Mike Riddle, Creation Training Initiative (CTI‪)‬ Mike Riddle: International speaker and educator on Christian education and apologetics.

John 3:17 states:
For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved
 
The question is: Saved from what – the answer is, from eternal punishment – hell
 
The Bible describes what we need to be save from in these terms.
Luke 16 and Mat 25 – tormented in an everlasting fire
Revelation 14 – no rest day or night
Revelation 20 – in a lake of fire and brimstone, tormented day and night forever and ever
What we must understand is that this is the default.
The Bible also teaches how to avoid the default.
First: Acts 4:12 teaches there is only one person who can save us.
And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among mankind by which we must be saved.
 
And that name is Jesus
 
Second: Eph 2:8-9 teaches there is only one way.
For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
 
Third: Rom 10:9 teaches how we can be saved.
That if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.

A common challenge is how do dinosaurs fit into the Bible.
The best evidence is the Bible. God created man and land animals (which included dinosaurs) on day 6 of His creation. This means dinosaurs and people lived at the same time.
Additional evidences include:

* Dinosaur soft tissue still with the bones
* Unfossilized dinosaur bones
* Proteins found with the bones
* Red blood cells found with the bones
* DNA fragments found in the bones (which should last a maximum of about 10,000 years)
* Carbon-14 in the bones (should last a max of about 100,000 years)

All these are observable evidences that refute the idea  out 65 million years ago.
In addition:
In Job 40 there is a good description of a dinosaur called behemoth. It is described as:

* Having large bones and a large tail like a cedar tree.
* This is not an alligator
* It is not a description of an elephant or a hippopotamus
* The description resembles that of a dinosaur.

How do dinosaurs fit into the Bible?
  God created them on day six with man about 6,000 years ago.

Should Christians really care if the earth is young or old (billions of years)?
A common claim by some church leaders is that the age of the earth does not matter.
 
This claim however, demonstrates a lack of biblical knowledge.
 
First: if the earth is old this means there would have been millions of years of death and disease before Adam and Even and the Fall.
It teaches death before sin, which means sin was not the cause of death. This undermines the very reason Jesus had to go to the Cross and die for our sins.
So, it is important because it is a gospel issue.
Second: an old earth changes the character of God. In Gen 1:31 call called His entire creation “very good”. Did God really call death, disease and destruction very good?
 
Third: In Commandment 4 of the 10 Commandments God wrote down on the stone tablets that He created everything in 6 days. Millions of years calls into question the truthfulness of the 10 Commandments.
 
Fourth: In Mark 10 and Matthew 4 Jesus states that man and woman were created from the beginning of creation and not after millions of years. Jesus, the Creator of all things, believed in a young earth.
 
Therefore, the age of the earth is an important biblical issue.

The number one issue effecting Sunday school is a lack of training for teachers.
 
Ken Brady (Manager of Lifeway’s adult Bible study curriculum for trainers)
“If you want to breathe life into your Sunday school, you must train the leaders.”
 
Bob Mayfield (Sunday School and adult discipleship specialist)
“The training of a church’s Sunday School and small group leaders is one of the five most important actions that are conducive to a church’s growth and spiritual health.”
Just having an advanced degree in a subject does not qualify someone to teach. What is needed is well-qualified Christians who have a biblical worldview, who display leadership, who know their subject and can cause learning by being learner focused (produce does of the Wd).
 
Creation Training Initiative offers a 1-day course that provides teachers the skills that will help them maximize the learning and retention of information.
 
If you want to enhance your Sunday school program plan to host the 1-day “Dynamics of Christian Education” course from CTI at your ch.

How should we interpret Genesis 1?

  
In Genesis one
1. God explicitly chose the word day for time
2. In Genesis 1:5 God defined the length of the day as a light and dark cycle
3. God used a number with the word “day” which always means a day
4. God further defined each day with “evening and morning” which always means a day
5. Genesis 1 is written as historical narrative and not poetry.
Then in the 10 Commandments, Exodus 20:11, God wrote down on the stone tablets He created everything in 6 days
So why do so many Christians hold to an old earth?
-Some lack trust in God’s Word
-Some have never heard the truth
-Some have more fear of man that of God
-Some are convinced scientists have proven the earth is old, but they have never heard the true science
-Some are wolves in sheep’s clothing and seek to deceive people
What we need are well-trained pastors and teachers who believe God’s Word and that are not ashamed to teach it as God gave it to us.

Do we need another Jeremiah to warn America of impending judgement and to turn back to God’s Word?
 
No, we don’t need another Jeremiah. God already gave us Isaiah, Ezekiel, Jeremiah and other prophets to warn us of what He will do to nations that abandon Him and His Word. Especially nations that call good evil and evil good.
What we don’t need is more soft teaching, more seeker friendly preaching, more compromise and more false gospels.
What we do need are church leaders and Christian university professors who have the boldness and courage to teach God’s Word as He gave it to us.
-We need leaders who will teach the full Gospel – the bad news of hell and the good news of salvation.
-We need leaders who are not afraid to teach the truth about God’s creation. That He created in 6-days and to stop adding in millions of years which is nowhere found in the Bible.
-We need pastors who are willing to teach God’s justice and not social justice.
-And we need to stop playing games with the next generation and equip teachers with the knowledge and skills to be able to train the next generation to believe God’s Word and be able to defend their faith.