All right, if you'll turn with me, I'm gonna go to a strange place probably Or someplace that seems strange to this but what I really want to get across tonight Is actually that the battle for the beginning but Paul called and told me hey, can you can you speak up and message on the battlefield beginning and I said this is gonna be tough because I'm gonna try to condense down like what I think of as 45 hours worth of stuff and they you know 45 minutes worth of message so I'm sure I'll feel like I'm leaving a lot on the table but what I want to get across is this there is no one who rejects the Genesis account of origins because of science that's not why they reject it They reject it because they have a competing philosophy that's been pushed into their mind that they've grabbed a hold of and they don't even realize it. That is to say they have a competing metaphysic, which is to say they have a competing religious structure in their mind. They have religious convictions that will not allow them to accept this. And I want to show you that tonight. Really, I don't want to steal any of Brother Caleb's thunder. He speaks after me on the battle of the word, but really that's really what it is. It's not a battle over science. It's a battle over who has the authority to say what really happened when nobody was there, when there were no cameras to see, when there was no eye that could record this. Who has the authority to say what really happened? Is it the guy with the white lab coat or is it God Almighty? That's the battle for the beginning. It's not a battle about science. It's not. It's a battle about how different religious worldviews interpret said science. Okay. So all that being said, you know how pastors do, they give really long introductions, right? That's me. All right. Let's, uh, let's pray. Before we get too deep into this, Lord, we pray you'd show us great things from your word today and tomorrow and throughout this conference. Lord, I ask you to use me and other speakers as a mouthpiece to encourage and edify your people through the truth of your word. Let all the preaching and teaching be accurate to your word and to your spirit. Speak through your word for the building up of your people and the advancement of your kingdom today. May all that's said and done bring glory and honor to you and to you alone. We know, Lord, you alone are worthy of it. It's in Jesus' holy name that we ask, Amen. I also should have said this, my old church that I grew up in, I grew up in a little Methodist church. Don't, don't throw stones at me yet. I grew up in a little Methodist church out in the middle of nowhere in Western Kansas, a big farm out there. And we always had joys and concerns in the church, right? And if somebody had stood up and said, we've got a bunch of Okies in, I'm not real sure if that would go in the joys or the concerns category, if you know what I mean. But that's where we're at. Okay. Let's get into this. I want to trot out a couple of things before we get any further. I want to trot out a couple of words, all right? And I think they're probably words that most of you in here are familiar with. Certainly some of you are. Here's the first word, exegesis. Exegesis, to draw out the intended meaning of a text, especially when we're talking about, of course, in this regard, scripture. Exegesis is what we want to do. When we're reading the scripture, we should be reading to draw out the intended meaning. What did the writer mean? What did the Spirit of God mean when he inspired this text? The opposite of that, the other thing that we could do that's quite popular, at least in this regard, is called eisegesis. What's eisegesis? Eisegesis is interpreting a text that expresses the reader's own opinion, own culture, or own bias. rather than what was intended by the text. Forcing one's own ideas into the text. Sometimes this is called the reader response. Yes, I read what it says, but let me tell you how I feel about that. Let me tell you what this means to me, rather than tell me what that means, period. We don't want to do eisegesis. And here's why I'm bringing this in. I've had a lot of conversations over the years, about 20 years or so that I've been navigating and wrestling with this topic and speaking different places and talking about this thing to everybody that would sit still and listen. And it simply comes down to something of a misnomer when I hear people say, well, this is really a secondary issue. Don't Christians argue over baptism? Yes. Don't Christians argue over the doctrines of grace? Sure. Don't they argue over Arminianism? Yeah. Well, see, then this is just another one of those things that they argue over. It's just another place in the text where, you know, very genuine brothers have different ideas of how this text should be handled. And I like to say, sort of. It's not like those others, though, and here's why. What is the highest principle for scriptural interpretation to the Protestant? Well, it's something that we call the analogy of faith. What does that mean? Well, it means that the highest authority, the highest hermeneutical authority, the highest authority that tells us how scripture should be interpreted is scripture itself. And when you have brothers and sisters arguing over baptism, arguing over whether we should use wine in communion, arguing over a lot of these other, Arminianism and Calvinism and the doctrines of Christ, when you have people arguing over those things, what you typically have is two people that are arguing like this, well the Bible says this here. Well yeah, but over here it says this. Well, yeah, I see that, but it also says this over here. In other words, you're having two genuine, hopefully, genuine believers who are arguing according to the rules of the analogy of faith, i.e., they are trying to use Scripture to navigate through and say, what is the best way that we should understand this passage? What are the contexts here? What are the other clues? What are the other passages that talk about this? How can those inform this debate? Yet we can have people and this drives me crazy She can tell a blood pressure getting up We'll have people who are solid as a rock on these other areas and when they get to Genesis you go What does it mean? Well scientists say look I'm out. I Did not ask what my culture thinks I I didn't ask a whole bunch of unregenerate men to be now the hermeneutical authority. That's exactly what you do when you say, well, you know, Genesis looks like it means this, but we know all these scientists say X. Well, the Earth has got to be billions of years old. Why does it have to be billions of years old? I love asking that question. I ask that in seminary. The man of the PhD who was over me because I was doing a degree in theology and apologetics and I'm writing out this thesis on the historic Adam. I thought I had picked, I'm like, Hey, I'll pick this subject. This is an easy one. Walk in the park. Everybody knows Adam and Eve were historical people. I mean, it's, you can't say that they weren't and not be heretical. And I'm trying to convince the people in this case, the PhD who's over the entire program, that Adam's real. It floored me, it was very frustrating. I like to tell people I did a tour of duty through cemetery, I mean seminary, because that's what it felt like. Why? Why are there so many men in so many influential and high positions in the church who absolutely do not agree that Genesis can be historical or can be taken as written? Well, the long story short is, I see Jesus. D.A. Carson has a way of putting it. He says, it's worldview confusion. What's interesting is D.A. Carson's not really sure where to land on this issue, but he wrote a book called Exegetical Fallacies, and in one of those fallacies, he talks about something that he calls worldview confusion. What he says is, well, you'll have someone, they grow up in a culture, and everybody in the culture says this one thing, and so when they read the Bible, they go, it can't mean that, it must mean what my culture says. And I'm reading this like, can you not see this? Of course! Sorry, this is maybe too good of a microphone to give to me, huh? Yes, it's worldview confusion. It is taking what you've been told your whole life in secular places and then saying, well, the Bible must support this. Why? Let me read this to you. Maybe this will kind of clear this up. Let's pretend, okay? Let's pretend there's a couple of little boys. Let's say one of them is named Abdul and he grows up in a Muslim country. Pick one of them, whatever, Maldives Islands if you want or Saudi Arabia, wherever, he's gonna grow up in a Muslim country. Little Abdul is catechized into the Muslim faith in multiple areas of his life as he's growing up. Let me stop for a moment just in case you're not real familiar with that word. What is a catechism? Catechism is the way that children learn. Here's what I mean by that. When you've got a little kiddo, you've got a two, three, four, five, six year old, you don't ask them to do complex math. You tell them a question and then you give them the answer and you're basically making them memorize these small principles so that later they can do bigger operations, okay? How do I know this? We've got four kids, eight and under. At one time we had four kids that were five and under. I want you to know at that point in our life, When we would pull into town, our theme song would play, it was just circus music. You see the tents popping out, right? Well, we do a lot of catechism with those kids. Well, everybody does catechism. Catechism is when you tell this kid, now, little Johnny, listen. Here's the question, here's the answer. What is the chief end of man? To grow with our God, enjoy forever. Little Johnny, why did Adam and Eve, eat the fruit, because they did not believe what God had said. We use the truth and grace catechism. There's Baptist catechisms out there, right? Sometimes when I say that word, people are like, you use that Catholic book. No, I don't use that catechism. For 400 years, almost 500 years, we've been no. But you do have catechism, and you do have catechism questions. And I promise you, you've done that to your own children. You don't sit kids down in front of a math book and go, figure it out, pal. No, what do you do? You teach them the basics. OK, Johnny, listen. 1 plus 1 is 2. What's 1 plus 1? 1 plus 1 is 2. Good job, Johnny. Johnny, this is a noun. This is a verb. What's this, Johnny? That's a verb. That's catechism. Everybody does catechism. Now listen, if you don't do catechism with your own kids, don't worry. The world will do it for you. They will be catechized. They'll go into that little, you'll put them in the little public school. They'll go in, you know, first grade. You know, and little Mrs. Brown, who's so sweet, the sweet little teacher, she'll say, look, Johnny, look at this book. Look at these wonderful dinosaurs. Aren't those cool? And every kid loved dinosaurs. Who doesn't love dinosaurs? I love dinosaurs. Well, long, long ago, millions of years ago, these things roamed the earth. What's he doing? Well, little Johnny's being catechized. And he's going to go home and he's going to watch the TV with mom and dad. And he's going to find these values reinforcing what it is that he thinks. Let me read this to you. Let's say little Abdul is over in an Islamic land. He's catechized into the Muslim faith. In school he's taught that all mankind was made from a clot of blood. Why? Because that's what Muhammad said. When he watches the TV with his parents at night, Al Jazeera, the show is reinforcing his Islamic culture and customs, even if it's just a news program. How do we know? Well, he's gonna see persons wearing traditional Islamic garb. He's gonna hear them uttering well-known Islamic phrases. When he goes down to the library and gets a child's book, he reads the stories that reinforce his Muslim beliefs. The characters stress Islamic values. They have Islamic names. They wear Islamic clothing. They exemplify traditional Islamic gender roles. To young Abdul, the entire world looks Muslim. Soon he learns how to think and how to act according to that view of the world. He begins to think and act according to his Islamic worldview. Kids, adults, people, think and act according to their worldview. Okay, a little star there. Let's say we do the same thing with our own culture. Little Johnny. is the same way. He's catechized growing up. He goes to school. He's taught that all mankind evolved from lower life forms long, long ago, just like Darwin said. Yes, little Johnny, billions of years ago, the universe made itself in a violent explosion. And a few billion years after that, the earth formed. And millions of years ago, dinosaurs roamed the earth far before anyone was here, Johnny. Then he watches the TV show with his parents at night. The show is reinforcing Johnny's secular culture and customs, even if it's just a news program. He sees the people wearing secular expressions of clothing and dress. He hears them uttering well-known secular phrases, things like, follow your heart, believe in yourself, love is love. In English class, he reads, it matters not how straight the gate, nor how charged with punishment the scroll. I am the master of my faith. I am the captain of my soul. He gets a child's book from the library and he begins reading stories that reinforces secular beliefs. The characters stress secular values. They exemplify secular gender roles. Perhaps the book is entitled, Heather Has Two Mommies, or A Tale of Two Daddies. The teacher at Little Johnny's school reinforces these values by stressing that traditional Christianity, traditional Christian roles and family structures are just one of many acceptable options. After all, what's wrong with a man being with another man anyway, or a woman being with another woman? Love is love, after all. Why, Johnny, why would you have to listen to your parents, what they have to say, their moral code, their morality? You need to follow your heart, Johnny. Believe in yourself. Guess what happens? He soon begins to think and act according to his worldview, his real worldview, which is secular. Let me tell you what I often see in my classroom, and I saw it a lot when I was coaching. I coached for the first six years, because if you play college football, somehow you do not get out of it. Well, we just knew you were going to be a coach. OK, here I am. Didn't know that. I would have parents come up to me and say, you know what? I just can't figure out what's going on with little Johnny. I'll tell him what's going on. He won't listen to us. He's hanging out with the bad crowd. They don't share his morals. They don't share his convictions or beliefs. We taught him better now. We raised him better. Is that right? Did you? How so? He's walked away from his Christian faith. It seems like he's just walking away from it. That's possible. Or something else is possible too. It's possible that Johnny never really had Christian roots to begin with. It's possible that he's actually been growing and maturing in his secular worldview, in his secular faith. It's possible you're just now finally noticing because he's old enough to start expressing it, giving voice to it. He can put words together well enough to say what he thinks. In Johnny's mind, he hasn't rejected Christianity, never rejected anything. He's never been taught it to begin with. He simply grown and matured in the faith that he was taught. In Johnny's mind, his family engaged in some curious peculiarity on the weekends. Most weekends they went to church, if there wasn't a ball game that was involved. Yeah, it was boring and maybe a bit annoying, but none of the Sunday trappings really had any real impact or penetration into the rest of his life. And so he's learned how to tolerate it, go along with it. After all, it makes mom and dad happy for me to show up at church with. Ever seen that? But you see, Christianity was nothing more than an add-on to his largely secular life. It certainly wasn't an all-encompassing conviction. The creation story that he learned as a child was actually the secular one. The story of human civilization, how people spread about, how cultures developed, was actually a secular one. It wasn't based on scripture. The story of human history that he's learned in school was the secular one. The moral code that he learned was the secular one. And now that he's old enough, you aren't seeing him reject the Christian faith. He never had the Christian faith to begin with. Instead, you're seeing him express the secular faith that he has learned so well. So let's take it a step further. And we'll see just how we've gotten to where we are today. Let's pretend God steps in and saves little Johnny. It's a glorious day. Hallelujah. So little Johnny decides I'm going to be a pastor and heads off to Bible college. Now bear in mind, little Johnny's never really been discipled. I mean, he's shown up at church, but it's not like he knows theology, Christian history. He doesn't know that stuff. He's never learned Christian history. He's never learned to read and interpret the scripture through a correct hermeneutical lens. Mom and dad or anybody else has never sat down with Johnny and done the hard work of teaching that. Why do we not do that in our homes? Because it's hard stinking work. And we're lazy. Maybe that's just me. Now he's imported a vast swath of his old worldview into his newfound Christian faith. He picks up his Bible, and he doesn't read Genesis as if he's never read it before. He doesn't read Genesis with some unbiased glasses. No, he reads Genesis holding onto all the trappings of his old worldview, and it sucks up to him, and he goes, there's no way this can mean this. Well, why not, Johnny? Well, don't you know? Everybody knows. What do you mean everybody, Johnny? Well, everybody knows there's billions of years old dinosaurs. Dinosaurs couldn't have lived with people. That's crazy. Why is that crazy? Well, don't you know it takes millions of years to make fossils? Really? How interesting. Well, little Johnny, a few years ago in my classroom, I helped a girl do a science project. She made a fossil in a week. I don't think it takes millions of years to make fossils, Johnny. Johnny, I have seen a cowboy boot with a fossilized leg still in it. I don't think, I could be wrong, but I don't think they were making the red tips a million years ago. Why though, when he reads Genesis, he can't help but notice how it does not seem to comport with all the things he heard and he saw growing up. Now listen, all of us suffer from that, all of us. All of us have portions of our worldview that are not sanctified yet, and that's the process of Christian sanctification. God is always changing part of our, we're learning new stuff every day, and we're learning through an act we call repentance, metanoia, the changing of my mind. I have to change the way I think so that then I can change the way I act. That's repentance. But the problem is this is so fully, thoroughly ingrained that he can't imagine this part's not true either. I'm not kidding. I've literally had a guy who got born again and starts reading the Bible. He says, Hey, I want to talk to you sometime. I'm like, okay, come on past. You know, my, my, my door is open a lot to my students. We have lots of good spirited debate in there. He says, okay, I'm reading this and I believe it's true, but how can it be true? How can it really be? I had that same conversation by the way, the pastor wants, young man who was, he'd only been, he'd grown up in a Christian home, which meant he went to church on, you know, most Sundays, but he'd never been taught that. And so I had actually spoken at a church down the road from him and he decided to come in. I didn't even know he was there. He kind of slipped in the back door, passed it from a church down the road because he wanted to hear. And I had talked about Genesis that night, early Genesis, and how do I know that this means what it really says and yada, yada, yada. And so I, You know, toss that out to him. Is it possible that what you're really doing is you're holding on to all the things you've heard your whole life? Is it possible that an entire culture could, everyone together, lie about something? Is it possible an entire culture could say blacks and Jews aren't as highly evolved as everyone else and they need to be exterminated? Darwin's first book was written in 1859 and the Civil War happened right after that, you may notice. And Darwin's book gave scientific justification for slave owners in the South. But what we're doing is not wrong. I mean, after all, you can