Recent Scientific Discoveries that Back Creation and the Bible

So, brethren, I'm always impressed when I come here for the Sabbath in the park. Sometimes we're all cooped into our homes. We're stuck in this little box that we call a home, or a little box which we call a car. Or we go to the office and we're stuck in a box there. And we just forget how beautiful nature is, careful design of everything. And so, traditionally, I give a sermon on the creation of God, his wonderful works, and also how new discoveries in science and archaeology and other different fields show that the Bible is true, that it's becoming more and more confirmed all the time. And I want to share with you some of the most recent discoveries, which are amazing.

As you know, all these trees that we see around us, they are basically made of proteins. Proteins are the working blocks of everything that we see around us.

The cells themselves are made out of a great part of proteins. And I wonder how many here have ever heard of a class of proteins called orphaned proteins? How many have heard of orphaned proteins? Oh, about maybe three or four people. Well, I guess they don't get very popular if they're orphans, right? They just don't get much into the limelight. But it is something very impressive.

Let's turn, first of all, to Psalm 143, because in this short life that we have, many times we forget to give God thanks for everything around us.

Psalm 143, verse 5.

David said, I remember the days of old.

I meditate on all your works.

I muse on the work of your hands.

I spread out my hands to you. My soul longs for you like a thirsty land. Do we thirst to have that personal relationship with God? Do we meditate on his works?

It's interesting that that term in Hebrew, hagah, actually means like the roar of a lion or the growl of a lion. And one of the illustrations is why they use the term like meditate when it has to do with this groaning of a lion. Because when a lion is eating and he is breaking apart whatever he has killed, he will go all the way to the bone marrow. With his powerful teeth in the jaws, he will crack those bones and get to the very marrow. And so it's an illustration when you meditate. It's not just a general view of things. You go down to the very marrow of what you are studying. And that's the way David was. He says, I will meditate on your works. And so it's so good for us to analyze what we have around us. And something like these proteins, which are the workhorses of the cells, they are the ones that make us spring up. Actually, just one protein, one of the largest proteins we have in our human body, is the muscle protein. It has 38,000 different combinations here, like beads of amino acids. 38,000, which are like a spring. And so when we spring up, it's actually all of these flexible proteins, like springs, that give us that versatility and that flexibility for it.

When I studied about orphan genes, I was awestruck. Just what it means, and this is basically a discovery of the last 15 years. A scientist did not know about these when they started deciphering the human genome, which has to do with all the genetic instructions in a DNA chromosome. The DNA, when you start examining the genome, one of the things that astounded the scientists in the last 15 years they discovered it, is that there are about 10 to 20 percent of genes in one of these genomes, which is the whole... there's 3 billion genetic letters in just the human genome. 3 billion of them. And guess what? From 10 to 20 percent are unique to that particular species. 10 to 20 do not appear in any of the other types of animals or creatures or plants. They are unique to that particular type of life.

Douglas L. in his book, Proofs of God, said each gene contains instructions for life's 3D printers to snap together amino acids and assemble a protein. Scientists have found that typically about 10 to 20 percent of the genes of an animal, the protein-building DNA codes, are brand new codes for that kind of animal only. Let me illustrate it for you. See, you have here the genes, the regular genes, and then you have the orphan genes. And when scientists try to trace these orphan genes, they can't find previous parent genes. They're all just unique to that particular type of creatures. And what they have discovered is that that 10 or 20 percent is what makes us so different from other animals and creatures and whatever it is. They make the difference. And it reminds me in a car manufacturing process, when they have the assembly line, they talk about the platform where the chassis is built, but many times they can create multiple types of cars on that same platform. See, they build them so that you don't have to have a whole different system every time. Just 10 to 20 percent difference in a car, and you can have very different models, but they're all in that specific platform. So what scientists are discovering is that the differences are these unique genes that make us different from an ape or make us different from a cow or whatever. See, we all have basic organs in our body. Those are all common and genes you find, but there's that 10 to 20 percent that makes the difference. Just like in cars, you can have a race car on that platform, and then you can have a sedan, and then you can have other types just by varying 10 or 20 percent in the manufacturing process. The new scientist magazine in 2014 said the following, comparative genome analyses indicate that every group so far studied contains 10 to 20 percent of genes that lack a recognizable counterpart in other species. Orphan genes have since been found in every genome sequence to date from mosquito to man, round worm to bat, and their members are still growing. They're finding these unique genes, and so if they would have evolved, you would have had a sequence. But no, this is what makes the difference. And you see all the birds here, and they have these unique features, and you're able to separate one bird from the other because you get to vary that 10 to 20 percent of the creatures.

