Monthly Archives: August 2023

Real Science – Real Scientists

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An article by Ken Ham:

I’ve often heard the claim from atheists that creationists can’t be real scientists! What they really mean is if you are a scientist and a creationist, we (the atheists) will do all we can to discriminate against you and not allow you to be published because we are totally intolerant of Christianity.

Answers in Genesis has a number of PhD scientists. One of them obtained his PhD from Harvard university. All of our PhD scientists actually obtained their qualifications from well respected secular universities.

Yes, they are real scientists and ardent (literal Genesis) creationists. I wanted to feature some of them for you and give you a summary of some of the research they are doing to show that observational science confirms the bible’s account of history.

To me, research can be both boring and exciting at the same time! Boring—because sometimes it seems to take millions of years for our researchers to meticulously carry out their investigations! Exciting—because after years of research, our speakers and writers (and others) can use the results to show people how observational science confirms the Bible’s account in Genesis and devastates evolutionary ideas.

Take the research of Dr. Gabriela Haynes. She’s a PhD paleontologist who came to work in AiG’s research department from Brazil. Here her explain some of her research:

“Soft tissue in fossils was always something interesting for me as a paleontologist. Then, during my PhD research on Hymenoptera (wasps, ants, and bees) while I was looking for pollens, I found something that looked like blood cells in an insect fossil. As a creationist, that brought me a lot of excitement!

“At first my secular colleagues were excited to do some research, but then they concluded that those blood cells could not belong to the wasp since it is dated to supposedly 120 million years. They told me, “It is contamination. Don’t bother.” I just thought that their answer was not very scientific, and, as a creationist, I believed that there was a chance those blood cells were not the result of contamination. I tried to make them study the material, but it was in vain. They had already settled the case in their minds.

“I did some research by myself, and all the results I had were pointing to soft tissue material and blood cells. Unfortunately, I didn’t have the support from my secular colleagues to use the laboratory and run more tests.”

She is now continuing her research at Answers in Genesis, and publishing papers in our technical publication, Answers Research Journal.

In fact, there are now many examples of soft tissue found in fossils supposed to be millions of years old. Much more research needs to be done in this vital area and our scientists will certainly be doing this.

Then there’s our Harvard-trained PhD scientist, Dr. Nathaniel Jeanson. He published his monumental book, Replacing Darwin. This ground-breaking book details his genetics research to clearly show that speciation, adaptation, and natural selection, when properly understood, devastate Darwinian evolution.

Dr. Jeanson has also been conducting research into human genetics. He’s looking into whether there’s evidence from human populations to confirm the biblical account of history beginning about 6,000 years ago. Dr. Jeanson’s research also has important things to say about the event of the Flood (i.e., all humans today are descendants of Noah’s sons) and the account of the Tower of Babel.

His research to date is blowing the evolutionary time scale out the window. Dr. Jeanson states:

“In our culture, few things provoke more ridicule than the idea that the earth is just 6,000 years old. As a biologist, I’ve witnessed my anti-evolutionary colleagues critique evolution—and deftly avoid the contentious and embarrassing age question—for decades. With the advent of modern genetics, this avoidance is no longer possible.

“For example, within each of our bodies, we have genetic “clocks” that have marked the passage of time since the dawn of humanity. If anyone wants to explain the origin of mankind, they must deal with these genetic clocks. My published research has found evidence that these clocks have ticked for only 6,000 years.

“I’m now exploring an even more powerful implication of this finding: if the global genetic differences among humans reflect 6,000 years, then they should also bear the stamp of the known history of civilization. If evolution were true, this stamp would be very difficult to detect. Instead, my initial results are showing that 6,000 years are indeed the hero of the plot. New funds would allow me to pursue this research further by obtaining new DNA sequences from other ethnic groups, further confirming this stamp of civilization—and underscoring the Bible’s accuracy on the age of the earth.”

Dr. Jeanson’s research also has some other interesting aspects. Known major events in human history actually show up in his genetics research! Incredible stuff!

He has now published a major book called, “Traced,” based on this research he is doing. He is also continuing to publish his results in Answers Research Journal.

