CAPTAIN OF BOEING’S STARLINER BARRY WILMORE A SPEAKER AT ANSWERS IN GENESIS

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After several delays, Boeing’s Starliner capsule officially launched its first-ever manned flight from Cape Canaveral, Florida, and is on its way to the International Space Station. Among the crew on board is Captain Barry “Butch” Wilmore, a Christian and a biblical creationist! And Captain Wilmore isn’t just on board—he is commanding this historic flight!

Before Captain Wilmore blasted off, he stopped, wrapped his arms around the support group preparing him for the launch, and prayed with them. His brother also prayed at the “wave by” a few weeks earlier.

The Starliner will orbit earth before arriving at its destination, where the crew will run many tests and Captain Wilmore will complete a spacewalk to do some maintenance on the ISS before returning home. On the return, the capsule will not land in water—instead, a parachute will slow its entry, with airbags landing it in the desert of Arizona. This important flight is designed to test the Starliner and qualify it for use.

As they prepared to leave, Captain Wilmore was telling everyone about Answers in Genesis (AIG), the Ark Encounter, and the Creation Museum and how everyone needs to schedule a visit! Barry Wilmore is a regular speaker at AIG.

Praise the Lord for men like Captain Wilmore, who is very open about his faith and his stand on the truth of God’s Word, beginning in Genesis.

EVIDENCE FOR WORLDWIDE FLOOD OF NOAH’S DAY

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Dinosaur fossils show strong evidence that they were formed by Noah’s Flood. A worldwide flood best explains their formation processes, their death postures, and the surrounding sediments.

There are many dinosaur mass graveyards, which show that the rock layers involved were laid down quickly. The bones in them are frequently mixed with marine fossils, showing that something brought the remains of sea and land creatures together.

The ‘dinosaur death pose’, with necks and tails bent backward, is evidence of water submersion around the time of death.

Armoured dinosaur fossils found upside-down indicate that, shortly after death, the carcasses were floating, capsized (heavy side down), and were abruptly buried in that position. Dinosaurs petrified in fighting poses also point to a cataclysmic watery burial. Also, these rock layers are often very wide, even spanning continents. Therefore, the cause of these layers was worldwide.

Enlightment philosophers began to take over the earth sciences beginning in the late 1700’s. They established naturalism as the basis of knowledge. The supernatural was excluded from science. Uniformitarianism became the axiom for earth sciences and creation and Noah’s Flood were relegated to the category: myths and legends. Fortunately in the 1960’s, Drs John Whitcomb (1924-2020) and Henry Morris (1918-2006), as well as many other scientists, began seriously looking to see if scientific obseervations realy did contradict the Bible. They discovered much data supporting the straightforward reading of Scripture, epecially the Creation, Flood, and Babel accounts in Genesis 1-11.

Biblical scientists realise that the assumptions of evolution and creation are based on the scientists worldview and are examples of historical science. Using the Biblical Flood Model they made many exciting discoveries about what the earth was like before the Flood, what the Flood accomplished, and the long-term results of the Flood. A creation scientist would say that the Bible is the key to the past, and they would have a lot of material to back that up. Can I suggest the book Biblical Geology 101 by Michael Oard and Dr Robert Carter. It is an easy to read book with many pictures. You will learn how rocks are formed, how they change over time, and how Noah’s Flood impacted the world.

The beginning of wisdom is to fear God so hopefully the reality of Noah’s Flood when God destroyed all of mankind except one family will make you reconsider your worldview.

ISRAEL BLAMED FOR HAMAS’S STARVATION WARFARE

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The Anti-Semites of the World United have blamed Israel for creating the famine conditions they wish to exist in Gaza. “International officials continue to accuse Israel of creating famine conditions in Gaza,” noted Family Research Council Action President Jody Hice, “even as research demonstrates that the root cause of suffering in Gaza is Hamas.”

