Monthly Archives: April 2023

Should Christians Speak With Authority?

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Ken Ham writes:

Should Christians speak with authority?

“And when Jesus finished these sayings, the crowds were astonished at his teaching, for he was teaching them as one who had authority, and not as their scribes” (Matthew 7:28–29).

Over the 40 years I’ve been involved in the Answers in Genesis ministry, I’ve had many Christians/Christian leaders accuse me of saying a person had to believe in six literal days of creation and a young earth to be saved.

Such an accusation is simply not true and can be documented as false from my many talks and articles I’ve written over the years showing clearly I have never equated salvation with believing in a young earth and literal creation days. What my accusers don’t like is the fact I speak with authority on what Genesis clearly says. They want me to allow other views. But there’s only one view: God’s Word as written.

Now, salvation is conditioned upon faith in Christ, not what a person believes about the age of the earth or days of creation. People then respond saying it’s not an important issue.

But, even though it’s not a salvation issue, it’s a very important matter indeed, as it’s one of authority.

The following examples represent the types of conversations I’ve had over the years with various Christians and Christian leaders as I’ve discussed this topic with me asking questions.

Question: “Do you believe Jesus bodily rose from the dead?”

Answer: “Of course, yes.”

Question: “Did you see it happen? Do you have a movie of the event? How do you know?”

Answer: “Because the Bible says so?”

Question: “Do you really believe Jesus fed thousands as a miracle?”

Answer: “Yes.”

Question: “Did you see this event? How do you know?”

Answer: “Because the Bible says so.”

Question: “Do you believe Jesus healed the blind, lame, and deaf and even raised people from the dead?”

Answer: “Yes.”

Question: “How do you know?”

Answer: “I know because the Bible says so.”

Question: “Do you believe the Israelites crossed the Red Sea as a miracle, and when wandering in the desert their clothes and shoes didn’t wear out?”

Answer: “Yes.”

Question: “How do you know?”

Answer: “Because the Bible teaches this.”

Question: “Do you believe a man was swallowed by a fish for three days and survived?”

Answer: “Yes, God’s Word says so.”

I then move to the book of Genesis and ask, “Do you believe God created in six literal days, death came after sin, Noah’s Flood was a global event, and we must take Genesis 1–11 as literal history?”

I often get answers like, “Well, no because of what the scientists tell us about millions of years, the big bang, and evolution. The days must be long periods of time. Noah’s flood might have been a local event. God used evolution.”

And here is my point! For other events in the Bible, Christians usually accept the accounts as written. But when it comes to Genesis, so many Christians and Christian leaders will go outside of Scripture and use what secular scientists are saying to then claim we can’t take Genesis as written on these matters.

And therein lies a major problem. They are putting man’s word over God’s Word and making man the authority, not God. Sadly, many pastors and Christian academics have taught generations of young people this. In doing so, they’ve unlocked a door that one can take man’s word over God’s Word. So if you can take millions of years and reinterpret God’s Word, why not take man’s word on marriage and gender and reinterpret God’s Word to allow gay “marriage,” etc. And this is happening in the church.

Over the years because so many Christian leaders have compromised God’s Word in Genesis, many people have been led to doubt God’s Word, and that leads to compromise and unbelief.

We can and should speak with authority on Genesis, just as we can with the rest of Scripture because it is the infallible Word of God!

I am saying compromise on Genesis is wrong, as there’s only one view—God’s! And I’ll continue speaking with authority (God’s) on this.

Are you taking God at his Word? Or putting man’s word over God’s Word? That’s the issue.

Noah’s Flood – Global or Local

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Ken Ham writes:

Was Noah’s flood a global or local event?

To be consistent, those Christians who believe in millions of years really have to make Noah’s flood just a local event. In fact, many have done so over the years. Let me explain why.

The idea of millions of years primarily came out of the atheism/deism of the 1800s. Secularists, in attempting to explain the fossil record by natural processes, promoted the (false) idea that the rock layers, filled with fossils, were laid down slowly over millions of years before man supposedly evolved.

