Scientists Who Set Out to Create Simple Genome Astonished by Sheer Complexity of Life

Christian Research Network reports:

DNADescribing their findings as “humbling,” researchers who set out to create a “minimal genome” have concluded that the basic elements of life are enormously complex and remain full of unsolved mysteries.

In an article titled “Design and synthesis of a minimal bacterial genome,” a team of more than 20 scientists share the results of years of research on cellular genomes. The scientists, in an attempt to better understand the basic requirement for life, took a bacterial genome and stripped it down of all genes they deemed unnecessary.

“We set out to define a minimal cellular genome experimentally by designing and building one, then testing it for viability,” the scientists explain in their paper, which was published last week in the journal “Science.” “Our goal is a cell so simple that we can determine the molecular and biological function of every gene.”

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Trump Again Denies Any Involvement In Enquirer Story Alleging Cruz Has Had Extramarital Affairs

According to NewsMax:

Donald Trump says he “had nothing to do with” a story published in the National Enquirer alleging Texas Senator Ted Cruz, his rival to be the Republican party’s 2016 presidential nominee, has had extramarital affairs.

But he did accuse Cruz of maligning his wife, Melania Trump.

Trump slammed rival Cruz for the recent ad produced by an anti-Trump super-PAC featuring a photo of Trump’s wife posing nude.

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ISIS “crucifies Catholic priest on Good Friday” after kidnapping him from old people’s home where four nuns were shot dead

Daily Mail reports:

The Indian Catholic priest kidnapped by ISIS-linked terrorists in Yemen earlier this month was crucified on Good Friday, it has been claimed.

Father Thomas Uzhunnalil, 56, was taken by Islamist gunmen, reportedly linked to ISIS, who attacked an old people’s home in Aden, southern Yemen, killing at least 15 people, on March 4.

The terrorists reportedly carried out the heinous murder on Good Friday, after threatening to do so earlier in the week, according to the Archbishop of Vienna

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Justin Bieber introduces “Jesus Calling” to millions

John Lanagan of My Word Like Fire has the story:

Jesus CallingWhile Warren B. Smith, Lighthouse Trails, Tim Challies and others have labored to warn Christians about Jesus Calling, singer Justin Bieber has introduced the book’s false Christ to millions in one fell swoop.

According to Relevant Magazine, during the last weekend of January 2016, “pop star Justin Bieber shared a devotional passage with his 56 million Instagram followers. Alongside the caption ‘Happy Saturday,’ Bieber posted an image of a page from Sarah Young’s best-selling daily devotional Jesus Calling, which calls readers to ‘Worship me only. Whatever occupies your mind becomes your god … Guard your thoughts diligently; good thought-choices will keep you close to me.’” [1] (Complete passage click here)

Like most people, Justin Bieber has no knowledge of the background or origin of Jesus Calling. Many in the visible church have been reading the communications of this false, contemplative Christ for years. As Warren B. Smith has noted, “While the apostle Paul expressed his ‘fear’ that the Corinthian church could be deceived by false Christs (2nd Corinthians 11:3-4), the true Jesus Christ warned that before His return, many would be deceived by false Christs (Matthew 24:3-5).” [2]

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Pope washes feet of Muslim migrants, says “We are brothers”

According to CNS News:

Pope Francis washed and kissed the feet of Muslim, Christian and Hindu refugees Thursday and declared them all children of the same God, as he performed a gesture of welcome and brotherhood at a time of increased anti-Muslim sentiment following the Brussels attacks.

“We have different cultures and religions, but we are brothers and we want to live in peace,” Francis said in his homily, delivered off-the-cuff in the windy courtyard of the center.

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U.S. announces take down of senior ISIS leader

According to World Magazine:

A U.S. special operations team conducting a pre-dawn raid in Syria on Friday killed senior Islamic State (ISIS) leader Abd al-Rahman Mustafa al-Qaduli. The terrorist, also known as Abu Ala al-Afri, was considered the group’s second-in-command. U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter confirmed the raid during a news conference this morning, but declined to give details. He said the operation was part of ongoing efforts to cut down the terror group’s leadership team. Another U.S. official said the raid was prompted by the ISIS attack in Belgium on Tuesday. Carter described Al-Afri as the ISIS finance minister, but he also had a hand in external affairs and plots. Before joining al-Qaeda in 2004, al-Afri was a physics professor. He spent time in an Iraqi jail and joined ISIS after his release in 2012.

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North Carolina Lawmakers, Governor Overturn Charlotte’s Controversial “Bathroom Bill”

Christian News Network reports:

Lawmakers in North Carolina passed legislation to overturn Charlotte’s controversial “bathroom bill” on Wednesday, sending the statute to the desk of Gov. Pat McCrory, who promptly signed the measure into law.

