Rev. Paul McCain and CPH have been publishing blatantly evolutionist books--for children no less--at least since 2007. Dr. Rev. Paul L. Maier had a children's bible story trilogy published by CPH, and two of those books at least teach theistic evolution. Maier's creation and flood books agree with the idea that all the fossil layers were laid down before creation, and so the only proof of the flood, which came later, is the rainbow--not all the sedimentary layers. Maier also says that the Bible teaches the Big Bang. The epilogues to Maier's two books in question are typed below. Ken Ham has blogged about Maier's Flood book, but he doesn't know yet about the evolutionism in Maier's creation book (he will shortly, though):
Beware of What Is Not Said, Jan 16, 2012, by Ken Ham:
http://blogs.answersingenesis.org/blogs/ken-ham/2012/01/16/beware-of-what-is-not-said/
Church Mouse also blogged on how Paul McCain was asked in 2009 whether one can believe in evolution and be a LCMS member or not, and McCain referred the questioner to his local LCMS pastor. The implication is that if you pastor-shop enough, like some people doctor-shop, you can believe in evolution and be a member of the LCMS, and in good standing, too:
Can a belief in evolution exclude you from church? by Church Mouse, September 21, 2009
http://churchmousec.wordpress.com/2009/09/21/can-a-belief-in-evolution-can-exclude-you-from-church/
Snippet: I hope that I have not offended any members of the LCMS, Pastor McCain in particular, with this post. That was not the intention. I simply wonder if an LCMS member has the option to believe in evolution.
The Real Story of the Creation (CPH, 2007)
http://www.amazon.com/Real-Story-Creation-Paul-Maier/dp/0758612656
E P I L O G U E
Science often tells the story of our beginnings a bit differently. In its "Big Bang" theory, a tiny cosmic egg the size of a marble exploded into the universe in one trillionth of a second. That's harder to believe than the Bible, yet it amounts to the same thing: God's instant creation. Science tells us that matter and energy are the two great building blocks of nature. So does the Bible. Science requires light before vegetation. So does the Bible. The various stages of a developing nature involving creatures in the sea and sky before mammals on land runs parallel in both the Bible and science.
In fact, science gives us even more amazing detail about the immensity of the universe and our planet Earth, which can suport life only because of a bewildering number of factors that had to be just right or life could never have happened--showing a divine design and intelligence behind it all. [GJ - The Bible needs science to prop it up and fill in the blanks.]
This, then, in the magnificent story of how we all came to be. None of it was accidental. All of it is the Creator's great plan. Only God could have accomplished all this!
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The Real Story of the Flood (CPH, 2008)
http://www.amazon.com/Real-Story-Flood-Paul-Maier/dp/0758612672/
E P I L O G U E
“Wait a minute,” you might be thinking. “This is certainly an interesting story, but is it history? Did it really happen? Did all of those animals really crowd onto one ship? Wouldn’t dinosaurs crush Noah’s ark if they tried to board it?”
The answer to these questions is… Yes. But Mr. and Mrs. Tyrannosaurus Rex missed the boat. They were not around at the time. Nor were their brontosaurus, triceratops, or stegosaurus relatives. All the gigantic citizens of Jurassic Park lived and died long before the flood. Indeed, they roamed the earth during that early era described in the first half of Genesis, chapter one.
It is history. In fact, many ancient civilizations have flood epics that parallel the biblical version. Among the Babylonians, the flood story was called the Gilgamesh Epic. In ancient Egypt, the annual flooding of the Nile River reminded people of a much greater deluge. In ancient Greece, it was not an ark but Mount Parnassus that enabled a couple at its summit to survive the Greek version of the flood. And in the Americas, the Mayans told their children of a great flood.
Will anyone ever find ruins of the ark? That remains to be seen, but whether the ark is ever found, you can be sure that the flood did happen! You have proof of it every time you see a rainbow.
