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Would you know who is the greatest saint in the world? It is not he who prays most or fasts most; it is not he who gives most alms or is most eminent for temperance, chastity or justice; but it is he who is always thankful to God, who wills everything that God wills, who receives everything as an instance of God’s goodness and has a heart always ready to praise God for it. Could you therefore work miracles, you could not do more for yourself than by this thankful spirit, for it turns all that it touches into happiness.

— William Law (excerpt from A Serious Call to a Devout & Holy Life)

Pedigree Dogs and Artificial Selection

Creation.com, 7/1/10, “‘Parade of mutants’—pedigree dogs and artificial selection” [Excerpts]: When choosing a pet, many people opt for purebred pedigree dogs. Though they come at a price, it is easier to predict the eventual size, temperament, and needs of a purebred dog breed than for a “mutt.” But as a new BBC documentary “Pedigree Dogs Exposed” shows, the cost of breeding purebred dogs is genetic as well as economic.

All dogs are descendants of a wolf-like ancestor. This ancestor had the genetic diversity that allowed people to breed dogs as different in size as the Chihuahua and the Great Dane. Other traits such as colour, temperament, and exercise needs are just as diverse among the breeds. This great variability is an example of just how much genetic variation is built into the various created animal kinds. Other breeds, as will be shown, are the result of downhill mutations.

Over many hundreds of years, humans have produced the various breeds by specifically selecting different traits to breed for; there are currently over 200 distinct varieties of dog, but all belong to the same species, and could theoretically breed with each other….

Over time, breeding only for certain traits allows great predictability in what a dog’s offspring will look like—a Dalmatian mated with a Dalmatian will produce Dalmatian puppies, and so on. When this occurs regularly, the type of dog becomes an official breed. But this predictability comes at a genetic cost. The breeders have drastically reduced the amount of genetic information in the population of dogs—such as for other coat colours and lengths, or different sizes or temperaments.

The Eugenics movement, founded by Darwin’s cousin Francis Galton, held that the key to human improvement was in controlling who could reproduce with whom…. While we know today that the eugenicists’ ideas about purity make no scientific sense, the documentary argues that The Kennel Club is one of the few organizations that still operate under the fundamental assumptions of eugenics.

https://bit.ly/3Eh8joi

On a Positive Note

MidwestOutreach.org, 2/13/25, “On a Positive Note” [Excerpts]: According to “Most American teens ‘very motivated’ to know about Jesus: Barna” by Leonardo Blair, Senior Reporter:

Although religious affiliation and church attendance are on the decline, more than half of American teenagers say they’re “very motivated” to know more about Jesus, and just over 75% say they’re at least “somewhat motivated” to learn about the centerpiece of Christianity, according to Barna Research.

While not a biblical worldview, there is an interest in churches that take the time to answer the questions and disciple the youth into a biblical worldview that could bring about a considerable change in culture as a whole.

https://bit.ly/42vAojW

Swedish Woman converts to Islam, joins ISIS, holds slaves

JihadWatch.org, 2/13/25, “Sweden: Woman converts to Islam, joins ISIS, holds Yazidi slaves, forces them to recite Qur’an and pray” [Excerpts]: What Lina Ishaq did after converting to Islam is wholly inexplicable in light of the picture of Islam that the Western political and media establishment pushes on the public. Maybe that picture is inaccurate, eh?

“A Swedish court on Tuesday sentenced a 52-year-old woman to 12 years in prison on genocide charges, in the country’s first court case over crimes by the Islamic State group against the Yazidi minority.

“Accused of keeping Yazidi women and children as slaves at her home in Syria in 2015, Lina Ishaq was convicted of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes, the Stockholm district court said in a statement….

“Ishaq also forced the Yazidis, who practice their own religion, to ‘become practising Muslims’ by making them recite Koran verses and pray four or five times a day.

“She also called the injured parties ‘demeaning invectives such as “infidels” or “slaves”’, the court said….

“Ishaq grew up in a Christian Iraqi family in Sweden but converted to Islam after meeting her late husband and Islamist Jiro Mehho, with whom she had six children, in the 1990s….”

https://bit.ly/4cwgTMH

Some have asked why we attend events like Paganicon. After all, we are Christians, not pagans. Some of the leadership at Paganicon asked us the same question; why were we attending their event? They were concerned we might stir up trouble. We have covered this in previous articles like “Walking in Their World,” “Mission to Paganistan,” and others. The answer is fairly simple. We want to know what it is that Pagans truly believe? As we point out in both of the linked articles, the best way to find out what someone believes is to go where they are and ask them directly. We also were interested to know if they came out of some sort of Christian tradition, and if so, what caused them to leave and how did they come to embrace one of the various pagan groups. We were not there to accost anyone. Their workshops are another good way to understand pagans and their beliefs and practices. The Western world and even churches are very quickly adopting pagan ideas, and it behooves us to understand why.

Paganicon offers a variety of workshops, such as “Money Drawing Magic.” It turns out that their teaching on that subject is not all that different than the Word Faith/New Apostolic Reformation’s teaching concerning acquiring wealth. Another workshop, entitled “Coming Out as a Pagan,” covers the question of whether a pagan should or should not let their family and friends know of their new faith commitment, how that might be done, and how those they care about may react.

As it turns out, many of those that are now embracing a variety of neopagan beliefs and practices grew up in or had at some point been part of a church. There is, as John Daniel Davidson’s puts it in his article, America Becoming Less Christian Is A Problem For Everyone, an ongoing “de-Christianization of American society.” He comments on a recent headline from an article by Pew Research Center, “Decline of Christianity in the U.S. Has Slowed, May Have Leveled Off.”: “It’s easy to misread the study, or misapprehend what’s important about it, which is that the de-Christianization of American society is not going to stop anytime soon, in part because it’s being driven by a younger, less Christian, increasingly neopagan cohort of Americas as older Christians die off without being replaced and aging Christian parents fail to pass the faith onto their children. Pew itself seems to misapprehend its own survey, giving it the rather optimistic headline, “Decline of Christianity in the U.S. Has Slowed, May Have Leveled Off.”

Quite a few pagans that we have had the opportunity to speak with at events like Paganicon or the Parliament of the World’s Religions or Burning Man feel betrayed, angry, or, as one of the organizers of Paganicon put it during a conversation with us, have experienced “spiritual trauma” for a variety of reasons. One I spoke with was raised in the Missouri Synod Lutheran Church, but was caught up in the Quiver Full movement. As we spoke, it became clear that she was also very familiar with Bill Gothard, who is closely tied to the Quiver full movement. The faith and the God she rejected based on her experiences was most definitely not the God of Scripture, but she was not interested in discussing it more fully.

Others may not have really known much about the faith they were rejecting. One woman I spoke with grew up Roman Catholic but said she never really understood it. Catholicism was her family tradition, but she believed there had to be something more; in her search, she eventually embraced Wicca. She hasn’t told her family yet. She also said she really likes Jesus. I asked her if she realized Jesus and the apostles were calling the nation of Israel to repentance while He walked the earth. I went on to say that Jesus offered redemption from sin and is the one who died to pay the debt for our collective sin and raised Himself from the dead to defeat death itself. She was interested and said she did not recall hearing these things before. We spoke for a while and I able to share the gospel. I am not sure what she will do with it, but perhaps God will water that seed.

https://midwestoutreach.org/2025/04/03/paganicon-2025-re-enchantment-and-neopaganism/

Of course, their confident faith in the Bible, in Jesus Christ, His death for man’s sins, and resurrection does not prove that the biblical record is true. It does disprove, however, the claim that only ignorant, uneducated people believe in God, the Bible, and Christ, and that faith is based only upon emotion and not on evidence.

In the river-laced jungles of Central America, an agile reptile demonstrates why it has earned the nickname, “The Jesus Christ Lizard”. It runs on water. Upright on two legs, the lizard can skip briskly across the surface of a river. God in His creative genius enabled this little creation to defy conventional physics.

