Puritan Corner - The Word of God

"The word of God stands between the saints and all danger."
by William Gurnall (1616-1679)
All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness. 

2 Timothy 3:16

Song Of Love by DALLAS HOLM

Click on Pic to Listen

Song Of Love Performed by DALLAS HOLM
Hereby perceive we the love of God, because He laid down His life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. 

1 John 3:16

Old & New Testament

"We go to both the Old and the New Testament; for they support each other, and the New Testament would have but little force without the Old. 

1. The New-Testament Scriptures are largely made up of references to, and quotations from, the Old; 

2. The Old-Testament Scriptures testify of Christ, and without them it would be difficult to show that Christ was the Messiah; 

3. Christ commands us to search them (John 5:39), and says, "It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God" (Matt. 4:4); 

4. They are all the Scriptures that the apostles and the primitive church had for years; 

5. Those who searched them in apostolic times, were said to be more noble than those who did not (Acts 17:11); 

Surely, we cannot get along without the Old Scriptures, 

and if we believe in the New Testament, 

we shall not despise the Old."

D. T. Bourdeau

Creation Moment 1/31/2025 -Chicken and Egg PROBLEM for the Big Bang

In the beginning God created the heaven..... Genesis 1:1

"The formation of stars after the alleged big bang is also a huge problem. 

The astronomer, Dr Danny Faulkner, pointed out:
"Stars supposedly condensed out of vast clouds of gas, and it has long

been recognized that the clouds don’t spontaneously collapse and form stars, they need to be pushed somehow to be started. There have been a number of suggestions to get the process started, and almost all of them require having stars to start with [e.g. a shockwave from an exploding star causing compression of a nearby gas cloud]. This is the old chicken and egg problem; it can’t account for the origin of stars in the first place." 

CMI

The 2 Laws

"As a people, we believe that there are two laws, or systems of law: 

1.) The moral law and the principles of moral duty which grow out of it; 

By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love

God, and keep His commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments: 

and His commandments are not grievous.
He that saith, I know Him, and keepeth not His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.
1 John 5:2,3/2:4

2.) The ceremonial law, embracing the typical remedial system pointing forward to Christ, and the civil laws growing out of the special relation existing between God and the Jewish people to the cross. 

Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross; So don’t let anyone condemn you for what you eat or drink, or for not celebrating certain holy days or new moon ceremonies or Sabbaths.
Colossians 2:14,16

We hold the former to be ever binding upon man, 

while the latter passed away." 

G.I. Butler

IN the NEWS - EEKE pushes Sunday in Greece

And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of. 2 Peter 2:2

"Whether they know it or not, labor unions are serving the interests of Rome. Rome will use anyone to further its Sunday agenda. While apostate church leaders will seek to justify Sunday-keeping through so-called moral and spiritual support, labor unions perform the dirty work of engaging in chaos, disruptions, and fighting. In Greece, labor unions today are pressuring authorities and employers to keep Sunday work-free.

On January 16, 2025, To Vima, a news media company in Athens, Greece, published an article about how trade unions are calling for Sunday shopping restrictions and are arguing that Sunday store openings violate the fundamental rights of workers.

To Vima published the following:
• “The Working Consumers of Greece (EEKE) is urging consumers to avoid shopping on Sundays as part of a broader effort to restore balance in the retail sector and protect workers’ rights.”
• “According to EEKE, the opening of stores on Sundays creates conditions that favor monopolistic practices, undermining healthy competition and inevitably driving many small and medium-sized businesses to closure.”
• “Additionally, EEKE argued that Sunday openings disrupt personal and family life, violating fundamental labor rights that are both constitutionally guaranteed and the result of hard-fought battles by workers.”
• “In its statement, the Union is urging consumers to support businesses that remain closed on Sundays. Their campaign slogan reads: “Sunday Closed! I Don’t Shop – I Don’t Work!”

It is not a coincidence that labor unions have designated Sunday as the day for workers to have time off for rest, family, and friends. The unions are simply joining the chorus of those calling for Sunday to become the universal day of rest for all people. In other words, this is a public call to increase awareness for Sunday closings."

AdventMesenger

Creation Moment 1/30/2025 - Big Bang & Genesis at odds: Hence NOT Compatible

God looked down from heaven upon the children of men, 

to see if there were any that did understand, 

that did seek God. 

Psalm 53:2

"The big bang teaches that the sun and many other stars formed before

the earth, while Genesis teaches that they were made on the fourth day after the earth, and only about 6,000 years ago rather than 10–20 billion years ago. 

The big bang also entails millions of years of death, disease, and pain before Adam’s sin, which contradicts the clear teaching of Scripture, which is thus unacceptable to Biblical Christians." 

CMI

What Testifies to the Laws Enduring Character?

And He gave unto Moses, when He had made an end of

communing with him upon mount Sinai, two tables of testimony, tables of stone, written with the finger of God. Exodus 31:18

"That law of which the Sabbath was a part, spoken by God upon Mount Sinai, was written by His own finger on two tables of stone, thus indicating its enduring character." 

G.I. Butler

Creation Moment 1/29/2025 - Naturalism is the Root of Evolutionary Thinking

The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. Psalm 14:1

"The framework behind the evolutionists’ interpretation is naturalism—it is assumed that things made themselves, that no divine intervention has happened, and that God has not revealed to us

knowledge about the past.
Evolution is a deduction from this assumption, and it is essentially the idea that things made themselves.
Professor D.M.S. Watson, one of the leading biologists and science writers of his day, demonstrated the atheistic bias behind much evolutionary thinking when he wrote:
"Evolution [is] a theory universally accepted not because it can be proven by logically coherent evidence to be true, but because the only alternative, special creation, is clearly incredible." 

CMI

2 Timothy 3:16

All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable 

--for teaching, 

--for reproof, 

--for correction, and 

--for training in righteousness. 

2 Timothy 3:16

Papal Notes - Francis Gets Called Out

Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, for he is God's servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God's wrath on the wrongdoer. Therefore one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God's wrath but also for the sake of conscience.
Romans 13:1-7 RSV

"In a no-holds-barred response to Pope Francis’s criticism of U.S. immigration policies, former Border Patrol chief Tom Homan delivered a blistering rebuke that cut straight to the heart of the Vatican’s hypocrisy.

When the Pope condemned the Trump administration’s deportation plans as a “disgrace” – despite the Vatican’s own strict immigration controls – Homan didn’t hold back. A lifelong Catholic, he challenged the pontiff to “concentrate on fixing the Catholic Church” before lecturing the United States on border security.
Homan’s most potent argument highlighted the Vatican’s own

paradoxical stance: “They have a wall around the Vatican, and if you illegally enter, you’ll be charged with a serious crime. So he can protect where he lives, but the American people are not allowed that?”
Homan emphasized the human cost of unsecured borders: “Securing the border saves lives. Less people means less women get raped by cartels, less children die in rivers, and less Americans die from fentanyl

overdose.”
The message was clear: compassion isn’t about open borders, but about protecting vulnerable populations from harm." 

Sara Carter

SDA Issues - ADRA Drags Church into Lawbreaking

Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’ Matthew 7:21-23

"ADRA helping to facilitate mass illegal immigration into the United States....Apparently, the United Nations and ADRA have no plans of stopping this practice. The UN wants to spend 1.4 billion more

dollars in 2025 to support an additional 2.3 million migrants traveling from 17 Latin America countries into the United States. ADRA is one of the top ten organizations helping this, destined to receive $5,000,000 from the new budget to facilitate this mass migration. The Seventh-day Adventist church is named on FOX News.
According to the Center for Immigration Studies, and The New York Times, the illegal immigration border surge over the last three plus years was the “largest in U.S. history”. ADRA was one of the NGO’s helping this to happen.

This relationship weakens the Seventh-day Adventist Church, instead of strengthening it. 

Q: Who in their right mind would ever think that our Seventh-day Adventist founders would advise a federation with a group like the United Nations?" 

Fulcrum7

Creation Moment 1/28/2025 - Blindness to DESIGN

This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, 

that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk,

--in the vanity of their mind, 

--Having the understanding darkened, 

being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance 

that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart: 

Ephesians 4:17,18

"The historian and philosopher of science Stephen Meyer concluded:"We have not yet encountered any good in principle reason to exclude design from science. Design seems just as scientific (or unscientific) as its evolutionary competitors." 

CMI

Biblical Definition of DEATH

"What is your life?” And you know the answer. It is even A VAPOR, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. 

James 4:14.

So, you can see that this life which all men have for the mere passing moment, is not real life: it is “even a vapor.” 

And this death that we meet when that vapor “vanisheth away” is not real death: it is a sleep. 

Only that life which is the life of God is life indeed; and only that death from which there is no resurrection, from whose power there is no possible deliverance,—only that is death indeed. 

This life which is but a vapor, 

and this death which is but a sleep, 

form for mankind a valley of decision between the life which is life indeed and the death which is death indeed." 

A.T. Jones

Papal Notes - Terrorist Bend the Knee (or did Francis Bend the Knee this time?)

And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. Ephesians 5:11

"Pope Francis is under fire for meeting with Abolhassan Navab, an

Iranian cleric who heads the regime’s University of Religions and Confessions (URC,) an entity responsible for overseeing the persecution of Christian converts in Iran.
The article also recounts Navab saying, “The Iranian government

and people are always ready to help spread peace and justice in the world and to achieve this goal, they warmly shake the hands of all those who take steps in this direction.”
The Vatican has not commented on what was discussed during this meeting." 

Protestia

IN the NEWS - Standing up to the Abortion Mill Lobby

And all the people shall answer and say, Amen. 

Deuteronomy 27:15

Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed.
And in Your book they all were written,
The days fashioned for me,
When as yet there were none of them.
Psalm 139:16

"*Trump started his incredible pro-life week with removing Joe Biden’s web site that promoted abortion.
*He followed that up with an executive order that confirmed human beings begin their lives at conception.
*The president followed that up with an executive order pardoning 23 pro-life Americans who Joe Bien unjustly convicted for exercising their free speech rights to protest at abortion businesses.
*Trump signed an executive order reinstating the “Mexico City Policy,” which prohibits taxpayer funding of groups like International Planned Parenthood that promote and perform abortions in other nations.
*President Trump issued an executive order enforcing the Hyde Amendment, which bars the use of federal funds for elective abortions domestically. This move underscores the administration’s commitment to preventing taxpayer dollars from funding abortion services within the United States.
*President Trump also participated in the annual March for Life rally in Washington, D.C., where he delivered a videotaped speech reaffirming his administration’s dedication to pro-life initiatives.
*Furthermore, the administration announced plans to limit the enforcement of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act, arguing that it has been used to target pro-life activists unfairly. This decision reflects the administration’s stance on protecting the rights of individuals engaging in peaceful protest outside abortion businesses. The end of lawfare against pro-life Americans is a significant free speech victory." 

Lifesite

Creation Moment 1/27/2025 - How do we detect design?

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

Q: How do we detect design?
"There is an obvious difference between writing by an intelligent person, e.g. Shakespeare’s plays, and a random letter sequence like WDLMNLTDTJBKWIRZREZLMQCOP.

We can also tell the difference between messages written in sand and

the results of wave and wind action. 

The carved heads of the U.S. presidents on Mt Rushmore are clearly different from erosional features. 

Again, this is specified complexity. Erosion produces either irregular shapes or highly ordered shapes like sand dunes, but not presidents’ heads or writing.

To elaborate, a crystal is a repetitive arrangement of atoms, so is

ordered. Such ordered structures usually have the lowest energy, so will form spontaneously at low enough temperatures. And the information of the crystals is already present in their building blocks; for example, directional forces between atoms. 

--But proteins and DNA, the most important large molecules of life, are not ordered (in the sense of repetitive), but have high specified complexity. 

Without specification external to the system, i.e., the programmed machinery of living things or the intelligent direction of an organic chemist, there is no natural tendency to form such complex specified arrangements at all. 

--When their building blocks are combined (and even this requires special conditions), a random sequence is the result. The difference between a crystal and DNA is like the difference between a book containing nothing but ABCD repeated and a book of Shakespeare.

The design criterion may also be described in terms of information.

Specified complexity means high information content. 

In formal terms, the information content of any arrangement is the size, in bits, of the shortest algorithm (program) required to generate that arrangement. A random sequence could be formed by a short program:

Print any letter at random.
Return to step 1.
A repetitive sequence could be made by the program:Print ABCD.
Return to step 1.
*But to print the plays of Shakespeare, a program would need to be large enough to print every letter in the right place.
The information content of living things is far greater than that of Shakespeare’s writings. 

The atheist Richard Dawkins says:
"There is enough information capacity in a single human cell to store the Encyclopaedia Britannica, all 30 volumes of it, three or four times over."

If it’s unreasonable to believe that an encyclopedia could have originated without intelligence, then it’s just as unreasonable to believe that life could have originated without intelligence." 

