​Ecclesiastes 1:14

We get lots of interesting letters and e-mails here at Creation Moments. Most of them are positive, but occasionally we hear from someone who disagrees with us. One such writer told us that there are, and I quote, "thousands upon thousands of articles written in medical journals about how evolution has been of enormous benefit in medicine."

Want to hear how we responded? We began like this:

How many of those thousands of articles have you read? We've read some, and the references to evolution appear to have been added without thought or reason. Evolution has had absolutely nothing to do with medicine. In fact, Bible-believing surgeons in the past learned from the Bible how to wash their hands under running water. Evolution had nothing to do with the development of antiseptics. Actually, that comes from Joseph Lister, a Bible-believing scientist. Evolution had nothing to do with X-rays or Magnetic Resonance Imaging. Actually, it was a Bible-believing Christian who invented the MRI.

Evolution has played no part in the science that has given us modern technology, medicine and so much more. Evolution didn't even have anything to do with putting a man on the moon. In fact, it was a combination of applied scientists and engineers who accomplished this.

So what has evolution given mankind? Well, it has given us thousands of scientists who make their living writing about evolution and teaching it. Yes, it has created quite an industry for itself. But it has advanced science not one inch.

Notes: Courtesy of Jan Ainali. (CC BY 3.0). ​Creation Moments, Inc., P.O. Box 839, Foley, MN 56329 www.creationmoments.com

Kong Hee, founder and senior pastor of a Pentecostal megachurch in Singapore, has been sentenced to eight years in prison for misappropriating church funds to support his wife’s pop singing career. Five other church leaders were given sentences ranging from 21 months to six years. The sum misappropriated by the leaders of City Harvest Church (CHC) was a whopping $35 million. Corruption of this magnitude is rare in this city state which has a well-deserved reputation for law and order. Leave it to a charismatic pastor to set the bar of corruption high and make Christianity a laughing-stock before the entire nation! The pop singer, Ho Yeow Sun, was recently ordained as a pastor of the church. She will be able to carry on the family business while her husband is in prison. Michael Scales of New York’s Christian College performed her ordination, speaking the nonsensical words, “I pray when she speaks, fire will come out of her belly.” Ho Sun is a popular Chinese pop singer who lives a pop star’s lifestyle, complete with immodest dress, champagne parties, and very sensual rock videos. A friend who provides information that helps with my research said, “I looked at a few of her videos but could not present them because of their vile content.” A Baptist pastor friend in Singapore wrote, “It was just last weekend that I came to know that her horrible and slutty music video (‘China Wine’) was actually aired live in church at CHC when it first came out. It is hard to imagine any husband willingly showing off his wife in church dressed like a whore, dancing like one, and worse, a pastor’s wife.” Kong Hee and other leaders of City Harvest who have been convicted in Singapore’s no-nonsense courts still proclaim their innocence, though it was proven that they put millions of dollars into sham bond investments and tried to hide their deeds from the law. According to the Gospel Herald for Oct. 29, 2015, the church is standing with its crooked leaders (“City Harvest Founder Kong Hee Thanks Congregation for ‘Grace and Love’ as Wife Sun Ho Is Ordained as Pastor,” Oct. 29, 2015). This demonstrates a lack of integrity across the entire congregation. They have been blinded and morally numbed by a heaping dose of mindless demonic mysticism served up through rock music, charismatic experiences, and false doctrine. Kong Hee follows in the footsteps of many other prominent Pentecostal-Charismatic leaders who have brought reproach upon the name of Jesus Christ before a mocking world, as we have documented extensively in the book The Pentecostal-Charismatic Movements: The History and the Error. Last year, David Yonggi Cho, founder of Yoido Full Gospel Church in Seoul, South Korea, long billed as the world’s largest church, was sentenced to three years for breach of trust and corruption (“David Yonggi Cho,” The Gospel Herald, Feb. 21, 2014). Cho, one of Kong Hee’s mentors, was found guilty of causing $12 million in losses to the church by having officials buy stocks owned by his eldest son, Cho Hee-jun, at nearly four times market value. David Cho’s three-year sentence was suspended because of his age and prominence, but he was ordered to pay a penalty of US $4.7 million, and Cho Hee-jun’s three-year sentence was not suspended.

(Friday Church News Notes, November 27, 2015, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143)

Ronnie Floyd, President of the Southern Baptist Convention, is scheduled to speak in December at International House of Prayer’s OneThing 2015 (ihopkc.org/onething/speakers-worship-leaders). This demonstrates how deeply the SBC has drunk of the false charismatic spirit and how spiritually dangerous this denomination is. It is a fearful hodgepodge of truth and error. IHOP was founded in 1999 by Mike Bickle, joined by Bob Jones (not the Bob Jones of BJU), John Paul Jackson, Paul Cain, David Parker, and Francis Frangipane and other so-called prophets of a latter-day miracle revival movement. Bickle’s emphasis is a Latter Rain signs and wonders ministry in preparation for Christ’s return. IHOP hosts 24/7 prayer meetings which are mystical contemporary worship “encounters” powered by rock music. They are weird charismatic free-for-alls. IHOP’s 24/7 prayer sessions have been described as “euphoric worship ... mesmeric, musical worship, repeating the same phrases over and over.” I can confirm this from my visit in October 2014 to an IHOP conference. IHOP’s 24/7 “prayer” is not about thoughtful, biblical prayer or quiet, thoughtful meditation on Scripture. It is about charismatic mysticism whereby God is allegedly “encountered” in and beyond Scripture. It is about “experiencing” God. It is about bringing in the kingdom of God through signs and wonders. This is why IHOP is attracted to Roman Catholic contemplative prayer, as evidenced by the fact that their bookstore features dozens of contemplative titles. Contemplative prayer has the same mystical objective as IHOP’s 24/7 prayer: an experience with God and direct revelation from God beyond Scripture. But when you go beyond Scripture, you go beyond the God of Scripture, and you open yourself to angels of darkness masquerading as angels of light. This is why charismatic worship and contemplative prayer lead to association with Rome, the heart and soul of apostasy, and ultimately to universalism, pantheism, panentheism, and idolatry, as we have documented in the book Contemplative Mysticism. IHOP is so deceived that it believes it will literally direct God’s judgments on earth during the Tribulation. For more on this see “The International House of Prayer”.

(Friday Church News Notes, November 27, 2015, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143)

Isaiah 45:12

Scientists who reject the Bible believe that man's ability to see light from distant stars and galaxies can be likened to a deadly torpedo that sinks the ship of young earth creationism. But they are not taking into consideration that there are many possible solutions to how light from distant stars could reach the Earth very quickly.

One such theory is explained by Creation Moments Board Member Dr. Donald Clark, who holds a PhD in physical biochemistry. He cites both Isaiah 42:5 and Isaiah 45:12 as evidence that the heavens are not uniform but have been "stretched out" by God.

Now if the very fabric of space is stretched in parts, he explains, then light would travel much faster through these "stretchy" parts than through the non-stretched parts. He uses a guitar string as an analogy. Tightening a string produces a higher-pitched sound when plucked because it causes the sound wave to travel faster through the string. In a similar way, stretched space would cause light to travel faster through it.

In his article, "Making Sense of Light from Distant Stars," Dr. Clark writes: "Using Einstein's General Relativity equations, Mark Amunrud at the August 2013 International Conference on Creation suggested that light from the most distant galaxies … would reach Earth in just about one week."
​
So while Scripture doesn’t directly say that light travels much faster between the galaxies to arrive on Earth quickly, it does give us enough clues to piece together one solution to the distant-starlight dilemma.

Notes: http://www.creationmoments.com/resources/blog/201407/making-sense-light-distant-stars. Dr. Donald Clark, Ph.D., "Making Sense of Light from Distant Stars", 7/7/14. Photo: Courtesy of Adam Evans. (CC BY 2.0).
Creation Moments, Inc., P.O. Box 839, Foley, MN 56329 www.creationmoments.com

“Someone asked a mother whose children had turned out very well the secret by which she had prepared them for usefulness and for the Christian life. Without hesitation she answered: ‘When I washed my children, I prayed that they might be cleansed by the Saviour’s precious blood. When I put on their garments, I prayed that they might be arrayed in the garments of salvation and in the robe of God’s righteousness. When I gave them food, I prayed that they might be fed with the Bread of Life. When I started them on the road to school, I prayed that their faith might be as the shining light, brighter and brighter to the perfect day. When I put them to sleep, I prayed that they might be enfolded in the Saviour’s everlasting arms.’ No wonder her children were early led to a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ and became adornments to the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things! What a joy to that mother’s heart when her children rise up and call her blessed! Now that her secret has been revealed, may hosts of other mothers follow it”

(Moments for You, May/June, 1988)

​Revelation 22:18

As we all know, there are 66 books in the Bible – no more, no less. And yet, from the way that many people interpret the first chapter of Genesis, it appears that they have added a sixty-seventh book to the Bible – a special "book" they use to interpret the other 66 books of the Bible.

The name of that sixty-seventh book is "science". Many pastors – and even entire denominations – now interpret Bible texts in a way to make them compatible with this sixty-seventh book. For example, since this "book" contends that the Earth is billions of years old, Genesis must be reinterpreted to make it "fit" into an old universe. One way they try to do this is the "day-age theory."

This theory holds that each "day" in Genesis 1 (in Hebrew yom) is a long period of time rather than 24 hours. It is important to note, however, that whenever yom appears in the Old Testament with a number attached to it, it always means a literal 24-hour day. In addition, whenever yom is modified with "evening and morning" – as it does 38 times outside of Genesis 1 – it always means a 24-hour day.

God's people must get back to the careful handling of God's Word. This means that we throw out the sixty-seventh book and that we start taking the Bible for what it says – not reinterpreting it in light of the latest pronouncements of so-called "science."

Notes: Old earth creationist Hugh Ross, founder of Reasons to Believe, teaches the day-age theory and has likened nature to the sixty-seventh book of the Bible. Courtesy of Brandon Medeiros/Reasons to Believe. (CC-BY-SA 3.0).
Creation Moments, Inc., P.O. Box 839, Foley, MN 56329 www.creationmoments.com

“How I thank God for my Christian parents, for my Sunday School teachers, and especially for my Preacher. He never cheated on his wife; he never lied; he never stole from the church; he never turned a blind eye to a song leader having an affair with the pianist or even the janitor playing his guitar in a beer joint. He discerned the difference between good and evil and never mingled them together. He preached on hell, on separation, on dancing, on movies, and on bad language. He preached a saving gospel with fire and power; he challenged the Sunday School teachers to visit more and study harder and teach better. He saw our church grow when every other church in town went into decline during the summer months. He had virtue and integrity and morals and godliness and Christian ethics! He knew what was right and stuck to it, and we loved him for it! He was our preacher for thirteen years. We never had better! ... It was because of our preacher and his helpers that I saw through the hypocrisy and deceitfulness of the pastors who had virtually no Christian ethics: Men who spent church money on themselves and were asked to leave; men who kept a mistress; men who smilingly lied to their congregations; men who stole sheep from other churches; men who covered up for each other when they were caught; men who slandered those who questioned their immoral conduct; men who stole faith promise money for missions and spent it; men who did their best to split another pastor’s church; men who lied to the tax department; and men who shut struggling churches down, sold the building, and pocketed the money, ad infinitum, ad nauseum.”

​“The Vanishing Ethics of the Ministry” by Buddy Smith, Heads Up! Sept. 18, 2015

​1 John 4:6

Many people – especially those who believe in creation – avoid watching science shows on TV because these programs are usually saturated with unscientific claims favoring evolution. However, even Darwinian soapboxes like Nova can be worth watching, just as long as you do so with a discerning eye.

You especially need to pay close attention to the unwarranted assumptions and faulty logic you'll often encounter. For instance, there's "Kings of Camouflage" – a Nova program about the cuttlefish's amazing ability to instantaneously change the color and texture of its skin. The program did a good job of describing the color disks that expand or shrink in size.

But then the scientist added: "My guess is that their skin evolved for camouflage, because as soon as they got rid of the big shell, they had to hide from predators." Well, Mr. Scientist, why did the cuttlefish discard its shell in the first place if it was beneficial to its survival? And why didn't the cuttlefish just evolve its old shell back? Instead, evolutionists guess that the cuttlefish evolved the most complex skin of any creature on the planet as well as an amazingly complex eye and nervous system that allows it all to work.
​
So when you watch science shows on television, learn what you can from the true science. Enjoy the breathtaking photography as you marvel at the wondrous creatures that God has designed. And teach your children how to spot the atheistic philosophy that's camouflaged to look like true science.

Notes: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/nature/kings-of-camouflage.html. Photo: Courtesy of João Carvalho. (CC-BY-SA 2.5). Creation Moments, Inc., P.O. Box 839, Foley, MN 56329 www.creationmoments.com

The Ottomans had a horrible practice called devshirme, whereby the sultan’s agents would periodically take one-fifth of all boys from Christian families. Also called Blood Levy, it was introduced by Sultan Orkhan (1326-1359). “On a fixed date, all the fathers were ordered to appear with their children in the public square. The recruiting agents chose the most sturdy, handsome, and intelligent children. Any father who shirked his duty to provide children was severely punished. This system was open to all kinds of abuse. The recruiting agents often took more than the prescribed number of children and sold the ‘surplus’ children back to their parents. Those unable to buy back their children had to accept their being sold into slavery” (Ibn Warraq, Why I Am Not a Muslim, 1995, p. 231). Parents who resisted were killed. Some parents deliberately mutilated their children to make them unattractive to the recruiting agents. Some of the strongest and fittest of the children enslaved through devshirme were raised to join an elite military corps called Janissaries (“new soldier”) that formed the Sultan’s guard. It lasted from about 1350 to 1826. The slave boys were forced into Islam and trained in strict discipline and warfare. In 1826, Sultan Abdul Mahmud II slaughtered many of the Janissaries and disbanded it as a fighting force.

(Friday Church News Notes, November 20, 2015, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143)

​Jeremiah 9:5

It is common for evolutionists to dismiss a lot of great work by creationists, saying that their papers do not appear in their own peer-reviewed journals. But now, editors of the two most prestigious peer-reviewed medical journals have gone on record as saying that the peer-review process doesn't mean much anymore.

Several years ago, Dr. Marcia Angell, a physician and longtime editor of one of the most trusted medical journals in the world, wrote this: "It is simply no longer possible to believe much of the clinical research that is published, or to rely on the judgment of trusted physicians or authoritative medical guidelines. I take no pleasure in this conclusion, which I reached slowly and reluctantly over my two decades as an editor of The New England Journal of Medicine."

More recently, Dr. Richard Horton, editor of The Lancet, wrote the following in his own magazine: "The case against science is straightforward. Much of the scientific literature, perhaps half, may simply be untrue." He added that "science has taken a turn towards darkness" and said that this is caused by "flagrant conflicts of interest." He also said something we've been saying for years: "In their quest for telling a compelling story, scientists too often sculpt data to fit their preferred theory of the world."

So never let an evolutionist throw the peer-review process in your face as a mark of the superiority of evolution over biblical creation. Unlike peer-reviewed publications, the Bible is never wrong.

Notes: http://www.thelancet.com/pdfs/journals/lancet/PIIS0140-6736%2815%2960696-1.pdf. Marcia Angell, "Drug companies and doctors: A story of corruption." January 15, 2009. The New York Review of Books.
​Creation Moments, Inc., P.O. Box 839, Foley, MN 56329 www.creationmoments.com