As God works all of history toward the return of Christ to gather His church, the devil has been relentless, and perhaps has even enjoyed some glimmers of hope that a way exists to defeat the council of the Almighty God. One such glimmer of hope came in 1959 at the great Darwinian Centennial celebration in Chicago commemorating the 100th anniversary of the publication of The Origin of Species. Here the theory of evolution was flaunted as the ultimate truth. Sir Julian Huxley and other atheistic evolutionists proclaimed the death of creationism and a new age of pure science free from the distortions of a biblical age of superstition. One year later a movie “Inherit the Wind” put the frosting on the evolutionary cake. Phillip E. Johnson, J. D., Professor of Criminal Law at the University of California, Berkeley writes the following about this movie in his paper “How to Sink a Battleship: A call to separate materialist philosophy from empirical science.”

“Inherit the Wind’ is a simple morality play in which the Christian ministers are evil manipulators and their followers are bumpkins who sing mindlessly in praise of “that old time religion.” In the movie, it appears that the theological content of Christianity amounts to threatening people with damnation if they dare to think for themselves. The overthrow of this caricature provides a liberation myth, which goes with the triumphalism of the Chicago celebration. The movie teaches that the truth shall make us free, and the truth, according to science and Hollywood, is that biblical religion is an oppressor to be overthrown. http://www.origins.org/mc/resources/ri9602/johnson.html

It looked as if a giant steam roller was ready to snuff out the last embers of faith proclaiming the truth of God’s word that God created the world in six literal days just as He said in the book of Genesis. Many nominally Christian institutions of higher learning, in an attempt to flee the stereotype of creationist “fools,” forsook God’s word concerning creation and joined the evolutionists in one way or another.

But as so many times before, God demonstrates his sovereign power and grace by delivering His small and helpless Church from what appears to be certain defeat. Men are raised up with certain gifts to serve God in the work that He has prepared for them. One such man has been Henry M. Morris.

While still a boy, Henry’s father deserted him along with his mother and two younger brothers. Extreme poverty at this time of the depression led his mother to send him to his grandmother for awhile. While at Rice University under the dominion of the famous atheist evolutionist Julian Huxley, the godly instruction of his grandmother gave way to evolutionism. Through an intense study of the Bible, attendance at a strong Baptist church, and joining the Gideon ministry, Henry was convinced of the divine authority of Scripture and the lie of evolution.

Henry’s choice of civil engineering as a major served him well in his fight against the evolution giants of his day. Pure science involves theorizing that inevitably leads the ungodly scientist far from God. The applied science of the engineer has to be based upon fact otherwise the products, systems, structures, etc. that are being designed will not work. It was quite obvious to Henry in light of Scripture as well as the world God created that evolution was based on lies, and he set out to expose these lies in his scientific studies done in the light of Scripture.

The results of his work include the publication of many books on creationism. He co-authored The Genesis Flood: An Investigation of its Geographical Extent, Geological Effects, and Chronological Setting with John C. Whitcomb. “He considered the Institute for Creation Research to be one of his ‘children.’” (John. D. Morris). He has also been widely acclaimed as the “father of modern creationism.” While we may not agree with some of the ideas and goals of these men, I believe they have been used by God to throw down a roadblock to the antichristian scientists. Much time and energy is spent by the evolutionists combating the teaching of creation in schools giving the church a few more years of peace while God continues His work of gathering the church.

I enjoy learning about the findings of the creation scientist’s research. It is encouraging to watch the evolutionists squirm and fight back. We must never forget, however, that the foundation of our faith rests not upon the “proof” of biblical truths that can be found in creation, but upon that work of God in our hearts by the Holy Spirit in connection with the word of God.

Henry loved to study God’s creation, and in his writing from his book For Time and Forever he anticipates a study of God’s wonders in heaven. I will end this article with what he writes:

But in all probability the Dominion Mandate will not only still be in effect, but may well be extended to apply to the whole universe, not merely this Earth. God surely had a purpose in creating the myriads and myriads of stars and other marvelous things scattered throughout the infinite reaches of space. Our physical bodies will have been changed to be “fashioned like unto His glorious body” (Philippians 3:21), and we, as “His servants shall serve Him” (Revelation 22:3) in an infinite variety of meaningful job assignments, based on some yet-to-be clarified criteria on our faithfulness in serving Him here in this life.

He has told us, intriguingly, the “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him” (I Corinthians 2:9). We may be able, however, to sense some of these, “by His Spirit” (I Corinthians 2:10), and I, at least, like to think about having an eternity of time to explore and develop and enjoy the endless marvels of His infinite creation.

Although I like to believe that God’s primeval Mandate to have dominion over the earth may be enlarged eventually to cover the whole creation, would it not be a wonderful future to be able to travel to distant stars and planets, explore them, and then write about the nature and uniqueness in God’s plan for a book in God’s library? Others could read our reports, and we could read theirs, and all would still further increase our awe at God’s great creation and our love and devotion to Him.