Thursday, April 21, 2011

The Bible Answer Man doesn't believe in a literal Genesis?

This is primarily an emotional response, so it may not be well thought out nor truly accurate of Hank Hanegraaff's beliefs. As you may or may not know, Hank Hanegraaff is part of Christian Research Institute and hosts a radio program called The Bible Answer Man. I don't listen religiously, but on occasion hear it and get interested in the questions that listeners call in with and his answers to them. Quite a challenge to be available to take on any wild question someone might pose. That is usually the fear of any would be evangelizing Christian, "what if they ask a question I can't answer?"
But on today's broadcast (04/21/2011), which I was listening to online, a listener poses a question about Hank's personal belief of the Genesis account of Creation in 7 days. I fully expected a well thought out answer about why we can believe in the literal 7 day creation power of God without any dilution of worldview. What he answered was sorely disappointing. Indeed, instead of what I expected, what I heard was that Genesis was a masterful piece of literature with various tools for helping one remember the events of Christian, but that it wasn't Chronology. Rather for Chronology, one needs to go to "God's other book" namely "Nature." In other words (my words) he is saying go to God for the belief that He made it, but go to Science for how it all came about.
I'm a pretty big follower of the AnswersInGenesis.org train of thought. Yea, some of their theories seem wild and fly in the face of our modern day science... but I think the big crux of that is the fact that modern day science is generally executed with a WORLD VIEW rather than a BIBLE VIEW of the world. If you take God out of the formula then how can you possibly get the Right answer. So, Hank's comments, especially since he didn't support them with what led him to believe such, sound diluted by a worldview belief in evolutionary science. He didn't say that of course, so maybe he has a different take on the subject. In any case, sounds like dangerous ground to not simply take the Word as literally as possible.
By the way, I was a science major in college, and can have no problem believing that God could have simply created all things in the 7 day window. Do i KNOW that He did, well, I wasn't THERE in the beginning, just as evolutionists weren't either, so for the most part this looking back at the footprints of history and deciding "what happened" is speculation. But what I DO KNOW is that there is a book, that I and many others claim and believe to be the entire Word of God. And that book says creation happened in 7 days. So why in the world would you have an issue with believing it? Unless, that is, you've been taught all your life and continue to be taught, that it's impossible - due to modern day non-Biblical science.
So scary to me, that even Christian speakers, who are famous, and have such a following of consumers - can struggle with the idea that God DID what He said He did, because the scientific non-Biblical worldview has permeated into nearly every avenue of education.
Evolve a backbone... so to speak. :) And do not be ashamed to simply believe what the Word says. And then, use SCIENCE, based on YOUR BIBLE View of the world, to figure out what those footprints you see are telling you.
The New Answers Book, Volume II (Answers Book Series)The Global Flood: A biblical and scientific look at the catastrophe that changed the earth (Answers in Genesis Pocket Guides)AnswersThe Complete Bible Answer Book: Collector's Edition

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