[Note: Our guest contributor, Ken Ham, is the founder and CEO of Answers in Genesis. Originally from Australia, he now lives in northern Kentucky, where the Creation Museum and Ark Encounter (a full-sized replica of Noah’s Ark) are featured attractions. More information can be found at answersingenesis.org.]
Answers in Genesis ministry does not take a particular view of eschatology. We do believe and preach that Christ will be returning and there will be a time of judgment. We note that some prophetic passages relate to the Book of Genesis. For example, in 2 Peter 3, we read of a fascinating prophecy concerning the last days of this earth’s history and its connection to Genesis. This teaching is presented in our Noah’s Ark attraction, “The Ark Encounter,” south of Cincinnati. 2 Peter 3:3-7 states:
Knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires. 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.” 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, and that by means of these the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished. 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. (ESV)
The Scriptures warn us that in the last days, people are going to say that “all things are continuing as they were from the beginning.” Evolutionists tell us that the earth has been in existence for billions of years, and that life started evolving on this earth millions of years ago. Unfortunately, many Christians also hold this same belief. The technical word used in geology for this view is “uniformitarianism.” Most geologists have the idea that the processes we see operating in the present world have been going on for millions of years at essentially the same rate and will probably go on for millions of years into the future.
The evolutionists and the theistic evolutionists (those who believe in evolution but add God to the idea) use the phrase “the present is the key to the past.” In other words, the way to understand the past is based on what is observed in the present. For instance, they say that fossils rarely form in today’s world. Therefore, it must have taken millions of years to form vast layers of rock containing billions of fossils over most of the earth’s surface, including at the Grand Canyon.
Evolutionists also tell us that as we observe mutations (that is, accidental changes in our genes), then these must have occurred since the dawn of time. Thus, mutations must be one of the mechanisms involved in the postulated evolutionary progression. These mutations are mistakes that occur in our genes, and they commonly cause disease. The Bible, however, tells us that there was a time when there was no sin, and thus there was neither animal nor human death, disease, or mistakes.
Those who believe in evolution must assume that natural processes we see today are the same processes that have gone on for millions of years. The only way we could ever know for sure exactly what happened in the geological past would be the eyewitness testimony of someone who could tell us whether geological processes have always been the same, or whether sometimes geological processes have sometimes been different and/or faster?
The Bible claims to be the record of One (God) Who knows everything and has always existed, for He is outside of time. In fact, He created time. The Bible claims that God moved men through His Spirit to write down His revelation, so that the Bible is not just the words of men but the Word of God (2 Peter 1:20-21).
The book of Genesis, God’s very first testimonial to us, claims to be a record from God that tells us of the events of Creation and the world’s early history. They have great bearing upon our present circumstances. In other words, the Biblical record claims to be from a Witness Who was there, Who knows everything, and Who wrote down exactly what happened for us. Thus, the present is not the key to the past. Rather, revelation is the key to the past from Someone who was there.
With this revelation in Genesis, we read about such events as Creation and Noah’s flood. These are events which have made the natural world we see (the earth’s geology, geography, biology, etc.) what they are today. We must therefore also realize that what happened in the past is the key to what we see in the present. In other words, the entrance of sin into the world explains why we have death and mistakes occurring in our genes. In addition, any explanation of the fossil record, and the death it records, must involve the global devastation caused by Noah’s Flood.
Bible-denying evolutionists misread the signs of nature and put their faith in their belief that “all things continue as they have done from the beginning.” The prophecy in 2 Peter 3 is being fulfilled before our very eyes.
Willingly Ignorant
In the next section of this prophecy, we are told that men will deliberately reject three things. Notice that the emphasis here is on a deliberate rejection, or as some translations put it, a “willing ignorance.” Thus, it is a deliberate action on a person’s part not to believe:
- God created the world, which at first was covered with water (that is, it was cool)
- God once judged this world with a global cataclysmic flood called Noah’s Flood
- God is coming back to judge this world again, but next time it will be by fire
Today, people everywhere are in rebellion against God, so to admit that the Bible is true in 2 Peter 3 would be an admission of their own sinful and rebellious nature, and of their need to be born again by cleansing through the blood of Christ.
It is easy to see this “willing ignorance” in action when watching past debates over the creation/evolution issue. In most instances, evolutionists, like Bill Nye, “The Science Guy,” who I debated in 2014, are not interested in the objective interpretation of the natural evidence creationists put forward. Instead, evolutionists just try to attack creationists by attempting to destroy their credibility. They are not interested in true debate because they are totally committed to their ‘religious faith’ called evolution.
The majority of scientists today believe the earth itself evolved and was not created. They also believe that when the earth came into being, it was first a hot molten blob and was not covered with water. In Genesis 1 we read the testimony of the Witness Who was there (God), Who says that when He made the earth, it was first covered with water. Thus the evolutionist, who was not there (although he talks as if he was) and does not know for sure what the early earth was like holds a faith position. Their assertion that the earth was a hot molten blob is really just blind faith. The Christian, however, does have a Witness who was there, Who can be trusted and Who has recorded for us exactly what happened.
We have another fulfilment of the prophecy in 2 Peter 3: people who deny that the earth was created originally covered with water.
Most geologists today also tell us that there never was a global flood as taught in the Bible. We are told that millions of years of geological processes explain the enormous fossil record in the sedimentary rock layers on the earth’s surface. However, creationists have shown over and over again that the fossil-bearing rock layers were obviously produced by enormous catastrophic processes consistent with an event, such as Noah’s Flood. But evolutionists refuse to accept this view, for to do so would mean that the Bible is right and thus the whole of their evolutionary philosophy would have to be rejected. These people are “willingly ignorant” that the proper interpretation of scientific evidence does not support their evolutionary ideas, but it does confirm a model of geology based upon what the Bible says concerning Noah’s Flood. This is yet another fulfilment of prophecy before our very eyes.
Scientific literature proves that secular scientists expect this world to go on and on for millions of years. You might ask: “How can they know what is going to happen millions of years into the future?” Their answer is: “In exactly the same way we understand what happened millions of years in the past!”
Of course, they don’t really know; it is their guess. If secularists believed that God had created, that Noah’s Flood was a real event, and that the Bible is true, they would embrace the Biblical account. In Matthew 24:37-39, Jesus Christ uses the event of Noah’s Flood as a warning that God has judged and therefore will judge again. Scripture tells us that God is going to come back as judge, but next time He will use fire. Sinful man in rebellion against God does not want to admit that he must stand before the God of Creation one day and account for his life.
By rejecting Creation and Noah’s Flood and claiming that “scientific” evidence supports their own belief, evolutionists become comfortable in not thinking about coming judgment. But, just as God created the world by His Word and sent the Flood through His Word, so God will judge this world by fire.
Conclusion
The fossil record stands as an immense “sign of nature” to the fact that God has judged by water. This should warn each man, woman, and child that just as God has kept His Word in the past concerning judgment, so He will keep His Word in the future concerning judgment.
Second Peter 3 is a prophecy of the last days and we are seeing it fulfilled before our very eyes. Let us therefore become more vigorous and bolder in witnessing for our God, the God of Creation.
Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God… (2 Peter 3:11-12)
As a 17-year old college freshman in 1963, I was required to take an anthropology class at a supposedly Christian college. It was primarily a physical anthropology class wherein millions and billions of years were discussed and what all happened then. I was not yet saved. But I distinctly remember wanting to ask, “Who was there to write all this down?” But I was too afraid to ask. It was not until 1970 that I was saved, and it was as though I could see the world through different eyes altogether. My first reading of Genesis made so much more sense! And one thought that came to me was, “Why didn’t I ASK that question?” The second thought was “Bummer.”