Welcome to Science, Scripture, and Salvation, a radio ministry of the Institute for Creation Research. In this program, we want to encourage you in your Christian faith by showing how scientific evidence supports the Bible, particularly the Genesis account. The book of Genesis lays the foundation for all matters addressed in the rest of the Bible. The nature of God, His sovereignty in creation, man's purpose, sin, marriage, family, and why we need a Savior are all introduced and explained in Genesis. When we see that the first and most foundational book of the Bible can be trusted in all matters, including science, it builds confidence in the rest of the inspired word all the way to Revelation.
On today's show, we'll be joined by Brian Thomas, science writer with the Institute for Creation Research. Here's Brian Thomas. Do billions of years fit with Genesis? Many Christians think that if they could somehow find room in the scriptures for billions of years, then the conflict between genesis and evolution would be solved. They might not admit it, but sometimes they desire an easy way out so they don't have to investigate the sciences.
and the scriptures involved. And I'm here to say it can be taxing, but it's also fascinating and rewarding work. By sharing my own story, I hope to inspire brave new inquiries into the deeply ingrained beliefs. about the history of our world. and I remember as a fully indoctrinated evolutionist, as a biology student and yet a follower of Christ.
I experienced several phases in my journey to find the answer to the dinosaur time puzzle. This conflict between billions of years that my prophets were teaching me and the thousands of years that the scripture seemed to support. I later learned that this was more a question about whose word to trust about the past than about science, 'cause science deals with repeatable, that which you can re examine and witness first hand. It's not really a good tool to use for history. But I wanted answers and I wanted the truth.
Did dinosaurs really die sixty five million years ago as I had been told almost since I could speak? If true, what was I supposed to do with Genesis and its thousands of years?
So, I can identify with those who look for ways to merge scripture with millions of years because I tried it too. And here's what I found. I remember a conversation about origins with a friend. I was looking for answers at the time, and he boldly told me his solution. He wagged his finger in emphasis.
I remember we were driving down in his pick up truck. And he said 2 Peter three eight it says With the Lord A day is as a thousand years. And he stopped right there. He said that this meant that each of the creation days took a thousand years. and thus who knows how many other apparently literal days went unmentioned in the creation account.
At first it sounded like a possible fix. But the more I thought about it, it just really crumbled. For example, I read the rest of Second Peter 3.8, and it says, And a thousand years as one day.
So, using my friend's logic, shouldn't that mean that a thousand years in Genesis only took one day? That would totally wreck the stretching effect that he tried to make out of Genesis. Also, denying that creation days were ordinary 24-hour days makes mincemeat out of the fourth commandment because it has Exodus 20, verse 11 embedded in it. For in six days the Lord made the heavens, the earth, and all that's in it. On the seventh day He rested, and that's why you should take a Sabbath day.
Well, we don't rest for a thousand years, right? We just rest for one day a week.
So the creation days form the very basis of our work week that God Himself wrote onto Moses' stone tablets.
So I examined Genesis 1 again. Finding that its author could not have been any more explicit in his definition of day. As the interval incorporating morning and evening. And merely all you need is a rotating earth near a light source, and you can have that.
So the sun has served as that light source since day four. Maybe God's own glory served as the light source during the first three days, but that's all you need is a rotating earth and a light source. And you have days.
Well, next I consider the possibility of an eons-long gap between Genesis 1, verse 1, and verse 2. And that gap I thought maybe that's where I can stick the age of reptiles. that I grew up believing.
So I held this view for quite a while. It allowed rocks to form at the evolutionary rates I expected. long and slow and gradual, and it allowed dinosaurs to fossilize at the evolutionary times I had learned from natural history museums that I'd been going to since I was a little kid, and T V shows and documentaries and everything else. In this view, the Bible's timeline picks up where evolutionary time leaves off. Several problems started to dog my theory of a giant time gap before day one.
For example, in Genesis and later scriptures that refer back to Genesis. Why did the biblical authors so thoroughly avoid terms that even hint at the vast time that dominates evolutionary cosmic history? If Genesis 1 includes a massive time gap, then why did Jesus quote Genesis 1 as though it is real history? In Mark 10, 6, he said, but from the beginning of the creation, God, quote, made them male and female. He's quoting Genesis 1 right there.
Instead of saying something like, but billions of years after the Big Bang beginning, God made them male and female. I mean, Jesus was God. He wasn't wrong. He knows everything. He knows history.
And he said it like it is. And there's no mention or hint anywhere in scripture, including Jesus' own words, of any kind of vast time. It's just from the beginning, right there, creation week, we've got Adam and Eve right there in the beginning of all things, recorded in Genesis 1.
So Jesus treated it as history.
So when Isaiah, Jeremiah, Jesus, and Paul presented creation, they always did it according to literal Genesis account. And that started to dog my theory of gap theory, Genesis 1:1. And so. My journey's not complete. Come back and I'll tell you how I finished it up.
It's time for a short break. Stay with us. Dinosaurs are fascinating creatures. Seeing their fossils inspires a sense of awe and wonder that sparks the imagination. We're learning more about them all the time, but many questions still remain: Are dinosaurs really millions of years old?
Did they live at the same time as humans? How do they fit with the Bible? And why are they extinct today? The Institute for Creation Research addresses these questions and more in their full color and easy-to-read book, Guide to Dinosaurs. Guide to Dinosaurs delves into the history of dinosaurs, fossil discoveries, dinosaur kinds, and what the Bible has to say about these mysterious creatures.
It serves as a helpful resource for parents and kids alike. Order your copy of Guide to Dinosaurs from the Institute for Creation Research by calling 800-628-7640 or visiting icr.org. That's 800-628-70070700700. or visiting ICR.org. Welcome back to Science, Scripture, and Salvation, a radio ministry of the Institute for Creation Research.
Here's Brian Thomas. The first verses of the Bible, as well as the entire first chapter of Genesis, sound like a plainly spoken narrative. of step-by-step events with no hint of a gap.
So I was thinking maybe I could squeeze billions of years in between verses 1 and 2, but it just didn't make sense of the text. We link events and narratives like this all the time. Like, I could say, I prepared for a day of work. was hungry, I filled a bowl with cereal, I stayed in the kitchen until I finished breakfast.
Now that's me relaying what happened this morning. But did I really mean I prepared for a day of work? Then a million years passed.
So then I felt hungry. Then I filled a bowl with cereal. After thinking through the possibilities, it became apparent to me that the motivations for inserting a gigantic time gap in Genesis always came from outside the Bible. It came from the words of people who were not there. It comes from secular scientists who have a bias against the Bible.
That's really the originating source of billions of years. And I began to read Genesis 1 over and over, and I realized they're just telling you how it is. They just said, In the beginning. God created the heavens and the earth. And then here's how he did it.
It's like a thesis sentence, then it lays out what he did on days one, two, three, four, five, and six, resting on the seventh day. Behold, it was all very good. And it's very straightforward. Even a little child can read it and understand what it says.
So, you see, I had to give up the gap theory. But what about this?
So, next, I consider the idea that God used evolution to create all things. Pulsars, planets, protozoa, and pine trees, even dinosaurs like Parasaurolophus. and people over billions of years.
So if we ignore the days defined by morning and evening in Genesis I, maybe the creation account actually mirrors a long evolutionary history. Perhaps God created dinosaurs not on a literal day six, but just some long time after He allowed stars and trees to evolve.
So a lot of Christians believe this still, and so I went through a period where I examined this possibility. Really, it shouldn't take long for an honest inquiry to clearly show that evolution and genesis Cannot be spliced together without making liberal use of a big pair of scissors to slice and dice the creation account. You just don't merge these without the text of the Bible losing the main impact of what it's trying to say. And then, if we do that, if we take scissors, chop out certain verses from Genesis 1. The question then becomes where and when and why do we stop using those scissors?
And that's where liberal theologians, frankly, that's I think where some of them have gone. They've said, well, we're going to make this text mean what we think it means instead of just letting it tell us what God said about the past and about the present. And then they say, about the future. We'll cut that out too. But I digress.
Some of the same arguments that argued against the day-age theory that I had once entertained, where a day is as a thousand years.
Some of the same arguments that applied and argued against the gap theory, where you've got some billions of years in between Genesis 1.1 and 1.2, they also apply to this progressive creation account, where the days of creation somehow correspond to billions of years. I finally had enough. Of these Genesis compromises, when I learned that they all undermine the works of Christ on the cross, they undermine it. These works of Christ on the cross had set me free from sin and selfishness when I repented of my wrongs and trusted Christ as my Savior.
So I knew that was real. I knew Jesus was really true, and He was the way and the life. He was my Savior. And when I discovered that these Genesis compromises All undermine the truth of the gospel, then I realized: okay, I can safely abandon these attempts to squeeze billions of ears into the scripture. According to scripture, death invaded the world.
as a result of sin.
So the whole reason the Lord Jesus died was to pay our sin earned death penalty.
So this penalty It marred every aspect of a once very good creation, or even dinosaurs ate vegetable matter and not animal flesh. originally, and it didn't take long for sin to ruin that. The Genesis compromises, that is, these attempts to squeeze billions of years into the text. They erase the reason for Jesus' ministry and sacrifice. But fortunately, good science does not demand billions of years.
Nor does it force doubt on the Bible and the very character of God. For example, we have good science that refutes radioisotope decay that we talked about in the last episode. We have good science that you can look up on icr.org. For example, Proteins still in dinosaur bones. Proteins shouldn't last thousands of years, and they don't.
But there they are inside dinosaur bones. That's a good argument for recent creation. Dozens of other arguments that you can find on our website from science that support scripture. Thank you for joining us on Science, Scripture, and Salvation, a radio ministry of the Institute for Creation Research. That's all the time we have for our program today, but we would love to connect with you through our website at icr.org.
For over 45 years, ICR has equipped believers with evidence of the Bible's accuracy and authority by showing how science supports the Genesis creation account. Our scientists research the evidence for creation and communicate their findings through books, articles, DVD series, and conferences. Please visit our website at icr.org for more information about the latest scientific discoveries, to subscribe to our free magazine and devotional, and to locate our next creation conference at a venue near you. All of this and more at icr.org. If you've enjoyed this podcast, subscribe to Science, Scripture, and Salvation on iTunes.
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