Justin Taylor is senior vice president of Crossway Books, a theologically conservative Christian publishing company. Crossway is best known as the publisher of the English Standard Version (ESV) Bible, along with the ESV Study Bible, perhaps the most comprehensive theologically conservative study Bible ever produced for a general Christian audience. Justin Taylor believes the Bible. …
Category: Age of the Earth
Reading Genesis 1-2 — Forward and Introduction
I recently acquired Reading Genesis 1-2: An Evangelical Conversation, edited by J. Daryl Charles. The book gives perspectives of five highly-qualified, Evangelical Old Testament scholars on the creation accounts of Genesis: Richard E. Averbeck (professor of OT and Semitic Languages at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School) -- "A Literary Day, Inter-Textual, and Contextual Reading of Genesis 1-2" Todd S. …
Continue reading Reading Genesis 1-2 — Forward and Introduction
Observations about commenting on young earth creationist Facebook pages
I'm not sure what gave me the urge, but I spent quite a bit of time in late November and early December commenting on young Earth creationist (YEC) Facebook pages. I limited myself to the Big Three: Answers in Genesis, the Institute for Creation Research, and Creation Ministries International. Here's what I learned: 1. Answers …
Continue reading Observations about commenting on young earth creationist Facebook pages
GeoScriptures — Psalm 90:4 — God’s days are not the same as our days
"For a thousand years in your sight are but as yesterday when it is past, or as a watch in the night." -- Psalm 90:4 (ESV) Christians disagree with one another about the age of the Earth and the universe. Some Christians insist that the only possible way to interpret the opening chapters of Genesis …
Continue reading GeoScriptures — Psalm 90:4 — God’s days are not the same as our days
100 reasons the Earth is old — from Age of Rocks
One of the best current blogs on the topics of geology, young-Earth creationism, and Christianity is Age of Rocks, written by Jonathan Baker. Today he published his 100th post, and commemorated that milestone with a fantastic article: 100 Reasons the Earth is Old. I liked all 100 reasons, and think he could follow this up with 500 reasons the …
Continue reading 100 reasons the Earth is old — from Age of Rocks
Novare Earth Science — an upcoming middle school textbook by The GeoChristian
Like their secular school counterparts, many Christian schools offer a full year of Earth Science at the middle school level. These Christian schools, as well as home school parents who wish to offer a year of Earth Science, really have only two sources for curricula: secular publishers, such as Glencoe or Holt, or young Earth …
Continue reading Novare Earth Science — an upcoming middle school textbook by The GeoChristian
Around the Web 10/23/2014 — Old Earth textbook, No Ham for dinner, inverted smileys
I'll break out of my semi-monastic lifestyle for a few moments to pass on some good GeoChristian kinds of links... Old-Earth Classical Christian Middle School Earth Science Textbook -- Novare Science and Math, a relatively new Christian curriculum publisher, has announced that they will publish an old-Earth middle school Earth science textbook in time for the …
Continue reading Around the Web 10/23/2014 — Old Earth textbook, No Ham for dinner, inverted smileys
Around the web 2/18/2014 — Christian scientists (that is, scientists who are Christians) refute some YEC arguments
TURNING A YEC ARGUMENT ON ITS HEAD -- Young-Earth creationists like to tout soft tissues preserved in the fossil record as one of their prime evidences for a young Earth. A closely related issue is the preservation of ancient complex biomolecules, such as DNA, in the fossil record. The Natural Historian blog brilliantly turns this …
Norm Geisler: “The Young Earth view is not one of the Fundamentals of the Faith. It is not a test for orthodoxy.”
