As we continue to look at the compromise on Genesis with millions of years and evolution that is so rife in the church, I was saddened to find that the student council at Moody Bible Institute in Chicago had invited a well-known group in for an “old earth creation workshop.”
The group who was invited on campus on February 25 and 26 this year is called “Solid Rock Lectures.”
Who is Solid Rock Lectures? Well the subheading on their website states, “Understanding Evidence for Old Earth Creation and its Biblical Basis.”
They go on to state the following:
Young people raised in many churches are told that the Bible teaches a recent six-day creation, and that evidence for an ancient earth or evolution is weak. When confronted with the actual evidence in college or later in life, they often experience a crisis of faith. The scientific evidence [for an old earth] is so overwhelming, many determine it must be their faith that was mistaken.This again affirms how important it is for people to read our upcoming book Already Compromised, which will be released May 1. This book details the research into what so many Christian colleges and universities are actually teaching our young people—the results are revealing and shocking. Compromise (particularly in Genesis) permeates much of the Christian university system.Questioning non-believers likewise face a monumental obstacle to faith when told that to accept Christ, they must reject what seems to be reason itself. Tragic stories like these are what motivated the development of these Creation Workshops. It is our conviction that an honest study of both Scripture and nature not only leaves ample room for the legitimacy of modern scientific theories, but that the agreement between God’s written and natural creations can be breathtaking!
One of the goals of the book Already Compromised is to warn parents (and students) that just because a college professor, president, or whomever on campus claims they believe in the authority and infallibility of Scripture, it does not mean they take Genesis as literal history—as they should.
For instance, in the Moody Standard (the student newspaper of Moody Bible Institute), Feb 15, 2011, concerning the Solid Rock Lectures, we read the following:
These professional geologists acknowledge the authority of the Bible and the legitimacy of modern science. One of the speakers . . . said, “We are Christians, first and foremost, committed to the authority and infallibility of Scripture.”One of the speakers mentioned in this Moody Standard newspaper is well-known to AiG. He has contacted us many times, and talked to various of our researchers and speakers. We have been very patient with him, but he will not really deal with the numerous biblical authority arguments we have presented him. In fact, on a number of occasions, he has found out where an AiG speaker will be making presentations at a church, and then has contacted the pastor to warn him about us. He has tried to get that church to let him come and speak to the congregation to convince them not to believe what AiG is teaching (which what we present is based solidly on Scripture).
Knowing how these people work, I found it sad to see this newspaper concerning one of the sessions state, “This session will include ways to test the reliability of dating methods and examples of how arguments get twisted in the creation debate.”
Having read material from these speakers, we know how they try to indoctrinate people against the position on Genesis that AiG holds—that is, taking Genesis chapters 1-11 as literal history, just as Jesus and the apostles did—and just as the vast majority of Bible-believing Christians did for the first 18 centuries of church history (as the scholarly research in AiG’s Coming to Grips with Genesis has shown).
Here is a copy of the actual program that was to be presented at Moody Bible Institute:
The particular emphasis of the Solid Rock Lectures is to get Christians to believe in millions of years and not believe in six literal days of creation just a few thousand years ago—and deny a global catastrophic Flood at the time of Noah. There is no doubt such anti-biblical beliefs have been responsible for putting a stumbling block in the way of so many young people, as such a position clearly undermines the authority of Scripture.
How we need Christian institutions to take a stand against the pagan religion of millions of years (yes, it is a part of the pagan religion of atheism to explain life without God) and stand uncompromisingly on the authority of the Word of God—from the very first verse.
Now, this conference was sponsored by the student council at Moody, not the administration. However, when I spoke at a chapel at Moody a number of years ago (through the efforts of some good AiG friends), a “disclaimer” was given to the students and staff just before I spoke (i.e., to announce that AiG’s views were not necessarily those of Moody’s). I did meet a Moody professor who stood ardently with Answers in Genesis, and there may be more professors like that on campus. However, I have been told by people close to Moody that most of the Moody staff would probably not support AiG’s position on Genesis.
It was the idea of an earth millions of years old—introduced back in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, and popularized by deists and atheists in their attempt to undermine Scripture—that opened the door for Darwinian evolutionary ideas to take hold. Secularists have to have millions of years, or they can’t even begin to propose the belief in evolution for the origin and development of life. That is why they are so emotional about the idea of an earth millions of years old. Sadly, Christians have been intimidated to accept an old earth, thus compromising God’s Word and unlocking a door for the next generation—the unlocked door was that someone can take man’s fallible ideas from outside the Bible and reinterpret Scripture. Subsequent generations have pushed this door open further and further, until there is a great loss of biblical authority in the culture. That is what has happened in our Western world, and it is happening across America. Such compromise in the church has been a great contributing factor that has resulted in two thirds of young people leaving church. This has been documented in the book Already Gone, published in 2009.
I urge all of you to get the new book Already Compromised, as soon as it is available. You can preorder here from the AiG online store.
Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying,
Ken
Answers in Genesis is an apologetics ministry, dedicated to helping Christians defend their faith and proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ.