I believe the end times church will be as described in the Book of Acts: it will be a House Church Movement largely due to the persecution of Christians that will be prevalent at that time. Very similar to the underground churches in China during the time of Chairman Mao and the house churches in most Muslim countries today.
Our beliefs are the framework in which faith and values exist. God is holy and He created humanity for relationship with Him. His ways are higher and His principles are flawless.
Because of Adam’s and Eve’s disobedience, the Holy Spirit departed their spirits so all of their descendants lack the Holy Spirit to enable them to live a holy life pleasing to God. The penalty for Adam and Eve’s disobedience was death, first spiritual death when they lost the Holy Spirit and then physical death. The good news is that God through His son Jesus was prepared to become a man, live a sinless life, and by His death pay the price for mankind’s rebellion/sin. When we repent of our sin and are prepared to accept Jesus as our Lord and Saviour then God the Father sends the Holy Spirit to indwell our spirit enabling us once again to be in fellowship with Him and live a holy life. We are a new creation.
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.” 2 Corinthians 5:17-19
Notice that all of us have been given the ministry of reconciliation to bring others to Jesus Christ.
Our beliefs must be based on the following scriptures.
“We believe in one holy, perfect, and eternal God, self-existing in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; distinguishable but indivisible.” Deuteronomy 6:4; Matthew 28:19; 2 Corinthians 13:14
“We believe the Bible is the divinely inspired Word of God – accurate and applicable to our lives.” 2 Timothy 3:16; 2 Peter 1:19-21; 1 Corinthians 2:13
“We believe that God created the world and everything in it just 6000 years ago. He created it in six days and rested on the seventh solely as a pattern for how we are to live: we will work six days and the seventh day will be a sabbath rest. We believe that humanity was created in the image of God to know him and to enjoy him, that God gave every human being free will, and humanity’s choice to sin has separated each of us from God and His purpose for our lives whereby we are completely unable to attain right-standing with God on our own merit.” Romans 5:12, 18-19
We believe God judged the earth with the worldwide flood of Noah’s day just ten generations after Adam. Only eight people survived, Noah’s family, to repopulate the earth. The flood resulted in billions of dead things being buried quickly all over the earth and created the fossil fuels that we use today. Evolutionists deny there was a worldwide flood and try to justify evolution by adding billions of years to Earth’s history.
“Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight, and the earth was filled with violence. And God saw the earth, and behold, it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth. And God said to Noah, “I have determined to make an end of all flesh, for the earth is filled with violence through them. Behold, I will destroy them with the earth. Make yourself an ark of gopher wood. Make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and out with pitch...” Genesis 6:11-14
Less than two hundred years following the worldwide flood God had to step in and confuse the languages and create the nations so that once again a disobedient people would do as He instructed them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.“
“Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower (Tower of Babel) with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth.” Genesis 11:4
“Come, let us go down and there confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another’s speech.” So the Lord dispersed them from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city.” Genesis 11:7-8
God established His nation, Israel from one man Abraham to represent Him on Earth. One of the greatest miracles that proves God’s existence is the Exodus and God establishing Israel in the land God gave them. It is amazing that even before they entered the promised land God told them through Moses that they would be driven out by God into other nations but He would regather them at His prearranged time. In 1948 the miracle of Israel’s restoration began which is the most significant prophesied end times event signaling Jesus’s soon coming return.
“And when all these things come upon you, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before you, and you call them to mind among all the nations where the Lord your God has driven you, and return to the Lord your God, you and your children, and obey his voice in all that I command you today, with all your heart and with all your soul, then the Lord your God will restore your fortunes and have mercy on you, and He will gather you again from all the peoples where the Lord your God has scattered you.“Deuteronomy 30:1-3
“We believe that our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ changed history BC and AD. He is the only one who can reconcile us to God; who, though fully God, became both God and man through conception by the Holy Spirit and was born of the virgin Mary. His sinless life made possible His death as perfect atonement for all humanity. This is entirely by means of God’s grace offered to us.” Romans 5:12, 18-19
“We believe that Jesus Christ gave up His life on the cross, was buried, and rose again on the third day. He defeated death by resurrection power, appeared to many including His disciples, ascended to heaven, and will come again to establish His Millennial Kingdom with the resurrected Saints, prior to the White Throne judgement and creating a new Heaven and new Earth where only the righteous will dwell. We believe this is the Biblical way of seeing the whole world which empowers us to live every day as Jesus did in subjection to the Holy Spirit.” 1 Corinthians 15:1-4; 2 Corinthians 6:14, 7:1; Romans 4:25; John 14:2-3; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18; Ephesians 5:18
“We believe that water baptism by immersion is an outward act of obedience, and a public demonstration of faith and discipleship, by everyone who chooses to acknowledge Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour.” Matthew 28:19; Acts 2:34-36, 19:1-6
“We believe the baptism in the Holy Spirit is a distinct experience given by God. Speaking in unknown languages is significant evidence of this experience and is available to every believer. The key to this event is not simply the gift of tongues, but rather empowerment to operate in every gift the Spirit gives us including miracles, deliverance, healing, freedom, and all manner of excessive generosity as a part of bringing the reality of God to our world.” Acts 2:1-4, 4:30, 8:14-17, 10:44-45; Galatians 3:14; Jude 1:20; Romans 8:11; 1 Corinthians 12:9; James 5:14; Mark 16:17; Ephesians 4
“We believe in the reality of the spiritual realm – angels and demons, heaven and hell, the existence of the devil, and God’s ultimate judgment upon him and his fallen angels. We believe in the eternal life of believers and eternal separation from God for unbelievers with a second death.” Matthew 25:41; John 3:16, 3:36, 5:24; 2 Thessalonians 1:8-9; Revelation 2:11, Rev. 29:6, Rev. 20:14, Rev. 21:8, Rev. 20:10–15
“We believe all human life is a gift from God and that life is sacred from the moment of conception. Each person has a divinely ordained purpose, irrespective of the circumstances and we uphold the sanctity of human life from conception. We believe God’s intention for marriage is one man and one woman and that all sex is reserved for marriage, as God intended it.” Genesis 1:27-28, 2:24; Psalms 139:13-16; Proverbs 5:15-19; Jeremiah 1:5; Matthew 19:4-6; Mark 10:1-9; Luke 1:15; Ephesians 5:22-23; 1 Corinthians 6:9, 7:1-4; Galatians 5:16
“We believe that because of our sinful nature and the brokenness in our world, we all struggle with varying issues, but the heart of God is to bring forgiveness and restoration to those who seek it. Through grace and truth, personal healing and reconciliation to God are available to all.” Psalm 23:3; Jeremiah 29:11-14; Luke 4:18; John 1:14,17, 8:31-32; Acts 3:19-21; Romans 6–8; Galatians 6:1; Hebrews 4:16; 2 Corinthians 12:8-9
The authors survey the ancient chroniclers for durations to the Flood and to Creation. We find that the ancient chroniclers unanimously placed the Flood in the twenty-fourth century BC. Several durations to Creation also agree with Ussher’s date within ten years (The Ussher chronology is a 17th-century chronology of the history of the world by James Ussher, the Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland)
We were surprised to find how closely chroniclers from ancient nations agree with each other and the Ussher chronology. Not only are there precise durations to the Flood and Creation from several civilizations, but a considerable amount of history from the antediluvian era has been preserved, albeit now covered under layers of superstition and idolatry.
The Hindu texts preserve a great deal of chronological and historical data, which has been overlaid and interpreted through the lens of much later Gnosticism. The Hindu word buddha originally meant a sage or prophet, millennia before it came to mean a particular god (Hamilton 1820, 289).
The oldest Hindu texts describe Adam, Enoch, and Noah as buddhas, which originally meant prophets (Hamilton 1820, 114–120). However, they also refer to the first ten generations of prediluvian patriarchs as “avatars” or incarnations of God, (Hamilton 1820, 10) which we obviously reject.
The Chinese remember the first ten patriarchs as legendary emperors, and also preserve surprisingly detailed chronological details about some of them, as well as the history of Noah’s post-flood career.
Stellar Observations: Chinese and Babylonian sources seem to indicate that the earliest astronomical observations after the Flood date back to 2295 B.C. (Spineto 1845, 404). The Shû King records that Emperor Yâo ordered the construction of four observatories as the first priority after the Flood. In Griffith and White (2023), we calculated the date of Yâo’s reign as having begun in 2347 B.C. Some Chinese scholars calculate it as 2357 B.C.
Chinese: Alexander Hamilton states: “the Chinese annalists . . . place the deluge of Yau in the same year that the Hebrews place the flood of Noah, . . .” (Hamilton 1820, 345). This calculation was based on the reigns of the first three post-Flood dynasties, as opposed to astronomical calculations.
Hindu Astrological: “the year 2352 was obtained by the Hindus from a purely astronomical calculation . . . for this implies their opinion that the history of the world went back no further” (Browne 1844, 567). The Flood generally marks the beginning of known world history, as the Hindus considered the era before the Flood as the reign of the gods. Browne suggests this calculation was made in 204 B.C., which happens to be when the vernal equinox was leaving Aries. If so, this suggests the Hindus believed the vernal equinox was in the cusp of Taurus at the time of the Flood. We will repeat what we believe this calculation to have been in the astronomical section of this paper.
Diodorus states that the Egyptian priests maintained that “when mankind first appeared on the earth [after the Flood]; . . . but from the Trojan War, less than twelve hundred [years]” (Diodorus 1935, Book 1, §24.2). Since the Trojan war ended 1184/1183 B.C., less than 1,200 years yields a date below 2383 B.C. for the date of the Flood. Assuming Diodorus rounded to the nearest hundred, the Flood probably occurred between 2383 and 2333 B.C.
Eusebius cites Varro as computing that the Flood was 1,600 years before the Olympic aera, (Eusebius 2002, PrEv. 10.10) which yields 2376 B.C., plus or minus 50 years.
Censorinus dates the flood of Ogyges as less than 1,600 years before the first olympiad (Williams 1789, 250). He seems to have confused the much later flood of Ogyges with the Deluge, as several other Greek sources did with both the floods of Ogyges and Deucalion. This section is confusing; however, he gives values that sum up to between 1,400 to 1,514 years prior to the first Olympiad (Censorinus 2000, 30–31).
Bunsen quotes Censorinus as being more precise: “same year is referred to by Censorinus, about 238 A.D., who states, on the authority of Varro, ‘the most learned of the Romans,’ born 116 B.C., that the Flood took place about the year 2360” (Bunsen 2017, 11).
“This Nembrot [Nimrod], says Berosus, built Babylon 130 years after the flood” (Raleigh 1829, chapter 8). One hundred and thirty years before 2233 B.C. yields 2363 B.C. However, he may be referring to the Dispersion, in which case, 2191 + 130 yields 2321 B.C.
We find that the sources who used Berossus to determine the date of the Flood measured 1,000 years before the Fall of Troy, and then added 163 years to the date of the Flood. 1184 + 1,000 + 163 = 2347 B.C.
Nevertheless, 2363 B.C. is consistent with the testimonies of Diodorus, Varro, and Censorinus.
Polyhistor used this value also: “a kingdom at Babylon, 163 years after the flood, according to Polyhistor” (Williams 1789, 250).
Assuming that Polyhistor used 1,000 years before the Fall of Troy in 1183 B.C. as the date for the first kingdom in Babylon, then 163 years before 2184 B.C. yields 2347 B.C., matching Ussher’s date for the end of the Flood.
However, according to our triangulations from Griffith and White (2023), the first kingdom in Babylon after the Dispersion started in 2192/2191 B.C., yielding 2354 B.C. for the Flood using this 163-year duration.
756 Years after the Kali Yuga: Confucius dated the Flood as occurring in the 757th year of the Kali Yuga (Hamilton 1820, 316). This value is given as 3,267,000 ages from the Kali Yuga, which, divided by the 4,320-cipher of the Hindus and Chinese, yields 756.25 years (Hamilton 1820, 332). The Hindus calculated time before the Flood in double hours, reported as “years.” We demonstrated that the astronomical date for the Kali Yuga was 3104 B.C. in Griffith and White (2023), by counting from three different events: the Hijrah, the birth of Moses, and the Usurpation of Pradyato, all of which occurred after the Flood. Counting 756 whole years from 3104 B.C. gives 2348 B.C. for the Flood, agreeing exactly with Ussher.
The Deluge occurred in the 47th year of a Grand Cycle: “the world by the Hindus and Chinese, and the commencement of their cycles agree, each placing the deluge in the 47th year of a cycle” (Hamilton 1820, vol. 1, 332). The year 2349/8 was the forty-seventh year of the fourteenth sixty-year cycle from the start of the Grand Cycle in 3176 B.C. (Griffith and White 2023, 151.
Cush’s Reigns: 62/55/42 years: Belus, whom we believe to have been Cush, ruled Babel until 2192/2191 B.C., and is said to have reigned 62 years (Russell 1865, 379) by Scaliger and 55 years by Syncellus quoting Africanus (Clinton 1824, vol. 1, 267), all three of whom were redactors of Ctesias. We believe both values refer to events in the reign of Cush, called Belus, or Bel Marduk.
Cush could only have ruled in the city of Babel from the time it was founded in 2234/2233 B.C. until the Dispersion in 2192/2191 B.C. or 42/43 years, since, “At the end of forty two years after the building of the Tower, Ninus son of Belus took the kingship of the world” (Macalister 1941, §13).
