Fire On Your Head

There’s a misconception many evangelical Christians believe–whether subtly or overtly or just without really thinking about it: that the 7 churches John writes to in Revelation 2 and 3, are not just literal churches being written to, but are actually representative of church “ages”, the last church therefore representing the age the church is allegedly currently living in.

I’ve heard the late Leonard Ravenhill whom I respect immensely teach it this way; at a Promise Keepers event I went to, the president came on and shared about the time of history we’re living in, and not that he quoted much or any Scripture when sharing-touched on the ‘age John wrote about’ in passing; numerous preachers when teaching on end times events as I was growing up would teach this as so. I’m not a big end times buff, I say instead of waiting for the rapture to happen, let’s go get us some more souls to get raptured whenever that event happens–which I believe is after the tribulation, but if you disagree with me and I’m wrong, then that means I’m going home earlier than I thought. If I’m right and you’re wrong, then let say It’s safer to be wrong about my position.

Since I’ve heard over and over again “we’re living in the Laodicean age” of the Church, I thought I’d take the time to quickly take a look at this topic since statistically speaking, most people reading this will probably have been taught the same thing–that the 7 churches of Revelation are church ages, and therefore the end of church history is terrible. But is that true exegetically, and even logically?

Nope.

There are several reasons why this doesn’t hold up.

Problem number 1:

There’s no hint or suggestion that we’re to interpret these things as anything other than 7 actual churches John is writing to, like Paul, Peter, etc…wrote when they wrote to churches in the New Testament. Likewise the apostle John here is writing letters to actual churches in this part of the Revelation of Jesus Christ.  Does anyone realize that’s the title of the last book in their Bibles?  It’s a revelation of Jesus, not of just end times events–but while I’m saying so, I read it like the “part two” of Song of Solomon.

Is there no application to apply to our day and age from these writings? I’m not saying that at all; we apply the teaching here as the shoe fits just like we do with other things written in the New Testament that may not be culturally relevant to us. But the idea that John is writing about ages or epochs of future history to unfold is pretty far fetched and unscriptural.

Problem number 2:

How do we know where we stand in church history? Do you think the church 1000 years ago had any idea there was 1000 years of history to go still? Every generation thinks theirs is the last or close to the return of Christ! The Church in the year 1000 would have thought they were the church of Laodecia, and same with the church during the Reformation.

The way we divide up history in order to make this fit the ‘church descriptions’ idea doesn’t add up properly. If I had a pie, and invited several friends over, I wouldn’t know how to cut the pie until they’ve all arrived and I see who they each brought or if anyone declined my invitation and isn’t going to show.

If I began to cut the pie into 6 pieces, and eight friends showed up, I’d have a mess on my hands trying to remedy the way the pie needs to be divided in order for everyone to have an equal share. So I would be smart to just wait and see who all would show up, and then cut it accordingly. Likewise, let’s pretend these are literal church ages–then we won’t know how to properly apply them to history and our current generation until the end has actually taken place, for only then will we have seen how things were supposed to go.

Problem 3:

Even if they were 7 church ages, it’s not so bad because Jesus has wonderful promises for this church “age”, and let me paste the passage in question in its entirety since I didn’t do it at the beginning:

“And to the angel of the church in Laodicea write: ‘The words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of God’s creation. ‘I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth. For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen, and salve to anoint your eyes, so that you may see. Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent.Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me. The one who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne, as I also conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’”(Revelation 3:14-22)

Notice Jesus doesn’t give up on them, but counsels them in what to do.

And secondly, it could be said this church is made the greatest promise of any of the churches written to-if anyone [of them, or any person gleaning from reading this] hears his voice and opens the door, he will come in to him and eat with him and he with him. Interesting for a write-off church as it’s commonly taught in our churches.

And second observation, maybe I interpret it wrong, I’m for the possibility of that, but read that last bit as encouragement to persevere and be conquerors and sit with him on his throne. Whatever exactly that means, but I won’t sit here in front of my laptop and speculate. Just let the text say what it says, and it definitely says they were lukewarm, and so on… and Jesus counsels them as to what they are to do.

Problem 4:

It is arrogant and small minded to apply these verses to over 2/3 of the modern church because most of the Church (besides North American and Europe) is under heavy persecution, not living in affluence like the church spoken of in this passage.

