We’d like to announce a special meeting for this coming Saturday at Grace Baptist Church of Victoria. Dr. Emil Silvestru of Creation Ministries International will be with us for two sessions.
Creation vs. Evolution is a long-standing debate. Some may think the debate is settled in favour of evolution, but the truth is that many credible scientists hold that the Bible’s teaching of a six-day creation is at least compatible with scientific evidence.
Our speaker for this event is one thoroughly trained as a geologist who became a Christian and subsequently a believer in the literal creation record of the Bible following his conversion. His story is quite interesting and worth at least your giving him a hearing. Here is his ‘bio’ from the CMI website:
Dr Silvestru earned his Ph.D in geology at the ‘Babes-Bolyai’ University in Cluj, Romania (where he has worked as an associate professor), in karst sedimentology including caves. (Karst is a term which initially referred to barren regions of mostly limestone and dolomite, noted for spectacular and distinctive landforms, and with substantial underground drainage features — caves, underground rivers, etc. It has come to refer more to the entire geosystem, above and below ground.)
A world authority on the geology of caves, he has published 41 scientific papers (see here), written one book (The Cave Book—see here) and co-authored two books. He was, until recently, the head scientist at the world’s first Speleological Institute (speleology = the study of caves) in Cluj. Since 1997 he has been a full-time researcher and speaker with CMI.
His areas of expertise include: Sedimentology of clastic deposits, stratigraphy of limestone terranes, general geology, karst genesis and functioning, cave climate and glaciology, show-cave assessment & designing, ore prospecting and exploration (surface and mining).
After becoming a Christian he quickly realized that the ‘millions of years’ interpretation, so common in geology, was not compatible with Genesis. ‘Once I became a Christian,’ Emil says, ‘I knew I had to “tune up” my scientific knowledge with the Scriptures.’
‘Although philosophically and ethically I accepted a literal Genesis from my conversion, at first I was unable to match it with my “technical” side.’
E-mail discussions with qualified creationist geologists, creationist books, Creation magazine and especially the Journal of Creation (formerly TJ) helped him realise what he calls two ‘essential things’:
- Given exceptional conditions (e.g. the Genesis Flood) geological processes that take an extremely long time today can be unimaginably accelerated.
- The Genesis Flood was global, not regional.
‘These factors were immensely important in my conversion and my Christian life. I am now convinced of six-day, literal, recent, Genesis creation. That doesn’t mean that there are not still some unanswered problems, but researching such issues is what being a scientist is all about.’
He has over 30 years experience in climbing and spelunking, educating many young spelunkers and mountain climbing devotees as well as participating in mountain and cave rescue operations.
In January 2002 he immigrated to Canada from Romania with his wife and two daughters. In addition to doing research and writing for CMI, he now also on staff at CMI Canada as a Seminar Lecturer, and has written a number of articles for the Journal of Creation, Creation magazine and this website, and produced several DVDs.
Dr. Silvestru’s first topic will be Genesis, the Gospel, and the Creation/Evolution Issue (10 AM). The second topic will be The Darwin Delusion (11:30 AM). We strongly encourage you to attend and bring your questions!
Grace Baptist Church of Victoria is located at 2731 Matson Rd, at the end of the Ruth King School playing fields. You can get further directions from our website.
~ Pastor Don
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