On Mon, 18 Dec 1995 20:32:57 -0600 (CST) you wrote:
DD>I would be interested in the responses of those on either side of
the >PC/TE debate to the following question:
>
>What are the apologetic merits of your position over the other; i.e.,
>what in your position would compel an unbeliever to believe in an
>intelligent Creator?
Firstly, nothing but the Holy Spirit can "compel" an unbeliever to
become a believer. And Arminians would even deny that! :-)
Secondly, "apologetics" is not necessarily about winning unbelievers
to Christ. That is more the function of evangelism, although there
is some overlap. Apologetics comes from the Gk apologia which is
a legal term meaning "a defence", or "answer", eg. 1Pet 3:15
"...Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to
give the reason for the hope that you have"; 1Cor 9:3 "This is my
defense to those who sit in judgment on me".
The debate between TE and PC is an internal "lovers' quarrel" between
those who already believe in "an intelligent Creator".
Externally, apart from the fact that I believe it is true, IMHO PC
(and YEC for that matter) has more chance of challenging an
unbeliever's evolutionary views, because it emphasises a Creator-God
who intervenes in human and biological history. TE IMHO represents
little or no challenge to an evolutionists existing view that natural
processes were suffient to explain the origin of living things.
But in seeking to win an unbelieving evolutionist to Christ, I would
not necessarily challenge his evolutionism at first. Recently I met
in Church a 70 year old man named John who had a degrees in geology
and philosophy. His soul-winning daughter-in-law Jenny (who strangely
enough was instrumental in my conversion 30 years previously) was
trying to convince him of the error of his ways by plying him with ICR
books and tapes.
I explained to her that as a former professional geologist, her
father-in-law would find it almost impossible to believe the world was
10,000 years old, even if it was.
I loaned John PC Hugh Ross' book "Creation and Time", which deals with
the issue of the lenght of the creation days in Gn 1. He returned it
to me 3 weeks later, saying he had made copious notes and that it had
answered many of his questions. A few weeks later he made a profession
of faith and is now a Christian.
There are many testimonies in Hugh Ross' journal Facts and Faith as
to the life-changing abiity of PC. Indeed there are similar examples
from the YEC's ministries (Glenn is one example). But I am not aware
of any significant number of unbelievers being converted to
Christianity through TE.
Happy New Year!
Stephen
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