“Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ.” – Colossians 2:8 NKJV
Relevance of Genesis
Much of the church does not have the answers to the skeptical questions of the day that are constantly voiced by the culture. Many do not have the discernment to sift through the secular indoctrination that bombards the Church. Others do not have an intelligent understanding of the times and therefore knowledge of what must be done. Instead of countering culture by upholding the authority of the Word of God, many have adopted the pagan religion of the day by embracing evolutionary philosophy with its millions of years of earth history and an even older universe.
There are many who say that the creation/evolution debate is a peripheral issue that Christians should not be overly concerned with. Even though one can be saved and believe in evolution and millions of years, it is still a matter of critical concern. Compromise in the book of Genesis affects how the next generation views the authority of Scripture. Departure from Scripture’s authority leads to rejecting the relevance of the Church and the entire Christian faith.
The importance of the book of Genesis cannot be minimized because it is the foundation to all Christian doctrine. G. Richard Bozarth, an atheist, seems to understand the Christian faith better than most Christians,
“The day will come when the evidence constantly accumulating around the evolutionary theory becomes so massively persuasive that even the last and most fundamental Christian warriors will have to lay down their arms and surrender unconditionally. I believe that will be the end of Christianity…It becomes clear now that the whole justification of Jesus’ life and death is predicated on the existence of Adam and the forbidden fruit he and Eve ate. Without the original sin, who needs to be redeemed? Without Adam’s fall into a life of constant sin terminated by death, what purpose is there to Christianity? None…Christianity has fought, still fights, and will fight science to the desperate end over evolution, because evolution destroys utterly and finally the very reason Jesus’ earthly life was supposedly made necessary. Destroy Adam and Eve and the original sin, and in the rubble you will find the sorry remains of the Son of God. Take away the meaning of his death. If Jesus was not the redeemer that died for our sins, and this is what evolution means, then Christianity is nothing.”[2]
Comprehensive Nature of the Biblical Worldview. Despite the foundational importance of the book of Genesis to all Christian doctrine, much of the Church has failed to teach a comprehensive Biblical worldview. Matters of biology, geology, and sociology have been left up to the educational system. The majority of young people from church homes attend public school where they are taught the evolutionary view of biology, geology, and sociology. When students come seeking answers to their questions, they often do not find them or are instructed by a spiritual authority figure that it is permissible to believe what they are taught at school. Eventually, students see what they are taught at school as being based in reality while things at church are just stories or legends.
The Church is no longer impacting the culture as effectively as it did in the past because it has abdicated its responsibility to teach a comprehensive Biblical worldview by upholding the Biblical history of the universe in contrast to the evolutionary history of origins. The Church gave up its Biblical mandate and left this responsibility to an educational system that is in complete conflict with Biblical Christianity. Subsequently, the Church has disconnected its teachings from real life by neglecting apologetics and worldview development and has primarily taught the moral and spiritual aspects of the Christian faith. Unfortunately, many people view the Bible as a book full of mythical stories and fairy tales disconnected from reality.
Education is Not Neutral. The public education system in America systematically trains students in the religion of naturalism. This is a comprehensive philosophy of life that teaches that everything can be explained apart from the supernatural and therefore without God. The Holy Scriptures teach that you are either for Christ or against Christ as there is no neutral ground.[3] If schools do not teach children the Word of God and a Biblical worldview for all of life, then they are actually educating them in the pagan beliefs of naturalism and therefore against Christ.
Most schools openly and actively teach their students an evolutionary history of the universe as opposed to a Biblical history of the universe. Generations of people have been and are being indoctrinated into a belief system that is thoroughly secular, anti-God, anti-Bible, and anti-Christian. The moral degradation prevailing in the culture should not be surprising. The issue is not science versus religion but the opposing belief systems of naturalism and supernaturalism. All scientists possess the same observable, testable, and repeatable data existing in the present. The real issue is the interpretation of the evidence which is contingent upon the scientist’s starting point. Evolutionary scientists have an a priori commitment to materialism which prohibits a Divine foot being allowed in the door. Harvard geneticist, Richard Lewontin shockingly stated himself that,
“Our willingness to accept scientific claims that are against common sense is the key to an understanding of the real struggle between science and the supernatural. We take the side of science in spite of the patent absurdity of some of its constructs, in spite of its failure to fulfill many of its extravagant promises of health and life, in spite of the tolerance of the scientific community for unsubstantiated just-so stories, because we have a prior commitment, a commitment to materialism. It is not that the methods and institutions of science somehow compel us to accept a material explanation of the phenomenal world, but, on the contrary, that we are forced by our a priori adherence to material causes to create an apparatus of investigation and a set of concepts that produce material explanations, no matter how mystifying to the uninitiated. Moreover, that materialism is absolute, for we cannot allow a Divine Foot in the door.”[4]
Starting Points. The evolutionary presuppositional belief about the past determines the interpretation of all scientific data that is observable in the present. On the other hand, creation scientists have an a priori commitment to supernaturalism. This presupposition believes that the history recorded in the Bible is the true history of the universe and therefore this determines the interpretation of the observable scientific data in the present.
The real issue is which starting point is more reasonable, credible, and consistent with the facts. The opinions of fallible, finite, and sinful men constantly change. Man does not know everything and did not observe the laying of the foundations of the earth. On the other hand, God is immutable, omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent, and observed the laying of the foundations of the earth. Therefore, it can be concluded, that the Word of God should be the starting point for all scientific disciplines.
Recommended Resources:
“Divided Nation: Cultures in Chaos & a Conflicted Church” by Ken Ham
“The Ever-Loving Truth: Can Faith Thrive in a Post-Christian Culture?” & “Family Driven Faith: Doing What It Takes to Raise Sons and Daughters Who Walk With God” by Voddie T. Baucham, Jr.
“The Gathering Storm: Secularism, Culture, and the Church” by R. Albert Mohler, Jr.
“The Eclipse of God: Our Nation’s Disastrous Search for a More Inclusive Deity (And What We Must Do About It)” by Erwin W. Lutzer
[2] G. Richard Bozarth, “The Meaning of Evolution,” American Atheist, p.30, September 20,1979.
[3] See Matthew 12:30
[4] Richard Lewontin, “Billions & Billions of Demons,” The New York Review of Books, p.31, January 9, 1997.
