Biography
Joel became a Christian at the age of seven after his father, a pastor, shared the Gospel with him. Ever since, he has been interested in apologetics and the defense of the faith, and in particular how evolution affects Christian theology.
In 2001, He graduated with a Diploma in Biotechnology (equivalent to a 3 year Associate Degree) from Ngee Ann Polytechnic (Singapore). During his studies, he also completed a student internship with the Pediatrics Cytogenetics laboratory at the National University Hospital. He was also very active with his church’s youth ministry and Campus Crusade for Christ. It was around this time that Joel first attended a CMI talk by Dr. Carl Wieland of CMI and was blown away to hear, for the first time, answers to some of his nagging questions about creation and evolution. This ignited a passion to share the Gospel using creation apologetics.
In 2008, Joel completed a Bachelor of Science from the University of Queensland (Australia), majoring in two fields of studies: Evolutionary Biology and Genetics, with the sole purpose of increasing his own apologetics arsenal to the non-believer. He was also actively involved with Campus Christian Movement as well as an open air preaching ministry. Joel volunteered as an active Support Group volunteer with CMI from 2004–2008 where he attended some 150 plus talks from well-established creation speakers.
Due to his street evangelism ministry Joel has serious ‘street cred!’ As he would often say, “There were two questions that would be raised every single week as objections against the Christian faith. 1) Creation vs. Evolution. 2) “If God is good, how can there be so much evil in the world?” Answering both questions requires going back to the biblical foundation of Genesis. Joel has a desire to see Christians equipped and strengthened in their faith by showing them how the scientific evidence makes more sense when correctly interpreted through a biblical lens.
In 2011, Joel obtained a Master of Divinity (Theology) from Trinity Theological College in Singapore. During this period, he oversaw the Youth Ministry at Sembawang Presbyterian Church, and completed a 1.5 year internship with Redemption Hill Church. Upon graduation, he was employed by Redemption Hill Church where he was largely responsible for researching and writing articles for an apologetics website/project, writing commentary and devotional guides, exegetical research, and teaching.
In 2014, Joel moved to Fort Worth, Texas, USA. He graduated in 2016 with a Master of Theology in Systematic Theology from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, with an emphasis on philosophical theology especially as it relates to the subject of Christian Theodicy.
In 2016, Joel moved to Georgia to join CMI’s team of specialists where he speaks, researches and writes on science/theology/creation based subjects. In his spare time he is an avid fossil collector, enthusiastic gardener and also loves entertaining children. He is a previous winner of Singapore’s largest street illusionist competition. Joel and his wife have two young children.
Creation magazine articles
- Stargazers
- Humans evolving?
- Soft flexible nerves found in Triceratops bone
- Reclaiming the peppered moth
- The skeletons in evolution’s closet
- The importance of biblical creation
- Liligers: A testimony to the created kind
- Creation couple: Husband and wife both scientists and creationists
Journal of Creation articles
- Dismissing biblical creation without engaging creationist arguments: A review of Baby Dinosaurs on the Ark From Journal of Creation 36(1), 2022.
- Hierarchical clustering in dinosaur baraminology studies From Journal of Creation 34(3), 2020.
- Comparison of morphology-based and genomics-based baraminology methods From Journal of Creation 33(3), 2019. (With Matthew Cserhati).
- Feathered pterosaurs: ruffling the feathers of dinosaur evolution From Journal of Creation 33(2), 2019.
- Theistic evolutionists’ views of the Fall fall short From Journal of Creation 32(3), 2018.
- Design by intuition: good biology, naive philosophy: A review of Undeniable: How biology confirms our intuition that life is designed From Journal of Creation 31(2), 2017.
Feedback
- The doctrine of original sin: What happens to babies who die?
- Speciation and the Great Apes
- Refuting Jehovah’s Witnesses’ errors
- Does Leviticus 19:19 prohibit the cross-breeding of horses and donkeys?
- How do we account for so many species of beetles if Noah’s Flood was only 4,500 years ago?
- Do whales have leg ‘genes’
- Do mutations add information? Is that Evolution?
- RNA world and pig-monkey chimera
- Could thorns have existed outside of Eden, and what about the Framework Hypothesis?
- Can the Hebrew word, ‘bara’ be translated as re-create?
- Killer caterpillar with ‘sting’ in its tail
- Are Maiacetus, Indohyus, and Dorudon missing links?
- Do these skulls prove common ancestry between apes and humans?
- Feathered dinosaurs: Have quill knobs and feathers been found on dinosaurs?
- Did a Chicxulub impact wipe out dinosaurs?
- Cultural Relativism and Morality
- Responding to theistic evolution
- Triceratops soft tissue: More dinosaur soft tissue found and carbon dated
- Carbon 14 in diamonds: Refuting Talk.Origins
- Could humans have evolved from an ape-like creature through slow and gradual mutations?
- Hypostatic Union: Did Jesus know when he was coming back?
- On evolution and fraud
- Speciation is not evolution
Other articles
- Genesis and the Resurrection: Do you believe Jesus?
- Should I stay in a church that compromises on biblical creation? Decisions are not always easy
- Jurassic World: Dominion
- Biblical Unity
- One day is as a thousand years: God’s warning to those who deny creation and the worldwide flood
- Is it ok to be a Christian and believe in evolution?
- A review of Catastrophic Caves: Untold secrets of Planet Earth by Vance Nelson
- What is Homo luzonensis?
- Reformation wall vandalized yet again
- One day is as a thousand years: God’s warning to those who deny creation and the worldwide flood
- A review of Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom
- Elephant Genome Project: evolutionary theory re-written
- CMI’s view on the ‘Nashville Statement’ on marriage
- Why did God prevent Adam from eating from the Tree of Life after he had sinned?
- “What? … Teach my children unbiblical ideas?”