CMI

Some Questions

I will mention the lovingkindnesses of the Lord, 

and the praises of the Lord, 

according to all that the Lord hath bestowed on us. 

Isaiah 63:7

"Q: And canst thou not do this? 

Q: Are there no mercies which thou hast experienced? 

Q: What though thou art gloomy now, canst thou forget that blessed hour when Jesus met thee, and said, "Come unto Me"? 

Q: Canst thou not remember that rapturous moment when He snapped thy fetters, dashed thy chains to the earth, and said, "I came to break thy bonds and set thee free"? 

Q: Or if the love of thine espousals be forgotten, there must surely be some precious milestone along the road of life not quite grown over with moss, on which thou canst read a happy memorial of His mercy towards thee? 

Arise, go to the river of thine experience, 

and pull up a few bulrushes, 

and plait them into an ark, 

wherein thine infant-faith may float safely on the stream. 

Forget not what thy God has done for thee; turn over the book of thy remembrance, and consider the days of old. 

---Go back, then, a little way to the choice mercies of yesterday, and though all may be dark now, light up the lamps of the past, they shall glitter through the darkness, and thou shalt trust in the Lord till the day break and the shadows flee away." 

Charles Spurgeon

Creation Moment 1/26/2025 - Your Machine: The liver

"The liver is a multifunction accessory organ to digestion, which means that it is not part of the alimentary canal, but external to it. Among other things, it is essential to the healthy functioning of the gastrointestinal and endocrine systems. Introducing digestive juices into the system, liver functions are part of the process of detoxifying and breaking down food components into a form suitable for absorption.

The liver controls the glucose level in blood by converting glucose into glycogen (glycogenesis) if the glucose level is too high, and vice versa when it is too low. When a person has low blood sugar, the

liver can release glucose through the conversion of certain amino acids and lactate, as well as other sugars like fructose and galactose. If the sugar level is too high, the liver can turn glucose into fats, too.

The compound adenosine triphosphate (ATP) delivers energy for most of life’s metabolic processes; for example, the manufacture of protein machines. ATP synthase is one such machine, a motor consisting of 29 proteins, which in turn produces ATP.

A very important function of the liver is the detoxification of drugs such as penicillin, sulfonamides (R–S(= O)2–NR2, with ‘R’ a chemical group, the simplest being hydrogen), and ethanol (alcohol).

The hepatic cells of the liver daily produce nearly 0.5 liter of bile; a basic liquid (pH 7.6–8.6) that has a yellow, brown, or olive-green color. Bile is needed for fat digestion during and after meals, so is

stored in concentrated form in the gallbladder. 

This secretes about 500 ml of bile per day, a rate that is regulated by the hormone cholecystokinin (CCK), which causes the gallbladder to contract. 

Bile is mainly water with bile acids and other salts, cholesterol, bile pigments, ions, as well as other materials. The bile salts help the cholesterol to dissolve in the small intestine. Through their emulsifying action on fats, they also break down large fat globules into smaller droplets, as well as preventing the latter coalescing into larger ones. This increases the lipid surface area for hydrolysis by the pancreatic enzyme lipase. Hepatic lipase controls fat levels in the blood. The bile pigment bilirubin derives from the breaking down of red blood cells (RBCs), as does iron. 

In the intestine, bilirubin gets further broken down into urobilinogen, giving feces their characteristic brown color. In diseases where bilirubin removal from the liver is restricted, it collects in other body tissues, giving the skin and eyes a yellow color (jaundice).

It beggars belief how all this could have come about in a gradual, goal-less, evolutionary progression. From no liver to a fully developed, integrated, multi-tasking organ, numerous tasks would need to be put in place, all interdependent with other organs/systems.

The liver is essential for life. Without a liver, death ensues very quickly (...till an arrow pierces its liver; as a bird rushes into a snare; he does not know that it will cost him his life. Proverbs 7:23)." 

CMI

IN the NEWS - SANITY RETURNS to America on gender

"After President Trump’s inauguration on Monday, he signed a

variety of executive orders, including one titled, “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government.” The order specifically states that “It is the policy of the United States to recognize two sexes, male and female.”

Yes, there are only two sexes in humans—male and female. This is a clear Biblical truth (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), and, of course, it’s confirmed by common sense and by science.

Biologically speaking, males have XY chromosomes and females have XX, and 

--that cannot be changed by feelings (which can’t be trusted because of man’s sinful heart) 

--or by surgery 

--or hormones. 

