evolution

Nature – The Bombardier Beetle

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Evolution versus Creation:

Bombardier beetles are some of the smaller beetles ranging in size from .25 inches to 1.5 inches. Most are under an inch. There are many different species of bombardier beetles and they come in various colors, predominately black, brown or green with yellow or orange heads. They can live up to two to three years and are found on all continents except for Antarctica.

The beetle has many predators, and this beetle protects itself by ejecting a hot noxious, acidic spray from tubes, approaching 212°F, that come from its underneath side. This acidic spray is very irritating to the membranes of the eyes, nose and lungs and can even kill some insects. This chemical spray is made and then stored in two reservoirs in its lower abdomen and upon ejection with force, it creates an explosive sound, which also helps to ward off predators. The explosive sound is actually a series of sequential explosions, about 1000 that occur so rapidly that they can be heard individually only when the sound is greatly slowed down. This spray can be aimed toward the predator with some bombardier beetles having a 270˚ angle of spraying rotation. Because this is actually a series of explosions that can be aimed, the beetle is then protected from being blown away from the force and injured or destroyed. They can also bite their predator multiple times leaving blistering of the skin.

Some argue that these defense mechanisms could have formed over long periods of time, but common sense would tell you that in order for the beetle to protect itself and not be injured by its own protective mechanisms, all of this had to be present at one time.

It seems to take a lot more faith to believe that this could have all evolved, than to believe an intelligent and loving Creator designed our world and everything in it. Knowing more about the bombardier beetle has strengthened my belief in creation by the design of an all-knowing and loving God. How about you?

This is a series of short, intermittent articles on creatures that defy evolution. These articles are based on a series of videos created by Dr. Jobe Martin. Dr. Martin was a college professor and dentist. In the fall of 1971, he gave a lecture at Baylor College in Houston, Texas, on the evolution of the tooth. After class, two students asked him if he had ever looked at the assumptions that evolution was based on and if he had looked into the claims of creationism. This began a five-year journey into the study of evolution and some of the incredible creatures in our world. During these five years, his belief was questioned, challenged and changed. Now he teaches and believes in creation by God. He also has a video series entitled, Incredible Creatures that Defy Evolution.

They Professed to Be Wise

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The most fundamental truth in the Bible is stated in the very first words of the Holy Record. Genesis 1:1 says, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” The foundation of faith in God is based upon the fact that He is the source of all matter. He is the source of time. He is the source of all life.

When God gave the Ten Commandments to His people and wrote them in tables of stone with His own finger, this fact was so important that the longest of all the commandments is the fourth one, dealing with the origin of our world and of life. It reads, “Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work; you nor your son nor your daughter nor your male servant nor your female servant nor your cattle nor your stranger who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.” Exodus 20:8–11.

Notice, the fourth commandment says that God created the entire world: planet earth, the atmospheric heavens around our earth, our solar system, the sun and the moons, the planets, this whole heavenly system, called, in the Bible, “the heavens and the earth.” God created this in six days—six twenty-four hour days. On the seventh day God rested and set apart the Sabbath as a memorial of His creative power—a memorial of the fact that He is the origin, the source of all life.

Jesus not only acknowledged the Sabbath by worshipping upon it. (See Luke 4:16.) He also affirmed the genuineness of the record written by Moses. Notice what Jesus said to the Jews. “For if you believe Moses, you would have believed Me, for he wrote about Me. But if you do not believe his writings, how would you believe My words.” John 5:46, 47. Jesus acknowledged that the record written by Moses was factual and He said to the people of His time: “But you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life.” John 5:40. That is the problem with many people today. They are not willing to come to the only One who can give them life. 1 John 5:12 says, “He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.” There is only one source of life. You cannot make life. No man can make life and life cannot be generated of itself. So, if you are not connected to this Source, you have no life.

A Final Message to Worship the Creator

Not only at the beginning of the Bible, but also at the end of the Bible, the truth about the creation of the world and the origin of life is repeated. The apostle Peter stated that in the last time there would come scoffers who would ridicule the idea of the Second Coming of Christ, and laugh at the Biblical record of the origin of the world and of the world-wide flood. They will say: “Where is the promise of His coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the Word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water: Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished.” 2 Peter 3:4–6.

So to the last generation, living in a great age of unbelief (as predicted by the Bible), the God of heaven gives three last warning messages. The first of these is on the very point of creation. It is found in Revelation 14:6, 7: “Then I saw another angel flying in the midst of heaven having the everlasting gospel to preach to those who dwell on the earth, to every nation, tribe, tongue and people; saying with a loud voice, ‘Fear God and give glory to Him for the hour of His judgment has come and worship Him who made heaven and earth, the sea and springs of water.’ ” The first message of this final warning is a command to worship God as the Creator, to fear Him and to be afraid to tamper with or disbelieve what He has said. These three messages in chapter 14 are a focal point of Revelation. Careful study will show that all the chapters following them are simply the outworking of the results of these three messages having been given to the last generation.

The Bible teaches that we are all going to give an account of ourselves to God, whether we are atheists, agnostics or otherwise. But man does not want to believe this. He does not want to acknowledge a God Who is a moral Governor and Who will “bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.” Ecclesiastes 12:14.

Because man does not want to acknowledge God, he ignores the evidence around him that points directly to an infinite Creator. Paul wrote about this in Romans 1: “Because what may be known of God is manifest in them for God has shown it to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead so that they are without excuse.” Romans 1:19, 20. If people would just look on the natural world they would see the evidence of God’s eternal power and Godhead and they would be without excuse.

Continuing on Paul says: “Because that, when they knew God, they glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools.” Romans 1:21, 22.

We are living in a time when there are many people who profess to be wise. They are wiser, they believe, than the Bible. (It has always been very dangerous when men place themselves above God. It has happened many times in the past, and it is one of the primary characteristics of our generation.) When men think they can figure out the origin of our world through science alone, and begin to doubt God’s creative power, they must doubt His Word. For you must either believe that the world was created in six days, or believe that the God of the Bible is a liar.

This is the dilemma to which modern science has brought mankind. Was the world created in six days or did it come into existence over a period of millions of years as people suppose and as is taught in institutions of so-called higher learning all over the world?

Creation Evidence in the Rocks

Many discoveries have been made that disprove the most fashionable and accepted evolutionary theories, but these discoveries have not been accepted because they counter the prevailing belief. One of these was made by a scientist named Dr. Robert Gentry. He discovered radiohalos below the sedimentary rock in the basement granites around the globe. He has examined more than one hundred thousand of these halo phenomena. According to every basic principle of evolutionary theory these halos cannot be there and yet they are!

Briefly this is what his studies have shown: Polonium isotopes were formed during the process of radioactive decay which took place during the formation of the granites. The halos were captured when the rock hardened. The polonium particle has a very short half-life, and so in order for these halos to be visible, the granite would have needed to be formed almost instantaneously, or the traces of this fleeting element would never have been captured. This is very powerful evidence that these rocks had to come into existence instantaneously —not over long periods of time. (The details of Dr. Gentry’s research is found in his book, Creation’s Tiny Mystery.)

Although this research has been published in several prestigious, peer-reviewed, scientific journals and the methods and findings have never been disproven, most of the scientific community does not accept it. They have either ignored it or tried to fight it because it totally demolishes evolutionary theory.

There are many other examples like this that totally disprove the most widely believed theories today, but they are rejected. For example: Detailed studies of various animals have revealed certain physical equipment and capabilities that the world’s best designers cannot duplicate, even using the most sophisticated technologies. Here are just a few: the miniature and reliable sonar systems of the dolphins, porpoises and whales; the frequency modulated radar and discrimination system of the bat; the efficiency and aerodynamic capabilities of the humming bird; the control systems, internal ballistics and the combustion chambers of the bombardier beetle. In addition to these, there are the precise navigational systems of many birds and fish. All of these things point to an exquisite, complicated and precise design.

If you ask some people where all this came from, they will say, “Well, it originated in the big bang.” Now think this through. There have been many “big bangs” around the world in the last fifty years, with different nations dropping bombs on each other. What has been the result? Have any of these explosions ever developed a precise design or a working model of anything? Of course not! Explosions produce chaos, not order and design. Yet we see exquisite, complicated order and design, beyond anything we can produce, all throughout the natural world.

The Work of a Divine Designer

One of the most persuasive arguments against the whole concept of evolutionary processes is something that every human being knows something about. We call it sexual reproduction. Sexual reproduction occurs in both plants and animals. If sexual reproduction were a result of some evolutionary or chance process, an absolutely unbelievable series of chance events would have had to occur.

First of all, the complex and completely different reproductive systems of the male must have independently evolved at about the same time and place as those of the female. A slight incompleteness in just one of the two would make both systems useless, and natural selection would oppose their survival.

Secondly, the physical systems of the male and the female would also need to be compatible. Third, the complex products of the male reproductive system such as pollen or sperm would need to have an affinity for and a mechanical and chemical compatibility with the eggs from the female reproductive system.

Fourth, the intricate and numerous processes occurring at the molecular level inside the fertilized egg would have to work with fantastic precision the very first time it happened. Processes which, even today, scientists can only describe in an aggregate sense.

Fifth, the environment of the fertilized egg from conception until it also reproduces, as an adult, with another sexually capable brother or sister would have to be controlled to an unbelievable degree. If these processes did not occur at precisely the right time, then one must restart this incredible chain of events all over again near ground zero. The odds then would become so astronomical that they insult the intelligence of anyone with common sense.

We are left with only two options. Either this series of incredible events occurred by random processes—as many people believe—or else an intelligent Designer created sexual reproduction. Which one makes the most sense? You decide. The first week of this world’s existence, creation week, as recorded in Genesis 1 and 2, was believed in by all the prophets, all the apostles and Jesus Christ Himself. God wrote down the facts in His Law which He wrote, with His own finger, in tables of stone. It said, “In six days God created the heavens and the earth.” But man says, “No, I know better than the Bible. I know better than Moses, I know better than Jesus Christ. I know better than the God that wrote His Law in tables of stone. I know that it took millions of years for the earth to come into existence through an evolutionary process.”

The Three Suppositions of Evolution

The evolutionary theory is built mainly on three suppositions or hypotheses. These are the theories of:

  1. Natural selection
  2. Mutations
  3. Lengthy periods of time

Let us look briefly at the first two:

According to evolutionists, natural selection is supposed to work this way. First, two different creatures mate and they reproduce offspring. This offspring then mutates or slowly changes into a better, more efficient species.

Now let us think about this. For thousands of years human beings have been experimenting with breeding animals. (Genesis records that even Jacob was working with breeding animals.) This is not natural selection. This is a man or group of men, with all their intelligence, attempting to control the selection process.

However, over the last several thousand years, even though men have controlled the breeding of many different species of animals, both wild and domesticated, has any person ever succeeded in creating a new species? Or maybe even a partial change from one specie to another? Certain amalgamations have been produced. But no one has ever been able to take a dog, breed it thousands of times and come up with a horse! It just will not work.

And the reason it will not work is because inside the DNA of every living cell there is contained an enormous amount of information, enough to fill a one-thousand six hundred page book. And the genetic information in a dog’s cells is not capable of producing a horse or a bird or a fish or anything else except a dog. This has been proven over and over again for thousands of years. No amount of breeding or natural selection has ever produced a change of specie, a change of what God called in Genesis “the kinds” that He originally created. We can change the animals within a specie, of course. We can breed two different dogs and get a new kind of dog. But it is still a dog. It is not a horse, a cow, an elephant, a fish or a bird.

The change of species by natural selection has been proved over and over again to be mathematically impossible. Yet, people want to believe it, because, if they do not believe in this evolutionary theory, the only alternative is to believe in the Bible and what the Bible says about the origin of the universe. And human beings are determined that they will not believe what the Bible says!

Magical Mutation

The next supposition upon which the theory of evolution is based is the idea that during natural selection various mutations occur and these mutations result in a better or superior creature than before. Mutations are accidents, or errors, that happen in the instruction bank of an organism. When that organism grows into adulthood, according to evolution, that accident is supposed to produce a better life form.

However, when we look at the real world, we find that mutations in genetic material are virtually always detrimental in some way and the results are usually fatal, although sometimes they are only crippling to the organism. The fact is that mutations almost always produce a form of life that is worse than the original.

There are a number of mutations that have happened in the human race in the last few thousand years. Here are a few of the mutations that we find present today. Which of these mutations would you like to have? There is albinism, dwarfism, color blindness, Downs’ syndrome and possibly dyslexia. These conditions are all caused by mutations in different parts of the human genetic code. Does that sound like the kind of process that produced modern man? That is what evolution demands we believe.

We are faced with a theory that is mathematically bankrupt, that has never been demonstrated or proved and yet millions of people all over the world believe it because they do not want to believe in the God of the Bible, the only other choice. The Bible says, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” The Ten Commandments say, “For in six days God created the heavens and the earth and all that in them is and rested the seventh day wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.” But our world has forgotten the Sabbath day and, in forgetting it, they have forgotten their Creator, and they have produced new theories to try to explain away the entire Bible because they do not want to keep God in their thinking. They do not want to be accountable to Him. But, friend, you are accountable to God whether you are an atheist, an agnostic or whatever you are.

The Bible says, “If you cannot tell from the natural world the power and existence of God, you are without excuse.” To the last generation God sends this message, “Fear God and give glory to Him for the hour of His judgment has come and worship Him who made heaven and earth, the sea and springs of water.” Revelation 14:7.

There is a God in heaven. We are going to have to give an account to Him of what we have done in this world, whether good or bad. (2 Corinthians 5:10.) If you want to be ready for that day of judgment, the Bible says, “Fear God and give glory to the Creator.”

Do not worship your own mind, your own intellect. You will never figure it all out on your own. Acknowledge God as your Creator and worship Him and you will have eternal life. “He who has the Son has life; he that does not have the Son of God does not have life.” 1 John 5:12. Remember, no one in this world, no human being, can create life. Only God can give life, and He can give it to you more abundantly.

For helpful information on Creation see these internet sites:

www.carm.org/evquotes.htm

www.icr.org

www.origins.swau.edu

Adventist Evolutionists

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The fourth chapter of Romans is one of the richest in the Bible, in the hope and courage which it contains for the Christian. In Abraham we have an example of righteousness by faith, and we have set before us the wonderful inheritance promised to those who have the faith of Abraham. And this promise is not limited. The blessing of Abraham comes on the Gentiles as well as on the Jews; there is none so poor that he may not share it, for “it is of faith, that it might be by grace; to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed.” [Romans 4:16.]

The last clause of the seventeenth verse is worthy of special attention. It contains the secret of the possibility of our success in the Christian life. It says that Abraham believed “God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were.” This marks God’s power; it involves creative power. God can call a thing which is not as though it existed. If a man should do that, what would you call it?—A lie! If a man should say that a thing is, when it is not, it would be a lie. But God cannot lie. Therefore, when God calls those things that be not, as though they were, it is evidence that that makes them be. That is, they spring into existence at his word. We have all heard, as an illustration of confidence, the little girl’s statement that “if ma says so, it’s so if it isn’t so.” That is exactly the case with God. Before that time spoken of as “in the beginning,” there was a dreary waste of absolute nothingness; God spoke, and instantly worlds sprang into being. “By the word of the Lord were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth … For he spake, and it was; he commanded, and it stood fast.” Psalm 33:6–9. This is the power which is brought to view in Romans 4:17. Now let us read on, that we may see the force of this language in this connection. Still speaking of Abraham, the apostle says:—

“Who against hope believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations, according to that which was spoken, So shall thy seed be. And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about a hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sarah’s womb; he staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God; and being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform. And therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness.” Romans 4:18–22.

Here we learn that Abraham’s faith in God, as one who could bring things into existence by his word, was exercised with respect to his being able to create righteousness in a person destitute of it. Those who look at the trial of Abraham’s faith as relating simply to the birth of Isaac, and ending there, lose all the point and beauty of the sacred record. Isaac was only the one whom his seed was to be called, and that seed was Christ. See Galatians 3:16. When God told Abraham that in his seed all nations of the earth should be blessed, he was preaching the gospel to him (Galatians 3:8); therefore Abraham’s faith in the promise of God was direct faith in Christ as the Saviour of sinners. This was the faith which was counted to him for righteousness.

Now note the strength of the faith. His own body was already virtually dead from age, and Sarah was in like condition. The birth of Isaac from such a pair was nothing less than the bringing of life from the dead. It was a symbol of God’s power to quicken to spiritual life those who are dead in trespasses and sins. Abraham hoped against hope. There was human possibility of the fulfillment of the promise; everything was against it, but his faith grasped and rested upon the unchanging word of God, and his power to create and to make alive. “And therefore it was imputed unto him for righteousness.” [Romans 4:22.] Now for the point of it all:—

“Now it was not written for his sake alone, that it was imputed to him; but for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead; who was delivered for our offenses, and was raised again for our justification.” Romans 4:23–25.

So Abraham’s faith was the same that ours must be, and in the same object. The fact that it is by faith in the death and resurrection of Christ that we have the same righteousness imputed to us that was imputed to Abraham shows that Abraham’s faith was likewise in the death and resurrection of Christ. All the promises of God to Abraham were for us as well as for him. Indeed, we are told in one place that they were especially for our benefit. “When God made promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he sware by himself.” “Wherein God, willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath: that by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us.” Hebrews 6:13, 17, 18. Our hope, therefore, rests upon God’s promise and oath to Abraham, for that promise to Abraham, confirmed by that oath, contains all the blessings which God can possibly give to man.

But let us make this matter a little more personal before leaving it. Trembling soul, say not that your sins are so many and that you are so weak that there is no hope for you. Christ came to save the lost, and he is able to save to the uttermost those that come to God by Him. You are weak, but he says, “My strength is made perfect in weakness.” 11 Corinthians 12:9. And the inspired record tells us of those who “out of weakness were made strong.” Hebrews 11:34. That means that God took their very weakness and turned it into strength. In so doing he demonstrates power. It is his way of working. For “God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty, and base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to naught things that are; that no flesh should glory in his presence.” I Corinthians 1:27–29.