I thought it's very interesting that a professor, Richard Bugs, from the Queen Mary University of London said the following in his article, The Evolutionary Mystery of Orphan Genes. Why isn't this taught in biology? Why isn't it taught in the universities? He brings up the following point.

Given the ubiquity in all genome sequences, orphaned genes receive comparatively little attention from the research community. I suspect this is partly because they are such a difficult problem. Talking about they can't explain it. They'd rather ignore it. He says, science is the, quote, art of the soluble. It may be that little funding finds its way to the origin of orphan genes because it appears to be an insoluble problem. It doesn't have a solution.

Popularizers and communicators of science have also had surprisingly little to say about orphan gene. Why doesn't the media? Why don't all of these science programs, shouldn't it be amazing that they say 10 to 20 of these genes are specific for a type of creature or even a tree? Trees have 10 to 20 percent, also, orphan genes in them. He says they have surprisingly little to say about orphan genes. This is a pity. What can be more interesting and more inspiring than an unsolved mystery? Who could choose to ignore a lost orphan? And yet, they do. And so we have this conviction and also this reality that science is biased. They have an evolutionary point of view that when it doesn't fit, they'd rather ignore it. Isn't that what it tells us in Romans chapter 1?

Romans chapter 1 verse 18. It says, for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness. Yes, they will talk about things when it fits their narrative, but when it goes against it, they suppress the truth. And the term here means like putting a lid on something so it can't be seen. You're covering it up. It goes on verse 19. It explains the why, the reason, 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. You look around. Who built all of this? Do you think just blind forces in nature can create all of this exquisite design from a human hair? That all the laboratories in the world, with all their money, with all the research, with all the intelligence, they have not been able to come up with one human hair.

They have not even been able to create a human hair. And yet, they think, oh, we know more than God does. There's a lot of pride and hubris involved. It goes on to say, verse 21, because although they knew God, they did not glorify him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened.

Professing to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man, and birds, and four-footed animals, and creeping things. Instead of worshiping the Creator, they start worshiping the creation. Therefore, God also gave them up to uncleanness in the lust of their hearts to dishonor their bodies among themselves, who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. So we see here a suppression. This news has been out for about 14 years, and yet who knows about orphan genes?

And the more they have studied it, the more they find. This is not a fluke. This is not an error. It is authentic. It's almost like God put that there, that one day they will discover what makes all the differences. And it isn't because it was inherited from previous ancestors. So that's the first great discovery that we can thank God the way He created us with such care and exquisiveness. We should give God some many thanks. The second one also has been the last 10-15 years scientists have discovered the incredible complexity of protein folding.

It's another aspect of proteins. It is that proteins, before they can function, they are strung out like beads in a necklace. The different amino acids. And then they fold into three-dimensional figures. And I have an example here.

I like to do a little bit of origami sometimes. And basically, also my wife likes to make empanadas at the house. How many have had my wife's empanadas? Oh, yes. You see, Cady needs to bring some more one of these days. You know, Carmel Sini was telling me he still remembers that empanada that he ate.

And so, Cady, you got to bring Carmel, another one of those Chilean empanadas. And I think a lot of people, I get to eat them all the time when I visit my children and invite people, so I'm very thankful for that. But here, while I'm folding this, basically an empanada, you have to fold it about four times to get it going. Now, for this origami that I'm making here, it's about 15 folds. And approximately about, you know, it takes me about three, four minutes to make it here.

So, just a little origami. Took a couple of hundred years for the Japanese and be able to do these paper products. They make them out of rice paper. Chinese, too, will do this with a type of rice paper. But here I'm folding it. I've folded it like about 10 times here. Still got a couple more left. I love to do this when I visit new people from the church and they got children.

I'll make origamis. I've made a couple hundreds of these. I don't know how many people have been converted by it, but I'll tell you, at least my wife, that's the first thing I did when I met her. I went out to the pastor's house.

They had an activity there and we sat and I thought, well, I don't have much talent. I don't have much looks, but I can do origami. I made her that. We kind of impressed her. I think that's one of the reasons she finally married me. I've never forgotten to make origamis. This is one of the few things that I've learned in life. Some of my grandkids can do this origami. I've got about 13 folds right now. Still got a couple more left. But you can imagine, a human being with a super computerized brain like we have.

It takes us several minutes to get all of these folds going. I've got the fold here and then finally fold it interior. I'll do this here and then fold it interior on this side. You basically are mirroring. You're doing the same thing on one side than the other. So you finally come up with the folds.

No, you're gonna see.

Yeah, this is, I always call it the head of a fox. Doesn't it look like a head of a fox? Okay, so then you know you're finishing up. What I'm telling you is that for a human being to make one of these origami's, it can take you up to about five minutes to do about 15 folds on it. Here I'm finishing it up. Finally just bending here the wings on this. I always tell the kids at the end, tell the kids, get the head, fold it properly. There we are. Now we have it and then finally I just ask the kids, do you think this can fly? The kids say, no, okay, all right, okay. How about this?

All right, all right, okay, okay, all right. Well, it took me almost five minutes to do this. A protein that's 16 amino acids, like the beads on this necklace, it takes several seconds to fold up to a thousand folds in several seconds. A thousand folds before it's fitted and it's ready for action. So you can imagine we are nothing in comparison to what God does and how do you get a protein to fold properly? So you can pass it on. In Isaiah 55, let's go to Isaiah 55. That's called the paper swan, by the way. Isaiah 55.

Isaiah 55, God reminds us the difference between him and us. Isaiah 55, starting in verse 6. And this is good as we prepare for the coming Passover. It says, seek the Lord while he may be found. Call upon him while he is near. Because there are times when it's going to be too late. Seek him while he can be found, while he's available, while he's accessible. I've seen people that just have waited too long. And we don't believe in altered calls and all of this. It has to be a conviction. But I remember as a young minister in San Diego, we visited a doctor. He was in a hospital there in the San Diego area. And I was there with the pastor and the gentleman says, you know what? He was in a hospital there, bed. He says, I knew I came across God's truth 35 years ago. But I just didn't have the guts to go through with a commitment. I became a doctor. Everything worked well. But now I've got cancer and it's gone from one kidney to the other. And now it's terminal. But I've always regretted that I didn't go through with that commitment. Can you baptize me? Because I only have a few days of life. Well, we went ahead and did it. But sometimes you better see God while He can still be found, as it says here. Let the wicked forsake His way and the unrighteous man, His thoughts. Let Him return to the Lord and He will have mercy on Him. God is always going to have mercy. There's no sin that cannot be forgiven or forgotten. There's nothing that can be a black spot in your life if you just are able to go and get it cleaned and purified by God.

He says, And to our God, for He will abundantly pardon. For my thoughts are not your thoughts. God is so superior. Just like this folding... Can you imagine designing something that can fold within several seconds into this wonderful little protein, the little work engine of the cell that does so much and be able to fold about a thousand times. And those scientists that watch something like this are just completely astounded what they see, but they don't recognize God. They don't many times acknowledge Him. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. So just remember, God is so superior to us, and all of these things in nature show us the difference between God and man. We are so inferior, and we should be so thankful that He wants to have a personal relationship, a family relationship with Him. Okay, now third great discovery. Guess what? This happened just a week ago, and things were buzzing in the area of editorial where we have the magazine, and Scott Ashley, who is there in editorial, and then Tom Robinson and others. We were all just amazed with the latest discovery found in Israel, and of all places, it's on one of these hills. It's called Mount Ibal, and the Bible talks about Mount Ibal, and how when the Israelites finally came into the land, God gave them, of course, the commandments and the laws, but He didn't want it to just be in a table of stone. He, in a sense, wanted them to physically act out the two ways of life, because everybody had to choose. And so God tells us the following in Deuteronomy 11.

I'm keeping you under suspense. I'll let you know what it's about in a moment. Deuteronomy 11, verse 26.

By the way, how many think they know the discovery of Mount Ibal? Anybody? Okay, Jean? Okay, Jean, you don't have to listen to the rest of this.

Okay, Deuteronomy 11, verse 26.

I'm sure David is somewhere there. He probably knows it as well.

God said to Israel, Behold, I said before you today a blessing and a curse. The blessing, if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you today, and the curse, if you do not obey the commandments of the Lord your God, but turn aside from the way which I command you today to go after other gods which you have not known. And now it shall be, when the Lord your God has brought you into the land which you go to possess, that you shall put the blessing on Mount Gerasing and the curse on Mount Ibal.

Are they not on the other side of the Jordan toward the setting sun in the land of the Canaanites who dwell in the plain opposite Gilgal besides the terabith tree of Mora? And so, he mentioned about having these two mountains where everybody was supposed to be a witness to what they were going to commit to. Notice in Deuteronomy 27 verse 11. Deuteronomy 27 in verse 11. It says, And Moses commanded the people on the same day, saying, These shall stand on Mount Gerasing to bless the people when you have crossed over the Jordan.

And then he says in verse 13, And these shall stand on Mount Ibal to curse Reuben, Gadd, Asher, Zebulon, Dan, and Naphtali. And the Levite shall speak with a loud voice, and say to all the men of Israel, Cursed is the one who makes a carved or molded image, an abomination to the Lord, the work of the hands of the craftsmen, and sets it up in secret. In other words, God does not want us to have any object between Him and us. That's why we don't use crosses, we don't use statues, we don't use anything, because that becomes a type of a mediator between you and God. He wants you to go before Him in spirit and in truth. As he mentioned later on there in John 4, he talks to the Samaritan woman, says, There will be one day when you won't be here, Mount Gerasinghe or Mount Ibal or wherever, you will worship God in spirit and in truth.

And so, what has been found? Okay, let me bring my prop. All right, what has been found in Mount Ibal in a recent excavation they did, and I'm going to explain to you a little bit about that. And this is what it reminds me of. I have a petrified oyster here. And this oyster was up in the Andean Mountains when we lived in Chile. And we did a lot of fossil hunting, and also friends of ours would bring things to us. And so you have here an oyster, and see it opens up this way. Now, always kid, there's a spot there for a pearl. If that pearl had been there, we'd have been multimillionaires. Unfortunately, it was empty, but this is totally petrified, so it's made out of stone. And what they found in Mount Ibal was a small amulet or a small lead writing. It's a little tablet, a little tablet that you open it up, and you know what it says?

Cursud be the one that goes against Yahweh. Wow. Cursud be the one who goes against Yahweh.

Y-H-W. Well, that little writing that's there, and there was other as well that they're deciphering, goes all the way back to either 1200 BC or 1400 BC. It's the oldest Hebrew script in the world, and they just discovered this a while back. They announced it last week. The archaeologist, Scott Terpling, was the one that discovered it in this wet, what they called wet sieving of the remnants there. There was an altar in Mount Ibal that God said in Joshua 8, that Joshua you shall build an altar on Mount Ibal. And then Adam Zertal, who was an Israeli archaeologist, dug there over 20 years ago, and he found the remains of this altar, and then they excavated more, but they didn't find that little tablet. It was made out of lead, so it didn't deteriorate in time. And they opened it up, and there was a writing, Mount Ibal, cursed be the one who does not follow Yahweh, just like it mentions in the Bible. So this is an oyster that opens up this way, just like this tablet does.

Careful, it's heavy. Please don't drop it. It only costs a thousand dollars, so I'm just kidding about the cost. So according to a professor of biblical studies, Gerson Galil of the University of Haifa, Israel, said that such a discovery like this is made about every 1,000 years. This Hebrew proto-alphabet goes back to either the 12th or the 14th century before Christ.

He says it's the greatest discovery of any Hebrew script in history, and it just happened a week ago. Isn't it interesting, too, that God has some of these things appear, cursed and blessed? You wonder, as things start unraveling in world events, whether God is also saying, which mountain are you going to be on? Are you going to be on the mountain where you're blessed, or are you going to be cursed? Because God does not change. His law does not change. We are all moral agents. We still have to give account to God one day beforehand. So I thought it was very interesting that this discovery has just recently been made. Notice in Job 19, this Bible is incredible. When you find that it's not only that they found this in Mount Ebal, but that it was a lead tablet that was written with an iron or bronze pen. And you know, that appears in the Bible, too. Job 19, verse 23.

Job 19, verse 23. Job 23.

Job says, Oh, that my words were written. Oh, that they were inscribed in a book, that they were engraved on a rock with an iron pen and lead forever. And so there's this written in a way that it would be permanent.

And the final point has to do with prophecy. When I was up in Portland, I was able to speak with Bob Dick, a long time pastor. And I talked there about, I gave a sermon on Russia in prophecy, just going back in history, who Russia was in prophecy and the roles they're going to play in the future. And I thought it was interesting, Bob Dick mentioned afterwards, that he considers in the last two years, two events in world history, that go along with the prophecies that we have been talking about for the last 60 or 70 years. One is that England left the European Union. That was so improbable. For England, you know, Great Britain, to leave the European Union. And we have been saying that that European Union will eventually be part of that beast power with the Temprophetic Kings, who will give power to a certain military leader, which is going to change the world. It's going to be another time of war and distress. And that how can modern Ephraim, that is dealing with Great Britain, how could they be part of the beast power? A lot of people say, well, this is never going to happen, because they are part of it. Now we're 28 nations, now they're 27. In 2020, Britain left the European Union, what they call the Brexit. And that shocked the world. It was something so improbable, so unlikely, and yet it has happened. And now, in the last month and a half, there's my friend. See, 10 to 20 percent of that creature is unique to its type.

