Understanding how the Lordship of Jesus Christ extends to all areas of life.
Ken Ham is one of the leading Christian apologists of our day, and his book, The Lie: Evolution, is a great resource for every Christian library.
Ken explains how science cannot prove where the universe came from (because the theory of origins relates to a historical event which cannot be observed or duplicated through modern scientific methods), and how both evolutionists and creations begin with a philosophical belief (faith) and both camps observe the same evidence. So the so called, “Religion vs. Science” debate is really a misnomer.
Ken discusses how almost all of our current social issues are impacted by our beliefs about creation or evolution. He also chronicles how modern churches have adopted an approach of accommodation, and have tried to accept evolution while adding God into the evolution story. Ken gives Biblical, scientific and reasonable philosophical arguments to demonstrate why this position is unsound and unnecessary.
Also included is an appeal to pastors and Christian workers to review their approach to evangelism. Without the foundation of Genesis, we are leaving out a major part of the gospel story (the fall of mankind into sin, and therefore separation from God). While the cross of Christ is central to the gospel, Genesis is foundational for explaining why Christ had to suffer and die in our place.
For those who have been influenced by the gap theory, the day-age theory, progressive creation or any number of other Biblical compromises, The Lie: Evolution will give compelling reasons to trust a literal account of a young earth and a 24 hour, six day creation.
Also helpful (for those who like reviews!), is an appendix section where Ken recommends other useful books on the subject of Creation Science.
Recommended for junior high – adult. Beginner to intermediate level understanding of creation issues.
You may download if for FREE here: http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/lie
Published by Master Books, copyright 1987. ISBN #0-89051-158-6
On a scale of 1-5, I’d give this a 4.75 overall.
In his book, Revolution, which focuses on the life of the American church, researcher and cultural analyst George Barna uses the term “mini-movements” to describe a number of forces that are shaping the landscape of modern Christendom. According to Barna, research is showing that the most dramatic life-changing catalysts at work among believers today are mini-movements that are not connected with any particular national denomination or specific local church effort.
What are some of these movements that are challenging people to become more serious in their faith and to embrace a comprehensive lifestyle of following Jesus in every area of their lives? The following are some of the movements that I think are the most significant in our day and age. They are not given in any particular order of chronology nor importance. They each have their place and are likely indispensable in the overall big-picture of God’s plan for our day and age.
I have to start with this one because it is the one to which I’m most intimately connected. The modern Christian homeschooling movement has been nothing short of a move of God on our land. It reflects the heart of Malachi 4:6, where God promises to turn the hearts of fathers back to their children, and children to their fathers. Christian parents must take responsibility for the spiritual upbringing of their own children if they want to see Christianity survive the forces of postmodernism and Islamo-fascism rampant in our world today.
Beginning in the 1960s with John Whitcomb and Henry Morris, the return to a Biblical view of origins and the emergence of a new breed of Bible-believing scientists, has revolutionized the Christian world. I believe that the Creationist movement in many ways helped to inspire a new interest in Christian education, encouraging the expansion of Christian schools and later homeschooling in America. This was in many ways a movement of reformation, calling Christians back to believing in the inspiration and authority of the holy Scriptures.
Christian Financial Management
When the late Larry Burkett first emerged on the scene in the late 1970s, talking about financial stewardship, he stuck out like a sore thumb. Today, there are hundreds of Christian financial coaches, and a number of national ministries dedicated to helping believers to become good stewards and managers of God’s resources. There is much work yet ahead, but the groundwork has been amply laid for this important movement to stir hundreds of thousands of Christians to channel their resources in Kingdom activities, rather than worldly pursuits and pleasures.
Men’s Ministry
While all outreaches to the family are important, none is more vital than ministries that reach out to men and encourage them to take spiritual leadership of their homes. Most Christian men have not had the right kind of role models, and therefore feel inadequate to lead their wives and children according to the Scriptures. Groups like Promise Keepers broke ground in this effort of challenging men, and hundreds of ministries (some of them much more effective) have continued this endeavor.
Family-Integrated Church / House Church
In a world where the family is too often split apart by secular forces, many parents have been concerned that the common church practice of age-segregated learning/worship is further exacerbating the problem of disunity in the home. Tens of thousands of families have opted for a method of corporate teaching and worship that are not traditional, but are more Biblical in practice than the typical local church. Absent are “junior church,” age-segregated Sunday school classes, VBS and youth group activities. These family-integrated fellowships usually encourage fathers to lead family worship at home, and the church leaders often strive to avoid going around parents to teach their children.
