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All Scripture is given by inspiration of God... (2 Timothy 3:16)
Genesis
is a book that draws fire (as one might expect) from atheists and evolutionists;
but unexpectedly, it also draws “friendly fire” from the Christian camp. The atheists and evolutionists (typically one
and the same) are, for all practical purposes, a lost cause. They reject Genesis because they choose to;
no amount of “evidence” will change their minds. They simply do not want to believe; but the
Christian compromise on Genesis is troubling.
This is the battle ground that creationists must conquer.
Although
the term “compromiser” carries a negative connotation, I choose to use that
term to identify Christians who will not accept the message of Genesis
literally. I do not mean to imply that
these compromisers are unsaved or that they purposefully want to discredit
God’s word; but in attempting make God’s Word more palatable to an unbelieving
world, and to deflect the fiery missiles hurled against the book of Genesis as
being unscientific, they unwittingly diminish the power of God to perform the
mighty acts that Genesis describes.
Compromisers
attempt to soften the impact of Genesis by claiming that it is only an allegory
written to acknowledge God as Creator.
They will claim that the book is poetry, and that it is not intended to
be historically or scientifically accurate.
The purpose of Genesis, they say, is to teach “who” created, but not
“how” things were created. The “how” can
only be answered by science, or so they have been told, and so they say.
As
for the claim that Genesis is allegory or poetry, expert scholars in Old
Testament and Hebrew will attest to the fact that Genesis is written in
narrative form, and as such it attempts to present these acts as facts. Dr. John Morris wrote in an article entitled
“Does Genesis Address the Time of Creation, or just the Fact of Creation?” In it he emphasizes this point:
Hypothetically, consider a person fluent in Biblical languages who
knows nothing of either Scripture or the various claims regarding the age of
things, but who can read, carefully analyze, and understand a written document.
Given the Bible for the first time, such a reader would certainly understand Genesis
1-11 to teach that creation occurred only thousands
of years ago, not millions or billions, and he would cite several reasons.
He would note that the word "day" (Hebrew, yom)
in Genesis 1 is best understood as a literal day (either a 24-hour day or the
daylight portion of a day). While this common word can mean an indefinite time
period, it almost always means a literal day and is so defined the first time
it is used in Genesis
1:4-5. Furthermore,
it always means a literal day when modified by a number (i.e., 2nd day) or
evening and/or morning, as it is in Genesis 1. To cap it off, it always
means a literal day when used in the plural form (i.e., six days
of creation, Exodus
20:11).
Next, he would note the narrative character of those early
chapters. They are telling a story, and there is no indication that it is
figurative. He would find the poetic portions are no less "historic"
than the prose portions. It all appears to be chronological, with each event
followed by another.[1]
So
the argument that Genesis cannot be taken literally because it is allegorical
is based on a false premise. In fact,
even atheists would defend against that point.
In
regard to the historical and scientific accuracy of Genesis, one only need look
at the rest of the Bible for support. If
Genesis is not historically and scientifically accurate, then how can the rest
of the Bible be trusted? In the first
place, God vouches for the integrity of His Word, which happens to include
Genesis: Psalm 119:89, 152, 160; Psalm148:4-6; Isaiah 40:8; Isaiah 55:11; Matthew 24:35; 1 Peter 1:25, etc. Jesus cited Genesis as factual (Matthew19:4-6; Luke 17:26). If the events
recorded in Genesis are merely poetic allegory, then the deity of Christ is
severely compromised because He presented it as historical fact. Other writers of both the Old and New
Testaments also regarded the Genesis account as fact. To devalue the historical accuracy of Genesis
is to cast doubt upon the whole of Scripture.
The
Bible, however, has in all areas of scrutiny been proven true. Modern archeologists use the Bible to locate
ancient historical sites. Even in those
areas where the Bible was thought to be in error, e.g., the existence of the
Hittite nation, or the reign of Belshazzar as recorded in the book of Daniel,
archeology has proven the Bible to be accurate.
In
all the instances where the Bible speaks to science, it is consistently found
to be true. Even in the accurate
calculation of Pi (π) rounded to a whole number (2 Chronicles 4:2), the Bible
is accurate. So, if the rest of the
Bible is historically and scientifically accurate, then it is unreasonable to
doubt the accuracy of Genesis.
The
“how” of creation is not addressed in Genesis nor can it be answered by
science. Surely the mind of man cannot
approach the knowledge and understanding of God in order to fathom the “how” of
His creation. According to Genesis, God
created out of nothing, and all that He created, He spoke into existence. As incredible as this may sound to mortal
beings such as ourselves, to doubt it in the least is to deny God His
omnipotence and omniscience. This is what compromisers must
understand.
Science
has no factual answers to the “how” of creation. They propose theories, and their theories,
especially with today’s technology, are continually proven false, and so the
theories have to be continuously modified.
Science demands observation.
Creation cannot be and has never been observed. Evolution from one “kind” into another has
never been observed, and there is no evidence in the fossil record that it has ever
occurred. Science demands
experimentation with repeatable results.
All attempts to “evolve” something in the laboratory have failed
miserably. Science has no answers for
the “how,” and our compromisers need to understand that.
“Let
God be true, but every man a liar” (Romans 3:4). Genesis is the Word of God. It is true; it is historically and
scientifically accurate. To doubt its
veracity, is to cast doubt on all of Scripture.
There is no room for compromise.
[1] Morris, John
D., “Does Genesis Address the Time of Creation, or just the Fact of Creation?”
(https://www.icr.org/article/594/).
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