IN the NEWS - Veneration of 1,700-year-old skull

Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: Exodus 20:4

"During an elaborate ceremony where the skull of Saint Agatha was placed back in a gold bust, the Vatican's secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, bowed and kissed the relic as part of Christian tradition. This ritual is part of the Catholic rite of veneration.

The 1,700-year-old skull is believed to belong to Saint Agatha, a third-century martyr and patron saint of Catania, Sicily. According to Christian lore, she died in prison around 251 AD during Emperor Decius’s persecution of Christians.
After her death, she was honored as a martyr and became Catania's patron saint. Her relics were then taken to Constantinople centuries later, before they were returned to her place of birth in 1126. For this particular event, a prayer vigil was first held on Aug. 16, followed by the restoration of the skull.
Footage of the ceremony quickly surfaced on social media, shedding light on the ancient tradition followed in Catholicism. According to Catholics, the act shows respect to the saint rather than worshipping her remains, but has ignited debate around the veneration of relics.
Many non-Catholics said the ritual was "idolatry," meaning the worship of a physical object or image as a God." 

msn

Creation Moment 8/24/2026 - Assumptions Wrong Again

And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: He made the stars also. Genesis 1:16

"James Webb Space Telescope finds ‘hidden stars’ making the universe’s 1st galaxies much bigger than we knew (Space.com, 20 August 2026). The mass of early galaxies is larger than expected, if small stars are included. 

Latest images from the James Webb Space Telescope are breaking assumptions. 

According to Big Bang theory, Population I and II stars and planets needed to form after the first generation of Population III stars—composed of hydrogen and helium—had exploded and sent heavy elements into the gas and dust. “This result shows that much more mass than previously thought is hidden in small stars,” team leader Mariska Kriek of Leiden University said. 

“That has implications for all kinds of fields within astronomy. Because many planets orbit small stars, it could even mean that more planets formed in the early universe than we previously assumed.” CEH

Sabbath and the family

....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 20:11

"The Sabbath and the family were alike instituted in Eden, and in
God's purpose they are indissolubly linked together." 

E.G.W.

Creation Moment 8/23/2026 - "multiple coordinated steps "

But now thus saith the LORD that created thee.... Isaiah 43:1

"Organization of the Stentor body plan by localized mRNAs (PNAS, 10 August 2026). Timothy A. Mitchison comments on a new paper about the complexity in the body plan of a microbe. 

Even getting the long axis right in the trumpet-shaped ciliated protist Stentor requires multiple coordinated steps (genetic and epigenetic), to say nothing of building the circumferential axis where a ring of cilia sweep nutrients into its cornucopia.

“All cells are spatially organized,” Mitchison begins, “but the organizational complexity and precision of most metazoan cells pale in comparison to ciliated protists which display elaborate body plans.” And the little organism can regenerate itself if injured. The author says nothing about evolution." CEH

Luther's Question

...God is love. 1 John 4:8

"Martin Luther said, "If they could hate the one, that healed the sick,

that comforted the brokenhearted, that raised the dead, what kind of God must they have if they hated Him?" 

So, we have to set the record straight on the character of God.

And in the cross, all lies about the character of God fade." 

Walter Veith

Our Passover Lamb

"Note that the beginning of Passover when the lamb was slain is not the Passover sabbath but this day occurs on the 15th of Nisan the following day. 

Jesus became our Passover lamb and died at the exact time the Passover lamb would have been sacrificed. Matthew, Mark and Luke all record that Christ died at the ninth hour (9 hours after the sun had risen, 3:00 p.m.).
Matthew 27:46 And about the NINTH HOUR Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?
This is the same time that Josephus records the slaughter of the Passover lambs commenced. Christ fulfilled the symbolism of the Passover lambs exactly by giving his life just as the unblemished Passover lambs began to be slain on the 14th of Nisan." WCT

Creation Moment 8/22/2026 - Genetic Entropy Lesson from a Virus

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

"John Sanford recently published a paper in a secular journal with what we believe are profound implications. The basic claim is that ‘genetic entropy’ works in the real world, which brings questions about the role of natural selection and the long-term survival of species into the future.