The Worship Revolution
Among young people in America (and around the world), there is a renewed desire for authentic worship. All over the country there are massive gatherings of people who have come to cry out to God to move in our day. Sometimes these events are reminiscent of revivals of days gone by, and other times they are little more than Christian rock concerts, but increasingly there are select leaders within this movement who are promoting a God-centered (rather than man-centered, self-therapeutic) approach to worship. This movement began mainly in the UK and has found its way to American shores. There is also a renewed emphasis on songs that are theologically sound and vertically oriented (focusing on God, His work and His attributes), rather than a rehash of endless “God is my girlfriend” type songs that are presented as “worship.”
Independent Christian Film-making
This may seem like an odd thing to include in the list, but we live in a visual culture, and no force has shaped modern American society more than television and the movies. Because of the blatantly objectionable content of films from the beginning of the “Silver Screen,” Christians abandoned film-making as an evil endeavor and left it to the dominance of unGodly people. As a result, billions of people receive their worldview through a media channel that is corrupt in it’s content and methods. That is changing as solid Christian believers are creating excellent films to the glory of God. All of the Arts need to be reformed, not just film, but this is perhaps the most unexpected and encouraging development I’ve seen in the past decade.
Biblical Worldview / Apologetics
When I was a child, Christian worldview training and the teaching of apologetics were largely related to seminarians. Today there are numerous websites, including my own www.ChristianWorldview.net site, conferences, online courses, books, videos and many other resources for learning to understand and defend the Christian faith as it relates to all areas of life. This is one of the most important movements of our day.
I have seen a renewed emphasis on “deeper life” teachings in recent years, and a renewed desire to know Christ more. Thousands of people are reading books and articles on the revivals of days past, and desiring to see holiness restored to the Church. I have been able to participate in several conferences with a focus on repentance, forgiveness, forsaking sin and surrender to the Spirit of God. The old thing is the new thing. What a joy to see the “old” message returning in a new and fresh way. Our magazine, Brush Arbor Quarterly, reflects this emphasis.
Get on the Move
People who believe in the Lordship of Jesus Christ over the totality of human existence, tend to be involved in many, if not all, of these movements. If you are unfamiliar with any of these movements, I would encourage you to check them out, and see if the Lord would have you join Him in what He is doing.
Preface: I am very pleased to be able to share this essay with you because David Quine is a man who has had considerable impact on my own life and is part of my personal journey. In the late 1980s, David began writing a regular column for my mother’s magazine, the Home School Digest, and I began to read his articles. I met David and Shirley Quine for the first time at the HEAV Convention in Lynchburg, VA in, I believe 1989, when I was 13 or 14 years old.
While my mother had recently begun reading Francis Schaeffer and had been impacted by his works, I saw them as dry, academic and unappealing. It was through David, listening to his enthusiasm for applying a Biblical worldview to the Arts and all of life, that I first became interested in Dr. Schaeffer’s writings (which have substantively shaped my own personal worldview profoundly since that time).
David Quine also helped to shape my own philosophy of education, and homeschooling in particular. I have been so blessed to see his faithfulness over the many years and have been honored to go from being a teenager sitting in the audience listening to him speak, to eventually speaking at conferences together with him. David has invested in what really counts: passing on the faith from generation to generation. Because of that, even though he is a humble and unassuming man, his work will remain and endure for many, many generations. I am thankful to call David Quine my friend and to encourage you to plug into his work and learn from his wisdom. You will be thankful that you did. — Israel Wayne
David Quine
The Authority of the Word of God — My Personal Journey (by David Quine)
Once again in history science and culture are challenging the authority of God’s Word. The focus of the issue is the first eleven chapters of Genesis and then the many verses that reference those chapters. The challenge: Do these passages of Scripture represent true space-time history or simply a Christian concept of truth? In other words, is it truth or allegory? This is not just some theoretical classroom discussion, but rather it reflects my own person journey of my understanding of the authority of the Word of God over the past 40 years of study.
