volcanic in origin. And volcanic rocks usually destroy bones, not preserve them.
“It’s shocking, because I never thought there would be dinosaur fossils in Hong Kong,” said Chong Got while looking at the new dinosaur bones on display at Hong Kong’s Heritage Discovery Center.
Michael Pittman, a dinosaur paleobiologist at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, said,

"Hong Kong is famous for being a built-up landscape, but half of it is country park. In the countryside areas, most of what you see are dinosaur-era rocks, but it’s volcanic rocks—and they are bad places to find fossils, because fossils just melt."

Conventional scientists believe the bones were originally buried in sand and gravel, became exposed due to a flood, and then were transported and reburied in their present location.
But Flood geologists are not surprised by this discovery. 

Recall how surprised conventional paleontologists were when the first discovery of dinosaurs was announced in Ireland in 2021. Again, there weren’t supposed to be dinosaurs there either since they were found in ocean-derived sediments mixed with marine fossils. However, dinosaurs in marine rocks seems to be a global phenomenon.
The common thread in all these dinosaur discoveries is water deposition. 

Most, if not all, dinosaurs are found in sedimentary rocks laid down by water at similar levels across the globe, including China. And the best source of water to explain these worldwide occurrences is the global Flood described in Genesis. 

--These so-called Cretaceous rocks at Hong Kong were deposited as the Flood water was approaching its peak level, likely close to Day 150 of the Flood. 

--Dinosaurs became entombed in mud and sand as their entire ecosystem was being destroyed by the advancing waves. At that point, a lot of volcanic activity was occurring across the world, too.

This global Flood interpretation also provides the “flood” needed to transport and bury the bones at Port Island, Hong Kong.

The Genesis Flood provides the best explanation for finding dinosaurs buried at about the same level and in the particular types of rocks across all of the continents. 

Only those who don’t accept the Bible as literal history are surprised." 

ICR

ARCHAEOLOGY: Scotty

And it came to pass after seven days, that the waters of the flood were upon the earth. Genesis 7:10

"A Canadian research team found a vast network of fossilized blood vessels in Scotty, the well-known largest Tyrannosaurus rex fossil. They were found serendipitously while creating an intricate, 3-D model of the dinosaur fossil.

Commenting on the find, Ottawa paleontologist Jordan Mallon said, “For centuries, it’s been thought that there’s effectively no trace of biological tissue in a fossil—that there shouldn’t be”.

Such finds, while rare, are consistent with animals being rapidly fossilized during the Noahic Flood. 

There are other cases where, unlike here, the actual organic tissues and proteins themselves are still present. Such finds make an overwhelming case against evolution’s millions of years." 

CMI

Creation Moment 12/29/2024 - How the Creator upholds the creation in the Language of Mathematics

And He is before all things, and by Him all things consist. Colossians 1:17

"A team of scientists at Australia’s Monash University has “discovered a new universal rule of biological growth that explains surprising similarities in the shapes of sharp structures” across a vast array of living things.

It seems that the growth of all sharp biological structures follows the same mathematical law, called a ‘power law’. This defines the relationship between the width and length of a structure as it grows—for example, an elephant’s tusk.
Such a huge sweep across vastly different life forms means evolutionists cannot use a common ancestor as an explanation. Rather, it suggests some pervasive physical reason.
Our universe is governed by many precise and universal physical-mathematical laws, reflecting its lawgiving Creator. Many medieval founders of science, such as Roger Bacon, Robert Grosseteste, and Thomas Bradwardine taught that the Creator upheld the creation in the language of mathematics." 

CMI

2 Principles of the “Great” Commandment

“The lawyer asked only one question, namely, “which is the great

commandment in the law?” 

In His answer, Christ goes beyond the question, and thus gives us to understand that He covers the whole subject involved therein. 

Thus He tells which is the “great” commandment, and then imparts the additional information that this is the “first,” and that to the system there belongs another which is the “second;” and that this second is like unto the first; namely, “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself;” that is, 

it embraces the same great principle of love, 

only giving it another direction. 

In the first, our love is directed toward God;

in the second, our love is directed toward our neighbor. 

And these two principles embrace the whole of the law of which He speaks; for if there had been a third, the logic of the situation would have compelled him to state it. 

The duty of loving God, therefore, and loving our fellow men, is the subject which He treats in answering the lawyer’s question." 

