Ruth 4:16
"And Naomi took the child, and laid it in her bosom, and became nurse unto it."

If you're a parent, you undoubtedly remember being awakened by your little angel crying in the middle of the night. Sometimes it's dad who gets out of bed to see what's wrong. But more often, it's mom who gets up to breastfeed her baby. But now a Harvard scientist tells us that the baby who demands a nighttime meal has a more sinister reason. The child is trying to prevent siblings from being born.

Does that make sense to you? It does to evolutionary biologist David Haig. Writing in Evolution, Medicine and Public Health, he suggested that if its parents had another baby, this would mean having to share mom and dad. So babies are "programmed" to do everything they can to keep this from happening. In our past, Haig proposed, babies who cried to be nursed at night had a survival edge.

Oh really? If the baby is trying to prevent mom and dad from having more babies, doesn't this go against the parents' "evolutionary" drive to bear the greatest number of children to benefit the species?

Evolutionists who dream up such theories are rewarded with appearances on Fox News. They also arouse the interest of other scientists and see their papers published in respected scientific journals. But most of all, they are praised for suggesting once again that everything in our world rests upon the foundation of evolution. Thankfully, Bible-believing scientists have a far different foundation – the Lord Jesus Christ!

Notes: "Babies cry at night to prevent siblings, scientist suggests," Science News, L. Sanders, 4/22/14. "Troubled sleep Night waking, breastfeeding and parent–offspring conflict," D. Haig, Evolution, Medicine and Public Health, Volume 2014, Issue 1, pp. 32-39. Creation Moments, Inc., P.O. Box 839, Foley, MN 56329 www.creationmoments.com

“Thy watchmen shall lift up the voice; with the voice together shall they sing: for they shall see eye to eye, when the LORD shall bring again Zion” (Isaiah 52:8). In the resurrection, the prophets of old, from Abel to John, will rise and stand together to witness the fulfillment of their prophecies. For the first time in earth’s history, they will “see eye to eye.” W.E. Vine comments: “The ‘watchmen’ in verse 8, who ‘lift up the voice together,’ rejoicing with singing, are the prophets (Isaiah being one), like those who look out into the distance as from a watch tower. ... These faithful watchers, who saw future events from afar, are described in 1 Peter 1:10-12 (c. Is. 21:8, 11 and Hab. 2:1-3). The day is coming when they will ‘see, eye to eye,’ when Jehovah returns... They will see the Lord restoring Zion, as vividly as one person is to another when he looks straight into his eyes. No wonder they will join in a chorus of praise. Those who foretold these things apart from one another during the course of many centuries will, in one great company and in bodily presence, utter their joy before Him who has been the great Subject of these prophecies.”

(Friday Church News Notes, April 24, 2015, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143)

1 John 4:6
"We are of God: he that knoweth God heareth us; he that is not of God heareth not us. Hereby know we the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error."

If there is an unwritten law in the field of science, it is this: Thou shalt not discover anything that even suggests that evolution could be wrong. And a second unwritten law is like unto it: If you do discover anything that undermines evolution, keep it to yourself.

A scientist was fired from his job at California State University, Northridge, after discovering fossil evidence that supports a young earth and then publishing his findings. While at a dig at Hell Creek formation in Montana, scientist Mark Armitage came upon the largest triceratops horn ever unearthed at the site. When he examined the horn under a high-powered microscope, he was shocked to see soft tissue. This discovery stunned other scientists because it indicated that dinosaurs roamed the earth only thousands of years ago rather than 60 million years ago.

In Armitage's wrongful termination and religious discrimination lawsuit, court documents revealed that a university official challenged his motives by shouting at him, "We are not going to tolerate your religion in this department!" Armitage joins a growing number of scientists and educators who have lost their jobs for challenging the sacred cow of evolution. Many institutions of higher learning are no longer interested in pursuing the evidence wherever it may lead. They only care about evidence that leads them straight to their foregone conclusion that evolution is a fact.

Creationists need not fear any new scientific discovery because nothing can successfully contradict the Word of God!

Notes: "University Silences Scientist After Dinosaur Discovery", 7-23-14. Pacific Justice Institute is a non-profit legal organization dedicated to defending religious, parental, and other constitutional rights.
Creation Moments, Inc., P.O. Box 839, Foley, MN 56329 www.creationmoments.com

