What's So Difficult?

PIONEER
Why is it so difficiult for professing Christians to accept Genesis chapters 1 and 2 at face value? Creation took place in six literal, twenty-four days. If you can't accept tough. Let God be true and every man a liar.


HELEN
Hi Pioneer,
First of all, I'm a YUC (Young Universe Creationist! -- but you can see why no one uses that acronym!). With that stated...

It's not as easy as you state. Most of us grew up in public schools and we learned that evolution was an established fact. Of course there were still a few little details to be worked out....

And because I had been taught to respect my teachers, and because what they said in the other subjects was just about always right, I believed them in science, too. All the texts stated the same thing. And so when I started teaching, evolution was what I taught, too.

I don't remember exactly what I thought about Genesis. I was a Christian, but I remember thinking creationists were really a bunch of dimwits who knew next to nothing about 'true science.' I think I figured exactly what most 'theistic evolutionists' think now -- God just did it through evolution and Genesis was simply a rough sketch of the whole thing.

Then, in my mid-twenties, I started reading. It took five torturous years before I converted to creation. And, gradually, via science itself, I became a young earth creationist.

You see, when we are young, we know there is so much we don't know. And we have been taught to respect authorities, and those more educated than ourselves. Why would they not tell us the truth? Besides, the main point of school is to get those tests passed, no matter what the subject!

I have a great deal of sympathy and compassion for students of today, and the same for parents and other older people who either go to churches where the minister does not know that true science fully supports God's Word and so they waffle on creation, thus leading entire congregations into that position of not being sure.

No one wants to feel ignorant. No one wants to feel looked down on. It really is hard to read enough and think one's way through enough to be able to buck the majority and get called the sorts of names I, for instance, have been called, and jeered at the way I have been jeered at. When I started presenting creation as the truth, and young earth creation at that, I was sure that once people just saw the simple facts of the matter, there would be no problem. Somehow I forgot the difficulty I had had in changing my position. Once I understood, it all seemed so simple!

Instead I was mocked and ridiculed. But the more I read and studied the more I realized that the Bible was absolutely right.

So how to change the situation for Christians now? The first thing they must understand is that God's Word is true. God can be trusted to communicate clearly with human beings. Then the science can catch up. But as long as so many pastors and other leaders are willing to say, "We just aren't sure about all that. We'll find out in heaven...", then people are going to remain confused and try to combine the oil of Scripture with the water of 'mainstream science' (which really isn't science at all when it is dealing with macroevolution, but the expression of a system of faith in naturalistic materialism).

Still, wouldn't it be wonderful if Christians could do as you say and just believe God's Word in Genesis! They have no idea how safe they would be in both science and faith.

But with a world of 'experts' and 'authorities' out there, it's really, really hard. I remember that... so please don't say "If you can't accept it, tough..." Learn enough so that people can come to you with questions and you will be able to help them through the morass of 'scientific' babble to the truth as both science and Scripture present it.


JOHN WELLS
Great testimony Helen!

I too fell away from my youthful Christian faith based on high school science books and that respect and authority atmosphere that Helen mentions. I remember vividly reading about Java Man, and Piltdown Man. It seemed so "factual." Little did I know that one of these was a homo sapien and the other a complete hoax. The seeds of doubt were sewn and began to chip away at my faith in God and the Bible.

That's why I share Helen's passion for helping people understand that scientific evidence does not support evolution as the answer to the origin of life. And there is also no room for "theistic evolution" without a serious compromise of the truth in God's Word.

Pioneer, you are right, and I like the way the Apostle Paul stated what God inspired him to write:

The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities--his eternal power and divine nature--have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. (Rom 1:18-21 NIV) made, so that men are without excuse. For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. (Rom 1:18-21 NIV)

For theistic evolutionists to deny that God did what Genesis 1 plainly says He did; created all there is ex nihilo, i.e., "out of nothing" in the timeframe that Genesis declares, six 24-hour days, is to deny God the glory that He deserves.

[ January 06, 2002: Message edited by: Administrator ]