Understanding the Days of Creation with Mike Riddle

Thank you, Gary. Okay, so we are recording and we're on our way to going live.

There we go. So let's get started. I am Terri Kammerzell here on behalf of Creation Fellowship Santee.

We're a group of friends bound by our common agreement that the creation account as told in Genesis is a true depiction of how

God created all life and the universe in just six days a few thousand years ago.

We've been meeting here on Zoom since June of 2020 and we've been blessed with a great blend of presentations that cover topics of creation apologetics, other theology topics and even some current events.

Tonight we are happy to have our longtime friend Mike Riddle and just as a reminder you can find links to most of our past presentations by typing in tinyurl .com

forward slash cfsantee that's c like creation f like fellowship santee is spelled s -a -n -t -e -e and you can also email us at creationfellowshipsantee at gmail .com

so that you get on our mailing list. We won't spam you but we will send you links to our upcoming speakers.

So back to our speaker tonight it's Mike Riddle our longtime friend. Mike Riddle is the founder and president of creation training initiative.

He's an apologist and an education specialist. He is an international speaker and teacher on biblical creation apologetics and Christian education.

He has been involved in creation apologetics for over 35 years. Mike has spoken at NASA, many secular and Christian universities, churches around the world, state homeschool conventions and secular and Christian schools.

Prior to being involved in creation ministry Mike was a captain in the in the United States Marine Corps and a national champion in track and field.

His experience he has a great amount of experience but we're going to let let him go ahead and just share with us tonight.

So go ahead Mike. Well thank you. The most important thing you didn't tell everybody. I have six very cute grandchildren.

That's important. Anyway we're going to go to the battlefield today. Why I call it a battlefield because this is where many attacks are coming is in the first chapters of Genesis and we cannot afford to lose that because too many of our youth are losing trust in the bible because they lose trust in these first several chapters.

So we're going to take on the argument the Genesis and the days of creation. Can we really know for sure what they are?

Does it make any difference? That would be our topic. So as soon as we get the powerpoint going here.

You seem to be stuck there. I see it. There we go. And we're going to start with something called the topics the sufficiency of scripture.

We're going to talk about seven evidences for the days of creation. We're going to answer four challenges and then we're going to talk about the authority and consistency of scripture and finally end up with why does all this matter.

So that'll be our topic we're going to go through. So let's start with the sufficiency of scripture. 2nd timothy 3 16 and 17 says this.

All scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training, and righteousness so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.

Well notice there says all scripture. Doesn't say some of it. All scripture starting with the verse in the beginning

God created. All that is inspired by God. God breathed. What I want to point out these words adequate and equipped.

What they mean is this. Complete. We are fully equipped with God's word.

It means we really don't need any outside resources which can help. I like evidence and evidence will always support

God's word. But it says God's word is sufficient for what we need.

Then John 17 17 teaches this. Sanctify them in the truth.

Your word is truth. In other words God's word is the only reliable truth in all the universe.

And we need to keep that in mind. He's given us everything we need in his word. It's the only truth that never changes.

And we're to be sanctified or set apart by his word. So there's the sufficiency of scripture and the authority of scripture.

That's what we're going to use. So with that in mind the bible is our authority.

I'm the days of creation. How long were they? Number one is

God defined the length of the word day. Matter of fact he specifically chose the word day.

He explicitly chose the word day for his length of time.

Now how long is that word day? Well in Genesis 1 5 he defines it. God called the light day and the darkness he called night.

And there was evening and there was morning one day. That should end all discussions right there.

God specifically said a day is the light and dark portion. That's it folks.

That it should be over right there. However people don't want to believe

God's word because they've been influenced by outside sources. So let's go a little further now.

A number is used with the word day such as one day, second day, third day, fourth day, fifth day, sixth day.

A number used with the word day. Now I'm going to bring in a big word here called hermeneutics. That is the science or rules for how we interpret language.

It is the rules how to interpret God's word. And we're going to stick to those.

We're not going to allow implications. We're not going to allow anything else.

We're going to use God's word. What does it say? Context is one of the most important rules of understanding any language.

We must keep the language in the context that it's given to us. Let me give you an example of context.

If I were to spell a word and you try and pronounce it, the word would be B -O -W.

How would you pronounce it? Well some would say bow. Some might say bow. Well how do you know how to pronounce it when you read it?

It is called context. See B -O -W can have different meanings, but context rules how we interpret the word.

And anytime and every time we see a number with the word day in the Old Testament, it always means a short period of time a day.

There are no exceptions to that. So God defined the word day.

Then he put a number with it. Right there are two powerful evidences. God said a day and he meant a day.

But it even goes further. The word day is bounded by evening and morning.

Evening and morning one day. Evening morning second day. Evening morning the third day. Every time we have the phrase evening and morning, it only means a literal day.

The context again, always a day. Then there's another rule of hermeneutics called the explicit.

If something is explicitly stated, it has a higher priority than what you might imply it means.

So we say there the explicit overrules the implication that you might have there.

In other words, the plain reading God's word is the best reading. So now we have God defined the word day.

He put a number with the word day. And he bounded it by evening and morning. Each day a definite beginning and a definite ending.

Again, the argument should be over there. But people are so convinced in their own mind that that can't be true.

In other words, here we are a created being trying to tell the creator of the universe, you really didn't mean that, did you?

And that's what's happening today in many of our so -called Christian universities. We have too many of our professors in there not believing

God's word and training our next generation of pastors and students not to believe

God's word. Then the plain reading. Three times, three times the

Bible explicitly states God created everything in six days. The Bible never states it took long ages, millions of years.

It never does. But three times. In Genesis 1, six days.

Exodus 20, verse 11, God says, for in six days the Lord made the heaven, the earth, the sea, and all that's in them.

Then in Exodus 31, verse 17, God again tells us six days for his creation.

How many times does God have to tell us something before we believe it? The problem here again is people are influenced by the world rather than God's word, so they won't believe

Genesis chapter 1. But in Exodus 20, verse 11, God is writing this down on the clay tablets, the stone tablets.

And commandment number four, again God writes this down. He wrote this down.

For in six days the Lord made the heavens, the earth, the sea, and all is in them. See, if you do not believe the days of creation were literal days in Genesis, then commandment number four does not mean what it literally states, and it's open to our own suggestions.

If commandment number four doesn't mean what it literally states, how can we trust the other nine?

See, there's a lot at stake in those first chapters of Genesis. If we don't believe the first chapter, then now we've thrown away the ten commandments.

They're just nothing more than suggestions now. We can interpret it any way we please. This is the problem of not trusting

God's word. Remember, all scripture is God -breathed, and He said it is true.

Are we really going to stand in front face -to -face with our Creator someday and say, you didn't really mean what you said.

I know better. That's what's happening in our Christian universities, and it's happening in some of our churches.

But God always has a remnant. You know, I get to travel all over the country, and there are some wonderful Bible believing pastors out there, and there's still some good ones in our

Christian universities that believe God's word and thank God for those people that are still teaching the truth.

Then we have the plain reading. I put this challenge out there. If you wanted the reader to understand

God meant six literal days in Genesis chapter one, what would you change? Probably nothing.

You wouldn't need to change anything, because it explicitly says six days. It puts a number of days.

He defined the word day, put evening and morning, the first day, the second day, the third day. You wouldn't need to change anything.

But if you wanted everybody to really understand His creation was millions and millions of years, you would have to change a lot of things in there.

So the plain reading is always the best reading, and there's nothing in Genesis chapter one to suggest these are not literal days.

Now let's go to the New Testament, Mark 10, verse six, evidence number six here. Jesus Christ is making a statement here.

He's talking about marriage, but He also says this, but from the beginning of the creation

God made them male and female. What did Jesus just tell us? Jesus, the creator of all things, just told us that man and woman were on this planet from the beginning of the creation, not after millions of years.

Is Jesus wrong here? I don't think so. Then finally, evidence number seven.

We'll go to Genesis chapter one, verse 14, and we'll look at the language here. Then God said, let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night, and let them be for signs and seasons and for days and years.

Here's the question. Notice God uses different reference of time there. He uses a season, a day, and a year, all in the same sentence here.

Now if a day does not mean a literal day there, and day means something like long ages, then how long is a season and a year?

You see, the language makes no sense if a day does not mean a literal day here.

So God defined the word day. He specifically chose the word day. He put a number of the word day.

He put evening and morning around the word day, which always means a day. So we see overwhelmingly the days were literal days.

He even stated three times that he created everything in six days. Nowhere does he ever say he took long periods of time to create.

It's not a biblical concept. Now we've had seven evidences the days were literal days.

Let's go now and answer some of the more common challenges against literal days.

And the first one we're going to do is 2 Peter 3. This is one of the most common challenges.

What's so important about 2 Peter 3? Well, here's what it says. But beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the

Lord as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day. Now doesn't it teach right there that a day can be a thousand years, maybe even longer?

Well, that's what it appears to say. So we're going to answer this challenge in three steps.

Let's not forget that context matters. That's very important. That's one of our main rules of interpretation, context.

Then we're going to look at another rule of hermeneutics or rules for interpreting language. That's called the style of writing.

And then we will draw a conclusion about 2 Peter 3. Can it be used to support the days of creation for long periods of time?

Let's start with context. When we read the verses before 2 Peter 3 and the verses after 2

Peter 3, what we find out is it's not talking about Genesis. It's not talking about the days of creation.

It's actually referring to the end times in the character of God. That God created time and He's not bound by time.

That's the reference here. That's the context. It has nothing to do with the days of creation.

So right there we see a lot of people are taking God's Word out of context to support their personal opinions.

Now let's look at the style of writing. Well, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the

Lord as a thousand years and a thousand years is one day. Now the Bible is written in many different formats.

Many different styles of writing. One of the questions I like to ask people is, do you take the

Bible literally? If you say yes, you're in trouble. Because the

Bible literally states that God is, Jesus is the rock. So are we worshiping rocks?

If we take the Bible literally, we're saying Jesus is a rock. But if you say no, you're also in trouble.

That's an example I call a loaded question. It's a question with a hidden premise. Do you take the

Bible literally? The answer is this way. The Bible is written in many different styles.

I take the Bible literally where it's meant to be taken literally. In other words, the Bible is written in historical format.

It's written in poetry. We've got figures of speech. We got apocalyptic.

We got many different formats. So we need to look at 2 Peter 3. What format is that written in?

Well, there's a very important word here. The word as. That word as turns 2

Peter 3 into a simile called a figure of speech. Now hold on now.

What is a figure of speech? That's where you use words to paint a picture. For instance, if I were to say it was raining like cats and dogs yesterday.

Well, are cats and dogs literally coming down from the clouds? Well, no. When we say it's raining like cats and dogs, we're using words to paint a picture of a torrential downpour.

Or if I said that gentleman over there, I watched him run yesterday. He runs like a gazelle.

Now did I just call him an animal? Well, no. When I say he runs like a gazelle, I'm using pictures to paint a word that he runs gracefully and he runs fast.

And 2 Peter 3 is a figure of speech. What it's saying is God is not bound by time.

A thousand years is nothing to him. Why? Because God lives in all time, all of the time.

He doesn't go back and forth through different time zones. He lives in all time, all of the time.

So a thousand years is nothing to him. But it is something to us because we are bound by time.

So this again has nothing to do with the days of creation. So context, talking about the end times, the attributes of God.

Style of writing, it's a figure of speech. Conclusion, it is incorrect to use the language in 2

Peter 3 to support the days of creation for long ages. In other words, we're taking God's word out of context and that's a serious issue there.

So 2 Peter 3 cannot be used to support the days of creation for literal days.

Here's another common challenge coming out of Genesis chapter 2 verse 4 which reads this way.

This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created. In the day that the

Lord God made earth and heaven. Now here's the word day in Genesis 2 4 which is still part of the creation account.

And it said that this word day does not mean a literal day. It very well may not mean a literal day.

But people need to understand something about the language. The word day is yom, y -o -m.

But that's not the word that is used here. Word used here is beyond which is part of a prepositional phrase which is an idiom here.

In the day is a Hebrew idiom meaning when. So when the

Lord God made heaven and earth. So yes it's not necessarily talking about a literal day of creation.

It could be talking about the whole creation week. So it's we need to understand something about the language.

Yom is used in Genesis chapter 1 for all six days. But here the word beyond is used which means when.

Now what in the world is an idiom? An idiom would be like again a group of words that don't mean what they mean literally.

For instance somebody said his boss threw him under the bus. Did his boss literally throw him under a bus to be crushed?

No it means the boss made him take the blame for everything. Or another idiom would be he's walking around with a chip on his shoulder.

Is somebody really walking around with a chip on their shoulder? No it means this person's walking around and they get upset very easily.

So yom and beyond two different words used. So we need to make sure we're very careful how we interpret

God's word. In the day is a Hebrew idiom for when. When the

Lord God made earth and heaven. Plus notice the word day is not used with a number. Nor is it bounded by evening and morning.

So our rules still are in place. When the word day is used with a number it always means a day.

When there's evening and morning it always means a day. We must look at the context.

And people are not using the basic rules of interpretation. They're using whatever they want to.

They're trying to add to God's word. Change God's word. No. God's word is perfect.

We need to stop changing it based on what we want to believe. Well how about this one?

Here's a very popular challenge. The word day can have different meanings. And that is true. We don't deny that.

The word day or yom can have different meanings. It can mean a little day. It can mean a period of daylight.

A season. A year. A disappointing time. Or some time in a general sense. So the word day can have a lot of different meanings.

Again if it has different meanings how do we determine what it means? Not your opinion.

I don't care about your opinion. We do not need science to understand this. So forget about all your science.

What we're using is God's word as our authority because it told us in 2nd Timothy 3 16 and 17 his word is sufficient.

We don't need outside sources. The only outside source we might need to help us understand is the

Holy Spirit. Not our understanding of scientific evidence. So let's look at some examples here.

Again context matters. Let's go to Genesis chapter 4 verse 3 and it reads this one.

In the process of time it came to pass that Cain brought an offering of the fruit of the ground to the

Lord. Where the word time is actually the word yom. Notice it's actually translated time.

Is that okay? Yes it is. Because the context is referring to a growing season.

So the word yom there is really meaning a growing season. But notice it's not a bounded or accompanied with a number nor bounded by evening and morning.

Context matters. The little word day would not be a very good translation here.

And in the process of time or growing season it came to pass. That is the correct translation.

That is the correct word for yom there. Time. Context matters. Let's go to Isaiah 30 verse 8.

Now go write it before them on a tablet and note it on a scroll that it may be for time to come forever and ever.

Where the word used for time there is yom again. Is that correct? Yes it is in the context.

Because in the context there we're referring to future generations forever and ever. That's what it means there.

So we translate the word yom to mean time. Also note it's not accompanied with a number nor is it bound by evening and morning.

So our rules of hermeneutics are keeping straight there. Context matters. Remember the word

B -O -W. How you translate it, how you read it, determines on the context it's used.

And that is the same rules for the word yom. Let's try first Kings 1 -1.

Now King David was old advanced in years and they put covers on him but he could not get warm.

Well the word years there is yamin which is the plural of yom. Is that correct?

Years. Yes it is. Because the context is to be old. It wouldn't make any sense if we said he's advanced in days.

It makes more sense to say he's advanced in years. So again context warrants the translation.

And also it's not bounded by a number nor bounded by evening and morning.

So again our rules still are working there. Let's do one more

Genesis 18 -11. Now Abraham and Sarah were old advanced in age.

Sarah was past childbearing. Well the word age there is yamin again which is the plural of yom.

Is that a correct translation? Well yes it is. But the context warrants age and not day to be past childbearing.

So we don't say you're past childbearing days. We say you're past childbearing age.

So the correct translation yamin is age. Again context. When we start working with God's word we must understand context.

If you can't figure it out read above it below it and figure out what was going on and who's who's involved there. That will help you understand the context.

And also it's not accompanied with a number nor is it bounded by evening and morning as it is in Genesis chapter one.

Let's go to the last challenge. And this is one that's being taught in a lot of our universities. Genesis 1 is poetry and not meant to be taken literally.

When I somebody challenges me with this the first question I have is what do you mean by Hebrew poetry?

Can you give me an example of Hebrew poetry? And most of the time they can't. So how do they know it's poetic language?

Because somebody else told them is usually the answer. Well let's take a look at this. Hebrew poetry is characterized by something we call parallelism.

One of the main formats of Hebrew poetry. Parallelism. And we use that in the

Old Testament. That's part of the Hebrew. And there's two forms. There's synonymous parallelism where the words in two or more lines or phrases are directly related to each other.

There's two lines say the same thing but they use different words. That's synonymous parallelism.

Two words or two lines or two phrases say the same thing but use different words in each phrase.

The other is antithetical parallelism. This is where you have a statement one where they're opposites.

Notice the first part of the statement might say the positive but the second part gives the negative. So they're saying the same things but one does that in a positive format.

The second one does it in the negative or vice versa. Those are two very popular forms of Hebrew poetry.

In English we use rhyming. The main forms of English poetry is rhyming.

That is not part of Hebrew poetry. It's parallelism. Let's take an example of each.

Here's synonymous parallelism found in Psalm 19. The heavens tell of the glory of God.

There's part one and here's part two. And their expanse declares the work of his hands.

Both parts are saying the same thing but using different words. That is

Hebrew poetry. That format folks is not found in Genesis 1.

It's not part of Genesis 1. Then let's look at antithetical parallelism in Proverbs 10 verse 1.

A wise son glads his father. That's part one, part two. But a foolish son grieves his mother.

We have the positive then we have the negative. That structure is also not found in Genesis 1.

In other words, Genesis chapter 1 is written in the Hebrew narrative format. It's meant to be taken as literal history, not poetry.

And now the last part. Number, I'm going to bring up an eighth one now. We had seven evidences.

Now let's take an eighth evidence. The authority of scripture and the consistency of scripture.

So the authority and consistency of scripture. We saw in 2nd Timothy 3 16.

All scripture is God bringing. All of it comes from God. And then verse 71 say it is sufficient.

John 17 17 says we're to be sanctified by God's word. Why? Because it is truth.

Then here's another part. Exodus 24 verse 4. Moses wrote down all the words of the

Lord. Then he rose early in the morning and built an altar at the foot of the mountain with 12 pillars for the 12 tribes of Israel.

Notice as Moses wrote down what? All the words of the Lord. What did Moses write?

The first five books Bible. He wrote Genesis chapter 1. And what does it say here?

Those are the words of the Lord. But what about science,

Mike? And this is where a lot of people get hung up. Are radiometric dating methods?

What about geologic dating? What about the philosophy? What about astronomy? This is starlight. Well folks, let me remind you.

All scripture is God bringing and it is sufficient. It is our authority.

Science is not our authority as Christians. It should never be our authority. Now, I like science.

Science is very good and scientific evidence can be very helpful. But it does not supersede

God's word. True science, I always like this, true science will always agree with God's word.

Because who created all the scientific evidence? God did. Who created the radiometric dating methods?

Man did. Let's keep that in mind now. Now here's a scientist, Dr. Hugh Ross. He's an astronomer, president of a group called

Reasons to Believe. Now I want to point something out about this statement.

Here's the statement. Based on scientific dating records, each of God's creation days is several hundred million years long.

Wait a minute. When we read that, I have a question. What is Dr. Ross's starting point?

Is it the Bible or is it science? Well, based on this statement, his starting point is science, not

God's word. In other words, he has elevated his own wisdom above God's wisdom.

And that's what's happening too often in our Christian universities. Our professors of all these PhDs are elevating their wisdom over God's word.

That is a serious issue. Science is not our authority. Here's another one from a group called

BioLogos. And here's their statement. So are the days of Genesis 1 meant to be understood as regular 24 -hour days?

Yes and no. The frequent references to ancient cosmology in Genesis 1 indicate that God did not choose to reveal modern scientific information to the ancient

Hebrews. Now what's their starting point here? Science. In other words, they believe in their own understanding of the scientific evidence is greater than the plain reading of God's word, folks.

That's going to be a serious issue there. God's word is sufficient. We do not need scientific evidence to understand

God's word. Science is good. I like the scientific evidence, but it does not supersede the plain reading of God's word.

That's the issue. So questions. Here's a question.

Have scientists ever been wrong on their dates for rocks and fossils? Absolutely they've been wrong. Many, many times have been wrong.

So what we're saying here is their dating methods are fallible, aren't we? They've been wrong over and over again.

And there's many inconsistencies. You can take a rock sample, date it by three different methods, and get three different ages.

And one of the things we need to understand about radiometric dating, how we date rocks, they don't give an age.

None of these methods give an age. What we do is find a ratio of elements in there, then we interpret an age.

See, that's not what's being taught in our schools though. None of these methods give an age. We look at the ratio of elements in there, then we interpret an age.

And a lot of times we're very wrong on these ages. So they are fallible. Has the reported age of the earth ever changed?

Absolutely. Look over the last 50, 60, 70 years, the age has changed. So that's not an absolute.

In other words, the age of the earth is a fallible guess. So why are fallible men willing to use fallible ideas to reinterpret

God's infallible word? That is what's happening over and over again, ladies and gentlemen.

It's coming from many of our Christian universities, it's coming from many of our pastors, and they're filling our children's minds with wrong information.

They're filling our minds with young children that they do not have to believe the plain reading of Genesis 1.

What does that do to them and the rest of scripture then as they grow up? It ruins their confidence in God's word right off.

And there's a history of doing this. Let me give you a history. I call this new revealed knowledge. Mormonism, Joseph Smith, new revealed knowledge, all of a sudden we have a new way to reinterpret the

Bible. Seventh -day Adventist, Ellen White, new revealed information, new way to interpret the

Bible. Church of Christ, Christian scientists, Mary Baker Heady, new revealed information, new way to interpret the

Bible. Jehovah's Witness, Charles Taz Russell, new revealed information, new way to interpret the

Bible. Scientology, L. Ron Hubbard, new revealed information, new way to interpret the

Bible. Are we getting the hint what's happening here? Islam, Muhammad, new revealed information, new way to interpret the

Bible. Let's look at this one now. Scientific age, new scientific knowledge, new way to interpret the

Bible. Do you see any difference that's happening here? God's word is unchangeable.

It never changes. It's good for the past, it's good for now, and it's good for the future. God does not change.

His word is truth, and it is sufficient, and it should be our authority, not new revealed information.

So, it comes down to a matter of authority here. When we change or reinterpret the plain reading of scripture with creeds, our understanding of the scientific evidence, or confessions, we place ourselves as the final authority over what is true and what is not.

I thought God's word was truth, but too many people are placing themselves as the final authority over what the

Bible means. Here's Richard Barkas, makes this statement about Genesis in the

Bible. If the Bible fails in anything it teaches, even one small thing, then like a facade, our faith will crumble, and we would no longer have reason to believe that even the things that remain are trustworthy.

If the Bible fails in prophecy, history, or science, how can we continue to place our faith in the

God who wrote it? What a powerful statement there. Folks, science is good again.

A lot of times it's our understanding or misunderstanding that is the problem. A matter of consistency.

If we use our understanding of the scientific evidence to interpret Genesis 1, then we must be consistent with every other miracle in the

Bible. How about the parting of the Red Sea? Are we going to have to find a scientific answer, or can we believe that God, all -powerful, almighty

God, can do that? Or can we say, no, that can't be true. There has to be a scientific answer to that.

Folks, we're going to start eliminating the miracles of the Bible. How about the burning bush that was not consumed? How do you explain that scientifically?

Well, we've got to have some scientific answer. The Bible can't really mean that. That's what it means when we say

Genesis can't really mean what it says. How about a speaking donkey? I've never seen a donkey speak.

I've seen him make sounds, but I've never seen him speak English. But the Bible clearly says a donkey spoke.

Are you going to look for some scientific answer and not believe what the Bible says there? How about Jesus turning water into wine?

What kind of scientific explanation are you going to use there? So you have to be consistent. If you use science to interpret

Genesis 1, you must also use it for every other miracle in the Bible. What you're telling people is you can pick and choose what you want to believe.

How about Jesus walking on water? Did that really happen? How about Jesus feeding the 5 ,000?

That's an amazing miracle right there, folks. A few fish and some loaves of bread. He fed 5 ,000 people.

He had food left over. That was an amazing miracle. Do you believe it? See, if you don't believe

Genesis 1, why would you believe that? Because that's the plain reading. Then how about Jesus instantly healing people?

Can He really do that? Don't we need to wait for a biopsy and then wait for the healing? No, Jesus healed people instantly.

Immediately they were healed. If you can't believe Genesis 1, the plain reading of Genesis 1, why would you believe the plain reading of any of these miracles?

You must be consistent with what you believe and teach there, folks. Then let's look at the resurrection, the gospel, 1

Corinthians 15, 3, and 4. For I delivered to you, first of all, as a first importance, what

I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scripture, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the

Scriptures. Folks, here's the question. I have a question. Do you really believe that Jesus died on that cross?

And most Christians would say, Christians would say, yes. But do you really believe He was buried and raised from the dead?

Do you really believe that? And most Christians would say, yes. But wait a minute now. Let's go to science.

Do you know, according to all known science, you cannot be dead for three days and come back to life? So are you still willing to believe the resurrection, even though it goes against known science?

As a Christian, you'd say, yes. But wait a minute now. Genesis 1 says six little days, and a lot of scientists believe that cannot be true, because they believe the age of the earth is billions of years old.

Which one are you going to believe? See, people believe the resurrection, but they won't believe Genesis 1.

What we have there is a contradiction in our beliefs, and the world sees that, so why should the world believe anything we have to tell them about Jesus Christ when we don't believe it ourselves?

See, the one who went to the cross, the one who was buried, the one who was raised from the dead, is also the one that called everything into existence.

What part of Jesus do you not believe now? You see, the first three chapters of Genesis is the reason the whole rest of the

Bible had to take place. That's how important it is. So bringing it down to close now, why does the age of the earth matter?

If I were to take a literal interpretation, the order of events given in the Bible, it reads this way.

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth, and it goes on to say it took Him six days, six literal days, and in Genesis 1 .31,

He calls His creation very good or perfect. Then comes the fall, then comes death.

That is the exact order the Bible reads. Now, look what happens if we add millions of years into Scripture.

We had the creation account going on for many, many years, maybe millions and millions of years.

Finally along come Adam and Eve, and then finally comes the fall. The question is this, what would have been going on for those millions of years before Adam and Eve in the fall?

And the answer is death. That's what the record is. Those millions of years would be a record of dead things, the fossil record, and all of that would have taken place before Adam and Eve in the fall.

There was a belief in millions of years is teaching death before sin. Now, if sin is not the cause of death, the question comes now, why did

Jesus have to go to the cross and conquer death? You see, the first three chapters of Genesis is the foundation for why

Jesus had to go to the cross. The first three chapters of Genesis are the foundation for understanding the gospel of Jesus Christ.

That's how important this issue is. And then we go to the very character of God. In Genesis 1 .31,

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

Now, the question is, what does God's very good mean? Does it really mean death, pain, killing, disease, struggle, and suffering, extinction?

Or does it mean perfect, no death? You see, what you believe about the first chapters of Genesis affects the very character of who you believe

God is. It is also the foundation for the gospel. Michael House, PhD in nuclear engineering from MIT, puts it in a very good way here when he states this.

A straightforward reading of the Bible indicates that the age of the universe is measured in thousands of years, not billions of years.

Even though some professed believers continue attempts to force billions of years in the Bible records, for example,

Dr. U. Ross, such attempts do far more harm than good. If the

Bible can be interpreted to allow a creation that is billions of years old, it can be interpreted to say anything a person wants it to say.

And that is very true for most people. Once you give up the plain reading of Genesis chapter one, it's open to whatever you want to make it.

So, conclusion. As Christians, the Bible must be our sufficient authority. All radiometric dating methods are based on man's wisdom and are fallible.

Genesis one teaches a literal six -day creation. We saw the six, seven evidences there. And the age of the earth, it may not necessarily be a salvation issue, but ladies and gentlemen, it is a gospel issue, is the foundation for why

Jesus had to go to the cross. And an old earth affects many areas of scripture, including the very words of Jesus in Mark 10, verse six, where he said, but from the beginning of the creation,

God made them male and female. So, that's our talk.

I want to point out our website is creationtraining .org. We have many videos for free out there.

You can contact me at info at creationtraining .org. That's my email. And we have training courses.

We actually come to your location to do these training courses. We have one called Creation Basic Training, which is for teens and above.

It's one day long, 830 to 530. We do not charge the church directly for any of our training courses.

We charge by individual. For instance, the creation basic training course costs $45 per person for adults, 25 for teens.

And that includes all day training and a 100 page training manual that goes with it. So, that's a pretty cheap price.

We have an apologetics advanced training. That's a one day course for high school and above. We go into topics, some big topics there about how to use the

Bible. Did God create evil? What is evil?

How do we answer challenges about evil? We go into a lot of different aspects. What is apologetics?

We do a lot of training there. Then we have a very popular new course here. We've done it around the country already, and it's fairly new, called

Dynamics of Christian Education. It's a one day course. Then we're looking at college age and above there.

We have had a few high school students there, but generally high college age and above. It covers communication and teaching skills.

What is it? It covers teaching methods. It covers why we need good solid speakers and teachers in creation and apologetics.

Why we need good teachers in our Christian schools. Notice the necessity of a Christian education in there, which includes home schooling,

Christian schools, and the church. And then it covers a whole chapter on how to build a winning

Sunday school program. And then we have another course called Communication Teaching Skills.

We just got back from Cleveland from doing this. It's three days long. We only take eight people in this course.

And again, we train you how to be a better speaker and a better teacher in there. And the reason we only take eight people, it's heavy on the workshop.

You have to do four presentations in there. And what we do is we coach you on these presentations, so you can get better and better and better.

And we do one teaching session. The presentations are five minutes or less.

The teaching sessions, eight minutes or less. And we evaluate you and we coach you through.

In other words, what we're doing in there is educating for success. We want to build good, strong communicators and teachers all over the country.

Those are just some of the courses. And in June this year, June 13th through the 16th, we're going down to the

Institute for Creation Research in Dallas, Texas, and doing a three and a half day Christian Educators Conference.

And you don't have to be a teacher to do that, but if you're interested in education, you need to be there. It starts

June the 13th at 1 .30 in the afternoon. And it's at the Institute for Creation Research, their

Discovery Center. And you get a free tour of their Discovery Center. And the cost for this course for three and a half days is $75.

If you sign up now in a couple weeks, it'll be $85. That's for all three days of that training.

So that's some of the things we do at Creation Training Initiative. We're the only ministry that offers on -site, live training classes where you can ask questions all through the day.

So that's who we are. So now I'm going to give it back to Terri and open it up for whatever you have and for any questions you might have there.

Well, thank you. We certainly enjoy that. It's good to be reminded for those of us who have heard it before about some of the truths just to sharpen our skills.

And I think we do have some people who are new to your teaching, so that's good too for them to hear.

I am going to read a question that we have here in Zoom. Oh, it's a loaded question,

Jessica. Oh, wait a minute. I skipped. Okay. All of a sudden another one popped up. Let's go back.

Okay. Jessica says, I loved your point about being consistent in theology. There are lots of supernatural moments in scripture that we don't question, but are far more miraculous than God creating the heavens and the earth.

But yet that most important doctrinal literal interpretation is the one that is challenged the most.

That's more of a compliment. Thank you for that. I agree. We can go through all the scientific evidence, but it comes down to what does

God's word say. So that's a powerful statement there. I really appreciate that. And right now,

I mean, we see that so much in a lot of so -called

Christian leadership in the world, that they're questioning, you know, let's unhitch ourselves from the

Old Testament and, you know, just believe the resurrection. But how does that jive? So I really appreciated the consistency part that you added to your presentation.

Thank you. We can go into all the science. We can go into carbon -14, radiometric dating, and all those things. And they're nice.

They're good tools. But what they do is they don't prove God's word, because that puts them above scripture.

They agree with God's word. That's what I always like to put it. Okay. Carbon -14 is one of our powerful.

That's a winner for creation. Dinosaurs are also another winner for creation.

We should never lose. There's certain scientific arguments we should never lose. Dinosaurs, carbon -14, and the origin of life.

We can't lose those. They're no -brainers. We win them all the time. Yeah. Could I interject something real quick here?

This is John Legate. I just wanted to mention that your DVD that you had called

Dating Fossils and Rocks, I think, was far and away the best presentation on that subject I've ever seen anywhere.

It's just phenomenal. Thank you, John. Very, very understandable, and very clear, and just very compelling.

Good stuff. You just earned three passes to our courses anywhere you want to go. Thanks, John.

Okay. All right. Bill is asking. Bill is the one who has the loaded question.

