Some time ago, The Stream columnist Tom Gilson asked that there be a truce between Young Earth Creationists (YECs) and Old Earth Creationists (OECs) trusting in the sincerity of faith on both sides of the Old Earth and Young Earth debate. Of both sides, he acknowledges the following:
Both sides in this battle are Christians; both believe God is Creator. Typically both sides agree there was an original human couple created uniquely in God’s image. These two first humans were innocent before God until they fell into sin. Both sides agree that Christ came to restore us to the relationship with God that He intended for us. [1]
YECs take the Genesis narrative written in the Bible as it is: An actual historical account that means what it says. If anyone is able to believe that Genesis is actual history, then they have no reason to doubt the rest of the Bible.
OECs, which consist of theistic evolutionists, gap-theorists, and progressive creationists (a.k.a day-age-theorists) do not take Genesis as actual history but more or less as allegory or symbolic and teach that the six days of creation were actually much longer periods of time in their attempt to reconcile scripture with the pseudo-science of evolution.
But what Gilson and others like him are wanting to see happen is for both sides to lay aside their differences and unite around what they do agree on: That God created the universe, that we have sinned, and that Christ came to redeem us from our sins and restore us to a right standing with God. They believe that in putting aside something as fundamental to our faith as the account of origins that we could be more effective in winning souls to Christ and even bringing entire societies and nations to repentance in Christ.
Gilson is not calling on the so-called experts and scholars to set aside their differences on the matter per se, [2] trusting that they will somehow come to consensus and eventually find the answers that will put the origins and earth-age debate to rest.
Yet he is calling on the laymen to set aside those differences and leave the debating to the so-called experts and scholars thinking that we have no business being dogmatic on the things of which we feel certain. But make no mistake, I am not claiming to be an expert myself. I do not sport any credentials and even if I did, certification would not be what I run on. While credentials may help to establish credibility, independent research into any given matter will always establish more credibility than any number of credentials ever will.
I am not saying that I am more knowledgeable than the credentialed scholars and experts. They may be very smart and knowledgeable. They may have a lot of facts in their favor. But that does not make them objective and honest, nor does it mean that they know everything about their respective field. Experts and scholars can still deceptively and dishonestly twist facts and information, manipulate data, misrepresent their sources, omit information that they ought to disclose, and ignore important evidences and documentation.
They are no more or less above doing evil and telling cleverly crafted lies than anyone else which is why it is vitally important that we verify every claim they make. When you listen to a Pastor, Bible study teacher, or evangelist expound upon the scriptures, look up the scriptures that they are citing and compare the written text with their exposition. If their teaching, application, and exposition is consistent with the text, then they will be shown to be preaching truth. But if their teaching is not consistent with text to which they are appealing or the full counsel of what the scripture is saying on a particular matter, then it is simple: The Bible is right and they are wrong.
Likewise, in the school, college, or university classroom, if the instructor makes a claim, before buying into that claim, verify it. He or she may very well be telling the truth or they may be lying and taking the time to research any given subject tends to better establish whether or not what they are teaching you is based in truth and fact.
Just because we enter a classroom or church, that does not mean we have to check our brains in at the door. The Bible does instruct us to use discernment and discretion in regards to what we read and listen to after all and when it comes to complicated matters, it is not sufficient to just simply rely on one opinion, but rather we need to be willing to hear and every opinion.
When the Church was first established, it was created with a checks and balance system. All members from laymen to leadership members were held accountable by one another for their conduct both within and without the fellowship and for what was taught and being propagated throughout their ranks. The congregants chose the elders and the elders chose the Pastors to lead their respective congregations and the Bishops who oversaw any number of different fellowships.
The worst thing that happened was when the checks and balance system within the Church was eliminated by the Papacy and clergy were no longer elected by the congregants but instead appointed by Rome and all doctrine that was made official by the Papal Caesars was to be accepted without question. Any challenge to their doctrine or authority was counted as heresy and would result in excommunication and in many cases, imprisonment, torture, and even death.
It was never intended for blind trust to be placed in leaders, people of influence, and so-called experts and scholars. In fact, the Corinthian Church was rebuked by Paul for magnifying him and his associates higher than they should have been because they forgot that Christ whom Paul preached to them about was the perfect example to whom they were to look (1 Cor. 3:1-6)
And yet we have failed to learn those lessons and repeat the same mistakes as others have done and thereby continue to place blind faith in the so-called experts and scholars and thereby become easily deceived by systematic cleverly crafted lies, forgetting to search the scriptures daily as the Bereans had done to make sure that sound doctrine is being taught to us (Acts. 17:11) and to test all things (1 Thess. 5:21) and every spirit (1 Jn. 4:1) as the scripture admonishes us to do and because we fail or neglect to do these things, self-professed experts, teachers, scholars, men and women of influence, and even those wielding authority arrogantly place themselves above accountability, thus resulting in the loss of truth and various forms of oppressions and exploitations from those in whom we blindly placed our faith.
