September Foundations Creation Club Meeting

Have you ever dreamed of going on a dinosaur dig adventure? Do you want to know how to dig for dinosaur bones and where to find them? Did dinosaurs live with people at one time? Have you ever wonodered if the evolutionary model of earth's history can account for the fossil record? Have you ever wondered how dinosaurs and fossils "fit" with the Bible? Do you have answers to your questions on dinosaurs and the fossil record? 

Well, in August 2012, Caleb LePore and his mom Kimberly LePore (founders of Foundations Creation Club) had the opportunity of a lifetime to go on a dinosaur dig adventure in the deserts of Colorado, and we want to share our it with you! For September's Foundations Creation Club event, Caleb and Kimberly will be giving a presentation on what we found on our expedition, how to be a dinosaur paleontologist (people who study fossils), and what we learned along the way. We will answer some of the most common questions about dinosaur fossils, such as: Where can we find them? How can I tell the difference between bone and rock? How did they form? How old are they? and many others which will make you dinosaur-experts! There will be a slideshow with pictures from our trip, a display with our fossils collected on the journey, and a book table with resources on dinosaurs, fossils, and creation vs. evolution available for purchase. If you want to know about dinosaurs (or if you have dinosaur-loving children), then come and join us for "Caleb LePore's" Amazing Colorado Fossil Adventure"! Be sure to bring your friends, family, and little paleontologists along!

Date and Time: Friday, September 21 at 6:45 PM - 8:30 PM. There will be a question and answer time after the presentation. 

Location: Foundations Creation Club has relocated to Church of the Foothills in Cameron Park. For directions, click here. We will be in Rooms 207-208 (on the second floor). Wheelchair-accessible by elevator.

Please forward this email on to friends and family! Be sure to visit our blog, www.foundationscreationclub.blogspot.com and to like us on Facebook!

See you there!

LePore's Dinosaur Digging Adventure: From Home to the Aiport

God sure has a sense of humor sometimes. On Monday, my mother (Kimberly LePore) was checking her Facebook page when something caught here eye. Fourteen-year old, Noah Justice from the creation video series 'Awesome Science' had posted that there were spots open for two more families on a dinosaur digging adventure in Northwestern Colorado, near Dinosaur National Monument. She showed me the post, and my response was, "Could we go?", of course. I was expecting something along the lines of "Ha! It's only a week away (later, we found out it was only 4 days away!)!", but no, she said that we should call the people in charge of the dig. My mom called, and I was astonished that she actually thought it was a possibility! "Could this be a dream come true?", I thought. I have loved dinosaurs ever since I was 7 years old, and after hearing the truth about dinosaurs, I have loved them even more. It is every boy's dream to be able to dig for dinosaur bones, to be a paleontologist. Could this really happen? Was I just dreaming?

Long story short, I am in Reno airport as I am typing this, and our flight has been delayed for an hour. Apparently there was another flight which was supposed to leave, but their plane was having technical issues, so they took ours instead. How did that happen? I have no clue. Please be in prayer for us, as this is the first time we have been this far from home without the rest of the family, and my mom is quite... nervous. I am sure that we will have a great time, and that we will bring back something BIG for show and tell. 

(P.S. I am thinking that we will have a special fossil presentation for the September meeting, but we need to have a committee meeting to plan it first. :)

-- Caleb LePore

August 18th, 2012 at 11:20 AM

        

Why Do We Have To Defend Genesis?

“Why do we have to defend Genesis?” Creationists talk a lot about the first eleven chapters of Genesis, do we not? I mean, that’s where we get the Creation account from, right? Not only do we get the creation account from Genesis, but did you know that nearly every major doctrine in the Bible has its roots in Genesis! In fact, the word ‘genesis’ actually means beginning. Let’s take a look at a few “beginnings” which are found in the “book of beginnings”. 

