Mike Riddle, Creation Training Initiative (CTI)

Mike boils down the issues to easy to understand terms and details. He is a great teacher and his passion for Creation and the Scriptures are evident.

He’s so well informed and spoken that he stands out over other scholars and speakers. Highly impressive. He’s a six-star educator.

I am grateful for this resource! Our school is having an age of the earth unit and I am very excited to share what Mike Riddle has taught through his videos!

I should preface this review. I only listened to about 10-12 episodes, and not all in order. I think I tend to agree with most of what is presented, but not with how it is presented. He makes a lot of good arguments, no doubt. I thought I had finally found a thought-provoking podcast about the Bible presented by someone with sound doctrine and humility. While there is a lot of good information here, and I believe Mike's doctrine is probably very sound, I really don't enjoy this podcast. I find his style off-putting, and it comes across as proud and condescending to me. I can't think of any examples of evidence he presented that wasn't presented as established, unassailable fact. He quotes some experts as fools or liars and others as absolute authorities, even though, many times, the qualifications for the experts are pretty similar. Why should I believe this professor of ancient linguistics and not that other one? In one example, he discusses 5 arguments in favor of the gap theory. I don't claim to be a proponent of the gap theory, but I find it interesting. Two of the five arguments he chose, I've never heard before. One, the translation of "was," is not nearly as settled as he declares. He doesn't even consider Isaiah 45:18 at all. Another argument, that death/decay could not have existed before Adam and Eve's sin, is not even tried by the gap theory. Death and decay experienced by humans and animals did not have to occur during the gap. The gap could have simply been a time during which Satan fell, for example. Is the gap theory still provocative if it's just about a landscape filled with angels and/or fallen angels? Maybe, maybe not, but Mike already has all the answers and declares with conviction that anyone who disagrees with him must be a fool or a liar.