Creation to the world!
by Robert Doolan
A student in Africa was travelling to college on the bus when a friend gave her
an old copy of Creation magazine. For the whole 45-minute bus ride, the
student told us later, she was enthralled with reading one fascinating article after
another.
‘I could not do any work that day in school, other than reading Creation
magazine’, she said. ‘It is wonderful. Thank you.’
We wouldn’t encourage students to neglect their studies to read Creation
magazine, of course, but it is amazing the effect it sometimes has on people. We
hear such stories regularly. And it thrills us to hear these spontaneous testimonies
from Christians in more than 70 countries.
… Like that of the family who live in a lighthouse perched on a rock out
in the Pacific Ocean. Surrounded by the awesome beauty and wonder of God’s
creation, and isolated from fellowship with other Christians, they eagerly await
each mail plane when it’s time for Creation magazine to arrive.
And there was the pastor who was in hospital reading some of the latest anti-evolutionary
arguments, when an atheist was wheeled in to share the room with him. By the time
both men were discharged from hospital, the atheist admitted he was seriously reconsidering
his position.
Then there is the lady in Wales whose letter to the editor appears in this issue.
She was fascinated by the interview we ran with Dr Joachim Scheven about ‘living
fossils’. After seeing the beautiful full-page picture of fossil and living
ginkgo leaves, which we used as an illustration to show that these trees hadn’t
evolved over supposed millions of years, this lady realized that a ginkgo tree was
growing in her area.
She told the local government body, they sent someone to verify it, found it was
rare for that locality, and immediately issued a protection order for the tree.
All that from a photo in Creation magazine!
Escaped from cult
We are delighted too at how the Lord works in the lives of non-Christian readers.
A young man involved with a major cult started reading Creation magazine.
He kept writing to us with questions about creation and Christianity—and we
kept answering him and praying for his salvation. But we also challenged him to
compare what the cult had taught him with what was in the Bible. Eventually he abandoned
the cult and committed his life to Jesus Christ.
A couple of years ago, a non-Christian distant relative of my wife—a schoolteacher—called
in to visit my family while she was in town. My wife showed her some issues of Creation
magazine and told her I was the editor. She was impressed, and asked if she could
take the magazines home.
Shortly after this she found that some friends of hers were already subscribing
to the magazine. Her interest in Christianity grew and she soon became a Christian.
Then her husband also received Christ as his Saviour. They now attend church regularly
with their young daughter, who is growing up as a fine Christian too.
We published a letter in our previous issue along similar lines. A wife had been
trying for years to encourage her atheist husband to attend church with the family.
He began to read Creation magazine, and the Lord used it to break down
barriers. The lady wrote to thank us, and said, ‘But the most wonderful change
is that my husband attends church with us! He’s stated we attend church as
a family.’
It encourages us too that so many other magazines around the world seek us out to
reprint our articles. In these days of growing liberalism, falling church attendance,
and Christian publications closing through lack of support, we are humbled that
our Lord is giving us remarkable increases in readers. So we are glad that other
Christian publications see the necessity of getting back to the basics of Christianity,
and use our material to fight the anti-Scriptural doctrines of evolution and humanism.
Our reprinted articles have appeared in publications in Sweden, Poland, the Netherlands,
Russia, Spain, Switzerland, Peru, Mexico, and many other non-English speaking countries,
as well as countless English-language publications.
One day a small magazine arrived for me, written completely in an Indian script.
I had no idea why anyone would send me a magazine I couldn’t read, until I
noticed the name ‘Noel Weeks’ written in English among the Indian characters.
I worked out that someone in India had translated an article from Creation
magazine which university lecturer Dr Noel Weeks had written for us some years ago.
Most popular article
People sometimes ask what has been the most popular article we’ve ever published.
