Christianity is Under
Attack Pt VII
[An excerpt Christianity Is Under Attack by Ken Ham] “…One
of the reasons why creationists have such difficulty in talking to certain
evolutionists is because of the way bias has affected the way they hear what we
are saying. They already have preconceived ideas about what we do and do not
believe. They have prejudices about what they want to understand in regard to
our scientific qualifications, and so on.
There are many examples of evolutionists who have totally misunderstood or
misinterpreted what creationists are saying. They hear us through their
“evolutionary ears,” not comprehending in the slightest the perspective from
which we are coming. As creationists, we understand that God created a perfect
world, man fell into sin, the world was cursed, God sent Noah’s flood as
judgment, and Jesus Christ came to die and be raised from the dead to restore
all things.
In other words, our message is one of creation, Fall, and redemption. However,
because evolutionists are used to thinking in “uniformitarian” terms (i.e.,
basically the world we see today—the world of death and struggle—has gone on for
millions of years), they do not understand this creationist perspective of
history.
An interesting example came when Dr. Gary Parker was debating a professor from
LaTrobe University in Victoria, Australia. One of the evolutionist’s
“refutations” of creation centered around his assertion that there were too many
imperfections in the world to have been made by a Creator. This particular
evolutionist would not understand, even after it was clearly presented, that the
world we are looking at today is not the same world that God created because of
the effects of the Fall and flood. To understand the creation/evolution issue
correctly, one must have a complete understanding of the beliefs adhered to by
both creationists and evolutionists.
In another example, an evolutionist biologist said that if God made all the
animals during the fifth and sixth days of creation, why don’t we find parakeets
and mice in the Cambrian strata alongside trilobites? Dr. Parker then explained
that parakeets and mice do not live in the same environment as the trilobites.
Dr. Parker explained to this scientist that the fossil record should be seen in
terms of the sorting action of a worldwide flood. Because animals and plants
live in different areas, they would have been trapped in sediments
representative of their particular environment. Again, we see bias causing a
misunderstanding that so many have of the creationist position.
The reader needs to be aware that, when we discuss creation/evolution, in both
instances we are talking about beliefs, that is, religion. The controversy is
not religion versus science, as the evolutionists try to make it out. It is
religion versus religion, the science of one religion versus the science of the
other.
Evolution is a religious position that makes human opinion supreme. As we shall
see, its fruits (because of rejection of the Creator and Lawgiver) are
lawlessness, immorality, impurity, abortion, racism, and a mocking of God.
Creation is a religious position based on the Word of God, and its fruits
(through God’s Spirit) are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness,
faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. The creation/evolution issue (is God
Creator?) is the crux of the problems in our society today. It is the
fundamental issue with which Christians must come to grips. The
creation/evolution issue is where the battle really rages.” Full text:
Christianity Is Under Attack by Ken Ham
Response to comment [from a "Christian"]: "...[T]he same moronic
statements of Ken Ham."
Ad hominem.
Can scientists misinterpret data?
"Can people misinterpret the Bible?"
Give us your hermeneutic.
[Ge 1:1] "Care to try again?"
Ge 1:1
"It is vitally important, if we
would ever really fully understand anything in the Bible, or in the world in
general, that we first understand the teaching of Genesis 1:1. Consider,
therefore, each word in this all-important declaration.
1 “God”
This first occurrence of the divine
name is the Hebrew
Elohim,
the name of God which stresses His majesty and omnipotence. This is the name
used throughout the first chapter of Genesis. The
im
ending is the Hebrew plural ending, so that
Elohim
can actually mean “gods,” and is so translated in various passages referring
to the gods of the heathen (e.g., Psalm 96:5).
However, it is clearly used here in
the singular, as the mighty name of God the Creator, the first of over two
thousand times where it is used in this way. Thus Elohim is a plural name
with a singular meaning, a “uni-plural” noun, thereby suggesting the uni-plurality
of the Godhead. God is one, yet more than one.
2 “Created”
This is the remarkable word
bara,
used always only of the work of God. Only God can create—that is, call into
existence that which had no existence. He “calleth those things which be not
as though they were” (Romans 4:17). “… The worlds were framed by the word of
God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear”
(Hebrews 11:3).
Men can “make” things or “form”
things, but they cannot create
things. God also can “make” and “form” things (Hebrew
asah
and yatsar,
respectively), and do so far more effectively and quickly than man can do.
The work of creation, however, is uniquely a work of God. The work of making
and forming consists of organizing already existing materials into more
complex systems, whereas the act of creation is that of speaking into
existence something whose materials had no previous existence, except in the
mind and power of God.
The use of the word “create” here
in Genesis 1:1 informs us that, at this point, the physical universe was
spoken into existence by God. It had no existence prior to this primeval
creative act of God. God alone is infinite and eternal. He also is
omnipotent, so that it was possible for Him to call the universe into being.
Although it is impossible for us to comprehend fully this concept of an
eternal, transcendent God, the only alternative is the concept of an
eternal, self-existing universe; and this concept is also incomprehensible.
Eternal God or eternal matter—that is the choice. The latter is an
impossibility if the present scientific law of cause and effect is valid,
since random particles of matter could not, by themselves, generate a
complex, orderly, intelligible universe, not to mention living persons
capable of applying intelligence to the understanding of the complex order
of the universe. A personal God is the only adequate Cause to produce such
effects.
3 “Heaven”
This word is the Hebrew
shamayim
which, like
Elohim, is a plural noun, and can be
translated either “heaven” or “heavens,” depending on the context and on
whether it is associated with a singular or plural verb. It does not mean
the stars of
heaven, which were made only on the fourth day of Creation Week (Genesis
1:16), and which constitute the “host” of heaven, not heaven itself (Genesis
2:1).
There is a bare possibility that
the Hebrew word may originally represent a compound of
sham
(“there”) and
mayim (“waters”), thus reflecting the primeval
association of water with the upper reaches of the atmosphere (Genesis 1:7).
It seems, however, that the
essential meaning of the word corresponds to our modern term
space, such as when we
speak of the universe as a universe of space and time. Apparently there is
no other Hebrew word used in this sense in the Bible, whereas the use of
“heaven” is everywhere consistent with such a concept.
Understood in this way, it can also
refer either to space in general or to a particular space, just as we may
speak of “outer space,” “inner space,” “atmospheric space,” and so forth. In
Genesis 1:1, the term refers to the component of space in the basic
space-mass-time universe.
4 “Earth”
In like manner the term “earth”
refers to the component of matter in the universe. At the time of the
initial creation, there were no other planets, stars, or other material
bodies in the universe; nor did any of them come into being until the fourth
day. The earth itself originally had no form to it (Genesis 1:2); so this
verse must speak essentially of the creation of the basic elements of
matter, which thereafter were to be organized into the structured earth and
later into other material bodies. The word is the Hebrew
erets
and is often also translated either “ground” or “land.” Somewhat similarly
to the use of “heaven,” it can mean either a particular portion of earth
(e.g., the “land of Canaan”—Genesis 12:5) or the earth material in general
(e.g., “Let the earth bring forth grass”—Genesis 1:11).
5 “In the beginning”
Not only does the first verse of
the Bible speak of the creation of space and matter, but it also notes the
beginning of time. The universe is actually a continuum of space, matter,
and time, no one of which can have a meaningful existence without the other
two. The term matter
is understood to include energy,
and must function in both space and time. “Space” is measurable and
accessible to sense observation only in terms of the entities that exist and
the events that happen in space, and these require both matter and time. The
concept time
likewise is meaningful only in terms of entities and events existing and
transpiring during time, which likewise require space and matter.
Thus, Genesis 1:1 can legitimately
and incisively be paraphrased as follows: “The transcendent, omnipotent
Godhead called into existence the space-mass-time universe.”"
Morris, Henry
M.: The Genesis Record : A Scientific and Devotional Commentary
on the Book of Beginnings. Grand Rapids, MI : Baker Books, 1976,
S. 39Response to comment [from other]: "How
many more episodes are in this series?"
Don't they have a handy ignore button for
your use? Isn't that what you do with God anyway?
Response to comment [from a Christian]: [Quote: English
pint]
Warm.
And they're stingy with the ketchup.
Hunts or Heinz?
Yellow mustard or Dijon?
Relish or no?
[Hermeneutic] "Genre, culture, context, language, relationship to the rest
of scripture etc."
Interpret:
God is the creator of all things (by God:
Ge 1:1; 2:4,5; Pr 26:10 by Christ. Joh 1:3,10; Col 1:16 by the Holy Spirit. Job
26:13; Ps 104:30).
He formed the heavens and the earth and its inhabitants (Gen. 1:24-25;
2:19; Jer. 27:5) which had no previous existence (Ro 4:17; Heb 11:3).
Creation took place in six normal days (Ex 20:11; 31:17).
God created man in his own image (Ge 1:26,27; 1Co 11:7) and likeness (Ge 1:26;
Jas 3:9) from the beginning (Ge 1:1; Mt 24:21, Mk
10:6).
God created them male and female (Ge 1:26-27; 5:2, Mt 19:4).
Christianity
is Under Attack Pt VII