Answers Research Journal

Our goal is to bring together some of the finest minds in creation research.

Answers Research Journal was started in 2008 to glorify the Creator by evaluating scientific findings in light of Scripture. The goal is to bring together some of the finest minds in creation research to provide the best possible insights into God’s work since Creation Week. Funded by generous donations, ARJ stands apart as a top-quality, free online journal, which can quickly distribute new findings in creation research, including unlimited space for graphics and color images. Below is a taste of the newest insights you can gain from ARJ at AnswersResearchJournal.org.

Mammals on the Ark

Genesis 7 tells us that God brought “every beast after its kind” to Noah to take on the Ark. For many decades, creationists have sought to determine these original kinds of animals, from which all living land animals and birds descended.

A researcher for the future Ark Encounter (ArkEncounter.org), Jean Lightner has examined taxonomic and hybridization data on the more than 4,800 mammalian species, including those in the fossil record, to identify the kinds of mammals likely represented on the Ark. (Parallel projects are also seeking to identify the bird and reptile kinds.) Based on her research, the total number of individual mammals on the Ark could have been as few as 500.

Dr. Lightner describes these kinds and gives insights into how some of them may have spent the long voyage. For example, echidna, or spiny anteaters, may have slept through it. This would reduce their need for food, and after hibernating, females would be ready to mate and “fill the earth” (Genesis 8:17).

See “Mammalian Ark Kinds” by Jean K. Lightner.

Poetry in the Bible

Many old-earth creationists cite poetic Bible passages to argue that we should not interpret the Genesis creation account literally. At the same time, these old-earth creationists often interpret poetic passages, such as Job 38 and Psalm 104, literally and then treat narrative passages figuratively. Tim Chaffey shows the reader how to identify Hebrew poetry and then interpret it in context, as the original Hebrew author intended, and not “literally.”

Chaffey illustrates the vast differences between Hebrew poetry and historical narrative by comparing Exodus 14 and Exodus 15, which tell of the Israelites’ crossing of the Red Sea, first in historical narrative and then in poetry. Like Exodus 14, Genesis 1 is not poetry. Christians must learn to recognize Hebrew poetry in order to interpret the text properly.

See “Parallelism in Hebrew Poetry Demonstrates a Major Error in the Hermeneutic of Many Old-Earth Creationists” by Tim Chaffey.

War With God

The creation-evolution controversy is often cast as a battle between science and religion. But it is, in fact, a clash of worldviews; and the worldview underlying many evolutionary claims is atheistic.

That fact changes how Christians should do apologetics. According to the Bible, everyone knows about God (Romans 1:18–20). Thus, unbelievers are suppressing their own knowledge when they say they do not believe in God’s existence. This means that the focus of Christian apologetics ought to be the person and work of Jesus Christ.

Callie Joubert examines the “psychology of unbelief.” Tallying statements from leading modern-day naturalists and ancient Greek philosophers, he shows that a driving force of unbelief appears to be fear and the need to eliminate the possibility of an afterlife. Attempts to accommodate the Bible with evolution show a misunderstanding of the nature of the conflict.

See “The Unbeliever at War with God: Michael Ruse and the Creation-Evolution Controversy” by Callie Joubert.