How can these verses be applied to the persecuted underground church in China? The church of Smyrna fits the description of most of the Church around the world today, or the church of Philadelphia, but not the Laodicean church, which again, like the rapture teaching altogether, is another thing that seems to me is taught in the Western church that is not going through any form of persecution or trials.

If the description DID fit, the church that Jesus most strongly rebukes, is the one Jesus promises the greatest blessings to.

There could be more reasons by just using logic and from reading the Scriptures for what they say, but I felt these suffice it since I didn’t want to lengthen this entry unnecessarily.

At any rate, let’s kill this sacred cow and stop believing and teaching others that we’re in the last days by pointing to Scriptures like this one.

If we are in the last days, please don’t tell each other something that happens in the news or our culture is evidence we’re “living in the Laodicean church age”, because we’re not.

I’ve been really bothered by something I’ve been listening to or reading time and time again in the Body of Christ. This entry is a reflection if the thing disturbing me on some level.

I knew I had notes lying around from Dr. Michael Brown’s revival history class when I was in Bible school, but due to the nature of me moving to Holland for six months, it is in a box somewhere in my parents’ attic. So I knew he taught on it in one of the revival messages I’ve got on my copy of the Brownsville Revival Sermon Archive (if you don’t have it, it would be so worth the $20 or so to order one—there’s 88 messages on it and many of them are powerful). So I sat down one night recently, put it on, took some notes, and now I am translating those notes into a user friendly blog entry for anyone else who wants to kill this sacred cow that is rampant in evangelical rapture-awaiting circles.

Are we really living in the last days?

I hear this preached on and blogged on over and over again, and used to defend why current events are taking place in the world around us. I’m going to write this blog in two waves, the first on if we’re living in the last days, and the second entry I’ll show you why we’re NOT in the “Laodecian church age” which there is no such thing as. As usual, emphasis in the Scripture references is my own.

As far as end times are concerned we’ve been living in the last days for over 2000 years; the promises and warnings that were given to Christian believers back then are just as relevant now as back then:

Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. (Hebrews 1:1-2)

If we understand that this was written in the first century, we know and understand they were living ‘in the last days’ then.

Speaking of Jesus, Peter says He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was (past tense) made manifest in the last times for your sake, who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God. (1 Peter 1:20-21)

At the same time, it is a new commandment that I am writing to you, which is true in him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining.

Children, it is the last hour, and as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come. Therefore we know that it is the last hour. (1 John 2:8, 18)

Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come. (1 Corinthians 10:11)

“And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions. Even on the male and female servants in those days I will pour out my Spirit. “And I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and columns of smoke. The sun shall be turned to darkness, and the moon to blood, before the great and awesome day of the LORD comes. (Joel 2:28-31)

But now notice how Peter changes what Joel said when quoting this in Acts to the people gathered around at Pentecost:
But this is what was uttered through the prophet Joel: “‘And in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams” (Acts 2:17-18)

Peter changed what Joel said from “after this” and applied to those listening (and us now as far as his speech from the upper room that day in context goes) saying these are the prophesied last days, “and what you see going on is evidence of it”. Let’s take another text, and read things in context, ask ourselves some questions based on the text and see if things add up to what we’ve always been taught, and oh yeah—let’s not forget to use logic in reading this as well:

But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people. For among them are those who creep into households and capture weak women, burdened with sins and led astray by various passions, always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth. (2 Timothy 3:1-7)

Do you really think Paul is warning Timothy about something that will happen 1900 years after he’s died? What sense would it make if he were?

Do you think there’s been people like this description all throughout history or just in our current generation?

Paul is not telling Timothy about something that will happen 2000 years later—this is practical counsel that applied to Timothy, and has application for us also, but is not talking about the specific last generation.

And if anyone would like to comment without fear that I will attack them for their opinions, feel free to tell me this: how

do we know for sure if we’re the last generation or not? Would other Bible-believing and God-fearing people in generations before us have thought they too might have been the last of the last days of church history on earth?

