Who am I? I am, by profession, a physicist, geophysicist and engineer, and have been a Christian for 37 years--a little over half my life. I am interested in all facets of Christian experience, but Biblical creation and eschatology have always been of special interest to me.
Richard Hawkins of Audiocentral.com suggested earlier this summer that I ought to publish an occasional newsletter. To my amazement, several hundred people (who were mostly strangers to me) signed up. So, friends new and old, here is Issue #1 which I trust will be of interest and of encouragement.
In early 1995 several friends and I felt led to put the life-work (800 sermons) of the late Ray C. Stedman on Internet (http://raystedman.org/). This library immediately drew a sizeable daily audience. We were quickly convinced of the vast potential of Internet for the extension of the Christian gospel to all corners of the world at minimal cost and effort.
Since my office is always hopelessly cluttered and stacked floor to ceiling with mail, journals, clippings, and articles I realized that I could use a web page of my own, (http://ldolphin.org/). It would be, if nothing else, an easily accessible personal filing cabinet--public to be sure. However that openness of disclosure of notes and articles has motivated me to edit and rewrite various articles that otherwise would have been unfinished and probably eventually lost. In the end, just about anything anyone wants to know about me will be found tucked away somewhere on my web site. (For instance, at the suggest of my old boss, Ray Leadabrand, I posted a humorous summary of my 30 years in research at SRI International. This summer a high school friend added our Egypt archaeological reports from the '70s). Four and a half years ago there were so few Christian web sites on Internet it is was easy to list nearly all of them on my small links page. Since my web site went online three big surprises have been in store for me. The number of visitors to my web site climbed steadily and now exceeds 15,000 hits a day (over 250 Mb of daily downloads). Secondly, my short list of links has grown to several hundred. Third, email from all over the world began to arrive in the in basket. I wish I had time to share the content of some of email that reaches me every day! (Don't let no body tell you God ain't at work in Cyberspace, 'cause in my 'sperience He sure am!)
What to Look for: In my web site main library the most recent articles I am responsible for are posted up near the top of the list. The ever-growing list of articles is only slightly organized. My site search engine may help you find something you're looking for by key word search. I welcome guest articles of relevance from various friends. I also maintain the Arthur C. Custance Library, http://custance.org which is the work of my dear friend Evelyn White, Dr. Custance's secretary and archivist. The Temple Mount Web Site--with news updates from Jerusalem, http://templemount.org resulted from the diligent work of my great friends Jim Milligan and Mike Kollen from Southern California. We three met on the Temple Mount during a Chuck Missler tour to Israel in early 1996.
Email team: I do answer personal email as much as I am able--many hours of my work day is devoted to email. However I am not the only Silicon Valley Christian with an interest in Internet Ministry. See http://pbc.org/cspace.html for a description of our Cyberspace Apologetics experience. You'll find there an introduction to the exciting team I work with in Cyberspace Ministry. The Paraclete Forum is our team's bulletin board entry and response page.
Classes: On a regular weekly basis I meet on Saturday mornings with a group of local college students for an informal Bible study. This summer we studied the Letter to the Hebrews verse by verse and currently we are near the end of Paul's Epistle to the Romans. My teaching style for this class is informal. I simply ask questions until the students discover for themselves what the text actually says. (This way I learn something new every week).
My summer class series at my church (PBC, Peninsula Bible Church of Palo Alto, California) covered the Book of the Revelation. Fifty people faithfully attended week after week. They discovered--when all was said and done--that Revelation is not difficult to understand, and as promised, it blesses all those who read it and follow what it teaches. Silicon Valley, where I live is affluent and prosperous nowadays. In spite of some "millennial fever" and a few quiet fears about Y2K in the popular press, most people here are apathetic and indifferent about the future. Yet there are many clear signs we are near the end of the age and the time when Christ will return to rule (at long last) on our planet, from Jerusalem, earth's coming capital city. The sobering truth of the last book of the Bible is that the vast majority of mankind will be destroyed at the end of the age we live in. Cities will fall, and the earth will be wasted by the horrific judgments of our planet just before Christ returns. The world system with its evil angelic government under the headship of Satan will be removed from their embedded places of power in the heavenly places, and the vast majority of earth's inhabitants will die in that Great Day of God's open, public, reentry into human history as our legitimate King.
My new teaching series in the Four Gospels starts September 20 at PBC. To save time and trouble I have been tape recording the classes I teach, and they are available in RealAudio on my web pages, http://ldolphin.org/audio.html.
I am committed to small groups as a means of rediscovering the church as the Body of Christ in society. http://ldolphin.org/CORE.html. The main group I am active in at present, the Wednesday Brothers of Thunder, is the high point of my week. See http://ldolphin.org/news/thunder. We are a "leaderless" group--we meet as brothers and equals expecting Jesus Christ to show up and take over each time we gather. Sure enough, week after week, Jesus the Lord does exactly that. Our current study in the Song of Solomon is proving very worthwhile for this all-male gathering.
I have lived long enough to see enormous social changes in our world--my earliest childhood recollections were of the Great Depression and World War II. Though I did not become a Christian until 1962 I continue to work at building a Christian world view which will hold up under all possible scrutiny and is always being refined as I learn more. I am concerned about the decreasing content of truth in Christian churches in our land. The weakness of the church today and its increasing secularization convinces me we have moved into the Laodicean era of the church described in Revelation Chapter 3: "I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were cold or hot! So, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of my mouth. For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing; not knowing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked."
My good friend Ron Graf and I put together a survey of the history of God's dealing's with Israel and the Church in an Internet book, Thy Kingdom Come--Thy Will be Done. This book is entirely free and may be found at http://ldolphin.org/kingdom (or you can order a printed copy for $15.00). Ron and I have been amazed to see that 24,000 copies of this book have been downloaded since last October. We are starting on a second Internet book on Babylon (Iraq) and Mystery Babylon in the Bible.
In future newsletters I'll plan to share email excerpts, some Biblical insights and bits and pieces of what God has been teaching me. If by chance you are not on the mailing list for this free newsletter.
Contributions: I "retired" in 1987 from full time research in physics and decided at that time not to seek full-time employment in science. Rather I have devoted my time to web sites, email, writing, counseling and Bible teaching. My income comes mostly from Social Security and a small retirement plan, supplemented by gifts and contributions and occasional small projects (See for instance: May Philippines trip, http://ldolphin/org/news/curtis). My personal web site originally cost me a mere $30 a month, but at present expenses have risen to over $570 monthly--plus phone connection charges. Gifts are most welcome and very helpful to my ministries, and should be sent to Peninsula Bible Church, 3505 Middlefield Rd., Palo Alto, CA 94306. Be sure and include a note that your gift is for Lambert Dolphin's Ministry--otherwise your tax-deductible donation will vanish into the church's general funds. Thank you dear friends, and God bless you.
A Favorite Quote:
lambert@ldolphin.orgTravelers Unaware: "Why do people in churches seem like cheerful, brainless tourists on a package tour of the Absolute?...On the whole I do not find Christians, outside of the catacombs, sufficiently sensible of conditions. Does anyone have the foggiest idea of what sort of power we so blithely invoke? Or, as I suspect, does no one believe a word of it? The churches are children playing on the floor with their chemistry sets, mixing up batches of TNT to kill a Sunday morning. It is madness to wear ladies' straw hats and velvet hats to church; we should all be wearing crash helmets. Ushers should issue life preservers and signal flares; they should lash us to our pews. For the sleeping god may wake someday and take offense, or the waking god may draw us out to where we can never return." (Annie Dillard in Teaching a Stone to Talk).
Archive for these newsletters: http://ldolphin.org/news/