Tag Archives: Institute for Creation Research

December 13, 2020 · 10:00

In Memory of Dr. Henry

Dr. Henry M. Morris III (1942-2020)

Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints. (Psalm 116:15)

Dr. Henry M. Morris III, CEO of the Institute for Creation Research (ICR), went home to be with our Lord on Saturday, December 12, 2020. The announcement came as a shock to me. The day before, I heard that he was taken to the hospital with COVID-19 along with other complications.  We immediately started praying for God’s healing hand to touch him. On Saturday morning my Gideon Camp lifted him up in prayer. When I got home, I found the announcement on the ICR Facebook page that he had passed away. It broke my heart to find the news. I loved Dr. Henry deeply. He was my employer at ICR, but more than that, he was a brother in Christ, a mentor, and a friend. To me, he was someone I could trust, someone to whom I could look up, and someone whom I could emulate.

I first met Dr. Henry in July 2008 when I applied for the position of Web Administration Assistant at ICR. ICR hired me, and I started work in August 2008. Even though Dr. Henry was “the boss,” I found him very approachable and easy to talk to, but he was still “the boss.”

Not long after I started working at ICR, I found out that Dr. Henry started the Genesis Sunday School Class at First Baptist Church Dallas (FBCD) where June and I were members. It was not long before we joined his Sunday School class. Dr. Henry was such an excellent Bible teacher. He would teach through books of the Bible exegetically. He would cover four or five verses in a lesson and produce six to eight pages of notes for our personal study. I still have all of his notes on file. Oh, how I loved sitting under his teaching. It is through Sunday School that I feel I really got to know Dr. Henry and grew to love him so dearly.

In 2009, ICR started the School of Biblical Apologetics (SOBA), which offered a Master’s Degree in Christian Education. The school would be designed to be taken online, but the initial classes were held on the campus of ICR. I signed up at the first opportunity.

One of the requirements for the degree program was to write a Master’s thesis or produce a “capstone project.” God gave me a vision of building a scale model of Noah’s Ark as my capstone project,[i] which I also intended to donate to ICR. So, I went in to see Dr. Henry to run my idea by him and get his approval. He listened to me attentively and asked if I had ever done anything like that before. I admitted that I had no experience in building anything like that, but I had built hundreds of models from kits. I told him that I was pretty handy with tools and that I felt that since God had given me the vision for the model, He would supply the necessary skills.

I could tell that he had his doubts, but he gave me his approval and blessing, and I started the work in March 2010. Nine months later, I completed the first deck of the model, and I invited Dr. Henry and his wife, Jan, to our home for dinner and for the first viewing of my project. His reaction upon seeing it assured me that any reservations he might have had were gone.

Dr. Henry inspecting the first completed deck of the Noah’s Ark Model, November 2010.

Two years later and after completing the second deck, Dr. Henry asked me to bring the model to ICR for an open house/fundraiser for ICR Discovery Center for Science and Earth History. That was the first hint I had that he wanted to display the model in the Discovery Center.

Noah’s Ark Model under construction on display, November 2012.

It took me almost five years to complete the model, which I turned over to ICR on January of 2015. For me the model was a labor of love, and Dr. Henry graciously accepted it as a gift of love, and it now resides as part of the Ark Exhibit at the Discovery Center.

The Noah’s Ark Model on display at the ICR Discovery Center for Science and Earth History, Dallas, Texas.

In 2017, the physical work of building the Discovery Center began. It was Dr. Henry’s dream to build a world-class learning center that would display the glory of God’s creation along with the scientific research that confirms the truth of God’s Word. Everything had to be first-class. All of the ICR team pitched in with Dr. Henry leading the way. All of the work was dedicated to the glory of God and the project was daily bathed in prayer.

