Covenant Protestant Reformed Church
Ballymena
Rev. Angus Stewart
Lord’s Day, 3 June, 2007
"Among the gods there is none like unto thee, O Lord;
neither are there any works like unto thy works" (Ps. 86:8)
Morning Service - 11:00 AM
The City of God (4)
Numbering Zion’s Towers
Psalm 48:12-13
I. The Calling
II. The Purpose
III. The Encouragement
Psalms: 66:1-7; 89:1-6; 78:2-8; 48:7-14Evening Service - 6:00 PM
Our Divine Saviour
Heidelberg Catechism, Lord’s Day 6; Hebrews 1
I. His Deity
II. His Saving Work
Psalms: 107:1-9; 89:7-12; 102:19-28; 45:1-6
For audio cassettes of the worship services or CDs of the sermons, contact Sean Courtney (cprcaudiostore@yahoo.co.uk)
CPRC website: www.cprc.co.uk
Quotes to Consider:
John Owen on the church: "Let us be sure to be found within this garrison and place of defence, and certain that we have to do in the concerns of Zion, and not of the world; and then shall we see the mountains all full of chariots and horses of fire round about us,—Christ reigning, the promise of Christ engaged, and the watchful eye of God upon the church continually. Our fears arise from the want of considering these things, and taking a carnal view and measure of things that are seen" (Works, vol. 9, p. 319).
John Calvin: "In the whole world there is nothing enduring but the Church ... Her happiness must be considered as consisting principally in this, that she has reserved for her an everlasting state in heaven."
Announcements (subject to God’s will):
We rejoice with the Buchanan family in the birth of a baby boy yesterday afternoon. Beth and the baby are doing well.
We welcome Martyn McGeown back into our midst until about the middle of August.
The Standard Bearers are available and include an article entitled "Christian Gays Asserting Themselves" in the section "All Around Us."
The new Protestant Reformed Theological Journal on the back table is a special issue on God’s covenant with articles dealing with the covenant with Noah, the kingdom of God and the covenant, and covenant breaking, as well as excellent book reviews.
Some new CPRC brochures are available on the back table. Feel free to take some and pass them on to others.
Everyone is invited to Sean & Roni Courtney’s for tea and fellowship after the evening service.
The Council will meet tomorrow evening at 7:30 PM at the manse.
Membership Class: Tuesday, 7:50 PM at the Hallidays.
The Stewarts and Martyn McGeown plan to travel to S. Wales this Friday. Rev. Stewart will be giving a lecture entitled "The Psalms versus Common Grace."
The Reformed Witness Hour next Lord’s Day, 10 June (8:30-9:00 AM, on Gospel 846MW), is entitled "Daniel in Babylon" (Dan. 1:8). Rev. Bruinsma is the guest speaker this summer.
Last Week’s Offerings: General Fund - £574.00. Donations: £27.20.
Website: One German and three Portuguese translations have been added.
Advanced Notices: The CPRC plans to have a stall at the Clogher Valley & Antrim Agricultural Shows on Wed. 25 July and Sat. 28 July, respectively
PRC News: Rev. Slopsema declined the call to Peace PRC (Chicago, IL).
Creation Museum officially opens (by Ken Ham)
This is not just a historic event in America, but a historic event in Christendom. Over 1000 people attended, including numerous invited guests, local county and state government elected officials, representatives from the state and federal governments, and a phenomenal number of media groups from around the world. The event reminded me of the Scopes Trial of 1925, when media from around the world gathered to hear the Bible openly ridiculed in court. However, on May 26, media from around the world gathered for the opening of a one-of-a-kind facility that upholds the authority of God’s Word and defends the Christian faith against the onslaughts of secular humanism. Over 130 credentialed media applied to attend the ribbon cutting or the first day open to the public (May 28). While the ribbon-cutting ceremony was underway, an evolutionist group opposing AiG flew a banner saying "Defcon says thou shalt not lie." Many of the media reps chuckled when I said that the people responsible for this banner did not believe in the Bible as the absolute authority and didn’t believe in the God of the Bible and therefore had no basis for deciding right or wrong, and thus logically could not accuse us of a lie!
