The Creation Mega Conference
by Tim Chaffey
We have just finished our second day of the long-awaited Mega Conference being held at Liberty University in Lynchburg, VA. Over 25 top creation scientists are scheduled to speak during the week. I am here with a group of six people and so far we have all been very impressed.
The speakers have not disappointed. Each has demonstrated an expertise in his respective field and emphasized the importance of trusting God’s Word. Instead of giving generalities for the rest of this post allow me to provide summaries of a few selected talks.
Dr. Terry Mortenson spoke earlier today on “200 Years of Christian Compromise.” This talk was a one-hour summary of his two-hour series on this topic. Mortenson passionately defended the need to trust God’s Word. He provided a brief history of the “Scriptural Geologists.” These men lived in the early 1800’s and used biblical and scientific arguments against the emerging old earth views that are now commonplace in geology and the church. He also provided evidence that uniformitarianism was based on philosophical assumptions rather than scientific observations.
Dr. Jason Lisle spoke this evening on the problem of distant starlight. His approach was to provide information on several Christian theories developed to answer this question. For each potential solution, Lisle provided the supporting evidence as well as some of the difficulties. He stopped short of endorsing one particular view but instead listed a few possibilities. He closed by demonstrating that the so-called starlight problem is not really a problem for a young universe. The alternative view, the big bang, has its own starlight difficulties, known as the horizon problem.
Perhaps the most entertaining talk so far was Carl Kerby’s “Evolution and Pop Culture.” Carl is a very dynamic speaker and relates extremely well with both old and young alike. In this particular lecture, Mr. Kerby showed various clips from movies and television programs filled with evolution. He avoided talking about some of the obvious clips, such as Star Wars, Star Trek, Jurassic Park, etc. and focused instead on the more subtle attacks in shows such as Finding Nemo, Bugs Bunny, Gilligan’s Island, and My Big Fat Greek Wedding.
These are just a few of the lectures I have already attended. There are many more. I have thoroughly enjoyed the conference so far and look forward to the rest of the week. It has been a chance to meet new people and catch up with old friends. It was announced today that we would be able to tour the Creation Museum near Cincinnati on Saturday. I am looking forward to seeing how much it has changed since I was there in March.
Most importantly, this conference is equipping the saints to defend the faith on this foundational issue. Creation is not just a side issue as so many Christians have been led to believe. So many Christian leaders have ignored this issue or worse, compromised with evolutionary long ages. As a result, generations of churchgoers have been led to believe that the first eleven chapters of Genesis can be reinterpreted to fit man’s fallible opinions. In other words, God didn’t really mean what He said in the beginning of the Bible. It doesn’t take long for many people to realize that if the beginning of the book can’t be trusted then the rest of it can’t be trusted, either. This is what Jesus said in John 3: 12.