Uriah Smith

Last Sabbath of 2024

Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.

And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had made; and He rested on the seventh day
from all His work which He had made.
And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it:
because that in it He had rested from all His work which God created and made.
Genesis 2:1-3

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

in it thou shalt not do any work,...For in six days the LORD

made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is,

and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the

sabbath day, and hallowed it.

Exodus 20:10,11

And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven,
having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on
the earth, .... Saying with a loud voice, Fear God,
and give glory to Him;
for the hour of His judgment is come:
and worship Him that made heaven,
and earth, and the sea,
and the fountains of waters.
Revelation 14:6,7

Creation Moment 12/28/2024 - Santa Darwin

Shall I count them pure with the wicked balances, and with the bag of deceitful weights? Micah 6:11

"Jolly Saint Nick: what child doesn’t love him? They sit on his lap in department stores and tell him what they want for Christmas.

But there’s an imposter on the loose, pretending to give children the
gift of “understanding” about where they came from. His name is Charles Darwin. 

He may look like Santa in some respects, but no child should take anything from him. The gifts this imposter delivers were cooked up in a warm little pond filled with toxic ingredients.

Darwin shoves the little children

All the children of the world;

Red and yellow, black and white,

They are specious in his sight.

Darwin shoves the little children of the world.

Santa Darwin pretends to be joyous and jolly, but his heart is wicked. Children who listen to him will be told that their real parents are lumps of dead rocks." 

CEH

What Stunted the Reformation?

"Luther and all the other reformers stood upon the platform of "The word of God, the whole word of God, and nothing but the word of God." 

They abandoned the sophistries of the schools, and rested solely upon this declaration, which must be the basis of every true reform in all ages. 

And just so far as that principle is abandoned, so much will the work be retarded. 

While this principle was adhered to, the Reformation succeeded gloriously; 

when the principle was abandoned, 

the Reformation suffered accordingly. 

In the word of God, lies the strength of the work of God. 

In this position there was another great advantage that the Reformers

held over their papal antagonists. As long as they stood by the word of God alone, they occupied a field with which the papists were wholly unacquainted; and the more the Reformers studied and applied the word of God, the more easily they could defeat their adversaries. 

Their adversaries knew it, and therefore they employed every artifice to draw the Reformers into the scholastic field; for there the papists had every advantage which the Protestants had in the other. 

While the leaders of the Reformation lived, the papists were unsuccessful in every attempt in this direction, and so the Reformation was successful everywhere; but when these leaders were removed from the world, and their faith and zeal were not inherited by their successors, and when to the craftiness of the papists were added the zeal and artfulness of Loyola and his order, the Protestants were finally corrupted by the arts and stratagems of their opponents and induced to revive the subtleties of the schools in defending and illustrating religious truth. 

So it may be said with truth that, while the Protestants imbibed scholasticism from the Catholics, they allowed the Catholics to steal from them their zeal." 

A.T. Jones

IN the NEWS - State of Our World Today

But evil men .... shall wax worse and worse.... 2 Timothy 3:13

"Critics say bystanders stood by while illegal migrant allegedly burned woman to death on NYC subway: ‘Daniel Penny effect’.....New Yorkers were up in arms Monday one day after an illegal Guatemalan immigrant allegedly burned a sleeping stranger to death aboard a Brooklyn subway train — while bystanders did nothing.

Horrifying video footage of the incident shows at least three gawkers — one of them seen filming the shocking fatal blaze on his phone — and an NYPD cop standing outside the subway car as flames engulfed the unidentified victim after the Sunday morning attack.
“Nobody came to her aid,” said Guardian Angels founder and community activist Curtis Sliwa. “There’s no doubt that people don’t want to get involved. It’s the Daniel Penny factor. It’s frozen people. They’re saying to themselves: ‘I don’t want to get jammed up like Penny. People should have been running over to the woman on fire. They did nothing. They said nothing,” Sliwa said, calling the reluctance of bystanders to intervene “the Daniel Penny effect.”
Penny, a 26-year-old ex-Marine, was charged with murder last year for fatally choking vagrant Jordan Neely after Neely aggressively confronted frightened passengers on a Manhattan subway car.....according to some observers, his legal ordeal is giving would-be subway good Samaritans pause.....a migrant, identified by federal immigration officials as 33-year-old Sebastian Zapeta-Calil, was charged after the grisly incident on a Coney Island subway train.
Disturbing video captured a man identified as Zapeta-Calil calmly sitting on a bench at the station while the woman burned. He left the scene but cops caught up with him later when he stopped off a subway train at the 34th Street-Herald Square station in Manhattan.
But the incident has raised several questions, including why it took cops so long to get to the burning woman, why Zapeta-Calil was allowed to leave the scene after cops arrived and why required fire extinguishers on the subway car weren’t put to use, sources said." NYP

