Book Review: Climate Cult

(short) Book Review: A book that may be of some interest....
(Review by Amazon)

 

Climate Cult: A Biblical & scientific response to climate change

by John Berry

 Publisher ‏ : ‎ Big Sky (October 16, 2020)  ‎ 168 pages

 

"We need to put creation and the environment into the right context. And that starts with a Biblical worldview.

For the last 50 years, radical environmentalists have invented and promoted one apocalyptical myth after another. 

Today many people are fearful of the future, believing climate change is a global emergency.
In secular Western culture, instead of giving glory to the Creator for His creation, nature has been hi-jacked and our planet personified. People talk about "Mother Earth" needing to be preserved. We witness environmentalists engaging in systematic exaggerations of science in order to promote their secular ideological agenda.  

The modern climate alarmist movement is strongly anti-human, seeing mankind as "the biggest threat" to "Mother Earth". It targets and indoctrinates children with fear-mongering tactics. And if globalist politicians have their way, climate change will be used to raise taxes and bring sweeping changes to our economy and entire way of life."

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

Creation Moment 6/29/2021 - Hyperbola: Mathematical Formula of Creation

"All evolutionary theories demand very long timespans; evolution

supposedly occurred so slowly as to be in effect imperceptible to each generation. In contrast, when the Bible speaks of creation, it always portrays instantaneously occurring events. God’s Word of command has immediate fulfilment as its consequence. So, for example, we read in Psalm 33:9:

“For he spoke, and it came to be; he commanded, and it stood firm.”

Likewise, Psalm 148:5 conveys God’s creative activity in terms of the instantly completed outcome of His authoritative decree:

“For he commanded and they were created.”

The time question may also be deduced logically—imagine two students confronted by a difficult problem to solve. One of them is highly intelligent, the other only just managed, with great difficulty, to finish school. Which one will complete the task more quickly? The intelligent one, of course! 

We readily recognize that with increasing intelligence I, less time T is required for the solution. This could be mathematically expressed as, for example, T = f(I), which is a hyperbolic function of the type T is proportional to 1/I, i.e. T ∝ 1/I. 

The curve described by the equation T = 1/I is known as a hyperbola. 

1. Creation: If someone 

----is infinitely intelligent (I = ∞) 

----and in addition is also infinitely powerful, 

then the time required for the task is no longer any time at all (T = 0). The Bible repeatedly testifies that God is both: all-knowing (Psalm 139:1–4) and all-powerful (Genesis 17:1, Jeremiah 32:17). On the basis of this readily understandable hyperbolic law God would thus need no time at all to create everything that exists.

God nonetheless took considerable time to create—six entire days, with evening and morning. He did so for this single reason, He wanted to establish an analogy to accompany the following commandment of His, brought down from Mt Sinai by Moses:

“Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work” (Exodus 20:9–10).

In verse 11, this divine analogy is expressed:

“For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day.”

When contemporary Christian writers reject a six-day creation in favor of long ages, they are being mathematically illogical and at the same time Biblically incorrect, because they are thereby insinuating that God only has limited power.

2. Evolution: The hyperbolic form of the curve reveals something else of importance. 

---Since matter is void of any creative intelligence (I = 0), it would take infinitely long for it to generate something truly new. The creation hyperbola teaches us about the impossibility of an evolutionary process.

Q: What stops Christians from believing in a six-day creation? 

A: The answer is simple—because evolutionary/long-age conjectures enjoy widespread scientific acceptance, one doesn’t want to be derided as ‘unscientific’. 

 

But the price paid for this ‘respectability’ in the world’s eyes is very high; one is no longer obedient to the Word of God. We need to consider what God said to King Saul:

“For you have rejected the word of the LORD, and the LORD has rejected you” (1 Samuel 15:26)." CMI

Daily Test

... I die daily.... 1 Corinthians 15:31

"Day by day God instructs His children. 

--By the circumstances of the daily life He is preparing them to act
their part upon that wider stage to which His providence has appointed them. 

--It is the issue of the daily test that determines their victory or defeat in life's great crisis."

E.G.W.

Blending of the 3 Angel's Messages

"And that the voice and work of the third angel blend with that of the first, is plain from his closing words: "Here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus;" because this is ever the object of the preaching of the everlasting gospel. It is the substance of fearing God and giving glory to him, and or worshiping "him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters." 

 

And the keeping of the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus

is the only thing that will enable any soul to stand in the hour of His judgment, which the first angel declares "is come."  

 

Immediately following the closing words of the third angel is "heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Write, Blessed are the death which die in the Lord from henceforth"–from this time forward; and immediately following this, are the words: "And I looked, and behold a white cloud, and upon the cloud one sat like unto the Son of man, having on his head a golden crown, and in his hand a sharp sickle. And another angel came out of the temple, crying with a loud voice to him that sat on the cloud, Thrust in thy sickle, and reap: for the time is come for thee to reap; for the harvest of the earth is ripe. And he that sat on the cloud thrust in his sickle on the earth; and the earth was reaped." 

 

And Jesus himself said, "The harvest is the end of the world."  

 

Again: the third angel particularly warns all people against the worship of the beast and his image, whatever these may be; and, from Rev. 19:11-21, we find that the beast and his image are alive when the Lord comes in the clouds of heaven, and are "both" destroyed with the brightness of his coming.  

 

These facts show that the Third Angel's Message is a mighty, threefold, loud-voiced message, which goes forth to every nation and kindred, and tongue and people, just before the coming of the Lord; 

---which ripens the harvest of the earth; and which makes a people prepared for the Lord. 

 

And so, it is the last, the closing, message of God to the world. 

Such, in a word, in form, in arrangement, is the Third Angel's Message." A.T. Jones

IN the NEWS - Fratelli Tutti push in Singapore

....and all the world wondered after the beast.

Revelation 13:3

 

"Archdiocesan Council for Interreligious Dialogue of Singapore in recent days organized a special online Interreligious Forum

dedicated to young people, which was attended by 160 young adults of different religions across Singapore.
The event, organized in collaboration with the Wee Kim Wee Center of Singapore Management University (SMU WKWC) and the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), was supported by the Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth (MCCY).
Participants were of Hindu, Jewish, Buddhist, Taoist, Christian (Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox), Muslim, Sikh and Baha'i faiths. Those present gathered for a four-hour event to deepen their knowledge of the encyclical letter of Pope Francis "Fratelli Tutti" on fraternity and social friendship.

Those present recalled that the text of "Fratelli Tutti" draws its main

inspiration from the life and teachings of St. Francis of Assisi. From the chapters of the encyclical the various themes for the discussion in groups and workshops of the Forum were taken: the importance of social dialogue; authentic connection in the digital age; walk towards a civilization of love; explore opportunities for joint action between religious communities; the relevance of religion in an increasingly secular world. 

 

A common belief that emerged from the Forum is that dialogue must not be an end in itself. Instead, it is "a means to achieve a better tomorrow by encouraging common action".AgenziaFides

IN the NEWS - Snake-Oil Salesman of TV Evangelism Busted

Yea, they are greedy dogs which can never have enough, and they are shepherds that cannot understand: they all look to their own way, every one for his gain, from his quarter.

Isaiah 56:11

 

"Jim Bakker, who has been forced to pay restitution of over $156,000 in order to settle a lawsuit stemming from selling colloidal silver as a cure-all for the novel coronavirus in 2020.

When the coronavirus popped up in March of 2020, Bakker brought a guest on to ply her product—the same special elixir that he previously claimed can heal every single venereal disease. Then New York’s Attorney General stopped him and told him to knock it off, followed by Missouri’s Attorney General tagging in and do likewise, filing suit against him and ultimately winding up here a year later.

Bakker, who already has had his credit card companies cut him off and is reduced to only taking checks to support his ever dwindling ministry, will have to give refunds to everyone who bought his paraded products, which was sold between $80 and $100 a pop.

Along with the settlement, Bakker and Morningside Church Productions will be prohibited from advertising the magical formula “to diagnose, prevent, mitigate, treat or cure any disease or illness.” P&P

Creation Moment 6/28/2021 - “It’s complicated” – the death rattle of a dying paradigm

He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: 

the Lord shall have them in derision.

Psalm 2:4

 

"We will briefly comment on the latest flap in the media over a skull found in Israel that nobody knows quite what to do with. Without going into the weeds, here are the headlines from the usual suspects:

• Newly identified ancestor of Neanderthals complicates the
  
  human story (New Scientist)
• New type of ancient human discovered in Israel (BBC News)
• A new type of Homo unknown to science: Dramatic discovery in Israeli excavation (Tel Aviv University via Science Daily)
• Unknown human ancestor unearthed in Israel. It had large teeth but no chin. (Live Science)
• Nesher Ramla Homo: New fossil discovery from Israel points to complicated evolutionary process (Binghamton University via Phys.org)

Readers can dive into the news articles for details, but it doesn’t matter, because in the EYKIW (everything-you-know-is-wrong) degree program at the university, it will all change again. Is this “Nesher Ramla Homo” an ancestor of Neanderthals? Then why did it know how to make stone tools just like those of modern humans? Did its group really live 140,000 years ago? Don’t ask, because the answer keeps changing. It’s hopeless to try to hit a moving target.

The find was announced on the Science Magazine website on June 24, 2021, a day prior to official publication. Commentators in the issue were just as confused as the scientists.

• Hershkovitz et al., “A Middle Pleistocene Homo from Nesher
  
  Ramla, Israel.” Science, 25 June 2021.
• Zaidner et al., “Middle Pleistocene Homo behavior and culture at 140,000 to 120,000 years ago and interactions with Homo sapiens.” Science, 25 June 2021.
• Andrew M. Sugden, “Middle Pleistocene Homo in the Levant.” Science, 25 June 2021.
• Marta Mirazón Lahr, “The complex landscape of recent human evolution.” Science, 25 June 2021.

For a taste of what the hubbub is all about, perceptive observers can watch the marketing video by Hershkovitz and his breathless techno-lackeys on YouTube, as long as they have their Baloney Detectors on. With cinematic music and imaginative artwork, the show, called “Dramatic discovery in Israeli excavation: A new type of prehistoric human,” parades images of the new skull and team members making a big deal of it, which is important for their careers. Actually, it blows away a century of assumptions about human evolution. Key quote by Hershkovitz:

When we look on the local hominids in Israel around 100,000 years ago, we see large morphological variability. In the past, we had difficulty in interpreting it, and we actually grouped all these hominids into a certain group which we called archaic Homo sapiens. Now we suggest that those are actually hybrids between the Nesher Ramla people on one side and and the Homo sapiens group on the other side.

In other words, those fake groupings like Homo ergaster and Homo heidelbergensis and Homo neanderthalensis and Homo erectus could have belonged to one interacting, interbreeding human species. 

Another phrase for “large morphological variability” is “diversity

and inclusion.” Another word for “hybrids” among people who marry and have children and share their technology is “brothers and sisters.” These were all members of one human family. Evolutionists keep insisting on separating them into groups like the historical Darwin racists did (3 June 2021), trying to prove that natural selection is actually doing something. In this instance (probably smarting from their predecessors’ bad habits), the evolutionary paleoanthropologists resisted the urge to give it a new species name like “Homo hershkovitchensis” or something else.

In the video, Dr Yossi Zaidner sums up the status: “It’s clear that human evolution was much more complex than we thought before.” 

Rolf Quam of Binghamton University says in the Phys.org piece, “This is a complicated story, but what we are learning is that the interactions between different human species in the past were much more convoluted than we had previously appreciated.” After being wrong so many times, maybe it’s time to trash the story and start over.

“It’s complicated” – the death rattle of a dying paradigm...." CEH

Understanding Ecclesiastes 7:14

In the day of prosperity be joyful, 

but in the day of adversity consider: 

God also hath set the one over against the other, 

 ---to the end that man should find nothing after him. KJV

------Therefore, no one can discover anything about their future. NIV

------so that man may not find out anything that will be after him. ESV

Ecclesiastes 7:14

 

"Observe, 

(1.) How the appointments and events of Providence are counter changed. In this world, at the same time, some are in prosperity, others are in adversity; the same persons at one time are in great prosperity, at another time in great adversity; 

Day and night, summer and winter, are set the one over against the other, that in prosperity we may rejoice as though we rejoiced not, and in adversity may weep as though we wept not, for we may plainly see the one from the other and quickly exchange the one for the other.

(2.) How we must comply with the will of God in events of both kinds. Our religion, in general, must be the same in all conditions.

*When ye receive these temporal gifts from God, enjoy them, and be thankful to the Giver: 

--but remember, this sunshine will not always last. 

--God has balanced prosperity and adversity against each other;

--and were it not so, how many would put the former in the place of God himself!" MatthewHenry/AdamClarke

Some "kill mechanisms" of the Flood

 ...the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened. Genesis 7:11

"The end-Permian mass extinction — the most severe extinction event — was caused by massive volcanic eruptions in what is now Siberia.

“Potential kill mechanisms triggered by emplacement of the

Siberian Traps magmas include global warming, ultraviolet radiation exposure, hypercapnia [excessive carbon dioxide in the bloodstream, typically caused by inadequate respiration.], ocean acidification and anoxia,[an absence or deficiency of oxygen reaching the tissues] and toxic metal release.”

In the study, the researchers analyzed the Permian-Triassic sedimentary rocks from the Buchanan Lake section in the Sverdrup Basin, Canadian High Arctic.

They found that the samples have the lightest nickel isotope ratios ever measured in sedimentary rocks.

The only plausible explanation is that the nickel was sourced from

the volcanic terrain, very likely carried by aerosol particles and deposited in the ocean, where it dramatically changed the chemistry of seawater and severely disrupted the marine ecosystem.

“The study results provide strong evidence that nickel-rich particles were aerosolized and dispersed widely, both through the atmosphere and into the ocean,” said co-author Dr. Laura Wasylenki, a researcher at Northern Arizona University.

“Nickel is an essential trace metal for many organisms, but an increase in nickel abundance would have driven an unusual surge in productivity of methanogens, microorganisms that produce methane gas. Increased methane would have been tremendously harmful to all oxygen-dependent life.”

“Our data provide a direct link between global dispersion of nickel-rich aerosols, ocean chemistry changes and the mass extinction event,” she added." SciNews

Papal Notes - Francis Vs. Jeremiah

JEREMIAH

Thus saith the LORD, 

Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls. 

But they said, We will not walk therein.

Jeremiah 6:16

 

Pope Francis

"At his general audience on Wednesday, Pope Francis warned against preachers who sow division and mistrust online.

 

“There is no shortage of preachers who, especially through the new means of communication, can disturb communities....” the pope said June 23.

“And they strongly affirm that the true Christianity is the one they adhere to, often identified with certain forms of the past, and that the solution to the crises of today is to go back so as not to lose the genuineness of the faith. Today too, as then, there is a temptation to close oneself up in some of the certainties acquired in past traditions.”

Pope Francis said that these “new preachers” can be recognized by their “rigidity,” which contrasts with “preaching the Gospel that makes us free, makes us joyful.” HearldMalaysia

Papal Notes - Spider-Man a Catholic?

They are of the world: 

therefore speak they of the world, 

and the world heareth them.

1 John 4:5

"The pope began a new cycle of catechesis this week on St. Paul’s

Letter to the Galatians, which, he suggested, “seems written for our times.”

In particular, the pope highlighted how St. Paul responds to a pastoral concern in his Letter to the Galatians: Opponents of Paul had argued that he was not a true Apostle and therefore had no authority to preach the Gospel.

“....It is the usual method: undermining the authority of the Apostle. As we can see, it is an ancient practice to present oneself at times as the sole possessor of the truth, the pure, and to aim at belittling the work of others, even with slander.”

Pope Francis said that this is exactly the way that “the evil one” seeks to divide Christian communities today.

“Let us think about how some Christian communities or dioceses

first begin with stories, and then they end by discrediting the priest or the bishop. It is precisely the way of the evil one, of these people who divide, who do not know how to build. And in this Letter to the Galatians, we see this process,” he said.

Among the pilgrims gathered in the San Damaso Courtyard, was a friendly neighborhood Spider-Man.

Mattia Villardita volunteers in his free time by dressing up as Spider-Man to visit sick children in hospitals. After meeting the pope in full costume, he told CNA that Pope Francis told him to “take a lot of selfies with the kids in the square.”
 HeraldMalaysia

Creation Moment 6/27/2021 - Science catching up to Luke 12:7?

But even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. 

Fear not therefore: ye are of more value than many sparrows. Luke 12:7

"Given many life forms owe a great debt to the oxygen in our atmosphere, it's natural to look to other planets surrounded by a similar mix of gases in our search for aliens. But a new study suggests we're going to need a lot of patience.

Researchers from the University of Naples Federico II and INAF Capodimonte Astronomical Observatory in Italy studied levels of light received by 10 potentially habitable exoplanets around different kinds of star, and failed to find a single match for Earth's atmosphere.

Based on what we've observed of the thousands of planets found orbiting other stars, Earth is already a member of a relatively exclusive club. Once you've excluded numerous gas giants, roasted balls of rock, and frozen super-Earths, there aren't many candidates that might have the kind of biochemistry we're familiar with.

"Since red dwarfs are by far the most common type of star in our galaxy, this result indicates that Earth-like conditions on other planets may be much less common than we might hope," says Covone.

"This study puts strong constraints on the parameter space for complex life, so unfortunately it appears that the "sweet spot" for hosting a rich Earth-like biosphere is not so wide," says Covone.

One planet we know of comes fairly close to that sweet spot.

Kepler-442b orbits an orange dwarf with roughly 60 percent the mass of the Sun's, some 1,200 light years away. At around double the mass of Earth, and a rotation that allows it to shed heat, .......Most photosynthesizing reactions on Earth top out at wavelengths of around 700 nanometers. But if some kind of alien moss on Kepler-442b ... wavelengths, of around 800 nanometers, it would gain the benefits of 20 percent more photons.

As we expand our library of known worlds, it's possible we'll uncover better candidates for biospheres like ours......But based on what we're discovering, we can take a moment to appreciate our flavor of life is pretty special." ScienceAlert

Spurgeon's Beautiful Gleanings from Eccl.3:8

 A time to love.

 Ecclesiastes 3:8

 

"IF you will look at our text, dear friends, you will see that it is very ominously followed by the words, “and a time to hate.” 

--We are changeable creatures,and we live in an ever-changing world, and this chapter gives an accurate summary of how most of our lives are spent,“A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted; a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; a time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep and a time to cast away; a time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; a time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.” Ours is a checkered life, we are not long in any one state,and we quickly change from one condition to another, which is sometimes better, but sometimes worse.--

 

First, then, concerning CHRIST’S LOVE TO US, for He had “a time to love.”...with Christ “a time to love,” and He came

forward,and entered into an everlasting covenant with His Father on His people’s behalf. 

---Let us never forget that eternal council chamber where Christ undertook to be our Surety and Substitute,and in due time to die for us, “the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God.”
His death upon Calvary was indeed “a time to love,” for having loved His own, He loved them even unto death.

 

Now, secondly, we are to apply the text to OUR LOVE TO CHRIST. We also have often proved that it is with us “a time to love.” Our Lord’s love to us is the great eternal fountain from which our love to Him always springs, so let it not be unworthy of the divine source from which it flows. 

Wake up all your powers and passions, beloved, while I try to speak upon this lower, yet truly important theme. 

If my voice should weary you, let your Beloved’s voice charm you while He speaks right into your hearts." 

Charles Spurgeon

Luther's View of Ecclesiastes

"The author of Ecclesiastes, the Teacher, is a sage who has lived longand has grown weary of life’s vicissitudes. 

 

Death makes fools even of the wise. 

 

Q: What does it matter how hard one works if after death one’s name is forgotten and one’s riches are given to someone else (Ecclesiastes 1:11; 2:18-19)? 

A: All is hevel (Ecclesiastes 1:2). The refrain runs throughout the book (25 times in all). Though traditionally translated “vanity,” hevel is better translated “absurdity, meaninglessness, vapor.”

And yet, the Teacher is not a nihilist.... Teacher recognizes a certain reliable order that God has put in creation, a time and a season for everything (3:1-8). 

We are to recognize our own mortality in the face of God’s eternity and be appropriately chastened: “I know that whatever God does endures forever; nothing can be added to it, nor anything taken from it; God has done this, so that all should stand in awe [literally, “fear”] before him” (Ecclesiastes 3:14).

The knowledge that life is hevel (fleeting, ephemeral) should lead us neither to asceticism nor to licentiousness. It should lead, instead, to humility ...Martin Luther writes of the misplaced desire that Ecclesiastes seeks to address:

“What is being condemned in this book, therefore, is not the

creatures [i.e. the things God has created] but the depraved affection and desire of us men, who are not content with the creatures of God that we have and with their use but are always anxious and concerned to accumulate riches, honors, glory, and fame, as though we were going to live here forever; and meanwhile we become bored with the things that are present and continually yearn for other things, and then still others.”

Luther’s description fits our society as much or more than that of 16^th century Europe. Ecclesiastes seeks to address such soul-sickness with a reality check: We are going to die. Such knowledge, however, should lead not to despair but to humility." 

KathrynM.Schifferdecker

Brief Summary of Ecclesiastes 3: the Wheel of Nature

"In the wheel of nature (And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature; James 3:6) sometimes one spoke is uppermost and by and by the contrary;

there is a constant ebbing and flowing, waxing and waning; from one extreme to the other does the fashion of this world change, ever did, and ever will. ...To-morrow shall be as this day (the lowest valleys join to the highest mountains).

 

Solomon having shown the vanity of studies, pleasures, and business, and made it to appear that happiness is not to be found in the schools of the learned....he proceeds, in this chapter, further to prove his doctrine, and the inference he had drawn from it, That therefore we should cheerfully content ourselves with, and make use of, what God has given us, by showing,

• I. The mutability of all human affairs (v. 1-10).
• II. The immutability of the divine counsels concerning them and the unsearchableness of those counsels (v. 11-15).
• III. The vanity of worldly honor and power, which are abused for the support of oppression and persecution if men be not governed by the fear of God in the use of them (v. 16). For a check to proud oppressors, and to show them their vanity, he reminds them,
  • 1. That they will be called to account for it in the other world (v. 17).
  • 2. That their condition, in reference to this world (for of that he speaks), is no better than that of the beasts (v. 18-21). And therefore he concludes that it is our wisdom to make use of what power we have for our own comfort, and not to oppress others with it." MatthewHenry

Solomon's Purpose for Writing Ecclesiastes

“Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter,” he wrote: “Fear God, and keep His commandments: for this is the whole duty of man. For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.” Eccl.12:13, 14.  

 

Solomon's later writings reveal that 

---as he realized more and still more the wickedness of his course, 

---he gave special attention to warning the youth against falling into the errors that had led him to squander for nought Heaven's choicest gifts. 

 

With sorrow and shame he confessed that in the prime of manhood,

when he should have found God his comfort, his support, his life, he turned from the light of Heaven and the wisdom of God, and put idolatry in the place of the worship of Jehovah. 

---And now, having learned through sad experience the folly of such a life, his yearning desire was to save others from entering into the bitter experience through which he had passed." E.G.W.