The Evolution of a Creationist The Evolution of a Creationist by Dr. Jobe Martin A LAYMEN’S GUIDE to the conflict between THE BIBLE AND EVOLUTIONARY THEORY Biblical Discipleship Publishers Rockwall, Texas Copyright © 1994, 2002 by Dr. Jobe Martin Published by Biblical Discipleship Publishers 2212 Chisholm Trail Rockwall, Texas 75032 (972) 771-0568 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Martin, Jobe R. 1940- The Evolution of a Creationist 288 p. cm. ISBN 0-9643665-0-9 1. Religion-Christian. 2. Creation Science. 3. Creation/Evolution debate. 4. Christian Gospel I. Title II. Title: A Layman’s Guide to the Conflict Between the Bible and Evolutionary Theory All Scripture quotations in this book are taken from the King James Version of the Bible. Fifth Printing, Revised 2002, 75,000 in print Printed in the United States of America NOTICE: The goal of this book is to provide the reader with easily accessible information on the creation versus evolution controversy. Any part of this book may be reproduced for personal or classroom use as long as it is not sold for profit. Please note that there are quotations in this book from copyrighted materials which may reserve all of their legal rights. Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created (Revelation 4:11). This book is dedicated to my Creator and Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ To God alone be the glory. Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory, for thy mercy, and for thy truth’s sake (Psalm 115:1). All who gave of their time and talents in producing this book did so by God’s grace and for His eternal glory, for our sufficiency comes from God (2 Corinthians 3:5), and without Him we can do nothing (John 15:5b). TABLE OF Contents PREFACE . .10 MARVELS OF GOD’S CREATION . .16 CHAPTER 1 — The Evolution Of A Creationist . .19 MARVEL OF GOD’S CREATION #1 . .39 The Bombardier Beetle CHAPTER 2 — ...And Then Came Assumptions . .43 MARVEL OF GOD’S CREATION #2 . .57 The Incubator Bird CHAPTER 3 — Has God Been Toppled? . .61 MARVEL OF GOD’S CREATION #3 . .87 The Black And Yellow Garden Spider CHAPTER 4 — “Missing Links” Are Missing . .91 MARVEL OF GOD’S CREATION #4 . .105 The Gecko Lizard And The Human Ear CHAPTER 5 — Orangutans, Monkeys And Man . .109 MARVEL OF GOD’S CREATION #5 . .131 The Giraffe CHAPTER 6 — The Ten Commandments And The Days Of The Creation Week . .135 MARVEL OF GOD’S CREATION #6 . .159 The Angler Fish CHAPTER 7 — Earth’s Pre-Flood Water Canopy And The Dinosaur Mystery . .162 MARVEL OF GOD’S CREATION #7 . .189 The Beaver CHAPTER 8 — Do Mutations Produce New Life Forms? . .192 MARVEL OF GOD’S CREATION #8 . .209 The Chicken Egg CHAPTER 9 — Earth: Young Or Old? Give Me Facts, Not Assumptions . .212 MARVEL OF GOD’S CREATION #9 . .249 The Chuckwalla Lizard CHAPTER 10 — Deception In The Textbooks . .251 MARVEL OF GOD’S CREATION #10 . .265 The Woodpecker PRAYER . .270 CONCLUSION . .271 EPILOGUE . .278 INDEX Subject . .280 Authors . .284 Scripture . .286 PREFACE This book is a condensation and simplification of more than thirty years of studies that moved me from unquestioning belief in Darwinian evolution to undoubting trust in the special six-day creation by God as presented in the biblical account. It is my conviction that a simple discussion of the major questions in the creation/evolution controversy is needed for those men and women who have little or no background in science. Thus, I have attempted to address pertinent issues as simply as possible—fully recognizing that those who have studied intensively in specialized areas of science may accuse this book of being too simplistic. The book touches on the evolution of a creationist (me), but emphasizes the inherent conflicts between evolutionary theory and the Bible. This work is a compilation of thoughts and writings that God used to change my belief system, my worldview. It is my conviction that the Old and New Testaments of the Bible are God’s inspired, infallible, inerrant Word. The Bible is to be interpreted in the normal, historical, grammatical, literal fashion. Yes, the Bible uses figures of speech, but they are evident when used. The King James Version of the Bible is quoted throughout because of its universal acceptance. Some of you may not be familiar with King James English. In the quoted Scriptures you will notice pronouns referring to God are not capitalized and certain punctuations and capitalized words seem out of place. This is the way things were done in King James English (unless I have made a mistake in the transcript). When I use the term “evolution,” I am referring to the idea that after the “Big Bang” and after the earth was supposedly formed (by