Blasphemy Law in Pakistan is targeting Christians

Fabricated evidence was recently used to convict a Asia Bibi, a Christian woman in Pakistan of blasphemy against the Muslim prophet Muhammad. The high-court judge, following Pakistan sharia law, sentenced her to life  in prison.

The president of Pakistan, Asif Zardari, and Punjab provincial governor Suleiman Ta-Seer, both took serious notice of this incident. The governor met with the Christian woman in jail. He claims that he will forward a personal letter to the president asking to pardon her from charges (even though she is completely innocent).  However, the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) has called for a march against her possible freedom and in favor of the blasphemy law "295-C".

Bibi, 45, is the first woman condemned to die under the blasphemy law. She has been jailed for 18 months and was sentenced November 8, 2010 to hang. Her lawyer has filed an appeal with the Lahore High Court, and President Asif Ali Zardari has decided to let the appeal process play out instead of immediately pardoning her, said Minister for Minority Affairs Shahbaz Bhatti, who met with Zardari on Thursday, November 25, 2010.

There are 10 million Christians in Pakistan out of a total population of 160 million. The blasphemy law is being used by Islamic fundamentalists to intimidate them.

Please pray for this Christian sister.

(Based on a Facebook message from a pastor in Pakistan, November 30, 2010.
For more info, see http://incontext.webs.com/thepersecuted.htm#666831394.)

Faith and Circumstance

Faith is refusing to be the slave of circumstance, by looking, not to the visible, but to the invisible.

By his faith, the righteous is victor at all times; even within the worst trials, he is able to worship, to abound in praises, precisely and above all when things are bad, and this is priceless in the eyes of God.

"Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen." (Hebrews 11:1)

- Jean-Paul Rempp, Coordinator for Europe, Lausanne Consultation on Jewish Evangelism

Dinosaur Ancestors? Evolutionists are Stuck...

The more dinosaur discoveries that are made, the more we realize our knowledge is complete and still no dinosaur ancestors have been found. All this shows that the only viable explanation is Creation!

Selections from The Evolution of Dinosaurs: Much Conjecture, Little Evidence, by Jerry Bergman.

Marko's Executive Summary: Jerry Bergman shows how the many theories of where species of individual dinosaurs came from are all unconstrained by fossil evidence. Instead, mainstream scientists rely on morphological comparisons and conjecture. Consequently, the imaginations of Darwinists are allowed great freedom in developing hypotheses.

Scientists such as Fastovsky and Weishampel (2005) have made extensive study of the fossil record, and have reached the conclusion that the likelihood of finding an ancestor in fossil form for of any of the 400-700 dinosaurs species "is nil". So evolutionists admit they are stuck...

The most famous example is Tyrannosaurus rex. 32 T. rex specimens have been located, half of which are close to complete. So far, not a single direct T. rex ancestor has been located. Potential ancestors, including Coelophysis, Herrerasaurus, Eoraptor, and Allosaurus, all have been eliminated by most experts as possible T. rex ancestors.

Evolutionists admit that evidence is limited and there continue to be many disagreements in the field of dinosaur phylogeny. These disagreements are to the degree that it calls into question the entire basis of dinosaur macroevolution!

(This review and article digest is by Marko Malyj, of the article published in Creation Research Society Quarterly Journal, Volume 46, Number 2, Fall, 2009, at http://www.creationresearch.org/crsq/articles/46/46_2/CRSQ%20Fall%2009%20Bergman.pdf)

Introduction

Coelophysis model demonstrating
supposed canibalistic behavior

The study of dinosaurs is an ideal area to evaluate evolution because an enormous amount of excellent fossil evidence exists. Since abundant fossil evidence exists, if dinosaurs evolved from some primitive precursor, good fossil evidence for their evolution from their earlier ancestors should have been uncovered by now. However, the extant fossil evidence does not support their evolution from lower forms of life. In spite of the abundant fossil record, our “knowledge of dinosaurs is very fragmentary and much that has been written remains speculation,” and “many authors have failed to differentiate between speculation and fact” (Croft, 1982, p. 9).
 
Dinosaur Taxonomy


Dinosaurs were all terrestrial reptiles—members of the archosauria clade that had scaly skin and hatched their young from eggs. The archosauria (ancient lizard) clade includes thecodontians, saurischians, ornithschians, crocodilians, and the flying pterosaurs (Weishampel et. al, 2007). The only members of the archosauria clade still alive today are crocodiles and alligators (Parker, 2000). A few of the dinosaurs were enormous in size, but most were around the size of bulls, and a few were as small as chickens.

Dinosaurs are commonly believed to have evolved from a small, crocodile-like animal; however, a review of the known fossils provides no evidence for dinosaur evolution from non-dinosaurs, despite the excellent and abundant dinosaur fossil record. Dinosaurs appear abruptly in the fossil record and disappear just as suddenly.

In spite of years of intensive effort, major disagreement still exists among the experts on dinosaur classification, which is one reason why determining their phylogeny is so difficult for paleontologists. The most recent taxonomy proposal is not based on evolution or fossil trees but cladistic analysis using 107 anatomical traits (Weishampel et. al, 2007). The fact is, how “closely related one fossil animal is to another is very much a matter of opinion” (Horner and Lessem, 1993 , p.128), and this is one reason why so much disagreement exists about their phylogeny.


The Origin of Dinosaurs


One of the most common phylogeny theories today is that dinosaurs evolved from the thecodont, an alligator-like reptile, that first appeared in the fossil record during the Triassic (Benton, 1984). Thecodonts, a term meaning “socket-toothed,” were large, heavy crocodile-like animals that crawled low to the ground and on all four legs. They had long jaws and tails similar to crocodiles, and for this reason some argue that they were only a type of primitive crocodile. The theory is that a thecodont’s (or some other Archosaur’s) limb position evolved to allow the dinosaur precursors to walk in a more upright position until they eventually could walk on their back legs, becoming the dinosaurs that we know today. from the fossil record. This speculation is not directly based on evidence but is the most plausible conjecture postulated for dinosaur evolution because all other possibilities are even less tenable. No fossil evidence exists for this widely accepted theory, or for any of the other less accepted theories.

Another candidate for the earliest direct dinosaur ancestor is a housecat-sized animal named Lagosuchus, believed by evolutionists to have lived 235 million years ago in Argentina (Horner and Lessem, 1993). Some paleontologists speculate that “Lagosuchus or one of its relatives may have been the ancestor of the dinosaurs” because they possessed “many of the features thought to be present in [the] oldest dinosaurs” (Forster, 2000, p. 44). From the fragmentary remains recovered so far, Forster (2000) concludes that Lagosuchus is “probably not the ancestor” of dinosaurs but “is at least closely related to the ancestors of the dinosaurs” (p. 45).

Others argue that yet some other Archosaur that appeared in the late Permian, many of which strongly resemble crocodiles, were their ancestor (Richardson, 2003, pp. 40–41).

These many theories are all unconstrained by fossil evidence but rather rely on morphological comparisons and conjecture. Consequently, the imaginations of Darwinists are allowed great freedom in developing hypotheses.

Some evolutionists reject all of these theories, concluding that dinosaurs evolved from some “unspecified quadrupeds” (Weishampel, 1990 p. 193).

Constructing phylogenic trees has proved so difficult that parallel evolution has been proposed to explain the existing conflicting tree hypothesis (Romer, 1966, p. 136). Some argue for diphyletic (having two separate) origins, others for three or four or more separate origins from different stem archosaurs (Fastovsky and Weishampel, 2005).

The group class Thecodontia has now been abandoned by many paleontologists. Although the monophyletic view now dominates, evidence for “multiple roots of Dinosauria might still exist and in fact may be more obvious now that the cover of ‘Thecodontia’ has been blown” (Fastovsky and Weishampel, 2005, p. 91). The reason for these disagreements is because these theories are based largely on speculation, not fossil evidence (Fastovsky and Weishampel, 2005). 


The Fossil Record

Herrerasaurus
Artist's impression

The fossil record indicates that dinosaurs were “extremely rare in the early part of the Late Triassic,” but by the end of the Triassic entirely “new groups of dinosaurs” had rapidly “spread world wide in an ever-increasing array of species” without leaving a trace of fossil evidence (Forster, 2000, p. 49). The fact is that no one knows why this “ever-increasing array” of new species occurred, nor do we have any fossil evidence to document their evolution— “abrupt appearance” is the only term that can describe what the fossil record reveals.

The process used to find a clade’s ancestor is to use the hierarchy of characters in the cladogram to determine what features should exist in an ancestor. The next step is to find evidence of "an organism that most closely matches the expected combinations of characters and character states. As we have seen, the likelihood of the very progenitor of lineage being fossilized is nil; however, we can commonly find representatives of closely related lineages that embody most of the features of the hypothetical ancestor" (Fastovsky and Weishampel, 2005, p. 92).


Tyrannosaurus rex


The best-known dinosaur is T. rex, an 18-foot-tall, 42-foot-long 14,000-pound monster, the largest carnivore that has ever lived. So far 32 T. rex specimens have been located, half of which are close to complete (Weishampel et al., 2007).

EoraptorArtist's impression

Darwinists estimate that dinosaurs first evolved 225 million years ago, and T. rex 190 million years ago. How they know this from only 32 specimens is unknown. So far, not a single direct T. rex ancestor has been located. Potential ancestors, including Coelophysis, Herrerasaurus, Eoraptor, and Allosaurus, all have been eliminated by most experts as possible T. rex ancestors

The leading experts, Horner and Lessem, admit the animal that the T. rex and the tyrannosaurids evolved from is not known: “maybe they came from the allosaur line of big predators, maybe they came from a common ancestor, along with the Troodontids, a man-sized group of dinosaurs with many birdlike features” (Horner and Lessem, 1993, p. 127). They conclude a logical T. rex dinosaur ancestor is a meat-eating creature, but “which one we can’t say yet”.

Life restoration of
Allosaurus fragilis

Clearly, the “evidence is limited and there continue to be many disagreements” in the field of dinosaur phylogeny, and often these disagreements are to the degree that it calls into question the basis of dinosaur macroevolution (Parker, 2003, p. 159).

Another problem is that dinosaurs were not primitive as the word is normally defined. An example is the intelligent design of the eye of T. rex. It has been assumed that they had very poor, fussy vision, but recent research has shown that they were able to achieve very detailed images similar to that of many modern animals (DeYoung, 2000). Many other examples exist to show that dinosaurs were very well designed for their environment.


Conclusions


Over 30 million dinosaur bones and parts, some in excellent states of preservation, have been identified, and although much speculation exists, not a single documented plausible direct ancestor has yet been located. All known dinosaurs appear fully formed in the fossil record. As Forster (2000, p. 42) admits, “much mystery remains about the origin of the dinosaurs.” Several possible candidates for their ancestors have been suggested, but difficulties exist with all of them, and most are likely only extinct reptiles and not evolutionary links.

The more paleontological discoveries that are made, the more we realize our knowledge is complete and still no ancestral form is found. As a result, paleontologists are forced to conjecture about their ancestors based on little evidence. In conclusion, no credible evidence exists for dinosaur evolution from a primitive precursor animal, supporting the creation model. Dinosaurs appear suddenly and evidently also went extinct rather suddenly.


References (selected)

Benton, M. 1984. The Dinosaur Encyclopedia. Aladdin, New York, NY.Croft, L.R. 1982. The Last Dinosaurs: A New Look at the Extinction of the Dinosaurs. Haslam Printers Ltd, Chorley, Lancashire, UK.

DeYoung, D. 2000. Dinosaurs and Creation. Baker Books, Grand Rapids, MI.

Fastovsky, D.E., and D.B. Weishampel. 2005. The Evolution and Extinction of the Dinosaurs, 2nd edition. Cambridge University Press, New York, NY.

Forster, C. 2000. The first dinosaurs. In Silverberg, R. (editor), The Ultimate Dinosaur, pp. 41–52. Ibooks (A Division of Simon and Schuster), New York, NY. 

Horner, J., and D. Lessem. 1993. The Complete T. Rex. Simon and Schuster, New York, NY.

Parker, S. 2003. Dinosaurs: The Complete Guide to Dinosaurs. Firefly Books, Crescent Richmond Hill, Ontario, Canada.

Richardson, H.. 2003. Dinosaurs and Prehistoric Life. Dorling Kindersley, New York, NY.

Romer, A. 1966. Vertebrate Paleontology. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL.

Weishampel, D. (editor). 1990. The Dinosauria. University of California Press, Berkeley, CA.

Weishample, D., P. Dodson, and H. Osmolska (editors). 2007. The Dinosauria. University of California Press, Berkeley, CA.

Please pray for persecuted believers in China.

"We haven't been discouraged. We can't worship here, but we have other places to go."

(Voice of the Martyrs, from a persecuted believer of a church closed by Chinese authorities, 2010)

Also see the ChinaAid website for up to date coverage of the persecuted believers in China.

Did Cavemen get Athlete's Foot?

Popular Science asked this very relevant question in its November 2010 issue. The answer is "probably". This is because "within around 10,000 years ago, people had lovely shoes", according to Will Harcourt-Smith, and expert on early-human fossils at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. 

Beside Harcourt-Smith, PopSci also interviewed such renown authorities as Tim James, who specializes in fungi evolution at the University of Michigan. (Fungi supposedly evolved 1.5 billion years ago). James states that "the fungus that causes athlete's foot thrives in moist, unhygienic environments, which is why most people pick it up in locker rooms."

Also interviewed was Bob Neinast, the lead blogger for the Society of Barefoot Living. (Established in 1994, I bet you didn't know there was such a society). He helpfully adds, "it turns out that athlete's foot fungus ... grows really well in a warm, dark, moist environment. That's the inside of a shoe."

Finally Cody Lundin, of Dual Survivor fame, who is "an outdoor survival-skills instructor who has gone barefoot for 20 years". He observes that "if the irritation gets bad enough, it will stop you in your tracks. That would be unacceptable for a hunter population."

PopSci stops short of saying that human evolution took a wrong turn when it started wearing footwear, since the resulting epidemic of Athelete's foot forced hunting expeditions to be curtailed. (I suppose that Lundin is an example of present-day human evolution that is making a proper course correction). Or perhaps evolution took the right turn, since the irritation of the fungus caused humans to turn from hunting to settled agriculture. I suppose both points of view would be acceptable to evolutionists (it's amazing how evolutionists always have the correct answer, whether its yes, no, or both).

In the midst of all this hard core information, what really stands out is the admission that people had decent footwear going back to just about the time of Adam and Eve!

Here is a far more likely explanation: Cavemen are not the right folks to talk about. When Adam and Eve were expelled from the Garden of Eden for their rebellion against God, God clothed them with the skin of the first animal that ever died. They were extremely intelligent, since they were created in the image of God, and quickly figured out that in their new harsh circumstances, they needed to cover the other parts of their body, like their feet. And yes, after the Fall, they did get athlete's foot!

To see the PopSci article, go to http://en.calameo.com/read/0001278539e10d1809223, click on the search icon in the upper right, search on "cavemen", then select page 104.

P.S. This "scientific" article is not to hard to read, and is only two columns long. However, I'm wondering how scientific it is. Here are some difficult science words that it contains: "good guess", "probably", "I don't imagine that", "could have" (3 times), "might have" (3 times), and  "sometimes". If you read it, make sure you don't stumble across these words too badly.

Where is all the Antimatter?

Assumed predictions of the Big Bang have lost a lot of credibility, because scientists have not found any large quantities of antimatter in the universe at all!

An antihydrogen atom is made from a negatively charged antiproton and a positively charged positron, the antimatter counterpart of the electron. Antihydrogen is an example of antimatter, which are exact copies of identical matter particles, except that each antimatter particle has the opposite charge.  


The electrodes (gold) of the trap
used to combine positrons and
antiprotons to form antihydrogen.

A research collaboration at CERN, Europe's particle-physics lab near Geneva, Switzerland, has managed, 38 times, to confine single antihydrogen atoms in a magnetic trap for more than 170 milliseconds. The group reported the result in Nature online on 17 November 2010. "We're ecstatic. This is five years of hard work," says Jeffrey Hangst, spokesman for the ALPHA collaboration at CERN.

This huge accomplishment reminds us about yet another problem with the Big Bang theory. According to the Big Bang cosmology, most evolutionists assume that every particle of matter created by the energy of the Big Bang should have a particle of antimatter created at the same time. These assumed predictions of the Big Bang have lost a lot of credibility because we have not found nearly the amount of antimatter in the universe that could be accepted under such a model. Paul W. Lamicela's research article has a detailed discussion of the many shortcomings of Big Bang cosmology related to antimatter.

Selections from Antimatter and the Big Bang by Paul W. Lamicela.

(These selections by Marko Malyj are of the article published by Answers in Genesis, March 2006, at http://www.answersingenesis.org/docs2006/contest-winner/lamicela.pdf).

When matter and antimatter come together, they annihilate and form energy. According to the big bang, all the matter in the universe formed from energy. But this would produce an equal amount of antimatter. So just as easily as the matter/antimatter came into existence it could come back together and very soon, there would only be radiation.

Could the antimatter have separated from matter soon after the big bang and now be in distant regions of space? There is no evidence that there is much antimatter out in space, or that other galaxies are made of antimatter.

What about Charge Parity violation? Normally, Charge and Parity together must be conserved, so that if you swap a particle with its antiparticle and change its direction of spin, it would behave the same way as it did before the changes. But this is not true of K mesons. If there was CP violation in the first seconds of the big bang, matter would have won out over antimatter. Unfortunately for the big bang, it has been shown that the amount of CP violation is several orders of magnitude less than would account for matter/antimatter imbalance.

What about Grand Unified Theories? GUTs attempt to explain the strong, weak and electromagnetic forces as being different aspects of a single force under extremely high energies. But GUTs predict that protons eventually decay, and will have a lifetime of 10+31 years. All experiments have failed to find any proton decay at all.

How is antimatter not a problem for the biblical model? God created matter in the beginning, but He did not create much antimatter. God did not want all the matter to annihilate with antimatter. He designed the universe to function!

Are you a 12-point Calvinist? TULIP, FABRIC & More

In 1619, in order to answer Arminianism, the Five Points of Calvinism were codified by the Synod of Dort. They are summarized by the acronym TULIP:

Total Depravity (also known as Total Inability and Original Sin)
Unconditional Election
Limited Atonement (also known as Particular Atonement)
Irresistible Grace
Perseverance of the Saints (also known as Once Saved Always Saved)

In 1910, in order to answer "Modernism", the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the USA, passed the Doctrinal Deliverance, which declared that Five Fundamentals were "necessary and essential" to the Christian faith.

In 1961, in order to answer Theistic Evolution, the modern Creation Science movement was revived with the publication of The Genesis Flood: The Biblical Record and its Scientific Implications, by John C. Whitcomb and Henry M. Morris, which reminded Bible believers how vital Creation and the Flood are to the faith.

These tenets of the faith after TULIP - the Five Fundamentals, Creation, and the Flood - may be summarized by the acronym FABRIC & M:

Flood of Noah was global
Atonement for sin by Christ's death
Birth from a virgin of the Lord Jesus Christ
Resurrection of Christ in his body
Inerrancy of Scripture
Creation in the six literal days of Genesis chapter one 

Miracles of Christ were a historical reality

Today, in the early 21st century, Biblical Christianity is coming under increasing pressure. The Five Points of Calvinism, the Five Fundamentals, and now Creation and the Flood are just 12 battle grounds of the faith, with More to come. TULIP, FABRIC & More.

Flood Stories from Around the World

Where did all these stories come from? There are dozens of them from people groups all around the world. From Scandinavia, Egypt, East Africa, Korea, Australia, Pacific islands, Native Americans, and many, many more. See Mark Isaac's flood story collection.

There are three major explanations....

The first is that all the world's flood stories are mere tales, evidence of a common "flood" gene yet to be found in all human beings, that expressed itself from time to time by certain carriers of that gene to create entertaining stories centered on a flood motif (perhaps I am one of those carriers?!). By the year 2100, PhD Evolutionists will apply for grant funding, and will then make a press release that announces that they have isolated this gene. They will then do studies to show how this gene links to other tendencies within human beings, like an irrational preference for prayer to a higher being, for example. (I will make myself available for the brain chemistry study...)

The second is that the most ancient flood story of all is actually true (couldn't be Noah's flood from the Bible, could it?!), and somehow made a vast impression on all peoples across the entire world (couldn't be because the flood was global, could it?!). All the other stories multiplied and got garbled for some reason (couldn't be the Bible's Tower of Babel, could it?!).

The third is that one of the other flood stories is the most ancient one, and is the one that is actually true. Perhaps it is the Native American Lakota story that tells us that Unktehi, a water monster, fought the people and caused a great flood. A better candidate might be from East Africa (in the area where humans first evolved from their apelike forebears) - the Masai story of Tumbainot, who built an ark of wood and enter it with his two wives, six sons and their wives, and some of animals of every sort.

Which explanation do you think is correct?

Gladness

"A good attitude is

the memory of a glad heart"

(Anonymous)

Encouragement

"Never underestimate the power

of someone believing in you."

(Anonymous)

Only a Global Flood could have Moved Rocks 3,000 Miles!

"Geologists were baffled. Something moved rocks up to 3,000 miles across whole continents. They found evidence in Asia and also in America. How on earth could that happen? Their list of explanations omitted one possibility: the transporting power of water. Maybe it’s because it would have implied a global flood like the world had never seen.

"An international team publishing in the GSA Bulletin wrote about “Extraordinary transport and mixing of sediment across Himalayan central Gondwana during the Cambrian–Ordovician.” They found similar detrital zircon samples across a wide swath of the Himalayan foothills, covering “great distances” of at least 3000 km and perhaps as much as 5000 km. They emphasized: “In this regard, both transport distances and sediment mixing within early Gondwana are extraordinary for the geologic record.” It likely applies to “much, if not the whole of Gondwana” (the hypothetical supercontinent that broke up into today’s continents).

"The Himalayas are not the only location. They referred to evidence published earlier that assigns the origin of many of the Grand Canyon sediments to the Appalachian mountains thousands of kilometers to the east Again, extraordinary long-distance transport mechanisms must have been in operation. What could possibly do it? Their short list of possible mechanisms omits one that creation geologists would probably be saying is intuitively obvious: a global flood!!

(for more, see "Did a Global Flood Move Rocks Across Continents?  No, uh..." from Creation-Evolution Headlines)

Adam and Eve were Neolithic Farmers that God Chose?

Denis Alexander says that God called these two folks "into fellowship with himself so that they might know him as a personal God." This is what he writes in his book Creation or Evolution: Do We Have to Choose?, published in 2008.

Dr. Albert Mohler, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, brings up Alexander's teaching, as well as similar viewpoints from the BioLogos Forum, in his speech “Why Does the Universe Look So Old?” given on June 19 at the Ligonier Ministries 2010 National Conference. Mohler shows that "theological disaster ensues when the book of nature (general revelation) is used to trump God’s special revelation, when science is placed over Scripture as authoritative and compelling. That is the very heart of this discussion."

Below are more of Dr. Mohler's comments.

Selections from Why Does the Universe Look So Old? by R. Albert Mohler, Jr., Ph.D

(These excerpts by Marko are from the article published by Institute of Creation Science Acts & Facts October 2010, also available at http://www.icr.org/article/why-does-universe-look-so-old/).


"Reconstruction" of Neolithic farmers at work

A couple of Neolithic farmers? Is that in any way a possible, legitimate exegetical reading of Genesis? More disturbing is not the contents of the book, but the endorsement from J. I. Packer on the front cover, who says, “Surely the best informed, clearest, and most judicious treatment of the question and title that you can find anywhere today.”

Peter Enns, a fellow at the BioLogos Forum, wrote a series of articles on “Paul’s Adam,” in which he states, “For Paul, Adam and Eve were the parents of the human race. This is possible but not satisfying for those familiar with either the scientific or archeological data.” He suggests that we must abandon Paul’s Adam; Paul, as far as he refers to Adam, was limited by his dependence on primitive understandings.

Karl Giberson, a professor at Eastern Nazarene University and Vice President of BioLogos, says, “Clearly the historicity of Adam and Eve and their fall from grace are hard to reconcile with natural history.” He continues:

One could believe, for example, that at some point in evolutionary history God “chose” two people from a group of evolving humans, gave them his image, and put them in Eden, which they promptly corrupted by sinning. But this solution is unsatisfactory, artificial, and certainly not what the writer of Genesis intended.

Was it true that, as Paul argues, when sin came, death also came?

Paul makes clear that, even though God has revealed Himself in nature—so that no one is with excuse—given the cloudiness of our vision and the corruption of our sight, we can no longer see what is clearly there. The heavens are telling the glory of God, but human sinfulness refuses to see what is plainly evident.

Theological disaster ensues when the book of nature (general revelation) is used to trump God’s special revelation, when science is placed over Scripture as authoritative and compelling. And that is the very heart of this discussion. While some would argue that the Scriptures are not in danger, the current conversation on this subject is leading down a path that will do irrevocable harm to our evangelical affirmation of the accuracy and authority of God’s Word.

Dr. Giberson is not someone attempting to defend the book of Genesis; his goal is to defend the theory of evolution.

Kenton Sparks, for example, writing for BioLogos, suggests that any rendering of the Bible as inerrant makes the acceptance of theistic evolution impossible.

Peter Enns, [recently terminated by Westminster Theological Seminary, Marko] one of the most frequent contributors to BioLogos, suggests that we have to come to the understanding that, when it comes to many of the scientific and historical claims, the writers of Scriptures were plainly wrong.

Are we going to take our cosmology or the redemptive historical understanding of Scripture and submit these to interrogation by what we are told are the assured results of modern science? Doing so will certainly lead to disaster, to a head-on collision that should compel Christians to understand just what is at stake theologically and to be prepared to give biblically-sound answers.

(For more on the very low view of God's Word found in Alexander's book, also see Paul Taylor's review at Answers in Genesis)

Jesus can, but you must believe He can

"S, a forty-year old man living in a Muslim country, was filthy and had a long unkempt beard, urine-stained pants and fingernails over an inch long. He couldn't talk and was obviously not in his right mind. He was mentally disturbed, and constantly paced the streets. Everyone in the town knew of the 'crazy man'.

"The relatives asked one of the few Christian pastors in the province if he could do anything to help. He replied, 'Jesus can, but you must believe He can.' They said, 'If we didn't believe He could help, would we have come five hours to see you?'

"This was a good enough answer for the pastor, and he went up to the bearded man, gave him a big hug, and prayed for him. S then amazed them by becoming coherent and speaking for the first time in five years! A week later, the church got a phone call from his family saying he was now cleaned up, eating well, no longer wandering the streets, and still in his right mind.

Folk Islam...

"involves the wearing of charms, praying at shrines, tying cloths to 'sacred' trees, going to mediums and fortune tellers, and purchasing curses on enemies or rivals and 'blessings' on oneself and loved ones.

"Pray for the breaking of this spiritual bondage."

(from a Christian prayer bulletin, November 2010)

Islam clearly favors the desires of men over the needs of women

"In fact, the Kor'an actually sanctions the beating of wives. Although it's important to acknowledge that not all Muslim women are abused, many are. Reliant on the mercies of a religion that sees no worth in them, most face difficult trials and social obstacles because of their gender. They are in desperate need of hearing about a Saviour Who loves them so much He willingly died on their behalf. Pray that the message of Christ will reach Muslim women and free them from spiritual bondage and social injustice."

(from a Christian prayer bulletin, November 2010)

Fireflies blink in sync! Irreducible Complexity on YouTube

Some fireflies exhibit synchronous flashing, in which large groups produce rhythmic, repeated flashes in unison -- sometimes lighting up a whole forest at once.

How can this be? "Animals have evolved to solve unique problems in many different ways, and I'm interested in how they do that," says Andrew Moiseff, from the Department of Physiology and Neurobiology of the University of Connecticut. "Fireflies have these tiny heads and these tiny brains, but they can do some complex and amazing things." His future research will focus on questions that address whether physiological constraints or behavioral decisions are driving the evolution of synchrony.

This is another example of evolutionists being stuck. Fireflies blinking in sync is a most obvious example of Irreducible Complexity! Ask yourself, how did the very first group of synchronizing fireflies evolve from their backward ancestors? Can you imagine any "intermediate forms" as expected by evolutionary theory? It is not conceivable to have a group of early fireflies who were experimenting with sync-blink, but were not quite all together. If there were no intermediate forms, there would have to be a single superfly ancestor who had a most complex mutation, and produced a large number of immediate children with the sync-blink complex... and other fireflies standing by who also happened to have just the right mutation to be attracted. If you wish, stay tuned to Andrew Moiseff et al and their stream of publications, where they will attempt to explain this.

Intelligent Design by a Creator God is a far better explanation, based on the Irreducible Complexity that is so evident here on YouTube. These fireflies are flashing witnesses to an amazing God!

References

Christine Buckley, Fireflies Blink in Synch to Send a Uniform Message, University of Connecticut, UConn Today, July 10, 2010, accessed 11/8/2010.

Electricity Forms Your Heart, Creation Evolution Headlines, July 2010, accessed 11/8/2010.

Fireflies Blink in Synch to Send a Clear Message, Science News, July 10, 2010, accessed 11/8/2010.

Remy Melina, Fireflies' Synchronous Flashes Are Booty Calls, Study Shows, July 8, 2010, accessed 11/8/2010.

Andrew Moiseff and Jonathan Copeland, Firefly Synchrony: A Behavioral Strategy to Minimize Visual Clutter, Science, July 2010: Vol. 329. no. 5988, p. 181 DOI: 10.1126/science.1190421.

Please pray for persecuted believers in Chiapas Mexico.

Bridge in Chiapas

"I will not be bullied into disobeying God. My life is in his hands."

(Voice of the Martyrs, from a persecuted believer in Chiapas Mexico, 2010)

Persecution has actually been a blessing

The mob banged drums, shouted taunts and harassed the Christians already inside the church. Some threw stones and were shouting "Allahu Akbar". Others were calling them kafirs (infidels) and pigs and yelling obscenities. Some carried sticks, and others shouted "Burn the church! Close it down!"

Tears streamed down the cheeks of late arrivers as they joined the other worshipers, who were already singing Christmas carols. People were singing and crying. Joyful Christmas songs turned to tears.

The attack on the church signals a spread of persecution in this southeast Asian country. The pastor of the church says the persecution has actually been a blessing to his church family. "Before, believers seldom came to church. But when the persecution came, the believers gained incentive to come to church and pray and gather together in unity. Maybe the Lord has allowed this so the believers will have unity. I cannot tell you what will happen, but I see that my congregation has a commitment to keep doing the service, because the church is not a building; the church is the believers."

(from Voice of the Martyrs)

The Prisoner

A young man in a southeast Asian country was thrown into prison for armed robbery. Although he was a Muslim, he wanted to learn more about Christ. A Christian inmate gave him a Bible, and he read it at night while his cellmates slept. He had nearly finished reading the entire Bible when a Muslim cellmate discovered it hidden near his bedside. He was called into the warden's office for questioning. The warden demanded to know where he got the Bible. He was then beaten for four hours following the interrogation, and was then locked in a prison isolation cell.

The prisoner became more and more committed to Christ because of his time in the isolation cell.

Before he accepted Christ, he made fun of Christians and called them infidels. Through beatings and isolation, he experienced what many of our Christian brothers and sisters around the world experience for their faith in Jesus.

"There's an expensive price to be paid for being a Christian," he says. "I'm proud to have been persecuted for Christ."

(from Voice of the Martyrs)

A Man in a White Robe

While watching television one New Year's Eve in a Southeast Asian Muslim country, a van crashed into Lydia's living room!! While she was pinned beneath the van, a man in a brilliant white robe appeared as if from nowhere. Lydia, who was seven months pregnant at the time, and who years earlier quit the Islamic school where her fundamentalist parents had enrolled her, says the man gently touched her stomach and said, "You are safe. Follow Me." She says she immediately felt peaceful and free from pain.

After rescuers had pulled her from beneath the vehicle, Lydia began to search for the man in the white robe. When a rescuer asked her what she was looking for, she sat down and said, "I want to see the one who saved me." Her puzzled rescuers replied, "No, we are the ones who helped you."

Lydia told her Christian nephew about the experience, and he suggested that it was an encounter with Jesus. He gave her a Bible and taught her about faith in Christ.

"I read in the book of John the words of Jesus, who said, 'I am the true way and follow me'", Lydia says. "Those are the same words he said to me at the time of the accident."

(from Voice of the Martyrs)

Inside or Outside?

"We have to have something inside that is heavenly,
if we are to have something outside that is genuine."

(Dr Robert A. Cook, Walk with the King today, and be a blessing!)

From Scoffer to Follower

Vita, a television anchorwoman in Lviv, Ukraine, was negative toward the evangelical church. She would say, "it's a sect and people are brain washed." She took pictures at events organized by New Hope and the local church and her attitude started to change. Today she is a follower of Christ and wants to be baptized and serve the Lord. It was a big surprise to all who know her.

(From the Connect newsletter, November 2010, a publication of New Hope International)

Hindu radicals continue to target Christians in India

One night in July 2010, at midnight, Hindu radicals marched through a village in Karnataka state, India. They were wearing their distinctive bright orange headbands. More than 500 believers were rounded up and forced to pray to Hindu gods.

Four pastors were also arrested that night. One of the pastors later said, "I was frightened. I didn't know why they had come to harass me. They beat me with their hands on my legs and head. They yelled that I was forcibly converting people to Christianity, and then they dragged me off to jail. They asked me to renounce Christ. I told them that I had surrendered my life to Christ and will not worship any other god. They threatened me but finally left. I felt sympathy for them, and I pray for their salvation."

As the world's largest democracy, India proclaims religious freedom. But a rash of anti-conversion laws landed many Christian pastors in jail, leaving families alone without food or income. Many of the Christians are from tribal clans and lower caste ethnic groups. They are generally poorer and less educated than those in higher caste groups. Yet they stand firm in their faith in Christ and remain committed to spreading the gospel.

(news from Voice of the Martyrs, November 2010)

Please pray for persecuted believers in Pakistan.

"We are happy that Jesus is caring for us, and we don't worry about what is coming tomorrow".

(Voice of the Martyrs, from a persecuted believer in Pakistan, 2010)