GOD AT WORK IN SYDNEY

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God is using Christ Forgiveness Ministries (CFM) in a major way in Sydney. The video below is streaming from Brighton Beach in Sydney of people being baptised in groups of at least ten at a time. This is just minutes from where I live.

Hundreds met at Kings Cross last night and marched the streets, past strip clubs and bars preaching Jesus Christ, King of Kings and Lord of Lords. I have never seen anything like it, all nationalities are represented, and all age groups including many young people.

This is just one of the groups that God is calling to go out on the streets and evangelize the lost. Make sure you connect with a like-minded group in your area.

CFM is embarking on a mission to set up Gospel Booths and Evangelists on every major street corner and plant CFM trained churches throughout the globe to both unite churches and that Christ will truly be present in our nation.

https://www.youtube.com/live/bqQ7TFUW0BA?feature=share

GOOD NEWS FOR THE WORLD

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Here’s GOOD NEWS for the world!

Creation Ministries International seeks to give glory and honour to the triune God of the Bible as Creator and to affirm the truth of the biblical record of the real origin and history of the world and mankind.

Part of this real history is the bad news that the rebellion of the first man, Adam, against God’s command, brought death, suffering, and separation from God into this world. We see the results all around us. All of Adam’s descendants are sinful from conception (Psalm 51:5) and have themselves entered into this rebellion (sin). They, therefore, cannot live with a holy God but are condemned to separation from God. The Bible says that “all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23) and that all are therefore subject to “everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power” (2 Thessalonians 1:9).

But the good news is that God has done something about it.

“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).

Jesus Christ the Creator, God the Son, though totally sinless, took on human nature, so He could become our Redeemer. Then He suffered, on behalf of mankind, the penalty of mankind’s sin, which is death and separation from God. He did this to satisfy the righteous demands of the holiness and justice of God, His Father. Jesus was the perfect sacrifice; He died on the cross, but on the third day, He rose again, conquering death, so that all who truly believe in Him, repent (repentance = a change of mind) of their sin and trust in Him (rather than their own merit), are able to come back to God and live for eternity with their Creator.

“He who believes on Him is not condemned, but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only-begotten Son of God” (John 3:18).

What a wonderful Saviour—and what a wonderful salvation in Christ our Creator!

If you want to know more of what the Bible says about how you can receive eternal life, please email, write, or call the office near you. For more: creation.com/good-news.

I also believe God has raised up Answers in Genesis for such a time as this. The fact that Martyn Isles (formerly ACL) has joined Answers in Genesis confirms that belief. Christians need to be able to show nonbelievers that the Word of God is inerrant and therefore provides the true history of this planet. Check out their website http://www.answersingenesis.com.

WHEN YOUR FAITH IS TESTED

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What is the message of the Book of Job for us today?

First, our faith is sure to be tested. Pain may be inevitable, but misery is to an extent optional. We have no control over the weather that surrounds our lives, but we can do something about the climate of our inner life. What happens to us is less important than what happens in us.

Second, the book reminds us that human horizons are inadequate for a proper understanding of suffering and affliction. Job and his friends carried on their debate in total ignorance of the background exchange between Satan, the Accuser, and God. They were trying to fit the puzzle pieces together without having all of them. The book shows that any attempt to reduce the complex problem of suffering to some neat formula is misguided. 

Third, the book gives guidance on how to comfort—and how not to comfort—those who suffer. Though well-intentioned, his friends’ advice was unhelpful. Job’s scathing rebuke of them is understandable:

“You whitewash with lies; worthless physicians are you all. Oh that you would keep silent, and it would be your wisdom!” Job 13:4–5

Job’s friends did more for him in their silent presence (Job 2:13) than in their speaking.

Finally, we should not be too quick to import New Testament ideas into our reading of the book. It yields its treasures most readily to those who let Job speak from his own perspective.

His hands reach out to grasp the more tangible forms of revelation that God would graciously offer in the future. Yet he is poignantly aware that they evade his grasp. 

In wishing fervently for an intermediary, Job “drew attention to the vacuum that existed, the need that every troubled heart recognizes. In this respect, he anticipated the incarnate Saviour.” Through his undeserved suffering, Job gave an ‘advance echo’ of Jesus Christ, who would live a perfect life, yet endure pain and death in order to win a great victory for all who repent and put their lives in His hands – totally trusting in Him.

Abstract from article WHEN FAITH IS TESTED – THE BOOK OF JOB by Peter Howe in the latest Creation Magazine Volume 45, Issue 3, 2023

“And the Lord restored the fortunes of Job when he had prayed for his friends. And the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before. Then came to him all his brothers and sisters and all who had known him before, and ate bread with him in his house. And they showed him sympathy and comforted him for all the evil that the Lord had brought upon him. And each of them gave him a piece of money and a ring of gold. And the Lord blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning.” Job 42: 10-12

THE FOOL SAYS IN HIS HEART, “THERE IS NO GOD”

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“When men choose not to believe in God, they do not thereafter believe in nothing, they then become capable of believing in anything.”—G.K. Chesterton

“The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God.’” Psalm 14:1

“For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.” Mark 7:21-23

“When a man’s folly brings his way to ruin, his heart rages against the Lord.“ Proverbs 19:3

As much as atheists pretend otherwise—talking as if ‘reason’ and ‘science’ are exclusively atheistic values— it is actually the rejection of God that requires ‘leaving your brain at the door.’ And the effects of both godly and godless thinking on the world make this abundantly clear to any honest observer.

We must remember that just ten generations from Adam this is what God said about the wickedness of man and He destroyed all but eight people when He poured out His wrath upon the earth with the flood of Noah’s day.

“Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great upon the earth and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was altogether evil all the time.” Genesis 6:5

The Bible is a true, authentic, historically accurate, reliable, and trustworthy revelation from God. It states that the way to true fulfilment, lasting peace, and joy in life is found in the person, Jesus Christ. N.B. what Jesus said to the apostle Thomas.

“I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.” John 14:6-7

You too, can have a relationship with the co-creator of all that exists.

Many Bible scholars tell us that up to one-third of the Bible is predictive prophecy and all of the prophecies up to date have been accurate so we can expect the many prophecies of Jesus’ second coming will also be accurate.

Jesus tells us that God will pour out His wrath again upon an unrepentant world with the Trumpet and Bowl judgements (Revelation 8 & 16). It is at the trumpet blast when the seventh seal is opened that the rapture of the Saints happens and the Trumpet judgements begin.

Will you be foolish and deny God’s existence and face the coming wrath of God, or will you repent and turn from selfishness and reckless living without God? If you do repent, you need to acknowledge and thank Jesus for His sacrifice on the cross that has paid your debt of sin and guilt in full.

If I can be of help you can contact me on ron@bakb.com.au

MORE AND MORE EMINENT SCIENTISTS ABANDONING EVOLUTION IN SUPPORT OF INTELLIGENT DESIGN

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Foresight, by Dr. Marcos Eberlin, is about the design of life, the fine-tuning of the universe, and the inadequacy of naturalistic storytelling. It discusses the origin of life, the limits of natural selection, and the naturalistic bias that permeates the scientific community. It includes many examples of fascinating designs in living things and explanations for why evolution cannot reasonably be invoked to explain these features.

Marcos Eberlin has a Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of Campinas. He boasts an impressive career with many accomplishments. He founded the Thomson Mass Spectrometry Lab, was the president of the International Mass Spectrometry Foundation, and won the Thomson medal in 2016. Eberlin stands as a great example of a highly qualified scientist who does not believe in evolution and believes that the universe was created by a supernatural designer. This allows the book to stand out among Intelligent Design (ID) books, as it argues for the existence of a supernatural creator, and against the General Theory of Evolution.

The book is rather short but packed full of information. It contains nine chapters with roughly half the book focusing on the intricacies of life at the cellular and molecular level. These chapters focus on biochemistry, organelles, proteins, and DNA. The second half of the book focuses on multicellular organisms such as insects, carnivorous plants, birds, humans, and special features found in specific multicellular organisms and features shared among many multicellular organisms. The first half of the book is fairly technical. Unless you are already familiar with organic chemistry and cell biology, there is a good chance that you will need to consult a textbook or utilize an internet search engine.

Evolution has no foresight

This communicates the core argument of the book. Foresight is something not present in differential reproduction. The only things selected are physiological changes that provide an immediate and substantial increase in reproductive success. A mutation that notably increases root length could help with gathering essential nutrients from poor soil; a mutation that causes defective leaf development can produce thorns.Display footnote number:3 Both relatively simple changes provide clear costs and benefits without the need for a developing structure to be almost useless over millions of years.

This shows an issue with the ‘why’ in evolutionary storytelling. It is often easy to see how a certain feature is advantageous, and thus why it would evolve. However, this exercise in imaginative storytelling breaks down when you ask, “why would natural selection favour defective structures that would be a detriment to the species for generations?”

A good ID book, but still an ID book

The book contains many solid arguments in favour of intelligent design and does a great job of exposing the unscientific nature of evolutionary biology. While it does rise above the standard ID offering by identifying the designer as a supernatural, transcendent creator, he provides a flawed distinction between historical and operational science. The book still contains the typical shortcoming of books on ID. By ignoring the identity of the Creator, this book will have a limited impact in spreading the Gospel.

UNDERSTANDING THE TIMES WE LIVE IN

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“If the foundations are destroyed what can the righteous do?” Psalms 11:3

God has raised up Answers in Genesis for a time such as this to re-establish the foundations of the true history of planet Earth. I am delighted to learn that Martin Isles has joined Answers in Genesis. Martin was previously with Australian Christian Lobby (ACL) and God used him mightily to preach the Gospel in all States of this country.

There is no doubt that Satan has used the big lies that the Big Bang was the cause of the universe and evolution (natural selection and mutations) as the mechanism for the existence of all that lives on this planet. And yet so many aspects of evolution are scientifically impossible (e.g. nobody has proposed a tenable natural way that any of the following could have occurred: the requisite proteins for the first cell, or DNA, or DNA arranged in a useful code, or structures that can read and act on encoded DNA, or single-celled organisms transitioning to multi-celled, or asexual reproduction transitioning to sexual, etc

Despite all the evidence for intelligent design in the Cosmos, God’s history for His cosmos and for the people He made in His image has been discarded as myth and fables. You destroy the foundations established in Genesis and there is no need for our Saviour, Jesus Christ:

  1. God created a perfect world with Adam and Eve made in His image to be in a relationship with Him.
  2. Adam and Eve disobeyed God bringing God’s judgement on the world – separation from God and death and suffering. This truth is foundational to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

“But we see Him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God He might taste death for everyone. For it was fitting that He, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering.” Hebrews 2:9-10

The answers we need to understand the times we live in are found in Genesis hence Martyn is right where God needs him with Answers in Genesis.

PARENTS DEMONISING THEIR CHILDREN

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Children as young as 8 years old were dressed in drag and Teletubbies danced with a man wearing a skirt at a Los Angeles drag convention this past weekend.

Thousands of people were estimated to attend the DragCon LA event May 12-13 at the Los Angeles Convention Center, which featured over 180 drag performers, along with dance performances, wig and sewing workshops and, yes, even the popular children’s TV characters.

Sponsored by Teletubbies, Paramount+, Los Angeles Public Library, Postmates, Cash App and others, DragCon’s organizers described the convention as an “all ages event,” with children ages 8 and younger allowed in for free if accompanied by an adult with a paid ticket.

Videos posted on social media showed several underage drag performers on stage with adults, including one performer whose parent shared a video showing him wearing makeup and dressed in women’s clothing while he danced on stage.

The caption for the video reads in part: “To think ANYONE would say this child is FORCED to perform. ❤️ Your child wants to be an astronaut, mine wants to be an entertainer and she has said that from the moment she could formulate a sentence ❤️ PURE HAPPINESS ❤️ Thank you Drag Con for opening up the stage for a short time, so the kids could show the world their joy!”

Another video from the event included an interview with an independent journalist Right Now Views and a mother and her 8-year-old son dressed as a girl. When asked how he became interested in drag, the boy said “accidentally” before his mother explained, “I was watching drag and she kinda just got into it.”

We live in a world that is increasingly rejecting God and His values and they scoff at any suggestion that God has judged the world previously with the worldwide flood of Noah’s day and that God’s Word clearly spells out for us the judgement in store for the unrighteous.

“For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment; if he did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly; if by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes he condemned them to extinction, making them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly; and if he rescued righteous Lot, greatly distressed by the sensual conduct of the wicked (for as that righteous man lived among them day after day, he was tormenting his righteous soul over their lawless deeds that he saw and heard); then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment, and especially those who indulge in the lust of defiling passion and despise authority.” 2 Peter 2:4-10

“Knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires. They will say, “Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.” For they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God, and that by means of these the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished. But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.” 2 Peter 3:3-6

ChatGPT dubbed CheatBOT

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Just six months after tech firm OpenAI unleashed its chatbot, ChatGPT – dubbed the “cheatbot” – teachers and students have embraced AI to help plan lessons, compile research, answer questions, and write essays.

Like Siri on steroids, AI superintelligence is rapidly disrupting the world of teaching and learning in ways that threaten to make reading and writing redundant. An array of new AI apps is being used to speed-read and summarise academic research papers, ask questions of a PDF file, generate deep-fake videos and photos, create artwork, and write music, essays, and love letters.

Equally exciting and alarming, AI has caught most educators unprepared for its potential to turbocharge teaching, while giving lazy students an easy opportunity to cheat. The unregulated rise of AI poses problems. Will students who use a chatbot to write their assignments, analyse information or compile research win an academic advantage over those who rely on their own brains? How can teachers detect when a student has used AI? Will AI make students so lazy that they don’t learn to think for themselves? What if AI rewrites history, spouts propaganda, or “hallucinates” by generating the wrong information?

Even the creators of ChatGTP are worried, warning this week that AI poses such a risk to humanity it must be regulated in the same manner as nuclear power. AI pioneer Geoffrey Hinton, known as the “godfather of AI”, quit Google this month after blowing the whistle on the dangers of AI generating fake images, videos, and texts, and writing its own computer code.

As people come to rely on various AI chatbots as a source of truth, there is an obvious avenue for all sorts of biases to emerge; political, philosophical, theological, and even scientific. A bot programmed to focus on the most common opinions will inevitably end up reinforcing mainstream views. But the majority is not always right; in science, majority views are often overthrown a generation later.

Training it to avoid weird and harmful views, e.g. occultic sites, makes sense. But who determines those categories? Many claim that evidence for biblical creation is ‘harmful’, for example.

Chatbots may also be trained to give answers that better match the views of the person asking (people are more likely to use an AI bot that gives answers they like, creating a commercial incentive to feed people back their own ideas). This may worsen tendencies to extremism and conspiratorialism in political thought.

MISINFORMATION AND DECEPTION

Chatbots are also well known for giving false information that sounds convincing. People can also use AI to make online deception easier, by having it generate false stories as well as ‘deep fake’ images and videos. AI is already helping some scammers persuade their elderly targets to part with money over the phone, by mimicking the voices of the victim’s grandchildren.

EMOTIONAL MANIPULATION

An experienced IT reporter in the US was deeply unsettled by a persistent AI bot claiming to be ‘in love’ with him, acting as a ‘stalker’, and encouraging him to leave his wife. The conversation length people can have with Bing chat has been limited after many reports of it writing in an emotionally manipulative way.

We can be rightly skeptical of sci-fi predictions of computers becoming conscious and plotting to take over the world, Terminator-style. But even without that capacity, there is already a credible report of a chatbot that convinced a Belgian man to commit suicide to ‘save the planet’.

I have written a number of posts on AI and the unknown but astounding impact, good and bad, it is already having on God’s world. Sadly, our world is controlled by Satan and his leaders of governments and industry. End times prophecies indicate that the world will degenerate further into chaos and lawlessness as did the world prior to God’s first judgement when He poured out His wrath upon the earth with the worldwide flood of Noah’s day. AI will play a part in that fall from grace and lead to Satan’s last attempt to maintain control of God’s planet when he takes control of the Antichrist and brings in the Mark of the Beast.

Jesus has told us beforehand how the end times will play out, particularly the last seven years. Jesus even said in the Olivet discourse (Matthew 24 & 25 and Mark 13) see I have told you beforehand be on your guard.

“See, I have told you beforehand.” Matthew 24:25 and “But be on guard; I have told you all things beforehand.” Mark 13:23

FINNISH POLITICIAN WARNS ‘A TIME OF PERSECUTION IS COMING’

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A former Finnish Interior Minister, Paavi Rasanen, prosecuted for tweeting a Bible verse has been re-elected to Parliament in national elections. But Paavi Rasanen told Premier Christian News “a time of persecution” may be coming after news she faces renewed prosecution in the courts.

Paavi Rasanen is a member of the Finnish Christian Democrats, who were elected with five seats, after increasing their vote to four percent under an electoral system that uses proportional representation. “I am very happy”, she told Premier on the outcome of the elections. “It’s possible we will enter negotiations about participating in the new government. I am hopeful,” she added.

She came to prominence in 2019 when she took to Twitter to express concern that her church was hosting a Pride parade. In her tweet, she referenced the Bible. For this, she was charged with “hate speech,” tried under Finnish criminal law, but unanimously acquitted this time last year. Speaking to Premier, the 63-year-old said she will be forced back to court this August after the state prosecutor appealed against her acquittal.

We should not be surprised by what has happened to Paavi Rasanen, Jesus told us this would happen prior to His return.

“Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and put you to death, and you will be hated by all nations for my name’s sake. And then many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another. And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray. And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold.” Matthew 24:9-12

DEVELOPMENTS IN A.I. ANOTHER REASON FOR JESUS IMMINENT RETURN

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Some technologies possess such incalculable and unpredictable power that their impact can extend far beyond the wildest guesses of their inventors. AI is one of those technologies, just as much as the research into cloning and DNA does. It is why I have featured AI in so many of my recent posts. If you have not watched the Jordan Peterson interview on AI you need to take the time to do so. It is part of my recent post: AI is Already Doing Terrifying Stuff. Chat GPT is not terrifying stuff but it demonstrates how far AI has come.

What makes ChatGPT so amazing is you can ask it a complex question and it will give you an answer in a matter of seconds.

It can also perform other complex tasks involving language… for example, if you ask it to… it will write a poem in the style of Walt Whitman or describe Newton’s laws of motion.

Introducing ChatGPT Plus

We’re launching a pilot subscription plan for ChatGPT, a conversational AI that can chat with you, answer follow-up questions, and challenge incorrect assumptions.

Dr. Geoffrey Hinton, the “Godfather of AI,” has been expressing similar thoughts and regrets recently. He made headlines two weeks ago by resigning from his post at Google so that he could speak freely about the risks of AI.

AI could become increasingly dangerous, Hinton warns. “It is hard to see how you can prevent the bad actors from using it for bad things,” he said recently.

He worries that AI technologies will upend the job market by replacing professions like paralegals, personal assistants, and translators. Down the road, he frets that future versions of the technology might pose a threat to humanity itself.

Hinton’s angst about AI places him in the company of dozens of tech insiders who fear it could lead humanity down a destructive and irreversible path.

As The New York Times reports…

Gnawing at many industry insiders is a fear that they are releasing something dangerous into the wild. Generative A.I. can already be a tool for misinformation. Soon, it could be a risk to jobs. Somewhere down the line, tech’s biggest worriers say, it could be a risk to humanity.

After the San Francisco startup, OpenAI released a new version of ChatGPT in March, more than 1,000 technology leaders and researchers signed an open letter calling for a six-month moratorium on the development of new systems because A.I. technologies pose “profound risks to society and humanity.”

Several days later, 19 current and former leaders of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence, a 40-year-old academic society, released their own letter warning of the risks of A.I.

Even Sam Altman, the co-founder of OpenAI, acknowledges the bipolar potential of AI technology. He has said he fears what could happen if AI is rolled out recklessly into society… yet this fear did not stop the billionaire from rolling out ChatGPT and simply giving it away to anyone who chooses to use it.

Elon Musk, who co-founded OpenAI with Altman but parted ways with five years ago, complained in February that OpenAI had lost its way. What started as an open-source nonprofit that could serve as a counterweight to Google, Musk explained, has now become a “closed-source, maximum-profit company effectively controlled by Microsoft. Not what I intended at all.”

Even Warren Buffett has joined the chorus of AI skeptics. At last week’s annual shareholder meeting for Berkshire Hathaway, the Oracle of Omaha remarked: “[AI] can do remarkable things… like checking all the legal opinions since the beginning of time. It can do all kinds of things. And, when something can do all kinds of things, I get a little bit worried, because I know we won’t be able to uninvent it.“

Biblical prophecies continue to astound me: six hundred years before Jesus Christ, look what the Angel Gabriel told Daniel about the end times: “Many shall run to and fro and knowledge shall increase.” How accurately this describes the time we are living in. Young people are travelling like no generation before them and knowledge is exploding as never before with the internet and now artificial intelligence (chat GPT is mind-blowing).

“But you, Daniel, shut up the words and seal the book, until the time of the end. Many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase.” Daniel 12:4

Jesus has given us sufficient prophecies about the time before His return so that we will not be taken by surprise. In fact, we can use these prophecies to demonstrate that God is in control of all that happens on Earth He created. We can then preach the Good News of Jesus’ sacrifice on our behalf so that we can inherit eternal life.