Beauty is a Reality that is a Touch from God...

At the university campus, the teachers were brilliant. But they flatly denied any possibility that God had created all the wonders of the world of living things around us. My parents had warned me not to believe evolution, but now I saw that my parents weren't educated in science, so how could they know? My professors seemed so honest, as if they were willing to go wherever the facts led...

Then spring came. One morning I walked on campus and looked up and saw the dogwood in bloom. It was so beautiful that it stopped me in my tracks. It came clearly into my mind that beauty was a reality that science had no room for. It was such a clear touch from God in my soul.

(from a letter to the editor, Institute for Creation Research, Act & Facts, January 2011)

Noah's Ark - A Scale Model Being Built to Demonstrate Feasibility

ICR Act & Facts reports that Ernie Carrasco is building an ark.

"Carrasco is a student in ICR’s School of Biblical Apologetics (SOBA). He is constructing a scale model of Noah’s Ark.

"He used the Bible as his primary research tool before starting the construction of the 1/60th scale model. “Dr. Henry M. Morris included some excellent notes in The New Defender’s Study Bible that offer great insight,” he said. Other valuable resources included The Genesis Flood by Drs. John Whitcomb and Morris, as well as Noah’s Ark: A Feasibility Study by John Woodmorappe.

"The interior of the model Carrasco started constructing in March 2010 measures approximately 7.5 feet long, 15 inches wide, and over nine inches tall. He said he plans to leave one wall open so viewers can see interior details such as stairwells and animal pens.

“Well, Noah took 120 years to build his. And it is a 1/60th scale model, so that means two years,” he laughed. “I think I have some time.”

(extracted from Christine Dao, "ICR's Modern-Day Noah", Acts & Facts, January 2011, Institute of Creation Research)

(also see How did Noah fit all the animals on the ark?)

New Young Earth Creationist Science Curriculum for Schools

"The Institute for Creation Research unveiled its new Science Education Essentials curriculum at Christian school and homeschool conventions across the United States this past fall.

"Science Education Essentials is a series of science teaching supplements that exemplifies what ICR does best—providing solid answers for the tough questions teachers face about science and origins.

"This series promotes a biblical worldview by presenting conceptual knowledge and comprehension of the science that supports creation. The supplements help teachers approach the content and Bible with ease and with the authority needed to help their students build a defense for Genesis 1-11.

 

"Modules include: 

• The Origin of Life
• The Structure of Matter
• Human Heredity
• Genetic Diversity
• Geologic Processes

"Each supplement includes a teacher's manual and a CD-ROM packed with K-12 reproducible classroom activities designed to work within your school’s existing science curriculum, with an uncompromising foundation of creation-based science instruction.

 

"If you work in a Christian school or homeschool your children, visit www.icr.org/essentials for more information about obtaining these Bible-based science curriculum supplements for your school."

 

(For more, read, 2011. ICR Science Curriculum Debuts at Education Conferences. Acts & Facts. 40 (1): 18.)

 

The Stones Cry Out: What Rocks and Fossils Say about the Age of the Earth

Brian Thomas asks, is it accurate to think that rocks and fossils show abundant evidence of a very old earth, millions of year old?

The answer is no! First, each sedimentary rock layer containing fossils had to have formed rapidly because that’s the only way the fossils would have been preserved. Second, upper layers formed soon after the lower ones were deposited, since there is no sign of erosion in the razor-sharp contacts between them. Therefore, whole sections of the rock column were deposited in rapid succession, as would be expected in a widespread watery cataclysm. Genesis describes the year-long process of Flood waters increasing, prevailing, and then assuaging, eventually snuffing out all land vertebrates not protected on the Ark.

The fossil record is replete with evidence of soft parts, such as worm or clam bodies and burrows, as well as original soft tissues! Creatures with soft bodies or tissues would need to be fossilized within a shorter timeframe than it would take for them to decay. These fossils and other rock features have convinced mainstream geologists to reduce the amount of time involved when interpreting a single rock layer.

Many now recognize that each layer was borne of a high-energy watery event. The contacts between strata often look “razor sharp,”5 are very flat, and extend for many square miles.

If each fossil-filled layer formed rapidly, and if there is very little time between each layer, then rocks and fossils developed within a relatively short timeframe. Christians should be encouraged to look at the rocks and fossils themselves and compare them with the biblical record, instead of relying on “a majority of authorities” who write their own world history apart from that given by the highest ranking authority.

(extracted from Brian Thomas, "The Stones Cry Out: What Rocks and Fossils Say about the Age of the Earth", Acts & Facts, January 2011, Institute of Creation Research)

No Evolutionary Evidences for the Descent of Man

Frank Sherwin writes that the list of evidences that were supposed to validate man’s evolutionary ascent from “lower” life forms has been expunged by decades of good scientific research.

For instance, recently discovered footprints look surprisingly human. Creation scientists are vilified for suggesting the unthinkable—perhaps they were actually made by humans!

Dentists with a Darwinian philosophy may suggest removing wisdom teeth because of the “evolution” of the human jaw. Although some molars may indeed need extraction, it demonstrably has nothing to do with evolution.

Many evolutionists point to chronic back problems as evidence that humans recently stood upright from tetrapod ancestors. But back troubles most directly correlate to bad habits, injury, or other abuses. Evolution has exactly nothing to do with back pain.