Now evolutionists often use astronomy in an attempt to prove their billions of years/evolutionary history of the universe. There is so much more research needed in astronomy, and we praise the Lord that our PhD astronomer, Dr. Danny Faulkner, is involved in all sorts of such fascinating research. Dr. Faulkner states:

“I have been working and publishing in the field of eclipsing binary stars for four decades. Two other creation astronomers who are close associates of mine also have studied eclipsing binary stars for years. We often have wondered why all three of us ended up in this field, and we may now know the answer to that question. Due to magnetic interactions of close binary stars, their orbital periods change. We are seeing evidence that these systems are changing far faster than previously thought.

These orbital changes place constraints upon the maximum possible ages of such systems, and it appears that their maximum ages must be far younger than the billions of years typically thought. This is very difficult to resolve with the evolutionary paradigm, but it is quite consistent with recent creation. Therefore, it is important that we continue to study this very interesting possibility.”

And then there’s the ongoing research conducted by Dr. Andrew Snelling, who has been leading research on the massive folding of sedimentary strata in the Grand Canyon. This is the project that the Grand Canyon National Park and secular scientists tried to stop. It’s that intolerance of anything Christian they have. But a legal challenge was lodged on our behalf by the religious freedom group, Alliance Defending Freedom. Because of clear and obvious violations of our First Amendment rights (discrimination, because we were Christians) by the federal government, Grand Canyon officials were forced to settle, and all the necessary specimens were collected.

Dr. Snelling’s ongoing research at the Canyon is being published in a series of papers in our free Answers Research Journal. Dr. Snelling explains more about this research:

“Evolutionary geologists claim the flat-lying sedimentary layers exposed like a stack of pancakes in the walls of the Grand Canyon were deposited grain by grain over 300 million years. Then some 150 million years later those layers were bent as the area was pushed up by earth movements to form a plateau. By that time, those layers were hard and brittle, so when they were bent, the rocks should have cracked and shattered. Or, because of the burial of these layers under a two-mile thickness of other layers above them, the pressure and heat may have made the rocks plastic enough to bend them smoothly as well.

“What we find is the layers are bent smoothly without any major cracking or shattering. So the layers had to have been bent while still soft. Thus, I have collected samples from these layers where they are bent and from well away from the bent layers for comparison. The laboratory and microscope examination results so far show no differences in either the minerals or the textures present in these sedimentary layers.”

What this research shows is that those layers could not be millions of years old—they couldn’t have been bent millions of years after they were laid down. The evolutionary story doesn’t fit at all. Dr. Snelling has found a lot of intriguing evidence he is now publishing.

Now, it only took you a few minutes to read this article. But the research I’ve outlined for you can take many months—or even a few years—to complete. And yet, such research is vital for the Answers in Genesis apologetics ministry.

I sometimes smile in my public talks as I share a particular piece of powerful evidence, but I take just a minute to do it! I know it may have taken two years of painfully meticulous work for a researcher to complete the work.

Yes, I am passionate about our research team and their work

The ongoing research by our PhD scientists is so important in today’s anti-Christian culture. It’s crucial that Christians have the tools and the information they need to help refute the many attacks on the Bible.

“O Timothy, guard the deposit entrusted to you. Avoid the irreverent babble and contradictions of what is falsely called “knowledge,” 1 Timothy 6:20.

Understanding Culture – Past & Present

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An article by Ken Ham:

Using Bible references and secular sources, I want to help you understand cultures—past and present—and where they stood spiritually and morally. It’s a reminder that the sin nature of man has not changed!

Let’s consider the past.

•Idolatry: The Israelites were warned about idolatry over and over again. For instance, we read,

“Who say to a tree, ‘You are my father,’ and to a stone, ‘You gave me birth.’ For they have turned their back to me” (Jeremiah 2:27).

•Child sacrifice: Many examples are cited in the Old Testament about this evil (2 Kings 16:3; 2 Kings 17:17; 2 Kings 21:6; Ezekiel 20:31; Jeremiah 32:35). Of course, it is well known that thousands of years ago, the Canaanites conducted human sacrifice, using children. There’s much evidence the Aztec, Mayan, and Inca societies were conducting child sacrifice just a few hundred years ago.

