Students at Wheaton start Young Earth Club, show Young Earth film to the dismay of faculty

Fascinating story. A group of students started a club, then showed Del Tackett's film, Is Genesis History on campus. The turnout was amazing. Kids are so drawn to this stuff. If the Church would just realize this, reformation is close at hand.

If adult leadership in the Church refuse to show the way, maybe the the next generation can. Very sad what's going on at Christian colleges, but I'm very encouraged by these students, and praying we'll see this at seminaries and bible colleges all over the country.

Here is Del Tackett's video and article:

Most people don’t realize how many professors at Christian colleges are theistic evolutionists.

I know I had no idea. That all changed when I was invited by a group of students to show Is Genesis History? at Wheaton College in November 2017. That experience led me to film three of them talking about these issues with Del Tackett at the Ark Encounter.

I had met the students at a creationist conference a few months earlier. They told me they had started a Creation Society on campus because almost all their professors were theistic evolutionists. They asked if I’d be willing to come to Wheaton and show the film. I said sure.



A few days before I arrived, I received an email from a student saying: “Some students are coming, but a LOT of faculty are coming. We met with our faculty advisor, and he said that some faculty are super angry that this event is even happening. They are hosting their own event Wednesday after Thanksgiving break to debunk the movie. They are also giving their students extra credit to go to BOTH events. Dr. Walton in Bible wrote a 5 page document and gave it to all the students ahead of time, to come doubting the very word history. Just a heads up. Thanks for coming.”

This was a bit unexpected. Most people assume students are the ones who get angry and protest events. But professors? Why were they angry at a creationist film being shown on a Christian campus by students? And why would they take time to write papers and plan responses to it?

Curiouser and curiouser
He attached a copy of the document passed out to the students. It was written by Dr. John Walton, a senior Old Testament professor and scholar. I was familiar with Dr. Walton’s prior work on Genesis as well as his vocal support of theistic evolution through Biologos, an evolution advocacy group.

As I read his paper, I was amazed: here was a Bible professor at a renown Evangelical college arguing that Genesis could not be interpreted as an accurate record of historical events. Instead, “those seeking the truth of Genesis have no need to reconstruct events; they seek the message of the author.”

His arguments are reminiscent of the 19th-century liberal theologian Gerhard von Rad. They are disastrous to the historical-grammatical hermeneutic that serves as the foundation for a conservative interpretation of the Bible. Yet here they were being passed out to young students at a Christian college as the proper way to interpret Genesis. Take a minute to read his paper: it is extremely troubling.

Clearly there was more going on at Wheaton than I was aware of.

Down the Rabbit Hole
A few days later, I arrived on campus with Dr. Todd Wood. (Todd was going to be leading the Q&A after the film.) We were met by an excited group of students who took us to dinner. They were primarily sophomores and juniors, extremely articulate and smart, but a bit nervous about what was going to happen: they hadn’t expected their professors to react this way.

I asked them to tell me how the Creation Society started. They all said they were surprised to get to Wheaton and hear evolution being taught everywhere—including art classes. That was enough for one student, so he put up a note on a bulletin board asking if others wanted to form a group focusing on Biblical Creation. One joined, then another, then a lot more. By their first meeting, they had 70 students on their email list.

They then needed a faculty advisor. One of the girls said they didn’t have a lot of options since only two out of the 200 professors on campus were Creationists. I looked at Todd in surprise but he just shrugged: he said it was that way at a lot of Christian colleges; most people just weren’t aware of it.

The students had reserved the largest room in the science building. By the time we began, nearly every seat was filled. The students opened with a devotional, showed the film, then we sat down in front for the Q&A.

It was all quite cordial. As we got close to the end, I could see relief growing on the students’ faces. Clearly, this wasn’t going to turn into a heated debate; and they weren’t going to get in trouble with their professors. Afterward, we went and got ice cream.


Some of Creation Society members with us after the showing.
They were energized by the film and even more so by the conversations with Todd Wood. Todd is great with students and interacts with them regularly through CORE Academy. They all had lots of basic questions about looking at the world in light of Genesis; it was obvious this was not the perspective being taught in their classes.

Right before I left, I was asked if I would consider coming back to hear the response from the professors. Their student advisor couldn’t attend, and they were concerned about defending their position. I again said sure.

Listening to the Profs
Two weeks later, I found myself back in the same classroom. This time, five professors were in front: two geologists, one astronomer, one marine biologist, and Dr. Walton himself. They asked for questions from students and the discussion started.

