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Vol. I • 1978       http://www.creationism.org/csshs/v01n1p01.htm

 
EDITORIAL

Dear Readers,

Several months ago one of my colleagues sent a student to me. It seems that the young woman's Christian faith was being shaken by some of the ideas regarding evolution that were being taught in one of her classes. The professor, though a non-believer and very much committed to the theory of evolution, was nevertheless sympathetic to the girl's suffering and so brought her to speak with me. I did speak with her briefly, and later she enrolled in one of my university classes. It turned out that her grandfather had also been a committed Christian and had once even authored a poem regarding the creation/evolution controversy. (This poem appears on page 29.) It was a great joy to me to have a part in supporting the young student's confidence in the wisdom of her grandfather and also be an instrument in upholding her faith at a crucial juncture in her Christian walk. Praise be to God for such opportunities.

The commencement of the Creation Social Science and Humanities Quarterly marks the opening of another front in what Harold Lindsell has rightly called, The Battle For the Bible. Our intention is best stated in II Corinthians 10:3-5;

For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: (For
the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God
to the pulling down of strong holds;) Casting down imaginations,
and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of
God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of
Christ.
As we begin this effort the incident with the young student speaks to my heart in a number of ways. It speaks to me in answering the question of why we seek to destroy the "high imagination" of evolution. First, of course, we seek to glorify Christ. But also we seek to minister to the saints. We hope to do this in the sense of protecting the true faith of saints, past, present and future.

We also hope to play a role in the Great Commission to share the Gospel with a lost world. I was and still am touched by the compassion of the evolutionist professor. He certainly did not have to bring the young student to me. Nevertheless he saw fit to do so. Let us pray that God will teach us ways to communicate the Gospel in power to such individuals.

With these general considerations in mind I would speak to the specifics of the journal's mission as follows; As I now envision the scope of the CSSHS Quarterly, it would focus on the relationships of the most general of Biblical creation aspects to various problems in the social sciences and humanities. For example, we would emphasize the fact of Divine creation rather than the Scriptural details regarding it, or the Fall in general, rather than details of its occurrence. As stated earlier, we pray that the Quarterly will be a missionary outreach to intellectual non-believers. We hope to communicate the Gospel to them in their own language. But we seek to do this not so much by speaking to them directly, but by speaking to you brothers and sisters in Christ within their hearing. We want to let them eavesdrop on our discussions so to speak.

For this reason I believe it is important that we avoid fine topics of theological debate. Our non-believing intellectual friends will have plenty of time to consider these issues once they are brought into Christ's body. We also wish to avoid inflammatory rhetoric as much as possible. (A missionary does not start out by insulting the people he is coming to.) Finally, we want to try and observe, in so far as is right, the norms and practices of the academic community we are trying to reach. (For example. one principal norm in current academic writing is always to understate your case. You don't say. "Two plus two is four," but rather, "Mathematicians are increasingly confident that two plus two is four.")

In closing I want to pray to our Lord that He will cause this journal to help believers be more confident in the intellectual profundity of the faith and be better able to articulate an academically sound defense of the faith. By His grace may we help our Christian readers be able to more effectively communicate the Gospel of Christ in love to this generation. We hope to publish articles that are firm but gentle, intellectually solid but easy to understand. God grant that it may be so.

Yours in Christ,
Paul D. Ackerman
Editor
 

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