Salvation Army Band To Record At Rockfield Studios

Salvation Army Band To Record At Rockfield Studios To Support Music Projects With Young People

by Elly

Supported and funded by the legendary Welsh entertainer, Bryn Yemm, Salvation Brass will record a selection of traditional and contemporary songs and hymns to produce the collaborative album, Bryn Yemm meets Salvation Brass.

All proceeds from the sales of the album will go towards creative and music projects with young people that are led and centred on their needs, across the South and Mid Wales Division of the Salvation Army.

This includes residential schools for young people in Wales, to enable them to take part in musical and creative arts activities. The residential schools aim to build confidence and self-esteem, and enable young people to develop creative, musical, interpersonal and life skills.

Bryn Yemm was adopted into a Salvation Army family in Abergavenny and was first inspired to sing as a singer at Sunday School. Bryn has gone on to enjoy worldwide success with a career in Christian music and entertainment. Bryn has organised and is funding the recording session at Rockfield studios, near Monmouth.

Bryn said: “My formative years were spent at Abergavenny Corps. The Salvation Army was hugely important to me growing up. Every time I hear a Salvation Army band something clicks inside me and I get really emotional. My hope is that the funds from this album will go towards projects for young people to enable them to gain experience and develop new skills through music and creative arts, so that they can be inspired as I was”.

Dean Jones, Music and Creative Arts Specialist and Leader of Salvation Brass said: “We are sincerely grateful to Bryn Yemm for providing the band with this opportunity to record an album at Rockfield studios, where so many legendary bands have recorded. We are hope that the production of this album will enable many young people across Wales the chance to learn, develop skills and gain life-changing experiences through music and creativity”.

George Martin, South and Mid Wales Divisional Youth Specialist said: “The Salvation Army has long had a strong musical and creative arts background with music and summer schools having a big impact on young people growing up. Despite this, the Salvation Army in South & Mid Wales has not had one of these summer residentials in over 30 years! The fact that funds from this album will help make this happen is amazing and could influence many young people in South & Mid Wales for years to come. Next week, after the album recording, we are having our first Creative Arts Weekend in Coleg Trefeca, an important place in the journey of the Welsh Revival 100 years ago. We hope and pray that it will be another important place for the journey of The Salvation Army in South & Mid Wales."

For more than 150 years The Salvation Army has been transforming lives and continues to do so today in communities across the UK and throughout the world.

11 Christian Missionaries Crucified and Beheaded

Residents inspect damage from what activists said was an airstrike by forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on the town of Douma, eastern Ghouta in Damascus. (Reuters)

At several steps on their path to death by beheading and crucifixion last month, 11 indigenous Christian workers near Aleppo, Syria, had the option to leave the area and live. The 12-year-old son of a ministry team leader also could have spared his life by denying Christ.

The indigenous missionaries were not required to stay at their ministry base in a village near Aleppo, Syria; rather, the ministry director who trained them had entreated them to leave. As the Islamic State (ISIS), other rebel groups and Syrian government forces turned Aleppo into a war zone of carnage and destruction, ISIS took over several outlying villages. The Syrian ministry workers in those villages chose to stay in order to provide aid in the name of Christ to survivors.

"I asked them to leave, but I gave them the freedom to choose," said the ministry director, his voice tremulous as he recalled their horrific deaths. "As their leader, I should have insisted that they leave."

They stayed because they believed they were called to share Christ with those caught in the crossfire, he said.

"Every time we talked to them," the director said, "they were always saying, 'We want to stay here—this is what God has told us to do. This is what we want to do.' They just wanted to stay and share the gospel."

Those who chose to stay could have scattered and hid in other areas, as their surviving family members did. On a visit to the surviving relatives in hiding, the ministry director learned of the cruel executions.

The relatives said ISIS militants on Aug. 7 captured the Christian workers in a village whose name is withheld for security reasons. On Aug. 28, the militants asked if they had renounced Islam for Christianity. When the Christians said that they had, the rebels asked if they wanted to return to Islam. The Christians said they would never renounce Christ.

The 41-year-old team leader, his young son and two ministry members in their 20s were questioned at one village site where ISIS militants had summoned a crowd. The team leader presided over nine house churches he had helped to establish. His son was two months away from his 13th birthday.

"All were badly brutalized and then crucified," the ministry leader said. "They were left on their crosses for two days. No one was allowed to remove them."

The martyrs died beside signs the ISIS militants had put up identifying them as "infidels."

Eight other ministry team members, including two women, were taken to another site in the village that day (Aug. 28) and were asked the same questions before a crowd. The women, ages 29 and 33, tried to tell the ISIS militants they were only sharing the peace and love of Christ and asked what they had done wrong to deserve the abuse. The Islamic extremists then publicly raped the women, who continued to pray during the ordeal, leading the ISIS militants to beat them all the more furiously.

As the two women and the six men knelt before they were beheaded, they were all praying.

"Villagers said some were praying in the name of Jesus, others said some were praying the Lord's prayer, and others said some of them lifted their heads to commend their spirits to Jesus," the ministry director said. "One of the women looked up and seemed to be almost smiling as she said, 'Jesus!'"

After they were beheaded, their bodies were hung on crosses, the ministry director said, his voice breaking. He had trained all of the workers for their evangelistic ministry, and he had baptized the team leader and some of the others.

Hundreds of former Muslims in Syrian villages are in danger of being captured and killed by ISIS, which is fighting to establish a caliphate in which apostasy is punishable by death. The underground church in the region has mushroomed since June 2014, when ISIS began terrorizing those who do not swear allegiance to its caliphate, both non-Muslims and Muslims. Consequently, the potential for large-scale executions has grown along with the gains in ISIS-controlled territory.

The ministry assisted by Christian Aid Mission is providing resources and trying to find ways to evacuate these families by other routes.

Many of the ministry's teams also remain in Syria. Christian Aid Mission assists those who do not or cannot leave with the means to survive.

Even those who leave, however, may encounter ISIS militants and other criminals in refugee camps, said the leader of another ministry that Christian Aid Mission assists. He spoke of a Muslim from northern Syria who, like all men in areas that ISIS takes over, was coerced into joining the caliphate or being killed.

Recruited into ISIS, he fled the country after his brother was killed in the fighting. Disillusioned with ISIS but still adhering to Islam and its teaching that Christians and Jews are unclean "pigs," he went to Amman, Jordan, as he had learned that relatives there were receiving aid from Christians.

The Muslim, whose name is withheld for security reasons, went to a Christian meeting with the intention of killing the aid workers gathered there. Something kept him from following through on his plan, though, and that night he saw Jesus in a dream, the ministry director said.

"The next day he came back and said, 'I came to kill you, but last night I saw Jesus, and I want to know what are you teaching—who is this One who held me up from killing you?'" the director said. "He received Christ with tears, and today he's actually helping in the church, helping out other people. We're praying for lots of such Sauls to change to Pauls."

The sorrow of the ministry team leader who lost 11 workers and one of their children last month has been deep, but he takes heart that their faithfulness could help change the hearts of persecutors.

"They kept on praying loudly and sharing Jesus until their last breath," he said. "They did this in front of the villagers as a testimony for others."

He asked for prayer for surviving family members and for himself.

"These things have been very hard on me," he said. "What wrong did those people do to deserve to die? What is happening is more and more people are being saved. The ministry is growing and growing—in the past we used to pray to have one person from a Muslim background come to the Lord. Now there are so many we can barely handle all the work among them."

Perspectives on the Evolution/Creation Controversy -3- Conclusion

Part Three Conclusion

The progressive creation position (depending upon the individual) may move further from a literal reading of scripture to become increasingly non-literal (at least with regard to the first chapters of Genesis). For example, the 6 days of Genesis, as with the old earth position, may be interpreted as actually referring to a longer period of time. (Note that the two examples of old earth creation - day-age and days of revelation – will also accommodate a progressive creation position.) Similarly, the Noachian flood may be taken non-literally (e.g., as referring to a localized instead of a world-wide flood), since it implies that many species became extinct at one time rather than progressively. 

The final position to consider is the theistic evolution position. Advocates of this position generally accept the physical evidence as showing that the earth/universe are quite old. In addition, the theistic evolution position also accepts the biological evidence as showing that all living things came from a common ancestor; new species occur as a result of divergent development, usually of isolated populations experiencing unique environmental pressures. Thus, the theistic evolutionary position is like the atheistic evolution position in that both positions accept the extensive physical and biological evidence. Unlike the atheistic evolution position however (which argues that evolution is undirected), the theistic evolution position argues that God guides the evolutionary process, usually in a subtle way. Thus, evolution has occurred, but God has directed it.

The theistic evolution position (depending upon the individual) generally moves further from a literal reading of scripture to become increasingly non-literal (at least with regard to the first chapters of Genesis). Some advocates for a theistic evolution position adopt similar views of scripture to the old earth and progressive creation perspectives. (The day-age and days of revelation positions will accommodate a theistic evolution position). Other advocates for a theistic evolution position adopt stronger non-literal views on the beginning chapters of Genesis – Genesis 1 up to Genesis 11:9 (i.e., the tower of Babel). These stronger views may regard the beginning chapters of Genesis as “Creation Narratives;” creation narratives (or creation myths) are not literally true, but are intended to convey a symbolic explanation of how creation came to be as it is and of the place of humans, for example, in creation.

Again, with the exception of the atheistic evolution position, the 4 remaining positions (young earth creation, old earth creation, progressive creation, and theistic evolution) are held by committed, mature Christians who have grappled with how to reconcile the evidence of Scripture and science. I recommend that people interested in the creationist-evolutionist controversy avoid reading individuals at either end of the continuum, simply because most people are likely to already be more familiar with the ends of the continuum. I have provided a short list of older books below. Older books should be cheaper and perhaps more available on Amazon. You may not agree with all of the conclusions of the authors below (I don't). However, there are many devout Christian scholars and scientists who try to reconcile the apparently differing accounts of scripture and sciences rather rejecting one end of the continuum or the other. They get short shrift from the opposite ends of the spectrum, but are engaged in earnestly and carefully thinking about the evolution-creation controversy. 

Moreland, J. P., & Reynolds, J. M. (1999). Three views on creation and evolution. Grand Rapids: Zondervan. An easily readable book describing three Christian positions: young earth creationism, old earth creationism, and theistic evolution. 

Fischer, D. (1996). The origins solution: An answer in the creation-evolution debate. Lima, OH: Fairway Press. One individual approach to resolving the controversy.

Miller, K. B. (2003). Perspective on an evolving creation. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans. Miller is a highly esteemed author of some of most widely used biology textbooks in U.S. high schools.

Miller, K. R. (2007). Finding Darwin's God: a scientist's search for common ground between God and evolution (P.S.). New York: Harper Perennial. Miller is a highly esteemed author of some of most widely used biology textbooks in U.S. high schools.

Pun, P. P. T.  (1982). Evolution: nature and Scripture in conflict? Grand Rapids: Zondervan. Although a little outdated now, Pun is an advocate of progressive creationism, a perspective that is less common than other Christian perspectives. 

Steven J. Hayduk

Former Salvation Army Officer

Canada

Perspectives on the Evolution/Creation Controversy -2- of Three

Part Two

         

The first approach we should briefly consider is the atheistic evolutionary perspective. In particular, we should recognize that this position is unlikely to be held by many sincere Christians. After all, a position that denies there is a God (atheism) is not easily reconciled with claims about God’s creative and redemptive acts! Nevertheless, this position is worth mentioning because it is typically one of the positions in the evolution/creation debate that gets more media attention.

The second approach to consider is young earth creation, which is the other position that gets more media attention, especially within Christian media. This approach is likely to be one of the more familiar perspectives to many Christians. It generally holds that God engaged in the process of creation in 6 literal days a relatively short time ago (i.e., 4000-10000 years ago). This position is drawn from a literal interpretation of the 6 days of creation of Genesis 1, combined with a close reliance on Biblical genealogies and timelines (such as that by Bishop Ussher) suggesting Adam and Eve were created about 6000 years ago (about 4000 BC). This close adherence to a literal understanding of scripture raises problems for reconciling it with evidence from other sources.

         

So, for example, fields of study such as astronomy, physics, astrophysics, engineering (e.g., space exploration) and geology (among others) have produced a large amount of consistent and unified evidence for the age of the universe/earth. Young earth creationists generally deal with this evidence by rejecting or questioning the evidence and assumptions provided by the relevant fields of study. Evidence about the relatedness or similarity of extinct and extant (currently existing) species is explained by the fact that God created all of them; the similarities simply reflect God’s design or plans. The fact that there are many extinct species is argued to primarily reflect the flood narratives (Genesis 6-9); many species that are now extinct (e.g., dinosaurs, ammonites) became extinct due to the flood.

The third approach I will consider is the old earth creation position. In contrast to the young earth creation position, the old earth creation position generally accepts as valid the large amount of physical evidence suggesting that the universe/earth are quite old. However, advocates of an old earth position tend to adopt similar perspectives of the biological evidence about the similarity of extinct and extant species as young earth creationists – that all species were created in a relatively short period of time (i.e., days) and that genetic and morphological similarities reflect God’s design, rather than evolutionary processes. Similarly, the extinction of many species is generally attributed to the Noachian flood. 

Because the old earth creation position moves away from a strictly literal reading of Biblical timelines/genealogies, a degree of “interpretation” of the Biblical narrative is often adopted by advocates of this position. Two examples of this are the “day = age” interpretation and the “days of revelation” interpretations of Genesis 1. The “day = age” interpretation is more familiar to many Christians; this interpretation argues that the days of Genesis actually reflect long periods of time, along the lines of Psalm 90:4 - A thousand years in your sight are like a day that has just gone by . . . (NIV). That is, although Genesis refers to 6 days, these days are not 6 literal days, but are 6 longer time periods. Alternatively, supporters of the creative “days of revelation” interpretation of Genesis 1 accept the 6 days of Genesis, but understand these NOT as days during which God created things, but rather as 6 days during which God explained to Moses how He created everything. That is, according to this position, God created everything over a very long period of time, but God took 6 days to explain or reveal to Moses what He created and how He did it. In both examples (day-age and days of revelation), the 6 days of Genesis are still 6 days. However, both examples add a little twist to the interpretation – either applying other scripture (i.e., the day=age example) or a creative reading of scripture.

