May 27, 2011

As Rick and I are on our fourth journey we are encouraged by your friendship, prayers and support without which we could not go. You will see, first hand, the importance of praying that God will open doors and hearts to His unchanging Truth as Rick lectures.
But first let me give some ground work as to why we are “going for God’s glory.” According to evolutionist, Michael Ruse, in his book, “The Evolution – Creation Struggle,“ this is a one hundred and fifty year old debate between two faith based religions; the religion of creation; based on God’s Word and the religion of Evolution; based on man’s opinion and man’s word. Clearly, this spiritual battle, has been going on since Darwin published his book in 1859, “The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection; the subtitle, the Preservation of Favored Races in the Struggle for Life.” Note, most reprints of Darwin’s book since 1977 omit his subtitle. In his book, Darwin replaced God’s account of creation with a naturalistic explanation; It is also interesting to note that Adolf Hitler had one of the most extensive collections of Darwinian memorabilia. He thought he was helping Evolution when he had millions of people exterminated during World War II.
Conversely, in the Bible, we read that all mankind is of “one blood,” (Acts 17:26). This important teaching, in God’s Word, is replaced and called the “fact of evolution,” by some secular scientists, and Christian Theistic Evolutionists. Darwinian evolutionary theory says man descended from ape like creatures. But God tells us He created all people in His Own image and that all people are of “one blood.” The Scriptures further declare that all people have descended from Adam, and that in Adam all are sinners. In Scripture we are told that it is only through the blood of Jesus Christ that all who believe are able to be saved by God’s grace through faith in the last Adam, Jesus. Only after believing in Jesus, God gives that individual the right to become His child (John 1:12). In 1962, Rick’s High School Freshman Biology teacher taught from Darwin’s book and stated, “There is no need for God.” That day, Rick turned from the written Word of God he had been taught in his home and in his church; choosing to embark on his long journey to prove the Bible was wrong and science had the answers. Later, Rick earned his PhD in Evolutionary Biology. After the Mt. St. Helen’s 1980 eruption Rick personally observed rapid geologic catastrophism that can be observed today since lava did not cover this scientific laboratory. These observations challenged Rick’s “long ages” belief system he adopted that day in High School. Some of the observations include the rapid carving of a 150 foot deep, quarter mile wide canyon dubbed, “the Little Grand Canyon” by a mud flow; the rapid formation of 600 feet of stratification similar to what we see at the Grand Canyon. Technology was rapidly increasing, we can now look inside the nucleus of a cell, while because technology was lacking in Darwin’s day he thought the cell was a blob of protoplasm. Now, Rick’s study in biology was pointing to perfect design that demanded an intelligent designer. All scientists agree with Werner Gitts summary that information does not originate by itself in matter, demanding a need for a designer. Rick further saw the mathematical impossibility that macro evolution needs an increase of information through mutations (change from one species to another, ie a dog becoming a cat, etc.). As a result, Rick became a Christian in 1987. It took seven years of personal on site scientific expeditions for him to change (evolve) from an evolutionist to a young earth Creationist. He has decided to place his faith in God and His Word rather than man’s word and opinion. The battle we are in always comes down to the same question satan asked Eve in the garden, “Has God said?” And we continue to have the same responsibility that Jesus warned His disciples when He stated in Matthew 24:4, “Take heed that no man deceive you.” Each person must decide whom to believe, man’s word in “Science falsely so called, 1 Timothy 6:20,” or God’s inerrant, unchanging Word. God tells us in Amos that He has revealed His thoughts to man, and God Alone was there when He spoke all matter into existence from nothing, “Creation Ex Nihlo,” and then revealed the history of creation throughout the Scriptures beginning in Genesis 1:1
I want to share excerpts from some e-mails we have received since we left for this journey. We received many e-mails from people who state they are thankful and excited to hear for the first time through Rick’s lectures where he shows that there are viable alternatives to the long ages and macro evolution. Many are stating that they now have faith in the inerrancy of God’s word, and that their world view has changed. One such e-mail was written by a person with a Phd who works at a university in Molecular/Cellular Biology with the following statements; “it was great to meet you. I spoke with you at the end of your lectures and I greatly appreciate your perspective and I thought that you and Ken Ham were an awesome team for the Creation lectures. I’ve long been a “millions of years” type of Christian, and I can say, for the first time, that I am really considering the scientific evidence that favors a young Earth. I am floored by both the discovery of dinosaur soft tissue (which I had never heard about) and the lack of ability of any of the laboratories to give you a reasonable age for the 12 year old dacite you and a team of scientists recovered in 1992 from Mount Saint Helens. I thank you for recommending Michael Behe’s book ‘Darwin’s Black Box,’ and I’m excited to read it to learn more about how to defend my Christian faith, particularly within the context of the classical creation vs. evolution debate. Both your and Ken Ham’s presentations were great in helping me understand the crisis that Christianity faces with more and more people leaving the church because of supposed “scientific evidence” against the Bible. Thank you again, Rick, for making the trip out here. I know others were impacted as I was. May God continue to guide you and bless you on this mission.

Today, all the empirical (tested and confirmed rather than theory) evidence technology offers has the preponderance of evidence on the side of special creation by God. That is why we are out here, and why Rick lectures on this subject.
God bless and keep you,
Rick and Susan Oliver

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