Answers and Genesis finds itself at the epicenter of an evangelical surge, but despite calls by Ken Ham for a modern reformation - including a return to taking the authority of the Bible seriously - it is possible that the calls for reformation are not to a serious exegesis of God’s Word but rather to a trite and superficial saccharine form of evangelicalism. It is a movement that claims to be true to God’s word while suffering the very problems that Luther and the other reformers were so worried about. Acknowledging biblical authority without understanding that authority will not result in true reformation. To make followers of Christ, the foundation must not be only a respect for Biblical authority but a right understanding of His Word.
Adam, Eden, and the Corruption of Nature: A Thorny Young-Earth Assumption
Are the existence of plant thorns and thistles proof that the world can only be a few thousand years old? Yes! according to most young-earth creationists. I've written several times about thorns and creation (eg. The Prelapsarian Acacia and the Good Creation: On the Origin of Thorns) but a video available at creationtoday.org - a small fringe young-earth... Continue Reading →
The State of Creationism in the Church Today: Reflections on ETS 2014, Part II
Evangelical Christianity, broadly defined, has seen a number of science and faith battles over the past 50 years. For most of those years the debate has focused on the age of the earth and the closely – though not universally - associated debate about the extent of Noah’s Flood. Today, the age of the Earth... Continue Reading →
Reflections on the 2013 PCA General Assembly and the Age of the Earth
Dr. Jason Lisle of the Institute of Creation Research (ICR) gave a seminar entitled “Astronomy Reveals Creation” at this year’s PCA (Presbyterian Church in America) General Assembly. Some billed this as the young-earth follow-up to a seminar given at previous year's PCA assembly by Dr. Greg Davidson who presented evidence supportive of an ancient earth.... Continue Reading →
NH Notes: The Scientific Enterprise and Paradise Gained
I’m sitting in the Boston Airport on my way to a conference at Gordon College but I have enough time for a natural history note while I wait for a colleague to arrive. On my flight from Ohio I read the last chapter of the Peter Harrison’s “The Fall of Man and the Foundations of... Continue Reading →
John Calvin on the Ancients Ability to Divine Truth
I've been reading the book God and the Cosmos: Divine Activity in Space, Time and History by Harry Lee Poe and Jimmy H. Davis and in their introduction they used the following quote from John Calvin: If we reflect that the Spirit of God is the only fountain of truth, we will be careful, as... Continue Reading →
Reflections on the PCA GA and the Age of the Earth Seminar
The PCA (Presbyterian Church of America) General Assembly includes a number of seminars on a wide variety of topics each year. This year one talk received considerable attention prior to the meeting because of the subject matter and the presenter. I made the 6 hour drive to Louisville, KY to hear the talk as... Continue Reading →
Adam and The Fall: A Thorny Young Earth Assumption
My WordPress tag reader led me to this video posted on Eric Hovind's "Creation Today" website. This site is what Dr Dino's website presence morphed into after the arrest and conviction of fringe creation scientists Kent Hovind. What caught my eye was that today's video highlighted evidence of creation from thorns. I have been thinking... Continue Reading →
The Garden Temple: A Framework for a Biblical Worldview
In Sunday School curricula, their illustrated Bibles and even famous illustrations and paintings over the centuries, literal interpretations have formed our image of the ecology of the Garden of Eden. But even literalist are not likely to explore the theological implications of the specific features of the Garden of the Eden and are even less likely to ask what the regions outside of the Garden was like and why.
State of the Origins Debate – Part II: The Response to Walton’s “Lost World”
Returning to John Walton and his recent contributions to the Genesis debate: Previously I mentioned that I had picked up Walton’s book “The Lost World of Genesis One” again. I also have read his more recent book which is a more academic follow-up to that book entitled “Genesis 1 as Ancient Cosmology.” There have... Continue Reading →