First and foremost, Genesis explains the origin of everything! Genesis chapters 1-2 explain not only that God created but also how God created all the matter in the universe and formed it into things that are usable and good. Chapters 1-2 use phrases such as ‘evening and morning‘ and ‘according to their kind‘ to describe in precise detail how God created and how long it took Him to create. God tells us in Genesis the origin of mankind. He tells us how we are different from the rest of creation by saying how that we are created in His image, and are thus accountable to Him. He tells us what kind of food we are supposed to eat. Since God’s original creation was “very good” and thus, free of death; all creatures were originally vegetarian. After the Flood, it is recorded that God allowed man to eat meat as part of His covenant with Noah and His descendants. In Genesis 2:15, God commands Adam to tend the Garden of Eden, which must have been quite a bit of work, right! God also commanded Adam to name all the land animals, right! That must have been a LOT of work! I remember when my family was trying to come up with a name for our miniature poodle, and that was almost impossible! We ended up naming him Westin after the resort we have a timeshare at, the Westin. For the most part, people give pets pre-existing names, but Adam had nothing to name the animals after! Let’s face it, people nowadays are not very creative with pet names, so think of what Adam had to do! God is not opposed to hard work, if fact, God created it! Genesis 1-11 also gives the foundations of the Bible’s most important doctrines; sin, death, and salvation. Genesis 3 gives the account of the first sin and its effects on the world, including death. After God pronounces His Curse on the world, God tells Adam and Eve, that one day, a descendant will crush the Serpent’s head, and defeat death. That is the first recorded promise of the coming Savior, who, from the New Testament we know to be Jesus Christ, who died for the sins of all descendants of Adam. Genesis also explains our spiritual nature. In Genesis 1:27, God tells us that we are created in His image. Since God exists in three Parts, we would expect that we would exist in 3 parts, and we do. Humans exist in body, soul, and spirit. In Genesis 2:7, we are told that God breathed into Adam’s nostrils, the breath of life, and he became a living being. Obviously, from this passage, we gather that life does not exist in the body, but in the “breath of life”, the spirit! Genesis explains why we need clothes to cover our nakedness, our shame, and our sin. Genesis 3:21 says that God make coats of skin for Adam and Eve to cover their shame, which is a picture of what Jesus did for us. By the shedding of a lamb’s blood, Adam and Eve were covered, and by the shedding of The Lamb’s blood we are covered and cleansed as well. Genesis also explains the origin of all the nations, languages, and so-called “races” of people. Genesis 10-11 tell us how Noah’s descendants refused to obey God’s command to spread out all over the earth and decided to build a tower to “make a name for themselves”. Well, God didn’t like the disobedience and arrogance of the human race, so He stopped the construction of the tower at once by changing the people’s languages and scattered them across the face of the earth. This shows that regardless of skin color, language, or any other ethnic difference, we are all one race. The human race. Something the human race has over all the animals is the ability to use science! Science is also ordained in the first 11 chapters of Genesis! Genesis 1:28 says that God blessed Adam and Eve and gave them dominion over all of Creation, to use it for God’s glory. Science is studying God's Creation Science is in reality, taking dominion over God’s Creation. 

Now you see how Genesis is really the foundations for the rest of Scripture, including many of our Christian doctrines. Here’s the point. What have we seen happened to the faith of the next generation? It has been destroyed, and Christians have recognized that and have tried to fix it. The problem is that most Christians are trying to fix the problem without fixing the underlying issue. Most Christians see the evil things happening in our world, and want to fix it, but they are missing something. You see, the real problem is that their faith in the foundations of the Bible have been destroyed, and what happens when the foundations of a house are destroyed? The house comes down with it! In this day and age, science has supposedly disproven the historicity of the first 11 chapters of Genesis, which as we just saw, is the foundation for the rest of the Bible. So what else would we expect when the people (and even Christians) accept science’s conclusions over the Bible’s? Psalm 11:3 (FCC’s theme verse) says that “If the foundations are being destroyed, what can the righteous do?” No wonder why the Church has been almost ineffective in this generation! So what do we do? The first thing we need to do is take the advice of Isaiah 58:12, “Those from among you shall build the old waste places; you shall raise up the foundations of many generations; and you shall be called the Repairer of the Breach, The Restorer of Streets to Dwell In.” We need to repair the foundations of faith in the Word of God. One of the ways we do this at Foundations Creation Club is to debunk the lie that science disproves the Bible, and reaffirm people’s faith in the Word of God by showing all the scientific evidence that actually supports it. On our improved, strong foundation, we are now placed in a position of offense. We need to use the same tactic on them, we need to destroy the foundation of humanism, evolution. Once this is accomplished, humanism will come crashing down, and the people therein will be forced to seek out another shelter, then we can lead them to the Knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the reason why we need to defend the Book of Genesis, because the best offense is a good defense. That is the way in which we will win the culture over to Christ, and that is what Foundations Creation Club is all about. 

August Foundations Creation Club Meeting

Dennis Petersen's popular book, "Unlocking the
Mysteries of Creation". Click here for more information.

