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Woolly mammoths of the Ice Age1 were once found in huge numbers in Siberia, northern Europe, and North America.

Organic remains from “prehistoric” animals such as dinosaurs are incredibly significant finds, and so it is with woolly mammoths.2 For example, scientists found a huge mammoth skull (Mammuthus primigenius) sticking out of the water of a Siberian lake on the Yamal peninsula. Wool, soft tissues, and a coprolite (fossilized dung) were also found.3 The Live Science article said these organics were over 10,000 years old.

In 2012, ICR’s Dr. Brian Thomas discussed the discovery of 126 unique proteins from a frozen woolly mammoth:

A small international team analyzed the mammoth bones and published their findings in the Journal of Proteome Research. They used “the world’s fastest and most sensitive ion trap mass spectrometer,” according to the product’s website. Older versions of similar technology could only detect large amounts of proteins, but this new machine is able to accurately identify small amounts.

The result was an unprecedented array of proteins, including serum albumin, which plays the essential role of transporting hormones in animals. Most of the proteins were actually fragmented but digitally stitched together to reconstruct their original forms.4

Supposedly the frozen mammoth from which these proteins were extracted was 43,000 years old.

But recently an even greater age has been assigned to “skin from a mammoth that died 52,000 years ago, [it] was so well-preserved that even the 3-D structure of its DNA was intact.”5 How? The Science News article stated, “Rapid drying had locked the ancient DNA into a tight molecular state similar to that of glass, called chromoglass. The geneticists and a team of theoretical physicists deduced that the chromoglass structure prevented the pieces of DNA from drifting away from each other.”5 Marcela Sandoval-Velasco et al. stated in Cell, “We use PaleoHi-C to map chromatin contacts and assemble its genome, yielding 28 chromosome-length scaffolds.”6

Compartments of chromatin also persisted, allowing the scientists to study the mammoth’s gene expression. For example, the chromoglass structure preserved a gene called Egfr, which aids in the regulation of hair and skin growth. This gene is not active in mammoths and perhaps is why they have shaggy long coats. Conversely, the gene is active in elephants.

What is interesting from a creation science perspective is that a geneticist from the Baylor College of Medicine found that mammoths have the same number of chromosomes as elephants: 28 pairs. The chromosome structure of the two creatures is also the same. This is clear evidence that woolly mammoths and elephants are of the created elephant kind.

This discovery also points to continued problems with evolution’s long ages. How could the intact chromosomes be 52,000 years old? The Science News article simply stated, “The mammoth was freeze-dried and preserved in permafrost.”5 But for 52,000 years? Can intact chromosomes remain after 52,000 years’ worth of freezing and thawing cycles, UV radiation, the activity of invertebrates, and microorganisms such as bacteria?

Corryn Wetzel, science writer for New Scientist, describes the problem: “Because molecules of DNA begin to break down when an animal dies, scientists have previously only been able to find tiny snippets of the woolly mammoth genome – but to the researchers’ surprise, the animal’s chromosomes were perfectly preserved. “This does not match with anything that we have analysed before that was 52,000 years old, so that was very surprising,” says Juan Antonio Rodríguez at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark, a member of the research team.” 7

The creation model does not rely on long ages. Scientists continue to unearth preserved DNA and intact, even soft, proteins from “prehistoric” creatures. This is what is expected on the basis of the biblical timeline, which according to the genealogies and chronologies of the Hebrew Bible puts creation at about 6,000 years ago and the immediate post-Flood time in which the mammoths lived at about 4,000 years ago.

References

1. Vardiman, L. and M. Oard. 2023. “ICR and Explaining the Ice Age.” Acts & Facts. 52 (6): 18.
2. Hebert, J. “Mammoth DNA: The Oldest Ever Found?” Creation Science Update. Posted on ICR.org March 15, 2021.
3. Geggel, L. “Woolly Mammoth with Preserved Poop, Wool and Ligaments Dredged from Siberian Lake.” Live Science. Posted on livescience.com August 11, 2020.
4. Thomas, B. “Over 100 Frozen Original Mammoth Proteins Found.” Creation Science Update. Posted on ICR.org January 10, 2012.
5. Saey, T. “Freeze-Drying Turned a Woolly Mammoth’s DNA into 3-D ‘Chromoglass.’” Science News. Posted on sciencenews.org July 11, 2024.
6. Sandoval-Velasco, M. et al. 2024. “Three-Dimensional Genome Architecture Persists in a 52,000-Year-Old Woolly Mammoth Skin Sample.” Cell. 187 (14): P3541–3562.e51.
7. Wetzel, C. “Woolly Mammoth DNA Exceptionally Preserved in Freeze-Dried ‘jerky.’” New Scientist. Posted on newscientist.com July 11, 2024.

