Video: Why II Peter Was Written

If you're interested in the past vlogs so far, here are the links:

Why Paul Wrote II Timothy
Why I Peter Was Written
Why John Wrote His Gospel and Epistles
Why Paul Wrote Titus
Why Hebrews Was Written
Why Paul Wrote I Timothy
Why Paul Wrote Philippians
Why Paul Wrote Philemon, Colossians, and Ephesians
Video: Why the Synoptic Gospels Were Written
Why Paul Wrote Romans
Why Paul Wrote I and II Corinthians
Why Paul Wrote the Thessalonian Letters
Why James Was Written
Why Galatians Was Written

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My people are destroyed from lack of knowledge: Hosea 4:6.

This is the official ping list for Depths of Pentecost: I’m a Christian blogger who writes weekly Bible lessons. Topics range from Bible studies, apologetics, theology, history, and occasionally current events. Every now and then I upload sermons or classes onto YouTube.

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You’ve got more good commentary here, but I have a concern.

You used the analogy of life surviving a meteor which wiped out the dinosaurs to illustrate how Christianity survived the 3-year persecution by Nero.

Do you believe that the dinosaur’s were wiped out by a meteor, or were you simply using this as an analogy?

How does this impact your interpretation of the Genesis account of creation?

Okay...I suppose I really should stop saying things like that due to the can of worms it inevitably opens.

But let me clarify my position (such as it is) for you.

I had no idea until recently, as I post more and more blogs and videos out there, how divisive this issue is.

Personally, I’m not a Young-Earth Creationist. In fact, when I was growing up my parents taught me the Genesis gap-doctrine, which teaches that an undetermined span of time existed between Genesis 1:1 and 1:2, in which the billions of years of Earth’s history described by scientists, including the age of the dinosaurs, occur. So according to this account, the 7 days of creation in Genesis are the starts of a NEW world (present) after the destruction of the old. This account sometimes attributes the fall of Lucifer with mass extinctions from the past.

I’ve always had a side obsession with natural history. I loved dinosaurs as a kid and had a blast going to natural history museums and learning about the geologic eras in school. So because of my upbringing, it never occurred to me that there was a contradiction between science and Genesis.

I was in my late teens when I first heard of Young Earth Creationism. I also had never thought to add up the genealogies of the Bible to arrive at a creation date of 6,000 years ago. It struck me as a bit silly, kind of like trying to calculate the date of the Rapture (both modern Young Earth Creationism and Rapture-dating have origins in 7th Day Adventist movement, so this isn’t as far-fetched as it sounds). I also had a hard time accepting dinosaurs on Noah’s ark.

I’ve investigated this further. There’s a lot of great material out there, but it’s left me with more questions than answers. There are actually several views on this, not limited to:

-The Genesis Gap doctrine I just described.

-Day Age Creationism: this claims the 7 days of Genesis are not literal 24-hour days but billion-year spans of time. A brilliant astronomer and cosmologist named Hugh Ross has dozens of books out there supporting this; however, I do see flaws in some of his claims.

-Most orthodox religions have now rejected the first few chapters of Genesis as historical at all, and are just ancient parables. I have the hardest time accepting this, obviously.

Some great reading material on this can be found at biologos.org, oldearth.org, cerebralfaith.blogspot.com, and kjvbible.org. And I’m sure you’re familiar with Ken Ham’s site, answersingenesis.org, which is probably the most well-known Young Earth Creationist website.

My personal thoughts are that people make way too big a deal out of this. I have problems with Young Earth Creationism but I don’t think people’s salvation depends on it. But I’ve encountered Young Earthers getting angry, denouncing me as a heretic and Bible-denier, and even telling me I’m not a real Christian until I accept the 6,000 year date of Creation, which I think is going too far. The foundation of Christianity is the resurrection of Christ, not how long ago Genesis occurred. So I think as long as one accepts Christ as their Savior, they’re a Christian, and how they think the first few chapters of Genesis fits in with natural history is an issue of MUCH less importance.

“But I’ve encountered Young Earthers getting angry, denouncing me as a heretic and Bible-denier, and even telling me I’m not a real Christian until I accept the 6,000 year date of Creation, which I think is going too far. The foundation of Christianity is the resurrection of Christ, not how long ago Genesis occurred.”

Thanks for the reply. I lean heavily toward a young earth and universe, however, I do not consider this to be an essential doctrine for salvation, as you have pointed out.

I do think it is wise to avoid dogmatism on either side of such issues to the point it elevates our own minds above the scriptures, as they are the ultimate standard by which we must evaluate doctrine.

As a pastor you will inevitably find yourself having to deal with controversial matters. Learning to approach them in way that tends to bring believers together in harmony is the mark of the most mature, experienced, and successful pastors I’ve met. They just seem to have a special gift for helping believers to set aside their differences and work together.

Looking forward to more of your studies.

I lean heavily toward a young earth and universe, however, I do not consider this to be an essential doctrine for salvation, as you have pointed out.

I'm relieved to hear that. Normally I'm all about standing up for truth no matter what people think, but in this case I don't think it's worth alienating any readers over what I think is an unimportant issue.

Learning to approach them in way that tends to bring believers together in harmony is the mark of the most mature, experienced, and successful pastors I’ve met.

Well that's what I aspire to. Hopefully I'm accomplishing it. :)

In a way, I understand why people are so touchy about the Young vs Old Earth debate. I think this is an example of how atheists have successfully pitted us against each other. I think being too dogmatic about this creates a fear that if the Earth is billions of years old, then that means all the Bible is a lie and there's no God.

I don't think this is the case at all. In fact, in all my studies, even if you stripped away the Bible and looked at science's account of how the universe began from a purely naturalistic standpoint, everything about it still points to a Creator.

So even if the universe is 14 billion years old, there's a God. Even if evolution is true, there's still a God.

I've studied all the different accounts of creation, from Young Earth to Gap Doctrine to Day-Age to pure scientific atheist naturalism. And out of all of those, THAT one is the weakest. No matter what, I'm convinced there's zero chance atheism is the truth.

Looking forward to more of your studies.

I'm about to upload this week's blog, where I'll delve into atheism much further!