“A Christian couple in Canada was denied by a governmental adoption agency the ability to foster children, precisely because of their religious beliefs. A Human Rights Law Firm is challenging the actions of the Canadian government on the grounds of religious discrimination. While being interviewed by the adoption agency, the couple was questioned about their religious beliefs, to which the man stated that they are Christians. The social worker then asked him if their church ‘still believes in some of the more outdated parts of the Bible.’ The man stated that their church adheres to all of the Bible. The social worker stated that her son is gay and that churches had told her son in the past that homosexuality is a sin.  The man then explained that although the Bible does identify homosexual behavior as a ‘sin,’ he believes all people are created in the image of God and are worthy of respect, dignity, and honor. He further explained that, in accordance with their beliefs, he and his wife would provide any child in their care with unconditional love, respect, and compassion regardless of the child’s sexuality, according to the press release. After the interview, approximately six months later, the couple received a letter in the mail stating their application had been denied. The letter read: ‘We feel that the policies of our agency do not appear to fit with your values and beliefs and therefore, we will be unable to move forward with approval for your family as resources home.’ The couple then contacted the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedom, a Human Rights law firm, about the matter. The Centre issued a letter to the adoption agency requesting a reversal of their decision and to end its religious discrimination practices.”

​“Christianity in Canada,” Brownpublishings.com, Feb. 7, 2019

Genesis 3:1-2
“Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden:”

There is always a danger in reading too much or too little into any biblical account. For instance, when we start reading Genesis 3, a number of objections immediately spring to the lips of some people – including, unfortunately, many who claim to be Bible-believing Christians. Common among those objections is the idea that these words cannot be taken literally. For one thing, snakes don’t talk. And for another, Eve did not seem to express any surprise that the snake was talking, so it can’t be true because talking animals only appear in fiction.

Taking the latter point first, there is no evidence that Eve was not surprised that the snake was talking to her. The passage says nothing about her emotional state. Indeed, it is not surprising that it does not because, as an example of perfect humanity, as she then was, her reactions might be alien to what we would experience today.

“Hath God said…?” began the serpent. In so doing, he was casting doubt on God’s word. The reaction should have been to refuse to question what God had clearly said. Indeed, as the man was put there to lead, she should have referred this matter to him. The serpent continued, “Hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?” God had said no such thing. Satan has not changed his tactics. He continues to work by throwing doubt on God’s word and deliberately misquoting it. We need to be on our guard for this.

creationmoments.com/sermons/a-question-of-doubt

“Honor killing” is defined as “acts of violence, usually murder, committed by male family members against female family members, who are held to have brought dishonor upon the family.” It is practiced by Muslims in the Middle East and Turkey, and cases have also occurred in the West. According to the United Nations, 5,000 females are murdered every year in honor killings (“Murder in the Family,” Fox News, July 26, 2008). The perpetrators usually get off scot free or with a light sentence. In Pakistan, about 1,000 honor killings are recorded annually, but the number is likely much higher (“Afzal Kohistani: ‘Honour killing’ whistleblower shot dead,” BBC News, Mar. 7, 2019). Two families were nearly wiped out after a video was posted online in 2011 of two men dancing at a wedding as four women sing a song. A younger female member of the women’s family is also in the scene. The five females were subsequently killed by male members of the family who believed that their “honor” had been breached. When Afzal Kohistani, the older brother of the two men in the video, broke with local tradition and brought the case to national attention in 2012, he and his family became a target. His house was firebombed, three of his brothers were murdered, and he lived in constant danger. In March 2019, Kohistani was shot to death in broad daylight in spite of widespread media attention. Though honor killing is illegal in Pakistan, the police and the courts cannot protect those who are targeted.

​(Friday Church News Notes, March 15, 2019, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143)

Leviticus 23:27-28
“Also on the tenth day of this seventh month there shall be a day of atonement: it shall be an holy convocation unto you; and ye shall afflict your souls, and offer an offering made by fire unto the LORD. And ye shall do no work in that same day: for it is a day of atonement, to make an atonement for you before the LORD your God.”

Genesis 1 does not specifically tell us when angels and other heavenly beings were created, but elsewhere, in passages such as Exodus 20:11, we learn that everything was created during that creation week, whether it is specifically named or not. And at the end of the creation week, we know that God stated that everything was very good, so by the time the Seventh Day had arrived, Satan – or whatever he might have been called at the time – had still not sinned.

Genesis 2 expands on the Sixth Day of creation because it was on that day that God made people. Genesis 2 simply gives us more details about the creation of Adam and Eve.

At the beginning of Genesis 3, Satan has become sinful. It follows that Satan’s rebellion happened between the creation week and the events of Genesis 3. So when did Genesis 3 happen? I have read some who say that there could have been hundreds of years before Genesis 3, but this is unlikely because Adam and Eve had been ordered to “replenish the earth, and subdue it”, so a failure to carry out that commission would, in itself, have been a sin. James Ussher, who so carefully dated history, suggested that it must be the tenth day so that it coincides with the Day of Atonement. And there was indeed atonement that day, as God gave the new sinners clothes of skin, shedding the blood of an animal, to cover, or atone for, their nakedness and sin.

creationmoments.com/sermons/when-did-satan-fall

A digital copy of the Bible is on the way to the moon on Israel’s first lunar landing spacecraft. Called Beresheet (Genesis), the craft was launched from Cape Canaveral in Florida on February 21 and is scheduled to land on the moon on April 11. The lander was built by SpaceIL, a private Israeli company, and was launched by SpaceX, a private American company. On March 6, the spacecraft took a “selfie” with the round earth in the background. In the foreground is a sign that says, “Small country, big dreams.” (Yes, Flat Earthers, Beresheet is yet another myth. SpaceIL is obviously in cahoots with NASA and the International Space Station and the European Space Agency, et al, to promote the lie that the earth is round.) If Beresheet succeeds, Israel will be the fourth country to make a moon landing, after the United States, the USSR, and China. The Bible is one of the documents in a 30-million-page archive of humanity’s achievements that is onboard the spacecraft. In the Bible onboard Beresheet is Israel’s past, present, and future. The prophecy of Ezekiel 37, given about 2,500 years ago, says that scattered Israel would miraculously return to her land, first in a spiritually dead condition, then revived and converted. Israel’s present return to the land fulfills the first part of the prophecy; the latter part remains to be fulfilled, but nothing can stop it. “So I prophesied as I was commanded: and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold a shaking, and the bones came together, bone to his bone. And when I beheld, lo, the sinews and the flesh came up upon them, and the skin covered them above: but there was no breath in them. Then said he unto me, Prophesy unto the wind, prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live. So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great army. Then he said unto me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel: behold, they say, Our bones are dried, and our hope is lost: we are cut off for our parts. Therefore prophesy and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, O my people, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel. And ye shall know that I am the LORD, when I have opened your graves, O my people, and brought you up out of your graves, And shall put my spirit in you, and ye shall live, and I shall place you in your own land: then shall ye know that I the LORD have spoken it, and performed it, saith the LORD.”

​(Friday Church News Notes, March 15, 2019, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143)

Colossians 1:16-17
“For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.”

As I was growing up, I was almost led to believe that there were two eternal forces in the universe – one good and the other bad. There are religions that believe such a thing; Zoroastrianism, for example, seems to believe in two opposing deities. But the Bible does not teach such a dualism. The Bible makes clear that there is no god other than God.

“I am the LORD, and there is none else, there is no God beside me”, says God through the prophet Isaiah (Isaiah 45:5). More specifically, Paul states that it was the Second Person of the Trinity who was responsible for the actual work of creation. In Colossians 1:16-17, we read: “For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.” This makes clear that everything that there is – material, physical and spiritual –was made by God, and that there was a time before which nothing in any realm that now exists existed then, apart from God Himself.

This means that Satan has not existed eternally. Created good, like everything else, he became bad. And Satan will not exist forever because we are told that there will come a day when he is cast into the Lake of Fire which has been prepared for him.

creationmoments.com/sermons/did-god-create-satan/

China’s draconian Social Credit System will punish those who do not submit to communist law, including religious laws. The following is excerpted from “China’s Social Credit System,” Futurism.com, Mar, 1, 2019: “As early as 2014, China began conceptualizing a Social Credit System (SCS), sort of like a credit score for citizen behavior where behaviors deemed good for society are rewarded with privileges and bad behaviors result in a poor score and loss of privileges. China has since been working to test its new method of population control and has been slowly conscripting citizens into the system. Now, a new report acquired by the Associated Press, suggests millions of would-be travelers had their plans canceled as a result of the SCS in 2018. According to the report obtained by the Associated Press, as many as 17.5 million ticket purchases were blocked last year for ‘social credit offenses’ such as unpaid taxes or fines. Other would-be travelers were barred from purchasing train tickets as many as 5.5 million times and according to an annual report from the National Public Credit Information Center, as many as 138 people were stopped from leaving the country. The ruling party hopes to fully establish the system within the nation by 2020. Although it isn’t completely clear yet how the system will be maintained, what the SCS will penalize, and what penalties there may be for having ‘poor social credit,’ offenses penalized last year included everything from false advertising to drug charges. In addition to travel restrictions, companies ousted from the nation’s good graces can lose out on government contracts, bank loans, and be restricted from importing goods. Employees can be prevented from representing companies or taking senior management roles, a penalty which was applied 290,000 times last year.”

​(Friday Church News Notes, March 8, 2019, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143)

Proverbs 15:13
“A merry heart maketh a cheerful countenance: but by sorrow of the heart the spirit is broken.”

There are countless scientific studies designed to find out how diet, environment and our habits influence our health. These studies urged us to eat this, not eat that and generally give up bad habits.

Now a study of almost 3,000 people between ages 53 and 85 shows that depressed people in this age group are far more likely to die from heart disease than those who show no sign of depression. The study not only measured severe depression, which often requires its own medical care, but also people who reported feeling helpless, hopeless or apathetic. Study participants were also checked for any signs of coronary heart disease at the start of the study. Then they were tracked for four years. Those with even mild signs of depression died of coronary disease at a much higher rate than those who reported no signs of depression. This was even true for those who had no coronary disease at the beginning of the study. They also noted that the subject’s weight, blood pressure, smoking and alcohol use had no bearing on the results.

Scripture reminds us to rejoice in the Lord and His salvation, but only a minority ever do. While severe depression may need medical care, that minority can attest to rarely feeling depressed when they remember what God has given us in His Son, Jesus Christ.

​https://creationmoments.com/sermons/rejoice-in-gods-goodness-3/

“Presidential hopeful Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) was confronted over her infanticide position during an event in Dubuque, Iowa, on Wednesday. On Monday, the prominent Democrat went on record as pro-infanticide by voting against Republican Senator Ben Sasse’s Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act, which would mandate that doctors perform medical care on infants born alive due to botched abortions. Only three Senate Democrats voted for the legislation. After Warren waxed poetic to an Iowa crowd about the importance of healthcare for all, a man attending the event bluntly asked her why infants born alive from botched abortions were denied healthcare. ‘What about the babies that survive abortion?’ he asked. ‘How come they can’t have healthcare?’ Warren responded, ‘Infanticide is illegal everywhere in America.’ ‘You voted against it,’ the man pushed back, referring to her no vote on the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act.”

​“Warren Confronted over Infanticide Position,” DailyWire.com, Mar. 1, 2019

Genesis 1:24
“And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so.”  

Most listeners to these programs will at sometime have visited a museum to see the dinosaurs. Of course, the tangible remains consist of fossil skeletons and, if one is allowed to touch the bones, they are as hard as rock. Sometimes they are actually cement or plaster since they are copies. However, we are told that over the millions of years, the original bone had been replaced by minerals. Except for the millions of years, this is often true but not always. Fence posts, for example, have been found mineralized at one end and plain wood at the other.