The project not only had to blend Bible and science to proclaim God’s creation, but it needed to lead the visitor to the understanding that the Creator was also the Savior and soon coming King of kings and Lord of lords. To that end, Dr. Henry wanted the final attraction in the exhibit hall to present the Gospel in three-dimensional form by way of a diorama. A wealthy donor donated his collection of figurines and miscellaneous buildings and structures that he had displayed in his own house. The collection included thousands of figurines and hundreds of structures, buildings, and miscellaneous objects, but the space allotted for the diorama was limited.

Opening day for the Discovery Center was scheduled for Labor Day 2019.  Earlier that year, Dr. Henry called me to his office and assigned the building of the diorama to me. My task was to find “talent” that would create the landscaping for the 16 scenes from the life of Christ that would be represented. My first thought was to find a railroad modeling club that would be willing to lend their talent in creating the diorama while making some extra money for their club. There must be hundreds of such clubs in the Dallas Metroplex, but I could not find one willing to take on the task. I found one gentleman from Fort Worth that did that kind of work, but he assured us that he (alone) could not complete the job by opening day. I found another “artist” that showed interest, but he scoffed when he saw our collection and considered the task beneath him to pursue. Then I found a professional company in Dallas with an entire team of artists and craftsmen. They submitted a quote of between $175,000 and $250,000 to do the job and they estimated that they could complete the job within a couple of weeks of opening day. When I gave the news to Dr. Henry he balked at the cost and rejected the idea.

With all my resources exhausted, I suggested that we could stack boxes of differing heights and shapes on the platform to isolate the scenes and then drape the boxes in black cloth to match with the black platform and wall. Dr. Henry was not very happy with that idea, but with opening day approaching, he was willing to take that option.

The following week, I had to be at an event in California for a week. When I returned, Dr. Henry called me into his office and announced that I would be building the diorama and it would not be with boxes and black cloth. It would have landscaping, hills, a Jordan River for Jesus’ baptism and a Sea of Galilee with Jesus walking on water, a Garden of Gethsemane, Golgotha, an empty tomb, etc. I protested. I have never done that kind of work. I have never worked with that material. But Dr. Henry assured me that I could indeed do it. “You built the Ark,” he said. “You can do this.” Well, I did not do it by myself. With a great team of talented ICR employees and volunteers, we had the diorama completed long before opening day and in plenty of time to have it ready for the several preview showings before opening day.

The Life of Christ Diorama after being installed in its final location.

All the credit goes to God Who provided the talent, the skills, and the vision for that beautiful creation. But it was Dr. Henry’s vision, his encouragement, and his trust in me to get the job done. There was no way that I was going to let that man down.

I love you, Dr. Henry. Heaven is a better place because you’re there. I hope to see you again very soon.

You can read a tribute to Dr. Henry here:

https://www.icr.org/article/in-loving-memory-of-dr-henry-m-morris-iii/

You can watch a video tribute to Dr. Henry here: https://vimeo.com/490003556

Notes:

[i]  “Building the Ark” – https://erniecarrasco.com/2015/03/01/building-the-ark/

1 Comment

Filed under Random Musings

Tagged as , ,

February 9, 2020 · 10:00

A Thousand-Year Day

But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. (2 Peter 3:8)

The retirement lifestyle is a new experience for me. So far, it feels like an extra-long vacation. I’m enjoying doing things in the middle of the week and in the middle of the day that were out of the question when I was tied to a nine-to-five job. I am also enjoying the absence of fighting rush-hour traffic.

On Friday of this week, I experienced an outing to the ICR Discovery Center for Science and Earth History, my former employer, with a group of senior adults from our church. Of course, I know the place inside and out, but it felt different to visit as a “guest.” Our visit was too short (only two and a half hours). After that, we boarded our bus bound for lunch at El Fenix, the oldest Tex-Mex restaurant chain in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. Our driver took us to the one in Irving, Texas, not far from the Discovery Center.