https://www.icr.org/article/more-woolly-mammoth-dna/

Having no other explanation, evolutionists are forced to claim that the law of biogenesis has not been proved to be universal and must have been violated at least once and probably many times. Here is what one website that purports to answer creationist arguments declares: “Creationists represent biogenesis as a rigid law with universal scope, when, in reality, it is merely a guideline that amounts to saying that spontaneous generation (the assembly of fully formed organisms out of inanimate material in short periods of time by purely natural processes) does not occur. This kind of all-at-once process is not comparable to the slow, stepwise process of prebiotic synthesis. Perhaps in the end it may ultimately turn out that abiogenesis is impossible, and that the law of biogenesis should be taken as universal, but to take the law as having such a scope at the moment, when origin of life studies are relatively new and progressing just fine, and only all-at-once spontaneous generation has been ruled out, would be premature.”

Embracing the impossible? The fact that every living thing is composed of the same lifeless material that makes up the physical universe shows that life is not a quality of matter. That being the case, the very existence of life becomes a series of miracles. Miracles? That’s a forbidden word, yet modern science, after decades of trying, has failed to offer the world a better explanation. After somehow pulling themselves together, have protein molecules taken charge? At the same time, however, science denies that the miracles reported by eyewitnesses in the Bible could ever occur.

The biblical job description of pastors and elders is twofold. First, they are to guard the flock from false teachers trying to invade the church from the outside and from false teachers rising up from within. (Acts:20:28-30 [28] Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood. [29] For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. [30] Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them.
See All...) Second, church leaders are also to: “equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.” (Ephesians:4:12-14 [12] For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: [13] Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ: [14] That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive;
See All...)

It is not an easy job. People who say we need to get back to “first-century Christianity” may not realize that leading the early church was no picnic.  It was a difficult job in the First Century, and in fact, nearly all of the New Testament, with the exception of Philemon, was written to refute false teaching and false prophets, as well as correct bad doctrine and bad behavior. As we read the opening pages of Revelation, we find these issues were still plaguing the church.

Many take for granted that celebrity pastors, Christian educational institutions, Christian publishing houses, magazines, periodicals, Christian television, and radio stations are “safe” and can be trusted. It is assumed that they certainly would be more biblically informed. Often, by the time the pastor and elders realize there is a problem with a particular false teaching in the church, quite a few in the congregation are already infected with false teaching and are passing it along. In other cases, pastors themselves, trusting the above sources, are infected and deceived themselves. When that happens, they may go on the defensive and attack anyone who exposes the unbiblical teachings and practices they have adopted. It is truly a full-time job watching out for twisted teachings coming into the church from supposedly Christian sources.

Megan Basham’s recent book, Shepherds for Sale: How Evangelical Leaders Traded the Truth for a Leftist Agenda, has caused quite a stir, and many celebrity leaders are not happy with her exposure. For example, she wrote:

North Carolina megachurch pastor J. D. Greear, while president of the Southern Baptist Convention, encouraged his congregation to minimize speaking about sexual sins like homosexuality, saying they should not “shout about what the Bible whispers about”—as if the destruction of Sodom and Paul’s description in Romans 1 of the progression of societal depravity were mere murmurs. 

The damage of downplaying and minimizing God’s word on something He has clearly spoken in the Old and New Testaments had already been done. There is no question that this minimization of homosexuality is something Greear taught, but some believe that his reversal should have prevented its inclusion. Was Greear unaware of God’s position on sexual immorality or was he downplaying it to appease those with an unbiblical agenda? We don’t know the answer to that question.

The problem of defending a favored preacher, teacher, or celebrity Christian is not new, certainly, but we first encountered this type of defensiveness in 1991. Dr. Murray J. Harris, a beloved professor of New Testament exegesis and theology at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois (TEDS) at the time, was teaching that Jesus was not physically resurrected but had a non-physical, non-corporeal body. The late Dr. Norman L. Geisler had addressed this heretical Jehovah’s Witness-like view with an eye toward repentance and restoration. Several ministries to Jehovah’s Witnesses, including Witness Inc., MCOI, and others, joined Dr. Geisler to address the issue. Dr. Harris’s defenders took a tactic similar to the one Basham is currently experiencing. We explained familiar practice in “Fraternity Over Orthodoxy”:

When we were addressing Murray J. Harris’s false teaching on the Resurrection, nearly all of the professors at Trinity College defended Harris, and many outside of the institution defended him as well. “He is a nice guy,” they said. “He is a faithful husband,” we were told. “He is a brilliant scholar on the original languages,” it was claimed. All of those things may have been true, but none of them addressed the problem at all. Unfortunately, nice men and women, faithful spouses, and brilliant scholars can slip into heresy the same as nasty guys, cheaters, and dim bulbs. Our focus did not encompass his personality or scholarship. We were solely concerned with his teaching that the Resurrection was not physical. He essentially took the same view on the Resurrection as the Jehovah’s Witnesses!

