This spring I had the wonderful opportunity to speak many times about Genesis and creation in Poland, Moldova, Russia, and Hungary. My last lectures were at what most would describe as a Bible-believing church in Hungary.
The organizer of the meeting warned me that his brother-in-law was coming but would be quite opposed to my message. Although this man says he believes the Bible, his academic training in evolutionary geology had convinced him that billions of years of evolution is a fact and that young-Earth creationists were causing great damage in the church.
The meeting went well. But this geologist in the audience was obviously quite upset. At the end, he told the people that he is a real geologist who studies rocks and fossils—not just books—and that he knows that there are many transitional fossil forms proving evolution (though he named no specific examples). He implied that creationists do not do real science.
Also at this outreach was an Old Testament professor, who said that we must realize that Genesis is a theological story, not history. Others in the audience raised questions about the length of the Creation days and radiometric dating. But others expressed appreciation that I had opened their eyes.
I was able to recommend some creationist books at my book table. Unfortunately the book table had only one book in Hungarian—the others were in English, and so most of the people could not read them. However, I was able to give two technical creationist geology books to the geologist.
This meeting highlighted what I have experienced for many years all over Eastern Europe and Russia. Most Christians have never thought much about Genesis and have no access to the evidence against billions of years of evolution—and don’t know the implications to church and society. It’s simply because there is very little available in their language.
Some believers are young-Earth creationists but they cannot defend their position. Many are actually theistic evolutionists. Others are not sure what they should believe and just want to “focus on Jesus” and ignore this important issue in order to maintain the “unity” of the church.
There is a desperate need for more literature and videos to be translated and distributed in Eastern European countries to build up Christians in their faith and to help them witness more effectively in these former anti-God communist countries. Only then will Christians in this part of the world have confidence in the authoritative teaching of Genesis 1-11 in the face of the brain-washing of evolution -and be more effective in “creation evangelism.” Will you pray that God will guide in the translation of the right materials, and will you consider what part God wants you to play to make it happen? If you are proficient in other languages and would like to see if you can help in the translations process, please contact our translations coordinator. To see a list of our currently available translated materials, click here.
Answers in Genesis is an apologetics ministry, dedicated to helping Christians defend their faith and proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ.