Trust in God’s Word

The basic argument utilized by many YEC is something like:

“Our interpretation of Genesis is the only literal interpretation. Genesis is true. So our interpretation is correct”

This is just not a good or convincing reasoning able to persuade anyone outside 3rd grade playgrounds. I am reminded of A. A. Milne’s “Winnie the Pooh” where Pooh uses the following reasoning: “[This is true] or my name isn’t ‘Winnie the Pooh’! Which it is, of course, so there you are”.

RE: WRONG ALL ALONG?
CAT makes the (sarcastic) claim regarding YEC points:

"[PC] contradicts all of these beliefs, and claims it has finally discovered how to correctly interpret Genesis- after thousands of years of misunderstanding… If that is true, then one wonders what else Christians have seriously misunderstood” [1].

There are many claims made “based on the Bible” by Christians throughout the ages that have to been flat out wrong. The short list is:

1. Eternal security- Some Christians have studied the Bible say that one cannot lose their salvation others claim that one can. They both cannot be right.
2. Millennialism vs. Amillennialism – Is there a literal Kingdom to some or is the Church the fulfillment of the Kingdom- both conclusions reached by serious Bible scholars but they both cannot be right.

The example I wish to highlight is modern Israel. For over a thousand years, the vast majority of Christian, looking at the state of world Jewry and the Diaspora in their days, interpreted passages that speak of a restored Israel as being impossible [2]. They claimed that such passages must really mean the Church and declared these as being the “orthodox” and “literal” view. I would submit that 1947 proved them all wrong, yet such interpretations still prevail today. Therefore, it is possible for the “majority of Christians” to be wrong in interpreting the Bible. If something major like God’s promise to the Jews (starting at Genesis 12 and going on until Revelation 22) can be misunderstood by “Literalist-Christians”; how much easier is it for Christians to get something as small as one chapter of Genesis wrong? While Christians do have a corner on the market of truth claims, that does not mean that Christians are always right!

RE: Genesis is Trustworthy

The claim here is- if Genesis cannot be trusted as “literally” true, how can one trust the rest of the Bible? I feel that I have already made a case in the pervious section, but let me just remind us that it is not a question of Genesis being reliable, but which INTERPRETATION of Genesis is reliable- 24 hours days, day-age, myth, etc. [3]

RE: Jesus Trusted Genesis

The claim made in CAT is that Jesus trusted the Book of Genesis because He quoted from it. Jesus’ citations of Genesis had nothing to do with interpretation of the lengths of the “days” of Genesis. CAT goes on to claim that since “God is not a God of deception” then it must be that each of the Genesis 1 “days” = “24 hours periods”. But God also tells us that people are without excuse in knowing that there is a God because of the calling card he has left with the record of nature (Psalm 19:1 and Roman 1:20). If YEC interpret Genesis correctly, then how can people be “without excuse” when all the disciplines of science, since it has examined creation for the answer to its age, independently and consistently come up with the answer that the earth is older than 6000-50,000 years? The OEC view is that there is no deception in either the Scriptures or Creation. Both are revelations form God and reliable, but both are also subjected to misinterpretation.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] CAT pg 23

[2] Ezekiel 37 is a prime example.

[3] For a good treatment of the issue of “literal” interpretation of “day” see: http://www.reasons.org/resources/fff/2001issue07/index.shtml#creedal and http://www.godandscience.org/youngearth/genesis1.html (accessed 7.6.2007)