Christian
Don’t worry, I wasn’t going to be there and guess what, I’m not going to watch it either!
‘President-elect Joe Biden’s basement campaign was characterized by lackluster energy and small crowds and now it appears his swearing-in ceremony will be more of the same.
The Presidential Inaugural Committee announced in a news release Tuesday that on Jan. 20, Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris will take their oaths of office at a downsized ceremony at the U.S. Capitol featuring “vigorous health and safety protocols.”
“The ceremony’s footprint will be extremely limited, and the parade that follows will be reimagined,” the release added.
“Our goal is to create an inauguration that keeps people safe, honors the grand traditions of the Presidency, and showcases the Biden-Harris Administration’s renewed American vision for an inclusive, equitable, and unified citizenry,” the committee’s chief executive, Tony Allen, said.’https://www.theblaze.com/news/biden-inauguration-committee-stay-home?utm_source=theblaze-breaking&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20201215Trending-CaliforniaRestaurant&utm_term=ACTIVE%20LIST%20-%20TheBlaze%20Breaking%20News
HOW LONG DO YOU THINK BIDEN WILL LAST BEFORE THE OTHER PERSON IS PRESIDENT?
I am also on Rumble which is a free speech platform for videos.
How long will it be before we in the West face the same persecution Christians in China are facing? In ‘Chinese courtrooms this month were the scene of two trials prosecuting Christian businessmen for selling audio versions of the Bible, a new crackdown that is part of a government campaign to “eradicate pornography and illegal publications.”
Lai Jinqiang, a Christian businessman whose company sells an audio Bible player — an MP3-like device that allows users to share passages from the Bible — was tried in a district court in China’s coastal city Shenzhen on December 7 for selling the electronic devices.
On December 9, four Christians, Fu Xuanjuan, Deng Tianyong, Han Li and Feng Qunhao, were tried by the same court for “illegal business operations.” They all worked for Life Tree Culture Communication Co., Ltd, whose main business is selling audio Bible players. The prosecutor recommended that the court sentence Fu, the owner of the company to five years in prison. The other three sentences ranged from 18 months to three years.
According to Bitter Winter, an online magazine on religious liberty and human rights, police are also reaching out to buyers of the Bible players to warn them about potentially breaking the law by making such purchases.
Audio Bible players
China for years has allowed sales of the Bible through official channels only. Currently, among China’s major religions, which include Buddhism, Taoism, Islam and folk beliefs, Christianity is the only one whose major holy text cannot be sold through normal commercial channels. The Bible is printed in China but legally available only at church bookstores approved by Beijing. Roughly two years ago, the Chinese government banned online Bible sales.
Audio Bible players, nevertheless, have become popular with people of faith in China because of their ease of use. Apart from Bible verses, these electronic players are also equipped with sermons, hymns and other religious content. They were widely available on China’s largest online commercial site Taobao.
Ma Jing, a Christian at a family church, told VOA that the government can detain and punish worshippers for whatever excuse they come up with.
“This is bullying,” she said, adding that she believes the reason the Chinese Communist Party controls sales of Bible-related products is that it fears a large number of Christians could pose a threat to its rule.
Gina Goh, regional manager for Southeast Asia at Washington-based rights group International Christian Concern, told VOA the ultimate purpose of the trials is to make people fearful.
“These are examples that serve the purpose of warning other Christians to stop spreading the theology or the words (of the Bible) through your business,” she said.
She added that this is another example that the Chinese government is increasingly cracking down on Christians.
“They want to have full control. Targeting these Christian businesses is just one of the many ways that they are trying to crack down on Christianity overall,” she continued.
Sui Muqing, a Chinese human rights lawyer, told VOA the trials were meant to stop the spread of the Bible.
“My feeling is that this is the same kind of suppression as before, it’s just now expanded to Christian businesses. In essence, these are no difference from past religious persecution cases,” he said.
Christianity has been growing in China during the past two decades. According to a 2018 report by China’s State Council, from 1997 to 2018, Catholicism grew to 6 million worshipers from 4 million, while Protestantism increased to 38 million worshippers from 10 million.
Most surveys and experts, however, believe that these figures represent only about half the total number of believers, because each has a strong underground church that roughly matches the number of believers in government-run churches.
The Council on Foreign Relations estimates China is on track to have the world’s largest population of Christians by the end of this decade.
Retranslating the Bible
As part of a longstanding effort to limit the influence of Christianity in China, central government authorities last year indicated that they would publish an “official translation” of the Bible for Chinese worshippers.
The CCP called for “a comprehensive evaluation of the existing religious classics aiming at contents which do not conform to the progress of the times” in a 2019 meeting held by the Committee for Ethnic and Religious Affairs, which oversees religious matters in China.
The meeting concluded that the new “official edition” of the Bible must not contain any content that contradicts socialism, and paragraphs deemed wrong by censors will be amended or retranslated.’https://www.voanews.com/east-asia-pacific/china-conducts-two-trials-crackdown-audio-bibles
“For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul.” (Leviticus 17:11)
‘This great verse contains a wealth of scientific and spiritual truth. It was not realized until the discovery of the circulation of the blood by the creation scientist William Harvey, in about 1620, that biological “life” really is maintained by the blood, which both brings nourishment to all parts of the body and also carries away its wastes.
Its spiritual truth is even more significant. The blood, when shed on the altar, would serve as an “atonement” (literally “covering”) for the soul of the guilty sinner making the offering. In fact, the “life” of the flesh is actually its “soul,” for “life” and “soul” both translate the same Hebrew word (nephesh) in this text. When the blood was offered, it was thus an offering of life itself in substitution for the life of the sinner who deserved to die.
Human sacrifices, of course, were prohibited. No man could die for another man, for his blood would inevitably be contaminated by his own sin. Therefore, the blood of a “clean animal” was required. Animals do not possess the “image of God” (Genesis 1:27), including the ability to reason about right and wrong, and therefore cannot sin. Even such clean blood could only serve as a temporary covering, and it could not really “take away” sin. For a permanent solution to the sin problem, nothing less was required than that of the sinless “Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). “Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us” (Hebrews 9:12). Since His life was in His blood, He has “made peace through the blood of his cross” (Colossians 1:20).’https://www.icr.org/article/12495/?utm_source=phplist9181&utm_medium=email&utm_content=HTML&utm_campaign=December+13+-+Life+in+the+Blood
And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.
‘Genesis 2:7 states that man became a “living soul” (Hebrew nephesh chayyâh) when God breathed into him “the breath of life.”1 Therefore, naturalism cannot be true. If it were, then humans would instead have inexplicably acquired some kind of nephesh through a gradual evolutionary descent from our alleged ancestors.
Since Scripture informs us so clearly that life originated with the Creator rather than through random natural processes, we can confidently examine evolutionary claims and find them insufficient to doubt our Creator’s Word. For instance, look at the osteostracans, bizarre fish-like creatures with about 200 species. They have a jawless head covered by a bony shield, the nature of which “is still unclear.”2 Not surprisingly, they suddenly appear in the fossil record as fully developed Osteostraci.
The origin of the Osteostraci is much more mysterious than their disappearance. An investigator who seeks to know the steps by which these forms come into existence finds himself confronting one of the most perplexing problems in the study of vertebrate evolution.3
There is nothing simple about these sophisticated creatures—their morphology (form or appearance) is described as “remarkable,”2 and they have a “sophisticated nervous system.”4 With their secular worldview, however, evolutionists say this creature was the predecessor of humans. A recent article describing the ecological diversity of Osteostraci states no fewer than five times that these aquatic animals were our ancient ancestors5 (as if repetition can turn something into a scientific fact).
If anything, the article inadvertently supports the creation model. It overturns the classical evolutionary tale of jawed vertebrates “driving their jawless relatives (osteostracans) to extinction.”5 It instead describes—using computer simulations—how osteostracans were designed to interact with currents of water in a remarkable way.
These experiments revealed the bizarre spikes and spines that ornamented the heads of these jawless vertebrates were actually hydrodynamic adaptations, passively generating lift from water currents flowing over the body. The varying head shapes of different species allowed them to adapt to different positions, some high, others low, within the water. Our ancient ancestors were already ecologically diverse, long before the evolution of their jawed vertebrate relatives.5
Creationists maintain that all diversities of jawed and jawless aquatic creatures lived together, occupying different ecological niches. Jawless animals never evolved into a jawed condition. In the face of juxtaposing evidence, secular scientists are required to concede that the theory of such a strange transition “is more complex than previously thought.”5
In addition, Dr. Carlos Martínez-Pérez, a researcher from the University of Valencia in Spain, states:
Our simulations reveal that the different species of osteostracans show equally different hydrodynamic efficiencies. Some of them performed better when moving close to the sea floor or riverbed while others performed better when swimming freely in the water.5
Like Tiktaalik,6 God designed the osteostracans to move into and fill specific ecological niches: “The different species’ body shapes are adapted to different environments, revealing distinct lifestyles among these groups of jawless early vertebrates.”5
Instead of the osteostracans being “our ancient ancestors,” we can conclude that these fascinating creatures were well-designed by God for a place in the aquatic ecosystem of the pre-Flood world. Human life, as Genesis states, was directly God’s creation.
References
- Although animals possess both “breath” (Hebrew rûach, Genesis 7:15) and “life” (Hebrew nephesh, Genesis 1:20), the life and breath (Hebrew rûach, same word as “spirit”) of man were directly conveyed to him by God.
- Janvier, P. 2002. Early Vertebrates. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 113.
- Stahl, B. J. 1985. Vertebrate History: Problems in Evolution. New York: Dover Publications, 29-30.
- Hickman, C. P. et al. 2020. Integrated Principles of Zoology, 18th ed. New York: McGraw Hill, 520.
- Mud-slurping chinless ancestors had all the moves. University of Bristol news release. Posted on bristol.ac.uk October 1, 2020, accessed October 6, 2020. See also Dial, K. P., N. Shubin, and E. L. Brainerd, eds. 2015. Great Transformations in Vertebrate Evolution. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 11.
- Sherwin, F. Banner Fossil for Evolution Is Demoted. Creation Science Update. Posted on ICR.org January 27, 2010, accessed October 5, 2020.
* Mr. Sherwin is Research Associate at the Institute for Creation Research and earned his M.A. in zoology from the University of Northern Colorado.
Cite this article: Frank Sherwin, M.A. 2020. Osteostracans Aren’t Ancestors. Acts & Facts. 49 (12).’https://www.icr.org/article/osteostracans-arent-ancestors/
‘Color revolution tactics that have been used against foreign leaders are now being used by President Donald Trump’s opponents to oust him, a former special forces officer has warned.
“A color revolution is a tactic to affect regime change,” the officer, who asked to remain anonymous, told The Epoch Times. “What I see happening is a Marxist insurgency that’s using a color revolution to affect regime change.”
The 2019 Transition Integrity Project, according to the officer, is an indicator that the events of this year’s presidential election were “transparently orchestrated” by “Marxist elements within the Democratic Party and their Marxist allies in foreign governments.”
“It may not have fallen out just as they wanted, because anytime you carry out an operation like this, the enemy will get a vote. But the plan was we will not concede the election. The goal here was never the presidency,” the officer said. “The goal of the opposition was to fundamentally change the country. They are attacking the efficacy of the Constitution.”
To achieve their goal, the anti-Trump opposition focused their main effort on affecting the election, the officer said.
Some of the most notable color revolutions took place amid turmoil sparked by disputed elections. In 2004, mass protests in Ukraine following allegations of a fraudulent presidential election, which initially showed pro-Russia Viktor Yanukovych as the winner, led to a new vote won by Viktor Yushchenko, the candidate backed by the European Union and the United States.