However, the Babel project must have been the result of many years of planning and organization. This is evidenced by its founding on the conjunction of the New Moon with the Vernal Equinox in 2233 B.C. (Cullimore 1833, 167, 180). This suggests they anticipated this conjunction and deliberately waited for this date to establish the city or its temple. Therefore, it is not unreasonable to postulate that Belus/Cush began to rule in some fashion a decade or more before the city was founded.
Cullimore (1833, 165) states “The building of this tower is by profane writers uniformly ascribed to Belus.” Cush’s rule over his tribe would have started earlier when the land was divided around the time of Peleg’s birth. The two longer durations for his length of reign, which predate the founding of Babel, may be explained by two divisions of territory as reported in the Book of Jubilees (Charles 1913, Jubilees 8.8-10).
Berossus gives 34,080 days, which is 93.3 Julian years, or 94.6 years of 360 days then used by ancient Babylon, from the Flood until the first dynasty of Babylon, when by inference, Belus/Cush began to rule. 94.6 plus 62 is 156.6 years; 156 years before the Dispersion in 2192/2191 B.C. yields 2348/2347 B.C. for the Flood, and 2254/2253 B.C. for the First Territorial Division.
The Hindu records give 150 years from the Division of the Earth until the Usurpation of Pradyato (Hamilton 1820, 124). Pradyato was a Cushite who conquered the nascent Indus civilization and took over the government. This Usurpation was also given as 1,000 years after the Kali Yuga. Subtracting 756 years to the Flood from the Kali Yuga, as well as the 150 years of self-rule by the Hindus, we find that the division of the world was 94 years after the Flood began, which is 93 years after the end of the Flood. This triangulates, confirming that our interpretation of the 34,080 days is correct.
Syncellus cites Africanus in his epitome of Ctesias who gives the reign of Belus, whom we consider to have been Cush, as 55 years (Clinton 1824, 267), which by our reckoning would be from the birth of Peleg in 2247 BC (Ussher 2005, 21, §47) to the Dispersion in 2192/2191 B.C. Thus, it appears territorial division may have been a seven-year process that began in 2254 B.C. and was finalized in 2247 B.C., both confirming the Flood was in 2348/2347 B.C. Adding 101 years from the Flood to Peleg in the MT to the 55 years of Belus gives 156 years from the end of the Flood to the Dispersion, again triangulating 2348/2347 B.C. for the Flood.
Semiramis I: 312/313 years: The Annals of Clonmacnoise state that Semiramis’ rule started 313 years after the Great Flood. “Ireland long time after the flood lay waste until . . . after the flood 313 years . . . in the 1st year of the Raigne of Semiramis then monarchs of the world in Assiria” (McGeoghagan 1896, 12–13). The Irish Annals of Clonmacnoise state that Semiramis began to rule 312 years after the Flood (Percy 1823, 270).
2036/2035 BC, AP-21 Reign of Semiramis I; plus, 313 years; gives: 2349/2348 BC for the Flood
Emperor Yâo’s Reign 2347 BC: We found in a previous paper (Griffith and White 2022b, 422) that Yu of the Xia Dynasty of China began to reign in 2197 B.C. His predecessors Yâo and Shun reigned for a total of 150 years. Emperor Yâo’s reign was said to have begun when the Flood had ended.
2197 B.C., AP-4 Reign of Yu/Xia; plus, 150 years of Yâo and Shun; gives: 2347 B.C. end of Flood
In Exodus 20:8–10, God gave the children of Israel the fourth commandment: work for six days and then on the seventh day, take a Sabbath rest. He could have given the command without providing a reason for the command, as he did in the first and the fifth through the tenth commandments and other times when he commanded a Sabbath rest. Or he could have given a different reason for the Sabbath command (e.g., so their animals could rest, to avoid death for disobedience, to humble their souls, to remember their exodus from slavery in Egypt, or simply because he is the Lord. But as in the second and third commands in Exodus 20, God gave a reason for the Sabbath command. The Israelites should work six days and rest on the seventh, “For in six days the Lord made heaven and 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.” And he repeated that reason in Exodus 31:15–17.
In Exodus 20:11, God used the same Hebrew word for “days”11 (yamim, the plural form of yom [day]) that he used in verse nine, showing that God’s days of creation in Genesis 1 were the same kind of days (the same length) as the days of the week for the Israelites. It is doubtful if any faithful Jew ever interpreted it any other way until the idea of millions of years started to take control of people’s minds about two centuries ago.
We should note that if God really created over the course of millions of years (as most Christians around the world today believe), he could have clearly indicated that in the Hebrew. He could have used the Hebrew word dor (דּוֹר), which is translated in English Bibles as time, period, or generation.12 Or he could have borrowed an Aramaic word, as he did in the books of Nehemiah and Daniel, such as zeman (זְמָ֑ן) or iddan (עִדָּן), which are translated as season, time, or period.13 Or he could have used some phrase such as “after many days,”14 “after some years,”15 “after thousands of ten thousand years,”16 or “after years of many generations.”17 But instead, God used the only Hebrew word, yom (יוֹם), which means a literal, 24-hour day, and it means that (or the light portion of a literal, 24-hour day, in contrast to night) in the majority of the 2,320 times it is used in the Old Testament.
One more point for this discussion: Exodus 20:8–11 clearly implies that the days of Genesis 1 (and therefore the events on those six days) are in sequential order, just as the days of a human week are. Sunday always comes before Monday, which always comes before Tuesday, etc. So, in Genesis 1, God created the earth completely covered with water and then he created light (day 1), then the expanse (firmament) to separate the water into two parts (day 2), and then the dry land and all kinds of land plants (day 3). After that, he created the heavenly bodies to serve as timekeepers for man (day 4), then the sea creatures and birds and other flying creatures (day 5), then all the kinds of land animals and, finally, the first man and woman to be the progenitors of mankind (day 6). Given that truth, we can readily see the many contradictions between the order of creation and the order of events in the evolution story.18 We cannot remove those contradictions no matter where we might try to fit millions of years.
It is clear: God created everything in the beginning in six literal, sequential, 24-hour days. The events on those days were not normal but were unique and supernatural as God spoke things into existence (Genesis 1:3, 6, 9, 11, 14, 20, 24, 26; Psalm 33:6–9). He didn’t speak and then wait millions of years for things to happen. But the days were normal days (approximately 24 hours), just like our days, “all the days” of Adam’s 930 years of life (Genesis 5:5), and “all the days” of Noah’s 950 years of life (Genesis 9:29).
No Place to Put the Millions of Years
So, we can’t spread the millions of years over “figurative” or “symbolic” creation “days” (ages), as in the day-age view. And because God equated the human workweek with his creation week, there is no basis for saying that, in Genesis 1, long stretches of time (millions of years) transpired between the literal days, as in the “day-gap-day” view of John Lennox.
