This is a must see video to really understand what is happening in the USA. Juan Riesco grew Nini’s Deli from its humble origins to #1 in Chicago on Yelp before the Black Lives Matter movement cancelled it in early June 2020. His parents, immigrants from Cuba and Mexico, started the small business. Juan took the reigns during a transitional period in his life, in which he converted to Christianity, after living as a homosexual in San Francisco. After the death of George Floyd, the Black Lives Matter movement promoted posting a black square on social media to show solidarity with the cause. When Juan failed to take this step, hundreds of people went online to accuse him of racism. Juan gently responded to each individual by explaining that he was a Christian and could not endorse the anti-Christian beliefs of the Black Lives Matter organization, but that he did believe black people, as well as all people, mattered to God. The next day hundreds of protestors showed up to protest Nini’s Deli. Juan preached the gospel to them. The next day thousands of people showed up. Juan received thousands of death threats and had to flee the city in the middle of the night to escape. Juan lost his corporate contracts and Nini’s Deli closed. Even as he lost his business and experienced betrayal by friends, Juan’s faith in Christ and resolve grew. Juan considers the story of Nini’s to be a victory story as many have come to Christ and been inspired by his courage.
BIBLE TRANSLATION WORK
Current projections estimate that in the next 15 years, all people groups will have at least some portion of Scripture available in their own language, while 95% will have a complete Bible, and 99.95% will have a New Testament. Poole continued: “Each new translation is exciting because it means more people are able to access the Scriptures in their own language. That accessibility is key to helping people truly comprehend the gospel message, and to seeing lives transformed by Jesus. “We are fast approaching a key milestone in world history.
God is making sure that people will be without excuse when they say they did not know that God has provided an answer to all of the problems evident in this world including death.
VICTIM OF IDENTITY THEFT
Fighting the Wrong War
I think all parties agree that biological sex is determined by our chromosomally dictated external body morphology, so the real question confronting us is this – What is gender?
The UCSF Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Resource Center defines gender as:
“A social construct used to classify a person as a man, woman, or some other identity. Fundamentally different from the sex one is assigned at birth; a set of social, psychological and emotional traits, often influenced by societal expectations.”
If this statement is true, then I feel the transgender community has been deceived by the culture. If gender is truly a social construct then the dissonance they experience between their inner gender and outer biology is not really an internal struggle at all, but rather a conflict between their biology and cultural gender stereotypes. They have been cruelly enlisted to fight a proxy war over social constructs within their own souls and the battlefield ends up being littered with emotional and physical casualties.
I think the transgender community would be better served by fighting for a better cultural understanding of gender rather than battling for societal acceptance of physical transitioning. It seems to me that once you transition you have lost the war and surrendered to the societal dictates of what it means to be male or female.
Authentic Self
What is the authentic self? Is it physical or spiritual? While those outside the Church define it by how culture sees them, Christians must ask: “How does God see me?”
St. Paul made it clear that outward appearances such as ethnicity, sex and social standing are irrelevant to God, so maybe we need to stop defining our image bearing by physical differences and do some real soul searching. The problem is that our culture, rather than allowing us to be our authentic selves, steals our identity by forcing us to choose from a culturally approved list of sexual categories.
You cannot lump transgender people together because they all have unique stories. I think this is a very important point because in this day and age of identity politics the individual is often drowned out by the shouts of the mob and their unique voices become auto-tuned to conform to the elevator music standards of political correctness.
Sadly, our unique image bearing has been dumbed down to color, ethnicity, gender and sexual preference, none of which describes the genius of who we truly are. While these categories may be important components of our personal journeys, they do not define us. The reason this is important is because when our identities become slogans we no longer have conversations between unique individuals but rather shouting matches between ideologies. Name calling and yelling is the default mode of interaction between movements, but polite dialogue and civil debate should be the norm when two image bearers meet.
Identity Theft
Ironically, our culture, which seems to value individuality, ends up homogenizing its citizens in identity group blenders. We are fooled into believing that identity politics will help us find out who we truly are, when in reality it only steals our identity. Instead of articulating those things that make us unique we are encouraged to chant slogans, instead of engaging in dialogue with other interesting human beings we are encouraged to lecture at them, and instead of ruminating on our own lives we are encouraged to spit at others.
