Summit Ministries

Friday has finally arrived here at Summit Session 6 and what a great line up of events we
had today! The morning started like any other here at the Summit with seven o"clock being rung out by a few seconds of some blaring, yet Godly, music. Breakfast was the best it has been all week with the main dish being biscuits & gravy. Then, our morning routine started in the classroom with the pledges, Amazing Grace, and devotions.

The first session was a continuation of the "Bible Hour" taught by Dr. Noebel (Doc). He has been challenging us to study the Bible not just because of its value for Christians, but because of many other reasons as well. Today's reason is because the Bible is "not unscientific." He explained how the Bible and science are intertwined with each other and how countless founding scientists consider the universe a creation of God. He even read articles from Newsweek and the Denver Post (both very confrontational to Christianity) that supported the notion of a divine element in our cosmos. It was very interesting how they used the word "cosmos" – a word whose meaning is "orderly arrangement."

Dr. Wayne House was next to speak. He continued his teaching on "Law & Government." Yesterday was focused on our country's founding and Christian heritage, and today, the session was focused on the Biblical role of government in general here on earth. Dr. House was followed in turn by Chuck Edwards who spoke on how to properly study your Bible in context – using Matthew 18 as a perfect example of how individual verses taken out of context can come out meaning something completely different.

The next two sessions (separated by a lunch consisting of burritos) were instructed by Dr. Norm Geisler, who continued his series on "Apologetics." He has written over fifty books and has spoken in all fifty states and twenty-five countries, so it was a real blessing to have him here as a guest speaker. He systematically went through twelve steps that you can use to walk a skeptic from not believing in truth itself, to believing the Bible's inerrancy. Along the way, he proved (and taught us how to prove) that truth about reality is knowable; The opposite of true is false; It is true that the theistic God exists; If God exists, then miracles are possible; Miracles can be used to confirm a message from God; The New Testament is historically reliable; The New Testament says Jesus claimed to be God; Jesus' claim to be God was miraculously confirmed by His fulfillment of many prophecies about Himself, His sinless life and miraculous deeds, and His prediction and accomplishment of His resurrection; Therefore, Jesus is God; Whatever Jesus (who is God) teaches is true; Jesus taught that the Bible is the words of God; Therefore, it is true that the Bible is the Word of God (and anything opposed to it is false).

We students had four options for our afternoon recreation: paintballing, horseback riding, hiking, and free–time. The guns were mostly taken up by guys while the horses were ridden by mostly girls. All accounts from the various groups seemed to be positive. Especially, I was told, the paintballing course, which for only $30 a head, was the best one that some had ever played in. Pork roast was the main course for tonight's dinner and was accompanied by roasted potatoes, steamed vegetables, and an excellent salad bar. I am sure that it was highly appreciated by the students coming back from athletic recreation.

The optional open forum was taught by Eric Smith and was more of a miniature, interactive lecture. The topic was pornography. He showed us how various forms of pornography has always been part of the demise of past cultures. Counting American adults alone, 40 million of them are active viewers of pornography. 12% of websites are dedicated to porn. With it ever–present in our society at large, the problem isn't going away on its own, which is why we need to educate the world on its dangers.

The "Worldviews in Collision" lecture taught by Dr. Noebel was a bit different than previously. Since it was a Friday night, he used a lot more of the time for humorous sub–topics in his one and only "Docish" way. The night was finished off with a movie on Communism – focusing first on the history of Marxism–Leninism, and then moving ahead to today's neo–Marxists in our secular universities.

All in all, it was a great day here at the Summit and I look forward to the rest of the session.