A summary of Dr. Donald Crowe's presentation to Atlanta Creation Group attendees on March 12.
1. The Bible provides us with three explosive truths that implode the structure of evolution.
a. Creation ex nihilo in six calendar days
b. Worldwide Flood, which was catastrophic, a judgment, with great geological impact
c. The Chronology of Biblical History found in the Genesis genealogies and the records of Kings and Chronicles.
2. But these three truths are just the ones compromising Evangelicals are so eager to be rid of.
3. This presentation deals with Chronology: The Structure of Biblical History; and the Consequences of adopting an evolutionary worldview.
4. Genesis 5 & 11 are quite clear, describing in detail the genealogical timeline from Adam to Noah, then from Noah to Abraham.
5. The genealogies are selective in one regard: Only the son who is the ancestor of Noah, then Abraham, then the Messiah is included. He may have been the first son or the tenth son, but only one son was the direct ancestor of the Messianic line.
6. The church has always known what the straightforward genealogies mean. From Augustine to the Reformation and beyond. But after the theory of evolution became culturally accepted, many in the church sought to put new spins on the biblical record. The Bible was not allowed to speak for itself, but had outside and contradictory worldview imposed upon it.
7. Septuagint (LXX) and Samaritan Pentateuch differ from the Hebrew text because they both imposed their own rationalistic schemes upon the text.
a. Septuagint (Greek translation of the Old Testament) imposed an arbitrary “formula” upon the Hebrew text based on their doubts that the patriarchs oculd have lived so long as 900+ years. They arbitrarily asserted (no evidence involved) that it must take 10 “Bible years” to make 1 of our years. When the genealogy reported that the father begot the son at age 30, their ridiculous theory had a problem: by their formula the father was only 3.0 (THREE) years old. Since this was also unbelievable, they decided to arbitrarily ADD 100 years making him 130 “bible years” OR actually 13 years old! With this kind of nonsense going on, why do Evangelical compromises think that it should count against the biblical chronology that the LXX does not agree with the Hebrew text! Of course LXX does not agree, it has deliberately imposed arbitrary figures.
b. Samaritan Pentateuch. Apparently using the LXX as their basis, they had another rationalistic objection. Namely that many of the the fathers WAITED TOO LONG to have a son. (Ignoring the fact that the son named is not always the FIRST son born to that father) They imposed their own “formula” on the Septuagint text. They arbitrarily asseted that the “father” must be between 50 and 150 years old. If they found a figure less than 50 they ADDED 100 years, if they found a figure greater than 150 they SUBTRACTED 100 years from the LXX text.
8. Remember that when compromising views present this objection about the differences in LXX and Samaritan chronology with the Hebrew text—they do not actually believe ANY of them because they have determined to accept the evolutionary timeline. This particular objection is nothing but a smokescreen, having no substance.
9. The affirmations of Jesus to the validily of Genesis are infinitely more authoritative than the compromising “eisegesis of cultural conformity” relying on the speculations of “scholarly” men.
10. Is the compromisers’ appeal to the “genealogy” of Matthew chapter one a legitimate objection? NO. Almost anyone can see the obvious differences. There is no specific chronological information in Matthew’s listing. Additionally the only way we know that Matthew’s list passes over 3 people is that the Old Testament chronology fills in the missing information. In other words the genealogies of Genesis are more complete, as we maintain. They are also more complete than the compromisers want to admit.
11. Creation vs Evolution is a battle of Worldviews. Evolution is basically an arbitrarily assumed framework into which all observations and all data must be made to fit. The truth about ORIGINS cannot be scientifically observed, measured, experimented or tested in a lab.
12. Consequences of the Worldview one adopts. LIFE or DEATH.
13. The year 2009 marks the anniversary of a 150 year LEGACY OF DEATH, particulary since Darwin’s Origin of Species. This year also marks 500 yeasrs of the LEGACY OF LIFE, particularly the 500th birthday of Reformation leader John Calvin.
14. What is affected by a person’s foundational worldview..
a. The value of human life: are we and the people around us created in the Image of God? Or are they merely a few mutations away from an ape,and a few more from pond scum? The cheapening of human life as seen in abortion, euthanasia, eugenics, violent crime, and the general treatment of other human beings.
b. Ethics. Created by God: absolute values and objective standards. Evolved from fish, reptiles, birds, mammals and primates: humans are of no more value than birds, bugs, or baboons. IN Matthew 6.26 Jesus asked a question to whch the obvious answer is YES. He asked “Are you not of more value than birds?” The evolutionist has to answer NO. Darwin’s grandfather Erasmus Darwin, in his The Temple of Nature, believed that ants were our brothers and worms were our sisters. How valuable are those lives?
c. Meaning, purpose and human destiny: all falsified by evolution. We must not let atheists do our thinking, then try to make the Bible fit in with their error.
15. Germany: a showcase of the conaequences of accepting the evolutionary worldview.
16. Ernst Haeckel vs the Bible on the value of human life.
17. Francis Galton and the horror of eugenics.
18. Margaret Sanger adopts eugenics and takes measures to eliminate future generations, especially in black neighborhoods. (Founder of Planned Parenthood)
19. Social Darwinists seek to enlist the compulsory force of civil Government to “speed up” the evolutionary “progress” that has been moving so slowly.
20. Nietzsche and the loss of absolute values. Even Christians were confused.
21. Same evolutionary ideas spread in the United States with their compulsory sterilization laws.
22. The Darwin to Hitler connection. Making cruelty and murder “SCIENTIFIC” and respectable. See Richard Weikart’s From Darwin to Hitler, Ben Stein’s film, Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed. Search the CMI website at www.creation.com and search for answers from an archive of hundreds of articles.
23. Evolution and tyranny are connected by the devaluation of human life when viewed through the distorted lens of evolution.
24. The Creation vs Evolution controversy is a battle of worldviews. How shall we INTERPRET the things we observe? What account of things do we tell? The inspired account of the OMNISCIENT Creator? Or the wishful thinking of those who will not have God in their knowledge and suppress the truth in unrighteousness.
25. The omniscient Creator has already known from all eternity EVERYTHING that man can ever discover (and in fact knows more than we will EVER know). Trust His word.
26. There can be no neutrality. As creationist geologist John Reed said,
“Throughout its history the Church has allowed clear biblical statements to be folded, mutilated and spindled to accommodate assertions derived outside of the Bible…in fact ALIEN to Scripture being part of the antagonistic worldview of Naturalism.”
:There can be nothing more certain than a word from the Creator Himself.