an accidental, mindless, totally random chance 10 Preface 11 process), it took millions of years to produce organic molecules and then many more millions of years of evolutionary processes (mutations and natural selection) to produce people (the molecules-to-life-to-man theory, also called macroevolution). For those of you who read with extreme concentration, never missing a word or a thought, please overlook the repetitions. Some of us need repetition so that we can better understand a concept. Others of us do not have the time to read a book in one sitting. Therefore, I have purposely repeated certain things throughout the book for reinforcement. When speaking about origins (Where did I come from?), we are dealing with a system of faith. It may be faith in eternal God or faith in eternal matter/energy. This book will attempt to help the reader discern which system of thought about our beginnings he or she believes. Is it the impersonal, plus chance, plus billions of years? Or is there an infinite Creator/Designer capable of creating the universe and all it contains in six 24-hour days about 6000 years ago? Do we creationists have a different set of fossils, different living creatures and a different earth to study in contrast to the evolutionists? No, we study the same data. But how can two such opposite ideas come about if we are exposed to the identical information? The answers will be dealt with in the following pages. It has everything to do with your worldview—your basic set of beliefs and whether these beliefs include God. If we say we are Christians, then we need to know what we can believe about the biblical account of creation, and not according to our politically correct humanistic evolutionistic culture. It is a shame that most professing Christians have joined the ranks of evolution via theistic evolution and progressive creationism. Even to this day, most Christians 12 THE EVOLUTION OF A CREATIONIST have never been exposed to biblical creationism. Many of God’s people, when confronted with the evidences for biblical creationism, joyfully accept the truth. I would encourage parents and young people to start building a personal library of good creationist literature. Helpful creationist books and organizations have been included for your reference. Many high school and college students are writing reports from a creationist perspective. Professors can appreciate excellently documented scholarship even when they disagree with the creationist’s position. It is a known fact that we Christians are losing 70% of our evangelical Christian young people by the end of four years of college. My friends with Campus Crusade for Christ claim that if they do not reach Christian college freshmen within their first six weeks on campus, they have already lost them to other worldviews. Christian youth are buying into other worldviews presented to them on the secular campuses. They are deserting their Christian roots by the thousands! Most Humanist, Marxist, New Age, Islamic and Postmodern professors have an agenda—they want the minds and hearts of our kids! Most of us Christians do not have nearly as well defined an agenda. We send our children off to these schools and universities unable to defend their faith. As they go to various places for parts of their education, they should be equipped and ready to live out Scriptures such as 1 Peter 3: 13-17: And who is he that will harm you, if ye be followers of that which is good? But and if ye suffer for righteousness’ sake, happy are ye: and be not afraid of their terror, neither be troubled; But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear: Having a good conscience; that, whereas they speak evil of you, as evildoers, they may be ashamed that falsely accuse Preface 13 your good conversation in Christ. For it is better, if the will of God be so, that ye suffer for well doing, than for evil doing. We send our children out as mission fields rather than as missionaries! Many exuberant Christian youth are shipwrecked in their faith by the subtle and scientific- sounding arguments of evolution and the intimidation tactics of certain teachers and professors. Dads and Moms, things in the classrooms are not at all like they were when we went to school! May I give you an example? A Christian student who graduated at the top of his class at a major secular university wrote a paper (5-1-2001) for his senior Microbiology course entitled, “Comparing and Contrasting the Regulation of the Lactose and Galactose Operons and Regulons in Streptococcus thermophilus, Streptococcus mutans and Lactococcus lactis.” On the first page of his paper he made a HUGE mistake that sent his professor balistic.