Blog

by Steve Risner

Last week I continued with my thoughts on why the creation/evolution debate is so important. It's especially important because young people are leaving the faith in alarming numbers because of the humanistic teachings of deep time, the Big Bang, and Darwinism. There's no arguing that point as multiple teams have shown this with research. The fact is, the vast majority of those who belonged to a church and fell away did so in full or in part because of the teachings of evolution, deep time, and the Big Bang. The Church as a whole, but primarily parents, are not doing what needs to be done to combat this. Christians are lazy, to be brutally honest. Many of us are satisfied with sitting back while the world (and even our children) goes to hell. We need to be active and engaged and filling ourselves with Christ and His Word rather than being disengaged. It's literally a battle for our children—for generations in fact. There are tough questions—very common ones—that we need to be able to address at least partly if not fully. Some of these questions concern topics like science, evolution, the age of the earth and/or universe, where/how life started, and why the Bible says one thing while secularists say another.

So what's the big deal? As I've described, children who were raised in church and lived in homes with godly parents are leaving the faith in very high numbers. After being poorly educated about their faith and then learning about what “science” says, these young people are torn. Some have tried to infuse some variety of the humanist origins myth into Christianity in an attempt to make Christianity more palatable for those who've accepted that “science” has proven deep time, the Big Bang, and Darwinian evolution of some form. The “fact” that science has proven any of this is nowhere near the truth, but it's a very popular myth spread predominantly by those who want to reject the Bible and the God found in it. Then, unsuspecting believers hear these sorts of things and are conflicted. They think it's correct that science can even do this—tell us about imaginary events that may or may not have happened long before any person was around to observe or even understand the conditions surrounding them. This is nowhere near the truth, either, but so many have bought into it. It's sad, really. So these folks feel torn and they don't know what to do. They feel it must be true that “science” has determined deep time and all the rest is true, so the Bible must be altered to fit this. That is terribly wrong and never works. The “science” says one thing now but will undoubtedly say something different in the future. But they look at the Bible and try to force their other view (which is nothing more than the humanist origins myth) into the text when it quite clearly was never intended to express these foreign ideas.

Let's get this straight: There is NO old earth or theistic evolutionist belief system that is based on Scripture—and I mean not a single one. They'll try to slime their way into the text, but it's a farce. They'll say nonsensical things like, “The Bible clearly teaches an old earth...” or some other blatantly false statement when there is no support for it at all. Their entire idea is based on deep time (the humanist origins myth) and they look for ways to cram that into the creation account or other places in the Bible. Understand, reader, that there is no place in the Bible that remotely indicates the earth and universe are anything but about 6000 years old, give or take. Any attempt to twist the text to say otherwise is really just dishonest, in my opinion. They'll play word games and say things like, “Well, that word doesn't HAVE to mean this,” or something like, “Even though the most common understanding of that is this, it really doesn't mean that at all in this context.” Please realize, reader, that the old earth creationist or theistic evolutionist (although the theistic evolutionist will use the Bible far less than the old earth creationist) will start with their model—that of deep time and, quite frequently the Big Bang or something like it—and then they will look at the Bible to see where they can chop it up and paste their preconceived, extra-Biblical thoughts into it.

The facts here are not on the side of deep time. Without deep time, it all falls apart for the old earth creationist or theistic evolutionist. They MUST have deep time for their stuff to work. But the Bible gives a very clear time line from the first day of creation to Noah, then to Abraham, and then to David and so on. Using the timeline, we can get a fairly good idea as to when God said, “Let there be light.” If your beliefs on origins are based on semantics and word games and chopping up verses or putting gaps in between verses or sentences in the Bible, you have to see how foolish this is. The text is exquisitely clear. Those who would have read it thousands of years ago wouldn't have any doubt when the earth and all of creation were brought into existence. There is no room at all for deep time or for evolution. And so much theology—our most foundational doctrines—rest on a natural reading of the creation account followed by a global Flood that destroyed the entire surface of the planet. Science, archaeology, linguistics, history, theology, and a host of other disciplines all confirm robustly how a natural reading of the Bible is essential for the Truth. Is it a big deal? Well, yes but also no. Let me explain.

Can one be saved if they have their beliefs on creation all wrong? Can you believe in deep time, the Big Bang, or even Darwinism and still be saved? Of course. There is no question that your salvation has literally nothing to do with these ideas. Any person who suggests Biblical creationists make this a salvation issue are either ignorant concerning what Biblical creationists (what some will call young earth creationists) say/believe or they're just trying to build a strawman to knock down for others to see. Likely, the truth is both of these are correct—most non-biblical creationists have little real knowledge on the Biblical creationist perspective and like to build false representations of our position so as to make it look foolish. It's unfortunate, really, but this is what they do because honest, open discussion generally doesn't end well for them. They will quite frequently join forces with atheists and other non-believers to assault the Bible believer and/or the Bible itself. It's disheartening to witness and it happens very frequently. There are groups on Facebook and other places on the internet where believers will mock and ridicule Biblical creationists, all the while claiming to have a love for the Bible and for humanity.

Truly, Biblical creationists don't think creation or the age of the earth are a salvation issue. However, as I've stated already multiple times, these issues often result in people (generally but not always younger people) falling away from the faith. They hear the stories of abiogenesis, the Big Bang and cosmic evolution, fish growing legs, and whales growing fins and they decide the Bible must not be true. Now, if a believer has these false ideas about creation—deep time and the Big Bang etc.—this doesn't affect their salvation. It can, however, in my experience, lead one to begin to question the rest of the text. In other words, if the Bible's foundational narrative can be rewritten to mean whatever “science” has deemed it should say, people are more likely to feel it's acceptable to rewrite other portions.

This could mean that sin is overlooked or made acceptable. This could eventually mean that there are other ways to heaven even though Jesus said He is the only way. Eventually, this can mean a person is a believer because they say so, but their actions and actual beliefs have no resemblance to those of a Christ follower. This is not the slippery slope fallacy. It's reality. It happens. I've seen it and I'm sure many of you reading this have as well. There are certainly those who have maintained their faith in spite of having a weak foundation for it due to an unbiblical belief about our origins, but the fact remains many have watered down their faith so much that they have none any longer. This needs to stop. We need to either accept the Bible and all it proclaims or reject it. We cannot do both and expect to be taken seriously by either side.

The creation account is critical to the salvation message. The creation account as it's written in the book of Genesis is foundational to understanding what sin is, what the consequences for sin are, and what the payment for sin is if we want to be reconciled to God over our disobedience. The Creation, Fall, and Curse all are extremely important if we want to know why we need to be saved and what we're being saved from. All that goes out the window with old earth creation and theistic evolution ideas to one degree or another.

Stay strong, reader. Keep the faith. Study. Learn. Never lose faith in the fact that the Bible is written so we can know and understand the Truth. You don't have to tear it apart and reform it in whatever image the world says is right. The Bible stands on its own and needs no revision. Thank you, again, for reading.

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