A few months ago, a long-standing friend who I knew for the better part of thirty-five years, handed me a leaflet after the end of the morning service. It advertised a coming Creation Ministries Conference which would be held over two days at the Emmanuel Centre in Central London, quite close to the Houses of Parliament. This friend of mine, who is also my Financial and Pensions Advisor, has always been a keen Creationist, to the extent that while filling out some Private Pension forms at my home, he spotted a book on our bookshelf, The Last Two Million Years, a publication from the Readers Digest series of books and magazines, and questioned our commitment to the Biblical truth of Divine Creation, including a Young Earth, as opposed to the popular notion of the planet being billions of years old.
I explained, truthfully, that the book was given to us as a gift by someone else who didn't really want it any more, and we simply kept it. Other than that, we (Alex and I) assured him that we are committed Creationists.
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| Emmanuel Centre, London |
That had not always been the case. Up to 1973, at twenty years of age, I was a committed Evolutionist, having been fanatical about Dinosaurs during my school days of the mid-sixties. It was when alone in the house during a thunderstorm outside that I decided to pick up a Bible and find out for myself how it all began. I was very moved as I read through the first three chapters of Genesis, and becoming tense when I read through the verses on how first Eve, than Adam took the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, against God's own instructions. I needed no more persuasion. Immediately I had converted from an Evolutionist to a Creationist at an instant, as a result of reading these three chapters, and praying, asking God to forgive me for all those years as a believer in Darwinism.
But there was a dilemma, one I would have considered quite serious: the reconciliation of the existence of the Dinosaurs with the Young Earth theory. From that night of conversion, I have found no problem with the Biblical view that early mankind must have co-existed with Dinosaurs, especially before the Deluge of Noah's day, which gives an adequate answer not only to these creature's sudden demise and extinction, but also explain the quick formation of fossils, as it is agreed among Palaeontologists and Geologists that water was the agent for all fossil formation, where ever they are found. But I was already laughed down for advocating this concept, with atheistic scientists such as Richard Dawkins comparing the time scale with New York bordering onto Los Angeles. Therefore, it's not too much of a surprise to have seen various pictorial literature of Creationism tending to associate the rise of "beasts of the Earth" on the sixth day as consisting of a modern horse, elephant, sheep, and cattle, along with any species alive at present, as if the artist was too embarrassed to include long-extinct species such as what we now refer to as Dinosaurs. All this didn't help, along with the rather curious assumption that the sun, moon, and all the stars of the entire Universe were all four days younger than the Earth itself, leaving me to wonder how the planet was illuminated in the first place, with day and night already existing. How was I to tell my Darwin-believing friends what I now know to be true, without being made the laughing-stock of a company I was working for?
So began a long process of re-learning, which provided such a challenge to me back then. Like the time when one mocker asked me who was Cain's wife, if only he existed on the entire planet, along with his brother Abel, and their parents Adam and Eve. Although unable to answer at the time, such a challenge spurred me to dig into the Bible itself and bring out the clues which readily answers who Cain's wife was. And such a question could be easily answered by reading Genesis chapter four and five. Cain slew his brother Abel, and not long after that, Eve gave birth to a replacement for the Messianic Line: Seth. Then in chapter five, we read that Seth was born 130 years after Creation, which gives ample time for Eve to give birth to many other sons and daughters before the murder, an idea backed up by Cain's own fear of repercussions for the killing, along with is ability to "build a city" named after his son Enoch. If true, then this brings up the idea of humans having superior genome early in history, in addition to Eve's birthing prowess, also providing the answer to the question I have long been asking: How on earth could Abimelech King of Gerar take such an interest in the aged Sarah, Abraham's wife, while she was already in her nineties? (Genesis 20) - unless Sarah's superior genome caused her to remain astoundingly beautiful and youthful-looking, even at her apparent old age.
