You bet there’s an impact!
by Gary Bates
First published in a CMI newsletter
Recently, I was reading the introduction to Dr Jonathan Sarfati’s landmark
book Refuting Compromise. This book discusses and refutes the
most dangerous compromises in Christianity today. This amazing work provides the
best positive defence of a straightforward Genesis creation ever written.
In it he quotes one of the major opponents of our ministry in evangelical circles, progressive creationist astronomer Dr Hugh Ross, as saying that the creation controversy is ‘the biggest
issue facing the church’. He says this is ‘because of the impact
it is having on evangelism’.
I have to confess that it was upsetting to read this. I felt a sense of despair.
Why? Because Ross thinks that ministries like ours are having a negative
impact. He claims that a literal view of Genesis (basically taking it to mean what
it clearly says) is keeping people away from the gospel. I’ve heard this claim
before—many times in fact—and it saddens me because, ‘If only
they knew the truth.’ While they may want to believe this and gather around
themselves a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear
(2 Timothy 4:3), this is clearly not the case. The scaremongering
statement that it hampers evangelism is, in fact, keeping leaders and laypeople
alike from really finding out what the creation issue is all about.
Our experience in over 25 years of ministry is exactly the opposite. Creation
evangelism has been, and is increasingly, one of the most effective ways to break
down barriers to people accepting the gospel. Quite simply, people want to know,
‘Can I trust the Bible?’ Isn’t this really the big issue
today? How can all of the convoluted quasi-theology and continual reinterpretation
of Scripture help folks find the truth? Where does the truth begin in the Bible
if Genesis doesn’t mean what it says?
I’m sure that you know this to be so also. Because many of you already subscribe
to Creation magazine it is likely that at some time you experienced
the beautiful freshness and liberation that came when you realized you could really
trust God’s Word from the very first verse. Can you remember what that
was like?
Too often, many people criticize our stance without really knowing what we actually
believe. I like to call this the
flat-earth accusation, which suggests that we are somehow ignorant of the
‘real world’. Just recently I was speaking at a church when a teacher
from a Christian school told me his story. A couple of years ago, someone bought
a gift subscription of Creation for his school. He recalled seeing each
new issue on the lunch table in the staff room. He said:
‘I thought you guys were lunatics and dangerous to Christianity. I refused
to read the magazine, in fact, I hated the sight of it. Then one day I was on my
own, so I picked up a copy and started reading it. Well, needless to say I’ve
changed my mind. I even had to leave my church because they refused to see the importance
of this issue.’
At the same meeting, a lady whose husband died a few years before had been left
with the job of bringing up four older boys by herself. She said that the creation
issue clearly helped her to cope by understanding the Bible’s big picture
of a good creation marred by sin; no death before the Fall; and a blessed hope for
the future.
A few years ago, Lita C.. had problems with the
big bang (which, incidentally Hugh Ross endorses despite
problems that even many secular astronomers recognize). She emailed
to say:
‘Thank you so much for your ministry, without it, I probably would not be
saved today. When I was little, I would ask questions about absolutely everything
around me, and that naturally spread to asking questions about the Bible. My family
couldn't answer me when I asked where “Mrs. Cain' came from”, or “how
all the animals fit on the ark”. … They discouraged me from asking
questions about the Bible, telling me to “just believe.” And I tried,
but it was impossible for me to stop asking those questions. In school, we learned
about the Big Bang and the evolutionary theory so early I can't even remember when
it was introduced. My teachers were more than happy to answer my questions, and
to my mind at that age, those answers seemed to make sense. So I learned that the
Bible was a nice storybook, but it wasn't true. Faith was fine for less intelligent
people who needed that crutch, but I considered myself above that.
God has used your ministry to affect so many lives, mine among them. Thank you.
‘ … I found the URL [website address] for [you] in a book I was researching,
and browsing your Q&A page, I was surprised to find the answers to the questions
I had been asking for over ten years in literally the first day I was at your site
… All the objections that I had always had to faith were crumbling around
me, and I found myself with no excuse not to believe. A few months later, I became
a Christian. God has used your ministry to affect so many lives, mine among them.
Thank you.’
Now Lita is helping other people with apologetics herself, including
writing articles for CMI. This is just one example of the multiplier effect of our ministry.
So, in one sense our critics are correct. The creation issue is having
an impact on evangelism—an enormously positive one—for all those who
have realized that they can take God at His Word. Your efforts by partnering us
in this ministry are having an impact by making all the difference in the lives
of those mentioned above. Thank you.
Recommended Resources
Published: 14 December 2007(GMT+10)
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