This question also leads into my next entry, The Laodicean Church Age Misconception, on why the 7 churches of Revelation chapters 2 and 3 are to be read like John is writing to churches—and in no way is there reason to interpret them as “church ages” and that we are in the last one based on that text and line of interpretation.

Thanks for reading, let’s give some thought to things we believe in the Body of Christ and why, and kill the sacred cows that we keep alive for no good reason.

“And Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction.
When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.
Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.” (Matthew 9:35-38)

I’m going to go out on a limb here, and use this passage concerning healing and preaching the Gospel, since both teaching and healing are what Jesus was doing in the context of this passage.

I just want to say out the outset, to people reading this: I’m hardly an expert in this area (healing). I deem experts those doing this regularly and more than I. I can count using both hands how many times the Lord has done a miraculous healing at my hands. I get convicted writing some of these entries because I’d rather write testimonies of it rather than opening up the Scriptures to show what the Word says on the subject.

One night at De Fakkel I began this passage of Scripture.  At our house church meeting, someone shared this passage, and I forget what application they gave it, but I zoned out a little bit because it’s one of those overused ‘missionary passages’. Every time a missionary comes to one of our churches and shares and exhorts concerning going on the mission field, they remind us all in the body “the harvest is ripe but the laborers are few.”

But what context did Jesus say this in?

“And Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction.”

He was doing three things: teaching, proclaiming the Gospel, and healing every disease and every affliction.

I don’t necessarily know what he was preaching or teaching, but I know when he was done, people were getting healed and set free. So I’m going to go out on a limb based on my experience with teaching on this topic, that Jesus probably was proclaiming to them stuff that built their faith up in order to get them positioned to receive their healing and deliverances. So with that being said, that’s another reason I blog about this topic—to build our faith up in the Word so we can all go back to our lives, jobs and school and live it out. Jesus demonstrated what he proclaimed.

THEN Jesus turned and said to his disciples what he said:

When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.
Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few;
therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”

Compassion is what moved him. It’s the compassionate Shepherd who turns to his sheep, and leads them. It’s the compassionate Shepherd that turns around and if his sheep fall into a rut, he gently and kindly picks them up, dusts them off and leads them again. It’s also the compassionate Shepherd that heals his sheep.

Looking at the crowds, Jesus had compassion for the sheep, and told his disciples the laborers are few, and to pray for the Lord to send more. But here’s the problem. Too many of us are praying for someone else to do the work. Yes, Jesus did say pray, but he also said in Matthew 28:19-20 “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

He told us to go, and he told us to pray for others to go. There’s an un-reached harvest that is ripe. And there’s a bunch of unhealed people out there in our churches and in our workplaces. I had a great opportunity to ask someone if they’d like me to lay hands on them this week. The brother was in pain and said he hasn’t had a pain free day in decades since a car accident. I thought I experienced compassion for him, but really all I did was experience sympathy. Sympathy says “I feel sorry for you” or simply has pity for the person. Compassion DOES something, like Jesus’ compassion motivated him to do something. I was too afraid of even asking, because he was from a church that doesn’t believe in healing and I worried I’d look excessive to him and the other people present who have “corrected me” on the subject of healing–and I feared he’d say “no thanks”. But in most cases, I’d rather go for it and fail, than to not go for it at all and guarantee no results. So with this opportunity, I failed.

People are everywhere in our lives, and we make excuses all the time for not sharing the Gospel, for not seizing an opportunity to heal someone (yes heal someone, not ‘pray for them to be healed’—the Holy Ghost lives in you if you’re saved and Christ does it THROUGH YOU–so get used to me saying it that way all the time because I’m not going to qualify myself anymore). Next time you see someone, and you know they’re in a condition, then ask them if they’d like you to lay hands on them to heal them. Don’t ask “IF you can pray”, because everybody thinks of doing that and it’s just some nice religious thing and leaves out the possibility for results.

Force yourself out of your comfort zone, because if you say “would you like to be healed” then now you instantly force yourself to build up your faith for that thing to happen or you’ll look stupid. Most of the time, I have easier luck with unsaved people because they don’t have a bunch of bad theology they’ve been taught about how God works. Most of the time, if you say “you’ll heal them” (by laying hands on them), they put their faith in you, (as an ambassador of God to them), and they believe that you’ll do what you say you will. So it’s made easier for you actually because they have faith that you know what you’re talking about, even if you don’t and you’re trembling in your boots worried it won’t happen.

