Milo

Both old earth creationism and young earth creationism seek to solve the apparent conflict between science and the Bible in regard to the age of the earth. What is the apparent conflict? If the book of Genesis is interpreted strictly literally, it seems to indicate that the earth and the universe are around 6,000 years old. In contrast, various scientific dating methods place the age of the earth around 4.5 billion years and the age of the universe around 14.6 billion years.

The options to solve the apparent conflict are as follows: the Bible is wrong, the Bible is being interpreted incorrectly, or the scientific data is being interpreted incorrectly.

Neither old earth creationism nor young earth creationism teaches that the Bible is wrong. Generally speaking, both old earth and young earth creationists believe in the inspiration, inerrancy, and authority of God’s Word. What differs between these approaches is one’s view on what the Bible is, in fact, saying. It’s a matter of interpretation.

Old earth creationists believe a strictly literal approach is not the correct way to interpret the early chapters of Genesis. They view Genesis 1–2 as being primarily symbolic and/or poetic. Young earth creationists interpret Genesis 1–2 as a literal, historical account of how God created the universe. Young earth creationists question why, if the rest of Genesis is historical, should the first two chapters be interpreted differently? Old earth creationists question why, if the Bible uses symbolism in many other books, can’t metaphor be used in Genesis?

Young earth creationists contend that the scientific data supporting a billions-of-years-old universe is being interpreted incorrectly. They view old-earth arguments developed by naturalistic scientists as primarily being a defense for Darwinian evolution. They contend that the dating methods are flawed, at best, and are implemented by scientists with bias, presuppositions, and agendas. Old earth creationists view the scientific dating methods as being reasonably accurate and therefore accept that the earth and the universe are truly old. Also, a great number of old earth creationists reject Darwinian evolution.

So, in the old earth vs. young earth debate, who is correct? As a ministry, GotQuestions.org definitely leans toward the young earth perspective. We believe that Genesis chapters 1 and 2 are meant to be read literally, and young earth creationism is what a literal reading of those chapters presents. At the same time, we do not view old earth creationism as heresy. We are not going to question the faith or motives of our brothers and sisters in Christ who disagree with us on this issue. Ultimately, one can hold to views other than young earth creationism and still have an accurate understanding of the core doctrines of the Christian faith.

As we interpret it, the Bible indicates that the earth is relatively young. According to secular scientists and those who accept an old-earth reading of Scripture, the earth is very old. Since neither viewpoint can be explicitly proved, we choose to side with a plain/literal interpretation of the Bible.

June 10th

The next best thing to do

Seek if you have not Found. “Seek, and ye shall find.” Luke 11:9.

“Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss.” If you ask for things from life instead of from God, you ask amiss, that is, you ask from a desire for self-realization. The more you realize yourself the less will you seek God. “Seek, and ye shall find.” Get to work, narrow your interests to this one. Have you ever sought God with your whole heart, or have you only given a languid cry to Him after a twinge of moral neuralgia? Seek, concentrate, and you will find.
“Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters.” Are you thirsty, or smugly indifferent—so satisfied with your experience that you want nothing more of God? Experience is a gateway, not an end. Beware of building your faith on experience, the metallic note will come in at once, the censorious note. You can never give another person that which you have found, but you can make him homesick for what you have.
“Knock, and it shall be opened unto you.” “Draw nigh to God.” Knock—the door is closed, and you suffer from palpitation as you knock. “Cleanse your hands”—knock a bit louder, you begin to find you are dirty. “Purify your heart”—this is more personal still, you are desperately in earnest now—you will do anything. “Be afflicted”—have you ever been afflicted before God at the state of your inner life? There is no strand of self-pity left, but a heartbreaking affliction of amazement to find you are the kind of person that you are. “Humble yourself”—it is a humbling business to knock at God’s door—you have to knock with the crucified thief. “To him that knocketh, it shall be opened.”

June 10

“And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God.” (Rom. 8:28.)

HOW wide is this assertion of the Apostle Paul! He does not say, “We know that some things,” or “most things,” or “joyous things,” but “ALL things.” From the minutest to the most momentous; from the humblest event in daily providence to the great crisis hours in grace.
And all things “work”—they are working; not all things have worked, or shall work; but it is a present operation.
At this very moment, when some voice may be saying, “Thy judgments are a great deep,” the angels above, who are watching the development of the great plan, are with folded wings exclaiming, “The Lord is righteous in all his ways, and holy in all his works.” (Psa. 145:17.)
And then all things “work together.” It is a beautiful blending. Many different colors, in themselves raw and unsightly, are required in order to weave the harmonious pattern.
Many separate tones and notes of music, even discords and dissonances, are required to make up the harmonious anthem.
Many separate wheels and joints are required to make the piece of machinery. Take a thread separately, or a note separately, or a wheel or a tooth of a wheel separately, and there may be neither use nor beauty discernible.
But complete the web, combine the notes, put together the separate parts of steel and iron, and you see how perfect and symmetrical is the result. Here is the lesson for faith: “What I do thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know hereafter.”—Macduff.
In one thousand trials it is not five hundred of them that work for the believer’s good, but nine hundred and ninety-nine of them, and one beside.—George Mueller.

