This particular session is called Young Earth, It's
Not the Issue, and I wanted to set
the scene for the rest of what we're
doing here today, because as you know from
your program, and I'll just have a quick
look at the program here, we have Dr.
Jonathan Sarfley talking on rocks, fossils and the
age of the earth.
We have Dr. Russell Humphreys who's talking on
radioisotopes and the young world.
We also have a session by Dr. John
Baumgartner on catastrophic plate tectonics, and then tomorrow
we have various sessions dealing with the age
of the earth as well.
Obviously, as you look through our program, you
see that the age of the earth is
a major issue.
We're dealing with it on the basis of
astronomy, biology, geology and so on.
And I wanted to share with you why
I believe that is such a crucial issue
this morning, and why we need to deal
with that in detail, and sort of set
the scene for a lot of the fairly
heavy scientific lectures that you're about to hear
and be challenged with.
I want to start off with a verse,
a scripture from John.
That makes sense when you're talking about Genesis.
John chapter 3 and verse 12.
Jesus said that, this, if I've told you
earthly things and you believe not, how shall
you believe if I tell you of heavenly
things?
I want to apply that in a particular
way here this morning.
Let me ask you a question.
Does the Bible touch on geology, yes or
no?
Yes, it does, doesn't it?
It talks about a global flood.
That would sure affect geology, wouldn't it?
Does the Bible touch on biology?
Ah, sure does.
God made distinct kinds of animals and plants.
Adam named animals, says taxonomy, for instance.
Yes, the Bible touches on biology.
Does the Bible touch on astronomy?
Yeah, the sun, moon and stars, and of
course, you know, the long day of Joshua,
and so on.
There's all sorts of aspects of astronomy.
So, here's my question to you.
Where the Bible touches on biology, geology and
astronomy, can we trust what it says?
Because if you can't trust what the Bible
says in biology, geology and astronomy, how can
you trust its message of morality and salvation,
which is dependent upon the geology, biology and
astronomy being true?
So, you think about it.
Jesus Christ, the Son of God, became a
man, a descendant of a man called Noah,
who was on a boat with biology on
board the boat, with geology going on outside
the boat, who's a descendant of a man
called Adam, who was made from dust, who
was told to name animals, who was told
about fruit on a tree, and so on,
who was to return to dust because he
rebelled against God, who was given the sun,
moon and stars for signs and for seasons.
Where's the Bible ever separate the geology, biology,
astronomy, anthropology, etc., from the morality and salvation?
It doesn't, does it?
It all goes together.
Because, you see, what we've got to understand
is that the Bible is not just a
book of religion, and that is what I
fear has happened in a lot of our
churches today, and that is that many people
look on the Bible as a book of
religion.
It's a book about salvation, but it's much
more than that.
The Bible is a book of history, isn't
it?
Real history that begins in the book of
Genesis.
That's why I'm so amazed as I travel
around the world and I find these Christian
leaders or pastors, you know, Dr. John Wickham,
talk about the fact the majority of theologians
to compromise when it comes to the book
of Genesis, and I have them tell me
things like, oh well, it's obvious that Genesis
is, you know, 1 to 11 anyway, is
not real history, and they don't really teach
Genesis as real history.
In fact, some of them said to me,
Genesis is just a metaphor.
Have you heard that before, that Genesis is
just a metaphor?
It amazes me.
Have you ever seen those genealogies in the
Bible?
You know, those passages you like to read
before you go to sleep, so-and-so
begat so-and-so begat so-and-so.
Great bedtime reading, by the way.
But why are they there?
You know why they're there?
To show that Jesus Christ became a descendant
of the first man, Adam.
He became one of us.
I mean, when you read those genealogies in
the New Testament, you see them in Chronicles,
for instance, and back there to Genesis.
What do you notice?
You know, this person goes back to this
person, to this real person, to this real
person.
They go all the way back, this real
person to this real person, to this real
person, all the way back to a metaphor.
Have you noticed that as you read through
the Bible?
Have you ever wondered what a descendant of
a metaphor really looks like?
Look at your neighbor.
There you are, a descendant of a metaphor.
Is that what Paul says in Romans 5?
By one metaphor, sin into the world and
death by sin.
Doesn't make any sense, does it?
No, when you read through those genealogies, you
notice this person goes back to this person,
to this person, right back to a real
man, Adam, in history, of whom we're all
descendants.
I mean, if Adam wasn't a real man
in history of whom we are all descendants,
then who are we?
Why are we sinners?
I had a girl come to me not
long ago, and she said, my sister, you
know, believes in Abraham and so on, but
she says she doesn't believe in a literal
Adam.
And I said, well, you know, where did
she come from?
Ask her where she came from.
Ask her who she's a descendant of.
Ask her why she's a sinner.
I mean, why did Jesus die on a
cross?
Ask her why Jesus is called the last
Adam.
See, they don't have answers to those questions,
unless Genesis 1 to 11 is real history
and have no foundation for understanding the gospel.
See, that's why I call the Bible the
history book of the universe, because that's what
it is, and that's what I teach children.
This is something I think that is missing
from our churches today.
We teach the Bible as a book of
stories.
We teach the Bible as a book of
religion, a book about salvation, but we've lost
the fact that the Bible is a book
of history, real history, history that includes geology,
biology, astronomy, anthropology, history that you can trust.
Now, it's true that the Bible is not
exhaustive science textbook on geology, biology, astronomy, and
so on.
I had one student once at university who
said to me, but the Bible is not
a science textbook, and I said, you're right
about that, and I am sure glad about
that, because science textbooks change every year.
The Bible is a science textbook.
It'll be changing every year, but where the
Bible touches on science, can we trust it?
Absolutely.
You're going to see that and have that
confirmed over and over again during this particular
conference, where the Bible touches on geology, biology,
astronomy, and see, the Bible doesn't give us,
you know, all those equations in chemistry and
those equations in regard to relativity that Dr.
Russ Humphreys is going to talk to you
about, and you know, the Bible doesn't give
you all those equations and all the detailed
information in geology or the ice ages, as
Mike Ord is going to be talking to
you about also.
The Bible doesn't give you all of those
details, but you know what it does give
you?
It gives you the big picture in geology,
the big picture in astronomy, the big picture
in biology and anthropology that enables you to
have on those glasses that we talked about
and that Dr. Wickham talked about, so that
you can then have the right approach to
the world and to science and so on,
and this is the history that the Bible
reveals to us.
In fact, this is the basis of our
Creation Museum that we're going to be constructing
and not far from here.
A walk through biblical history through creation in
six days and perfect creation, marred by sin,
death as a consequence, the flood of Noah's
day, you know, and when you accept those
events, then you start to say, well, if
there really was a global flood, what would
you expect to find?
Well, you know, billions of dead things buried
in rock layers laid down by water all
over the earth, and what do you find?
Billions of dead things buried in rock layers
laid down by water all over the earth.
Wow, what a coincidence, and so, and you
go through and confusion, the Tower of Babel,
huh, that's interesting, different languages, so therefore you'd
expect maybe to find some evidence in today's
world that all people go back to, you
know, one group of people that go back
to one man and one woman out of
it.
It's interesting how we see all sorts of
intriguing correlations there.
Flood legends around the world, very similar to
the Genesis account, indicating they've been handed down
and changed, but the real record in the
Bible and some of the interesting studies in
genetics, even in the secular world, where they're
saying we all go back to one woman.
They don't believe, of course, it was the
biblical Eve, but nonetheless, here we have this
history, and see, here's the point, all these
things here, Jesus Christ steps in history, becomes
a man, dies in a cross, raised from
the dead, we're at this point in history
here, aren't we, waiting for the consummation, the
new heavens and new earth, because the older
you are, the more you want this, as
you know, and see, all these events have
already occurred.
You know the thrilling thing about being a
Christian and one who trusts the Bible, you
know, I often feel sorry for those who
don't believe in God's Word and who are
evolutionists and so on.
They don't have someone who was there who
knows what happened, who told them, we do.
Isn't that exciting?
We know someone who's always been there, who
knows everything, who told us what happened.
We've got the key to understand what this
world is all about, and see, in that
regard, we should realize as a Christian that
the Bible is actually foundational to all of
our thinking.
We don't take ideas to the Bible.
We start with the Bible, a revelation from
God.
We know the events of history that have
occurred to give us the big picture in
geology, the big picture in biology, the big
picture in astronomy, the big picture in anthropology,
the big picture of history, to go out
there and therefore have the right framework into
which to put the science and so on
to understand what this universe is all about.
That's why it's so exciting being a Christian.
You're going to see that happen over the
next few days.
See, that's why I said to you last
night, when people asked me the question, how
do you fit dinosaurs into the Bible, what
did I say the answer was?
You don't, that's right, because you don't try
to take man's interpretation of the evidence and
fit it into the Bible.
See, we've been trained in an education system
where, oh, we look at the evidence and
listen to what man is saying, and somehow
you take that and you fit it into
the Bible.
No, what man is doing is interpreting the
evidence on a whole different basis, and then
you try to fit that to the Bible,
some book of religion or morality, but not
a real book of history, and Christians say,
well, we don't know what to do with
dinosaurs, we don't know what to do with
the Grand Canyon, we don't know how to
understand, you know, light from the furthest star,
we don't know what to do with the
ice age.
You know why?
Because you're taking man's interpretation of the evidence
and trying to fit it to the Bible.
But when you use the Bible as foundation
of all your thinking and take that big
picture of history out to the evidence, and
you look at real science in the present,
as you're going to see from the work
of Dr. Humphreys and Dr. Baumgartner and Dr.
Gitt and others over the next few days,
wow, you say, what confirmation that that is
the right foundation.
Of course, we know it is anyway.
But, you see, you know where I believe
this problem shows up?
It shows up in our churches and Sunday
schools, because, you see, if we're honest, and
some of you heard me say this before,
I believe a lot of our Sunday school
material, a lot of our Bible study material,
I believe a lot of it is missing
the mark.
In fact, I think some of it's almost
a waste of time.
Why?
You know what we tend to do?
Take our Sunday school literature.
By and large, what does Sunday school literature
do?
Teach Bible stories, Bible stories, Bible stories, Jonah
and the great fish, feeding of the five
thousand, Paul's missionary journeys, Jesus on the cross,
Adam and Eve, Noah on the ark, and
you say, don't you believe all those things?
Absolutely.
What's wrong with that?
You know what's wrong with it?
It's the way it's taught, because, you see,
what happens is you teach these stories in
Sunday school.
But let me ask you this question.
If you were to talk to Mrs Brown,
you know, maybe she's been teaching Sunday school
for 140 years, and you say, Mrs Brown,
you've been teaching Sunday school for a long
time.
Yeah.
Oh, yes.
Tell me, in Sunday school, do you teach
geology, biology, astronomy, anthropology?
What do you think Mrs Brown's answer is
going to be?
No.
No, no, you don't teach that in Sunday
school.
Oh, why not?
Oh, Sunday school, you teach about Jesus.
Oh, I see.
So, where do you learn about geology, biology,
astronomy?
Oh, that's what you learn at school.
Oh, I understand.
The kids learn the Bible stories in church,
but they learn real history in school, and
the real history they learn is the history
that contradicts what the Bible says, so eventually
the Bible stories aren't true either.
Is that right, Mrs Brown?
Do you see the problem?
You know, in this ministry, I've been in
this ministry for 30 years.
Well, it started in a sort of embryonic
sense 30 years ago in Australia for me,
but what I've noticed is this.
As I've traveled around, whether I'm on Christian
radio talk shows, and I get on some
almost every week, people have asked the same
questions from the secular and Christian world by
and large, by the way, but the same
sorts of questions over and over and over
again.
I can often get on a talk show,
and the host will say, what questions do
you think will be asked today?
Oh, let me tell you, because you know
why?
When you're out there in the world, people
call up and they ask questions.
So, where did the Bible come from, and
who put the Bible together, and where did
Cain get his wife, and how did Noah
get all the animals on the ark, and
who was Cain's wife anyway, and what about
carbon dating, and who did Cain marry, and
what do you do with the dinosaurs, and
who was Cain's wife anyway, and what about
the races of people, and what about the
days of creation, and what about the gap
theory, and who did Cain marry?
By the way, does anyone know the most
asked question I've ever been asked?
It's embarrassing, I talk more about Cain's wife
than my own wife, but you see, but
do you know why people ask that question?
That was in the movie Contact.
You know, Carl Sagan wrote the book Contact,
the movie based on that particular book, and
you have this person asking their Sunday school
teacher questions, like where did Cain get his
wife?
The Sunday school teacher can't give the answers.
See, Christians don't have answers.
They can't defend their history.
It was asked at the Scopes trial of
William Jennings Bryan by the ACLU lawyer Clarence
Durrell.
Where did Cain get his wife?
He couldn't answer the question.
Do you know why he was asked the
question?
Defend your history.
You believe you go back to one man
and one woman?
Defend your history.
Where did God come from?
How do you know there's a God?
How do you know the Bible's true?
See, they're the questions that the world is
asking.
You know what we do in our churches?
We teach Bible stories.
You know what we've lost?
We've lost the connection of the Bible to
the real world.
And see, I believe that this happened back
in the 1700s, 1800s.
In fact, one of our new speakers, Dr.
Terry Mortensen, who's done a PhD in the
history of science, has a lot of information
on this, and we're going to be publishing
a book by him dealing with all of
this.
But I believe what happened was back in
the 1700s, 1800s, the idea of millions of
years started to be popularized.
And this idea of millions of years started
to be popularized.
The church retreated, wasn't sure what to do
with the millions of years.
What do you do with a Bible here
that says six days and a global flood?
And yet now they're saying that all these
layers of rock with fossils basically came over
millions of years.
And so the church disconnected the Bible from
the real world.
So the Bible becomes a book of religion,
a book about salvation, a book of morality,
something that deals with up here in your
head.
But the real world is what they're teaching
out there in the schools, public schools and
the universities and the media and so on.
So we don't have to deal with that
now.
You can accept that.
That's fine.
But as long as we believe these Bible
stories here, and you know what happens?
The next generation comes through and they go
to those schools and they go to those
universities and they read the books and so
on.
They watch the television programs.
They're saying, wait a minute, if this is
the real history of the world, billions of
years, ape men, man evolved, there never was
a global flood.
But the Bible says there was a global
flood and the Bible says six days and
the Bible says God took dust and made
Adam.
Oh, I better go back to my church
and my parents.
Well, let me ask you a question.
You know, they say Noah couldn't fit all
the animals in the ark.
They say there never was a global flood.
They say that that man evolved from apes.
And they're saying the world's billions of years
old.
And they're saying that the Bible is not
true and you can't trust the Bible and
so on.
Tell me, what are the answers?
Tell me the answers.
And where did Cain get his wife if
we go back to one man and one
woman?
What are the answers?
And what does the church say?
Don't worry about that.
Just believe these stories.
Just believe the message of Jesus died on
the cross, raised from the dead.
That's the most important thing.
Don't worry about that.
But wait a minute, this history tells me
I can't trust the Bible.
Don't worry about that.
Just believe the message of salvation.
And you know what many people are saying?
That I can't trust that book at all.
So, why should I believe any of it?
It's interesting that Bruce Willis from the Die
How many of you have heard of Bruce
Willis?
You watch those programs?
Anyway, Bruce Willis was interviewed for a newspaper
and was in a Cincinnati Enquirer and he
said this, organized religion used to hang the
whole thing on one hook.
If you don't do these things, if you
don't act morally, you're going to burn in
hell.
Unfortunately, what we know about science, anyone who
thinks at all probably doesn't believe in fire
and brimstone anymore.
So, organized religion has lost that voice to
hold up their moral hand.
Do you realize what he's saying?
What he's saying is this, you Christians are
out there, you're holding up the Bible and
you're saying abortion's wrong, homosexual behavior is wrong,
you're going to believe in Christian morality.
He says, how can you do that when
we know science has proved you can't trust
that book?
You know what the Christians do?
Oh, don't worry about science and so on.
You can believe everything that they're saying, that's
all right, or you can believe most of
it and it doesn't really matter anyway.
Look, the most important thing is you trust
in Jesus and do what he said and
abortion's wrong and homosexual behavior is wrong.
Wait a minute, the history in that book
is not true.
You're going to hear some incredible lectures over
the next few days.
You're going to hear real scientists get up
and tell you that real science confirms exactly
what the Bible is saying.
The evidence, the real evidence is overwhelming.
You see, the church has disconnected the Bible
from the real world.
You know, I personally believe that you see
this showing up in statements of faith that
churches have.
You know what we usually have in our
church statements of faith?
The Bible is the supreme authority in all
matters of faith and practice.
Well, I agree with that, but you know
what I believe the problem is?
The Bible is not just the supreme authority
in all matters of faith and practice, it
is the supreme authority in all matters of
faith and practice and everything it touches upon.
It is the supreme authority when it touches
upon geology.
It is the supreme authority when it touches
upon biology.
It is the supreme authority when it touches
upon astronomy, but that's what we've lost from
our church because we disconnected the Bible from
the real world and I believe that disconnect
in our modern world occurred in an enormous
way in the 1700s and 1800s because God's
people, instead of standing upon God's word, accepted
man's fallible word and reinterpreted the scriptures and
lost biblical authority and disconnected the Bible from
reality.
