Creation Science Rebuttals

Answers in Genesis Daily Feature

Already Gone?

Published as an AiG Daily Feature on 9 June 2009. This review published on 9 June 2009

A new book from Answers in Genesis, titled "Already Gone," proposes the idea that compromising Christians, who accept long ages for the creation account, have greatly attributed to the decline of the church in today's world.¹ Ken Ham is recommending his followers to use this book to educate churches to the dangers of compromise.

While obviously written from a young earth perspective, it falsely puts the blame on compromising Christians. In reality, the reason people leave the church is not because of compromise, but because of the teachings of young earth creationists. If Ham wants to see why people are leaving the church, he needs to look in the mirror.

The message of young earth creationism (YEC) is that the Bible teaches the earth was created in a six day period (24-hour days), 6,000 years ago. However, science affirms that this is not true. The YEC message to our youth is that either 6,000 years is correct (and the Bible is right), or it isn't (and the Bible is wrong). When youth look at science, and determine that the earth is old, they have a choice...either YEC is right, or science is right, but not both. So they leave the church.

Compromisers, as Ham calls us old earth believers, teach that science and the Bible are both right. The world is billions of years old, and the Bible's account of creation actually covers billions of years. In fact, billions of years fits into the creation account, even if you hold to a literal interpretation of Genesis. Indeed, there are millions of old earth believers, both progressive creationists and evolutionists, who are devout Christians.

Suppose for a minute that we could eliminate young earth only teaching from the church. If our youth had been taught that you can accept a billions of years old earth, and the Bible, then much of this tragic departure from the church that Ham describes would have been averted. It is only with the teaching of a young earth only doctrine that this exodus occurs.

Ham claims that "Already Gone is an alarming wake-up call for the church." I agree. It clearly points out that young earth creationists are leading the church down a path of destruction. The teaching of YEC will continue to erode our churches, and unfortunately, young earth creationists are blind to the fact that they are the cause of this destruction. Although Ken Ham thinks that he is doing good, he has probably done more harm to the church than anyone else in the past decade.

The world looks at science, and sees a billions of years old earth. Then they look at the church, many of which teach a young earth. They cannot reconcile the two. My fellow old earth creationists, the responsibility for saving the church is up to us. We must be the light of the world, educating the public that you can believe in both science and the Bible.

¹ http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/au/here-we-stand-we-can-do-no-other

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If you are not a Christian, and you have been holding out on making a decision for Christ because the Church always preached a message that was contrary to what you saw in the scientific world, then rest assured that the Bible is the inerrant Word of God, and you can believe in Christ and receive salvation, while still believing in an old earth. Click here for more.

Are you a Christian who believes in young earth creationism? Now that we have shown the many difficulties of the young earth creation science model in this and many other articles, how does this impact your Christian life? If you are a young earth creationism believer, click here.

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To learn more about old earth creationism, see Old Earth Belief, or check out the article Can You Be A Christian and Believe in an Old Earth?

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