"For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities -- his eternal power and divine nature -- have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles. Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator -- who is forever praised. Amen,” [Romans 1:20-25]
“For everything God created is good,” [1 Timothy 4:4]
“God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning -- the sixth day,” [Genesis 1:31]
“Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates. For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy,” [Genesis 20:9-11]
“But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect,” [1 Peter 3:15]
Why are so many so against the idea of a literal creation? Because billions of years (give it ten years and they’ll start saying “trillions of years”) means that there has been enough time for the universe to accidentally happen… Such is the claim. But here is some food for thought: If the earth were older than 10,000 years, life would be impossible. The earth’s electromagnetic field has been gradually decaying at a constant. If we go back 10,000 years, the field would be so strong that life on earth would be impossible. Or how about tyrannosaurus bones that have been discovered -not fossilized, but actually still have living tissue (bone marrow) within them? Or how about enormous fossilized clam shells found on top of Mt Everest? A well-known Christian was visiting a museum of natural history, the guide, a well-educated scientist, said that the “geological column” (those famous pictures of rock strata that show where each “age” had a different form of evolved life –but never provide any sufficient transition life forms to support this theory) represents different periods of the earth’s 4.5 billion year existence. The Christian asked, “How do you know the approximate dates for how old each stratum is?” The answer from the scientist: “We know the age of the strata based on the fossils found in the strata.” The scientist then led the group to a display of fossils and said, “These particular fossils are over 700 million years old…” That Christian then asked, “How do you know how old these fossils are?” The guide quickly answered, “We know how old they are based on where we found them in the rock strata…” The Christian then said, “Wait! Over at the geological column, you said that you dated the rock layers by the fossils you find in them. Over here, next to the fossils, you said that you date the fossils based on which rock layer you found them in… Isn’t that circular reasoning? You date the rocks by the fossils and the fossils by the rocks?” The scientist, perplexed, said, “You know, no one has ever pointed that out to me…” It had been said so many times in so many ways that he had been conditioned to believe it to be true… until the truth crept in. Now that scientist has rejected the “old earth” explanation of things because he became a critical thinker and rejected the religion that was forced upon him.
I’ll share one more thought on this subject. Many people are quick to say, “But what about radiometric dating? Doesn’t that prove that the earth is billions of years old?” Radiometric dating is actually a ridiculous method to use to try to date things. Radiometric dating assumes many factors that cannot possibly be true –ever. If everything, everywhere were sustained in a vacuum and was never exposed to the sun, the earth’s changes in temperature, rain, flooding, drought, living organisms or any number of hundreds of different variables that influence everything that exists on the earth (or even beyond the earth), then maybe (and that’s a huge maybe) radiometric dating might be able to measure how old something is. However, the fact is that the earth’s environment is always changing. After all, this is a living world that God created. We cannot assume that elements within any given object had steadily decayed over eons of time. For example, if there has been flooding, then some of the elements wash out of rocks. Some types of radiation render some elements inert and impossible to measure. Ionization or other chemical changes are impossible to assume – we just haven’t seen all that has happened on earth from it’s beginning until the present (and the majority of the “religious” scientific community scoffs at the notion that there has ever been a worldwide flood –which would certainly cause drastic change in the entire environment of the earth).
To drive this point home, a fellow missionary shared a situation with me that he had been directly involved in. To prove the point that radiometric dating is completely unreliable; a group of scientists (who happen to believe that the earth is only approximately 6000 years old) brought a rock to a highly reputable geology department at a well-known university in Texas. They asked the geologists to please date the rock. The geologists asked, “But where did you find it?” The scientists said, “No, we don’t want to tell you where we found it, please just date it for us based solely on radiometric dating.” The geologists then insisted that they be told where the rock came from. The scientists then said, “No, if radiometric dating is accurate, then all you need to measure the age of this rock… is this rock… Later, the scientists returned and asked how old the rock is. The geologists explained that this was volcanic rock and their radiometric data revealed that the rock is several hundred million years old (I don’t remember now exactly how old they said it was, I just remember that it was several hundred million years old). The scientists then thanked them and took the rock back, at which time the geologists said, “Can you please now tell us where you found this rock?” The scientists said, “At the bottom of the Grand Canyon.” The geologists then said, “Wait! Can we please take the rock back and re-measure it? We obviously didn’t measure correctly if you found it at the bottom of the Grand Canyon.” The scientists consented and the geologists went back to work. Later the scientists returned and asked what the new findings were. The geologists shared their new data and found the rock to be much older. They now claimed that it was hundreds and hundreds of millions of years old… The scientists then said, “That’s rather surprising. This volcanic rock came from a volcano on the edge of the Grand Canyon that spilled over the edge and then down to the bottom. The volcano erupted several hundred years ago…” The geologists then asked for the rock back, at which point the scientists said, “No thank you. We’ve heard enough.
The point to the story is this: It’s not the facts that are the problem; the problems come with assumptions that have been carefully formed by a religion that says that the earth must be billions of years old; if the earth is old enough, then one thinks he can dismiss the idea that we have to answer to God and give an account for our lives. It is human pride that outright rejects the need for a Savior. The author of all doubt first said, “Did God really say…?” (Genesis 3:1) and his influence still reigns on the earth. But that age is coming to an end. The Rightful Ruler of this world will come to judge the living and the dead. He will establish a New Kingdom and the Law will go out from Zion. And all religion… will come to an end… and all we’ll have is the Truth Incarnate. And who will be able to argue with the Author on that Day?
On the Solid Rock we stand!
George