Go for it! The harvest is ripe but the laborers are few. The only reason we’re not seeing more results, is because we’re not stepping out and DOING anything with what we know.

As someone once told me years ago, ‘no guts, no glory, no newsletter story.”

Think of it that way. Have some guts, cuz it will take some. I’m nervous every time I go street witnessing or ask someone if I can lay hands on them–worried in both cases that my efforts will be in vain. But then I usually go to bed that night excited and unable to believe what I saw God do. When we start taking God seriously, He starts taking us seriously as well, and demonstrates His power through and around us.

Don’t listen to that fear keep you from doing anything. Step out, you’ve got it made already for you—the harvest is ripe. That means go harvest something!

This isn’t a topic I usually write on, but in the last several months I’ve gotten e-mail newsletters or I’ve read various prophetically-gifted ministries’ websites concerning natural disasters that have been happening lately. I’ve had this bubbling in me ever since…well actually the Y2K New Year as we in the West entered into a new millennium worried if all of our electronics and computers would function properly when the clock struck midnight, January 1st 2000.

I did my research paper for an OAC World Issues class in high school on the Y2K crisis (does anyone remember when we used to have OAC classes?). With all the research I was compiling, I was finding that it was a legitimate problem, and not propaganda at all as some now believe after the fact, BUT, many people were preparing for it. It was a problem with potential for disaster if ignored, but nobody really ignored it, and the rest is history.

A man I look up to in the Lord came up to me the following Sunday after that New Year passed without major incident, and was really distraught because he’d been telling people the Lord was sending judgment using this whole situation, and now nothing but a few glitches here and there had actually occurred, making him worried he spoke presumptuously or fell for propaganda himself. I reminded him that we’d have a lot of problems on our hands if we had not prepared for it. Companies fixed their software, and people who made cars, elevators, etc… ran tests to make sure internal clocks wouldn’t mistakenly believe it was 1900, resulting in eventual malfunctions during the months ahead. Untold millions of dollars were spent in North America alone to remedy and avoid this problem.

So that is where I come from, only now in the wake of numerous natural disasters, like Hurricane Katrina, and Rita in the southern panhandle, as well as earthquakes and the tsunami almost one year ago. It almost seems a lot longer ago than just five years that Y2K was upon us, doesn’t it?

The scales tipped for me when I saw an article about Pat Robertson telling a community in Pennsylvania that because they rejected having intelligent design taught in their public schools, that as a result disaster would overtake them and God wouldn’t be there when they called out to Him, because they already rejected Him. I don’t defend Pat Robertson, nor do I know whether he’s speaking on behalf of the Lord or not, but it was the straw that broke the camel’s back for me as to why I need to write something like this, and you may not at the outset understand how I correlate these events to prophesying accurately, but hopefully by the time I’m done writing this, you’ll understand and be willing to kill some sacred cows in your own thinking when it comes to Christians speaking prophetically on behalf of the Lord.

So, if a community heeds a preacher’s words, and repents of the impending judgment that the speaker said would overtake them, and as a result of their repentance they avert the judgment from the Lord, would that make the man a false prophet?

I am going to say no.

We have this sacred cow in evangelical circles that prophesying is the same as speaking what should be “canonized” like what popes think they do, and since we believe Scripture is complete, nobody prophesies on the level that we think mistakenly think ‘prophesying’ is. But that is a limited understanding of it. Prophesying is more accurately speaking forth what the Lord would say if He were physically present, and it can be futuristic and predicting events to come. Anyway, for more on this particular gift of the Spirit, click here for more for another blog I have specifically devoted to the gifts of the Spirit, because it’s not my focus to get into it here. Suffice it to say, prophesying is like being the Lord’s mouthpiece to a person or group.

The best Scriptural example of an outcome differing from what a prophet prophesied would be with the story of Jonah.

Now the word of the LORD came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying,
“Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me.” (Jonah 1:1-2)

Fact: The Lord told Jonah to go to Nineveh
Fact: The Lord told Jonah to call out against the city, because of their evil.

