Biblical Creation and Evangelism

Sometimes people have a bit of irreverent but harmless fun playing with a manger (creche, nativity) scene on their table, putting characters or other objects in them that clearly do not belong. The humor comes from knowledge of inaccuracy. People who have seriously read articles and watched videos that carefully examine the biblical text may not care for manger scenes. When I was younger, I put the Magi figures away from the manger because they were en route . But what has been added to or taken away from biblical history? Nativity scene, Unsplash /  Rick Oldland That's right, the Magi (probably an entourage, not just three) were not there to see the infant Jesus. They saw him as a child in a house. Ever notice that the majority of creche scene makers do not realize that those involved were Jewish? Then there's that business about the hotel and the cold-hearted innkeeper who turned Joseph and Mary away, but his wife took care of them...cool story, bro. A question on the accurac...

Professing Christians who believe in an old earth say things that are untrue, going beyond disagreements on scientific evidence. Why these old-earthers compromise on the age of the earth, embrace atheistic interpretations of science, and deny what the Bible plainly says is puzzling. They also go beyond simple carelessness or disagreement and present untruths. One is that young-age creation is the new kid on the church history block. Some have also falsely claimed that the church fathers were old-earthers . But what did those leaders say about the Genesis Flood? Quintus Septimius Florens Tertullianus ( Tertullian ) The question of the Flood is relevant because it supports biblical creation science and the young earth. Compromisers often deny literal creation as described in the Bible, and they cannot  accept the global Genesis Flood because it wrecks long ages. So they come up with stories to downplay it that are...truly bizarre. The church fathers believed what the Bible teaches ab...

The world has many kingdoms, so to speak, and their ownership is a complicated issue. Romans 13:1 tells us that rulers have been appointed by God for his purposes. He is in control, yet God does not have ownership of all governments. Those belong to Satan. One of many reasons that an honest reading of Genesis is important is the concept of federal headship . That term is not in the Bible, but the concept is there. Satan is the god of this world because when Adam betrayed God by sinning, ownership transferred to him. Hand holding world, Pixabay / geralt (Gerd Altmann) During the temptations of Jesus, Satan essentially waved a ring full of keys at Jesus, saying that he had the rights to them. Not every bit of real estate on Earth belongs to him, though. Christians who "walk the walk" and not justs "talk the talk" have been redeemed by the blood of Jesus and are adopted as children of God (Galatians 4:3-7). We are under his authority but also in a spiritual warfare (E...

Although most professing Christians claim to believe the Bible, they obviously do not read it. Many are deceived by cults and scoffers. These Christians may think the Genesis Flood is a myth taken from other Eastern cultures. Why? Because smart people said so. The appeal to authority is often fallacious (as seen above). It is legitimate to ask Christians what they do with the fact that the Flood is mentioned in other parts of the Old Testament. These references indicate judgment, as the Flood was a judgment. Then doubters also need to deal with the New Testament. Ocean waves, RGBStock / rkirbycom If they doubt the authority of the Old Testament, how about the fact that Jesus, Peter, Paul, and others referred to it? Not as an allegory, but as literal history. The Flood was a judgment, but also used as a reminder of the coming Judgment — there is no way it could have been a local event. Denying the Genesis Flood also denies history and also the authority of Scripture, and these peopl...

In this age of gender-inclusive Bible translations that take male words and add female ("sons" becomes "sons and daughters"), this political correctness is absurd. Some translations that do this are not necessarily mistranslating if it can be justified by the original text. It is unnecessary. I reckon that for centuries, people used the word men  to include women without having to be explicit. Mayhaps the political correctness and "inclusivity" in translations can cause confusion. To question if women are also made in God's image can be easily answered. The Creation of Eve (circa 1520), Florentine school One way to understand is to read the Bible. Context is paramount, and many times it is clear that words like man  clearly mean people , which last I knew included women. When something is written to or about males only, the text is clear. (On a contemporary side note, girls have objected to being addressed with the word guys , "We're not guys...

