Demolishing Supposed Bible Contradictions: Exploring Forty Alleged Contradictions – Volume 1, Ken Ham, General Editor (Master Books) 2010

Beginning with a brief survey of misconceptions that often lead folks to suppose the Bible is in error, Demolishing Contradictions provides reasonable answers for some 40 challenges to the integrity of Scripture. Contributors to this volume include Bodie Hodge, Gary Vaterlaus, Stacia McKeever, Roger Patterson, Paul F. Taylor, John Upchurch, Steve Fazekas, Dr. Jason Lisle and Dr. Georgia Purdom. This resource is divided in to five sections of questions (Genesis, Exodus through Deuteronomy, Joshua through Malachi, Matthew through John, and Acts through Revelation), which is likely to make it a handy grab-off-the-shelf reference tool.

In all honesty, I actually learned a few things from this resource – and I’m quite nearly a lifelong Bible scholar and preacher of the Gospel. No apologist should be without this handy reference, which in light of 2 Peter 3:15 is to say that no Bible-affirming Christian should neglect to read this material.

One of the things Demolishing Contradictions indirectly highlights is the bankruptcy of the King James Only movement. Like a lot of preachers I know, I’m King James – just not King James Only. As Bodie Hodge and Stacia McKeever note “the idea that one inerrant copy lineage has been passed along is a relatively new idea that, sadly, doesn’t take into account the past” (p. 82 emphasis in original). Even the translators of the King James Version noted that translation was necessary, for “without translation into the vulgar tongue, the unlearned are but like children at Jacob’s well (which is deep) [John 4:11] without a bucket or something to draw with” [http://www.ccel.org/bible/kjv/preface/pref4.htm]. It is an unfortunate and stubborn fact that the Authorized Version is written in Early Modern English and, as a consequence, the language is becoming increasingly anachronistic. For example, as Demolishing Contradictions alludes to, the KJV translators rendered the word owph in Leviticus 11:13 as “fowls,” which makes it seem as if Moses is calling a bat a bird in Leviticus 11:19; as Bodie Hodge notes “owph simply means “to fly” or “has a wing.” So the word includes birds, bats, and even flying insects’” (p. 56). One also has to caution modern readers that the word “replenish” in Genesis 1:22 doesn’t mean “refill,” but rather to “fill.” “The English word has changed meaning over the centuries so that the word replenish today generally means ‘refill’” (p. 33). By insisting that the Living Word be arbitrarily preserved in an increasingly dead language, the King James Only movement repeats the historical error of the Catholic Church who tried to have the Bible arbitrarily preserved in Latin and forbade translation into “vulgar tongues;” both commit the error of “burying their talent in the sand” when they ought to be multiplying what the Master has given them [Matthew 25]. They also make the Bible increasingly inaccessible to those who need it; it is not those who are well who need a healer but the sick [Mark 2:17] – church folk need to sort out their priorities. The King James needs a faithful update. The Great Commission requires it.

Having said this, I do not want to give the impression that Demolishing Contradictions is an attack on the King James. It is not. As I said, in answering some of these alleged Bible contradictions, the contributors have unavoidably highlighted the issue.

As the back cover reminds us, “With nearly two-thirds of young people leaving the church when they move from home, there has never been a more important time to have reasoned response for those who desire only to undermine your faith… It is imperative that believers are able to stand firm in their faith, and have answers to the culture’s attacks on the Bible.” Here’s a list of the questions this resource answers:

