Not What It Says

John 5:46-47

“For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me: for he wrote of me. But if ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe my words?”

A friend of mine who is a creation speaker in the United Kingdom related how a lady berated him after one of his talks. He had explained in his presentation how God created everything in six days, just as it says in Genesis 1.

“I don’t limit God like you do,” said the lady. “God is much too big to be limited to six days.”

“I don’t limit God either,” my friend replied. “But I do limit myself to believing what God actually said He did.”

“But God could have made the world in six thousand years,” the lady protested.

“Yes,” conceded my friend. “He could have made the world in six million years, couldn’t he.”

“Yes,” she enthusiastically agreed.

“In fact, He could have made the world in six seconds!”

 “Yes.”

 “Or in six minutes.”

 “Yes!”

 “Or in six days!”

“No, no, no, no, no! He couldn’t have made the world in six days!”

My friend chuckled. “So the only timescale in which God could definitely not have made the world is the one that He said He did it in!”

Science historian Dr. Terry Mortenson has shown that this type of thinking is common, but inconsistent. Dr. Mortenson says, “We can’t with any exegetical consistency defend the truth and authority of Jesus and the apostles, but deny young-earth creation, which they clearly believed.” We should use the same standards of belief in Genesis as we use in the Gospels.

Author: Paul F. Taylor

 We praise You, Lord God, that all of Your word is true, from the very first verse. Thank You for revealing it to us so clearly. Amen.

Ref: Mortenson, T. (2018), Defending the Bible’s Clarity, < https://answersingenesis.org/hermeneutics/defending-bibles-clarity/ >, accessed 9/25/2018. Image: Adobe Stock Images, licensed to author.