This embarrassment over Creationism could be the reason why, during Religious Education lessons at school, the Biblical chronology began with the call of Abraham, totally ignoring all pre-Abrahamic Scriptures. It left the door wide open for mockery from scoffers, who insists that Darwin's Evolutionary processes were the only way we got here in the first place. So re-learning was a long process, which included my first backpacking visit in 1976 to the Holy Land, where I fell in love with the ancient city of Jerusalem, after discovering to be the most important city in the entire Bible, and therefore in the whole of human history. There was even one archaeological marvel, an ancient water conduit now referred to as Hezekiah's Tunnel, which was dug through solid rock under the city itself under the direction of the king of Judah in 700 BC, which I have explored in 1976, and again in 1993. It is mentioned twice in the Old Testament: 2 Kings 20:20, and 2 Chronicles 32:30. Simply this: If the city which the entire Bible has put such emphasis actually exists, and can be physically located, then why deny the historicity of Divine Creation?
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| Inside Hezekiah's Tunnel with one other companion, 1976 |
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| The Bible is true. The same tunnel with myself out of the way! |
Last week the three of us made our way to London to spend the night there. My wife and I boarded the train, along with a third person who also has a passion for Creationism, and is a subscriber of the Creation Ministries website. He was willing to join us after I invited him. The biggest difference between him and me was not so much the wide age difference as the fact that he is a Doctor, a post-graduate who, I believe, has specialised in genetics, and therefore able to call himself a Geneticist. So three people went merrily to London - a Doctor, a Housewife, and a retired Window Cleaner. And we even stayed overnight at the same hotel. There was not a hint of social, national, or racial superiority among any of us during the weekend, but we looked on each other as fully equal. If anything, I probably was the leader, not to make up for my apparent academic deficiency compared to my friend, but out of age and experience.
That is in-keeping with Creationism, as opposed to Evolution which lies behind social class and inequality, as well as being the stigma behind racism and national superiority, all three I had suffered from time to time as a victim throughout life. I recall the 1970's, when I was still young physically, and a lot younger spiritually, that any major clash with fellow church-goers had much to do with social class - a semi-skilled factory machinist thrown into a group of University graduates. Despite their efforts to be social and accepting, somehow in their subconscious, I was never perceived as equal to them. I even offended one of them in an opposing group when I managed to answer correctly a higher proportion of questions from a trivial quiz game. He didn't like that at all!
I have discovered back then that these graduates embraced Theocratic Evolution, that is, Darwinism under the control and supervision of God himself. Notwithstanding the blatant flaw of Adam and Eve having ape-men as ancestors. According to this theory, Adam's parents and grandparents must have been as equally human as they were, and going back quite a number of generations, maybe hundreds of generations. Yet each pre-Adam generation died. They were all mortal. What a contradiction that is to Romans 5:12-14 and 1 Corinthians 15:20-22, where Paul insists that through one man sin has entered into the world, and therefore through one man's sin death came to all men (from Adam onwards). What I have found astonishing is that these young church-goers were graduates, with IQ's higher than mine, strongly supporting their level of education and middle-class standing, yet unable to work out this simple Biblical principle!
The three of us attended the seminars. It was the first lecture, delivered by Engineer Stuart Burgess, which arose my surprise and amazement. He quoted atheist Richard Dawkins having greater respect for the Young-Earth Creationist who wholeheartedly holds to the literal six-day Creation, than he would to a theologian who embrace Theocratic Evolution. As Dawkins would have insisted - Creation and Evolution are mutually exclusive. One cannot favour one without the compromise of the other. So had Richard Dawkins showed up at our trivial quiz contest, he would have shown a greater respect for me above the others in the same room, much to the shock of all present.
And so how great minds goes. One of the worst aspects of our culture is the undue respect given to the higher educated, especially when standing at the pulpit. The more clever the professor is, the greater respect he receives. Thus I have seen the most damnable heresy infect the intellect of Christians around me, simply because this particular perpetrator had studied at Cambridge University and "Knows the Bible inside out." He was even referred to as "A prophet of God on the level of Isaiah" by other Christians - even if there's no proof of any Biblical basis for this, and to be fair, the man referred to has never, according to my knowledge, made such an admission about himself. Rather, the honour was bestowed to him by other Christians enamoured by his professionalism. And so the same applies to Darwin's advocates.
