Here is an article from Answers in Genesis about the Year of Darwin, written by the Answers magazine editor-in-chief.

Throughout 2009 the world will be celebrating Darwin’s birthday (February 12, 1809) and the publication of On the Origin of Species (November 24, 1859). Meanwhile, Bible-believing Christians have had 150 years to reflect on Darwin’s life and work. What have we learned?

First, it’s important to get our facts straight. Darwin was not a demon or an angel, but a human being like the rest of us, struggling with difficult personal and intellectual questions.

Second, Darwin made some valuable scientific observations and raised some good questions. Scientists are still trying to answer many of those questions today.

The January issue of Answers magazine asked leading minds in creation science to share their perspectives on both Darwin and his book, and to report on the latest efforts by creationists to provide an alternative explanation for the origin of species.

The result could be titled a “Creationist Manifesto for the Twenty-first Century,” a statement of the latest creationist thinking on the origin of species, as well as a revolutionary call for Bible-based science that can change our understanding of the world. We believe these insights should be freely available to teachers, pastors, and students on every continent, as they wrestle with the significance of Darwin’s life and works.

During the “Year of Darwin” and “Darwin Day” celebrations on February 12, our hope is that many souls will dig a little deeper and discover the true Source of Life, whose Book holds the key that unlocks the mysteries of life.

Michael Matthews
Editor-in-chief, Answers magazine

When once I mourned a load of sin;
When conscience felt a wound within;
When all my works were thrown away;
When on my knees I knelt to pray,
Then, blissful hour, remembered well,
I learned Thy love, Immanuel.

When storms of sorrow toss my soul;
When waves of care around me roll;
When comforts sink, when joys shall flee;
When hopeless griefs shall gape for me,
One word the tempest’s rage shall quell–
That word, Thy name, Immanuel.

When for the truth I suffer shame;
When foes pour scandal on my name;
When cruel taunts and jeers abound;
When “Bulls of Bashan” gird me round,
Secure within Thy tower I’ll dwell–
That tower, Thy grace, Immanuel.

When hell enraged lifts up her roar;
When Satan stops my path before;
When fiends rejoice and wait my end;
When legioned hosts their arrows send,
Fear not, my soul, but hurl at hell
Thy battle-cry, Immanuel.

When down the hill of life I go;
When o’er my feet death’s waters flow;
When in the deep’ning flood I sink;
When friends stand weeping on the brink,
I’ll mingle with my last farewell
Thy lovely name, Immanuel.

When tears are banished from mine eye;
When fairer worlds than these are nigh;
When heaven shall fill my ravished sight;
When I shall bathe in sweet delight,
One joy all joys shall far excel,
To see Thy face, Immanuel.

-from The Life and Works of Charles H. Spurgeon
(written at age 18)

John Calvin

This coming year, 2009, marks the anniversary of several important events, some of which are important, some of which are rather disturbing. I’ll start with the disturbing to end on a high note.

On February 12, 1809, one of the most significant figures in the history in not only the western hemisphere, but the whole world was born into the world. Charles Darwin, a graduate from Cambridge University with a doctorate in theology, was destined to be one of the most singularly influential men in modern history. As the 2009 marker comes into view, the world looks back in history to this man as brilliant and wonderful scientist (even though he never was one) who changed the face of the earth. Whether they realize it or not, Darwin was most definitely the man who did this in modern history. His book, The Origin of Species, by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life, which is the full title, was published 50 years later in 1859. This book became a basis of worldview for men like Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, and even the Japanese during WWII. These forces were brutal and pagan men who loved the evolutionary theory, and it is men like this who put Darwin’s book to its proper use.

Chalres Darwin

Now, for the much better news. 500 years ago next year marks the birthday of one of the most influential men in the history of Europe and America. John Calvin, one of the reformers of the 16th century, is celebrating his 500th birthday, and most people will ignore it and maybe never even know about it. Regardless of the propaganda, the advertising, and the praising of Darwin and his book by the media, the press, and organizations like the ACLU, I hope that Christians will not succumb to the lies of these organizations and will celebrate the man who desired to preserve the church and the truth of the Scriptures.

