« Next page | page 22 | page 21 | page 20 | page 19 | page 18 | page 17 | page 16 | page 15 | page 14 | page 13 | page 12 | page 11 | page 10 | page 9 | page 8 | page 7 | page 6 | page 5 | page 4 | page 3 | page 2 | page 1 | Previous page »
News & Blog page 11
Thank you for your support in 2016!
19 December, 20162016 has been a significant year for us. We have:
- Rebranded as Biblical Creation Trust, uniting and building on the past work of Biblical Creation Ministries, Biblical Creation Society and Genesis Agendum.
- Launched our brand new website.
- Given over 40 talks to churches, youth groups, students, Christian leaders and the public, including a major conference in Leicester.
- Published an exciting new resource for school and college students called I’m a creationist … get me out of here!
- Trialled a new mentoring programme with our first student intern, a programme we hope to roll out to others.
- Finished work on a new book on the fossil record from a creationist perspective, with a planned release date in 2017.
- Continued our programme of original research, some of which was presented at the Origins 2016 conference at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia.
None of these things would have been possible without your support, and we are truly grateful to everyone who prays for us and supports us.
As we look ahead to 2017, please would you help us to end the year well and to make a strong start to the new year by considering a gift towards our work? Thank you.
Leicester Creation Conference
December 12, 2016Report by Josh Harrison
Paul Garner addressed the conference on the hominin fossil record.
Stephen Lloyd looked at the moral question of the destruction of the Canaanites.
BCT’s conference bookstall.
Brockington College, Leicester, was the venue on 7–8 October for the Leicester Creation Conference 2016. There had been meetings in the run-up to this, held in different churches in the East Midlands area, earlier in September too.
Attended by many from across the Midlands, and even as far as the Netherlands, people from different denominations found the conference to be stimulating, encouraging and challenging.
It was a great opportunity to hear of recent developments and studies in various scientific disciplines that clearly support the biblical account and teaching on Creation. From rocks and fossils to dinosaurs to beetles, there was variety and depth, combined with powerful personal testimony and conviction.
The main ministries that are involved in this outreach were represented, including Biblical Creation Trust, Answers in Genesis and Creation Ministries International.
Speakers from each of these organisations led main sessions and seminars on different topics. These included Sylvia Baker, Stuart Burgess, Paul Garner, Stephen Lloyd, Matthew Pickhaver, Dominic Statham, Steve Taylor, Simon Turpin, and we were joined by Dr Gordon Wilson from the USA.
Trustworthy Bible
Some of the topics covered included ‘Can the Bible be trusted as history?’, ‘Adam or ape man?’ and ‘Creationism and education’. The evidence presented about the ‘Uniqueness of man’ by Stuart Burgess left listeners in no doubt that, as David writes in the Psalms, people created in the image of God ‘are fearfully and wonderfully made’.
There was an abundance of resources available, including books and DVDs (even hoodies and baseball caps!), bringing helpful material to understand and share. It even provided a good opportunity for some early Christmas shopping! It was a great encouragement to see these different organisations coming together to support Christians in their faith and belief in God’s Word. This unity and friendship in the gospel was a blessing to all involved.
The conference was generously funded by local churches in the area, so that anyone and everyone who wanted to attend could come, and some of those churches provided stewarding help. This help and generosity was greatly appreciated by those organising.
Overall, it was an extremely beneficial and profitable time together. Our confidence in the Word of God is constantly under the threat of disbelief and ridicule. So it was timely to be clearly reminded that, without any doubt, we can stand firm on the truth of the Bible, from Genesis 1:1 to Revelation 22:21.
Again and again, came the message that creation themes are gospel issues. If Genesis 1–3 didn’t happen, then why did Christ have to die? Again and again, came the truth that we have an awesome God who made all things.
(More information and photos: please visit Facebook and search ‘Leicester Creation Conference’).
Reproduced from Evangelical Times (December 2016, p.11) with kind permission.
Welcome to our new web site
September 1, 2016We have now officially changed our name to Biblical Creation Trust and have a new logo and a new website.
Our logo represents the globe and an open Bible, highlighting our emphases on rightly understanding both God’s Word and God’s World.