Have the simple faith of Abraham. How did he attain to righteousness?—By not considering the deadness and powerlessness of his own body, but by being willing to grant all the glory to God, strong in faith that he could bring all things out of that which was not. You, therefore, in like manner, consider not the weakness of your own body, but the power and grace of our Lord, being assured that the same word which can create a universe, and raise the dead, can also create in you a clean heart, and make you alive in God. And so you shall be a child of Abraham, even a child of God by faith in Christ Jesus.

I am going to speak … on the subject of evolution. I want you to pay close attention, and find out for yourselves whether or not you are an evolutionist. … [The following] statements are all copied from a treatise on evolution, written by one of the chief evolutionists; therefore they are all correct, so far as they go, as definitions:—

“Evolution is the theory that represents the course of the world as a gradual transition from the indeterminate to the determinate, from the uniform to the varied, and which assumes the cause of these processes to be immanent in the world itself that is to be thus transformed.”

“Evolution is thus almost synonymous with progress. It is a transition from the lower to the higher, from the worse to the better. Thus progress points to an increased value in existence, as judged by our feelings.”

Now notice the particular points in these three sentences: evolution represents the course of the world as a gradual transition from the lower to the higher, from the worse to the better; and assumes that this process is immanent in the world itself thus to be transformed. That is to say, the thing gets better of itself; and that which causes it to get better is itself. And this progress marks “an increased value in existence, as judged by our feelings.” That is to say, you know you are better, because you feel better. You know there has been progress, because you feel it. Your feelings regulate your standing. Your knowledge of your feelings regulates your progress from worse to better.

Now in this matter of progress from worse to better, have your feelings anything to do with it? If they have, what are you? Every one … who measures his progress, the value of his experience, by his feelings, is an evolutionist: I care not if he has been a Seventh-day Adventist for forty years, he is an evolutionist just the same. And all his Christianity, all his religion, is a mere profession without the fact, simply a form with no power.

Now I read what evolution is, in another way; so that you can see that it is infidelity. Then, if you find yourself an evolutionist, you know at once that you are an infidel: “The hypothesis of evolution aims at answering a number of questions respecting the beginning, or genesis, of things.” It “helps to restore the ancient sentiment toward nature as our parent, and the source of our life.”

One of the branches of this sort of science, that has done most toward the establishment of the doctrine of evolution, is the new science of geology, which has instituted the conception of vast and unimaginable periods of time in the past history of our globe. These vast and unimaginable periods, as another one of the chief writers on this subject—the author of it indeed—says, “is the indispensable basis for understanding man’s origin” in the process of evolution. So that the progress that has been made has been countless through the ages. Yet this progress has not been steady and straight forward from its inception until its present condition. It has been through many ups and down. There have been many times of great beauty and symmetry; then there would come a cataclysm, or an eruption, and all would go to pieces, as it were. Again the process would start from that condition of things, and build up again. Many, many times this process has been gone through; and that is the process of evolution,—the transition from the lower to the higher, from the worse to the better.

Now, what has been the process of your progress from the worse to the better? Has it been through “many ups and downs”? Has your acquiring of the power to do good—the good works which are of God—been through a long process of ups and downs from the time of your first profession of Christianity until now? Has it appeared sometimes that you had apparently made great progress, that you were doing well, and that everything was nice and pleasant; and then, without a moment’s warning there would come a cataclysm, or an eruption, and all be spoiled? Nevertheless, in spite of all the ups and downs, you start in for another effort: and so through this process … you think, as judged by your feelings,—is that your experience? Is that the way you have made progress?

In other words, are you an evolutionist? Don’t dodge; confess the honest truth; for I want to get you out of evolutionism. … There is a way to get out of it: and every one who came … an evolutionist can go out a Christian. So if, when I am describing an evolutionist, so plainly that you see yourself, just say so,—admit that it is yourself, and then follow along the steps that God will give you, and that will bring you out of it all. But, I say plainly to you that, if that which I have described has been your experience, if that has been the kind of progress that you have made in your Christian life, then you are an evolutionist, whether you admit it or not. The best way, however, is to admit it, then quit it, and be a Christian.

Another phase of it: “Evolution, so far as it goes, looks upon a matter as eternal.” And “by assuming” this, “the notion of creation is eliminated from those regions of existence to which it is applied.” Now if you look to yourself for the principle which would assure that progress that must be made in you as certainly as ever you reach the kingdom of God; if you suppose that that is immanent in yourself, and that if you could get it rightly to work, and superintend it properly when it had been thus got to work, it would come out all right,—if thus you have been expecting, watching, and marking your progress, you are an evolutionist. For I read further what evolution is: “It is clear that the doctrine of evolution is directly antagonistic to that of creation. … The idea of evolution, as applied to the formation of the world as a whole, is opposed to that of a direct creative volition.”

That is evolution, as defined by those who made it,—that the world came, and all there is of it, of itself; and that the principle that has brought it to the condition in which it is, is immanent in itself, and is adequate to produce all that is. This being so, in the nature of things “evolution is directly antagonistic to creation.”

Now as to the world and all there is of it, you do not believe that it all came of itself. You know that you are not an evolutionist as to that; because you believe that God created all things. Every one of you would say that you believe that God created all things,—the world and all there is in it. Evolution does not admit that: it has no place for creation.

There is, however, another phase of evolution that professedly is not absolutely antagonistic to creation. Those who made this evolution that I have read to you did not pretend to be anything but infidels,—men without faith, for an infidel simply is a man without faith.—Even though a person pretends to have faith, and does not actually have it, he is an infidel. Of course, the word “infidel” is more narrowly confined than that nowadays. The men who made this evolution that I have read to you were that kind of men; but when they spread that kind of doctrine abroad, there were a great number of people who professed to be Christians, who professed to be men of faith, who professed to believe the word of God, which teaches creation. These men, not knowing the word of God for themselves, not knowing it to be the word of God, but their faith being a mere form of faith without the power, these men, I say, being charmed with this new thing that had sprung up, and wanting to be popular along with the new science, and really not wanting to forsake altogether the word of God and the ways of faith, were not ready to say that they would get along without God, without creation somewhere, so they formed a sort of evolution with the Creator in it. That phase of it is called theistic evolution,—that is, God started the thing, whenever that was; but since that, it has been going on of itself. He started it, and after that it was able of itself to accomplish all that has been done. This, however, is but a makeshift, a contrivance to appearances,—and is plainly declared by the true evolutionists to be but “a phase of transition from the creational to the evolutional hypothesis.” It is evolution only; because there is no half-way ground between creation and evolution.

Whether you are one of this kind or not, there are many of them, even among Seventh-day Adventists,—not so many as there used to be, thank the Lord!—who believe that we must have God forgive our sins, and so start us on the way all right; but after that we are to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling. Accordingly, they do fear, and they do tremble, all the time; but they do not work out any salvation, because they do not have God constantly working in them, “both to will and to do of his good pleasure.” Philippians 2:12, 13.

Taken from the book, Lessons on Faith.

©1995 by TEACH Services, Inc., used with permission. www.teachservices.com

In 1888, the Lord brought a message of righteousness to the Church through Elders E.J. Waggoner and A.T. Jones. This message was identified as the beginning of the loud cry of the third angel whose glory was to fill the whole earth in preparation for the second coming of Jesus.

From Darwin to Hitler

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In the 1900s Charles Darwin presented new theories that were different than any other since the world began. One was the theory of evolution. It developed, became accepted, and eventually led to greater crimes being committed in the 20th century than ever before recorded.

In his autobiography, Charles Darwin stated that if man has no belief in God or an afterlife, his rule of life can only be to follow the strongest impulses and instincts which are within him. Morality, being based on biological instincts and not on any moral code or law, was believed to change over time. His theories were widely accepted throughout the intellectual world, especially in the European universities. Not only were they accepted in regard to biology, but Darwin’s theories of evolution began to be applied to ethics.

Thinkers in Europe drew several conclusions from Darwinism relating to morality and ethics. The concept of free will was undermined because Darwin’s theories were interpreted to mean strict determinism; and, behavior and moral character are, at least in part, hereditary. Some thought that behavior was totally hereditary.

The idea of an overruling purpose in the universe was destroyed and all phenomena were thought to be the result of the laws of chance. Morality, they said, has evolved.

Natural selection was thought to be the force that produces morality since morality is thought to be relative.

The idea of inherent human rights, and objective moral standards, were undermined by Darwinism. The idea became widespread in scientific and medical circles by 1900 that human moral behavior is determined largely by biological instincts inherited from one’s ancestors.

These new ideas that were becoming so widespread by 1900 had tremendous implications. Firstly it affected education, then justice, the criminal or penal code, the marriage policy, the sexual practices of any population that accepted these theories, and also control of reproduction and a person’s attitude toward personal responsibility.

If the human race had evolved and was still evolving, it was thought that some races had evolved more than others, and therefore were superior. It was also thought that the inferior races would eventually cease to exist through the natural victory and survival of the fittest. In other words, the evolution of higher life forms depends on the suppression and destruction of lower life forms.

Darwinism offered a secular view of life and death to replace a religious view. The new view was that human life was valuable only as it contributed to the higher evolution of the human species. Therefore, if a person could not contribute to the improvement of the community, his life was not so valuable. It was thought that human life was not intrinsically sacred and inviolable as in Christian thought.

As people’s conceptions of the importance and value of human life and the significance of death were changed, a debate erupted over such issues as to the morality of infanticide, euthanasia, abortion, and suicide.

Prior to Darwin’s time, the sanctity of human life was dominant in European thought and was referred to as the right to life. Christian churches explicitly forbad murder, infanticide, abortion and suicide. Until then there had been no significant debate in Europe over the sanctity of human life.

Another idea that developed from Darwinism was to help evolution along by selective breeding of humans rather than depending on natural selection. This development was called Eugenics. Its basic idea was to promote the superior human beings, the ones with the best genes, to have many children and to prevent the inferior human beings, the ones with inferior genes, from having children at all and thus improve the human race.

Eugenics, founded on the premise of human inequality, was popular in the United States, as well as in Europe. Eugenics’ philosophy taught that some races were not as highly evolved as other races, and hundreds of thousands of people were involuntarily sterilized to prevent them from having children, because of their supposed defects.

Christianity, on the other hand, taught the brotherhood of all races that descended from common ancestors, namely Adam and Eve.

The earliest advocates of involuntary euthanasia, infanticide, and abortion were those devoted to the Darwinian world view. Not only this, but less than one year after Darwin published his theory, there were German sources who were justifying racial extermination. This was considered a natural unavoidable consequence of the human struggle for existence—the survival of the fittest and the destruction of the less fit.

This is commonly called racism and it led to racial wars.

Adolph Hitler embraced an evolutionary ethic that made Darwinian fitness and health the only criteria for moral standards. The Darwinian struggle for existence, especially the struggle between different races, became the sole arbiter for morality. Hitler denied that anyone could escape the universal struggle for existence. He stripped individuals of any rights and argued that the destruction of the weak by the strong was humane. He believed Darwinism provided the moral justification for infanticide, euthanasia, genocide, and other policies that before had been considered immoral. The justification was to promote the highest evolution of the most highly developed or superior race which, in his opinion, was the Arian race of northern Europeans.

Darwinian theory provided the mechanism to bring about this highest evolutionary development:

  • Increase the population of the most fit.
  • Decrease the population of the less fit.

The means to bring about these two goals eventually included promotion of maximum sexual reproduction of the favored, and sterilization of the less fit. Both voluntary and involuntary sterilization were practiced and, finally, directly murdering the less fit.

The result of this was the largest, most destructive war that had ever occurred between nations. It resulted in:

  • 350,000 compulsory sterilizations of people for their supposed defects. This does not include the tens of thousands in the United States.
  • Over 70,000 put to death by physicians as euthanasia.
  • A whole generation of young people, demoralized by perverted ideas concerning the sanctity of the marriage and the family. That has had a demoralizing influence on the entire world right up until the present day.
  • Over 6,000,000 people violently murdered because they were considered an inferior race.
  • Over 50,000,000 lost their lives in the most deadly war this world has ever seen.

Many people think that it does not matter whether or not you believe in evolution, but this is not an insignificant ideal when considering its results.

The God of heaven considered this question of origins and how we got here of extreme importance.

In the Old Testament there is one document that was:

  • Spoken by God’s own voice, publicly.
  • Written by God’s own finger in tables of stone.
  • Declared to be God’s covenant and His law.

This document was declared by Jesus to be of imperishable obligation. He said that it would be easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for a part of a letter of this document to fail.

“And it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away, than for one tittle (that is just part of a letter) of the law to fail.” Luke 16:17. The One who made that statement was the One who had created the heavens and the earth and everything in it.

With His own voice, from Mt. Sinai, God spoke His law to the people Himself; then wrote the Ten Commandments, with His own finger, in tables of stone for a permanent record. That document, His law, the foundation of His government, was not entrusted to any man to tell the people. God Himself spoke it and also wrote the document. In regard to that law the Bible says, “And I know that whatever God does, it shall be forever: nothing can be added to it, and nothing taken from it … that men should fear before him.” Ecclesiastes 3:14.

When God gave the world His law, the Ten Commandments, and He wrote it in tables of stone, one commandment is longer and more detailed than all the rest. It is the only commandment that in the Hebrew language has over fifty words. Some of the commandments, for instance, the seventh and eighth commandments, “You shall not commit adultery” and “You shall not steal,” have just two words in the Hebrew language.

The fourth commandment is longer than all the rest, and it is right in the heart of the law. This commandment explains the origin of the world and the human race.

“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labour, and do all your work: But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God: in it you shall do no work, you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates.” Exodus 20:8–10.

The reason for the fourth commandment is given in the last verse of the commandment.

“For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day: therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it.” Exodus 20:11.

It is so important for every human being to know where we came from, how we got here, and who we are, that God devoted more words to explaining the origins than any other moral precept. This commandment is in the heart of the ten. In ancient documents it was customary to place the seal of the document in the center.

The Sabbath will be a major issue in the last days of this world’s history. Part of the Sabbath commandment is quoted in the prophecy of Revelation with reference to the last days. The controversy over whether this world came into existence by the word of God is predicted to be a controversial issue in the last days. Eighteen hundred years before it happened, Peter predicted that in the last days people will scoff at the idea of creation and will not believe that this world came into existence by the word of God. See II Peter 3:3–7.

Bible students who make a careful study of the Bible know that the number seven is the number of spiritual perfection. In the book of Revelation we find another very significant number that is going to attract the attention of almost the entire world—666.

Within the Christian church there is some confusion over which day is the Lord’s day; however, the Bible is quite specific on this subject. Reading right from the fourth commandment we see that “the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God.” Exodus 20:10.

Within the most detailed of all of the Ten Commandments, we are told that the seventh day is the Lord’s day.

In Revelation 14:12, it says, “Here is the patience of the saints: here are those that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.”

In the last days there will be some people who are called saints, or holy people, and they are going to keep the commandments—all ten of them. The book of Revelation also points out a terrible crisis that will come into the world in the last days. It talks about a beast power that will have the number 666. In essence, the controversy in the very last days of earth’s history is going to be over whether or not God is the Creator of the world and whom you will worship, the Creator or the beast. The beast, of course, is the anti-christ.

The Bible clearly identifies the God of heaven as the creator.

“You are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power; for you created all things, and by your will they exist and were created.” Revelation 4:11.

“Him who lives forever and ever, who created heaven, and the things that are in it, and the earth, and the things that are in it, and the sea, and the things that are in it.” Revelation 10:6.

This world has a Maker. For thousands of years, until this theory of Darwinism about 150 years ago, almost the whole human race of all religions knew this. The book of Revelation, a book specifically for the people living in the last days, gives an appeal to worship God as the Creator. Revelation 14:6–12 describes three angels coming with a final message of mercy to be given to the inhabitants of this world.

The latter half of the book of Revelation focuses on these Three Angels’ Messages, and in Revelation 16 you will find that the people who reject these warnings are going to receive seven last plagues.

Revelation 18 describes what is going to happen to all the people in the world who reject the second angel’s message, and Revelation 19 describes Jesus coming and the destruction of those refusing the warnings.

Reading further on into Revelation 20 you will see that the people who accept the Three Angels’ Messages, even if they lose their lives through doing so, are taken to heaven to be with the Lord during the millennium.

The focal point of the latter half of the book of Revelation relates to the last three warnings of mercy to be given to the earth by the angels, and they are worthy of special study.

The first message says, “Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment has come: and worship him who made heaven, and earth, the sea, and springs of water.” Revelation 14:7.

As we approach the last days of earth’s history there will be only two camps. Every person in this world is going to chose to be part of one of them, worshiping God as the Creator or worshiping the beast—the anti-christ. The fourth commandment says to remember the Sabbath. Acknowledging this and keeping this day holy is to worship the creator God.

Those who worship the anti-christ will believe they are worshipping Christ, but will find out too late they are worshiping the wrong Christ.

God is the Creator. The Bible says that in the beginning “God said, Let there be light: and there was light.” Genesis 1:3.

After He created light, on the second day He created the firmament, the heavens that surround the earth—the envelope of oxygen, the air that surrounds our earth. And then He divided the waters from the waters and He caused the dry earth to appear, and then it says, “Let the earth bring forth the grass, and trees, and all manner of plants.” Verse 11. That was the third day. The Lord had everything planned, exactly what He was going to do before He started.

On the fifth day the fish and birds were created, and then on the sixth day God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures.” Verse 24.

By the sixth day He had created a paradise and when everything was ready, for His crowning act, God said, “Let us make man in our image; male and female he created them.” Verses 26, 27.

After Adam and Eve had been created, notice what the Bible says: “Thus the heavens and the earth and all the host of them were finished.” Genesis 2:1.

Creation was finished. And “on the seventh day God ended his work which he had done; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had done. Then God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because in it he rested from all his work which God had created and made.” Genesis 2:2.

The seventh day was the Sabbath, the day God rested after creating this world. The Sabbath is God’s love gift to the entire human race. He blessed it, He sanctified it, and He made it holy (Genesis 2:3). Only God can make something holy. God made that day, the seventh day, holy. God rested on it as an example for the human family. It is a holy day.

In Revelation 1:10, John says he “was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day.”

“For the Son of man is Lord even of the Sabbath.” Matthew 12:8.

“Therefore the Son of man is also Lord of the Sabbath.” Mark 2:28.

“The Son of man is also Lord of the Sabbath.” Luke 6:5.

The Lord’s Day is the Sabbath. The Sabbath was a gift to the human family instituted in Eden and not something that was added because of sin, like the ceremonial law. It was given to Adam and Eve and their descendants in Eden. Jesus said that the Sabbath was made for man. See Mark 2:27.

When Adam and Eve were put out of the Garden of Eden because of their sin, everything was lost to them but two things. They still had the gift of marriage and the gift of the Sabbath.

Many years later, when God spoke His law and wrote it on two tables of stone on Mount Sinai, He wrote the Sabbath right in the middle, right in the heart of the law. It says:

“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God.” Exodus 20:8–10.

Jesus kept the Sabbath. “So he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up to read.” Luke 4:16.

A few days before the crucifixion the disciples wanted to know what would happen in the future and what sign would they have of His coming and the end of the age. Jesus gave them a sermon about future events. He told about the destruction of Jerusalem, and how they would have to flee. Notice what He said, “And pray that your flight may not be in the winter, or on the Sabbath.” Matthew 24:20.

Jesus was here referring to an event that took place 66 years after His crucifixion.

After Pentecost, we find over and over again that the apostles continually kept the Sabbath. After Paul had preached the gospel to the Jews (Acts 13:42), some Gentiles who had heard about this requested that he also preach to them the following Sabbath for they wanted to hear his message as well. Many years after the crucifixion, the Sabbath was still being kept by the believers and he never suggested that he preach to them on Sunday. But, “on the next Sabbath almost the whole city came together to hear the word of God.” Acts 13:44.

These people were Gentiles; they were not Jews. The disciples, the apostles, and the converted Gentiles always kept the Sabbath. On one occasion the apostles were in a new area evangelizing to convert people from their idolatry to Christianity. There was no church or place to worship so they went to the river side, “And on the Sabbath day we went out of the city to the river side, where prayer was customarily made, and we sat down, and spoke to the women who met there.” Acts 16:13.

Again, “They came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews: And then Paul, as his custom was, went into them, and for three Sabbaths reasoned with them from the scriptures.” Acts 17:1, 2. In the book of Acts there are over 80 references to Paul keeping the Sabbath, and no reference of him keeping any other day.

Some may question that over time there may have been a calendar change or time has been lost and ask the question, Which day is the Sabbath? Certain events in the Bible prove that time has not been lost. Christ was crucified on what the Bible calls preparation day. Today that is called Friday, and most Christians refer to that day as Good Friday.

In Luke 23:54–56 and Luke 24:1, it says that it was the day of the preparation. They took Jesus down from the cross, then put Him in the tomb and then they went home. It says, they kept the Sabbath according to the commandment, and then came back the first day of the week, and it was the resurrection.

Jesus was raised on the first day of the week, Sunday. The day between the preparation day and the day of the resurrection was the Sabbath.

The Dictionary meaning of Saturday is: the seventh day of the week, following Friday. There is no known evidence that any time has been lost.

Interestingly, in 108 languages of the world, the word for the seventh day of the week is Sabbath. The word Sabbath comes from the Hebrew word that means a rest day.

“Moreover I also gave them my Sabbaths, to be a sign between them and me, that they might know that I am the Lord who sanctifies them, that I am the Lord that makes them holy.” Ezekiel 20:12.

This is something worthy of consideration. Paul says that, “without holiness nobody is going to see the Lord.” Hebrews 12:14.

It is impossible for a human being to become holy, as we do not have power to do this ourselves; it is something that only God can do: sanctify—make holy. God only can give the power, the ability, to be obedient.

God says that He gave His people the Sabbath that they would have a sign between them and know that He is the Lord, that He is going to make them holy.

Keeping the Sabbath is a sign between God and His people. God promises them, “This is a sign between Me and you; I am going to make you holy.” If God makes you holy, you will inherit the gift of eternal life. Only holy people will be in heaven.

In heaven there are no wars, there are no penal institutions, there are no punishments. Why? Because the people there are holy people and they do not need police, air force, armies, navies, wars, prisons, and things like that to make them do what is right. They are holy people.

The Bible teaches that even in heaven God’s children are going to keep the Sabbath. Nobody will be in heaven who argues with the Lord about what day they will keep, because everybody in heaven has decided to keep the Ten Commandments. Notice what it says:

“And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one sabbath to another, all flesh will come to worship before me, says the Lord.” Isaiah 66:23.

Facts about the Sabbath:

  • It is Jesus’ day; He created it (John 1:1–3; Colossians 1:16; Hebrews 1:2).
  • It is the day that His people at the end of the world will be keeping. Those who will worship the beast and are connected with the number 666 will be worshipping on another day. Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath (Matthew 12:8; Mark 2:28; Luke 6:5).
  • Jesus is the law giver.

Jesus Christ was the One who gave Moses those two tables of stone. Jesus Christ existed from the days of eternity. He came to this world and was born a baby in Bethlehem, but that One who was born, His days were from old, from everlasting (Micah 5:2).

Concerning the Father, it says in John 1:18 that no man has seen the Father at any time. It was Jesus Christ who is the authority behind the law and who revealed His glory to Moses on Mount Sinai.

It was Jesus who commanded the Sabbath, and while here on this earth, He perfectly kept it holy.

He said to the Jews, “Which of you convinces me concerning sin [breaking the law]?” John 8:46. They couldn’t answer. They would have nailed Him immediately if He had been a Sabbath breaker, but they had nothing to say because Jesus perfectly kept the Sabbath when He was on the earth.

Jesus commanded His disciples to keep the Sabbath. He said, “Pray that your flight be not in winter, nor on the Sabbath day.” Matthew 24:20.

