Wednesday 28 December 2011

Why People Deny Creation

These are my thoughts on why people deny creation; I may not have all the reasons and I may be speculating. The thing is, I've never doubted creation as it's laid out in Genesis 1-2. I think the Bible is amazingly clear: God made everything from nothing by speaking it all into being. I don't see how you can read the Bible, accepting it as God's inspired word, and deny creation.

Oh... and I'm talking about professing Christians here; nonchristians deny creation because they are in active rebellion against the Creator.

First: They haven't been taught properly. They've been around people and in churches that teach alternative views of Genesis 1-2, and they've simply accepted what they've been told. They have also likely never been taught to read the Bible and think about what it really says. Either they are expected to accept what they are taught, they think that the Bible may be too hard to understand, or they are lazy.

Side note: I know that I am extremely blessed to be in a church family where reading the Bible regularly and thinking critically and making sure the teachers/pastors are teaching/preaching truth and asking questions or raising concerns if what they say does not seem to match Scripture are all encouraged. I send my Sunday School students home with orders (usually ignored) to read certain passages to make sure what I am teaching is truth. It's a very, very important part of their learning because one day they will run into people who claim things as Biblical that are not in the Bible.

Okay, second reason: They want to gain the respect of the scientific community, maybe with the intention of "finding common ground" to "start a conversation" and preach the gospel, so they start to compromise (maybe a day isn't a day....) and then it all goes downhill from there. Guess what? A day is a day...and there is nothing in Genesis 1-2 to say otherwise. Besides that, compromising to win the approval of the world is wrong and will never, never, never cause anyone to listen to the gospel. Read Acts; they opposed all sorts of beliefs with no compromise and God saved people. Got that? Compromise does not save people; God saves people.

Finally: No creation = no Adam and Eve = no fall = no original sin = I'm a pretty good person, really, with just a few flaws. I don't think anyone would state that as a reason, but I think it's there. I think that denying creation leads to a better view of ourselves than we should have, and I think it might be a reason, however subconscious, for the willingness to deny what is so clearly stated in the Bible. This way, they can feel good about themselves, and believe that they aren't so bad, and brush off any guilt, and go through life believing that God loves them just the way they are and sin isn't a big deal. And Jesus died just to show us how much He loves us (not to save us from eternal wrath and punishment which we deserve and can do nothing about because we are dead in our trespasses and sins), and He loves everyone because we're all good people (except maybe Hitler and Stalin and the like). It's a nice story...too bad it isn't true. And believing it undermines the cross, makes Christ's sacrifice and God's justice a sham, calls God a liar, and leaves people feeling happy and guilt free on their way to hell.

People... creation matters. Truth matters. And denying what is clearly stated in the Bible won't change the truth.

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