“The basic expectation of privacy in the most personal of settings, a restroom or locker room, for each gender was violated by government overreach and intrusion by the mayor and city council of Charlotte,” McCrory said in a statement.

As previously reported, despite hours of testimony largely in opposition of the proposal, the Charlotte City Council voted 7-4 last month to expand the city’s non-discrimination ordinance to add provisions for homosexuals and those who identify as the opposite sex—including in regard to restroom and locker room use.

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Coral Ridge Elders Knew of Tullian Tchividjian’s Affair With Married Woman, Advised Him to Keep Secret, Source Alleges

As previously reported, Tullian Tchividjian was fired from his job at Willow Creek Church in Florida last week after confessing to a second adulterous affair.  Christian Post, a site CRN doesn’t recommend because of its promotion of false teachers, reports that Tchividjian’s first affair was discovered and kept a secret. Following is excerpted from CP’s report:

Photo credit: Twitter

Photo credit: Twitter

Tchividjian landed a job at Willow Creek Church last September, some two months after he resigned from Coral Ridge due to another confessed extramarital affair he said was triggered by the infidelity of his now ex-wife, Kim.

“As many of you know, I returned from a trip a few months back and discovered that my wife was having an affair. Heartbroken and devastated, I informed our church leadership and requested a sabbatical to focus exclusively on my marriage and family. As her affair continued, we separated. Sadly and embarrassingly, I subsequently sought comfort in a friend and developed an inappropriate relationship myself,” he wrote in a statement to The Washington Post last June.

His latest revelation, however, significantly disrupts that narrative and created a lot of problems for those who have been trying to help him but were kept in the dark.

This story has more twists and turns than the Snake River.  CP’s Leonardo Blair begins his report by informing us that:

At least two elders at Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Florida allegedly had knowledge that their former pastor, Tullian Tchividjian, grandson to evangelical icon Billy Graham, had engaged in an adulterous affair with a married member of his flock and advised him to keep it secret from his wife.

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Obama administration engaged in secret talks to pay Iran nearly $2 billion

Fox News reports:

The Obama administration has spent three years engaged in secret talks with Iran that resulted in the payment of nearly $2 billion in taxpayer funds to the Islamic Republic, with more payouts likely to come in the future, according to a recent letter issued by the State Department and obtained exclusively by the Washington Free Beacon.

The administration’s disclosure came in response to an inquiry launched in January by Rep. Mike Pompeo (R., Kan.), who was seeking further information about the Obama administration’s payment of $1.7 billion in taxpayer funds to Iran, which many viewed as a “ransom payment” for Iran’s release that month of several U.S. hostages.

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College of Pediatricians Calls Transgender Ideology “Child Abuse”

According to Breitbart:

The American College of Pediatricians warns educators and legislators that “a life of chemical and surgical impersonation of the opposite sex” is dangerous for children.

In a strongly worded statement issued today, the professional association of pediatricians says “a person’s belief that he or she is something they are not is, at best, a sign of confused thinking.” It describes such thinking as problem that exists in the mind and not the body and “it should be treated as such.”

The college of pediatricians is joining a heated debate that increasingly pits concerned parents against school teachers, administrators, legislators, and transsexual advocates who are pushing the trans agenda in grade-schools, city governments, state governments, and the federal government.

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Captured Paris Attack Suspect Reportedly Planned New Acts in Brussels

Christian News Network reports:

The top suspect in last year’s Paris attacks told investigators after he was captured that he was planning new operations from Brussels and possibly had access to several weapons, Belgium’s foreign minister said Sunday.

Salah Abdeslam had claimed that “he was ready to restart something from Brussels, and it’s maybe the reality,” Foreign Minister Didier Reynders said.

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Candace Cameron Bure Blasts Fuller House Critics as “Ridiculous,” Posts Lustful Kiss From Show

According to Christian News Network some of Bure’s fans are not on board with her new show.  One fan commented: “I’m a little disappointed with the show.  There are sexual references, immodest clothing, and you even said a curse word. It makes me sad.”:

Unrepentant talk show host and actress Candace Cameron Bure is taking issue with “negativity” and “religious debates” from her fans who are flooding her social media pages with concern about the content in “Fuller House”—a restart of the 80’s show “Full House”—which features immodesty, lesbian kissing, sexual and alcoholic references and other controversial content. Days after calling for an end, she posted a photograph of a scene where she jumps on a man who is not her husband and passionately kisses him.

“This is getting ridiculous!!” she fumed last Saturday, next to a cartoon of an annoyed Cameron Bure saying “c’mon.” “STOP having religious debates about me and my family on my comments thread after EVERY single photo I post when they have nothing to do with the picture!”

Cameron Bure instructed fans to ignore negative comments and to take the talk elsewhere.

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Scalia’s death a blow to Obamacare contraception challengers

Reuters reports:

Christian groups asking the U.S. Supreme Court to exempt them from the requirement to provide insurance covering contraception under President Barack Obama’s healthcare law face an uphill battle following Justice Antonin Scalia’s death last month.

The remaining eight justices will consider seven related cases on whether nonprofit groups that oppose the requirement on religious grounds can object under a U.S. law called the Religious Freedom Restoration Act to a compromise version of the requirement offered by the Obama administration.

Among those mounting objections are the Little Sisters of the Poor, an order of Roman Catholic nuns that runs care homes for the elderly.

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Salt Lake Tribune–“Cruz in Utah: Glenn Beck Says He’s Fulfillment of Mormon Prophecy”

The headline appeared over at Breitbart followed by:

Lee Davidson wrote the following article in the Salt Lake Tribune bout Republican candidate Sen. Ted Cruz’s (R-TX) rallies today in Utah:

Cruz also basked in the praise of two big-name Mormons: former GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney and conservative talk show host Glenn Beck.

[…]

Beck, a Mormon and conservative radio talk show host, said he always vows to be the worst enemy of politicians who do not keep promises. “I don’t have any friends in Washington except these two,” he said about Cruz and Lee. He added they are the first politicians he has even endorsed.

Beck said that he, like many Mormons, believe in a prophecy that the Constitution will hang by a thread in the last days. He said he believes that now is that time, and people like Lee and Cruz will save it.

Read the rest here.

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Read our research paper on Mormonism

Billy Graham’s Grandson Tullian Tchividjian Fired by Willow Creek After Confessing Another Affair

According to Christian News Network the affair “occurred before the last affair he confessed—and before he discovered that his wife was in a relationship with another man.”

Photo credit: Twitter

Photo credit: Twitter

Just over six months after hiring him as the Director of Ministry Development following his resignation as lead pastor of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church upon admission of an affair, Florida’s Willow Creek Church has fired Tullian Tchividjian, the grandson of Billy Graham, as he has now confessed to a second inappropriate relationship.

As previously reported, Tchividjian, 43, the son of Virginia Graham, took over the pulpit of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in 2009 following the passing of founder D. James Kennedy. However, the selection divided the congregation, as some approved and others disapproved of his leadership. Several months after he accepted the job, Kennedy’s daughter and others began calling for his removal.

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St. Patrick not “a closet Baptist”

According to Baptist Press:

Saint Patrick's Day

In William Cathcart’s “Baptist Encyclopedia,” a catalog of Baptist doctrines, organizations and individuals, there is a surprising entry under the letter P: “Patrick, Saint, the Apostle of Ireland.”

However,

Two contemporary Baptist historians told Baptist Press that Patrick was not, in fact, a nascent Baptist, but those who sought to claim him as one rightly noted the error of associating him with the modern Roman Catholic Church.

 

“There is a romance about [Patrick],” said Michael Haykin a Southern Baptist Theological Seminary professor who has written a book about Patrick. “During the 19th century, with the rise of Landmarkism, there was a desire to claim as many people as Baptists as possible. In some respects, Patrick falls easily into that [classification]. He was almost definitely baptizing people by immersion. But he was almost definitely not a congregationalist — which we would view as central to being a Baptist.”

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Gay Rights Groups Urge NCAA to End Ties to Colleges Requesting Title IX Waiver

Inside Higher Ed reports on the LGBT’s push to defund any religious-based institution that refuses to join the moral revolution and stands against the radical LGBT agenda:

In a letter sent to the National Collegiate Athletic Association on Wednesday, more than 80 lesbian, gay and transgender organizations urged the NCAA to “divest from all religious-based institutions” that discriminate against transgender students. In 2014, the U.S. Department of Education extended Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, the civil rights law that prohibits gender discrimination on campuses, to include transgender students. ,,,

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Growing Number of Major U.S. Corporations Embracing Eastern Meditation Practices

From Berean Research:

America is up to its eyeballs in Eastern mysticism.  What does the Lord God have to say about adopting pagan practices?  Plenty:

When you come into the land that the LORD your God is giving you, you shall not learn to follow the abominable practices of those nations. There shall not be found among you anyone who burns his son or his daughter as an offering, anyone who practices divination or tells fortunes or interprets omens, or a sorcerer or a charmer or a medium or a necromancer or one who inquires of the dead, for whoever does these things is an abomination to the LORD. And because of these abominations the LORD your God is driving them out before you. You shall be blameless before the LORD your God, for these nations, which you are about to dispossess, listen to fortune-tellers and to diviners. But as for you, the LORD your God has not allowed you to do this.”  Leviticus 18:1-1

In other words, God’s people are not to involve themselves in any Americanized version of Eastern mysticism.  Period.

Garrett Haley, who penned the piece I’m posting here, quotes from a blog post titled “The Subtle Body—Should Christians Practice Yoga?” by Albert Mohler of Southern Baptist theological Seminary:

There is nothing wrong with physical exercise, and yoga positions in themselves are not the main issue.  But these positions are teaching postures with a spiritual purpose.

Mohler concludes:

Christians who practice yoga are embracing, or at minimum flirting with, a spiritual practice that threatens to transform their own spiritual lives into a “post-Christian, spiritually polyglot” reality.  Should any Christian willingly risk that?”

Now to Garrett Haley’s report:

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Coke joins coalition fighting for LGBT equality

Atlanta Journal Constitution reports:

Coca ColaCoca-Cola is a member of the newly formed Business Coalition for the Equality Act, a group of 60 prominent employers that are officially backing the Human Rights Campaign’s efforts to add federal protections for the LGBT community.

Coke joins other notable giants such as Apple, Nike, Target, Google, Amazon, Best Buy and Coke’s beverage industry rival Pepsi in the coalition. HRC said coalition members represent 4.2 million employees, have combined revenue of $1.9 trillion and have operations in all 50 states.

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Jerry Falwell Jr. Compares Donald Trump to King David, Talks About Watching Elton John Together on Private Jet

According to Christian News Network:

With presidential campaigning in full force, Jerry Falwell Jr., president of what heralds itself as the world’s largest Christian university, is defending and cozying up to the lead contender on the Republican ticket, recently recalling to the university newspaper how he and Trump watched an Elton John concert together on the billionaire’s private jet—a man whose sins he dismissed by comparison to God’s appointment of King David.

As previously reported, Falwell has repeatedly sought to assure the American people of the mud-slinging, foul-mouthed candidate’s Christianity, pointing to the candidate’s good deeds as being the “fruit” that Jesus spoke of that characterizes a man who is born again.

“I’ve seen his generosity to strangers, to his employees, his warm relationship with his children,” he said on CNN’s “Legal View With Ashleigh Banfield” last month. “I’m convinced he’s a Christian. I believe he has faith in Jesus Christ.”

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Utah Senate Approves Bill Requiring Abortionists to Give Anesthesia to Babies Being Murdered

According to Christian News Network:

Baby in the womb Senators in Utah have approved a bill that would require abortionists in the state to give anesthesia to unborn babies so they cannot feel pain as they are murdered.

“Let’s call it what it is: It is killing babies, and if we’re going to kill that baby, we ought to have the humanity to protect them from pain,” bill author Sen. Curt Bramble, R-Provo, said on the Senate floor.

On Friday, the Senate voted 19-5 in favor of Bramble’s bill, S.B. 234, which applies to babies five months in gestation or older.

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Palin Cancels Trump Event After Husband in “Serious” Snow Machine Crash

According to NBC News:

Sarah and Todd PalinSarah Palin canceled a campaign stop for Donald Trump in Florida on Monday after her husband Todd was injured in a snowmobile crash in Alaska.

A source told NBC News that Todd Palin was in “a very serious” crash Sunday night and is currently hospitalized in intensive care.

In a brief unplanned appearance before Trump’s afternoon event in Tampa, Palin referenced the “little wreck” and thanked audience members for their prayers.

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Mark Driscoll will resurrect his ministry with Easter Sunday “gathering” in Arizona

As previously reported, disgraced “pastor” Mark Driscoll recently had a RICO law suit filed against him alleging that while he was the CEO of Mars Hill Church in Seattle he “engaged in a pattern of racketeering activity so deeply embedded, pervasive and continuous, that it was effectively institutionalized as a business practice, thereby corrupting the very mission Plaintiffs and other donors believed they were supporting.” With this in mind, we have an update on the Driscoll saga from the Seattle Times: 

Ex-Mars Hill Church senior pastor Mark Driscoll, relocated in Arizona, will launch the first “gathering” of his new Trinity Church on Easter Sunday at the Glass and Garden Drive-In Church in Scottsdale, Arizona.

The newly launched Driscoll congregation has signed a rental contract for the 50-year-old church, which opened on Easter Sunday in 1966.  The official launch of the church has not yet been announced.

The resurrection of Driscoll’s ministry at Easter comes less than two weeks after four former members of his now-defunct Mars Hill Church filed a racketeering suit against Driscoll and a top aide.

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