One of the most amazing train of thinking among Evolutionists and Atheists is the theory that everything must be subject to Science - the knowledge of man about everything in the world, including Evolution. According to them, Evolution itself remains beneath man's technology. Now if Evolution was an undisputed fact, this would indeed be true. There are scores of records where Evolution had got it wrong: Mutations, redundant organs, disease, mild illnesses, early death, malformations, extinctions, and so forth. For technology to function properly, every part must be fully functional and in its right place. The computer is a good example. Any fault with the internal wiring and the computer would not function. Likewise, if any of the binary digits in the software was misplaced, the program would crash. But for one who believe in Creationism, all these "Evolutionary defects" are more likely the result of the Fall and the Edenic Curse. As testified in the case of both Eve and Sarah, the human genome was at a much more stable condition nearer the time of Creation than at present.
And the lack of adequate reference to the genome was something I felt was missing from the Conference. Because the sheer complexity of the cell and its nucleus would be enough to shatter Evolution altogether. The dizzying complexity of the DNA molecule, the RNA, the Ribosome, the Golgi Apparatus, and many other minuscule parts all playing their role in the production of protein, makes the cell evolving by chance to be mathematically impossible. An example of this was noted by Fred Hoyle, Atheist, Astronomer, and Mathematician. I am aware that I have mentioned this already in recent blogs, but since this is about our inter-class unity at a Creation Ministries Conference, it's well worth giving another mention here.
Hoyle worked out that just part of the protein chain, the enzymes with each of its amino acid parts carefully folded in proper sequence, the chance of such a chain alone evolving by chance is one out of one, followed by 40,000 zeroes! Even the estimated age of the Universe does not come even close! Knowing such a result, instead of acknowledging Intelligent Design, as the Scriptures testify, Hoyle dreamt up the theory that first there was never a Big Bang, rather the Universe has always been eternal, giving the hope that the cell might have evolved elsewhere in the eternal past, and arrived at the primeval Earth embedded in a meteorite in the relatively recent past. Such a theory is known as Panspermia and it seemed to be widely accepted by Evolutionists to this day.
Despite the lack of positive evidence, Evolution continue to be upheld by the learned, and the rank-and-file bow the knee. This includes Social Evolution, the idea that some cultures are more advanced than others, and even the belief of various stages of inequality within a culture. As I see it, the social class divide is evil, just as racism is evil, along with national superiority. As these three were the underlying basis for the Holocaust, when six million Jews were needlessly slain, along with homosexuals and the mentally handicapped. According to the Nazis, such slaughter was based on Evolution, and their own efforts in "giving evolution a helping hand" in the selection of their superior Aryan race.
I have seen that social class divides the church, the evaluating of a person's worth depending on education, wealth and social standing rather than on character and spiritual maturity. The sort of stuff that was also going on during the days of the apostle James. So bad it was, the the apostle gave one of the sternest rebukes, (James 2:1-7) short of the rebukes delivered by Jesus himself (eg, Matthew 23). Believing in Creationism, the Fall, and Redemption is the Great Leveller. As I like to put it: Standing under the Shadow of the Cross. Under such a Shadow, every form of prejudice, favouritism, and personal status just blows away, like shrivelled leaves caught in the wind.
A Doctor, a Housewife, and a Window Cleaner, each Divinely Created, each recognising their own shortcomings, each in need of redemption. This is how all churches should be. Each person seen as one begotten of the Father through faith in Jesus. Each person seen in the same way as God sees him, as one imputed with the righteousness of Christ. Each person in the fellowship seen as possessing eternal life, with Heaven as the eternal home for all. Each person seen with all sin forgiven, therefore having no basis for judgement. The recipe for sweet fellowship and hospitality. No special credit given for higher education, social class, or nationality, nor anyone looked down for lacking any of these.
It's a weekend I will not forget easily.
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| Richard Dawkins. |
And so how great minds goes. One of the worst aspects of our culture is the undue respect given to the higher educated, especially when standing at the pulpit. The more clever the professor is, the greater respect he receives. Thus I have seen the most damnable heresy infect the intellect of Christians around me, simply because this particular perpetrator had studied at Cambridge University and "Knows the Bible inside out." He was even referred to as "A prophet of God on the level of Isaiah" by other Christians - even if there's no proof of any Biblical basis for this, and to be fair, the man referred to has never, according to my knowledge, made such an admission about himself. Rather, the honour was bestowed to him by other Christians enamoured by his professionalism. And so the same applies to Darwin's advocates.
