Feedback archive → Feedback 2009

Knowing Christ through creation evangelism;
also:
The Link between Atheism and Communism

Courtesy openairoutreach.com

Daniel H from northern England wrote CMI-UK a really encouraging, spontaneous letter, a testimony that we think will also encourage many readers.

To: All my fellow brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus. …

I would like to thank the team at Creation Ministries International (CMI) for their resources, time, love, dedication and zeal for our God and Saviour, Jesus Christ; the Almighty Father and the Holy Spirit, who empowers the church to give glory to the Son and live holy lives and become more fruitful in our walk in the LORD, Amen.

Formerly, I was an unbeliever who mocked the Christian faith during my schooling years. I had read parts of the Bible and heard the stories from the New Testament taught during “religious studies” classes, however, at the time I did not see the relevance of such stories. Walking on water, turning water into wine and the resurrection seemed to be a fairytale and because of this, I did not see the relevance of it being taught in modern-day schooling. Christianity to me was for generations of the past and did not have a place in our modern day “knowledge”.

The damage done by compromise

Looking back, I remember being taught evolution by a Christian biology teacher and I can see how damaging this philosophy is and how children are led astray from the Truth by such perverse contradictions against God’s Word. The stories from the Bible in the “religious studies” classes never had any relevance to me because the teaching in our biology class had already set a foundation to switch off and mock those religious “fables”.

No evidence was ever presented to support “evolution” and the lessons were quite akin to a history lesson, whereby the teacher presented a narrative of what happened and we were to repeat these ideas in our exams that determined how well we did in our academic careers. Naturally the resources available were all pre-determined by the educational authorities, which typically supported the view it wished to propagate. I use the simile of history in this case because the discerning reader is well aware that the views presented in the history books are, in the main, determined by the victors of any conquest or the powers behind the media, who can sell a lie quite easily to the masses if that lie is repeated enough times. In this instance, that lie was “evolution” by the definition of what the Darwinian school propagates.

With irony I look back to those biology classes, in which I was taught about the progression of life, from ape-men to so-called modern day humans. I did not believe in God at the time, but I remember feeling my own spirit grumble and take offence at the thought of coming from a hairy, ugly ape as I saw it.

From the ages of 14 to 18, I read many philosophy books including Freud, Schopenhauer, Jung, Voltaire et al. I distinctly remember a depression, lack of direction and self-worth. I was in a total state of confusion, but still opposed to any idea of a Christian God. I can remember many times when I would belittle Christians and spout much of the philosophical writings in which I had allowed myself to become indoctrinated. This all changed when I visited Oxford in 2001 and I met some Christians who were evangelising using creation science. The street was very busy and a crowd gathered around two young gentlemen. I thought I would stand there and listen to what they had to say because even though I thought Christianity was a fable, I still recognised (at the time) it was brave and foolish to declare one’s faith in the open, so for this reason I thought I would at least give them a listening ear.

Simple yet profound

They had a large board and put up a picture and asked some simple questions. The first picture was of a typical house. One of the creationists asked who made the house and people responded with, “A builder”. Then, he proceeded to display a picture of the earth and asked the same question and silence fell on the crowd. He then put up another picture of a digital camera and asked who made it, and the people responded with “Fuji” to which he responded, “Yes, the people working for Fuji”. He gave some details of how the camera worked, and then put up a picture of an eye, once again asking who made it. He went into the details of how the eye worked with its super-intelligent complexities and at this moment, the Holy Spirit moved on me because in the space of a moment, I had gone from being a dedicated unbeliever into a humbled man in awe of this Creator. The final sets of pictures were of a Ferrari, I believe. I remember the crowd laughing and seeing the point the creationist was making when he said, “Before I ask you who made it, I’m telling you that millions of years ago, this machinery formed itself…” He declared to the crowd that they could see how ridiculous the story was about the Ferrari forming itself, yet they are willing to believe that the final picture of an animal could “evolve” (in Darwinian terms) even though the animal is infinitely more complex than the Ferrari.

From this day I was a convinced creationist, (Romans 1:20) without even seeing any of the detailed scientific arguments that faithful scientists in the Christian faith are sharing with us. My spirit welled up with joy at the knowledge and awe of the Creator who made all things.

Relief

I was given a Creation magazine and I went home and read it from back to front. I then went to the website [creation.com] and invested so much time and felt such relief at finding all the answers to questions I had. If only my “religious studies” classes started in Genesis and explained the beginning and taught me how to investigate rather than just accept the doctrines of modern schooling, then I might have known Jesus earlier in my life.

Just recognising Him as Creator is not enough for salvation; however through good teaching at a faithful church, It was declared why Jesus died for us and the full meaning thereof.

Effective outreach

I now continue to promote all creation evangelism materials to all people I meet and it is such an effective form of ministry in this so-called “scientific” age.

Thank you once again Creation Ministries International and all the other young earth creationist groups out there … . God bless you for your efforts in upholding His Word and spreading the Gospel.

Daniel H.

“Arizona Atheist” from the United States responded to our atheism article, apparently not seeing the points it made linking atheism and communism:

CMI’s Don Batten replies:

Dear “Arizona Atheist”

Thanks for your feedback. At least you did not use vulgar language. I have passed your feedback to the author for his interest.

Please note the opening caveat at the beginning of the section:

“With regards to the correlation between atheism and Communism; it would be fallaciously simplistic to claim that atheism is the only motivating factor behind Communism and yet, it is certainly a major factor and the very premise upon which Communist ideology was built.”

Taking that caveat into account and considering the testimony from so many of the major players in communism of the importance of atheism to their political agenda, I fail to see how you could claim that: “ … the author completely failed to show the link between atheism and communism”.

It seems that you did not actually read the section you criticize. If you did read it, then I don’t think any evidence would convince you, because the connection between atheism and communism is very clear from the evidence the author produced.

For an atheist with any sense of decency, the clear connection of atheism with communism is of course not a pleasant fact, but wishing it were not so should not be confused with it not being so.

Sincerely,

Don Batten