Creation to the Cross: Understanding the Battle

2. Creation to the Cross Understanding the Battle Mike Riddle www.AnswersInGenesis.org

3. Topics • Understanding the issue • Warfare • The battleground • Creation and the cross • Preparing for battle

4. Understanding the Issue Image in God Accountability to God Standards Marriage The fall and sin Genesis The cross Meaning of life The Foundation The issue concerns the very foundation of the Christian faith

5. Historical Accuracy of Genesis Reliability of the Bible is called into question Evolution or parts of evolution must be true 1 Corinthians 1:23 Why is historical accuracy important? But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness;

6. Historical Accuracy of Genesis Sin requires payment (sacrifice) The Jews understood sin Jesus is the sacrifice Therefore, many came to believe What about the Greeks? They saw the cross as foolishness. How are youth being trained today?

7. Education and Evolution The universe can be explained by natural processes Life is the product of a chance accident The universe is billions of years old The bad that you do is the result of a “gene” and not sin The Bible is not true history – the Bible is full of myths We are being educated like Non-Believers Do you know what is being promoted in the education system and by the media? • There are no absolutes, truth is relative

8. The Importance of a Foundation Non-Believers educating Non-Believers Non-Believers educating Christians to believe like Non-Believers Christians educating Christians to believe like Non-Believers • Christians preach repentance • Why is sin wrong? • Who said it is wrong? • What gives God the right to say sin is wrong? We are preaching the cross without a foundation

9. We are in a War And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed;… Genesis 3:15

10. We are in a War Because the carnal mind is enmity against God Romans 8:7

11. We are in a War Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. James 4:4

12. The Dangers of War The hearts and minds of our youth The historical accuracy of God’s Word What is at stake? This topic (creation/evolution) is one of the main reasons our youth leave the church today.

13. Effects of War (Evolution) Failure of the church (2-hours versus 20-hours) The persistent and effective effort by anti-theists An educational study “We are losing our children” 70% of teens stop attending church Why is this happening?

14. The Battleground For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Ephesians 6:12-13

15. The Battleground Evolution has taken over society Control of the education system Control of the media Neutralizing and capturing many churches We are in a war – there is no safe place to hide

16. The Battleground and the Players National Association of Biology Teachers National Center for Science Education National Academy of Sciences Textbooks – the public education system and higher education The media Churches • Values education program

17. The Battleground: Values Education Drug Prevention Curricula, United States Department of Education, 1988. “Values clarification is a strategy that avoids leading the student to any particular conclusion, relying instead upon the child’s inner feelings and logic to develop a set of values that are consistent with those embraced by the culture at large.”

18. The Battleground: School Textbooks “But all researchers agree on certain basic facts. We know, for example, that humans evolved from ancestors we share with other living primates such as chimpanzees and apes.” Biology2000, Miller and Levine, p. 757.

19. The Battleground: NABT “The diversity of life on earth is the outcome of evolution: an unsupervised, impersonal, unpredictable and natural process of temporal descent with genetic modification that is affected by natural selection, chance, historical contingencies and changing environments.” National Association of Biology Teachers, Position Statement, 1995

20. Understanding the Enemy For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. Genesis 3:5 The Origin of Evolution ye shall be as gods

21. Christian State of Readiness The answer: Hebrews 5:12-13 What is the state of Christian education today? For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God; and you have come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who partakes only in milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe.

22. Warfare and the Church The issue is not important Creation/evolution is a secondary doctrine God used evolution Just preach Jesus Lack of scholarship (Hosea 4:6, Romans 1:19-20) Silence It is not important how God created Many churches have been captured by the enemy Can we have a cross without creation?

23. Creation and the Cross

24. The Cross Without Creation “And the creationists have also shown irrefutably that those liberal and neo-orthodox Christians who regard the creation stories as myths or allegories are undermining the rest of Scripture, continued

25. for if there was no Adam, there was no fall; and if there was no fall there was no hell; and if there was no hell, there was no need of Jesus as Second Adam and Incarnate Savior, crucified and risen. As a result, the whole biblical system of salvation collapses. . . Evolution thus becomes the most potent weapon for destroying the Christian faith.” Mattill, A. J., Jr., “Three Cheers for the Creationists,” Free Inquiry, vol. 2 (Spring 1982).

26. The Cross Without Creation “Christianity has fought, still fights, and will fight science to the desperate end over evolution, because evolution destroys utterly and finally the very reason Jesus' earthly life was supposedly made necessary. Destroy Adam and Eve and the original sin, and in the rubble you will find the sorry remains of the son of god. continued

27. Take away the meaning of his death. If Jesus was not the redeemer that died for our sins, and this is what evolution means, then Christianity is nothing." G. Richard Bozarth, "The Meaning of Evolution", American Atheist, Sept. 20, 1979, p. 30.

28. The Cross Without Creation “I am convinced that the battleground for humankind’s future must be waged and won in the public classroom by teachers who correctly perceive their role as the proselytizers of a new faith…” John Dunphy, “A Religion for a New Age,” The Humanist, 1983. Answer Question: Why is the battle being won in the classroom and not in the churches?

29. The Cross Without Creation “Doesn't the idea of evolution go against religion?. . . Not at all. Most religious groups have no problem with the theory of evolution or other scientific findings.” Molleen Matsumura, Evolution, Creationism, and Science Education, NCSE, 1991 Is this statement true? ye shall be as gods…

30. The Foundation I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel: Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ. Genesis the Foundation (Galatians 1:6-7)

31. Preparing for Battle

32. Preparing for Battle For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds; Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ; 2 Corinthians 10:4-5

33. Instructions for War Deuteronomy 20:1-4 God’s Instructions for war The enemy is great in number Do not be afraid God is with you

34. A Call to Arms Prayer (Eph 6:18) Put on the full armor of God (Eph 6:11-17) Gird your waist with truth Put on the breastplate of righteousness Shod your feet with the gospel of peace Take the shield of faith Take the helmet of salvation Take the sword of the Spirit Have a ready answer (1 Peter 3:15) Study God’s Word Learn the truth about God’s creation Six things we can do

35. A Call to Arms Start Bible studies and Sunday school classes at all ages in churches that teach the true history of the world starting in Genesis chapter 1 Learn to confront (in a loving manner) false information by asking questions that challenge evolutionary teaching Become familiar with what is being taught in the schools (Secular and Christian)

36. The Christian Soldier Final instructions and commands • The opposite of mobility is immobility • John 14:6 • 1 Peter 3:15 • Matthew 28:18-19 “All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations …”