Does the Gospel Rise or Fall on the Days of Creation?

Recently, in having an obvious dig at the ministry of Answers in Genesis, a person said, “the gospel doesn't rise or fall on the days of creation.” My answer was, “That's true—it doesn’t. But does the gospel rise or fall on the authority of Scripture? And does the authority of Scripture rise or fall on the days of creation?”

The point I want to make is that it is faith in Christ that saves one—not whether a person believes in a young or old earth, or whether the days of creation in Genesis are long periods of time. Romans 10:9 makes it very clear that salvation is tied to faith in Christ, not the days of creation or the age of the earth.

However, another important point we make is that when a person believes in millions of years and then reinterprets the days of creation to be long periods of time, they are undermining the very authority from which they get the message of the gospel—they are undermining the authority of the Word of God by taking man’s fallible ideas on the age of the earth and using this to change the clear meaning of the Word of God: it is an authority issue.

I must admit I get tired of the people who misquote or misrepresent what we state concerning a person who is a Christian and who believes in an old earth. For instance, a retired medical doctor (who now homeschools her children) on her website stated:

Ken Ham essentially said that a person who does not believe in Young-Earth Creationism can’t be a Christian since they don’t believe the Bible. domesticadventure.blogspot.com/2009/01/evolution-creation-wheres-truth.html

Well, Ken Ham has never said and doesn’t say anything of the sort! As I said above, nowhere in the Bible is salvation tied to the age of the earth. But it is about time that compromising Christians understand that they have contributed to the loss of biblical authority in this nation and thus helped open the door to the secularization of the culture. And a friendly warning to homeschool moms—if you teach this compromised position to your children, be prepared for the great possibility they will open the door of compromise wider and get on that all-too-familiar slippery slide of unbelief. And, I challenge this person to send me the quotes where I said what she claims I did above. And I encourage her to have a dialogue with our medical doctor on staff, Dr. Tommy Mitchell, who also homeschools his children, about how he once wrestled over the creation/evolution issue.

TEXAS BOARD OF EDUCATION PROTECTS EVOLUTION

The media continues to report on the situation in Texas (see previous blog) where the Texas board of education moved to protect evolution (after all, it is so strong a theory, so obviously fact, so proven by science that one can’t let anyone even question it or suggest it could have weaknesses or problems, then it needs to be protected at all costs).

Here are just a few things to consider about this dispute that you won’t read in the secular media:

• It is evolutionists who want to remove the “strengths and weaknesses”phrase that has been in the curriculum for more than a decade. Evolutionists, not creationists, are the “agitators” who want to change the status quo.
• The “strengths and weaknesses” phrase is used multiple times in the curriculum in reference to all science fields, but the news media and evolutionists are singling it out as though it only applies to evolution.
• As always, evolutionists state that the experts are on their side even though experts have testified on both sides of the debate (Stephen Meyer of the Discovery Institute testified concerning the holes in Darwin’s theory).
• Evolutionists would rather have students indoctrinated in Darwinism than have students learn to think critically. If the evidence for evolution is so strong, the students shouldn't have trouble seeing that! And, ironically, censoring the weaknesses in evolution will make them that much more potent when students do encounter them and ask, “Why wasn't I told about this?”
• Ultimately, Christian parents and pastors are responsible for educating each new generation in the biblical worldview; we can't trust public schools to be neutral. However, we strongly support curricula that encourage truth-seeking and critical thinking—values that (for evolutionists) strangely go out the window when the question turns to origins.

AiG has two articles on its website dealing with this situation that I encourage you to read:

• Mess in Texas
• News to Note

DEVOTION

Wilful ignorance

(Luke 19:44) And shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another; because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation.

Not knowing is no excuse, God holds men responsible for what they do not know when the reason is “I don’t know and I don’t want to know” or willful ignorance.

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying

Ken