But we also can’t fit millions of years before the six literal days, as in the old gap theory, the more recent “promised land” view of John Sailhamer, the view of John Lennox, or the “analogical day” view of C. John Collins. Nor can we fit the millions of years before Genesis 1:1, as in the “cosmic temple view” of John Walton and others. There was no time before the six days, because notice what God said he created in those six days: the heaven,20 the earth, the sea, and all that is in them. He didn’t make anything before the six days. He made everything during those six days. But when did God make the earth according to Genesis 1? He made it in verse 1, not in verse 3, which is where many Christians try to say that the six days begin. So, combining Exodus 20:11 with Genesis 1:1 unmistakably informs us that the six days begin in Genesis 1:1, not in 1:3.
There simply is no place to put millions of years of geological and cosmological time into or before Genesis 1—not in the days, between the days, or before the days of creation. Exodus 20:11 completely rules out those interpretations. There are many biblical, historical, philosophical, and scientific reasons to reject the millions of years, but Exodus 20:11 is a very important biblical reason. Another very important reason that nearly all old-earth proponents ignore is the problem of accepting millions of years of animal predation, death, disease, extinction, and other natural evils. This is seriously incompatible with the Bible’s teaching regarding the original “very good” creation, regarding God’s curse on the whole creation when Adam sinned, and regarding the future removal of the curse on creation when Jesus comes again to create a new heaven and earth.
Evasions of Exodus 20:11
As I said at the beginning, I have found in my reading and experience that most Christians who accept millions of years have not thought very carefully, if at all, about what Exodus 20:11 says in relation to the question of the age of the creation.
To see the truth and importance of Exodus 20:11 more assuredly, let’s now consider how some influential Christian scholars who accept the millions of years have handled this verse.
Through his 1955 book, The Christian View of Science and Scripture, Baptist theologian Bernard Ramm moved many to accept millions of years as he advocated the day-age view of Genesis 1. This is all he said about verse 11 in the fourth commandment: “The argument against the [day-age, progressive-creation] theory on the grounds of Exodus 20:11 is not at all significant. The verse simply means that the human week of seven days takes its rise from the divine week of seven creative epochs.”24 Following the scientific consensus by faith, he had already interpreted the days of Genesis 1 as “epochs.” Then he used this to silence Exodus 20:11. This is not a sound interpretation of Scripture, for he ignored God’s own commentary.
Millard Erickson’s Christian Theology is widely used in seminaries in English and other languages. In his first edition in 1983, he showed no awareness of recent young-earth creationist literature, gave a shallow treatment of the view, and undogmatically leaned toward the day-age view of Genesis 1. But his only mention of Exodus 20:8–11 was not in his chapter on creation but in the chapter on Christology regarding Jesus’ view on keeping the Sabbath. In spite of saying in his 1983 first edition that the subject of creation warranted further study, his third edition in 2013 showed no improvement on his awareness of young-earth literature or our biblical and scientific arguments, and he still ignored Exodus 20:8–11.25
In his book, Genesis in Space and Time, the great apologist Francis Schaeffer devoted merely a single paragraph to the question of the length of the creation days and said he did not know how long they were (p. 57). His book makes no reference to Exodus 20:8–11.
Gleason Archer was a leading evangelical Old Testament scholar in the twentieth century. In an article defending the day-age view, he stated about Exodus 20:11 in regard to the six days of Genesis 1, “By no means does this [verse] demonstrate that 24-hour intervals were involved in the first six ‘days,’ any more than the eight-day celebration of the Feast of Tabernacles proves that the wilderness wanderings under Moses occupied only eight days.” This argument fails because Leviticus 23:33–43 does not connect the number of days of the feast to the number of years Israel wandered in the wilderness. Rather those verses link the command for the Israelites to dwell in booths during the feast with the fact that they dwelt in tents in the wilderness after they left Egypt.
Another influential, twentieth-century Old Testament scholar was E. J. Young. In his Studies in Genesis One, he says that the first chapter of the Bible is a “straightforward trustworthy history.” He asserts that Exodus 20:8–11 tells us the days of creation were “consecutive” and “chronological.” But he says the Bible does not tell us how long the days were and how old the earth is, thereby leaving the door open to the acceptance of millions of years as secular geologists claim.27 It is no surprise then that his son, Davis Young, went on to get his PhD in geology and teach for decades at Calvin College, convincing many students and evangelical theologians to believe in millions of years.
The late John Sailhamer is another prominent evangelical Old Testament professor who has had an impact on many, including John Piper, to accept millions of years. In Genesis Unbound, he argues that Genesis 1:1 refers to the creation of nearly everything over the course of millions of years. But verses 2–31 describe the creation of the promised land (which he equated with the garden of Eden) and the creatures in, above, and around the promised land. He said that Exodus 20:8–11 refers to six literal days of “preparing the [earth’s] sky, the land, and the sea,” but not the earth and universe. His novel interpretation of Genesis is seriously flawed.
The highly respected British apologist John Lennox and well-known Old Testament professor C. John Collins try to evade the implications of Exodus 20:11 by saying that God’s work is different from man’s work. True, unlike man’s work, God’s work in Genesis 1 is supernatural, out-of-nothing, and not repeated, and God doesn’t get tired. But Exodus 20:8–11 is not comparing and contrasting man’s work and God’s work. Rather, the commandment is equating man’s week with God’s week of creation. Lennox and Collins have missed the point completely.
Wayne Grudem is arguably the most influential evangelical theologian in the world as a result of his many helpful writings, especially his Systematic Theology, which is translated into more than 12 major languages. He tries to get around Exodus 20:11 by saying that in the very next verse “‘day’ means ‘a period of time’”—so, since yom is used non-literally in the context, it therefore is not necessarily literal in verse 11. But two points expose the fallacy of this argument. First, yamim (plural of yom and used in 20:8–12) always means literal days everywhere else in the Old Testament. Second, in 20:12 it is not the word “days” (yamim) that is non-literal (figurative). Rather, it is the verb “may be long” (ESV, or “may be prolonged” as in NASB) that is used figuratively. In other words, verse 12 does not mean that if Israelites would keep the Sabbath, they would have longer days (say, 36-hour days) but that they would have many more (literal, 24-hour) days in the promised land to which they were going. Their disobedience would shorten their time of prosperity and residence in the promised land. Their obedience to God would enable them to stay and thrive as a nation in the land for a long time. Verse 12 simply does not say or imply that the six days referred to in Exodus 20:11 are figurative of long periods of time rather than being literal days.
In A Biblical Case for an Old Earth, David Snoke says, “It may sound trite to say that ‘with the Lord one day is as a thousand years’ (2 Peter 3:8; see also Ps. 90:4), but we do well to remember that God’s timing is not always our time.” It is indeed trite and irrelevant. Peter is referring to the second coming of Christ, not defining the length of the days in Genesis 1 or Exodus 20:8–11. Moses’ words in Psalm 90:4 are (in the context of 90:1–3) referring to the eternal nature of God, not defining the days of creation. The rest of Snoke’s argument quotes Leviticus 25:2–11 to say that “the Sabbath law was clearly not restricted to periods of seven twenty-four-hour days. Leviticus 25 gives the Sabbath year law, as well as the Jubilee law, which was a Sabbath of Sabbath years, a period of seven times seven years.”34 Of course Scripture speaks of more than one kind of Sabbath. But those Sabbath years are literal years, just like the Sabbath day of Exodus 20:11 is literal. Furthermore, in Exodus 20:11, the question is not how to interpret “Sabbath” but “day.” And the Israelites did not have or take the liberty of deciding whether they would work six literal days before a Sabbath rest or work six long, indefinite periods of time and then rest a seventh long, indefinite period of time. Leviticus 25 is as irrelevant to the correct meaning of Exodus 20:11 as is 2 Peter 3:8 and Psalm 90:4.
John Walton is a famous Old Testament scholar at Wheaton College. His influence in the church is growing in America as well as in other countries. In his book, The Lost World of Genesis One, he argues that God didn’t create anything in Genesis 1—it is not an account of material origins. Rather, he says, it is a description of God giving or assigning function to a preexisting creation. Everything was created before Genesis 1:1, and the Bible is silent about when and how God created. So, he contends, we can accept whatever the scientific majority says is true about the origin and history of the creation. His brief comments about Exodus 20:11 focus completely on persuading his readers that “made” (asah, עָשָׂה) means “gave function to” or “assigned function to” something that was made earlier. Walton’s view fails on so many points. He assumes cosmological, geological, and biological evolution over millions of years are proven scientific facts, which they are not. He assumes that all Ancient Near-Eastern cultures had the same worldview and that ancient Israelites shared that view, which they did not. And then he uses the ancient pagan thinking as the grid through which he interprets Genesis 1–11. Furthermore, Genesis 1 does not say that God transformed the preexisting creation to become a cosmic temple in which to reside. In fact, Isaiah 66:1–2 says,
Thus says the Lord: “Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool; what is the house that you would build for me, and what is the place of my rest? All these things my hand has made, and so all these things came to be, declares the Lord. But this is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word.”
Walton and others using the same hermeneutical approach are “trembling at” (believing) the words of scientists, rather than humbly trembling at (believing) the Word of God.
Furthermore, Genesis 1:14 says that the sun, moon, and stars were to serve a function—for man to measure time (literal days, years, and seasons). God assigns a function for Adam and Eve—to rule over the creation (1:28). But God doesn’t assign a function for the firmament (made on day 2), or for sea creatures, birds, or land animals (made on days 5 and 6). And Genesis 1 says nothing about the creation functioning as a cosmic temple at the end of day 6. But also, if God really created the sun, moon, and stars to exist for billions of years before man (as Walton believes), then for most of their existence, they did not fulfill the purpose for which he created them. Or are we to think that, for billions of years, the heavenly bodies also did not function to separate the day and night until God gave them that function just before he created Adam and Eve? Isaiah 45:12 and 18 says that God created the earth to be inhabited by man. So, if God really created the earth 4.5 billion years before man, it did not fulfill the purpose to which God created it. What kind of God declares purposes like this and then waits billions of years to fulfill it? Not the God revealed in Scripture. Neither Genesis 1 nor Exodus 20:11 says or even suggests, “For in six days, God gave function to the heavens and the earth and the sea and all that is in them which he had made before the six days.”
Finally, I want to comment on Hugh Ross’ handling of Exodus 20:11, because so many Christian leaders and scholars have endorsed his work that promotes the acceptance of the big bang, billions of years, death before the fall, and a local flood of Noah. Ross tries to neutralize this verse with two points. First, he says that of the five passages addressing the Sabbath command, three make no connection to God’s creation week and man’s week. But that doesn’t tell us anything about the meaning of Exodus 20:11 (and 31:17) which does make that connection. The fact that God gives more than one reason (or no reason) for keeping the Sabbath, does not negate the reason he gives in Exodus 20:11 and 31:17.
He then says, “For the remaining two passages, the ‘proof’ would hold only if neither the word for ‘day’ nor the word for ‘Sabbath’ were ever used with reference to any time period other than 24 hours.” Relying on Archer’s fallacious argument about the Feast of Tabernacles (noted above), Ross says there is more than one kind of Sabbath (e.g., a Sabbath day, a Sabbath year), just as in his many writings he contends that yom (“day”) doesn’t always mean a literal day, which young-earth creationists have always acknowledged. And so he says, “day” and “sabbath” in Exodus 20:11 can be understood to allow Christians to insert billions of years into Genesis 1.
But sound Bible interpretation is not done by looking up all the possible meanings of a word and then picking the one we want to insert into the verse(s) we are studying. That is eisegesis (reading into Scripture our opinion or belief), not exegesis (reading out of Scripture what God wants us to understand, do, or believe). No, we correctly interpret the Bible by looking at the context around the word in the verse(s) we are studying and by considering other verses that relate directly to that verse. When we do that, it is obvious biblically that the days of Genesis 1 and Exodus 20:8–11 are literal, normal, 24-hour days.
Conclusion
More attempts to ignore or evade the clear truth of Exodus 20:11 could be discussed. But the failed attempts discussed here reinforce the obviously correct interpretation. God made everything in the beginning in six literal, normal days just like ours.
It should also be noted that nobody has any trouble understanding the other nine commandments (although everyone has trouble obeying all of them). So, why all the convoluted arguments in order to explain away the obvious meaning of Exodus 20:11? Because these Christians have allowed the scientific consensus (i.e., the majority view of geologists and astrophysicists) about the age of creation to control their interpretation of God’s Word. The fallible opinions of sinful human beings (who don’t know everything, who make mistakes requiring revisions of their textbooks, and who weren’t there to observe the origin and history of the creation) have trumped the inerrant Word of our eternal, omnipresent, omniscient, infallible Creator in their mind.
If God really created over millions of years, then Exodus 20:8–11 could not be more misleading. Conversely, if God did create in six literal days, he could not be more clear in this commandment and in Genesis 1.
Exodus 20:11 stands as an insurmountable stone wall against any attempt to fit millions of years anywhere into Genesis 1, either in the days, between the days, or before the days of creation. And Scripture is clear that those literal days of creation were just a little more than 6,000 years ago
The Bible teaches a worldwide Flood. It destroyed all people and land vertebrates off the Ark. Many creatures were buried quickly, forming fossils all around the world. But could the fossils be the result of local floods instead of a global Flood? In many cases, this is not possible because they are in rock layers covering huge areas—rocks clearly laid down catastrophically by water.
Sometimes they span whole continents and even across different continents around the world. Geologists use the term mega sequence for some of them (mega is Greek for ‘big’). If the layers are extremely wide, then whatever caused them must also have been extremely wide. Let’s see some examples from around the world.
One of the most famous natural wonders in the USA is the Grand Canyon in northern Arizona. It is 446 km (277 miles) long, over 1.6 km (1 mile) deep, and 6.4 km (4 miles) to 29 km (18 miles) wide. Standing on one rim and looking at the opposite wall, the layers of rock look like a giant stack of pancakes.
One of the easiest layers to spot is the almost-white Coconino Sandstone. From the other side, it looks thin (arrow, pictured below). But it is actually about 96 m (315 ft) thick. It is so wide that it covers 519,000 km² (200,000 square miles)—almost twice the size of Colorado! It contains 41,700 km³ (10,000 cubic miles) of sand.
Where did all this sand come from, and how did it get there? The sandstone has slanting lines, called crossbeds (‘fossil’ sand dunes). The slope is at a particular angle—the angle of a sand slope under water. The crossbeds are so large that deep flowing water, covering a vast area, must have formed them.
In my own city of Sydney, Australia there is another large formation. It is called the Hawkesbury Sandstone, or just Sydney Sandstone. The sandstone is quite hard and strong, and it was used for many of Sydney’s public buildings.
The Sydney Sandstone is 350 km (220 miles) long, 250 km (150 miles) wide, and nearly 300 m (1,000 ft) thick in places. This also contains large crossbeds. One secular geologist said that the sandstone was deposited by huge waves of water mixed with sand. How big? 250 km (150 miles) wide—about the same as the sandstone deposit—and 20 m (66 ft) high, travelling about 100 km (60 miles) per hour. We don’t see them happening now. But the worldwide Flood of Noah’s day when God first poured out His wrath upon this earth explains them.
God tells us that in the last days before Jesus’ second coming to earth to rescue His Saints before pouring out His wrath on Earth once again, people will deny that the worldwide flood of Noah’s day that destroyed mankind (except 8 people) ever happened.
“You should remember the predictions of the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles, knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires. They will say, “Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.” For they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God, and that by means of these, the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished.”2 Peter 3:2-6
People you need to accept God exists and you can know Him. He tells us we are without excuse. Look at the following Scripture: God tells us, we just need to look around us, take a look in any garden at the beautiful flowers.
“For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.”Romans 1:20
Also, fulfilled Bible prophecies should be enough for you to believe that all the two thousand prophecies of Jesus second coming to earth will be fulfilled as well. You need to know that these Bible prophecies tell us that we are not too far from Jesus’ second coming and the second time God pours out His wrath upon an unrepentant lawless world.
I know that Jesus returns first to take believers in Him to heaven before God pours out His wrath upon the world. I will be one of those who is saved. What about you? If you want to know how to get saved then go to either of these two websites http://www.answersingenesis.com or http://www.creation.com.
Part of this real history is the bad news that the rebellion of the first man, Adam, against God’s command, brought death, suffering, and separation from God into this world. We see the results all around us. All of Adam’s descendants are sinful from conception (Psalm 51:5) and have themselves entered into this rebellion (sin). They, therefore, cannot live with a holy God but are condemned to separation from God. The Bible says that “all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23) and that all are therefore subject to “everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power” (2 Thessalonians 1:9).
The good news is that God has done something about it. “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). Jesus Christ the Creator, God the Son, though totally sinless, took on human nature, so He could become our Redeemer. Then He suffered, on behalf of mankind, the penalty of mankind’s sin, which is death and separation from God. He did this to satisfy the righteous demands of the holiness and justice of God, His Father. Jesus was the perfect sacrifice; He died on a cross, but on the third day, He rose again, conquering death, so that all who truly believe in Him, repent (repentance = a change of mind) of their sin and trust in Him (rather than their own merit), are able to come back to God and live for eternity with their Creator.
Sadly, the world no longer takes the Bible as God’s Word divinely inspired by its Creator. Despite the overwhelming evidence of a worldwide flood: billions of dead things were buried quickly all over the world including abundant fossil fuels formed from buried vegetation, we do not want to believe there is a God to whom we are responsible for our actions. A god who judged the world just 4,000 years ago with the worldwide flood of Noah’s day. Look at the following two prophetic Scriptures written over two thousand years ago telling us that what we see happening in the world today will happen.
“You should remember the predictions of the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles, knowing this first of all, thatscoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires. They will say, “Where is the promise of his coming?… For they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God, and that by means of these, the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished.” 2 Peter 3:2-3,5-6
“But you must remember, beloved, the predictions of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. They said to you, “In the last time there will be scoffers, following their own ungodly passions.” It is these who cause divisions, worldly people, devoid of the Spirit.” Jude 1:17-19
Jesus came to earth, two thousand years ago, to redeem us and there were 300-plus prophecies to warn the religious leaders of the day but they missed it. Likewise, there are almost 2000 Biblical prophecies about Jesus’ soon second coming to earth and many of the religious leaders of our day are missing it. Jesus is coming to take believers to heaven for a period whilst God pours out His wrath a second time on an unrepentant world. The end times Biblical prophecies are already playing out in our day and we are not too far off the prophesied last seven years of this age. The Bible gives us a lot of information about the events that will occur during those last seven years. Make sure you take advantage of God’s offer of redemption in Jesus Christ and avoid the coming wrath of God.
“When the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.” 2 Thessalonians 1:6b-8
“When he opened the sixth seal, I looked, and behold, there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black as sackcloth, the full moon became like blood, and the stars of the sky fell to the earth as the fig tree sheds its winter fruit when shaken by a gale. The sky vanished like a scroll that is being rolled up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place. Then the kings of the earth and the great ones and the generals and the rich and the powerful, and everyone, slave and free, hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, calling to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?”Revelation 6:12-17
Returning to a no-frills practice of following Jesus will be good for all of us. We will remember what our faith is all about. This is why in the last days before Jesus returns He needs to purify His church. Apostasy in denominational churches is rife as demonstrated by the acceptance of gay marriage and homosexual pastors. They no longer believe in the inerrancy of God’s Word. Like the world, they have been caught up in the evolutionary myth of billions of years of Earth’s history. They no longer believe that God judged mankind with the worldwide flood of Noah’s day and yet it is the only explanation for the existence of billions of dead things buried quickly all over the world, including the fossil fuels: coal, oil, and natural gas (the result of buried forests). They have discounted both Noah’s flood and the short timescale of Scripture determined by Genesis 1-11. When you study geology from a biblical standpoint and use the geological model of the Flood to connect the real-world observations of geology you discover it is superior to the prevailing old-earth frameworks in explaining the data. (Biblical Geology 101 by Michael Oard and Robert Carter 2021).
