Evolution / Creation

TNG Radio, where today's culture and timeless truths come together. It's reasoned relevant content apologetics, worldview, and answers to the questions that you need to know. From Alex McFarland Ministries, this is Truth for a New Generation Radio.

And now the man who preached in 50 states in 50 days, speaker, writer, and advocate for Christian apologetics, Dr. Alex McFarland. How old is the earth? How did the earth get here?

How was the universe created and was there a creator or did we all evolve just spontaneously, randomly, something coming from nothing? Hi, Alex McFarland here, Truth for a New Generation Radio. And we're talking today about some questions that for some people are problematic, especially as it relates to believing the Bible and accepting Christianity.

I was just speaking in a youth event this past week and a mother came up and she was a chaperone for a number of teenagers at the particular event. And she said that her son had once professed Christianity but now rejected it because, quote, everybody knows the world is billions of years old, end of quote. It was my privilege just last week to interview my friend and brother Ken Ham who famously has led Answers in Genesis and created the Ark Encounter, which, by the way, I would recommend that everybody go to visit. Even if you're not a Christian, even if you don't believe in creation, even if you are not a young earth biblical age creationist, maybe you believe in the millions of years, listen, you need to go see the ark in northern Kentucky. It just simply is amazing.

It's like the eighth wonder of the world, really, built to scale. I interviewed Ken on the radio last week and Ken was talking about how evolution had dissuaded so many people from believing Christianity. Darwinian Evolution, 1859, Darwin published On the Origin of Species and since then so many people have turned away from belief in God and creation.

Let me read you a quote here and I do want to talk about the age of the earth. There was a very famous chemist in Richard Kerwin. He lived 1733 to 1812 and he was a chemist in the 18th and 19th centuries and very renowned, not perfect. He had some beliefs that were a little bit reflective of his times, but all in all a good scientist and a believer in God and creation. Richard Kerwin had said, quote, how fatal the suspicion of the high antiquity of the globe has been to the credit of mosaic history and consequently to religion and morality. Kerwin says, how fatal the suspicion of the high antiquity of the globe. The high antiquity, quote unquote, the belief that the earth is millions of years old. To quote the mosaic history, what is that? The first five books of the Bible. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, the Pentateuch and especially Genesis 1 and 2. Now Bishop James Usher, who in 1658, he was an Irish Archbishop of a town called Armagh, and Usher added up the biblical chronologies and believed that creation began in 4004 BC.

And there were others that came up with similar numbers. But how fatal the belief in the old age of the universe has been to mosaic history, and I would agree, said Kerwin, and consequently to religion and morality. Because look, here are the implication of the Darwinian theory. If there is no God in our past, there's no judge in our future. If God was not part of our creation, God will not be part of our eschatology, the end times. And if there is not a literal creator, and God the foundation of morality, then there really is no transcendent purpose to life.

One of the biggest obstacles to belief in Christianity, belief in God in general, certainly trust in the Bible, has been Darwinian evolution. And the philosophy that really goes along with it, which we would call methodological naturalism. Now a methodology is the way that you look at the world, and whether you know it or not, you have a methodology for looking at life. Maybe the methodology that you approach life through is the lens of scripture, God's word. And I hope it would be a biblical worldview. Knowing that we are accountable to God and that we are stewards, that's a biblical worldview. Knowing that Christ is the Son of God who died for our sins, and we must turn from sin to faith in Christ and be born again.

As Jesus said, unless we're born again, we can't go to heaven when we die. So I would hope that what you have is a biblical worldview. But a naturalistic worldview, or an empiricist worldview, says, look, this physical world is all there is. There's no God beyond it, there's no transcendent purpose, and this world is all there is.

Now methodological naturalism is really where much of academia is in America and the West. That there is no God, your beliefs about values, right and wrong, true-false, are really just your own personal opinions. And because there is no God and there is no Creator, we only evolved, right and wrong is fluid and changing.

And right and wrong is more subjective than objective, the naturalist would say. Now one of the key presuppositions of naturalism, Darwinian evolution, is that the earth is billions of years old. The dinosaurs died 65 million years ago. How surprising in the news this week that there is a dinosaur skull being discussed in the news with some soft tissue in it.

Moist marrow, cell walls, and DNA. This is amazing because a fossilized dinosaur skull, presumptively dead for millions of years, should not still have soft tissue. And yet there have been human remains and animal remains that have soft tissue and recoverable DNA.

What does that mean? It really points to a young earth and more the biblical model of creation, and the implications for this are huge. Now stay tuned, when we come back we're going to continue talking about the age of the earth, the reality of a Creator.

And the question, the bigger question, has science disproven God? Stay tuned. Truth for New Generation Radio is back after this. From I Am a Watchman Ministries, here's today's I Am a Watchman Minute. God spoke these words through Jeremiah. Israel, can I not do to you as the potter has done to his clay? As the clay is in the potter's hand, so you are in my hand. Is that the mindset you have in Christ?

Do you see yourself as clay or as the potter? Do you allow yourself to be stretched, molded into something the master desires, or do you resist? Watchman, do you know that you have been called, chosen, and shaped by the master for such a time as this? Do you hear the master's call to be vigilant in these last days?

Are you, as Scripture commands, waiting and watching and warning and witnessing until he comes? A watchman's calling is holy and awesome. Visit IAmAWatchman.com for free resources that will help you in this calling. Be bold. Be faithful. Be a watchman.

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Alex McFarland here for info on all that we're doing, my travel schedule, it's alexmcfarland.com. We're talking about creation and I think it's just human nature to want to know how things work and where things came from, the origin of things. I just saw a show about the Emmys, the television awards, and the trophy they give out, the Emmy award, is related to the image tubes, the orthicon image tubes that were in early televisions and television cameras.

And the image tubes gave rise to the name Emmys. And interesting to know the origin of that. Well, it's even more interesting to know the origin of the universe, the origin of our world, the purpose of life, and even the origins of some of the belief systems that have clouded people's understanding of God. Let me say in the 19th century there were many, many attempts to talk about the age of the earth, because Darwinian evolution that presupposes things just evolved, we don't see it happening, it's not observable.

In fact, the creation event is not a repeatable, observable phenomenon. As my friend Ken Ham says, we need to trust what God says about creation because he was the only eyewitness to it. And so God who cannot lie, what God says about creation is by definition true, because God can't lie. But in the 19th century, because Darwinian evolution is not seen to be happening, it's a presupposition inferred and imposed really upon the evidence.

A big part of the worldview of Darwinism is uniformitarianism that we're going to talk about in a minute, courtesy of a man named James Hutton. But let me say this about belief about the age of the earth. You know, Hinduism, Hindu sages from time past have theorized that the earth is nearly two billion years old.

And they've said that for a long time. Plato and Aristotle, the Greek philosophers, really believed in an eternal universe. And for a time, some evolutionists believed in an eternal universe as well.

Of course, Darwin's theory of general relativity in 1917, and equations following proved the universe had a beginning. But in the Christian world, time is not infinitely past. The universe is not millions of years old. There was a bishop of Antioch around 169. Theophilus, the bishop of Antioch, lived 183 to 185 AD. And he postulated that the world was 5600 years old. He added up biblical chronologies. Now, if that were correct, 2000 years later, Theophilus's dating of the earth, the bishop of Antioch, would make the earth about 7600 years old.

I mean, that in itself would be considered as a young earth. But for Christianity, history is linear. There was creation. There was the call of Abraham. History is moving along, and there will ultimately be a last judgment. We're in a time period of history right now called the Church Age. And Christ rose, and the Spirit came, and the Church was birthed, and Peter preached at Pentecost. And here we are. We are the current link in a long chain, serving Christ, proclaiming the good news of the Gospel until Christ returns. And throughout every generation, there have been obstacles to the Gospel, whether it was Roman persecutions or Islamic persecutions, the Muslim invasions of Europe. Now we're in a battle of world views.

We really are. There was, in the 17th century, a chancellor of Cambridge University, John Lightfoot, and he dated the creation at what we would consider a young date. Another colleague around that same time period was James Usher, who said that the earth was created about 4004 BC. Now listen to this book title.

This is a great book title. Lightfoot of Cambridge wrote a book about the origin of the universe and the age of the earth, and the title was this, A Few and New Observations upon the Book of Genesis, the most of them certain, the rest probable, all harmless, strange, and rarely heard before. And in that book, with that rather illustrious title, he came up of about a 4000 BC creation date.

Now let me say this, folks. I believe what the Word of God says about creation and salvation. It really doesn't make any sense, and it's certainly not consistent, to accept what God says about creation but reject what God says about salvation, or vice versa. There have been people throughout history that have tried to really bifurcate what they believe about scripture. Maybe God is right about faith and values, but wrong about science. There was a Jewish scholar in the Middle Ages, Maimonides, who argued against taking the Bible literally on Genesis and creation. He basically said, as many today do, and I think wrongly, you can believe what the Bible says about Jesus and salvation, but not what it says about creation. Baruch Spinoza, who was a Dutch philosopher, basically said the same thing. Spinoza said, quote, the knowledge of nearly everything contained in scripture must be sought only from scripture itself, just as the knowledge of nature is sought from nature itself. In other words, what the Bible says can be one thing, and what nature and the world tells us can be something else.

And do you know what? In the very famous Scopes Monkey trial in 1925 in Dayton, Tennessee, William Jennings Bryan, the Christian, against Clarence Darrow, that was Darrow's position. And it was very condescending and frankly very dangerous. The results of this have not been good for Christian academia, certainly not good for belief in God and creation in the marketplace. Darrow pressed Bryan in the sweltering heat of the un-air-conditioned courtroom and said, well maybe what the Bible says about God and faith is alright, but what it says about science, we have to look to writers like Darwin. Couldn't it be that the Bible is right on faith, but wrong on science? And Bryan, very weary from a week of trial and unrelenting media, said yes, okay.

A week later he died of a heart attack, but many assume Bryan understood he had sort of philosophically thrown Christianity under the bus. Because if we can't trust what God says about creation, then pray tell, why would we trust what God says about eternity? Now when we come back we're going to talk more about the Darwinian philosophy and some of the ripple effect that it has had on the classroom, on the world, maybe even on the heart and soul of people that you care about. Stay tuned, Truth For A New Generation Radio is back after this. Alex has written many books to help you defend your faith. One of them answers questions from skeptics.

It's cleverly titled, Ten Answers for Skeptics. Today's skeptics are looking for authenticity, integrity and straightforward truth. And in the book, Alex McFarland identifies the ten most common types of skepticism that plague doubters' minds and offers believers proven strategies for connecting intellectually and spiritually with those who are skeptical about the claims of Christianity. Learn how to answer intimidating questions, identify the root issue behind those questions and dismantle the spiritual bombshells dropped by atheists.

Plus find encouragement to face hostility by persevering in love. The ultimate apologetic Christians can offer as a witness to our loving God. Check out Ten Answers for Skeptics when you visit alexmcfarland.com. If you're a Christian parent, you of course want to instill a biblical view of life in the hearts of your children. If you're a pastor, you want to offer ministry that draws young families to your church. This is Alex McFarland encouraging you to check out my new book and video curriculum, The 21 Toughest Questions Your Kids Will Ask About Christianity. I interviewed hundreds of children, ages 5 to 12, and we address actual questions from actual children, the spiritual issues that are on the minds of your kids. The book and video lessons are great for groups of any size and was produced with the goal of equipping kids to stand strong for Christ in any situation.

The 21 Toughest Questions Your Kids Will Ask, the book, study guide and video series, you'll find it at AFASTORE.NET. That's AFASTORE.NET. In the midst of a culture obsessed with relativism, Alex McFarland is a voice you can trust to speak the timeless truths of Christianity in a timely way. You're listening to Truth for a New Generation Radio. Welcome back to TNG Radio.

Alex McFarland here. We're going to continue talking about creation, evolution, and really the implications of both views. But I want to tell you about something so exciting. Saturday night, June 6th, and I know that's a little bit of a ways away, but in Orlando, Florida, I will be with James Dobson, the founder of Focus on the Family, Family Talk, best-selling author.

He's an amazingly brilliant, godly man. Dr. James Dobson is going to bring an impassioned message about why this nation needs a revival, and we do. Saturday night, June 6th, at the Holy Land Experience Theater. This is happening in conjunction with the annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention. We want to encourage them to stand strong for the Gospel, stand strong for the authority of God's Word. Also, let me just say this. We need some help. We need some financial support to put all this together, but it's going to be a wonderful night. You can go to my website, alexmcfarland.com.

We're going to be posting information, but please be in prayer, as we are doing what God's called us to do to evangelize the lost and equip the saved. Well, we're talking about creation and evolution. One of the big battles of the 19th century was in 1860. There was a debate between a man named Thomas Huxley. They called him Darwin's Bulldog. He lived 1825 to 1895, and he was a fearless proponent of evolution. Then there was Samuel Wilberforce. Now, Bishop Samuel Wilberforce was a bishop of the Church of England.

He lived 1805 to 1873. He was the third son of William Wilberforce, and he was a defender of God and creation. Huxley made fun of him as many of the evolutionists did. By the way, let me just say, having debated a number of atheists and evolutionists myself, it's so sad to see the pro-Darwinians and the atheists.

They're very often very smug and absolutely self-assured. But I think about when they leave this world and they stand before the God they rejected. They face the Savior they mocked, and not only their own souls hang in the balance, but the souls of those that they led astray. I think of the thousands of young people that I've talked with over the last 25 years plus, many of whom at one time were in youth group or church, but in college became an agnostic because of professors that were so pro-evolution, pro-relativism, pro-gender fluidity, homosexuality, hedonism, and pleasure as the meaning of life.

And I think about the God-rejectors who have their own soul to answer for, but also those that they led astray. But Wilberforce and Huxley were debating June 30th of 1860. They were at the Oxford University's New Museum library, and Bishop Samuel Wilberforce said, there's nothing to the idea of evolution. We've never seen rocks turn into pigeons.

And that's true. And he turned aside to Thomas Huxley and he smiled and he said, tell me, have you come from a monkey on your grandfather's side or on your grandmother's side? And not to be outdone, Huxley got up and said to Wilberforce, he said that, quote, he was not ashamed to claim a monkey for his ancestor, but he would be ashamed to be connected with a man who used his great communication gifts to obscure the truth, end of quote. Well, let me say this, and I've been accused of this also by evolutionists and atheists of misleading people, but when we proclaim what the Word of God says that in the beginning God created. And this creation could not have been millions of years ago, billions of years ago.

The Hindus are wrong. The Darwinists are wrong. When we find fossils with soft tissue indicating a recent death, and we find marine fossils on the mountain tops as we do, as have been found, that does indicate what the Bible says about creation and catastrophism is true. Now there was, in the 19th century, there was a man named James Hutton and he was very influential in the writings of people like Charles Lyell and later Darwin, and he believed in what is called uniformitarianism, that the present is the key to the past. Now Lyell and Hutton believed that the forces that made the earth as we see it were erosion, sedimentation, and volcanic activity.

That's how you understand the world. Volcanoes that erupted, sedimentation that gathered, and erosion. The Grand Canyon eroded, they would say. But yet, when we look at the world, we see evidence of a flood.

There are marine fossils on the mountain tops. There is great evidence that the world was at one time covered in water. And catastrophism is really the key to understanding the topography of the world, not uniformitarianism. But do you know, even Kelvin, who was just one of the great scientists of his day, who was critical of naturalism and evolutionary theory, said, quote, there were overpoweringly strong proofs of intelligent and benevolent design all around us. Intelligent design?

Yes. And benevolent design. Very often we hear tell of the anthropic principle, that the world seems intentionally designed to support life, human life. And so what we're trying to do with Truth for a New Generation is give the other side of the story the evidence, not the presuppositions and philosophy born out of the assumption that something came from nothing. Chaos is the mother of order.

That design came from chaos. And that information, the encryption of the DNA, the complex encrypted data of the DNA could have come about from inanimate non-intelligent sources. That consciousness evolved from out of the primordial soup. Impossible.

No. The world claims that the creation had a creator, design had a designer, the moral law came from a law giver, the laws of nature also from a law giver, and life has purpose. That purpose is found in a relationship with Christ. Everything that scientists discover reveals incredible structure, organization, and purpose.

And you'll find that purpose in a relationship with Jesus Christ. Stay tuned to TNG radio and help us tell the world about not only the creator God, but the savior Jesus. TNG radio is made possible by the friends of Alex McFarland Ministries, P.O. Box 10231, Greensboro, North Carolina 27404. That's P.O. Box 10231, Greensboro, North Carolina 27404. Call us at 877-YES-GOD-1.

That's 877-YES-GOD and the number 1. Or give online at AlexMcFarland.com. While you're there, listen to Program Archives, read Alex's blog, invite Alex to speak at your event, or contact Alex with a question or comment, AlexMcFarland.com. Thanks for listening today and join us again next time as we bring you more truth for a new generation on TNG radio.