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Arming God's Army

 First published as an ‘Update' to supporters in Australia in 1994.

 Dear friends

As the effects of this ministry keep spreading across this nation and other parts of the world, those of us involved at the front line can't help but get excited about the way in which we see the Lord at work.  He is using not only the speakers and Support Group [Editor’s note April 2018: now known as Friends groups] people directly, but also His army-the church universal, true believers within many denominations-to enlarge His kingdom by ‘creation evangelism'.

What CSF [now CMI] is doing by going to church after church is literally to ‘arm God's army'.  Guided by the Holy Spirit, the importance of this message (and the breadth of materials available) is resulting in people reaching out to their neighbours (whom they have often been loving, praying for, and witnessing to for a long time), with the exciting news that the Bible is true and can be trusted.  And that Christianity is not just something ‘in your head', but something which relates to the real world of rocks, trees and animals.

It's not enough to just have good materials, unless people realise how relevant and important this message is.  Many Christians see the scientific issues as a big yawn until they have seen the ‘relevance' message. (That's why creationist books have traditionally been slow movers in Christian bookstores.)

LINKAGE

On the other hand, it's not much use just showing people the relevance unless they can take it further-e.g. by subscribing to Creation magazine for ongoing feeding and linkage to the ministry, and by being armed with materials that contain answers to help them defend their faith (1 Peter 3:15) and bring others into the Kingdom.  That's why we always promote the magazine, our science journal, books and videos wherever we go.

I get really excited about the way in which the hard work of showing films in so many places (in addition to our own speaking) has now seen the recent surge in subscriptions to Creation magazine.

Excited, because I know from feedback received how the information is leaking (hemorrhaging might be a better word considering the thousands that go out each quarter) into the general community.  Even the non-Christian truck drivers at the firm which prints the magazine can't resist reading it!

Just days ago someone came up to me after a meeting and thanked us that he was now a Christian through the magazine and one of our videos (courtesy God's army!).  A former uni. lecturer, because of the magazine, came to a seminar and wrote:

‘[The seminar] really opened my eyes! [The speaker] presented his material in a restrained and rational way.  The evidence was overwhelming!  The error and deceit of the Evolution position was plain  …. How could I have not seen it before?  What was the Church doing to allow this scientific lie to be propagated … with not a word of opposition?'

This man has begun teaching creation evidences to high-school students and is convinced that it is leading to a strong move towards Christian faith in the youth of his district.  Can you see what I mean?  Rather than calling us to minister directly to the youth in that district, God is multiplying the effectiveness of our ministry many times through our arming God's army.

A young lady said as she bought The Answers Book that, when she became a Christian recently, her unbelieving mother had asked her ‘the first four questions'.  With a smile she said ‘now I can answer her'.

BLOWN AWAY

One man said he had tried to witness to someone in a park who came back at him with evolution.  He said he had walked away ‘almost crying because he blew my witness out of the water-I had no answers for him, but thanks to your ministry, now I have!'

Another man wrote to us saying that he was wondering how to reach a high-school physics/maths teacher across the road from him.  ‘Again the realm of creation science … proved to be a real key.  He came to see that Christianity is an intelligent faith that does have facts to back it up.'  This teacher now subscribes to the magazine and even uses the material in some of his high-school classes to get his students to think and not just accept what they are told.  Prior to this he ‘had been quite antagonistic towards Christians', but now attends church regularly and seems close to a breakthrough on salvation.  Please pray for him.

Pray too for another physics teacher I spoke with on a recent ministry tour who was arguing against creation on very inadequate grounds.  For instance, after I pointed out that nowhere do we see real information arising spontaneously from matter left to itself without a program, he insisted that this happens.  He said that a cooling solution of copper sulphate, in which crystals begin to grow, proves that it does.  I gently pointed out that this inevitable result is already pre-programmed into the structure of the atoms and molecules within the solution; no new information has arisen at all.  This was an intelligent man-it was just that there has been so much miseducation in this area.

FROGGY LOGIC

For instance, he said that the information on DNA and protein molecules is similarly programmed on to the raw ingredients of which they are made.  This is of course embarrassingly incorrect.  My favourite example to point this out is that of putting (in thought only) a frog into a blender.  All the raw materials are there, but because the information (the order in which they had been assembled in the original frog) is destroyed and is not present in the raw ingredients, not even the simplest form of life will ever assemble itself from that mixture.  The penny did seem to drop about this at least.  His wife left saying that her whole way of looking at things had changed; they had lunch with the pastor of the church afterwards.

Again, arming God's army is helping to slowly dispel some of the misinformation and misunderstandings in this area.  A young lady told me recently that through Creation magazine and materials, she had been able to gently bring her secular high-school teacher to the point where he had voluntarily shown a creation video to the class.

A GLORIOUS STORY

We can't reproduce more than a fraction of the exciting feedback we constantly get, but the following letter from an accountant (J.P.) to Warwick Armstrong is worth quoting at length:

‘(Your ministry is) supplying a need which in my experience going back forty years has not been supplied by any church I have attended.  Until about four months ago I had an incomplete faith …. I have never heard the (full truth of the) Gospel message preached in a church.

‘Four months ago my life changed.  At a meeting sponsored by (an Anglican Church) I attended my first Creation Science meeting and bought some literature.  Since then, through attending [your] meetings, listening to your tapes and reading your literature my faith has been immeasurably enriched.  I have learned that the Gospel starts at Genesis 1:1. Jesus Christ is the Word and by His Word, in six literal days … He created everything … Owning His creation He has total jurisdiction … (J.P. then goes on to give the full Gospel account of redemption over sin and death.)

‘What a glorious, beautiful story.  Why has it taken forty years for me to hear it when there are churches all over Sydney?  Why [was I] left to go on wavering in doubt and misery?'

GROWTH HAPPENING

The good news is that God's army is beginning to gradually awaken, thanks to the hard work of many and the dedicated support of a nucleus of financial supporters.  Although in some senses we are only scratching the surface, Australia may now be the most ‘creation evangelised' (in terms of pro rata penetration) nation in the world.

At the same time, and we believe because of this intense activity, we are seeing a reversal of the general Western trend to declining church attendance, particularly among churches which are emphasising biblical inerrancy more.  The Sunday Telegraph of January 16 reported that in the past five years, there has been an 8 percent growth in newcomers, particularly the 20-29 year-old age group, in Protestant churches across the denominational spectrum!

As you know, we've stepped out in appointing a new scientist/speaker, Dr Don Batten, trusting that more of those who do not already support regularly, will be moved to do so, if only in a small way.  We are also committed to completing our new made-for-TV documentary, and increasing our subsidy of our Technical Journal to expand it with a semi-technical general-interest section, with overview articles, reviews, and teaching segments planned.

By sharing in our vision, your support will help us get the message spread more and more, upgrade the materials as needed, and provide continuing research to increase the supply of quality answers.

Sincerely

Carl Wieland

Managing Director