The Woolly Bear Caterpillar by Frederick Hoehn, copyright 2016, all rights reserved. Chapter 1 Way up north in the Arctic, not far from Earth's North Pole, lives the Woolly Bear Caterpillar, a very unique little critter. If we draw a line from the Earth's North Pole to its South Pole, that is the axis around which the Earth rotates at a rate of one rotation per twenty four hours. But, seems like I've heard that the Earth's North Pole is not exactly at the same location as the Earth's Magnetic North Pole. We say that a year is 365 days, but a correction is made every four years called Leap Year, such as this year 2016, when February has 29 instead of the usual 28 days. If we were writing a computer program, we could determine leap years by using the instruction, "modulo." The modulo operation performs an arithmetic division, and discards the quotient, but retains the remainder. So, to evaluate the parenthetical expression, (2016 mod 4), that would evaluate to zero, since 2016 is evenly divided by four with no remainder. When the remainder is zero, it's a leap year. If the remainder is other than zero, it's not a leap year. But the Woolly Bear Caterpillar has no interest in such things. When the weather is warmer and there are green leaves to eat, the critter goes out and eats its leaves. But in the Arctic, the warm season is rather short, and the cold season is rather long. In the Arctic, there is simply not enough time in one eating season for the Woolly Bear Caterpillar to get enough food for it to change into a moth, like other caterpillars on Earth change into butterflies. So, when the cold comes, the critter hibernates. It's body mostly freezes but the critter doesn't die. Why doesn't it die? Because it has a chemical inside it that acts like antifreeze in a car. Something that works like antifreeze. If you live where it drops below freezing in the Winter, you'd better have some antifreeze in your car's cooling system. The correct ratio of antifreeze to water can usually be found on the gallon plastic bottle that the antifreeze is sold in, and depends on how much cold you need to protect your engine against. But engines are generally equipped with devices called "freeze plugs." If the engine is not protected with antifreeze, when the water in the cooling system expands, as water does when it freezes, one or more freeze plugs are supposed to pop out to protect your engine from the force of the expanding water. Then you have to replace the freeze plug, and get antifreeze in there before you operate your engine. If that ever happens to you, you'll probably remember next winter to have the antifreeze in there to avoid that problem. The chemical that is often used for antifreeze in cars is ethylene glycol. The Woolly Bear Caterpillar has a chemical inside it that works like ethylene glycol to keep that critter alive though the ambient temperature is below freezing. So then, at the Spring thaw, the Woolly Bear Caterpillar wakes up and eats more leaves. But again, it doesn't get enough leaves in one eating season to change into a moth. In fact, it requires seven years of eating for the Woolly Bear Caterpillar. And then it builds a cocoon for itself, and in the cocoon, changes into a moth. When it comes out of the cocoon as a moth, one of the male moths breeds with a female moth. She lays her eggs, and the process starts all over again for the Woolly Bear Caterpillars. At this point, someone might say, "Isn't evolution wonderful?" No, evolution had nothing to do with it. Please don't try to tell me that this extremely complicated process of the Woolly Bear Caterpillar was produced by evolution. Please don't try to tell me that evolution gave that critter its antifreeze chemical. But some Evolutionist might say, "But over a period of billions of years..." No, I really don't think that the universe is that old. Some might say, "But we have carbon dating." Yes, I'm aware that there is a radioactive isotope of carbon whose half-life is known. And if we knew exactly how much of Carbon 14 was in a sample to begin with, and how much there is now, yes, we could calculate the age of that sample, assuming that the measuring equipment is accurate, and that it is measuring only the Carbon 14, and not the Carbon 14 plus some other radiation that might be present. But we don't know exactly how much Carbon 14 there was to begin with. So assumptions are made. And those assumptions are generally made by so-called scientists that espouse Evolution, so they tend to assume a longer period of time in an effort to make their precious, but totally false Theory to work. Evolution could simply not have produced the complexities of the Woolly Bear Caterpillar, nor the much more sophisticated complexities of the human body and the human brain. Medical Science is still trying, after many years, to understand the complexities of the human body, and of the human brain. No, the producer of these extremely sophisticated and complex things, and the animals, and the birds, and the trees is a very brilliant Engineer, who is expert in Engineering, and in Chemistry, and in Physics, and in Electronics, and in Biology, and in Botany. And that, of course, is God, our Creator. And, by the way, although God has several names, one of them is not Allah. But I believe that Medical people generally neglect the most important book in their field of expertise, the Holy Bible. For example, Psychologists try to cure people of their mental problems, while generally being unaware that probably most of those mental problems are caused by demons, fallen angels that rebelled against God at the time that Satan rebelled against God. And even if Psychologists understood about demons, they still can't cast out demons, as Jesus did in the Bible, without being Christians themselves, because Jesus gave the authority to cast out demons only to Christians (Luke 10:19, Mark 16:17,18) Chapter 2 It is more difficult to believe that evolution produced the very complicated life cycle of the Woolly Bear Caterpillar than to believe that man will someday colonize Mars. He won't. We won't colonize Mars for a very simple reason: We can't afford it. We have double digit Trillions in the U.S. national debt. It cost us Billions just to put a man on the Moon. And what do we have to show for it? A few moon rocks that were brought back. And with the world in turmoil, and the Chinese stock market sending ripples across the world to ours and other stock markets, and high unemployment, and world wide Terrorists, and wars and rumors of wars, and earthquakes in diverse places (Matt 24:6,7), and tidal waves, one of which shut down a Japanese nuclear electrical power generation facility for years, and hurricanes, and torrential flooding, and the North Korean nuclear threat, and the Iranian nuclear threat, and with nations who want to destroy Israel, and with Ebola epidemics, and with nations on the verge of bankruptcy, and with the Battle of Armageddon (in the Bible) approaching, and with the head of state of Russia aspiring to restore the U.S.S.R., and with Muslims wanting to make the whole world Muslim, and with mass shootings by homegrown crazies, No, it would be a very safe bet that we won't colonize Mars. Go and search, and find the greatest Engineer on Earth. He is just an amateur Engineer compared to God. It is God who gave that Engineer his abilities. It is God who created the universe, as we see in the Bible in the book of Genesis. At night, look up at the stars on a clear night. They are uncountable. What keeps the stars from crashing into each other? Well, you see, God set the stars in their orbits. He excels at Mathematics, and at every branch of science. But God knew when he created mankind that we would sin, and that we would therefore need a Messiah, a Savior, a Redeemer. And that is why the Bible speaks of Jesus, the Lamb killed from the foundation of the world (Rev 13:8). In the Bible, the Old Testament Prophets, including Moses, spoke of the coming of the Messiah, the Savior. (Yeshua, ha Meshia.) In the Old Testament, they sacrificed animals for their sins. But the Apostle Paul explains that it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sin (Heb 10:4). No, those Old Testament sacrifices for sins were merely a foreshadowing of the ultimate sacrifice on the cross of crucifixion of the very (and only begotten) Son of God, Jesus, to take away the sins of the world. But though Jesus died for the sins of the world, it doesn't count for us unless we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior. In John, chapt 3, Jesus said, "You MUST be born again." We get born again when we hear the gospel message that "All have sinned and come short of the glory of God" (Rom 3:23), "The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life" (Rom 6:23), and then we obey Romans 10:9,10-- "That if you confess the Lord Jesus with your mouth, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you're saved. For with the heart man believes for righteousness, and with the mouth, confession is made for salvation." Jesus says, "See, I stand at the door, and knock, if any man hears my voice, and opens the door, I'll come in to him, and will eat with him, and he with me." (Rev 3:20) Say yes right now to Jesus. He will hear you, and accept you as one of His. And you'll be on the road to heaven instead of a fiery hell. Read your Bible and pray every day. God bless you. This fellow, Charles Darwin, with his Theory of Evolution, would you be interested in knowing where he is right now? Some might say, "But he's dead." Yes, but when you die, you go either to heaven or hell, and Darwin went to a fiery hell where there's crying and gnashing of teeth, where their worms don't die, and where the fire is never quenched, says Jesus. But Fred, how do you know that Darwin went to hell? Because the Bible says that "Whoever digs a pit shall fall into it, and he that rolls a stone, it will return on him." (Prov 26:27) Darwin has helped thousands, and perhaps millions go to hell by putting forth his false theory to try to explain how we got here without a God, so Darwin is now sharing hell with people that Darwin helped to send there. Those who insist on clinging to evolution to the exclusion of believing in God are sinners against their own souls. And Jesus said, "What shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?" (Mark 8:36,37) You lose your soul if you wind up in hell. The fact is, we didn't get here without God. God created us, as we see in the early chapters of Genesis in the Bible. And God did that creation in six 24 hour days. A man contradicted me one time about that. He said, "The Bible doesn't say six 24 hour days." But that man was quite mistaken. The Bible says, "...and the evening and the morning were the first day...and the evening and the morning were the second day..." etc. A twelve hour night time followed by a twelve hour day time is one twenty four hour day. But does the Woolly Bear Caterpillar actually count the seven years? I rather think not. But the spirit of God influences the animals and critters to do the right things at the right time. Some might call it instinct, but I believe God is very much at work within these instincts. After three days in the whale's belly, God told the whale to spit out Jonah, and the whale spat out Jonah on dry land. (book of Jonah) Now we know that the various creatures of the world, whether on land, or sea, or in the air, are part of, and form an ecosystem. Each part of the system interacts with each other part of the system. There may not be many birds up near the North Pole, but what few birds might be there probably eat some of these caterpillars from time to time. Or, perhaps there are land animals that eat a few caterpillars. But I think it would be good to face the fact that though the Woolly Bear Caterpillar contributes in some small way to the Earth's ecosystem, if that critter were to somehow go extinct, the Earth would not become, as a result, a vast wasteland with no living plants or animals. It is by no means an easy thing to do to read God's mind. In fact, there is a scripture that says, "The heart of kings is unsearchable." (Prov 25:3) And Jesus is King of Kings, and Lord of Lords. But there is God the Father, and there is Jesus, the Son of God. Jesus said, "My Father and I are one," meaning that the Father and Son are in complete agreement. The best clues to what is in God's mind are the words God has put in his book, the Bible. But I would like to venture a guess that God didn't create the Woolly Bear Caterpillar because of its huge impact on the world's ecosystem, but rather to help disprove Darwin's Theory of Evolution that God knew would come along to ensnare people in the latter days. ___James chapter 1 1 James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes that are dispersed around, greetings. 2 My brothers, count it all joy when you fall into various temptations, 3 Knowing this, that the testing of your faith works patience. 4 But let patience have its perfect work, so you'll be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. 5 If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God for it, who gives to all men liberally, and won't find fault, and it shall be given to him. 6 But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavers is like a wave of the sea driven by the wind and tossed. 7 For let that man not think that he'll receive anything from the Lord. 8 A double minded man is unstable in all his ways. 9 Let the brother of low degree rejoice in that he is exalted, 10 But the rich, in that he is made low, because as the flower of the grass he'll pass away. 11 For the sun has no sooner risen with a burning heat, but it withers the grass, and the flower of it falls, and the grace of the fashion of it perishes, so also shall the rich man fade away in his ways. 12 Blessed is the man that endures temptation, for after he's been tested, he'll receive the crown of life, that the Lord has promised to those who love him. 13 Let no man say when he is tempted, "I am tempted by God," for God can't be tempted with evil, nor does he tempt any man, 14 But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away by his own lust, and enticed. 15 Then when lust has conceived, it produces sin, and sin when it's finished, produces death. 16 Do not err, my beloved brothers. 17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, nor shadow of turning. 18 He chose to father us with the word of truth, so that we would be a kind of first fruits of his creatures. 19 So, my beloved brothers, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger, 20 For the anger of man doesn't accomplish the righteousness of God. 21 So, lay apart all filthiness and the unnecessary naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls. 22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. 23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like a man seeing his natural face in a mirror, 24 For he sees himself, and goes his way, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. 25 But whoever looks into the perfect law of liberty, and continues in it, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed. 26 If any man among you seems to be religious, and doesn't bridle his tongue, but deceives his own heart, this man's religion is for nothing. 27 Pure religion and undefiled before God the Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world. ___James chapter 2 1 My brothers, don't have the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with respect of persons. 2 For if a man with a gold ring comes to your assembly in fancy clothes, and a poor man in dirty clothes comes in also, 3 And you have respect to him that wears the fancy clothes, and say to him, "Sit here in a good place," and say to the poor, "Stand there, or sit here under my footstool," 4 Aren't you then partial in yourselves, and have become judges with evil thoughts? 5 Listen, my beloved brothers, hasn't God chosen the poor of this world rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom that he has promised to those who love him? 6 But you have despised the poor. Don't rich men oppress you, and bring you before the judgment seats? 7 Don't they blaspheme that worthy name by which you're called? 8 If you fulfill the royal law according to the scripture, "You shall love your neighbor like yourself," you do well, 9 But if you have respect of persons, you commit sin, and are convicted by the law as sinners. 10 For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all. 11 For he that said, "Do not commit adultery," also said, "Do not kill." Now if you don't commit adultery, yet if you kill, you've become a breaker of the law. 12 Speak in such a way, and do, as those who'll be judged by the law of liberty. 13 For he shall have judgment without mercy, that has shown no mercy, and mercy rejoices against judgment. 14 What does it profit, my brothers, though a man says he has faith, and doesn't have works? Can faith save him? 15 If a brother or sister needs clothes, and lacks daily food, 16 And one of you says to them, "Depart in peace, be warmed and filled," but you don't give them the things that are needed for the body, what good is that? 17 Even so faith, if it doesn't have works, is dead, being alone. 18 Yes, a man could say, "You have faith, and I have works, show me your faith without your works, and I'll show you my faith by my works." 19 You believe that there is one God, you do well, the devils also believe, and tremble. 20 But don't you know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead? 21 Wasn't Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son on the altar? 22 Do you see how faith worked with his deeds, and by works faith was made perfect? 23 And the scripture was fulfilled that says, "Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness, and he was called the friend of God." 24 You see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only. 25 Likewise also wasn't Rahab the prostitute justified by works, when she had received the messengers, and had sent them out another way? 26 For like the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also. ___James chapter 3 1 My brothers, don't be many masters, knowing that we'll receive the greater condemnation. 2 For in many things we offend all. If any man doesn't offend in word, the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body. 3 See, we put bits in the horses' mouths, so they'll obey us, and we turn around their whole bodies. 4 Look also at the ships, which though they're so large, and are driven by fierce winds, yet they're turned around by a very small helm, wherever the captain wants. 5 Even so, the tongue is a little member, and boasts great things. See how great a matter a little fire kindles! 6 And the tongue is a fire, a world of sin, so is the tongue among our members that it makes dirty the whole body, and sets on fire the course of nature, and it is set on fire by hell. 7 For every kind of animals, and of birds, and of snakes, and of things in the sea, gets tamed, and has been tamed by mankind, 8 But no man can tame the tongue, it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. 9 With it we bless God, the Father, and with it we curse men, who are made after the likeness of God. 10 Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be. 11 Does a fountain send out at the same place sweet water and bitter? 12 Can the fig tree, my brothers, produce olive berries? Or a vine, figs? So no fountain can yield both salt water and fresh. 13 Who is a wise man, possessing knowledge among you? Let him show out of a good lifestyle his works with meekness of wisdom. 14 But if you have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, don't glory, and don't lie against the truth. 15 This wisdom doesn't descend from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish. 16 For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work. 17 But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be reasoned with, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy. 18 And the fruit of righteousness is planted in peace by those who make peace. ___James chapter 4 1 Where do wars and fightings among you come from? Don't they come from your lusts that war in your members? 2 You lust, and don't have, you kill, and desire to have, and can't obtain, you fight and war, yet you don't have, because you don't ask. 3 You ask, and don't receive, because you ask wrongly, so you can consume it on your lusts. 4 You adulterers and adulteresses, don't you know that friendship with the world makes you an enemy of God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world is an enemy of God. 5 Do you think that the scripture says for nothing, "The spirit that lives in us lusts to envy?" 6 But he gives more grace. So he says, "God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble." 7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he'll run away from you. 8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double minded. 9 Be afflicted, and mourn, and cry, let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness. 10 Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he'll lift you up. 11 Don't speak evil about each other, brothers. He that speaks evil about his brother, and judges his brother, speaks evil about the law, and judges the law, but if you judge the law, you're not a doer of the law, but a judge. 12 There is one lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy, who are you that judges someone else? 13 Go on now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we'll go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and make a profit," 14 Actually, you don't know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is a puff of steam, that appears for a little time, and then vanishes away. 15 For you ought to say, "Lord willing, we'll live, and do this, or that." 16 But now you rejoice in your boastings, all such rejoicing is evil. 17 Therefore to him that knows to do good, and doesn't do it, to him it is sin. ___James chapter 5 1 Go on now, you rich men, cry and howl for your miseries that shall come on you. 2 Your riches are corrupted, and your clothes are moth eaten. 3 Your gold and silver are rusted, and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh like fire. You've heaped treasure together for the last days. 4 See, the wages of the laborers who have reaped down your fields, which you've kept back by fraud, shouts, and the shouts of those who've reaped have entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabbath. 5 You've lived in pleasure on the earth, and been wanton, you've nourished your hearts, like in a day of slaughter. 6 You've condemned and killed the just, and he doesn't resist you. 7 Be patient therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. See, the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, and has long patience for it, until he receives the early and latter rain. 8 You also be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is getting near. 9 Don't grudge against each other, brothers, so you won't be condemned, see, the judge stands at the door. 10 Take, my brothers, the prophets, who've spoken in the name of the Lord, for an example of suffering affliction, and of patience. 11 See, we count them happy that endure. You've heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord, that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy. 12 But above all things, my brothers, don't swear, not by heaven, nor by the earth, nor by any other oath, but let your yes be yes, and your no, no, so that you don't fall into condemnation. 13 Is anyone among you afflicted? Let him pray. Is anyone merry? Let him sing psalms. 14 Is anyone sick among you? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord, 15 And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up, and if he has committed sins, he'll be forgiven. 16 Confess your faults to each other, and pray for each other so you'll be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man is does a lot of good. 17 Elijah was a man subject to the same kind of passions that we are, and he prayed earnestly that it wouldn't rain, and it didn't rain on the earth for three years and six months. 18 And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth produced its fruit. 19 Brothers, if any of you strays from the truth, and someone converts him, 20 Let him know, that he that converts the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins.