The Creation Science Heresy
We see in the Scriptures that there are three forms of leaven, or teaching, that can corrupt the truth, cause us to move from the doctrine of God to the traditions of men, and thereby make the Word of God of none effect. There are many such forms of this Mark 7:13, of which “Creation Science” (false knowledge, 1 Tim 6:20) is one. It has fostered a heresy, or schism, among God’s people.
Creation Science is a particularly invidious leaven, masked as orthodoxy by its proponents. It is the result of even more than a lifetime of men of ability and arrogance. It has its appeal to the popular pseudo-intellectualism that is so rampant in this century, foisted upon so many of us at the Babylonian universities of this present, evil world.
It is a curious amalgam: at its core is the leaven of the Sadducees, but itrides to prominence amongst God’s people through the leaven of Herod. The great impact of this error is that it moves God’s people from dependence on and inquiry into God’s Word to the same clerisy of dependence on and inquiry into the thoughts of mere men.
The Errors of “Creation Science”
“Creation Science”is a contradiction in terms.
”Science” - properly defined - addresses only the way things go on and NOT the way things originate. This is something well understood by those Bible students who were well schooled not only in science, but in semantics, that is, words and their meanings.
Humble and intelligent men given to the transformation of their minds by the Scriptures reject the false intellectualism of the world. They know, for instance, that proper science hypothesizes (theorizes), and tests its hypothesis empirically, that is, by what is seen. And whatever is seen is not faith.
They realized – as we should – that it is mysticism to infer an origin from a finished work.
So, what of origins? We have the Inspired Account and it alone.
- Creation Scienceis of the leaven of the Sadducees.
Sadducees believe in neither resurrection nor spirit being Acts 23:8. So it is no wonder that, as Christianity was leavened thoroughly Matt 13:33, Christian theological descendents enthroned the worldly viewpoint heralded by this sect.
This leaven characterized those who rejected the unseen realities, especially the angelic conflict. It impacted God’s people because it made them regard only what they could see with their eyes, and shut them off from the world of faith as it pertained to the revealed realities in which they lived, and moved, and had their being.
As effective as it was against the Jews, God’s earthly people, it is even more effective against the heavenly citizens of this present time, for the angelic conflict is that with which we are to be preoccupied.
Therefore, it is no surprise that as these zealous pseudo-intellectuals press any and all to adopt their unbiblical view, entirely left out of their considerations is the ancient enmity of Satan against God, his position prior to his fall, the reason for his enmity against man, and, indeed, the angelic history itself.
Ask a “creation scientist” when Satan fell and how and when angels fit into the creation of God, and they will insist that the Bible is entirely silent in the matter. A Bible student will tell you otherwise, as outlined later when we see a true account for what the Bible teaches, not only about the six days of creation, but the angelic conflict as well.
Ephesians 6:12 “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].”
The battle being waged by these “scientists” is ostensibly against those evolutionists who deny a specific creation. Yet, according to the Inspired Account, evolutionists themselves are those who deny in themselves the eternal power and Godhead of God, despite the FACT that it is clearly manifested in them by the creation itself. Romans 1:20.
There is absolutely no mandate to engage one who refuses to acknowledge what is evident to him. In fact, when one refuses evidence that he himself knows, it is the end of all rational discourse.
“Creation Scientists” would have us believe that it is this irrational discourse which constitutes the ground of God’s earthly testimony to man. And so they lead us into endless drivel about whether dinosaurs were on the ark (“Could they fit?” “Of course!”), and interest our children in vile representations of those reptilian creatures whose lifespan (and thus size) God has seen fit in this age to limit.
They lead us into discussions of the fossil layer, and theories of origins involving electromagnetic energy and all manner of other considerations, which draw us earthward and away from the Scriptures. And to what end?
To the end all Nicolaitains desire! To the establishment of a pseudo-intellectual clergy: an intelligentsia that presides over the Scriptures, and over whom no Scripture presides. They elevate their own minds and studies to be equal – and therefore above – the Scriptures themselves.
One should despise their deeds, and reject their doctrine. Rev. 2:6, 2:15
- Creation Science is of the leaven of the Herodians.
The Herodians were and interesting bunch, only loosely wedded to doctrine so their expediency could get full play. They were comfortable attaching themselves to Pharisees and Sadducees alike, if it would suit their purposes.
Having reduced our warfare to the earthly sphere, advocates of this pernicious teaching place their agenda before the gatherings of Christians to - through the use of political power - require their teaching in the state schools.
And not only the state schools, but in every church, gathering unto themselves especially vulnerable young people from the college years who would like to give themselves off with varying airs of intellectualism by talking “knowledgeably” about “science”. “Weighty” matters like “fossil layers” “electromagnetic energy” and the “young earth,” none of which are in the context of the Scriptures.
This effort to enforce a political agenda is nothing other than the leaven of Herod, just as are the various and constant political programs propounded by earnest, persistent, and misguided believers who, if they were earthly ambassadors, would certainly be withdrawn by their nation for misfeasance of office.
This leaven advances the earthly view, generates an earthly hope, and at once defeats separation from the world and adherence to the Scriptures.
We ought to remember that it was an arrogant Herod who was eaten of worms. Acts 12:23
- Creation Science slanders Biblical views.
Just as we are warned about the natural man in Romans 2:1, these co-called-scientists judge others as doing what they themselves do.
It is a common approach by them to accuse those viewing the Scriptures properly of twisting the Inspired Account to answer those who deny the God’s deity. Yet the audience of “atheists” ought not even be in view by those who teach the Word of God in truth, in order to avoid giving that which is holy to dogs!
These “Creation Science” teachers continually portray those who rightly divide the Scriptures as being unable to answer evolutionists (when in fact, the Scriptures tell us NOT to answer them).
2 Timothy 2:23But foolish and unlearned questions avoid, knowing that they do gender strifes.
Proverbs 26:4Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest thou also be like unto him.
They claim that, in their zeal to answer evolutionists, well meaning but ignorant men invented a “gap theory” in order to account for the geological ages. Nothing is further from the truth.
Had these “creation scientists” adhered to the Scriptures, they would have not become like the evolutionists, who worship their own knowledge, and look to this present world for all answers, despite the curse visited upon it.
They would not be examining a sin-cursed earth for any evidence other than the evidence that the wrath of God is in store from heaven; this earth is reserved for fire.
- Creation Science Is Intellectually Dishonest.
Most believers have never learned why it is that many believe Satan fell between verses one and two of the Bible. No problem for the “Creation Science” teacher who himself has ordinarily not properly considered when the angels were created, nor when Satan fell, nor many, many other issues about which the Bible teaches.
He will tell his Christian audiences that those who place Satan’s fall in that time period have very many strange beliefs not found in the Scripture. He will say they believe in a pre-Adamite race of men and animals. He will say that they improperly translate the Scripture. He will say they cannot account for large reptile fossils.
He will say that those who actually WORK in the Scriptures are unable to contend with the great men of science spinning the evolutionary tales, but that THEY THEMSELVES ARE capable, because THEY ALSO look into the fossil layers.
How horrible it is to perpetrate on the entire Christian community that it is necessary to know all of the pitiful facts and speculations about the earth’s crust in order to properly understand God’s Word!
What these “scientists” will NOT do is fairly rehearse the powerful arguments of the Scripture that their “victims” cite, nor will they deal with the entire range of considerations their “victims” address.
For the true Bible student is careful to compare and harmonize Scripture with Scripture, and is also careful to see precisely what the Scripture states and does not state.
Some of the fruit of this study will appear here below, and the reader is well advised to, like the noble Berean, search the Scriptures daily to see if these things are so.
- “Creation Science” demonstrates Willful Ignorance.
2 Peter 3:3-7Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.
For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water: Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished:
But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.
Some of these professors of “Creation Science” actually refer to the earth of Genesis 1:1 as “the world that then was” demonstrating the true willingness of their ignorance!
When the Scripture calls the ignorance of the world of Genesis 1:1, - which perished, being overflowed with water – “willful”, we should be very careful to note those who exhibit such ignorance.
No one even causally reading the Bible would regard that the earth before the deluge of Noah’s day and after the deluge of Noah’s day was somehow a different earth, and different heavens. They earth was substantially changed by the deluge, and in fact was changed later than that as well. But it remained the same earth.
The Scriptures (above) teach that this same earth that is now (and was for Noah), is also reserved for fire. It is not the earth from the beginning of creation, but the earth that was created and made during the six days following the “beginning” of creation.
