AN ABBREVIATED RESPONSE TO RIDICULE

( Please note this article is entitled an abbreviated response because of the endless number of questions those who ridicule Christianity usually will eventually ask. Responding to the first question, at least chronologically is a start, but since I am not claiming to be God and have all the answers, I usually like to ask the one ridiculing some questions about their beliefs and explanation before being buried under what they think is enough questions to make them right)

Time has gone by since my facebook friend, Chance Waller, ridiculed me and anyone who believes what he called the myth of Christianity. I didn’t want to mix the importance of discovering Who Jesus is with discovering what political ideology you identify with, so I have waited to respond to Chance’s attack. Your relationship to Christ is far more important than any of our opinions about temporal things and how to, or not to manage or govern society. It is my assertion here that if you disagree with my opinions on politics, you are far more likely to be right and you will be far less negatively affected, than if you do not live in a lifelong pursuit of following the One Who says He is the Son of God. 

For those political activists who suspect some kind of conspiracy is going on and for those who think they have already heard all about Christ and they think it is silly nonsense …. I would have agreed with you whole heartedly on both at one time in my life. But now it is easy for me to see all of the noise and all of the opinions and, sometimes even Christians, kept me from really seeing the Truth. I thought I had checked what I thought was pure total nonsense out, but I now realize I was prepared to reject Christ and, if not for Him (not me) I would have.  

Please read what some of you have read before no doubt – an explanation of just one of the “discrepancies” I would use to aggressively deny Christ when I did not believe. I would say, “You Christians live in LollaLand, You are in denial. It is obvious look at your ignorance about our planet…….” 

Oh, here we go again Chance….. Christians are not very smart because they can not explain every detail of creation. Well first of all who can? I would enjoy hearing Chance’s version of “in the beginning”, but what I find with people who ridicule Bible believing Christians is they simply refer you to their preferred reading. The whole idea of creation is so far beyond the brightest minds that they and their reading audience should realize they are talking above their pay grade. Every explanation could be said to sound mythical. 

I can tell you this, the idea that Christians must be crazy to believe the Bible because right from the start it makes conclusions that are proven wrong by science…… well that is just plain wrong.

 

But, what does the Bible really say about the age of the earth? In any case, there is no explicit verse, that relates the time of creation of the earth with any event in later books of the Bible. But implicitly: if we believe that the Bible is true from Genesis to Revelation, can we be sure that the earth near 6000 years old? This depends on how one would read and interpret verses from the Bible.

You decide. Your decision will not change what the truth is, but it may change who you are. Read the first two verses of the first book of the Bible. The first verse of Genesis already tells us that God created the heaven and the earth. Now, many people read this as a kind of summary of the remainder of Genesis 1. However, one can also read this as follows:

1) First, God creates heaven and earth.

2) Then, something happens. The text does not tell us what happens.

      3) After this has happened, the earth is without form - chaos, darkness.

4) Then, the text tells us that the Spirit of God visits this chaos, and how God turns the chaos in something good.

The seven days of creation are the first creation or are they a later creation? I think that God does not create chaos: if He creates something, it is good. So, after the first creation of heaven and earth, something has happened that made that the earth was no longer as God meant it to be. This may - but that is only speculation - have been the downfall of the devil/Satan and the angels that were cast from heaven with him. Or it may have been the meteorite impact that scientist conjecture that has taken place. Or, it may have been both of these. Or something else. In any case: something has happened that turned Gods first good creation into something chaotic, but we are not told in the text what it exactly was. Then, Genesis tells that God made the chaos into the world of which God saw that it was good.

With this interpretation of Genesis 1: 1-2, one cannot tell from the Bible how old the earth is. This is not a problem, as the Bible is no science book, but a book of faith.

The interpretation given may or may not be correct. It depends on the interpretation of the Bible on what it tells about the age of the earth. And hence, accepting the scientific theory that the earth is a few billion years old does not mean that you believe something that is in contradiction with the Bible. This Holy Masterpeice was written thousands of years ago and no book back in that day could line up with science better than scripture. Its doubters that are scientists may disagree, but the scientists that are believers are amazed by the Bible. 

Christianity shows us that there is a God that created the world, and us. God can make something good from chaos - and that is true, both for the world and its creatures, but also, he can make something good from our life when it is in darkness and chaos.

There is a misconception that science shows that God does not exist: science does not show that, and also, what science can show, is not in contradiction with the Bible. The misconception is harmfull, as it may prevent people from finding God as their father, helper, and redeemer.

The Bible does not tell us much about how old the earth is. Instead, the Bible tells us many other things - about the love of God for us, his plan for our lives, prayer, redemption, and much more. Instead of trying to convince people about one interpretation around some scientific fact that does not need to influence our lives, Christians should tell others about Biblical Truths like the salvation we can have through Jesus.

No King, but Jesus