Many secular schools still teach the unscientific concept that structures such as tonsils, adenoids, and the appendix are useless vestiges of an evolutionary past.

There is no fossil evidence that man evolved from some subhuman creature. One science writer put it, “The last common ancestor of chimpanzees and humans remains a holy grail in science.”

(extracted from Frank Sherwin, "Design of Man: No Evolutionary Evidences", Acts & Facts, January 2011, Institute of Creation Research)

References (selected)

Thomas, B. Human Evolution Story Stumbles over Footprints. ICR News. Posted April 6, 2010, accessed November 10, 2010.

Viegas, J. The Human Family Tree. Discovery News. Posted on discovery.com, accessed November 11, 2010.

Children's Textbooks Still Teach False Evolutionists Claims

"All the scientific evidences supposedly supporting evolution that were slated for use in the famous Scope Monkey trial of 1925, have been thoroughly discredited today. Even evolutionists no longer use them.

"But these discredited evidences are still repeated in school textbooks today! When confronted, evolutionists admit the faulty claims, but insist they still be used in textbooks since there are no better claims that are so effective in teaching evolution(!) And so millions of American schoolchildren each year are indoctrinated in a false worldview.

"Consider, among others:

• Neanderthal Man—a fully human people group, with art, music, agriculture, weapons, etc.
• Piltdown Man—an embarrassing scientific forgery; an ape’s jaw coupled with a human skull-cap
• Nebraska Man—touted as an ape-man, but represented by nothing more than a fossilized pig’s tooth
• Embryonic recapitulation—forged drawings of embryos that supposedly show humans related to the animals
• Peppered moth—mere color shifts in a population that have now shifted back
• Vestigial organs—thought to be evolutionary leftovers, but now known to be functional

"Nevertheless, truth will win out. Christians are attempting to regain lost ground in the political, educational, and religious arenas. Interest in creation still flourishes today, spawning thousands of creation scientists, hundreds of creationist organizations, and millions of creation believers. Polls taken in America consistently show a majority of people hold to some form of creation, especially young-earth creation.

"Things are not what they should be, but neither are they as bad as before. What a wonderful time to be a Bible-believing Christian/creationist recruit in the Lord’s army.
  
(extracted from John D. Morris, "The Creation Worldview and the Scopes Trial", Acts & Facts, January 2011, Institute of Creation Research)

Nigerian Christians victims of the Dogo Nahawa attack

"When you are going home from work in northern Nigeria and you are a Christian, it is very possible that you may not come home at night. But it is possible to come home at night even if you are caught, if you are willing to say 'Allah is god and Mohammed is his prophet.'

"Think about your family at home, and imagine that you are on your way home and you are stopped by a mob of vicious people saying, 'Repeat after me or die.' Suddenly I realize our faith in the West may be fairly broad theologically, but it is not all that deep sometimes. These people in Nigeria, they don't know a lot of answers to Bible stories, and they probably can't give a good discussion on why Arminianism and Calvinism are right or wrong. But I can tell you that when people step up to them with a gun or a knife, and they are asked, 'Will you repeat after me?' and they say, 'No, Jesus is Lord,' their theology is very deep and we need that. I need that."

Dr. Paul met with doctors who treated victims who survived the March 2010 Dogo Nahawa attack in Nigeria. He comments further: "I have been an orthopedic surgeon now in practice for 25 years, and I have done a lot of emergency room work. I think 500 or 501 is the total number of people in this grave, approximately 450 from Dogo Nahawa and another 50 from the sister village that also tried to escape the Muslim attackers are buried here as well.... I have not seen this level of human tragedy in all my time I don't think, at least in such a concentrated form. It affected me because of the ... volume of it and seeing beyond, and knowing what the injury means to the person, and knowing how little resources are available in this country. As I prayed, I said 'God, what are you doing here? What is this?' I just had a terrible time with it.



A boy sitting with his mother cries
during a funeral for people killed in
religious attacks in the
Dogo Nahawa village

"The thing that struck me about these Christians, besides the depth of their commitment, was - and probably related to their commitment - was their ability to forgive. I am just amazed at their ability, supernaturally I am sure, to forgive their tormentors.

"They haven't given up. They believe that they are going to carry on."

(from Voice of the Martyrs, January 2011 newsletter)

(for more, see news stories from allAfrica.com, ChinaDaily.com)

Launching Balloons into North Korea

"My country is madness," says a North Korean who escaped to China. "The food we get is worse than that of pigs. We are without clothing, medicine and treatment for the sick. Living in North Korea is like living in hell. Thank God and thank you all who serve the Lord. His people are supplying our material and other needs with God's love, and I am thankful for that. We will learn the Word of God and grow in faith, and promise we will do the work of the Lord until the last day of our lives."

VOM distributes thousands of Scripture leaflets in North Korea, bringing the Word of God to people who are forbidden to study it.




North Korean Christians do study it, and they share the gospel with one another despite the ever present risk of a death penalty. Many large balloons are launched into North Korea, each with Scripture leaflets in large bags, which open over North Korea and drop the leaflets to earth. The gospel is reaching North Koreans and continues to bring them hope!

(from Voice of the Martyrs, January 2011 newsletter)