Although this was resolved after several years, with Harris changing his view, though not correcting his book, many pastors had already been influenced by his teachings and books, and the lack of biblical understanding on this central issue of the faith still lingers in churches.

At the turn of the Millennium, the Evangelical Theological Society (ETS) faced another doctrinal dilemma: could members hold to the view that God is not omniscient and hence does not know the future, a view known as “Open Theism?” In 2003, ETS essentially punted, and both rejected Open Theism and maintained members who held that view. I…and several others resigned. In my resignation letter, I enumerated the reasons for my resignation and suggested:

The irony here is that when theological terms cease to have stable meanings, Christianity not only becomes spiritually impotent but also academically suspect. ETS’s watering down of the meaning of “evangelical” is thus costly not only in spiritual but also intellectual terms, and thus is an ethical dilemma. It may be the case that the Evangelical Theological Society, in an effort to be honest with the public, should consider changing the organizational name to the Elastic Theological Society and thus avoid representing itself as an organization that continues to uphold a biblical worldview.

https://midwestoutreach.org/2024/09/19/warnings-to-the-church/

Architect’s plans without an Architect?  Dawkins has to acknowledge that DNA contains detailed, written instructions for building and operating millions of incredibly complex and ingenious nano-chemical machine in trillions of cells joined together, each in its proper place and relationship to the others and to the whole. These amazing blueprints couldn’t possibly be conceived and encoded into language except by an Infinite Intelligence. But Dawkins’s “definition” turns mindless matter into an engineering genius via his god, “natural selection.”

In an interreligious meeting with youth at Singapore’s Catholic Junior College, the pontiff underscored the importance of interreligious dialogue, insisting that there is no point in arguing about who is right since everybody is right.

If people start fighting over whose religion is more important “or saying, ‘Mine is the true religion; yours isn’t true,’ where does that lead? Where?” the pope asked.

Someone in the audience answered, “Destruction,” to which Pope Francis assented.

“Exactly,” he said. “All religions are a path to reach God. They are, to use a comparison, like different languages, different dialects to get there.”

“But God is God for everyone,” he continued. “And since God is God for everyone, we are all children of God.”

“But my God is more important than yours!” he said, dramatizing. “Is this true? There is only one God, and we, our religions are languages, paths to reach God.”

“Some Sikh, some Muslim, some Hindu, some Christian, but they are different paths. Understood?” he said.

Pope Francis spoke in Italian, but the Vatican’s English-language translation of the text altered some of his more controversial statements, softening them, perhaps to avoid stirring up conflict.

While in Italian the pope asserted that “all religions are a path to reach God,” the Vatican’s English rendering of the text said, “Religions are seen as paths trying to reach God” (emphasis added).

The Italian original said that religions are “like different languages, different dialects to get there,” while the English-language text said that they are “like different languages that express the divine.”

“There is only one God, and we, our religions are languages, paths to reach God,” the pope said in Italian, to which the Vatican translated, “There is only one God, and religions are like languages that try to express ways to approach God.”

“Some Sikh, some Muslim, some Hindu, some Christian, but they are different paths,” the pope actually said, which the English translation cropped to only read, “Some Sikh, some Muslim, some Hindu, some Christian,” leaving aside any reference to “paths.”

In its own authoritative text on the “unicity and universality of the salvific mystery of Jesus Christ,” the Vatican cites the Acts of the Apostles: “There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved”‌ (Acts:4:12Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.
See All...).

“It must therefore be firmly believed as a truth of Catholic faith that the universal salvific will of the One and Triune God is offered and accomplished once for all in the mystery of the incarnation, death, and resurrection of the Son of God,” the text reads.

For some, “Jesus would be one of the many faces which the Logos has assumed in the course of time to communicate with humanity in a salvific way,” the document warns, a thesis that is “in profound conflict with the Christian faith.”

“For there is one God; there is also one mediator between God and men, the man Jesus Christ, who gave himself as a ransom for all,” ‌the text states, citing Saint Paul’s First Letter to Timothy (1 Tim:2:4-6 [4] Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth. [5] For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; [6] Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time.
See All...).

https://www.breitbart.com/faith/2024/09/13/pope-francis-all-religions-are-a-path-to-reach-god/

At the age of just under 18, when he had just become pastor of a small church, the well-known revivalist preacher Jonathan Edwards wrote down 70 resolutions in his diary. Here is a small selection of them:

First of all, what Jonathan Edwards had also written before his resolutions:

"Realizing that I can do nothing without God's help, I humbly beseech Him to enable me by His grace to keep these resolutions, so far as they are consistent with His will, for Christ's sake."

"Resolved, after afflictions, to consider how I have been made better by them, what good I have received by them, and what I might have gained by them."

