Truth, half truths and outright falsehoods!

How dealing with the ‘negatives’ exposes truth and can supercharge a faith

by Gary Bates

Originally appeared in a CMI newsletter February 2010

iStock photo

The main mandate of creation ministries like CMI is to counter a counterfeit religious philosophy that seeks to falsify the Bible. Belief in evolution stands in the way of potentially millions from accepting that God’s Word is authoritative. Although there are many Christians who believe that God somehow used evolution to create (theistic evolutionists), they have, unfortunately and perhaps unwittingly, embraced what is essentially an anti-god religious idea, often without realizing the dire consequences of doing so. After all, it should be remembered that the person who has been credited with the modern theory of evolution, Charles Darwin, even thought that evolution and the Bible were incompatible. Let’s be frank here; the Bible itself does not speak about such an evolutionary history, of millions of years of death and struggle finally giving rise to people. These ideas (and those of progressive creationists like Dr Hugh Ross, who claims that the days of Genesis speak of millions of years) come from outside the Bible, not from within it.

Following false leaders

Unfortunately, many see ‘creationist’ Christian leaders like Ross accepting, even embracing, such views, that undermine the foundation of the gospel by doing away with a real Fall and much more. Many think that because ‘science’ only speaks about facts, it must have authority about the issue of origins, which leads them to ‘reinterpret’ God’s Word. We said “unwittingly” earlier, because most don’t realize that the ‘science’ they are relying on is in reality a completely secular belief system used to interpret the facts. The only reason that anyone could possibly have come up with the idea that the Bible speaks of millions/billions of years is because of the constant bombardment we are all subjected to. (Before such beliefs became popular, no-one saw this as the meaning of Genesis). Many applaud this ‘harmony of modern science and Scripture’ because they think, as Hugh Ross has stated, that the creation/young-Earth issue is potentially the most divisive issue in the church, and such a harmony will cause people to actually consider what the Bible says. So ministries like CMI that critique evolutionary revisionisms of the Bible get tarred with this ‘divisive’ brush, because the ‘science’ of evolution is such a widely accepted ‘fact’.

However, this is a completely incorrect premise. It is actually those who do not accept God’s Word at face value who are being divisive. By accepting the secular view of origins science they are diminishing the authority and the value of God’s Word to the masses. In any case the original evolutionists were the ancient Greek philosophers that predated Christ. Evolutionism has its roots in anti-God paganism. We are therefore following the example of the Apostles who saw it as their role to:

“ …demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ” (2 Cor. 10:5).

The reason that millions reject Christianity is because they think the Bible is wrong when it speaks about, or touches on, areas of science. However, that problem is not solved by adding evolutionary ideas to the Bible. If the Bible does not mean what it says in its first book then why should any non-believers accept any of it? Even the atheists get it. Take this well-known quote from Richard Bozarth as far back as the February 1978 issue of American Atheist. He wrote:

It’s a spiritual battle

So why are so many Christians falling for this? Perhaps these atheists should be preaching from the pulpits in our more liberal churches and theological colleges. Once the foundational teaching of Genesis is undermined, then the atoning death of Christ (and thus Christianity) becomes irrelevant. The foundational bedrock of humanism is evolution, because if there is no God, no Creator, then nobody made us, owns us or sets the rules. So is it any wonder then that people simply do what is right in their own eyes? It seems ironic that those opposing evolutionary theory and promoting what the Lord Jesus clearly believed should be called divisive. The theory of evolution and its logical immoral fruit is the antithesis of everything Christian. One devout humanist said:

So why are so many people convinced about evolution? At CMI we have long pointed out that the type of science that led to laptop computers and rocket ships is different from the science of the past that neither evolutionists nor creationists were there to observe. We only have ‘facts’ like rock layers and fossils etc. in the present day. But in some cases, more like outright deception can be involved. ‘Half-truths’ are where information is omitted or even misrepresented to try and convince someone of your version of events.

Two facts—one lie!

For example, one might be visiting a geological landmark and see a sign or hear information from a tourist guide saying, “The canyon is over 3,000 feet deep (true), it has a river running through it (true), and it has taken over 2 million years for the river to erode the canyon (unknown).” The first two are facts or simple observations, but the last statement is an interpretation or extrapolation of those facts that cannot possibly be known (unless one was there for the whole duration of erosion). Or it might be the case that the river did not erode the canyon at all, because it may have been eroded through rapid catastrophic volcanic activity or even mud flows. Here’s another example.

“This fossil is the leg bone of a Tyrannosaurus rex (true). This specimen was a meat eater (true—we might be able to determine this from its fossilized stomach contents or fossilized fecal matter known as coprolites). And the fossil is 65 million years old (false).” There is no scientific test that one can do to prove the age of the fossil. Such statements fall into the realm of beliefs about the past and such interpretations are derived because of one’s starting assumptions. The scientist making the statement already believes evolution to be true and so he interprets the facts within that framework of belief. But the average layperson equates the third or last statement with the truth of the previous two. When creationists point this out we are often confronted with invectives like, “How can you ignore the fossil record? How can you not believe that dinosaurs lived millions of years ago?”

But we press on because pointing out the fallacious aspects of some of these statements, and understanding the distinction between facts and half-truths about science can be, and is, liberating for many. It’s like removing the scales from their eyes. That’s why it is so important for creation ministries to produce and widely share information. For the Christian, it can restore an ebbing confidence in the veracity of God’s Word, and Christians who are confident in what they believe are much more likely to reach others and affect their world for Christ!

Christians … renewed, reenergized and reactive!

Over the years we have literally received thousands of testimonies to this effect. One of our speakers recounted a meeting where he said that he:

Notice how the real truth is also highly motivational. We all love to share things we’ve just learned. The reenergizing and enthusiasm reminds us of how brand new Christians share their faith with just about everyone they encounter. Graeme S. wrote to us to say:

These children have obviously been taught to discern truths from half-truths in the same way that Pierre S. explained. He said:

As one can see, compromise on God’s Word achieves little. People are drawn to the truth, not confusion (John 8:32). Don’t be discouraged by those who have swallowed the false humanistic philosophy of evolution/long ages. Sadly, much of it is based upon ignorance because they’ve never heard information for a sound biblical and scientific defense of a literal and historical Genesis. But with your continued support we will continue to fight the good fight and continue to spread the life-changing information of Creation.

And I’ll leave you with just another example of the power and truth of God’s Word, from Christopher C. who wrote: