This Weeks Weekly Devotional “Compromising the Creation Account” 9-18-21 is by Ken Kam of Answers in Genesis.
When Christians compromise God’s Word in Genesis with man’s word concerning evolution/millions of years, they are actually mixing two religions! Such compromise contaminates the Word of God and undermines its authority. Ultimately this exalts man not God! Let me explain.
The Bible makes it clear there are only two worldview positions a person can hold—we’re either for Christ or against him. “Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters” (Matthew 12:30). Also, God’s Word makes it clear there are only two ways to build a worldview—either on the rock or on the sand. “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. . . . And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand” (Matthew 7:24–27). We’re also told there are only two ways to walk in this world—in light or in darkness. “Jesus spoke to them, saying, ‘I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life’” (John 8:12). There are two roads, the broad way and the narrow way. These teachings reflect the fact that, in an ultimate sense, there are only two religious views in the world—beliefs built on man’s fallible word (darkness/sand) and the one that’s built on the infallible Word of God beginning in Genesis (light/rock). These two views have been in conflict for about 6,000 years, and the battle that began in the garden of Eden continues to rage before us today.
After God made Adam, he gave him an instruction to obey and then presented the consequences if he didn’t. “The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, ‘You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die’” (Genesis 2:15–17). In other words, Adam, who was to be the head of the entire human race (as from him all human beings would descend), was told to obey God’s Word. It was a test of obedience.
The devil, however, came to Eve. Genesis chapter 3 records:
Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’” But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die.” (Genesis 3:1–4) In other words, the devil claimed that you don’t need to obey God’s Word. You can be your own god and decide truth for yourself.
Adam and Eve did just that, and they disobeyed God. “So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate” (Genesis 3:6). And so began the battle of the only two religions. A battle between God’s Word and fallible, sinful man’s word—a religion of man being his own god and trusting his own word. The same battle is raging today. Sadly, in our Western world, God’s Word has been denigrated and by and large has been thrown out of public schools. Now we have generations who largely believe they are their own god, and their worldview is predominantly one of moral relativism. Public schools have become by and large churches of atheism. Once you cease building your thinking on the absolute authority of God’s Word, then ultimately anything goes, if you can get away with it.
Religions based on man’s word take on many different forms: Hinduism, Buddhism, New Age, Baha’i faith, Zoroastrianism, Satanism, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Deism, Taoism, Shinto, Unitarianism, Atheism, Agnosticism, Materialism, Christian syncretism with evolution, and other belief systems. When Christians take man’s word concerning origins and reinterpret Genesis (eg. add in millions of years and other evolutionary beliefs), they have added man’s finite interpretations to the Word of the infinite God. Thus, they really have changed the starting point from God’s Word to man’s word. Once fallibility (man’s fallible words) is added to God’s infallible word, then such compromise means ultimately that the starting point is man’s word.
“You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet” (Matthew 5:13). Salt loses its taste by becoming contaminated. Contamination destroys. When Christians contaminate Genesis, they are undermining the authority of the Word and undermining the foundation of all doctrine, of the rest of the Bible, and of our biblical worldview. I believe we can also apply what God’s Word says about the Laodicean church: “I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth.” (Revelation 3:15–16) I apply this by saying that if one is “cold” (doesn’t believe), then it is obvious, but if one is “lukewarm” then it’s not so obvious and yet it’s not “hot.” Lukewarmness is a problem as contamination is a problem. We need to be “hot”—believing God’s Word in Genesis as written without compromise.
Ken Ham
Stevelampman.com
Transforming Power; The Work of God on Behalf of Man