In 1993, Science Research News reported graduate student Mary Schweitzer’s reaction when examining a slice of 65-million year old T. rex bone from Montana using the electron microscope: “I got goose bumps … it was exactly like looking at a slice of modern bone … How could blood cells survive that long?” To compound the problem, strands of DNA were later identified within the blood.

What does this mean? Firstly, from the known rate at which the DNA structure breaks down under natural radioactivity, the cells were clearly less than 10,000 years old. Secondly, this is not an isolated case, and a major argument is now brewing behind the cloistered walls of academia.

This is further mounting evidence against the popular but godless doctrine of evolution.

​https://creationmoments.com/sermons/dinosaur-bones-not-always-fully-fossilized-3/

The entire field of pop idols, from Elvis to Justin Bieber, is largely fantasy, but the ultimate fantasy pop idols are Hatsune Miku of Japan and Luo Tianyi of China. They are non-existent holograms, one hundred percent fiction. First there was Hatsune Miku. She performed sold-out concerts attended by tens of thousands of screaming fans and opened for Lady Gaga. An avatar created by the Japanese company Crypton Future Media, Hatsune is projected onstage as a dancing hologram. She is the ultimate scantily-clothed pop singer of youthful fantasy with an unrealistically proportioned figure and a hyper-cute, Manga-influenced face. Girls fantasize that they are Hatsune, and boys fantasize that she is their girlfriend. One fan said, “She’s rather more like a goddess: She has human parts, but she transcends human limitations. She’s the great post-human pop star” (“Hatsune Miku: The world’s fakest pop star,” CBNNews, Nov. 9, 2012). Now China has its own superstar avatar named Luo Tianyi with a fan base of millions. The holograph performed before thousands of fans at Shanghai’s Mercedes-Benz arena on March 2, 2019, accompanied by world famous Chinese pianist Lang Lang. Tickets to the show cost as much as US$235. “Fans waved blue glow sticks to the rhythm and yelled Luo’s name, with some even bursting into tears” (“China’s virtual idols meet their fans,” South China Morning Post, Mar. 2, 2019). Kit Cheung Jie, a 17-year-old high school student in Hong Kong, said, “She is not a real person so she can be whatever you want her to be. It’s like a customized idol that only belongs to you.” University student Gao Yu shouted, “Tiani, my lover, I love you!” Luo is supposed to be an angel sent to bring happiness to the world by music. Her name is from an ancient river goddess, and she wears a green jade charm with occultic significance. The Chinese government sees the power of these avatars to manipulate the minds of youth. Luo has been recruited by the Chinese Communist Youth League to be its youth ambassador, because she is easier to manage than people, who “make their own decisions” and may choose to contradict the Chinese government (“China programs virtual youth icons to instill correct thinking into millennials,” Global Times, Dec. 7, 2017). The heart and soul of pop idol fantasy is sex, as with pop music as a whole. The boys and girls of idol bands and the virtual idols like Hatsune Miku and Luo Tianyi are carefully crafted to fit within the current definition of cute and sexy, and the unisex aspect appeals both to “straights” and homosexuals. (For more on the theme of technology-driven fantasy, see the free eBook Fantasy Dangers, www.wayoflife.org.) “And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (Genesis 6:5).

(Friday Church News Notes, March 8, 2019, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143)

Genesis 3:17b
“…cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life….”

The lancet fluke is a parasite that accomplishes its life cycle in a most complicated, Rube Goldberg, manner.

Mature lancet flukes live in cows and other grazing animals. Their eggs are spread in the manure left by the animal. Snails, which naturally eat the manure, eat the eggs.

Once in the snail’s intestines, the eggs hatch. The flukes make their way to the outside of the snail. Meanwhile, the irritated snail tries to get rid of the flukes by imprisoning them in balls of slime, which it leaves behind in the grass. A foraging ant is likely to find the ball, filled with hundreds of flukes. When the ant eats it, the flukes leave the ant’s intestinal tract, finally settling as a cluster of nerves that control the ant’s mandibles. The ant seems perfectly normal until the sun begins to set. Then the ant, under the control of the flukes, climbs a blade of grass, and the mandible clamps shut on the end. There the ant waits to be consumed by a grazer, where the lancet life cycle begins all over. Even stranger, if the ant isn’t eaten by the time the sun returns, the ant returns to normal life, until the next sunset.

Although parasites are part of the curse of sin, the lancet fluke is still a testimony to God’s incredible creativity.

​https://creationmoments.com/sermons/rube-goldberg-flukes-3/

A Pentecostal pastor in South Africa has been caught faking a resurrection (“South Africa funeral firm to sue pastor, for ‘resurrection stunt,’” BBC News, Feb. 26, 2019). A video of Pastor Alph Lukau raising a man from the dead “went viral,” but it turns out, not surprisingly, to be a hoax. In the video, the pastor, whose church is near Johannesburg, is standing beside a man lying in a coffin, pretending to be dead. To add authenticity, Lukau introduces the “dead man’s” family and friends. He then passes his hands over the man’s body, pauses dramatically, and shouts, “Rise up!” The man instantly sits up but has a bug-eyed look as if he is in a daze. A group of funeral directors who were manipulated by the scheme are suing the pastor. This is only the latest in more than 100 years of heresies, hoaxes, scandals, and nonsense emanating from the Pentecostal-Charismatic movements. It began with the students of Charles Parham’s Bible school in Kansas who claimed to speak and write in “tongues” that they claimed were Chinese but which turned out to be nothing at all, and the Azusa Street “holy choir” which was actually mass confusion. See “Azusa Street and the Birth of Pentecostalism,” www.wayoflife.org/azusa/. Jesus raised the dead as a sign that He is the Messiah. And Peter raised Dorcas from the dead (Acts 9:36-42) as the “sign of an apostle” (2 Corinthians 12:12). There are no apostles today; only deceivers pretending to be apostles. The apostles laid the foundation of the church (Ephesians 2:20), completed the canon of Scripture, and went to be with the Lord. At Christ’s return, they will sit on 12 thrones (only 12) judging the 12 tribes of Israel (Luke 22:30). Their 12 names (only 12) are inscribed in the New Jerusalem (Revelation 21:14). We believe in a miracle-working God and we have experienced miracles for nearly a half century of walking with Him, but we don’t believe in sign miracles for today. And we believe in healing according to James 5, but we don’t believe in the gift of healing today because that pertained to the apostles. Though we have attended the “healing crusades” of some the most prominent Pentecostal faith healers of our lifetime, we have seen nothing but heresy, nonsense, and fakery. They claim to live in the power of Pentecost and to have special Holy Spirit baptisms and apostolic power, but they can’t heal like the apostles, they can’t raise the dead like the apostles, they can’t speak in tongues like the apostles, they can’t prophesy like the apostles, and they don’t have the spiritual wisdom of the apostles.

​(Friday Church News Notes, March 8, 2019, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) 

Luke 14:34
“Salt is good: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be seasoned?”

For thousands of years salt has been considered valuable as a seasoning, a preservative and even as a means of payment. But could salt preserve bacteria alive for thousands or even millions of years?

In the year 2000, researchers claimed to have revived bacteria that were entombed within salt crystals from a New Mexico mine. Geologists dated the layer from which they were taken at 250 million years. Scientists admit bacteria could not last, even dormant, for that long. Other research has shown that the random effects of molecular motion, even within a dormant bacterium, will cause the DNA to break down. After 100,000 years, there should be no DNA left. For this reason, other researchers said that the bacteria found must be a result of contamination and were therefore modern bacteria. After all, they said, an examination of the DNA of the salt bacteria is very similar to that of modern bacteria. After hundreds of millions of years of supposed evolution, it should be quite different.

If you forget evolution and its supposed long ages, there is a more rational solution to this mystery. No one questions that DNA, even of bacteria, can survive for several thousand years. If the salt deposit from which the bacterium was taken was laid down as a result of Noah’s Flood, the bacteria could well have survived.

​https://creationmoments.com/sermons/how-long-can-bacteria-sleep-3/