That duck is just around the whole thing. I just marveled. He was just there, and the kids were there, Sabrina and the kids, and we were just transfixed. Because, I don't know, it looked like half of a duck and half of a goose. An Egyptian goose. Oh, an Egyptian goose. Look at that. It flew all the way over here to entertain us. But, just you marvel at some of these wonders of nature.

And so, what has happened now with the war in Ukraine is fulfilling another prophetic step that we have talked about in the past, and that is that the rise of Germany. Because before this war of Ukraine, Germany was basically disarmed. It had this tiny little army. It was limited. They were gun-shy. They didn't want to start an armament industry. I'm talking about Germany. It's the rise of Germany now that the United States and the European Union is giving backing and support for Germany to rise up militarily. They've doubled their military budget in the last month. And now they are concerned about their neighbors before they weren't concerned about it. And so, for Germany to fulfill the role that's the most powerful of the European Union, they need to have that free access to building up. And what is the excuse? Well, the Russians are aminnous. We have to protect the European Union. How would you like it if your neighbor, Canada or Mexico, was already threatening in this way? We wouldn't feel very comfortable. Well, that's the way the European Union feels now. So that's another prophetic step. Notice in Daniel chapter 11, and I'm finishing up, we did start a little late. So, just have one more scripture after this. Daniel chapter 11 verse 40.

This is the talking about the end times. It says verse 40, at the time of the end. That's the same thing as end time. The king of the south, so there's going to be this Arab Muslim League, the king of the south, shall attack him and the king of the north, which is the European Union and its manifestation at that time, shall come against him like a whirlwind with chariots, horsemen, and with many ships, and he shall enter the countries, overwhelm them, and pass through. He shall also enter the glorious land. Talk about Israel. So here it talks about the area of the king of the south. All surrounded by Arabs, by Muslims, and Israel is going to be invaded.

And many countries shall be overthrown, but these shall escape from his hand, Edom, Moab, and the prominent people of Ammon. For some reason, the country of Jordan will be spared. And then it says, he shall stretch out his hand against the countries, and the land of Egypt shall not escape. So here's part. Egypt is a Muslim country, just like all of these others there.

He shall have power over the treasures of gold and silver, and over all the precious things of Egypt. Also, the Libyans and Ethiopians shall follow at his heels. They are also Muslims.

But news from the east and the north shall trouble him. So here's Russia and China, that area of east of Israel and north. They're not going to put up with Europe now, taking over the Middle East, taking over the oil, taking over everything. And therefore, he shall go out with great fury to destroy and annihilate many. And he shall plant the tents of his palace between the seas and the glorious holy mountains. So he's going to have a headquarters there in Jerusalem, because the seas are the Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. And between that is this area of the glorious holy mountain, talking about Jerusalem. Yet he shall come to his end, and no one will help him. So that's when Christ comes back and stops all the mayhem and madness of man, governing man, and destroying this beautiful earth in so many ways. So brethren, look at all the things we've been able to review about the beauties of nature, orphan genes, gene folding, what we're talking about, this discovery of Mount Ibal, and also what's been happening with the war in the Ukraine. And so let's end with Psalm 148. Psalm 148.

And let's just read the whole chapter, because it is a poem glorifying God. He says in verse 1, Praise the Lord, praise the Lord from the heavens, praise him in the heights, praise him all his angels, praise him all his hosts, praise him sun and moon, praise him all you stars of light, praise him you heavens of heavens, and you waters above the heavens. Let them praise the name of the Lord, for he commanded, and they were created. All of these things were created. He also established them forever and ever. He made a decree, which shall not pass away. Praise the Lord from the earth, you great sea creatures, in all the depths fire and hail snow and clouds, stormy wind, fulfilling his word, mountains in all hills, fruitful trees, in all cedars, beasts and all cattle, creeping things and flying fowl, kings of the earth and all peoples, princes and all judges of the earth, both young men and maidens, old men and children. Let them praise the name of the Lord, for his name alone is exalted. His glory is above the earth and heaven, and he has exalted the horn of his people, the praise of all his saints, of the children of Israel, a people near to him. Praise the Lord.