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Are there other valid interpretations of Genesis?
Published: 30 January 2016 (GMT+10)
Susie B. from the UK wrote in response to the article Why we do what we do:
I have been receiving your e-mails for a long while now and I am so encouraged by them - you have shown me the importance of the authority of Scripture right from Genesis to Revelation and how to truly read the Bible. However, I come across loving, Bible believing Christians who are concerned by Creation Ministries and Ken Ham etc's approach as being marketed as THE ONLY way to view Genesis and the creation story….even if they do recognise that evolution as taught in schools is not correct or Biblical - I believe that Creation Ministries have got their interpretation of the Bible correct but we must not push truly Bible believing Christians away by the Truth we believe we, by faith, have discovered - can you ensure that your articles leave room for some prayerful, Biblical disagreement……so that the Church family can TRULY grown together and become sanctified as the Lord leads each individual to greater humility before Him and greater understanding in His Truth….? Your work is SO precious and SO needed but be careful to draw us ALL under the authority of Scripture and not the authority of 'Creation Ministries', 'Ken Ham' etc Bless you for your growing faithfulness in Him who is the author and perfecter of our faith….Hebrews 12:2 and 1415Lita Cosner, CMI-US, responds
I’m glad CMI’s materials have helped you to understand how important the creation issue is. We hear this sort of testimony from a lot of people. Many Christians are strengthened in their faith knowing they can trust the Bible’s teaching about creation, and we’ve even had testimonies of people coming to faith once this problem was resolved for them.
You suggest that we should leave room for disagreement “so that the Church family can TRULY grow together and become sanctified as the Lord leads each individual to greater humility before Him and greater understanding in His Truth”. However, this suggests that young-earth creationists are the ones being divisive or introducing a problem keeping people from growing together, etc. But young-earth creationism was the universal view of the early church and through history up until long-age views of geology started causing some theologians to reinterpret the relevant parts of the Bible. So who is being divisive, the people who are insisting on the historical, plain meaning of the text, or the people who are suggesting a new interpretation? See Old-earth or young-earth belief: which belief is the recent aberration?
We believe the Bible’s teaching about creation is unambiguous to the point where one must import a view from outside Scripture to come to a different view. One will never reach the conclusion that the earth is billions of years old from the text of Scripture itself, or that animals and man evolved over millions of years. It just isn’t there.
You mentioned prayerful, biblical disagreement. But the Bible doesn’t provide anything that would give someone a basis for disagreeing with young-earth creationism. And should we really expect our prayer life to contradict the plain teaching of Scripture? To give an extreme example, if I wanted to “pray about” worshipping a different god, should I expect God to contradict what He has already said in the pages of Scripture? Rather, prayerful consideration should reinforce what the Bible already teaches us.
That said, we have written many times that creation is not a salvation issue—you can be a saved follower of Jesus and hold a different view of creation. But we do believe it’s a Gospel issue. We’ve seen over and over how people become more excited about sharing their faith once they realize they can be confident about all of God’s word. I’m not saying that people with other views on creation don’t share their faith, but biblical creationists do have more consistent answers.
For that reason, we don’t spend a lot of time emphasizing how one can be a Christian and have other views on creation. That’s not ideal, precisely because Scripture is so clear. And if we start enthusiastically telling people they don’t have to agree with what we view as the correct biblical interpretation, that would start to undermine our entire message. It might even encourage people to engage in further compromise, say, with the similarly supernatural claims about Jesus. We want to encourage people to follow Jesus in everything He taught, and that includes creation in six days, only thousands, not billions, of years ago.
I hope this clarifies things.
Readers’ comments
Yet, the Apostle Paul, says “that we have not been given The spirit of fear, but of a sound mind.” (2 Tim 1:7) Therefore, by diligent study we must learn how to rightly divide the Words of Truth (2 Tim 2: 15) so that we may, by the renewing of our minds, prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God (Rom 12:1, 2). For there is no other Foundation that can be laid than that of Jesus Christ - and whatever work we build on that Foundation, will all be tested by Fire – if our work remains then we will receive our reward, but if it is burned up we will suffer loss, although not the loss of our salvation. (1Cor 3:9-15)
So, what we believe about the Creation narrative of Scriptures is very important, because it shapes all other aspects of our Faith. and ultimately what we Hope for in the future. (Heb 11: 1-6).
The LORD declares that “The gods who have not made the earth, nor stretched out the heavens shall perish from under these heavens!” (Jer 10: 11-13).
Therefore, the Apostle warns that the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but Mighty in God to the pulling down of Strongholds, and every high thing that exalts itself against the Knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Jesus Christ, being ready to punish all disobedience until you obedience is fulfilled. (2Cor 10: 4-5)
For Yahweh God, The Creator of the Heavens and of the Earth will not give his Glory to another – For there is no other God besides Him (Isa 42: 8 and Isa 44: 6-8)
And incidentally JC was the greatest evangelist there ever was.
1. We don't have the entirety of what Jesus said. John said (using a little bit of hyperbole) that all the books in the world couldn't contain the entirety of Jesus' words and deeds. So how can you say for certain Jesus said nothing about creation?
2. Jesus took Genesis literally every time He cited it. He said His second coming would be like the suddenness of the Flood, which wiped out everything--Jesus believed in a global Flood. Jesus believed in a historical Adam and Eve and used them as His precedent for marriage.
3. Jesus is God, so all of Scripture is His Word.
For more, see Jesus on the age of the earth.
Jesus believed all of Scripture was binding--why don't you?
The Bereans, who were commended by Paul, did not take a preachers message at face value, rather they "searched the Scriptures". Did they take them at face value or with intelligence? What translation were they reading then? The point is they researched. I teach my students to question everything - God's Truth does stand up to critical scrutiny so one need not fear that the Gospel will lack integrity.
It is the interpretation, or lack thereof, that causes issues. When do we, in our modern English translations, take the Bible at its most literal face value; and how do we recognise that imagery and symbolism are being used (at times) as literary devices? I recommend to readers John Lennox's thought- provoking book "Seven Days that Divide the World". This book is written to be read by both Christian and non-Christian readers. It in no way negates the Gospel message, rather it served to strengthen my core beliefs in an incredible, loving, passionate and unimaginably complex Creator God.
But I adjure you, always think for yourself, and after careful study and research form your own defensible stand on the Genesis account. I do also commend "Evolution's Achilles Heels" as being one of the better works from Creation Ministries and ask that you read it as well as Lennox's book.
God bless you all.
I have read and reviewed Lennox's book, and it's only useful to see how people compromise the biblical view.
The point of Acts 17:11 is that the Bereans eagerly received the word, but they searched the Scriptures to see if what they were saying was true. Scripture was the authority, and Paul and Silas were backed up by Scripture. Theistic evolutionists like Lennox are not.
When my husband tries to speak to people at work about Christianity often the response is just the word 'evolution' and a shake of the head. The two ideas are polar opposites and people know they cannot work together as a saving ideaology.
Christian leaders need to know that while the general population may be brain washed in evolution ideaology they are not so stupid that they cannot see that it is ludicrous to expect them to believe that a God who created by death would expect people to believe they need to be saved from that very same death!
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