Welcome to Rare Jewel Magazine: Jul/Aug 05
"Origins"
Welcome to Rare Jewel Magazine?s special focus on Creation, on the ?evolution debate,? on matters concerning our origins and beginnings.
Consider this magazine to be an archaeological dig on paper. We invite you to dig deeper than the significant scientific content and informed points of view presented in articles and interviews. Then look beyond the stimulating discussions, even controversies, between Christians, as well as between believers and secularists. You will be equipped with knowledge concerning truths from God?s Word and assumptions of America?s foundational leaders.
But there?s more to discover in our pages.
We have prayerfully designed this issue of Rare Jewel Magazine so that when you finish reading it -- or return to again and again it as a resource -- you will realize that the Creationism ?debate? should not be a debate at all.
There is a ferocious attack on Biblical authority in America, and censoring Creationism from schools and public discussions is a subset of this demonic battle. At its most secular, this fight is for the simple right of parents and school boards to educate their children as they determine. At its most spiritual (remember, we fight against principalities and powers of the air, not just atheist and socialist lawyers) it is one weapon of the enemy to attack God?s revealed Word, the Bible?s authority, and the clear-as-a-bell building plans of our nation?s founders.
Rare Jewel Magazine, in our brief life to date, has addressed the rogue courts; the attacks on marriage and family; Christian Patriot?s rights and responsibilities in a democratic Republic; the sanctity of life; and Christophobia, the growing persecution of believers. The poisonous campaign against the idea that God created heavens and the earth -- the campaign against the truth -- is no less important.
Prepare to be informed, intrigued, and inspired, yes; but we warn readers that our intention is also to encourage, equip, even to enrage. It?s time we recapture the ?debate,? reclaim our culture, and restore our heritage!
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This is our sixth edition of Rare Jewel Magazine?an extra-special anniversary as we speed past the mile-marker (our first magazine shipped in May, 2004). I look back over the past year with awe and humble thanksgiving for how the Lord has blessed us. Bringing a message of hard work and hope for the restoration of our One Nation under God, our travels have seen us crisscross our nation, speaking and exhibiting at conferences, praying at our nation?s capitol, and encouraging even those we?ve met in airplanes and cab rides. We?ve met many wonderful people and our growing base of subscribers (which now represents 35 of our states!) has cheered us along every step of the way. It is the camaraderie and passion of the folks with whom we work and pray that is most satisfying and exhilarating.
Speaking of Travels
I will be speaking at the Montana Home-Educators Convention on June 24-25 in Billings MT. Rare Jewel Magazine will also be exhibiting. Be sure to stop by and say hello. For more information, go to: www.MontanaHomeSchoolConvention.com. Also, Rick Marschall and I will be speaking at the Greater Philadelphia Christian Writers Conference on August 18-20, 2005. We will each speak at separate sessions, but will also present a special Saturday afternoon workshop together, ?Impacting Our Culture,? that is open to conference attendees and the general public, especially pastors. Discover why and how to ?take captive every philosophy to make it obedient to Christ.? For more information, go to www.WriteHisAnswer.com/Philadelphia.
Rare Jewel Magazine On The Air
I will be joining Point of View radio talk show co-hosts Kerby Anderson and Carmen Pate for their live broadcast on June 22, 2:00 ? 3:00 pm Eastern Time. Listen on the Web (live or via archive) or find your local station that carries POV broadcasts at http://www.PointOfView.net. Point of View is an issues-oriented ?live? talk radio program heard daily nationwide, covering the full spectrum of issues and current events that affect our faith, family, government, education, and basic freedoms from a Christian perspective.
The Declaration of Dependence
The Declaration of Dependence is a new kind of petition that is also a united grassroots movement to restore our nation?s Christian foundation. The Declaration of Independence not only declared independence from Great Britain but also declares our nation?s dependence on God. America has neglected the latter, to which the DoD mandates reflection and a renewal of commitment. Read and sign the DoD at http://www.DeclarationOfDependence.org.
The DoD is also attracting ministry and business leaders who want to list their organizations as supporters. E-mail Partners@DeclarationOfDependence.org for information about how you can do this.
Thank you for joining us as we press onward into our second year. We are excited about the mission God has given us and we?re glad you are with us for the adventure!
Faithfully,
Tim Ewing
Tim@RareJewelMag.com
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Telling The Truth: Jul/Aug 05 (column by Publisher Tim Ewing)
"Begin...in the Beginning"
Tim Ewing is the founder and publisher of Rare Jewel Magazine. Tim lives in Fairfield, MT with his wife and four children. Tim can be reached at Tim@RareJewelMag.com.
I have always been fascinated by the debate over Creation and evolution. I recall enthusiastically devouring notes from my older brother Tom?s Bible college classes, and a few years ago a pastor from Denver re-ignited my interest. I heard a radio broadcast of Dr Rick Ferguson?s sermon series ?Devilution,? an effective play on words that properly lays the ultimate blame for evolution at the feet of the Father of Lies.
I wish to pay tribute to Dr Ferguson. Husband, father, and pastor, he was in his 40s when tragically killed in a vehicle accident on July 25, 2002, just a few months after I first heard him on a Denver radio station. Little did I know that the few seeds sown into my life by Dr Ferguson would grow roots so strong and deep. This man whom I had never met nor whose picture I had ever seen, passionately preached on Creation and evolution? and inspired me to make a difference in our culture, to work harder at equipping myself with the truth about important topics of our day. I was completely unaware at the time, but his messages, for instance about the importance of an accurate understanding of our beginnings, became fuel for the fire that God was stoking in me that later became Rare Jewel Magazine.
I almost hesitate to use the word ?debate? when discussing the Creation/evolution controversies. Public schools, zoos, and museums present the strong impression that there is nothing to debate ? the implied (sometimes explicit) view is that evolution is a fact and its universe is billions of years old is. We note with pleasure that a growing number of Christians and Christian organizations promote the Biblical view of our origin, and deplore the monopolistic grip of the evolution theory on schools and virtually all of our culture.
But there are debates, too, within the Creation camp, most notably between Young Earth Creationists (who hold to a literal interpretation of the six-day Creation) and Progressive Creationists who interpret ?day? in Genesis chapters 1 and 2 to represent long and overlapping periods of time ? millions and billions of years.
Much of the material presented in this issue of Rare Jewel Magazine is presented from the perspective of a Young Earth paradigm. Our overriding purpose with this issue is not to solve the debate between Young Earth and Old Earth (Progressive) Creationists. We do have a secondary purpose to provide evidence that good science supports Young Earth assumptions, but our primary intent is to expose the fallacy that only evolution is appropriate for public America, since it is promoted as ?science,? but the teaching of Creation must be restricted only to private places of homes and churches ?because it is religion.?
It is likewise no accident that evolution is a foundational doctrine for the religion of secular humanism. Secularists (atheists, agnostics, and the so-called ?non-religious?) believe that God is simply a myth created by man and therefore man is the ultimate authority. To the Secularist, there is no such thing as absolute truth and therefore soft rules and firm laws are determined through the dog-eat-dog world of Survival of the Fittest (Social Darwinism). Ultimately, under this system, the elites, whether placed in position of authority via an election or by force, are the final arbiters of what is right and wrong.
The Culture War in America is at its core a battle for the belief-system upon which our nation will operate. The Founding Fathers chose the Christian belief-system, yet Secular Humanists during the past century successfully have replaced our One Nation under God with a divided nation under Man.
But our nation's Declaration of Independence states that ?...all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights...that to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men.? How can our nation, which acknowledged a Creator God during its very birth, now disallow the teaching of Creation in our public schools? How can our nation, which acknowledged that our Government's very purpose is to protect the God-given rights of its people, mandate that God's Biblical principles for living cannot be taught in our public schools? Where else will we discover how God defines our ?unalienable rights,? if not in Scripture? Certainly not by using a curriculum based on evolution, the doctrine that teaches there is no Creator God and that life is a cosmic accident.
At Rare Jewel Magazine we emphasize a Young Earth Creation doctrine, but we do not deny the sincerity, character, or faith of Christians who hold to an Old Earth view. Christ warns us that a divided house will not stand. So while we vigorously debate the age of God?s Creation let us not become divided in our effort to break evolution?s stranglehold on our culture, our schools, and our government institutions.
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The Upper Room: Jul/Aug 05 (column by Managing Editor Rick Marschall)
"Of Beginnings and Ends"
Rick Marschall, Managing Editor of Rare Jewel Magazine, has written for publications as diverse as The Columbia Journalism Review, World magazine, and Youthworker Journal. Bostonia magazine called him ?perhaps America?s foremost authority on popular culture.? He has taught at Rutgers University, the School of Visual Arts, and the Summer Institute for the Gifted at Bryn Mawr University. Rick can reached at Rick@RareJewelMag.com.
?Posterity will some day laugh at the foolishness of modern materialistic philosophy. The more I study nature, the more I am amazed at the Creator.?
? Louis Pasteur
A self-condemnatory feature of this age ? called Postmodern, but more properly termed post-Christian ? is this: Whenever a question arises to which contemporary man has no answer (always regarded as a temporary dilemma; just imagine 21st-century man not having all the answers!) we incline not toward God but to ourselves.
It should be the human?s reaction to seek, learn, and apply knowledge of things of the world? but then, about matters palpably unknowable, to trust God. Especially when God has revealed Himself... especially if Christians believe Christ? and Christ certified His belief in these matters (such as the literal Biblical account of Creation). No, contemporary man doesn?t even shrug his shoulders as a theological gesture; rather he runs to embrace numerous theories that exclude God and are hostile to His revelation, no matter how speculative or harebrained.
The Bible says that sinful men will ?lean on their own understanding,? but we lean on our own misunderstanding, or non-comprehension, or anything but God?s teachings.
So it is with origins and Creation. It has not as much to do with academic discussions about how ocean creatures left fossil remains in mile-high Colorado or bone-dry Sahara ? for, surely, there were oceans in those places ? but with fallen mankind?s attitude of pride and rebellion. For scientists to say, ?Eureka! This seems to be how God designed cells or spun the universe into existence,? would be wise. For scientists to say, on the other hand, ?There was nothing; then there was something, but no God was involved ? there
is Creation but no Creator,? is foolishness.
The Big Bang will be the sound you hear when scientists realize that they have been describing Genesis all along.
?Lift up your eyes on high and see who has created these stars, The One who leads forth their host by number, He calls them all by name; Because of the greatness of His might and the strength of His power, Not one of them is missing. Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Everlasting God, the LORD, The Creator of the ends of the earth, Does not become weary or tired. His understanding is inscrutable.?
? Isaiah 40:26, 28
St Thomas Aquinas typically maintained that mankind?s knowledge is relative. However in a discussion of Creation he posited a persuasive argument ? one that is useful for 21st-century man ? that in matters of God like this, the literal and the allegorical are not mutually exclusive. That is to say, humanity can draw spiritual meaning ? and strength, and guidance, and implications, even aesthetic exegesis ? from Creation, which the Tomists characterized as an Act of Divine Will. But first, any understanding must be framed on the Biblical account, the literal meaning from Scripture.
Seen as an Act of Divine Will, humans? foolish disputation about Bible verses and the age of rocks evaporate. God called the worlds into existence. Aquinas looked not only back to that moment of God?s sovereignty, but to his own day. Even at that relatively virginal point in earth?s history (St Thomas lived from 1225 to 1274), he regarded the preservation of the world as part of the continuous act of creation, the end being communication of God?s perfection, ?which is His goodness.?
We can fast-forward through history to America?s first great theologian (and philosopher), Jonathan Edwards. In his essay ?God?s Chief End in Creation,? the New England preacher (1703-1758, spiritual leader of the ?Great Awakening?) similarly rejected pantheism ? a seductive doctrine that offers a counterfeit spirituality, revering nature but not nature?s God. Primitive tribes, ancient Greeks, contemporary ?tree-huggers? frequently stop short of acknowledging the source of all they embrace? a supreme act of insolence. Edwards argued the distinction that God called the universe into being not to please man but to please Himself. Then, in the rightful sequence of things, it becomes ?fit and proper? for mankind to regard nature as a source of wonder and joy, in due course of acknowledging God.
We would do well to remind ourselves that awesome regard for Creation is a G-O-D moment, not an F-T-D moment. Flowers wither and die. Floods overwhelm and fires consume. God created, God creates, God will create. Puny mankind can strain to invent theories about it all, and feverishly attempt to convince each other; God ? whether He is amused or stirred to anger by such futile arrogance ? is not bound by their theories.
He even created evolution; I myself, for instance, have seen tadpoles evolve into frogs, and ugly caterpillars evolve into gorgeous butterflies. But these are word games, I?ll admit, the ends of which are to note the absence of frogs evolving into gazelles, or butterflies evolving into hippopotami. Even closer to home, I have evolved from a sinner to one with Christ, saved by His blood, experiencing regeneration by His Holy Spirit.
