So You Affirm Young Earth Creation?

4 min readMar 15, 2019

On the Preposterousness of Being a Moderate

In order to be fully consistent in calling Jesus “Lord,” it is logically necessary to affirm the things Jesus did, including the Genesis account of Young Earth Creation (YEC).

Objection: What about believers who affirm Old Earth Creation (OEC) or the Framework Theory or Theistic Evolution? They don’t know Jesus?

I have not heard every possible argument, so I am making a claim not about what is theoretically possible, but about what is. So far, to my knowledge, every advocate of Old Earth Creation or the Framework Theory or Theistic Evolution has run into the problem of denying the normal and obvious meaning of Scripture. This is a serious matter. They are doing something no one ought to do.

The level of absurdity is as if someone had read that Jesus was born in Bethlehem and then tried to argue that he wasn’t. Words have a normal, plain meaning, and if anyone wants to show that the normal, plain meaning is not the one the author intended, then let him bring a serious argument. So far, I have not seen one.

For this reason, I challenge the logical consistency of those who reject YEC and yet call Jesus “Lord.” That doesn’t mean they don’t know Jesus as Lord. But it does mean they are denying a significant truth that Jesus and the rest of the Bible affirm. I allow that a person could be logically inconsistent while still being in good faith. People see things differently, and it is not always obvious why. That said, in their words and actions, I believe that those who do not affirm Young Earth Creation are out of line with the teaching of Scripture in a way that is of serious concern.

Sources:

Genesis 1:31

And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.

Exodus 20:11

For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

Matthew 19:4–6

He answered, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female,
5 and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’?
6 So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”

Luke 11:50–51

So that the blood of all the prophets, shed from the foundation of the world, may be charged against this generation,
51 from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who perished between the altar and the sanctuary. Yes, I tell you, it will be required of this generation.

Luke 24:27

And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.

John 5:45–47

Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father. There is one who accuses you: Moses, on whom you have set your hope.
46 For if you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote of me.
47 But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?”

2 Peter 3:1–7

This is now the second letter that I am writing to you, beloved. In both of them I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder,
2 that you should remember the predictions of the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles,
3 knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires.
4 They will say, “Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.”
5 For they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God, 6 and that by means of these the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished.
7 But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.