Peter Enns—Mutilating God’s Word

Many of you will remember the name Peter Enns. He spoke at a homeschool convention where I was speaking. I showed a couple of video clips of him in my talks, showing he didn’t believe in a literal Adam or literal Eve or literal Fall (after we were told by conference organizers that I could critique Enns’s beliefs during the conference—we had informed them that we were considering it, and we were cleared to do so). Well, instead I was dropped from the next homeschool convention and Peter Enns was retained. In many ways it was a turning point in the national homeschool movement. Homeschoolers in droves showed their support for me and AiG for standing on the authority of the Word of God.

Earlier this year, an arm of Baker Book publishers put out a book by Peter Enns on The Evolution of Adam, where he proposed that biological evolution is fact and that there was no literal Adam or Eve or literal Fall.

Personally, I don’t see how someone can understand the gospel in any way if they don’t believe in a literal Fall. Now, Wikipedia (though not a reliable source of accurate information) describes Enns this way:

Peter Eric Enns is an Evangelical Christian biblical scholar, theologian, and writer. He has written widely on hermeneutics, the relationship between science and religion, Christianity and evolution, and Old Testament interpretation.

I can say categorically, Enns is not an “Evangelical”! And I really don’t know what Enns would mean by the word “Christian”! You will understand why I say this after you read today’s main article on our website (see excerpts and link below).

Peter Enns has attacked me and AiG for our stand on biblical authority ever since that homeschool convention. Recently, he launched another attack against me personally—and what we teach at AiG.

For today’s main web article, AiG speaker and researcher Dr. Terry Mortenson has quoted the mocking article Peter Enns wrote and then commented on it throughout. I felt this was an important article to warn the church about concerning academics like Peter Enns and his heretical teaching, and again to reinforce to you the vital importance of taking God at His Word—so much so that we made it the lead article on AiG’s website today. I urge you all to read this. Our web article begins with the following headline:

Mutilating God’s Word: Adam, Bilbo, and Peter Enns

In a recent blog post, Old-Testament scholar Dr. Peter Enns strongly accused Ken Ham of teaching obvious error and misleading Christians into believing in a literal Adam. But do Enns’s criticisms stand up to scrutiny? Let’s see. I will intersperse my comments throughout his December 7, 2012, blog post. In Enns’s text, all bold and italics are his emphases.

Bilbo–I Mean, Adam–Was a Historical Person (and Ken Ham has a poster to prove it)

Before I get going here, I want to be crystal clear about something. I am not remotely interested in trying to change Ken Ham’s mind about Genesis. Nor am I trying to raid his flock and steal his sheep.

Note that the first word in his title is “Bilbo.” Who is Bilbo? Well, he is the primary fictional character in The Hobbit and a supporting character in The Lord of the Rings. These are two of the most well-known of J.R.R. Tolkien’s fantasy stories. So right from the start, Enns has a mocking tone, indicating that in his mind the “Adam” in Genesis is no more historical that the “Bilbo” in Tolkien’s fictional books! Does this mean that Enns thinks the Bible is fiction?

But quite often he says things that are transparently wrong and highly misleading. My concern is for those who are being mislead [sic] and have perhaps begun to sense it, and might be looking for voices to confirm their suspicions and finding a way forward.

As I proceed with my comments below, the reader can decide who really is “transparently wrong and highly misleading.”

Dr. Mortenson ends his extensive article this way:

We urge Dr. Enns and other similar theologians to humbly repent of their arrogant mishandling of the Word of Almighty God and to do their homework in reading the scientific criticisms of the naturalistic (i.e., atheistic) story of evolution and millions of years that have been written by qualified PhD creationists. A good series of DVD lectures by Andrew Snelling presents with abundant visual aids some of the geological evidence in his two-volume work Earth’s Catastrophic Past. At a more introductory level, John Morris’s The Young Earth will be enlightening to those not trained in geology. The old-earth theologians also need to deal with the careful biblical scholarship defending young-earth creation, such as found in Coming to Grips with Genesis.

At the top of Dr. Enns’s blog page he says that he is “rethinking biblical Christianity.” He is doing no such thing. Because he has totally capitulated to the secular beliefs of molecules–to-man evolution and millions of years, he is mutilating the inerrant Word of God by forcing these pagan beliefs on the text. He is thereby destroying biblical Christianity. Bible-believing, Christ-honoring Christians must reject his views. It is his writings that are the useless, but clever, propaganda deceiving Christians.

I urge you to read Dr. Mortenson’s entire article so you can be warned about what is happening within the church—and be equipped to defend the Christian faith against those who so mutilate God’s Word today.

It should be noted—as a warning to parents who don’t want their kids being taught by someone with heretical teaching that undermines the authority of the Word of God—that Peter Enns is currently on the affiliate faculty (in Biblical Studies) at Eastern University in the greater Philadelphia area. On the Eastern University website, we read that this university is described as follows:

A Christian university dedicated to the preparation of undergraduate and graduate students for thoughtful and productive lives of Christian faith and service. Recognized for its academic excellence, Eastern has been ranked in the Top Tier of North Regional Universities in the current edition of America’s Best Colleges in U.S. News & World Report.

So one of the instructors at this university does not believe in a literal Adam and Eve or a literal Fall into sin, and yet the university is described as “Christian”? What, then, does the word “Christian” mean?

I encourage parents to check out our Creation Colleges website.

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying,

Ken