Israel is allowing humanitarian aid into Gaza faster than aid organizations can distribute it. “The amount of food that is being supplied into Gaza by Israel, by the United States, by the Egyptians, including local production … is sufficient,” Kivetz declared. According to an April analysis he co-wrote with fellow Columbia University professor Awi Federgruin, “290,000 tons of food and beverages have been delivered to Gaza since October,” according to Israel’s Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), enough to supply each of Gaza’s two million residents with “1.82 pounds of food daily.” Based on U.N. estimates, they added, aid imported through Israel is “enough to supply 50% of Gazans’ daily consumption needs — on top of the food they continue to produce themselves.”

In large part due to the generosity of Israel, the Gaza Strip has not reached catastrophic famine conditions. “Obviously, in a war zone, you will have disruptions of the food supply and so on,” Kivetz granted, but “I don’t think we’ve seen evidence of famine — of widespread starvation, heaven forbid, or famine — in Gaza.”

Yet “that’s the story. That’s the narrative that’s being put out there,” Hice noted. International media and commentators have generated rumors of a famine. So far are these rumors from the truth that, “if you compare the amount of food per capita (per individual) that has been supplied into Gaza, compared to the average food consumption in Asia and Africa … it’s even higher in Gaza,” contended Kivetz.

How can the prevailing narrative be so contrary to the facts? On one level, the only explanation is that Satan, who rules this world as “prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience” (Ephesians 2:2), is also “a liar and the father of lies” (John 8:44). On another level, there is a human agent with a vested interest in broadcasting such a false narrative. That party is the terrorist group Hamas, they started the war by murdering Israeli civilians and have conducted the war by abusing Gazan civilians.

“Part of the supply chain problem” is “the chaos in war, but part of it is Hamas,” insisted Kivetz, “which has been hoarding and stealing food, which has been firing at the entry points, in fact killing some Israeli soldiers in some of the entry points where food is being provided.”

“A third-grade student would understand Hamas has an absolute incentive to create stories of famine and starvation and deaths,” Kivetz declared. “The more civilians who die in Gaza, the better off Hamas is because they want Israel to stop. … After conduct[ing] their terrible atrocities, they want to escape this and still remain in power.”

“So Hamas really is incentivized, then, to block food and aid,” Hice responded, “particularly if they can manipulate the media and the U.N. to blame it on Israel.”

In fact, in “the recent decisions by the International Court of Justice [ICJ], [and] the International Criminal Court [ICC] … Hamas is getting what it wants,” speculated Kivetz. ICC prosecutors recently indicted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the preposterous charge of starving Palestinians, while the ICJ on Friday ordered Israel to “immediately halt its military offensive in Rafah” — Hamas’s last remaining stronghold in the Gaza Strip.

These preposterous accusations are fulfilling their intended effect: consolidating international opinion against Israel. Josep Borrell, the European Union’s high representative for foreign affairs and security policy, recently declared, “Starvation is used as a weapon of war. Israel is provoking famine.” The truth is, that Hamas is trying to use starvation as a weapon of war, while Israel is effectively forestalling a famine.

“To your question about who is propagating or creating this story of famine,” Kivetz summarized, “obviously Hamas is interested in that. The U.N. unfortunately, is part of that. They use the data that Hamas is providing. The data [are] wrong.”

Article from the Washington Stand May 28th, 2024 by Joshua Arnold

ARE YOU BOLDLY AND COURAGEOUSLY DECLARING JESUS CHRIST AS LORD & SAVIOUR?

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Our God is awesome! Thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

“But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.“ 1 Corinthians 15:57-58

Scripture defines us as those who are “more than conquerors” in the trials of life.

“No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 8:37-39

We are victorious because we are precious in the sight of a holy, majestic, and loving God. To be a Christian and serve Him who is worthy is the highest calling anyone can receive. We are deemed “a royal priesthood, a holy nation,” and “God’s special possession.” In this identity, we are to “declare the praises of Him who called” us “out of darkness into His wonderful light.”

“But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.” 1 Peter 2:9-10

A mind centered on Christ explains why we exist, where we came from, and where we are going. A mind fixed on Christ allows us to respond to anything we should face.

Why would anyone want to keep the wonderful truth of Christ to themselves? May we be bold and courageous so we are His army — a Kingdom — that reflects a zeal for the Lord and a passion to share His truth and proclaim His name boldly.

EVOLUTION CAN’T EXPLAIN THE INCREDIBLE DNA-FOLDING MECHANISM DISCOVERED

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The article is taken from CREATION MAGAZINE Vol 36, Issue 3, 2024

Biological cells are like tiny cities bustling with machines performing numerous tasks to keep cells alive. For decades, one class of these machines, SMCs (for Structural Maintenance of Chromosomes), have been known to fold DNA strands into intricate three-dimensional structures. This is crucial for the proper organization and function of the genome.

DNA

Insights gained from multiple studies have paved the way toward a step-by-step model of how these machines might extrude loops of DNA as part of this process. An SMC is like an arm with two hands at one end. Each hand holds either end of a stretch of DNA. One of these hands holds continuously while the other periodically ‘let go’ when the arm is bending, during which time the DNA loop becomes a little larger. The hand then re-grabs the DNA before the arm re-extends. In this way, SMCs can extrude longer and longer loops of DNA.

The conundrum for evolution: this machine, useless until fully functional, is needed for reproduction, so natural selection (differential reproduction) can’t explain it.

Dekker, C. et al., How do molecular motors fold the genome? Science 382(6671): 646–648, 2023.

AUSTRALIA’S CHRISTIAN HERITAGE

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Listen to this podcast of historian Dr Paul Roe relating how right from the preparation of the first fleet of prisoners to be sent to Australia, God had his hand on its establishment. Ex-slave trader, John Newton the author of the hymn Amazing Grace was responsible for getting Richard Johnson appointed clergyman to the new colony.

On 24 October 1784, Richard Johnson received a Royal Warrant that appointed him ‘Chaplain to the settlement of New South Wales’. He took up his appointment with the First Fleet at Portsmouth. As Chaplain to New South Wales, he was required to be the guardian of public morality.

On 3 February 1788, he conducted the first religious service in the Colony under trees at Sydney Cove. He continued to hold regular services on a Sunday, weather permitting, prior to the construction of a wooden building five years later that was used for church services.

Apart from some assistance after 1791 from James Bain, Chaplain to the New South Wales Corps, Johnson undertook all the religious duties in Sydney for six years, until the arrival of the Reverend Samuel Marsden on the William on 10 March 1794.

On 10 June 1793, Johnson commenced construction of a temporary church in Sydney town, which he funded from his finances. The first service was held in the new building on 25 August 1793. The construction of the temporary church cost Johnson sixty-seven pounds.

A monument now stands in Richard Johnson Square on the approximate site of the temporary church.

The position of the temporary church was near the present ‘Richard Johnson Square, on the corner of Hunter and Castlereagh streets in Sydney. It was built of strong posts, wattles, and plaster, and was covered with a roof of thatch.

ANCIENT SUMERIANS RECORDED THE DIVIDE OF HEAVEN AND EARTH IN ACCORD WITH THE BIBLE

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Before Adam ate the forbidden fruit, the heavenly (spiritual) dimension, and the earthly dimension were one realm— one domain, one plane of existence in which God, angels, and man had open communication and relationship; There was no separation between the spiritual realm, and the physical realm. There was perfect compatibility and agreement between them, an idea also found in Mesopotamian literature: “Heaven talked with Earth. Earth talked with Heaven.” (The Xianhua Wang Metamorphosis of Enlil (Satan) in Early Mesopotamia Pg. 152)

“Anu (the creator god) carried off heaven while Enlil carried off the earth and assumed most of An’s powers.” (Kramer, Samuel Noah The Sumerians The University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1963. Pg. 37-41)

“Enlil … was at about the same time cosmologically considered the deity who separated Heaven from Earth and Earth from Heaven.” (Xianhua Wang The Metamorphosis of Enlil in Early Mesopotamia. Pg. 100.)