Have you had trouble with sharing the Good News of the Creator with people? Does it seem like an impossible task to shine the light of Jesus in this world of darkness? Does it seem too difficult to overcome the barrier of the evolutionary theory? Does it matter what you believe about where we came from, or should we just ignore the topic of origins altogether? There are answers to these questions. For this month's Foundations Creation Club Meeting, we have asked the author of the popular book "Unlocking the Mysteries of Creation", Dennis Petersen to come and give his presentation on 'How to Share Creation Truth in Ways to Change Lives Forever'. In this dynamic presentation, we will explore the topic of effective witnessing, starting in the Bible's very first book, the Book of Genesis! Mr. Petersen will also have a question and answer session afterwards, so be prepared with questions to ask Mr. Petersen! We are extremely honored and blessed to have Mr. Petersen come to share his knowledge with us! 

Meeting Location: Gold Country Baptist Church in Shingle Springs (For directions, click here).

Meeting Date and Time: Friday, August 24th at 6:45 - 8:30 PM.

Snacks and drinks will be provided. Please bring friends and family members! 

How to Start Your Own Creation Club

Step 1: Have a Goal 

This principle applies to any kind of event, club or organization. In order for anything to get done, you must first set a goal. What are you trying to accomplish with your club? What kind of people do you plan to minister to? What kind of difference do you plan to make?    

Step 2: Form a “Web” of Supporters

When considering starting a creation club, it is always a good idea to have people to back you up. The creation/evolution issue is a controversial issue in the Church, and sadly, from my own experience, many churches are unwilling to teach Genesis for the fear that it may cause division in the Church. That is why it is a good idea to form a “web” of people who would help support your club. Good places to start are the homeschool community and Bible study groups. Who knows, you may already know a creation scientist or speaker already!  

Step 3: Know your stuff

In order to succeed in your creation ministry, you must have a wealth of knowledge in the subject.

 1 Peter 3:15 commands us to always be ready to give a defense for your faith, so it makes sense to study on this subject! A good place to start is internet resources. Answers in Genesis (www.answersingenesis.org), Creation Ministries International, (www.creation.com), and Institute for Creation Research (www.icr.org) are some very good ones. For books, the New Answers Books 1,2 & 3 are great resources for getting the answers to the most popular questions. You can order them here. Be sure to allow yourself time to study before you start a creation club.  

Step 4: Have a plan

It is always good to have a plan, and creation clubs are no exception. Plan for where you meet, what time you will meet, topics and speakers, etc. If there are no speakers in your area, you can plan to speak. That may sound scary, but on www.answersingenesis.org/education, you can find presentation notes and slides which can help you build a creation presentation. Showing a video is always an option as well!

Step 5: Publicity 

Find out ways to publicize your club, such as homeschool newsletters, flyers, church bulletins, brochures, business cards; anything that can catch people’s attention. Creationism is becoming more and more of an interest within the Church because of the longing to know the truth about Creation, fossils, dinosaurs and related topics, so it shouldn’t be too hard to bring in a crowd.    

Step 6: Pray, Pray, Pray! 

Pray that God will lead the right people to come hear your message, and that they should be set free from the lies that this world throws at them. Pray also that the message should be clear to all that hear it, and that it should move them to not only to belief and repentance, but to action.  

Step 7: Just Do It!

Your first meeting should be basic; an introduction to creationism and why it is different from other beliefs about our origins such as evolution, theistic evolution, progressive creation, day-age theory, etc. You will want to encourage your audience to come back again, so having snacks and a raffle may be a good idea. Your first creation club meeting will usually not turn out exactly the way you expected, but don’t let that discourage you. Just remember that God is with you, so be strong and very courageous! (Joshua 1:9)  

Step 8: Keep on Keeping on! 

After your first meeting, you will want to start a consistent streak with your calendar, location, email notifications, and topics. If you can, try to do a different, but not necessarily unrelated topic each meeting. This will help keep the information fresh and interesting for your audience. For example if you are doing Biblical genealogies, it may be good to pick Flood geology as your next meeting’s topic. Something you will want to consider is including the Gospel message in some form in every one of your meetings topics, because you never know who may be hearing about Jesus for the first time! 

The Fossil Record: The Greatest Proof for Evolution?

The fossil record has long been considered to be "the greatest proof for evolution", because it supposedly shows evolution happening the way that we see it on the evolutionary geologic time chart. We see smaller, simpler creatures in the lower rock layers and larger, more "evolved" creatures in the upper rock layers, which is what you would expect to find if evolution were true. However, there is another explanation for the fossil record which does not require evolution or millions of years. For this explanation, we will go to the Bible for answers. 