The fourth position, progressive creation, accepts the physical evidence about the age of the universe/earth and increasingly accommodates the biological evidence. This position argues that creation occurred over a long period of time, but, in contrast to the young earth position, in which all living things were created within a relatively short space of time (e.g., the 3rd, 5th, and 6th days of Genesis 1), the progressive creation position suggests that species were created “one at a time” over the (long) time course of creation. From this perspective, individual species were not created “all at once.” Rather, God is continually involved in creating individual species (e.g., apatosaurs, ammonites, mastodons) as appropriate and as reflected in the geological and paleontological record.” Creation (of species) is an ongoing process, but evidence about the relatedness or similarity of extinct and extant species is still explained by God’s design. The difference lies in whether living things were created “all at once” or progressively, a “little” at a time.

Steven J. Hayduk

Former Salvation Army Officer

Canada

Perspectives on the Evolution/Creation Controversy

The vast majority of what we hear about the evolution/creation controversy comes from the rather vocal ends of a spectrum of views. These two ends (the supporters of “young earth creation” and “atheistic evolution”) debate through the media and other avenues, often generating more heat than light. However, while the extremes engage in heated debate (or talk past each other), there are a host of sincere, educated Christians who have carefully considered scriptural and scientific evidence to arrive at a range of intermediate views seeking to harmonize the evidence. In what follows, I will briefly summarize 5 perspectives on the evolution-creation issue.

Let me begin with what everyone (regardless of perspective) generally agrees upon.

First, most people recognize that the universe and earth give the appearance of being very old (universe = 13.8 billion years old, earth = 4.5 billion years old). Note that I do not say that the universe and earth are old, but that they appear old. I will say more about this later.

Second, most people recognize that a variety of species exists today and a variety of species previously existed (e.g., mammoths, dinosaurs, ammonites, dodos and so on). Furthermore, clear patterns of similarity (e.g., genetic similarity, morphological similarity) exist among species that exist today. Patterns of similarity also exist between the species existing today and species that no longer exist. Thus, for example, mastodons, mammoths, and modern elephants show genetic commonalities that are unique to that group. Similarly, dogs and bears show genetic similarities or commonalities, some of which do not exist in other creatures. Even strains of influenza virus (e.g., modern flu strains vs. the 1918 flu pandemic virus) show genetic similarities (which is why we can have “flu shots”). The genetic similarities are echoed by morphological (i.e., bone structure or physical structure) similarities. Mastodons, mammoths, and modern elephants show similar physical and bone structure, as do dogs/bears, or feline species (e.g., lions, saber-tooth tigers, housecats, and so on).

Three, adherents of each position below (with one exception - atheistic evolution), also consider the scripture of the Old and New Testaments to be divinely inspired and authoritative for Christian faith/doctrine and practice. That is, every position (except for atheistic evolution) is held by sincere Christians who are committed to the Bible as their guide for faith/practice; a number of these Christians also have graduate degrees (e.g., PhDs) in the sciences or social sciences and serve as faculty at a host of Christian universities and colleges around the world.

Having noted what most individuals involved in this debate agree upon, the question then becomes one of reconciling these three sources of evidence (physical evidence about the age of the earth/universe, biological evidence about species and their relationships, and scriptural evidence about God’s role in creation). In the chart I have provided below, I have presented 5 attempts at reconciling these lines of evidence. These attempts form a spectrum of views. I will start by very briefly addressing the single “non-Christian” view – atheistic evolution, then proceed to the other extreme (young earth creation) and subsequently address the middle 3 positions. Keep in mind that these are general perspectives; each perspective may contain several variations. Furthermore, the perspectives are not always clearly separable from each other. Individuals may hold views that combine or are on the border of two perspectives.

	Young Earth Creation	Old Earth Creation	Progressive Creation	Theistic Evolution	Atheistic Evolution
Very brief summary	God created all in 6 days a relatively short time ago (i.e., 4000-8000 years ago)	God created all in 6 days a long time ago (billions of years ago)	God created separate species over a long period of time.	Separate species appeared over a long period of time, through the “God directed” evolutionary process.	There is no God. Separate species appeared over a long period of time, though the evolutionary process.
Approach to Bible	Generally a strict literal approach to Bible	Generally a literal approach, with some interpretation. E.g., day = age theory, days of revelation theory	Non-literal approach	Non-literal approach	Rejection of Scripture
Scientific evidence (physical)	Rejects	Accepts	Accepts	Accepts	Accepts
Scientific evidence (biological)	Rejects	Rejects	Accepts some	Accepts	Accepts
Held by Christians	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No

Steven J. Hayduk

Former Salvation Army Officer

Canada