Secret Police learn the secret of Jesus

"Upon learning of a recent Christian prayer and praise vigil, officials in an Asian country sent secret police for around-the-clock surveillance. The officers appeared to enjoy the worship music and were delighted when the believers served them tea. One was given a New Testament. A believer afterward reported, 'They want to know more about our God.' Pray that the good seed of His word will take root in their hearts."

(from a Christian prayer bulletin, September 2010)

Christian Prayers are Very Different

"... from those generally offered by Muslims. In Islam, prayer is rigorous, monotonous, and oppressive. In Mohammed's religion, ritual prayers are required five times a day and must be preceded by the cleansing of one's hands, mouth, nostrils, face, arms, and feet with water (or sand when water is not available). Each of these actions is done three times in succession. Without this, a prayer is considered to be of no effect.

"A Muslim must repeat specific prayers memorized in Arabic. No other language is said to be acceptable to God, even if the person doesn't speak or understand Arabic -- which the majority of Muslims do not. These memorized prayers are regarded as 'good works' that will be placed on a person's account for the Day of Judgment if carried out properly. However, a prayer is considered to be of no worth if incorrectly recited or at a time not prescribed by Muslim authorities. Muslims are forbidden to pray in a bathroom or any other place considered unclean.

"Islam requires that its followers pray in the direction of a black stone encased in the Ka'bah, a rectangular shrine in the city of Mecca. They must also perform extremely intricate movements in prayer. They bow, kneel, stand, turn their heads a certain way, place their hands to the front, and so on. Men and women are not allowed to pray together. In fact, a woman is forbidden to even raise her voice in ritual prayer if her husband or another man is present.

"How wonderful it is that followers of Christ are not limited in the place, time or posture of prayers. We have immediate access to God's Throne wherever we are and in whatever circumstances. Pray that multitudes of Muslim men and women will come to know this blessing."

(from a Christian prayer bulletin, September 2010)

ProtoAvis - "We try harder?"

"The problem with Protoavis is that it appears in the fossil record around the same time as the earliest dinosaurs. If it's a bird, then it seems highly unlikely that birds are descended from dinosaurs. In fact, in such a case it wouldn't be clear what birds are descended from."

In 1961, Avis Rent-A-Car started its well known "We Try Harder" advertising campaign.

Well, now there's Protoavis. This is one of the "earliest" birds found by evolutionists. But it seems that to evolve into Protoavis, dinosaurs tried so hard that they grew feathers ahead of schedule! See Casey Luskin's article "Inconsistent Reasoning Governs Evolutionary Interpretations of Feathered Dinosaurs" at the Discovery Institute.

So what's next for Evolutionists? Instead of birds evolving from dinosaurs, maybe it's the other way around! "We're going to have to conceive of dinosaurs as being more like birds." Fasten your seat belts! Maybe they'll find Proto-Rent-A-Wreck next...

Disciples of Jesus Die Differently

Word is spreading in Southeast Asia that people who believe in Isa Al Masih (Jesus, the Messiah) die differently than everyone else. They don't fear death. Often, before dying, they confess, "He is here to pick me up." People are, for the first time in their family history, forsaking the occult when they feel oppressed. Instead they are relying on Isa to answer the prayers that they lift to Him when they are struggling.

"Our people have always gone to witchdoctors whenever they have proglems. Islam forbids it, but we didn't know what to do with our problems, so we continued to go to the witchdoctors. They always gave us a quick 'solution.' But now we are discovering that Isa is much more powerful at taking care of our fears. Sometimes He takes a long time answering our prayer, stretching our faith and patience. But sometimes He answers very fast and really shows us what He can do."

(from CrossWorld Today prayer bulletin, Summer 2010)

Book Review: Redeeming Science, by Vern Poythress

Vern Poythress is one of the most conservative graduate-level seminary professors of Biblical interpretation. However, he calls into doubt such fundamental Biblical doctrines such as death before the fall and the flood being a global event. It is troubling that he does not recognize the excellent work done by young earth creation scientists in these areas.

(Book Review. Redeeming Science, by Vern Poythress, Crossway Books, Wheaton, IL, 2006, 381 pages, $20.00.)

Vern Poythress, professor of New Testament interpretation at Westminster Theological Seminary in Glenside, Pennsylvania, authored Redeeming Science, A God-Centered Approach, in 2006. Recently, a copy was sent to all the alumni of the seminary, of which I am one.

It is a long book of 381 pages (including appendices, bibliography and index). In it he gives a detailed theological and scientific interpretation of Genesis chapter 1, Creation, Science, and Intelligent Design. His academic background is evident in his handling of the material - besides a Th.D. in New Testament from the University of Stellenbosch (South Africa), Dr. Poythress also holds a Ph.D. in Mathematics from Harvard University.

The book is very readable and persuasive. Toward the end it even has a discussion of quantum equations and the wave operator. However, its erudition is marred by some very questionable assumptions of Biblical interpretation which strongly colors the thought of Poythress and many other seminary professsors of our time. For example, on p. 121, Poythress asks,

"What do we say about animal death? The later scriptural statements are talking about human death. God created man to have fellowship with him and to enjoy life in the presence of God forever.... The animals and plants, however, did not enjoy the same exalted status as man. In fact, later on God explicitly gives to man the authority to kill animals for food, but not to kill a fellow human being (Gen. 9:3, 6).... Psalm 104, a psalm that repeatedly alludes to the creation in Genesis 1, includes details that imply animal death: .... 'These all [all sea creatures, and probably all land creatures as well] look to you, to give them their food in due season [Ps. 104:27] ["food" here must include large fish eating small fish; this verse describes God's continuing providential control over the present order, not a vegetarian past]." (brackets are in the original)

"I conclude that we do not have any firm basis for saying that animal death started only after the fall of man." (p. 122)

This is his conclusion, despite the fact that just a couple of pages earlier, Poythress notes that:

"The presence of death seems in disharmony with the pronouncement that the creation was 'very good' (Gen. 1:31), and with the later scriptural statements that death came through one man, Adam (Rom. 5:12; 1 Cor. 15:12; Gen. 3:19)."

Poythress goes on to immunize himself from criticism on this topic with this statement on p. 122:

"Again, we must beware of presuming to dictate to God what kind of world he had to create. It had to be 'very good' in his sight; but that is not the same as saying that it must match what some of us may think ideal". (italics in the original)

In his outwardly balanced approach, it is interesting that Poythress notices the clear meaning of these words from the Fourth Commandment "For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day" (Ex. 20:11). He uses this verse to strike down the Day-Age Theory for creation (p. 112), and also the Analogical Day Theory (p. 131ff), however, he chooses to overlook the theological implications of this verse in his discussion of animal death above.

Yet again, Poythress is non-commital in his theological discussion of Noah's Flood (p.129):

"I conclude therefore that Genesis 6-9 by itself does not clearly indicate exactly how extensive the flood was. It covered an extensive area - the ordinary 'world' of the ordinary person in the ancient Near East. Possibly it covered the entire globe, but Genesis does not turn this possibility into a certainty. Consequently, we must go out and look at other parts of the world, alert to what further information may appear there."

One would think from this last sentence that Poythress would go on to the scientific work of young earth creationists who indeed are actively "going out and looking at other parts of the world". However, in his bibliography of over 200 sources, Poythress only includes the pioneering book The Genesis Flood (1961) by John Whitcomb and Henry Morris, The Young Earth (1994) by John Morris, and Starlight and Time (1994) by Russell Humphreys (which Poythress dismisses as having a flaw in its physical reasoning). Unfortunately, these are the only young-earth creationist works listed. In fairness, there are a dozen or so books listed from the Intelligent Design movement, including those of William Dembski, Phillip Johnson, and Michael Behe.

Relatively speaking, Vern Poythress is one of the most conservative scholars today who are teaching Biblical interpretation at seminaries which offer graduate theological degrees. However, it is troublesome that this brand of "nuanced" interpretation is raising up yet another generation of pastors and teachers, without providing them the solid Biblical foundation with which they could help believers to strengthen their faith in the Creator God, and thus truly "redeem science".

Marko Malyj
M.S. Physics Drexel University
M.Div. Pastoral Ministry Westminster Theological Seminary