You know, Proverbs 30 verses 5 and 6,
we read this, every word of God is
pure add thou not unto his words and
I believe this disconnect has occurred because God's
people have done exactly what Adam did back
in the Garden of Eden, added to the
word of God, reinterpreted the word of God
on the basis of outside ideas and that's
why, as I want to show you, the
whole issue of the six days of creation
is so very, very important because I believe,
and what I want to share with you
in the remaining time I have here, is
that the issue of the six days of
creation is the issue that really shows us
the reality of what has happened in our
culture, why we've lost biblical authority, what the
real issue is concerning millions of years creation,
evolution, it's the six-day issue that is
that watershed issue, it really is.
Let me share with you why.
In Genesis 1-1 we read this, in
the beginning God created the heaven and the
earth.
Now, if I'd preach that in church after
church across the world, I would hope the
majority of people would say in our churches,
of course we believe God created, but if
I read around church after church across America
or other places in the world, Australia or
England and said, but God created in six
literal days just a few thousand years ago,
would the majority agree with me?
I can tell you from my experience and
Dr. Wickham would agree with me, the answer
would be absolutely not.
The majority of churches, majority of Christian leaders,
majority of theologians, majority of seminary professors, majority
of Christian colleges will not stand on six
literal days.
Why not?
See, I've often wondered about this, because do
you realize that the Hebrew word for day,
the word yom, in the singular or plural
form is used over 2,000 times in
the Old Testament.
You know what's fascinating?
The only place I find people questioning what
it means is Genesis 1.
Have you ever heard people, you know, question
what the word day means in Exodus, Leviticus,
Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth?
See, I had a pastor once come to
me and he said, but the word day
can mean something other than ordinary day and
I said, well that's true, it can actually,
it can have a number of different meanings,
but its main meaning is day.
And he said, yes, but it can mean
something other than ordinary day.
I said, that's true, but it can also
mean day.
He said, but it can mean something other
than ordinary day.
I said, look pastor, tell me, can the
word day ever mean day?
If day does mean day, when does day
mean day?
And if day doesn't mean day, what does
day mean anyway?
Just like a man who called me up
on Christian radio just a couple of months
ago and he said, I believe a lot
of what you're saying, but don't give me
that stuff about six days, I don't think
the days of creation are ordinary days in
Genesis 1.
I said, oh, I said, tell me, when
does the word day mean an ordinary day?
And he goes, huh?
I said, well, you must know because you
said it doesn't mean an ordinary day in
Genesis 1.
Tell me, when does the word day mean
an ordinary day?
He didn't have a clue what I was
talking about.
Why is it that Genesis chapter 1 is
the only place we argue about the word
day?
I mean, have you ever been to a
Bible study where for two hours they discuss
how long did Joshua take to march around
Jericho?
I mean, was it a million years?
Was it, I mean, a hundred thousand years?
I mean, how do we interpret that word?
What do you think he really did?
You ever been to a Bible study like
that?
Why is it that it's only Genesis chapter
1 you see people arguing about the word
day?
I mean, there are places it can mean
time, like in the day of the Lord
or Genesis 2.4, in the day that
the Lord created.
You know, the places where it means time
or daylight portion of a day and so
on.
But why is it Genesis 1 is the
only place you see people arguing what the
word day really means?
You know why?
Because as I said, back in the 1700s,
1800s, the idea of millions of years started
to be popularized and the scientists were handing
the millions of years to the theologians and
the theologians said, ah, somehow we've got to
fit the millions of years into the Bible.
Therein lies the problem.
Somehow we've got to fit this into the
Bible.
Now, I'm not going to deal with those
dating methods because we have some tremendous experts
here this weekend who are going to deal
with that.
I just want to say this, all dating
methods devised by man are fallible.
They are all based on assumptions.
We don't know everything.
We haven't always been there.
You know what?
That's why I love the book of Job.
You know what?
Job is a very humbling book because when
you think about it, what was the answer
to death and suffering?
I'll tell you what it was.
Job 38 and verse 4.
Job, were you there when I made the
earth?
And then the rest of Job 38, 39,
40, 41, 42.
Job, do you know this?
Do you know that?
Do you know this?
Do you know that?
Do you know this?
Do you know that?
Do you know this?
Do you know that?
What about this?
What about that?
Finally, what happened?
To paraphrase it, Job fell down in dust
and ashes and said, Lord, I give up.
I don't know anything.
And you know what always hits me?
We weren't there.
We don't know everything.
Only God knows everything.
Only God's always been there.
How dare we arrogant humans, on the basis
of not knowing anything compared to what God
knows, tell God what he means?
It's about time we started letting God tell
us what he said.
Now, here's what I want to challenge us
with.
If you take the Bible and nothing else,
would you ever get the idea of millions
of years?
Tell me, would you ever get it from
here?
It's not there.
But if you take the Bible and add
man's fallible dating methods based on fallible assumptions,
and you get millions of years, and by
the way, you're going to find the majority
of dating methods actually contradict what the secular
world believes, but Dr. Humphreys will share that
with you.
But if you take those fallible dating methods
and give them millions of years, then you've
got death before sin.
What do you see arising in history?
Ideas like theistic evolution, God-used evolution, gap
theory, there's a gap between Genesis 1, 1,
and 1, 2 of millions of years, progressive
creation of Hugh Ross that God created over
millions of years, and so on, other compromised
positions.
But you know what's interesting?
I mean, I move around churches all the
time, and some people say, oh, we believe
in the gap theory here.
Oh, we believe in theistic evolution.
Oh, we're progressive creationists here.
And they say, what are you?
I said, whatever the Bible says.
Because all these positions have one thing in
common.
You know what it is?
They all tried to fit the millions of
years into the Bible.
They all have that in common.
Add thou not to the Word of God.
See, you know why those genealogies are in
the Bible?
They're to show that history that connects all
the way through, right, from Adam right down
to the present.
When you think about it, if you're trying
to fit millions of years into the Bible,
where would you fit it?
I mean, you can't fit it in those
genealogies because you can't make those baguettes say
millions of years.
So, you can't millions of years into the
baguettes.
So, my question is, where is the only
place you can really fit millions of years
into the Bible, if you were trying to
fit millions of years into the Bible?
Do you realize it has to be before
Adam?
Has to be before Adam.
You can't fit it in from Adam to
the present.
That would destroy the genealogies.
That is the basic reason, motivation, ultimately, as
to why people will not accept six literal
days, or why they believe in the gap
theory, or why they believe in progressive creation,
or why they believe in day age.
Ultimately, the motivation, and you can see it
over and over again.
You can have people tell me, well, really
it was from a study of the scriptures.
But as you talk to them, as soon
as you get them to admit that they
believe in the millions or billions of years,
that's their motivation.
They had to fit that into the Bible.
That's why they reinterpret the six days.
See, let's have a think about that.
Because, as I said, in history arose all
these positions because they're reinterpreting the six days
because of millions of years.
So, all these positions, day age, theistic evolution,
progressive creation, etc.
But what I want to do is this.
I want us to examine the text of
scripture.
Let's try to get rid of outside influences
and just work from the text.
God communicates to us in language.
Let us use the language and the literature
in context and let that speak to us.
First of all, let's understand this.
Any word can have two or more meanings
dependent upon context.
Isn't that correct?
For instance, back in my father's day, it
took 10 days to drive across the Australian
outback during the day.
There's the word day with three different meanings.
Context is important, isn't it?
Remember the Australian talking to the Texan once.
No, it was the Texan talking to the
Australian, I should say.
And the Texan said to the Australian, you
know it takes me three days to drive
across my property in my car?
And the Australian said, yeah, I had a
car like that once too, mate.
So, see, context is important.
Back in my father's day doesn't mean an
ordinary day.
That really means what?
Back in my father's time, right?
In the day that the Lord created, in
the time that he created.
It took 10 days, ordinary days, 24 hour
days, during the day, the daylight portion of
a day.
Now, the Hebrew word for day, the word
yom, can have two or more meanings dependent
upon context.
You look up a good Hebrew dictionary, a
lexicon like Brown, Driver, Briggs, it'll list a
number of different meanings and the context as
to what determines what it means and so
on.
By the way, you know the thing that's
absolutely radical and surprising?
The main meaning of the word day happens
to be day.
I thought you'd be surprised at that.
But if you look at it carefully, here's
what you find.
See, we're going to eliminate Genesis 1.
Eliminate Genesis 1 for the moment.
Outside of Genesis 1, whenever day is used
with a number 410 times, it always means
an ordinary day, no exception.
Now, Hugh Ross, of course, brings up Hosea
6.2 where it's talking about things in
prophetic sense.
But there, the word day is used as
a figure of speech, just like you would,
you know, when they say, and the Bible
says, Jesus said, I am the door or,
you know, we are the sheep.
Well, you've got to have a literal door
to know what it means.
You've got to have a literal sheep to
know what it means.
In Hosea 6.2, it's got to be
a literal day to understand the figure of
speech that's being used there.
So, of course, it's an ordinary day.
Every time day is used with a number,
it means an ordinary day.
Whenever the phrase evening and morning is used
without the word day 38 times, outside of
Genesis 1, means an ordinary day.
Whenever evening or morning are used individually with
the word day 23 times each, always means
an ordinary day.
Whenever night is used with the word day
52 times, always means an ordinary day.
Now, let's read Genesis 1 to see if
we get any hint from the language and
context as to what day might mean in
Genesis 1.
Night, evening, morning, number, day, evening, morning, number,
day, evening, morning, number, day.
I'm getting a very strong hint here about
something.
Evening, number, you get the idea?
See, I believe the Hebrew writer is saying
this.
Night is an ordinary day.
Evening, in case you didn't get it, is
an ordinary day.
Morning, in case you're a little thick, it's
an ordinary day.
Number, in case you're really intellectually challenged, it
is an ordinary day.
I mean, how else could he write it
means an ordinary, that's the best way you
could write it means an ordinary day.
But it's overemphasized.
To be honest, I wonder why God took
so long.
I mean, don't you agree God could create
in six seconds?
Six minutes?
No time at all?
Boy, for an infinite creator, he sure strung
it out, didn't he?
Six days?
Do you know why he did that?
It's where our week comes from.
See, our day comes from, you know, the
rotation of the earth in its axis and
the month between the earth and the relationship
with the moon and the year of the
earth and the revolution around the sun.
Where's the seven day week come from?
Comes from Genesis 1, which of course is
quoted there in Exodus 20 verse 11, in
six days the Lord made the heavens and
the earth.
He rested on the seventh, so six plus
one equals seven.
The seven day week has its basis in
the creation week.
That's why God took six days.
By the way, in six days the Lord
created.
Do you know the Bible says that God
actually spoke those words to Moses and he
wrote them as well?
And by the way, in Psalm 33 it
says, how did God create?
He spoke.
He commanded.
Incidentally, who was the word?
Jesus Christ.
In the beginning was the word and the
word was with God and the word was
God.
Colossians 1, all things were created by and
for Jesus Christ.
Let me ask you a question.
Who do you believe really spoke those words?
The second person in the Trinity, the Lord
Jesus Christ.
Did Jesus believe in six days?
Absolutely.
See, a lot of people say, but Jesus
never said he created in six days.
That's because they think Jesus is only in
the New Testament.
You know, I find a lot of Christians
think that.
Six plus one equals seven.
If God created in six million years and
rested for a million years, it would be
a fascinating week.
But then I get people who call up
and they say, I hear this one all
the time, but wait a minute, in 2
Peter 3 it says, a day is like
a thousand years.
You heard that one before?
Yeah.
I always say, yeah, read the rest of
the verse.
A thousand years are like a day.
That just cancels that one right out, doesn't
it?
What are you going to use?
The first part of the verse or the
second part?
You know what really gets me?
You can't use a phrase from the New
Testament to determine the meaning of a Hebrew
word in Genesis.
That is absurd nonsense.
A Hebrew word depends upon the Hebrew language,
not some phrase from the New Testament.
People don't think.
And you know what else is interesting?
They only apply this to Genesis 1.
Have you noticed that?
It's only Genesis 1.
Whenever it's the days of creation.
I mean, do you ever hear people saying,
when you're reading the story of Jonah, oh,
wait a minute, days like a thousand years,
maybe Jonah, you know, he was in the
wild 3,000 years, you know.
People are so inconsistent.
And incidentally, 6,000 years isn't going to
help you when people want to somehow explain
the supposed millions.
They just can't believe the amount of compromise
out there.
Why is it that people will do anything
not to believe in the six days?
You know, I have some people say to
me, what about the sun?
The sun wasn't made till day four.
How can you have day and night without
the sun?
By the way, I'm going to quote a
lot of famous people here in a moment.
When I do that, I always have to
be careful and give some little caveats here
and explain something.
When I quote someone, I'm not attacking them
personally.
I'm not saying therefore everything they do is
wrong or terrible, or you shouldn't listen to
what they say or anything like that.
I'm not saying any of that.
But here's what I will say.
I believe all of us need to be
like the Bereans.
Because you know, when the Jews were preached
to, it's interesting, in that passage in Acts
17, when Paul preached to the Jews, he
doesn't say anything about them checking the Scriptures
to see if Paul was right.
But the Bereans, ah, they were commended because
they searched the Scriptures to see if these
things be so.
I believe today there's too much of a
trust in experts instead of a trust in
the Word of God.
And we are not checking what the experts
say against the Word of God.
You know why?
We are so used to listening to all
these supposed experts out there and taking their
ideas and adding it to the Bible.
Why would we ever check what a Christian
supposed expert says and check it against the
Bible?
You see, because most Christians don't approach the
Bible with what we call the right hermeneutic.
They don't approach it with the right interpretive
principle.
We are so used to listening to the
words of fallible men and reinterpreting the Bible
anyway, so when a Christian comes along and
says something, well I guess that's okay.
Because we've lost our whole basis in the
Scriptures.
You know, we've all got feet of clay.
Whether it's me, Dr. Whitcomb, Dr. Bryant Wood,
Russ Humphreys, John Baumgartner, we've all got feet
of clay.
But if we make public statements to influence
the public, then I believe we have a
right to check those statements against Scripture and
to tell the public if those statements are
right or wrong.
And so when I quote these famous people,
it's not a personal attack, but I sure
am calling them to account on the basis
of Scripture.
And I believe more people need to do
that.
Dr. James Dobson certainly doesn't believe in six
literal days.
He makes no apology about that.
You can call his ministry, they'll give you
a printout of what he believes.
Certainly doesn't believe in six literal days.
One of the things he says is this,
but the sun wasn't created until the fourth
day, so is the first day really a
day?
I don't know.
Hey, by the way, he took Genesis literally
to say it wasn't created until the fourth
day.
Just a little aside there.
Now I hear, see to me this sums
up a major problem in the church.
You know what the problem is?
Here's the problem.
Oh, but the sun wasn't made till day
four.
How can you have day and night without
the sun?
Excuse me, what does the language say?
What do you mean?
What do the words say?
I mean, God revealed here this history through
words.
We've got the words, we've got this Hebrew
language it was written in.
We can go and look up what a
word means in context.
So what does the word mean?
But the sun wasn't made to, no, no,
no, I'm not worried about that.
What does the word say?
You see, we're so used to taking man's
ideas and imposing problems on the Bible.
We have lost the fact that you've got
to start with the biblical text to let
it speak to you.
It's like a lady once who said to
me, I'm not like you creationists.
I don't limit God to six days.
I allow him billions of years.
I said, lady, I don't limit God to
six days.
I limit myself to letting God tell me
what he did.
I don't tell God what he did.
It's about time you stop telling God what
he did.
She got the point, but now here is
my point.
If the word day for the first three
days is the same as the next three
days and in context, yom with evening, morning,
number, et cetera, means an ordinary day, regardless
of any problem I might think there is
with the sun, it's an ordinary day.
Now God's not going to tell us something
that's contradictory or illogical.
So if we want to, then we can
say, what about the sun on day four?
Well, what about it?
Don't you need the sun for day and
night?
No, you need light.
Oh, well, do you have light on day
one?
Let there be light.
What a great revelation.
And then people say, well, where'd it come
from?
Guess what?
I don't know.
Why didn't God tell us?
You ever thought about how much he hasn't
told us?
What did Job say?
I know nothing compared to what God knows.
But if you have light and darkness, maybe
a temporary source for light, some people say
maybe from God himself.
Well, he separated the light from the darkness.
I think this is the created light, the
electromagnetic spectrum.
But if the word day means an ordinary
day, you've got light and darkness.
God made the sun to be his tool
from day four and wants to rule the
day that already existed.
And by the way, don't be like the
pagans.
God said to the Israelites, don't worship the
sun.
The sun didn't give birth to life.
No, I made the earth and I made
the sun.
The sun is my tool.
See, it's made on day four.
You know what's interesting?
The real reason Dr. Dobson doesn't believe in
six literal days, the real motivation, if we're
really honest, do you support the Big Bang?
He says, yes.
When you believe the Big Bang, you believe
billions of years.
You believe billions of years, you can't have
six days.
But you know what else is interesting?
Concerning the Big Bang, he says this, for
those who say such a notion of the
Big Bang contradicts scripture, I hope they'll point
out the specific verses that concern them because
I haven't seen them.
Oh, okay.
Are there any verses in the Bible that
contradict the Big Bang?
Now, let me see.
Dr. Dobson, you said the sun wasn't created
until the fourth day.
Yes, you took Genesis literally to say that.
By the way, the Big Bang has a
sun coming before the earth.
Your own statement here contradicts the Big Bang.
See, I don't think these people have thought
through the issues.
They've just been influenced by the world.
Now, let me show you a few other
quotes here real quickly.
Here's a man who believes in billions of
years.
He wrote a book for Harvest House publishers,
Don Stone, and he said this, Christians are
often inclined to take the young earth position
simply because it appears to be the plainest
reading of the Bible.
Marvelous, that, isn't it?
Dr. Paddle-Pudden from Wheaton College is a
progressive creationist like Hugh Ross, believes in billions
of years, local flood, and the days are
long periods of time, and so on.
I debated him once on Moody Radio.
He says this, it is apparent the most
straightforward understanding of Genesis is that God created
heaven and earth in six solar days.
If he doesn't believe that, why not?
Look what I left out.
Without regard to all of the hermeneutical considerations
suggested by science, and what he means by
that is Big Bang, by the way, billions
of years, which is different to what I
would call an operational science, and so on.
That's really history belief about the past, but
you see what he's saying?
Yep, if you just take the Bible on
its own, it says six days, but it
can't be six days, why not?
Hey, look at all this stuff out here,
for all billions of years.
The late Dr. James Montgomery Boyce, he was
a great Bible teacher.
I heard him on radio.
Do you know the sad thing?
In Genesis 1 to 11, like so many
of these great guys, they lost.
In his commentary on Genesis, he talks about
the people who believe in six days, and
he says here, the exegetical basis of the
creationists is strong.
Do you know what that means?
Oh yeah, you know, the exegesis of Genesis,
you know, looking at the words in context,
yeah, that's a good argument, but why doesn't
he believe in six literal days?
He says, data from various disciplines points to
a very old earth and old universe.
I don't understand these guys.
Yeah, the arguments from the words of scripture,
yep, that's pretty strong, six days, but you
see, what are you going to do with
the billions of years?
See, it can't be six days.
Gleason Archer, hey, he has a book called
Encyclopedia of Bible Difficulties.
It is a great book to help you
defend the Christian faith, provided you read from
Genesis 11 onwards.
Genesis 1 to 11, I don't understand these
guys.
What is wrong with them?
He says, if you take a superficial reading
of Genesis 1, the impression would seem to
be six 24-hour days.
He knows these guys are all saying the
same thing.
Why doesn't he believe that?
Well, you know, you've got all this modern
scientific research that indicates billions of years, and
he also says, how could Adam name all
those animals on day six?
He couldn't have named all the animals on
day six.
Do you know what I would say to
Gleason Archer?
Excuse me, you're imposing, that's like, how could
they be day and night when you've got
the sun on day four?
That's the same sort of argument.
It's not a matter of us imposing a
problem on the Bible.
Let's look at the text.
If the text, if the word says an
ordinary day, regardless of our problem with Adam
naming animals, what is it?
It's an ordinary day.
Now let's deal with Adam naming the animals.
That's how we should operate.
By the way, the text can actually read
that Adam named all kinds of animals, and
he didn't name the creeping things, and he
didn't have to name all the different species,
just the kinds, and Adam was probably more
intelligent than us.
We suffered from 6,000 years of sin
and the curse.
He had a perfect language to start with.
He didn't have to learn the words.
He already had perfect grammar to start with.
Think about it.
You know, Hugh Ross says things like, well,
how could the Bible be right in saying,
you know, death came after sin and so
on, when Adam never experienced death, he wouldn't
know what death was.
See, my answer to that is, how would
he even know what tree meant?
How would he know what don't eat the
fruit meant?
How would he know what anything meant if
he didn't already have a language?
You know, people have a problem.
Well, how could God do that?
We make computers talk, and we think God
couldn't program a language into Adam?
Man, what's wrong with people?
Some of you may have heard of Charles
Hodge, B.B. Warfield of Princeton fame.
You know, they were great men of God.
They defended the Christian faith.
By the way, have a look at Princeton
today.
Is it Christian?
What happened in its history?
I suggest these sorts of things happened.
Hodge and Warfield compromised Genesis 1 to 11
with millions of years, and Warfield even with
all sorts of aspects of evolution.
You see, Hodge said this, talking about Genesis
and the days of creation.
It is, of course, admitted that if you
take this account, the account of Genesis by
itself, it's most natural to understand the word
day in its ordinary sense.
Have you heard that before?
But, oh, here it comes, here it comes.
But, if that sense brings a mosaic account
of a conflict with facts and another sense
avoids a conflict, it's obligatory to adopt the
other.
You wonder why Princeton is where it is
today.
In fact, Hodge went on to say this,
the church has been forced more than once
to alter her interpretation of the Bible to
accommodate the discoveries of science, but this has
been done without doing any violence to the
scriptures or in any degree impairing their authority.
Hey, friends, let me ask you a question.
Is America today more Christian or less Christian
than what it was generations ago?
Less Christian.
Hey, here it is.
A nation has the greatest number of Christian
radio stations on earth, the greatest number of
Christian bookstores, I would say, on earth, probably
the greatest Christian influence on earth, one of
the largest number of churches per head of
population on earth, greatest number of Christian books
on earth, probably sent the greatest number of
missionaries out around the world.
I mean, here is a nation that today,
greatest number of Christian TV stations pervaded by
Christianity.
You have the greatest Christian influence in the
world in a nation that is becoming more
pagan every day.
Something is dreadfully wrong.
What is it?
You know what it is?
I want to share with you as we
go on here.
I believe it's what Hodge did, what Warfield
did, what these other guys did.
Now, I'm not attacking them personally, but I
will say this.
When you tell the world you don't have
to believe Genesis is written because of outside
influences, you have unlocked the door that says
you don't have to take the words as
written.
The next generation usually push that door open
even further.
You see, I have people say to me,
it doesn't affect my faith if I don't
believe in six days and believe in Genesis
as long as I trust in the Lord
and so on.
You know, that might be true.
Maybe in one sense it doesn't affect your
faith, and just because you believe in millions
of years doesn't mean you can't be born
again, and I will admit that.
That's true, but you know what?
What have you just said to the world
in the next generation?
Stand back and look at the big picture.
You know what the big picture is?
You have told them man can be in
dominion over the Scripture, not that the Scripture
should be taken as written.
You unlock a door to lose authority.
You realize what we've lost in this nation?
Biblical authority.
Why?
Because that door was unlocked and pushed open,
and what's happened at Princeton is happening to
colleges today.
Personally, I believe colleges like Calvin and Witten
are the Princetons of the future, and many
other colleges across this nation, because they've unlocked
that door.
It's already been pushed open a long way.
It's being pushed open further and further.
Some of you might have heard of Norm
Geisler, who certainly doesn't believe in six weeks.
Well, I'm not sure what he believes, but
he and his Encyclopedia of Christian Apologetics, published
by Baker.
He said, if of course the days of
Genesis are long periods of time, then there
is no conflict between modern science and the
age of the earth, but even if the
days of Genesis are 24-hour times, there
are still ways to reconcile long time periods
with Genesis 1 and 2.
What's he saying?
No matter what, we've got to fit the
long time periods in somehow.
And then he says this, the problem is
deepened.
What problem?
Here's the problem, this incredible problem.
Here's a phenomenal problem, folks.
The problem is deepened by the fact there
actually is prima facie evidence to indicate the
days of Genesis 1 are indeed 24-hour
periods.
It's a problem.
It seems the Bible says 24-hour days.
What a problem.
Why is it a problem?
It's a problem because it conflicts with the
millions of years.
Davis Young from Calvin College wrote a book
called The Biblical Flood to tell the world
the Noah's Flood was only a local flood,
not global.
By the way, you know what he says
in that book and admits?
If you take the text as written, it
seems to indicate global flood.
He says, the contemporary church would benefit immensely
from a rediscovery of the compelling writing of
Smith, Hitchcock, and Miller.
The specific exegesis of Genesis espoused by these
individuals may be open to criticism, but it
is to their credit that they view the
growing body of extra-biblical evidence devastatingly opposed
to traditional ideas of the deluge not as
a threat to faith, but as an occasion
for reaching a better understanding of Genesis.
You know what he's admitting?
Yeah, the exegesis of Scripture, looking at the
words, yeah, you could be critical of what
happens here, but the great thing is they're
taking all this outside material that we have
and reinterpreting the Bible.
In fact, here's what Davis Young said we
need to return to.
Hitchcock concluded that even though newer interpretations of
the biblical narrative did not seem to be
the most natural meaning, because you know what
he admits the most natural meaning is?
Global flood.
So, here's the point.
If you believe in billions of years, you
can't believe in a global flood consistently.
Why?
Because if all those layers of fossils came
from, were laid out over millions of years,
a global flood would rip them up and
redeposit them.
So, you've got to somehow get rid of
the global flood.
See, this is tied to that whole issue
of the age of the earth too.
But he goes on and says, but if
geological facts unequivocally require such an interpretation to
harmonize the Bible with nature, science must be
allowed to modify our exegesis of Scripture.
The Princeton of tomorrow in England, a
conservative organization in the Christian world, Scripture Union,
supplies Sunday school material to churches over there.
In 1998, had a session on Genesis and
here's just a little statement from there.
The study of paleontology has rendered it virtually
impossible for a serious scientist to make a
case for a six day creation 6,000
years ago as Christians would have once believed
without question.
You know why they once believed it without
question?
Because the Bible said it.
But you notice it's not the study of
the Bible or proper exegesis of Scripture.
It says the study of paleontology, which is
man's fallible interpretation of the fossil record into
the past when he wasn't there and doesn't
know everything.
Who's the authority here?
Man.
Some of you might have heard of Meredith
Klein from Westminster Seminary in Escondido.
You know, he's published a thesis on what's
called the framework hypothesis.
I don't want to go into that in
detail.
It is so complicated.
In fact, I've got this thesis of 130
odd pages, all this technical Hebrew and so
on.
And basically what he's saying is the days
of creation are ordinary days because the words
say that.
You've got to admit that.
But somehow they're ordinary days in literature, but
not ordinary days in history.
And I mean, it's an incredibly complicated deal
called a framework hypothesis.
You read through this technical jargon.
But you know what I do?
I look for the motivation because to me
ultimately, look, why is he doing all this?
Once I find the motivation, I don't need
to read the 130 pages, I don't think,
unless you really want to, you know, critique
it all carefully.
But here's the motivation.
In this article, I've advocated interpretation of biblical
cosmogony according to which scripture is open to
the current scientific view of a very old
universe and in that respect does not discount
the theory of the evolutionary origin of man.
Right there you have his motivation.
What's the motivation?
Somehow we've got to fit the millions of
years into the Bible.
Some of you might have heard of the
expositors Bible.
Anyone heard the expositors Bible used by a
lot of the older generation pastors that are
out there in some of the older pastors
in churches today?
Here's what they learned.
If anyone is in search of accurate information
regarding the age of the earth or its
relation to the sun, moon and stars or
regarding the order in which plants and animals
have appeared upon it, he's referred to recent
textbooks in astronomy, geology and paleontology.
No one for a moment dreams of referring
a serious student of these subjects to the
Bible as a source of information.
Then they went on and said this in
that book, that the compiler of the book
of Genesis did not aim at scientific accuracy
and speaking of physical details is obvious.
Whose word is this ultimately?
Excuse me, is this man's word or God's
word?
It's God's word isn't it?
Now I have many more quotes that I
can give you.
I don't have time for them.
I mean there are many more.
You know it's interesting even at the Scopes
trial in 1925, same sort of thing.
Clarence Darrow was very clever, he managed to
get William Jennings Bryan to go on the
witness stand and for the world's press to
see here's a man standing for Christianity.
Mr. Bryan, how old is the earth?
Well he doesn't know.
Could you come anywhere near it?
I wouldn't attempt to come.
I could possibly come as near as the
scientists do.
By the way, do you see something right
here?
We've got to look to the scientists, not
to the Bible.
And then Darrow goes on, but does the
statement the morning, the evening, or the first
day, the morning, the evening, the second day
mean anything to you?
I don't think it necessarily means the 24
hours.
You don't?
See Darrow knew that it did.
So he's emphasizing this point.
Now wait a minute, you don't think that?
No, I think it was just as easy
for the kind of God we believe in
to make the earth in six days, or
six years, or six million years, or six
hundred million years.
It's not important whether we believe one or
the other.
I hear that so often today.
Don't you hear the same sort of statements
today?
Do you know what I believe Bryan, even
though he's a great man of God in
heaven today, head and shoulders above me as
a great iroder and so on, a man
of sort of the scriptures.
But do you know what I believe he
unwittingly said here?
I don't think it matters what God says.
That's really what he's saying.
It's because it's not a matter of what
God could have done.
It's a matter of what God said he
did.
That's what we've gotten away from.
Darrow, then when the Bible says God called
the permanent heaven, the evening and morning were
the second day.
Boy, he really emphasizes that, doesn't he?
Evening and morning, look, ordinary days.
Darrow knew that.
I don't think it necessarily means a 24
-hour day.
Why do you think Bryan just wouldn't say
it was a 24-hour day?
Darrow, evening and morning, here he is again.
Before that time, you call them periods and
so on.
So, it might have been a long time,
there might have been, the creation might have
been going on for a long time and
here it is, Bryan, it might have continued
for millions of years.
He didn't get that from the Bible.
Do you know what the world's press saw?
The world's press saw the man representing Christianity
saying, we don't have to take the Bible
as written and we can trust the scientists
right there.
Darrow won the battle and Christians lost.
And I believe it was a turning point
in Christendom.
You see, here's the point.
If the word day in context means an
ordinary day but can't mean an ordinary day
because of millions of years, you have just
said that the Bible is fallible, haven't you?
Because if God couldn't get it right in
writing it in the right way there in
Genesis, why should you believe that God got
it right elsewhere?
And when you've told the world that the
Bible is really fallible and doesn't mean what
it says and you can trust outside influences
to reinterpret the Bible, you have just lost
biblical authority.
See, friend, the real issue here is how
we approach Scripture and it's an issue of
a method of understanding Scripture.
The theological term exegesis means reading out of.
Here's a dictionary definition.
Critical explanation or interpretation of a text or
portion of a text especially of the Bible.
That's from one of these Webster dictionaries.
In other words, we're looking at the text,
magnifying glass looking at the text.
The word yom in context, letting it speak
to us, means an ordinary day.
That's exegesis.
That's what we should be doing.
However, what much of the church is doing
today is what's called eisegesis, reading into not
out of.
Here's the definition of eisegesis according to the
dictionary.
An interpretation especially of Scripture that expresses the
interpreter's own ideas, bias or the like, rather
than the meaning of the text.
When you take the millions of years, then
you're not looking at the words in context.
Instead, you're looking at the word and reinterpreting
it on the basis of the outside ideas
that you're taking to the text.
Most of the church today is guilty of
eisegesis instead of exegesis.
You know, it's also interesting that I get
a lot of comments like this.
Someone sent me a personal communication.
I want to let you know that in
a recent Bible study, I attended my church,
a well-respected Sunday school teacher, ordained Southern
Baptist minister and so on, a former missionary,
gave a startling comment in my class.
One of my fellow students was talking about
how great your ministry was.
The teacher said we should take these resources
with a grain of salt.
We don't need to be so dogmatic about
a literal six-day creation, even though he
claimed to believe the six-day creation is
written.
He said we should concern ourselves with the
more important truths of the Bible, such as
salvation, virgin birth.
You've heard that before, haven't you?
You know, Genesis is a side issue.
The six days are a side issue.
The most important thing is that you believe
in the message of Christ and so on.
What's my answer to that?
You know what my answer to that is?
Why do we believe that Jesus Christ rose
from the dead?
Did you see it happen?
Is it because of the evidence?
Well, there's overwhelming circumstantial evidence, but ultimately, is
that proof?
Tell me, why do we know Jesus rose
from the dead, ultimately?
Oh, because of the words of scripture.
Why do we believe in a virgin birth?
Because the words of scripture.
By the way, if you use so-called
science today to understand the resurrection and the
virgin birth, you wouldn't believe either of them
because science has never shown a man rose
from the dead and science has never shown
a virgin birth in humans, so maybe we
should reinterpret those.
You think we should?
Here's what I'm saying.
The issue is much bigger.
The issue is one of biblical authority.
Do you know why I believe in the
six days?
Because of the words of scripture.
Do you know why I believe in the
resurrection?
Because of the words of scripture.
But if you say over here, you can
use outside influences to interpret these words, ultimately
that'll happen over here, won't it?
And that's what's happening.
You know, again, exegesis.
God called the light day, darkness and he
called night, evening, morning, the first day.
Exegesis, we're highlighting the word.
What does the word mean?
Eisegesis, we're crossing out the word, we throw
away our highlighter, we use a pen instead
of a highlighter.
And by the way, where in scripture does
God ever give man dominion over God's word?
And I want to illustrate this in another
way to you which I think is very
important.
You see, really the issue involves two keys.
This key is called exegesis and by exegesis,
reading out of the scripture and using what
we call the grammatical historical interpretation method.
In other words, taking the words in context
historically according to the grammar, the literature.
This key, eisegesis, using man's ideas to read
into the scripture.
Now, I want to use the word yom
and say, really, we've got two doors to
go through.
If we use the exegesis key on this
door, when we unlock that door using the
grammatical historical method, exegesis, taking the words as
written, then the Hebrew word yom means an
ordinary day.
We're making the Bible the authority.
So, we have a literal Genesis and, of
course, a literal virgin birth and a literal
resurrection because the same hermeneutical method, exegesis, we
use for the virgin birth and resurrection we're
using there in Genesis and, you know, we
believe the scriptures and so on.
But you see, if you use that other
key, eisegesis, and unlock the word yom, then
what in actual fact is happening is we're
making man the authority, not God's word.
So, we question parts of Genesis.
So, if you apply that hermeneutic consistently, eventually,
why not question the virgin birth?
Why not question the resurrection?
Eventually, it'll lead to unbelief.
And friends, what I'm saying to you today
is this.
Stand back and look at the greatest Christian
nation on earth or the greatest Christian influence
in the world.
It's becoming more pagan every day, less Christian
every day, more anti-Christian every day.
What is the problem?
This is the problem.
We've lost biblical authority because the church has
said the most important thing is to believe
the Bible stories about Jesus on the cross
and so on.
We don't have to believe the history in
Genesis.
That's not important.
And even if it was six days, it
doesn't matter anyway.
And what they've told the world is we
don't care what God's word says.
Because ultimately, when you say six days doesn't
matter, you're shaking your fist at God and
saying, I don't care what you said here.
I believe what you said here, but I'm
not going to believe it here or say
it's important here.
I thought the Bible said all scripture was
inspired by God.
And then you find statements like this for
the Atlanta Journal.
A growing number of liberal Christians and scholars
do not believe Jesus rose bodily from the
grave.
For them, the resurrection is symbolic.
Jesus' teachings live on despite the brutal death
and so on.
Why?
They're reinterpreting it on the basis of what
the church has said.
You don't have to take it over here
as written.
Why take it over here as written?
We lose biblical authority.
The culture is becoming like Princeton for the
same reason.
You know, that's why I like what Martin
Luther said.
I've often said whoever should study holy scripture
should be sure to see to it that
he stays with the simple words as long
as he can and by no means to
pass from them unless an article of faith
compels him to understand them differently.
For of this we must be certain no
simpler speech has been heard on earth than
what God has spoken.
And this is my favorite quote from Luther
because in his day some of the some
of the church leaders said maybe God took
only one day to create.
Yet to convince him was longer.
When Moses writes that God created heaven and
earth and whatever is in them in six
days then let this period continue to have
been six days and do not venture to
devise any comment according to which six days
were one day.
Then I really like this next statement of
his but if you cannot understand how this
could have been done in six days and
grant the Holy Spirit the honor of being
more learned than you are.
Don't you like that?
And then he goes on and says this.
He says for you to deal with scripture
in such a way that you bear in
mind that God himself says what he's written
but since God is speaking it is not
fitting for you wantingly to turn his word
in the direction you wish to go.
It was the problem in Luther's day, the
problem in Adam's day, it's a problem in
our day.
You know what it is?
We want to turn the scripture in the
way we want it to go.
We have listened to the fallible ideas of
a fallible man.
We've reinterpreted the scripture.
We've told the world it doesn't matter what
God's word said.
We can trust the scientists before we trust
the word of God.
We lose biblical authority.
Look at how the nation is going and
the church is out there saying don't worry
about Genesis.
Six days doesn't matter.
We can believe in millions of years.
Most important thing is to trust in Jesus.
What about the word of God from which
you get the message of Jesus Christ?
That's what we've lost.
When you take God's perfect word and man's
fallible opinion, when people try to make them
agree, which one usually gets modified?
It's usually the word of God.
Yep, it says six days but it can't.
Why?
Millions of years.
There's one last thing here that I want
to deal with in regard to that.
You see, if you believe in the millions
of years, do you realize you have no
option but to accept diseases like cancer before
sin?
It's true.
If you believe in millions of years.
Thorns before sin.
See, if you take Genesis the way Jesus
did, you know how Jesus took Genesis in
Matthew 19 when asked about divorce and concerned
marriage.
Haven't you read?
I got a feeling that Jesus was quoting
something important here.
Haven't you read?
What about the words of scripture?
What do the words of scripture say?
Haven't you read?
He which made them at the beginning made
them male and female and said for this
cause shall men of his father and mother
cleave unto his wife twain will be one
flesh.
This is what the word says.
Not someone's opinion.
Haven't you read?
What happened when Satan tempted?
It is written.
Even when Satan tried to quote out of
context.
As it is written.
See, what Jesus was saying, as you understand
the doctrine of marriage, it depends upon the
history in Genesis being true.
In fact, ultimately every single biblical doctrine of
theology is based in the history in Genesis.
If the history is not true, neither is
the doctrine.
Death, Genesis 1-11.
Sin, Genesis 1-11.
Why did Jesus die on a cross?
Genesis 1-11.
Why is he called the last Adam?
Genesis 1-11.
Why do we wear clothes?
Genesis 1-11.
Marriage, Genesis 1-11.
Why does men have dominion?
Genesis 1-11.
Why is there a curse?
Genesis 1-11.
Is Genesis 1-11 important?
Oh, but Genesis is not important.
Just trust in Jesus.
Who's Jesus?
The last Adam.
What's that mean?
He died on the cross.
Why?
Why death?
Where did that come from?
He died for your sin.
What is that?
Oh, don't worry about Genesis.
It's not important.
By the way, if you take Genesis the
way Jesus did in Genesis 1-29-30,
Adam and Eve were told to eat fruit.
The animals were told to eat plants.
They were all vegetarian to start with.
There wasn't any death, bloodshed, disease or suffering
of animals or man.
In fact, it wasn't until Genesis 9 that
God said we could eat meat.
For man to eat meat after the flood,
which means you can now eat hot dogs,
which are dead everything.
But every time you eat a hot dog,
just quote Genesis 9-3.
It makes you feel better.
By the way, Hugh Ross says, wait a
minute, plants died.
You can't say there was no death before
sin.
Plants died, excuse me.
Plants don't have that nefesh or life spirit.
Read Genesis 1.
Plants were given for food.
Animals have a nefesh.
Man, but not plants.
Plants were given for food.
If you take Genesis to Revelation consistently interpreting
scripture with scripture, I believe you can come
to another conclusion and death, bloodshed, disease and
suffering is a consequence of sin.
But you see, as soon as you believe
in millions of years, you have no option.
See, the millions of years first, it didn't
come from radiometric dating methods and so on.
It came from the idea that those fossil
layers were laid down over millions of years.
Those layers are full of dead things.
They're dinosaur bones with evidence of cancer.
You're going to say at the end of
the sixth day of creation, God said everything
was very good and the world's full of
cancer.
If you believe in millions of years, you've
got pain, death, killing, disease, thorns, struggles, suffering,
extinction before Adam's sin and so everything is
very good, you've got a problem.
By the way, the Bible makes it clear
that the first death was in the garden
when God killed an animal and clothed Adam
and Eve.
A picture of salvation, the first death and
bloodshed.
If you had death and bloodshed millions of
years before sin, why did God kill an
animal, shed blood because of sin?
It just destroyed the whole basis of the
atonement.
It was a picture of what was to
come in Jesus Christ.
But you see, this is very, very important
because people like Hugh Ross say to us,
ah, these so-called young earth creationists and
by the way, I hope you now understand.
See, I don't like the term young earth
creationists in a sense.
People say, aren't you a young earth creationist?
Yeah, but I don't like the term.
You know why?
Because people think, oh, the issue is young
earth versus old earth.
No, it's not.
The issue is God's authoritative word versus the
opinions of man.
That's young earth versus old earth.
It's like when people say to me, oh,
you're one of these fundamentalist young earth creationists.
I say, actually, I'm a revelationist, no death
before Adam redemptionist, which means I'm a fundamentalist
young earth creationist.
But the point is, I don't get young
earth first and go to the Bible.
The Bible makes it clear you can't believe
in millions of years.
Therefore, there's something wrong with those dating methods,
which is what Russ Humphreys and others will
show you.
But Hugh Ross says, oh, these young earth
creationists put a stumbling block in people's way
because you see, if we let the world
believe in millions of years and the Big
Bang and so on, that helps lead them
to Christ because they know the world's billions
of years old.
Remember what Paul says in Romans 8, the
whole of creation groans in pain.
See, the late Dr. Carl Sagan said this,
if I can find it.
The late Dr. Carl Sagan said, if God
is omnipotent and omniscient, why didn't he start
the universe out in the first place to
come out the way that he wants?
Why is he constantly repairing and complaining?
No, there's one thing the Bible makes clear.
The biblical God is a sloppy manufacturer.
He's not good at design.
He's not good at execution.
He'd be out of business if there was
any competition.
Do you realize what Carl Sagan is saying?
Where's your loving all powerful God?
I see all this mess out there and
all these mistakes and all these mutations and
all this death and suffering.
And I see a horrible world.
Where's this Christian God a lot?
Where is this God a lot?
You know, I have a real problem with
people who say, oh, the best thing to
do with a non-Christian is to take
them outside and say, look at this wonderful
creation.
Can't you see there's a God?
I had a pastor recently.
No, that's actually a talk show host on
Christian radio.
He said, oh, I take my neighbors outside
and say, look at all the wonderful creation.
Can't you see that there's a God?
And I said, I have a problem with
that.
He said, why?
I said, because it wasn't long ago a
little boy had his arm ripped off by
a shark in Florida.
There's silence on the phone because you realize
this is not a beautiful world.
And see, think of the problem.
Christians are out there saying to non-Christians,
can't you see there's a God in this
beautiful world?
I got news for you.
This is a pretty horrible world.
There are people dying right now.
There are people suffering, people being killed, people
in agony right now all around the world.
Where's our God of love?
See, what we're looking at, we're looking at
the world that's gone on for millions of
years.
See, if you believe in millions of years,
the death and suffering and all we see
today, God's responsible for that.
But if we're looking at a foreign world
because men rebelled, we're looking at the effects
of our sin and our God of love.
Despite the fact we told God we didn't
want him, he stepped into history to rescue
us, to die for us.
There's our God of love.
But unless you understand the history in Genesis,
you won't get it right.
You see, really the battle about young earth,
old earth, creation, evolution is the battle of
two histories of death.
The Bible's history, a perfect world, man rebelled.
We told God we didn't want God.
We have a taste of life without God.
It's horrible.
One day there's going to be no death
again when death is thrown in the lake
of fire.
But you see, if you believe in millions
of years, there's always been death and bloodshed.
So, God's responsible for this mess and what's
going to happen on into the future?
You see, that's the real conflict.
It's a conflict between two histories of death.
If the Bible's history is right, you cannot
have millions of years of death and bloodshed
and disease and suffering before sin.
And so, you know the sad thing?
The sad thing is that so many Christians
in today's world can't handle death or suffering
of a loved one because why does God
do this?
Why does God allow this?
God's not responsible.
It's our sin.
But if you believe in millions of years,
what's your answer?
See, I'm reminded of when I was over
in the British Museum where they have all
these statues they've ripped off from around the
world and there was this adults looking at
this broken Greek statue.
Wonderful, marvelous, inspiring, beautiful.
Little boy nearby said, what are you talking
about?
Oh, it's broken to me.
Do you realize we live in a broken
creation?
A broken creation marred by sin.
People then say, but if there's no death,
bloodshed, disease or suffering of animals till after
sin, where did all the fossil layers come
from then?
Hey, if there was a global flood, you'd
expect to find billions of dead things buried
in rock layers laid down by water all
over the earth.
You're going to hear a lot more about
this this weekend.
I don't believe all the layers came from
the flood.
I think most of them did.
But I tell you what, the fossil record
is a warning that God has judged sin
and judged death and that he's going to
judge again.
Let me bring all this to a close
then.
Here's what I'm saying.
If you believe in six days, then God
is the authority.
Why do I say that?
Because if you believe in six days, you're
taking God's word as written.
But if you believe in millions of years,
man is the authority.
Why am I saying that?
Because if you believe in millions of years,
you didn't get it from the Bible.
You're using man's fallible methods to reinterpret the
Bible.
And where does this lead to?
How does this work itself out?
Well, it's like this.
If you believe in six days, God's word's
authoritative, then you can authoritatively preach.
We have a basis for right and wrong
and for marriage, one man for one woman
and for the rightful place for sex within
marriage and for standards of clothing and meaning
in life because we have a worldview, because
we have a history that's true.
And we know what the words say because
we can take them as written so we
can build a Christian worldview.
But if you say millions of years, you
said man is the authority.
If man is the authority, we can reinterpret
the geology of the Bible.
We can reinterpret the biology of the Bible.
You can reinterpret the history of the Bible.
Why should we not reinterpret the morality?
It's only a logical consequence.
It's a logical extrapolation.
And even in the church, we see people
reinterpreting marriage and reinterpreting topics like abortion, the
meaning of life and so on and right
and wrong.
We see young people in our churches who
have no concept of the holiness of God,
no concept of what sin is, no concept
of really right and wrong, no concept of
a Christian worldview.
Why?
Because we've told them you can reinterpret the
geology, you can reinterpret the biology, you can
reinterpret the anthropology, you can reinterpret the astronomy.
You don't have to trust the Bible's history
there.
And ultimately, they said, well, why can't we
reinterpret the rest of the Bible?
And what do we see happening?
We see the collapse of Christianity in this
culture.
We see increasing humanist philosophy.
We've lost our foundation.
We've changed foundation from six days to millions
of years, which means from God's word to
man's word, which means from exegesis to eisegesis.
You get the idea?
And then I sum it up with these
two castle diagrams.
Millions of years, man is the authority.
Out of that comes whatever you want to
believe, because ultimately you could justify anything if
man's the authority.
Six days, God's word is the authority, Christian
worldview.
The humanists are clever.
How do you get rid of Christianity?
Don't aim for the resurrection, don't aim for
the virgin birth, not directly.
No, aim for the history, destroy the history.
Aim for the authority, get people to question
the authority, question the history, because ultimately when
that happens, ultimately the virgin birth and resurrection
will go anyway, and what do the Christians
do?
Let's help destroy our own authority.
And then they're out there saying, wow, there's
something wrong in the culture.
Abortion, homosexual behavior, laws, what are we going
to do?
What are we going to do?
We need to be out there preaching the
authoritative word of God and see people who
are one to the Lord Jesus Christ, who
build their thinking on the Bible.
But the trouble is when you go out
there to preach this today, you know what
they say?
That science has proved you can't trust that
book.
You know what the church says?
Oh, but you can believe the world's science,
just trust in Jesus.
You know what the world says?
If the history's not true, neither is the
rest of the book.
And that's why Answers in Genesis provides those
materials.
That's why we provide the website.
That's why we have these speakers here for
these sessions, so that we can equip you
to go out there and say, but I've
got answers, and look at all this evidence,
look at this science here, look at this
confirmation of Scripture.
The Bible is the word of God, it's
what it claims to be.
And as more and more people recognize the
Bible's history is true, more people will listen
to the message of Jesus Christ, the message
of salvation.
And we've seen many people who've been one
to the Lord.
Friends, the issue is not young earth versus
old earth.
The issue is God's authoritative word versus man's
fallible opinions.
And personally, I believe this, that the church
today, unless it repents of its compromise, we're
not going to see a change in this
nation.
Remember what God said to Saul when he
brought all those sacrifices?
Saul, you can bring all the sacrifices you
want, but you didn't obey my word.
And to obey my word is better than
sacrifice.
You can bring all your tithes and offerings,
and send all the missionaries you want, and
have all the Christian TV stations and radio
stations you want.
You can have worship for an hour every
morning, Sunday morning in church, and have all
this great music.
But if you don't believe my word, I'm
not going to bless this nation.
Something is dreadfully wrong.
God is not blessing this nation.
This nation's under judgment.
Why?
Because of what the world has done?
I suggest to you, because God's people have
compromised God's word.
And you know, to leave you with this
thought, Psalm 118 verse 8, it is better
to trust in the Lord than to put
confidence in man.
That's what the church is doing today, they're
putting confidence in man.
And Isaiah 66 verse 2, but to this
man will I look, even to him that
is poor and of a contrite spirit, like
Job, who fell on his knees in dust
and ashes, and trembled at his word.
Until we're prepared to come to that point
of falling on our knees in dust and
ashes, and trembling at the word of God,
instead of putting our confidence in the word
of man, we're going to have problems with
the six days.
We're going to have problems with the flood.
We're going to have problems with these issues.
And we need these great theologians in today's
world, and Christian scientists and others, to get
on their knees before a holy God, like
Job, in dust and ashes, and say, Lord,
I don't know anything.
I repent, and I want you to tell
me from your word what to believe.
That's what we need to happen in the
church, in the Christian colleges, and in the
seminaries.
I praise the Lord for the scientists we
have here this weekend that do that.
And you're going to hear from some of
them shortly.
Well, that's a light session for you.