see for yourself. The fancy guy with the lab coat that wrote the book here, the science guy, he tells us these people aren't as highly evolved. I was writing down here with Caleb Hartage, who's one of the most brilliant, probably the most brilliant man I know. And we got to talking about this and said, you know, this gave justification for everything. You can trace directly the line from Darwin's writing and his thought to World War II and the extermination. Directly. And I told him, you know, people think highly of Darwin only because they don't actually read his books. Because in the science textbooks, trust me, you aren't reading his writings. They'll make a mention of him. But if you do what I do, and you get to college, and you go, I'd really like to know what this guy actually said, and then you go buy the books, and you start reading them, and you're like, holy smokes, this is the guy? In his second book, he said, the only thing that was still necessary was for the savage races of men to be exterminated and replaced by the civilized ones. That would be progress. How come I didn't get to hear that in science class? Well, because there's an agenda here. There's a worldview I'm trying to sell you. And if I give you the flaws of the prophet of the worldview, you might not go along with the worldview. So Johnny compromises the Bible's creation story with the one he learned in his formative years. He compromises the creation story with the one that he's heard the most of. Have you noticed every single, every, I mean every, every single religion is founded on a creation story? Why? Because every religion, they call it the four big questions, there's four questions every religion has to answer. The first one of those is, how did we get here? When you open your Bible, you do not read about the cross of Christ in the first chapter. Why? We have to tell you why it's necessary. Why did Jesus need to come to die? We got a great answer for you, chapter three. Right? The fall of man, the proto-evangelium, gonna send a seed that's gonna crush the head of the serpent, right? But you see, he's been told a different creation story so much, so thoroughly, from so many avenues, that he can't even fathom that this is real. And so what he's now trying to do is he's trying to take the creation story of the religion that he learned and fuse that to elements of now the religion that he has been born again or been converted to. So typically what happens is you'll get somebody that's, they're kind of wearing legs of two different pants, right? They don't have any problem with the New Testament. God, that makes sense, yeah, Jesus, they're solid on that. Sometimes they're not, but let's pretend. I believe what the New Testament says. Okay, we believe the Old Testament. Yeah, well, but that, I just don't know how to take Genesis. Why? You can't really mean that. In essence, what they're trying to do is wear a pair of pants with corduroy leg on one side and jeans on the other and make it fit together. It doesn't fit together. And what you finally end up, what I like to do is show them, okay, well, if you don't believe this, it's going to affect your theology in the New Testament. Oh, that's not true. I promise it's true. You just haven't thought through it yet. How do I know that's true? Because I was that Johnny. I was the kid that went to church every now and again when there wasn't ball games. I was the kid that was taught all these things, and I was the kid that when I was born again had major questions. Whoa, how in the world can I believe this book, but how can it be? And thank God, For all, I was, the first church I was in after being born again, I'm not saying it's a church I would want you or anybody else to be in, okay? There were some serious theological problems. However, the pastor of that church was solid on creation. At the time. He said, gotta move it off later. And he had some really good resources, and he passed them to me, and I ran into a guy on a prison ministry that says, you know what? You've got a lot of questions, brother, I've got some tapes, I've got some DVDs, you oughta watch them. You should watch these. And I watched them, and here's a man who stood up and started defending the Bible. Defending Genesis as written, the historical account of Scripture, and not flinching at it. And it was like, you've got to remember, I was a biology major with a chemistry minor at the time. I mean, trust me, I'm hearing all this stuff day in and day out, and I'm trying to figure out how in the world does this fit? And it was like water to a thirsty soul. I don't know how many times I watched those things. I watched them and watched them. Poor Ronnie's house became like the public library to me. I'd take him a couple back. Hey, you got any more of those? Well, I got a couple more. OK, thanks. I would just sit in front of them and listen. I took notes, made entire notebooks of this stuff. It was water to a thirsty soul. So let me close by doing this. I've got so much more I'd like to say, and I just don't have the time to say it. your backsides can't endure it. I know that. Let me give you some things, some things to think about. Okay. First of all, is your view of Genesis based on exegesis or is it on eisegesis? Do you believe what you believe about the beginning of God's Word because you can flesh it out with scripture or is it because, well, these really smart guys with lots of fancy letters after their name, they wear white lab coats, they said I can't trust it. Oh, they must be smarter than God. I mean, have you ever really thought about that? I called it when I was doing my thesis in seminary, I called it scientific redactionism. I said, what we have done, by and large, is we've taken an unelected group that is by far the majority of our unbelievers. If we're going with scientific consensus to tell us how we should interpret scripture, the majority of the people that work in that field are not born again. Turn with me to Ephesians 2, real fast. I'm trying to make it fast. It's not even the text that I gave them. Like, we're waiting for that text he said he was going to get to. Sorry guys, we've got to go past it. Ephesians 2, and you he made alive who were dead in trespasses and sins in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works, the sons of disobedience. I'm going to give you a really big conspiracy theory. You ready? Here's my conspiracy theory. Those who are not born again are enemies of God. And they are actively suppressing his truth. Let me show you where. Romans chapter 1. I'm sorry I'm going so fast. I'm really sorry. This is what happens when you try to get like six hours into 40 minutes. Romans 1, let's start at verse 18. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness. It does not say that they know it or they don't know it and they're just not sure. It says they know it and they suppress it, they push it down. 19, because what may be known of God, by the way, in the Greek that is nantis pantheon, the God, what they may know about the God is manifest in them for the God has shown it to them. They know there's a God. Not only do they know there's a God, they know some certain things about Him. They know who the real God is. They know He's all-knowing, that He has these different attributes. They may not know like a theologian would. or like you do after years of studying the Scripture, but they know enough to know who the real God is, and God is saying that in His Word. Verse 20, Since the creation of His world, His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse. If you hear an atheist tell you, look, I just need more evidence to believe in God, you're hearing a lie. For about 10 years, I went around to places and I gave evidence after evidence. I was just, you know, I'd give them an evidence and say, what about this? Well, okay, well, what about this one? Okay, I'll shoot that one down. Well, what about this then? Okay, I'll shoot that one down. You know what never happened? Nobody ever, after I gave a big sermon and caught all this, here's all this scientific evidence that the Bible is true, you can trust it, it means what it says, do you think anybody was like, that's it, I just been needing evidence. Oh, preacher, pray for me, I need Jesus. That's never happened in 10 years. You know why it never happened? Because I had not thought about this. No, they're without excuse. Verse 21, because although they knew the God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were they thankful. But they became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools. That's what happened. Why do men not believe Genesis? Why do they not believe God's word? They just don't have enough evidence? No, they have a dark heart. They're in rebellion against the creator of the world. They don't want to believe. I don't want there to be a God. Why? Because I like my sin. And I was that same way once too. I want to be free to just go gallivanting about, having physical relationships with whoever, whatever girl I want to, get drunk whenever I want to, get in fights whenever I want to. I want to be able to live the life. Nobody's going to tell me I can't. And the God of all creation was telling me, no, you can't. There were nights where I did things that are unspeakable and I would go to bed and I would feel the conviction. I knew God was real. I wouldn't have admitted it though. I don't want to believe there's that's why. Listen, you don't have to learn a hundred thousand things about apologetics to be equipped to evangelize people. Here's why. It's not the apologetics that are going to get them saved. God has given a thing by which all men must be saved. It is the gospel of Jesus Christ and it's prayer for their darkened heart. How are you gonna get this guy saved? I'm gonna pray for him. I'm gonna ask God, please, God, pull the scales off his eyes. Then when he gets saved, he goes, okay, now I'm born again, but I don't understand this. Now I've got some stuff for you, son. Now I'm gonna build, help you build this faith. I'm gonna strengthen your faith with this stuff. But this stuff isn't saving anybody. And to be quite frank, The entire world of apologetics, when I went to seminary, the reason I chose the seminary I chose was there was only five seminaries at that time that even offered degrees that had