•Euthanasia: It appears that ritual euthanasia was practiced by numerous ancient cultures. The Phoenicians were known to poison their older individuals. Both the Spartans and the Romans would leave children that they deemed disabled out to die in the elements. Also, ancient Indian cultures were known to throw elderly adults in the Ganges River to drown.

•Sexual Sin: Homosexual behavior—Scripture teaches against such behavior (Leviticus 20:13) and records examples as warnings for us (Genesis 19:1–14; Judges 19:15–30; Romans 1:26–27). Homosexual behavior was a running theme in the literature of the ancient Greeks and Romans. And you’ve heard of the judgment God meted out on Sodom and Gomorrah!

Bestiality—This behavior was known in ancient cultures, and the Bible warned the Israelites against this evil (Leviticus 18:23 and 20:15). Bestiality seems to have been a form of punishment in ancient Rome, used in the arena to humiliate a prisoner before death. Ancient Egyptians also appear to have engaged in it based on their hieroglyphics. In addition, bestiality appears in the mythology of numerous cultures.

Prostitution—God warns against this sin in many places in Scripture, including Proverbs 5:3–14, Proverbs 9:13–18, and Exodus 20:14. Prostitution was amazingly common in the ancient world. Athens was a hotbed, and its well-known statesman Pericles was notorious for keeping one as a mistress. Herodotus wrote of temple prostitution in Babylon. Ancient Chinese emperors are said to have employed prostitutes to service their armies. In Hinduism, temple prostitution is associated with their goddess of fertility and is still practiced today (even though it was outlawed in India decades ago).

Pedophilia—This sin was also a common practice in the ancient world. Greek and Roman men were notorious for taking boys as their “lovers” (though in the Roman world it was limited to slaves, not freeborn citizens).

Transgenderism—There appears to be references to transgenderism in the ancient world. Apparently, ancient Assyria had transgender prostitutes. Ancient Greece and later Rome had a cult religion that was transgendered (at least in the priesthood). Transgenderism is found in Roman poetry as well. The Roman Emperor Elagabalus is known to have identified as a woman and requested primitive gender reassignment surgery.

What’s my point in listing all of these terrible things?

Well, Ecclesiastes 1:9 states, “What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun.”

People have often described our Western world as having civilized cultures, whereas many of the past societies have been described as barbaric or degenerate.

The Bible makes it clear that the nature of sin has not changed. Jeremiah reminds us that “the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick” (Jeremiah 17:9).

God also warns us in Romans chapter 1 that as people rebel against God, he turns them over to their depraved natures—and a sexual revolution, homosexual revolution, and gender revolution will follow.

My point is this: because of sin, if we don’t work and pray hard to raise up generations on the foundation of God’s Word and its life-changing gospel message, their naturally depraved sin natures will again exhibit the same behaviors as those listed above. That’s why God warned the Israelites over and over again, and why he instructed them to raise up godly offspring.

Now consider the present.

We now see that all the perverse behaviors above are permeating our “civilized” Western culture. Just like the Israelites of the Old Testament, parents have failed to raise up godly generations, so now we increasingly see young and old behave as described in Judges 21:25: “In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.”

Actually, Romans 1 is happening before our very eyes.

•Idolatry—The teaching of evolution/millions of years (which many church leaders have condoned for the next generation to believe) is no different from Jeremiah 2:27. People are really saying, “Matter—you are my father; you gave birth to me.” Coming generations are no different from past generations who “worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator” (Romans 1:25), thus “God gave them up” (Romans 1:26).

So, we are observing all the following behaviors again:

•Child sacrifice—It’s called by different names in our culture, such as abortion, “health care,” and women’s reproductive rights. But they are just hiding the fact that abortion is nothing less than sacrificing children to the “god of self.”

Over 65 million have been murdered in the USA since 1973. Now I ask you this: which is the more barbaric culture? Those of the past or the present?

•Euthanasia—This practice is also becoming another prominent issue in our Western world with more and more countries making this freely offered to adults—and even children!

•Sexual Sin—Homosexual behavior: In the last few years, this has become a dominant issue in our culture. The pressure to welcome and accept such behavior has become all-pervasive in the media, schools, and government.

Bestiality: We’ve even seen some recent news articles of this happening in our culture. One article gave an example of an atheist’s refusal to label bestiality as an immoral act illustrating what happens when there are no objective moral standards.

Prostitution: We know this exists in various ways in our culture.

Pedophilia: Recent calls have gone out to legalize pedophilia. Some people even try to justify such behavior in academic articles. Again, what would we expect when a culture lets go of any objective moral standards?

Transgenderism: This has also become a dominant issue in our society. Drag queens are now giving children talks in public libraries. Some parents are stating that they are bringing up their children to be “gender fluid.” A few government agencies (and other groups) are adding alternatives to male and female on various forms and documents. In some places (as has happened in one instance with a committee in California recently), people are being told not to use he, she, her, or him in referring to people.

Our culture is no different from those of the past that we call barbaric!

And we also see polyamory (males, females, children in all sorts of combinations of immoral relationships) growing in popularity. And there are calls to legalize polygamy.

But I must make this point clear: our culture is no different from those of the past that we call barbaric! And that’s because the sin nature of unregenerate man hasn’t changed. And that’s the problem.

Now, the solution has never changed, and that solution is the truth of God’s Word and the saving gospel. I often remind people that what we see happening around us today is the consequence of a battle that began 6,000 years ago in a garden.

It’s a battle between God’s Word and man’s word. It began when the devil came to Eve and asked, “Did God actually say?” (Genesis 3:1).

As I’ve shown, the basic attack in this battle is on the authority of the Word of God. The nature of the attack has never changed, but the means by which the devil carries it out has changed. We need to understand how this battle manifests itself today so we can be effective soldiers for the King.

A “Private Prayer Language” – Is It Biblical?

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Article by Justin Peters – original source: https://www.forthegospel.org/read/is-having-a-private-prayer-language-biblical?

“For one who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men but to God, for no one understands, but in his spirit he speaks mysteries.” — 1 Cor. 14:2 (Legacy Standard Bible)

One of the most often employed and most convincing arguments marshaled for the charismatic position of a “private prayer language” is 1 Corinthians 14:2. The Apostle Paul says that one who speaks in a tongue speaks not to men but to God, supporting the charismatic belief that the gift of tongues is a private prayer language. The fact that “no one understands” seems to support that this language is not a human language at all but rather a heavenly, angelic one.


Are all “tongues” the same gift?
For this position to hold, it must first be assumed that the gift of tongues in Acts 2 is fundamentally different than the gift of tongues described in 1 Corinthians 12-14. There is complete agreement between charismatics and cessationists that the gift of tongues in Acts 2 involves known human languages. Those languages, 16 of them, are conveniently listed in the text. The argument that the gift of tongues listed in 1 Corinthians does not refer to known human languages is a hard sell, however, given that Luke wrote Acts five years after Paul wrote 1 Corinthians. If the gift in 1 Corinthians was fundamentally different from the gift in Acts, why would Luke, a traveling companion of Paul’s, use the same word for tongues as Paul (glossolalia) and ascribe to the gift the same source (the Holy Spirit) as Paul? It stretches credulity that Luke would not make such a fundamental difference known. The reason he did not is that it is the same gift.


Who is Paul referring to?
So, if the person speaking in a tongue is speaking in a known human language, why would “no one understand”? The “no one” does not refer to all people throughout the world, but only to those in the local Corinthian assembly. No one in the church of Corinth would understand what was being spoken because the message would be in a known language but one unknown to them. This person “speaks to God” because only God understands what is being spoken (He does, after all, know all human languages). This is precisely why Paul stresses the necessity of an interpreter. Paul says that if there is no one to interpret, “let him keep silent” (1 Cor. 12:28). An interpreter, or translator, must translate so that the church can be edified.


What is the purpose of spiritual gifts?
Remember that the purpose of the spiritual gifts is for the edification of the church (1 Cor. 12:7), not for our own private use! We cannot carve out an exception for the gift of tongues and say, ‘This one I’m using for myself.’ That defeats the entire purpose for which the Holy Spirit gives His gifts. There is no record anywhere in scripture of anyone speaking to God in anything but a known human language. We should hasten to point out that this includes the angels and Jesus Himself! So when you pray, pray like the Apostles and Jesus prayed — in a language you actually understand.