“GOD MEANT IT UNTO GOOD” (Gen. 50:20)

“God meant it unto good”—O blest assurance,
  Falling like sunshine all across life’s way,
Touching with Heaven’s gold earth’s darkest storm clouds,
  Bringing fresh peace and comfort day by day.

’Twas not by chance the hands of faithless brethren
  Sold Joseph captive to a foreign land;
Nor was it chance which, after years of suffering,
  Brought him before the monarch’s throne to stand.

One Eye all-seeing saw the need of thousands,
  And planned to meet it through that one lone soul;
And through the weary days of prison bondage
  Was working towards the great and glorious goal.

As yet the end was hidden from the captive,
  The iron entered even to his soul;
His eye could scan the present path of sorrow,
  Not yet his gaze might rest upon the whole.

Faith failed not through those long, dark days of waiting,
  His trust in God was recompensed at last,
The moment came when God led forth his servant
  To succour many, all his sufferings past.

“It was not you but God, that sent me hither,”
  Witnessed triumphant faith in after days;
“God meant it unto good,” no “second causes”
  Mingled their discord with his song of praise.

… … … … …

“God means it unto good” for thee, beloved,
  The God of Joseph is the same today;
His love permits afflictions strange and bitter,
  His hand is guiding through the unknown way.

Thy Lord, who sees the end from the beginning,
  Hath purposes for thee of love untold.
Then place thy hand in His and follow fearless,
  Till thou the riches of His grace behold.

There, when thou standest in the Home of Glory,
  And all life’s path lies open to thy gaze,
Thine eyes shall SEE the hand which now thou trustest,
  And magnify His love through endless days.

—Freda Hanbury Allen.

10 JUNE

An offer of pardon

‘Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned: for she hath received of the LORD’S hand double for all her sins.’ Isaiah 40:2
SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: Hebrews 10:11–18

Her iniquity is pardoned. The Messiah is coming to put away all sin by the one full, sufficient sacrifice of himself. We know that he is come, the atonement made, the ransom paid and accepted, and a throne of grace established to which whoever comes shall in no wise be cast out. To be capable of this comfort, the heart must be in a state suited to it. A free pardon is a comfort to a malefactor, but it implies guilt, and therefore they who have not broken the laws would be rather offended than comforted by an offer of pardon. Could we suppose that a company of people, who were all trembling under an apprehension of the wrath of God, constrained to confess the justice of the sentence, but not as yet informed of any way to escape, were to hear this message for the first time and to be fully assured of its truth and authority, they would receive it as life from the dead. But, for want of knowing themselves, it is to be feared that many who have received pleasure from the music of the Messiah, neither found nor expected nor desired to find any comfort from the words.
FOR MEDITATION:
My soul is beset
The death that he died,
When nailed to the tree,
With grief and dismay,
The blood that he spilt,
He answered the prayer
I owe a vast debt
To sinners applied,
Of one, who like me,
And nothing can pay:
Discharge from all guilt:
Was nigh to despair;
I must go to prison,
This great Intercessor
He did not upbraid him
Unless that dear Lord,
Can give, if he please,
With all he had done,
Who died and is risen,
The vilest transgressor
But instantly made him,
His pity afford.
Immediate release.
A saint and a son.

SERMON SERIES: MESSIAH, NO. 1 [3/4], ISAIAH 40:1–2

June 9th

The next best thing to do

Ask if you have not Received. For everyone that asketh receiveth. Luke 11:10.

There is nothing more difficult than to ask. We will long and desire and crave and suffer, but not until we are at the extreme limit will we ask. A sense of unreality makes us ask. Have you ever asked out of the depths of moral poverty? “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God …” but be sure that you do lack wisdom. You cannot bring yourself up against Reality when you like. The next best thing to do if you are not spiritually real, is to ask God for the Holy Spirit on the word of Jesus Christ (see Luke 11:13). The Holy Spirit is the One Who makes real in you all that Jesus did for you.
“For every one that asketh receiveth.” This does not mean you will not get if you do not ask (cf. Mat. 5:45), but until you get to the point of asking you won’t receive from God. To receive means you have come into the relationship of a child of God, and now you perceive with intelligent and moral appreciation and spiritual understanding that these things come from God.
“If any of you lack wisdom …” If you realize you are lacking, it is because you have come in contact with spiritual reality; do not put your reasonable blinkers on again. People say—Preach us the simple gospel: don’t tell us we have to be holy, because that produces a sense of abject poverty, and it is not nice to feel abjectly poor. “Ask” means beg. Some people are poor enough to be interested in their poverty, and some of us are like that spiritually. We will never receive if we ask with an end in view; if we ask, not out of our poverty but out of our lust. A pauper does not ask from any other reason than the abject panging condition of his poverty, he is not ashamed to beg. Blessed are the paupers in spirit.