Russell M. Nelson became president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) in 2018 at the age of 93. After serving for 7 years, Nelson passed away on September 27, 2025, at age 101. He was an outstanding surgeon and a pioneer in human open-heart surgery before rising through the ranks of the LDS Church. During his leadership, Nelson implemented many changes to the LDS Church and Mormonism. These included removing the name “Mormon” from what members of the church can call themselves.
Other changes Nelson made included rejecting the Boy Scouts after they admitted openly gay members, while lifting some restrictions on LGBTQ members of the church. He also promoted the LDS Church’s acceptance of people of color, which, until 1978, was not permitted. Racism runs counter to the teachings of the Bible. Galatians 3:26-29 clearly states that there are no racial, gender, or national distinctions among Christians. Romans 1:24-27 emphasizes that God’s plan for sexual expression is to be within the exclusive bond of a man and woman in marriage. Romans 6 leaves no doubt that God desires His children to be free from sin.
Over 40% of the American population identifies as “none” when asked about their religion. Much of this is because churches have moved away from the idea of dying to sin to live a new life. Like the LDS Church and Mormonism, many American denominations teach beliefs that come from leading theologians rather than the Bible. The real answer to faith is the “Restoration Movement,” which teaches “we will speak where the Bible speaks and be silent where the Bible is silent.” This isn’t just a catchy phrase; it is the only answer to the challenges Christians face today.
Our Beyond Reasonable Doubt video series faces a challenge: it can’t keep up with new archaeological findings. The fall issue of Biblical Archaeology Review announced two new archaeological discoveries supporting the Bible.
The Jordan Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities reported an inscription carved into a desert rock face in southern Jordan. The inscription features two cartouches, which are Egyptian hieroglyphic oval shapes containing the names of royalty. In this case, they display the name of Egyptian pharaoh Ramesses III, who reigned from 1186 to 1155 BCE. One column shows his birth name, while the other shows his throne name and title. Other cartouches of Ramesses III have been found in the Sinai, Israel, and Saudi Arabia, indicating the Egyptian-Arabian trade route. This is the first one discovered in Jordan.
The second find is a report from Matthew D.C. Larsen about discovering what is called the Boudrouml prison in Corinth. The existence of the Boudrouml prison has been known since the early 20th century, when Herbert F. deCou first excavated it. However, newly found inscriptions carved into the pavement by prisoners offer insights into life in Roman prisons. The spelling and grammar errors in the inscriptions reveal the prisoners’ lack of formal education. These messages also show boredom, rage, and personal devotion. One inscription reads, “Lord, do not show mercy on the one who threw us in here.” The evidence of Roman prison life aligns with what the Bible describes regarding Peter and Paul’s imprisonment.
As archaeologists continue their excavations and new technologies analyze the findings, they find more archaeological discoveries supporting the Bible. Those who try to cast doubt on the biblical record will find themselves at odds with the evidence.
Researchers at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute announced the discovery of a new deep-sea snailfish species called the bumpy snailfish (Careproctus colliculi). This fish lives over 10,000 feet below the ocean’s surface and exhibits traits never seen before in the snailfish family.
Other deep-ocean snailfish are sleek and dark-colored, which helps them catch prey and blend into the dark waters. The bumpy snailfish is pink, with a large head and a body covered in bumps. These bumps are gelatinous, watery tissue that may help keep the fish buoyant under the high pressures of the deep sea.
Evolutionary explanations for how the bumpy snailfish came to be are unclear because its traits do not seem to increase its chances of survival but may instead make it more vulnerable to predators. Like all living things, it occupies a specific niche in the ecosystem. Dr. Mackenzie Gerringer, who analyzed the species in detail, said the discovery of this and two other species “is a reminder of how much we have yet to learn about life on Earth.”
As scientists develop new tools for deep-sea exploration, they continue to find life forms in every environment on our planet. Everywhere we look, we see a design in life that hints at an intelligent Creator who made Earth a living, dynamic place for humans. The truth of Romans 1:20, which states that we can know there is a God through the things He has made, appears more obvious today than ever in human history.
At age 40, Christopher Columbus embarked on a bold journey that would become a turning point in human history. It marked the start of demographic, commercial, economic, social, and political changes. This event began what is now called the “Columbian Exchange.” That exchange involved plants—corn, potatoes, beans, squash, cocoa, and other foods were brought from America to Europe and Africa. Wheat from Europe was introduced into America. Animals such as cattle, horses, and pigs, which were unknown in the Americas, were brought over from Europe. Sadly, European explorers also brought slavery and diseases that killed many in the New World.
Columbus claimed that one of the reasons for his journey was to bring Christianity to the people he thought were natives of the East Indies. Although Columbus made four trips to the region, he never acknowledged it as anything other than the East Indies. Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci was the first to realize it was a New World, which is why we call it America.
Going much further back in time, after the Flood, God told Noah and his family to “multiply and fill the Earth” (Genesis 9:1 and 9:7). Instead of obeying that command, they devised their own plan to build a tall tower to make a name for themselves (Genesis 11:4). God responded to their rebellion in Genesis 11:7-9 by forcing them to disperse.
According to Hugh Ross, land bridges once connected Asia, Africa, Europe, and Australia, making migration possible. The land bridge in the Bering Strait between Siberia and Alaska was covered with too much ice for humans to cross until about 16,500 years ago. Once it became passable, people from Asia entered the Americas until the sea level rose due to melting ice about 11,000 years ago, causing the land bridge to disappear.
Losing the Bering Strait land bridge meant the Americas were cut off from the Old World and the Gospel message until Columbus’s time. Europeans began arriving in the New World, including the Pilgrims and missionaries. Although not everything they brought was positive, the Good News was the greatest gift to the New World, and today we benefit from the fact that Christopher Columbus embarked on a bold journey.
Skeptics often point out the failures of religious leaders, and everyone is aware of scandals in the church over the years. One thing we can be sure of is that there will be more examples in the future. Why? Because humans sin. Proverbs 20:9 says, “Who can say, ‘I have kept my heart pure; I am clean and without sin?’” Only one man was perfect and without sin: Jesus Christ. But, “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21 NIV). While skeptics highlight the failures of Christians, the Bible doesn’t hide them. For example, take the people in the Corinthian church to whom Paul wrote.
In his first letter to the church in Corinth, Paul began, “I always thank my God for you because of his grace given you in Christ Jesus.” But then in verse ten, he begins addressing the failures of Christians in that congregation. First, he discusses divisions and quarrels among the members. Then he reminds them that they were not wise, influential, or noble by birth, but God chose them anyway. By chapter 3, he tells them they are “still worldly” and “mere infants in Christ,” and that their jealousy and quarreling prove they are worldly.
In chapter 4, Paul continues by explaining that they have no reason to boast (implying they were boasting) because their relationship with God isn’t based on their goodness, but on God’s grace. He points out in verse 18, “Some of you have become arrogant…”
Just when it seems Paul had addressed all the failures of Christians, things get worse. In chapter 5, he highlights a case of sexual immorality within the church, and instead of condemning it, they are proud of it! Paul says they should have been mourning and removing the guilty party from the congregation. His warning is that if they continue to accept this immoral behavior, others will follow. He says we cannot avoid associating with sexually immoral people in the world, but such behavior should not be tolerated among those claiming to be Christians.
As if that’s not enough, Paul tells the Corinthian Christians in chapter 6 that they need to settle their disputes within the church and stop suing each other in public courts. He also urges them to avoid immoral conduct involving prostitutes. In chapter 7, he emphasizes that sexual relationships should only be between married couples and underscores the sacredness of marriage.
Wow! Paul still had eight more chapters to write, and in chapter 11, he rebuked the Corinthian Christians for how they were handling the Lord’s Supper, or communion. In chapter 12, he addressed their mishandling of spiritual gifts.
Paul was responsible for founding the church in Corinth, and he had to address the failures of Christians that weighed heavily on him. However, his letter is not entirely critical. Chapter 13 is one of the most beautiful parts of the Bible, where Paul describes the way of love. We can’t ignore chapter 15, where Paul reminds the Corinthians of Christ’s resurrection. In verses 3-7, he quotes an oral tradition about the resurrection that dates to shortly after the event. Then he admits his own sin, “For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am…” In verses 20 and 21, he writes, “But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead…so in Christ all will be made alive.”
Among his final instructions, Paul writes, “Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be courageous; be strong. Do everything in love” (16:13). Paul pointed out the failings of Christians, but he didn’t give up on those in Corinth, as shown in his second letter to the Corinthian church.
Scandals and moral failures have troubled the church since the beginning, but instead of hiding them, the Church must address them and make the necessary corrections. Would the Corinthian church have been embarrassed to know that their “dirty laundry” would be aired for the whole world to see for the next two thousand years? Does today’s Church have anything to be ashamed of? The failures of Christians are a stumbling block for seekers in a world that needs to see genuine Christianity.
A fascinating question that marine scientists have explored is fish communication. Finding a mate, locating food sources, and defending territory are challenges all animals face. Terrestrial animals solve this problem by pushing air through their lungs, with different land animals having various designs to do this. Birds and lions produce sounds for communication differently, but both systems involve air in some form. So, the question is, how do fish communicate?
Researchers from Cornell University placed equipment in the ocean off Hawaii and Curacao to study this question and found that each fish species has its own method for communicating with others. Triggerfish slap their pectoral fins on specialized scales. Glasseye snappers rattle their swim bladders. Blackbar soldierfish use sonic muscles to vibrate their ribs. Aaron Rice, who was the project manager for Cornell, states that the “sounds lack the elegance of birdsong, but they are significantly more diverse.”
The more scientists learn about life on our planet, the more varieties of specialized designs they observe everywhere on Earth. Explaining the origin of things like fish communication as a chance occurrence in the distant past pushes credibility too far. Seeing these as outcomes of design is an example of intelligent purpose, allowing a vast diversity of life forms to exist.
On June 17, 2025, Virginia Senator Tim Kaine stood before the United States Senate and said, “The United States didn’t inherit slavery from anybody. We created it.” That shocking statement shows a complete lack of historical knowledge. Slavery goes far back in history, predating the formation of the United States. Who created slavery? Let’s examine that question.
During the 16th and 17th centuries, Muslim pirates from the Barbary Coast of North Africa captured white Europeans and Americans, taking more than one million into slavery. By 1800, over 20% of the United States’ revenue was used to pay slave ransoms and tributes to Muslim leaders. This ended when the newly established U.S. Navy defeated the Barbary pirates in 1815.
Going further back in time, when English settlers arrived in the early American colonies, Africans were enslaving other Africans, and they sold their own brothers to the Americans and Europeans. The English first abolished slavery, but it took the Americans more time to remove this evil.
Farther back in history, slavery was common in ancient Rome and Greek culture. Earlier still, the Egyptians enslaved the Israelites. Exodus 1:12b-14 (ESV) says, “And the Egyptians were in dread of the people of Israel. So they ruthlessly made the people of Israel work as slaves and made their lives bitter with hard service, in mortar and brick, and all kinds of work in the field. In all their work, they ruthlessly made them work as slaves.”
There are many other examples of slavery throughout history, but the question remains: who created slavery? Let’s go all the way back to Eden in Genesis chapter 2. Satan lied to the woman and led her and the man into his trap of sin. So, who created slavery? The originator of slavery was Satan. Adam and Eve thought they were gaining new freedom by eating the forbidden fruit, but they became slaves. In John 8:34, Jesus said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin.”
However, the key question is not who created slavery, but who can free us from this slavery to sin? There is a path to freedom described in Romans 6:3-6 (ESV): “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.”
Those who have been released from slavery to sin should share that message with others. We should also do all we can to bring an end to physical slavery, which still exists in many regions of the world.
Beginning in 1987, a new glass and metal structure began to rise in the desert near Oracle, Arizona. In 1991, it opened as the world’s largest closed ecological system. It was called “Biosphere 2” because planet Earth is “Biosphere 1.” The idea behind the project was to test whether a closed system could support human life on another planet. This marked the start of a two-year mission in which eight people were isolated inside this artificial biosphere to simulate life on a space colony.
The experiment in Biosphere 2 ran from 1991 to 1993 with only limited success. It was attempted again for six months in 1994. Both attempts encountered technical issues and the strain of human group dynamics. Additionally, during the second try, the company managing the experiment was dissolved, leaving the project in limbo. Initially, Columbia University took control of the facility and used it for scientific research until 2003. When it seemed Biosphere 2 might be demolished for urban development, the University of Arizona (UA) took over in 2007 and gained full ownership in 2011.
Today, about 100,000 tourists visit Biosphere 2 each year while UA continues to conduct experiments there. One of the experimental areas is the Landscape Evolution Observatory (LEO). It consists of three artificial landscapes, each measuring 30 by 11 meters with a 4-meter depth of crushed basalt rock from a volcanic crater in northern Arizona. The scientists aim to observe how these landscapes change “from purely mineral and abiotic substrate to living, breathing landscapes that will ultimately support microbial and vascular plant communities” (UA’s words).
I wonder how the researchers could be sure that the one million pounds of basalt from a volcanic crater could be “abiotic,” meaning free of any life forms. However, if microbes or seeds are present, I believe the landscapes will “evolve.” The key is that for any life to develop, it must already be there. Evolution is change over time, but the development of life requires initial life to exist.