In the course of conversation over lunch, a lady sitting at the table across from me asked me how I would respond to someone who thinks the Genesis creation account is a myth and argues for an old earth based on 2 Peter 3:8 (our verse above). Of course, attempting to change someone’s mind who is convinced that the miracle accounts in the Bible are myths will take some doing. Their main problem is that they have a very small view of God. They usually also have an overinflated view of man. However, their support for long ages based on 2 Peter 3:8 can be easily debunked.

Many use this verse to argue for long ages in the Genesis creation account. They wrongly interpret 2 Peter 3:8 to say, “one day is with the Lord a thousand years, and a thousand years is one day.” The Day-Age Theory[1] uses this interpretation to argue that the days of creation were 1000 years each making the creation event last 6000 years. Giving credit where credit is due, at least they are not arguing for millions or billions of years for creation. By their reckoning, Creation is about 12,000 years old. However, that raises the question; why does God need that much time to create? Furthermore, the purpose of the Day-Age compromise is to allow for evolution to take place, which brings up another question. Evolution requires death and suffering. How then can death be the penalty for sin[2] if death had taken place for thousands of years before the fall of man? And, how could God declare His creation “very good”[3] when He calls death “the enemy”?[4] Some concede that God used evolution to create. This raises yet another question. Why would God need to “experiment” on His creation in order to improve on it over time? Is He not all-knowing and all-powerful? Can God not simply speak things into being as described in the Genesis account of creation? The notion that God used evolution to create serves only to undermine faith in the power of God!

The resolution to the problem of misinterpreting 2 Peter 3:18 comes down to one word – “as.” Peter employs simile to describe the infinite nature of God. God created time; therefore, He is not bound by time. “Of old hast thou laid the foundation of the earth: and the heavens are the work of thy hands…But thou art the same, and thy years shall have no end” (Psalm 102:25, 27). “For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night” (Psalm 90:4). What Peter is saying is that, to God, one day is like a thousand years and a thousand years is like a day. Peter is not attempting to define time for God, but rather he is expressing the timeless nature of God. Therefore, attempting to define the days of creation as 1000 years each based on 2 Peter 3:18, misrepresents both Peter’s message and the Genesis account of creation.

However, without being dogmatic, a parallel could be drawn between 2 Peter 3:18, the days of creation, and historical time. God created in six 24-hour days and rested on the seventh. According to biblical chronology, the earth (all of creation) is about 6000 years old, and we look forward to a final, seventh, 1000-year of rest with Christ’s reign over all the earth.

A visitor to the Discovery Center showed me something in the Prophet Hosea that I had missed although I had read that passage many times. It reads as follows. “I will go and return to my place, till they acknowledge their offence, and seek my face: in their affliction they will seek me early. Come [Israel speaking now], and let us return unto the LORD: for he hath torn, and he will heal us; he hath smitten, and he will bind us up. After two days will he revive us: in the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight” (Hosea 5:15-6:2, emphasis mine).[5]

In the previous verse, the Lord (Jesus) says[6] that He will destroy Ephraim [the Northern Kingdom, i.e., Israel] and Judah. Then He says that He will return to His place (heaven) until they acknowledge their offence (i.e., the rejection of their Messiah) and seek His face. For over 2000 years, the Jews were scattered all over the earth until recent times (1948), but they, for the most part, have failed to seek His face – they still reject Jesus as their Messiah. However, they will return to Him in the near future. Then in Verse 2 of Chapter 6, they (the Jews) say, “After two days he will revive us: in the third day he will raise us up…”

My friend, referring to 2 Peter 3:18, pointed out that Jesus was crucified around A.D. 30, which means that the year 2030 will be 2000 years – two days.  On the third day (1000 years), Jesus will restore Israel. Although we cannot be dogmatic about such things, my friend’s reasoning is sound and his conclusion logical. If his assessment proves correct, that means the seven-year Tribulation could begin in 2023. The Rapture of the Church can take place anytime between now and then. Again, we must be careful not to be dogmatic about these things, but as Christians, the Word instructs us that the return of the Bridegroom for His Bride is imminent[7] and we must be ready at all times, “and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching” (Hebrews 10:25).

Are you ready? If you are unsure, please read my page on “Securing Eternal Life.”

Notes:

[1]  “Age of the Earth” – https://erniecarrasco.com/2018/10/14/age-of-the-earth-2/

[2]  Genesis 2:16-17; Genesis 3

[3]  Genesis 1:31

[4]  1 Corinthians 15:26

[5]  This quotation spans two chapters. The reader must keep in mind that the original text did not have chapter and verse divisions.  The first English Bible to include chapter and verse divisions was the 1560 Geneva Bible.

[6]  Hosea 5:14

[7]  “Imminent” – https://erniecarrasco.com/2020/01/12/imminent/

6 Comments

Filed under Apologetics, Christianity, Creation, End Times, Evolution, Origins, Second Coming of Christ, Theology

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

December 1, 2019 · 13:21

White As Snow

White As Snow – by Henry M. Morris, Ph.D.*

 

“I beheld till the thrones were cast down, and the Ancient of days did sit, whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like the pure wool: his throne was like the fiery flame, and his wheels as burning fire.” (Daniel 7:9)

In this amazing vision of the everlasting God on His fiery judgment throne, we find one of the six occurrences in the Bible of the fascinating phrase “white as snow.” As the symbol of holiness, pure white finds its clearest natural expression in the beautiful snow when it has freshly covered the ground.

Twice the phrase is used to describe the cleansing of a guilty sinner by the grace of God. David, after confessing his own sin, prayed: “Have mercy upon me, O God. . . . Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. . . . wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow” (Psalm 51:1-2, 7). Then, God promises through His prophet: “Come now, and let us reason together, . . . though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow” (Isaiah 1:18). The cleansing blood of Christ, the Lamb of God, is the only substance that can turn blood-red scarlet into snowy white.

When Christ ascended the Mount of Transfiguration, “his raiment became shining, exceeding white as snow” (Mark 9:3), which confirmed to the three disciples that He was the Son of God, even as the voice from heaven had said (Matthew 17:5). At the empty tomb following His resurrection, “the angel of the Lord” also had “raiment white as snow” (Matthew 28:3). Finally, when John saw Christ in His glorified body, he testified that “his head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow” (Revelation 1:14).

It is marvelous that the raiment of the angel of God, the transfigured Christ, and the Ancient of days, as well as the head of Christ in His glory, are all described with the same phrase as the soul of one whose sins are forgiven!

*From Days of Praise, December 1, 2019

Comments Off on White As Snow

Filed under Christianity, End Times, Gospel, Religion, Salvation, Second Coming of Christ, Theology

Tagged as , , , , , , , , ,

November 24, 2019 · 10:00

Give Thanks

In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. (1 Thessalonians 5:18)

Without question, we live in the richest nation in the world. In terms of material possessions, even our poor own more stuff than many of the “well-off” in the world. Poverty, in the rest of the world, means that people have only one meal a day if that. They have no clean water to drink, no shoes to wear, and perhaps only one change of clothes. Their children are diseased and dying with little or no hope for medical care. That is real poverty.

America knows no such poverty. During my time as a bilingual elementary school teacher in Dallas and Garland, I visited in the homes of some of my students. All of them, as far as I know (it was not my place to ask), were children of illegal immigrant parents. All of them were considered “poor” and usually received assistance for their normal school supplies. I do not recall a single home I visited that did not have large flat-screen TVs, usually more than one, and the children had some kind of electronic devices including video games. The parents drove late-model cars often decked out with expensive custom wheels (“rims”). I do not say this to criticize, but only to point out that our “poor” are not really poor compared to the poor in the rest of the world. This explains why millions attempt to breach our borders to leave the poverty of their countries for the “poverty” in ours.

