Viewpoint of Mark Cadwallader, Creation Moments Board Chairman
The “Desert Father” Abba Anthony (251-356 AD) said, “A time is coming when men will go mad [crazy], and when they see someone who is not mad they will attack him saying, ‘You are mad, you are not like us.’”
Certainly the world seems to have become increasingly crazy these days. As creationists, we have been attacked and treated as kooks for years. Yet, we are not the ones who are “mad”. Public institutions of learning have been ridding themselves of the knowledge of God for years, embracing foolishness in doing so (Psalm 14:1) and appealing to evolutionism to justify godlessness.
The world is caught up in “cunningly devised fables” (2 Peter 1:16) and “foolishness” masquerading as “wisdom” (Romans 1:22). It is difficult to get clarity when the world, the flesh and the devil fight us every single day! That’s why it’s so important to stick to God’s Word – the “lamp” unto our feet and the “light” unto our path (Psalm 119:105).
So what else do we do in an age gone mad? One of my favorite scriptures has this guidance for staying in the will of God: “Rejoice evermore, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you” (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18). In spite of all the tribulation and in spite of all the craziness, we can “rejoice”, and we can “give thanks” in everything! We have the Savior! We have the love! We have the victory!
No one can deny that “the end of all things” is closer than ever. Change is accelerating like never before. The Bible tells us: “The end of all things is at hand: therefore be of sound judgment and sober spirit for the purpose of prayer” (1 Peter 4:7). Indeed, one of our great purposes here is prayer. We might think it is all about argument and effort. But the real power in moving hearts and minds – and displacing evil spirits with the Spirit of God – lies in prayer!
We are in a spiritual battle. As Martin Luther taught in his hymn “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God”, we are up against tremendous evil. It’s important to know that. Luther wrote this powerful instructional hymn for the illiterate peasants of his day in the year 1528.
From the very first verse, Luther teaches about the devil: “…For still our ancient foe, doth seek to work us woe; his craft and power are great and armed with cruel hate, on earth is not his equal.” And in the third verse, he teaches further about our war against spiritual evil: “And tho this world with devils filled should threaten to undo us, we will not fear for God hath willed His truth to triumph through us. The prince of darkness grim, we tremble not for him; his rage we can endure for lo his doom is sure. One little word shall fell him.”
That “little word”, the key to defeating evil, is Jesus – the name that is above every other name, to which every knee shall bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth! In His name, we can slay the “devils” that fill this world, the spirits that plague us and make people “mad” – of hatred and envy and bitterness and anger and rejection and guilt and shame and fear. We can call them out, and tell them off!
Luther wrote his great hymn of the faith many years before the historical period known as the Enlightenment, also known as the Age of Reason. It was a period of atheist/agnostic ascendency and of rationalizing. It led in part to denials by modern Christians of supernatural spiritual reality and later to church compromise with evolution. But the fact is, as Luther teaches, we are in a wrestling match with spiritual evil, as the Bible famously says in Ephesians 6:10-18.
My own testimony about the supernatural power of prayer which led me to eventually work with Creation Moments comes to mind. Out of college, I was working as a chemist in a research lab. I had been a Christian for a little over a year. I was at my desk on lunch hour in the lab, reading a National Geographic magazine about the universe and the millions and billions of years for everything. I became terribly bothered by the thought: How could the Bible be true? I’d had the joy of my newfound faith, but I was at another crossroads. The Bible did not fit with “science” – and I knew science to be pretty exact and powerful.
I descended into an anguished state of mind and didn’t know where to turn. I knew of no books or ministry, and it was before the Internet went public. I cried out to God for Him to show me how to believe! It was then that I remembered that a Bible teacher had a radio program at 12:15 pm which I sometimes listened to, and I went to my truck and sat in the cab and listened to his 15-minute program. His topic for the day was faith. Faith comes before understanding, he said, and that’s how it is and must be with the Lord. For example, “I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living” (Psalm 27:13). Or, “Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God…” (Hebrews 11:3). You see from the Scripture that faith comes first, and understanding or sight follows. We can’t understand everything about God, and that’s why we must come to Him in faith. But if we need or want understanding, we can ask, and He will reveal a satisfactory answer to us in time.
Listening to the teaching, I felt a wonderful sense of peace come over me, and I knew God had answered my anguished prayer! I still had the questions, but I believed that I would see the answer in God’s time. Sure enough, several months later, out of the blue, a Bible-Science Newsletter showed up in the mail on the doorstep of my garage apartment! I had no idea how and why it came. I suspected it might have been sent to a previous renter of the apartment. I had never even heard of the group. But I devoured the material, joined the Bible-Science Association – which later changed its name to Creation Moments! – and ordered some books. My questions and need for understanding were beginning to be filled! This became a great joy and spurred me on to further Bible study.
So let me ask again as we close: What do we do in an age gone mad? We continue in His Word. We keep Him as our “first love” (Revelation 2:4). We obey the promptings of His Spirit to reach out to our fellow man, working and giving to shine the light of grace and truth through Jesus Christ! And we pray! We displace evil spirits of “madness” through the Spirit of God, in Jesus’ name.
Thank you for standing with us as we teach Bible truth and to a world gone mad! God bless you. It is a joy and a blessing to labor with you at this time in history!
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