This afternoon, as I watch the snow coming down in sheets this beatiful Sabbath day, I am reading a wonderful book by Thomas Brooks called Heaven on Earth. This book’s primary thesis is the expound upon the Christian doctrine of assurance. Am I really saved? How do I know that I am in Christ? I just started this book, so I do not intend to write much about it just now, but I do wish to impart to you what I have been reading thus far.

Already, Mr. Brooks has set forth several basic reasons for assurance:

1. Believers may in this life attain unto a well-grounded assurance of their everlasting happiness and blessedness.
2. It is the very scope and end of the Scripture to help believers to a well-grounded assurance of their everlasting happiness and blessedness.
3. Other believers have in an ordinary way attained to a very sweet assurance of their everlasting happiness and blessedness.
4. God hath by promise engaged Himself to assure his people of their happiness and blessedness.
5. There is in all saints the spring of assurance, and therefore they may attain to assurance.
6. The Holy Spirit exhorts us “to give all diligence to make our calling and election sure” (I Peter 1:10) and presses us to look to the obtaining of full assurance.
7. The Lord hath, in much mercy and love, propounded in His Word the ways and means whereby believers may obtain a well-grounded assurance of their everlasting happiness and blessedness; and therefore it may be obtained.
8. It was the principal end of Christ’s institution of the sacrament of the supper that he might assure them of His love, and that he might seal up to them the forgiveness of their sins, the acceptation of their persons, and the salvation of their souls.
9. Those scriptures that do expressly require saints to be abundant and constant in rejoicing and in praising of God, to have always harps in their hands and hallelujahs in their mouths, do clearly evidence that believers may attain to a well-grounded assurance in this life.
10. God would never have made such a broad difference in the Scripture between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent, between the righteous and the wicked, between saints and sinners, between sons and slaves, sheep and goats, between lions and lambs, between wheat and chaff, light and darkness, etc.

Simply stated, there is no logical reason for any Christian to claim that there is no possibility to attian assurance in Christ. The Scriptures clearly teach that assurance is an inherent part of true Christianity. Unfortunately, many take this too far by saying Once saved, always saved. This may be true, but the problem is that those who use this phrase far too often overlook why we are always saved once we have been saved. We are always saved because God has promised this too us in His Word. (A better way of saying this would be If saved, always saved.)

The First Thanksgiving

This Thanksgiving, many people in the world will get together with friends and family, sit around a big table crammed with food, stuff themselves, and then leave, being very full and happy because they didn’t have to spend money to feed themselves. This is not the greatness of Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is a holiday that many people in the world view as an excuse to eat, eat, and eat some more.

Last night, at our church’s normal mid-week service time, we congregated for a special Thanksgiving service. A time to lift up our hearts in Thanksgiving to God, as a church, and as individuals. Many people in our church were unashamed to express their thanksgiving to God in countless ways. The most prominent thanksgiving last night was the blessing of God in granting us a new building of our own. We have been renting space every Sunday for countless years and were nearly shut down because we had so few coming each week, but God did a mighty work, and He brought us more people, a new a pastor, a new building, deacons, and elders. To simply say thank you to God for such a blessing as this would be utterly insufficient.

Almost 400 years ago, a small group of Christians landed on the shores of America, seeking to worship God freely and to advance His Gospel. They went through countless trials during their first winter, yet they persevered and were preserved. A year later, in September, they had lodgings, food, and friendship with the neighboring indians. They had much to be thankful for, and set aside not one, but several days of time to congregate with the indians to eat, hunt, compete, and, most importantly, to be eternally grateful to God for His mercy in preserving them.

This holiday truly is a Christian holiday. Regardless of the food, the company, the conversation, and the enjoyment of simply being together, we must be thankful to God. And even though this day is only one special day of 365 to give thanks, we ought to give thanks every day for every blessing God has given to us.

May your Thanksgiving be filled with hope, joy, peace, and great thanks to God for all that He has done!

Wow! Once again, I have not been blogging in the longest time, and yet I get regular traffic. Odd.

Anyway, I have big news! I am starting college! I will be graduating high school at the end of this year, but I have already begun my college studies. It seems that whenever I say this, everyone either thinks I must be brilliant to be able to do both at the same time and even begin college early, or they think that it is not legitimate studies for college when you do it outside of the college campus. Regardless, I am not any more brilliant than anyone else, nor is it illegitimate to complete college from home. I have met more than one person who has done this. I even know of one who completed his college studies in less than 5 months and under $5,000 for the whole degree! Amazing, but not impossible.

