Many critics of the Christian faith have no interest whatsoever in an open-minded exploration of God’s grace. They simply take great satisfaction in annoying believers, because our witness and commitment to the Good News disturbs the natural person. Their aim is thus to eradicate that conviction by pressuring believers to change their minds and accept an impotent version that will alleviate conviction. To some degree, it’s working. Progressive Christianity is a product of cultural compromise, particularly accepting evolution, which relegates God’s Word to myth and fables and the Christian faith to a mere option of self-help. They no longer believe that Jesus is the divine Son of God but just a moral example for us to follow.
A Christian’s journey towards victorious faith must now overcome the mirage of mind games played in culture. It’s necessary for those who know “on whom (they) have believed and (are) convinced that He is able to guard what has been entrusted” (2 Tim. 1:12) to realise what they have with God’s inerrant Word. Our message is “sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit… and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart” (Heb. 4:12). The Christian has the powerful message of grace that by the Spirit is convicting “the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment” (John 16:8). Pushbacks at every level are reactions to the convicting nature of this spiritual dynamic.
The message of God’s grace and repentance in Jesus is an all or nothing proposition that provokes backlash and antagonism. “If the world hates you,” said Jesus, “know that it hated me before it hated you” (John 15:18). That is part of why Christians are to “love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” (Matt. 5:44). Believers who represent the message of grace and repentance often become the target of a natural person’s frustrations and rebellion against God.
There are definitely times when honest and fair questions require answers. Conversations should be welcomed, particularly on evolution, as many resources are available from http://www.creation.com and http://www.answersingenesis.org to support creation versus evolution. The Lord Jesus was right that love and mercy should be hallmarks of Christian reaction. Nevertheless, Christians should begin to take our trust in God’s grace much more seriously and realise that cultural scepticism is built on “sinking sand” by flawed human beings.
“I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose. Isaiah 46:10
Sometimes, we need the reminder that God knows the future and can do what is humanly impossible. He knows what is eternally best in ways we cannot. God can see ultimate purposes and plans that we can’t. We also need to understand that God is in control.
Countries where the people once honoured God, recognising that “God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself” 2 Corinthians 5:19, experienced unprecedented security and prosperity. These same countries today are crumbling as people turn their backs on God. ” Righteousness lifts up a nation, but sin is a shame to any people.” Proverbs 14:34.
As nations turn their backs on God, living as if He does not exist, sin abounds; political corruption, lying, slander, public displays of debauchery, violent crime, abortion, theft, adultery, drug taking, drunkenness, gambling, and greed of all kinds. Economic woes follow as taxes increase and governments borrow money to pay for bigger police forces, gaols, and social security systems to fix the problems. Underpinning this abandonment of faith in God is the widespread acceptance of evolutionary thinking – that everything made itself by natural processes and that God is not necessary. The complex design we see in the world designed itself. God says they are without excuse if they ignore the obvious.
“For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.” Romans 1:19-20
Sadly, such thinking abounds in universities and governments today. As a result, some of the greatest evil ever seen perpetrated was by those who adopted an evolutionary approach to morality: Lenin, Hitler, Stalin, Mao Zedong, and Pol Pot. Many millions have suffered terribly and lost their lives because of this atheistic way of thinking. Atheism kills because, without God, there are no rules – anything goes. Atheists are at the forefront of efforts to legitimise abortion, euthanasia, drug taking, prostitution, pornography, and promiscuity. All these things cause misery, suffering, and death. Atheism is the philosophy of death, and it comes from the great deceiver, Satan, who is intent on our destruction.
The Bible reveals that God knew this would happen and that before Jesus returns to restore righteousness, His followers will be persecuted for His namesake.
“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. But the one who endures to the end will be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.” Matthew 24:9-14
You need to be living eternal now, ready for Jesus’ return. My book is available on Amazon.