It may surprise you, but our most popular article was almost certainly a short half-page
item in the issue of September–November 1987. It was titled ‘The Last
Pterodactyl’. The article simply mentioned an old news report which appeared
in The Illustrated London News of February 9, 1856 (p. 166), about some
miners in France who were digging a railway tunnel when they reportedly disturbed
a living pterodactyl. (Pterodactyls were huge, supposedly extinct, flying reptiles.) [Ed. note: the author has since retracted his claim about the Illustrated London News report on the living pterosaur, since new evidence shows that it was a hoax.]
Requests for more information on this find came in from all over the world for years,
even though we had no more information. Several universities and public libraries
were bombarded with requests from Creation magazine readers trying to get
photocopies of The Illustrated London News article for talks, sermons,
Sunday school classes, and just to show friends.
Our most popular subject by far has been dinosaurs, with hardly an issue of Creation
magazine going by without either a news report or article on these amazing creatures.
With the latest dinomania fuelled by Jurassic Park, Christians have looked
to us and other quality creationist books for information to counteract the evolutionary
brainwashing that has ridden on its tail.
With other articles, the most reprinted editorial was ‘A golden calf is replacing
the God of creation’ (March–May 1991), which pointed out how subtly
society has replaced the God of the Bible with a god made in its own image. It was
reprinted in 13 other Christian publications—including a fairly liberal church
magazine by a sympathetic editor, who suddenly found himself the object of wrath
by indignant readers who, tragically, suggested he should stop believing everything
he reads in the Bible.
A number of prominent people regularly see Creation magazine. A leading
government anti-corruption official loves it. A former police commissioner gets
it. People at NASA read it. The King of Tonga has seen it. Some of the world’s
leading scientists wouldn’t miss it. Many well-known church leaders, Bible
translators, and effective Christian missionaries use it. But most readers are people
like you!
Australia’s Macquarie Dictionary (the Australian equivalent of Webster’s
and Oxford) has used Creation magazine as its reference for now including creation
science in its Dictionary of New Words. Unfortunately, the evolution-soaked
Encyclopaedia Britannica still discriminates against creation science
by refusing it an entry.
Smashes blockades
You will realize from all this that Creation magazine has become more than
just a source of information and a faith-strengthener to help students, missionaries,
pastors, teachers, and Christian families—and is also much more than just
informative entertainment. The Lord has brought together a unique team of regular
contributors, and workers behind the scenes, to provide a quality magazine which
He is using to smash down major anti-biblical blockades.
Yet none of the writers, artists, photographers, typists, reviewers or any others
works exclusively on the magazine. We all have other tasks aswell. Many volunteer
their services for no payment. We largely avoid advertising, cannot pay for articles
or most photographs, and we have a small budget each issue that amazes people when
they see how much is done with it compared with big-budget commercial publications.
In addition, many copies of Creation magazine are supplied free to high
school libraries, prisoners, missionaries, and people in Third World countries who
cannot pay, and who may pass a single magazine around to hundreds of others in their
village or school.
Only through the Lord’s kindness are we able to present a magazine that is
all those things to all those people. The Lord produced a big Bible through small
men—so we are more than happy to let Him build our magazine for His glory.
God is using Creation magazine to give Christians answers to strengthen
their faith, and to cause non-Christians to reconsider whether they can honestly
continue believing the crumbling theory of evolution.
One supporter wrote: ‘This service that you perform is not only supplying
the needs of God’s people, but is also overflowing in many expressions of
thanks to God. Because of the service by which you have proved yourselves, people
will praise God for the obedience that accompanies your confession of the Gospel
of Christ.’
Those are wonderfully encouraging words. And we can understand how the early Christians
would have felt to receive such a message from the Apostle Paul, for it is a paraphrase
of 2 Corinthians 9:12–13.
We feel privileged at having so many readers like yourself who help us spread the
message by giving gift subscriptions, who send photographs for us to use at no charge,
who regularly pray for us, who donate their valuable time and money, and help in
countless other ways.
And we feel truly honoured to be a part of supplying the Gospel of the Saviour and
Creator of the world, Jesus Christ, to those who are responsive to its truth.
That’s why we believe it’s so important to provide Creation
magazine to the world!
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