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Creation 23(1):4, December 2000

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Unnecessary compromise

Editorial

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A few years ago, Dr Swee-Eng Aw, formerly Professor of Biochemistry at the University of Singapore, and then Director of Clinical Research at Singapore General Hospital, visited our Brisbane office. A keen supporter of our ministry, Dr Aw has used this magazine as a personal outreach tool for many years. He and I spoke of a phenomenon which is mystifying to many non-Christians, namely that most ‘Christian academics’ and many prominent Christian leaders are persistently hostile to creation ministry. At least, they reject that form of creation ministry which insists that the words of God mean exactly what they were meant to say, that is, a ministry which will not bow to the Baal of popular ‘wisdom’.

I will never forget what he said to me that day:

‘Carl, it’s no surprise that they get upset, no matter how courteously or gently you folk conduct your ministry. The very existence of an organisation like this one, with many qualified people making a stand for the truth of the whole Bible, shines the spotlight on their compromise. It shows that it’s quite unnecessary for anyone, no matter how qualified or intelligent, to compromise the Word of God in any way.’

That same theme, the non-necessity of compromise, seems to run through several of the articles in this issue.

For instance, the article on renowned international physics professor Dr Saami Shaibani (page 18; see online version of interview). will hopefully give some pause to those Christians who feel obliged to compromise under the ‘pressure’ of presumed scientific authority. To borrow from Dr Aw, the very existence of someone with four earned science degrees (from the University of Oxford, no less), who is totally comfortable about taking God at His Word, six days and all, spells volumes. It suggests that the issue is ultimately not one of ‘science’ at all.

It is precisely in the physical sciences, Dr Shaibani’s area, that the main Genesis controversies rage in Christendom. Many prominent Christian leaders and ministries, loudly proclaiming their ‘anti-evolution’ credentials, duck for cover when it comes to defending Genesis on the crucial issue of the age of things.

We have often pointed out how compromise here fatally wounds the credibility of the Gospel. Millions-of-years ‘interpretations’ forced upon the Bible would mean that death, suffering and disease reigned before sin. This would mean that a literal rebellion by a literal Adam did not bring about a literal Fall to the whole creation, and with this the entire logic of Christianity collapses (see, e.g., 1 Corinthians 15:21–22, 26, 45).

I trust the ‘young world’ article on page 8 (see online version), which is like a summary drawn together from previous magazines, will be an encouragement and a useful resource to those who are standing firm on recent creation. Not surprisingly, experience confirms that more people are brought into God’s Kingdom by an unashamed presentation of the Word of the One who is The Truth, than by avoiding or, worse, compromising this vital issue.

The compromises often come in the name of ‘theology’. Enter highly qualified theologian Dr John Whitcomb, on page 14 (see online version of interview). His deep, loving concern for the ‘half-born Christians’ of the interview’s title, spiritually bound and vulnerable because of their inadequate understanding of the Bible’s ‘big picture’, is easy to see.

For me, this has particular significance. It was the book The Genesis Flood, which Dr Whitcomb co-authored with Dr Henry Morris, that was instrumental in my salvation, more than a quarter of a century ago. On looking back, I think the most powerful thing in that book that God used to soften my unbelieving heart was the way in which the authors’ calm, loving refusal to compromise, to do other than ‘tell it like it is’, shone through.

May God continue to use the clarion call of Creation magazine to increasingly awaken His people from their indifference to this deadly, and totally unnecessary, compromise of the very foundations of the Gospel.