Creation Station
Education and Current Events
A Man Who Almost Believed the Bible
William Jennings Bryan at the Monkey Trial Photo courtesy of Bryan College
A little over 75 years ago in Dayton, Tennessee there occurred what was
truly the trial of the 20th century. For this trial, popularly known as
the Monkey Trial, changed America as much as any other single event in
its history. Before the trial the Bible, and God's moral code contained
in it, were acknowledged as authoritative, even if not always adhered
to, by the vast majority of Americans. After the trial the public
adherence to the Bible and the moral code in it began a downhill slide
until today it has virtually no effect on public policy. One of the
things that made this trial such a watershed in American life was,
ironically, the Bible's chief defender at the trial, Williams Jennings
Bryan. Bryan presented himself, and was seen by most
people, as an expert on the Bible and a man who truly believed it to be
the Word of God.
Unfortunately Bryan gave the enemies of God the opening they had sought
to publicly discredit the authority of the Bible, because Bryan did
something that many Christians do today, he showed that he almost
believed the Bible. In his testimony he was asked about the days of
Creation and said what many people say today as they seek a compromise
with the world, that he believed the Earth to be millions of years old.
Like many today, he claimed that it doesn't matter how long it took for
God to create, all that matters is that God did it. But Bryan was
wrong, as are those who say the same thing today. The central question
is not about the age of the Earth or even about Creation. The central
question has always been, is the Bible really God's Word? If it is,
then no person has the right to change any part of what God has given
to us. That was the mistake Bryan made, he attempted to harmonize the
Bible with evolution, the same mistake made by compromisers today. With
Bryan's compromise on Biblical authority on the public record, the
enemies of God had the opening they had sought in their attack on the
Bible, with the results that we see in America today.
For the next 35 years Christians were almost universally silent on the
Creation issue, leaving the public discussion of
origins almost exclusive up to the humanist/evolutionist establishment
with the resulting moral and political decline we see today. This
situation began to change in 1961 when Henry Morris and John Whitcombe
published the book The Genesis Flood , a scientific
and Biblical defense of the Bible's account of the
Genesis Flood. The book triggered a revival in interest in a six day,
recent Creation. The critical thing that Morris and Whitcombe did in
their book was to show that they didn't almost believe the Bible, they
believed it all and showed us how the Bible and science really do tell
us the same story about Earth's past, they just tell it in different
ways. At first the book was ignored by almost everyone, but gradually
it began to have an effect, first on Christians who began to see how
true science supported the Bible and then later with evolutionists as
they saw the threat it posed to the monopoly that their religion of
evolutionism had achieved in America's public life. All of which brings
us to today when we find that . . . .
Sometimes your enemies can be your best friends.
In the March, 2002 issue of Scientific American on page 30 is a report
titled Down with Evolution! Creationists are changing state educational
standards. Too often lost amid the high profile evolutionist's
victories in corrupting the educational system they
use in promoting their religion of evolutionism is the fact that
Creationists have quietly and effectively been countering the
evolutionist propaganda so rampant in state education standards. This
evolutionist report states that 18 states have what are labeled
unsatisfactory, useless or absent treatment of evolution while only 9
states have what are labeled very good or excellent treatment of
evolution, with the other 23 states somewhere in the middle.
Considering that the humanist/evolutionist establishment has a
stranglehold on the media, public education and the courts this report
is truly a testament to both the truth of Creation and persistence of
Creationists and others who seek to promote the teaching of true
science, not indoctrination in the religion of evolutionism, in the
public schools.
In the last letter I wrote that Creation was winning, it is most
gratifying when others, especially your enemies,
validate what was written. But even though we have made significant
inroads into some evolutionist strongholds, they still have a
tremendous advantage and the only way to keep on winning is to keep up
the fight for truth, which brings me to the letter I recently received
. . . .
It's nice to be appreciated by your friends
My name is Stephanie and I just want to tell you thank you. I'm a sophomore taking a class called Human Physiology, but it ought to be called the evolution class, because all it teaches is the "facts" of evolution. Being a Christian I was really struggling with this because my teacher was telling me all these things that go against my faith, all the while telling me that they aren't supposed to change my views about religion. The problem was that I didn't know what to believe, because all these "facts" that this educated person was telling me pointed to evolution and it was starting to put doubts in my head, which was really stressing me out. Well thanks to Project Creation's web site, I feel so much better. It gave actual facts to show the things I previously was learning to be false. I was so relieved because I now know that my faith isn't just a story, it actually happened. Thank you so much for helping me with my faith and giving me an all new viewpoint to look at my class with.
Stephanie R.
Stephanie's thank you letter is really to all of the many supporters who have made Project CREATION a success in proclaiming the whole truth of God's Word. Your continued support will make possible even greater successes for this ministry in the future.