Apparently, most of the basilisk lizard’s ability to run on water comes from a well-timed downward stroke of the leg and foot, slapping the water and creating an air-filled cavity while quickly moving on to the next step. Of course, physical parameters such as the animal’s mass under the pull of gravity (its weight), the length of its leg, and the shape of its foot, etc., also factor into this ability.

God uses the testimony of His “general revelation” (His creation) to remind us of His “special revelation” (Jesus Christ our Lord). And the Jesus Christ Lizard is a little monument to a wondrous miracle that has captured the imagination of many people. Many folks may not know much else about Jesus, but they have heard that He walked on water, hence the lizard’s nickname.

Furthermore, since God created what we know as “the creation”, He created the physics and chemistry that governs all of creation. Therefore, it stands to reason that He can change the physics and chemistry of a local environment in order to perform “miracles”. A miracle is, by definition, a miracle if it falls outside the probability of occurrence defined by the scientific laws of creation. Miracles within the governing laws of this present creation would cease to be “miracles” if the physics and chemistry were changed. But constrained as we are by three dimensions of space and one dimension of time, and with the formulas of physics and chemistry and the present values for the natural constants (like the gravitational constant and the speed of light), miracles when they happen, amaze us and point to a God who created everything in the first place and therefore transcends His creation!

– Mark Cadwallader, Board Chairman of Creation Moments

U. Portland theology majors no longer have to take ‘Biblical Texts’

University of Portland theology majors will no longer have to take a class on “Biblical Texts,” according to the department chair who has previously said opponents of homosexual behavior are like the soldiers who nailed Christ to the cross. The departmental change will allow students more “autonomy” so they can take courses like “Queer Theologies.”

The Catholic university, run by the Congregation of the Holy Cross, also announced it will change the name of the department to “theology and religious studies.” The department changes drew criticism from a Catholic leader who spoke to The College Fix.

“This course examines how Biblical texts and interpretations shape faiths, theologies, spiritualities, ethics, practices, identities, cultures, and social and political dynamics,” a university description states. “It gives students tools to interpret and engage these ancient Jewish and Christian texts from the Mediterranean world in contemporary global contexts.”

Students must still take Theology 105, which does include a Biblical texts component, but now can “pick from a variety of upper-division courses to fulfill their second theology requirement,” according to The Beacon, the student newspaper.

These course options include “Queer Theologies,” “God Our Mother,” and a class on “the intersectionality of gender discrimination with other forms of discrimination.”

https://www.thecollegefix.com/u-portland-theology-majors-no-longer-have-to-study-bible-can-take-queer-class-instead/

Simon Greenleaf, co-founder of Harvard’s graduate school of law, in his day the foremost expert on legal evidence, was an agnostic for years. After examining the evidence for the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, Greenleaf became a fervent Christian. In a book that is still in print, he challenged fellow members of the legal profession that if they would face the facts he presented (which most of them had never considered), they would be forced by the evidence to become Christians as well. Lord Caldecote, Lord Chief Justice of England, became a believer on the basis of “strict evidence.” So did Lord Lyndhurst, one of England’s greatest legal minds, and Thomas Arnold, Regius Professor of Modern History at Oxford. Many more men and women of similar qualifications could be named.

The “curse of faith”? These critics are under the false impression that “faith” is a leap into the dark. On the contrary, biblical faith is based upon evidence. Many of the greatest historians and legal experts, not for sentimental reasons but on the basis of established scientific evidence, have turned from atheism to believe in everything the Bible declares, including the resurrection of Christ. They have come to this faith not by some mystical or emotional experience but based solidly upon overwhelming evidence that they say will stand up in any court of law.

Croc Fossils Hint at Extreme Longevity

ICR research continues to discover evidence that at least some fossil creatures experienced extremely long lifespans like those recorded for the early Genesis patriarchs. A recent ICR Creation Science Update article discussed small extinct fossil mammals that lived much longer and took longer to mature than similar-size living mammals.1

This makes sense. Assuming that this early longevity was not miraculous, any mechanism or mechanisms that enabled extreme human longevity would likely also have affected the animal kingdom. In two technical papers, I presented direct and indirect evidence for extreme longevity in giant fossil oysters and sharks.2,3 And a new paper describes how giant fossil crocodilians also show indirect evidence of great longevity. 4,5 By counting growth bands in bony skin plates called osteoderms, paleontologists have concluded that the giant crocodile-like animals Deinosuchus and Sarcosuchus imperator took at least 50 to 60 years to attain their full adult body sizes.

Genesis strongly hints that pre-Flood humans took longer to sexually mature since the youngest two ages at which Genesis 5 patriarchs are listed as having sons are 65 and 70.6 It is difficult to imagine pre-Flood humans undergoing puberty around 13, like today’s humans, and choosing to wait 50 years or more to get married!

If pre-Flood humans experienced delayed sexual maturity, they may have also experienced delayed skeletal maturation. Biologists have long noted that biological timescales, such as ages at sexual or skeletal maturity, lifespans, etc., tend to vary as adult body mass raised to the 1/4 power.7 So, one would expect delayed skeletal maturity to accompany delayed sexual maturity. Moreover, longevity studies of living animals have shown that delayed maturation and larger adult body sizes are often linked to greater longevity. Hence, the delayed skeletal maturation of these giant fossil crocodilians is indirect evidence of greater past longevity.

These two giant fossil crocodilians may or may not be ancestors of today’s crocodiles and alligators since they had some unique anatomical features not found in today’s crocodilians. However, the giant fossil crocodilians Gryposuchus croizati and Euthecodon brumpti both had long, narrow snouts that are very similar to the snouts of living gharials. Evolutionary scientists attribute this similarity to “convergent evolution,” in which the same body features coincidentally evolve in unrelated creatures.

But what if G. croizati and E. brumpti are simply giant pre-Flood gharials? Given that they had body sizes comparable to those of Deinosuchus and Sarcosuchus imperator, they very likely also had comparable lifespans and ages at maturity. Likewise, Purussaurus brasiliensis had a body shape very similar to that of living caimans. Was it simply a giant, long-lived, pre-Flood caiman? I am very encouraged by this research, and I hope you are, too. As former ICR President Dr. John Morris used to say, “It’s a great time to be a Bible-believing Christian!”

References

1. Hebert, J. Methuselah-Like Longevity in Pre-Flood Mammals. Creation Science Update. Posted on ICR.org October 7, 2024, accessed December 17, 2024.
2. Hebert, J. 2024. Crassostrea Oyster Fossils Show Evidence of Extreme Longevity. Creation Research Society Quarterly. 60 (3): 171–190.
3. Hebert, J. 2024. Giantism and Delayed Maturation in Fossil Sharks: Evidence for Extreme Longevity? Creation Research Society Quarterly. 60 (4): 267–283.
4. Hebert, J. 2025. Fossil Crocodilians Grew Larger and Longer, and Lived Longer than Extant Crocodilians. Creation Research Society Quarterly. 61 (3): 172–188.
5. The Creation Research Society has graciously made the fossil oyster, shark, and crocodilian papers “open access” so that they may be freely read at creationresearch.org/crsq-by-decade.
6. The third-youngest age at which a Genesis 5 patriarch is listed as having a son is 90. So it seems likely that the three sons whose fathers were 65 and 70 at their births were born early in their fathers’ reproductive lives. Hence, even if these three sons were not firstborn, early humans were apparently still taking a long time to mature sexually.
7. Calder III, W. A. 1984. Size, Function, and Life History. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 139–161.

https://www.icr.org/article/croc-fossils-hint-at-extreme-longevity/

The New Atheists are angrily rallying all nonbelievers to close ranks in a battle to the death against “this debilitating curse: the curse of faith.” The New Atheists’ antagonism and determination know no bounds. They condemn not just belief in God but respect for belief in God.

The Jesus Seminar was founded by the late Robert Funk in 1985, along with other theologically liberal luminaries, including John Dominic Crossan and the late Episcopalian Bishop John Shelby Spong. They spent much of their time attempting to undermine the reliability of the Bible and were the darlings of the media, especially around the celebration of birth or death and resurrection of Jesus. In 1998 we took a look at the process they used to come to their conclusions in "The Hysterical Search for the Historical Jesus." The group still exists, but the drawing power of that fad wore off about a quarter of a century ago. The fad that replaced them was The New Atheists. It turns out many of them have decided Western culture needs Christianity if it is to survive.  In "The Short Shelf Life of ‘Inevitable’ Movements," John Stonestreet and Shane Morris talk about a recent online debate ono "The Majority Report" between host, Sam Seder and "an excellent debater" (unnamed): 

His was a fate like what has befallen the “New Atheists” of the 2000s. After a meteoric rise, with figures like Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens claiming to be on the right side of enlightened history, a new graph by sociologist Christian Smith shows that New Atheism was essentially a 15-year “flash in the pan,” with their media mentions spiking almost entirely between the years 2005 and 2020. In the end, all their books, conferences, and media appearances never made that many new New Atheists, with their numbers nationwide never breaking the low single-digits, percentage-wise. Today, the only real traces of their meteoric movement can be found in old YouTube videos and used book bins.

While it’s too early for a postmortem, the transgender movement seems to be following a similar pattern. Five years ago, gender activists were effectively holding universities, corporations, and governments hostage. CEOs, elected officials, and celebrities alike trembled at the threats from online mobs. Then came J.K. Rowling, the Cass Report, the closing of the U.K.’s main gender clinic, the backlash against male athletes in women’s locker rooms and sports, the wave of high-profile “detransitioners,” and a new administration working to roll back the policy gains of trans activists. Now that sanity also seems to be returning to corporate America, even Target, the future of this supposedly inevitable movement is, to say the least, in doubt.

I am not sure what this tells us, other than that culture is fickle and changes to embrace whoever seems to have a better story at any given time, especially if the tale excludes the God of Scripture, who created all things, provided for them, and offers salvation to those who believe. Is it possible they simply cannot abide a God that is greater than themselves?

https://mailchi.mp/ab30e9504631/who-is-azealia-banks-and-why-should-we-care?e=169825fd77

My wife and I have often found these concerns on the minds of many of the people we have talked with and shared our desire to go overseas. These people have told us a number of times something like, “Hey if you’re so interested in church planting and evangelism, why don’t you just stay here and do those things? Our city could use you!”

I’ve responded to these statements with a bit of my testimony. I used to be an atheist and although I didn’t believe in God, I knew there was something wrong with the world. So, I often studied philosophy to learn how to live a good life. About 6 years ago, I read a book that presented the Bible as a source of truth and wisdom. I hadn’t heard the Bible referred to like this before. So, I found a Bible online and, as I started reading, I had questions. I took my questions to Google and, over time, I discovered [resources] in my language to eventually lead me to the gospel, to a Bible study, and to membership in a local church.

However, the access I had to Christian resources is not universal. Specifically, about three thousand languages have yet to have any part of the Bible translated for them. Let alone any website, radio program, or other Christian information accessible in their language. There are no believers close by and there are no churches. Even if someone heard that the Creator God of the Universe has spoken and His words are recorded, there is no way for a person in these areas and within these languages to access the gospel on their own. “And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent?” (Romans:10:14-15 [14] How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher? [15] And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!
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For me – knowing this truth and how God chose to save me – I cannot simply stand by while millions are dying without the opportunity to hear and perhaps claim as their own the saving gospel message that was so abundantly accessible to me.

Of course, there are needs in the States; there always will be. But there are also millions of believers equipped with the largest amount of Christian resources ever known to man including over 900 Bible translations (counting revisions) in English. These men and women can evangelize, disciple, and plant churches in their communities.

Our Savior is worthy to be praised by every tongue and tribe. Until that work is complete, we should have an outward, cross-cultural drive relentlessly pressing towards those who have yet to hear – those who have no Bible, no knowledge of Jesus – so that one day they will join in worshipping the only true God, now and forever.

—Current Student/Alumni, Radius International [Name withheld because of possible ministry in a “sensitive region.”]