America has been richly blessed by God, yet the voices from the left grow louder by the day denigrating America as evil, intolerant, and bigoted. What God has blessed, they curse. Paul warned that these days would come (2 Timothy 3:1-7), so we should not be surprised by this. Rather than succumb to the venomous rhetoric of the loud left by retreating into a shell of depression, we should cast our light on the darkness though our proclamation of thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving Day comes once a year, but our attitude of thanksgiving should be voiced daily. We have much for which to be thankful, and the Bible says much about giving thanks to God. “Surely the righteous shall give thanks unto thy name: the upright shall dwell in thy presence” (Psalm 140:13). The “righteous” are those who have been made righteous by the blood of Christ forever; therefore our thanksgiving should be forever. “By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name” (Hebrews 13:15).

“I will praise the name of God with a song, and will magnify him with thanksgiving” (Psalm 69:30). I have much for which to be thankful. Every breath I take and every beat of my heart is a gift from God. I thank God for all those He orchestrated in my lineage, going all the way back to Adam so that I might have life. God has blessed me with good health for which I am thankful. I thank God for Jesus Christ who shed His blood on the cross so that I might receive His righteousness. I thank God for Jesus rising from the dead so that I might also have eternal life with Him. I thank God for my first wife through whom God gave me my two sons, their wives, and my four grandchildren. I thank God for June my wife of almost 32 years, with whom I have shared the best years of my life, and I thank God for her family who in every way has become my family. I thank God for my siblings and their families and the double bond we share in Christ. I thank God for my church family and the fellowship we share that will last throughout eternity. I thank God for my work and the talents and abilities God has given me with which I can make a living. I thank God for my job at the Institute for Creation Research and the privilege I have to work among fellow believers; they too are my brothers and sisters in Christ. Through my work – all the skills and talents God has given me – God has provided a home, “stuff” to fill our home, food, clothing, vehicles for going to work, church, and anywhere we want to go. God provides more than just our basic needs so that we are able to bless others from the overflow.

My list is short. If I were to provide an itemized list of everything with which God has blessed me, it would fill a book. I am sure my readers could say the same. The hypocrites on the left want to stir up envy against the “rich” one percent by making the rest of us feel deprived because we do not have what they have. Such envy stirs up hate and is divisive for our nation. Nowhere does the Bible promote the kind of egalitarianism promoted by the left. It is a lie of the devil and the only way to combat that perverse philosophy is by adopting an attitude of gratitude. “In everything, give thanks.”

2 Comments

Filed under Christianity, Holidays, Religion, Thanksgiving

Tagged as , , , ,

November 17, 2019 · 14:30

Believe the Bible

For the word of the LORD is right; and all his works are done in truth … By the word of the LORD were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth. (Psalm 33:4, 6)

My father only completed the third grade in Mexico. He learned to read, write and do simple arithmetic. Education was not greatly valued in his youth. More highly prized were his skills at handling horses and cattle on the family ranch, so his education was good enough to get by. Later in life, he felt called of God to enter the ministry and become a pastor/church planter of Spanish-speaking churches. His third-grade education allowed him to enter the Mexican Bible Institute in San Antonio, TX where, after five years of difficult study, he left without earning his diploma. However, he gained valuable skills in sermon preparation, preaching and pastoring churches. His lack of education did not diminish his love for God’s Word nor discourage him from the constant study of it.

My father taught me many things, but the lesson I treasure most was his love for and trust in God’s Word. He taught me that God’s Word is true in all things and applicable in every situation. Even in those areas of Scripture that are difficult to understand, Dad taught me to trust the Bible simply because it is God’s Word. Dad provided no other apologetic than that.

I grew up with that firmly implanted in my mind, and when confronted with skeptics, my defense defaulted to, “the Bible says.” That answer satisfied me, but it did not impress my challengers. They were convinced that everything started with a Big Bang, that earth formed by itself more than 4.54 billion years ago, and that life sprang up from some mysterious chemical reaction 3.6 – 4.0 billion years ago. That story might make logical sense to some, but it does not line up with the biblical account very well especially when it comes to the topic of the evolution of life. Some “Christian” skeptics suggest that God used evolution to create life over millions of years. My response simply stated that God can do whatever He wants. He could have created slowly over millions or billions of years or He could have created instantly. However, the Bible says He did it in just six 24-hour days.

The arguments have not changed much over the years although the skeptics have gotten more hostile. Even “Christians” come against young-earth creationists charging that a young-earth stance is controversial and divisive. However, today I can offer a better defense besides “the Bible says so,” albeit, that really should be the only defense needed against a “Christian.”

A “mature” gentleman confronted me this week with the “old earth” challenge. He claimed to believe the Bible but he believed the earth was billions of years old, not 6000 years old as young-earth creationists believe. He pointed out that light from distant stars takes billions of years to get to earth and that radiometric dating proves that the earth is old. He excused his disbelief in a literal six 24-hour day creation by stating that we really do not know what the Bible means by “day.”

Given that I was not in an appropriate place to properly respond to his challenge, I gave him some simple answers. A light-year measures distance, not time. Just because a galaxy is 14 billion light-years from earth does not necessarily mean that the light from that galaxy took 14 billion years to arrive at earth. Science has yet to measure the one-way speed of light. For all we know, it could be instantaneous. The Bible also hints that God “gave” the light in place when He created the stars. “And God set [the stars] in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth” (Genesis 1:17, emphasis mine). The Hebrew word translated “set” is nâthan and it means “to give.” Also, the phrase “to give light” is only one word in Hebrew – ‘ôr, i.e., “light.” The verse could be translated, “And God gave them [the stars] in the firmament of the heaven to light upon the earth.” This seems to say that light from distant stars took no time to arrive on earth; it was here from the start.

Then there is the matter of radiometric dating. Besides radiocarbon dating, there are several other methods of radiometric dating none of which are reliable. Dr. Vernon Cupps, a nuclear physicist at the Institute for Creation Research (ICR), recently wrote a book[1] that goes into great detail explaining the fallacies of radiometric dating. Indeed, all radiometric dating methods fail to prove that the earth is billions of years old.

The argument from Scripture that we do not have a clear understanding of what a “day” is in the creation account only betrays a lack of understanding of what Scripture really says. In this, the gentleman alluded to Peter’s statement that to God a day is as a 1000 years and 1000 years is as a day. Peter draws his comparison from the psalm of Moses. [2] In his statement, Peter does not make an equivalence between a day and a year but rather draws a simile. The use of the word “as” makes this clear. Peter’s point is that God is not fettered by time; He is timeless. God created time. He created in six 24-hour days and rested on the seventh for our benefit.[3] Furthermore, the word for day used in the creation account is defined by “evening and morning” and confirmed with the assignment of ordinal numbers to distinguish the days.[4]

I left the man with this final thought. We place too much confidence in scientists who are no more than fallen, fallible human beings rather than trusting God’s Word and believing that God did exactly what He told us He did. God is all-knowing and all-powerful and He can do whatever He chooses to do. He could have created the universe, the earth, and all life on earth over billions of years if He chose to do that, but that is not what He told us in His Word. He could have created everything in an instant if He chose to do that, but that is not what He recorded in His Word. What God tells us is that He created everything in six 24-hour days. It is clearly spelled out in His Word. Believe the Bible!

Notes:

[1]  Vernon R. Cupps, Rethinking Radio Metric Dating: Evidence for a Young Earth from a Nuclear Physicist, (Institute for Creation Research, Dallas, TX, 2019). Available from the ICR online bookstore at http://store.icr.org/.

[2]  2 Peter 3:8; Psalm 90:4

[3]  Exodus 20:10-11

[4]  “A Day Is A Day” – https://erniecarrasco.com/2015/10/25/a-day-is-a-day/

Comments Off on Believe the Bible

Filed under Apologetics, Bible, Christianity, Creation, Evolution, Science, Theology

Tagged as , , , , , , , ,