Just days before Christian students’ scheduled vacation to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, a lonely and radicalized high school student opened fire inside Abundant Life Christian School in Madison, Wisconsin, killing two people and wounding six more. Police say 15-year-old Natalie Rupnow, who went by the name “Samantha,” opened fire with a 9mm handgun during study hall before turning the gun on herself.
Founded in 1978, Abundant Life Christian School (ALCS) offers classes to students from kindergarten through the 12th grade “in a Christ-focused context,” according to the school’s website.
She opened fire in a room of students of mixed ages, killing one teenage student and one teacher. Six people were injured: one teacher and five students. Two of the victims were released from SSM Health St. Mary’s Hospital on Monday. Two victims remain in critical condition.
Rebekah Smith, a fellow student’s mother, told The New York Times that she believed Rupnow had enrolled as a new student in the Christian school at the beginning of the year, hoping it would help her turn her life around.
A purported manifesto may offer insight into the mixture of toxic traits that sent the 15-year-old over the edge. It is obvious from reading it that being at a Christian school had no impact on her worldview. It was totally evolution-led and godless.
After speaking with Rupnow’s boyfriend, a reporter said she verified the authenticity of a six-page manifesto titled “War Against Humanity.” In it, Rupnow expresses her admiration for the Columbine High School shooters, as well as racial collectivist terrorist Patrick Crusius, and Brazilian school shooter Guilherme Taucci.
“Humanity is filth,” she wrote. “My parents are scum.” The document notes her parents divorced, although she claims it did not affect her. “I’ve grown to hate people, and society,” she wrote. “[A]ll of you and the world have done is pick on me and tease me.” Rupnow wrote of “getting teased and pushed around” at school, where “I always got picked on.”
“My so-called family never included me because I was too weird for them. … My father will always make me stand out in the worst possible way,” stated the manifesto. “I hate humanity for forcing me into this little hole.”
The manifesto expresses profound isolation, which observers believe she filled with harmful online content. “[M]y parents admit they didn’t want me. … I’m always the one who sat out or sat in another room because they didn’t want to interact with me at any point in time, then I stayed in my room all day long and all night and after and before school as well,” she wrote.
“I planned on shooting myself awhile ago but I thought maybe it’s [sic] better for evolution” to engage in a mass shooting. Rupnow engages in racially charged rhetoric, indicating another possible motive for her shooting. “The human scum is color, and how people are raised,” she wrote. She also used a racial epithet for black people.
“The Revolution should be well,” she said. “I am part of the real thought and the real revolution.” “We need revolution,” she insisted. “The wolf hunts its prey. … There is nothing more than filth,” the document concluded.
Despite being in a Christian school Rupnow had no concept of the Gospel or a loving God.
Exploring the tension between biblical and secular history, this discussion delves into complex questions—Is the Earth thousands or billions of years old? What do genealogies reveal about the Bible’s timeline, and how do we reconcile this with the dates proposed by modern science? The conversation also touches on ancient Egyptian history, carbon dating, and why these topics shape our understanding of humanity’s origins and our place in history. Beyond these scientific and historical analyses lies a more profound question: why does any of it matter? With insights drawn from Scripture, the discussion unveils how beliefs about creation and the Fall directly influence the purpose and message of redemption. These foundational elements connect directly to the role of Jesus, the “last Adam,” who reconciles creation to God. Dr. Rob Carter weaves together science, theology, and personal experience, illustrating how a firm biblical foundation can transform both understanding and faith. He is one of my favourite expositors on creation and evolution.
Evolutionists often claim that they have made many successful predictions that show evolution is true. However, the many failed predictions prove the theory is without valid functionality. Random chance will not produce complex functioning organisms.
In this video, Dr. Don Batten covers five major failed predictions across cosmological, geological, and biological evolution.
Eminent scientists like Dr. Dean Kenyon (former Professor of Biochemistry at Stanford University and the author of two evolutionary biochemistry textbooks) said the discovery of DNA (complex information) and the electron microscope that revealed complex machines inside every living cell rang the “death knell” of evolution. You can hear his incredible testimony on Youtube: https://youtu.be/jrXf8KCJLMg.