Identity politics co-opts our personal biographies and uses them as infomercials for somebody else’s political product, and the more we are forced to watch them the more we believe the lie. If you insist on draping yourself in somebody else’s flag no one will ever see your true colors. You may want the world to see you as a rebel with a cause, but Jesus sees you as a sheep without a shepherd. In the first instance, you will be a dime a dozen but in the second you will be that rare lost coin that keeps old ladies up at night.
Warning! If you seek family by becoming a poster child for an organization you will end up becoming the intellectual property of those who market the ideology, and if you ever decide to break ranks you will quickly be tossed aside as a cultural orphan, such as those who publicly regret their decision to transition. The beauty of the gospel is that Jesus has already visited the orphanage and adopted you as his child. You no longer need to try and find intimacy in a political commune where a village raises a child, but rather can be adopted as a child of God where you are personally loved by your Abba Father.
Our individuality is found in Christ where there is no democrat or republican, black or white, male or female, conservative or liberal. God created you as a unique image bearer so don’t let culture make you a victim of identity theft.
Extract from the excellent article “Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria only diagnoses the fearsome power of social media” by Dr. Erik Strandness. He is a physician and Christian apologist who has practiced neonatal medicine for more than 20 years. Posted on patheos.com – Evangelical, February 22, 2021
SEX IS DETERMINED BY X and Y CHROMOSONES
The Lord Jesus, the Master Designer and Programmer, ensured that the very definition of our sex is encoded onto every single one of our trillions of DNA-containing cells! I cannot imagine a more robust, fundamental way to ‘hardcode’ a static, immutable, unchangeable value, which could well be declared as a constant. This is in perfect harmony with Scripture’s clear teaching of two sexes. Sex is determined by X and Y chromosomes contained in every cell in the body. Male XY and females XX.
The many clear instructions in the Bible, given by our caring Creator, are motivated by love, by what is best for us. It is mandatory we follow our Creator’s instructions. If we decide to rebel against the Creator’s will in matters of marriage, sex, and gender definitions, we do it to our detriment. The Bible is the cutting-edge care instruction manual from the brilliant Super-Engineer to those of His beloved creatures created for fellowship with Him. Our every cell is in effect signed with ‘designed in Heaven’.
The Bible teaches clearly on marriage and gender in Genesis 1:27: “So God created man in his own image … male and female he created them.” Our Lord Jesus confirmed this (Matthew 19:4; Mark 10:6). He quoted Genesis 1:27, the creation of the first human couple, the ancestors of everyone else who ever lived. Thus, the original and flawless plan of our Creator is clearly for every human being to be either a male or a female.
BIBLE BELIEVING COUNTER-CULTURAL CHURCHES THRIVING
The most common religious identity among young adults in the U.S. is “none,” and the majority of Americans don’t believe it’s necessary for a person to believe in God to be moral and have good values, a new survey has found. The survey on American Life investigating contemporary religion in the U.S. found that among young adults (age 18 to 29), the most common religious identity today is none. More than one in three (34%) young adults are religiously unaffiliated. Nearly nine in 10 (87%) Americans report they believe in God, but just over half (53%) report they believe in God without any doubts at all. Overall, 42% of Americans have a close social connection with someone who is religiously unaffiliated — up from 18% in 2004.
Additionally, most Americans say it’s not necessary for a person to believe in God to be moral and have good values. Close to six in 10 (59%) Americans say a belief in God is not a precondition to being moral and having good values, while 41% of the public say a belief in God is essential. These statistics, the authors say, mark a “remarkable shift in recent years. The study also found that Americans are almost equally divided over whether it is better to discuss religious beliefs and ideas with those who do not share the same perspective, and most Americans have never been invited to church. A majority (54%) of Americans say they have not been asked to participate in a religious service in the past 12 months or have never been asked.
The survey corroborates a 2019 Pew Study survey that documented the decline of Christians and rise of religiously unaffiliated. Pew noted that the religiously unaffiliated group rose to 22.8% share of the population in 2014, eclipsing the number of Catholics in America, who fell to 20.8%. Christians as a whole fell from 78.4 to 70% of the population between 2007 to 2014, with every major group experiencing a decline. Similarly, the 2018 General Social Survey found that the number of religious “nones” in the U.S. are now statistically equal to the number of evangelicals. Ryan Burge, a political science researcher at Eastern Illinois University who analyzed data from the survey, told The Christian Post that the religious “‘none’s’ are not slowing down.”
THE GOOD NEWS
Russell Moore, president of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, previously said the “increasing strangeness” of Christianity is actually “good news” for the church. “Christianity isn’t normal anymore. It never should have been. The increasing strangeness of Christianity might be bad news for America, but it’s good news for the church. The major newspapers are telling us today that Christianity is dying, according to this new study, but what is clear from this study is exactly the opposite: while mainline traditions plummet, evangelical churches are remaining remarkably steady,” Moore said.
He added that statistics indicate there are honest atheists in America today, and that they are rejecting what’s called “almost-Christianity,” or traditions that “jettison the historic teachings of the Church as soon as they become unfashionable.” “The churches that are thriving are the vibrant, counter-cultural congregations that aren’t afraid to not be seen as normal to the surrounding culture. This report actually leaves me hopeful. The Bible Belt may fall. So be it,” he continued. “Christianity emerged from a Roman Empire hostile to the core to the idea of a crucified and resurrected Messiah. We’ve been on the wrong side of history since Rome, and it was enough to turn the world upside down.”
DEBUNKING PRETERISM
Ex-preterist theologian Dr. Brock Hollett has authored Debunking Preterism: How Over-Realized Eschatology Misses the Not Yet of Bible Prophecy. The book is replete with a wealth of illustrative figures and comparative charts that reinforce its main concepts. Special emphasis is placed upon a proper understanding of the biblical time statements and the “already and not yet” principle of eschatology. Joel Richardson interviews Dr Hollett on the attached video. May I suggest you schedule a time to watch it. Why Brock made the change and the circumstances surrounding it are dramatic to say the least. If you hold the Preterism position you will be challenged to reexamine the Scriptures.
LESSONS TO BE LEARNT FROM AMOS
Amos, possibly the first of the writing prophets, was a shepherd and farmer called to prophesy during the reigns of Uzziah (792–740 b.c.) in the southern kingdom (Judah) and Jeroboam II (793–753) in the north (Israel). During this time both kingdoms enjoyed political stability, which in turn brought prosperity. It was also a time of idolatry, sexual perversion, extravagance, and corruption. The rich and powerful were oppressing the poor. The sacrificial system is exploited and corrupt in every conceivable way. Amos denounced the people for their apostasy and social injustice and warned them that disaster would fall upon them for breaking the covenant.
In all of it, God gives examples of warning after warning, calling them to repentance, only to give the refrain, “…yet you have not returned to Me.” Thus, the inevitable result of their sin is that God’s judgment has gone forth and it will not be returned. The Lion shall come and consume them in His wrath, yet all the while, they will not see His discipline through, drought, famine, plague, pestilence, swarms of insects, warfare, and fire and brimstone. They shall come face to face with the living God Himself. Thus the summons is given to Israel, “Prepare to meet your God.”
Stark as the language may be, the command, “prepare to meet your God” is not simply one of the inevitable reality all men must face. It is a plea. It is a plea to seek God and live. In other words: it is a plea that the ten tribes of the Northern Kingdom would repent and turn back to God. He is calling Israel back to covenant faithfulness so they may avoid judgement. God’s aim is not simply destruction, but restoration. Note that the entire nation would face judgement, the book of Amos simply reveals that there was no innocent party to be found. All were commanded: return to the Lord, or perish.
Likewise in our day like Israel, “they will not see His discipline through famine, drought, pestilence, swarms of insects, plague, warfare, and fires.” The evil being done in our day takes the culturally acceptable look of ripping an infant limb from limb whilst in their mother’s womb. It dons the appearance of one who exploits those around them, seeing them as expendable objects rather than those who bear the very image of God. Likewise, it embraces the sexual perversion bound up in a culture that defiles the marriage bed in every meaningful way. Gender is a choice, not assigned by God. In all of it, the point where things terminate is in deception. Deception for the one who believes they can reject God and still be prepared to die. Likewise, deception for the one who believes they can fool God by living a double-life.
Many of the end times Bible prophecies have already been fulfilled and it is possible that Jesus has already taken off one or more seals from The Scroll (Revelation 5) containing the wrath of God. It is past time for the church to alert the world of coming judgement.
The Trumpet and Bowl Judgements of God
When the seventh seal is taken off and The Scroll of Revelation is finally opened the seven trumpet and seven bowl judgements release the wrath of God upon the earth. I have shown just the first five trumpet judgements to show their ferocity. The intensity escalates to the bowl judgements. Whilst Christians will experience the time of tribulation even great tribulation spoken of by Daniel and in Revelation during the last seven years prior to the Millennial Kingdom They will not be on earth when the wrath of God is poured out with the trumpet and bowl judgements during the last year. The saints will return to earth with Jesus to rule and reign with Him in the Millennium.
“The first angel blew his trumpet, and there followed hail and fire, mixed with blood, and these were thrown upon the earth. And a third of the earth was burned up, and a third of the trees were burned up, and all green grass was burned up.
The second angel blew his trumpet, and something like a great mountain, burning with fire, was thrown into the sea, and a third of the sea became blood. A third of the living creatures in the sea died, and a third of the ships were destroyed.
The third angel blew his trumpet, and a great star fell from heaven, blazing like a torch, and it fell on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water. The name of the star is Wormwood. A third of the waters became wormwood, and many people died from the water, because it had been made bitter.
The fourth angel blew his trumpet, and a third of the sun was struck, and a third of the moon, and a third of the stars, so that a third of their light might be darkened, and a third of the day might be kept from shining, and likewise a third of the night.
Then I looked, and I heard an eagle crying with a loud voice as it flew directly overhead, “Woe, woe, woe to those who dwell on the earth, at the blasts of the other trumpets that the three angels are about to blow!”
And the fifth angel blew his trumpet, and I saw a star fallen from heaven to earth, and he was given the key to the shaft of the bottomless pit. He opened the shaft of the bottomless pit, and from the shaft rose smoke like the smoke of a great furnace, and the sun and the air were darkened with the smoke from the shaft. Then from the smoke came locusts on the earth, and they were given power like the power of scorpions of the earth. They were told not to harm the grass of the earth or any green plant or any tree, but only those people who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads. They were allowed to torment them for five months, but not to kill them, and their torment was like the torment of a scorpion when it stings someone. And in those days people will seek death and will not find it. They will long to die, but death will flee from them.” Revelation 8:7-13 and 9:1-6
DR SAMUEL GANN’S JOURNEY TO BECOMING A CHRISTIAN
Once again this article is taken from the latest edition of Creation Magazine – http://www.creation.com. Don Batten CEO of Creation Ministries International interviews high-profile Singapore researcher Dr Samuel Gan. You must subscribe, it will bless you and your family immensely.
Dr Samuel Gan is the principal investigator and head of the Antibody & Product Development (APD) Lab in Singapore. His qualifications are impressive. He is an adjunct lecturer at Singapore University of Social Sciences, and at Republic Polytechnic, and is an adjunct associate professor at the Singapore campus of James Cook University (Australia). His qualifications include a B.Sc. (Hons) in molecular cell biology, a B.Sc. (Hons) in psychology, an M.Sc. (merit) in structural biology, and a Ph.D. in allergy. He has a diploma in biotechnology, a graduate certificate in academic practice, a postgraduate certificate in business administration, and certificates in commercial law & technology transfer, religious knowledge, biblical studies, and English/Mandarin translation & interpretation. He is also an Associate of King’s College, London.
His journey to become a Christian who believes the Biblical view of creation is inspiring. Sam said, He has always believed that God created the universe. But he had a ‘crisis of faith’ during his mid-teens because of a childhood interest in other world religions.
Logic and rules of things appealed to me in an uncertain world, and science was presented as having answers and being logical and rule-based. It turned out the only religion that made sense was Christianity, but I ended up with a sort of blend of secular ‘science’ and faith.
No serious scientist could believe that the complexity, order, and time-sensitive interrelationships of living things came about by chance (just physics and chemistry). And the conventional theistic evolution (‘God used evolution over billions of years’) was way too slow. But given my secular training, I came to have a confused hybrid idea involving a form of accelerated evolution during the six days of Creation Week, like millions of years happening within 6 days in some time-dilation-like model that later slowed down, due to my misinterpretation of 2 Peter 3:8. I hadn’t really thought it through!
When CMI’s Dr Carl Wieland in 2014 showed the classic slide of ‘Eden on bones’ (below), in Chin Lien Bible Seminary, Singapore, this challenged Sam’s beliefs involving evolution (albeit in a sped-up form). CMI materials helped him align with God’s Word. That year he took a stand, moved back to a church that taught 6-day creation, and enrolled in Far Eastern Bible College. That provided a strong foundation on the Word of God, and it turned out to be far more important to him than all his secular education.
This is what Dr Gan said he would say to a Christian young person thinking of a career in science.
Everyone, regardless of their choice of career, should study—online or part-time—some systematic theology from a good Bible-based seminary or Bible college. The foolishness I had in my younger days would have been avoided had I had more of the wisdom of God. The evolution confusion, the struggles, all came from the lack of knowledge of God’s Word. It is wise to get godly wisdom as early as possible.
Dr Gan’s testimony demonstrates that believing in biblical creation is clearly no hindrance to a high level of achievement in science. Rather, it is a great advantage. Understanding that a brilliant mind created the highly complex beautiful universe we inhabit, Samuel is like the German mathematician, astronomer and astrologer Johannes Kepler. Referring to his work in astronomy, Kepler said: “I was merely thinking God’s thoughts after Him.”
CONSEQUENCES OF REJECTING GOD
I believe God has delivered the USA to what theologians call “abandonment wrath.” As a nation they have forgotten God, and in response, He has delivered them over to a depraved mind. God is, in effect, allowing them to destroy themselves through their materialistic greed. You can expect that in the process, God will allow their true god, The Almighty Dollar, to be destroyed, most likely through hyperinflation. The following two Scriptures sum it up well.
“And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper, Romans 1:28
“Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever!” Romans 1:24
Dark days lie ahead for all of us. Those of us who have committed our lives to Jesus must keep our eyes on Him, we must stand for righteousness, we must share the Gospel with as many of the unsaved as we can. Moreover, the Scriptures reveal Christians will experience intense persecution in the last days prior to His return. God will purify His church through a time of tribulation but the church will not experience the wrath of God which will be poured out on an unbelieving world with the trumpet and bowl judgements. The apostle John was shown the following “end times” scene in heaven of the saints before the throne of God. Note what John is told when he asked who these people were. They are the Christians living during the time of the great tribulation.
“After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, saying, “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.”
Then one of the elders addressed me (John), saying, “Who are these, clothed in white robes, and from where have they come?” I said to him, “Sir, you know.” And he said to me, “These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.” Revelation 7:9-14
UNIVERSE IS FINE TUNED
The fact that the universe is tuned — that is, the fact there is any consistency at all in the laws of physics — demonstrates God’s existence. This is Aquinas’ Fifth Way, which is the proof from design. St. Thomas used the example of arrows. If we were to see arrows flying through the air, one after another, and noted that they consistently tended to land at or near a specific spot, we would correctly infer that they were shot by an archer (rather than, say, blown by the wind). Any consistency in nature implies a Mind that draws consistency out of chaos. A targeted arrow implies an archer. Note that this is not an argument from complexity. The simplest consistency in nature — a pencil falls down and not up, winter is colder than summer — demonstrates God’s existence.
The second thing that fine-tuning tells us is exemplified by fine. Fine refers to the accuracy of the laws of nature, which reveals the Archer’s purposes. By observing the precision of targeting of the shot arrows, we can discern the Archer’s motives. If the arrows are merely flying into an open field, we may infer that the archer is just testing his bow. If the arrows are consistently hitting a bulls-eye target, we may infer that the archer is practicing his accuracy. If the arrows are hitting animals in the forest, we may infer that the archer is hunting. If the arrows are hitting soldiers encircling the area, we may infer that the archer is defending from an invasion.
The tuning of nature points to God, and the fineness of His tuning points to His purpose. The anthropic fine-tuning of our universe tells us that we are God’s purpose in creation.
This scientific reality has atheists in a panic, hence their need to fabricate countless fantasy universes and nonsensical probabilities. The fact that God created the universe and holds it in existence for us is a scientific fact unequivocally demonstrated by modern astrophysics.
extracts from article “Multiverse” Myth Frees Atheists from Real Science by Michael R. Egnor, MD. He is a Professor of Neurosurgery and Pediatrics at State University of New York, Stony Brook. It appeared in Evolution News and Science Today March 2nd, 2021
