Faithful Witness: ‘Courage and the Coal Formation Essay’
Every believer, every day, no matter their age or circumstances, will have providential opportunity to be faithful and lean wholly on the Word of God. Sometimes that will be privately, sometimes that will be publicly.
We at CViE are pleased to re-print this lovely story of the faithful witness of a geography student to his teacher, as a reminder that the Lord will use the simple to shame the wise, and we cannot know the impact on others that our actions will have.
May we learn, too, from this child about Holding fast the faithful word as he hath been taught, that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers. Titus 1:9
From the CViE Newsletter, June 2006:
“The Coal Formation Essay
In year 8, our geography course included the study of coal formation. When an essay with this title was set for homework, not liking ‘the millions of years’ stated in most sources, I relied on the little booklet Evidences of the Flood. When I received my essay back I had achieved a low mark and at the bottom was written “Please stay behind and see me after class”. Much prayer was squeezed out during that lesson over what my geography teacher would say and the scorn he would pour upon me.
After the lesson I presented myself at his desk. Coming round and sitting down with me on a table he said that my essay was one of the best he had read. He said I was the only person to look outside the text book and that I held my corner well. He wanted me to know this, but at the same time to realise my mark was low because I did not work from within the curriculum. He said he respected personal views but “do not let them creep into classwork”. I thanked him and left, thanking the Lord for going before me. On hearing of why I was detained, several boys asked me for a copy of the booklet and I gladly supplied ten or so copies. One often wonders whether they were read and the whereabouts of those booklets now.
A few years later, when working with me on something else, the teacher remarked to me “Of all the essays I have marked in my teaching career, the one I remember most vividly is your one on coal formation”. When I got home there was a lengthy article on coal formation in the Creation Magazine. I gave my teacher a copy. When I was in the sixth form the teacher left the school for another post. On his last day he called me into his office and said to me that my theory of coal formation seemed far nearer the truth than the common theory of ‘millions of years’ did when he first read my essay. “I have a copy at home with the article you copied me. Together I read them regularly. They question all that I was taught but I am proving in life there are times when we have to move on, not only to new jobs but to new ideas and to accept past impossibilities as present possibilities”.
May the Lord strengthen all in education to stand fast on His Word.