Dr Don Batten of Creation Ministries is well qualified to discuss this subject, and he clearly demonstrates that mutations are a loss of information. Mutations do not add information to the genome, so they cannot create “you from goo.” The video is not long, so make sure you use it to challenge your evolutionary-minded family members and friends.
All of the evidence of DNA (complex information) and the genome point to an intelligent designer. Random chance is not a reasonable explanation for the complexity and design evident in human life. There is a God and He reveals Himself to us in many ways but the most revealing way was through His Son Jesus Christ.
““For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16
How can we be sure our children won’t be “tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes” (Ephesians 4:14)?
Our grandchildren are growing up in a whole different culture to us. They are going to have to deal with issues that we didn’t have to, what can we do?”
We need to first understand what happened. We need to deal with the foundational issue. It started 6,000 years ago in a garden. Satan said to Eve:
“Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’” But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”Genesis 3:1-5
“But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ.” 2 Corinthians 11:3
Note what the apostle Paul says: The devil is using the same method on you, on your kids, on your grandkids, as he used on Eve to get you to a position of not believing the authority of God’s Word.
The Genesis 3 attack—“Did God really say?” And notice the next part, “And you will be like God.” You decide the truth for yourself. That is one of the problems we see through the whole Bible.
What is the method? To create doubt regarding the Word of God. It is an attack on the Word of God.
Here is the problem, our sinful nature leads us to trust man’s word rather than God’s Word. We want to be our own god and decide right and wrong for ourselves. Our churches need to be laying this foundation and teaching people about our sinful nature and understand the fact of what happened was this . . .
A battle began between two religions about 6,000 years ago, Man’s Word vs. God’s Word. It is the same battle today, the same in Luther’s day, and the same in Peter and Paul’s day. It is the same battle, and it hasn’t changed. The method by which that battle occurs does change through the years, but not the actual battle.
There is no neutral position Jesus makes it clear.
“Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.” Matthew 12:30
People have this idea that if you do not mention the Bible, when it comes to abortion or gay marriage and many other issues, then you are being neutral. But if you do not have the foundation of God’s Word, that means you only have the foundation of man’s word and that means you’ve already lost the battle.
“Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock... And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand.” Matthew 7:24,26
If you reject God, you suppress the truth.
“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.” Romans 1:18-20
Public education is not neutral. If the system is not for Christ, then it is against Him. So we send our kids there for five hours a day, all year long, and what do we do at home? What is the church doing? We need to be equipped to answer the following questions and God has raised up ministries to provide this information: Creation Ministries International http://www.creation.com and Answers in Genesis http://www.answersingenesis.org
Sadly, most Christians cannot answer even the basic questions. Test yourself with the following questions.
How do you know the Bible is God’s Word? Where did the Bible come from? Who put the Bible together? Why are there those books in the Bible and not other books? Do you believe in God? Where did God come from? You believe in an eternal God? How do you explain that? Who made God? Did someone make God?
Answers in Genesis have built a life-sized Noah’s Ark at Cinncinatti in the USA. They can provide you with all the evidence you need to show that the Biblical worldwide flood of Noah’s day occurred.
Stop trusting in man, put your trust in God. People love the praise of man rather than the praise of God.
8.3 million minors in the USA received mental care in 2023, highlighting a ‘Decaying Culture’.
The family unit, social interaction, and politics are a few of the many variables that impact a developing adolescent. When a child’s family unit is broken, social life is in shambles, or the political public square becomes unavoidable, it can have consequences on who they become as their worldview takes shape. As evidenced by previous reports, as well as one published last month, mental health concerns are exploding in the younger generation.
The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) conducted a July survey that analyzed the amount of counseling, medication, or other forms of mental health therapy minors underwent in 2023. According to the results, 8.3 million youth ages 12 to 17 received mental health care, which The Epoch Times noted “is equivalent to nearly one-third of the adolescents in the U.S. undergoing treatment for mental health issues.”
The National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), which is the title of SAMHSA’s annual survey, found that the results were in line with the trend they’ve seen since 2009, namely, that “the percentage of teenagers who receive treatment for mental health has climbed practically every year.” As ET highlighted, “Authorities from SAMHSA said that they considered the increase to be a positive development, highlighting efforts to mainstream and remove the stigma associated with getting treatment for mental health issues.”
The survey included statistics concerning the underage and their use of alcohol and drugs, as well as the rates of suicidal thoughts, plans, and attempts among adolescents. To accompany those statistics in greater detail are countless other studies accentuating what causes children to engage in such harmful behaviors and acts — all of which often lead to mental health issues.
For instance, The Washington Stand highlighted a report from last year “that compared dozens of studies conducted between 1987 and 2022,” emphasizing the way fatherlessness impacts children. In analyzing the results, the America First Policy Institute (AFPI) noted there were “clear correlations between children raised in fatherless homes and developmental challenges ranging from bad grades, anxiety, and suicide to violent behavior, drug use, and criminality.”
Additionally, the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study from 2022 examined 7,111 children “who did not identify as anything other than their biological sex, as well as 58 transgender-identifying children between the ages of 9 and 10.” As the report emphasized, “Children who identified as transgender at this young age were more likely to experience depression … anxiety … conduct problems … and suicidality.” The study also pointed out that trans-identifying children were more likely to have endured “significant psychological trauma” such as “exposure to domestic violence, mental illness, alcohol or drug use in the home, physical or emotional abuse or neglect, sexual abuse, and parental divorce.”
Needless to say, there are many factors involved in the “recipe” of “despair, hopelessness, nihilism, [and] disaffection,” as Marlo Slayback, national director of Student Programs at the Intercollegiate Studies Institute, previously shared with The College Fix. According to Slayback, Generation Z is surrounded by a “decaying culture,” which inevitably affects them as they try to navigate through it. But to further break down how this all relates to the most recent findings, Joseph Backholm, Family Research Council’s senior fellow for Biblical Worldview and Strategic Engagement, shared his insight with TWS.
“It’s beyond dispute at this point that social media is harming the mental health of young people,” he said. Especially among the youth, the technological realm is “creating constant comparison which leads to a lack of contentment.” Not to mention, he added, it’s replacing real-life relationships with the appearance of virtual relationships.” But beyond social media, Backholm urged that our analysis should consider that “the way we talk and think about mental health may explain some of this as well.”
He continued, “We have destigmatized mental health in ways that are good, but we have almost glamorized certain mental health ways that make young people want a diagnosis.” Numerous instances prove that “adults are rushing children into mental health treatments in ways that have never happened before.”
“Abigail Shrier does a good job documenting this in her recent book Bad Therapy,” where she “argues that the problem isn’t the kids — it’s the mental health experts.”
It appears, Backholm stated, that “in an attempt to make sure we don’t ignore a child’s struggles, adults may inadvertently be encouraging children to fixate on them which could make things worse.” In addition to that, “if children receive special attention for having a mental health challenge, we inadvertently encourage children to have them, or at least claim to.” According to Backholm, “Mental health challenges are real, but they are also invisible, which makes diagnosing them more difficult and more susceptible to cultural and personal factors rather than scientific ones.”
From a biblical worldview, Backholm explained how “a sinful world is full of challenges,” and really, “Christians understand why.” Ultimately, “When we live and think the way God intended, in relationship with Him and others, our minds will be better for it.” But the truth is, Backholm contended, “We live in a broken world, and no one escapes the consequences fully.” As a result, we are incapable of living completely as God intended us to live.
