Ken Ham's Blog, page 453

Free MP3: Dinosaurs for Kids (of All Ages!)

When I give my one and a half hour fast-paced, interactive talk entitled "Dinosaurs, Genesis & the Gospel" to kindergarten through sixth grade, I often have a number of parents and teachers come up afterwards and say, "I really enjoyed that and learned a lot!"

Based on the Seven C's (Creation, Corruption, Catastrophe, Confusion, Christ, Cross, Consummation) that we have in the Creation Museum, I developed the seven ages of dinosaurs (the Seven F's).

Formed
Fearless
Fallen
Flood
Found
Faded
Fiction

Really, this presentation—with an emphasis on dinosaurs—gives children a complete overview of the Bible, teaching them how to defend their faith in today's world—with a powerful presentation of the gospel. You also may pick up a number of ideas to help you in teaching children these topics; for instance, I have a number of fun sayings that kids love to learn.

"Billions of dead things buried in rock layers, laid down by water all over the earth."
"It's designed to do what it does do and what it does do it does do well doesn't it, don't you think? I think it does, do you, I do, hope you do too, do you?"

Yes, some of the phrases are tongue in cheek.

And then other ways to teach children (and adults) are used in presenting basic concepts, such as asking the question (politely of course), "Were you there?"

Yes, this is a interactive presentation specially designed for children, but adults and teens tell me they enjoy it too.

You can now listen to this MP3 audio file or download it free.

Today, I give my final two presentations at the GHEA convention (Georgia Home Educators Association) in Atlanta.

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying,

Ken

First Conference for Already Compromised Book

Today I give two presentations at the Georgia Home Educators Association convention. This is the first major conference where I will be speaking that our book Already Compromised will be available. We did have one case of Already Compromised overnighted from the printer for the Worldview conference last weekend in Branson, but that case lasted only a few minutes once people knew limited copies of the book were available. However, this is the first conference where we will have good supplies of the new book. It presents research that is both revealing and shocking in its information about what is being taught at Christian colleges.

Tonight, during my "Relevance of Genesis" presentation, I will give a summary of the findings detailed in the book about the state of Christian colleges in this nation. Here is a photograph of some of our volunteers at the AiG booth in the exhibit hall at the Georgia conference.

You can obtain your copy of Already Compromised from our online store.

Beauty at the Creation Museum

As you drive into the Creation Museum, this is what you will see right now.

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying,

Ken

The Great Christian College Compromise

The following is a copy of the news release sent out to various media outlets this week:

The Great Christian College Compromise: New survey shows America's Christian colleges abandoning their biblical foundations

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PETERSBURG, Ky., May 2, 2011 – Ken Ham , Warner University president Dr. Greg Hall, and renowned researcher Britt Beemer take a penetrating look at how Christian colleges have compromised their beliefs in an eye-opening book releasing May 2 from Master Books, "Already Compromised: Christian Colleges Took a Test on the State of Their Faith and The Final Exam is In."

Surveys have consistently shown that many Christian colleges are compromising on biblical principles by their answers to basic questions about the authority of the Bible. Ham, president of Answers in Genesis and the acclaimed Creation Museum , issues a clarion call to parents everywhere who are contemplating sending their teenager to a Christian college:

"Knowing that compromise (to one degree or another) awaits our kids, we had to contend with where to send them and try to prepare them for battle and encourage them to keep their guard up," states the book.

Beemer's America's Research Group (ARG) surveyed schools associated with the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities (CCCU), a group of more than 90 colleges that require all of their professors to sign a personal statement of faith. Other respondents were from schools that were "religiously affiliated" through an association with a religious denomination. Over 300 leaders at Christian colleges participated in the survey.

"We are not questioning anyone's faith or Christian commitment at these colleges. We are examining what is being taught on important issues like biblical inerrancy, especially when it comes to Genesis," Ham says. "Many of these schools claim to teach the 'inerrant Word of God,' yet gloss over the first book of the Bible as mere allegory."

In conducting the survey, the authors used open-ended and close-ended questions so answers could be compared. They also looked at various statements of faith from churches, Christian colleges, etc., through an internet search, and found that most statements of faith had a very general statement (if any) on creation.

"Such general statements can sadly lead to the door of compromise being opened and eventually lead a college, church, etc., down the liberal path," the book says.

While the survey did bring out some surprising results, "24 percent of the 312 people surveyed answered every question correctly … and these are the 'good guys!' These are the institutions that require testimonies of faith from their professors or have strong religious affiliations," the book says.

Many Christian parents mistakenly assume that if they send their children to a self-described Christian college, they are protecting their children's faith from non-biblical ideas such as evolution, and providing their children with a more morally nurturing environment, the book states.

Hall explains that parents are sending their students into the schools assuming that they are going to be faith-nurturing and truth-affirming institutions. He says that in reality many of the schools discredit faith, discredit the Bible, and break kids down rather than build them up. Many young people who have attended such Christian colleges leave the Christian faith as a result.  Just as the previous book by Ham and Beemer ("Already Gone") explored, young people are leaving the church in droves (many over biblical authority issues), and Christian colleges are contributing to this exodus.

"There are good Christian schools out there and we feel they are better than secular alternatives by far. But these issues of compromise have to be addressed," the book concludes.

In the end, Ham and Hall call for students and parents to get involved and become aware of what is being taught on campus and to ask probing questions of school officials and professors about biblical inerrancy. The newly launched companion website for "Already Compromised"—www.CreationColleges.org—can help as well.

You can order Already Compromised on the AiG online store.

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying,

Ken

Congratulations to our Radio Friends in Dayton and Springfield

It's probably something we don't do enough as a ministry—thanking our radio partners for carrying our Answers daily radio program. This time, we want to congratulate WFCJ and WEEC in Ohio for their fiftieth anniversary. WFCJ has been a partner with AiG in many ways, including their conducting of live radio broadcasts from the Creation Museum (Dayton is about a 75-mile drive north of us). WEEC is the "sister station" located in Springfield.

AiG's Mark Looy and his wife Renee attended their gala anniversary last Friday night. In addition to hearing the worship music of well-known Christian recording artist Steve Green, they were blessed to hear a message from Woodrow Kroll of Back to the Bible on the theme of the faithfulness of God. I remember listening to the Back to the Bible radio program when I lived in Australia—when Theodore Epp was the host; Woodrow Kroll is only the third host of Back to the Bible in its long broadcasting history. Dr. Kroll is also a friend of Answers in Genesis and spoke at one of our staff chapels a few years ago.

Here are some photos of the Friday evening event, which was held in the beautiful Schuster Theater in downtown Dayton.

Mark Looy (right) with long-time ministry friends Bill Nance (program director of WFCJ) and Melody Morris; both of them have been to the museum a few times since we opened almost four years ago.

Steve Green conducts the worship time at the anniversary celebration.

Pastor Woodrow Kroll speaks to the 2,000 people who were in attendance for this celebration.

For more information, see AiG's Answers radio program.

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying,

Ken

"The Bible Is Dead—Long Live the Bible"

Recently, AiG published the book Demolishing Contradictions.

This is just the first in a series of books to help people be equipped with answers to what are claimed to be contradictions in the Bible.

I have found that once you are able to give answers to the issues of evolution and millions of years skeptics often get frustrated. They then move on to claim there are all sorts of inconsistencies or contradictions in the Bible.

I remember when political commentator and stand-up comedian Bill Maher broke into our offices (see previous blog post on this incident). His colleagues sneaked him in through the back door while the museum was still a construction zone. He then deceived us into an interview. The cameras were rolling and he began interviewing me. I did not know who he was and thought that his presence in the office had been approved by our publicist. He asked all sorts of questions about creation, evolution, and age of earth issues. I could tell he was getting frustrated. At one stage, his producer blurted out something like, "Do you have an answer for everything?" They were really upset that we were able to give answers to defend our faith and uphold God's Word.

So Maher started a different tact. He then asked something like, "What about all the contradictions in the Bible?" I had a Bible on my desk, so I handed it to him and asked, "Which contradictions are you talking about? Can you show me?" He took the Bible, then handed it back and mumbled something like, "Let's go on to something else."

AiG researcher and speaker Bodie Hodge (right) talked to the staff this morning about our new Demolishing Contradictions book and summarized its contents. Dan Zordel is on the left.

The three Answers Books have been AiG's biggest-selling apologetics resources. They are extremely popular. But we also recognized the need to begin producing books that detail answers to the supposed contradictions in the Bible.

I saw this need once again recently when I read an article in The Chronicle of Higher Education by Timothy Beal, a professor of religion at Case Western Reserve University in Ohio. The article was excerpted from his book The Rise and Fall of the Bible: The Unexpected History of an Accidental Book.

For instance in this essay we read the following:

The Bible is dead; long live the Bible. Not as the book of answers but as a library of questions, not as a wellspring of truth but as a pool of imagination, a place that hosts our explorations, rich in ambiguity, contradiction, and argument. A place that, in its failure to give clear answers and its refusal to be contained by any synopsis or conclusion, points beyond itself to mystery, which is at the heart of the life of faith. We might even go so far as to say that the Bible kills itself. It deconstructs itself. Reading it undermines the iconic idea of it as a univocal, divinely authored book and our desire to attach to it as such. Scriptures have a tendency to exceed the boundaries of orthodoxy and resist closure. The Bible keeps reopening theological cans of worms. It resists its own impoverishment by univocality. In so doing, it fails to give answers, leaving readers biblically ungrounded.

One of the main points in this essay concerns the supposed contradictions in the Bible. It was interesting to note that two of the main ones brought up in this essay are dealt with in Demolishing Contradictions. These are questions we have previously answered many times over the years. Such answers have been available on the AiG website for along time.

Beal's essay continues.

Given how many hands have been involved in so many contexts over such a long time in the history of this literature, can we honestly imagine that no one noticed such glaring discrepancies? Can we believe, for example, that the seam between the first and second creation stories in Genesis, as well as the many other seams found throughout the Torah, were not obvious? That if agreement and univocality were the goal, such discrepancies would not have been fixed and such rough seams mended long ago? That creation stories would have been made to conform or be removed?…That Judas would have died twice, once by suicide and once by divine disgorge? And so on. Could all those many, many people involved in the development of biblical literature and the canon of Scriptures have been so blind, so stupid? It's modern arrogance to imagine so.

The supposed contradictions between Genesis 1 and Genesis 2 are so easy to answer. Genesis 1 is an overview of creation in chronological order (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6). Most of Genesis 2 is a detailed account of the sixth day of creation. For example, in Genesis 1 we read that God made man "male and female" (Genesis 1:27). Then in Genesis 2 we read the details of how God took dust and made man and then showed animals to man to name. Adam then realized that he was also, so God put Adam to sleep and made the first woman from his side. They were "one flesh" (Genesis 2:24). In Matthew 19, dealing with the topic of marriage, Jesus quoted from Genesis 1:27 and Genesis 2:24 referring to the same one man and one woman in marriage. Jesus obviously did not view Genesis 1 and Genesis 2 as contradictory. Rather, they are complementary accounts—one being more of a detailed explanation of certain aspects from the overview account.

The accounts in the gospels dealing with the death of Judas are similarly complementary. One deals with the fact that Judas hung himself. The other deals with a specific aspect of what happened as a result of his suicide—as the body then began to decay, it fell and split open. There is no contradiction here, just more details of an aspect of the death of Judas.

In his essay, the religion professor states the following:

For many potential Bible readers, that expectation that the Bible is univocal is paralyzing. You notice what seem to be contradictions or tensions between different voices in the text. You can't find an obvious way to reconcile them. You figure that it must be your problem. You don't know how to read it correctly, or you're missing something. If the Bible is God's perfect, infallible Word, then any misunderstanding or ambiguity must be the result of our own depravity. So you either give up or let someone holier than thou tell you "what it really says." I think that's tragic. You're letting someone else impoverish it for you, when in fact you have just brushed up against the rich polyvocality of biblical literature.

Actually, he really has answered the real problem with such supposed contradictions when he states, "If the Bible is God's perfect, infallible Word, then any misunderstanding or ambiguity must be the result of our own depravity." Yes, we are finite, fallible, sinful creatures who don't want the truth. If we come to the Bible looking at it as a work of man, we will believe we "see" problems. But if we come to the Bible, recognizing it for what it claims to be—the God-breathed Word (2 Timothy 3:16)—then we see things differently. If we come to the Bible with the right attitude, instead of "seeing" problems, we will carefully study the supposed problems. As you do so, you will overwhelmingly find that there are answers.

Now I am not saying we will always have all the answers, as we don't know everything. But over the years, I have seen many of the supposed contradictions and problems in the Bible answered. Sometimes archaeology has given us information we previously didn't have, or we have found other information that has shed light on what was thought to be a problem.

Answers in Genesis is going to be producing more volumes of the Demolishing Contradictions series. If you don't have the first volume, I urge you to obtain one.

I am reminded of the verse, "Let God be true but every man a liar" (Romans 3:4).

Sadly, what Beal  states in this essay is even taught by professors at some Christian colleges. I urge you to order a copy of our new book, Already Compromised, that challenges Christians concerning what is being taught to students at Christian colleges. This book will also help parents be equipped to ask the right questions of the professors and administrators at Christian colleges to ensure they know what is going to be taught to the children they will be entrusting them to for their higher education.

You can read the entire article by this religion professor.

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying,

Ken

"The Bible Is Dead; Long Live the Bible"

Recently, AiG published the book Demolishing Contradictions.

This is just the first in a series of books to help people be equipped with answers to what are claimed to be contradictions in the Bible.

I have found that once you are able to give answers to the issues of evolution and millions of years skeptics often get frustrated. They then move on to claim there are all sorts of inconsistencies or contradictions in the Bible.

I remember when political commentator and stand-up comedian Bill Maher broke into our offices (see previous blog post on this incident). His colleagues sneaked him in through the back door while the museum was still a construction zone. He then deceived us into an interview. The cameras were rolling and he began interviewing me. I did not know who he was and thought that his presence in the office had been approved by our publicist. He asked all sorts of questions about creation, evolution, and age of earth issues. I could tell he was getting frustrated. At one stage, his producer blurted out something like, "Do you have an answer for everything?" They were really upset that we were able to give answers to defend our faith and uphold God's Word.

So Maher started a different tact. He then asked something like, "What about all the contradictions in the Bible?" I had a Bible on my desk, so I handed it to him and asked, "Which contradictions are you talking about? Can you show me?" He took the Bible, then handed it back and mumbled something like, "Let's go on to something else."

AiG researcher and speaker Bodie Hodge (right) talked to the staff this morning about our new Demolishing Contradictions book and summarized its contents. Dan Zordel is on the left.

The three Answers Books have been AiG's biggest-selling apologetics resources. They are extremely popular. But we also recognized the need to begin producing books that detail answers to the supposed contradictions in the Bible.

I saw this need once again recently when I read an article in The Chronicle of Higher Education by Timothy Beal, a professor of religion at Case Western Reserve University in Ohio. The article was excerpted from his book The Rise and Fall of the Bible: The Unexpected History of an Accidental Book.

For instance in this essay we read the following:

The Bible is dead; long live the Bible. Not as the book of answers but as a library of questions, not as a wellspring of truth but as a pool of imagination, a place that hosts our explorations, rich in ambiguity, contradiction, and argument. A place that, in its failure to give clear answers and its refusal to be contained by any synopsis or conclusion, points beyond itself to mystery, which is at the heart of the life of faith. We might even go so far as to say that the Bible kills itself. It deconstructs itself. Reading it undermines the iconic idea of it as a univocal, divinely authored book and our desire to attach to it as such. Scriptures have a tendency to exceed the boundaries of orthodoxy and resist closure. The Bible keeps reopening theological cans of worms. It resists its own impoverishment by univocality. In so doing, it fails to give answers, leaving readers biblically ungrounded.

One of the main points in this essay concerns the supposed contradictions in the Bible. It was interesting to note that two of the main ones brought up in this essay are dealt with in Demolishing Contradictions. These are questions we have previously answered many times over the years. Such answers have been available on the AiG website for along time.

Beal's essay continues.

Given how many hands have been involved in so many contexts over such a long time in the history of this literature, can we honestly imagine that no one noticed such glaring discrepancies? Can we believe, for example, that the seam between the first and second creation stories in Genesis, as well as the many other seams found throughout the Torah, were not obvious? That if agreement and univocality were the goal, such discrepancies would not have been fixed and such rough seams mended long ago? That creation stories would have been made to conform or be removed?…That Judas would have died twice, once by suicide and once by divine disgorge? And so on. Could all those many, many people involved in the development of biblical literature and the canon of Scriptures have been so blind, so stupid? It's modern arrogance to imagine so.

