September 7, 2005 Update

I wanted to get a few things off to you today. The first is information about one of my rare books we have just put up on the web.

It is the classic book Wife #19 - The Story of a Life in Bondage to Mormonism by Brigham Young's apostate wife, Ann Eliza Young.

I am also sending you an article here that I did just this morning entitled “Jesus and the Cults” and another that I think you’ll find interesting called “Consider the Penguin.”

I want to remind you as well that by using the translation tool on the home page you can now translate our entire website into a number of languages. What a great tool that is!

New things are about to happen to and through our website. Keep checking in on it.

And please, we truly need some special financial help from the email Newsletter recipients, like yourself.

If each of you could just send in an online offering this month for $20.00 we would be beyond meeting all our needs and getting the job done. That's about the cost of a trip to the movies for two.

Please, take a few minutes, log in at www.saintsalive.com and click on the "Give a Donation" link in the left hand column of the home page and it is done.

Taken in part from the author's notes for the book Fast Facts on False Teaching

It's not like we aren't to have expected it. Jesus talked about it. The disciples asked questions about it. It's there in the Word for us to read, to study.

"As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately. "Tell us," they said, "when will this happen, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?"

Jesus answered: "Watch out that no one deceives you. For many will come in my name, claiming, `I am the Christ, ' and will deceive many."

You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come.

Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of birth pains. (Matt. 24:3-8)

We're certainly seeing that in our day and age. Jesus said in the last days, these things are going to take place. Paul warned us in the fourth chapter of First Timothy, verse one:

"The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons."

Not only are we told that in the last days, people are going to go after the false prophets, but many are going to follow after the doctrine of demons and deceitful spirits.

We are literally seeing an explosion of the world of the occult. In fact, a recent magazine article estimated nearly fifty million Americans are involved in some form of the occult. A recent survey estimated that nearly forty million Americans read their horoscopes, every day, to see what their zodiac sign says they should do that day.

People are involved in the use of tarot cards, palmistry, and numerology. People are going to psychics, to mediums. One of the biggest programs on television is the psychic solution, with Dianne Warwick and other stars promoting psychics and astrology, spiritism, the mediums, the clairvoyants, and playing with the ouija board. People are getting involved in Witchcraft, Satanism and the whole world of the occult.

There are actually four categories of Cults prevalent today in

America

. These are:

Over the last 150 years, the classical definition of a Cult has referred to this first category known as the Pseudo-Christian Cults. These are religious organizations or movements who claim to be Christian and claim to believe in the Bible. But, instead of building their theology and teaching on God's Word, the Bible, they claim some "new revelation" or man-made teaching as superior to the Bible. By interpreting the Bible through the grid of their particular revelation or teaching, these groups end up denying the central doctrines of historic, orthodox, Biblical Christianity. The key perversions of the Cults always relate to the central issues of theology, specifically the Doctrine of God, Jesus Christ, and Salvation.

They are considered Cults because they seek to "counterfeit" Biblical Christianity. Counterfeits deceive by their outward appearance. Like counterfeit money, the Cults want to look and sound like the genuine thing without having their "bogus" nature detected. This is precisely what deceives so many people when confronted by one of the above groups. The Cults will use Christian "terminology" to sound Christian, but then will redefine the terms to fit their own "man-made" theology. The definition of terms is key to understanding the Cult deception.

The Pseudo-Christian Cults have essentially emptied Biblical Christianity of all of its content theologically, Christ’s divinity, His saving grace; replaced the content with a perverted theology of their own making; then sprayed it over with Christian words and terminology to look and sound Christian; and now market it as a new revelation from God. Many people naively buy the outer wrapping, without first examining the content and essence of the package. This can be deadly to your spiritual health and ultimate eternal destiny!

Such organizations are the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, known as the Jehovah's Witnesses, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, known as the Mormons.

There are other groups, such as the Unification Church, Christian Science, The Way, International and many other organizations which all claim to be Christian and claim to believe the Bible, but instead of building their teaching from what God has revealed, these organizations are claiming some new revelation, some man made teaching which they say supersedes or is greater than the Bible.