During the ceremony, I commented that the museum was a legacy, and I made special mention of a number of people throughout my talk in regard to the Creation Museum becoming a reality, acknowledging the contribution of the thousands of people involved. The audience then stood as I said that all praise and honor and glory and credit needs to go to the One who created the universe, then played a video, on which the names of God from the Bible were dramatically read. As some commented later, there was hardly a dry eye in the place. Don Landis then dedicated the museum in prayer, and Buddy played the song that we discussed 13 years ago he would sing on opening day—"He Makes Dreams out of Nothing." Then, with a pair of giant scissors, we cut the red ribbon.
A local secular humanist group, led by an ardent atheist, is going to be protesting the first open day. They are already setting up tents and a stage for a rock band outside the museum gates. This opposition hates the fact that the Creation Museum is showing the world that the Bible’s history is confirmed by real science—and that if the history is true (which it is), then the gospel based in that history is true.
The guests and even the secular media expressed praise for the professionalism and quality of the exhibits. Rejoice with us for this historic day and please continue to pray as many more media descend on the Creation Museum, which has created a buzz in the secular media (and Christian media) worldwide.
Here are just a couple of the recent media reports:
1) ASSOCIATED PRESS (AKRON BEACON JOURNAL)
(This article is appearing in many other news sources)
And what museum would be complete without fossils? Those dusty artifacts are also found here—hung in large glass cases in a room visitors spill into after taking a tour of Old Testament history. Ham says most fossils, like the ones stored in natural history museums around the world, were created by the massive flood detailed in the book of Genesis.
"The Bible doesn’t talk about fossils, but it gives you a basis for understanding why there are fossils around the world," he said.
Ham says the stories of the Bible are supported by science—a notion that has drawn the ire of science educators around the country.
"They make such a point of trying to make it appear scientific," said Lawrence Krauss, a physics professor, author and outspoken critic of the museum. "Instead of shying away from those things that clearly disprove what they’re trying to say, they use those things for deception."
Krauss, a professor at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, said the exhibits rival that of a "very fancy natural history museum," making them enticing to young visitors.
Fancy might best describe the facility’s multimedia rooms, where no expense is spared. After a stop at its digital planetarium, museum guides with olive-green vests steer visitors into a 200-seat special-effects theater with seats that quiver as the sound system rumbles. Up on the screen, two angelic characters proclaim to the audience that "God loves science!"
But the creation story found in Genesis is the centerpiece of the museum. Patrons walk through a lush recreation of the Garden of Eden, see life-sized models of Adam and Eve frolic and then get banished. Then it’s on to the era of the Great Flood, where animatronic workers are busy building Noah’s giant wooden ark, which rises two or three stories inside the museum.
2) EDUCATION WEEK
Creation Museum Draws Scientific Community’s Wrath
The museum has drawn objections from a coalition of scientists and organizations, including the Campaign to Defend the Constitution, or DEFCON, a Washington-based group that says it seeks to combat the political influence of religious conservatives. In a May 24 conference call with reporters, those opponents said the museum is presenting a distorted view of evolution and the earth’s history.
Eugenie C. Scott, the executive director of the National Center for Science Education, an Oakland, Calif.-based organization that supports the teaching of evolution, called the museum a "creationist’s Disneyland."
"I have trouble referring to this place as a ‘museum,’" Ms. Scott told reporters. She worries that science teachers who try to explain evolution to their students would soon be hearing from students, "‘I went to this fancy museum this summer, and you’re teaching us a lie.’"
Ms. Scott estimated that there are a "couple dozen" privately run museums around the country that present creationist views of human development in one way or another. She said the Petersburg museum, as a privately run facility, has a right to present exhibits from a religious point of view. But Ms. Scott and others said they have an obligation to explain why the museum’s displays are inaccurate from a scientific standpoint. DEFCON officials said they were arranging a protest at the museum on its opening day.
But Mr. Ham dismissed the critics’ complaints. He said the museum presents a view of evolution that the public has a right to hear. He also said the primary audience for the museum is the public at large, and not school-age children, specifically.
"What they’re really saying is that they don’t want to see Christianity legitimately defending itself, and using science to do it," Mr. Ham said of the museum’s critics. The museum’s opponents are "dogmatically asserting" their beliefs about evolution without respect for opposing views, he argued.
The critics "are the same people who say [society] should have tolerance for everything, but not when it comes to us," the museum’s founder added.