The Age of the Earth

Here's another thought about the age of the earth. God created the universe with the appearance of age. The answer to the age old question, which came first, the chicken or the egg, is clearly answered in Genesis 1:21. The chicken was! Adam was created as a grown man, not an infant or child or teen. If a geologist could climb into a time machine and travel back to late Friday afternoon of creation week, he would observe a created order that had every appearance that it was many years old. He would see flowering plants, seed-producing trees, birds soaring overhead and earth-bound animals lumbering about. And after observing Adam he would certainly conclude that he was decades old, when in fact, he was only a few hours old at best. There is no indication in Genesis 1-2 that speaks of long geological ages in the creation process. Only by reading between the lines, or interpreting words and phrases in a non-literal sense can anyone read millions of years into God's creative work. The Doc

Stress Diease and Depression in Ministry

I'm in the process of writing a book on stress and depression among spiritual leaders. The project will be out sometime next year. Maybe you can help me a bit. Have you experienced stress disease and depression in your ministry? You can respond with a simple yes or no, or preferably, you can give me some of the details of you own struggle. The book will include my personal story, and I would like to know if I'm alone in this battle. In a later blog I will share some of my story. Anyway, help if you can. God Bless! The Doc

In the beginning...

Must Bible students reconcile the geological epochs with the Genesis account? That is, should we accept the 15 to 20 billion year old universe, or can we rely on the 6-24 hour day presentation from Scripture? Here's my view:

1) Genesis 1 clearly states that God created everything in 6 ordinary days. When interpretating an ancient text the most viable hermeneutic is the grammatical/historical/theological process. As numerous scholars of the early church, the middle ages, the reformation, and today hold, when reading a text we look for the plain, obvious, literal meaning in keeping with the text's genre. Since the creation account in Genesis is in narrative form, a student must bring various presuppositions to the table in order to find anything but 24 hour days. The context clearly references a day as a combination of morning and evening. The ten commandments of Exodus 20:11 utilize the creation week as a model of working and resting for mankind. Great lapses of time wouldn't make sense in this respect.
2) Jesus was totally committed to the authority of Scripture, particularly Moses' writing. Check out Matthew 19:4; Mark 10:6; Mark 13:19
3) The honor and glory of God are revealed in His work. It is logically absurd to worship God as creator, but then refuse to believe what He says on the subject.
4) The atonement depends of God's creation account. According to Genesis, man was created to live with God forever. There was no suffering, no accidents, no death until after the Fall. Death entered as the penalty for man's sin. However, evolutionary theories hold that death had been around for ages upon ages before man came on the seen, sinned, and was cursed. If this is the case, then death as penalty for sin seems illogical and Christ's death as payment for sin appears meaningless.

I believe in the creation account of Genesis. How about you?