Creationism in the Mainstream?

Ben Hobrink has written Modern Science in the Bible:  Amazing Scientific Truths Found in Ancient Texts.  Hobrink’s book is published by Howard Books, a division of Simon & Schuster.  We highly recommend this work.  It’s well referenced and includes a list of suggested books and websites for further study.

A good section of Hobrink’s work is very similar to None of These Diseases, but with updated health info.  The Bible taught sanitation long before Joseph Lister (d. 1902).  The Jews were commanded to stay away from dead animals (Lev. 11:39,40).  Men circumcised as babies have almost no cases of certain types of cancer. [1]

Hobrink tackles the flat-earth myth and explains the Bible’s description of the hydrologic cycle. [2]  Hobrink quotes Baylor sociologist Rodney Stark,

Science arose only once in history… It could only arise in a culture dominated by a belief in a conscious, rational, all-powerful Creator. … Science was not the work of Western secularists or even deists; it was entirely the work of devout believers in an active, conscious, creator God. [3]

Hobrink defends the Flood and Young Earth Science (YES).  Using the K-Ar dating method an eruption in Hawaii that occurred in 1801 was dated to 3 Billion years! [4]  Hobrink rightly points out that, “There are no transitional forms between single-celled and five-hundred-celled organisms.” [5]  Hobrink also deals with Bible difficulties and supposed errors in the Scripture.

Will Howard publish more creationist books?  Howard also puts out the NYT bestseller An Invisible Thread which tells how an 11 year old street kid became friends with a well-heeled sales executive.  This is much like Same Kind of Different as Me by Ron Hall & Denver Moore which involves the Union Gospel Mission in Fort Worth.  Hall & Moore came to our church and gave a presentation.  Denver sang and brought his artwork – very moving.  Samuel L. Jackson has been cast to play Denver in the upcoming film.     

Notes:

1) Modern Science in the Bible by Ben Hobrink (Howard Books, NYC, 2011), p. 49.  Originally pub. in Dutch by Uitgeverj Gideon in 2005.  
2) Ibid., p. 117-119, 113-114.
3) Ibid., p. 121.
4) Ibid., p. 177.
5) Ibid., p. 153.

2012 = EOTW?!

Will the world end on Dec. 21, 2012?  Jesus said that no one will know the day or the hour (Mk 13:32).  Some think it will be the end, while others think that there will be a great transition of global impact.  2012 = End Of The World (EOTW)?

The 2012 film presented the idea of global flooding and referenced Earth’s Shifting Crust by Charles Hapgood which has a foreword by Einstein!  Hapgood’s theory has a number of points in common with Catastrophic Plate Tectonics (CPT).

The beginning of the Mayan calendar was in 3114 BC – note that this is close to traditional dates of Creation and the Flood (4004 BC, 2348 BC).  There was a “new world” in the Post-Flood era.

Physicist Paul LaViolette says that a large Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) could move the crust and cause earthquakes. [1]  Could a terrorist nuke set off the Yellowstone Supervolcano? [2]

Terence McKenna (d. 2000) used hallucinogenic drugs to reach a “higher” state of consciousness and recommended this for others.  He used the I Ching to calculate a calendar and predicted the “end” at 12-21-12 (just as the Mayans). [3]  McKenna claimed that humanity will be transformed on this date,

History is ending because the dominator culture has led the human species into a blind alley … what we need is a new myth… the ego is a product of pathology … we must break out of the silly myths of science, and the infantile obsessions of the marketplace … [we need] psychedelic experience … to make the forward escape into hyperspace … [4]

Jesus said, “This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent” (Jn 17:3).  Only through Jesus can we find “…the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Col. 2:2,3).  We don’t need funny mushrooms.  Knowing your sins are forgiven is truly mind expanding (Ps. 32).

All of this talk of catastrophe reminds us of the Flood.  If there is a great catastrophe, Christ has promised us that the gates of hell cannot prevail against the church (Mt. 16:18).  “Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God” – Corrie ten Boom. [5]

How old is the Earth and how likely is a future global catastrophe?

Notes:

1) Will the World End in 2012? by Raymond Hundley (Thomas Nelson, Nashville, TN, 2010), p. 23.
2) Ibid., p. 91.
3) Ibid., pp. 104-110.
4) 2012:  Science or Superstition by Alexandra Bruce (Disinformation, NYC, 2009), p. 153.
5) quoted in Hundley, p. 147.