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Book Review: The Real Story of the Exodus by Paul L. Maier
http://biblegeekgonewild.com/2010/08/10/book-review-the-real-story-of-the-exodus-by-paul-l-maier/
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Rev. Paul T. McCain Publisher & Executive Director of Editorial, CPH
http://www.cph.org/t-about-contact.aspx
Scroll down a little:
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| Pope Paul the Unlearned favors rationalism over the Word of God, Knapp/Walther rather than Luther. |
GJ - The neos in Missouri, who want to call themselves "Confessional," are really compromisers. If they did a little studying they would find that the same fad took over the Evangelicals in the 19th century. Fearing they would be seen as backwards, the Evangelicals created an amalgamation of Creation and Evolution, a little of each. Evolution always won in time. Rationalism is ashamed of the divine efficacy of the Word.
My favorite example is the LCA pastor who decided to join the conservatives, but he had trouble with the Word creating in six 24-hour days. I asked him, "You believe in the Incarnation but have trouble with that?" Later he got in touch with his inner rationalist and became a United Church of Christ pastor.
The Big Bang theory, the fad of this era, has serious problems, as non-believers acknowledge. But that is not my point. As soon as one tries to merge Creation with that theory, the Word takes second place and becomes displaced.
I heard it growing up. "The days of Creation are billions of years."
"What about fossils?" Answer - "God put them there to test our faith."
McCain is especially obnoxious when defending the Pietist UOJ theory, which also depends on the non-efficacy of the Word, the non-operation of the Holy Spirit (exclusively) through the Means of Grace. His dithering with Creation is consistent with his denial of justification by faith.
KJV 2 Peter 3:5 For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water: 6 Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished.
Denial of the Creation and the Flood is a rejection of the efficacy of the Word. No wonder the rationalistic Pietists cannot grasp how the efficacious Word of the Gospel declares us righteous, which is received in faith.
We had Creation speakers at Shepherd of Peace in Columbus, inviting high school students from all over the area to hear them. Many "proofs" of evolution are evidence of Creation and the Flood. One is the example of the fossils. When a pet dies and is buried in the yard, it does not become a fossil. It is completely recycled by God's natural recyclers (as detailed in The Wormhaven Gardening Book). The fossil record shows that vast numbers of plants and animals were pressed together and changed through vast changes, enormous pressure, volcanic action, and other cataclysmic factors. See Rehwinkel's The Flood.
The Word of God teaches me about Creation and the Flood, so the evidence does not come as a surprise. It is a mistake to say, "Aha, this finding proves the Bible really is true." We know that already. All the learning in the world is not as powerful as the Word of God. The Scriptures judge all books. No book judges Holy Writ. Luther said that and it remains true.
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| Luther saw the beauty of the little pink hands of the mouse. |
Luther had a statement in his Genesis Commentary that I liked. He speculated about mice coming from the rotting process in ships, as some thought at the time. But he added, "But it does not matter." He added that they were really cute, delicate creatures, with tiny their pink hands. Luther was not stuck with the science of his day. He said that, nevertheless, God created them.
I have always been a student of science and technology, although my chemistry and physics teachers thought their fields would make far more progress if I abandoned the physical sciences. Real science is in perfect harmony with the Bible, but an alien philosophy can easily distort the data. Evolution is really a philosophy, a complete and self-proving way of organizing all the data, giving it meaning for unbelievers. Therefore, an amalgamation can never work, except to make Evolution acceptable to gullible, half-educated bloggers.
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bruce-church (https://bruce-church.myopenid.com/) has left a new comment on your post "Pope Paul the Unlearned Edited and Promoted Evolut...":
ChurchMouse comments on this McCain-Maier-evolution post:
http://churchmousec.wordpress.com/2012/01/26/early-pietism-count-von-zinzendorf-and-the-spread-of-moravian-teachings/#comments
2 commentsComments feed for this article
January 27, 2012 at 6:58 am
Bruce Church
Church Mouse blog entry mentioned in this post:
http://ichabodthegloryhasdeparted.blogspot.com/2012/01/pope-paul-unlearned-edited-and-promoted.html
Reply
January 27, 2012 at 7:29 am
churchmouse
Thanks for this, Bruce — much appreciated!
