Cedarville Magazine, Spring 2017

the phrase “evening and morning,” when “evening” is coupled with the word “day,” when “morning” is connected with “day,” and when “night” is used with “day.” Because so many Christians say we don’t know what the days of creation were, it must be pretty hard to work out what the word “day” means in Genesis 1. Let’s see how hard. § § First day: evening, morning, number, day. § § Second day: evening, morning, number, day. § § Third day: evening, morning, number, day. In Genesis 1, the word “day” is qualified by evening, by morning, and by number. WHY GO BEYOND THE BIBLE? In 40 years of ministry all over America and the world, as I’ve spoken to Christian leaders, theologians, Christian academics, pastors, and people in the churches, I’ve never found an example where people question the days in creation, except they’re influenced by the idea of millions of years. In other words, it’s not because of what Scripture says, it’s because they’re influenced by something outside of Scripture. You’ve just unlocked a door where you don’t have to take God’s Word as written. You’ve just said, “Did God really say?” The idea of millions of years came out of naturalism — we need to explain all this without God. And you knowwhat happened in history? Many of our Christian leaders said, “What are we going to do with millions of years? We’ll have to fit them between Genesis 1:1 and 1:2, or fit them in the days.” And so in the church there are ideas like the Day-Age Theory, Theistic Evolution, Gap Theory, and the Big Bang Theory. Why would you want to adopt something to explain processes by naturalism and add that into the Bible? Because you’re trying to fit millions of years into the Bible. There’s a difference between knowledge you gain by using your five senses that can build our technology — and I call that experimental or observational science — or beliefs about the past when you weren’t there concerning origins. When our Christian leaders are saying things like, “Because of science we can’t believe in six literal days,” what they’re really saying is, “Because of man’s beliefs about origins.” WHAT’S THE FALLOUT? We’ve raised up generations in our churches to believe you can take what man says outside the Bible, what they call “science,” Big Bang, and millions of years, and reinterpret Genesis; we should not be surprised when they then reinterpret marriage. And once you’ve said the Bible is not the infallible Word of God, then who decides right and wrong? How do you define marriage? And, by the way, not just marriage, ultimately every single biblical doctrine of theology, directly or indirectly, is founded in Genesis chapters 1–11. There’s been a battle ever since the beginning between God’s Word and man’s word. It started in Genesis 3: trust God or you can become like God. It’s a battle between two worldviews: one is based on the absolutes of God’s Word, the other is based on man’s word and moral relativism. We see the collapse of Christian morality and increasing moral relativism. Why? Because we have generations that no longer build their thinking on God’s Word. It’s not just a problem in the culture; it’s becoming a massive problem in the church. We need to raise up generations of young people whowill be able to go out into this culture and stand on the authority of the Word of God, emboldened to proclaim the truth of God’s Word and equipped to defend the Christian faith against secular attacks in an uncompromising way, preach the Gospel, and see people saved and won to the Lord Jesus Christ. Ken Ham is President, Founder, and CEO of Answers in Genesis. We need to raise up generations of young people who will stand on the authority of the Word of God, equipped to defend the Christian faith, preach the Gospel, and see people won to the Lord Jesus Christ. 6 | Cedarville Magazine