One of the most amazing train of thinking among Evolutionists and Atheists is the theory that everything must be subject to Science - the knowledge of man about everything in the world, including Evolution. According to them, Evolution itself remains beneath man's technology. Now if Evolution was an undisputed fact, this would indeed be true. There are scores of records where Evolution had got it wrong: Mutations, redundant organs, disease, mild illnesses, early death, malformations, extinctions, and so forth. For technology to function properly, every part must be fully functional and in its right place. The computer is a good example. Any fault with the internal wiring and the computer would not function. Likewise, if any of the binary digits in the software was misplaced, the program would crash. But for one who believe in Creationism, all these "Evolutionary defects" are more likely the result of the Fall and the Edenic Curse. As testified in the case of both Eve and Sarah, the human genome was at a much more stable condition nearer the time of Creation than at present.
And the lack of adequate reference to the genome was something I felt was missing from the Conference. Because the sheer complexity of the cell and its nucleus would be enough to shatter Evolution altogether. The dizzying complexity of the DNA molecule, the RNA, the Ribosome, the Golgi Apparatus, and many other minuscule parts all playing their role in the production of protein, makes the cell evolving by chance to be mathematically impossible. An example of this was noted by Fred Hoyle, Atheist, Astronomer, and Mathematician. I am aware that I have mentioned this already in recent blogs, but since this is about our inter-class unity at a Creation Ministries Conference, it's well worth giving another mention here.
Hoyle worked out that just part of the protein chain, the enzymes with each of its amino acid parts carefully folded in proper sequence, the chance of such a chain alone evolving by chance is one out of one, followed by 40,000 zeroes! Even the estimated age of the Universe does not come even close! Knowing such a result, instead of acknowledging Intelligent Design, as the Scriptures testify, Hoyle dreamt up the theory that first there was never a Big Bang, rather the Universe has always been eternal, giving the hope that the cell might have evolved elsewhere in the eternal past, and arrived at the primeval Earth embedded in a meteorite in the relatively recent past. Such a theory is known as Panspermia and it seemed to be widely accepted by Evolutionists to this day.
Despite the lack of positive evidence, Evolution continue to be upheld by the learned, and the rank-and-file bow the knee. This includes Social Evolution, the idea that some cultures are more advanced than others, and even the belief of various stages of inequality within a culture. As I see it, the social class divide is evil, just as racism is evil, along with national superiority. As these three were the underlying basis for the Holocaust, when six million Jews were needlessly slain, along with homosexuals and the mentally handicapped. According to the Nazis, such slaughter was based on Evolution, and their own efforts in "giving evolution a helping hand" in the selection of their superior Aryan race.
I have seen that social class divides the church, the evaluating of a person's worth depending on education, wealth and social standing rather than on character and spiritual maturity. The sort of stuff that was also going on during the days of the apostle James. So bad it was, the the apostle gave one of the sternest rebukes, (James 2:1-7) short of the rebukes delivered by Jesus himself (eg, Matthew 23). Believing in Creationism, the Fall, and Redemption is the Great Leveller. As I like to put it: Standing under the Shadow of the Cross. Under such a Shadow, every form of prejudice, favouritism, and personal status just blows away, like shrivelled leaves caught in the wind.
A Doctor, a Housewife, and a Window Cleaner, each Divinely Created, each recognising their own shortcomings, each in need of redemption. This is how all churches should be. Each person seen as one begotten of the Father through faith in Jesus. Each person seen in the same way as God sees him, as one imputed with the righteousness of Christ. Each person in the fellowship seen as possessing eternal life, with Heaven as the eternal home for all. Each person seen with all sin forgiven, therefore having no basis for judgement. The recipe for sweet fellowship and hospitality. No special credit given for higher education, social class, or nationality, nor anyone looked down for lacking any of these.
It's a weekend I will not forget easily.
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