Tom Gilson greatly errs in calling for us to cease to act as though we know the truth beyond a shadow of a doubt outside of a so-called expert opinion [3] when we actually do know the truth and if we as Christians hold the scriptures in as high regard as we say we do, we need to show that we do by demonstrating an unwavering confidence in them by not shying from controversy, a readiness to earnestly contend for the faith, (Jude 3) to give an answer for the faith and hope that lies within us, (1 Pet. 3:15) and to take down those strong holds, wicked imaginations, and every high thing that exalts itself against the truth of Christ. (2 Cor. 10:4) These are not commands and admonishments for a selected elite class of scholars and clergymen, but they are directed towards all believers according to whatever extent God has placed on their hearts irrespective of their role in the body of Christ.
There are things that as Christians we can clearly state beyond a shadow of a doubt as truth:
1. That the universe and all that there is was created by God
2. That God is the source of all truth and it is He who has defined what is right and wrong, good and evil and not we ourselves.
3. We have all sinned and fallen short of His glory and because of sin, we are separated from God who, because He is sinless, cannot allow that which is sinful, profane, and corrupt, to be in His presence, which results in eternal damnation and there is no amount of good works on our part that can grant us entry into Heaven because even our own goodness is stained by sin.
4. But God in His love and mercy sent His Son Jesus Christ into the world to die on the cross for our sins and raised Him from the dead so that any placing their faith in Him and in Him alone for their salvation may receive forgiveness of sins and restored fellowship with God. It was upon the cross that both the required penalty of sin was paid and mercy was given.
5. That God is a triunity consisting of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
7. That a day is coming when all men will have to stand before God in judgment.
8. That there is such a thing as good and evil and that Satan is the epitome of evil who is ever at war with Almighty God but will suffer his final defeat when he is thrown into the lake of fire.
9. That the scriptures by which the Gospel is given to us is the inerrant, authoritative divine revelation of God.
10. That Christ is returning again.
11. That our corruptible dying bodies will be liberated from death and changed into an incorruptible form.
12. That all evil will be vanquished and that there will be a new heaven and a new earth in which there will be no more evil, death, suffering, sorrow, or pain.
Now how we view the aforementioned basic doctrines depends on our overall view of scripture from beginning to end and the more authoritative we see the Bible, the more solid our faith in Christ will be. Scripture says that that the Word of God "is not in heaven that thou shouldest say, Who shall go up for us to heaven, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it, and do it? Neither is it beyond the sea, that thou shouldest say, Who shall go over the sea for us, and bring it unto us, that we may hear and do it? But the word is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it." (Deut. 30:12-14)
The scriptures were not written to be deciphered by only an elite field of scholars. They were written to be easily understood by all people. The text was designed to mean exactly what it says, yet far too many professors of the faith have bought into the lie that the Bible is subject to interpretation and therefore rely to heavily upon their Pastors, religious leaders and so-called experts and scholars for their doctrine rather than taking the time to regularly read and study the scriptures for themselves.
If you haven't read the Barna groups study results on Bible literacy in the Church, be prepared. The results are very dismal and a disgrace on our part and because we place an excessive amount of trust in the experts to tell us what is right and what the scriptures are saying, we end up being blinded and deceived by lies without even knowing that we might be have been lied to.
The YEC position contests that if you cannot receive the Genesis account of origins as actual history, than how can any of the scripture be trusted? If you cannot trust what the Bible says concerning earthly things, how can you trust it when it speaks of spiritual things; this objection to OEC doctrine of any shade echoing the words of Jesus. (Jn. 3:12)
And many YECs might be surprised to know that this undermining of the authority of scripture, or rather the precedent that was set for that did not begin with the book of Genesis. It began with a change in eschatological thought in the fourth century for which Augustine was largely credited.
Before figures like Clement of Alexandria, Origen, and Augustine, the eschatology of the Church---eschatology having to do with end-times and prophecy by the way---was largely a literal face value approach to prophecy. But when Augustine had written and published The City Of God, his best known work, prophecy began to become allegorized and presented as symbolic. The Church permanently replaced Israel as the people of God, the millennial reign of Christ became the millennial reign of the Church, and the book of Revelation was viewed not as a foretelling of literal events to come but also a book of symbolism and allegory.
This then began to set a terrible precedent from which the body of Christ suffers from to this very day and since end-times prophecy was largely no longer taken at face value, the Church later ceased to take the creation account as written in Genesis at face-value upon the advent of doctrines such as the Lyellian teaching of uniformitarianism which taught that the earth was far older than six thousand years based upon the now discredited assumption that geologic processes have always remained at a slow gradual constant rate and that all geologic formations were formed over millions of years.
The Church, having been accustomed to accepting only an allegorical approach to prophecy had quickly began allegorizing the historical account of Genesis. There was little resistance to the uniformitarian doctrine. Had the Church maintained a face-value approach in its eschatology, perhaps the resistance to uniformitarianism might have been much greater and OE doctrines might not be as pervasive in the Church today as they are now.
YECs object to OEC of any shade because every OEC doctrine places death and the curse before sin. They contend that if death existed before sin, then the wages of sin is not death and that the present sufferings, hardships, pains, and struggles that we see throughout creation are not a product of the curse that has fallen upon all of creation. Death and the curse have not only affected man, but as the scripture states, the curse has affected all of creation (Rom. 8:19-22) and awaits redemption.
If death is not a consequence of sin, then what purpose did the death and resurrection of Jesus serve? And why is death called an enemy? (1 Cor. 15:26) And if the present state of creation is not a consequence of the curse, then what is there to redeem the creation from?
Furthermore, YECs also believe that the OEC doctrine (progressive creationism and theistic evolution especially) maligns the character of a loving and merciful God who cares for all of creation. From a theological standpoint OECs are hard pressed to answer YEC objections to OEC theology and furthermore, YECs have been able to give answers far more satisfying to questions like "Why would a God of love create world with so much suffering?" and "Why does God allow bad things to happen?" OECs, who believe that death and the present evils have some how always existed, are going to have a difficult time providing answers to such hard questions from a theological standpoint and the futile attempts by OECS to reconcile two opposing viewpoints have not produced the satisfying answers sought by many who once professed the faith and who were raised in faith who have been confronted with the questions and arguments that have challenged and overthrown the professed faith of many.
If the Bible cannot be trusted in its account of history, especially the origin of life, then how can it be trusted to be an authority on anything else? And this has been a major factor in why many young people leave the Church. [4]
Many professors of the faith have largely underestimated the importance of the book of Genesis which is also known as the first book of mention. It serves as the foundation to the rest of scripture and many essential doctrines upon which the Christian faith is built. Genesis has been attacked and ridiculed more than any other part of the Bible and there is a reason for that. If Genesis, upon which the rest of the scriptures rest, can be discredited, then the rest of the Bible, including the Christian faith, falls with it and that is a fact that the most ardent of atheists and humanists recognize.
Therefore, attempting to reconcile scripture with any tenet of evolution is not doing the credibility of the Gospel any favors because the most ardent of skeptics are going to see an inconsistency in that thinking and when Christians dismiss and ignore the objections that are brought up, they may be perceived as committing intellectual suicide.
OEC doctrines certainly did not do anything to assuage the doubts of a once well-known preacher turned atheist Charles Templeton [5] and his tale is just one of many sad testimonies of those who were raised as Christians or even once embraced the Christian faith but later fell away because of seemingly irrefutable arguments and unanswerable questions.
Now, professing Christians on both the YEC and OEC sides of the aisle have not demanded scientific explanations for the virgin birth of Jesus, His miracles, and His resurrection. They accept without question that Christ was born of a virgin, did miracles, and rose from the dead; things which, from a naturalistic standpoint, would appear impossible. They both believe in a God who is actively involved in the affairs of men and when necessary, will personally interject Himself to fulfill a purpose, even in the lives of individuals. There are even OEC leaning adherents that take a face value approach to eschatology but when it comes to the historical account of Genesis, they refuse to take it at face value and insist that the six-days of creation must have somehow been immensely longer periods of time because they have fallen into the trap of relying too much on scientific and naturalistic explanations to explain an event that is clearly supernatural.
And then again, there are those who may adhere to the YEC position yet reject a literal approach to eschatology. Both cases reveal an inconsistent approach to scripture. You cannot treat the scripture as authoritative in one matter but not authoritative in another and you cannot approach scripture at face-value in one thing and not in another.
I will agree with Tom Gilson on one thing: There needs to be unity in the Church in order to effectively carry out the purpose for which it was established, but it cannot be a unity at the expense of essential doctrines and truth upon which the Christian faith rests. And what should be troubling to Gilson and the rest of us who profess Christ is when a segment within the body of Christ says something like what Gilson pointed out about OECs:
Most of them have to do with the cultural and literary context in which Genesis was written. “We can’t interpret ancient texts as if they were written for 21st century Westerners,” they say, “because they weren’t written originally for us. We have to understand the language and cultures of the day, so we can know what the original readers would have read it to mean.” [6]
Such statements make the scriptures out to be irrelevant to this present generation. If the book of Genesis does not apply to our time, then how can the rest of the Bible, including the Gospel? Where is the line drawn?
