Dear Friends,
The reason for a newsletter when most of you will have your minds on the holiday period is that John Mackay’s next visit to the UK begins in mid-September. His itinerary is enclosed and it sees him speaking in various places throughout England, with a week in Northern Ireland and one meeting in N. Wales. John’s first meeting is on 19th September and his last on 26th October. Please pray that he will be given wisdom and authority to make known Jesus Christ – Creator, Saviour and Judge throughout this time and that the Holy Spirit will be at work convicting people of sin, righteousness and coming judgement. (John 16:8)
Once we had booked the venue, we wrote to the National Secular Society and the British Humanist Association inviting both groups to put forward someone to debate John. We look forward to receiving their replies in due course. Our invitations state that whilst we would prefer their nominees to be scientists, should they not be able to find anyone with that background, a well-known humanist from other circles would be acceptable. We genuinely hope that through one of these bodies or from elsewhere, someone will be found who has the conviction that Darwinian evolution can be defended in public debate. If you want to help in our search, copies of the poster announcing this invitation can be downloaded from our UK web site. We have asked for those willing to participate in the debate to contact us by the end of October. If no-one is forthcoming, then John will give a presentation on that evening.
On a practical note, when John Mackay debated John Polkinghorne in Liverpool Cathedral three years ago, 1100 people turned up. Unfortunately, the biggest venues in Shrewsbury do not hold anywhere near that number. Consequently if a prominent atheist is willing to participate in a debate, then we will have to make the evening an all ticket event to avoid people travelling unnecessarily. We will use the UK web site to let you know as soon as possible if an opponent for John is found, and will add arrangements for obtaining tickets around the start of December. Our next newsletter will not be sent out until a few weeks before the evening, so if you do not have Internet access and want an update on developments, we suggest you phone the UK office in mid-November.
I have called this section ‘Darwin’s birthday challenge to atheists’ after reading an article on the NSS web site entitled, ‘Darwin’s birthday challenge to creationism.’ This announces amongst other things a project involving Prof. Steve Jones (University College London), well-known biologist and atheist, looking at variation in banded snails. This project “will involve tens of thousands of people across Europe”. I was left wondering how this research would be a challenge to Biblical creationism because, even if the project was to extend to a decade or more, they will still be observing snails at the end, just as they were at the beginning! The most it will do is confirm the Biblical statement that all creatures ‘reproduce after their kind! If Steve Jones, winner of the NSS’s “Secularist of the Year” award, or other atheists wish to challenge creationism, they should be willing to engage with us in serious debate. As we have previous reported, Richard Dawkins has already turned down a personal invitation from John Mackay to debate him. Perhaps Prof. Jones will be bold enough to go where Dawkins fears to tread!
By putting distance between themselves and the IDM, those evangelicals who argue that God used evolution can only be implying that He did it in such a way that there are no detectable signs of His involvement in His work. Thus their debate with secular evolutionists is only about the implications they draw from their world view, not about how they ignore the evidence of a Creator in His workmanship. If their stance was true, evolutionists cannot be convicted by the Holy Spirit of our Creator’s existence for, what can be known of God... is not clearly seen through the things He made! I can see no other conclusions which can be drawn from the wholesale rejection of ID by many theistic evolutionists – and this puts them outside the description they often use of themselves as ‘long-age creationists’. If there is evidence of the Creator in the crafting of this universe, then we have to say that the IDM has it right in part – and it has. Biblical Christian creationists, in contrast with both views, have a confidence that Christ’s creative work reveals not just the existence of the Godhead, but His eternal power and invisible attributes!
Just as a coloured light only illuminates parts of any object it falls upon, so concentrating our minds on just God the Father, or on God the Son or on God the Holy Spirit, will leave us unbalanced in our appreciation of our God. Our fellowship needs to be with all three members of the Godhead. We see this in Their work at creation. In 1 Cor. 8:6 Paul stated, “yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom are all things, and we exist for Him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we exist through Him.” Notice my emphasis, all things are from the Father, whilst they are by the Son. In other words, all things exist through the will of God the Father and by the command of God the Son. Where then was God the Holy Spirit when this was taking place? How was He involved? The second verse of Genesis tells us, “the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters”. When the Word spoke out the will of His Father, the Holy Spirit was ready and able to bring that command into reality. Likewise today, Christians are instructed to ask the Father according to His will in the name of Jesus Christ the Son, and we look to the Holy Spirit to bring the response into being. The first thing specifically recorded for us that the Father willed into existence, which the Son commanded and the Holy Spirit formed, was light. Have you ever considered what colour that light might have been? Is it possible to think it was anything other than brilliant white light? Yet there is no wavelength for white light, its fullness being seen only through the combination of three different parts. I am repeatedly struck by how this first specific creation reflects so much about the Godhead of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. I also find it very significant that in this age of technology, one of our most frequently used inventions - the electronic colour screen - relies on blending the three primary colours of light and is therefore an everyday testimony to the nature and character of our God!
John has also been asked to contribute to another series of DVDs being produced in this country. He is to be joined in this by Dr. Diane Eager, who has worked with Creation Research for many years. Diane will be arriving in this country towards the end of October and she plans to be here until the end of November. Whilst she is here, she would be happy speak to any ladies' meetings or home educating/Christian School groups. Please contact us at the UK office if you would like Diane to visit you whilst she here, or if you want John Mackay to speak in your area at some point in the future. At present I am finalising his itinerary for February and March next year. This will include meetings in Scotland, Wales and the South West as well as the one in Shrewsbury.
Please pray for John’s visit later this year and also that there will be a prominent atheist bold enough to engage with John in a debate next February.
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