anything to do with apologetics. And this one that I went to was very conservative. One of my great heroes of the faith, Henry Morris, had gone there and gotten his doctorate there. I thought, that's the place to go. And when I started there, it was. And halfway through it, they decided, oh, there's this other guy. He's got a big name. We want him to be the head of the apologetics department. Yeah, but he's Catholic. Doesn't matter, he's got a big name. He's not theologically orthodox, doesn't matter, he's got a big name. The entire world of apologetics, there are a lot of apologetics, you can't go anywhere without somebody being an apologist today. That word is such a buzzword, you can't hardly find a seminary that doesn't offer an apologetics degree today, and that's only about a little over 10 years. And it's incredible. And yet, I wonder sometimes if the vast majority of the apologetics that are being spewed out there are actually more harm than good. There is no doctrine so asinine that you can't find a William Lake Craig fanboy to stand up and defend it. All right, I want to go farther on that, but I don't have the time. Let me give you four theological problems you're going to come up with, okay? If you do not believe Genesis is correct as written, if you believe the earth was built out of a big bang and the molten rocks, you know, formed over millions of years, it's a fairy tale when I say it, it just sounds like vinegar coming out of my mouth. It tastes like anyway, you've got some problems with that. Here's theological problem number one Most people are not aware of this people like William Lane Craig people others that don't they're not really in the science world They're just parroting the things they've heard scientists say they don't know this stuff If you're somebody who is in the scientific world who does go to the conferences who does read the papers, you know about this stuff The Big Bang is going out It is under fire and has been for a long time. 2004, Scientific American ran a paper on it saying, hey, the Big Bang's gotta go. 2008, Scientific American ran another one. 2011, Scientific American ran another one. It is under fire. So what's gonna happen to your theological position when you decide, you know what, I'm just gonna pin my theology to the Big Bang? And then the scientific world goes, oh, that Big Bang that you just pinned everything to? Yeah, it's not real. What happens to your theology then? Geological problem number two you have death and corruption before sin if you think there were a bunch of animals on the world millions and millions of years before Adam and Eve and They were dying. Let me tell you some other things that we see in the fossil record. We see cancer in the fossil record We see thorns and thistles in the fossil record. Remember God cursed the ground with thorns after sin and You are saying, if you believe that millions and millions of years ago, you now have death and corruption before sin. And Romans, which you'll notice is in the New Testament, says that sin came from Adam. Okay, then you've got a real problem. That's actually heterodoxy at best, heresy at worst. Theological problem number three. You're telling me a local flood is the thing to believe. That's... Ridiculous. But if you believe that the flood of Genesis wasn't real, wasn't global in scope, like it says, then now what you've got is a God who has promised never to do this again. He promised never to do whatever just happened in Genesis, whatever just happened, whatever. If it was a local flood, then now you've got God promising, I'm never going to do this again. And here's a rainbow so you'll know I'm telling the truth. Y'all in Louisiana might know something about floods. So then God would be a covenant breaker. God doesn't keep his word then? No, God promised never to kill the whole world with a flood, which is exactly what he said when he was talking to Noah later. Theological problem number four, and of course, when you write an entire thesis over this, of course you have to say it. If you believe that the early chapters of Genesis is myth, now you have a mythological atom and a mythological fall. And why in the world do we need a real physical savior to come atone for a mythological sin and a mythological fault? That's nonsense. I'm not telling you that you have to know all the answers when it comes to apologetics. I'm telling you the correct way to do apologetics is not to go get 700 books and spend 40 years learning everything. It's to read this book and believe it. Amen? Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your word. We know your word shows us truth. God, I ask you would give us the faith to really live that out. Let our convictions be rock solid. Let us know when we read your word, we're not reading myth, we're reading history. Father, I thank you for these people. I ask you would edify them, build them up, strengthen them through this conference, Lord. Let us go out of here stronger, more on fire that others might know. that you have sent your son to die for them. We thank you for it, Lord. We ask you to change hearts and lives here in Jesus name. And all God's people said, Amen.