A Lion Has Departed

This week, with your indulgence, I’d like to dedicate Israel Watch to my dear friend and mentor, Dr. G. Thomas Sharp.

Known universally as “Doc,” this giant of the faith entered Glory on Wednesday. He was 82.

One of many reasons he is relevant to this space is that as a leading creationist speaker, researcher, and writer, he also—like his friend, Dr. Henry M. Morris—understood the importance of eschatology and Israel. Rarer in that community than you might realize.

First a bit of bio. Doc graduated from Purdue and the University of Oklahoma (near where he lived the last 40 years of his life), and was an educator. In 1989, he felt the pull to enter full-time ministry. He started Creation Truth Foundation and remained a staunch Young Earth Creationist. This was one of several points of mutual perspective that we shared. I met him and his family (especially his son, Thomas) 25 years ago after the publisher I worked for acquired Master Books, the world’s leading creationist publisher. That period remains a highlight of my life, and meeting Doc and hearing his biblical worldview enriched me immeasurably. He would go on to author a landmark homeschool curriculum, and his museum-quality collection of dinosaur bones and skeletons became a unique traveling show.

Early in this tribute, it is imperative that I do more than mention his wife, Diane. You’ve heard that the “woman behind the man” really makes a ministry go and I believe that is true. Diane is the prototype. I can’t say enough good about her. I saw in countless ways how she handled everything else, which enabled Doc to bring his singular approach to apologetics. Literally, there will be people in heaven due to the efforts of this beautiful couple. I loved to see them hold hands. They were one of the great romances. Four children, 10 grandchildren and five great-grandchildren add to their legacy.

Doc also managed one of the most successful transitions I’ve ever witnessed in ministry. You know, many of them end in disaster, often because the founder’s ego is too big to effectively hand the baton to a younger, capable person. Not so with CTF. They remain a strong worldview ministry, and I strongly encourage you to check out their work.

(I have long believed there is a link between creationist worldview and the proper study of eschatology. More on that in a minute, but Doc and CTF have been stellar in teaching approaches. The creationist message remains strong and uncompromising.)

Now led by the highly capable Matt Miles, CTF is still crisscrossing the country, unapologetically doing great apologetics! Based a stone’s throw from the OU campus in Norman, this legacy of Doc’s thrives in an age of increasing apostasy. In fact, it is here I want to share a couple stories about Doc and how he impacted my thinking.

In the early 2010s, I was heavily researching para-ministry groups that were introducing heretical teachings into the Evangelical community. One day I was visiting with Doc and I told him I was planning on attending one of these conferences in Dallas. He replied, “When do we leave?” Ha! Spending time with him anywhere was a treasure, so we met up and on the second day of the conference, we were sitting on the front row, center. I had repeatedly tried to get the director of this particular group to consent to an interview, so that I could ask him why they were (among other things) mainstreaming homosexuality and hosting anti-Israel speakers. The guy kept putting me off and he did again this day. But Doc dropped one of his profound truth-bombs on me as we listened to this chorus of false teachers. All of a sudden, he leaned over and said, “This is an antichrist system.”

Wow! Yes, it was. He was one of the few that would say such a thing, though. Doc in an Age of Compromise didn’t have a compromised bone in his body. My description of having the privilege of hearing him speak is that he thundered from the pulpit like an Old Testament prophet. I don’t mean that he yelled exactly, but he spoke forcefully and he never allowed anyone to censor what he said. He simply said what needed to be said. I never saw him nervous or hesitant. Just…thundering. The first time or two I spoke in front of a group (I am the classic out of my comfort zone person in that type of arena), I was stammering and the pages were shaking in my hands. In fact, I was much more the Don Knotts’ character in “The Ghost and Mr. Chicken” than I was Charles Spurgeon! But slowly Doc’s influence took hold and I could manage what I needed to do. He was simply cool in combat.

This isn’t to say he was a harsh guy. He wasn’t. He was hilarious, and he understood the need to be balanced. In fact, another trait of his I came to love was his total lack of interest in being a ministry celebrity. Early on I marveled at this. He certainly could have been a celebrity. A handsome, charismatic (lowercase C), urbane-yet-earthy guy, Doc could have had his pick of top platforms. As he often joked to me, his mouth wouldn’t allow that, however! He was simply incapable of watering-down the message the Lord gave him. He was offered positions with very large ministries but he always declined. That would have taken away his ability to say what needed to be said. He wasn’t beholden to anyone. He also didn’t want to stray too far from the old homeplace that he shared with Diane, what with the pool full of grandkids and wide-open spaces.

The other encounter I had with Doc that was a watershed for me came about a dozen years ago. I was visiting and stopped by his office one day. He was busy researching and writing his next book. He swiveled around in his chair to fix those eyes on me. “You know, I’ve had an epiphany,” he began. He went on to say that after 30 years of consistent teaching about origins, the Lord spoke to him one day and said, in effect, Tom, you’ve told the people the importance of Genesis 1-11. Now what about 12-50?

The import of what he was saying almost knocked me over, I’m not exaggerating. I understood immediately.

If we tell people that Genesis 1-11, the great creation accounts and Noah’s flood, are real history, but we fail to equally teach the importance of the Jewish people and Israel, we have not told the whole story. It remains one of the two or three most profound things I’ve ever heard.

I know people can differ on the creation accounts, but “me and Doc(!)” stake our lives on the historicity of Genesis 1-11. I believe God’s Word in total, no matter how much that might be mocked by the world. God has proven Himself to us, in His mercy, and we need not be ashamed of the Bible. It’s in the Bible that we see the power and majesty of the Living God. Doc taught that all his life. And so it was that the last 15 years he lived, he taught what I call a Bookends approach to Bible apologetics—something exceedingly rare these days. Most creationists are not Bible prophecy enthusiasts, and conversely, prophecy guys tend to be all over the map with regard to Genesis. Again, not Doc.

Several years ago, I attended a Bible prophecy conference where he spoke. He unveiled this Bookends approach. Very frankly, most of us hear repeated information at these conferences. But I was in the audience and I heard several people say that they were so energized by his message, because he understood that Genesis and Revelation go hand-in-hand.

So, his Bookends approach did and does blow my mind. There was power in Doc. I’m sure he would have made Spurgeon light-headed! I wish I had had the opportunity to visit Israel with Doc and Diane, but we are now already with one foot in the New Jerusalem. What a day that will be!

Genuinely, I could fill a book with what Doc taught me in sharing his uncommon persona. Wednesday, it only took a few minutes for him to enter Glory. Early that morning, he arrived!

I last saw him in December, when his grandson, Thomas E., graduated from OU. (That grandson, by the way, is so impressive. He too has been shaped by his grandparents, and he has the added blessing of having superb parents. More legacy.) At a pre-graduation dinner on Friday evening, I sat with Doc at the end of a banquet table. Sure enough, as the evening went along, all the kids from the other end of the table migrated down to pay tribute to the Great Man. He was in rare form, which is to say exactly himself. I loved watching it.

We know from Scripture that when less-than-greatness thinks he can become equal with Greatness, the end of that isn’t so great. But I would like to say that even though he was a generation ahead of me and truly much more accomplished, I think of Doc as a colleague. He taught me much. Including not to be afraid.

He isn’t “dead.” He is alive forevermore and in the presence of his Savior and Creator.

The lion has met the Lion.