(Image: Greg Leblanc Toyota) Toyota is going to dismantle and study this 2007 Tundra pickup truck, which single-owner Victor Sheppard put over a million miles on in less. This hotel bar is full of people, The piano man is really laying it down, The old bartender is as high as a steeple, So why tonight should I wear a frown?

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A statement concerning the ministry of
Dr. Hugh Ross
by Borton Davidheiser: Ph.D., Zoology

Publisher's Note

September, 1993.

Dear Friend:

Greetings in the Lord.

We are pleased to print Dr. Davidheiser's booklet entitled 'A STATEMENT CONCERNING THE MINISTRY OF DR. HUGH ROSS.' This is an honest assessment of Dr. Hugh Ross. Dr. Ross is a fine Christian. However, his views on the Bible and science need to be evaluated and exposed. Dr. Davidheiser did just that.

We believe that this book will enlighten this generation concerning the ministry of Dr. Hugh Ross. Dr. Davidheiser have studied most of Dr. Hugh Ross's materials and tapes and found that Christians need to know the exact position of Dr. Hugh Ross. Dr. Davidheiser wrote: 'I have no desire to hurt him personally, and doing so is the one thing that makes me somewhat reluctant, but it seems definitely much more important to warn potential pastors who would have him at their churches.'

In fact, Dr. Davidheiser sent a copy of the draft of this booklet to Dr. Hugh Ross for comments. Dr. Davidheiser said that 'I think that the honorable thing to do is to send it first to Dr. Ross to ask if he finds any errors of fact on my part. I sent him a copy of the first edition and he had found no fault. He seems to think people criticize him because they do not know what a fine person he is and would not criticize him if they know him personally....'

Christians have to be informed about the exact position which Dr. Ross takes. This is the only reason why you should read Dr. Davidheiser's paper on 'A STATEMENT CONCERNING THE MINISTRY OF DR. HUGH ROSS.'

If you have any comments or reviews of the booklet, we would be happy to hear from you. Please write to us.

With God's Blessings,

Chris Chui, Ph. D.

A Statement Concerning The Ministry Of Dr. Hugh Ross

Bolton Davidheiser: Ph.D., Zoology

When writing or speaking in defense of the Bible, several things should be kept in mind. Honesty is imperative, and gives us the advantage, for as John the disciple said, 'Thy word is truth' (John 17:17). False information or inaccurate statements may impress the naive, but sooner or later someone will recognize them for what they are. The main damage in this is that it will further antagonize knowledgeable unbelievers and it becomes more difficult to reach them. Presentations should be well researched to eliminate error, but all of us are fallible, and when we make a mistake we should be ready to admit it.

Dr. Hugh Ross has a worldwide ministry. His mission is to affirm the scientific accuracy of the Bible. He has a large following of enthusiastic believers who are impressed with his personal testimony and his scientific information.

He is a 'Big Bang' enthusiast. In fact, he is so strongly attached to this theory that if it is ever replaced by another, such as the plasma theory presently accepted by a minority of scientists, it will be embarrassing to his ministry.

To those who do not know what the Big Bang is, it is the theory that at some time in the past, now generally believed to have been about fifteen to twenty billion years ago, all the matter in the universe was concentrated into a single mass, which exploded with a 'big bang.'

The idea began with a Belgian astronomer, Georges Edward Lemaitre. According to Isaac Asimov, Lemaitre conceived this mass to be 'no

more than a few light-years in diameter.' At the very least, that would be two light-years or about twelve trillion miles. By 1965 that figure was reduced to 275 million miles, by 1972 to 71 million miles, by 1974 to 54 thousand miles, by 1983 to 'a trillionth the diameter of a proton,' and now, to nothing at all! A singularity! It exploded, producing hydrogen and helium and perhaps some lithium. Time became the hero and multiple billions of years later it had produced everything in the universe, including Lewis Carroll's famous 'shoes and ships and sealing wax and cabbages and kings.'

Two aspects of this theory have made it attractive to some religious leaders and their followers. First, it resembles the Bible in having matter come into existence at a certain definite time instead of existing eternally in the past. Second, it proposes matter coming into existence from nothing. However, the multiple billions of years involved are not in accord with Biblical chronology and the manner of development of galaxies, stars, planets, etc., is through natural forces instead of by divine fiat.

YOUNG EARTH VERSUS OLD EARTH

Dr. Ross published a statement which sounds very good, 'We affirm that Genesis [chapters] 1-11 is factual, as is the rest of the book. We deny that the teachings of Genesis 1-11 are mythical and that scientific hypotheses about earth history or the origin of humanity may be invoked to overthrow what Scripture teaches about creation.' But there is an inconsistency between a multiple billion year old earth and a Biblically recorded time of only 1656 years from the creation of Adam, the first man, to the flood. Anyone can figure out this interval of time in a few minutes from Genesis 5 and 7:6. The record is presented as a straightforward father-to- son genealogy with no gaps, but even if there were gaps the calculation would remain valid because time is given from the birth of one person to the birth of the next one mentioned.

Dr. Ross told me the solution is that some scholars interpret Hebrew cardinal numbers differently than other scholars do. I asked what Hebrew scholar I might consult for confirmation of this. He named one, a Hebrew scholar whom he quotes in his book The Fingerprint of God to uphold the idea that the days of creation were longer than twenty-four hours. I wrote to him about the matter, enclosing return postage, but received no reply. However, a difference of opinion about the interpretation of these numbers should not be so great as to make a significant difference between Biblical chronology and the much greater scientific time.

As a Big Bang enthusiast, Dr. Ross needs lots of time for the formation of the world and its contents. Naturally, he considers the days of creation to be long ages. As is to be expected, and as is common practice among those who espouse long ages of cosmic and geologic time, he brings up the matter of the Hebrew word yom, used for 'day' in the creation account of the opening chapter of Genesis. As in our language, this word can refer to a day of twenty-four hours or it may represent a long period of time, as 'In the day of Charles Darwin.' The question is: What does it mean in the account of creation? A common procedure in such cases is to refer to authorities for an answer.

Dr. John R. Howitt, a personal friend of mine, now deceased, wrote a pocket-sized booklet of nearly a hundred pages with 230 references to works of science, which he titled Evolution, 'Science Falsely So-Called' He wrote anonymously because he believed he would lose his job if it became known that he was the author. Dr. Howitt wrote to appropriate professors in nine leading universities, asking, 'Do you consider that the Hebrew word yom (day), as used in Genesis 1, accompanied by a numeral should properly be translated as (a) a day as commonly understood, ((b)) an age, (c) either a day or an age without preference?' Oxford and Cambridge did not reply but the professors at Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Toronto, London, McGill, and Manitoba replied unanimously that it should be translated as a day as commonly understood. Professor Robert H. Pfeiffer of Harvard added, 'of t

A Million Miles Away Ross