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Volume 1, Issue 3
| August 21, 2011 |
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And welcome everyone who as much as glances at these newsletters. You range from ordinary believers unaccustomed to seeing the Scriptures applied to historical questions to erudite scholars of no particular faith. Most of you are Christian but some are of other faiths or have no particular religious attachment. I trust that what all have in common is a love for truth. Loving truth means addressing the toughest questions, not just from the Bible but also from history and science! It means quickly acknowledging the things that we don't know, speaking from the heart, and respecting every sincere question. I have more to say about the scientific and biblical ways of determining truth in Chapter 39 of the Archaeological Evidence. Whatever any of you might want to say or ask, I would love to hear from you.
This newsletter differs from the Creationist literature to which some of you are accustomed. Our focus is not the creation chapters of Genesis, but the accounts of Noah's Ark, the Flood, and the beginnings of the world's nations. Here is where the Bible should be able to connect to archaeology, history, and the world's languages. In current Creationist science, the Flood of Genesis serves chiefly as a way of explaining why the days of Creation were of 24-hour duration. For them, Noah's Flood is not studied as an historical event. In this week's article "Christians & scholarship!" I explain why current Creationist science cannot connect the Bible either to archaeology or history.
A few of you are Ark enthusiasts. You have long been following the searches for Noah's Ark and you well understand how NAMI's discovery differs from all other claims. You are frustrated as to why even Creationist organizations are standing back from this discovery. Some of you have championed other claims such as the Durupinar site. It is not far from this new discovery. Could Durupinar have been the dry dock where Noah constructed the Ark? Is Durupinar to NAMI's discovery as Qumran to the Dead Sea Scrolls? It is just a theory for the archaeologists to decide. More on the other claims, in "Every year, doesn't someone find Noah's Ark?"
Many of us want answers for troubling issues of faith. That is what scholars refer to as apologetics. For those unfamiliar with the term, it does not refer to "apologizing," but answering accusations or troubling questions about the Bible or faith. As explained at right, some of those interested in NAMI's discovery have pioneered a recent renaissance in biblical apologetics. But what we are doing here is not classical apologetics. We are getting answers to questions that everyone should have whether or not one is a believer. It is more like biblical archaeology, but here we are not ashamed to use the Bible as a helping light. As I explain in Chapter 13 of The Archaeological Evidence, an important test of a light is in how much it helps us see.
Regards to all,
Philip Williams
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New recipients
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Give trailer time to download
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Documentary about NAMI's discovery
Responses and clarifications
Last week, I was looking forward to the reaction of those watching this documentary premier. I will have more, but some may be interested in a review by the Australian newspaper Eternity.
Last week, I also noted that Alex McFarland, who appears in the trailer for NAMI's documentary, as pioneering the National Conference on Christian Apologetics. The Academic Dean at Southern Evangelical Seminary, Dr. Wayne Detzler informs me that his school's apologetics conference was founded by Dr. Norman Geisler.
I have learned that in separate ways and by working together, all these have pioneered the current renaissance in Christian Apologetics. But Dr. Detzler's note prompts me to devote this issue to the history of faith and truth. |
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Christians & scholarship!
Long the world's teachers in scholarship and science, the eclipse of Christian intellectual leadership is tied to the issue of Noah's Flood
 | Britain's Venerable Bede (keeping alive learning in the West during the Dark Ages) |
From the time of Justin Martyr (early second century), intellectuals were among the first attracted to the Christian faith. Having founded and led almost all the world's schools and universities, Christianity's dominance in learning continued until the nineteenth century with the rise of what was coming to be known as scientific scholarship. Scientists have now replaced Christian ministers as the Western world's recognized authorities for matters of truth.
What enabled this change was the fact that science itself sprung from within the faith, specifically in Protestant countries intent on championing the Bible and science against what they saw as Catholic superstition and darkness. The Fundamentalist controversy arose early in the twentieth century when Protestants at last recognized the growing conflict between science and the Bible.
The shift was not as many believe today due to Darwin, but his mentor, Charles Lyell. With Lyell, science came into popular use as a type of understanding that deliberately avoids theology. More important, Lyell's re-interprtation of diluvian (from the Flood!) remains as a long era in the history of early man became the foundation of the scientific history of man. These water-laid remains would soon be interpreted as a frozen Flood - the Ice Age, something that Lyell and Darwin themselves rejected in favor of tidal waves as the cause of these remains. Notwithstanding his misgivings, Lyell's artificial divisions of these deposits continue to inform the modern understanding of early man.
Then came the Scopes trial. The only scientific explanation that William Jennings Bryan could offer for Genesis was the Flood geology recently invented by George McCready Price. Astonishingly, Price embraced the Ice Age. The Adventist scientist needed the Flood to explain the deeper deposits of organic remains in an earth created in six 24-hour days. He had to treat what was formerly understood as diluvian remains to the period after the Flood. That created problems still with us today: where are the remains of those who perished in the Flood, and how do we connect the Bible to the early remains of man? Read more.
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Every year, doesn't someone find Noah's Ark?
What's different about this discovery?
So asked an old acquaintance just after I answered her question about what I was doing. Most of us have the same reaction. We have long heard reports about satellite photographs and rock formations that seem to have the shape of Noah's Ark. In earlier days, we heard about wood pieces found above the tree line on Mt. Ararat. More interesting were the reports of some who claimed to have visited the site of the Ark, but could not tell us just where on that mountain those remains were to be found. So, what is different about NAMI's announcement.

The short answer is that no one needs imaginative help to understand that the evidence NAMI has given looks as if it may have been the Ark. The more we see of it, the more sophisticated and the more like the biblical description of Noah's Ark it appears than anything we might have imagined. More astonishing is that, unlike the reports of recent years where an actual site has been identified, this one is so very high on the mountain - the only mountain in the world matching the biblical account of Noah's Ark. There are deeper and scientific reasons for trusting this report as outlined in the Epilogue of my recent book.
Download book's Epilogue, Discovery on Mount Ararat
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About Us
Christian Leaders & Scholars is the newsletter and publication site of Philip Ernest Williams, author of The Archaeological Evidence of Noah's Flood (2011). The site is also a ministry not only to Christian leaders and scholars but all who are interested in the more difficult issues pertaining to the Bible and its implications for science and history. (Read more) |
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