It should be observed, nothing is said here whatsoever about this word from God being conditional and that if they repent, that judgment would be averted. All Jonah was told was to deliver a message, which as we know from the story he initially avoided doing. All that was required of Jonah was to deliver the message, and I believe just as it says in Isaiah 55:11 “so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it”. It wasn’t Jonah’s responsibility to tell them if they had an option to repent or not, or to stipulate the possibility that if they repented the judgment would be averted.

When the Lord puts it on our hearts to share something with someone else, it might not be our job to interpret its meaning either, or provide the receiver conditions upon which the Word of the Lord to them through you can be changed or averted.

After Jonah’s ordeal with being tossed into the sea, swallowed by a big fish, the Lord instructs him a second time:

Then the word of the LORD came to Jonah the second time, saying,
“Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it the message that I tell you.” (Jonah 3:1-2, emphasis mine)

Notice the instructions to Jonah do not change, nor does the content of the message.

So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the LORD. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, three days’ journey in breadth.
Jonah began to go into the city, going a day’s journey. And he called out, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!”
And the people of Nineveh believed God. They called for a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least of them.
The word reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.
And he issued a proclamation and published through Nineveh, “By the decree of the king and his nobles: Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything. Let them not feed or drink water,
but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and let them call out mightily to God. Let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands.
Who knows? God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger, so that we may not perish.”
When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it. (Jonah 3:3-10, emphasis mine)

Observations:

• Jonah delivered the Word given to Him by God, and now there was a forty day window before it would come to pass. The two times that record the Lord speaking to Jonah about the message he’s to deliver to Nineveh, our Scriptures don’t document more than the general content of the message to be delivered.




• The people reacted and responded in humility to Jonah’s message (v. 5)




• Laws and decrees were issued by the king, and everyone repented. (v. 6-8)




• The king somehow knew instinctively to appeal to the Lord’s mercy (v.9), because it doesn’t document here that Jonah or anybody else told him to even try repenting




• It’s a fact; God saw what they did, and did not allow the disaster to happen that he said he would.

These observations demonstrate some things about the character and personality of God.

• I would say He’s not “judgment happy”, and is merciful




• God can and does change His mind, whether that fits our theology or not.




• Prayer, fasting, humility, etc… affect things from happening that God, even in His “sovereignty”, says will happen.

What do you think about that?

Anyway, to get back to prophesying things that don’t come about, clearly one is not a false prophet necessarily if the things he speaks don’t come about. A prophet is not one exclusively because he predicts future events accurately–although it’s necessary he predicts them accurately if he does predict future things–but if he accurately speaks forth from the Lord’s heart, which surely Jonah did.

To put a practical application to this;
There were many warnings prior toY2K, and they were heeded. Heeding the warnings so as to prevent the predicated disasters does not void the initial threat and the original warning.

After Hurricane Katrina, there were e-mails and newsletters going around sent by numerous well-respected prayer warriors and intercessors with reputable backgrounds, urging the Body of Christ to pray, because it was a hurricane intended to do greater damage than Katrina. It didn’t happen, I believe, because many members the Body of Christ fasted and prayed that the judgment could be averted, resulting in less damage being done than predicted.

And as for someone like Pat Robertson, there’s no telling necessarily if he speaks for the Lord unless his words come true. Either a whole community listens to his warning and repents, and we see nothing come about, or if he does speak from the Lord, exactly what he said would happen will happen.

But I will tell you one thing, it is obvious to me from experience and human tendency, that if nothing happens, people will automatically conclude he was prophesying falsely, which might not necessarily be the case as we see from our Biblical example.

Let’s be careful what our reactions are to the outcomes of things prophesied, good or bad.

I hardly ever post on the topic of creationism vs. evolution, but there is tremendous and widespread misinformation about the meaning of the “days” of creation in the first chapter of Genesis.

Why does this matter at all? Because, as I’ve said regarding healing, tongues, prophesying, etc.., the Bible means what it says, no matter what popular theology teaches, and if we undermine the Bible in the beginning chapters, then the rest of the Bible falls apart.

Also, the following is NOT going to be a deep and intense study on the subject, although I strongly suggest reading material online such as Answers in Genesis, Institute for Creation Research or other reputable Christian ministries that deal with this subject.

