August 2006 - Vol 2, Issue 3

In this issue...
-- The history and impact of the book, The Genesis Flood – Part II
-- Hear Dr. Whitcomb speak this month
-- Use SermonAudio to register for the Third Annual Day with Whitcomb Ministries
-- Save the date for the Fourth Annual Day with Whitcomb Ministries
-- Catch pearls of wisdom on SermonAudio... From Dr. Whitcomb’s Notebook

The history and impact of the book, The Genesis Flood – Part II
By Dr. John C. Whitcomb

Note: The following article is based on Dr. Whitcomb’s presentation at the Answers in Genesis 2005 Creation Mega-Conference, which was held in July of last year in Lynchburg, Va. We are grateful to AiG for allowing us to reprint it here. This message is also now available on DVD from Answers in Genesis. For ordering information, visit www.AnswersBookstore.com. Also, please remember that this message was delivered before the death of Dr. Henry Morris on Feb. 25 of this year.

During the years 1953 to 1961, while teaching full-time in graduate schools and raising our families, Dr. Henry Morris and I managed to exchange nearly 200 letters (which are still on file), hammering out the many issues that were important for our forthcoming volume. As Dr. Morris explained in the above-mentioned history, "Even though we worked on distinctly separate portions of the book (John wrote the first four chapters and two appendices, and I wrote the introduction and the last three chapters), each of us continually reviewed the other's contributions, and each made a number of contributions to the other's sections so that the joint authorship format was genuine" (pp. 169-70). In this enormously time-consuming process, 21 scientists, nine theologians, and two grammarians were asked to review all or part of the manuscript (see Acknowledgments, pp. xxx-xxxii). In addition, Dr. Morris and I met for two days at a hotel in Pittsburgh, in June of 1959, to work out many details and to ask the Lord for His continued blessing and direction. In retrospect, it seems significant to us that 1959 was also the year of the great Darwinian Centennial celebration in Chicago, at which Sir Julian Huxley, and other atheistic evolutionists, announced that creationism was essentially dead. As we have already seen, however, this "graveside service" was premature!

The following year, in July of 1960, the Morris family came to our home at Winona Lake, Ind., to meet with Charles Craig, our publisher, and to put the finishing touches on our book, which was published in a hardback edition in 1961.

Negative responses to “The Genesis Flood”

In the late 1980's, about 25 years after the publication of our book, two significant counter-movements began to appear. Both of these movements were totally opposed to naturalistic Darwinism, but, at the same time, were opposed to Biblical and scientific creationism.

From a Biblical perspective, this was sadly predictable. The apostle Paul, for example, confronted the church at Corinth with these words: "For there must be also heresies among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest among you" (1 Corinthians 11:19). On the one hand, this can be, in God's mysterious providence, a healthy process. God's people must not adopt a view on origins just because of a human authority figure, however brilliant or eloquent. Each of us needs to "(search) the Scriptures daily, (to see) whether those things were so" (Acts 17:11). On the other hand, large numbers of Christians have been deceived into abandoning Biblical creationism, thus re-enacting what happened in early 19-th century England, even before Darwin (see Terry Mortenson, “The Great Turning Point: The Church’s Catastrophic Mistake on Geology – Before Darwin” [Master Books, Inc., 2004. www.masterbooks.net]).

The first of these movements is called "progressive creationism," represented especially by Dr. Hugh Ross, a Christian astrophysicist, whose ministry is entitled, "Reasons to Believe." He believes that creation began many billions of years ago with a so-called "Big Bang;" that animals were supernaturally and periodically created (not evolved) through millions of years; that Adam's rebellion against God did not cause death in the animal kingdom; and that the flood was local in extent. He believes that the Bible is fully inspired, but that it needs to be re-interpreted in the light of a 67th book which God has now provided for us, namely, modern science. (See Mark D. Rasche, "The 67th Book of the Bible? The Slippery Slope of Progressive Creationism" [“Acts and Facts,” Vol. 32, No. 6 (I.C.R., June, 2003)].)

For more than 40 years following the publication of “The Genesis Flood,” Henry Morris has written a number of books and articles in response to those who rejected the basic theses of our co-authored volume. My own effort to do so was entitled, “The World That Perished,” 2nd edit. (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1988), in which I offered answers to 23 leading critics of our Biblical and scientific evidences for a universal flood. As Dr. Morris explains: "Whatever may have been the impact of “The Genesis Flood” upon the Christian and non-Christian communities as a whole, it certainly changed the lives of its authors. Never again would there be time available for the intensive library research that had preceded its publication. This is the reason why we have never managed to revise and update the book for a new edition, despite many good intentions to do so at various times during the intervening years" (“History of Modern Creationism,” 1963, p. 177).

How our families, with six children each, have been impacted by all of this is another story of God's amazing grace. All of them gladly accepted the basic tenets of Biblical creationism; and my wife Norma has been motivated to reach children with her beautiful book, “Those Mysterious Dinosaurs” (Whitcomb Ministries, Inc., 1991), which is now in 11 languages.

To Be Continued...