Among the many features on our new web site we have included:
- An explanation of our Biblical Creation position, as well as the activities, history and distinctives of BCT.
- A blog providing BCT news and topical comment.
- Information about research projects past and present that have had BCT involvement.
- Recordings of talks and debates with BCT speakers.
- Selected articles from back issues of Origins and Biblical Creation. We will be adding more articles over the coming months – and hopefully some brand new articles too.
- A new booklet designed for school pupils and students. I’m a creationist… get me out of here! gives helpful advice on how to handle the origins question at school or college.
We intend to develop our web presence further in the coming months. Longer-term plans include videos introducing our ministry, a searchable database of the thousands of books and journals housed in the BCT library, and an historical archive of recordings from creationist meetings and conferences in Britain going back several decades.
Please add our new site to your bookmarks. We would also welcome your feedback!
The following older posts have been migrated from the original Biblical Creation Ministries website as a helpful record of our past ministry.
Introducing the Biblical Creation Trust
February 26, 2016BCM is changing its name – and much more besides! Since November 2013 a group of people involved in the work of three similar organisations – Biblical Creation Ministries, Biblical Creation Society (BCS), and Genesis Agendum (GA) – have been discussing how best we can work together in order to promote a right understanding of the scriptural teaching on creation and its theological significance within the story-line of the Bible.
These discussions have now come to fruition, and BCM will soon become Biblical Creation Trust (BCT) with trustees drawn from all three previous organisations. These new BCT trustees are Martyn Hallett (BCM), Colin Reeves (BCM), Stephen Bazlinton (BCM), David Tyler (BCS), Nancy Darrall (BCS), and Ray Trainer (BCS, GA). Richard Haddow will be joining them as a new trustee.
Paul Garner and Stephen Lloyd will continue to be employed in their vital work on behalf of BCT of speaking, writing and research on biblical creation. We would like to take this opportunity to thank Ian Chambers for his work as a trustee of BCM over the preceding years. We would also like to thank Kathryn Faulkner, who is stepping down too, for her invaluable work as administrator and treasurer for BCM. Our new treasurer is Liz Reeves, formerly an administrator for BCS.
However, although the name is changing and we are indeed beginning a new venture, our focus remains the same – to communicate well the ethos and results of biblical creation research so as to better equip the church as a whole in its mission to the world. Our aim will be to nurture a biblically-based origins research community bringing together both science and theology.
Why is this research community important? Because many have lost confidence in the Bible as providing reliable historical information concerning origins. All Christians need to be persuaded both of the necessity of biblical creation for a coherent understanding of the gospel and also of the scientific plausibility of biblical creation. A biblically-based origins research community is essential for us to do this. Among other specific initiatives, we will seek to achieve this by:
•creating a website to communicate our distinctive ethos of research based upon biblical creation;
•identifying and encouraging students engaged in postgraduate research related to origins topics;
•appointing research associates to work on specific projects;
•and funding a church-based internship.
We hope to make progress with the new website soon, and to flesh out these and other proposals over the coming months.
Ray Trainer, Chair of Trustees
Creation ministry in Poland 2015
June 8, 2015Report by Paul Garner
Paul Garner and Andy McIntosh in debate in Lublin.
Steve Taylor speaking in Gdańsk.
An attentive audience in Gdańsk.
Since BCM was established in 2002 I’ve had the privilege to visit Poland on many occasions. These visits have given me the opportunity to speak alongside many other creationists, including Drs John Peet, Geoff Barnard, Sylvia Baker and Werner Gitt. I’ve just returned from my latest trip where I was speaking alongside Professors Andy McIntosh (Leeds) and Steve Taylor (Liverpool).
We flew into Gdańsk on Tuesday 26th May, where our first meeting was organised by the Polish Biblical Creation Society and held in a scientific institute whose (shortened) name translates roughly as the Chief Technical Organization. Andy spoke first on the extraordinary design of human hearing. I followed on catastrophic plate tectonics and the global Flood and Steve concluded on dinosaurs and dating methods. The audience was mostly comprised of Christians from local churches, but with some others in attendance. The following day we remained in Gdańsk to record some interviews for a small Christian production company, which will be featured in its regular web-based broadcast called “Antidotum”. Steve and I also spoke to students in a couple of local schools — where we were asked to give our talks without translation and the students asked to give their questions in English! At the school I visited I was invited to have tea afterwards with the School Principal and a member of staff who was a plant cytologist. Things are much more open there than here in the UK.
