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About Us Mission & Vision

Mission & Vision

It’s no secret that the lie of evolution has become a stumbling block for many on their path to salvation. CSI is called to remove this stumbling block by teaching the truth that God is our Creator, that we are made in His image, and that by Him and through Him, all things were made. We believe that God has called this ministry to serve the church community, the general public, and the academic community with the purpose of promoting the biblical foundation of creation so that ultimately, the lost will be led to their Creator and Christians will become stronger in their faith. 

Our vision and primary goal is to disseminate information that supports the origins of man and the universe as stated in the literal interpretation of the Genesis account by equipping Christians, the general public, and the scientific community through exemplary educational programs, exciting creation field expeditions, hands-on creation workshops, seminars, and an on-campus interactive creation science center and museum.

It is our desire to use this information to establish a specialized program in Creation Studies, incorporating several courses of training for future church leaders.

HOW IT ALL STARTED

When I was in college and graduate school, it was unthinkable that evolution could be challenged in a 1970’s classroom. It was never questioned that evolution was a foundational concept in science. It was accepted as a dogmatic fact, and I believed it to be true. During that time, the modern creation movement was beginning to develop traction in churches, but creation was still a largely unknown concept among the general public. My religious education included the stories of Adam and Eve, Noah’s Ark and the Tower of Babel, but I could never make the connection that the people and events in the Old Testament were real. For this reason, it was easy to find myself completely at peace knowing my distant relatives were hairy primates swinging from trees just as the textbooks and my professors taught. In those days, just like today, God was never mentioned in university science classrooms. The professors, texts, and almost all scientific literature blatantly proclaimed evolution in place of the Creator.

“I became a victim of indoctrination; but like so many others in the public educational environment, I did not know it.” Because I accepted evolution, I found it easy to deny God, the Bible, and anything attached to it.

Because I failed to trust God as my Creator and Savior, I was swept up in what might be called the greatest deception of all time: the replacement of God with evolution. It was during my years of higher education that I blossomed into an intellectual fool filled with arrogance and pride. I denied God, and found myself as the person King David described: “The fool has said in his heart, there is no God,” (Psalm 14.1). I had been brainwashed by a false teaching called science. The Apostle Paul warns his young disciple in the faith writing, “O Timothy! Guard what was committed to your trust avoiding the profane and idle babblings and contradictions of what is falsely called knowledge,” (I Timothy 5:22). It took about a decade for me to realize that I had been duped. On August 17, 1978, the Holy Spirit changed me from head to toe into an entirely new creation in Christ. I still celebrate that day when, 35 years ago, I walked into the office of Dr. Ken Wackes, the headmaster of Westminster Academy in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. I walked in as an atheist and I walked out new creature in Christ. I was a hardened, arrogant evolutionist & atheist, but soon found myself a changed man.

Tom and his wife Linda
Tom and Linda DeRosa

My wife and loved ones witnessed what can only be described as a miracle. I trusted in Christ realizing that I was a sinner saved by His undeserving grace. It was this same trust in Christ that would have to resolve the issue of evolution vs. creation. I understood that I had to humble myself before the Lord with the full understanding that He would give me answers to my questions about the age of the earth, dinosaurs, the Ice Age and many other subjects. I resolved to accept God’s Word as the ultimate authority.

Many of my secular professional acquaintances thought I had lost my mind or had a nervous breakdown. They even confronted my wife, Linda, with their concerns. They were blinded to the real issue in the creation vs. evolution debate. What they saw as an intellectual dispute was actually a spiritual battle. When one denies the Creator, one also denies the salvation offered in the gospel of Jesus Christ. Within a year’s time, most of those intellectual questions were answered. I discovered that the answers I found in God’s Word were much more compelling than the evolutionary explanations. What angered me the most was that I had been deceived. Like so many others, I had been led down a path of destruction. The first church I attended, and continued attending for over 30 years, was Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Fort Lauderdale, FL. Under the leadership of the Dr. D. James Kennedy (1930-2007), evangelist, scholar and Christian broadcaster, who knew the importance of the Creation message, I grew in grace and knowledge of the Lord.

This debate can be easily described as a battle within a greater spiritual war. It is actually characterized as such in Ephesians 6:12, “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.”

Dr. Kennedy and Tom DeRosa holding fossils of a mammoth.
Dr. Kennedy and Tom DeRosa

I was nurtured by Dr. Kennedy, who courageously took on controversial topics in his weekly sermons including the creation vs. evolution debate. He was always well-prepared and, for the first time, I began to see the colossal problems contained within the Theory of Evolution. I was encouraged to search the Scriptures in Genesis as well as other books of the Bible to find truth.

Dr. Kennedy loved to bring outstanding creationists to the church, such as Dr. Henry Morris (1918- 2006), a Bible scholar with a Ph.D. in hydraulic engineering, and Dr. Dwayne Gish (1921-2013) who had a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from University of California, Berkeley. These creationist leaders spearheaded the Institute of Creation Research which was at the forefront of the modern creation movement. It was in that first year of being a new Christian that I attended a creation conference at church and met both of these humble men. I bought almost every book on the table and began to read profusely on this topic. I began to understand just how mindless and false the Theory of Evolution really was. It was such a great encouragement to see God’s Word come so alive, and to understand that the Word was the rationale of the entire universe. There is one verse that came out of this conference that became one of my favorite Bible verses, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God,” John 1:1. This verse refers to Christ as the Word “who became flesh.” This “Word” in Greek is the “logos.” It refers to reason or rationale, as in, what is really true. In this verse, God’s “Word” encompasses the Person of Jesus Christ as being the intellectual basis for all reality. It is Christ who gives us a cogent way to find the truth in everything we study, including science. What is greatly encouraging is the more we study the creation, the closer we come to seeing God’s invisible qualities being manifested throughout the entire universe. This is beautifully stated in Romans 1:20, “For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse.”

It was with Dr. Kennedy’s encouragement that I began a Sunday School on creation studies at the church. It started in the early 1980’s and continued for 25 years.

As I taught, studied, and prayed, I became more and more convicted that I had to move this message beyond the walls of the Sunday School classroom. In 1988, a decade after I came to Christ, He called me to begin the Creation Studies Institute, a ministry dedicated to reaching the world with the truth of creation and the gospel of Jesus Christ. He has given me a passion and vision through His Holy Spirit to keep this fire burning for His righteousness and serving as a beacon of light to the unsaved world.

It is has been extremely encouraging to see this ministry expand over the years to reach hundreds of thousands of individuals. We have been privileged to disciple them in the various classes offering both adults and children creation expeditions and Discovery Museum programs. We continue to educate elementary and middle school and home school students with our hands-on science curriculum published by Master Books.

We thank our Creator for allowing us to become effective witnesses for Christ, thereby enabling us by strengthen the faith of God’s people, using a multimedia approach such as radio broadcasts, monthly creation fellowships and our extensive creation information based website.

FIGHTING THE GOOD FIGHT

Where there is passion, there is enthusiasm, excitement, happiness, hope and, life. As believers, we have the promise of eternal life wherein we are to trust and have faith in God. This can only be accomplished through the work of the Holy Spirit. With new life in Christ, we have within us the ability to passionately love God. According to Jesus, this is the first and greatest commandment, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind,” Matt. 22:37. A Passion for Christ means you will not lie idle, but be ready to fight the good fight, no matter what it costs. 1 Timothy 6:12 states “Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.”

We have seen many taken hostage by godless teachings that grievously deceives people by blinding them to their Creator. Without a Creator, the Gospel vanishes.

This is why our ministry exists. We are called by God with a Holy Spirit inspired passion to encourage God’s people to witness about the foundational message of creation. This passion is contagious. I have seen the power of the gospel of our Creator Who became our Savior spread throughout our staff, volunteers, donors, thereby touching so many others over the past 25 years.

On many occasions, I have seen our staff demonstrate this same passion by generously giving of themselves to this cause. Over the years, there have been hundreds of people who have consistently volunteered. They do this because they had an understanding of the vital importance of the Creation message with regard to the gospel. I have been greatly encouraged by seeing so many people moving forward with a passion for Christ’s righteousness and the truth of His Word that I can only say Hallelujah!

Without a godly vision, all the plans of men will end in destruction. In the King James Version of the Bible, in Proverbs 29:18, it states, “Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he.” The uniqueness of our ministry is in the area of training and equipping the believer to understand that the foundation of the Gospel is the Creation account. We experience God in both His Word and His Creation, and our ministry is always making connections through educational programs. These programs consist of hands-on experiences and activities including fossil hunts and academic courses.

We need God’s people to share our passion and vision so that we can reach the world with the vital message of Creation. We cannot continue fighting this good fight of faith alone. Our ministry has trained tens of thousands of men, women and children over the years. We need you to partner with us so we can continue God’s work reaching the world with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. You can help us bring this ministry to a new level by making a financial gift as we celebrate 25 years of ministry. We thank God for keeping us in existence all this time. We appreciate you holding us up, both in prayer and in sacrificial giving, as we move forward in this darkened world with the basic truth that Jesus Christ is our Creator and Savior.

Tom DeRosa
Executive Director of CSI