Figure 1 - Front cover of the book

We are excited to announce that TASC‘s Restoring the Truth About Origins: Book I is now available! We pray and hope you will purchase copies for yourself, family, and associates as gifts to enjoy and be even better edified on this important topic of origins. What we think about our origins has had a profound influence on the thinking and actions in our society in the past and will today and in the future. So we encourage you to get copies today (see ordering information under Availability and Purchasing heading below)!

Many of you I am guessing, have watched the History Channel's 5-week-long series on The Bible. And perhaps the first couple of weeks you saw many images of Israelites going to war with other tribes. It could actually get quite gruesome with all of the violence and bloodshed. This issue of violence and bloodshed has been quite a stumbling block for faith in God for many and raises a lot of questions.

Dr. Paul Copan in his book Is God a Moral Monster said, “Unfortunately, many Christians are reluctant to tackle such subjects and the results are fairly predictable. When uniformed Christians are challenged about these texts, they may be rattled in their faith.” 1

As creationists, we have made progress in refuting naturalistic evolution in general to bolster faith in our churches and in the public. Evolutionists such as Richard Dawkins and others are responding by adding a new tactic to charge that the Creator God of the Old Testament is an unjust God based on some of the history of His punishing sin. Thus, a new effort and tactic, in addition to espousal of atheistic evolution as fact, is being used by the evolutionists and humanists to cause loss of faith or prevent faith in our Creator God of the Bible. This tactic is being used with general audiences, special emphasis is being given to its use among college students, with whom I work as a college minister.

Was there death before sin? To answer this question let’s consider how this concept is given, who gave it, the character of the one who gave it, what life is, and the reasons for opposition to accepting it’s reality. A command was given on Day Six of the creation week by God to Adam the first man. Eve had not yet been made from Adam’s rib so she did not hear the words God spoke to Adam but was probably, in turn, taught by Adam what God had told him. Originally, the universe was a perfect creation; the Creator Himself said it was very good. In that perfect creation God planted a special garden for his perfect creation, man. Adam was perfect, he had no deterioration of his genetic code, he was strong, his brain worked perfectly, he was a perfect human being. So the background to the entrance to death and sin into our universe is perfection.

Is apologetics all about saying you’re sorry about something? Of course not; it is derived from the Greek word apologia, which refers to giving a reason. Christian apologetics includes both 1) defending the Christian faith when speaking with non-Christians and 2) encouraging and strengthening the faith of believers. Christians are encouraged, actually commanded, in the scriptures to be able to give the reasons for why they believe and have the hope in them.

Dr. Henry Middleton presented talks for the youth group meetings at Englewood Baptist Church in Rocky Mount, North Carolina. 1

Dr. Cornelius Van Til

“I propose to argue that unless God is back of everything you cannot find meaning in anything…” 1

“I hold that belief in God is not merely as reasonable as other belief; it is not a little more probable, or infinitely more probable, than unbelief. I hold rather that unless you believe in God you can logically believe in nothing else.” 2

The above quotations by the late reformed apologist Cornelius Van Til explain the need for God to be at the foundation of human thought. This includes logic.