I sat to one side and listened. The first question set the tone for the entire evening. A student asked about the flat strata in the Grand Canyon, and Dr. Steve Moshier, a geologist, answered. He said he agreed with Steve Austin’s description of Grand Canyon strata, but disagreed with his conclusions about how it formed. He said he had a lot of respect for Steve’s work and thought he was a good geologist. They were actually old acquaintances.

I could feel a sense of ease come over the room. This was going to be collegial.

For the next hour and a half questions went back and forth: what about original sin and evolution? How should we interpret Genesis? Are Neanderthals human? What about the rock record? Since it was a Q&A, a lot of topics simply did not come up. Most of the students did not have the critical knowledge to dig deep into the subjects.

When it was over, I introduced myself to the professors. They had a slightly strange look come over them when they realized I was the producer and director of the film. But they were kind and welcoming. Any prior concerns or frustrations were kept quiet.

An Invitation to the Ark
Afterward, I again went to get ice cream, this time with just three students.

We talked about what had been said and what they thought about it. As I listened to them articulate their views, I was impressed with their honesty and candor: they were holding onto the creationist perspective in spite of a lot of pressure in the other direction.

When I asked them why they held to Biblical creation, they each said the same thing: there could be no animal or human death before Adam. As one girl explained, “If Jesus came to destroy death, and death is the great enemy, then how could a good God use millions of years of death to evolve animals and people? It doesn’t make sense.”

They talked about evolution impugning God’s goodness, how it creates problems with the new creation, and many more things. I then realized I needed to get them on film.

Here was a group of young college students who had read God’s Word and were tenaciously holding onto it in spite of what their professors were trying to teach them about the history of the world and the Bible. They were an impressive bunch.

I asked them if they’d be willing be a part of my short film with Del Tackett at the Ark Encounter. I already knew I would be filming a new segment for our Anniversary showing on February 22, but I had no idea who I was going to include in it. Providentially, God had brought me back to the exact people I needed.

Two months later, they were in front of the cameras with Del Tackett at the Ark. I’ve written elsewhere about what they taught me. But you can watch the full interview above that was originally shown at the end of the film.

It is a good reminder that God always raises up a new generation of men and women to affirm and defend the historicity of Genesis.

As a postscript, Dr. Steven Meyer, author of the book “Theistic Evolution: A Scientific, Theological, and Philosophical Critique” will be speaking to the Creation Society on the Wheaton Campus at 7pm on April 9, 2018 in Barrows Auditorium in the Billy Graham Center. Click here for more information.​

 

I really enjoy Dr John Walton’s books.
And he’s a wonderful and graceful speaker.
I’d be interested to read the 5 page angry document so quickly dismissed by the young earth creationists.

Rob

 

I think he's a heretic, as are all the founding pastors of biologos.

 

Strong words, I know. I'll stand by them cautiously. Theistic Evolution totally distorts Adam and original sin. Walton denies Adam as the ancestors of all, says he was born of a woman. To me that's a denial of the Biblical Adam. He also flirts with Non-concordism, which to me is a line in the sand. Wish I understood what Christians are seeing in him. Wish I understood how he is a prominent seminary professor at a "conservative" Christian college.

 

Aggressively cautious? There are times to take strong stands and times when you don't need to.
Historically issues revolving around creation are best left in the best guess basket.

Although John H. Walton's materials are used by BioLogos, he admits that he's not competent to make remarks on the scientific side of the equation.
His books take you step by step through the development of the theological doctrines of scripture and particularly those involving the book of Genesis.
In the end you find that the Creation/Evolution issue is not the point of the story of creation.
It becomes a non-issue - which is why both sides of the debate have used his material.

Rob

 

Creation evolution per se is not the issue. The sequence of events and the historicity of the first Adam is the issue. They affect the Gospel story which begins in Genesis, and the credibility of Scripture which is being undermined daily by orgs like Biologos and professors like Walton. This is why I was so impressed with the kids Del Tackett was interviewing. They are years wiser than many seasoned Christians. They see the issue clearly.

 

"Anyone who does not hold to blind faith evolutionism is a heretic or worse" -- that is the sort of thing you find now and then.

"Believing in" blind faith evolutionism is not only the old "standard" for atheists -- it is starting to become a "standard" within some Christian colleges

Truth is - you need NO blind faith evolutionism to pursue your study in science. Observed science is not blind faith evolutionism. "story telling" is.

So then what "difference" does the junk-science of evolutionism make "in science"?

Here is an example -

"Miniature human brains with their own blood vessels have been grown in a lab for the first time.

After implanting the mini-brain - which is only a millimetre long - into a mouse for two weeks, they found it had grown capillaries that penetrated all the way to its inner layers.