All the apostles were Sabbath keepers. The Sabbath is His sign of allegiance, “a sign between Me and you, that you may know that I am the Lord your God.” Ezekiel 20:20.

The Bible says, “The Sabbath is a sign between me and you the Lord says, that I am the Lord that will sanctify you [make you holy].” Ezekiel 20:12.

Remember, according to Hebrews 12:14 only those who are holy will go to heaven. You cannot make yourself holy. Only God can make you a holy person. A holy person is a person who keeps all of the commandments, because “the law is holy.” Romans 7:12.

A holy person is a person whose life is in harmony with the law. An unholy person is a person whose life is not in harmony with the law. For example, the seventh commandment says, “You shall not commit adultery.” A holy person will not commit adultery.

It is the same for every other commandment. If you are a holy person you will obey all the commandments. And the Sabbath is a promise between God and you that if you keep this day, God says He will make you a holy person.

The Sabbath will continue in heaven. “It is going to come to pass, that from one Sabbath to another, from one new moon to another, all flesh are going to come to worship before me.” Isaiah 66:23.

There will be no controversy over which day is the Sabbath. The Sabbath will be a delight to all, a day of communion with our God in remembrance of creation.

The same appeal made to His disciples the night He was betrayed is given to you and me in this last generation: “If you love me, keep my commandments.” John 14:15.

Jesus tenderly calls and offers the invitation, “Come unto me, all of you that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle, and lowly in heart: and you will find rest unto your soul.” Matthew 11:28, 29.

It doesn’t sound like the survival of the fittest; it is an invitation to all, young and old, rich and poor, free or imprisoned, no matter what race or color or social standing or physical condition. It is an open invitation to anybody to come.

And then Jesus says, “For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” Matthew 11:30.

There is a better way than any survival of the fittest. There is a better way than the struggle between the races. There is a better way than competition and rivalry, and trying to figure out by competition who is better than whom. There is a better way.

Jesus says, “If you love me, keep my commandments.”

For about 6,000 years there has been a great controversy in the universe over who is going to be Lord— the head of the beast power, which is Satan, or Jesus Christ.

The theory of evolution came from his satanic majesty to deceive the human race and to get people into an all out struggle with each other, to destroy one another. But Jesus says to all the weak, to all those who are considered inferior in our world, “Come unto me, all of you, all of you that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”

The rest He offers here is rest from your burden of sin. Sin is the heaviest burden you can carry, one that will kill you. Jesus will give you rest from the restlessness that is in this world. He says, “If you love me, keep my commandments.”

The choice is yours. The difference between Darwin, and Hitler, and the survival of the fittest and the invitation of Jesus Christ is great.

“Choose you this day whom ye will serve; … as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” Joshua 24:15.

[Literal translations used in Bible quotes.]

Pastor John Grosboll is Director of Steps to Life and pastors the Prairie Meadows Church in Wichita, Kansas. He may be contacted by e-mail at: historic@stepstolife.org, or by telephone at: 316–788–5559.

Current Events – Collision of Two Worlds

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“For the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse: Because that, when they knew God, they glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, … they did not like to retain God in their knowledge …” Romans 1:20–22, 28. Also, see Genesis 1.

About 4.5 billion years ago, just after the solar system formed, the relatively small planetary body that would become Earth experienced something extreme. A planetary embryo—probably about the size of Mars—called Theia collided with Earth, spinning the moon off into orbit around the nascent planet.

Overall, scientists agree that this moon-forming collision happened, but a current debate raging in planetary science hinges upon just what that collision was like. A new study in the journal Science this week may help solve the mystery of what went down in the early days of the solar system.

Usually, each body in the solar system has different ratios of various elements. According to Edward Young, a co-author of the new study, it’s “almost unheard of” for two bodies to have the same ratio of oxygen isotopes. In fact, these ratios are usually so unique that researchers treat them as “fingerprints” for bodies.

However, a new analysis performed by Young and his team shows that the Earth and moon actually have a very similar—if not identical—ratio of oxygen isotopes.

Young and his team analyzed seven moon rock samples brought back from three Apollo missions to the lunar surface. Earlier analyses had shown that the oxygen isotope ratio is different on the moon compared to the Earth, but this new, detailed study appears to suggest that the ratios are essentially the same.

The new finding could mean that instead of dealing Earth a glancing blow, Theia’s impact packed a bigger punch, forcing the material that composes the two bodies to mix more than previously expected, due to a “high-energy, high-angular-momentum impact,” the study reads.

Young’s work supports computer models of the moon-forming impact that show Theia dealing Earth a devastating blow, effectively causing the two bodies to completely mix their compositions together, creating two cosmic objects with very similar if not the same oxygen isotope ratios.

“Our measurements essentially say that the moon and the Earth are identical within the precision [of the instruments],” Young said.

“Since they’re identical, it says that these newer models that have been coming out in the last couple years say there might be a way to slow the Earth and the moon down after the impact and therefore maybe the impact really was a planet-crushing head on collision.”

“Our work suggests that the people creating those kinds of models are on the right track.”

But it’s not a cut and dry case. The mechanism of that mixing—whether it was a direct impact from Theia or something else entirely—isn’t yet clear.

“I am not sure that Young et al demonstrate a mechanism that leads to thorough mixing, but they certainly document that there is a need for some process to mix all the materials to homogenize oxygen,” Jeff Taylor, a scientist at the Hawaii Institute of Geophysics and Planetology who wasn’t affiliated with the study told Mashable via email.

Scientists will need to tackle the mysteries of the moon’s formation from two different angles.

On the one hand, researchers need to refine comprehensive models that will explain how different forms of impacts could lead to our current moon, while research also needs to proceed to examine the chemistry of the lunar body and compare it to Earth.

By combining those two ways of attacking the issue, Young said, lunar researchers might one day be able to get a comprehensive idea of how Earth’s closest neighbor really formed.

http://mashable.com/2016/01/28/moon-formation-collision-isotopes/#eZdmFn253Gqx

Really? Genesis 1 has a much simpler and believable explanation of how this universe came into being. “In the beginning God created …”