Marine fossils found on Mt. Everest

In Genesis Chapters 6-8, we read about the Great Flood of Noah's day. Such a sudden and widespread judgement would have lifted tons of mud and sand sediment, along with all kinds of land and marine creatures, and would have buried them together; all over the earth. What do we find in the fossil record? We find billions of dead land and marine creatures, jumbled up and buried in sand and mud sediment; all over the earth. Fossils of marine creatures are always found on land (fossils cannot form in water) and often in places far from oceans and seas. This can only be possible if the catastrophe that buried the fossils was widespread. Also, the fossilization process requires rapid burial, or else the specimen will be destroyed or poorly preserved. The evolutionary theory requires millions of years, however, this would add time in which the specimen could deteriorate or be eaten by scavengers. Most fossils are very well preserved, and the fossil record is full of fossils showing evidence of rapid burial. 

An icthyosaur mother buried while giving birth

Velociraptor and Protoceratops
buried in the act of fighting

This poor guy didn't
even get to finish his lunch! 

The Great Flood of Noah's day can account for all of the features we find in fossils, but why is it that we find all the fossils in the exact order of the geologic time chart? The simple answer is that we don't. There is not a single place on earth in which we can find all the layers of strata shown on the geologic time chart, and in the order shown on the chart. Even the Grand Canyon has 150 million years of the fossil record missing from its rock layers! The reason we find certain creatures always buried together is because they lived together in the same ecosystem. This can also explain the reason why we don't find dinosaur fossils buried alongside human fossils; because dinosaurs and humans lived in drastically different environments. However, in some cases, such as Dinosaur National Monument and other fossil graveyards, we find lots of different ecosystems jumbled up together, which is a puzzle for evolutionists, but works perfectly with the creationist's Flood model.

Dinosaur National Monument

"Malachite Man" human fossils found in
Late Cretaceous rock layers, near Dinosaur Nat'l Park.

For the full article on this bell "fossil"
found in coal, click here.

Petrified wood found stretching upright through multiple layers of rock strata.  For more information, click here.

Has there ever been a fossil found in the wrong rock layer? Yes. Not only have we found fossils in the wrong place, but we have found fossils stretching through multiple layers of rock strata! The only explanation for this is a huge water catastrophe!

So know you know that the fossil record is a much better friend to the creationist worldview than to the evolutionary worldview.

Thank you for reading! Be sure to check back for new posts!

Caleb LePore

- Leader and Founder of Foundations Creation Club

Foundations

Creation Club



Dinosaurs: An Evolutionary Giant?

First of all, what is science? The modern definition of science is:
"systematic knowledge of the physical or material world gained through observation and experimentation." Science deals with physical, observable things which can be recorded and used for the benefit of mankind. Science is what allows us to build computers, explore outer space, and learn more about the world around us. Creation and evolution however, cannot be considered true science because it deals with things that was not observed, such as the Creation of the world or the Big Bang. Therefore, instead of using observation, we must collect data and evidence and attempt to explain it through worldviews.
A worldview is like a set of of glasses that are used to observe and explain the world around us. If you were to wear glasses that had red lenses, everything you would look at would appear to be red. Although the world is not actually red, it appears to be red through the glasses. In the same way, our beliefs and assumptions about the world will influence the way you view the world. Most evolutionists believe that there is no God, so they assume that everything had to have come about by random chance natural proccesses.

Biblical creationists believe that God created everything with order and purpose, so with that worldview we would assume that the world shows order and design. Now that I have explained this principle, we will now apply it to the topic of dinosaurs. When we dig up dinosaur fossils, they do not come with a label that says how old they are, what they ate, or how they died; we just have the fossil. Based on our worldview and other evidence, we interpret what we see, and attempt to explain it.

The evolutionary geologic time chart places dinosaurs in the Mesozoic Era, which starts around 250 million years ago and ends around 65 million years ago when dinosaurs mysteriously went extinct. This era is divided into 3 periods; the Triassic, the Jurassic and the Cretaceous periods. It was during the Triassic period that dinosaurs supposedly arose from other, lower reptiles. With this assumption of dinosaur evolution, there should be some evidence of dinosaurs evolving in the fossil record. However, we have found no  transitional fossils showing such an occurence. In fact, Darwin himself recognized this problem.


"The number of intermediate varieties which have formerly existed on earth must be truly enormous. Why then is not every geological formation and every stratum full of such intermediate links? Geology assuredly does not reveal any such finely graduated organic chain; and this, perhaps, is the most obvious and gravest objection which can be urged against my theory." - Charles Darwin, On the Origin of Species, 1902 edition. Even nowadays, the hunt for transitional forms  has come back empty, again and again. There are a few alleged transitional forms, but they have all been shown to be false (I will write more information on these in future posts).


The Bible however, tells a different story. According to Genesis 1:24-25, God created all land dwelling animals on the Sixth Day of Creation. It also says that God created each animal to produce "according to its kind". Dinosaurs are land creatures (flying reptiles and marine reptiles such as pterosaur and plesiosaur are not considered to be true dinosaurs), so they must have been created on Day Six, around 6,000 years ago, according to Biblical Chronologies. As you can see, these two worldviews have radically different beliefs and assumptions, which means we must look at the evidence and see which worldview best explains it. As I said previously, we have found no evidence in the fossil record of dinosaur evolution, but rather, the fossil record seems to indicate that dinosaurs have always been dinosaurs, which is what we would expect to find if dinosaurs were created the way they were. 


So why do we find dinosaur fossils buried in the rock layers, all over the earth? When did these fossils form? What caused the dinosaurs to go extinct? 


When we find dinosaur fossils, we usually don't find them by themselves. They are often accompanied by fossils of other animals or dinosaurs. Almost always, these creatures are very well preserved, however, many of them are disarticulated (torn away from the rest of the skeleton). Most dinosaur fossils are buried in mud layers or limestone; the latter of which is made up of an accumulation of sea shells. We know already that dinosaurs are land creatures, so why are they buried in rocks formed by water? Secular geologists think that the carcasses of the creatures were carried into a shallow body of water (e.g; a stream), and were slowly buried and fossilized over millions of years. There are, however,  several problems with this belief. First of all, if we use the evolutionary geologic principle of uniformatarianism (the present is the key to the past) then these "soon to be" fossils would have rotted away in a week or less! Then what about the fossils we see throughout the fossil record that are so beautifully preserved? They must have been buried quickly so that no outsiders could contaminate or destroy the specimen. What kind of event could of create all these factors? A violent watery catastrophy would quickly bury the specimens in thick mud layers and the chemicals in the rock would replace the cells of the bones (in some rare cases, the flesh as well), turning them into stone. Because we so many large-scale fossil deposits all around the world, featuring both land and marine creatures, it is safe to assume that this was a large-scale catastrophy. Secular geologists are beginning to consider the idea of large-scale catastropies to explain many of the earth's geologic features, along with there uniformitarian ideas. However, if it was mutiple large-scale catastrophies, then previously deposited rock layers and fossils formed by earlier catastrophies would be destroyed by the later catastophies. When in history was there a singe, large-scale catastrophy that could have produced massive amounts of fossils (dead things)? In Genesis 6-8, we are told that the human race became so wicked, that God sent a worldwide flood to destroy His now ruined creation. A righteous man named Noah, however, pleased God, so God told Noah to build an Ark (A big boat) to save him and his family from the Flood. God sent Noah two of every kind of animal to go on the Ark (seven of some), so that those few animals could repopulate the Earth after the Flood (dinosaurs would have been included). Mass amounts of plants and animals would be rapidly buried in mud and sand sediments, and because the Flood was worldwide, we would expect to find marine animals and land animals together. That is exactly what we find in the fossil record. 

A question that has plagued many of those who believe in Noah's Flood is "how could the dinosaurs get on the Ark?" Evolutionists often use this question when trying to prove the Bible false. Dinosaurs, or at least the ones we are used to seeing, are huge creatures! How could Noah possibly fit two of every kind of dinosaur on the Ark along with all the other animals? Interestingly, not all dinosaurs were giants, in fact, the average size of a dinosaur is the size of a sheep, and many are much smaller! Even the largest dinosaurs fit in eggs the size of footballs, so why couldn't God have taken younger dinosaurs on the Ark? Besides, you wouldn't want bring senior-aged dinosaurs to repopulate the Earth after the Flood, would you? Since the biblical word "kind" does not refer to the species, but rather it refers to animals that have the same basic body plan, for instance, the dog kind. Though there are many different breeds and species in the dog kind, they are all still dogs! Same goes for the dinosaur kinds. Creation scientists have broken down all the different dinosaur species into only about 50 biblical "kinds". In the same way our Master Planner and Designer can fit even the largest creatures on His Ark of Salvation, He can fit even the biggest sinners on His Ark of Salvation, Jesus Christ, by forgiving our sins and bringing us into His family.

Such a massive catastrophy as Noah's Flood would have certainly decreased the population of the dinosaurs, but the dinosaurs on the Ark would have lived on in the years after the Flood. So then what happened to the dinosaurs after the Flood? Is there evidence of dinosaurs living alongside man in the post-Flood world? Could dinosaurs still be alive?

I will cover all this, and more in future posts. Until then, have a wonderful Christmas and a Blessed New Year! 

Thanks you for reading! If you want information on when new posts have been made avalible or about future FCC meetings, send us an email at foundationscreationclub@gmail.com 

Merry Christmas and God bless you!

Caleb LePore