Now, there are billions of dead things buried in rock layers, laid down by water all over the earth.

For those Christians who have accepted the belief in millions of years and attempted to add that into the Genesis account of origins, they have a major problem.

“The flood continued forty days on the earth. The waters increased and bore up the ark, and it rose high above the earth. The waters prevailed and increased greatly on the earth, and the ark floated on the face of the waters. And the waters prevailed so mightily on the earth that all the high mountains under the whole heaven were covered. The waters prevailed above the mountains, covering them fifteen cubits deep. And all flesh died that moved on the earth, birds, livestock, beasts, all swarming creatures that swarm on the earth, and all mankind. Everything on the dry land in whose nostrils was the breath of life died. blotted out every living thing that was on the face of the ground, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens. They were blotted out from the earth. Only Noah was left, and those who were with him in the ark. And the waters prevailed on the earth 150 days” (Genesis 7:17–24).

You can’t read that passage in a straightforward way and come to any other conclusion than this was a global flood covering the highest mountains over all of the earth.

What do those who accept the millions of years do then with the account of the flood of Noah’s day? If you accept the millions of years for the formation of the massive fossil record all over the earth, the question becomes, “What did Noah’s flood do?”

If it really was a global, catastrophic event as the Bible clearly describes, it would have eroded those layers and the fossils and redeposited the sediment. In other words, it would have destroyed the fossil record. That’s why some Christians claimed it must have been a “tranquil” flood. But I’ve never seen a tranquil flood! Floods of any size do catastrophic damage. Others claim it must have been a local flood. But the description given in Genesis chapter 7 does not describe a local flood at all. It was a catastrophic global flood.

Also, the description in Genesis makes it clear that all land-dwelling, air-breathing animals that weren’t on the ark died and only eight people survived the flood. No other people survived as it was a global event. Even in the New Testament we read confirmation that only eight people survived the Flood:

“Because they formerly did not obey, when God’s patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water” (1 Peter 3:20).

Now, the fossil record is not just one of death (the remains of billions of creatures), but also a record of disease as there are many instances where evidence of diseases like cancer are found in fossil bones.

For the Christian looking at the fossil record, how could one accept billions of dead things with evidence of diseases like cancer, tumors, arthritis, etc., millions of years before man when the Bible makes it clear that after man was created, God described everything he made as “very good”? Accepting millions of years is blaming God for death and disease and calling cancer “very good.”

But the Bible states death is an “enemy.”

“The last enemy to be destroyed is death” (1 Corinthians 15:26).

Death will one day be thrown into the lake of fire: “Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire” (Revelation 20:14).

Death is an intrusion because of sin. Death did not exist before sin. Those who believe in millions of years are blaming God of death instead of blaming our sin.

And the Bible makes it clear that the world of death and disease we live in is one that’s groaning because of our sin, “For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now” (Romans 8:22).

It is actually a serious thing for Christians to accept millions of years, which is all part of the pagan religion of naturalism where people try to explain this world without God. Of course, evolutionists need millions of years, as in a way time is their god, as they have to have millions of years to try to propose an impossible process—evolution. Without time, they can’t propose their evolutionary ideas.

Noah’s flood was not a tranquil flood. Noah’s flood was not a local event. Noah’s flood was a catastrophic event sent to judge a wicked world.

“The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (Genesis 6:5).

If there was such a flood, we would find billions of dead things buried in rock layers laid down by water all over the earth. And that’s exactly what you find.

Also, consider the covenant of the rainbow! After the flood, God made a promise:

“And God said, ‘This is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations: I have set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh. And the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh’” (Genesis 9:12–15).

We’ve had lots of local floods since, so did God break his promise? NO! Noah’s flood wasn’t a local event—it was a global cataclysmic event.

The fossil record is not the graveyard of millions of years of slow processes recording the supposed evolution of life.

NO!

Most of the fossil record is the graveyard of the flood that occurred about 4,300 years ago.

And just as surely as God judged the wickedness of man with a global flood, he is going to judge this earth again but by fire next time. And this will be a global event, not a local one. In fact, he will judge the whole universe with fire and make a new heavens and earth.

***

“Scoffers and the last days”

Yes, we are in the last days. But how “last” are we? We don’t know. We just know every day is more last than the day before. We’ve been in the last days for nearly 2,000 years, ever since the life and earthly ministry of Jesus as the Godman. When Jesus’ earthly ministry was completed, we read:

“And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes, and said, ‘Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven’” (Acts 1:9–11).

Jesus left earth for heaven and said he would return. We’ve been waiting for that return for about 2,000 years.

In 2 Peter 3, we read about scoffers in the last days who scoff at the idea Jesus will return, as they say, “For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation” (2 Peter 3:4). They claim things have just gone on and on, and so Jesus can’t be returning as it’s been such a long time. But we’re told in this passage that to God, a day is like a thousand years and a thousand years like a day. God is outside of time and 2,000 years is not a long time for God as he is not bound by time. And we’re given the reason why Jesus is patient and has not returned it:

“The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance” (2 Peter 3:9).

Now consider what is told to us about these scoffers in the last days.

These scoffers, as per 2 Peter 3:4, believe that things have just gone on and on for a long time.

They will reject creation:

“For they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God,” (2 Peter 3:5).

They not only reject God created the earth, but that the earth was created covered with water as it states in Genesis 1.

Then they will reject the flood of Noah’s day:

“and that by means of these the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished” (2 Peter 3:6).

And they will reject the coming judgment by fire:

“But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed” (2 Peter 3:10).

Let’s apply this to the scoffers today:

They believe things on this earth have gone on for millions and millions of years. They believe life and the universe evolved over millions of years by chance random processes.

They reject that God created the earth and believe it came about by a supposed big bang.

They reject that the earth was covered by water and claim it was a hot molten blob to start with.

They reject the global flood of Noah’s day.

They reject that Jesus is going to come back and judge this earth with fire.

So scoffers down through the ages, just as scoffers in our day, reject God’s Word! And why do they reject God’s Word? Because they don’t want to be accountable to God. If God created them (and he did), then God owns them and God has a right to set the rules and determine what’s right and wrong. Then marriage is one man and one woman, there are only two genders of humans (male and female), the rightful place for sex is within marriage only, abortion is murdering a human being, and so on, as God’s Word instructs clearly.

God’s Word tells us that man is a sinner, and his sin nature is that he would rather believe man’s word (e.g., millions of years of evolution) than God’s Word in Genesis about creation, the fall, and the flood.

God’s Word here in 2 Peter 3:5 tells us these scoffers will “deliberately overlook” the truth of creation, the flood, and coming judgement by fire. Some translations state they are “willingly ignorant.”

These scoffers will reject the obvious evidence for creation and the flood, which is exactly what we see happening today. It’s so obvious life had to be created when one looks at DNA, the most complex information and language system in the universe—that could never arise by chance. It’s so obvious there was a global flood as we find billions of dead things (fossils) buried in the rock layers laid down by water all over the earth.

Don’t be led astray by scoffers—believe God’s Word.

***

Is the account of the creation of the male and female humans in Genesis 1:27 referring to the same humans created in Genesis 2:7 and Genesis 2:21, 22?

The simple answer is yes. Let me explain.

Genesis chapter 1 is an overview of creation in chronological order. God explains in summary what he did on each of the six days of creation. On day six, he created the land-dwelling, air-breathing animals and the first two humans:

“And God said, ‘Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds—livestock and creeping things and beasts of the earth according to their kinds . . .’

“Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness . . . So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them’” (Genesis 1:24–27).

Now, Genesis 2 focuses upon the creation of man specifically and gives specific details of how God made the first human man and first human woman (Adam and Eve).

We learn in Genesis 2:7, “Then the LORD God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.”

By the way, this first man could not have evolved from some ape-like creature as some claim because:

1. He was made from directly from dust, not from a previously existing creature. And the “dust” can’t be symbolic of an animal because God said this man would return to “dust” when he dies (Genesis 3:19) because of sin. Humans don’t return to some creature like an ape-man when they die.

2. The first man did not become a “living creature” until God breathed into him. He could not have come from an already existing living creature.

Now in Genesis 2:21-22, we read how God created the first woman:

“So the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib that the LORD God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man.”

The first woman could not have evolved from an ape-woman as this account makes it clear that God created this woman from the first man’s rib:

1. That’s why the first recorded words of the first man Adam were: “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man” (Genesis 2:23).

2. God, through the apostle Paul, states: “For as woman was made from man” (1 Corinthians 11:12).

After the details of the creation of the man and woman in Genesis 2, we read in Genesis 2:24:

“Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.”

This is the creation of marriage. It’s a reminder that God created marriage, not the US Supreme Court Justices or the president of the USA. Marriage is a God-ordained institution, and there’s only one marriage—the one God created—which consists of one male and one female (one man and one woman). This also means there is no such thing as gay “marriage.” People can call it gay union or whatever they want, but it’s not marriage.

Note that the devil takes what God has created and turns it around to pervert it. We see that happening with marriage. And it’s also interesting that in gay “marriage” they want to have two people. Why two? Well, two comes from the Bible because God created the first marriage to be one man and one woman—only two.

But as people abandon true marriage and God’s created purpose for marriage, we will see all sorts of perversion as moral relativism permeates the culture. For instance, now we see increasing polyamory where there’s any number of any sort of relationship with multiple men and women.

And really, when people abandon the basis of marriage in Scripture, why shouldn’t people then define marriage anyway they want? Why not polygamy, polyamory, or any combination that someone determines? After all, without an absolute authority, anything goes.

Now, when we jump over to the New Testament to Matthew 19 where Jesus is asked about marriage, note carefully his answer:

“Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’?” (Matthew 19:4–5).

Jesus is referring back to the history in Genesis as the foundation for marriage. In fact, every single biblical doctrine of theology is ultimately founded in Genesis chapters 1–11. Jesus is referring to the text of Genesis 1:27 where he made male and female and the text of Genesis 2:24 the creation of marriage referring to one flesh as the woman as made from the man. This is also recorded in Mark 10.

In other words, Jesus is referring to the same one man and one woman as recorded in Genesis 1:27 and Genesis 2:24. Jesus obviously quoted the text in Genesis 1 and 2 as complementary accounts—not different accounts.

It’s amazing how many Christians including pastors and Christian college professors who think Genesis 1 and Genesis 2 are contradictory accounts of creation. No, they are complementary accounts with Genesis 1 serving as a summary in chronological order, and Genesis 2 focusing in on the details of how God created the first man and woman. This then sets the stage for the fall of man in Genesis 3.

Isn’t it amazing how so many Christians and Christian leaders will question just about every aspect of Genesis 1–11, but don’t do this with most of the rest of Scripture? The devil knows that Genesis 1–11 is the foundation for everything and so he will do whatever he can to get the church to reject or question the history in Genesis 1–11. This has been one of the greatest attacks on God’s Word in our time and, sadly, many Christians have succumbed to this attack.

Understanding “A Day is Like a Thousand Years”

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Ken Ham writes:

I have to admit it. Every time I hear someone say it, it drives me nuts.

What am I referring to?

Over the past 40 years, as I’ve spoken all over the world, I’ve had many people in churches come up and say something like, “But how can the days of creation in Genesis 1 be ordinary days when the Bible says a day is like a thousand years?” Ugh!

This is when I groan internally, and then set out to explain the many problems with what they stated.

1. They are quoting a small section from 2 Peter 3:8. Now this is a passage from the New Testament, and you cannot use such a passage to determine the meaning of a Hebrew word. The meaning of a Hebrew word in Genesis (eg: “yom,” used for the word day in Genesis 1) depends on the Hebrew language. One needs to use the immediate and wider context or a Hebrew Lexicon (dictionary) to determine the meaning of a Hebrew word.

2. When I’ve been asked this question, I can’t remember a time when the person asking the question actually quoted that passage correctly. They usually say, “But a day is like a thousand years.” That is not what the Scripture states. Let’s look at 2 Peter 3:8:

“But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.” (2 Peter 3:8)

Now note that the text actually states, “with the Lord one day is as a thousand years.” In other words, the reference is to God, telling us that to God a day is like a thousand years. God is not limited by natural processes and time. God is outside of time. He created time. So, to God, a day is no different than a thousand years because God exists in eternity and is not bound by time.

3. I notice they always seem to quote the first part of the verse and not the rest. After “with the Lord one day is as a thousand years,” the verse continues, “and a thousand years as one day.” Now this in essence cancels out the first section.

The whole point is to God a day is like a thousand years or a thousand years a like a day. Again, it’s because God is outside of time. So, to God, a day or a thousand years doesn’t make any difference in regard to time. Now humans are created in time and we measure time by days and years. To humans, a thousand years is so much longer than one day. But that is not so for God.

4. Now let’s look at the context of 2 Peter 3. The passage leading up to verse 8 starting in verse 3 states, “Knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires” (2 Peter 3:3). The passage is discussing the second coming of Christ, the last days, and the scoffers who scoff at Jesus coming again: “They will say, ‘Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.’” (2 Peter 3:4).

So, these scoffers are saying that things just go on and on, so Jesus is obviously not coming back.

The passage is teaching us that for those scoffers that believe Jesus isn’t coming back again as things just seem to continue on and on, God through Peter tells us that we need to understand that to God, a day is no different to a thousand years. So humans think it’s been a long time since Jesus said he was coming back again, but, to God, it’s not a long time because he is not bound by time.

5. Then we are told why Jesus hasn’t come back yet, “The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance” (2 Peter 3:9). God will decide when he will return, but in the meantime, people need to hear the gospel as it’s not his will “that any should perish.”

6. Now think about this. I have found the main reason many Christians try to reinterpret the word “day” in Genesis and use this passage from 2 Peter 3 to justify this is because they really are trying to fit the false millions of years belief into Scripture. But how will making each day 1,000 years help accommodate millions of years—it won’t!

7. I also note something else. The Hebrew word for day (“yom”) is used hundreds of times in the Old Testament, but I don’t hear anyone questioning what those days mean by claiming a day is like a thousand years. So why is it they only single out the use of word “day” in Genesis 1? Again, it’s because they’re impacted by millions of years and they’re trying to fit long ages into Genesis 1. Do we ever hear anyone claiming Jonah was in the great fish for 3,000 years because a day is like a thousand years? Of course not.

8. Now, if we take Genesis 1 as written, and look at the context for the word “day” (“yom”) for each of the days of creation, we can come to no other conclusion than those days are ordinary, approximately 24-hour days. When yom is qualified by night, evening, morning, or number it always means an ordinary day. All six days have yom qualified by evening, morning, and number. Day one also qualifies yom with night, and day seven with a number. All seven days in Genesis one are ordinary days.

Now can you see why it drives me nuts when people, usually rather glibly, say, “Oh the days of creation aren’t ordinary days as a day is like a thousand years”? I find most say this because they heard it from a friend, their pastor, Bible school teacher, or read it somewhere. Once I explain what I’ve listed above to them, most realize they have not been thinking about this correctly at all.

By the way, Psalm 90:4 states something similar as 2 Peter 3:8, “For a thousand years in your sight are but as yesterday when it is past, or as a watch in the night.” This is teaching us that with God a thousand years is like a day or a watch in the night which was four hours. So, God is not limited by time, as he is outside of time.

I urge people to study God’s Word carefully before making off-hand statements. I think people do this because we humans are so quick to question God’s Word as that’s our propensity because of our sin nature.