A major influence is that most young people have been taught in schools and universities that God does not exist, they evolved from monkeys and therefore there’s no meaning or purpose to life. They have no hope. God’s commandments have been jettisoned: homosexuality, gay marriage, transgenderism, and abortion are acceptable. Christians who hold to God’s standards are bigots, homophobes, and worse.
The true history of the world is no longer taught even by our Bible Colleges. Due to the acceptance of evolution, they have abandoned Genesis, its creation account, and the worldwide flood of Noah’s day. Fortunately, God’s Word, the Bible tells us that this would happen in the last days before Jesus’ second coming.
“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.” 2 Peter 3:3-6
Christians know how the story of this world ends. Jesus in his Olivet Discourse, given in three of the Gospels, provides a lot of detail as does Revelation. In the O.T. the revelation given to Daniel was for the end times. Three times Daniel was told, “Go your way, Daniel, for the words are shut up and sealed until the time of the end.” Daniel 12:9
Daniel, like no other book, reaches all the way back to Israel’s beginnings and outlines the whole sweep of Israel’s history of crisis and covenant discipline, reaching its glorious resolution in the kingdom that has come on earth as it is in heaven.Daniel is the key to organizing the whole of scripture around the main themes of kingdom, covenant, and mystery. But it is Jesus’ Olivet prophecy in particular, and the emphasis He puts on one centermost event (abomination of desolation), that becomes the key that opens not only Daniel but also sets all the prophecies spoken concerning the coming day of the Lord in clearest covenant context.
We must remember that the NT revelation of the mystery of the gospel is built around Christ’s first coming, His departure, and His return to Israel, specifically to the Mount of Olives from whence He ascended. He must return to the place where He was crucified under the placard that said, “This is Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.”
Why end the age just there, in that physical locality? Why has God constructed the end of the age around an ancient land dispute that is divinely calculated to plunge the nations into an insoluble crisis from which none will be able to extricate themselves? (Zech 12:2-3). Why would God bind together the issue of the mystery of the gospel with the mystery of Israel?
Part of the answer regards His deliberate intention that both comings would be surrounded by an element of mystery is to elude the pride of self-reliance (Mt. 11:25-26), just as Paul warns in Ro. 11:25. Just as the mystery of Christ’s twofold coming so deeply searched and tested Jewish hearts, just so, the mystery of Israel is designed to test and sift the hearts of the nations, even gentile believers.
But there is one important difference: The mystery of Christ’s cross and twofold coming was not only hidden from Peter and the disciples (Mt 16:22; Lk 18:34); it was hidden even from the angelic powers (1 Cor 2:7-8). Not so the mystery surrounding the Lord’s return.
Those well-marked days will only come “as a thief” upon the unregenerate church and the unbelieving world, but not upon the faithful children of the light (1 Thess. 5:4). We know this because Daniel’s prophecy is clear that the vision will be unsealed and known to the wise at the time of the end. They will be doing great exploits, instructing many, and turning many to righteousness. A countless number will be saved out of, “the great tribulation (Rev 7:14).
But the larger answer to the question has all to do with the completion of an ancient covenant promise. It is the age-ending climax of the “everlasting covenant” that forms the framework of the future. In the larger context of God’s eternal purpose in Christ, this is what defines how and why the age ends just as the prophecy of both testaments so fully describes.
Reggie Kellie of Mystery of Israel (www.mysteryofisrael.org) says, “Towards the goal of seeing the big picture, I believe the Lord Jesus Himself has given us the key to establish what I like to call a “plumbline of simplicity” that will align and pull many of the strands together into a coherent clarity. The object will not only be to know what is most important to know, but how best to show others how to make the case from scripture without getting bogged down in details, in a way that will equip others to equip others.
If observed, God has given us an amazing, and now especially timely, provision to equip the body, not only to escape the manifold forms of end-time deception but to have the Lord’s own, personally commended key of interpretation that will enable them to “instruct many” and “turn many” to righteousness” (Dan 11:32-33; 12:3, 10).
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.
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.
LIVING ETERNAL NOW 