This series of 26 lessons
was developed for classroom presentation from the book by David Miller that
should be required reading for every preacher, elder, and Bible school teacher
in the Lord’s church: “Piloting The Strait”. This book is available from a variety of
bookstores, Sain Publications at www.sainpublicans.com as well as from
David Miller at www.apologeticspress.org.
CHANGES IN THE CHURCH
SOURCES OF CHANGE-SCIENCE
I Timothy 6:20-21 “O TIMOTHY, KEEP THAT WHICH IS COMMITTED TO
THY TRUST, AVOIDING PROFANE and VAIN BABBLINGS, AND OPPOSITIONS
OF SCIENCE FALSELY SO CALLED: WHICH SOME PROFESSING HAVE ERRED CONCERNING THE
FAITH. GRACE be
WITH THEE. AMEN.”
Another source of trouble and change
in the church is modern scientific thought.
The scientific and academic community in
The Theory of Evolution
One of the things that should be
extremely disturbing to faithful Christians is the tendency of many of our
brethren and most, if not all, of our Christian colleges to make concessions to
the Theory of Evolution. Some of our
Christian college science professors and others have been seduced by the so-called
scientific “proof” that the earth is old, i.e. four or five billion years
old. This is the foundation of any
credibility for Evolution.
Once a Christian accepts the idea of
an ancient earth, he automatically places himself into the situation of
abandoning a literal interpretation of the biblical account of creation. He must reject the “days” of Genesis chapter
one as being literal, twenty-four hour days.
Liberal theologians, and too many of our brethren are included, have
reevaluated their views of Genesis chapter one and altered their thinking in
order to accommodate the evolutionary framework. Consequently they consider and call the early
chapters of Genesis a “myth” or “hymn.”
(John Clayton of South Bend, Indiana and a number of
professors at Abilene as reported by the Institute for Creation Research
“Abilene Christian University Sponsors Seminar on Creation and Age of the
Earth.”; May, 1987)
Remember that Jesus himself referred
to “the creation which God created” in:
Mark
Practical Effect of Accepting the
Ancient Earth Theory
Many folks just don’t understand
what all the fuss is about. They don’t
understand the evolutionary theory, necessarily, and subsequently think that
one can believe in evolution and an ancient earth and still hold firm their
convictions about the reliability of the biblical account of creation.
They had already accepted the
Bible’s viewpoint and believe in the inerrancy of the Scripture and so learned
to live with the logical incompatibility of these two viewpoints.
But times are different. Those who grew up after World War II have
been forced by their educators to see the stark contrast between two clearly
opposing ideas; creation and evolution.
Our irreligious science teachers caused us to face the fact that there
is no common ground between the two views.
You must either accept evolution and deny the
Bible or you must accept the Bible and deny the so-called “scientific” theory
of evolution.
What is the result? The younger generation is honest, genuine and
has seen and embraced the logical implications of an ancient earth
viewpoint. Consequently they have
adjusted their ideas about the integrity of the biblical text. They recognize that since Genesis chapter one
may be interpreted rather loosely, (as they have been taught in the
institutions of higher learning) so may the rest of Bible and, for that matter,
all the religion that their parents taught them. Generated by a secular, humanistic society
and perpetuated by careless parents, the children have come to adopt a view of
Christianity and the laws of God as being relative rather than absolute. Consequently they easily throw overboard such
ironclad certainties as God’s laws governing marriage, New Testament worship
and the plan of salvation. Their parents
are alarmed and even panic-stricken because their sons and daughters have
abandoned the faith and deny the authority of God’s Word.
The Solution
Unfortunately it may be too late to
save some of our baby-boomer generation as their modern mind-set and priorities
have been established and they’re not conducive to listening to something
different. The only road to recover and
the only hope for the future generation is to return to complete trust in the
written documents of the Bible.
Proverbs 23:22-23 “HEARKEN UNTO THY FATHER THAT BEGAT THEE, AND DESPISE NOT THY
MOTHER WHEN SHE IS OLD. BUY THE TRUTH,
AND SELL it NOT; also WISDOM, AND INSTRUCTION, AND
UNDERSTANDING.”
John 8:31-32 “THEN SAID JESUS TO THOSE JEWS WHICH BELIEVED ON HIM, IF YE CONTINUE IN MY WORD, then ARE YE MY DISCIPLES INDEED; AND YE SHALL KNOW THE TRUTH, AND THE TRUTH
SHALL MAKE YOU FREE.”
John 14:6 “JESUS SAITH UNTO HIM, I AM THE WAY, THE TRUTH,
AND THE LIFE: NO MAN COMETH UNTO THE FATHER, BUT BY ME.”
John
There is only one solution. We have to stop allowing people to tamper
with the text and writing their own versions to accommodate every fast talking
“authority” that comes along urging us to “get with it.” Take God at his word. Measure everything by the standard of the
plain teaching of the Bible. Take the
authority away from secular education that we have given it. Stop allowing it to rule our lives and our
thinking and restore God and his Word to their proper place in our lives. Many people are doing this; home schooling is
becoming more and more common.
Once we compromise the biblical
text, once we whitewash the obvious meaning of Scripture in order to make its
teaching more palatable and “in step” with prevailing political and secular
concepts, once we adjust the Scripture to fit our ideas rather than adjusting
our ideas to fit Scripture – we have lost the battle and Satan has won.
Did God Create the World?
Or did this world come into
existence gradually over a very long period of time? Is the universe billions of years old? Did the universe create itself by means of a
big bang? Must Christians be “theistic
evolutionists”? Or was the world created
by God in six literal days?