• Was Abel eating meat soon after the Curse when he wasn’t supposed to be (Genesis 1:29), since he kept the flocks and sacrificed an animal in Genesis 4:2-4?
• Why didn’t Adam and Eve die the moment they ate, as Genesis 2:17 implies?
• Does Genesis 1 teach the sky was solid?
• Why would God tell Adam and Eve to “replenish” the earth in Genesis 1:22 if they were the first humans?
• Were Noah’s sons born when he was 500 as Genesis 5:32 says or not as stated in Genesis 7:6 and Genesis 11:10?
• Why do names of places appear in both the pre-Flood and post-Flood world? Does this refute a global Flood that should have destroyed such places?
• Do Genesis 10 and 11 contradict each other about the origins of nations and people groups?
• Is Lot Abraham’s nephew or his brother?
• Do snakes really eat dust like Genesis says?
• Do Genesis 1 and 2 give different accounts?
• Does Genesis 1:15 say the moon emits its own light?
• Is it okay to kill, like David killing Goliath or Joshua eliminating Canaanites? Or is killing forbidden?
• Did Moses make an error when he called a bat a bird?
• Did Moses say that insects have only four legs?
• How could Moses be the author of Deuteronomy when his obituary is listed as the last chapter?
• Does God both bless and condemn marriages between close relations?
• Can God be seen face to face (Genesis 32:30; Exodus 33:11) or not (Exodus 33:20; John 1:18; 1 John 4:12)?
• Does God change His mind?
• Could the loving God of the Old Testament order the complete destruction of the inhabitants of Jericho found in the Old Testament?
• Was Solomon really going to cut a baby in half?
• Does God condone polygamy?
• How could Ahaziah be both 22 years old and 42 years old when he started to reign?
• Was Jehoiachin set free from prison on the 25^th day (Jeremiah 52:31) of the month or the 27^th day of the month (2 Kings 25:27)?
• Did Matthew (27:9) falsely attribute a prophecy to Jeremiah that came from Zechariah (11:12-13)?
• How could the young Samuel have been sleeping in the temple when the temple was not built until much later?
• Does the Bible make a mistake in claiming that pi equals 3?
• Was Matthew incapable of basic math in his genealogy?
• Was Jesus wrong in Matthew 13:31-32 when He said that the mustard seed was the “least of all the seeds”?
• Doesn’t Jesus contradict Old Testament teachings by not stoning the adulteress, which was commanded?
• If Jesus is God’s “only begotten Son,” then how can angels and Christians also be God’s sons?
• Did Jesus tell His disciples to take a staff?
• Why does Joseph (Jesus’ supposed father) have two different fathers listed in Matthew 1:16 and Luke 3:23?
• If Jesus is God (John 1; Colossians 1; Hebrews 1; Philippians 2:5-8), then why was the Father greater than Jesus in John 14:28?
• Why do the inscriptions on Jesus’ Cross differ among the four gospels?
• Does the genealogy in Luke 3:36 give an extra Cainan not found in similar genealogies, such as Genesis 11:12?
• If Jesus was to be in the grave three days and three nights, how do we fit those between Good Friday and Easter Sunday?
• Why was Rahab praised for lying in James 2:25 when lying is forbidden in the Ten Commandments?
• Did Judas Iscariot die by hanging (Matthew 27:5) or did he die by falling and bursting open (Acts 1:18)?
• Can all sins be forgiven (Acts 13:39; Titus 2:14; 1 John 1:9) or not (Matthew 12:31; Mark 3:29; Luke 12:10)?
• How could Jesus be the Creator (John 1:1-3) if He was the firstborn of all creation (Colossians 1:15)?
• Can man be held accountable for his sinful actions, and yet have Christ act as a substitute for his sins?

If you don’t know the Bible-affirming answers to these questions, you should by this book, because there are answers to all of these alleged Bible contradictions. Bodie Hodge sums it up nicely: “I suggest that many non-Christians want the Bible to be full of contradictions so that it gives them a form of justification for rejecting God. In short, they don’t want God to be God, so they don’t have to be accountable to Him… [I]n trying to justify themselves, they try to attack God and His Word with alleged contradictions…, [yet] such allegations seem to ‘evaporate into thin air ‘ when one looks at the text logically, in context, and so on” (p. 132-33). We need to get these answers to an unbelieving world because as Jesus warned, if we can’t trust His Word when it speaks of earthly things, how could we trust it when it speaks of spiritual things [John 3:12]? Fortunately, as Demolishing Contradictions demonstrates, “the Bible stands solidly when faced with alleged Bible contradictions, and then logically it stands solidly in its pronouncement of the Gospel.”  

Pick up a copy today.

Rev Tony Breeden, from the Bookwyrm’s Lair

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the New Leaf Publishing Group Book review program on CreationConversations.com <http://www.creationconversations.com/group/bookreviewersfornewleafpublishinggroup>. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 <http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/waisidx_03/16cfr255_03.html> : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

How Do We Know the Bible Is True? – Volume 1, Ken Ham & Bodie Hodge, General Editors (Master Books) 2011

Ever since the publication of Already Gone (and more recently Already Compromised), Answers in Genesis has been increasingly pumping out general apologetics materials. Why? Why not just stick to creation apologetics? Because the results of the survey upon which Already Gone is based revealed that our children have basic questions about the reliability of the Bible and that many of them cannot even explain basic doctrine, though they have tons of “Bible stories” pretty much burned into their brains. Worse still, the average guy in the pew cannot answer their questions and their clergy are being increasingly indoctrinated in compromise positions of the Bible [see Already Compromised by Ken Ham & Greg Hall for more on that]. As in Spurgeon’s day, Christianity is once more on the “down-grade” – and we must do everything we can to stop it!

This volume touches upon 28 relevant apologetics issues providing Biblical answers to questions such as:

• Was Genesis derived from ancient myths? Did Moses write Genesis? Is the age of the earth a salvation issue?
• Are the Old and New Testament Scriptures reliable? How did we get the Bible in English?
• What about the “factual” claims of The DaVinci Code? Did the Resurrection really happen? What about miracles?
• How do we make sense of the Trinity and does the really Bible teach this doctrine concerning God? Does the Bible teach the perpetual Virginity of Mary? Does it condone polygamy?
• Is the Bible inerrant? Do the Scriptures contain contradictions? What about other religious writings?

Contributors to this volume include Ken Ham, Bodie Hodge, Jason Lisle, Brian Edwards, Tommy Mitchell, Steve Ham, Jobe Martin, Steve Fazekas, Terry Mortenson, Paul Taylor, Tim Chaffey, Herb Samworth, Roger Patterson, Bob McCabe, Georgia Purdom, Jim Gardner and John MacArthur (who delivers a truly inspirational Afterword). I also enjoyed Dr. Purdom’s discussion of laminin and her warning against seeking after signs; her thoughts meshed well with Ken Ham’s discussion on how we ought to use evidence and how we ought to avoid continuing to use once-cherished evidences that have proven to be false. I could not in good conscience end this review without recommending Tim Chaffey’s assessment of the “factual” claims of The da Vinci Code, and Chaffey and McCabe’s excellent analysis of Framework Hypothesis. Lisle also provides some bite-sized excerpts of his arguments on from The Ultimate Proof of Creation.

We need to arm ourselves with good apologetic resources like this one because, as Jim Gardner notes, “This [culture] war is really about the authority of Scripture. Either God meant exactly what He said and said exactly what He meant regarding the creation account, or He didn’t” [p. 210 - brackets mine]

-Rev Tony Breeden, from the Bookwyrm’s Lair

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the New Leaf Publishing Group Book review program on CreationConversations.com <http://www.creationconversations.com/group/bookreviewersfornewleafpublishinggroup>. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 <http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/waisidx_03/16cfr255_03.html> : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Evolution: The Grand Experiment – Volume 2 : ‘Living Fossils’ by Carl Werner [New Leaf Publishing, 2008]

Having reviewed Carl Werner’s Evolution: The Grand Experiment – Volume 1 a few months back, I eagerly awaited the opportunity to crack open Volume 2: Living Fossils. Like the first volume, Living Fossils is presented in an easy-to-read format aimed at the general public and is filled with beautiful full color photographs of fossils and animals throughout. As they say, A picture is worth a thousand words. Once again, Werner’s book is a Godsend for visual learners.

While Volume 1 tackled several lines of evidence used to support evolution at once, this volume deals with one specific issue.

Basically, Dr. Carl Werner set out to test the evolutionary model in the following manner:

“I predicted that if evolution was not true, then animals and plants would not change significantly over time. Accordingly, I predicted I should find fossils of modern animal and plant species in the “older” fossil layers” [p. 10].

He notes that “the naming of species is subjective and, at times, I find species and genus names unreliable” [p. 23]. As an example, he notes that scientists once mistakenly believed different “races” of humans represented more than 15 different species, while modern genetics have proven we are but one species. He also notes wide variations in dogs, in a single species of oysters and in sassafras leaves [even from the same tree]. He further noted that while he and his wife photographed many modern-appearing plants and animals in the fossil record, not one fossil was assigned a modern species name. He became convinced that evolutionist were playing what he calls the Naming Game.

As he puts it:

“If a paleontologist was unfamiliar with the variations within living species, it is possible  he or she could misinterpret differences and mistakenly give each fossil a new, erroneous species name, based on minor changes only. Taking it one step further, this name change could give the false impression that evolution, or dramatic change, has occured over time. The only way this can be sorted out is to look at the fossils and living forms” [p. 18]. 

This is exactly what Dr. Werner has set out to do in this volume; He painstakingly takes us through the plant and animal kingdoms, showing us modern-looking dinosaur era fossils and their probable living counterparts. It is an amazing book of which Dr. Werner should be proud.

I can’t wait to check out the next book in the series.

You can find out more about the book and follow a link to purchase it at http://thegrandexperiment.com.

