Free online lecture: THE SIX DAYS OF CREATION

The Six Days of Creation: A Young Earth is Not the Issue

Lecture
50 minutes / 2002
Rating 7/10

The debate over whether God really created in just six days might seem to about the age of the earth: is it thousands or millions and even billions of years old? But, as presenter Ken Ham shows, the real issue is one of biblical authority.

"You don't get millions of years out of the Bible do you?" Ham asks. "I go to churches and sometimes they say: 'We believe in the local flood.' 'We believe in theistic evolution.' 'We believe the day age theory.' 'We're progressive creationists...who believe God created over millions of years and the Big Bang and so on.' 'We believe the gap theory.' And then they say, 'What do you believe?' And I say, 'What the Bible says.' Because not one of those positions comes from the Bible. They are all imposed upon the Bible. And by the way, when you impose man's ideas on the Bible, you know what you are teaching to generations in our culture? That you don't have to take God's Word as written; you can believe man's word is infallible and reinterpret the Word of God. You are undermining biblical authority."

That's the real issue underlying the battle over Genesis. Later Ham notes he doesn't even like to be called a "young earth creationist" because that makes it seems as if the earth's age is the key issue instead. But the reason we need to have a proper understanding of the age of the Earth is only so that we can have the proper respect for biblical authority - if the Bible doesn't mean what it says in the first chapter, then how can we trust it anywhere else?

Some of the points Ham addresses include:

• what the word "day" means in Genesis 1 and the rest of the Bible
• why so many Christians believe in an old earth
• and the danger in believing an old earth

This is a very good lecture, as lectures go, so if you are interested in the material you'll enjoy the presentation – it is a very good and thorough introduction to the topic. However this is not something that will grab attention – it is simply a man at a podium with some powerpoint slides. So, a good one for adults who want to know more, but not really something for kids, or those only marginally interested.

You can buy it on DVD at Answers in Genesis or you can watch it for free online, in 4 parts, at:

https://answersingenesis.org/media/video/age-of-the-earth/six-days-of-creation-a-young-earth-not-the-issue/

Counterfeit Counseling

A comparison of counseling philosophies

Lecture

60 minutes, 2012 

Rating: 8/10

A good friend with a bad father was, as a young man, sent by his church to a local Christian counseling center to get help controlling his anger. But instead of addressing what he could do about his anger, the counselor had my friend talk again and again about how bad his father was. There might have been some need for the counselor to get a basic understanding of my friend's history, but there was no need for the counselor to encourage him to repeatedly rehash the sins of his father. This was a violation of the fifth commandment and something that simply should not have been part of any Christian counseling.  But as Bard Bigney explains in this DVD lecture, most of what goes by the name of Christian counseling is nothing but secular psychology baptized with a few Bible verses. 

Many years ago, after planting a church, Bigney was overwhelmed by the number of people who needed help with their problems. So he went looking for a good counseling center he could partner with.

I went to the YellowPages.... picked out a dozen or 15 Christian counseling ministries.... And I made myself a list of good questions..... "What is your understanding of man's condition, from birth?" You would be shocked at what Christian counselors were saying! Why? Because they've been trained more in psychology and Freud and Maslow and Skinner than God's Word.... And they would say, "basically good." I'd say, "Basically good? That's not what the Bible says!"

Free online film: Inherently Windy

A Hollywood History of the Scopes Trial
Lecture
74 minutes / 2004
RATING: 7/10

In 1925 teacher John Scopes was found guilty, and fined $100, for violating a law which prohibited the teaching “that man descended from a lower order of animals.” But while the court found him guilty, the US media championed him in their papers, and fed the public a distorted account of events that made the anti-evolutionist prosecuting attorney, William Jennings Bryan, look like a fool.

A play about events, called Inherit the Wind, often produced by high schools and colleges, spread the distorted account to subsequent generations, and a 1960 film of the same title (starring Spencer Tracy) took the distortion to a whole new audience. There was no attempt at fairness - in one bombastic scene the town’s fundamentalist Christians are portrayed as an angry mob, marching on the jail to lynch the evolution-teaching teacher!

This, then, is another caricature of creationists, but bigger than most in that it’s portrayal of creationists as violent, dim-witted and bigoted has impacted public perception for generations.

One of the best responses to the film is a lecture done by Dr. David Menton. In his presentation Inherently Wind: A Hollywood History of the Scopes Trial he deconstructs one outrageous lie after another by showing a scene from the film, and then explaining the actual facts of the matter. Even if you’ve never seen or heard of Inherit the Wind before, it’s still worth watching this lecture just to learn about the contempt and hatred Hollywood has historically had for Bible-believing Christians. And if you have seen the film Dr. Menton’s presentation will blow your mind. You may have realized the film was propaganda, but you never realized just how little regard the filmmakers had for truth, fairness and honesty.

This great presentation can be viewed free online here.

Fearfully and Wonderfully Made

Lecture
63 min, 2005
Rating: 8 out of 10

I've loaned out my copy of this DVD to more than a dozen people, and every one of them loved it as much as I do. It is little more than a taped lecture, but still manages to be among Answers In Genesis’s top selling DVDs. Why? Well, there are a few cool PowerPoint slides to liven things up a bit, but the strength of this DVD is in its subject matter: the beginnings of human life.

A parent looking at their newborn might call the child a “little miracle” but as Dr. David Menton makes clear in his presentation, that is a completely insufficient description! There isn’t just one miracle involved in the conception and birth of a child – numerous miracles are involved at every stage, before conception even occurs.

Fearfully and Wonderfully Made isn’t specifically a pro-life presentation but by outlining the miracle of life Dr. David Menton makes clear the waste and destruction involved in abortion. This is a truly awesome presentation.

And, amazingly, this video can now be seen for free online here. So check it out, and then order a copy for your church library!