Intensive training in creation science can change your life. One of the most important experiences for June and me in our young married life happened in the summer of 1983 when we attended an intensive week of training in creation science at the ICR Summer Institute in El Cajon, California. We had anticipated that training time with ICR for weeks.
What made it all possible was that earlier in the spring I entered a special program with the U.S. Navy. I was put on active duty while in college in exchange for four years of service as an engineer. Having been conferred the rank of E-3, I suddenly became rich. My new E-3 salary was three times what I made at my work-study job. June and I could think of no better way to use our new bounty than to drive from the Black Hills to El Cajon and fulfill our long-held dream of going to the ICR campus for training.
It was a glorious week. Soon after arriving we met another couple with a passion for creation, Dave and Mary Jo Nutting. They went on to start Alpha Omega Institute and have been ministering creation truth—especially to college students—for decades. We were given a notebook full of the week’s lecture notes. We opened it and found this:
Congratulations! You are about to enter one of the most challenging and informative weeks of your life. This notebook has been prepared for your convenience as you attend this ICR SUMMER INSTITUTE ON SCIENTIFIC CREATIONISM and as a future reference work.
Obviously, I still have that reference notebook. But more importantly, it was a major event that equipped me for a valuable ministry. I have a working knowledge of creation science that I’ve used to minister to Christians in every church that I’ve attended and at every duty station I was assigned to since the Summer Institute.
Teaching the Fundamental Doctrine of Creation
I’m convinced that the doctrine of creation is the fundamental basis for the doctrine of God. Why? Because the Creator of all things is—by definition—God. I have a calling to exalt the Lord Jesus Christ as Creator. How? By giving Him the rightful credit He’s due for His incredible workmanship on clear display in the natural realm and by opposing selectionism’s personification of nature as an idolatrous substitute creator. Dedication to education in creation science is true for many long-time supporters of ICR who have a hard time thinking of a mission that could be more important than this.
When it comes to education in creation science, it has been a long time since ICR has offered a multi-day training seminar. However, if you think those days are long gone, please think again. Today, one of ICR’s sister ministries, the Creation Training Initiative (CTI), very likely has the preeminent training programs in the creation science community. In my estimation, no other training programs for Christian lay audiences come even close. CTI was started by Mr. Mike Riddle, who was a very popular speaker on ICR’s staff for many years. Together, our ministries think that believers these days should have the opportunity for the life-transforming training that Christians like me had from ICR in the 1980s.
ICR and CTI Train Christians to Support the Church
It’s a joy to let our readers know that for four days on June 8-11, 2021, ICR will both host and participate in an intensive training seminar at the ICR Discovery Center for Science & Earth History. This training seminar is a joint venture between CTI and ICR.
As I detailed in my February Acts & Facts article, ICR exists to support the local church.1 A church’s mission is accomplished through worship, edification (building up) of believers, and evangelism. Thus, ICR can wholeheartedly come alongside CTI, whose mission is:
To equip Christians worldwide to be effective teachers and speakers on the subjects of biblical creation and apologetics, so that, the next generation can be trained to stand firm on biblical truth and defend their faith. This mission is based on 2 Timothy 2:2 “And the things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.”2
The desired product or result of a fulfilled mission is usually spelled out in a vision statement. ICR is delighted to contribute our resources of research materials and creation scientists to help obtain the shared lofty vision of CTI, which is “to have a teacher in every Christian school and church who can teach biblical creation and apologetics.”2 We trust that many of our readers would enthusiastically agree.
What Attendees Will Learn
The Christian Educator’s Conference in June will be different from other ICR events. ICR scientists will contribute their technical expertise, but this seminar will not be a series of lectures in which every speaker is presenting their preferred talk. In this training seminar, the topics will build on each other to train attendees to teach creation science. We chose to work with Mr. Riddle because for over 35 years he’s been training teachers in creation apologetics.
At the end of the conference, attendees will know:
- What makes up the biblical worldview
- Critical thinking skills: how to ask a power question, how to identify fuzzy words and magic words, the application of critical thinking in biology
- Biblical apologetics: what the word apologetics means, Scripture and the use of apologetics, how the Lord Jesus and the apostle Paul used apologetics, the types of apologetics, answering biblical challenges
- Christian education: educating for success, the Sunday school program—what is a win?
- Basic foundations in science: the origin of life, the mechanisms for change, four things to know about dating rocks and fossils, examining the past—the fossil record
- The Bible and the issue of time: basic hermeneutics, 10 evidences the days were literal days
- Handling common objections, part 1: dinosaurs and the Bible—four things to know about dinosaurs
- Handling common objections, part 2: biblical objections to literal days
- Christ’s amazing creatures: why they show incredible evidence of engineering
Creation Education Empowers Christians to Serve
In January ICR conducted an internet-based intensive course intended to bring attendees up to speed on the latest advanced research in creation science. ICR scientists had been busy, and there was a lot of stockpiled information to be discussed. This course was received very well, and we plan on repeating it.
But the job of teaching Christians the basics of creation science never ends. Since ICR’s beginning we have been working closely with people whom the Lord Jesus has strategically positioned in His local churches. These folks perceive the vital importance of the doctrine of creation. They recognize how skeptics advance spiritual attacks—masquerading as settled facts of evolutionary “science”—against the foundational truths of Christian faith. They feel called to teach Sunday school classes or other courses in their church.
I am one of those Christians, and the training I received from ICR empowered me to have an important impact in my church. Decades later I meet former students who tell me how they crammed Saturday night to prepare for the quizzes in my Sunday school class on creation. I believe there is still a hunger in Christians for an education that will equip them to teach creation science in their own church.
Early on, ICR was the only provider of creation science education. Today, CTI is the specialist ministry in training Christians in creation. CTI’s materials are the best. Why should ICR re-invent the wheel or needlessly duplicate resources when both ministries can have a far bigger impact by working together? This allows us to direct more support from ICR’s donors into scientific research and developing a powerful organism-focused theory of biological design.
If you feel that the Lord Jesus has given you a deep desire to highlight the doctrine of creation in your local church or in a Christian school, then I encourage you to consider attending the Christian Educator’s Conference. The conference will start June 8, 2021, at 2:00 p.m. and end June 11 at noon. We will conduct it in the Founder’s Hall of the ICR Discovery Center in Dallas, Texas. We’d love to see you there.3
References
- Guliuzza, R. J. 2021. The Mission of the Institute for Creation Research. Acts & Facts. 50 (2): 5-7.
- CTI Mission/Vision, posted on creationtraining.org.
- For more information, go to ICR.org/educators-conference or visit CreationTraining.org/CEC-ICR.
* Dr. Guliuzza is President of the Institute for Creation Research. He earned his M.D. from the University of Minnesota, his Master of Public Health from Harvard University, and served in the U.S. Air Force as 28th Bomb Wing Flight Surgeon and Chief of Aerospace Medicine. Dr. Guliuzza is also a registered Professional Engineer and holds a B.A. in theology from Moody Bible Institute.
