I remember the first time I ever heard Duane Gish speak. I was a young, eager college student. I was excited to hear this man “prove” creation and disprove “evolution.” I even bought some of the most boring books I have ever read on the subject. I was so excited to share this “completely logical, has to be believed argument” to my pre-Christian friends. I was sure the superior arguments that Dr. Gish and his contemporaries provided me would sway my friends view of origins. But….then…..it ….didn’t. He just looked at me and said, “I’ve heard of Gish and his nutjob place. You believe that crap? No wonder you and I can’t talk.” Now, I know that this guy was way out of line in what he said. I also know that he showed he really didn’t want to talk about the issues. He simply felt he was right, and didn’t want to be bothered by the facts. I was still crushed. I discovered that cool arguments very rarely work, in fact I found that a lot of Christianity on its face seems to be illogical–I’ll be writing more about this over the next few days. Then a few years later I found this verse:
Hebrews 11:3 “By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.”
Did you catch it? We believe God spoke everything into existence, by “FAITH.” Now, we can spend all of our time attempting to prove the Genesis account. In fact, I’m thankful for people who can intelligently debate the topic of origins. But, if someone believes in evolution, that is not the biggest issue in thier life. There comes a point where we simply have to point people back to Jesus. With dogged determination, force them to answer the question of what do they do with Jesus? We need to live out being Jesus to the people. It is so easy to get wrapped up in issues. Whatever the issue. People do not need us to convince them of the reality of creation. What they need is Jesus. My relationship with Him is the only thing that really changed my life. There was a time in my life where I lived purely for myself. There was two people, my wife (she was just an annoying girl then) and Ted Boykin who God used to make real lasting change in my life. They simply lived God to me. They never tried to prove to me the futility of my arguments, they simply loved me. They prayed for me. They didn’t give me free passes but they let God’s love show through them. It was life changing. I believe in creation, I believe that God spoke everything into existence but, If I am honest, I have to admit the I believe in Creation because of faith. I think, I’m in good company, seeing the author of Hebrews agrees with me.
Up next, does it make sense to build an ark when you’ve never seen rain?
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3 Comments(+Add)
I have a personal acquaintance who works for a well-known creationist group. One thing I’ve heard him emphasize over and over is that accepting the biblical creation account is a matter of faith. I’m not acquainted with the thinking of many creationists’ groups, but wonder if most of them would agree with his statement.
That doesn’t mean it isn’t a wonderful idea to consider how so many things demonstrate that God did indeed create the earth.
One of the main problems with the way evolution is often taught is that it is taught as if it is fact and the only fact that “reasonable, scientific” people can even consider considering.
My problem with some of the creationist groups is that they make the issue of believing in a literal six-day creation a litmus test for Christianity. That makes no sense to me. I think one can accept the Genesis account as true in a number of ways. I don’t think the important thing is the how and when, but rather the who and the why.
I’ve heard young-earth creationists completely trash people like Hugh Ross because he believes that the earth is billions of years old. Well if you are involved in science at all, you can quickly see that Ross’ work is much more credible than the stuff coming from a lot of the young earther’s side. In either case, I don’t think Christians benefit from hanging their hat on either side that much. I’m OK with simply believing God did it, but the exact details will be something I’ll leave up to Him.
Joe,
Great post.
Once I came to really understand the “by faith” view my worries over meshing Christianity with Science ceased. Just because Science makes a pronouncement doesn’t make it true. My faith rest in the God who created all things.
Making Creationism a litmus test in the Church is harmful to the unity of the Church. The Bible is not a science textbook. It is a Faith Book.
bruce