The UA scientists explain that the evolution of cyanobacteria—the first microscopic organisms to use photosynthesis—pumped oxygen into the atmosphere, facilitating the development of aerobic life. This paved the way for multicellular life, an ozone layer to shield life from harmful ultraviolet radiation, and weathering to break down rocks into soil.
Considering the history of Biosphere 2, I doubt it will be around—or that the scientists will be—long enough to observe significant evolution. It takes time for rocks to break down into soil. They describe the “process of primary succession,” where simple microbes expand into organisms of increasing “complexity and biodiversity.” The researchers state that photosynthesizing cyanobacteria will capture nitrogen from the air, preparing the way for mosses to grow. The next step involves “colonization by larger plants with roots,” and the primary succession continues.
Long before Biosphere 2, Genesis 1:11-12 details the process of primary succession: “And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass” (Hebrew deshe, meaning tender grass such as lichen or algae), “the herb yielding seed” (Hebrew eseb, meaning naked seed or gymnosperm), “and the tree yielding fruit” (Hebrew ets, meaning tree, wood, or timber). The process of primary succession then continues. (For more on this, see John N. Clayton’s booklet “God’s Revelation in His Rocks and His Word.”)
As the UA scientists describe in their explanation of LEO, “The Earth system consisting of air, water, soil, plants, and microbes is a complex, interacting system.” And so it is, as God revealed to Moses thousands of years ago. Complex, interacting systems require an intelligent Designer.
Biogenesis is the process of reproduction—life giving birth to new life through natural means. Abiogenesis is the origin of life from non-living matter, the concept that life originated from non-life. It’s an undisputed fact that life began to exist. Equally undeniable is the fact that the universe also began to exist. Therefore, we are presented with two scientifically accepted facts: 1-The non-living matter in the universe came into existence. 2-Life began to exist. Explaining the existence of life remains a challenge that science has yet to overcome.
Since we know the universe had a beginning, life on Earth cannot be explained simply by claiming it was seeded by aliens from another galaxy (panspermia). Their galaxy would have had a beginning too, so how did their life originate? The theory of panspermia merely pushes the question farther back.
The idea that non-living elements spontaneously combined into organic molecules, which then organized into living cells by random chance, is hard to believe and even harder to prove. Many brilliant minds have tried to explain life in this way. Evolution does not account for the origin of life; it only attempts to explain the development and diversity of life that already existed.
It is not a “god-of-the-gaps” argument when we suggest that the best explanation for abiogenesis is that an Intelligence acted upon non-living matter, imparting information (DNA) and organization beyond human understanding. This Intelligence would have to exist outside of the time dimension we live in—without beginning or end and without physical limitations—to explain the existence of life and the creation of time, space, matter, and energy. Such an intelligent Being could also take the form of a man to enter time and space and restore lost creatures to Himself. That is clearly what the Bible describes. (See John 1:1-17.)
Human engineers often draw inspiration from the natural world. When they adapt these designs for human use, it’s called biomimicry. Shark-skin biomimicry utilizes the design principles that enable sharks to move smoothly and quickly through water, applying them for industrial and practical purposes.
In addition to its body shape, a shark’s ability to swim swiftly and quietly through the water is largely due to the design of their skin. Shark skin has a textured pattern, known as riblets, that helps reduce water drag. Researchers at U.C. Berkeley and MIT explored ways to adapt this shark skin design to reduce the water’s drag on towed sonar arrays (TSAs) used by ships and submarines. They discovered that rectangular riblets could cut drag by 5% or more and reduce noise by 14%. Noise reduction is very important for sonar, which depends on detecting sound echoes. Less noise also benefits marine wildlife.
Another application of shark-skin design is in water distribution systems. Biomimetic riblets inside water pipes can lessen turbulence as water flows through. Reducing turbulence and drag decreases the energy needed to pump water to its destination. This means lower costs for supplying water to homes. Researchers found that, under ideal conditions, drag can be cut by up to 10%.
According to another study, shark-skin biomimicry can also improve the efficiency of microchannel heat sinks. Microelectronic components in computers and other devices can be damaged by heat. The researchers reported that “the shark-skin based bionic structure had higher heat transfer capacity and lower friction loss.”
Looking at nature’s designs reveals wisdom at work. Shark-skin biomimicry offers benefits in aviation, marine transportation, water systems, and the cooling of microelectronics. What other new applications of biomimicry are still to be discovered? God’s wisdom shows in what He has made. Humans have no excuse for failing to recognize His eternal power and divine nature (Romans 1:20).
