Willingly Ignorant

For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the Word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water: whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished.

II Peter 3:5 - 6

This week I attended an Answers in Genesis conference with my grandkids. It was a special event for me because I remembered attending this same conference with my children when they were about the same age. What really made the occasion special was knowing that my daughter is providing the Biblical foundation that my grandchildren need to combat the philosophies of this world. Like Ken Ham, I believe that the battle for the minds and beliefs of our children begins with Genesis.

When I started college, I had only been a Christian for a year.  When we began to study evolution in my biology class, I quickly realized that there was a gigantic chasm between what the Bible teaches about our origins and what our science classes teach.  For me, there was no spiritual conflict over this issue.  I believed that God's Word was literal and inerrant; therefore, there had to be error in what my teacher was telling me.

Over the next few years, I read every book (Christian and secular) that I could on the topic of evolution- even Darwin's Origin of the Species. The more that I read, the more certain I became that evolution was fiction.  I learned that evolutionists frequently put forth their own assumptions and assertions as "facts" even when their is little or no actual data to support their theories.  For example, a tooth or a portion of a skull is "reconstructed" into a new "species" of early man. 

Now, decades later (with a Master's degree in Archaeology) I know that what passes for science today is 10% facts and 90% supposition.  Whether its evolutionary biology, theoretical physics, or geology, what we actually know for sure is just a drop in the bucket compared to what we do not know.  If you think that I am exaggerating, ask yourself why our science books have to be updated every 5 to 10 years.  It isn't because we are adding that much new knowledge, but that we are changing our suppositions regarding those few facts that we know.

God's Word is different. It is immutable and inerrant. It doesn't have to be updated or revised because it is infallible.  In all my years of researching the origin of man, I have never found one single fact that calls into question the credibility and accuracy of the Scriptures.  The scientific evidence of a young earth, created in six days, is overwhelming.

However, my faith isn't built upon the science of creationism.  My faith is founded in the Word of God.  Ultimately that is where we all stand or fall as Christians.  Do we put our faith in the word of man or do we put our faith in the Word of God? That is the foundational choice that determines the course of our own personal walk.  We can choose to try to avoid making the choice or we can try to waffle on the decision by trying to put together some hybrid mix of faith and science; but by doing that we are actually choosing to mitigate the truth of God's Word.

Walking by faith cannot be a half-hearted action.  If we are not 100% certain of the reliability of God's Word, then Satan will slowly and surely chip away at us until our faith collapses like a house of cards. If you haven't given this issue much thought, maybe it is time that you did.  If you've been on the fence about creationism, trying to live with one foot in the world and the other with God, then maybe its time that you asked yourself this question: How is that working for you?