“With billions depending on the world’s iconic search engine for virtually every tidbit of information under the sun, Google is looking to take it one step further with its new ‘truth-seeking algorithm’ that will rank sites by what it considers to be truth. Many are concerned with the massive Internet information storehouse’s newest endeavor, especially with the left-leaning political bent it has demonstrated over the years. ... The significant alterations Google is making to its ‘PageRank’ project are geared to make it the ultimate assessor of truth around the globe. It will reportedly be changing over from its current system that ranks all pages according to search results, which are derived from the number of other websites that are linked to the particular page. ‘Google has come up with a new truth-seeking algorithm [that] draws on Google’s Knowledge Vault--a collection of 2.8 billion facts [sic] drawn from the Internet,’ reports CNN Money. ... ‘By checking pages against that database, and cross-referencing related facts, the research team believes the algorithm could assign each page a truth score. Pages with a high proportion of false claims would be bumped down in the search results.’ ... ‘This is potentially very dangerous,’ Media Research Center vice president of business and culture Dan Gainor expressed to LifeSiteNews. ‘I know right now Google is just studying this idea, but the power Google has to impact results and determine what it considers to be absolute truth is 1984-ish.’ ... ‘In the first place, Google has a history of supporting the redefinition of marriage and the erosion of the traditional family,’ LifeSiteNews points out. ‘The tech giant came out against the Defense of Marriage Act in 2011 and, the following year, launched an international campaign to spread a homosexual agenda in countries it deemed “homophobic,” including Poland and Singapore.’ Showing many that Google’s truth will be geared toward its own political worldview, it has also been noted that the California-based technology giant is anything but a neutral bystander when it comes to the most heated social issues of our time.”

“The ‘all-knowing’ Google now the discerner of truth?” OneNewsNow.com, Mar. 27, 2015

Psalm 111:4
"He hath made his wonderful works to be remembered: the LORD is gracious and full of compassion."

Birds and insects that take nectar from a flower without picking up any pollen are known as nectar robbers. Now, you'd probably think that nectar robbers would be harmful to plants and trees, but the desert teak tree couldn't survive without a nectar robber – the purple sunbird.

In order to reproduce, this tree needs birds to pollinate its flowers. But since a tree cannot reproduce with its own pollen, it needs birds to fly from flower to flower and from one tree to another. Anything that encourages the pollinating birds to fly farther away helps out the teak trees.

That's where the purple thief comes in. Researchers at the University of Delhi discovered that the sunbird visits the flowers one hour before the pollinating birds arrive. The purple sunbird has a long, sharp beak that pierces the base of the flower to feed, so it doesn't pick up any pollen. It does, however, empty the flower of about 60 percent of its nectar, leaving relatively little for the pollinators. This means that the pollinators will have to travel to more flowers and trees to get enough food, spreading pollen wherever they stop for a meal.

The researchers noted that "the robber plays a constructive and crucial role in the reproductive performance of a threatened tree species." How right they are. And this unusual but crucial dining arrangement shows once again what an ingenious God we serve!

Notes: "These trees don't mind getting robbed", Science News, 7-25-14.
Photo: Courtesy of J.M.Garg. licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
Creation Moments, Inc., P.O. Box 839, Foley, MN 56329 www.creationmoments.com

“‘Blessed Be, Aho, and Amen,’ aren't the words members of the Iowa House of Representatives are accustomed to hear at the closing of the invocation marking the House’s opening ceremonies, but that’s just what happened yesterday when a Wiccan priestess delivered the prayer. ‘We call this morning to God, Goddess, Universe, that which is greater than ourselves to be here with us today,’ said Deborah Maynard, who delivered the first prayer by a Wiccan in the assembly. ... A number of Christian lawmakers didn't attend the opening ceremony to protest the priestess’ historic invocation. Others, like State Rep. Rob Taylor (R-Iowa), turned their backs during the priestess’ prayer. ... The peculiar ending to the witch’s prayer seems to be a weird hodgepodge of religions and cultures. ‘Blessed Be’ is a neopagan Wiccan greeting that means ‘you wish good and positive’ things upon the person greeted. ‘Aho’ is a Native American word that means ‘thank you’ and ‘Amen’ means ‘So be it’ and is used by Christians traditionally at the end of prayers.”

“Blessed Be, Aho, and Amen,” MRCtv.org, April 10, 2015

Psalm 45:8
"All thy garments smell of myrrh, and aloes, and cassia, out of the ivory palaces, whereby they have made thee glad."

What animal is the world's best smeller? Scientists now think it's the African bush elephant. As we've mentioned on previous Creation Moments programs, elephants possess a versatile trunk that can toss logs, grasp food, spray water and even pick up branches to use as tools. But new research reported in Genome Research and Science News has found that these magnificent creatures carry about 2,000 genes for olfactory receptors. That's about five times more olfactory genes than we have. It's also a lot more than renowned sniffers like rats, which have only 1,200 olfactory receptor genes. Dogs have even fewer – about 800.

Just how well can an African bush elephant smell? They are actually able to distinguish between the Maasai, an ethnic Kenyan group that hunts elephants, from the Kamba, who are farmers. Smelling the difference between these two groups causes the elephant to respond accordingly.

As can be expected, the research team attributed the elephant's superior sense of smell to evolution. They said that the original smell-sensing gene duplicated in elephants as mammal species diverged from one another.

But we see no evidence whatsoever that the elephant's sense of smell has anything to do with evolution. A far more reasonable explanation is that they were given this gift by their Creator who knew exactly what they would need to survive. Yes, that same Creator who has given us what we need to survive the punishment that we deserve when Jesus was crucified!