- Creation Science Will Not Teach the Bible.
There is a real simple reason for this: the study of the Bible is not the agenda of the “Creation Scientist.” It is the study of the sin-cursed earth that gains his eager attention. The study of the physical sciences and the establishment of a clergy of psychophants are his great desire.
But no one devoted primarily to the study of physical science can teach the Scriptures because the revelation contained in the Scriptures runs continually to the unobserved and CANNOT qualify for scientific endeavor. The Bible contains revealed truth concerning beginnings. It is truth that is not empirical: revealed, not seen.
The Scriptures and Creation
The Bible is not an ordinary book, because it is God-breathed. We should recognize that it is God who invented writing and reading, and who created the eye and the ear. Substantially, He created these faculties in man for fellowship with Himself, and that fellowship comes through the reading and understanding of His Word.
So the marvelous nature of the Word of God requires us to study it attentively. Should we do this at its very beginning, the first section of Genesis, a few important facts will emerge.
- There was a specific creation “in the beginning.”
The word for “heaven” is a plural word, and therefore God created the “heavens” and the earth. It is very important fro us to realize that there is more than one heaven. Later, Paul reference a third heaven, wherein is God’s true garden, or Paradise.
The Hebrew word for create in the first verse is “bara” which means to make from absolutely nothing. “The beginning” here needs to be distinguished – as it is in the New Testament – from the phrase “foundation of the world.”
Now, the third verse marks a distinct lingual break in the account, and for this reason you will note that all translators regard the third verse as the beginning of an English paragraph (the text owning no such punctuation), and thus the beginning of a new thought.
God Almighty here employs the beginning of a figure of speech that we can all relate to, despite the fact that most of us have never heard of the name of the figure, “polysyndeton.”
Polysyndeton is a figure of speech utilizing repetition of the conjunction “and” to describe the ongoing and continuous action featured in the six-day/seven-day creation account. What is encompassed in that figure is God acting upon the condition of the earth as described in the second verse.
- The earth is tohu after the beginning.
So, the second verse meets up with the first verse in order to foment the specific action of the work of God in the six/seven day creation.
Genesis 1:2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
And what does the second verse tell us about that condition? Well, for certain it tells us that somehow a condition “came to pass” or “was” (either translation of “was” yields this conclusion) whereby “the earth that then was” was overflowed with water.
In fact, there is more to the condition than the presence of waters, but the earth is said to be “tohu va bohu” in the original Hebrew, which means, a “tohu” and a “bohu.”
Many translators have given us better language than our KJV on these rhyming Hebrew words. The Rotherham Bible, in trying to preserve some of the poetic nature of the language translates it “waste and wild.” “Without form” in the KJV at least leads us to the conclusion that a “forming” is needed, so the translation is not without merit.
Another has suggested, in the Companion Bible, that the word “waste” be used to translate “tohu.” In any case, one thing we know: God did not create (bara) the earth “tohu.” As it says in
Isaiah 45:18For thus saith the LORD that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; he hath established it, he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited: I am the LORD; and there is none else.
In the above verse, there are really a couple of interesting lessons. First there are three verbs for the work God did in creation, translated “created”, “formed,” and “made.” The KJV is faithful here as three distinct English words are used for the three distinct Hebrew words, each of which refers to the work of God in the creation.
God did not merely “create” (our friend “bara”), but he also “formed”, and “made”. “Forming” has to do with fashioning, as a potter would. And “making” has to do with finishing or bringing to perfection.
But even more germane to the discussion of the heresy that has become “creation science,” we are specifically told here by the prophet that God DID NOT “bara” the earth a “tohu.”
So, if He didn’t CREATE the earth a tohu in verse one – when He created it - and we find it a tohu in verse two (clearly a condition AFTER creation), it is only reasonable to see that it BECAME a tohu.
No matter how one explains the cause of the condition described in verse two, there is this simple, clear thought: God did not create the earth waste; nevertheless, it became a waste somehow.
- The condition of the earth stands as a picture of the old creation.
There is a period of time between verses one and two of Genesis. This is not speculation, because SOMETHING did happen. Exactly what happened and how long it took is not stated at all in the book of Genesis, but it is implied elsewhere. It may be that some explanations of what happened have involved speculation.