CMI: a one issue ministry?
14 August 2001
Creation Ministries International was recently described by a critic as a ‘one or two’ issue ministry. Unfortunately, many Christians see CMI as a ministry that only focuses on a relatively meaningless side issue: creation vs evolution.
While CMI deals with the origins controversy, we are not a ‘creation science’ group per se. It is true that we deal with the scientific aspects of origins, but let me share with you what God has truly called us to do.
Carl Wieland, Managing Director of our CMI–Australia office and founder/editor of Creation magazine, has described our activities as ‘equipping God’s army’. This ‘equipping’ is done primarily through the materials (print, video, audio, Web, magazines, etc.). Also, our speakers are an important part of the process, as they communicate the importance of the accuracy of the Bible (particularly Genesis), and challenging believers to be able to defend their faith.
Yet because it is virtually impossible for our speakers to fully explain the spiritual, social and intellectual benefits of understanding Genesis in a short sermon or lecture, it’s then that the materials take over. The special offers you see in our newsletters each month reflect our desire to get accurate, high-quality, faith-building information into the hands of Christians. But this is not the ultimate goal of CMI—only a means to an end.
CMI believes that by equipping you (and the church) to build your thinking on the Bible in every area (not just moral and spiritual areas), you will be able to show that the Bible (not evolution/millions of years) is the best explanation for things we observe in the real world. The Bible explains things like fossils, death, disease, light coming from stars millions of light years away, canyons, changes in living things, etc. Yet presenting this is still only a means to an end.
The central ‘issue’ that CMI promotes is evangelism through the church. We want to see people equipped with answers that they could use to win their friends and neighbours to Christ! Offer answers to questions that prevent people from trusting Christ as their Lord and Saviour. Questions like, ‘Where did Cain get his wife? How did Noah get dinosaurs on the Ark? Did God really create in six days? Does carbon dating prove an old Earth? Have there been many ice ages? Is Jesus really God? How do we know the Bible is accurate?’ …and many more. (For answers to these and many more questions on Genesis, the Bible, God, and Creaion/Evolution, visit our Q&A section.)
The materials in our catalog are selected because they deal with areas where the accuracy of Biblical truth are questioned. No part of the Bible is more attacked by non-Christians (and Christians) than Genesis. That’s why, in addition to proclaiming the authority and accuracy of the Bible, we deal with creation, evolution, the age of the Earth, and the sciences that relate to those topics.
Indeed CMI MAY BE a ‘one issue’ ministry, and the one issue that we focus on—equipping the church for evangelism—is one of the most important tasks for Christians today! In a time when we see the Christian influence in society losing ground faster every day, it is a time for ‘God’s army’, the church, to take action.
We trust that our speakers, Web site, resources, and magazines have strengthened your faith in the accuracy of the Bible. CMI hopes that you will use the materials and what you learn from them to influence your friends and neighbours for Christ.
Please pray for us —that together, God would use us to reach our communities with the message of the truth, accuracy, and authority of the Bible from the very first verse.
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