Do Bible Inerrancy and Millions of Years Go Together?

Can someone believe in biblical inerrancy and also believe in evolution and millions of years? In his powerful DVD, Inerrancy and the Undermining of Biblical Authority, Dr. Terry Mortenson (PhD, history of geology) wrestles with this question. He shows how many prominent and rightfully respected Christian leaders affirm and defend biblical inerrancy, but then turn right around and inconsistently use man’s ideas about the past to determine how we should interpret Genesis. For whatever reason, they just can’t see ( or don’t want to see) that they are using two different methods of interpreting Scripture: one for Genesis 1–11 and a different one for the rest of the Bible.

Many of these leaders signed or were involved in creating the Chicago Statement of Biblical Inerrancy and the later Chicago Statement of Hermeneutics—two wonderful documents affirming the inerrancy of the Scriptures. Yet these same men who affirmed biblical inerrancy have compromised with man’s ideas in Genesis. Through the use of their own writings, Dr. Mortenson shows that although these leaders claim that the Bible is inerrant in all it says—including in history and science—they deny this belief by their inconsistent treatment of Genesis. They plainly show that they do not accept millions of years, astronomical, geological, or, at times, biological evolution because the biblical text demands it but, rather, because of the supposed scientific data. It’s a clear compromise of God’s Word that undermines biblical inerrancy. Dr. Mortenson shows that while you can believe in biblical inerrancy and millions of years/evolution, to do so is highly inconsistent and even dangerous! For example, the order of events in the Creation account is very different from the proposed order of events in big bang and evolutionary ideas. To accept these old-earth ideas you have to ignore or radically change the details in the biblical text. This puts man’s word as an authority over God’s Word—something that those who believe in inerrancy say never should happen. And yet that’s what they’re doing!

Here’s a short clip from the DVD:

This DVD is an excellent resource for any pastor or leader in the church. It serves as a strong encouragement to pastors not to follow in the footsteps of those who rightly affirm inerrancy but then disregard God’s clear teaching in Genesis. This is an especially good resource for pastors who have compromised or who are “on the fence” about what to believe about Genesis. I encourage you to order a copy from our store today. Also, you can learn more on our website by visiting this page.

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying,
Ken

This item was written with the assistance of AiG’s research team.