Why Should I Believe? Why Should You Believe?: A Wake-Up Call to the Church!

By Terry Read

This is one mans journey to discover the truth about the Bible. Terry Read grew up in a Christian household and went to church. But Terry did not live in a bubble. Terry watched documentaries, read magazines, read encyclopedias, and went to public school. Terry knew that what he was learning about science from all of these other sources did not mesh with the Bible. Terry tried to make the two world views fit together somehow.

But Terry discovered another option that he had never been taughtthat a person could believe the Bible as it reads. The Bible does not contradict good science. Terry studied this. He learned that the biblical world view is actually the only world view that is consistent with even doing science. Terrys discovery was such great news to him that he wanted to share it. He knew that other people would be happy to hear this message. He knew that whether or not they admitted it, other people were doing mental gymnastics as he had done to make the Bible fit the science. Terry could see the devastation brought on society because people do not believe the Bible.

But when Terry tried to share his discovery, he became frustrated. The reason Terry had so much consternation was the unexpected source of the frustrationchurch leadership. Church leadership was actually afraid to share this message that people really can believe the Bible! This book documents Terrys struggles and tells what you can do.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Oct 10, 2014
• ISBN: 9781490854601

Terry Read

Terry Read is the person in the pews—the foot soldier in this spiritual war. A director of the San Antonio Bible-Based Science Association, Terry is a licensed professional engineer in Texas. Terry lives with his wife of twenty-two years, Lisa, and their son, Joshua.

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Copyright © 2014 Terry Read.

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ISBN: 978-1-4908-5459-5 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4908-5458-8 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4908-5460-1 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2014917506

WestBow Press rev. date: 10/06/2014

Contents

Introduction

Terminology

1    Growing Up a Christian

2    College

3    Life after College

4    A New Career and a New Life

5    San Antonio, Marriage, a New Church, and a Big Problem

6    Problems with the church

7    Understanding the Problem

8    A New Passion and a Miracle Baby

9    The Texas State Board of Education Textbook Debate

10    Election Debacle

11    The San Antonio Bible Based Science Association and Frustration

12    Current Status and That Pesky Light Travel Time Problem

List of Creation Science Organizations and Ministries from Northwest Creation Network Website

References

This book is dedicated to the glory of God. It is only right that we glorify God, the Creator of the universe, and the Creator of us as described in Genesis. Think how awesome this is. The Creator, who spoke the universe into existence, knows and loves each one of us individually. Most of us would love to have the ear of our elected officials—representatives, senators, governors, or the president. But we can go to the Creator of this universe in prayer.

And this book is dedicated to all of you, the people in the pews who need to hear this message that you can believe the Bible. This book is my effort to do an end run around the church leaders and get this message to you directly. Then maybe you can start talking to your church leaders directly and ask them why they have been keeping you from hearing this message. And I hope that it will give you the assurance that I have received and affect how you live your life as it has affected mine. I want you to be prepared to talk to your kids, nieces, nephews, grandkids, friends, and coworkers about this issue.

Finally, this book is dedicated to Lisa, who encouraged me to write this book, and to Joshua, who represents our future.

Introduction

You must influence them;

do not let them influence you!

—Jeremiah 15:19b (NLT)

The culture war is not just about abortion, homosexual rights, or the decline of public education. These are only skirmishes. The real war is a cosmic struggle between worldviews—between the Christian worldviews and various secular and spiritual worldviews arrayed against it. This is what we must understand if we are going to be effective in our evangelism and our apologetics.

—Chuck Colson, How Now Shall We Live

In reading this book, I expect the reader to learn three things. The first is that people actually can believe the Bible—starting with Genesis. The second is why it is important to believe the Bible—starting with Genesis. The third is what you can do, and what the church needs to do.

For all of you asking, Could God have used evolution? or What difference does the age of the earth make? you have to realize that the idea of the earth being billions of years old and the General Theory of Evolution do not match with a plain reading of the Bible. So what do you do with this disparity?

One choice is to just ignore the disparity, to compartmentalize your thinking. You can believe science and religion are two different things.

A second choice is to accept the claim that the first eleven chapters of Genesis are just allegory. The Bible is not to be read as history but is just trying to teach us truths in the same way that Jesus used parables or Shakespeare wrote plays. Some professing Christians who believe this will even accept the General Theory of Evolution and believe that God used evolution. I know a nun that believes this.

A third choice is to compromise the Bible to make the Bible fit the science. Some people accept the idea that the earth is billions of years old, but they do not accept the General Theory of Evolution. These old earth creationists use the day age theory or the gap theory to try to make the biblical timeline fit. Many great theologians have accepted the claim that the earth is billions of years old. I fit into this category until I learned that I did not have to.

Why Should I Believe? will discuss all of these, and a fourth alternative—to actually believe the Bible the way it reads. But people do not know that this is an option. The secular world has hammered into people that this is not an option. But in many cases, churches and seminaries have also taught people that this is not an option. Many more churches have just not addressed this issue. In Why Should I Believe? I discuss how I came to accept this fourth option.

This is my story about how I grew up as a Christian but had questions and even insecurities because I knew that what I read in the Bible was inconsistent with what I was reading in textbooks, encyclopedias, and magazines and seeing in television documentaries and movies. Remember The Incredible Mr. Limpet?

It was when I was in my middle forties that I really began investigating this. I learned that there was a whole other side that was never presented to me. I really did not need to accept the science that contradicted the Bible. I could believe the Bible without having to do mental gymnastics.

Learning this, I felt a great weight come off of me. I wanted to share this with other people. I wanted to share this with my fellow Christians. But much to my dismay, I found very little support within the Christian community. I was convinced that the people in the pews would love to hear this message that they could believe the Bible, as I did. But I could not get past all of the pastors and church leaders. I would expect the Eugenie Scotts and the Michael Shermers to do everything they can do to muzzle people like me. But the church leaders being part of the problem was very difficult for me to deal with.

This book is autobiographical. I document my struggles. But in doing so, I integrate some of the major issues in the Darwin/creation debate. This is because I had to address these issues, and I know readers of this book also have to address these issues. In addressing these issues, I use arguments and language that even I can understand, so the average reader should also be able to understand. I have found that when I can put an argument in my own terms, whether it is from the materialist/Darwinist point of view or the Bible-believing creationist point of view, that is when I really understand the argument. I am not merely parroting arguments.

A large portion of this book is e-mails to the San Antonio Baptist Association, the Texas Baptists, and even the Southern Baptist Convention, as well as other churches and organizations. These e-mails document the extensive efforts that I have made to reach out to churches and organizations, without avail. I have also included narratives of my church experiences. In doing so, I may come across as being critical of all of these churches and organizations. One may ask why I would do this publicly.

One reason is that these e-mails and narratives contain arguments as to why this issue is important. I hope to convince the reader that this is an issue that they need to care about, just as I was trying to convince church leaders—only to find out that they were not open.

Also, if you do what you have always done, you will get what you have always gotten. That includes me and the ministries and other organizations that I have been trying to communicate with. If I just keep contacting them directly, I should expect the same results, which is very little to show for my efforts.

Additionally, I am attempting to reach a wider audience. If by some miracle I did start getting more speaking engagements, I am still just one person and the San Antonio Bible Based Science Association (SABBSA) is just one biblical creation organization. There are numerous creation organizations out there having the same frustrations that we are having at the SABBSA. I want biblical creation organizations all over to have more opportunities to get the message out that people can believe the Bible.

And if these churches and organizations that I have been trying to communicate with keep doing what they are doing, this country will continue to go down the drain and we will continue to lose people. I gave a presentation at the San Antonio Pregnancy Care Center in 2012, connecting Darwinism to eugenics, abortion, same-sex marriage, and the breakdown of the family. At that time, six states had same-sex marriage. As of the writing of this book, seventeen states have same-sex marriage. So I am hoping that you, the person reading this book, can draw attention to this issue in whatever church or organization you are a part of.

Terminology

In a lecture titled the Intelligent Design and Creationism/Evolution Controversy, given at the University of Michigan on January 25, 2006, Eugenie Scott of the National Center for Science Education stated the following:

I do have to talk about Darwinism, though, actually, if you don’t mind.

Then Eugenie Scott goes on to rail about the use of the terms Darwinism and Darwinists. Her statement includes the following:

And ideologies of course are bad. Ideologies, ideologies should have no part of science. And ‘isms’ are ideologies.

Now what is the title of her book? Evolution vs. Creationism. And if you go to the website of the National Center for Science Education, you see the same terminology. And the