Common logic tells us that only two
possible alternatives exist; in fact in all the discussions and arguments over
the years only two alternatives have ever been promoted and defended; Creation
and Evolution.
The only way that evolution could be
possible; and the evolutionists themselves admit this; is for the world to have
been gradually developed over millions and billions of years. Thus the age of the earth is a critical
cornerstone of evolutionary theory.
The people who defend the Biblical
creation recognize clearly that the Bible represents the age of the earth to be
measured in only thousands of years not millions and billions. The person who accepts and who believes the
Bible is God’s word, perfect or inerrant, and complete, that:
“ALL SCRIPTURE is
GIVEN BY INSPIRATION OF GOD, AND is PROFITABLE FOR DOCTRINE, FOR REPROOF, FOR CORRECTION, FOR
INSTRUCITON IN RIGHEOUSNESS: THAT THE MAN OF GOD MAY BE PERFECT {complete},
THOROUGHLY FURNISHED UNTO ALL GOOD WORKS.”
II Timothy 3:16-17
believes that God created the entire universe and all life upon the
earth in six literal days.
Scientific Evidence for Creation
Simply put there is a multitude of
evidence that would indicate a young earth; an earth that is only a few
thousand years old {most Bible scholars would say about 6,000 years}
For example: In common with the Law of God; in any and
every branch of science, Laws establish and support scientific fact. The laws of physics indicate that the moon is
slowly moving away from the earth. If
the moon had been moving away from the earth over millions and billions of
years then the moon would have been close enough at the beginning that the
earth’s gravity would have pulled it apart.
Or, on the other hand, if the moon had been far enough away that it
would not have been affected by the tidal and gravity forces of earth, and
moving away for millions and billions of years it would be so far away today
that we would not have a moon.
Another argument for creation is the
shape of the earth. The earth’s spin is
slowly decelerating, getting slower. If
the earth’s spin speed has been decelerating for that many millions or billions
of years we would be at almost a stop by now.
If, on the other hand, the earth’s spin has been slowing down for
millions or billions of years it would have begun so fast that the earth would
have a big bulge and/or a ridge of mountains around the center at the equator
due to the force of its spinning during the beginnings of evolutionary time.
Another example of science
supporting the idea of creation is seen in the depth of the dust on the
moon. During the years of planning the
moon landing evolutionary scientists insisted that great danger lurked on the
moon’s surface because of the millions or billions of years of dust that had accumulated
on the moon and our astronauts would just sink in and disappear. What did they really find? Just what those who believe in God’s Creation
told them they would find; the layer of dust on the moon was only a few inches
thick; in keeping with the young (a few thousand years) age of the moon.
This is just three of the arguments
from the work of scientists themselves, based upon proven scientific laws that
the earth is not millions and billions of years old; there are many, many more.
Biblical Evidence for Creation
Of course, the great overwhelming
evidence for God’s Creation is in God’s Word itself. However, many who claim to believe the Bible
still try to compromise it with the atheistic theory of evolution and all the
so called “scientific” data that supposed supports such a notion.
But the Bible unequivocally teaches
a young earth and a young universe. The
Bible clearly maintains that the Creation of the universe and all that is in it
was accomplished in a few days. Genesis
chapter one tells us how. God simply and
literally spoke the universe, the earth and everything he created into
existence. In Genesis 1:3, 6, 9, 11, 14, 20, 24, 26 the Holy Spirit records that
“AND GOD SAID” and things happened. In
each case God speaks into existence a certain part of the created order and each
time God speaks the recorder, the inspired writer simply records what happened.
Liberal scientists, liberal theologians
and our liberal brethren have attempted to sidestep the clear meaning of the
Genesis account that God has provided for us.
In order to identify themselves with the “modern scientific” approach,
in order to appear wise and intellectual among their academic neighbors they
have labeled Genesis chapter one as a “myth” or a “hymn”. Some have insisted that it is
figurative. Others condemn it simply as
being “unscientific”. Please consider
the following:
1. If the Bible is indeed inspired as Paul tells
us it is in II Timothy 3:16-17 (and it is!) then Genesis chapter one is
inspired as well. The Bible, though
written by some forty different men over a period of 1600 years, nevertheless
really had only one author – the Holy Spirit – who governed each writer in such
a way that he wrote no falsehood but precisely what God wanted.
2.
Secondly the
chapter does not contain any of the marks or characteristics of poetic or
figurative writings. Even if it did,
poetic language does not convey fantasy and fairy tales. Far too many people, when they do not want to
accept what the Bible teaches find it easy to pass the Bible off by saying
“Well, that’s just figurative.” Anyone
who has studied the Bible knows that these people are either mis-informed, unlearned in God’s Word, or deceivers.
3.
Thirdly,
Genesis chapter one is intended to be taken literally because the rest of the
writers of the Bible do so.
Hebrews 11:3 “THROUGH FAITH WE UNDERSTAND THAT THE WORLDS WERE FRAMED BY THE WORD OF GOD, SO
THAT THINGS WHICH ARE SEEN WERE NOT MADE OF THINGS WHICH DO APPEAR.”
II Peter 3:4 “AND SAY, WHERE IS THE PROMISE OF HIS COMING? FOR SINCE THE
FATHER FELL ASLEEP, ALL THINGS CONTINUE AS they were
FROM THE BEGINNING OF THE CREATION.”
Matthew 19:4 “AND HE ANSWERED AND SAID UNTO THEM, HAVE YE
NOT READ, THAT HE WHICH MADE them AT THE
BEGINNING MADE THEM MALE AND FEMALE.”
And there are others.