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"For me You have created the skies scattered with stars...and all the beautiful things on earth."
St. Maximilian Kolbe
Dear Friends of the Kolbe Center,
Christ is baptized! In the Jordan!
Wherever we go in the world, we are confronted by "educated" Catholics who confidently assert that the Bible contains "errors" in regard to natural science and history and that this shows the folly of looking to Genesis for accurate information about the origins of man and the universe and the early history of the world. On reflection, these claims bear a striking similarity to those of theistic evolutionists like Dr. Ken Miller who claim that the "bad design" of the human eye and of many other things in nature expose the folly of special creation. The champions of theistic evolution and limited Scriptural inerrancy both tend to seize on apparent "mistakes"--in nature (in regard to the former) or in the Bible (in regard to the latter)--without making a serious effort to discover the reason for the apparent "mistake." In this newsletter I will give a few examples of common claims, examine them, and demonstrate that the champions of theistic evolution and limited Scriptural inerrancy both suffer from a severe deficit in the virtue of that "fear of the Lord"--or reverence for God--that "is the beginning of wisdom."
From the early days of evolutionary evangelism, one of the strongest "proofs" offered by its champions has been the "bad design" or "vestigial" nature of various organs of the human body which "proved" that the human body could not have been specially created in its present form. At the infamous Scopes Trial, one of the natural scientists deposed by Clarence Darrow claimed that the human body contained 180 vestigial organs or features, left over from the long ages of microbe-to-man evolution. Among these were the vermiform appendix and the tonsils. As explained in some detail in the article on our website here, these organs have since been shown to be fully functional and integral parts of the immune system. But why were they deemed "useless" by most of the medical and scientific community for more than fifty years? The linked article demonstrates that the Darwinian presumption of dysfunction prevented brilliant scientists and medical researchers from making more than a cursory study of these organs since a superficial examination failed to reveal the reason for their design and thus confirmed the researcher's prior belief in microbe-to-man evolution.
In the realm of Scripture study, the champions of evolution-based modernism fell into the same trap as the champions of microbe-to-man evolution. Impressed by the "striking proofs" for microbe-to-man evolution--embryonic recapitulation, vestigial organs, Piltdown man, etc.--the modernist bowed to the verdict of "science" ("falsely so called") and rejected the literal truth of the sacred history of Genesis. Confronted by any apparent "contradiction" in the Bible, he wasted little time attempting to resolve the "contradiction" since his prior acceptance of evolution had already "confirmed" that Genesis 1-11 was not a truthful account of the origins of man and the universe. A classic and often-cited example of a Bible "contradiction" can be found in the Pentateuch where Moses in Leviticus and Deuteronomy includes the hare among animals that "chew the cud."
According to modern systems of classification, animals that "chew the cud," like cows and sheep, have several stomachs. These "ruminants," as they are called, swallow food into one of their stomachs, partially digest the food, then bring it back up into their mouths, chew it again, and swallow it into a different stomach for more digestion. The modernist is quick to point out that rabbits and hares do not have multiple stomachs and therefore do not "chew the cud" like other ruminants, thus making Moses guilty of an "error" in Leviticus and Deuteronomy.
But was Moses wrong to classify hares among those that "chew the cud"?
No, he was not!
As members of the same created kind, rabbits and hares both make two kinds of feces. One kind of feces consists of small partially-digested pellets of food which the rabbit excretes and then eats again, thus deriving essential nutrition. The word in Hebrew translated "chew the cud" means to "move something from one place to another" which in this context means to eat what is "brought forth again," the very thing that rabbits do when they re-ingest and re-digest their soft pellets of feces! (Cf. "Do Rabbits Really 'Chew the Cud?'" by Tommy Mitchell, in Demolishing Supposed Bible Contradictions (Green Forest, AR: Master Books, 2011), pp. 51-53), How many modernist Scripture scholars have poisoned the minds of generations of Catholic students with alleged "errors" like this one without making the slightest serious effort to determine the validity of their claims?
I learned recently from a teenage boy, the grandson of a devout Catholic and brilliant mathematician, that his grandfather had taught him that there were errors in the Bible. As an example of an error, he cited the case of the two thieves who were crucified with Our Lord. St. Mark tells us that both of them "reproached" Our Lord (Mark 15:32), while St. Luke tells us that "the Good Thief" repented and was saved (Luke 23:40-43)--an obvious example, claimed the grandfather, of a Biblical contradiction! I asked the teenager who told me this if he could think of any way to resolve this apparent "contradiction." He thought for a moment but could not find one. Then I asked him to think about the timing of the two Scriptures. Did they describe events that happened at the same time or at different times? He thought for a moment and told me "at different times." Indeed, St. Mark tells us that it was the "third hour" when Our Lord was crucified and both of the thieves "rebuked" Him; but as soon as St. Luke tells us about the conversion of the Good Thief, he adds that "it was now about the sixth hour," thus indicating that three hours had passed from the "third hour" when Our Lord was crucified and the two thieves "reproached" him and the "sixth hour" when the Good Thief had a change of heart, repented, and received salvation. It is no coincidence that Our Blessed Mother had been at the foot of the Cross the entire time, interceding for the two thieves, and for all sinners, past, present and future!
The acceptance of limited Scriptural inerrancy has gone hand in hand with the acceptance of theistic evolution, and the two have been largely responsible for the almost total destruction of the Faith in Europe, Australia, and North America. If you have not purchased John Wynne's book The Catholic Teaching on Scriptural Inerrancy, I urge you to obtain a copy of the e-book or of the hard copy through the Kolbe web store. It gives a clear and convincing explanation and defense of the Church's teaching on the inerrancy of Scripture, and dismantles the modernist arguments for the doctrine of limited inerrancy which has been taught in most Catholic schools, universities and seminaries for the last fifty years. As we like to say, "Young people are not the problem. We, the older generation, are the problem--because we have failed to hand on the Truth of the Catholic Faith, whole and entire, to the next generation." John Wynne's book can be an important part of an effective, intensive program to give the next generation of Catholics the whole Truth about the immaculate, life-giving, inerrant Word of God.
Yours in Christ through the Immaculata,
Hugh Owen
P.S. Our annual regional leaders retreat will be held at Conception Seminary in Conception, Missouri, from June 10-16. The retreat equips attendees to be regional leaders who can advance the mission of the Kolbe Center in their local areas. The retreat is open to adults, to teenagers 16 years of age or older with their parents' permission, and to families with children. Activities will be organized for the children every morning except Sunday throughout the retreat.
P.P.S. Through the generosity of friends all over the world we have raised the money that we need to produce the DVD series "Foundations Restored." However, we now recognize that we will need to raise additional funds to market this tremendous product. If you have not made a donation to support our DVD project, please prayerfully consider going to the Kolbe home page and making a gift today. If you want your gift to be used only for marketing the DVD series, please send me an email and let me know.
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