They say a picture is worth a thousand words, and I recently discovered this afresh when I visited the Dallas Museum of Art. My favorite collection is the European art section—the old masters. The scenes they depicted, many of them biblical in nature, expressed truly remarkable stories, often of historical events. What impressed me about their art was the confidence—the certainty—they expressed in portraying these scenes. If you want to “read” the whole story, you have to take time to absorb every facet of the image. How vital are skill, experience, and giftedness in doing art well.
My sensibilities are challenged, however, when I move to the modern art collection. This is where I usually look at my watch and try to wrap up my visit. No offense to those who create and enjoy such art—God just hasn’t given me the gift to appreciate these works. I don’t see a lot of skill and giftedness in abstract art; it doesn’t exude confidence and certainty in whatever message it’s trying to communicate. Images are blurred or distorted, and paint is often thrown on in a haphazard way (sometimes literally splashed on the canvas). Human beings love to connect to understandable messages, whether through music, art, sermons, or novels. But when that message appears blurry, we might say, “Hmm, that’s interesting,” but we won’t waste a lot of time contemplating fuzzy facts or mixed-up messages.
That’s exactly what Dr. Henry Morris III reminds us of in this month’s feature article—the value of communicating truth with certainty. This is vital to the work we do here at the Institute for Creation Research. While some “science and faith” groups talk around the edges of truth with a genuine lack of focus in their arguments and conclusions, we strive to represent good science and sound exegesis with clear, confident communication through our magazines and books, through our seminars and classes, and by every means available to us. Christians today want (and need) clear expressions of truth, both from science and Scripture.
For example, on page 6 Dr. Jeff Tomkins of ICR’s Research Department gets into the nitty gritty of chromosomes and the arguments against evolution. Time to put on your thinking caps. Dr. James Johnson, who heads our School of Biblical Apologetics, gives a confident and accurate summary about Genesis and poetry in his article on pages 8-9.
And don’t forget that we are now accepting applications for the online master’s degree at the School of Biblical Apologetics. Visit icr.edu for more information, or call Mary Smith at 214.615.8322.
Finally, June marks the beginning of our Annual Summer Sale at ICR, where you can save up to 80 percent on wonderful creation science resources. Of note is a special 50 percent off of The Genesis Flood, celebrating its 50th year of continuous publication. Limited quantities are available at this price. Check out pages 22-24 for more items with great savings.
We love to hear from our readers and sometimes are able to place selected correspondence in our Letters to the Editor column. Let us know how the Lord is ministering to you through the ministry of ICR.
* Mr. Ford is Executive Editor at the Institute for Creation Research.
Cite this article: Ford, L. 2011. Communicating Like the Old Masters. Acts & Facts. 40 (6): 3.
