Most of us are familiar with the story of David and Goliath. In that battle, which took place nearly 3,000 years ago, we are told that the brutish giant, Goliath, when he saw David coming toward him, "disdained him: for he was but a youth, and ruddy, and of fair countenance" (I Samuel 17:42). David's response? "Thou comest to me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a shield: but l come to thee in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied" (v. 45). The result? The giant was slain!
How easy it is to become depressed and dejected when one sees the "giants" that array themselves against any ministry like the Institute for Creation Research or any individual who takes a stand for a literal Genesis.
But take heart, for like Goliath, they can be defeated, with God's help. Let us consider two classes of "giants" and view them from a Biblical perspective.
1. "NON-CHRISTIAN GIANTS"—These may include the news media, secular universities and colleges, humanist organizations and governments, etc. It is easy to feel defeated and discouraged when one sees the massive propaganda machines that have been set up to indoctrinate billions of people with evolutionary philosophy. What can be done to fight people who are highly qualified and are world-renowned experts? Many of us identify with David. We feel like children compared to some of these intellectual "giants." What can we do to combat what they are doing?
2. "CHRISTIAN GIANTS"—The creation message not only gets opposition from non-Christians, but also from Christians. Many lecturers in well-known theological colleges have written articles or books against the straightforward, creationist position that perhaps most Christians hold, including the Institute for Creation Research. It is easy for the average Christian to feel intimidated by Christian scholars of such great qualification and position. In fact, there are many Christians who listen to such people and accept what they are saying because they are impressed by their feigned scholarship. Many such academics in our Christian colleges and churches seem to be motivated by a desire for acceptance and respect from their secular peers. It is a great temptation to want respect from non-Christian intellectuals. Unfortunately, we often forget that when sin defaced the image of God back in the Garden of Eden, it marred man's ability to think, also. What we all need to be asking ourselves is whether it is this mentality from which we want respect, or do we seek to please God?
In II Corinthians 11:3, Paul warns us "not to be corrupted from the simplicity which is in Christ." It is often claimed that to accept Genesis literally, i.e., a straightforward reading, is too simplistic. Instead, we are often told to listen to the academics and theologians of the day in their explanation of what it really means. A good example of this is seen in the writings of Pattle P.T. Pun, from the Department of Biology at Wheaton College in Illinois. In his article entitled "A Theology of Progressive Creationism" (Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith—The Journal of the American Scientific Affiliation, Volume 39, No. 2, March 1987), he states, "It is apparent that the most straightforward understanding of the Genesis record, without regard to all of the hermeneutical considerations suggested by science, is that God created heaven and earth in six solar days, that man was created in the sixth day, that death and chaos entered the world after the Fall of Adam and Eve, that all of the fossils were the result of the catastrophic universal deluge which spared only Noah's family and the animals therewith" (emphasis ours).
What Pun is saying, of course, is that a straightforward reading of Genesis suggests it means exactly what it says! It teaches a literal six-day Creation, Fall and Flood. However, noting the sentence we emphasized in italics in his quote tells you that he is insisting we must accept what secular scientists of our day are saying about the subjects and reinterpret the Bible to fit their theories.
However, God has called those of us who are His children to seek out His praise—not the praises of men! Praise God that there still are many highly qualified people who accept the Genesis account, having the heart of David, who understand that the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom and knowledge. Let God's enemies rant and rave, but let us give glory to God. Let us not be afraid of "giants." After all, the evidence, rightly interpreted, is on our side, no matter what some of the academics and theologians of the day may say. What we need to do is to communicate this easy-to-understand evidence to a population that has been indoctrinated by self-styled "giants." Like David, with God on our side and faith in His Word, we can defeat these "giants." Help us inform the world on on this vital issue.
A STAR IS BORN?
In January of this year, astronomers detected a very faint object "blinking" nearly 2000 times per second at exactly the spot of the famous supernova of 1987. They interpreted this as the long-awaited first appearance of the theoretical remnant of that explosion, a pulsar, or rapidly rotating neutron star. Their announcement was widely reported by the press, some proclaiming that a new star had been created. Had one? The answer is "Yes," and "No." "Yes," there is something there now that was not there before. Prior to the explosion, a star something like our sun, only larger, occupied that space, but for a reason not fully understood, it seems to have suddenly (in seconds) collapsed on itself. If this scenario is correct, the implosion released a tremendous amount of gravitational potential energy, which bounced off the core as a gigantic explosion, sending most of the original star on a fiery one-way trip into space. Only the core was left, but now it was radically different than before-it had become very small, perhaps 15 miles across, so dense that a spoonful would weigh ten million tons, and was spinning many times per second. So, "Yes," there is something different here, but "No," a new star has not been born—only the decayed remnant of an old, dying one.
Supernovas are the most energetic processes known in the universe. Since raw energy not applied in an orderly way is destructive, supernovae are also the most destructive processes known. Like all else we see in the universe, they are subject to the First and Second Laws of Thermodynamics, laws of conservation of quantity and decay of quality. Where there had been a star serving as a steady source of energy, that same matter and energy (First Law) is now scattered in space (Second Law). Every star we see is dying—over either the short term (novae, supernovae) or the long term (normal burning). Nowhere do we see a star being born.
DID YOU KNOW?
. . . there is no scientific proof that the sun is billions of years old?
" 'There is no evidence based solely on solar observation,' Eddy stated, 'that the sun is 4.5-5 x 109 years old. I suspect,' he said, 'that the sun is 4.5 billion years old. However, given some new and unexpected results to the contrary, and some time for frantic recalculation and theoretical readjustment, I suspect that we could live with Bishop Ussher's value for the age of the earth and sun. I don't think we have much in the way of observational evidence in astronomy to conflict with that.' "
John A. Eddy, Ph.D. (Astrogeophysics) (Solar Astronomer at the High Altitude Observatory at Boulder, Colorado). As reported by R.G. Kazman, "It's About Time: 4.5 Billion Years" (a report on a symposium at the Louisiana State University, Geotimes, Vol. 23, September 1978, p. 18).