Many times, people need to saddle up and ride to the top of the hill and get the big picture. That is figurative of course. The point is that it is good to mentally get to a better vantage point and not just focus on the immediate details. Decades ago, evangelism was a relatively frequent occurrence, and even unbelievers often had a modicum of respect for the Bible and clergy. In later years, Western society has become secularized; many in the public have contempt for God and also for Christians — especially biblical creationists. Jesus teaching, from Free Christian Illustrations Today, society is infected with evolutionism, which is important to atheistic secularism. Telling someone that he is a sinner and in need of repentance can be confusing. Getting the view from the hill of the big picture includes Genesis. Sin made its first appearance there with Adam and Eve. Also, God is the Creator and he makes the rules — we did not create ourselves, nor did "Mother Nature." Jesus ...

When I first attempted to defend creation and refute descent with modifications evolution, I reacted more than responded. This is mainly because I was unprepared and needed more input from biblical creation science sources. Mayhaps I was afraid the evolutionists were right, and I did not want to give them ammunition. There are some things that creationists and evolutionists do not realize. One is that everyone has the same evidence, nobody has ours and  theirs . Interpretations are very important. Some details are agreed upon by both camps. One is natural selection. Eden roses, Pexels / Sveta Moisseyeva However, the way Charles Darwin used natural selection was as a creative force of nature, giving rise to new life forms. He made it seem like Natural Selection was an entity,   and sometimes his disciples do that as well. It is not about the struggle for survival, death, and all that stuff. Natural selection is simply about reproduction. Christians and creationists may be skitt...

One of the disheartening things about Easter is how the secular world turns the event into a merchandising opportunity, all about selling candies and other stuff. It gets worse every year. Also, uninformed Christians join with professing atheists in wrongly saying that Easter is a pagan holiday . It is of first importance to proclaim the bodily Resurrection of Jesus from the dead. Unfortunately, Christians can add to the distractions mentioned above by over-spiritualizing the Resurrection and forgetting about the physical aspects in our blessed hope. Looking outward from the empty tomb, Unsplash / Pisit Heng Sometimes when we write, we word things in such a way as to anticipate skeptics. This is common among apologists. Paul the Apostle added some details and explanations presumably because of heresies that were already developing. In contrast, the Resurrection accounts in the Gospels were straightforward narratives. Also, keep in mind that the disciples clearly believed what they were...

A topic that causes a great deal of discussion is the global Genesis Flood, and especially why it happened in the first place. There are many details that can be covered (and have been by others) which would make this post excessively long. I was in a discussion the other day, and the method  of the Judgment caused some speculation. God could have sent a plague, stopped atoms in their paths and everything would instantly disintegrate, or something else. Yet he chose t0 send a global deluge. Noah's Ark, Pixabay /  Jeff Jacobs There were several reasons for the Judgment that can be summed up by saying that humanity had become violently evil all the time. It may be hard for some folks to accept, but God is sovereign and has the right to judge people. He is holy, mankind is sinful. In his mercy, he saved eight people and many critters to start repopulating the world after the Flood. When reading the Old Testament, there are several instances where people set up stones as monuments...

There are professing Christians who claim to believe the Bible, then try to find ways to get out of believing the first eleven chapters of Genesis are written as history. When they claim that it is something else such as allegory or pseudo-history, they are rejecting and undermining the authority of Scripture. Pseudo-history is something written as history but is actually fictitious. Some people may say that the Bible contains stories intended to teach us something. So what? We can do that with many books, so the Bible is not so special in that view. Bible and note-taking, Unsplash /  Fa Barboza There are those who relegate Genesis 1-11 to story or allegory status, but they have some problems. First, why aren't the later chapters of Genesis also pseudo-history? Further, these blackguards are calling Jesus, Paul, Peter, and others liars because they refer to Genesis as real history and authoritative. By the way, drop Exodus 31:17 and Exodus 20:11 on them — those verses will show the...