The supposed contradictions between Genesis 1 and Genesis 2 are so easy to answer. Genesis 1 is an overview of creation in chronological order (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6). Most of Genesis 2 is a detailed account of the sixth day of creation. For example, in Genesis 1 we read that God made man "male and female" (Genesis 1:27). Then in Genesis 2 we read the details of how God took dust and made man and then showed animals to man to name. Adam then realized that he was also, so God put Adam to sleep and made the first woman from his side. They were "one flesh" (Genesis 2:24). In Matthew 19, dealing with the topic of marriage, Jesus quoted from Genesis 1:27 and Genesis 2:24 referring to the same one man and one woman in marriage. Jesus obviously did not view Genesis 1 and Genesis 2 as contradictory. Rather, they are complementary accounts—one being more of a detailed explanation of certain aspects from the overview account.

The accounts in the gospels dealing with the death of Judas are similarly complementary. One deals with the fact that Judas hung himself. The other deals with a specific aspect of what happened as a result of his suicide—as the body then began to decay, it fell and split open. There is no contradiction here, just more details of an aspect of the death of Judas.

In his essay, the religion professor states the following:

For many potential Bible readers, that expectation that the Bible is univocal is paralyzing. You notice what seem to be contradictions or tensions between different voices in the text. You can't find an obvious way to reconcile them. You figure that it must be your problem. You don't know how to read it correctly, or you're missing something. If the Bible is God's perfect, infallible Word, then any misunderstanding or ambiguity must be the result of our own depravity. So you either give up or let someone holier than thou tell you "what it really says." I think that's tragic. You're letting someone else impoverish it for you, when in fact you have just brushed up against the rich polyvocality of biblical literature.

Actually, he really has answered the real problem with such supposed contradictions when he states, "If the Bible is God's perfect, infallible Word, then any misunderstanding or ambiguity must be the result of our own depravity." Yes, we are finite, fallible, sinful creatures who don't want the truth. If we come to the Bible looking at it as a work of man, we will believe we "see" problems. But if we come to the Bible, recognizing it for what it claims to be—the God-breathed Word (2 Timothy 3:16)—then we see things differently. If we come to the Bible with the right attitude, instead of "seeing" problems, we will carefully study the supposed problems. As you do so, you will overwhelmingly find that there are answers.

Now I am not saying we will always have all the answers, as we don't know everything. But over the years, I have seen many of the supposed contradictions and problems in the Bible answered. Sometimes archaeology has given us information we previously didn't have, or we have found other information that has shed light on what was thought to be a problem.

Answers in Genesis is going to be producing more volumes of the Demolishing Contradictions series. If you don't have the first volume, I urge you to obtain one.

I am reminded of the verse, "Let God be true but every man a liar" (Romans 3:4).

Sadly, what Beal  states in this essay is even taught by professors at some Christian colleges. I urge you to order a copy of our new book, Already Compromised, that challenges Christians concerning what is being taught to students at Christian colleges. This book will also help parents be equipped to ask the right questions of the professors and administrators at Christian colleges to ensure they know what is going to be taught to the children they will be entrusting them to for their higher education.

You can read the entire article by this religion professor.

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying,

Ken

Creation Sundays

I want to introduce you to a friend of AiG—Rev. Tony Breeden. He is involved in a special project entitled "Creation Sundays." I urge you to pass this information on to your pastor and encourage him to become involved. Rev. Breeden sent me the following:

I want Bible-affirming churches to celebrate a Creation Sunday on February 12, 2012, not an Evolution Sunday. You see , earlier this year, 652 congregations participated in Evolution Sunday, preaching Darwin from our very pulpits and sowing confusion in the pews over biblical authority. It gave the media the false impression that Christianity and millions of years/evolution are compatible. Next year's Evolution Weekend (Feb. 12, 2012) actually falls on Darwin 's birthday so we expect Darwin Day celebrants to combine forces with compromising clergy to give evolution even more press.

On that same date, I'm urging churches to make a stand for the authority of God's Word and to let people know there's a Bible-affirming church in their area by celebrating a Creation Sunday instead. We're also urging churches to go ahead and have a Creation Sunday this summer if they'd like to get a head start. Find out more at http://CreationSundays.com

–   Rev. Tony Breeden

Branson Worldview Weekend

Here are two photographs taken at the Branson Worldview Weekend in Missouri where I spoke this past Friday and Saturday.

The auditorium

People crowding around the AiG resources tables

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying,

Ken

The Survey Says . . .

In a recent survey conducted by America's Research Group, AiG and ARG looked into why two thirds of our youth will leave conservative, evangelical churches when they reach college age. It was discovered that unanswered questions greatly contributed to faith-shattering doubt in the Bible. The book Already Gone (now a best-seller) explains these eye-opening results and provides practical solutions for church leaders to know how to reach their youth with the truths of the Bible. One of the major problems is that most churches are not teaching creation and general Christian apologetics.

Answers in Genesis is a leading apologetics organization helping to equip the church to be able to defend the Christian faith in today's world, and thus be more effective in proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ. I urge churches to prayerfully consider hosting an Answers in Genesis conference so that your people—especially your youth, but in fact, the entire church—can be equipped to defend the Christian faith against the increasing secular attacks of our day.

AiG's Bible-affirming conferences have been designed to assist you and your church in carrying out the Great Commission. AiG speakers, with given communicative skills, are highly qualified to speak on a range of biblical and scientific topics, and they have God all associated with relating Genesis to biblical authority, the gospel, and the Christian worldview. Some of the more popular topics discussed are the following:

Why is our Western world declining from a Christian perspective?
What is the Bible's answer to the origin of "races" and what's the solution to racism?
Where did Cain get his wife?
How do dinosaurs "fit" into biblical history? Were they on the Ark?
Do dating methods prove the earth is old?
Can Christians believe in millions of years?
How can there be a loving God in this world of death and suffering?
How can Christians evangelize a secularized culture?
Was there really a global Flood? How did Noah fit the animals on the Ark?

You can request an AiG conference.

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying,

Ken

Free MP3: One Race, One Blood

When I first moved to the USA 24 years ago, I was shocked at the racism and prejudice I observed in certain churches in some parts of the country. This racism and prejudice were mainly centered around the shade of one's skin—dark and light. I was also amazed that the American church has not been leading the way in recent times in dealing with racism. Then I began to realize more and more that so much of the church had compromised the book of Genesis or had ignored its history, and they concentrated on moral and spiritual matters pertaining to the New Testament and largely pushing the Old Testament aside. I now understood why the church was not leading in this important area.

In recent times, in many ways the secular world has been leading the way in dealing with issues of "race" relations, particularly as operational (observational) science has confirmed there is only one human race! And this is what God's people should have always understood from the Bible anyway, as we are all descendants of one man and one woman—one biological race.

We are pleased to release my presentation for you to listen to or download free entitled One Race, One Blood.

Here is an outline.

Answering the question: Where did Cain get his wife?
Basic genetics—dogs belong to one family.  "Natural selection" and "speciation"—evidence against evolution.
Applying basic genetics to the human family.
Evolution has helped fuel a particular type of racism.
Research confirms one race genetically in humans.
The so called "racial" differences are insignificant—the main differences are cultural.
People groups—not racial groups.
The Tower of Babel helped form different cultural groups/people groups.
Understanding skin "color"—different shades, not different colors.
There is no "curse of Ham."
Understanding "interracial" marriage.
Applying the correct understanding of human history to our everyday world.

You can listen to this MP3 audio or download free.

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying,

Ken

Which Well-known Pastor Participated in This Pro-evolution Workshop?

We agree that the methods of the natural sciences provide the most reliable guide to understanding the material world, and the current evidence from science indicates that the diversity of life is best explained as a result of an evolutionary process. Thus BioLogos affirms that evolution is a means by which God providentially achieves God's purposes . . . We acknowledge the challenge of providing an account of origins that does full justice both to science and to the biblical record. Based on our discussions, we affirm that there are several options that can achieve this synthesis, including some which involve a historical couple, Adam and Eve, and that embrace the compelling conclusions that the earth is more than four billion years old and that all species on this planet are historically related through the process of evolution. We commit ourselves to spreading the word about such harmonious accounts of truth that God has revealed in the Bible and through science.*

This statement (the full statement is reprinted below) was composed as the result of a 2010 BioLogos workshop in which several well-known Christian academics participated, such as Dr. Peter Enns (someone we've discussed in this blog a few times) of the pro-evolution organization BioLogos. The workshop included Pastor Tim Keller, the well-known senior pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City.

In 2009, Pastor Keller co-sponsored a major BioLogos workshop. It was attended by many well-known theistic evolutionists—both scientists and theologians. It was held in November of 2009 at the Harvard Club in New York City and was entitled "In Search of a Theology of Celebration." The workshop participants were the following: Tim Keller, Jennifer Wiseman, Denis Alexander, Kathryn Applegate, Dean E. Arnold, R.J. Berry, Dorothy Boorse, Pastor Greg Boyd, Joel Carpenter, Pastor Dan Cho, Pastor Sheila Coleman, Francis Collins, E. David Cook, Michael Cromartie, Karl Giberson, Owen Gingerich, Os Guinness, Daniel Harrell, John Haught, Jack Hayford, Pastor Joel Hunter, Randy Isaac, Jack Johnson, David Kim, Kelly Monroe Kullberg, Ard Louis, Mark Noll, Pastor Tom Oord, Pastor Earl Palmer, William Phillips, Jeff Schloss, Pastor Dean Smith, Cara Wall-Scheffler, Bruce Waltke, John Walton, Luder Whitlock, Dallas Willard, N.T. Wright, and Philip Yancey.

A second BioLogos workshop was held in 2010. It's not fully clear what Pastor Keller's role was in bringing this second workshop together. But it was at the same New York City location and had the same theme. Except this time, the workshop issued a summary statement about evolution and the age of the earth (among other topics), and it was drafted after consultations by workshop participants that included Pastor Keller as well as the following: Denis Alexander, Kathryn Applegate, Robert C. Bishop, Stephen Ashley Blake, Jim and Carolyn Blankemeyer, Barbara Bryant, R. Judson Carlberg, Ron Choong, Francis Collins, Michael Cromartie, Pete Enns, Catherine Crouch, Andy Crouch, Darrel Falk, Leighton Ford, Kerry Fulcher, Karl Giberson, Charley Gordon, Os Guinness, Deborah Haarsma, Daniel Harrell, Matthew J. Heynen, Joel C. Hunter, Ian Hutchinson, Randy Isaac, Sidney J. and Catherine Jansma, Tim Keller, Paul H. Lange, Ard Louis, Patrick McDonald, Tim O'Connor, Thomas Jay Oord, Jeff Schloss, Randy Scott, Sanford C. "Sandy" Shugart, Dean Smith, Mark Sprinkle, Tim Stafford, Dave Ussery, Luder Whitlock, Philip Yancey, Amos Yong.

Here is the full statement. Now, it could be that Pastor Keller didn't necessarily sign off on this entire statement but allowed his name to be included as someone who had input in the document. Regarding the names of the workshop participants at the end of the document and above, it states, "The following individuals were present and thoughtfully participated in the group discussion that produced this statement." But based on what our research team has discovered about Pastor Keller's beliefs concerning Genesis and his endorsement of the work of the pro-evolution BioLogos group (he writes for BioLogos; plus, as we noted above, he co-hosted the 2009 BioLogos workshop),* it appears the BioLogos' statement (below) generally reflects his views on how Genesis is to be taken. And note that in the statement below, the collective "we affirm" is used a few times and the names of the leaders are given underneath it, so the implication is that Pastor Keller agrees with the document's contents.

I have bolded some of the statement's sections for emphasis.

Summary Statement

Science and Faith

We affirm historic Christianity as articulated in the classic ecumenical creeds. Beyond the original creation, God continues to act in the natural world by sustaining it and by providentially guiding it toward the goal of a restored and consummated creation. In contrast to Deism, BioLogos affirms God's direct involvement in human history, including singular acts such as the incarnation and resurrection of Christ, as well as ongoing acts such as answers to prayer and acts of salvation and personal transformation.

We also affirm the value of science, which eloquently describes the glory of God's creation. We stand with a long tradition of Christians for whom faith and science are mutually hospitable, and we see no necessary conflict between the Bible and the findings of science. We reject, however, the unspoken philosophical presuppositions of scientism, the belief that science is the sole source of all knowledge.

In recent years voices have emerged who seek to undermine religious faith as intellectually disreputable, in part because of its alleged dissonance with science. Some go further, characterizing religion as a "mind virus" or a cultural evil. While many of their ideas are not new, these voices are often identified as the New Atheists, and scientism undergirds their thinking.

In contrast to scientism, we deny that the material world constitutes the whole of reality and that science is our only path to truth. For all its fruitfulness, science is not an all-inclusive source of knowledge; scientism fails to recognize its limitations in fully understanding reality, including such matters as beauty, history, love, justice, friendship, and indeed science itself. We agree that the methods of the natural sciences provide the most reliable guide to understanding the material world, and the current evidence from science indicates that the diversity of life is best explained as a result of an evolutionary process. Thus BioLogos affirms that evolution is a means by which God providentially achieves God's purposes.

Accounts of Origins

We affirm without reservation both the authority of the Bible and the integrity of science, accepting each of the "Two Books" (the Word and Works of God) as God's revelations to humankind. Specifically, we affirm the central truth of the biblical accounts of Adam and Eve in revealing the character of God, the character of human beings, and the inherent goodness of the material creation.We acknowledge the challenge of providing an account of origins that does full justice both to science and to the biblical record. Based on our discussions, we affirm that there are several options that can achieve this synthesis, including some which involve a historical couple, Adam and Eve, and that embrace the compelling conclusions that the earth is more than four billion years old and that all species on this planet are historically related through the process of evolution. We commit ourselves to spreading the word about such harmonious accounts of truth that God has revealed in the Bible and through science.*

I must admit it is perplexing to see a very good preacher of the Word and one who has a heart to reach people with the gospel like Tim Keller being involved with BioLogos and helping to compose such a Bible-compromising statement.

By the way, from what I have read about Pastor Keller, it seems one of his favorite Christian authors is my favorite writer—Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones. He was a great expositional preacher of England and Wales in the twentieth

century. In fact, I remember seeing a letter that Pastor Lloyd-Jones wrote to someone in England after being asked if he believed God created the universe in seven days.  His reply went something like this: "No. He created everything is six days." Pastor Lloyd-Jones certainly believed in six literal creation days and taught against evolution.

In his book What Is an Evangelical?, Lloyd-Jones actually gives his own summary statement about how to accept the Genesis account of origins. This may well be used as a response to the summary statements we have read from BioLogos. He declares the following:

We accept the biblical teaching with regard to creation and do not base our position upon theories of evolution, whichever particular theory people may choose to advocate. We must assert that we believe in the being of one first man called Adam and in one first woman called Eve. We reject any notion of a pre-Adamic man because it is contrary to the teaching of the Scripture.**

Further, Lloyd-Jones stated the following:

If we say that we believe the Bible to be the Word of God, we must say that about the whole of the Bible, and when the Bible presents itself to us as history, we must accept it as history. I would contend that the early chapters of Genesis, the first three chapters of Genesis, are given to us as history.**

While Dr. Lloyd-Jones is not saying that you must reject evolution to be a Christian, he is saying that evolution is a straying from the truth and biblical authority, and as such is a divisive philosophy in the Christian church. This would indicate that Dr. Lloyd-Jones was prepared to make this matter of biblical authority an essential and foundational truth for unity among evangelicals. We would expect that if Dr. Lloyd-Jones were alive today, he would be appealing to Pastor Keller to return to the unity that can only be found in the truth of Christ and the whole counsel of His entire Word. This is also our appeal for Pastor Keller.

We need to understand that there is an increasingly aggressive effort—more than ever before and by many Christian leaders—to convince the church to believe in evolution and millions of years and to convince Christians not to take an authoritative stand on six literal creation days, a young earth, and so on. There is no doubt that the recent AiG book Already Gone and the coming sequel (May 1 release) Already Compromised are timely publications to open the eyes of Christians regarding the destructive nature of this compromise of Genesis with evolution and millions of years.

Make sure you have read Already Gone and have ordered Already Compromised.

The battle in the church over the authority of God's Word beginning in Genesis is greatly heating up. Make sure you are informed and equipped so you can defend the Christian faith.

Footnotes

* http://biologos.org/blog/the-biologos-foundations-theology-of-celebration-ii-workshop/CP1/.

** Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, What Is an Evangelical?, Banner of Truth Trust, pages 74–75, 1992 (reprint 2002).