That kind of evolution I accept and recommend. The end of such means of evolution, and our feeble comprehension, is a total acceptance of the Word of God, and loving gratitude for His designs.
Maybe if the American public ? including the American church ? once again takes God at His word about Creation, it will resume accepting His word about morality, behavior, and responsibility.
?Thus does the world forget You, its Creator, and falls in love with what You have created instead of with You.?
? St Augustine
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Required Reading: Pollution and the Death of Man (Book Review by Tim Ewing)
Pollution and the Death of Man
Author: Francis A Schaeffer
Publisher: Wheaton, IL: Good News Publishers, 1992.
Caring for Creation:
The ?Dominion Mandate? and Mankind?s Stewardship Responsibility
So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fi sh of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.
? Genesis 1:27?28; KJV
God has given the crown of His creation, mankind, the authority to subdue and have dominion over the earth and everything therein, both living and non-living things. This
?Dominion Mandate? is addressed in Francis Schaeffer?s Pollution and the Death of Man, explain what ?subdue? and ?have dominion? mean from an ecological1 perspective. This important book provides a Biblical understanding of not both the opportunity afforded mankind by the Dominion Mandate, and the frequently neglected responsibility of stewardship that it implies.
Because of a poor understanding of the Dominion Mandate, Christians insufficiently exercise its agenda and are often seen, at best, as having a general lack of concern for the environment. At worst, they are regarded as hostile stewards of environmental destruction.2 Christians with an accurate Biblical worldview, however, should be leaders in fostering the right balance between consumption and conservation of natural resources. Schaeffer writes, ?It is true that many ?Christians? are worse off in the area of ecology than animists,3... this is true not because Christianity does not have the answer, but because we have not acted on the answer.?
Schaeffer offers a true Biblical perspective on the Dominion Mandate: ?Man has dominion over the ?lower? orders of creation, but he is not sovereign over them. Only God is the Sovereign Lord, and the lower orders are to be used with this truth in mind. Man is not using his own possessions.... Man?s dominion is under God?s dominion.?
Implicit in the Dominion Mandate is the Christian?s leadership role expected in every area of life. ?All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful? so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work? (2 Timothy 3:16-17; emphasis added) ? which believers must regard as including science, the arts, music, medicine, health, technology, government, social welfare, education, and more. And Christians should be shining the light of Christ in the area of ecology.
?The Christian community should be a living exhibition of the truth that in our present situation it is possible to have substantial sociological healings ? healings that humanism longs for, but has not been able to produce,? Schaeffer writes. ?Humanism is not wrong in its cry for sociological healing, but humanism is not producing it.... Christians, who should understand the Creation principle, have a reason for respecting nature, and when they do, it results in benefits to man.?
Schaeffer soberly pronounces why people who disobey the Dominion Mandate will wreak havoc on their surroundings: ?What has brought the ugly destruction of the environment? There is one reason: man?s greed.... The horror and ugliness of modern man in his technology and in his individual life is that he does everything he can do, without limitation... not everything man can do is right to do.? As the first step in applying a Biblical worldview to our environment, the Christian community must ?refuse men the right to ravish our land, just as we refuse them the right to ravish our women; to insist that somebody accept a little less profit by not exploiting nature. And the first step is exhibiting the fact that as individual Christians and as Christian communities we ourselves do not ravish our fair sister for the sake of greed in one form or another.?
Who should lead worldwide debates about how best to consume and conserve the resources of our planet? Christians ? grounded in the proper understanding of the Genesis account of Creation and the Fall of man, as well as with Christ?s redemptive work. Stewardship is misplaced in the United Nations, the Sierra Club, the Green Party, or any other organization or government that denies the sovereignty of our Creator and the absolute truths found in Scripture.
Schaeffer concludes, ?Truly Biblical Christianity has a real answer to the ecological crisis. It offers a balanced and healthy attitude to nature, arising from the truth of its creation by God. It offers the hope here and now of substantial healing in nature of some of the results of the Fall, arising from the truth of redemption in Christ.?
Why do those who most vehemently oppose the Lordship of Jesus Christ (secular humanists, animists, pantheists,4 and atheists) so often have the loudest voices regarding care for our environment? Such should not be! Christians have been given the Biblical mandate to discern from Scripture the standards for proper utilization of, and compatibility with, our environment. Christ?s church largely has abrogated its influence in this discussion, yet this is ? literally and figuratively ? ground that must be reclaimed.
Footnotes:
1 Ecology: the study of the balance of living things in nature.
2 ?In what has become known as the ?eco-shot heard ?round the world,? medieval historian Lynn White delivered a paper at a meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science the day after Christmas, 1966, in which he stated, ?Especially in its Western form, Christianity is the most anthropocentric [man-centered] religion the world has ever seen. Christianity? insisted that it is God?s will that man exploit nature for his proper ends? By destroying pagan animism, Christianity made it possible to exploit nature in a mood of indifference? Christianity bears a huge burden of guilt.? From Michael S. Coffman, Saviors of the Earth (Chicago, IL: Northfield Publishing,
1994), 79-80.
3 Animism: the belief that everything in nature is alive and has a spirit.
4 Pantheism: pan is the Greek work meaning everything, all inclusive; theos is the Greek word for god. Thus pantheism holds in its extreme form that everything is god and god is everything.
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Fighting the Ban of Creation Teaching (by Linda Holloway)
Linda Holloway is the Education Specialist for Concerned Women for America-Kansas, and an educator who taught in public school for 20 years and currently the Director of Grace Christian Academy in Shawnee, KS. She was elected to the Kansas State Board of Education, serving as Chair in 1999.
Surrounded by TV cameras from local and national TV networks, six members of the Kansas State Board of Education (KSBE) voted to accept science standards that infuriated evolutionists around the world. As Chair of the 10-member Board, I became the face of the Board on numerous news shows here and abroad. August 11, 1999 became a date forever imprinted in my mind.
Reporters from all over the US and several foreign countries clamored to talk with me for their print, radio, or TV outlets. A reporter from Japan called within an hour of the vote and asked to speak to me as soon as possible. I asked him, ?Why do you care what high school students in Kansas learn about science?? The reporter?s answer stunned me and convulsed the science establishment: ?Why, you banned evolution!?
The lie bounced from coast to coast as papers from New York to California blasted us ?backward folk? in Kansas. The battle raged for a year after the vote, and I agreed to endless interviews because I believed the Chair should allow access to the press. But I also thought I could explain our action and stop the misinformation that seemingly drove radical evolutionists, and vehement opponents of any public reference to God, to near-hysteria.
I was wrong.
(read complete article)
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The Church Has Not Taken A Stand (interview with Ken Ham of Answers in Genesis)
"The Authority of The Word"
Ken Ham is President of Answers in Genesis--USA. Ken and his wife, Mally, reside in the Cincinnati area. They have five children and three grandchildren.
RJM: You have talked about the authority of the Bible from the very first verse ? an important point for you. Can you comment on that a little bit more?
KH: The real issue is not Creation/evolution. In the 1800s, certain scientists popularized the idea of the long age of the earth, of millions of years. After Darwin, many of the theologians in England said, ?Now we have to re-interpret the ?days? of Creation to fit into millions of years, and we have to re-interpret the creation of man and woman to fit into evolution?; and later, ?? we have to re-interpret the creation of the earth and the sun.? I recognized that, in saying that, you?re taking man?s ideas, beliefs about that past, fallible theories, and you?re re-interpreting the Bible; you?re unlocking a door that says you don?t have to take the Bible as written. I warned people 24 years ago; I said America is a great Christian nation, but the church compromises on evolution, just as I?ve seen in England. So many Christian leaders believe in the Big Bang as long as you say that God did it, believe in evolution as long as you say God did it. I said, ?Do you realize what you are doing? You?re saying you don?t have to take God?s Word as written.? It is written; it?s the authority of the Word. What will happen in this culture? The more you re-interpret the Bible based on man?s ideas? you?ll see an increase in homosexual behavior, abortion, lawlessness, and so on.
So those were prophetic statements in a way, because what we see now is exactly that. The ultimate issue really comes down to this: Is the Bible God?s Word or is it not? It?s not just a book of religion. It?s not just a book of stories. It?s a book of history. Generations have realized if the Bible history?s not true and if its science is not true, then neither is the Gospel and neither is its morality. As a ministry, [AiG is] challenging the church. We have to take back the geology, biology, astronomy; need to be teaching those things in the churches.
RJM: Would it be accurate to say that because the church has delegated responsibilities to the school systems, that it has birthed, almost, a new religion? One that?s opposed to the Christianity belief system?
KH: You?re exactly right. What has happened is we basically handed over generations to a school system that trained them that God has nothing to do with the universe. That effectively trains generations to think that there?s no absolute authority ? you?re just a product of matter, there?s no God, you?re just an animal. No wonder we see the hopelessness and purposelessness we see in the young people today. And I find more and more young people crying out for meaning in life and for answers.
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Cartoonist Discovers the Real Missing Link (by Johnny Hart, Creator of B.C.)
"Drawn to God"
With the name of my strip (B. C.) and the theme, with humans and dinosaurs hanging around together, questions about Creation and evolution were there even before I became a Christian. But I don?t accept evolution, especially now as a Bible-believer. I believe the Bible is the Word of God, and I see all the foolishness in evolution theory.
I have no squabble with scientists, I love science. Scientists, with each new discovery, unveil, on cue, a mystery that God has prepared for us before the foundation of the world. Scientists do not create, they open to us ? the secrets of creation.
I am not a fan of Darwin or his predecessors. Darwin began, as did his father, as ministers of the God-of-Creation, then blew-Him-off, for a better idea.
Darwin took God out of the equation ? and in doing so, himself created the missing link.
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The Collapse Of Evolution (by Dr D James Kennedy & Jerry Newcombe)
"Holding to a Christian World- and Life-View"
Dr D James Kennedy is pastor of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Fort Lauderdale, FL, and one of the most listened-to media preachers in the world.
Jerry Newcombe is senior producer of The Coral Ridge Hour, Dr Kennedy's television outreach.
In 1912 scientists discovered a human skull with a jaw like an ape. They named him ?Piltdown Man.? He was in the textbooks, encyclopedias, museums, and even the dictionaries. For example, the 1941 Webster?s Collegiate Dictionary has an entry on Piltdown: ?A prehistoric station in Sussex, England, yielding remains of an extinct species of man, Piltdown Man (Eaonthropos dawsoni) characterized by a retreating, apelike chin and thick cranial bones, but a human-like cranium.? He was the answer to the Darwinists? prayer? if they pray (?To whom it may concern??). Here at last was the Missing Link.
Most of you know the rest of the story. In 1953 this was discovered to be a deliberate hoax. The mystery of who created it remains unsolved. The fact that men accepted it so readily ? and allowed it to shape the acceptance of human evolution for more than three crucial decades ? points to their bias in favor of any shred of evidence they can find in favor of macro-evolution. We say ?crucial decades? because Piltdown man helped evolution become more widely accepted. But Darwin?s missing links are still missing.
The purpose of this article is to consider the fact that much of what we find in the scientific evidence today works against evolution, not for it. Many of the key pillars of evolution are collapsing, but because of the politically correct zeitgeist of our age, most people are not exposed to these facts.
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The Late, Great Dick Lumsden (by Dr D James Kennedy & Jerry Newcombe)
Dr D James Kennedy is pastor of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Fort Lauderdale, FL, and one of the most listened-to media preachers in the world.
Jerry Newcombe is senior producer of The Coral Ridge Hour, Dr Kennedy's television outreach.
The more scientists study Creationism with an open mind, the more likely they are to come to believe in the Creator. This is the story of a science professor who abandoned evolution when confronted with the evidence.
The late Dr Richard Lumsden, professor of biology at Tulane University and Medical School, and the former dean of the graduate school, evolution was science, and Creation was merely religion. He taught as much to his students ? ?What I would try to get across is that science is science. Science deals with the real world, with real phenomena, phenomena that would be above the natural, that would not subscribe to natural laws.?
Lumsden prepared an anti-Creation lecture, and waxed eloquent on the dogma of evolution. One of his laugh-lines remarks was, ?Truly, in the beginning was the word, but the word was hydrogen.? But one day a graduate student approached him with the compliment that it was a great lecture, as always. ?Well, that got my attention. Flattery always did. However, then she said, ?but I have some questions.? And indeed she did. She had a legal pad, and I could see line after line after line.? They made an appointment, which ended up lasting longer than anticipated. It was supposed to last 20 minutes, but it stretched out to three hours, with neither of them thinking about the time.
The appointment also ended up changing Dr Lumsden?s life?
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Evolution of a Creationist (interview with Tom DeRosa of Creation Studies Institute)
Read Scripture In Its Entirety
Tom DeRosa is Executive Director & Founder of Creation Studies Institute, formed in 1988. He believes that a lack of knowledge of the Biblical acccount of Creation is greatly responsible for many barriers that keep people from Christ and is committed to breaking down those barriers.
RJM: Can you comment on the teaching of evolution in our public schools?
TD: I think it is un-American, the teaching of evolution in the schools. We live in a democratic society that has very open discussion. Our Christian founding fathers understood that mankind has limitations; is sinful; needs checks and balances on behavior; and they designed a government to deal with these factors. We were created as equal in God?s eyes, which should be expressed in the public forum. But evolutionists dogmatically teach that we come from material things, no space for a God of intervention or an intelligent designer. There is no ?free inquiry? when it comes to the teaching of evolution...
RJM: Within the Creation community, there?s young-earth creation? and there are professing Christians who call themselves Creationists but hold to the ?old earth? viewpoint of evolutionists in term of the long ages of the universe and of our earth. Does it matter ? should people try to discern between the young earth and the old earth?
TD: I?ve seen many of these theories -- I?ve seen Progressive Creationism; the ?day? being long periods of time, or events that God has introduced in the form of catastrophe; the Gap Theory which postulates a tremendous gap of time between the first and second day ? but the bottom line is to read Scripture and read it in its entirety. That is the chronology.
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A Critical Consideration of the Intelligent Design Movement (by Dr Carl Wieland)
"The ID on ID"
Dr Carl Wieland is CEO of Answers in Genesis-Australia in Brisbane, Queensland. He is the author of the booklet Stones and Bones, and co-author of The Answers Book; One Blood; and Walking Through Shadows. Dr Wieland's formal qualifications are in medicine and surgery; he is a past president of the Christian Medical Fellowship of South Australia.
Arguments for ?intelligent design? of Creation have a long history, going back to the ancient Greeks and Romans. The influence of contemporary scholars, particularly Michael Denton (Evolution: A Theory in Crisis, 1985) and Phillip Johnson (Darwin on Trial, 1991), has led to what is known as the ?Intelligent Design Movement? (IDM or ID movement).
The modern concept of intelligent design is the belief that certain biological lines of evidence (e.g., the ?irreducible complexity? of features such as the bacterial flagellum) are evidence for a designer, and against blind naturalistic processes.
The Intelligent Design Movement?s motivation appears to be the desire to challenge the blind acceptance of the materialistic, godless, naturalistic philosophy of Darwinian evolution. They confront many of the philosophical underpinnings of today?s evolutionary thinking. As a movement, however, they are unwilling to align themselves with Biblical Creationism...
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The Age of Rocks vs. The Rock of Ages (by William A Hoesch)
"A Geologist Looks at Animal Death"
Bill Hoesch received a BA in geology from the Universtity of Colorado and MS in geology from the Institute for Creation Research Graduate School. He lives in Santee, CA with his wife Alicia, and is employued full time at the ICR as Research Assistant in Geology.
Exposed in the towering walls of Grand Canyon one finds a succession of sedimentary rock strata, like a layer-cake. It commonly is agreed that most, if not all, of these layers were deposited by moving water, many of them containing marine invertebrate fossils ? thousands of feet above present sea level. Among the most noteworthy of these is a cliff-forming layer (or formation), approximately 400-feet thick, called the Redwall Limestone, which represents a small portion of a blanket of marine sediment ? now sedimentary rock ? that extends across most of North America and beyond.
But a mass-kill bed, recently discovered, occurs in the Redwall Limestone that threatens the cherished story long held by park naturalists that it formed slowly and gradually in a calm, placid sea.
The Grand Canyon traditionally was not known for its fossils, but in the past 15 years, geologist Dr. Steve Austin has documented a single six-foot thick layer in the Redwall Limestone that contains billions of fossil nautiloids, extinct creatures thought to resemble a squid but with a hard, chambered shell that enabled the creature to surface or dive like a submarine.
What could cause such a mass accumulation of billions of dead nautioloids? Several clues give us a clearer picture...
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Circumstantial Evidence and Inadmissible Evidence (by Dr Carolyn T Reeves)
"A Matter of Simple Justice"
Dr Carolyn Reeves, a retired science teacher, is the author of Understanding Science While Believeing the Bible and is an educational consultant whose resources help sutdents evaluate theories of origins by understanding scientific "rules of the game." For information on her book, go to: www.MasterDesign.org.
Many evolutionists seem to have fallen into the trap of ?groupthink? by accepting the philosophical assumption of naturalism ? that only natural processes and laws can be used to explain the universe. This assumption leads to the belief there is there is a natural explanation for everything that exists, and to the parallel conclusion that any cosmology accepting a supernatural element is false or irrelevant, even if there is empirical evidence to support such a concept.
By extension, God is false or irrelevant; a supernatural creation is false; only naturalistic evolution is true; and it is legitimate to disregard empirical evidence that does not support the basic assumption that a natural explanation exists for everything?
Justice, fairness, and responsibility require school boards, school personnel, textbook companies, parents, and students to review the case of inadmissible evidence in science classes.
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The Missing Think (by Rob Tong)
"In Your Own Sphere: An Example of HOW TO Speak the Truth"
Rob Tong is a deacon at Moody Church in Chicago.
EDITOR?S NOTE ? On March 13, 2005, the Chicago Tribune ran an opinion essay ostensibly paying tribute to the late evolutionary icon Ernst Mayr, that contained many assertions, not opinions, that evolution is a settled fact. Rare Jewel Magazine writer Rob Tong wrote a detailed letter to the editor with citations. Remarkably, the newspaper published his reasoned rebuttal, and we present it here as an encourgement to readers to recognize of one the many weapons God provides to witness to the truth. Letters to the editor (and to Congress, corporate boards, etc) can have effects.
Evolution?s truth is beyond reasonable doubt.
Vassiliki Betty Smocovitis, an associate professor at the University of Florida, argued in a recent opinion piece that evolution is no longer a theory but a science. In fact, in praising the late famed evolutionary biologist Ernst Mayr, Smocovitis argued that Mayr turned an abstract theory of evolution and turned it into a science ? ?with the full weight of that mighty last word.? And science, Smocovitis contends, is what separates evolution from creationism and intelligent design.
While Smocovitis contends that Intelligent Design proponents "cannot produce a single testable, repeatable experiment to support their position," conspicuously absent in her entire opinion piece are any "testable, repeatable experiments" for key macroevolutionary concepts, such as how the universe began, how life began, what was the chemical atmosphere of a primitive Earth and how tremendously divergent species supposedly evolved from a single common ancestor.
Indeed there are none.
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Dinosaurs and Creation (by Dr Donald DeYoung)
"Passengers On the Ark?"
Dr Donald B DeYoung is President of the Creation Research Society, a group of 600 professional scientists worldwide who support the young-earth Creation worldview. He is the author of 12 books on various Bible-science topics. www.CreationResearch.org
Dinosaurs hold a special fascination for children and adults alike ? magnificent and mysterious animals that once lived all over the earth. Unfortunately, most current dinosaur books, nature specials, and films weave the thread of evolution throughout their stories from start to finish.
The origin, dominance, and eventual extinction of the dinosaurs commonly are placed in the distant evolutionary past, in some "land before time," said to be the products of time and chance? the same as we are. Surely children and adults alike deserve better information than this.
In the refreshing, literal, Biblical view, dinosaurs began as part of the supernatural, six-day Creation week. By the fifth day the earth was prepared to receive life; flying creatures and sea life appeared then in abundance by God's command, according to Genesis 1:20. Along with the birds and fish there were other less familiar creatures, including flying reptiles such as pterosaurs, and marine reptiles ? Loch Ness-type creatures called plesiosaurs. The land dinosaurs and all the other animals were made on the following, sixth, day of Creation (Gen. 1: 24).
Evolution theory teaches that the dinosaurs died out 65 million years ago, long before the arrival of modern animals and mankind. In contrast, Creation pictures people and dinosaurs living together in harmony on the earth, just thousands of years ago. In fact Adam named the dinosaurs, along with the other animals, according to Genesis 1:19.
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Evolution's Racist Roots and the Effects on Students (by Sharon Hughes)
Sharon Hughes is host of Changing Worldviews TALK Radio, and interview format show originating from San FRancisco, one of the few conservatives radio shows in America hosted by a woman. Sharon is President and Executive Director of The Center for Changing Worldviews. Sharon@ChangingWorldviews.com
When evolution is taught in public schools, should an effort be made to explain that it is just a theory?
Should teachers explain the racist philosophical views of Darwin and his advocates?
Does the truth oblige teachers to disclose the full title of Darwin's book? It is The Origin of Species: By Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life.
T. H. Huxley, a ?disciple? of Darwin, wrote, "It may be quite true that some negroes are better than some white men, but no rational man, cognizant of the facts, believes that the average negro is the equal, still less the superior, of the average white man.... The highest places in the hierarchy of civilization will assuredly not be within the reach of our dusky cousins...."
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