My track is going to be leading me down the path of Computer Information Systems. Yes, a programming degree! Computers are a great enjoyment of my life, and I am already programming for my church website.

Ok, I have spent enough time on that. Moving on…

The program I am using to attain my degree is called CollegePlus!. One is Dynamic Memory and Study Skills, and the other is Maximum Speed Reading. Both of the curriculum are available to be purchased by anyone, and I highly recommend them.

Dynamic Memory’s focus is brain-based learning. The goal of the program is to teach you how to think. Have you ever had a school test, and you try to cram all of the information into your head for the test and a few days later can’t even remember what it is that you studied for? I know how you feel. I have had that happen many times, but after I used this program (and I am actually not quite finished with it) I was able to remember countless things, and without any effort. For example, my mom and my sister and I were shopping, and my mom had a list of about 16 things. She kept looking at it as though she couldn’t remember what she needed. I asked if I could help by memorizing the list. She handed me the list, and in under 30 seconds, I had completely memorized the list. As a matter of fact, I still remember every item on that list as of right now! I haven’t looked at the list since I memorized it, and I still have complete recall! I have used this tool in a multitude of ways already, and that is the least of them.

The other program is called Maximum Speed Reading. This is the focus of this post. I began this program first mostly because being able to read at almost quadruple my current reading speed sparked my curiosity. The program’s audio is about 4 hrs. from start to finish. I began the program with a reading speed of about 320 words per minute (wpm), which is the absolute norm for most people. After simply applying the techniques described in the course, I doubled my speed to just over 700 wpm, and still had good comprehension! As of this moment, I have increased my speed to over 1,000 wpm at my peak comprehension rate, which even surprised me!

Even so, I have been asked what my comprehension level is at that speed. Right now, my comprehension at that speed is normal, but there is another aspect of speed reading that is very important: Skimming and reviewing. I am not going to just read a book as fast as I can, put it down, and expect to have enjoyed it to the fullest. What you do is you skim the whole book, reading about a page every 2-4 seconds. You will comprehend very little the first few times you do this, and that is expected. Your brain is not used that that speed, even though scientists claim that the brain has the power to read over 9,000 WPM! With practice, you will be able to pick out key words and phrases as you skim, and you will be surprised at how much you will remember. After you skim, you read at your peak comprehension rate, which means you read as fast as you can understand, not any faster or slower. After you have done this, you can go back and review what you just read. With practice at this technique, you can read any book faster and remember more than you ever dreamed possible.

Now, on to my amazing experience. Drilling is part of the reading program, and one of the drills is a comprehension drill, which is a drill that simply guides you through the process I just described to you, for 45 min. At the beginning of the drill, I was directed to find a book I had not read but had been meaning to read, so I picked up Walter Chantry’s newest book Habakkuk: A Wrestler with God. I had started the book, but never made it past the intro. As the drill began, I decided to do something that would be expected of me later in my college coursework: to apply the speed reading and memory techniques that I had learned at the same time as I read the book. I skimmed the 100 page book in about 7 min. Since I had another 7 min. before I would be told to begin speed reading, I decided to skim the book backward, just for fun! I finished and I began to speed read the book, applying the memory techniques I had learned. After the 30 min. of drilling, I had read 83 pages of the book. Great. What is amazing is that I remembered nearly everything I had read! I went ahead and finished the book in just a few minutes.

After I finished putting the book away, I realized something. I just read a 100 page book in just under 45 min., and remembered the majority of what I had read! It boggles my minded at how that is possible, yet I did it! From now on, this is how I will read, and I will enjoy every minute of it.

If you are interested at all in anything I wrote about, please visit these links:

• Dynamic Memory and Study Skills Course Workbook- Brad Voeller
• Dynamic Memory and Study Skills Course Audio- Brad Voeller
• Maximum Speed Reading – Howard Stephen Berg
• CollegePlus! faster, for less, for sure
• Global Learning Strategies: Developing Leaders through Distance Learning

(Also, if you ever apply to CollegePlus!, PLEASE use my discount code: 4980. It will give you discounts and give me prizes. :) )