Posted on 02/08/2009 3:10:04 PM PST by GodGunsGuts
The universe’s birth certificate
Once you let go of the Bible as history, all Christian doctrine begins to disintegrate. Dr Nigel Leaves, the Warden and Dean of Studies at John Wollaston Anglican Theological College in Perth (Australia), provides a typical example in The God Problem: Alternatives to Fundamentalism.1 He says ‘the major factor in the waning of the Christian faith is its continuing insistence on a supernatural God—the Almighty, the lawgiver and judge.’ He considers four alternatives to ‘fundamentalism’ (i.e. believing in the God of the Bible), saying, ‘Traditional beliefs about God cannot be sustained in the light of the latest scientific and critical thinking.’ And of course the ‘latest scientific thinking’ rests on the foundation of discounting the time scale of Genesis creation.
But the Bible gives us a measured time scale, an eye-witness record, of history, a foundation far more secure than any modern scientific estimate. A measurement wins over an estimate any day!
The earth’s ‘birth certificate’
My birth certificate gives me a measured time scale for my age. It is an eye-witnessed statement that I was born on 28 January 1946, and other eye-witnesses have maintained a record of the earth having circled the sun 61 times since then. Likewise, the Bible gives us a ‘birth certificate’ for the universe—an eye-witness statement that God created it in six ordinary-length days in the time of Adam. The family histories and patriarchal ages in Genesis continue this record. God then confirmed it to Moses and wrote it down with His own finger in stone in the Sabbath Commandment (Exodus 20:11; 31:18; 32:16).
Jesus then confirmed the authenticity of the OT scriptures—in detail and in its entirety2—by correctly predicting his own death and resurrection on their foundation. That is, death entered the world only as the penalty for Adam’s sin at the Fall, and Jesus, the last Adam (1 Corinthians 15 and Romans 5:6–21) took our place and paid that penalty for us, thus restoring us to eternal life. Once the penalty was paid, death no longer had any hold on Him and He rose from the dead. Jesus’ Resurrection authenticates Genesis as real history. The Resurrection of Jesus, an attested fact of history (Acts 17:31)3, is thus our guarantee of the measured biblical time scale for the universe (Luke 24:27,44).
Scientists must assume and infer
No scientist has any alternative or better ‘birth certificate’ for the earth or the universe. All scientific estimates of earth and universe age require a whole lot of assumptions. The key assumption is uniformitarianism, which is atheism disguised as science, because it assumes no miraculous interventions in history.4 Christians have no reason to accept, and every reason to reject, atheistic assumptions about the universe.
Jesus’ Resurrection validates the accuracy of the Bible, especially its history of Creation and Fall. No Bible scholar since Jesus has risen from the dead to validate any alternative point of view. Don’t let anyone steal from you this precious gift that God has given us in the Bible.
Where’s the “Aw Jeeze” guy when you need him.
This creationist stuff is a good part of the reason conservatives keep losing elections.
They did not reduce the speed of light to zero, that would destroy the universe as it is currently observed. What they did was slow down the wave/particle that is light in a controlled labratory experiment. The purpose of this was to learn the basic nature of the universe without resorting to “god did it.”
==The light of many distant stars and galaxies take 100’s of millions of light years to get here, so by definition, these have to be 100’s of millions of years old.
It is quite possible for our galaxy to be young, and the galaxies much further out to be billions of years old, and yet owe their existence to the same creation event.
==Saying gravity doesn’t exist doesn’t mean you won’t fall off the cliff.
You can’t be talking about creationists. Indeed, gravitational force was discovered by a creationist. So are you saying that the Temple of Darwinist Materialism has finally gotten around to denying the same?
==This creationist stuff is a good part of the reason conservatives keep losing elections.
Read some history books. Ronald Reagan was ushered into office at the height of the religious right’s influence in the GOP.
Thanks for the ping!
Is yours?
No, and that is the point. Both models rely on historical interpretation.
Newton also believed in alchemy, as in turning base metals such as lead into gold.
Which still has absolutely nothing to do with me falling back to earth when there isn’t anything holding me up.
Acts 17:31 is a statement, not a fact.
The Universe is currently observable. The New Testament is at best, a second account written several years after what some people may have observed.
==The Universe is currently observable.
Quite true. The Universe is currently observable by scientists who subscribe to both models. And your point is?
==Newton also believed in alchemy, as in turning base metals such as lead into gold.
He was wrong about the details, but as it turns out, it is possible to turn lead into gold via nuclear transmutation.
All he needed was a nuclear fire
Thanks for the ping. That’s avery concise article.
So God created light the fist day, 1 billion years later he created grass, then 1 billion years later he created the sun?
There is no Hybrid Creation. Either God is right or man.
“Only for those with weak faith.”
I think he’s right. What can you put your faith in if not the Bible? If it’s inaccurate, what’s it good for?
Dude, our God is a big God. He created light before he created the stars. Light is His to do whatever He wants with. It’s nice of Him to let us see His stars which should cause us to glorify Him, not mock Him.
“The saving grace of science is the ability and willingness to question orthodoxy,”
Then what do you do once your science is proven false because you didn’t have access to infinite knowledge? Does the orthodoxy you proved false get reinstated? Who reinstates it?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.