Political commentator and Olympic ribbon dancer Matt Walsh recently started a firestorm on social media when he decided to prove to his followers how stupid and opposed to science Young Earth Biblical Creationists are by proving how he himself knew nothing about the Young Earth Biblical Creation position. He not only didn’t do any research before calling out Ken Ham and all like-minded persons on the old social medias, but he seemed OFFENDED at the suggestion that he take the time to see what Answers In Genesis actually SAYS before calling them out for being a national disgrace.
Looks like SOMEONE is thinking about applying for a position at CNN. All Walsh needs to do is start referring to President Trump as “The Orange Nazi” and he’s got a spot at the big desk next to Don “Citrus” Lemon. But I digress.
One of the comments which seemed to have popped up over and over from people who decided to agree with Walsh instead of (and I don’t want to tell anyone how to live their lives, but this simply occurred to me as one possible alternative) think about what he said, was that teaching people that Genesis means what it says is keeping people from becoming Christians. Yes, the bloggosphere decided that telling people that the Bible means what is says is a HINDRANCE- yea, a STUMBLING BLOCK to unbelievers and believers alike!
The argument is simple. Kids raised in church are told the Bible means what it says when it tells them that, as God Himself put it in Exodus 20:
..in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day.
But then these kids get to public school and are told by well meaning atheists that the Bible is mythology written by illiterate, bronze-age goat herders, and they see that SCIENCE (blessed be its name) disagrees with the BAH-ble, and Charles “Chuck D” Darwin (Peace be Upon Him) proved that nature made life without God, and so Genesis is a steamy pile of rubbish strewn with flies, lies, and probably racism. And these kids leave the church, never to return- all because they were raised believing in BIBLICAL CREATION.
Meanwhile, their friends in public school who were raised on PBS and the Discovery channel already KNEW that Darwin (Peace be Upon Him) speaks all wisdom and truth, and so they are simply encouraged to make fun of their Christian friends until their friends are no longer Christians.
And who is to blame for this rampant rise of atheism?
KEN HAM!
If only fools like him would STOP TELLING CHILDREN to trust the Bible, then when they were told NOT to trust the Bible, they would remain Christians!
Wait… that can’t be how this argument goes. Let me try it again.
If only fools like him would PUT THEIR TRUST IN SCIENCE and tell children that, while the Bible sure SAYS “in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day,” it actually MEANS that the universe formed over 13.2 billion years and life evolved naturally from puddles of goo over 4 billion years until Moses came along and made up some stuff about God based mainly on his being raised by Egyptian Pagans, then those children would believe that Jesus was the Son of God and that he rose from the Tomb after being crucified.
Does that sound right?
Because these bloggers don’t seem to EXPLAIN their argument a lot. They just say that the REASON people leave the church is because, having put their faith in SCIENCE, they see that the Bible can’t be trusted, and so they abandon the church. And of course, by “Science” they don’t mean testable, repeatable, observational science, they mean the Big Bang and Evolutionary mythologies which literally CANNOT be observed, and which violate actual, observable, established laws of science.
What apparently hasn’t occurred to these people is that, it MAY have been a little more efficient to teach those children why the Bible CAN be trusted, and how science and scripture AGREE. Which, and again, I don’t want to tell you how to live your life, Matt Walsh would have learned had he spent a few minutes looking into what Answers In Genesis has been doing for the past 40 years.
So, what I am saying is- the way to stop the church from wilting is to teach Biblical apologetics. If we can help the church at every age to understand not only what the Bible says and what it means, but also how to understand science (as opposed to atheism) then when those children are told that the Bible is wrong, they will either have an answer, or at least know where to find one.
But if you are still convinced that Answers In Genesis, Ken Ham, and all other Creationists are keeping people from the church by telling them things they cannot or will not accept, then by all means allow me to help you make a list of other things which are literally in the Bible that keep people from the church that you can begin to abandon, reject, and even demonize beginning immediately.
Stumbling Blocks to NEVER Teach Again:
- Biblical Creation in six days by God as described in Genesis, Exodus, etc.
- The Hebrew Exodus from Egypt, which offends Pagan Historians
- The idea that Homosexuality is a sin, which offends liberals
- The idea that ANYTHING is a sin, which offends sinners
- The teaching that Jesus is the ONLY way to God, which offends most of Hollywood
- The Resurrection of Jesus, which offends atheists
- The Deity of Jesus, which offends Muslims
- The rejection of other gods as false which offends Hindus and their 330 million gods
- The idea that all humans are related by common human ancestors, which offends racists and Darwinist
- The idea that marriage is sacred, which offends divorce lawyers and Democrats
- The command for husbands to love their wives, which offends Feminists
- The command not to kill, which offends abortion advocates
- The doctrine that God is eternal, which offends Mormons
- The teachings about Jews being God’s chosen people or having been given Israel as their “promised land” which offends the entire Middle East and most of the UN
- The idea that Jesus was Jewish, which offends Black Hebrew Israelites
- The idea that “God made them male and female” which offends Transsexuals
- And all of those admonitions against laziness, dishonesty, and the call to wisdom which offends people who find it MUCH easier to simply demonize Biblical Creation and Ken Ham than to spend any time actually learning about it.
I think if we work together, we can not only rid the church of any dogmatic teaching which offends people and keeps them away, but perhaps, someday, create a church with absolutely no doctrines at all. We can meet in an empty field and spend an hour every Sunday allowing open minded people to teach us ribbon dancing until even CNN has nothing bad to say about us.
A Bit of Orange 
Thirty-eight years ago, a universe bazillions of years old and evolution was the biggest stumbling block I had to being a Christian. I know what the book of Genesis said, and I had a hard time buying what the theistic evolutionists were pedaling. In the Bible, God always seems to say what he means and means what he says, so why should Genesis be any different?
We didn’t have the Internet back then, so I had to dig through university libraries to find my answers. I remembered from years before, a local newspaper published a review ridiculing Dr. Henry M. Morris’ book “The Troubled Waters of Evolution.” I didn’t care what the reviewer said, but I remembered the book and I wanted to read it for myself. I finally found a copy in my college library. It was gold to me back then. And when I saw that ICR was based here in San Diego, I went down there and got a lot of information from them. Drs. Gish and Cummings were happy to spend time answering my questions. I even put together a twenty-nine-page, meticulously documented, summary of the case against evolution that I would give to my friends because I couldn’t afford to give away books.
Nowadays, there is an abundance of excellent information readily available online from creationists that can be located with seconds through search engines. No more waiting days or weeks for inter-library loans or looking through card catalogs and book stacks in the corner of a university library. Ignorance is no excuse anymore. I shook my head watching Matt Walsh’s videos. It was painfully obvious he did not do any serious study of creationist material. Matt Walsh is willfully ignorant; simple as that.
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Thanks for sharing this Escovado!
I had a similar experience. When I got into college, my Bio 101 teacher began the very first class with a passionate diatribe about how “EVOLUTION is science, and we we’re not even going to TALK about Creationism.” And then we watched a video which acknowledged that- somehow- life formed from non-life and no one knows how, but it must have happened because here we are and let’s talk about something else now.
The internet was still a new thing which no one really used, and I had to work to find those books which said anything about Creation or evolution.
God bless you for caring what the Bible says and for seeking out the truth about not only God’s word, but his World. It baffles me that with SO MUCH free information available SO EASILY that people still remain ignorant and yet arrogant enough to attack people for believing what they don’t understand. You said it right- Matt Walsh is willfully ignorant.
And in agreement with Walsh, people are saying that we should stop teaching what the Bible says because it can be, as it was for you, a stumbling block. But you are living proof that we don’t need to abandon the truth, we need to make Christian apologetics more available.
But my question remains this- how do you make people learn who don’t want to? How do you get Christians to care when they are content to be lazy and just accept the word of Bill Nye or whoever else is on TV at the moment?
God give us wisdom.
Thanks again Escovado.
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Most people aren’t as OCD as I am. I think they’re just wrapped up in their lives and don’t have the time or inclination to research stuff like this…which is probably why I don’t have a life. Ha, ha!
Back in 2010, John MacArthur ran a series on creation/evolution in his Grace To You blog. I went at it with some theistic evolutionists in the comment sections. I didn’t change their minds, but I felt it went very well. A couple of weeks later, I got an email from MacArthur‘s webmaster who told me they got *hundreds* of emails from Christian readers who were hanging on the answers I was giving to the evolutionists. That floored me. Apparently, there were many silent readers out there who were hungry for this material. So when debating people on this subject, I think of the third parties who are reading the festivities.
On the other hand, I was “asked to leave” a local Baptist church I was attending at one time when some Reasons To Bereave, progressive creation types took over leadership. They were “cleaning house” and pretty much ran off everybody of my inclination.
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Well, I will be one of the hundreds who appreciate the fact that you care for truth and are willing to help others learn.
Thanks again.
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Re the above tirade:
https://twitter.com/paulogia0?lang=en
(I am not Paulogia.)
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Thanks for suggesting a read Ashley, but Paul is a waste of time. I’ve watched his weak attempts at Debunking creationists in the past, and its clear that truth and science mean little to him. His debate tactics and arguments are logical fallacies and diversionary tactics- like a politician. He SAYS he is going to look at the science and the evidence, but then he goes ON AND ON with accusations in the form of a question which attacks the person and doesn’t address the ideas. I understand how dim witted people with no attention span can be fooled into thinking that he is making a point or a case, but it doesn’t take much to see that he’s a fraud with nothing to say, just like every other atheist on social media. And if you’re trying to direct my attention to the Video called “Ken Ham made me an atheist” I’m not interested. I don’t doubt a lot of unbelievers will use any excuse they can to divert from the truth. A couple of mega church worship leaders recently made a video explaining that they became atheists because God didn’t grant their wishes when they felt like they EARNED it. Blaming someone else for your choice to reject what is true doesn’t make you any less foolish. Most of it stems from some combination of sin and intellectual laziness.
The important ideas are these:
1. What does the Bible SAY?
2. What does the context tell us is the best way to interpreter what it says?
3. What is the observable scientific evidence?
4. In what ways can this evidence be interpreted?
5. What worldview makes the most sense out of the evidence?
In looking at things logically and not lazily, you will find that Biblical Creation and a Christian worldview makes the most sense out of everything, including the experience of being human. This is why both science and philosophy became robust ONLY in Christian cultures.
Thanks for sharing.
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