Bringing the God of History and Science to the Philippines

Photo courtesy Jerry Layton

Dr. Jerry Layton says that when Filipino students hear his message on creation, their tears and intense silence at the end are evidence of their inward conviction of sin. They welcome the closing “sinner’s prayer” as an opportunity to get things right with the Creator who will someday judge them. (Click to enlarge)

Since that encounter in 1999, Dr. Layton and his wife have taken their 2-hour creation science presentations into more than 230 universities and public schools in the Philippines. Using material from Answers in Genesis and the Institute for Creation Research, they pre-sent creation as a welcome alternative to evolution. More than 60,000 students and educators have willingly heard the message so far.

After their presentation, the Laytons frequently hear comments like, “We’ve never heard these things before!” The Filipinos’ educational program makes little mention of the creation/evolution debate, and evolution was only recently added to the curriculum. Since Filipinos consider their country a Christian nation, Layton says that Bible teaching applied to science, history, and values education is mostly well-accepted in public education, even coming from a preacher and church planter. So far, more than 13,000 have made decisions for Christ.

In July 2005 the Laytons trained their first group of Filipino creation speakers. They now give seminars all over the Philippines. These seminars show the weakness of evolution and present creation as a better explanation of origins.

The Laytons will expand into other Asian countries next year, training nationals as well as other missionaries. Layton says that, among educators outside the United States, there is a growing openness to the convincing evidence that refutes evolution theory.