The achievement could help researchers grow bigger brains in an effort to better study how the organ works."
from: Scientists implant miniature human 'brain' in a mouse and it grows its own blood vessels | Daily Mail Online​

Humans - not the creation of God - but little more than evolved apes and early primates... nothing special so go head stick their brain in a rat. That is the world-view dictated by the junk-science false-religion of blind-faith evolutionism.

 

Young Earth Creationists (YECs) are a small minority. Millions of years was popularized about the time of the French Revolution both on the European Continent and eventually into England. Although some English clergy taught a young earth, they were unable to stop the adoption of millions of years into theology so that young earth disappeared until the beginning of the twentieth century. After Charles Lyell around 1850, English clergy believed in Uniformitarianism, ruling out a global flood and a resultant ice age.

The Europeans who taught millions of years were Comte de Buffon (1707-1783), Pierre Laplace (1749-1827), Jean Lamarck (1744-1829), Abraham Werner (1748-1817), James Hutton (1726-1797), George Cuvier (1769-1832), William Smith (1769-1839), and Charles Lyell (1797-1875). Many were deists or secret atheists.

Answers in Genesis speaker and author Dr. Terry Mortensen is their expert on the history of geology. Very few of today's professors and theologians (one or two percent perhaps) reject millions of years according to him. Some are like Norman Geisler, who agrees that Genesis teaches six twenty-four hour days for creation but says that it is scientifically impossible. Dr. Mortensen says that there is a bias for millions of years in looking at the evidence.

Curiously, as this event described above at Wheaton illustrates, it is the big bang, millions of years, and theistic evolution overwhelming majority that has the siege mentality. YECs should relax and have a good time because hard science is on their side. For example, less than a year ago, a lot of water was discovered on the moon, which destroys big bang theories on how the moon was created since explosions and break-offs and collections of debris all make water impossible.

 

We should all rest in God's sovereignty, but at the same time, should continue to care about the damage the deep time paradigm is causing. Paradigms are hard to reverse as they are the lenses through which "evidence" is viewed. I don't evidences like the one listed above are going to destroy the deep time paradigm, because it will be viewed through the deep time paradigm.

Personally, I think the solution will come from a different direction. I think God will move on the culture when the Church moves back to the word of God.

 

That is a lot like what AiG is saying: there is a bias in favor of deep time (millions of years) and nothing gets past that bias. I think that the deep time people have closed their minds. I ignore them because I think that science is against them. Deep time, evolution, and big bang all have severe scientific problems but are being defended as scientific by theologians of the older generation.

 

That's the mind boggling part.

 

To the contrary, I find his short paper extremely helpful. It would have been a great help to me as a college student moving from agnosticism to faith. I struggled with the creation narratives and the age of the earth (I had a modest amount of experience with the evidence for an old earth at that point), but I eventually shelved that concern to be dealt with later since I knew that God was working with me as I read the scriptures.

I’ll have to look into Dr. Walton’s other writing.

 

His views on genesis and Creation are just wrong from the scriptures.He attempts to make genesis accomodate so called scientific truth of evolution ends of shreading the Bible!

 

he basically just stated that the scriptures are basically same asa other religious books in history, trying to usde myth and metaphor to teach truth to us, but in his zeal to have evolution and bible co exist, ends up shredding the scriptures!

 

Thank you for your opinion. Have your read his writings? If not, how can you declare them wrong? If you have, would you explain in detail where he is in error?

It might shred your belief system, but from what I have seen, it does not 'shred' the Bible.

 

He

He denies a literal Adam and Eve has to be there, he denies an historical fall, what else do we need to know?

 

I don't see that at all. Have you read him more broadly than just the five pages in this thread?

There's a lot of that in the Bible, especially metaphor. The New Testament is full of it.

As I stated in my previous message, it might shred your belief system, but it does not 'shred' the Bible.

 

https://creation.com/images/pdfs/tj/j29_2/j29_2_47-51.pdf

 

So is this!
https://creation.com/images/pdfs/tj/j29_2/j29_2_47-51.pdf

 

I have to go attend to pressing matters, so I don't have time to read this at the moment. But I have noticed you like to give me links, while I am speaking out of knowledge I possess and the scriptures. The only real link I have provided is a link to the book, Adam and the Genome, which can give you a much better and broader view than can be done on this site.

If you have to give me links, I have to seriously wondering if you actually believe any of this or if you are just defending your "side." If you don't know enough to have a conversation without trying to pull in expertise from other places, maybe you should take some time and figure out what YOU believe from your study of the scriptures. That is an honorable thing to do.