Most of us have gone through times in our lives where our faith in God and Scripture were shaken. Perhaps something was presented to us that sparked a question we had never considered—a question that we had no answer to, and which, we thought, possibly didn’t have a good answer. And yet, the question was so fundamental to the Christian worldview as presented in Scripture, that not having an answer to it kept us up at night, and kept us searching until we found an answer.
Many have yet to receive an answer to that question that plagued us. Perhaps over time other such questions were raised to them as well—slowly chipping away at their belief. Statistics indicate that 20% of the youth in the Church are becoming irreligious upon leaving home, in large part due to questions about the validity of biblical Creation—not having seen the evidences for Christianity that validate it.
How can I know that God exists when I cannot observe Him with any of my senses? Must I blindly believe in Him? If the Universe demands an ultimate Cause, why doesn’t the Cause also demand a Cause? What caused God? And even if a god exists, how can I know which God He (or she) is? Why is the Creator not Allah, Buddha, or some other supernatural Being? How can I know that the Bible, as opposed to the Qur’an or Book of Mormon, is from God? Does the Bible contradict solid science, as so many claim? Is the Bible merely a collection of ancient myths and fables, not intended to be taken literally (e.g., the “giants” of Genesis 6)? How can Creation be true in light of the evidence for Darwinian evolution? Can they both be right—does the Bible leave room for evolution? And what about the age of the Earth? Doesn’t the evidence from radiometric dating (e.g., carbon dating), ice cores, canyon erosion, sediment deposition, petrification, and dendrochronology indicate that the Earth is millions of years old? How can the Earth be as young as Scripture indicates? Is there evidence of a global Flood as taught in Genesis 6-9, or must Scripture be re-interpreted to accommodate a local Flood—or no Flood at all? How could the millions of species on the planet fit on the Ark? If there was a Flood, how did the animals get to Australia afterward? How does the evidence from geology (e.g., Pangea; plate tectonics; etc.) fit with the biblical claims? Doesn’t the fossil record support evolution rather than Creation? How does the evidence for an Ice Age fit with Scripture? How could dinosaurs fit on the Ark? And even if they could, why doesn’t the Bible mention them? In the discipline of archaeology, doesn’t the evidence indicate there were stone, bronze, and iron ages, with ancient documented civilizations that have an unbroken line that can be traced back to a time long before the Tower of Babel and even the Flood? Doesn’t that contradict the biblical timeframe? Is Creation scientific—able to make actual scientific predictions that have been verified? How can we see light from stars that are billions of light years away if it took billions of years to get here? Doesn’t that prove the Universe is billions of years old? How did all of the skin colors come from only two people?
This is a mere sampling of the questions many of us have had. Imagine never receiving answers to any of them. What would that do to your faith? Come to the “Christians Can Be Confident about Creation” seminar as we answer these questions and many others—and be sure to bring others who need answers.
-by Jeff Miller, Ph.D.
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