On Thursday 28th May we made the long drive to Lublin, where a local Christian organisation called Twój Ruch (“Your Move”) had set up a debate between Andy and Steve and two university academics, Professors Michał Ginter (a palaeobiologist) and Konrad Talmont-Kamiński (an evolutionary psychologist). We had discovered the day before that there had been a change of venue after the university disallowed the use of the room that had been booked; fortunately, an acceptable alternative was found right next door. At the last moment Professor Talmont-Kamiński also chose to withdraw from the debate. It was difficult for us to get to the bottom of precisely what had happened, but the media had certainly been stirring things up. We also had a series of mishaps on the journey to Lublin, which meant we arrived half an hour late. Nevertheless, the debate went ahead, with Steve debating Professor Ginter and Andy giving a hastily modified version of the talk that he had originally prepared for his debate with Professor Talmont-Kamiński. The speakers then interacted with one another and with questions from the audience.
One of the main arguments to which Professor Ginter appealed in the debate concerned “transitional forms” in the fossil record, especially Tiktaalik, the Canadian “fish-tetrapod” unveiled in 2006. After the debate, the organisers invited us to dinner with Professor Ginter. Over the meal I asked him what he thought of the tetrapod tracks that had been found in Poland and which pre-dated Tiktaalik by at least 18 million years according to conventional dates (Nature 463:43-48, 2010). Professor Ginter told me that one of the co-authors of that paper was one of his PhD students. I asked whether he accepted they really were tetrapod tracks, and he said he had no doubts about it. I asked whether he thought the dating was secure, and he confirmed that it was. He agreed that it presented a very confusing picture for the standard evolutionary story!
The following day (Friday 29th May), Steve left us to return to the UK, but Andy and I had an evening meeting where we each gave presentations followed by “cross-examination” by three doctoral students from the university. Andy spoke on design in flight (birds and insects) and I gave a talk on geological data and the age of the earth. Knowing that we were in the same venue as the previous evening and that many people would attend both meetings, I also included a response on Tiktaalik, drawing attention to the tetrapod footprint discovery. This seemed to create a bit of a stir with some expressing puzzlement as to why it had been left out of the evolutionary story the previous evening.
There was a lively but courteous interaction with the students and with questions posed by the audience. After the first debate Andy spoke to a young man who respected the Bible but had not really read it. He had not realised that Genesis recorded the creation of birds before land creatures so that it was not possible to accept both evolution and the Bible. Andy gave him a copy of his book, Genesis for Today. After the second debate, one of the doctoral students, who has Christian parents but who has sadly turned away from the faith, came to the meal afterwards, and admitted that the presentations had given him much to think about.
On Saturday 30th May we made another long journey to Wisła, for the European Leadership Forum (ELF). The ELF is a large meeting of Christian leaders and opinion formers from all across Europe and is held annually. Almost 800 people attended, not including the volunteers running it. There was a packed programme of plenary sessions and seminars, plus meetings held by different “Networks” (for scientists, theologians, philosophers, evangelists, youthworkers and so on). I had signed up for the Scientists Network, whose general theme this year was the environment and geology. On Monday 1st June I contributed to a discussion on climate change with a talk summarising both consensus and sceptical positions on anthropogenic global warming, setting the debate in the context of climate change in the recent geological past and different models of the ice age (young-age versus old-age). On Wednesday our session was devoted to the age of the earth, with me defending the young-age position and a German oil geologist invited to defend the old-age position. Unfortunately, for reasons of ill health, my “opponent” wasn’t able to attend but her paper and accompanying Powerpoint slides were presented on her behalf by one of the Network organisers.
