InSite, January 2009

Kicking Off the New Year Right

It’s that time of year: everyone is busy telling themselves that they’re going to lose weight, stick to a budget, keep the house cleaner, or write a best-selling novel in the coming year. What about keeping up with your study of God’s Word? Is now the time to resolve to stick with—or get back to—daily Bible study? We’re happy to announce that we have just the thing to help you do that.

AiG friend Larry Pierce—who’s behind the Online Bible software and translated James Ussher’s The Annals of the World into modern English—and his wife, Marion, have been hard at work on another project: modernizing the English and digitizing the sermons of Charles Spurgeon, the “prince of preachers.”

We’re going to begin running the series in a “sermon of the day” format, complementary to his Morning and Evening daily devotional series that we already have. So now there’s even less of an excuse (not that there ever was one!) to meditate on God’s Word each day. The series will also be available through RSS, of course.

Check back toward the end of the month when we’ll post the first sermon, and see how those words—in modern translation—make an impact on your day. We hope and pray you’ll return again and again and find each new sermon a great blessing. Happy new year!

What’s in Store for this Month?

Attention all children, parents, church youth workers, and VBS volunteers: now is the time to get started with Vacation Bible School 2009 planning—and why not let us help?

Operation Space will answer questions many eager young minds no doubt have: Why are people searching for life in outer space? Did meteorites kill the dinosaurs? What’s the difference between astrology and astronomy? Youth will also go through “BASIC training,” learning that the Bible is the Book of books, the Absolute authority, the Salvation story with Incredible impact—and then taking the Cadet challenge to read and study the Bible daily.

If you’re involved in your church’s VBS planning, please take the time to visit AnswersVBS.com and read about the two VBS curricula we have to offer, complete with video previews, reviews, FAQs, and more! And if you like what you see, please prayerfully consider using the new Operation Space (or the successful Amazon Expedition) VBS this summer!

Question of the Month

A.T. from Charles Town, West Virginia, writes to ask:

I’m in contact with a young man that believes Egyptian writtings on the walls of pyramids predate the Bible and the complete Biblical writtings can be found on the walls long before any events ever took place in history. All the stories and events in every book of the bible can be found on this walls centuries before the events, he says. Where can this info be found and best way to refute it.

Did Egyptian civilization predate the Bible? Let’s take a look at what we have on the subject.

• First, we ran a plain, old-fashioned search of our website for “egypt,” then another for “pyramids.” Among what came up: Egypt or Babel: Which Came First?; Dating the Pyramids; Were There Enough People to Build the Pyramids?; Casting Stones at the Pyramids; and The pyramids of ancient Egypt.
• Next, we went to Get Answers: Archaeology (within the category Age of the Earth). There, you’ll find more general articles on the relationship between archaeology and Scripture. There are also relevant links under Get Answers: History, such as the article “Searching for Moses” (which didn’t show up in the top search results) and the offsite article The Egyptian Problem.
• Finally, we viewed all keywords. One useful keyword is “pyramids,” which links us to News to Note, November 15, 2008. Scrolling down, item #6 discusses a pyramid allegedly built long before Noah’s Flood—very similar to the question your contact is asking.

Hopefully that not only gives you some resources in your discussion, A.T., but also gives a good example of how to go about searching our site for answers!

Have a question for InSite? Let us know! (Be sure to mention that your question is intended for InSite.)

Did You Know?

Answers in Genesis finished out 2008 with a total of 27,526,263 pageviews for the year. How many were yours?