Are Different Views of Genesis the Same as Different Views of the End Times?

When Christians disagree about eschatology, baptism, gifts, or the Sabbath, they’re primarily arguing from Scripture (called “exegesis”). Obviously, not all views are correct, but at least each group is looking at Scripture to declare their argument.

When arguing about different views of Genesis, these people really start outside of Scripture with elements of man’s pagan religion of naturalism.

But when arguing about different views of Genesis, these people really start outside of Scripture (eisegesis) with elements of man’s pagan religion of naturalism (millions of years and other evolutionary ideas). Adopting those ideas is their ultimate motivation for attempting to interpret Genesis—not the text of Genesis itself. Thus, they are compromising the Word of God and undermining its authority. Now, such people may claim they’re starting with Scripture—after all, they are looking at the Genesis text. But it only takes a few questions to find out that what they believe about Genesis isn’t actually because of the text—it’s because of their belief in millions of years, an idea which comes from outside the text.

If you start with the text only (exegesis) and get rid of outside influences, you cannot come to any other conclusion than that God created in six literal days; he created Adam from dust and Eve from Adam’s side; death, disease, and bloodshed came after sin; most of the fossil layers were laid down by the flood of Noah’s day about 4,300 years ago; and the universe and the earth are only thousands of years old.

Let me give you three examples of what I mean by this:

1. Some Christians and church leaders claim that God took two animals (e.g., apes) that he had created and turned them into Adam and Eve. Others claim God used the evolutionary process to evolve Adam and Eve from a so-called ape-man or ape-woman. Others claim there was a whole population of people who existed before or at the same time as Adam and Eve, who were just selected from that population. (There seems to be a never-ending number of ideas people come up with to try to take man’s ideas about human origins and mesh them with Scripture.)

   But let’s ignore everything evolutionists teach and instead ask, “What does God’s Word say?” Well, it says there was only one man to start with (Adam), made from dust, and one woman (Eve), made from Adam’s side. There were no other humans or humanlike creatures living before or at the same time as Adam and Eve (Eve is described as “the mother of all living,” Genesis 3:20; and Adam, in 1 Corinthians 15:45, is called “the first man”). It’s not “just” Genesis—the Apostle Paul makes it clear woman came from man (1 Corinthians 11:8), and Jesus said that mankind was created at “the beginning of creation” (Mark 10:6), not millions of years after the beginning. If you start with God’s Word, you won’t arrive at the conclusion that humans evolved!

2. Some Christians and church leaders claim that God used the big bang to create. But let’s briefly compare that to Scripture. The big bang idea has the stars forming, followed by the sun, and then earth as a hot molten blob. But God’s Word in Genesis states that on day one, the earth was created covered with water (it never was a hot molten blob); and the sun, moon, and stars were not made until day four of creation (but light and darkness already existed before day four). Starting with God’s Word, you’d never come to the big bang idea (which is why no one did until modern times when many Christians had already accepted millions of years)—it’s only when you begin with outside influences that you can make the claim that God used the big bang.
3. Some Christians and church leaders, by necessity of their acceptance of millions of years and/or evolution, believe (whether they outright say it or not) that death, suffering, and disease have always been part of creation. But the origin of sin, death, disease, and suffering is revealed in Genesis chapters 1–3. There was no death, bloodshed, disease, or suffering before Adam sinned—God’s creation was “very good” (Genesis 1:31). So, the massive fossil record, which is a record of death with diseases like cancer, abscesses, arthritis, etc., could not have been formed before man and before sin. Again, if you just start with God’s Word, you can only come to the conclusion that death and suffering are an “enemy” (1 Corinthians 15:26) that intruded into God’s original “very good” creation. (Also check Romans 8:22.)

As Christians, we should never start with man’s ideas and try to force them into the Bible.

As Christians, we should never start with man’s ideas and try to force them into the Bible. We should always start with God’s Word, correcting our own fallible thoughts and opinions so they line up with God’s truth—after all, humans frequently make mistakes, but God never does! When we do this, we allow God and his Word to be the authority rather than elevating ourselves to that position.

And it’s worth noting that when I find that Christians believe Genesis 1–11 as literal history (as they should—both Jesus and Paul did!), they usually don’t have problems believing the rest of the Bible like they should. Conversely, I often find when Christians reject a historical Genesis, they often soften their stand on doctrines like marriage and gender and end up doubting other scriptural passages too. Compromise just leads to more compromise!

Instead of adopting man’s ideas that undermine the authority of God’s Word, we must let God be God and accept that he knows infinitely more than we do. We must start with his Word first in all areas and must submit our pride to him and ask him to use his Word to humble us so we might trust him more and love his Word better.

Help Your Kids Establish This Foundation

It’s biblical worldview teaching to help students discover how to think foundationally, how to apply God’s Word to everything (including science and history), and how to defend the truth of God’s Word from the very first verse.

As I’ve just laid out, what we believe needs to start with God’s Word and specifically start with Genesis 1–11—and that’s certainly not a perspective our children are going to get from the world! We must purposefully instill in them a foundation of biblical authority and trust in God’s Word. And a great—and very fun—way to help train your children to understand the world through the lens of God’s Word is through our Explore programs at the Ark Encounter and Creation Museum here in Northern Kentucky.

These programs are full days (or half-days for Explore Jr.) of hands-on science exploration in topics such as biology, forensics, botany, environmental science, rockets, drones, and more. But it’s more than just science—it’s biblical worldview teaching to help students discover how to think foundationally, how to apply God’s Word to everything (including science and history), and how to defend the truth of God’s Word from the very first verse.

You can register your student for Explore on our website.

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying,
Ken

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