The “Safe” Position on Creation

Richard Hollerman

We realize that there are those who are confused about whether God created all things and how He created everything. Further, there are people who are puzzled about when such an important event may have occurred. But is there a “safe” position to take on these sorts of important events?

We think that there is—but it may be an answer that at least some people may not want to hear. The atheistic view is that God (or any god) doesn’t exist, thus He could not have created all things. The agnostic view is that we don’t know and can’t know whether or not God created all things.

In contrast, the theistic view is that there is a God who did create everything. Looking at it this way, we must say that being a theist is the “safe” position to take. The reason is that if there is a God who did create everything, then the atheist is wrong and must be punished for his unbelief for all eternity (John 3:36). The same would be true of the agnostic. If God exists, then the person who lives his life without a knowledge of such a fact must face God and be condemned for all eternity for his unbelief (Romans 1:18-32). Thus, it would be “safe” to believe that God is creator.

Beyond this, we know that there are a lot of different views in addition to the above ones. There is the Hindu view, the Buddhist view, the Muslim view, and other religious views. Let’s jump over them and go to the “Christian” views. Here there are various ways of looking at creation, all of them claiming to be “Christian” in orientation.

First, some professing Christians are what has been called “progressive creationists” for they take the secular scientists’ view that the universe was “created” (?) by means of the proverbial “Big Bang” some 14.4 billion years ago. However, they would assert that God “created” all things during that long period of time at different intervals, thus He created “progressively” during those 14.4 billion of years. Thus, they would say that God worked down through history to produce all that we see today. Supposedly, they would take the creation account of Genesis 1 and other places symbolically.

Second, other professing Christians would believe in “theistic evolution” for they accept the secular scientific view that all we see is the result of an evolutionary process. God was simply “behind the scenes” and guided organic evolution and all other evolution along to the present time. They too would take Genesis 1 in a symbolic fashion. Probably both of these views would deny the inspiration of Scripture and not hold to an inerrant Bible.

There are other variations of these views but the bottom line is that God worked in history to bring about “creation” (which is not really creation). These views would reject the Biblical chronology and accept what secular scientists claim—that this universe, including this solar system, has been around for a long, long time. And this would be over 14 billion years! Even the so-called “Gap theory” (that sees a huge “gap” between Genesis 1:1 and Genesis 1:2, large enough for the dinosaurs) would tend to accept the popular view that the universe is over 14 billion years old!

In contrast, perhaps half of the professing “Christians” in America would take a more literal view of Genesis 1 and other creation passages. They would take a more straightforward view of God’s amazing creative work and reject evolution in its various forms. Some of these people would be more naïve and not really show a concern about the chronology of creation, but we commend them for being willing to accept the Biblical account of creation as it stands.

Although the progressive creationists, theistic evolutionists, gap theorists, and the like might claim to be “Christians” because they professed some belief in Christ Jesus as Savior, we might say that they are in a dangerous position! If they one day find themselves wrong about God, about creation, and about the literal account of creation in Genesis (and elsewhere), they would find themselves “fighting against God” (to use the term used in the Jewish Sanhedrin of acts). That would not be a very good place to be.

On the other hand, if one takes the Bible for what it says, in Genesis 1 and elsewhere, and this is true, then these proponents would be on “safe” ground (so far as creation is concerned). They would be accepting the Bible for what it says. They would be acknowledging that The Biblical chronology of Genesis 1-11 is true, trustworthy, and worthy of acceptance. Some may call them naïve. Some may say that they are taking symbolic language in a literal way—a way that was not really intended by Moses (the writer of the first five books of the Bible).

But surely it would be true that it would be much, much better to accept symbolic language as literal than refusing to accept the literal interpretation of Genesis because of what secular and unbelieving scientists would want us to believe! We think that accepting Scripture as literal rather than symbolic is far “safer” than accepting the Bible as symbolic rather than literal. We would think that the person who holds to the latter would be in a dangerous position! We can’t see how such a person could be even saved if, in fact, God intended for His word to be accepted as literally true when it is only symbolic.

The Lord Jesus even ties a belief in Him with a belief in what Moses wrote in John 5:46-47. There He said, “If you believed Moses [in the five books of Moses, including Genesis 1-11], you would believe Me for he wrote about Me. But if you do not believe his writings [for example, about creation], how will you believe My words?” Jesus does see a direct link between taking the writings of Moses seriously and believing in the words of Jesus Himself.

We do think that it is “safe” to accept the Genesis account of creation (chapter 1) and the early portions of earth history (chapters 1-11) as literally true. In contrast, it would not be safe to think of the Biblical account of creation as symbolic if it is literal. Further, it would not be safe to reject what Moses wrote about creation, especially if this is to acquiesce to unbelieving scientists, those who ridicule Scripture. What Moses wrote is true! And what the Lord Jesus taught is also true.

We could easily list a dozen or twenty or more scriptures here that would elucidate the account of creation but what we have written elsewhere should be sufficient. Further, we could easily list 10, 20, or 50 different books that would show the truthfulness of Genesis in contrast to the unbelieving positions held by professing “Christians” who choose to accept the theories of unbelieving scientists and compromising teachers and writers!

Let us take God’s Word seriously—on the matter of creation as well as the matter of salvation itself! We think that it is lamentable to read of certain writers or listen to certain speakers who refer to creation and then compromise on the matter of salvation and conversion! So very sad! Won’t you join with me in affirming your full faith in the inspiration of Scripture and the Biblical account of creation!