-Rev Tony Breeden
From the Bookwyrm’s Lair

 

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the New Leaf Publishing Group Book review program on CreationConversations.com <http://www.creationconversations.com/group/bookreviewersfornewleafpublishinggroup>. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 <http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/waisidx_03/16cfr255_03.html> : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

 

Church Diversity by Scott Williams, New Leaf Press (2011)

Subtitled ‘Sunday: The Most Segregated day of the Week,’ Scott Williams’ thought-provoking book aims at being the flashpoint for the We Are Church Diversity movement. We Are Church Diversity is consists of “congregants, pastors, church planters, educators, leaders and Christians around the world” who affirm that diversity matters to God and are ”committed to seeing the body of Christ more racially unified.” Williams offers us the challenge of intentionality: church diversity on purpose. And he proposes lots of ways to do that: everything from having your church acknowledge Martin Luther King Jr Day, to celebrating Church Diversity Week  (beginning the 2nd Friday of each year and ending on the 3rd Friday), to preaching diversity from our pulpits [fellow preachers, I'm talking to you] and Sunday school lecterns, to making sure that your church board and stage reflect the diversity you believe in  (because what guests see on the stage and who they see in the leadership lets them know whether they are truly welcome or simply tolerated).

Of course, the book is something of a riff off Paul’s Letter to American Christians, November 4, 1956 by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The most oft-quoted section of this letter stands as a undeniable indictment of the modern church – as much as it did more than 50 years ago:

“There is another thing that disturbs me to no end about the American church. You have a white church and you have a Negro church. You have allowed segregation to creep into the doors of the church.  How can such a division exist in the true Body of Christ? You must face the tragoc fact that when you stand at 11:00 on Sunday morning to sing ‘All Hail the Power of Jesus’ Name’ and ‘Dear Lord and Father of Mankind,’ you stand in the most segregated hour of Christian America.”

Not much has changed in nearly 55 years! There are a variety of reasons why, ranging from base racism and hatred to apathy and Biblical ignorance. Some folks still try to justify segregation by twisting God’s Word. Dr. King himself mentioned that some “argue that the Negro is inferior by nature because of Noah’s curse upon the children of Ham.” Many cults have tried to say that the so-called “curse of Ham” was the beginning of the “Negroid race,” but this is nonsense. First of all, the curse was upon Canaan (Ham’s son) who fathered the Mediterranean Canaanite peoples who settled in modern-day Israel, Lebanoon and Syria; in other words, olive-skinned people groups. Oops.

Second and most importantly of all, God is for diversity. No, don’t shake your head, because He is. Consider the following. The Bible reminds us that He has made “of one blood all nations of men” [Acts 17:26], which means that He packed all of the genetic potential for every shade from black to white into Adam and Eve. Consider also, the birth of the Church. We know of course that “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus” [Galatians 3:28], but have you really thought out what occured at Pentecost? In Acts chapter 2, the Holy Spirit is poured out upon the church. The Bible records that there were in Jerusalem “Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven” (verse 5). It started with every nation, and in fact each person present heard the Spirit-filled disciples speak in their own language (verse 6).  And after Peter’s sermon, we find that about 3,000 souls (verse 41) were added to the Church… from every nation under heaven! Why should this surprise us? Doesn’t our Great Commission tell us to make disciples of all nations [Matthew 28:19, Mark 16:15, Acts 1:8] and that we are to be witnesses to the uttermost ends of the earth? Doesn’t the Word record that God pulled Philip out of a revival in Samaria so that he might bring the Gospel to an Ethiopian eunuch? God cares about diversity. It’s in the origins of mankind, the birth of the church, in our commission… and Bible fortells that God will have His perfect way. The Book of Revelation records that John saw “a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands” (Rev.7:9) as a fulfillment of the Great Comission that He charged us with!

So why shouldn’t our churches reflect the kind of diversity God intended from the beginning of the Church and certainly intends as its end result? That’s right; there is no reason why not.

Williams invites us throughout this book to assess ourselves and our churches, to believe in our potential for the kind of Biblical diversity God desires and to change the church for the better. On purpose. In other words, he provokes us to build God’s Kingdom rather than little clubs for those who match our shade of melanin.

Diversity takes intentionality.

Learn more about this book and how you can get involved in the We Are Church Diversity movement at ChurchDiversity.com.

From the Bookwyrm’s Lair,
Rev Tony Breeden

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the New Leaf Publishing Group Book review program on CreationConversations.com <http://www.creationconversations.com/group/bookreviewersfornewleafpublishinggroup>. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 <http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/waisidx_03/16cfr255_03.html> : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Already Compromised by Ken Ham & Greg Hall (Master Books, 2011)

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     
I read this book twice before I felt comfortable writing a review for it. It wasn’t an easy book to digest, though the conclusions Ken Ham & Greg Hall make were rather expected. We’ve all noticed this downward trend toward extraBiblical Creationist positions and the new evangelical “tolerance” that’s come with it.

