Unassailable: A Simple Faith in the Bible

December 25, 2018
Unassailable: A Simple Faith in the Bible

“For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the 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.”
(Ex. 20:11 NASB).

“When Adam had lived one hundred and thirty years, he became the father of a son […] and named him Seth […year 130…]
Seth lived one hundred and five years, and became the father of Enosh […year 235…]
Enosh lived ninety years, and became the father of Kenan […year 325…]
Kenan lived seventy years, and became the father of Mahalalel […year 395…]
Mahalalel lived sixty-five years, and became the father of Jared […year 460…]
Jared lived one hundred and sixty-two years, and became the father of Enoch […year 622…]
Enoch lived sixty-five years, and became the father of Methuselah […year 687…]
Methuselah lived one hundred and eighty-seven years, and became the father of Lamech […year 874…]
Lamech lived one hundred and eighty-two years, and became the father of […] Noah […year 1056]
Noah was five hundred years old, and Noah became the father of Shem, Ham, and Japheth.” […year 1556.] (Gen. 5:3-32 NASB).

“In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, […year 1656…]
all the fountains of the great deep burst open, and the floodgates of the sky were opened. The rain fell upon the earth for forty days and forty nights. On the very same day Noah and Shem and Ham and Japheth, the sons of Noah, and Noah’s wife and the three wives of his sons with them, entered the ark, they and every beast after its kind, and all the cattle after their kind, and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth after its kind, and every bird after its kind, all sorts of birds. […] The water prevailed more and more upon the earth, so that all the high mountains everywhere under the heavens were covered […] All flesh that moved on the earth perished, birds and cattle and beasts and every swarming thing that swarms upon the earth, and all mankind […] The water prevailed upon the earth one hundred and fifty days.” (Gen. 7:11-24 NASB).

“Now it came about in the six hundred and first year, […year 1657…]
the surface of the ground was dried up […] Then God spoke to Noah, saying, ‘Go out of the ark, you and your wife and your sons and your sons’ wives with you. Bring out with you every living thing of all flesh that is with you, birds and animals and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, that they may breed abundantly on the earth, and be fruitful and multiply on the earth.’ ” (Gen. 8:13-17 NASB).

“Shem was one hundred years old, and became the father of Arpachshad two years after the flood […year 1659…]
Arpachshad lived thirty-five years, and became the father of Shelah […year 1694…]
Shelah lived thirty years, and became the father of Eber […year 1724…]
Eber lived thirty-four years, and became the father of Peleg; […year 1758…]
Peleg lived thirty years, and became the father of Reu […year 1788…]
Reu lived thirty-two years, and became the father of Serug […year 1820…]
Serug lived thirty years, and became the father of Nahor […year 1850…]
Nahor lived twenty-nine years, and became the father of Terah […year 1879…] Terah lived seventy years, and became the father of Abram, Nahor and Haran.” […year 1949 after Creation] (Gen. 11:10-26 NASB).

When confronted with the Bible, men must decide whether to believe or not. The Bible does not coddle men’s skepticism. It does not ease their way into belief by accommodating their sense of what is “possible.” It does not offer natural explanations that coincide with what God is said to have accomplished. It does not provide a wider side-door interpretation for those who find the gate of supernaturalism too narrow. It immediately presents God as existing prior to the universe, and as creating it out of nothing—by fiat—in six days that are each recounted in such indisputably normal terms as having a morning and an evening. The depth of the conflict between skepticism and belief that this prompts is evident by the arguments to which some resort in attempting to understand these terms as anything other than normal.

A simple faith in the Bible, however, is unassailable by any arguments, regardless of how sophisticated and superior they are claimed to be. I have no doubt that the Bible is true. And I have no doubt that the Bible plainly intends to convey that God supernaturally created, out of nothing and by divine command, the world and all that’s in it, in six regular days. I also have no doubt that God put the genealogical records in Scripture to convey the historical truth of who fathered whom and when. And I have found, after years of research into these matters, nothing but skepticism against the supernatural as the reason for abandoning such a simple faith and instead adopting an “old-earth” interpretation.

I believe that God created the world in six days, approximately six thousand years ago, because that’s what the Bible tells me. Plain and simple. And I am not alone, as many are with me. Those who are not object that such a view is fideistic—based only on faith and therefore unfalsifiable. This they think gives them the advantage, since their view is supposedly based on evidence and falsifiable scientific methods. What they fail to see is that a supernatural miracle transcends scientific methods. A miracle either happened or it did not—and no scientific inquiry can shed light either way. This means, ironically, that science’s operating assumption that no recent miraculous origin took place is a type of faith that is unfalsifiable. They ridicule our simple faith because we cannot provide physical evidence that a recent miraculous creation happened; but neither can they provide physical evidence that it did not happen. Rather, they assume that it did not happen; and this makes their “science” as fideistic as our faith. You may put a simple faith in science if you so choose; but I will continue to put my simple faith in the word of God. He was, after all, there when it all happened, so He ought to know.

But ask yourself this: if physical evidence and the certainties of scientific conclusions hold such weight with you, then why would you believe that Jesus Christ physically rose from the dead? Don’t tell me about dead witnesses who cannot be interrogated, or about the gospel books that testify of the event. Tell me of what scientific, physical evidence there is on which you can base a claim that is not fideistic. Tell me how any belief in His resurrection can be acceptable by the peer-reviewed scientific community. Tell me how such a belief can be above the embarrassment of being labelled as on par with belief in unicorns and other such fables. If and when you honestly face this contradiction, you will hopefully see the superiority of faith over scientific evidence. At that point, come back and tell me how you know that Jesus actually rose from the dead. If you do really know that Jesus did rise from the dead, then, “Blessed are you…! For [evidence] has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.”

From Creation to the Resurrection of Christ to the Return of Christ (and every miracle in between), this God in Whom we believe is a SUPERNATURAL, MIRACULOUS GOD.

December 25, 2018 by Ken Hamrick [previously posted at EpoLogos.com] ​

 

Ok, then. I'm glad to see we're all in agreement!