SPRINGFIELD—One of the struggles that organizers of the Creation Museum of the Ozarks have in promoting the truth that God is the Creator is simply that evolutionists project an image that is much larger than they really are.
“There are hundreds and hundreds of highly qualified scientists who totally believe in creation or at least have strong beliefs about the problems with evolution,” said Rod Butterworth, president of the Creation Museum of the Ozarks and a member of Ridgecrest Baptist Church here.
The implications of believing the six-day creationism view over the evolution view are not as dire as what many would have one believe, according to Ron Walser, a chemist who serves on the advisory board of the museum and who is a member of South Creek Church here.
“It’s not intellectually superior necessarily to believe that science is right and God got it wrong,” Walser said.
One of the problems that Butterworth and Walser have within the church community is convincing pastors and other leaders to let go of theistic evolution. That theory is the politically and academically correct view that God used millions of years to create the universe. John MacArthur, nationally known pastor and Bible teacher from Grace Community Church, Sun Valley, Calif., is one of several high-profile biblical worldview teachers who opposes that view.
“By undermining the historicity of Genesis they are undermining faith itself,” MacArthur said. “Give evolutionary doctrine the throne and make the Bible its servant and you have laid the foundation for spiritual disaster.”
Walser said that Psalm 11:3 is being fulfilled in our time in that the foundations in America are being, or already have been, destroyed, leaving the righteous asking the sobering question, “What can we do?” Walser argues that the United States, like Europe, is becoming more and more humanistic, with this generation selling out to the cultural worldview in huge numbers.
“We need to take a firm stand on protecting our kids,” he said.
Satan has been firmly in control of the birth and spread of the theory of evolution since the 1850s, Butterworth and Walser said. According to Walser’s pastor, Jeff White, it’s going to take the truth of God and God alone to conquer the big lie that has captivated our academic and scientific elites to the point where evolution is now taught as a state-sponsored religion in our public schools.
“It is a definite need, having a creation museum and a creation ministry in this area,” White said. “The only way to fight error is with truth. That’s the only way to do it. That’s the only weapon you have.
“It’s a spiritual battle. There has to be spiritual weapons—prayer and the Word of God. That’s it.”
ALLEN PALMERI/associate editor
apalmeri@mobaptist.org