This is not a new challenge, but one that has been repeated throughout the history of Western Civilization. Think back with me for a moment to the time of the Renaissance. Do you remember the meaning of the word? Renaissance means ‘re-birth.’ Have you ever asked yourself what it was the re-birth of? It was the re-birth of classical Greek and Roman thinking. The people living in the period of history immediately before the Renaissance based their thoughts and ideas upon the authority of the Word of God. Step back in history one more period of time into the age of Classical Rome and Greece. It was during this period in which the writings of Homer (Iliad and Odyssey), Virgil (Aeneid), Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle served as the authority of truth and reality. The diagram below illustrates this historical shift:
Classical Greek and Roman Period —> The Middle Ages —> Renaissance (the re-birth of Greek and Roman thinking)
There are a couple of important ideas to consider. It was the Christians of the Renaissance who reaching back into the period of Classical Greece and Rome were bringing forward in time and re-introducing the writings of Homer, Virgil, Socrates, Plato and Aristotle into their own culture. This can be seen in the paintings of the Sistine Chapel in Rome where the paintings of the prophets (sibyls) of Greece are side-by-side with paintings of the great prophets of God or in your local library in the work of Dante’s Divine Comedy in which the ideas of the spiritual life are those of “the great philosophy Aristotle”! In effect, these believers ended a period of time (the Middle Ages) in which individuals were basing their lives on the authority of Scripture alone. It is very interesting that those who consider the Renaissance a movement in the proper direction will often call the Middle Ages the Dark Ages! They consider it a Dark Age because those people did not read the classical works of Greece or Rome. The classical Renaissance thinkers began introducing the works of Greece and Rome into the Christian culture of their time period. Carefully consider what they did! They ended the Middle Ages!
However, the story does not end there. God in His grace raised up another movement in Northern Europe — the Reformation. The men and women of the Reformation rejected the classical thought of the Renaissance and embraced Scripture alone (Sola Sciptura) for faith and living. Western Civilization flourished as the Word of God served as its foundation.
The conflict seems to be repeated in every age. For example, in the late 1800′s and early 1900′s the authority of Scripture was once again challenged. Guess which book and chapters of the Bible were being challenged. If you thought Genesis chapters 1 – 11, you are right. They were being told that those chapters were just a picture — a story — but not true science or history. However, in the early 1950′s God began a new movement in America. A movement that spread across our land — a return to the authority of Scripture. People like Francis Schaeffer, writing in Genesis in Space and Time, and Henry Morris, writing in The Genesis Flood, began fighting for the historicity of Genesis chapters 1 – 11!
Dr. Francis Schaeffer
This is where I come into the story — my personal journey.
I was raised in a church that rejected those first chapters of Genesis. My pastor rejected heaven and hell. Even Jesus was no longer a real historic person. He was only a fictional idea — a concept –of what a person should strive to become. I was told by the pastor that this was the natural progression of realizing that the first eleven chapters were just a story. By the grace of God in 1967 I became a Christian in my junior year in high school. My view of Scripture changed — it was becoming the sole authority of my life. After graduating I went off to college to begin my studies to become a geologist. I found myself back into the conflict over the authority of the Word of God. In my classes Science and Reason overruled the authority of Scripture at every turn. This caused me to do a great deal of searching. Was there enough evidence for me to accept the authority of Scripture as true in all it teaches or would I accept Science and Reason as the final authority?
Dr. Henry Morris
It was in my senior year in college that I began reading The Genesis Flood. This book gave me a solid scientific basis for knowing that Genesis 1-11 is true. A couple of years later I read Genesis in Space and Time. This book gave me a solid Scriptural basis for knowing that Genesis 1-11 is true. Now I have a very solid basis for knowing and believing that the first chapters of Genesis are true in the truest sense! It is not just a concept, but true space-time history. Two years after finishing my BS in Geology I returned to the same university to begin work on a MS in Curriculum and Instruction Education for the purpose of learning how to write curriculum which teaches how to give a defense for our faith. During that time I had a discussion with a former geology professor who although he was a deacon in a mainline church said that he would have failed me in every class had he known I would come to such a view of Scripture.
That brings us to the 1980′s and the beginning of homeschooling. There were not many of us during those early days of home schooling. There were no curriculum fairs and no conventions. But there was a commitment of the parents to raise their children under the authority of God’s Word and that included a historical understanding of all of Genesis. When local groups started conferences there was this same mindset.
About 15 years ago a new movement of education was being introduced into home schooling. This movement began reintroducing, at very young ages, the ideas of Greek and Roman thinking through such readings as The Children’s Homer, The Black Ships Before Troy and many others. Does it sound familiar? Remember the Renaissance? Once again there is a mixing of Greek, Roman, and Christian ideas pouring into the hearts and minds of our young children.
The apostle Paul warned those in his days with these words:
As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming; but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ … (Ephesians 4:14-15)
See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ (Colossians 2:8)
I am concerned for the next generation. What they are taught will soon be what they believe. Pearl S Buck was the daughter of missionary parents in China in the late 1800′s and early 1900′s. She was taught in the morning with a curriculum from a Christian point of view and then in the afternoon she was taught a classical curriculum. In her autobiography, My Two Worlds, she writes this:
“These were strange conflicting days when in the morning I sat over American schoolbooks and learned the lessons assigned to me by my mother… while in the afternoon I studied under the wholly different tutelage of Mr Kung. I become mentally bifocal, and so I learned early to understand that there is no such condition in human affairs as absolute truth. There is only truth as people see it, and truth, even in fact, may be kaleidoscopic in its variety. The damage such perception did to me I have felt ever since, although damage may be too dark a word, for it merely meant that I could never belong entirely to one side of any question.”
“Mentally bifocal” … “kaleidoscopic” … “damage” are powerful words in describing her personal inability to believe in absolute truth.
We must be very careful what we are teaching our children — and particularly our younger children because we know that God is very concerned about what they will believe.
In 1984 Shirley and I started Cornerstone Curriculum so that we could assist parents in preparing their children to give a clear explanation and defense for why they believe what they believe. The foundation for such a defense rests squarely upon the belief that all of Scripture including Genesis 1 – 11 is true space-time history. It is Scripture that gives direction in understanding science, history, and culture and not the reverse. Neither science nor history can be properly understood apart from the revealed Word of God. The starting point is the Word of God and not the thoughts of man. We believe that every course of study is under the authority of Scripture alone. This is what a Biblical World View Education is all about.
God Bless you as you disciple your children,
David and Shirley Quine
Forces in our culture want to rip the foundations of Christian faith right out from under America. Here are four lies we must challenge.
This past week I spent four days preaching at Emmanuel College, a Christian liberal arts school in northeast Georgia. I love speaking to college students because they are spiritually hungry, they love passionate worship and I don’t have to wear a tie.
On the third night (after a young man got saved and delivered of drug addiction—yeah God!) I told the kids I needed to get brutally honest. They gave me permission to shoot straight. Because I genuinely care about them—and because they will be spiritual leaders before too long—I warned them about four lies they must confront.
Every Christian in this country must learn to dissect these lies using the Word of God. The devil is working overtime today to gain control of our nation’s soul. We are in a life-and-death struggle. This is not a time for Christians to be squishy in their faith or spineless in their convictions. We must plant our feet on the bedrock principles of the Bible and oppose each of these lies: “We must start preaching about hell again instead of worrying about who might leave our church or how it might affect our TV ratings.”
1. Hell does not exist. Jesus preached about hell more than anyone in the Bible. His words dripped with love, but He didn’t soft-pedal when addressing the eternal consequences of sin. When He began His ministry, he read from the book of Isaiah, announcing that He had come not only to “proclaim the favorable year of the Lord” but also “the day of vengeance of our God” (Is. 61:2, NASB).
The real gospel is a double-edged sword that offers both the “kindness and severity of God” (Rom. 11:22, emphasis added). That’s why hell is one four-letter word we should use more often—not to condemn people in mean-spirited judgment but to warn them that mercy has a time limit.
The world rejects the concept of hell because it’s too exclusive. Our Oprah-ized culture insists that everyone deserves a warm and fuzzy life free of consequences. “How can a loving God send anyone to hell?” people ask. If we truly love them we will explain that hell is not a metaphor—it is a real place of dreadful separation from God that sinners choose when they reject Him. We must start preaching about hell again instead of worrying about who might leave our church or how our unpopular message might affect our TV ratings.
2. God didn’t create the world. 2009 was the 150th anniversary of the publication of Charles Darwin’s The Origin of Species, so you can be sure the scientific community will bombard us this year with more “proof” of this sketchy theory. The mainstream media and academia insist that evolution is pure fact. Anyone who dares to challenge it is considered a religious idiot.
What people don’t realize is that Darwinism, besides being laughably lacking in scientific basis, has roots in spiritualism. Welsh naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace shared many of Darwin’s beliefs and encouraged him to publish his book. Wallace believed in spirit guides, participated in séances and was intrigued by all things paranormal. He promoted the “science” of evolution because it supported his anti-God views. Is it any wonder, then, that this doctrine he and Darwin propagated has been used to undermine Christianity ever since?
The world does not want to believe in a Creator because if He is real, then He has ultimate authority over His creation. On the flip side, man has no moral responsibility if he crawled out of a primordial soup, grew fins, then legs, and then became a talking ape. Evolution is not really about science at all—it is about rebellion against God’s rule over us.
3. All religions lead to God. This isn’t a new lie, but it is enjoying a revival today. President Bush has obviously flirted with the idea, since he has told reporters that Muslims and Christians worship the same God. Barack Obama attended a church for 20 years that teaches that Jesus is not the only way to salvation—and he has publicly acknowledged that he believes this.
The doctrine of universalism—which states that all people will ultimately gain salvation and enjoy heaven—has become the religion of the masses. Even some charismatic and Pentecostal preachers such as Carlton Pearson of Oklahoma and D.E. Paulk of Atlanta have abandoned biblical orthodoxy to embrace this heresy. They are now on a crusade to rewrite Christian theology—and they have allies in some mainline denominations (such as the Episcopal Church) where the authority of Scripture is denied.
Christians who embrace universalism are like the prophets of Baal in Jezebel’s court who had been neutered. They preach a powerless message that cannot change anyone. We must arise in the spirit of Elijah to confront this deception and prove to the world that the one true God answers by fire.
4. Man can redefine morality. This is perhaps the most deadly lie of all. Everywhere we look today, leaders in media, politics, education and entertainment are plotting the virtual overthrow of conventional morals. They want a hedonistic world with no rules and no guilt. This was most obvious last month when Newsweek published a cover story brazenly claiming that the Bible approves of same-sex marriage.
A lying spirit has invaded many mainline churches and is convincing weak Christians to change their views about homosexuality, abortion and fornication. Evil is called good while those who stand for the biblical values of purity and traditional marriage are labeled bigots.
If we ignore these lies they will engulf us. We need a zero-tolerance policy for spiritual compromise. While we must demonstrate overwhelming compassion and love for sinners, God requires us to oppose cultural brainwashing. We cannot be silent on the issues the devil is attacking.
If you are wavering in your faith on any of these four fundamentals, get honest about your doubts, repent of your lukewarmness and dig in God’s Word until your mind is renewed. Don’t become a brainwash victim.
J. Lee Grady, Charisma’s editor, has been involved in Christian journalism since 1981 and has faced a monthly deadline ever since. A native of Atlanta, he has been with Charisma since 1992, serving as news editor, managing editor and then becoming editor in 1999. He and his wife, Deborah, have four daughters. Lee has won three first-place reporting awards from the Evangelical Press Association, and his monthly column in Charisma, “Fire in My Bones,” has won awards from the Florida Magazine Association.
“Reprinted from Charisma, 600 Rinehart Rd., Lake Mary, FL 32746. www.fireinmybones.com. Used by permission.
I was reading an excellent article this morning by Dr. John Lennox, professor of Mathematics at the University of Oxford, refuting the concepts contained in Dr. Stephen Hawking‘s book, The Grand Design. The article was contained in Dr. Ravi Zacharias‘ fine publication, Just Thinking.
http://www.rzim.org/justthinkingfv/tabid/602/articleid/10745/cbmoduleid/881/default.aspx
Having read Stephen Hawking’s book, I thought John Lennox put into words what I would say about this book myself. This is not a book of hard science, as Dr. Hawking would have us believe, but rather a book of Philosophy (which Dr. Hawking ironically seems to feel is now useless) and Metaphysics. Far from giving us a definite Scientific explanation for how the universe created itself through the laws of physics (the book’s stated goal), it hypothesizes about many non-proven theories that are really speculative science-fiction, rather than observable science.
John Lennox demonstrates how the existence of the laws of Physics (Gravity for example) do NOT disprove the existence of God (as Stephen Hawking claims), but are rather evidence for Him. I am thankful for brilliant scholars like Dr. Lennox who are willing to challenge the intellectual elite and expose when they are merely promoting a presuppositional bias, rather than doing real Science.
I would also encourage you to watch this lecture by Dr. Lennox where he explains his objections to this book in more detail.