Notes: Y. Niimura, A. Matsui, and K. Touhara. Extreme expansion of the olfactory receptor gene repertoire in African elephants and evolutionary dynamics of orthologous gene groups in 13 placental mammals. Genome Research. Published online: July 22, 2014. doi: 10.1101/gr.169532.113. "Elephant's big nose wins most sensitive sniffer," Science News, 7-22-14.
Photo: Courtesy of Ikiwaner. Licensed under the GNU Free Documentation 1.2 License.
Creation Moments, Inc., P.O. Box 839, Foley, MN 56329 www.creationmoments.com

“A Christian missionary is fighting for her life after being shot in the head in Karachi, Pakistan, in an apparent terrorist attack. Fifty-five-year-old Debra Lobo was hit twice when four men fired shots from motorbikes as she was leaving work. Lobo has lived in Pakistan for 30 years and is married with two children. She serves as vice principal of Jinnah Medical and Dental College. Lobo has been hospitalized with two bullet wounds, one in the chin and one in the arm. According to police, ‘The initial investigation suggests that this was a pre-planned terrorist attack and was made over the lady because of her national identity.’ The gunmen, who escaped, left a leaflet in her car with her name on it saying they had targeted her because she was American. According to The Guardian, the English version of the leaflet read: ‘Oh crusaders, we are the lions of Dualat al Islamia, the falcons of the caliph. Today we killed this Kansas lady Lobo, we shall lie and wait and ambush you and kill you wherever you may be and confine and besiege you in America and then God willing ... we will burn America.’ The gunmen claim in the leaflet the attack was revenge for the death of five militant suspects who were killed the day before.”

“Terrorists Shoot,” Charisma, Apr. 17, 2015

This week at least 28 professing Christians were murdered by Muslim jihadists. Muslim refugees traveling from Libya to Italy across the Mediterranean threw 12 Christians overboard and left them to drown (“Italian Police: Libyan Muslims Threw Christians Overboard,” Breitbart, Apr. 16, 2015). ISIS beheaded 15 Christians by the sea shore and shot another 15 in the desert (“You Will Not Have Safety Until You Accept Islam,” Christian News Network, Apr. 19, 2015). In Pakistan, a 14-year-old Christian boy was burned to death. He was asked by two masked men if he was a Christian, and when he replied that he was, they doused him with kerosene and set him on fire (“Burned Christian Boy Dies,” Voice of the Persecuted, Apr. 18, 2015). We understand that these poor victims were probably Christian in name only rather than by regeneration, but the fact remains that they were targeted as Christians by Muslims who have a burning hatred for the Jesus Christ of Scripture, the Son of God who died on the cross to save men from their sin. In its video of the slaughter of the 30 Christians, ISIS said, “To the nation of the cross, we are now back again. ... You will not have safety even in your dreams, until you accept Islam. Our battle is a battle between faith and blasphemy, between truth and falsehood.” This video followed another one in February documenting the beheading of 21 Egyptian Orthodox Coptics.

(Friday Church News Notes, April 24, 2015, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143)

Ten top medical doctors have called upon Columbia University to remove Mehmet Oz (“Dr. Oz”) from its faculty. Oz is vice chairman and professor of surgery, but in spite of his impressive credentials, he is a promoter of quackery. The open letter, issued by a group of doctors led by Henry Miller of Stanford University, says that Oz has “misled and endangered” the public and has “manifested an egregious lack of integrity by promoting quack treatments and cures in the interest of personal financial gain” (“Physicians Demand Removal of ‘Dr. Oz,’”Fox News, Apr. 17, 2015). Last year, a U.S. Senate panel accused Oz of endorsing products that are medically unsound and making claims that are not substantiated by fact. Mehmet Oz, together with Daniel Amen and Mark Hyman, have been highly promoted by Rick Warren in spite of their New Age principles. The three men created Warren’s Daniel Plan. Oz is not only a promoter of quack diets; he is a follower of Emanuel Swedenborg, who entertained spirit guides and was deeply involved with Eastern mysticism (“Special Report,” Lighthouse Trails, Jan. 11, 2011). Oz also promotes Reiki, an occultic practice that allegedly channels “universal healing energy.” Amen teaches Eastern meditation, promotes Reiki, and deals in pop psychology and self-help. Amen’s The Brain in Love and Making a Good Brain Great promote Hindu-style meditation through the vain repetition of the alleged primal sounds. Mark Hyman promotes meditation based on Buddhist principles. He claims that “diseases don’t exist; their symptoms are related to effects” (“Rick Warren’s Celebrity Health Plan Draws Thousands,” The Orange County Register, Jan. 16, 2011). To say that disease doesn’t exist apart from human causes is New Age nonsense. While it is true that diet and exercise can affect one’s health, all diseases are not the result of lifestyle. We are fallen sinners who live in a sin-cursed world, and disease and death are realities that affect every individual regardless of his lifestyle. In the book The Bible and Diet, we warn that the alternative health care field is permeated with New Age philosophy. A friend observed that health food stores are New Age chapels. Beware! Although we know that it is wise and godly to take care of one’s body, the Bible doesn't have very much to say about it. What the Bible does have a lot to say about is spiritual health and separation from paganism! “Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of devils: ye cannot be partakers of the Lord’s table, and of the table of devils” (1 Corinthians 10:21).

(Friday Church News Notes, April 24, 2015, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143)