Hear Dr. Whitcomb speak this month
Dr. Whitcomb is keeping very busy these days. Please remember to pray for his upcoming meetings. Following are details on his next speaking engagements.

On Sunday, October 8, Dr. Whitcomb will preach on creationism at the Fourth Baptist Church of Plymouth, Minn. For more information on these services, call Pastor Roger Kilian at 763-417-8200, or visit www.fourthbaptist.org.

On Tuesday, October 10, Dr. Whitcomb will speak at the Foundations Conference of Central Baptist Seminary in Plymouth, Minn. His topics will be: “The Gospel and Integrationalism,” and “The Tower of Babel and the Worldwide Gospel.” For more information on this conference, call Dr. Thomas Zempel at 763-417-8250, or visit www.centralseminary.edu.

From Wednesday, October 18, to Sunday, October 22, Dr. and Mrs. Whitcomb will speak at the Duluth Bible Church of Duluth, Minn. Dr. Whitcomb will lecture on Exodus, and Mrs. Whitcomb will speak on “Relationships – God’s Way.” For more information on this conference, call Pastor Dennis Rokser at 218-724-5914, or visit www.duluthbible.org.

From Tuesday, October 24, to Friday, October 27, and from Tuesday, October 31, to Friday, November 3, Dr. Whitcomb will lecture on Genesis at the Word of Life Bible Institute of Schroon Lake, N.Y. For more information on these courses, call Dr. Tom Davis at 518-494-4723, or visit www.wol.org/biblei. (Note: The audio of the lectures for these classes is available at www.sermonaudion.com/whitcomb.)

On Sunday, October 29, Dr. Whitcomb will preach at the Grace Brethren Church of Saratoga Springs in Ballston Spa, N.Y. For more information on this service, call Pastor Dan Pierce at 518-587-0649.

For additional details about these events, please visit our web pages at www.whitcombministries.org and www.sermonaudio.com/whitcomb.

Use SermonAudio to register for the Third Annual Day with Whitcomb Ministries
It is with great satisfaction that Whitcomb Ministries proudly announces that you can now register online for the Third Annual Day with Whitcomb Ministries on Saturday, Nov. 11.

Preliminary steps can be taken to register for this conference on our Events page at www.sermonaudio.com/whitcomb. Payment will still need to be sent through the mail, but by providing your registration information online, you will greatly help us to streamline the process.

The theme of this year’s conference is “A Young Earth: The Christian’s Absolute Beginning. The guest keynote speaker will be Carl Kerby, and Sherry Trainer will once again provide special music. There will also be a patriotic celebration in honor of Veteran’s Day.

This year’s conference will be dedicated to the memory of Dr. Henry Morris, whose passing on Feb. 25 of this year marked, as has been stated, “the end of an era” for the modern creationism movement.

Those who are interested in scheduling a promotion of this conference for their church, Christian school chapel, home school group, or other organization may call Paul Scharf, ministry assistant, at 920-623-0257.

We would be happy to come and give your group a multi-media presentation and talk about this special conference and the importance of the creation message. Brochures for this conference are also available for those who would like a quantity of them.

Save the date for the Fourth Annual Day with Whitcomb Ministries
We know that it is still a way off – but please do not schedule anything for Saturday, Nov. 10, 2007. That will be the date for the Fourth Annual Day with Whitcomb Ministries, another major Bible conference to be held in the Greater Milwaukee Area.

The theme for that conference will be, “The Bible: The Christian’s Essential Foundation,” and our guest keynote speaker will Dr. Renald Showers, nationally known author and Bible teacher from the Friends of Israel.

We hope you will plan to be with us. Please watch this space, and our web pages, for much more information.

Catch pearls of wisdom on SermonAudio... From Dr. Whitcomb’s Notebook
The response that we are receiving at the Whitcomb Ministries pages on SermonAudio.com continues to grow exponentially. We just recently passed another milestone – 85,000 sermons listened to since broadcasting began there in July of 2003.

All of this is occurring in spite of the fact that there have been some weeks where we have not been able to add new material for broadcast. The reason for this is that sometimes we simply run short of material to add.

During our first three years of broadcasting on the web, we have made an effort to get as many of Dr. Whitcomb’s sermons online as possible. Thus, sometimes we are left with periods where there are few recordings to add until Dr. Whitcomb conducts new conferences.

To counteract this problem, we will be introducing a new series on SermonAudio.com whenever we run into these times of shortfall. Paul Scharf, WMI ministry assistant and a student of Dr. Whitcomb’s teachings for the past 12 years, will be filling in the gaps in our broadcast schedule with short sessions entitled, “From Dr. Whitcomb’s Notebook.” These messages will bring you a survey of some of Dr. Whitcomb’s teachings, highlighting his wisdom, wit and fascination with the Word of God, as seen from his studies and teaching of Bible books and themes.

These messages are not intended to replace Dr. Whitcomb’s messages, but will instead seek to shed light on his teaching ministry and whet your appetite for deeper study from his lectures.

We trust that you will continue to enjoy hearing the Word of God at www.sermonaudio.com/whitcomb.