An exciting training development, one which could help us prepare for church without buildings, has gained great popularity in the body of Christ over the past several years by readying people for possible service on the mission field, particularly among Muslims. TOAG, or “Training Ordinary Apprentices to Go,” (Global Mobilisation Network). It seeks to teach people to “do church” in small group settings, away from large worship gatherings that will not be available abroad. Participants spend ten months learning how to reach unreached people groups and develop an authentic community in a small group setting. Families with children are welcomed in, and future workers for Christ are much better prepared than earlier generations of believers. I’ve heard from a few that have participated in TOAG that it is difficult, yet rewarding. The method’s founders state the goal of the training: During TOAG, interns learn to be a Kingdom Community without including Western structures that often hinder movements. They experience life in community with other interns, something more akin to the Book of Acts. By taking them out of present ecclesiastical structures, which include powerful (& professional) music, well-crafted homilies (by highly trained professionals) in safe, comfortable surroundings (expensive buildings), interns experience first-hand what is and is not required for believers to be a ‘Kingdom-Community,’ experimenting with simple, organic structures capable of sharing the life-changing power of God’s Kingdom and reproducing into movements. … These are just some of the reasons why many Americans benefit from the hands-on learning experience of TOAG.
We need to prepare for the prophesied persecution that is coming and expect God to grow us through it as never before. Literally, millions of Christians around the world can testify to this truth, as Paul testified clearly in this Scripture.
“We also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.” Romans 5:3-5:
Whether you use TOAG or some other training method you need to get with like-minded believers who understand the times and get into step with what God is calling us to do in these last days to make sure we complete the Great Commission in the community where God has placed us.
Check out http://www.lastdaysovercomer.org for the free ebook Prepare for the Last Days – Fulfilling God’s Purposes at the End of the Age.
“Every scripture is inspired by God and useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness.” 2 Timothy 3:16
“No prophecy of scripture ever comes about by the prophet’s own imagination, for no prophecy was ever borne of human impulse; rather, men carried along by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.” 2 Peter 1:20-21
The people in Berea were commended for subjecting the apostle Paul’s words to God’s Word:
“Now these were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica, for they received the word with great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so” Acts 17:11
Everything the Bible says about God is true; everything anyone says about God that contradicts the Bible is false. Apart from a belief in the authority of God’s Word—as well as a growing knowledge of what it says—we’ll be vulnerable to deception. This is why one of the greatest needs in churches today is the consistent teaching of sound doctrine. Without it, and without people reading good books that reinforce a biblical worldview, God’s people will drift along, swept away by the current of popular opinion.
Faith is not inherently virtuous. Its value depends on the worth of its object. The Bible, understood in context and given precedent over our own instincts and preferences, is our dependable guide for faith and practice. Only by learning what Scripture says about God can we know what’s true about Him.
When we delight in God’s Word, we are delighting in Him.
I’ve heard people say, “Don’t take pleasure in the Bible; take pleasure in God.” But to study God’s words is to take pleasure in God because His Word is an expression of His very being.
Anyone who finds happiness in God must find happiness in God’s words as David did:
“In the way of your testimonies I delight as much as in all riches.” Psalm 119:14
“I find my delight in your commandments, which I love.” Psalm 119:47
“Oh how I love your law! It is my meditation all the day.” Psalm 119:97
Notice these Scriptures demonstrate that to delight in and to meditate upon God’s Word is to delight in God Himself.
The point of studying God’s Word is to know Him.
There is a danger of idolizing our own knowledge of the Bible rather than remembering the point is to know Him better. (If we fail to understand that, the problem is with us, not the Bible!)
J. I. Packer, in the first chapter of his book Knowing God, says this: “To be preoccupied with getting theological knowledge as an end in itself, to approach Bible study with no higher a motive than a desire to know all the answers, is the direct route to a state of self-satisfied self-deception. We need to guard our hearts against such an attitude and pray to be kept from it. …there can be no spiritual health without doctrinal knowledge, but it is equally true that there can be no spiritual health with it if it is sought for the wrong purpose and valued by the wrong standard… Our aim in studying the Godhead must be to know God himself better. Our concern must be to enlarge our acquaintance, not simply with the doctrine of God’s attributes, but with the living God whose attributes they are. As he is the subject of our study, and our helper in it, so he must himself be the end of it.“
May we see Bible study and doctrine as a basis for humble worship of our King and Savior, not for prideful posturing.
God’s words have the power to bring heart happiness.
When Jeremiah said that God’s Word “became to me a joy and the delight of my heart” (Jeremiah 15:16), he was suggesting that Scripture has a cumulative effect that increases over time. Happily, by God’s grace, As Joni Eareckson Tada says: “If you want to increase your desire for God, then get to know Him more deeply. And there is no better way to know Him than through His Word. Get into God’s Word, and you will get a heart for Jesus. Get passionate about Scripture, and your passion for Him will increase. Feelings follow faith…and faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.“
God promises that His Word “will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it” (Isaiah 55:11). We live in a time where the Bible is increasingly minimized. Let’s be committed to doing everything we can to uplift and honor God’s Word, as a means of knowing and loving Him.
Adapted from an article by Randy Alcorn, “Is There a Danger of Worshipping the Bible Instead of God” http://www.patheos.com
APOSTASY AND FALSE PROPHETS EVIDENT IN DENOMINATIONAL CHURCHES
A Colorado-based conference of the United Methodist Church led by a bishop in a same-sex marriage has approved the disaffiliation votes of 38 congregations leaving the denomination amid a schism over the denomination’s stance on homosexuality.
Karen Oliveto, the first openly gay bishop in the history of the United Methodist Church, at her consecration service July 16, 2016, at Paradise Valley United Methodist Church in Scottsdale, Arizona.
(The Episcopalian Church also has a female bishop and a number of male homosexual bishops)
Oliveto said, “We will continue to serve our triune God. We will continue to follow Jesus Christ. We will continue to be led by the Holy Spirit. We will continue to affirm our faith as Christians. We will continue to ensure the dignity of every child of God, and make sure they are welcomed in our churches for who God has created them to be, not who we think they ought to be.”
Note; She did not say, we will continue to uphold the inerrancy of God’s Word. She cannot because God’s Word forbids her from holding the position of bishop and being in a same-sex marriage. She is not being led by the Holy Spirit but by demonic spirits.
“And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers.“1 Thessalonians 2:13
Over the past few decades, the UMC has debated whether to change its official stance prohibiting the ordination of noncelibate homosexuals and the blessing of same-sex unions. Although efforts to amend the rules at UMC General Conference have consistently failed, many progressive leaders within the denomination have refused to follow or enforce the standards.
Oliveto is an example of this resistance, as she was elected bishop of Mountain Sky in July 2016, even though she is married to a woman.
In April 2017, the UMC’s highest court, the United Methodist Judicial Council, ruled 6-3 that Oliveto’s election as bishop was invalid and called on the regional body to begin the process of removing her from office. She is still in the job as of today.
I would urge Oliveto and her followers to take to heart the Scriptures quoted in this post.
“For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt.” Hebrews 6:4-6
Sadly, Jesus told us that prior to His second coming to earth apostasy will be great. He even asked this question, “When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?” Luke 18:8
“And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray. And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold.” Matthew 24:11-12
Jesus told us that many like Karen Oliveto will arise and lead many astray. Jesus also told us beforehand of the coming tribulation. We should not be surprised and in fact, it will be a time when believers can be used mightily by God.
Just as each of the seven Seals of the Book of Revelation represents what is unfolding on earth in each of the final seven years (70th Week of Daniel 9:20-27) prior to Jesus’ return to earth to usher in His Millennial reign. Also, the seven churches represent the church in each of the final seven years.
It is very evident that by reading what is unfolding at the sixth seal (celestial signs that are evident prior to Jesus appearing in the sky) and the announcement that the great day of God’s wrath has come that the Rapture happens at the trumpet blast when the seventh seal is opened.
“Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?” Revelation 6:16-17
Likewise, see what happens to the Church of Philadelphia (church during the sixth year of the final 70th week) It represents the church that is raptured.
“And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write: ‘The words of the holy one, the true one, who has the key of David, who opens and no one will shut, who shuts and no one opens. “‘I know your works. Behold, I have set before you an open door, which no one is able to shut. I know that you have but little power, and yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name... Because you have kept my word about patient endurance, I will keep you from the hour of trial that is coming on the whole world, to try those who dwell on the earth. I am coming soon. Hold fast what you have, so that no one may seize your crown.” Revelation 3:8, 10-11
Note, what God has to say to the church that represents the church that is left behind, The church of Laodicea.
“‘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. For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen, and salve to anoint your eyes, so that you may see. Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent.” Revelation 3:15-19
What church does the description highlighted in bold remind you of in your city? Sadly, for me, I have to say it is the Hillsong church.
God is soon going to answer the only prayer Jesus taught us to pray. Christians for millennia have been praying Jesus’ prayer. When will it be answered? JESUS SOON COMING MILLENNIAL REIGN ON EARTH.
“PRAY LIKE THIS: ‘OUR FATHER IN HEAVEN, HALLOWED BE YOUR NAME, YOUR KINGDOM COME, YOUR WILL BE DONE ON EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN’.” Matthew 6:9-10
These findings come from The American Worldview Inventory 2023, conducted by the Cultural Research Centre at Arizona Christian University under the supervision of George Barna, director of research at the Cultural Research Centre. While born-again Christians make up about one-third of all U.S. adults and are considered “the backbone of local church activity because of their higher level of commitment to the Christian faith,” the study shows that between 2020 and 2023, the share of those who say they believe Jesus did not commit sins during his lifetime on Earth fell from 58% to 44%.
Jesus being sinless is central to the hope Christians have in Him as Saviour explains the apologetics website Got Questions because, “If Jesus were not sinless, there would be no sacrifice for sin.” The apostle Peter stated it clearly: ‘He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in His mouth.’ (1 Peter 2:22) Indeed, as Jesus Christ is God, He has no capacity to sin,” the Christian website explains.
This shift in belief among born-again Christians was among six that showed a significant decline in the past three years that Barna characterized as “indefensible.”
Fewer than half of born-again Christians also now believe they have a unique, God-given calling or purpose. The share of those who held that belief fell from 88% to a staggering 46% during the pandemic.
A downward trend was also observed among those who say the Bible is unambiguous in its teaching about abortion. That belief fell from 58% to 44%. Those who say human life is sacred fell from 60% to 48%.
The number of born-again Christians who say God is the basis of all truth fell from 69% to 63% over the period. The share of born-again believers who say they are deeply committed to practicing their religious faith fell from 85% to 50%, while the share of those who say they read or study the Bible at least once a week fell from 60% to 55%. When it comes to the general population of U.S. adults, Barna said the share of the population that claims to hold a biblical worldview fell from 6% to 4% in the last three years, while less than half now claim to be “deeply committed to practicing” their religious faith. That measure fell from 60% to 48%. Barna also found that only 33% of adults now say they attend church service during a typical week which shows “a decline representing the loss of about 15 million churchgoing adults each week.”
The veteran researcher said the findings on the drastic shift in Christian belief over such a short period of time are “highly unusual” because “religious beliefs and behaviors have typically been a hallmark of consistency.” “Most religious beliefs change over the course of generations, not a few years,” Barna said.
Barna noted that a significant driver behind the decline in Christians holding on to a biblical worldview is syncretism, an ideology described as “the worldview that merges otherwise incompatible philosophies of life, particularly evolution and a Cosmos that has existed for billions of years, into a made-to-order worldview that incorporates enough biblical elements to be minimally Christian in nature.”
These statistics highlight how successful Satan’s strategy to undermine the foundations of God’s Word has been. Thankfully God has raised up ministries such as Creation Ministries International (CMI) and Answers in Genesis to show that evolution and its history of billions of years for this Cosmos is not defensible. In fact, the audacious claim by secular scientists in the New Scientist book How Evolution Explains Everything About Life (2017) cannot be substantiated. On page 69 they claim ” The only thing we know for certain is that life must have popped into existence sometime between Earth’s formation 4.5 billion years ago and the appearance of the first undisputed fossils about 3.4 million years ago.” Living cells require information (DNA) and decoding machinery. Even the simplest living cell has an enormous quantity of information on its DNA (about 600,000 letters) and it has the decoding machinery to read these letters. Also, the instructions to build this decoding machinery are encoded on its DNA. DNA can’t be decoded without the machines, but the machines can’t be built without the DNA coding for them. An impossible vicious circle for chemical evolution. There is simply no way “life must have popped into existence“.
Creation Ministries International (CMI) commonly receive testimonies from folk who have come to faith in Christ but then had a wilderness experience before finding their way to a confident faith. A major reason for this wandering is the doubts generated by the pervasive evolution/ long-ages mindset that crowds in upon the new Christian’s confidence in the Bible as the Word of God. Malcolm T. shared:
I became a believer in 1989 but in all of this time [20 years], I have been plagued by doubts caused because I couldn’t prove creation or doubt evolution. This had caused me so much trouble in my daily Christian walk and a lack of assurance. Recently, I came upon creation.com and began reading the articles every day and, praise be to God! I saw that creation is the truth and evolution is a lie and all my doubts and fears have disappeared …
Simply sharing a Creation magazine has led many to a restored Christian walk. Indeed, not just restored, but, like Malcolm, a much more confident and active faith.
I shared a post recently about Martyn Isles, an Australian evangelist that was being used mightily to share the Gospel in all States of Australia under the banner of the Australian Christian Lobby (ACL). Martyn has now moved to Answers in Genesis. This move was orchestrated by God and proved to me the importance of both Answers in Genesis and CMI. God is using both of these organisations to restore faith in the Bible (God’s Word) from Genesis to Revelation. You need to get behind and support both these organisations.
LIVING ETERNAL NOW 