1. 1 Genesis

2. 2 References §“Creation Compromises” by Bert Thompson (Apologetics Press) §“Scientific Evidences of the Bible’s Inspiration” by Bert Thompson (Apologetics Press) §“Ready with an Answer” by John Ankerberg & John Weldon

3. 3 Genesis: Myth History? or

4. 4 Ockham’s Razor from Bookshelf ‘95 §Ockham's razor - also called law of parsimony §After William of Ockham (1285-1347), an English theologian and philosopher §A rule in science and philosophy stating that the simplest of two or more competing theories is preferable and that an explanation for unknown phenomena should first be attempted in terms of what is already known

5. 5 Law of Parsimony par·si·mo·ny (pär¹se-mo´nê) noun 1.Unusual or excessive frugality; extreme economy or stinginess. 2.Adoption of the simplest assumption in the formulation of a theory or in the interpretation of data, especially in accordance with the rule of Ockham's razor. from Bookshelf ‘95

6. 6 Basics of Bible Interpretation Ockham’s razor is also a fundamental principle in understanding the Bible: The most straight-forward and literal interpretation is preferred unless there are strong indications why it should be taken figuratively How would a Hebrew in the time of Moses understand the Creation passages in Genesis?

7. 7 Basics of Bible Interpretation “ In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” (Genesis 1:1ff) §When did God start His creation? §Did He stop in between?

8. 8 Basics of Bible Interpretation “So the evening and the morning were the first day.” (Genesis 1:5) §What is meant by a “day”?

9. 9 Basics of Bible Interpretation “For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day.” (Exodus 20:11) §How many days did God take? §What were not created in the six days? §What is God doing now?

10. 10 Basics of Bible Interpretation “And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done.” (Genesis 2:2) §How many days did God work? §Is the work of Creation still in progress?

11. 11 The Inescapable Truth Inescapable conclusion if one truly believes Scriptures without twisting them: The entire creation is young, not more than 7,000 years old How to reconcile with observations of science?

12. 12 Loss of Faith §The world of Christianity has generally lost faith in the inerrancy of the Word §The Roman Catholic Church takes the lead l Prominent Catholic theologians consider Genesis to contain “many mythical elements” l The Pope recently endorsed theistic evolution l A consequence of past error centuries ago when the Catholic Church persecuted Galileo

13. 13 Loss of Faith Also prevalent in the non-Catholic world §“There is no necessity for a Christian to believe it [Genesis] to be history; indeed, there are reasons why it cannot be history” (A M Ramsey, Archbishop of Canterbury) §“The recital of the facts of creation is obviously not a literal, historical record.” (Westminster Dictionary of the Bible) §“Genesis 2 is not a historical account” (John N Clayton, 1979)

14. 14 The spirit of compromise §“One gets the general impression from the Bible that the Earth is young.” (Donald England, distinguished Professor of Chemistry at Harding University, “A Christian View of Origins”, 1972) “That conclusion is in conflict with the conclusions of modern science that the earth is ancient.” (England, 1983) §“Few would argue that the earth is only about 6,000 years old”, such a position is not held by responsible apologists” (Rubel Shelly, “A Defence of the Christian Faith”, 1990)

15. 15 The spirit of compromise §Some claim the Bible is silent on the age of the earth - therefore one is free to accept the conclusions of science §But the Bible is not silent - chronology is important to God l Genesis makes special effort to tell us of the elapsed time in the Creation l The records in Kings and Chronicles carefully preserves chronological information for posterity l Genealogies important to the Hebrew - allows them to trace to the beginning - to origins

16. 16 Non-literal views Various non-literal views on Genesis 1-11 §Mythical §Spiritual/allegorical §Royal-political metaphor §Discussion of things that never were §A commentary on man’s condition now §A priestly discussion

17. 17 Time Warpers Attempts to distort Bible chronology by inserting long, undetermined period of time §BEFORE the Creation week - the Gap theory §DURING the Creation week - the Day-Age theory §AFTER the Creation week - the Genealogical Gap theory Objective is to make the Bible chronology look as long as modern science requires

18. 18 Time Warpers §Success in part due to the ignorance of the public and the dominance of mass media channels by atheists §Consider the pre-conceptions in common terms like: l “Pre-historic” l “Primitive” l “Fossils” l “The Land Before Time”

19. 19 Creation Myths §It is amazing that men will accept long, complicated, imaginative theories and reject the truth given to Moses by the Creator Himself.” (D.D. Riegle, “Creation or Evolution?”, 1962) §“If the chance processes of evolution really are the motive force....why does the author of the Bible not speak up and express himself more plainly in this matter? Why does he not tell us more directly the truth?” (A E Wilder-Smith, “Man’s origin: Man’s destiny”, 1975)

20. 20 Why Genesis is historical Science has not disproved the Creation §Best at explaining the mechanisms of present processes, but extremely ill-equipped to deal with the question of origin §Unable to answer many scientific questions on current problems, much less the question of origin in the distant past §Science has not proven evolution at all - remains a highly speculative theory in spite of aggressive attempts to portray it as fact

21. 21 Why Genesis is historical Style of writing does not indicate a mythical or allegorical approach §Characteristics of Hebrew poetry writing are lacking l cf Psalm 104:5-9, Psalm 12, Job 38-39, Proverbs 8:23-31 on the Creation is poetic language §Has intimate relationship with the remainder of the book which is also historical in context - either the entire book is mythical or historical, but not both

22. 22 Why Genesis is historical Jesus Christ considered it to be historical §He considered all of Moses’ writings (including Genesis) to be truth (John 5:46-47) §The whole law (including Genesis) will not be invalidated (Matthew 5:18) §He referred to the “beginning” when God made man and woman, quoting from Genesis 1:27 (Matthew 19:4) If Genesis is a myth, then Jesus Christ is NOT dependable for truth

23. 23 Why Genesis is historical The rest of Scripture considered the Genesis events to be historical §By His word, the heavens and the earth were created (Hebrews 11:3, 2 Peter 3:5) §God commanded light to shine out of darkness (2 Corinthians 4:6) §God made man in His image (1 Corinthians 11:7) §Christ was called the last Adam (1 Corinthians 15:45) - since the last Adam is historical, the first must also be so

24. 24 Why Genesis is historical To consider it a myth is to attack God’s nature §Would the God of truth communicate myths to man? §“The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament shows His handiwork.” (Psalm 19:1) - if Genesis is a myth, this statement is a lie, because God was not responsible for the Creation

25. 25 Why Genesis is historical Genesis 1-11 is foundational for the rest of Scripture §Denying its historicity undermines the entire foundation of the Old and New Testament §If the Fall is a myth, man has no sin §Redemption on the cross has no meaning without the Fall of Man §Jesus Christ would also be a myth §The entire Christian faith is a myth

26. 26 “It’s About Time”

27. 27 §Universe is 8-20 billion years old §The Earth is 5 billion years old §Spontaneous generation occurred 3.5 to 4 billion years ago §All life forms evolving from since that beginning §Man arrived 1-2 million years ago The Evolutionist’s Time-table

28. 28 The Geologic Ages & Evolution Humans Mammals Reptiles Amphibians Fishes Invertebrates X One-cell organism Multi-cell organism

29. 29 The Geologic Ages & Evolution Evolutionary divisions of the geologic timescale: §Phanerozoic - visible life §Proterozoic - first life §Paleozoic - primitive life §Mesozoic - middle life §Cenozoic - recent life

30. 30 Time is of the Essence §The entire theory of evolution is based on one fundamental assumption: “ Time, not God, works miracles ” l Dependency on random processes require eons - billions and billions of years §“However improbable we regard this event, given enough time, it will almost certainly happen at least once.” (George Wald, Harvard University, “The Origin of Life”, 1979)

31. 31 The Bible Chronology §John Lightfoot (1602-1675), Cambridge, estimated the specific date/time of the Creation: l Creation occurred in the week of October 18- 24, 4004 BC l Adam & Eve were created on October 23, 4004 BC at 9 am (45th meridian time) §Cannot deduce specific date and time from the Bible, but can determine the magnitude of the age of man and the heavens and the earth

32. 32 The Bible Chronology Age of Man §Present day to time of Christ ~2000 years l Indisputable §From Abraham to Christ ~2000 years l From Bible genealogy (Luke, Matthew) l Also from archaeology (Kitchen and Douglas, “The New Bible Dictionary”, 1982) §From Adam to Abraham ~2000 years (20 generations - from Luke 3:23-38 ) Total - 7000 years max

33. 33 The Bible Chronology Age of the heavens and the earth §Man was created at the beginning on Day 6 §Christ said that man was made “at the beginning” (Mathew19:4, Mark 10:6) §The evidences of God are visible to the things that are made “since the creation of the world” (Romans 1:20) - what can appreciate God’s creation besides man? Hence, the heavens and the earth are only 5 days older than man, not billions of years

34. 34 A Decisive Battle §The Bible’s time table is 1,000,000 times shorter than what evolution requires §Magnitude of difference makes it an “either- or” situation - no room for compromise §Resolution of this conflict will result in the death of one of the two ideologies l If the Bible is correct about the Age, evolution falls flat like a house of cards l If modern science is correct, then the Bible is proven to be mythical, undependable for truth

35. 35 The Time Crunch §“Evolution is an impossibility if the universe is only a few thousand years old.... We must query if vast time is indeed available.” (R L Wysong, “The Creation-Evolution Controversy”, 1976)

36. 36 Time the Magician? Even if vast time were available §An event can only happen if it is truly a distinct possibility, not if it is an impossibility - time cannot work miracles §Probability theory pertains solely to events that have a calculable chance of happening at least once in our universe Is evolution a distinct possibility?

37. 37 The Upper Limit § Borel’s Basic Law of Chance eliminate possibility of any event with probability of less than 1 in 10 50 § Astrophysics Particle-Event Law states that any event whose probability of occurrence is less than 1 in 10 110 cannot occur in the universe § Sir Fred Hoyle, astronomer and physicist, calculated chance of spontaneous generation to be 1 in 10 40,000 - far, far larger than the upper limits of probable events

38. 38 The Irony §Evolution is a doctrine based on randomness §But the mathematical laws of probability stand against an evolutionary origin of life §I.e. the very basis on which evolution stands has been used to demolish this theory - akin to a “pulling of the rug from under the feet” §Hence, the pack of evolutionary cards falls - Genesis Creation stands as truth!

39. 39 Uniformitarianism The Principle of Uniformitarianism §Concept was introduced by James Hutton in 1795, and later emphasized by Charles Lyell in the early 1800s. §Natural geologic processes have been uniform in frequency and magnitude throughout time §The principle is basically stating that “the present is the key to the past.”

40. 40 Uniformitarianism Two major problems: §History of the earth is NOT uniform but contains catastrophic events §The impact of Noah’s Flood is totally ignored

41. 41 The Great Deluge “For this they willfully forget : that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of water and in the water, by which the world that then existed perished, being flooded with water. ” (2 Peter 3:5-6)

42. 42 Doctrine of Mature Creation

43. 43 Doctrine of Mature Creation The problem of starlight §Stars known to be millions of light years away - will take millions of years to reach earth §Since Creation is no more than 7,000 years, and since the stars are so far away: l How did the starlight reach us? l How can we see cosmological events that happened millions of light-years away?

44. 44 Doctrine of Mature Creation §God created the stars with two purposes l for signs, seasons, reckoning of days and years (Genesis 1:14) l to declare His glory (Psalm 19:1) §But must be visible before they can be signs. §Hence, God created the entire universe with the apparent age required for starlight to be in transit across space to man’s eyes Was this deception? No, God does not deceive - it is impossible for God to lie (Hebrews 6:18)

45. 45 Doctrine of Mature Creation §Consider miracle of turning water into good wine (John 2:1-10) §Christ miraculously turned water into matured, fermented grape juice - “good wine” (v 10) §Note how the master of the feast accused the bridegroom of “deception” in keeping the best to the last (v 10) §But all along there was no deception - only a creation with the appearance of age - concept of mature creation

46. 46 Doctrine of Mature Creation Applying to creation ex nihilo §God made everything mature and ready for habitation by all life forms, with appearance of appropriate age §He created fully grown plants, fishes, birds, animals - and adult man and woman l The order is creation and then a commandment to reproduce (Genesis 1:24) l The chicken came BEFORE the egg

47. 47 Doctrine of Mature Creation Did these creatures lived sometime during the <7,000 years of the history of the earth?

48. 48 Summary §The book of Genesis is God-inspired and is the literal truth §If Genesis is a myth, the whole Christian faith is founded on a myth §Genesis tells us that all of God’s creation took only 6 days and has since stopped §The heavens and the earth are young. Man is young. Summary