Ken Ham:
Does God call cancer “very good?”
Does God call arthritis “very good?”
Does God call abscesses “very good?”
Does God call tumors “very good?”
Did thorns exist before the fall?
Did animals eat other animals before the fall?
For those Christians who believe in millions of years, then the answers to the above questions are “Yes” to all!
Before I explain this, we first of all need to understand how we should define the word “good.” Let’s consider this passage:
“And as he was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and knelt before him and asked him, ‘Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?’ And Jesus said to him, ‘Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone’” (Mark 10:17–18).
Only God is “good.” This means the attributes of God define what the word “good” means.
From reading through the Scriptures, we learn God is infinite, self-existing, never changes, has no needs, all knowing, all powerful, all loving, everywhere, infinitely wise, unchangingly kind, full of good will, perfect in all he does, compassionate and merciful, perfect in all his ways, infinitely beautiful.
So when God defines anything as “very good,” then it must be exceedingly good. It must mean perfect and beautiful.
In Genesis 1:31 we read, “And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.”
Now “everything that he had made” includes everything created over the six days in Genesis 1. And as we read in Exodus 20:11, “For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.”
God’s Word makes it clear that everything God created, from the earth, to the plants, stars, animals, and man were all “very good.” They were perfect at the beginning.
Here’s an insurmountable problem for those Christians who believe the fossil record was laid down over millions of years before man.
First, the belief in millions of years came out of naturalism, the religion of atheism. Atheists postulated that fossil layers were laid down over millions of years by natural processes (no supernatural involved), capturing evidence of life as it supposedly evolved.
Secondly, in the fossil record there are many instances documented of disease like cancer, tumors, arthritis, and abscesses in the remains of various creatures. So, if a Christian believes in millions of years, then such diseases existed over millions of years before man existed. Now the Bible tells us as I quoted above that after God made everything including man, he said everything he made was “very good.” Thus, those Christians who believe in millions of years have to admit that this would mean God calls diseases like cancer, tumors, arthritis, and abscesses as “very good.”
There is no way God calls diseases “very good.” Death and disease exist in this fallen world because of sin. Death is described as an “enemy” in 1 Corinthians 15:26. Death is an intrusion! That’s why one day it will be thrown into the lake of fire. Romans 8:22 tells us the whole creation is groaning because of sin. To accuse God of saying diseases like cancer are “very good” and to accuse God of using death as part of the process of creating life, is to attack the very character of God.
Those Christians who believe in millions of years also therefore can’t get around that this means when we look at this world of death, suffering and disease, then God must be responsible for this. But the Bible makes it clear our sin is responsible of this groaning creation. That’s why Jesus came to die on a cross because death was the penalty for sin.
Thirdly, those who believe in millions of years have to then answer the question, “what did sin do to the world?” If all that death, suffering and disease existed before man sinned, then what did sin do? Apparently nothing that we observe in this groaning world is because of sin!!!!
Fourthly, there are two more items.
1. The Scripture teaches plainly that thorns came after the curse because of man’s sin:
“Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you;”(Genesis 3:17–18)
But there are many examples of fossil thorns supposedly formed millions of years ago!
No, you can’t have thorns millions of years before man.
2. The Scripture teaches plainly that animals were vegetarian before the fall.
“And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.”(Genesis 1:30).
But there are many examples of animals having eaten other animals or in the midst of eating another creature in the fossil record supposedly millions of years before man and before man sinned.
No, you can’t have animals eating each other before the fall.
Christians who compromise God’s Word and undermine its authority with the belief in millions of years need to give it up and take God at his Word.