God walked in the Garden, and man could look at his face and endure God’s fire and lightning. Man’s transgression brought decay, degeneration, and death. God’s perfection and the fallen physical, earthly realm became incompatible. Now God’s fiery presence would scorch the ground like when He descended on Mt. Sinai (The mountains melt like wax before the LORD, before the Lord of all the earth. Psalms 97: 5). Now man could no longer see God’s face and live. The Garden of Eden, where God, angels, and man could commune together was gone. Open, unveiled fellowship became impossible. This divide of heaven and Earth caused by Satan (Enlil) was recorded by the ancient Sumerians ( Kramer, Samuel Noah The Sumerians The University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1963. Pg. 37-41).

After The Fall, when God came into the Garden in the cool of the evening, Adam and Eve were compelled to hide themselves. Why? The first sign of disconnect was when they realised they were naked. They had been clothed with light like God covers himself “with light as with a garment” (Psalms 104: 2). They observed the glow in which they had previously been clothed was fading. This reality was displayed after Moses spent forty days with God and upon coming down the mountain, he “did not know that the skin of his face shone while he talked with Him” (Exodus 34: 29). When the congregation saw him, “The skin of his face shone, and they were afraid to come near him” (Exodus 34: 30).

After God announced the consequences of man’s actions, God had to remove Himself from his own creation, lest His fire destroy it. This removal is what the Scriptures call the veil. It is what marks the boundary between our earthly, physical domain and the spiritual domain. Isaiah first spoke of its removal: “And He will destroy on this mountain the surface of the covering cast over all people and the veil that is spread over all nations. He will swallow up death forever, and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from all faces” (Isaiah 25: 7– 8). The prophet Isaiah also pined: “Oh that you would rend the heavens and come down” (Isaiah 64: 1). Whatever the veil is, it can be torn and removed.

There are four other distinct places where the veil (heavens) was opened: “I saw the heavens were opened and I saw visions of God” (Ezekiel 1: 1). “Jesus came up … and the heavens were opened to Him” (Matthew 3: 16). Stephen: “I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!” (Acts 7: 55– 56). John: “I saw heaven opened … Jesus was on a white horse” (Revelation 19: 11).

Since The Fall the cosmos exists as two realms— the one in which we live, and the other where spirit-based beings live and where God’s presence is manifest. The one realm was split into two: the earthly dimension is what Satan rules, he is the god of this world; the heavenly or spiritual dimension is where God rules. (God rules all, of course, but Satan has authority in the earthly realm.)

God did not curse the ground because of Adam; rather, like a reporter, He simply presented the consequence of the degenerative decay-death reaction that Adam triggered (Genesis 2: 17). God said, “Cursed is the ground for your sake” (Genesis 3: 17).

God created Adam from the adamáh (earth); Adam was the earth-man, the federal head of creation. Adam and the adamáh were linked physically and hence their fates were linked. When Adam ate from the fruit, death, degeneration, and decay happened upon Adam and upon the Earth and material cosmos as well. Decay permeated the entire creation from the invisible world of cells and DNA to all the animals, birds, and fish that God had formed out of the adamáh. Degeneration began within all living and non-living matter; the atoms of every tree, flower, blade of grass, rock, mountain, planet, and star. The complete composition of all physical creation became incompatible with God’s fiery presence.

I have found it liberating to understand the true history of God and His Cosmos and that the ancient world like the Sumerians recorded it in accord with God’s Word. I hope you find it liberating as well.

The information in this post has been extracted from Douglas Hamp’s book, Corrupting the Image 2: Hybrids, Hades, and the Mt Hermon Connection. Eskaton Media Group. There is a third book in the series: Corrupting the Image 3: Singularity, Superhumans, and The Second Coming of Jesus. I have not read it as yet but I am sure I will find some gems in it.

MORE EVIDENCE FOR A CREATOR

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Michael Behe, John Lennox, and Steven Meyer are three leading voices in science and academia on the case for an intelligent designer of the universe and everything in it (including us). In this wide-ranging conversation, they point out the flaws in Darwin’s theory and the increasing amount of evidence uncovered by a rigorous application of the scientific method that points to an intentional design and creation of the physical world.

You will need over an hour to watch this video but I suggest you will be glad you did. In particular, I like John Lennox for his pearls of wisdom, and rating the three men as to what gems I learned, it would be 1. John Lennox, 2. Stephen Meyer and 3. Michael Behe. I need to watch the video again at least once more, to make notes, of the information I will incorporate to improve my argument for the God of the Bible’s existence.

THE POWER BEHIND CHRISTIANITY

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Jesus told the disciples not to do anything until the Holy Spirit came at Pentecost. The third person of the Trinity is the reason Christianity grew to be the major religion in the world. Do the traditional/institutional churches really acknowledge that fact?

Despite evolution, most people still believe in a Supreme Being. Also, most people believe Jesus Christ lived on this Earth 2,000 years ago. We have our calendar to testify to that fact (2024). Moreover, we have many descriptions of Jesus in the New Testament such that we, like the first converts have good grounds to conclude that he is something more than a prophet. Other historians like Josephus testify to his life and ministry. However, it is quite another thing to believe that God is three. There is a Third person, a ghostly wind of God, Holy Spirit.

The Bible words for “spirit,” in both Hebrew (Old Testament) and Greek (New Testament), also mean “breath” and “wind.” So it is symbolically apt that when the early Christians were awaiting the promised Spirit in an upstairs room in Jerusalem on Pentecost Sunday, there came the sound of a violent wind. That sound was accompanied by a visual symbol. Over each person’s head, a flame or “tongue” as of fire came to rest, also symbolic of the presence of God—as in the Old Testament fire of Mount Sinai and the pillar of fire that led ancient Israel toward the Promised Land.

On the night he was betrayed and arrested, Jesus told the twelve disciples (John 14-16, John 16:7) that He would go away and it was better that He went away. Why? Jesus said that he would ask the Father for Another One to come. And this One would do even better than what Jesus did. Who is this “Another One” who will come? He is the Holy Spirit. He will come to dwell within us so that we can perform miracles, proclaim the gospel, and live as examples to the world.

How many institutional/traditional churches believe we can do the things the Bible says the Holy Spirit will empower us to do? He will produce the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22) in our lives: love, joy, peace, faithfulness, gentleness, goodness, kindness, patience, and self-control. He will provide the gifts of the Spirit for ministry:

“To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. For to one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the ability to distinguish between spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills.” 1 Corinthians 12:7-11

The Holy Spirit continues to this day to manifest himself—in the spectacular gifts given in this Scripture but also more commonly in other gifts, such as (effective) teaching, evangelism, leadership, service, and hospitality. Are these signs manifest in your church? If not, can I suggest you look for a church where they are evident.

 The Holy Spirit continues to give people the New Birth. God animates us by his Spirit: anima in Latin means “the breath of life,” hence animal. And then God by the Holy Spirit, in the process of sanctification (sanctus being Latin for “holy”) makes us mature children of God.

ANSWERS TO THE LATEST SO-CALLED SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE FOR EVOLUTION

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The videos being produced by both Creation Ministries International (CMI) http://www.creation.com and Answers in Genesis (AIG) http://www.answersingenesis.org are brilliant and they need to be promoted and used.

In the first video, Don Batten answers many of the common arguments used to criticize a Biblical worldview. Can I suggest you use this video clip when ministering to family and friends. CMI is producing many of these clips for use on social media: particularly YouTube and more recently TikTok.

The following video is one produced by AIG each Monday at 2 p.m. (ET) on YouTube or later that day on Answers TV for Answers News. It addresses current events from a Biblical worldview. For example, NBC is promoting in June (Pride Month in the USA), a video on Queer Animals suggesting that of all the animals only humans have a stigma towards being queer. After all, what can be more natural than following who you are? AIG does a great job showing the absurdity of this view.