God has blessed us in many ways since moving us from the Washington, DC, area to Lynchburg, Virginia. Most of those blessings have come in the form of personal relationships and enjoyment of this delightful city. But yesterday began a new blessing.
We live very close to Thomas Road Baptist Church (TRBC). When we moved to Lynchburg, TRBC was not one of the churches we considered. We disagree with some minor points of theology, but we have attended churches before where our beliefs did not completely conform. The reason we were not interested in TRBC was really because it is simply too large a church for us. But there are benefits to large churches—such as their ability to bring in high profile guest speakers.
The Sunday evening worship service at TRBC yesterday was the kickoff of Answers for Darwin, a conference presented by Answers In Genesis. Kim alerted me to this conference a few weeks ago and I have been eagerly awaiting it since then. It did not disappoint.
Ken Hamm of Answers In Genesis launched the conference with his introductory session on “Darwin and the Culture Wars.” He included in his presentation some photos from the Mount St. Helens eruption. I have never seen these photos before and was simply amazed at what I saw. The blast and resultant fallout from that eruption created what looks like a small Grand Canyon. There are 100-foot walls of rock, ash, and mud with deep rivulets running through them. If no sense of scale is given, one would be sure that these were pictures of the Grand Canyon, but that the Sante Fe River had dried up at the bottom. This mini-Grand Canyon is 1/40th scale of the true Grand Canyon, but it was created in one day, whereas we are told that the Grand Canyon took hundred of millions of years to be carved out by the river below. A cataclysmic act of nature created the entire thing in a very short period of time.
The next speaker was Dr. Andrew Snelling who presented “Answers from Geology—The Catastrophe of Noah's Flood.” Dr. Snelling clearly presented the geological evidence of a world-wide flood. He showed pictures of the geological record of sedimentary rock, fossils, petrified trees, etc. And he demonstrated by the evidence clearly shown by an observation of these things that a world-wide flood is the likely producer of this geological record.
Of course, our geological community would quite likely be fully on board with this interpretation of the geological record were it not for one problem—a world-wide flood is proclaimed by the biblical record as well as the geological record.
Liberty professor, Dr. David DeWitt, wrapped up the evening with a discussion of “Answers from Biology about Darwinian Evolution—Unraveling the Origins Controversy.” One of the things he emphasized was the fact that evolution education requires the student or observer to fill in many blanks because it is filled with holes. Once the student of evolution begins to fill these blank holes in, he develops a bit of mental inertia that leads him to foregone conclusions that simply are not evident in an observation of the evidence.
Our minds are used to filling in missing information. If we look at a building behind a tree, we think we have seen the entire building. Our mind fills in the portion of the building that was blocked by the tree. We see the pattern of the bricks and the lines of the roof and we fill in the area that was blocked, leaving us with the impression that we have seen the entire structure. We do the same thing with history and creation. We look at the world around us and think that the way things happen now are the way they have always happened. We disregard the possibility of supernatural involvement and cataclysmic events.
2 Peter 3:3-6 Scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires. They will say, “Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.” For they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God, and that by means of these the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished.
Interesting stuff and I can't wait for tonight’s continuation of the conference.
Wow!! That sounds like a really informative conference. We get Acts & Facts from ICR so we get the insights to the ongoing research.
ReplyDeleteWe are also blessed to have the Creation museum a mere 2 hour drive away. He spoke to our field-trip class from school when we went there. Now the wife insists on going as a b-day present. Sounds good to me.
I look forward to reading how the rest of the conference went for you.
That's great that you live so close to the Creation Museum. We're hoping to be able to visit sometime soon.
ReplyDeleteNow that my son is almost a high school student, I am realizing my lack of apologetic ability when it comes to these things. I know what I believe, but am not prepared to make a solid defense. So this conference has been great and the books and DVDs I've purchased should help me after the experts head back home.
I'll post more about the conference as it progresses.