Re: have we forgotten who the enemy is?

Glenn and George have both explained why YEC is as much the enemy of the
Gospel as atheistic materialism. Meanwhile far too many Christians seem to
be unaware of the justified ill-repute YEC is bringing down on Christians
and those of us who criticise them are unreasonable.
The trouble is that sane evangelicals have pussy-footed around e.g. John
Stott and most moderate evangelicals not to mention many in CIS and ASA.
After all YEC simply gives an alternative scientific paradigm

Michael
----- Original Message -----
From: "George Murphy" <gmurphy@raex.com>
To: "Glenn Morton" <glennmorton@entouch.net>; "'Lawrence Johnston'"
<johnston@uidaho.edu>; <asa@calvin.edu>; "'jack syme'"
<drsyme@cablespeed.com>
Sent: Friday, February 18, 2005 12:53 AM
Subject: Re: have we forgotten who the enemy is?

> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Glenn Morton" <glennmorton@entouch.net>
> To: "'Lawrence Johnston'" <johnston@uidaho.edu>; <asa@calvin.edu>; "'jack
> syme'" <drsyme@cablespeed.com>
> Sent: Thursday, February 17, 2005 7:35 PM
> Subject: RE: have we forgotten who the enemy is?
>
>
> > Feb 17,2005
> >
> >> -----Original Message-----
> >> From: asa-owner@lists.calvin.edu
> >> [mailto:asa-owner@lists.calvin.edu] On Behalf Of Lawrence Johnston
> >> Sent: Thursday, February 17, 2005 8:52 AM
> >> To: asa@calvin.edu; jack syme
> >> Subject: Re: have we forgotten who the enemy is?
> >>
> >>
> >> Hi, fellow Citizens of the Kingdom of God (and seekers!)
> >>
> >> I really appreciate Jack's starting this thread, in a very
> >> revealing way.
> >>
> >>
> >> Jack Syme wrote:
> >>
> >> I am not sure why the discussion on this list is always so negative
> > against
> >> both ID and YEC. IMO in the big picture, this battle is a minor one.
> > The
> >> most important belief that we all have, and share with our
> > creationist
> >> brothers, is the Gospel. Most evangelical Christians dont really
> > care that
> >> much about the creation/evolution issue, knowing Christ is much more
> >> important.
> >>
> >> It seems to me that we are losing sight of the real enemy, which is
> >> philosophical materialism, atheistic naturalism. We should be
> > reaching out
> >> to scientist non believers, and showing them that the Bible, and
> > science are
> >> compatible. This issue is more about apologetics than polemics.
> >
> > I will tell both of you why this issue is important. If you ever go on a
> > field trip with geologists (real ones, not the ICR pseudo-rock docs) and
> > listen to the geologist's comments about the creationists and what they
> > teach, you will quickly find that it is almost impossible to share the
> > gospel with these people because of the idiocy of the young-earth
> > position. I have seen this type of situation. One geologist will say,
> > "look at all those burrows, they were deposited as they are in one
> > single year!" and everyone hoots and hollers, laughing. Some one will
> > then chime in, "Halleluyah, right on brother!" More laughter. When a
> > radio preacher comes on the radio saying false and slanderous things
> > about geologist and biologists and how one can't be a christian and
> > believe in evolution, the derision starts. "Hey can you believe how dumb
> > you have to be to be a christian?" "Yeah, they are born with only a
> > brainstem," "Yep, that is the religious part of the brain!" Such
> > things make it very very difficult to share the gospel. Who wants to
> > be as stupid as these YEC guys? Y'all live in your nice non-geological
> > world and such things are mere abstractions to you. They are the
> > reality I see.
> >
> > To you it is a minor thing. In my profession, YEC and even ID with some
> > of their nonsense, are huge blocks to the gospel.
>
> This is not a problem restricted to geologists. Similar problems affect
our
> ability to communicate the gospel to people in other scientific areas and
in
> fact to laypeople with a reasonable level of scientific literacy. & it
> provokes more than just passive resistance to the gospel. As I've said
> before, the YECs & other opponents of evolution insist on sticking a large
> "Kick Me" sign on the back of the church and opponents of Christianity are
> all too glad to oblige.
>
> Shalom
> George
> http://web.raex.com/~gmurphy/
>
>
>
Received on Fri Feb 18 01:39:54 2005