There are Christians who insert millions of years between the first two verses of Genesis, and it is truly baffling as to why. Perhaps they want it both ways by believing in deep time like secularists but can also claim to "believe" the Bible. Or they may think evidence for a young earth is lacking. Maybe some other reason. One version is that God created everything but Satan and his minions rebelled, so God sent a global flood. Then God recreated the world. Also, some just insist on deep time without "Lucifer's Flood." Standley Chasm, Unsplash / Stephen Mabbs Biblical creationists have filled the gap (heh!) numerous times over the years, but it keeps returning. If those who believe in some kind of gap theory are attempting to impress secular folks, this backfires in a big way. It is untenable according to both secular and creation science interpretations. Worse, it requires massive eisegesis and Scripture twisting — there is no  support for this position in the...

This is being written for the fourteenth annual Question Evolution Day , which is something that any  biblical creationist can support. Involvement levels can be very basic, such as simply sharing a post online with a #questionevolutionday hashtag. More involved: writing weblog articles, having an event at a church, etc. One big reason to get involved at all is to support intellectual and academic freedoms, and especially freedom of speech. We show that atoms-to-atheist evolution is not supported by evidence, which instead supports special creation. There is a surprising similarity between that day and the walls of Jericho. Jericho, Unsplash / Valdemaras D. Don't be riding off in a cloud of dust, hear me out. The Bible records how Joshua led the Israelites as directed by God to destroy Jericho. It must have seemed like a massive undertaking, as a siege could have taken months or years . The Israelites were obedient to God's instructions, the walls fell, and the Israelites were...

Several times, whether in weblogs on on social(ist) media, reviews of spurious books and things have been presented that are useful in addition to what is being reviewed. In cases like the one featured below, the book is irrelevant and the rest of the article takes on theistic evolution (TE). As I have stated several times, I think most TEs profess to be Christians but are actually Deists. They show disdain for the Bible. A sanitized version of evolution is presented and its flaws are omitted. For some reason they want an atheistic philosophy to supercede Scriptural authority. Jesus statue facepalm, Pixabay /  Hans_Hofer A Timeline of Origins—Toward Better Integration of the Bible and Science by Michael Russell is something I don't want to waste my time with thanks to the review. Interestingly, Russell uses the Genesis Flood as the way God brought Noah from the other  world to this one. So, integrating the Bible and science means fiction presented as — what? Theology? Apparen...

Before we get into the main topic, I need to point out something. People tend to say that someone is honest or intelligent because that person is not antagonistic toward their point of view. Dr. Todd Wood has confused people about his stance on evolution , saying it has "gobs of evidence." Atheists said he is "honest" — implying the rest of us are not. Frankie the Rock (I mean, François de La Rochefoucauld) said, "We rarely think people have good sense unless they agree with us." Try admiring the intelligence of an opponent sometime. Be honest. Crowd of people, Pixabay / Keith Johnston (modified) Sometimes professing atheists will say good things about the Bible, Christianity, Christians, and so on. They are honestly expressing views that obstreperous atheists would find repugnant. C. Richard Dawkins made a rather startling statement that a Designer is a scientific hypothesis , yet remains an atheist. Also, he said that Christianity is " a bulwark ag...

To hear believers in universal common descent tell it, animals killing and eating each other has always been around. T. rex  would see another dinosaur and they would fight. Lions constantly on the prowl, killing whenever possible. But nobody knows the dispositions of dinosaurs and lions only kill when it is necessary. Biblical creationists presuppose that the Bible is true and authoritative. They say that just after creation week, everything got along and had a vegetarian diet. Animals began putting other animals on their menus at some point. Lion eating, Pexels / jiju joy There is some disagreement among Christians and biblical creationists about when carnivory entered the picture. Some think it did not exist until after God gave humanity permission to eat meat after the Flood, others say carnivory started at the Fall of man. While Scripture is the final authority, science is useful here to help clarify things. What follows is the position of CMI, but I think it is common to the ...

People may think that evolution is a subject for biologists to discuss and creation is for science-denying theologians and religious fanatics, but those are false characterizations. Origins permeates many areas of our lives. Worldviews determine how we process information. Evolution is materialistic. That is, it is based on the belief that all that exists is matter and there is no God or spirits. It uses gradual, trial-and-error processes over long periods of time. Death is the hero because creatures die so "better" ones can live. The Bible describes the creation of everything in six days — without evolution. Bear Ghat Kill erodes drive, Unsplash / Cowboy Bob Sorensen When professing Christians try to combine creation and evolution through things like Theistic Evolution, they do violence to the gospel message. In addition, they are saying that they do not believe the Bible, that it does not mean what it says! Why should an unbeliever trust the Bible about salvation through fa...

People who are involved in Christian apologetics ministries (especially biblical creationists) are often ridiculed by atheists as "reality deniers" or with similar epithets. Critics claim the intellectual high ground because they believe reality and Christians do not, but that is posturing — and unwarranted. Everyone has the same facts, but their worldviews dictate how facts are interpreted. When atheists claim that that material things are all that exist and that  is reality, those are just arbitrary assertions. They have no facts. People who believe the Bible can see that atheists are blocked from reality. Gate - You shall not pass, Unsplash / Cowboy Bob Sorensen Unfortunately, it is not just misotheists who are blocked. Many Christians are being harmed by the denial of the truth and authority of God's written Word. Evolution is a stumbling block for both believers and unbelievers, as people are told that particles-to-pastor evolution is a proven fact. (Indeed, evolutio...

For some reason, many professing Christians are determined to get long ages out of the first two chapters of Genesis. The word under fire is  yôm , which means literal day (or part of a day) when qualifiers are used, otherwise it can mean an indefinite  period of time. Why those people want to take the only word that can mean literal day and confuse the issue so they can have millions of years in Genesis is baffling. They take the rest of Genesis and the Old Testament at face value, relying on context, when  yôm is used. Bible and pathway, Unsplash /  Aaron Burden If God wanted to indicate long ages, there are other words available. Several popular efforts have been made to compromise with the enemies of God and make creation seem to be older than God's Word tells us. (Do they really  believe the Bible, or is it just for show?) These compromises include the " Gap Theory ," the " Framework Hypothesis ," theistic evolution, and others. One of the others is the po...

One of the most popular "gotcha" questions from scoffers (the kind of question they presume cannot be answered properly) is, "Where did Cain get his wife?" There are people who are genuinely interested in the answer — including some Christians. Biblical creationists can provide an answer . There are professing Christians who may make nods at believing the Bible, but some of their beliefs are...truly bizarre. They spiritualize, allegorize, mythicize, excise, and do other things to Genesis to avoid believing what it plainly says. Now it is more like, " What was Cain's wife?" Neanderthal Woman, PLOS One / WikiComm (now deleted) / Bacon PCH ( CC BY 2.5 ), Modified at PhotoFunia People are so bamboozled by the perceived authority of science, they put those ever-changing secular views of history and origins above Scripture. Can't be seen as an evolution denier or people will say mean things about me. (Did you ever carry your cross through town, buddy?)...

It is clearly seen in nature that God exists and is the Creator (Romans 1:20), and when we read the Bible, we see that its authors were well aware of his work in creation. Keep watch in your Bible reading for the many references to creation. Further, it is obvious that God likes beauty and order. Indeed, we are living in a world that was wrecked by the Genesis Flood, but it was designed to still  show beauty. When we look up yonder at the stars, we see beauty and order. A bit of astronomy reveals attributes of the Creator. ESA / Hubble & NASA,  Sarajedini  et al  (Usage does not imply endorsement of site contents) Secular scientists keep trying to throw God out of creation with their naturalistic philosophies, but those are incoherent. For that matter, the vaunted Big Bang is being doubted publicly by some scientists  and others admit that they don't understand much about it at all. The heavens show the glory of God, and each star has its own glory. The inco...