Get Ready for ‘Evolution Weekend’

Charles Darwin was born on February 12, 1809. This year will be the two-hundredth anniversary of his birth. Evolutionists in this country and across the world will be celebrating. In mid-February evolutionists have planned ‘Evolution Weekend,’ where they will celebrate their hero in, of all places, their churches. So far, over 500 congregations in all 50 U.S. states (and 9 other countries) are planning to participate in Evolution Weekend and rejoice in Darwin and his evolutionary teachings.

Furthermore, thus far nearly 12,000 U.S. Christian clergy have signed what is called the ‘Clergy Letter Project,’ which is a petition that, as Answers In Genesis (www.answersingenesis.org) puts it, “denies God’s Word and endorses evolution by declaring that ‘We believe that the theory of evolution is a foundational scientific truth . . . .’”

It should not be surprising that so many Christians and Christian churches (I use these terms very lightly.) have bought into the lie of Darwinian evolution. Today we have ‘churches’ that endorse everything from homosexuality and gay marriage to abortion. We would be foolish to think that such people would accept the biblical account of the origins of mankind.

Actually what these ‘churches’ have done is deny the authority of Scripture in each of these matters and gone with the wisdom of man instead of the truths of God. In fact, the slippery slope of scriptural denial begins with Darwinian Evolution. If you don’t believe what the Bible has to say “in the beginning,” why would you accept what it reveals on any matter? When you deny the creation account in the Bible, you destroy the foundation upon which all of Scripture rests.

In other words, if there is not a literal Adam and Eve, a literal garden, a literal tree, a literal fruit, a literal serpent, and a literal ‘fall from grace,’ the whole message of the Bible is tainted. The answer to each of the following questions is in Genesis chapters one to eleven: Why is there death and suffering in the world? Why is marriage only the union of one man and one woman? Why do we wear clothes? Why did Jesus Christ have to die on the cross?

The Bible is all about God’s love for mankind and His redemption of it through the sacrifice of Christ. If you deny Genesis chapters one to eleven, then why was it necessary for Christ to die for the sins of all mankind? Yousee, the very foundations of Christianity rest upon the history contained in the first eleven chapters of Genesis.

Over the last 100 years or so, the church has done a poor job of teaching this foundational history to its flock. Now more than ever it is time for Bible-believing denominations and congregations to stand up for the truth of all Scripture.

The Christian ministry Answers In Genesis (AIG), to which I refer often, is holding two conferences in February, called ‘Answers for Darwin’ (www.AnswersForDarwin.com), to counter the evolutionary message of ‘Evolution Weekend.’ The first will be held on the west coast on February 6-7 at Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa in California. The second will be held on February 16-17 at Thomas Road Baptist Church in Lynchburg,Virginia. (This is the church that the late Jerry Falwell founded.)

AIG notes that, “These West Coast and East Coast conferences are specifically designed to equip you with the answers and resources you need to effectively share the truth of God’s Word with a world that is increasingly turning its back on Him. And because Darwin will be “everywhere” next February, you need to be able to answer the questions posed by your friends (and maybe even some family members) about evolution during that time. Get equipped at these faith-building conferences.”

I suspect that a list of U.S. Christian clergy who oppose Darwinian evolution would dwarf the list of those who support it. In fact, according to a 2006 CBS poll, the majority of Americans (53%) hold to the creationist view that “God created human beings in their present form within the last ten thousand years.” If you are in this majority, and if you believe that the Bible is true, make sure you equip yourself with the proper answers to the evolutionary thinking that will be prominently on display this year.

Copyright 2009, Trevor Grant Thomas

At the Intersection of Politics, Science, Faith, and Reason.
Trevor and his wife Michelle are the authors of: Debt Free Living in a Debt Filled World
tthomas@trevorgrantthomas.com

The Creation Museum

On May 28 just minutes south of Cincinnati Ohio, in the northern Kentucky town of Petersburg, amid a flurry of media attention (everyone from The New York Times to The O’Reilly Factor has taken notice), a truly unique museum opened its doors. About eight years in the works, the Creation Museum is now available for all to see. The Creation Museum is a project of Answers in Genesis (AiG). AiG is an apologetics ministry (the largest such ministry in the world) birthed in 1994 and located in the same area as the museum. AiG describes itself as a “ministry dedicated to enabling Christians to defend their faith, and to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ effectively.” Their focus is particularly on “providing answers to questions surrounding the book of Genesis.”