Observational science confirms the Biblical truth of male and female.

Here is a quote from that executive order, including a definition of male and female that “shall govern all Executive interpretation of and application of Federal law and administration policy.”
It is the policy of the United States to recognize two sexes, male and female. These sexes are not changeable and are grounded in fundamental and incontrovertible reality. . .
(a) “Sex” shall refer to an individual’s immutable biological classification as either male or female. “Sex” is not a synonym for and does not include the concept of “gender identity.”
(b) “Women” or “woman” and “girls” or “girl” shall mean adult and juvenile human females, respectively.
(c) “Men” or “man” and “boys” or “boy” shall mean adult and juvenile human males, respectively.
(d) “Female” means a person belonging, at conception, to the sex that produces the large reproductive cell.
(e) “Male” means a person belonging, at conception, to the sex that produces the small reproductive cell.

This is good news for women’s safety, dignity, and well-being." 

AIG

SDA History: A.T. Jones Response to Mormon Polygamy & the Government [12/13/1888]

Then saith he unto them, Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's; and unto God the things that are God's. Matthew 22:21

A.T. Jones before U.S. Senator Blair:

"I should have come to that, even though you had not asked the question. But as you have introduced it, I will notice it now. 

My argument throughout is that the civil government can never have anything to do with men's duties under the first four of the ten commandments; and this is the argument embodied in Washington's words. 

These duties pertain solely to God. 

Now polygamy is adultery. 

But adultery is not a duty that men owe to God, in any way, much less does it come under any of the first four commandments. 

This comes within the inhibitions of the second table of the law of God - the commandments embracing duty to our neighbor. 

--How men should conduct themselves toward their fellow-men, civil government must decide; that is the very purpose of its existence. Consequently, the practice of polygamy lying wholly within this realm, is properly subject to the jurisdiction of civil government. 

My argument does not in the least degree countenance the principles of Mormonism, nor can it fairly be made to do so. 

--I know that is is offered a s very ready objection; but those who offer it as an objection and as an argument against the principles upon which we stand, thereby make adultery a religious practice. 

But against all such objection and argument, I maintain that adultery is not in any sense a religious practice. 

--It is not only highly irreligious, but it is essentially uncivil; and because it is uncivil, the civil power has as much right to blot it out as it has to punish murder, or thieving, or perjury, or any other uncivil thing. 

Moreover, we deny that honest occupations on any day of the week, or at any time whatever, can ever properly be classed with adultery.

It is every man's right in this country, or anywhere else, to worship an idol if he chooses. That idol embodies his conviction of what God is. He can worship only according to his convictions. It matters not what form his idol may have, he has the right to worship it anywhere in the world, therefore in the United States.

*But suppose that in the worship of that god he attempts to take the life of one of his fellow-men, and offer it as a human sacrifice. 

*The civil government exists for the protection of life. liberty, property, etc., and it must punish that man for his attempt upon the life of his fellow-man. 

*The civil law protects man's life from such exercise of any one's religion, but in punishing the offender, the State does not consider the question of his religion at all. 

It would punish him just the same if he made no pretensions to worship or to religion. 

It punishes him for his incivility, for his attempt at murder, not for his irreligion. I repeat, the question is not considered by the State; the sole question is, Did he threaten the life of his fellow-man? Civil government must protect its citizens. This is strictly within Caesar's jurisdiction; it comes within the line of duties which the Scripture show to pertain to our neighbor, and with it Caesar has to do." 

A.T. Jones

Creation Moment 1/25/2025 - Priests of the Highest God & His Book of Nature

When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained... Psalm 8:3

"Since we astronomers are priests of the highest God in regard to the
book of nature, it befits us to be thoughtful, not of the glory of our minds, but rather, above all else, of the glory of God."
Johannes Kepler (1571-1630), father of celestial mechanics

How the Sabbath was made for man

"THOSE who observe the Sabbath of the Bible, are able to present as its foundation, a divine institution. 

"God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it." Gen 2:3. 

To sanctify is "to separate, set apart, or appoint to a holy, sacred, or religious use." Webster.  

It was by this act of the great Creator, that the Sabbath was made for man. Ex.20:11; Mark 2:27. 

As God has never taken this blessing from the seventh day, and has never given to secular purposes the day which he here "set apart to a holy use," the original institution still exists." 

J.N. Andrews

Creation Moment 1/24/2025 - Adam and Eve genetic variation pre-programmed

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

"Theistic evolutionists present multiple genetic arguments against a literal Adam and Eve. 

One key argument asserts it would be impossible for a single human couple to give rise to the genetic diversity seen in the modern human population. 

This implicitly assumes Adam and Eve would have been created without internal genetic diversity. If this were true, all observed variations would have to arise recently via random mutations. 

Yet, Adam and Eve could have been created massively heterozygous. ....a vast amount of genetic variation pre-programmed into their genomes. 

This could logically provide the genetic basis for: 

1) our human gifts and talents; 

2) the many forms of human beauty; and 

3) the various ways people have rapidly adapted to new habitats."

John Sanford

Mutilating the Divine Constitution

"Let the reader compare Daniel 7:25, with the history of the Papal power, and carefully mark its acts of changing and mutilating the divine constitution, the ten commandments. 

We have seen the grand law of the Sabbath embodied in the decalogue. We come now to the New Testament. 

That our Lord did not destroy that law, or lessen our obligation to obey it, he clearly teaches in Matthew 5:17-19 (Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to

destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.)." 

J.N. Andrews

Creation Moment 1/23/2025 - D9

And he brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them: Genesis 15:5

"Astronomers have detected a likely binary star pair, designated as D9, orbiting the supermassive black hole Sag A* at the center of our Milky Way galaxy. 

As the name implies, a binary consists of two stars bound by gravity orbiting around their common center of mass. 

Based on uniformitarian assumptions and the presence of gas and dust around the binary pair, astronomers concluded the binary has an age of “just” 2.7 million years, the “blink of a cosmic eye” by long-age reckoning.
Even though astronomers have long believed that stars (and their associated planets) could not form so close to a supermassive black hole, Big Bang astronomers concluded that D9 formed near Sag A*:

"The fact that these binary stars so near Sag A* have survived the tremendous gravity of this black hole indicates that these environments may actually be stable enough to allow for the birth of planets, the scientists behind the discovery say. Black holes are not as destructive as we thought, research lead author and University of Cologne scientist Florian Peiβker said in a statement."

*But this sounds like wishful thinking. 

--The intense radiation and enormous gravity near a supermassive black hole have long been thought to make them “unlikely” candidates for supposed “stellar nurseries.”

 Astronomers have observed stars in the process of being torn apart

by nearby black holes.

--So regions close to a black hole are not stable, and this discovery does nothing to change that. Granted, D9 is thought to be at a relatively “safe” distance from Sag A*, but it is still difficult to see, in general, how stars and planets could slowly and gradually form near the galactic center.

*Of course, there is another possibility. 

--Perhaps God created D9 near Sag A* not that long ago, and insufficient time has elapsed, despite the extreme environment at the galactic center, for the binary pair to merge or be disrupted by tidal forces." 

ICR

To Those Who Disparage "Doctrine"

"Matthew 5:2 He opened His mouth and taught them. 

Some people express a sort of contempt for doctrine; they speak

slightingly of it, as though it belonged to the realm of abstruse theology, and not to practical, everyday life. 

*Such ones unconsciously do dishonor to the preaching of Christ, which was nothing else but doctrine. 

That is to say, He always taught the people. 

All true doctrine is intensely practical; 

it is given to men for no other purpose than to be practiced." 

E.J. Waggoner

Creation Moment 1/22/2025 - Watermelon snow

 For He saith to the snow, Be thou on the earth; Job 37:6

"Algae can turn fallen snow different colors including green, brown, and even pink. “Watermelon snow” is pink because of ice-loving

algae (Chlamydomonas nivalis) that blooms when the sun heats up, turning the snow a rosy hue. Watermelon snow comes in shades of red and green, like a watermelon. Often, this snow even has a sweet, fruity scent. Any of a number of types of algae and cyanobacteria produce watermelon snow, including Chlamydomonas nivalis, Chlamydomonas alpina, Mesotaenium bregrenii, and Chlorooceae cyanobacterium. 

This type of snow is common in alpine and polar regions worldwide, where it may also be called blood snow or pink snow. The green color comes from chlorophyll, while the red hue comes from astaxanthin, a carotenoid pigment that also colors flamingos, crabs, and salmon that feed on algae. 

Watermelon snow has ecological importance, as it 

--acts as a food source for many organisms 

--and affects the rate of snow melt. 

The melted water is a water supply not just for the algae, but also for animals in winter." 

AIG