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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.
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First day: evening, morning, number, day.
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Second day: evening, morning, number, day.
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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.
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Cedarville Magazine