They interpret the Bible through their manmade revelations or teaching, and end up denying the basic doctrines and central beliefs of historic Biblical Christianity. They use the term "Jesus Christ" and then redefine the term to fit their man-made theology. Go down to a Christian Science Reading Room, founded by Mary Baker Eddy, and ask them, "Do you believe in the Trinity?"

They will say, "Of course we do!" But if you ask them, "What is the Trinity?" they will tell you the Trinity is three ethical principles: life, truth and love. You see, they will use Christian words to make you think they are Christian, and then they will redefine those words to their manmade theology.

You can ask a Mormon missionary, "Do you believe in Jesus Christ?" he will say, "Of course. We are wearing a little name tag here that says that we are the Church of Jesus Christ." But if you ask that Mormon who is Jesus Christ, you will learn that they believe that Jesus Christ is the brother of Lucifer, that he is simply one God in a pantheon of Gods. Mormons are polytheists. They believe in millions of Gods and not just one of them. They deny the Virgin Birth and teach he was born through physical sex between God and Mary.

That's the story with each of the cults. Their Jesus only looks like the real Jesus on the surface. Dig a little and another one of those false christs rises up. In dealing with the cults, you must define your terminology. What do you mean when you talk about God? What do you mean when you talk about Jesus Christ? What do you mean when you talk about salvation?

A second category that we now talk about are what are known as the Oriental cults. These are the cults that have their basis in Oriental or Eastern philosophy, specifically Hinduism and Buddhism.

Such things as the Hare Krishna movement, Christian consciousness, The Divine Light Mission, Transcendental meditation, Yoga, Zen, and many others. It is interesting that while all the American cults are going to Asia, the Asian cults are all coming to

America

All the oriental cults basically teach a Hindu pantheism, that we are all part of an impersonal universe which they call God. They say people suffer in life because they think they are personal beings.

In Hinduism and Buddhism they say personal thinking and feeling is all an illusion. They teach that the world is an illusion, and in order to get rid of suffering we must get rid of the physical personal world which is not real. And we must transcend through transcendental meditation or yoga meditation to become part of the impersonal universe which they call God.

We need understand something here. An "impersonal universe" never loved or cared about you. Only a personal creator loves and cares for his creation. The world, at large, is lost to that simple theology. They want the answer to be within their control, their understanding, within themselves and the false gods they play with like it that way. That brings us to the third category.

The New Age cults are sometime referred to as the Human Potential Movement. They combine Eastern philosophy with Western humanism and psychology teaching that man has evolved physically as an animal in the first stage of life. And they say we are standing on the brink of a New Age, what they call the Age of Aquarius, and in this New Age, man will continue his evolution spiritually to achieve his own divine nature.

A good example of this grouping is the Church of Scientology. We have all seen the ads for the book "Dianetics, The Science of the Mind," by L. Ron Hubbard. Over thirteen million copies have been sold. It is amazing. L Ron Hubbard was a science fiction writer back in the 30s and 40s. In 1954, he started his own church based his science fiction book.

Scientology teaches that the reason why we suffer in life is because you have lost your Godhood through thousands of reincarnations. For a mere ten or twenty thousand dollars, they will help program a person through past reincarnations to get back to the state of Godhood.

Then when you realize that you are God, you are able to worship yourself and you will be at peace. How much does it cost to reach that divine plateau?

This is the oldest lie recorded in the Bible. In the Garden of Eden, the serpent said to Adam and Eve, "Ah, eat of the fruit. You can be-come God yourselves." Isn't it interesting that Satan hasn't changed? He's still promoting that same old lie that he dresses up in new terms, but it is pawned off as new revelation.

It's the cry of the cults from Scientology to Mormonism. "You can become God yourself!" It's the ultimate lie, the ultimate sin, man wanting to become God himself. It's still going on.

But, because people do not find what they are looking for in their own in their own divinity, many of them have gone into a fourth category known as the Occult, or the Spiritist Cults.

This category of cult spans the whole universe of darkness - everything from astrology to tarot cards, palmistry, numerology, people involved in witchcraft and Satanism, going to seances, meeting with clairvoyants, channelers, etc.

Paul warned us that in the last days before Christ returns at His second coming, we will see the rise of such evil.

"The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons." (1 Tim. 4:1)

They bring with them a new Ba’alism, with the pursuit of pleasure as the location of the sacred. There develops a sacramental character of sexuality and drugs within their ranks. Their goal is the removal of all “hang-ups” and moral restraints; a totally free society; the attainment of "peak experiences".

Their salvation is through self-gratification and their central idol is the “Pleasure Principle,” achieved through sensual pleasure and self-gratification.

Every one of these groups has its own idol[s] of one sort or another. What's on top of the Mormon Temple in Salt Lake City? It's not a cross. At the highest pinnacle, there is Moroni, the angel of light, who told Joseph Smith that all the teachings of Christianity are an abomination, and that he could become God himself.

Mormonism is not of Jesus Christ. It's from the pit of hell, dressed up to look like Christianity, palmed off as a new revelation, bringing another Jesus and another gospel and another spirit, counterfeits, false apostles disguising themselves to look like Christians.

It's fascinating how many cults began by somebody getting a revelation from an angel of light. Read the history of Islam. One billion people today are following Islam because a man named Mohammed claimed to have received revelations from an angel of light, who told him Jesus Christ was not God, Jesus Christ did not die on a cross for man's sins, and that man can save himself by keeping the law of Mohammed. An angel of light… I could go on and on.

There is literally a smorgasbord of Jesus Christs being served up to the public. Who is the Jesus of the cults? Let us give you just a brief idea. Jesus said, in the last days there's going to come many false christs. Paul warned of it in the scripture above. We've got them by the hundreds today! By the millions if you believe Shirley Mclaine's pronouncement that we are all “Jesus Christs.”

Who is the Jesus of Jehovah's Witnesses? They say He is the archangel, Michael, and that He was the first creation of God, came to earth as a man, died on a stake and rose invisibly as a ghost.

The Mormons say that Jesus was simply one God in a pantheon of Gods, He's the brother of Satan, that the cross and blood of Christ is foolishness. He points the way, but we ourselves are our own ‘way.’ Mary Baker Eddy taught in Christian Science that Jesus was a divine idea, a nice idea.

Sun Myung Moon, in the Unification Church, says that Jesus was a man who failed, and that he, Sun Myung Moon is the second coming of Jesus Christ. The Bahais say that Jesus is one of nine great world manifestations. They say it does not matter what religion you believe, that all religions are basically the same.

The Unitarians say that Jesus was a good man but his followers mistakenly deified him. The spritists say that Jesus is an advanced medium in the sixth sphere in the astrological projection, wherever that is.

The Rosacrucians say that Jesus is the man at the station of cosmic consciousness. Maharishi and Transcendent Meditation says Jesus was an enlightened guru who never suffered or died for anyone. And the list goes on and on.

You need to understand that the Jesus of the cults is not the Jesus of the Bible. They have another Jesus, a counterfeit, a false Christ who can save no one. And the greatest question still before us is "what think ye of Jesus Christ? Who is He?"

"Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.”

This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world." (1 John 4:1-3)

John says to test these people. Do they confess that Jesus Christ is God come in the flesh. If they deny that, he says, then that they are of the antichrist. Now there are many cults that believe that their particular Jesus was actually in the flesh. But John had already recorded for us in his gospel who this unique one is that has come in the flesh and is from God.

The other scripture is in the Book of John. John starts his gospel so there would be no mistake. God took on human flesh, God incarnate.

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth." (John 1:1, 14)

The cults have another gospel, able to enslave you into a man made system trying to earn and work for your salvation apart from Jesus Christ. But Jesus Christ is "...the way, the truth and the light. No one comes to the Father but by him. (John 14:6)

Acts 4:12 says: "there is no other name given among men whereby we must be saved but that of Jesus Christ."