Gilson is naïve to think that there can be a unity with anyone who makes any part of the Bible out to be irrelevant to our time because such thinking is a direct attack on our faith. A major tenet of Christianity is that the Bible is the inerrant inspired word of God and if it is the inspired Word of God, then it was made relevant and applicable to every generation (past, present, and future).
But to say that the Bible was written only to apply to a specific generation at a specific time in a specific culture is an outright denial of its divine inspiration and inerrancy. As it is written, "Can two walk together, except they be agreed?" (Amos 3:3) and "what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? And what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hat Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols?" (2 Cor. 6:14-16)
Adherents to OEC of any shade are attempting to bring agreement between the light of the Gospel with the darkness of Darwinism. They are attempting to join together two contrary doctrines. And they are attempting to harmonize together contrary accounts.
Such doctrine is the product of what the scripture calls a double-mindedness (Jas. 1:8) which is an unstable and inconsistent way of thinking. As Christians, our thinking must be consistent in every matter and in everything we say and do.
If there is to be a unity in the Church, it must be unity under one solid consistent doctrine and under one faith which is how it started out and was intended to be. (Eph. 4:5) But that unity was not maintained because over the course of time, the Church was not careful to maintain the purity of doctrine and to hold accountable within their ranks and call out those who brought doctrines contrary to the Gospel.
In reading the second and third chapter of the book of Revelation, some of the churches were actually rebuked and warned of disciplinary action for tolerating false doctrines.
But before than can be a unity, we need to understand what those essential doctrines are, call out, and hold accountable those within our ranks who preach and walk contrary to. We also need to be unified around the importance of giving a defense for our faith often as the occasion calls for it and to equip ourselves with the best answers possible to the intellectual and philosophical challenges to our faith and that the objections raised to Christianity cannot be dismissed or ignored if we are to be effective in persuading those whom we seek to win over for Christ who otherwise might not be persuaded of the truth of the Gospel due to being blinded by the lies propagated by the forces of darkness in this present world.
And in the event we are confronted with formidable arguments and asked difficult questions, we need to remember that God is the source of the answers we need and we need to rely on Him for the wisdom that we need (Jas. 1:5) and not merely put our entire trust in what the experts say.
Understand that I am not saying that we should not consult expert resources or to ask the credentialed Pastor or teacher certain questions to find out their thoughts on a certain matter or investigate a number of different opinions. I have read the works of the credentialed persons myself and have often times found their resources to possess helpful insight, but I also know that even they do not always have the easiest, best, or most satisfying answers to some of the hardest challenges.
But when we rely on God for wisdom, we may be inspired with answers and thoughts that might not have occurred to the experts or there may be discoveries in science and archaeology made that might bring resolution to even the most formidable challenges, plus our eyes may be opened to details within the scriptures themselves that may have been overlooked by others.
If we would resolve to unify around the importance of a proper understanding of basic Christian doctrine, who the God is that we serve, what kind of a God He is and expects of us, the importance of upholding sound doctrine, of maintaining accountability within the Church, and readying ourselves to make the best case possible for our faith, only then might we see the unity and agreement around the essential tenets of our faith that is lacking, but there will always be those within the ranks who, for whatever their deep-rooted and heartfelt reasons and motives might be, will stubbornly hold onto traditions and doctrines contrary to the teachings of scripture and refuse to approach the scriptures as they were meant to be approached and received.
What really will test the hearts and attitudes of professing believers more often than anything else is teaching the Bible from beginning to end, in its full counsel, within the confines of the text, as equally authoritative in everything it says and as its own interpreter. It is then we find out where everyone really stands and in what they place the most confidence as their final authority in all things.
End Notes:
1. Tom Gilson, "Evangelicals, Let's Call a Truce on the Age of the Universe,"
The Stream, September 28, 2019
https://stream.org/call-evangelical-truce-age-universe/
2. Ibid
3. Ibid
4. Ken Ham and Avery Foley, "Pew Research: Why Young People Are Leaving Christianity,"
Answers In Genesis, September 28, 2016
https://answersingenesis.org/christianity/church/pew-research-why-young-people-leaving-christianity/
5. Ken Ham and Stacia Byers, "The slippery slide to unbelief,"
Creation Ministries International; Creation 22 (3):8-13, June, 2000
https://creation.com/the-slippery-slide-to-unbelief-a-famous-evangelist-goes-from-hope-to-hopelessness
6. Gilson, Ibid.
Scripture references:
1. 1 Corinthians 3:1-6
2. Acts 17:11
3. 1 Thessalonians 5:21
4. 1 John 4:1
5. 1 Peter 3:15
6. 2 Corinthians 10:4
7. Deuteronomy 30:12-14
8. John 3:12
9. Romans 8:19-22
10. 1 Corinthians 15:26
11. Amos 3:3
12. 2 Corinthians 6:14-16
13. James 1:8
14. Ephesians 4:5
15. James 1:5
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