In my talk, I set out a methodology of interaction between science and the Bible, then presented a couple of case studies showing the explanatory and predictive power of young-age theories (catastrophic plate tectonics and the Coconino Sandstone). Then I addressed some potential challenges for the young-age position (radiometric dating, fossil succession and geological formations apparently requiring long time spans). I concluded with some challenges for the old-age position (the strong mismatch between rates of sedimentation and radiometric dates, formations requiring the collapse of geological time and theological issues surrounding the global flood and the link between sin and death). My opponent’s presentation included a short history of how geologists came to believe in an old earth, outlined a variety of radiometric and non-radiometric dating methods and concluded with an appeal to Christians to keep science and belief in God separate — an approach she described rather controversially as “scientific atheism”.
We want to record our thanks to our translators, Stasiek Sylwestrowicz and Anna Wiśniowska. In addition, Stasiek was our driver and covered many hundreds of miles during our visit. We are also very grateful for all those praying for us during the trip. There were many encouragements, even if all did not go exactly to plan! The evangelical churches in Poland are more firmly creationist than here in the UK – and we were told that our visits over the years have been very influential in this regard. A growing number of creationist resources are available in the Polish language, including the Set in Stone DVD. It is likely too that personal contacts made at the ELF will open up future opportunities in other European nations.
You can see some clips of our debates in Lublin on YouTube and a number of photos from the trip have been posted to the BCT Facebook page.
Introducing our new Associate Lecturer
Matthew Pickhaver.
May 1, 2015
We are pleased to announce the appointment of Matthew Pickhaver as an Associate Lecturer with BCM. Matthew was awarded a BSc in zoology by University College London and a PGCE by the University of East Anglia before teaching in a state primary school for twelve years.
He is currently supported by Norwich Evangelical Free Church, of which he is a member, and two other Norfolk congregations, to engage in regular preaching and evangelism, including open-air, door-to-door and youth work.
In October last year Matthew spoke alongside Paul Garner at meetings in Cromer and Great Ellingham. Matthew’s talk on natural selection and the Genesis kinds was well received and he is currently preparing talks on other topics.
We hope that you will consider inviting Matthew to address your church or to give a creation talk. Engagements in East Anglia would be ideal but Matthew is willing to consider travelling further afield. You can contact Matthew by telephone (07910 383682) or email.
Debate: Have we misread the Adam and Eve story?
On 28 March, BCM’s Steve Lloyd debated John Walton on Premier Christian Radio’s Unbelievable programme. The topic for debate was: “Have we misread the Adam and Eve story?”
John Walton is professor of Old Testament at Wheaton College, Illinois, and author of the book The Lost World of Adam and Eve. He argues that Adam and Eve should be understood as archetypes for humankind, and that the story is not mean to be taken as an account of our material origins. Steve responded by arguing that Walton undermines Christian theology as a whole with his view of Genesis.
Programme host Justin Brierley chaired the debate, which can be heard on the Premier Radio website.
More evidence that the Coconino Sandstone was laid down by water
February 12, 2015
Coconino Sandstone.
Critics claim that the Coconino Sandstone of central and northern Arizona is a problem for creationism because it was deposited by wind in an ancient desert – not by water in a global flood.
However, in December a major petrological study of the Coconino co-authored by BCM’s Paul Garner was published in the open-access Answers Research Journal. This paper reported surprising new discoveries challenging the claim of wind deposition and supporting an underwater origin.
Now another paper by the same research group has documented the occurrence of folds in the Coconino of a type known only from water-laid sediments.
A third paper by Paul’s colleagues was published in the academic journal Sedimentary Geology in 2010 and showed that sand-filled cracks at the base of the Coconino in the vicinity of Grand Canyon were formed by major earthquake activity – not desiccation in an arid desert as earlier studies had claimed.
This new work confirms earlier research by Leonard Brand demonstrating that the fossil animal tracks in the Coconino were most likely made underwater and not on dry desert sand dunes.
It is encouraging to see that scientific research based on insights drawn from the biblical record can lead to exciting new discoveries as well as helping to answer objections raised by sceptics.
New study challenges desert origin of Grand Canyon sandstone
December 11, 2014
Coconino Sandstone.
Since 2007, BCM’s Paul Garner has been working with Dr John Whitmore (Cedarville University) and other colleagues on a major research project on the Coconino Sandstone of central and northern Arizona. A major part of this research was published online today in the Answers Research Journal.
The Coconino has long been regarded as the classic textbook example of a windblown desert sandstone in the rock record. Critics commonly claim that sandstones of this type could not have formed during the global flood in the days of Noah.
However, the new paper reports multiple lines of petrological data that support a subaqueous origin for the Coconino and call into question the idea that it was deposited by wind in an ancient desert.
You can read the full paper here.
Has science disproved Scripture?
November 26, 2014Saved2Serve is a unique and strategic youth ministry (ages 15–25). It centres on an annual weekend away providing Bible teaching with a focus on how young people can serve God in mission.
BCM’s Stephen Lloyd was invited to speak in April giving a seminar on “Has science disproved Scripture?” In the summer he recorded an audio version of the talk that can be heard here. There is also an accompanying handout.
Our new Associate Researcher
October 30, 2014BCM is pleased to announce the appointment of Dr Bill Worraker as an Associate Researcher. We will be supporting Bill in a research project addressing one of the most significant issues facing young-age creationist models of earth history: “the heat problem”.
In 2005, the Institute for Creation Research’s RATE project (Radioisotopes and the Age of the Earth) concluded that radioactive decay processes were accelerated by large factors of a billion or so during certain episodes in earth history and specifically during Noah’s Flood.
But a major issue arising from these findings is that in the absence of an efficient heat removal mechanism accelerated radioactive decay during the Flood would have generated enough heat to vaporize the oceans and melt the earth’s crustal rocks.
Bill is proposing to investigate a range of energy balance models for the earth during the Genesis Flood, and perhaps also between Creation Week and the Flood, with a view to identifying potential solutions to the heat problem.
BCM has agreed to provide financial support for this project in line with our vision for supporting high-quality creationist research. We will also be providing access to literature and facilitating contact with other interested scientists.
We anticipate that the results of the research will be published in a peer-reviewed creationist journal or as a special publication at the end of the project.
New baraminology studies
Paul Garner has contributed to a special baraminology volume of the Journal of Creation Theology and Science Series B: Life Sciences.
Paul’s paper seeks to answer the question: do all woodpecker species belong to the same created kind and what are the implications for creationist design arguments?
Other papers in the volume address the baraminology of raccoons, opossums and pelycosaurs.
All the papers are open-access and can be downloaded here.
Together for Truth: UK Creation Mega Conference 2014
The UK Creation Mega Conference.
From 4–6 September, the UK Creation Mega Conference took place at the Bethel Convention Centre in West Bromwich. It brought together nine speakers for 15 sessions, addressing biblical authority, creation and evangelism.
In addition to BCM’s Steve Lloyd and Paul Garner, speakers included Ken Ham and Steve Ham of Answers in Genesis, John Mackay of Creation Research and Ray Comfort of Living Waters. Other UK speakers were Andy McIntosh, Stuart Burgess and Brian Edwards. DayOne Youth Ministries ran a parallel children’s programme aimed at 5–11 year olds.
Steve Lloyd’s talk addressed the theology of Noah’s Flood. Explaining that we are “floodists” as well as creationists, he showed its crucial place in the storyline of the Bible. As well as being an act of destruction pointing to the final judgement when Jesus returns, Noah’s flood is also an act of re-creation signalling that God’s purpose of redemption includes the whole creation.
Paul Garner gave a technical presentation of his own geological investigations into the Grand Canyon’s Coconino Sandstone, an example of cutting-edge creationist research. Conventionally thought to have been formed as wind-accumulated sand in an arid desert, a careful examination of this rock unit reveals it is more likely to have been laid down by water.
More than 1300 delegates were in attendance, with numbers rising to 1400 on the final day. As well as people from the UK, there were visitors from France, Poland, Albania, Romania, Switzerland, Hungary, the USA, Australia and India.
We are very grateful to Stephen and Joan Bazlinton and Matthew and Carolyn Pickhaver for manning the BCM exhibition stand throughout the conference. A large amount of free literature was given away and many new supporters signed up to receive our prayer letter.
‘equipping the church
on origins’