"Resolved, to make every effort to act as I think I would if I had already seen the bliss of heaven and the torments of hell."

"Resolved, to study the Scriptures so constantly, continuously and frequently that I see and clearly perceive in myself how I am growing in their knowledge."

— Jonathan Edwards (October 5, 1703 – March 22, 1758, American revivalist preacher, philosopher, and Congregationalist theologian.

At the age of just under 18, when he had just become pastor of a small church, the well-known revivalist preacher Jonathan Edwards wrote down 70 resolutions in his diary. Here is a small selection of them:

First of all, what Jonathan Edwards had also written before his resolutions:

"Realizing that I can do nothing without God's help, I humbly beseech Him to enable me by His grace to keep these resolutions, so far as they are consistent with His will, for Christ's sake."

"Resolved, after afflictions, to consider how I have been made better by them, what good I have received by them, and what I might have gained by them."

"Resolved, to make every effort to act as I think I would if I had already seen the bliss of heaven and the torments of hell."

"Resolved, to study the Scriptures so constantly, continuously and frequently that I see and clearly perceive in myself how I am growing in their knowledge."

— Jonathan Edwards (October 5, 1703 – March 22, 1758, American revivalist preacher, philosopher, and Congregationalist theologian.

Bringing life out of dead matter is more amazing than any miracle the Bible presents. Primitive self-replicating molecules cannot create information—that process takes nothing less than an intelligence. In referring to the information provided by the DNA for constructing and operating the body—all of it on the single cell from which each human begins, Dawkins declares, “When you were first conceived you were just a single cell, endowed with one master copy of the architect’s plans.”

The Palestinian Authority (PA) has condemned Israel for initiating a large-scale military operation in the northern West Bank, near Jordan, but it has purposely chosen to overlook the reason behind the Israeli security's operation. Israel's counterterrorism operation, called Summer Camps, targets numerous Iran-backed armed terrorist groups, including Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), that have been operating freely in PA-controlled territories in the past few years.

The main objective of Israel's operation is to thwart Iran's intention, with the help of the armed groups, to turn not only Gaza, but also the West Bank into another terror base to be used as part of the Islamists' Jihad (holy war) to destroy Israel.

Most of the gunmen there belong to Hamas and PIJ, which are strongly opposed to the Palestinian Authority and its policies, especially the security coordination between the PA security forces and the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). The two groups do not recognize Israel's right to exist and seek to replace it, through Jihad, with an Islamist state. One of the reasons the PA is reluctant to crack down on the "battalions" is because PA officials are aware that the terrorists enjoy widespread support among the Palestinian public.

The Israeli military operation in the northern West Bank could have been avoided, had the PA fulfilled its duty of combating terrorism by dismantling the armed groups.

Article XIV, "The Palestinian Police," of the Oslo Accord signed between Israel and the PLO in 1993 states: "Except for the Palestinian Police and the Israeli military forces, no other armed forces shall be established or operate in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip."

Article XV, "Prevention of Hostile Acts," states: "Both sides shall take all measures necessary in order to prevent acts of terrorism, crime and hostilities directed against each other, against individuals falling under the other's authority and against their property, and shall take legal measures against offenders."

The PA, however, has constantly violated the terms of the Oslo Accords by, among other things, failing to stop armed groups from operating in its territory and from attacking Israelis. The PA has therefore become part of the problem, not the solution.

Many Israeli and Palestinian lives could have been spared had the PA done its job and taken action against the "battalion" gunmen. The PA, however, is still reluctant, or too terrified, to take on the armed groups. That is why the Israeli security forces were obliged to launch the current counterterrorism operation.

The PA has a history of failing -- or refusing -- to take action against armed groups operating in regions under its jurisdiction. The PA did virtually nothing to stop Hamas from building its terror infrastructure when it controlled the Gaza Strip. Hamas's actions included smuggling weapons across the border with Egypt and building dozens of assault tunnels in various locations throughout the Gaza Strip and near the Israeli border.

The Palestinian Authority eventually fell victim to its own passivity. In 2007, Hamas staged a violent and brutal coup against the PA in Gaza, killing dozens of PA loyalists. According to a Human Rights Watch report: "Hamas military forces captured 28-year-old Mohammed Swairki, a cook for [PA] President Mahmoud Abbas's presidential guard, and executed him by throwing him to his death, with his hands and legs tied, from a 15-story apartment building in Gaza City."

If anyone is upset with Israel for its counterterrorism operation, they need to be more upset with the PA for not standing up to the armed groups and preventing Iran from establishing a terror base in the West Bank. Failing to do so means that Iran's proxies may soon hurl Abbas himself from a high-rise in Ramallah, the de-facto capital of the Palestinians in the West Bank, in addition to launching more terrorist attacks against Israelis.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/20918/iran-hamas-west-bank