Dan Saylak and AiG Board Meetings

Dear Friends,

A good friend of ours, Dan Saylak died Sunday night. Dan battled cancer for 7 years and after a long, painful struggle he went home to be with the Lord. Dan and Amy Saylak made numerous visits to Jackson Hole over the years and we have had the privilege to be in their home in Texas. Amy helped with decorations for Annie and Jared's wedding and their daughters were good friends of Annie and of several in our church family. Dan was well known doctor who had a wonderful practice and was president of a doctor’s association.

Dan’s dad, Don Saylak, has taught for many years at JHBC bringing scientific support for a literal text of Genesis. Don and Nancy are dear friends who attend CBC in the summers while in Jackson. 

We ask that you would be praying for the entire Saylak family. Especially be praying for their daughter, Susie, who is getting married on June 30^th in just a few weeks.  The wedding will be a very emotional time for all.

We hope to see Amy when she comes to Jackson to visit in the future.

The Board meeting for AiG went well.  There was much to do and so little time.  Ken was on a debate on TBN and asked me to lead a staff chapel to talk about the debate and the issues covered.  I spoke on Friday morning to the staff and that message was put on mp3 and is on the Internet for the public to listen to.  I hope you might have time to listen to it as well. Here is the link to Ken’s blog which has a copy of the chapel message: http://blogs.answersingenesis.org/blogs/ken-ham/2012/06/09/millions-of-years—an-attack-on-the-cross/

After the meeting we traveled to upstate Michigan and stayed for two nights with the Manthei family.  Dan and Kathy live near Petoskey, Michigan and Dan has been a board member of AiG from the initial formation of the ministry.  Their son, Micah, graduated from JHBC in 2010.  Dan opened the door for me to speak to a small group at his church following the morning worship time and that went well. I spoke on the state of our times and how the ministry of JHBC and AiG is working to instruct folks and present the good news of Jesus.

While with the Manthei family we went out on the Lake at their home and Beverly got to go ride a jet ski.  She was not driving but the jet ski went up to 58 miles per hour. 

This morning we left and took our time making our way across the third

longest suspension bridge, which goes across the strait where Lake 

Michigan meets Lake Huron.  We have had a great time relaxing along the way and tonight we left the humidity and heat in the east and now the weather is cool in Ironwood, Michigan, just on the border with Wisconsin.

We are looking forward to being back with you all this weekend. Thank you so much for your prayers and support.

Pastor Don

Dr. Ken Ham and Eric Hovind on TBN

I am sure all of you know that in the teaching of Community Bible Church, Jackson Hole Bible College, and Rocky Mountain Ministries we make a big issue of the authority of Scripture and the current hermeneutic crisis across the country. The American church has mixed the influence of postmodernism (there is no absolute truth and truth is whatever you wish it to be) with a lack of education, training and adherence to reading the Bible with a literal, historical, grammatical, contextual approach. Everywhere we find pastors, church members and para-church leaders making the Bible say whatever they want it to. Today many believers are holding to correct doctrine on the work of Christ in the New Testament, yet their view of Genesis is figurative, spiritual, or a distorted and mutilated literal view.  They are trying to fit millions of years into the Genesis account. 

Ultimately they are trying to mix the word of man (secular historical science) with God’s inspired Word. A mixture sounds noble, trying to make the Creation account more appealing using modern science views but this syncretism has proven disastrous for today’s church and the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. We teach that if you hold a view of millions of years before Adam and Eve, you automatically accept that what is buried in the fossil record existed before Adam’s sin.  Since the record includes death, decay, disease, tumors, cancer, then all of this existed before Adam sinned.  The strata of rock even has fossils of thorns!  Yet God says thorns were a result of Adam’s sin. The Bible is very clear that death and decay etc. are the results of Adam’s sin.

Now it might sound like just an argument from the past with little impact on us today but… ...if Adam’s sin brought about death and Jesus Christ is the last Adam as presented in the New Testament then what did Jesus accomplish on the cross?  He certainly would not have died to correct the problem of sin and death.  As many teach today, Christ Himself created death as a part of the good creation then if He died to fix the issue of death, the last enemy, then He would have died for His own creative actions!  In fact if the old earth position is correct then Christ would not have fixed anything about physical death in Christ’s atonement!  Why then would He even have had to die physically?  Why a need for a physical resurrection?