Several years ago, my friend Kevin and I were appalled at something we saw on The 700 Club. After airing a report on a Christian college that was having its credentials revoked for teaching six literal days of creation, instead of evolutionary ideas and old-earth theology, Pat Robertson proceeds to make fun of these guys, and says to his co-anchor “I wish they’d get off this six literal days garbage” and proceeds to erroneously defend why we don’t really know what is meant by “days” in Genesis. I wrote The 700 Club an e-mail, as did Kevin, and we both received the same computer-generated response from Robertson’s office that basically didn’t answer any of our concerns. I still have it and will forward it to anyone that it interests.

Well, we all know that popular leaders are not infallible and are capable of being wrong in some things. And here’s why old earth vs. young earth matters at all; it undermines or upholds Scripture. Now maybe Robertson isn’t the most credible Christian figure anymore in some peoples’ eyes, but that’s a moot point, because untold millions watch this show of his daily.

Why would the word “day(s)” in Genesis not mean exactly what it says—days? There is no reason for it other than Christians have gotten intimidated by what the unbelieving world says is true about the age of the earth, so we have compromised the Word of God to match what popular science says. But simple Bible exegesis–nay, READING– and leaving things alone to mean what they say is all it takes to diffuse this old-earth theory.

How come nobody argues that “because a day with the Lord is as a thousand years and a thousand years as a day” to mean that Jesus was in the grave for 3000 years instead of three literal days in the Greek? Why is Genesis the only time people try questioning the meaning of the word “day” and not any other instance of Scripture where the word is used? By the way, when people use those verses (2 Peter 3:8, Psalm 90:4) they should keep in mind it says “a thousand years is as a day” and not millions of years.

Anyway, the Hebrew word is “yom” and EVERY TIME in the Old Testament that it is used, it means exactly that—a day. Not an “age”, “epoch” or “a period of time”. Even if it can be like a figurative period—whenever it is used not to mean a literal day (specifically the light day light hours of the day) it is used adverbially. This is obviously not how it’s being used in Genesis.

Let’s pretend the old-earth view is correct, then let’s be consistent with it and use the word “age” or epoch or “millions of years” in other instances the word ‘yom’ occurs. The best example I can think of demonstrating my point is found in the Ten Commandments:

“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. (Exodus 20:8-11)

Moses uses the word here consistently to mean a ‘day’. Both when talking about the six days of working and the seventh day of rest, AND in reference to the six days of creation and the seventh of rest. I don’t think it was in the author of this text’s mind that the two were different things, or else he either

1. would have clarified he was talking about different spans of time or
2. would have used some kind of different word to indicate he was talking about two different things.

But he didn’t do either. It’s the same word in the Hebrew here, as it is in Genesis 1.

This is a brief scratching the surface of this topic! There’s so much more to cover that can be. I just don’t have the time. A good thorough book that I don’t believe has anything else out there to match it, would be Refuting Compromise, by Jonathan Sarfati. A warning though, it is highly academic and reads like an exegesis textbook. I personally only read the first 3 or 4 chapters since I bought it. But for those of you it would interest, trust me, it’s a necessity for any Christian’s library.

Don’t be mistaken. The topic of creationism vs. evolution is not a side-issue or a doctrinal one, but a foundational one. If we don’t trust the Bible to mean exactly what it says beginning in the first few verses, then this necessarily challenges the idea that the whole book is infallible. Many, many, many of the cultural wars going on in our society boil down to this issue—our origins. In the war on gay marriage, we as a Church can’t tell the world what God meant for marriage if the first book of the Bible it is mentioned in is suspect and doesn’t literally mean what it says. In the war on abortion, we can’t tell the world it’s a sin to kill the unborn if we can’t use our foundational book seriously to show and say what God intended for His creation, and so forth. I urge people reading these comments and looking at those articles to pray about having a zeal just as strong for restoring in whatever way God would have the opportunity to fight secular humanism and compromise of the Word of God in this area of Christianity. I don’t think I hammer unnecessarily about this.

Believers, and skeptics reading this: Why in so many areas do we change our theology to match circumstance or whatever the world says is so, instead of just believing the Word of God for what it says? Why not just believe it and let it mean what it says?