Tim Stafford, senior editor for Christianity Today, has written a truly thought-provoking book Titled The Adam Quest, in which he interviews eleven scientists who have clung to their Christian faith while tackling scientific issues that often divide the Church. These creation scientists adhere to either the young-earth, old-earth, or evolutionary school of creation science. Young-earth creationists typically believe that God created the universe and all its contents in six 24-hour days. They claim this occurred roughly 6,000-10,000 years ago, as written in the first chapter of the book of Genesis in the Old Testament. They assert that most of the fossil distribution is the result of Noah’s flood and that we are all descendants of Adam and Eve. Old-earth creationists, on the other hand, interpret Genesis 1 differently, understanding the word “day” to mean “era”. Regarding the age of the earth, their views are generally more compatible with mainstream scientists, yet old-earth creationists deny that humans evolved from other life forms. Evolutionary creationists believe that God created all of the universe and life within, and that evolution is a tool He used to carry out that process. I admire Stafford’s ability to remain unbiased in his retelling of each scientist’s story. I read through all of the biographies without having the slightest inkling of Stafford’s position, which he offers at the end. I also appreciated the diversity of scientific disciplines the scientists represented, including geology, genetics, paleontology, biochemistry, and physics.
If you want to gain a thorough understanding of the debates involving Christianity and science, this book will not satisfy. Stafford was obviously not attempting to write a scientific textbook, nor a book about how to refute certain scientific claims. Instead, he provides us with mini-biographies of the scientists’ faith journeys, scientific journeys, and how they integrate the two. To fully comprehend their underlying worldviews, however, one must do some more digging. I recommend taking a break after reading each scientist’s biography and googling his or her name to get a better understanding of who each one is, what he or she teaches, and his or her approach to scriptural interpretation. Better yet-read their books. My main takeaway from this book is that I now have a long list of others I plan to read, such as Darwin’s Black Box by Michael Behe; Faith, Form, and Time by Kurt Wise; The Cell’s Design by Fazale Rana; and The Crucible of Creation by Conway Morris. I also have many new names and organizations to research, and debates to watch. I hope that this book will generate some discussion among Christians regarding the origins of the universe and our world. These are often avoided topics in the Church. What really compelled me to read this book is that I am a truth seeker. This is also what led me to pursue a minor in religious studies many years ago at a major public university. I wanted to make sure that I was not simply choosing Christianity because it’s what I’m familiar with. Likewise, I want to ensure that I am not simply a young-earth creationist because it’s what I’m familiar with. I now realize that there are Christians with different interpretations of the Genesis account, which deserve some recognition. I’ve been doing a lot of research over the past month and I see strong and weak arguments among both old and young earth camps. I’m also seeing how evolutionary creationism is not as heretical as I had once thought, although I don’t agree with it. After all, salvation does not rest on how you interpret Genesis 1. Most of all, what I am recognizing more and more is the complexity of God. We cannot know how or when God created everything, nor why he created. But I think it’s fun to try to figure out God’s mysteries. It’s like searching for hidden treasure. I have always thought that God made the Bible somewhat mysterious for a reason. Maybe He wants us to have discussions about Him, rather than the latest reality show, since Philippians 4:8 tells us “Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable; if anything is excellent or praiseworthy, think about such things.” Of course, you could drive yourself crazy trying to make complete sense of topics like God, time, the universe, and everything in it, so I don’t recommend neglecting your daily responsibilities in attempt to figure it all out. But it’s important to ponder these questions, since 1 Peter 3:15 tells us, “but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect.” And personally, I want to make sure I understand all points of view (including atheistic evolution) so that I can present them to my children when they’re older and encourage them to further investigate these topics for themselves. If you’re a parent I recommend doing the same. I have compiled a short list of websites below that may be helpful to you. When researching these different points of view you may come across ideas that seem lacking or websites that seem insufficient in comparison to mainstream evolutionist ones. Keep in mind that creation science is in its infancy. Very few people are entering the field of creation science and it does not have the funding for research or laboratories. Therefore, most creation science research is statistical and theoretical. Because there are so few creationist brains working together, they still do not have one unanimous paradigm, as evolutionists do. Every day evolutionists are working together to expand on their paradigm, but creationists are still trying to form theirs. So, read the book, check out the links, and I'd love to hear what your thoughts are! www.answersingenesis.org (young earth creationism) www.reasons.org (old earth creationism) www.biologos.org (evolutionary creationism) www.icr.org (young earth creationism) http://www.aish.com/ci/sam/48951136.html (old earth creationism) http://www.theisticevolution.org/ (evolutionary creationism) Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookLook Bloggers <http://booklookbloggers.com> book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.
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I know I told you guys I'd show you our playroom/classroom today, but my camera isn't working properly. So I'll hopefully have that for you tomorrow. I have something else I'd like to talk about though. I've been pondering this lately because sometimes I'll hear parents of young children (preschool-aged or so) say that their children have stated that they want to invite Jesus into their hearts. My first thought when I hear parents say this is, That's great that your child has picked up on the proper church lingo and learned to regurgitate it. I'm sure she received plenty of "Aw, isn't that precious" comments. I know...my thoughts can be sarcastic. I honestly do think it's great that the child at least has been taught about God though. And I understand that when most people use this language, they are merely conveying that they are in a relationship with Christ that hopefully involved what is necessary for salvation: repentance and belief. My children would never say something like that, though. First, they know that Jesus is in heaven and He certainly wouldn't fit inside an organ in our chest. Secondly, they already know and love God. They have since they were babies.
This brings up memories of my own childhood, because I was also a baby when I was introduced to God. And it was always annoying when others asked me at what age I was saved, or what my salvation experience was like. It seemed like everyone else had such amazing stories of turning from their old ways and being born again with life-changing evidence. Most Christians seem to remember a concrete date or point in their life. But I have no recollection of when I was saved. I was born into a Christian family with parents, aunts, and grandparents who, by spending time with them, made it pretty much impossible to not come to know God. None of them beat the Bible or Christian traditions into my head. They acknowledged God in various areas of life--not just on Sundays. By noticing and listening to them, I gradually stepped into a realization of who God is. A couple of people told me that if I can't remember when I was saved, I must not be. Some told me, "Even though you were raised in a Christian family there must have been some point in your life when you became serious in your walk with God." But, no. That's just not true. I have always been serious about my walk with God. I haven't always been a perfect Christian, and never will be. But every day I learn and grow and my faith in Him is made stronger. Someone insisted once, "But you have to remember when you became a Christian. The Bible says that your life is changed because of it." I do agree that the course of my life changed when I first believed in God. Had that not happened I would be heading down a totally different path right now. However, I don't remember when I first met my mom, dad, or brother. But my life most certainly changed when I met each of them. Someone else told me, "The Bible says that you must confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord," inferring that I should have said the sinner's prayer at some point in my life in order to be saved. I believe they were referring to Romans 10:9: "Because if you acknowledge and confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and in your heart believe (adhere to, trust in, and rely on the truth) that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved." But people often forget about the next verse: "For with the heart a person believes (adheres to, trusts in, and relies on Christ) and so is justified (declared righteous, acceptable to God), and with the mouth he confesses (declares openly and speaks out freely his faith) and confirms [his] salvation." You see, just as good works and baptism are not a means of salvation, but the evidence of salvation, so is verbal confession of faith. Confession confirms our salvation. How else can we confess Christ as Lord if we don't already believe He is? And remember: confessing Christ as Lord back in New Testament times didn't mean reciting a sinner's prayer. It meant being unashamed, completely on board, and willing to give all of their being for the purpose of publicly identifying with Christ. It meant facing the possibility of losing their job, property, friends, status, and even their life. Confession of faith in Jesus Christ is not a one-time magical formula. We don't just profess Christ once and Bam!--we're eternally secure. Faith and verbal confession is necessary for one's entire life. I am not saying that it is wrong to say a sinner's prayer. It's definitely a great thing to tell God that you want to start following Him, or following Him more closely. But faith doesn't start or stop with a prayer. What does confessing Christ look like today? Of course, Christians who remain committed to Christ despite living in an area that is hostile towards Christianity are the epitome of what it means to confess Christ. But I also believe that those who display scripture in their homes, share Christian articles on Facebook, have discussions about God in public, send their children to Christian schools, and make a deliberate effort to reflect Christ in various aspects of their lives are also "confessing with their lips that Jesus is Lord." Do I remember when I was born, physically? Of course not. But it doesn't mean I wasn't. The blood running through my veins is proof that I am alive. And the proof that I am alive spiritually is that I have a passion for the things of God, that I enjoy holiness, that I believe His Word is true, and that I have a desire to see others experience His kingdom. How can someone tell me that my Father, my best friend, whom I love with all my heart, is not my Lord, because I don't remember a concrete salvation experience? How insensitive and haughty. I have found that many times those types of Christians are also the ones who believe that all Christians should experience God in the same way that they do. And that's just not possible. We are the body of Christ. Each member of the body has a different relationship with God, different perspectives on His Word, different burdens, different experiences, and for a good reason. The body would not function if we were all the same. But that is another theme for another time... I don't say that proudly, so don't assume I'm a heathen so quickly. When my husband and I got married he was already an active member of a church, so naturally I started attending his church. When our first baby was born I knew that we would have issues with attending church because I was not planning to leave our son in the nursery without us. I tried to bring him into the sanctuary with us, but once he became a little noisy and squirmy people would stare, some would actually ask us to take him out (he wasn't that noisy), and I would have to leave the sanctuary. I usually took him into the nursery and sat there with him, the nursery workers, and the other children.
When he was nine months old we moved to a different city and embarked on a very difficulty, yet edifying, spiritual journey: finding a church. If I remember correctly, we visited seven churches. Every church bombarded us with flyers about their wonderful children's programs, and well-meaning people reminded us over and over again that they had a nursery staffed with trained (sometimes) caregivers. We attended one church several times and thought that it might be "the one," so I caved to everyone's suggestions and let my 11-month-old son go to the nursery. The nursery worker was an older woman and there was only one other child in her care. The children's minister assured me that if there was any problem they would flash my child's number across the screen in the sanctuary so I would know to check on him. It seemed like a good nursery situation. I was a nervous wreck throughout the entire service. As soon as the final prayer was said I bolted to the nursery, only to find my son crying. The first and only words out of the nursery worker's mouth were, "He cried the whole time." I was furious. What's the point in having a paging system if you're not going to utilize it?! My poor baby. So we tried a different church and this time when he became noisy I took him to the nursery and stayed with him. The nursery worker kept trying to convince me to leave. At one point she left me in the room alone with the children for several minutes. This was not the church for us either. What if she left my son alone with some stranger? Actually, she was a stranger. What if I left my son alone with her? Why was it so difficult to find a good church?! We weren't asking for much, really. All we wanted was a church that was welcoming to children worshiping and learning along with the adults. I'd imagine the early church welcomed this. We did find a church with a cry room, which I don't necessarily agree with, but thought it might be tolerable. For those of you who don't know, a cry room is a room where parents can sit with their young children who are being disruptive to the service. It usually has speakers wired so that parents can still hear the sermon. Unfortunately, when I took my son to the cry room the other kids were mean, as usual, and their parents weren't watching them. They were just talking with one another. So that wasn't going to work. What was the point of me even going to church? I didn't ever get to listen to a sermon, and there was never an opportunity to fellowship with other families. Sure, they had adult Sunday School and Bible studies, but children were not welcome. The purpose of church is to fellowship with, learn from, and worship with other believers, and we were not able to do any of that. After my husband finished college we moved to our current city. This time we had two little kids. Again we continued our journey of finding a church. We visited about five churches. The one we thought we had decided on was everything we were looking for as far as preaching and teaching. The pastor was very sincere in his devotion to God, and the church had a Christian school and a homeschool group, so they obviously valued Christian education highly. But the service was still not child-friendly. Every time we went inside the sanctuary with our children people would tell us about the children's program. I finally gave in once again and let my son go to the three-year-old Sunday School class. Sunday School was just for 90 minutes per week. How much could my son be negatively influenced in that 90 minutes? And at least these were kids of church-going people. I regret that decision so much and it makes me sad to even think about it. My son was so excited about Sunday School. He had his backpack with his snack and drink and I told him there would be toys and other kids. I also told him Mama and Daddy would be in the sanctuary for a little while but would come back to get him soon. He was at the age where he understood that. When we walked into the room there was one girl screaming and dragging her head on the floor. My son looked horrified. We quickly stepped over her and headed for the play kitchen. I showed my son the kitchen toys and then some kid ran over to us, took the toy out of my hand, threw it on the floor, and started yelling something in jibberish. My son was trying to hold back tears as I told him I would have to leave for a little while but would be back later. He began to cry. I took him to the teacher and she introduced herself but didn't offer to hold him or play with him or anything. So he just stood there beside the teacher, holding back tears, feeling sad and lonely, as we made our way to the sanctuary. The children's minister told me it was normal for kids to cry as they get used to being without Mom and Dad, and that it would be good for him. I wanted to tell her, "Thank you for validating the fact that you know nothing about child development and attachment, and for making me feel even worse about what I just did." We ended up leaving the service early because I just couldn't stand myself. I'm his mother. I know what's best for him--not some children's minister or volunteer nursery worker. If we can't find a church that welcomes children then we just won't go to church. There was supposedly a sign in/sign out procedure. I had a sticker with my son's number on it and I was supposed to give it to the teacher so that she could match it up with the sticker on my son's shirt, identifying me as his parent. But when I went to pick him up there were two new teachers in the room, the one I had left him with was gone, and no one asked me for the sticker. I asked them how he was. They said he cried some and that he's such a sweet boy, and asked if he was three (he had just turned three, whereas everyone in the class was closer to four). I hated that. He was already a late talker. With that, and being the youngest in the class, he had a difficult time communicating with the other kids. Shortly after we left, my husband and I noticed a red mark across our son's face. I assumed he scratched himself on a toy or something but thought I'd take him back to the classroom and ask the volunteers if they knew what it was from. One lady ignored me and the other said, "Maybe he fell, I don't know," and walked away. This is supposedly a church with one of the best children's programs in the city! I guess that's because of the pretty murals on the walls and the huge donated McDonald's play structure in the basement. My son couldn't speak well enough to tell me what happened, other than letting me know that he didn't have fun. So I left, very upset, and this time decided that my kids would never go to nursery or Sunday School again. I'm just glad my daughter has never had to experience that. About a year after that incident, when my son learned to communicate better, he told me that when he was at Sunday School that day the kids were mean to him, screamed at him, took toys from him, and made him cry. But the teacher was nice, he said. So we haven't been to church in about two years. I have had no regrets about that decision. I know what you're thinking. I've heard it before: If they don't experience children being mean to them they won't be prepared for adulthood. WRONG. Since when do adults get screamed at and have toys snatched out of their hands while they're going about their day? And besides that, I want to teach my kids about God. Explaining Biblical concepts to young children is a delicate balancing act and if I send my children to Sunday School I have no idea what they are being taught, how it is being taught, or what my children might be confused about. It's my responsibility anyway. Our kids are three and almost five now. They are finally able to sit fairly quietly during a church service. We will probably try attending church again soon. I still don't think there will be much opportunity for fellowship though, since we are not willing to put our children in child care while we go to an event for adults only. A few months ago I was talking to a friend about our difficulty finding a church and she told me about a website called The National Center for Family Integrated Churches where you can search for churches in your area that implement a family-integrated (also called age-integrated) worship model. I was thrilled and relieved to learn that there are people like me! These churches come in all different shapes, sizes, and denominations, but all hope to restore the biblical pattern of age-integrated worship, discipleship, and evangelism. These churches believe that families benefit spiritually from worshiping together, that parents (not Sunday School teachers or youth pastors) are responsible for the child's spiritual development, and that young people need to learn from adults, which cannot happen when the children are in a completely different room (or even a completely different building) from the adults. It's time for the church to stop spending money on toys, DVD curricula, and play structures, and start investing their time, money, and energy into equipping parents, so that they feel confident enough to disciple their own children. Deuteronomy 6:6-9 These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates. When my son was a toddler my husband and I wanted him to experience the whole magical Santa thing, as we did when we were kids. But after one year of celebrating this way with our son we didn't feel right about it, so we let him eventually forget about it. Now, I don't think that children will be scarred for life if they are led to believe that Santa comes to their house to bring them presents. I celebrated that way and I'm not scarred. But we want to make sure that our kids know at a very young age that there is only one who is all-knowing and omnipresent: God. We don't want them to believe that there is anyone else who can see them or who knows what presents they want.
We also pray for missionaries around the world, sponsor a child in another country, and pack boxes for Operation Christmas Child. Our kids know that around the world there are children who are in need and suffering, and that as Christians it is our responsibility to help. So we decided to teach our kids about who Santa/St. Nicholas really was: a Christian whose desire was to spread the love of Jesus and help the poor. We read a book titled St Nicholas: The Real Story of the Christmas Legend by Julie Stiegemeyer. This has been a wonderful teaching tool! It depicts St. Nicholas as a jolly man with a white beard in a red robe. This helps our kids to make the connection between St. Nicholas in the story and the Santa that they see displayed in other books and decorations. At the end of the book it explains that the reason why we give gifts today is to continue the tradition of giving to others, as St. Nicholas did. For older kids I also recommend the book The Story of St. Nicholas by Cheryl Odden. You can purchase it from Voice of the Martyrs. It is a more historically accurate account of St. Nicholas's life and doesn't depict him as a jolly man with a white beard. You may be thinking that our kids are missing out because Santa doesn't bring them presents; not at all. They have fun pretending and watching movies of Santa flying in a sleigh with deer and sliding down chimneys. But they know that it's pretend, just like fairies, leprechauns, and Barney the talking dinosaur. To them it is a make-believe game. Our kids receive gifts from us, but not a ton. We also try to make Jesus more important than the gifts, of course. We listen to a lot of Christian Christmas music. We also listen to Jingle Bells, Deck the Halls, and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. But more often than not we are listening to Silent Night, Oh Come all Ye Faithful, and Angels We Have Heard on High. We decorate with nativity scenes, but we also decorate with Santa and snowmen. The only thing I don't like to decorate my house with is presents (like ornaments that are presents or present stocking holders and such). I just try to keep the focus off of the material things. I know that there are some Christians who feel convicted about celebrating Christmas at all. I think that's fine. There was a time when I felt uneasy about certain pagan origins like the Christmas tree. It's true, the Christmas tree has pagan origins. But the way I see it is, what Satan uses for evil, we can use for good. While the Christmas season is full of materialism and extravagance, we don't have to partake in that. And while the season is surrounded by pagan traditions, so is just about any other holiday. Even our wedding rings that we wear every day have pagan origins. We're never going to be able to get away from it. But we can claim the season for Jesus. I would love to hear how you celebrate Christmas and other holidays around this time of year, so please share! |