Norm Geisler has been a prominent defender of the Christian faith for a number of years. He is the author or coauthor of several important books on apologetics (the defense of the faith), including I Don't Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist, Baker Encyclopedia of Christian Apologetics, and Christian Apologetics. Dr. Geisler recently contributed an article to …
A more detailed survey indicates that most Christians are somewhere in the middle on the topic of origins, and that most don’t hold to their position all that strongly
Simplistic surveys can be very frustrating. For instance:Of all the colors of the rainbow, which is your favorite, Blue or Yellow?If your favorite color is green, and that is not an option in the survey, then there is no way for the survey to accurately assess your opinion. Nor does this simple survey assess how …
John Walton, Evangelical Old Testament scholar: Neither Ham nor Nye got the Bible right
Of the numerous analyses of the Ken Ham vs. Bill Nye debate earlier this week, one of the best is that of Old Testament scholar John Walton that was published as part of a larger review on the Biologos website (Ham on Nye: Our Take). Walton, author of The Lost World of Genesis One: Ancient Cosmology …
A few additional thoughts on Ham vs. Nye
I've had another 24 hours to think about the Ham vs. Nye debate, and I have a few additional thoughts: I'm struck by how little evidence Ken Ham presented in his main presentation or in his rebuttals. He briefly mentioned a few standard YEC arguments for a young Earth, such as woody material dated at …
Ken Ham vs. Bill Nye post-debate analysis
On February 4, 2014, Answers in Genesis President Ken Ham debated Bill Nye (“the Science Guy”) on the topic of “Is creation a viable model of origins?” I cannot say that I was disappointed with the debate, because I had very low expectations for it in the first place, and it was about what I …
Debate pre-game prognosis: What Ken Ham could learn from Duane Gish in order to “win” his debate against Bill Nye
In March of 1987, young-Earth creationist Dr. Duane Gish came to Washington State University to have a creation-evolution debate with Dr. Grover Krantz, an anthropology professor at WSU. Gish's style in his frequent debates was a rapid-fire overload of facts from a wide variety of fields, most of which were outside of his opponent's area …
Best of The GeoChristian 2013
In my previous post, I listed the ten most-read articles on The GeoChristian in 2013. They are, I suppose, the reader's picks. Here are my picks for the most significant blog posts on The GeoChristian for the year. #10 -- A 4th grade quiz on dinosaurs that the teacher would have given me an “F” on …
GeoChristian most-read posts in 2013
Things have been rather quiet here on The GeoChristian lately, but people from around the world have still been finding things to read. Here are the most-read posts in 2013 (a number of which were written before 2013): #10 -- A young-Earth creationist magmatic model for the origin of evaporites -- This is my preliminary analysis …
Around the web 10/16/2013 — the latest Jesus conspiracy theory and YEC attacks on old-Earth Christians
AN INVENTED JESUS? -- The media has started giving publicity to the latest Jesus conspiracy theory: Story of Jesus Christ was 'fabricated to pacify the poor', claims controversial Biblical scholar: Christianity was a sophisticated government propaganda exercise used to pacify the subjects of a the Roman Empire, claims scholar. So, the Romans invented a story in …
Many top advocates of Biblical authority accept an old Earth as completely compatible with Scripture
Can one believe in the authority of the Bible and also believe that Earth is on the order of a few billion years old? Are Christians who accept an old Earth "compromisers" who deny obvious truths of Scripture? Many young-Earth creationist (YEC) leaders insist that acceptance of an old age for the Earth---billions of years …
Stuck in a tar pit
The June 2013 issue of Acts & Facts magazine from the Institute for Creation Research has a two-page article on the fossils of the La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles. "The La Brea Tar Pits Mystery" was written by Dr. John Morris, president of ICR, and Dr. Timothy Clarey, ICR's new staff geologist. The …
PCA 2013 General Assembly — The YECs get their turn
In 2012, two old-Earth Christian geologists gave a presentation at the General Assembly (annual meeting) of the Presbyterian Church in America. Gregg Davidson is a professor of geology at the University of Mississippi, and Ken Wolgemuth is an oil industry consultant, and their presentation was entitled "The PCA Creation Study Committee a Dozen Years Later: …
Continue reading PCA 2013 General Assembly — The YECs get their turn
GeoChristian 