For the past two years (since 1999) I and the Lord, I Believe workshop have been heavily criticized for my perceived views concerning the age of the earth and universe. This criticism has come primarily from some of my own brethren in the body of Christ.  (I worship with the Weatherly Heights congregation in Huntsville AL, who have been very supportive.)  From 1987 until 1999 we received more requests than we could immediately fill. We were able to offer about six workshops each year, but frequently congregations would have to wait for up to two years for us to meet their request for a workshop. Since 1999 we have had no new requests for workshops.

That year I was invited to speak at the annual Florida College Lectures on using multimedia technology to teach apologetics.  Carol taught a women's series on teaching apologetics to children. The issue of the age of the earth was not one of our topics, nor have we in our lectures ever advocated any particular view of the age of the earth. However, after those FC lectures, I was falsely labeled in some print and online journals as a “theistic evolutionist” because I accept the possibility – probability – of an old earth. We do not use some of the standard apologetic approaches made familiar to us by proponents of young earth creationism, such as flood geology. However, there is no lesson in the LIB workshop that attempts to prove what the age of the earth or universe is: both young and old viewpoints are briefly presented for the adult class and the matter is left as an issue for ongoing study. Nor have I ever presented public lessons giving any particular interpretation of the duration of the days of Genesis, although I have written some thoughts on that topic as part of my continuing personal study.  My apologetic teaching focuses on the complete failure of the general theory of evolution as a naturalistic alternative to divine creation, contrasted with the overwhelming natural evidence for divine creation and the historical evidence for the resurrection of Jesus. Nonetheless, in many honest believers’ minds, antiquity is synonymous with evolution and unbelief, even though it is not. And so the invitations have ceased. We have worked through the workshops that remained on the schedule, with our last one scheduled in early 2002 in the Atlanta area. 

That is why there are no other workshops for you to attend: no one has invited us lately.

All one needs to do to shut down such an effort among churches committed to Biblical authority is to proclaim widely (even if false) that the teacher is an evolutionist. Any libel said loud enough and often enough, will prevail.  Unscrupulous politicians and lawyers learned long ago how to exploit this feature of human nature, and honed it to a fine art with the advent of mass media. And so by similar means, such untruths about LIB have been successful. I think for the most part, sincere brethren just don’t need another source of strife, and wisely decided not to subject their congregation to the kind of outside harassment and internal turmoil that has surrounded the workshop recently. 

I strongly honor the right of all congregations to decide what teaching is appropriate for their circumstance. I do not have the idea that every congregation should invite us to do a workshop for them. In fact, we have held workshops in places where I thought the congregation probably could have used their time in better ways.  Probably many congregations do not need this intense of a study in Christian Evidences, but some decided that they did. Congregations with thoughtful young people dealing with attacks on their faith from a scientific perspective seemed to benefit from the studies. Congregations with saints focused on evangelizing unbelievers found the studies useful. We were priviledged to be able to study with about 15,000 students over these past fifteen years. We have never sought out nor solicited invitations, and will not do so now. It has always been a bit of a surprise to me that anyone ever invited us in the first place. It was not in our minds at the beginning that we would ever be asked beyond the initial request, which came from the congregation of my youth. Because of that request we put together the first series of weekend classes in 1987, which came to be known as Lord, I Believe. We have no personal name recognition among other churches, little public speaking experience, and are not outstanding in any other way.  Nonetheless, for a brief time, there apparently was a need, to which we were able to respond. "We are yet just unprofitable servants."

However, it becomes much more difficult to maintain the momentum of such a complex workshop if it is seldom practiced. We fall behind on the relevant research, some of the teachers have moved on to other endeavors, we lose the "edge" on our material, the equipment fails, time and money are more limited: things just don’t go smoothly. Some of the LIB teachers were suffering undeserved slander and persecution for their unprecedented efforts to help children grow in their faith. For these reasons I accepted as of August 2001 that  LIB was  “a dead horse”. However, the other teachers do not seem to be so willing to let the effort slip into just a memory. Consequently, if any group wishes to host these studies, we will do our best to honor that wish!

Currently my plans are to continue to maintain this web site as a service to those who might yet find some of the information here useful in their own seeking or service.

My prayer is taken from an apologist of old who experienced similar turmoil.  

Sincerely,
Hill Roberts
September, 2001