The officer said the tactics used by the anti-Trump opposition can be found in the Special Forces’ guide for overthrowing a government.
“What you’re getting from me, this is supported in all older unconventional warfare doctrines,” the officer said. “You could go to our manuals and pull from them the information I’m telling you. This isn’t from someone who’s a rabid Trump supporter. This is what’s happening.”
The officer then talked about how President Barack Obama used his eight years in office to “seed his political allies all through the institutions,” created an “underground” or “shadow government” supported by legacy media and rioters.
“With the president being unable to get his own people into the administration, we effectively had a third administration of Obama,” the officer said. “So we come to what we have today: The underground are the elements within the government. We saw how they opposed the president, how they tried the impeachment.”
“The press is the auxiliary on the outside. The only thing we’re missing is a real guerrilla force, and we would be mistaken to think that’s just Antifa or Black Lives Matter. There are professional revolutionaries within those movements.”’https://www.theepochtimes.com/former-special-forces-officer-warns-of-color-revolution-tactics-used-against-trump_3612952.html?utm_source=newsnoe&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=breaking-2020-12-11-1
Time Magazine’s Person of the Year goes to two Leftist/Marxist/Commies who ain’t my President or Vice President. YES, ‘For the first time in the magazine’s history, Time has awarded Person of the Year not just to a president-elect but also to a vice president-elect.
The publication did not splinter the historic laurel to Joe Biden’s running mate thanks to her ability to deliver a crucial state — the departing senator’s state of California has proven the bluest in the union for decades — but rather due to the #historic nature of Kamala Harris’s success.
Nobody doubts the monumental success of what Harris’s rapid rise represents. Harris herself sits at the intersection of American stories finally triumphant —the daughter of immigrants, both Asian American and black, and the Baptist wife of a Jewish husband waiting in the wings to support the second-ever Catholic to occupy the Oval Office in our nation’s history.
But Biden is perhaps the more spectacular figure, don’t you think? He’s the first Democrat in nearly 30 years to unseat a first-term incumbent, and he clobbered a field of dozens of brilliant and diverse liberals without any favors from the mainstream media. In fact, his own eventual second in command was already cold on the electoral scrap heap by the time the election had gotten to Iowa.
In another narrative, Biden is the septuagenarian chosen by tens of millions specifically because they knew he was the only one temperamentally and tactically capable of beating the Bad Orange Man. Despite the worst inclinations of liberals chanting, “Defund the police,” Biden drastically outperformed the down-ballot leftists in even the bluest of districts. Realistically, Uncle Joe proved that his boring and occasionally brutish brand of retail and pragmatic politics worked. The man who famously backed the Iraq War and opposed the surge, opposed the Osama Bin Ladin raid, supported the Libya assault, and spearheaded the Serbia bombing while ignoring the Rwandan genocide, beat the self-aggrandizing Cheeto King.
And yet, Harris claims the president-elect’s spotlight. Don’t believe me? Watch for yourself and wonder if even Richard Nixon could have trusted such a celebrity over Spiro Agnew himself.’https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/time-makes-kamala-and-that-old-dude-person-of-the-year?utm_source=In%20Our%20Opinion_12/11/2020&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=WEX_In%20Our%20Opinion&rid=24803220
Does the following really surprise a true conservative?! ‘A prominent LGBT rights group is trying to persuade former Vice President Joe Biden and his presumptive administration to adopt guidelines that could lead to the closing of private Christian colleges and universities.
Activists at the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) have written a document titled Blueprint for Positive Change, which gives 85 pro-LGBT policy and legislative recommendations for a potential Biden administration to enact.
One of the proposals in the HRC’s document calls for the US Department of Education to eliminate all exceptions for faith-based colleges and universities if they “discriminate or do not meet science-based curricula standards.”’https://www.faithwire.com/2020/12/10/a-direct-threat-to-christian-education-lgbt-activist-group-calls-for-biden-to-target-christian-schools/?utm_source=FWNL
whatyareckon 