Already Compromised is something of a sequel to Already Gone: Why Your Kids Will Quit Church & What You Can Do About It. Both books are based on research conducted by America’s Research Group. Both also statistically verify a trend toward compromise with evolution and millions of years, which results in a large number of people abandoning the faith.

Since the information in Already Gone is applicable to Already Comprised, you should definitely read both books. I even recommend that you read them in order to get the full effect. Already Gone documents the effect that teaching kids evolution and millions of years has on their faith. It statistically demonstrates that most kids begin questioning the Bible in middle school when evolution and millions of years are actively pushed in science classrooms. It explains why a lot of our churched youth graduate from church when they graduate from high school. And, most disturbingly, it demonstrated that those who attended Sunday School regularly were actually more likely to question the Bible, hold unBiblical views and ultimately abandon the faith than those who did not attend Sunday School regularly [Yeah... we're doing it wrong]. Already Gone called for churches to begin critically evaluating their Sunday School curriculum, the quality of their teachers [train them, for crying out loud!] and their commitment to doctrine and apologetics [over Bible stories and arts and crafts time].

One of the reasons that kids who regularly attended Sunday School were more likely to doubt the Bible and begin their slippery slide out the church door was because those kids were more likely to hear a Sunday School teacher or pastor tell them that they could believe in the Bible and millions of years of microbes-to-man evolution.

Already Compromised picks up the question where it concerns Christian colleges and universities. What the researchers found is that the science department tends to have a more Biblical view of origins than the theology/Bible department. Um, what?

Let me just take a moment to state the obvious: That’s just messed up. Why should the theologians be more inclined to hold an extraBiblical view of origins than the science department?

As crazy as this sounds, 77.8% of the Religion departments of the Christian colleges and universities polled considered themselves Old Earth Creationists (with only 14.8% calling themselves Young Earth Creationists) compared to only 34.9% of the Science departments (who weighed in at 57.1% Young Earth). It appears that theologians have abdicated the battle for the mind and now defer authority to the expertise of secular scientists who are, by and large, opposed to God, supernatural agency and supernatural revelation; on the other hand, Christian scientists have been forced to evaluate the limits of science, the meaning of naturalism and the effect of evolution and millions of years on the Bible.

I’ve been seeing this for a while.

One of the other things of note that this book uncovers is a difference in perception between college presidents [who must market and fund-raise for their schools] and vice-presidents [who deal with inter-departmental issues]. Presidents tend to have a rosier view of the situation than the fellow just below them in the trenches. This is nothing more than a lack of intercommunication [and honest introspection] that Christian colleges must address.

Another, deeper issue uncovered is that those with extraBiblical, compromise views of origins tended to give the “right” answers until they were asked questions with more specificity. As the authors note, a new sort of evangelical Newspeak has crept in that uses the same language but means something completely different. This is especially troublesome where it concerns the authority of the Bible and the issue of origins!

Already Compromised contains several good appendices, including a questionaire for a prospective college [one you might pose to your pastor and Sunday School teachers as well!]. If you’re considering a Christian college, you should definitely pick up this book. You should especially consider one of the colleges listed at

http://creationcolleges.org, which list includes my alma mater, Appalachian Bible College.

This book has but one flaw: It does not spell out what this means for clergy. Make no mistake, and I say this as a member of clergy, the biggest issue here is that these compromising theology/Bible departments are training our ministers, missionaries, etc. These clergy then come to your church, my church, the church around the corner, and begin to tell their congregations and Sunday School teachers that you can believe the Bible and millions of years of microbes-to-man evolution. This leads to the predicament discussed in Already Gone of kids doubting the authority of God’s Word and abandoning the Church. Those who survive go on to attend Christian Colleges, many of which compromise where it concerns origins and, therefore Biblical authority as well. If their fate is anywhere similar to students who attend public universities, 52% of them will no longer identify themselves as born-again Christians after four years; those that do will not have attended a church service in over a year! Some of those who remain will be taught that they can accept extraBiblical views of origins, and among those will be future clergy, Sunday School teachers and missionaries… ready to propogate the ver-widening circle of apostasty and compromise.

