8 - What on Earth is God Doing?

Documents related to Dr. Austin's presentation are available here. Due to copyright issues, some of the documents provided by Dr. Austin have been removed from the website. For access to these resources, please e-mail staff@deanbibleministries.org

The father of modern dispensationalism came on the scene of history at a salutary moment, and he read his Bible with rare devotional abandon just prior to and throughout a lifetime of writing. His vast and challenging written record presents volumes of meticulous theological correspondence, popular tract- and pamphlet-writing, and a body of argumentative discourse that would leave little doubt as to his opinion on theological matters from Greek grammatical structures in the New Testament to the application of biblical principles in 19th Century British political life. From this record one can distill a rigorous and thoroughly detailed system of theology, though the desirable task of cataloging and prioritizing said systematic theology was sadly one accomplishment Darby never undertook. Darby would probably remark that the Bible has its own system, and therefore the closest thing we have to his systematic theology is his Synopsis of the Books of the Bible. This magnum opus, originally published in French, took him the better part of twenty years to complete, and in five volumes it presents a system that must be derived inductively. Darby’s priority of the Bible—illuminated to the believer by the Holy Spirit—over human reasoning was his constant appeal.

I spent 37 years in ministry as a pastor here in the US. In 2010 my wife Pat and I moved to Liberia, West Africa where we served for five years with SIM, Serving in Missions (formerly Sudan Interior Missions). I have spent countless hours interacting with Africans and learning about their culture and their traditional beliefs. As we returned to the US in June of 2015 I was surprised to see many of the aspects of African Tribal Religion (ATR) finding their way into the American culture and in the American church. Illustrations of ATR Influence on our Culture: We can see the influence of African Tribalism in much of the American culture. Fashion, hair styles, body piercing and scaring, tattoos, ear plugs, and music. This is the invasion of an eastern world view on our western culture.

Faced with a culture empowered by over a hundred years of secular education that has systematically excluded the Bible from any serious consideration, Christians educated within this system must make a conscious effort to view reality, not through the eyes of classical paganism or the collapsing Enlightenment, but through the Word of God. Using the methodology of the Bible Framework this paper presents a critical look at the climate crisis agenda being put forward by the educational, media, and political elite. This crisis agenda provides an excellent training opportunity because it involves a revival of ancient pagan themes in science, the educational establishment, business, and politics. Sadly, it demonstrates how those themes are corrupting the scientific method that has contributed so much to the prosperity of Western civilization, founded as it was on several basic biblical principles.

Most world almanacs list 193 independent countries in the world. Linguist John Oller Jr. claims that there are 6912 distinct languages with 94 different language families in the world today. Where did all these nations and these many languages come from? The answer to this question is unknown to the secular world. Their best explanation is that all these must have come as a result of many years of evolutionary development. But the best answer is given to us by revelation, the account of Babel in Genesis 11. The secular world does not view the account of the Tower of Babel as historical. Even most believers do not consider Babel as important as other major events, particularly in the book of Genesis. However, like the Flood and the Fall of mankind, the impact of Babel continues to influence our world even today. In fact, Babel has far-reaching implications. Babel explains the origin of national entities as well as our struggles to communicate with those from other cultures. I am reminded of this each year that I go to Ukraine to teach. Without a translator, I am close to useless there.

Documents related to Dr. Austin's presentation are available here. Due to copyright issues, some of the documents provided by Dr. Austin have been removed from the website. For access to these resources, please e-mail staff@deanbibleministries.org If you're interested in purchasing Dr. Austin's video on Mt. St. Helens, visit http://creationadventures.com/store/

At last - Dr. Baker's slides have been updated to full-frame slides. The application he used for his presentation is called Timeline 3D, used in conjunction with Keynote, which is available on Mac platforms only. The video Dr. Baker showed is available at http://www.mapsofwar.com.

Taken from the book by John Miller and John Soden

Documents related to Dr. Austin's presentation are available here.