The paper analyzed mutation accumulation in the human H1N1 influenza genome using over 95 years’ worth of genetic sequences. This type of data is a rarity in the world of genetics, since most sequence data are from recent organisms with long generation times. The influenza virus, however, has been isolated and sequenced from human tissue samples all the way back to 1918. With a human-to-human transmission on average every three days or so, this makes over 11,000 disease generations and many times more than that number of viral generations. The number of viral generations is possibly comparable to the number of generations since the supposed human-chimpanzee split.

We provided data that more than suggests that the various influenza viruses that infect humans cannot survive long term, and we were the first to notice the disappearance of the human version of the H1N1 influenza virus in mid-2009. We closed our arguments by suggesting government agencies are barking up the wrong tree in their quest to detect newly evolving strains. Instead, scientists should be focusing their efforts to understand the appearance of new viruses, because once a virus makes a cross-species jump it burns fast and hot and eventually burns out. It is the new versions that are the greatest threat, not the old, worn-out ones. We discussed the 2009-2010 ‘swine’ flu outbreak, noting that it was far less serious than expected, and that this was probably due to the fact that the virus had picked up thousands of mutations and was much less robust compared to the original H1N1 ancestral virus that entered the swine population about the same time the human version appeared.

There are additional implications to our work, although most of these were not explicitly stated in the text.

First, this is apparently the first experiment designed to test the Darwinian mutation/selection model in any species over tens of thousands of generations. All other experiments (even Lenski) used

many fewer generations, or assumed common ancestry (e.g. anything written about the evolution of humans and chimpanzees from a common ancestor) without actually testing it.
Second, despite pervasive and demonstrable natural selection among these viruses, the 1918 version of the human H1N1 virus went extinct, twice, at the appearance of a competing strain, apparently due to a lack of robustness caused by mutation accumulation. The first time was in 1957 when a competing serotype appeared. After an accidental reintroduction of human H1N1 in 1976, the second extinction occurred when a recombined version of the swine H1N1 appeared in humans, and after more than 10% of the human H1N1 genome had ‘rusted away’.
Third, accumulating mutations are not silent, even those that do not affect the amino acid chain of a protein, because codon usage influences translation efficiency. Circulating levels of the many transfer RNAs are proportional to the frequency of their corresponding codons. Thus, changing from common to rare codons is expected to decrease the speed of translation. Unchecked mutation accumulation leads to a breakdown in codon bias, potentially affecting translation efficiency in the host cell.
Lastly, since the various mutations accumulated in a linear fashion, those mutations that escaped the selective filter (that would be most of the mutations) apparently accumulated according to the laws of chemistry. Thus, genetic change is overwhelmingly a product of thermodynamics, not selection. Over time there was, approximately, a 1% net increase in A, a 0.5% net increase in U (H1N1 is an RNA virus), a 0.5% net loss of C, and a 1% net loss of G.

Natural selection had a minimal effect on mutational direction. 

Q: Does this mean the direction of ‘evolutionary’ change is predetermined? 

A: If so, and if the common ancestor of things like humans and chimpanzees is not ‘on the curve’, they should not have a common ancestor. This would be a very interesting line of study." 

CMI

Mysterious, Unaccountable SIN

But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? Romans 7:23,24

“Sin is an intruder, for whose presence no reason can be given. 

It is mysterious, unaccountable;

to excuse it, 

is to defend it.” 

E.G.W.

Creation Moment 8/21/2026 - Christianity and evolution NOT compatible

"Evolution destroys utterly and finally the very reason Jesus' earthly

life was supposedly made necessary. 

Destroy Adam and Eve and in the rubble you will find the sorry remains of the Son of God. 

--If Jesus was not the redeemer who died for our sins and this is what evolution means, then Christianity is nothing. 

--You see, abandoning the Genesis account as true history has had truly terrible consequences both within and outside the church. 

The word of God says, "The last enemy to be destroyed is death." 1 Corinthians 15:26. God didn't create the world with an active enemy within it. And yet, for those believers who've adopted the secular timeline and attempted to add it to the Bible, they must logically conclude there was death in this world before Adam sinned.

