Answers in Genesis Pastors Conference Day 3

Last day, the conference has come to an end.  But today was just as exciting and information filled as the first two days.  This morning got underway with Mike Riddle who is a former Marine Captain and school teacher.  He dealt with the issues of cloning, stem cell research and the sanctity of live.  According to Riddle, the world has never heard the fact that there is a 97 to 99 percent failure rate in cloning.  Another fact is that despite the call for increased funding for embryonic stem cell research, nothing has been cured or successfully treated with these types of stem cells.  What has been successful according to Riddle is the use of adult stem cells which have been used to successfully treat more than 80 diseases.  Understanding that life begins with conception, the call for increased embryonic stem cell research is a call for increased abortion.  Since the embryonic stem cells are harvested during the first five days following conception the result is the death of the newly created life.

Dr. Jason Lisle followed Mike Riddle presenting a revolutionary way to defend the faith.  It deals primarily with logic and can be used by anyone with a little practice.  He stressed that when we as Christians are challenged to defend our beliefs without using the Bible, the authoritative Word of God, we have already lost the debate.  We need to stand on the authority and foundation of our beliefs as we use that to defend Creation and the Bible.  According to Dr. Lisle, it is logical to use an ultimate standard such as the the Bible to defend it. He also talked about presuppositional apologetics which is a big picture way of defending the Christian faith. According to Dr. Lisle, Eve was the first person put in the position of defending God's Word.

                                                     Dr. Jason Lisle and Pastor Bill Peters

To close out the morning session was the very popular Answers in Genesis speaker Carl Kirby.  Kirby worked for more than 24 years as an Air Traffic Controller before moving into ministry full time.  His focus was on the media and how it has been involved in changing the way society thinks about God's Word and evolution and millions of years.  Kirby points out that there are more than 400,000 churches in the United States and 6,000 first run theatres in the United States.  His question is which has the biggest impact on the culture? It is obvious that the churches have failed to maintain their position in providing moral and ethical direction for society.

The night sessions included Dr. John Whitcome who talked about Why Jesus, the Creator, Believed in the Historicity of Genesis.  The conference concluded with Ken Ham, the founder and President of Answers in Genesis who shared why Genesis, Creation, and the authority of the Word of God are relevant and necessary for society. He also talked about the ongoing battle within Christianity between those who believe in the foundational truths of the Bible and Genesis and those who try to compromise God's infallible Word with the fallible ideas of man.

Answers in Genesis Pastors Conference Day 2

After a devotional by Steve Ham, the morning lecture series got underway with Dr. David Menton. It was about anthropology and why humans did not come from apes.  It was entertaining and informative.  Next up was Dr. Terry Mortenson who talked about millions of years and how this attitude found its way into the church.  Dr. Mortenson showed how the millions of years idea really began to take root in the late 1700's and by the mid-1800's many church leaders were compromising the Word of God with the fallible ideas of man and millions of years.  The last speaker of the morning was Dr. Jason Lisle who presented information about the Cosmos and how it supported Biblical Creation.  From there it was off to the Answers in Genesis' Creation Museum for an afternoon of touring the museum and an evening of star gazing.

The Creation Museum opened in May of 2007 and crossed the one million visitors threshold in April of this year.  To learn more about the museum http://creationmuseum.org/
It is a first class way to learn about the days of creation and God's Word.  The displays are very professional and some of the local talent act as if they would like to have you for dinner.

In the evening, Pastor Jim Jackson of Re:vive church in Claremont, California and I spent the evening gazing at the moon, planets and stars through three telescopes or modern spyglasses as Galileo called them back in his day.  Pastor Jackson said this on his Facebook page; "Got to observe our moon, Jupiter and it's four moons and Neptune along with star clusters from three large telescopes tonight. as well as discuss light travel hypotheses relating to deep space stars and background microwave radiation theories with the astrophysicist. Phenomenal!!  That pretty much says it all.

Pastor Bill Peters and Friend

Answers in Genesis Pastors Conference

The first Pastors Conference put on by Answers in Genesis is underway.  It began this morning and runs through Thursday evening September 24, 2010.  Located just a few miles away from the Creation Museum in Kentucky, the conference got off to an excellent beginning.  As the day evolved, the information was almost overwhelming. Ken Ham keynoted the conference with Why We Need Answers, followed by 

Dr. John Whitcomb who talked about Answers for the Genesis Flood and the Final Judgement.  Dr. Whitcomb is one of the founders of the modern Creationist movement. Dr. Whitcomb’s most famous work, The Genesis Flood (co-authored in 1961 with the late Dr. Henry Morris), is widely acknowledged by friend and foe alike as having had a significant part in igniting the modern creationist movement around the world, writes Answers in Genesis.  David Menton kicked off the afternoon sessions with Answers for Intelligent Design while Dr. Georgia Purdom Answers for Biblical Womanhood for the Pastor's wives who ware attending the conference.  Next Dr. Tommy Mitchell  shared Answers for Tragedy  and Dr. Georgia Purdom  continued the Pastor's wives track with Answers That Give Hope Through Tragedy. To close out the evening, Ken Ham presented Answers for the Church in Today`s Culture with Dr. John Whitcomb providing a strong presentation on the Genesis Flood and the Fossil Record followed by a special presentation by Don Landis The Theology of Creation.

At the conference with In The Beginning Ministries founder Pastor Bill Peters is Re:vive Church Pastor Jim Jackson.  Re:vive is located in Claremont, California.  Here, Pastor Jackson is checking out the many Creation and apologetic resources available from Answers in Genesis.

Church Leadership Training Conference a Big Success

The Church leadership Training conference held on Saturday 9-11-2010 was very successful.  Over 500 Church leaders, Bible study teachers and those who just wanted to learn more about the Bible attended.  This marks the third year in a row that attendance has increased.  The conference got underway with the conference goers lifting their voices in worship.

For the second year in a row, Pastor Bill Peters, founder and President of "In The Beginning Ministries" was asked to present a Genesis based creation message.  This year's class "Can You Defend What You Believe"was the result of last year's response to the class.  Last year the class was presented in a 50 minute format for a lunch time elective class.  The Lord blessed the day with a standing room only class of more than 60 people.  A request was made to the conference organizers to bring the class back as a full day class.  We were honored and privileged to be asked to teach this important information in a full day format.

The class went very well, as Pastor Peters presented information on how to defend the Word of God regarding six days, Noah's Ark and the flood, creation, the beginning of life, fossils and dinosaurs.  Pastor Peters also dealt with the subject of young earth creationism vs old earth creationism and why young earth is more in tune with the statements of the Scriptures.

The day ended with a fun PowerPoint Jeopardy style game.  The class was divided in four teams and the four categories and twenty-four total questions went very fast.  All the teams had excellent answers, but alas, there could be only one winner.  The categories and questions were taken from the day's class and was meant to reinforce what the attendees had heard and written down during the day.

We were blessed with excellent evaluations from  those who attended the class.  It was a blessing to be with these Christian leaders who wanted to learn more about how to defend Jesus Christ and the Holy Scriptures to the world with reasoned and thoughtful answers.

1 Peter 3:15-17

15 But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear; 16 having a good conscience, that when they defame you as evildoers, those who revile your good conduct in Christ may be ashamed. 17 For it is better, if it is the will of God, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil.   NKJV

What Are We Teaching???

What does it say about Pastors when only 46% of Born-again Christians believe in absolute moral truth. Only 40% of Born-again Christians believe that they are responsible to share the Gospel. Pastors! What are we teaching from the pulpit? Matthew 28:19 Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, what part of GO don't we get?

How can we as Church leaders prepare our members to GO? We need to be teaching them the foundations of Biblical Truth.  We need to be teaching the truths of creation and Genesis Chapters 1 through 11.  If Born-again Christians do not understand why there is original sin and how it came to be, how can we expect them to GO and make disciples.  When Christians believe in the ideas of man, evolution, millions of years, old earth theory, how can Christians be expected to Go and share the Word of God with authority.

The wise man builds his house on a rock.  That rock is the foundational truths of Scripture beginning in Genesis 1:1- In The beginning God created the heavens and the earth.  It is time we remembered that as church leaders we are supposed to be teaching what God, Jesus (the Son), and the Holy Spirit have taught us through the words of the Holy Bible.  The ideas of man began with a suggestion by Satan in the Garden of Eden and has not changed since.

Ready to GO!

Everything is ready to go for tomorrow at the Christian Leadership Training Conf. in Milpitas. Candy and I got everything checked out and with the Lord's blessing, tomorrow will be a great day. There are 26 pre-registered for the class. What a blessing. I could not do this without Candy and the Holy Spirit. I am so blessed

CLT...It's Time

Candy and I are heading out to the Christian Leadership Training conference in Milpitas. We will be attending a staff dinner this evening then classes begin tomorrow morning. I am really excited about what the Lord has given me to talk about. Hoping for a great turnout at the conference and the class.

Please pray for those affected by the explosion in San Bruno last evening.  I know from experience that conference attendees come from that community.

Amen

Christian Leadershhip Training Conference

Just putting the final touches to the Can You Defend What You Believe presentation for the Christian Leadership Training Conference in Milpitas this coming Saturday, September 11. We are also going to break the class up into six teams at the end of the day to play a Jeopardy type PPT game to see if they remember what they have been hearing all day.

I will be teaching on the topics of Six Days, Evolution/Millions of Years, Origin of the Universe, Origin of Life, the Fossil Record and the Origin of Dinosaurs, Noah's Ark and the flood, and Old Earth Creationism.  I am real excited about the class and can't wait for Saturday.

I would also like to express my thanks for all the work done by and education provided by Answers in Genesis which allows me to share the true and accurate foundational message of God's Word

Christian Leadership Training Conference

In The Beginning Ministries will be teaching at the upcoming Christian Leadership Training Conference on Saturday, September 11, 2010.  The conference is held in Milpitas, California at the Living Word Christian Center.  http://myclt.org/

We are very blessed by the Lord for the reception to our lunch time elective class last year and to what we have been asked to do this year.  This is from the course description for Specialty classes
Can You Defend What You Believe

Bill Peters room 510
This workshop shows you how we can defend our beliefs in God’s Word and His creation using biblical and scientific evidences. An overwhelming favorite Elective conference at CLT 2009, we asked Bill to present this as a core conference this year.

For the lunch time elective classes, we will be presenting another creation class
Basic Creation Bill Peters

Have you wanted to talk to someone about the Bible and Creation, but they didn’t want to hear "that Christian stuff?" Basic Creation shows you how to engage in conversation about creation, evolution and millions of years before you ever get to “In The Beginning.”

To see a video about the conference from last year, check this out
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZibYiN6FlE&feature=player_embedded

This is the third year and second in a row that In The Beginning Ministries have been privileged to help teach the Word of God and the Creation message through the foundation of the book of Genesis at the CLT in Milpitas.

If you live in the area, you should plan on attending.  See you there.