INSTITUTE FOR CREATION RESEARCH www.icr.org FEBRUARY 2011 ACTSVOL. 40 NO. 2 FACTS & A FLOOD of IN F LUENCE The Impact of Henry Morris and The Genesis Flood in Modern History Get the authorized update to the creation science classic The Genesis Flood EARTh’S CatastROPHIC Past Geology, Creation & the Flood Dr. Andrew A. Snelling he Institute for Creation Research presents the long- for earth history and concludes that the central claims of Genesis awaited update to The Genesis Flood. Written by researcher 1-11 are true: Andrew Snelling—one of the world’s leading geologists in • God created everything in six 24-hour days. the creation science movement—Earth’s Catastrophic Past • Adam and Eve were real people. Tprovides up-to-date geological evidence that demonstrates the authority • God cursed a perfect world as a judgment for sin. and accuracy of the biblical account of creation and the Flood. • Noah constructed an Ark by which two of every kind of air- An alarming number of Christian leaders and teachers believe that breathing, land-dwelling animal were saved along with Noah’s God “created” through evolutionary processes over millions of years, family from a global flood. that Adam and Eve descended from a hominid population, and that • The confusion of languages at the Tower of Babel produced the there has never been a global flood. language groups that are found around the world today. Step by step, Dr. Snelling examines evolutionary interpretations of By the end of Earth’s Catastrophic Past, readers will have their faith the geologic record and deconstructs the misplaced assumptions and restored in Genesis as real, literal history, and be convinced that the conclusions on which those interpretations are based. With in-depth scientific evidence, correctly discerned and applied, is indeed consistent scholarly research and insight, he constructs a biblical geologic model with God’s record of our origins and history found in Genesis 1-11. S The two-volume set is only (plus shipping$59.95 and handling) S To order, call 800.628.7640 or visit www.icr.org/store FROM THE EDITOR CONTENTS A Flood of Influence 4 Henry M. Morris III, D.Min. Molecular Equi- Celebrating the Classics 6 distance: The Echo of Discontinuity? rom time to time I browse through my In this issue of Acts & Facts, we are pre- Nathaniel T. Jeanson, Ph.D. personal library and select books to senting a collection of tribute articles about The give or throw away—books that are no Genesis Flood, its authors, and the influence this The Creation longer relevant or that could be bet- book has had around the world. Throughout the Movement’s Firm 8 Fter used by someone else. Our home has several year, ICR will be highlighting various aspects of Foundation enormous bookshelves and it takes a while to go the creation science movement that were fostered John D. Morris, Ph.D. through them all, organize them better, pack up by the solid biblical and scientific arguments in some volumes for future grandkids, and gener- The Genesis Flood. Global Flood, Global ally bask in the nostalgia of some very wonderful Many of our readers will know that over a 10 Impact titles that remain classics. year ago, ICR published the authorized update to Henry M. Morris, Ph.D. One of those classic works on my shelf is this book with the release of Earth’s Catastrophic A New Creationist The Genesis Flood by Drs. Henry Morris and John Past: Geology, Creation & the Flood by former ICR Cosmology: In No Whitcomb. This seminal work in 1961 defined science researcher Dr. Andrew Snelling. A skilled 12 Time at All Part 3 the science and Bible debate in the 20th century scientist and writer, Dr. Snelling, now head of re- Larry Vardiman, Ph.D., and and propelled Henry Morris into such promi- search at Answers in Genesis, labored for many D. Russell Humphreys, Ph.D. nence that even his detractors refer to him as the years at the direction of Henry Morris to update father of the modern creation science movement. the scientific data and present an updated and Genesis Flood Insights Published by Presbyterian & Reformed publish- expanded look at the topic that many see as key 15 More Relevant Today ers, The Genesis Flood has been continuously in to understanding biblical earth history. than Ever print for 50 years, and the Institute for Creation As you read through our articles this Frank Sherwin, M.A., and Research, which was founded by Dr. Morris month about The Genesis Flood, consider the fact Brian Thomas, M.S. in 1970, celebrates the impact of this work and that from time to time God places His hand on Just Say No to Trojan these men. certain individuals to accomplish great tasks that Horses Like many in the ministry, I used this book bring others to the Savior and bring glory to our 17 James J. S. Johnson, J.D., Th.D in my seminary studies and later in pastoral Creator. This certainly is the case with the work ministry. Over the past several years I’ve trav- God has accomplished through John Whitcomb Texas Schools Seek eled throughout the country for ICR’s seminars and Henry Morris, not only in their classic work 19 Science Supplements and conferences and have encountered countless on Genesis, but all throughout their lives and Christine Dao individuals who share with me how The Genesis ministries for over half a century. Flood changed their lives, giving them a new per- May God grant us more who remain hum- Letters to the Editor spective on science and the book of Genesis. The bly devoted to our Creator and Redeemer! 20 full impact of this book and these two men will Lawrence E. Ford Commitment to a EX E CUTIV E EDITOR not be known until eternity. 21 Timeless Message Henry M. Morris IV Russian Pastor Visits 22 ICR Christine Dao Published by Executive Editor: Lawrence E. Ford No articles may be reprinted in Institute for Creation Research Managing Editor: Beth Mull whole or in part without obtaining P. O. Box 59029, Dallas, TX 75229 Assistant Editor: Christine Dao permission from ICR. 214.615.8300 Designer: Dennis Davidson VOL. 40 NO. 2 www.icr.org FEBRUARY 2011 • ACTS FACTS 3 & A FLOOD of IN F LUENCE The Impact of Henry Morris and The Genesis Flood in Modern History HENRY M. MORRIS III, D.MIN . he question of the historicity and the charac- “ ter of the Genesis Flood is no mere academic Barely a century after issue of interest to a small handful of scien- con in the 1600s and Isaac New- the publication of Darwin’s tists and theologians. If a worldwide flood ton and Carolus Linnaeus in the famous book On the Origin of 1700s all vigorously resisted the actuallyT destroyed the entire antediluvian human popula- Species, Dr. Henry Morris and growing tendency to write God Dr. John Whitcomb wrote those tion, as well as all land animals, except those preserved in a out of the design, order, and words in the Introduction of purpose in creation. The Genesis Flood. special Ark constructed by Noah (as a plain reading of the By the time of the Scopes Christian scholarship had Biblical record would lead one to believe), then its historical trial in 1925, Christian scholar- largely retreated from the bibli- ship had either embraced some 1 cal message during that centu- and scientific implications are tremendous.” form of theistic or day-age evo- ry—first by the theological lib- lution, or had consigned the erals who adapted the scientific establishment’s capitulation to natural ages of evolution to a “gap” between the first two verses of Genesis 1. selection and naturalistic evolution by embracing the idea that God used Creation was relegated to a “secondary doctrine”—not even included in evolution to create. Then came various attempts to allegorize the words the famous “Five Fundamentals of the Faith.”2 Science had become the of Genesis with “day-age” systems that lumped the stages of evolutionary purview of evolutionists, and Christianity essentially retreated from the development into sequential ages that God (it was assumed) adapted to scientific arena and capitulated to the intellectual pressure of academic the cultural ignorance of Moses’ day. secularism. Darwin was not the first to embrace evolution by any stretch of Dr. Henry Morris’ early books began chipping away at the strong- the imagination. He was preceded by Lamarck and Charles Lyell and by holds of evolution with the publication of That You Might Believe in the growing popularity of “naturalists” among the social elite of Europe. 19463 and The Bible and Modern Science in 1951,4 initially raising a storm Prior to those relatively recent thinkers, there were literally millennia of of negative reaction from the “intellectuals” in the American Scientific pantheistic and polytheistic philosophers and religionists espousing my- Affiliation (ASA)—especially after a release of adapted articles in Inter- thology of every stripe and description. Atheistic evolution in one form Varsity’s His magazine. Bernard Ramm published his negative critique or another has been recorded in history from ancient Babylonian days. It of recent creation in his 1954 release A Christian View of Science and is not new. It had merely become “scientific” during the “enlightenment” Scripture,5 effectively winning over the growing intellectual prowess of of the Industrial Revolution. the “neo” evangelicals. Very few technically educated Christians seemed Strangely enough, it was the scientists of those days who most ve- to be willing to accept the Bible at face value. hemently opposed naturalistic thinking.