The Creation Museum has officially been in the works since about 1999. However, the vision for it has been around for much longer. Ken Ham, a founder and president/CEO of AiG , has stated that he has had the vision since around 1980 for a museum that is “truly a world-class center of which the world would take notice. One that shouts loudly that the Bible is the true history of the world—that the Bible is history on which the gospel of Jesus Christ is based—that the Bible can be trusted and has the answer as to where we came from, (and) who we are.”

The $27 million, 60,000 square foot structure will be front and center in AiG’s mission to teach that “The Bible is true from Genesis to Revelation.” The museum was designed by former Universal Studios exhibit director Patrick Marsh, the man behind the "Jaws" and "King Kong" attractions at Universal Studios in Florida. The museum contains computer-generated visual effects, over 50 exotic animals, life-sized people and dinosaur animatronics, and a 200 seat special-effects theater complete with misty sea breezes and rumbling seats.

In addition to over 160 totally unique exhibits, the Creation Museum features exhibits found in many other museums: a planetarium, fossils of various creatures, an exhibit on the Ice Age, a scale-model of rock layers, and a model of a dinosaur dig site. However, as AiG points out, “the explanation of the exhibits (reveals) a story far different from (other museums).”

Where most museums rule out the Bible as evidence, the Creation Museum readily accepts the Bible as accurate historical evidence based on eyewitness testimony. However, they’re not talking about just any eyewitness, but the Creator Himself. AiG notes that, since “God cannot lie, it (the Bible) must tell the truth about past events. The Creation Museum will use the Bible to help interpret the very same evidences (dinosaurs, mammoths, rocks, fossils, etc.) that other museums use, but its conclusions will be different because of a different starting point.”

In other words, how we interpret the evidence of the past is directly influenced by our presuppositions. The Creation Museum begins with a biblical presupposition, allowing for the work of a Creator, where evolution starts with a naturalistic presupposition and interprets the facts devoid of God.

The fact that the Creation Museum takes the Bible so literally has many up in arms—so much so that on the day of its opening some gathered to protest the museum. One group, calling itself DefCon, even flew a plane overhead towing a banner that read, “DefCon says thou shalt not lie,” implying that the museum is giving people false ideas about science and evolution.

AiG points out that, “Contrary to what museum critics have said, AiG wants people to learn about evolution (and, in fact, you can find out quite a bit about the evolutionary timeline in the museum), but we also want them to see and understand the presuppositions that underlie that belief system and the differences between operational science (i.e., repeatable, observable science) and origins science (i.e., unrepeatable, unobservable science).”

Dr. Jonathan Sarfati of AiG says that, “operational science has indeed been very successful in understanding the world, and has led to many improvements in the quality of life, e.g. putting men on the moon and curing diseases. In contrast, evolution is a speculation about the unobservable and unrepeatable past. Thus it comes under origins science.” Dr Don Batten adds that, “Studying how an organism operates (DNA, mutations, reproduction, natural selection etc.) does not tell us how it came into existence in the first place.”

As I have pointed out many times before, there are many in all fields of science who reject Darwinian evolution and accept the biblical account of how all living things came into being. To accept the Bible for what it says does not mean one is turning his or her back on science. I believe that the Creation Museum will go a long way in showing many others that this is the case. In fact, the mission of the Creation Museum can be summed up as follows: to show all who come that they can trust what the Bible says, not just in Genesis, but throughout.

To find out more information on the museum, visit www.answersingenesis.org or www.creationmuseum.org.

Copyright 2015, Trevor Grant Thomas
At the Intersection of Politics, Science, Faith, and Reason.
www.trevorgrantthomas.com
Trevor and his wife Michelle are the authors of: Debt Free Living in a Debt Filled World
tthomas@trevorgrantthomas.com