Bad things, so to speak, would not have occurred in the creation until after Adam disobeyed God and sin entered the world at the time of the fall. 

Just as Romans 5:12 states, "Therefore, just as sin came into the
world through one man and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all have sinned."

AIG

2 Corinthians 6:17

Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith
the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you,..... 

2 Corinthians 6:17

"Let me tell you, my brothers and sisters, for you to carry out your purpose as a lightbearer, God desires that you SEPARATE YOURSELF FROM EVERY EXPRESSION OF DARKNESS." 

Randy Skeete

Creation Moment 8/20/2026 - Spiritual Lesson from the opening of Creation Week

"Genesis chapter 1 reading from verse one. And I read from the King James version. In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form and void, and

darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, "Let there be light." And there was light. And God saw the light that it was good. And God did what? Divided the light from the darkness. God did what? God divided the light from the darkness. And God called the light day and the darkness he called night and the evening and the morning were the first day. 

We see God dividing, separating, severing one thing from the other. It was not God's will when he created this world physically that light and darkness should coexist, should commingle and intermingle and mix and by the way intermarry.
Some things should not mingle and mix and have any form of fellowship or communion." 

Randy Skeete

Spiritual LESSON of the Call of Abraham

And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird. For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies.
And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, My people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.
Revelation 18:2-4

"God called Abraham out of the Chaldees, which by the way is the same thing as Babylon.
Q: Is there a call in these last days to come out of Babylon? 

Are you familiar with it?

--That call goes all the way to Abraham.
The Chaldees was Babylon. God called Abraham out of the Chaldees.

Q: Now why did God do that? 

*There is another principle by which God functions -- the principle of purpose. Purpose than existence. 

In other words, you are alive for a purpose. And if you don't fulfill that purpose, you have no right to live." 

Randy Skeete

Creation Moment 8/19/2026 -Hot Water and Cracked Rock?

"Could an asteroid impact really spark life? A recent AGU Advances paper says early asteroid impacts might have cracked Earth’s crust and made large hot-water systems where life could have begun. 

But the main problem remains: the study gives a possible opportunity for chemistry to happen, but it doesn’t show how dead chemicals made the coded systems needed for life.

The paper simply suggests large impacts could make rock more open and cracked. Water could then move through hot rock and carry minerals. The authors estimate that impacts might have made much of the upper crust open to water 4.3 billion years ago or earlier.1 Southwest Research Institute said these environments were places “where life could have evolved.”

--That claim goes beyond what the study shows. A hot-water system may have water, heat, and minerals, but life needs much more than active chemistry. Cracked rock and hot water do not explain DNA, RNA, proteins, or the genetic code—key parts of the cell that allow life to exist. These parts must work together; they are not a random chemical configuration.

Conventional origin-of-life research often starts with carefully chosen conditions. Even the famous Miller experiment, still widely cited in origin-of-life discussions, produced some amino acids under a planned laboratory setup. That result is often treated as a big step toward life. But amino acids are not life, just as bricks are not a house. Neither life nor a house come about without a plan, an order, and a builder.

Water-based environments, as discussed in the study, actually present an interesting dilemma for cells. Cells need water to keep their control system functionally intact, and a hot-water system can make reactions happen faster. But faster reactions do not create the right order, code, or function. Additionally, water makes many reactions that join small molecules into long chains difficult, causing interfering side reactions. Outside the protected setting of a cell, water can also help break those chains apart.

Parts of the cell depend on each other. DNA stores coded instructions. Proteins, such as enzymes, do specific jobs. RNA helps connect the two. ICR has noted that biological networks like these show logic, control, and rule-based design as found in engineered systems. That kind of control has not been observed to arise from lifeless chemistry.

From a creationist view, the evidence points to a purposeful design behind life. Nehemiah 9:6 says, “You alone are the LORD; You have made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth and everything on it, the seas and all that is in them, and You preserve them all.” This does not deny chemistry. It places chemistry, life, and preservation under the wisdom and power of the Creator.