This is a critical issue since an old earth view is really an attack on the cross, the Word of Christ and an attack on the person of Christ Himself!

This past week a great opportunity opened up for two of our professors at Jackson Hole Bible College. Dr. Ken Ham and Eric Hovind were invited to be on a TV program on TBN.  It turned into a debate with Dr. Hugh Ross, one of the leading proponents of old earth view. This debate is so relevant, and the topic is so important I encourage you to view it as soon as you can. Thousands have already seen it so please join in and get the message out!  (as of today, June 6 at 11.45 am EST, 26,209 people had viewed the TBN debate!) You can view it at: http://www.itbn.org/index/detail/lib/Networks/sublib/TBN/ec/RjNW53NDodbPdWZMesby0hMNzxHCg2Kk It is not only an authority of Scripture issue, this issue affects a central theological issue since it concerns significance and implications concerning the blood atoning work of Christ.

Thank you for your continued support of the ministry in Jackson. God bless you,

Don Landis

Teaching Pastor, Community Bible Church; President, Jackson Hole Bible College

Time in Pennsylvania

Good Afternoon:

Craig and Deborah Graber have returned from China and are in Jackson on a short furlough.  They are missionaries supported by our fellowship at CBC.  Craig will be bringing the message on Sunday along with a presentation for the children.  You won’t want to miss this report of their exciting work.

I hear all good reports from last week’s service in the town square! Philip Wilson, one of the elders at CBC, gave the sermon for Cowboy Church.  I hear it was a bit cold but there was still a good attendance. Thanks Philip for your outspoken faith. 

We are enjoying our visit with family here in Pennsylvania.  Beverly is seeing lots of relatives and is as busy as ever.

After staying with Jared’s folks Friday night we arrived on Saturday at a special family reunion and 50^th birthday party for Beverly’s brother Herb.  Herb is quite a guy and we had a great time celebrating his birthday.

Sunday morning we attended Cedar Crest Bible Fellowship church.  The Memorial Day special speaker was Clebe McClary. The talk that he gave was very inspirational. You can get more info at his web site, www.clebemcclary.com/. We had a chance to chat and invited him to come to Jackson sometime.

Sunday afternoon we traveled to upstate PA and spent the evening and next morning with Dennis and Steffi Landis at the “Loft”.  Their children Jason & Amy and Kyle & Christi also live at the camp and we saw firsthand again what the Lord is doing there in their lives.  We also saw the new media building which is nearing completion at the Loft.

  

Many years ago Dad and Mom built a cabin in the Pocono Mts. of Pennsylvania for our family to use.  Well it wasn’t long before groups like our youth group and groups from Youth For Christ (my job before moving to Jackson) started using the cabin too!  In a very short time the “Loft” as it was called was used all the time to host retreats.  After Mom and Dad moved to Jackson the cabin was sold but the ministry was moved to a new site in upstate Pennsylvania where it is today – and going strong. Check out their ministry at: http://theloftministries.org/id4.html 

Memorial Day we traveled with Joyce and Dave (you have been praying for him at CBC) along with Herb into the mountains and had a delightful time visiting sites like Mauch Chunk and Jim Thorpe!

This week we visited my Aunt Margaret Miller who is living in a Mennonite home here. 

We had a great time visiting with Lance and Karen Eisele.  They are in Pennsylvania waiting on the Lord for a new assignment; Lance really wants to get back into the pastoral ministry.  

It is very hot and humid here in Pennsylvania until yesterday. One forgets what humidity is like when we are used to living in snow country.

Mowed some lawn yesterday and spent an afternoon by myself at one of my favorite places where we used to camp as a family, Hickory Run State park.  (Beverly visited more relatives and shopped with her sister Joyce) We have some more family time and last minute visits today before we head out to the AiG museum tomorrow.

Ken Ham and Eric Hovind were on TBN and I encourage you to check out the debate with Hugh Ross.

http://www.itbn.org/index/detail/lib/Networks/sublib/TBN/ec/RjNW53NDodbPdWZMesby0hMNzxHCg2Kk

Thanks for your prayers.