August 6, 2010

Theistic-Evolution - A Fatal Compromise?

Today’s program deals with the sticky issue of Origins.   As a leader in the Christian Home Education movement who has spent many a luncheon discussing this issue with those who disagree, I think this one may be the most controversial issue within the present-day movement.   

First we should say that Christians receive the epistemological authority of the Word – as opposed to the ultimate epistemological authority of the minds of empiricists “interpreting data.”  Sincere Christians still take the Bible as the authority for truth, the inspired Word of God 

It should go without saying that sincere Christians would be a little compromise-phobic especially during the largest apostasy (numbers-wise) in the history of Christian church, just now kicking into full force in this country.  The moves from orthodoxy to neo-orthodoxy, to the post-modern, relativist (who care about whatever?) emergism, to deism/atheism takes up but a generation or two these days.   So the phobia, in my estimation, is well-justified. 

Still, Christians should think through their “non-negotiables” carefully, and perhaps even prioritize the items on the list – in order that appropriate humility and love be afforded in these discussions.   It should go without saying that some propositions are more essential to our worldview than others.  Some compromises would surrender more ground to the naturalist-materialist, antithetical worldview than others might. And most importantly, some of our propositional commitments carry more exegetical weight than others.  It is a mark of immaturity and pride, when men will defend every one of their opinions touching biblical issues with equal force and passion, as if they could never be wrong on a single point.  

All that said, here is my list: 

Kevin Swanson's Non-Negotiables in Order of Priority:

#1 – God is the sovereign Source of all creation, and God created all space and matter, by the Word of His power, ex nihilo.

#2 – God made man in His image from dust without intermediate forms. 

#3 – There could be no death for man before the fall. 

#4 – In six 24-hour days God created light, oceans, trees, sun, moon, stars, animals, man, etc.

#5 – A worldwide flood destroyed all man and land-based animals on the earth.

#6 – The biblical chronology allows for Adam’s creation no longer than 10,000 years ago.

#7 – There could be no death before the fall for heart-lung animals.

Now, at what point would a pastor or theologian fatally compromise the Christians faith by denying one of the above propositions?   

At what point is the epistemological authority of the Word of God die the death of ten or fifteen or a thousand qualifications? 

Are we interpreting rock layers by the Word of God, or are we interpreting the Word of God by “scientific” historical guesswork relating to rock layers?   

Perhaps more to the issue at hand - where did our confidence concerning this “scientific” guesswork come from?   We knew with 99% confidence that the gravitational force existed after dropping the rock 100 times. With what confidence can we say that a rock is four billion years old?   

Where did all of this confidence in the evolutionary processes come from?  Was human pride the beginning of knowledge and wisdom?  Or was the fear of God the beginning of knowledge and wisdom in the geology classrooms? Important questions for those who wish to salvage something of the faith from the naturalist-materialists in the 21st century.  . . 

August 2, 2010

Shepherd Center Community Service

A couple of the boys from the Shepherd Center joined me on a service project down in Kiowa this morning.

Several weeks ago, we posted a series of signs around the county announcing our volunteer force, available to help elderly, shut-ins, handicapped, and widows in the county with maintenance and basic handyman tasks.   The calls are rolling in!  This morning James, Daniel, Kevin, and myself built a split-rail fence for a couple in Kiowa. 

People complain of the lack of community.  We have community.

People complain that young men are playing computer games while "Rome" burns.  Our young men don't.

People complain that Christians want to jam a few propositions down people's throats, but they have no life to share with others.  That's not us.

We search for ways to involve ourselves "in the world," in intensive, impacting ways, without synthesizing.  Christianity has become involvement without impact, because there was no separation.  "Come out from among them and be separate," is just as important as "You are the light of the world." 

They can have their abortion, their birth implosions, their godless education systems, their mind-draining entertainment, their corrupting, family destroying government aid programs (that have utterly ruined the inner city family).  We'll do our own schools and call them home discipleship centers.  We'll adopt the orphan.  We'll reach out in our neighborhoods to provide for the poor without the government dollar.  We'll take care of our own widows, instead of tossing them into the euthanizing medical systems provided by the state in the year 2023.  We'll separate, and then we'll come back and impact our communities in surprising ways.   This is what happened with the Christian influence in the Roman Empire.  And this is what will happen here.

Separate and Salt

July 20, 2010

Noah's Ark Rafting

The men from the Shepherd&rs. . .

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July 2, 2010

Mom, You're Not Qualified...to Perform Brain Surgery!

Continue Reading. . .

June 24, 2010

Church Government

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April 26, 2010

Christian Heritage Conference in WA

The Generations ministry enjoyed working with the Christian Heritage conference in the Seattle area over the weekend.  A record-breaking crowd of 2700+ filled the church bui. . .

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April 16, 2010

Watch Disk 1 of The Family Economics Conference DVD - Completely Free

For those of you who missed the Family Economics Conference back in March or didn't get an opportunity to pick up the set of 10 DVDs, I wanted to share this full-length DVD with you, right here on my blog. Thi. . .

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March 31, 2010

The Desperate Search for Authenticity

If anything characterizes the last few remnants of faith in the west, it would be a search for authenticity.

Nineteenth century Romanticism was just another attempt to escape reality, and post-modernism finally gave up on reality. . . .

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March 18, 2010

Christian Curriculum Project Episode #2

We advocate a whole different kind of education, for those who are tired of the social stigma associated with worshiping God in the Chemistry Laboratory.