On a personal note, this book more than any other finally sheds much-needed insight into why atheist Dr Michael Zimmerman’s pro-evolution Clergy Letter Project currently boasts the signatures of more than 12,700 signatures while the response letter at CreationLetter.com affirming the historical veracity of a literal Creation Week and a worldwide Noachian Flood has only been signed by a little more than 80 clergy. Our theology departments are simply training our clergy to believe evolution and millions of years as facts! [I realize there are other factors involved, chiefly apathy/complacency and the fragmented nature of the Creation movement itself (you know what I mean: you only meet 999, 998 of my personal 1,000,000-item critieria for a Biblical Christian, so we can't work together, amen?)]

What can we do? Is it enough to send our kids to Bible-affirming colleges? Is it enough to hold our professors accountable? No. We need to begin examining our clergy and, as much as I hate to say this as a preacher, we need to rid our pulpits and lecterns of pastors and teachers who hold compromise positions. Appendix D provides a rather handy questionaire which might be used. In any case, one must remember to be as specific as possible in order get past the evangelical Newspeak some utilize to mask their true position!

I definitely recommend this book. Purchase your copy of Already Compromised here.

Rev Tony Breeden
From the Bookwyrm’s Lair

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the New Leaf Publishing Group Book review program on CreationConversations.com <http://www.creationconversations.com/group/bookreviewersfornewleafpublishinggroup>. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 <http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/waisidx_03/16cfr255_03.html> : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

The Curiosity Files: Quicksand by The Old Schoolhouse Magazine (2010)

Many of you know that I am a home school dad of four little guys who are simply determined to put the “boy” back into “boy”-sterous. My little guys are hands-on mad scientist types so we’re always looking for materials to meet their never-sated demand for bugs, birds, dirt and other boy-friendly science. Today I bring you a review of The Curiosity Files™: Quicksand from The Old Schoolhouse Magazine ( TheHomeschoolMagazine.com ), a delightfully versatile unit study on quicksand and some cool properties of water.

The Curiosity Files™ is actually one of a series. With the aid and guidance of Professor Ana Lyze, expert in outlandish oddities, these units cover things like cicada-killing wasps, MRSA, the blue-footed booby, the dung beetle, the platypus, zombie fire ants and more! If that doesn’t peak your kid’s interest, turn off the video games, make sure you have his full attention this time and tell him again! Each E-book is about 80 to 100 pages and reasonably priced at $6.95-$7.95 apiece. Or you can simply buy the entire set of 9 E-books  for $46.00. (If you don’t know what an issue shelf space is, you haven’t been a homeschooler very long, right?) There’s also a CD version if you prefer to have your resources in a more tangible form  for $49.00.

If the Quicksand unit is any indication, you’ll want this series. While it’s aimed at children ages 8-13 years, you can adapt it to younger ones as well. It’s that versatile. It’s also pretty comprehensive and has lots of drawing and coloring pages, lapbook/notebook pages, crossword puzzles, review sheets, Bible study lessons and copywork activities. This unit follows an integrated learning model, so you literally have resources at your fingertips to cover not only science, but also math, history, geography, Bible, writing, spelling, vocabulary and arts and crafts. In addition to a really cool lesson on how quicksand works and (for the budding Indiana Jones-type explorers in your home) how to survive if you get caught in it, there’s some great hands-on experiments and internet resources to help you expand and enhance your lesson even further. The labs explore two properties of water: surface tension and viscosity. Unlike some science lessons that claim to utilize “household items,” this one really does make use of simple things we all have hanging about the joint. That’s a definite plus! We haven’t had a chance to try the edible quicksand recipe yet, but there’s gonna be some very unlucky gummy bears in this house pretty soon!

I did think the math on this unit was a bit above my child’s level. Of course, this is primarily an integrated science unit and I do have a math curriculum already. In any case, I hope future editions provide some math on some of the lower levels of the 8-to-13-year old spectrum, because the rest of the material was spot on.

Be sure to check it out The Curiosity Files™: Quicksand at TheHomeschoolMagazine.com.

From the Bookwyrm’s Lair,
Rev Tony Breeden

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through The Old Schoolhouse magazine’s book/curriculum review program <http://thehomeschoolmagazine.com>. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 <http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/waisidx_03/16cfr255_03.html> : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

The Truth Chronicles – Book 2: The Contest by Tim Chaffey and Joe Westbrook – Risen Books (2010)

The second installment of The Truth Chronicles picks up the time-travelling, truth-seeking adventures of four friends from Silicon Valley Prep. In the previous book, Jax, JT, Izzie and Mickey went back in time 4500 years and found dinosaurs! Determined to get to the bottom of this mystery, the four friends set up a contest to see whether the Biblical view of history of the evolutionary timeline is more accurate.

Like the previous book, this one doesn’t shy away from hard questions like God and suffering, the Resurrection and the Gospel. There’s a lot of questions and apologetics to go along with the laughs, drama and action in this series. It’s bound to get your kids thinking and asking questions of their own as they read the arguments presented in this book. In fact, I recommend that parents read this book to their children as a chapter book, as I’ve been doing, so you can take advantage of the many opportunities to build your child’s fath, answer their questions and present them with the Gospel!

In a general sense, The Contest is the Empire Strikes Back of the Truth Chronicles trilogy [although author Tim Chaffey has announced plans to expand the series!]; that is [for you non-geeks], there’s a lot of character development in this book, the plot sets up the next book, and it ends on a cliffhanger. At least one character experiences a major shift (Think Han Solo, A New Hope‘s anti-hero versus Return of the Jedi‘s true-believing crusader). Classic Empire formula!  Yet make no mistake, my boys were riveted to the storyline. Like Empire, this book is my current favorite in the series!

I cheerfully recommend it!

-Rev Tony Breeden
From the Bookwyrm’s Lair

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the author for review. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 <http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/waisidx_03/16cfr255_03.html> : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

 

Mike’s New Reality: An Adventure in Faith by Buddy Helms – Tate Publishing (2011)

I thoroughly enjoyed Mike’s New Reality! The characters are likable and realistic. The novel’s drama is pulled from the real-world conflict the Bible-affirming Christian often encounters over dissent from Darwin.

The basic premise of Buddy Helms’ novel is simple: The protagonist, Mike Evans, an avowed evolutionist is invited by a Christian friend to hear a Creation speaker, after which he has a crisis of faith. Determined to convince his friend that he’s wrong about creationism, Mike bones up on his Darwin, but actually reading The Origin of the Species and Descent of Man convinces him that evolution is more philosophy and argument than science.

The rest of the story explores Mike’s developing faith and ministry in the face of increasing resistance from the evolutionist establishment. Mike’s New Reality reads like a modern-day In His Steps for Biblical Creationists; like Charles Sheldon’s classic work of fiction, we are presented with a down-to-earth yet inspiring tale of believers working shoulder-to-shoulder to build one another’s faith, fight error, proclaim the Gospel and further the Kingdom! Author Buddy Helms evidences an unapologetic confidence in the power of God’s Word to change lives and destroy the lies of Satan.

Interestingly, Mike Evans is converted by the arguments of Kent Hovind. Accordingly, I had thought to contact Creation Science Evangelism to suggest they add Helms’ book to their arsenal somehow. It appears I’ve been beat to the punch! In fact, CSE posted the following in an email with a link to the book at their e-bookstore:

“Take an adventure in faith through a riveting story about a man who tried to defer—by education—Bible truths he had learned in his childhood. Walk with him as the more he learns about science and truth, the more he is led to believe in the Almighty Creator and His Word.

Author and Pastor Buddy Helms tells the story of a professor, Michale Evans, who, while experiencing life-changing circumstances, is confronted with his atheistic and evolutionist thinking by Dr. Kent Hovind’s Creation Seminar Series and debates.“

I highly recommend this book! It is enjoyable, thought-provoking and ultimately inspiring!

Mike’s New Reality is available on Amazon, from CSE and Tate Publishing. 

-Rev Tony Breeden

From the Bookwyrm’s Lair

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the author for review. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 <http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/waisidx_03/16cfr255_03.html> : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Secrets of the Sixth Edition: Darwin Discredits His Own Theory by Randall Hedtke – Master Books [1983, 2010]

Randall Hedtke makes a convincing case in this book for the probable cause of Charles Darwin’s little publicized neuropsychosis. He notes that Darwin’s symptoms began with the first publication of the Origins [1859], continued through its many versions and conspicuously ended with the publication of the sixth and final edition in 1872. He posits that it was the dread of having his theory falsified [and the resultant public humiliation] that resulted in his illness. He’d been publicly rebutted by Agassiz and Burkland in 1840, one year after he presented his own theory to the Royal Society for the “parallel roads” at Glen Roy in the Scottish Highlands [p.44-45]. Fear of another Parallel Roads Incident caused Darwin to continually revise his theory in an attempt to anticipate objections with layers of speculation and caveat. Hedtke maintains that Darwin’s psychoneurosis was cured by his abandonment of natural selection as a creative force for evolution in the Sixth edition of Origins, thereby freeing himself from the dread of falsification.

Several points of the remainder of the book deserve mention.

Hedtke’s sketch of Darwin’s life and compatriots is both eye-opening and thought provoking.

He also expresses his concerns that the exclusive, uncritical teaching of evolution in public school undermines critical thought and science itself. Hedtke aptly notes that Darwin only managed to keep his theory from violating Jevon’s Elementary Rule of Logic ["A single absolute conflict between fact and hypothesis is fatal to the hypothesis; falsa in uni falsa in omnibus" - p.60] by imagineering away objections and doublespeak; this is why Darwin’s theory is so plastic that it can explain completely opposite conditions [For example, homologous features are said to be both evidence of common descent and [if convergent evolution] of NOT common descent].

Also included in Secrets of the Sixth Edition is a critique of Darwin’s Natural Selection/Artificial Selection analogy [as well as other oft-refuted evidences for evolution] and a “geo-ecological explanation of the fossil record based on divine creation” which he dubs Relative Fossil Production Potential [RFPP]. RFPP is calculated as habitat + population size + size and structure [of the organism]. In a nutshell, his flood geology model notes that fossils are found relative to their abundance and proximity to water in the pre-Flood world. He goes on to give his thoughts on objectively teaching origins by “applied creation,” a curriculum stategy that avoid constitutionality concerns and allows evidences for evolution to be examined critically. Thus he not only affords a critique of Darwin’s theory but also suggests a possible solution to the problem of public school indoctrination into said theory.

My only criticism of this book is Hedtke’s proposed definition of macroevolution [p. 66], which amounts to observable speciation and would give the game to evolutionists. To the contrary, molecules-to-man macroevolution is something more than observable speciation but rather the unobserved and unobservable change of one kind of animal into another [viz. dinosaurs-to-birds or ungulates-to-whales].

This brief aside notwithstanding, I highly recommend Secrets of the Sixth Edition, especially for science teachers!

-Rev Tony Breeden

From the Bookwyrm’s Lair

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the New Leaf Publishing Group Book review program on CreationConversations.com <http://www.creationconversations.com/group/bookreviewersfornewleafpublishinggroup>. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 <http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/waisidx_03/16cfr255_03.html> : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

The Truth Chronicles – Book 1: The Time Machine by Tim Chaffey and Joe Westbrook – Risen Books (2010)

As I’ve mentioned before, any book I review that’s aimed at young readers gets read to and flitered through my kids. If they like it, it gets a good review. If my kids don’t like it, well, the author isn’t going to like what he reads here. Tim Chaffey and Joe Westbrook have absolutely nothing to worry about! My kids, especially my eldest, thoroughly love this book!

I first met Tim Chaffey at the 2010 Answers For Pastors conference. He’s as as brilliant and genial as he is tall – and he fairly towers above most of us! I’d only recently heard of the The Truth Chronicles at that point and, with a feeling they were right up my eldest kid’s alley, I asked him if I could have a copy to review. He generously provided me with signed copies of all three books in the series. After the conference, my wife and I read them all at once and were delighted with the characters, the story and the message. I was right; this was right up our son’s alley! I couldn’t wait to start reading it to him to get his reaction.

We read The Time Machine, Book 1 of the Truth Chronicle series (from Risen Books), as a chapter book (one chapter each night). Filled with humor, adventure and wonderful illustrations by Melissa “Inkhana” Mathis, this book delivered in all the right spots. Each night, whether the chapter ended in a cliffhanger or not (and there are plenty of those), my son was always asking, “What happens next?” With a wink and a chuckle at his obvious enthusiasm, I assured him he’d find out next time. Which is to say, it reads well as a chapter book. For the record, both my boys love this book.

In case your wondering what the big deal is, this series tells a wonderful science fiction tale of time machines, dinosaurs and hovercraft and uses it to present Biblical truth and Biblical history. The story follows four teens from Silicon Valley Prep, Jax, Izzy, JT and Mickey. Our heroes attempt to go back in time to ancient Egypt to see how the pyramids were built, only to find themselves face to face with dinosaurs! There’s lots of harrowing escapes and a daring rescue as our intrepid teens attempt to get back to their own time in time for the school science fair. Your kids will love it!

Interestingly, this book doesn’t shy away from some very deep real-world issues that today’s Christian teens face. Notably, it introduces the topic of how God could allow suffering and tackles the issue of whether Christian teens should date non-believers. I admire the way the authors stick to their guns (and to the Bible!) on the latter issue. These topics are dealt with further in the next two books in the series.

Bottom line: If you’re looking for a fun-filled adventure that will fuel your kid’s imagination without the evolutionary assumptions of most science fiction, you should pick up The Truth Chronicles: The Time Machine today!

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the author to review. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 <http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/waisidx_03/16cfr255_03.html> : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

-Rev Tony Breeden
From the Bookwyrm’s Lair