A Trickle-Down Approach

For years, creationists have been quietly talking to friends and fellow church members at a grassroots level, convincing them to trust the Bible’s account of creation and the global Flood. Word is spreading across the globe.

New initiatives are sprouting to influence pastors, teachers, and seminary professors—creating a trickle-down effect. Four years ago, Terry Mortenson, a researcher with Answers in Genesis, and Tom Vail, a professional raft guide and founder of Canyon Ministries, came up with a unique plan. They wanted to offer scholarships so Christian scholars and leaders could study young-earth creation in the largest schoolhouse of all: Grand Canyon.

Christian scholars and leaders study young-earth creation in the largest schoolhouse of them all: Grand Canyon.

Last summer, twenty-four leaders and scholars accepted an invitation to the second “scholars-only” rafting adventure. They joined Mortenson, Vail, geologist Andrew Snelling, and Old Testament scholar Bill Barrick on a 185-mile (298-km) raft trip through Grand Canyon, viewing the geological evidence firsthand and hearing how it makes sense within a biblical interpretation.

In most cases, the goal is to challenge scholars and leaders to think more seriously about the theological importance of the creation issue. One man said he was now persuaded of the Bible’s young-earth teaching—and its ramifications for the gospel. Another self-professed “agnostic on the age of the earth” acknowledged, “This trip convinced me that there is much for me to study and think through. You gave me an opportunity of a lifetime to see God’s glory in nature in a way I have never seen it before.”

Please pray for 2010’s summer trip, as invitations go out and the trickle continues.