It was February and my Boy Scout troop was camping in a cabin beside a little creek in Virginia. Myself and two fathers of several scouts in my troop were inside the cabin getting the fire started, both fathers engrossed in conversation with one another. I wasn’t paying any attention until one of the dads began talking about a rock he had that was dated to be millions and millions of years old. Now, I want you to envision two fathers having a serious conversation, nearly oblivious to the fact that a third person was in the room; well...until now. The date that reverberated in my ears was so ridiculously huge that it literally caused me to laugh!Okay, so that probably wasn’t the best response, but I couldn’t help it. Stone silence had fallen over that tiny cabin as I turned around to see these two dads staring at me both with surprised expressions. I looked at the dad straight in the eyes and repeated with a questioning tone the date his lips had uttered just seconds ago. He looked at me with a grin and said, “Yeah!” Sounding surprised that I would dare question his immense wisdom. From this point on I engaged in my longest debate defending the Biblical account of Creation, I would guess an hour. However, I’ll say upfront, without the Holy Spirit’s indwelling presence, I could not have given half the defense I gave, but the words of 1 Peter 3:15 rang in my ears, “But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to anyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you with meekness and fear.”
It would have been VERY easy to stand by and listen to these two fathers go on about the age of this rock and just stand in the corner without opening my mouth, but the Lord had given me an opportunity to defend the faith, young though I was and am; I had to accept the challenge. The father I was debating with the most (we’ll call him Bob) is a Catholic and therefore already believes in doctrines that differ with mine as a Baptist. We debated over fossils, dating methods, when dinosaurs lived, and I did my utmost to defend the literal account of creation. However, at one point the age old defense was thrown at me when we were debating how long it took God to create the world: “But the Bible says that, ‘a day is like a thousand years and a thousand years is like a day.’”
Unfortunately, I did not respond as well to this blow as I could have. But, upon studying this passage it is interesting to note that if you read the preceding and following verses, placing the passage fully into its context, you’ll discover that Peter is speaking of God keeping His promise to come back for his church. Part of this is seen in verse 9, “The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” And although someone could claim that this verse can just as easily be applied to Creation, it only proves that these people are careless. Their philosophy is that, “As long as I can arrange the Bible so it works for me it is okay.” However, if you hold to this view, who’s to say Christ wasn’t in the tomb for 3,000 years! Of course we know that can’t be or He’d still be there! Not to mention the fact that the Bible proclaims Christ arose on the third day and out of the 410 times the word day is used with a number in Scripture it means a literal 24 hour day. Do you see the inconsistency of saying a day means a normal 24 hour day in most cases in Scripture, except when we are speaking about creation? If you don’t, then here’s a question for you: if you reject the literal account of creation as recorded in Genesis, then how do you know the rest of the Bible is true? Come on, use your logic. How can we trust a God who sent us the Savior of the world when he lied about science? If He lied about science, might He not also have lied about the incarnate Jesus Christ, the second person of the Trinity?
Some may accuse me of limiting God by insisting that He could not have even used evolution in Creation, much less allowed chance and random evolutionary processes to give rise to life. However, just as with the immutability of God, I’m not limiting God; I am attempting to describe Him as He has revealed Himself in His word. Why would a God of order allow such chaos to give rise to life? That is contrary to His nature. Furthermore, we have a day by day synopsis of the Creation of the world! Ya’ll, evolutionists don’t even have a record of their supposed theory! Even the fact that evolutionists insist that their theory is correct is evidence for creation. Argue with an evolutionist and you’ll note that they use logic when arguing. However, the very fact that they use logic is evidence for creation. I could go on, but I see some of you scratching your head :)
Believe it or not, the evolutionist borrows from the Biblical worldview when he argues for evolution. For instance, without the Bible we would have no basis for the laws of logic. That didn’t help the itch on your head did it ;) Maybe this will:
“Since the God of Scripture is immaterial, sovereign, and beyond time, it makes sense to have laws of logic that are immaterial, universal, and unchanging. Since God has revealed Himself to man, we are able to know and use logic. Since God made the universe, and since God made our minds, it makes sense that our minds would have an ability to study and understand the universe. But if the universe and our minds are simply the results of time and chance as the evolutionists contends, why would we expect that the mind could make sense of the universe? How could science and technology be possible?”
You see? The evolutionist cannot even defend his own worldview without borrowing from the Christian worldview because his worldview can’t even support his own worldview.
Now, I know some of you are wondering where that “mysterious” quote above came from. As it turns out, that’s what this whole post is all about! I know that was a long introduction, but I’d like to recommend to you a book I picked up at the SOS Conference that I am thoroughly enjoying entitled, The Ultimate Proof of Creation, by Dr. Jason Lisle, yet another stellar product from Answers in Genesis! And what an appropriate name it is, for it truly is The Ultimate Proof of Creation. I’m convinced that if one applies the truths of this book when debating with an evolutionist he’ll at least leave perplexed!
If you want to be able to give a reasoned defense of not just creation, but of the entire Bible, then please buy this book; you won’t be wasting your money or your time. More than anything else this is an apologetics book designed to help us as believers give answers to critical questions that challenge our faith. I believe in our day (and, no, that’s not a literal 24 hour day ;-) the largest battle facing Christians is the battle for the authority of the Word of God, and there’s no place where this battle is being waged more than the very beginning; the first verse. This is a battle Christians must engage in, but we can’t engage in a battle we are not prepared to fight. Thus, I encourage you to pick up this book and begin sharpening your sword! The battle we are engaged in is major and the enemy is ruthless; we must be ready to stand fast on the authority and sufficiency of God’s Word.
What about the debate I told you of at the beginning? Well, although I was not successful in convincing Bob of my position, I learned a lot from it: 1) We must constantly be watching for opportunities God presents us with to defend our faith, or we’ll miss a remarkable experience. 2) We must always be ready to give a defense of the faith. 3) Whether we win or lose, with every defense of the faith comes a learning experience.
As Christians, if we’re going to be ready to provide answers to those who question us about our faith in Christ, we must be applying time to study; if we don’t then we’re just as useless as an unloaded gun. The book above is one such tool to help you study the profound Word of God.
In Christ,
Josh
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