Christian Apologetics Research Network

Question of the Week: What would you say to certain Christians who insist that by your beliefs and teaching you are denying the need for Christ and therefore deny Christ?

My Answer: This charge is based on a misunderstanding of the doctrine of the atonement. A bigger issue than the age of the earth for most young-earth creationists is death before Adam’s initial sin. They believe that a loving God would not tolerate any kind of death independent of human sin. While the Bible is explicit on when human death entered the world (Romans 5:12-19, 1 Corinthians 15:20-22), it is silent on when the death of plants and animals first appeared. We know that the death of at least plants or plant parts preceded Adam’s sin since Adam was eating before he sinned. Insects also would have died. Some of them would have been on leaves and fruit eaten by large animals. The young-earth response that the Bible does not acknowledge insects are alive is refuted in Ecclesiastes 10:1. That passage uses the same Hebrew word to describe the death of flies as the rest of the Old Testament uses to describe the death of humans.
How young-earth creationists link a denial of the doctrine of the atonement to old-earth creationism is by pointing out that all old-earth creationists believe that bloodshed occurred before Adam’s initial sin. However, in the Old Testament the shed blood of animals never atoned for sin. It was a symbol of the shed blood of the coming of the Messiah that would atone for sin. As the New Testament repeatedly declares, only the blood of Jesus atones for sin. As Hebrews 10:4 asserts, “It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.”
Therefore, old-earth creationism does not deny any of doctrines that comprise the creeds of the Christian church. In my opinion, the Chicago statements on biblical inerrancy and bibilical hermeneutics are an essential complement to the great Christian creeds. We require all employees at Reasons to Believe to annually sign a document indicating their adherence to the International Council on Biblical Inerrancy’s Chicago statements on biblical inerrancy and bibilical hermeneutics. As I briefly demonstrated in Rescuing Inerrancy, chapter 14, biblical inerrancy can only be defended from an old-earth perspective.
Lastly, physical death is not bad in all contexts. God prevented Adam and Eve from accessing the tree of life after they sinned lest they live forever physically but remain forever spiritually dead (Genesis 3:22-24). Physical death opened a pathway for redemption from our sin and evil. The Bible states that God began his works of redemption before he created anything (for example, 2 Timothy 1:9, Titus 1:2). Thus, it always was God’s intent to use death, especially the death of his Son, to bring about the redemption of billions of human beings. I explain how God designed the universe, its laws of physics, and spacetime dimensions to make possible the redemption of billions of humans in just thousands of years in Why the Universe Is the Way It Is.

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The Best of John Lennox series is premiering TOMORROW on TBN UK at 7:30pm (UK time)! Catch a special glimpse of the collection of films highlighting Prof John Lennox's pivotal contributions to science and faith from decades of debating, teaching, and writing.

Tune in tomorrow at 7:30pm on Freeview channel 66 and Sky TV channel 582!

https://tbn.uk/tv/the-best-of-john-lennox/

The pressing question among generation Z (especially those born between the years of 2000 - 2012) centers around the existence and goodness of God. Most don't see the need to belong to a church community. Some detest church with passion. It is at this point that Christian Apologetics come in. We come in to provide Biblical answers to this pressing questions. We come in to engage faith and reason that in the end shall shall be lost

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