Creation Moment 12/27/2024 - Clue from what the Brain Can Not Do

And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. Genesis 2:7

"Penfield could find no part of the brain that, when stimulated, caused patients to think abstractly—to reason, think logically, do mathematics or philosophy or exercise free will.

He noticed the same thing about epileptic seizures as about stimulation during surgery. Patients who were having seizures did all sorts of things—they jerked their muscles, they saw flashes of light or had unusual sensations on their skin. They even occasionally had specific memories and emotions. Then they fell unconscious.
But patients never had intellectual seizures. That is, they never had seizures that caused them to reason, think logically, or do mathematics or philosophy.

Penfield asked the obvious question: why did brain stimulation only cause certain mental operations, like movement, perception, memory and emotion to happen, but not other ones, like abstract thought and free will?

Penfield started out as a materialist, like most scientists do, but, as he learned more about the mind and the brain he became a dualist. He concluded in his book Mystery of the Mind (1975) that the mind is something separate from the brain, and that there are aspects of the mind that don’t come from the brain but are spiritual in nature. As he put it, “The mind must be viewed as a basic element in itself . . .” (p. xxi.)

Neuroscience shows us that the brain is an organ, like the heart or the liver, that has specific jobs to do. The brain orchestrates our bodily processes (sometimes called vegetative functions)—our heart rate, our blood pressure, our hormone levels and so on. The brain is the source of our ability to move, to perceive, to remember and to have emotions.

But the brain is not the source of our intellect or our free will.

We are created by God with some abilities that are physical and some abilities that are not strictly physical—i.e., that are spiritual, created in His Image."
Michael Egnor

Comparing the 2 Sanctuaries

 "The heavenly Sanctuary is like the earthly in that,

(1.) It has a service of priesthood. Heb.8:1-5; 9:24; 10:19-21; 6:19-20.

(2.) It has two holy places. Heb.9:24; compare Ex.26:31-35, with Rev.1:12; 4:1,2,5; 11:19.
(3.) It is cleansed. Dan.8:14;2  (with blood:) Heb.9:11,12,23,24.
(4.) It contains the law, (covenant or testament.) Ex.25:21,22; 26:33,34; 40:20,21; 1Kings 8:6-9; Heb.9:1-4; Rev.11:19.
(5.) When the glory of the Lord fills the tabernacle, or temple, there is no ministration. Ex.40:34,35; 1Kings 8:10,11; Rev.15:8.

(6.)The Most Holy Place was entered only on the day of atonement. Lev.16:2,12-15,29,30; Heb.9:7; Rev.11:19.
Note:- Making the atonement, and cleansing the sanctuary are identical.
From Rev.15:8, we learn that when the plagues, threatened in the Third Angel's Message, [Rev.14:9-11,] and described in Chap. 16, are poured out, there will be no ministration: therefore they are "poured out without mixture," as the mediation of Christ will then have ceased, and mercy will no more be offered to sinners." 

Uriah Smith

Creation Moment 12/26/2024 - Evolutionary Propaganda Bait -and- Switch

For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, ... deceived, ... 

Titus 3:3

"I suspect the average person comes to accept modern evolutionary theory, not through a series of careful arguments, but through a near-constant drip of pro-evolution propaganda. 

The propaganda comes in many forms and from many directions. Here I want to focus on just one source, popular news stories about evolution, and specifically on a couple of parlor tricks often embedded in these articles.

Probably the most common trick begins with a news headline or lead sentence promising a new discovery of evolution in action. The article then highlights an actual, observed species changing over time. But the example it cites is mere microevolution, such as a change in fur color or minor changes in beak size or leg length.

That won’t do. If Charles Darwin had argued that nature can produce modest variations in existing species, the collective response would have been, now tell us something we don’t know. 

*Evolutionary theory needs to provide evidence of its distinctive claim, namely, that purely natural mechanisms can and do produce major innovations — something like the first wings, the first eyes, new molecular biological machines, or novel animal body plans.

A recent example of this bait-and-switch begins with the headline, “Long-term Lizard Study Challenges the Rules of Evolutionary Biology.” 

The headline gives the impression that maybe the lizards in the study, refusing to play by the restrictive rules of standard evolutionary theory, hauled off and evolved in a much more daring way than conventional thinking had allowed. But then we learn that the study’s big finding helps explain cases where evolution doesn’t generate anything impressive — that is, cases of stasis, where a species remains largely unchanged for millions of years.

Hmm, that sounds like the opposite of impressive evolutionary daring-do, doesn’t it?

Troubled by this inconsistency but undaunted, we read on and are soon informed that the researchers have solved a big evolutionary conundrum. The news story invites us to wonder how there could be so many cases of stasis in the history of life when we see evolution doing amazing stuff right before our eyes all the time. 

--The article doesn’t mention any of these amazing broad-daylight transformations. 

--Instead it informs us that the study found that the lizards varied in minor ways (e.g., longer or shorter legs) and that the changes, rather than accumulating into something dramatically novel, canceled each other out. Voilà — an explanation for stasis.

That’s it. That’s the study’s big finding. No macroevolution. Just the observation of what was the common view before Darwin’s theory of evolution — that healthy members of a species can vary a bit, but only within strict limits.

To sum up the parlor trick: Promise to demonstrate bigtime evolution. Demonstrate minor changes and hope the audience doesn’t notice the difference." 

EN&V

Reasons Christ Gave For His 1st Advent

"The first reference in the New Testament on this great theme, coming from His own lips, is very significant. "Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill" (Matthew 5:17). His total commitment to God's written Word was the first thing He came to confirm!

There are so many reasons He has given for His coming...
---For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which

was lost (Luke 19:10).
---I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance (Luke 5:32).
---For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me (John 6:38).

The last time Christ gives a reason for His coming is also significant. It refers to His second coming!
---And behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to give to every one according to his work (Revelation 22:12)." ICR

Mission of the 1st Advent

The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: 

they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, 

upon them has the light shined. 

Isaiah 9:2


"Yet God came to man 

--in his lost condition, 

--to dwell with him in the darkness,

--to lead them in the light and back to dwell with God in the light of God." 

A.T. Jones

Parental Misuse of Christmas Gifts

"Parents using gifts from Santa to manipulate their children into behaving in a way that pleases the parent at the time. 

Such manipulation is entirely unbiblical. 

As Christians, we should discipline our children for sinful behavior

because it is an offense against God, not because it is inconvenient or embarrassing for us. 

Using gifts from a mythical figure can only serve to promote a form of moralism that is alien to the gospel of Jesus Christ. 

Q: If our actions are done to earn rewards for ourselves, are we not acting selfishly? 

---This is not an attitude we should seek to instill in our children.

Our motivation for being obedient to God’s commands should be out of an attitude of gratitude for the grace He has shown us. 

The gospel speaks of God’s work in forgiving us of our sins—not because of the righteous acts which we have done, but because of what Christ did on the cross for us (But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, 

--He saved us, 

*not because of works done by us in righteousness, 

*but according to His own mercy, 

*by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by His grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. Titus 3:4–7). Nothing that we can do can make us righteous before God or make us deserving of his good gifts." 

AIG

SANTA: Besides the Pagan influence--what about the Christian influence?

Listen, my beloved brothers, has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom, which he has promised to those who love him? But you have dishonored the poor man. Are not the rich the ones who oppress you, and the ones who drag you into court? Are they not the ones who blaspheme the honorable name by which you were called? James 2:5-7 ESV

"As with many things in our culture, Santa has his beginnings in a Christian past. As the legends have it, the concept of Santa is rooted in the real Nicholas, Bishop of Myra, dating to the fourth century. Nicholas inherited a large amount of money and used much of his fortune to help the poor. Nicholas gave freely to meet the needs of people around him, fulfilling the commands of Christ to aid the poor.
After his death, the Catholic Church recognized him as a saint—hence the common American usage of St. Nick as a substitute for Santa. 

*The red clothing is likely founded in the red robes worn by bishops. 

*The white beard and other trappings (e.g., reindeer, sleighs, elves, etc.) are likely adopted from various cultural influences being mingled together over the centuries. 

If you study the celebration of Santa (a.k.a., St. Nick, Kris Kringle, Father Christmas, and Sinterklauss) around the world, the similarities are obvious, as shoes are substituted for stockings and the North Pole for the mountains of Lapland." 

AIG

SDA Issues - Dancing Santa's Invading Our Schools?

.... clouds they are without water, carried about of winds; trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots;... Jude 1:12

"It was quite an intense and emotional morning at the Dhaka Adventist Pre-Seminary and School (DAPS), located inside the campus of the Bangladesh Union Mission Headquarters and attached to the Dhaka Seventh-day Adventist Church. 

The young children were occupied, rehearsing their school lessons on December 3, 2024, when all of a sudden—bang! crash! boom!—the doors flew open, and two men dressed as Santa Claus entered the room with a group of drummers who were playing loud, ear-splitting beats that caused many of the schoolchildren to cover their ears, others to bow in fear, and some to start chanting, screaming, jumping, and dancing.
Thanks to educators who have compromised everything we once held sacred, some of our schools have become so entangled with worldliness that they no longer resemble the institutions they used to be. 

Some of our schools are no longer just merely compromised—they are under siege by spiritual forces that are sowing confusion and rebellion.
Unless we cut the snake at the head, eliminating the source of a problem, no true or lasting reformation will ever take root in our institutions. The moral decay plaguing many of our schools stems directly from those in leadership who have abandoned the principles of righteousness for the sake of appeasement and worldly approval. Administrators who allow compromise to continue, whether through misguided policies or passive negligence, are the very source of the corruption.
True reform begins with accountability—removing those who have led us astray and replacing them with faithful men and women who are committed to Christ-centered education. Without this decisive action, our efforts will be in vain, and the spiritual health of our institutions will continue to erode. Only then can we return to our true purpose—nurturing young minds to stand rooted in God’s word and firm in their faith." 

AdventMessenger

Creation Moment 12/25/2024 - Darwin's Legacy on the "Church"

For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation... Jude 1:4

"Charles Darwin is the man credited with popularizing in our time the idea of evolution. His legacy lives on today as his naturalistic (atheistic) ideas have permeated not only Western culture, but much of the rest of the world and much of the church. 

But his legacy is not a good one. 

He popularized a philosophy that attacked (and was intended to destroy—but that can never happen, of course) the authority of the Word of God.
Darwin’s legacy in the church can be seen in the fact 

--that he was buried in the floor of a church (Westminster Abbey in

London) and honored by the church. 

*This to me is a reminder that a man who popularized a philosophy to undermine the foundation of the church is honored by the church and buried in the foundation of the church!" 

Ken Ham

Stop, my soul

Yet He hath made with me an everlasting covenant.
2 Samuel 23:5

"This covenant is divine in its origin. 

Stop, my soul. 

God, the everlasting Father, has positively made a covenant with thee; yes, that God who spake the world into existence by a word; He, stooping from his majesty, takes hold of thy hand and makes a covenant with thee.

 

“HE hath made with me a covenant.” 

But notice, it is particular in its application. 

Here lies the sweetness of it to each believer. 

It is nought for me that He made peace for the world; 

I want to know whether He made peace for me!

This covenant is everlasting in its duration. 

An everlasting covenant means a covenant which had no beginning, and which shall never, never end. 

Like dying David, I will sing of this, even though my house be not so with God as my heart desireth." 

Charles Spurgeon

Creation Moment 12/24/2024 - His Reason: The CREATOR

When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that You are mindful of him, and the son of man that You care for him? 

Psalm 8:3,4

"David wrote many of the psalms preserved in Scripture. 

A careful examination of their contents can tell us a lot about his faith and about what made him a man after God’s own heart.

David spent substantial time in the revealed Word of God, which at that time would have most likely been the Torah, the first five books of our modern Old Testament.

David’s prayers encompass 

anger, 

despair, 

deep sorrow, 

and fear. 

Yet even when he experiences these feelings, he ultimately places his trust in God. And the reason he can have such firm hope in God is that God is the all-powerful, loving Creator." 

AIG