Salvation is not a man made system or organization, but that it is a gift of God. It was bought and paid for by the eternal Lamb of God, Jesus Christ, who was the infinite sacrifice, who shed His blood on the cross, for an infinite amount of sins, that we could come by faith and receive that free gift of salvation. That's why they call it "good news." It is the true power of God Himself in each and every one of us.

Consider The Penguin

Information compiled from various web sites

By Ed Decker

Amidst all the recent talk about Evolution versus Intelligent Design and Creationism, a movie about the lives of the Antarctic Penguins hit the theatres and found great success and wide audience with families across the nation. It certainly has been a breather from the sex, violence and gore of the rest of the field.

However, I could not help but reflect on the absolute impossibility of any Penguin specie evolving from its embryonic shell to become the creature it is today. Here are some facts I gleaned from the web about this strange creature.

Penguins are flightless birds belonging to the family Spheniscidae. World-wide there are 17 species of penguin, all of which breed in the Southern hemisphere.

Penguins differ from birds which are able to fly, by having a much heavier and more robust skeleton. Birds that fly must have a skeleton which is as light as possible, in order to make flight possible. This is achieved through bones that are paper-thin or hollow, often with internal honeycombing that combines adequate strength with low weight.

For penguins, such light weight skeletons hold no advantage, and they therefore have bones which are considerably denser, giving greater strength and reduced buoyancy. This is not something they evolve into over thousands of generations.

Penguins' bones are solid and heavy, which help them to remain submerged and reduce the energy needed for pursuit diving. Some species can reach depths of 1000 feet or more and stay submerged for up to 25 minutes, though most prefer shorter, shallower dives. They would never have survived without their food source and they could never have reached their food source without their heavy bones.

Penguins also have a counter-current heat exchange system in the nasal passages, whereby air from inhalation and expiration are mixed in a common chamber. This allows recovery of much of the heat lost from the blood capillaries during respiration. This process can also be reversed to aid heat loss during periods of hot weather.

They mostly have blackish upperparts and whitish underparts on both the abdomen and flippers. This helps to camouflage the penguin against the lighter sky when viewed from below, and the darker waters when viewed from above, making them harder to spot by both predators and prey. Again, this had to be there at the ‘start.’

The feathers are waterproof and interlocking, providing an effective barrier to water. Each feather has small muscles which allow them to be held tightly down against the body whilst swimming, to form a thin water proof layer. Little air is therefore trapped in the plumage when swimming, preventing excessive buoyancy which would hinder diving. When on land, these muscles hold the feathers erect, thereby trapping a thick layer of warm air to provide the best insulation against cold wind.

The insulation provided by the plumage is further aided by thick fat deposits beneath the skin, and a counter-current blood supply to the exposed legs and feet. The blood vessels supplying warm blood to the legs and feet are surrounded by the vessels returning cooler blood back to the body, enabling much of the heat lost from the warm blood to be recovered.

This vascular system is also able to severely restrict the amount of blood flowing to the flippers and feet, which may be kept as low as 6 Celsius despite a body core temperature of 39 Celsius. This considerably reduces the amount of heat lost during cold weather, but the process can also be reversed so as to aid heat loss during hot weather.

Penguins dive in search of prey, and then having located it they chase it, and swallow it whole under water. To locate and capture prey therefore requires good underwater vision, but the differing refractive indexes of water and air require different shaped lenses. Penguins therefore are able to alter the shape of the lens considerably, enabling them to compensate for the differences in refractive index, and allowing good vision in air and water.

The penguins face the problem of being unable to breathe underwater. Having a relatively small body size compared to seals and cetaceans, penguins are more restricted in the amount of oxygen that they can store to sustain them during underwater dives. The underwater pressure compresses the air held in the lungs and air-sacs, and consequently these airways only provide about a third of the oxygen requirements needed for each dive.

The haemoglobin in red blood cells holds a certain amount of oxygen in all animals, in order to circulate oxygen from the lungs to all parts of the body. In penguins, the blood has a much higher concentration of haem oglobin than is necessary solely for circulatory needs, and this is used as an oxygen store during underwater dives. In addition the muscle tissues have high concentrations of myoglobin, which also stores oxygen in the very place that it is most needed for underwater swimming.

As oxygen is used up during respiration, carbohydrates and fats are burned off to provide energy, and the by-product of this process is carbon dioxide. During underwater dives this carbon dioxide builds up in the blood stream due to the lack of fresh air entering the lungs and air-sacs. Under normal circumstances this excess carbon dioxide would combine with the blood to become carbonic acid, raising the acidity of the blood. Even small increases in the acidity of the blood can be metabolically damaging, and penguins therefore have an ability to buffer the blood, preventing it from becoming too acidic in the presence of increased levels of carbon dioxide.

The Penguin beak has a osseous system, built up from the jawbone. It has several tight horn-plates from keratin, like our nails and hair. And then many species have at the end a pine grosbeak and the cutting edge is sharp. This allows a penguin to hold and kill a slimy fish. On their tongue and palate, you can see backwards pointed protuberances, acting like barbed hooks to prevent the escaping of a prey.

By comparison to adults, chicks have very different types of plumage, which serve completely different purposes. Newly hatched chicks have a protoptile plumage, which is very sparse, and provides inadequate insulation from the cold. However, at this period of development chicks do not require insulation, because they are brooded by the adult, and the sparse plumage enables rapid transfer of heat from the adult brood patch to the chick. Only when chicks near the end of the brood period, do they need a plumage with greater insulative properties.

When the chicks reach about two weeks of age, the original protoptile plumage, which is thin and readily transmits warmth from the parent bird, is replaced by a thicker mesoptile plumage. This provides good insulation, and in association with metabolic changes, it allows the chick to maintain its own body temperature.

As chicks grow larger, and demand more food, it is necessary for both adults to go to sea to forage. Prior to being left by both adults, chicks grow a thick, fluffy plumage called the mesoptile plumage, which traps a thick layer of air and provides excellent insulation. This plumage provides better insulation against cold wind than the adult plumage, however it is not waterproof and is only effective when dry.

Normally this is not a problem, since chicks do not enter the water at this stage. The insulation properties of the mesoptile plumage can be seen in breeding colonies during periods of hot weather when chicks often suffer from heat stress. By contrast, the breakdown of this insulation when wet is evident during periods of heavy rain, when some chicks can become saturated, and die from hypothermia.

When the chick becomes fully developed, further physiological changes occur, and the mesoptile plumage is shed and replaced by a waterproof plumage similar to that of the adults. This plumage needs to be kept waterproof in order to maintain an adequate level of insulation at sea, and in order to retain these properties, the plumage must be renewed regularly throughout adult life. This is usually performed during an annual moult, when birds come ashore for a period of 2 - 4 weeks, while old feathers are pushed out by the new ones growing from underneath.

The waterproofing qualities of the adult plumage is maintained by constant preening. A waxy substance is produced from the uropygial gland at the base of the tail, and this is spread onto the feathers during preening to maintain their waterproofing qualities. Preening also realigns the feathers, which interlock through microscopic hooks.

Even despite these adaptations, penguins are often unable to hold sufficient oxygen to sustain the deepest dives, and they have therefore evolved physiological adaptations that enable them to use anaerobic respiration (the production of energy in the absence of oxygen). In humans, when muscles become overworked and lack sufficient oxygen to sustain their energy requirements, the build up of lactic acid resulting from anaerobic respiration quickly causes pain and muscle fatigue. In penguins however, the muscle tissues contain high levels of an enzyme called lactate dehydrogenase which allows muscles to continue working anaerobically, by neutralising the build up of lactic acid. This lactic acid is later expelled from the body when normal breathing is resumed, during periods of surface rest or shallow diving.

Finally, we need to consider the weather in which this 3 million to 15 million years, [depending on who you ask] eons-long process would have taken place. We are talking cold here, cold enough to freeze anything that sat out in it for more than a few minutes.

The Penguin, no matter how well into evolution it could ever be, could not have survived the first winter without ALL the above things working perfectly.

Winter: -40 to -94�F (-40 to -70�C)
Summer: -5 to -31�F (-15 to 35�C)

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