The asteroid paper may help explain how impacts changed early rock systems, but it does not indicate life came into existence as a result of an asteroid impact. The study merely shows that conventional scientists can model a possible setting for chemistry to happen. The origin of life still requires what hot water and cracked rock have never been seen to produce: coded information, linked systems, and purposeful engineering." 

ICR

For those who can sing.....

And David and all Israel played before God with all their might, and with singing, and with harps, and with psalteries, and with timbrels, and with cymbals, and with trumpets. 

1 Chronicles 13:8

"And when God gives a purpose to a man or a purpose to a woman, he requires the carrying out of that purpose by the abilities and the talents, the strengths, the resources, the endowments that He gives to that person for the carrying out.
Q: Do you think God gave you the gift of singing so that you can

win a Grammy?
A: No, that's not why God gave you the gift of singing that through the ministry of song, you may touch hard hearts. 

You may minister to the love and the grace and the goodness of God. That gift is given that you might carry out the purpose for which God gave you life." 

Randy Skeete

Feasting on TV and Hollywood?

"You cannot feast your mind on TV and Hollywood and have a
spiritual character. It's just not possible. 

Q: Because by beholding we become what?

A: Changed. 

So if we are spending more time with Hollywood's productions than we are with the word of the living God, how can we expect ever to be ready for the coming of Jesus?

This is no time to flirt with the devil's allurements and conform to the

world's standards.
Saturate your mind with the word of God. Jesus says, "Watch." (Matthew 24:42)
Daily let God mold your mind, shape your character, transform your life through the spirit inspired word of God." 

Mark Finley

Creation Moment 8/18/2026 - Evolution is a blind-faith belief

For the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse: Romans 1:20

"You see, the idea of evolution doesn’t come from fossils, biology, or DNA. Rather, it comes from an interpretation of the fossils, biological systems, and DNA from a worldview founded in the belief of naturalism (atheism). Scientists start with their worldview—evolutionary naturalism—and they interpret the evidence in light of their worldview. It’s a belief system (really a religion) that relies on faith. But it’s a blind faith.
Evolutionists must believe all of these things by blind faith:Life came from nonlife . . . even though this contradicts the law of biogenesis.

--One kind of creature changed into another kind . . . even though that’s never been observed.
--Natural selection can create new genetic information . . . even though that’s never been observed. Natural selection works on already-existing genetic diversity.

--Various, extremely complex systems evolved multiple times each (e.g., powered flight supposedly evolved at least four separate times).

Millions of years ago, life exploded on the scene in great diversity with few “ancestors” in the rock layers below (this is called the Cambrian explosion).
--Humans and great apes share a common ancestor . . . even though the number of differences between us and them keeps increasing with each new study!

--Soft tissue managed to last millions of years in the fossil record.

And that’s just some of the problems with evolutionary ideas." 

AIG

2 Corinthians 6:14

"When you hear in Genesis 1, 

and God divided the light from the darkness, you can almost hear the spiritual principle in 

2 Corinthians 6:14. Be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness?
And or what communion hath righteousness with unrighteousness? Or what fellowship hath light with darkness? 

There should be no interaction.

When light and darkness mix, 

they both become darkness." 

Randy Skeete

Papal Notes - Papal call to Sunday Sacredness

"A significant new development has emerged as Pope Leo XIV encourages people to attend church on Sunday by presenting Sunday as sacred time and connecting it with Christ’s authority and His Second Coming. 

The Pope also calls for the sanctification of Sunday and urges society to provide working conditions that will allow people to participate in Sunday Mass. 

This papal appeal is particularly significant because it increasingly connects Sunday observance with faithfulness and loyalty to Christ and the Church.

The Vatican Press Office published the following remarks by Pope Leo XIV on August 12, 2026:
• “The Council Fathers considered ‘the foundation and kernel of the whole liturgical year to be Sunday, the original feast day. In various

modern languages, its name indicates that it is the ‘dies Domini—the Lord’s day.’ Even in those languages where the reference to the ‘day of the sun’ (Sunday, Sonntag) has prevailed, the link with Christ can be discerned: Christ is the true ‘sun of righteousness’ who enlightens every person!”
• “Saint John Paul II, in the Apostolic Letter Dies Domini (31 May 1998), teaches that Sunday is the day of the Lord, the day of the Church, the day of man and, finally, the day of days. Since Sunday is the weekly Easter, recalling and making present the day upon which Christ rose from the dead, it is also the day which reveals the meaning of time.”
• “Christ’s Second Coming—Sunday foreshadows the last day, the day of the Parousia, when we shall all rise again.”
• “To sanctify Sunday, it is fundamental to celebrate the Eucharist. Listening to the Word and partaking of the Body of Christ entail, according to the Council Fathers, the coming together in unum, that is, the joyful gathering of the faithful.”
• “In this regard, I urge everyone to seek the best possible conditions so that even those who are unable to take time off work on Sundays may take part in Holy Mass.”

The next step will ultimately be the civil enforcement of Sunday observance, bringing it into direct conflict with the seventh-day Sabbath.

While Rome is calling the world to sanctify Sunday, the Three Angels’ Messages are calling the world back to the Creator and His

commandments, including the call to “worship Him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters” (Revelation 14:7)—a direct quote from the fourth commandment and a call to honor the true seventh-day Sabbath established by God at Creation." 

AdventMessenger

Creation Moment 8/17/2026 - Their Reason for trying to find life on Mars

Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God.... Hebrews 11:3

"The obsession over finding life on Mars (or other planets or moons), which NPR’s Science Reporter David Baron calls the “Alien Craze”, is based on several motives. 

One important motive is to support the abiogenesis belief that, given the right conditions, life can arise from nonliving matter, thereby supporting evolution.
A meteorite believed to have originated from Mars plunged into Earth some unknown time in the past. It had possible signs of life

according to a breathless announcement from NASA in 1996. Berkeley PhD Donald Goldsmith opined, “This rock from Mars will change the way we think about life in the universe.” It would change the way we think about life because it would lend support to the view that life can arise naturally and, given enough time, evolve.

On August 7, 1996, a team of NASA scientists captivated the world by announcing they had discovered microscopic, worm-like structures resembling fossilized nanobacteria, along with organic molecules, inside the Martian meteorite ALH84001.
However, the worm-like structures were later determined to be inorganic mineral formations and artifacts resulting from laboratory preparation rather than fossilized alien life.

One of the major pieces of evidence against evolution is the difficulty of accounting for a material origin of life, both

theoretically and in laboratory experiments. It is a problem of such magnitude that evolutionists often attempt to argue that the origin of life lies outside the scope of evolutionary theory.

The common explanation is that evolution explains only how living organisms changed after they already existed. The study of how life first arose from nonliving matter is a separate field called abiogenesis. Evolutionists often claim only the diversification of living organisms through genetic change, which requires preexisting living things—even primitive organisms. Consequently, if life, or even credible evidence of past life, were discovered elsewhere in the Solar System, many evolutionists would view such a discovery as providing strong support for both abiogenesis and evolution.

Beliefs Shattered

One example is the Viking missions that landed fifty years ago during the American Bicentennial year. Nadia Drake wrote for Scientific American News on July 27, 2026,

"Scientists had speculated for years about what scenes would await Viking 1 and its twin, Viking 2, which landed elsewhere on Mars a

few weeks later. Most thought any Martians would, at most, be simple, small life-forms—although Carl Sagan had impishly suggested that polar-bear-sized creatures could populate the landscape. Humans have imagined other inhabited worlds for millennia. And we’ve even “discovered” life on Mars more than once across the last century or two. Yet each time we’ve built sharper tools and taken a closer look, all those claims have evaporated."

CEH

Genesis and Exodus accounts: SAME SABBATH

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 20:11

"Commonalities Some have argued that the Sabbath in Genesis is different from the Sabbath that God gave to Israel. However, this is not tenable because there are several commonalities between the Genesis and Exodus accounts. 

In both: 

✓ The Sabbath is a memorial of creation. 

✓ The Sabbath comes after six days of labor. 

✓ The Sabbath is the seventh day of the week . 

✓ In both accounts God rested and then blessed and sanctified the seventh day." 

Stephen Bohr