Loaded question alert, he says. No evil intent or motive or no questioning spirits involved.

In Genesis 1, to the best of my knowledge, Bill says, it does say when

God created the universe and everything, on what day he did it, but I do not see on what day he created all the angels, both fallen and faithful.

Did God create the angels before day one in Genesis? Excellent question.

Well, I think in the book of Job, it talks about the angels looking down on God's creation and up there cheering and everything.

What day did he create them on? Well, they are bound by time, and there's ideas that he created before the first day, or he created them the first day.

I don't believe it gives us enough evidence in there to be dogmatic on that issue, but they are created beings.

They're created somewhere in the days of creation or even possibly before the first day, but we do know they are bound by time.

Only God's not bound by time. So, the answer would be somewhere in the days of creation or even before the first day, but it does say they were looking down as God was creating.

So, they were witnesses to his creation, at least parts of it or all of it. Okay. Just as a reminder, because we're still live streaming and recording, we ask that everybody still keeps their microphone and cameras off during this time.

So, okay. So, next, we have a question on Facebook, and I think that you mostly covered it, but maybe you can review a little bit and give a couple of great, in a nutshell, defenses for this question.

But the question is that Genesis 1 -14 is when God defines a day.

Some say that that's when he defines the day as being a 24 -hour day. So, before that, could there have been a different definition for day?

Good question. I agree. Genesis 1 -14 doesn't actually define a day. He basically comes out, a day has to be shorter than a season or a year.

But he actually defines the day in Genesis 1 -5, which says it's the light and dark portion or evening and morning.

That's when he actually gives a definition of the word day. But if I ramble on just a second, there's another question that stems from that.

So, I thank you for that question. And that question is, how could the first three days of creation be real days without the sun?

Because the sun was created on day four. That's another big challenge. And the answer to that is, a definition of a day is the rotation of the earth once on its axis.

So, really don't count the sun for the definition of day. It's rotation of the earth once on its axis.

And then the word light, on day one,

God says he created light. Well, we didn't have the sun until day four. So, what was that light?

Well, there's two different Hebrew words used here. On day one, when God creates light, the word is for,

O -W -R, which means luminescence, which implies there's light, but it doesn't say anything about a light source.

Can God do that? Well, folks, if he can create out of nothing, he can do that. But on day four, when he creates the sun, moon, and stars, there's a different Hebrew word used,

M -O -R, which means illuminary. It means now he's got a light source out there. So, the definition of a day does not include the need for a sun, just the rotation of the earth once on its axis.

And there's two different Hebrew words being used here for light in Genesis chapter one. So, I thought

I'd ramble on just a little bit there. But yes, it's really Genesis 1 -5, where he first defines it.

Well, I appreciate that, because I was going to ask you to cover that also, because I recently had a question coming to me, not in Zoom, but separately.

So, I wanted to just get that out there also. So, thank you. Okay. I had to say it while it was still on my mind.

You know, if we get old, if we don't say it when we remember, we're going to lose it. Yeah. I can, yeah, give you an amen to that.

Can you, I think you might have already said this, but can you remind us when you are going to be teaching at ICR?

At ICR in Dallas, Texas, that's June 13th through the 16th. We start at 1 .30 on Tuesday, I think it's

Tuesday afternoon. And that's so we don't have to worry about the morning traffic there. So, 1 .30

in the afternoon on the 13th, and it goes all the way till noon on the 16th. And we have a good time there.

They're teaching down there. They have a nice facility. It's a, you get to go through their museum,

Discovery Center for free. And if you're a Christian school teacher, our ministry through ACI side, we provide continuing education units.

You get 3 .5 continuing education units for attending that course. What month is it?

I missed the month. I keep missing the month. June. Okay. Thank you. You can find it on our website, creationtraining .org.

It's on our web homepage there. There's a little box there. So, hope we get some more people there.

We still have a few, few open spots there. So, June 13th through the 16th,

Christian Educators Conference. This would be our fourth year to do this one. Nice.

I, oh, I don't think that we have another question right now.

I was, I was, I'm monitoring several feeds. So, but I think that we're, we are paused for just a minute on the questions.

So, I, oh, here we go. And do you do any online classes?

That's what somebody's asking. No, we really don't. We thought about it, but we just haven't got around to it yet because we've been traveling and, and actually getting ready for some graduations from grandchildren and a new, another marriage from a grandchild.

So, we really haven't gotten around to doing that. I like, I don't, I like doing online, but my favorite is in person.

I'd rather be there in person. So, we have the whole day for people asking questions and the contact there.

Yeah. A little bit old fashioned, but still the best way to do the training. Yeah. It's hard to threaten people who do pushups online too.

Yeah, I can see that. It kind of loses its impact that way.

Did you, during, during the lockdown, did you guys get to visit very many churches or did you take a little break?

We cut down a little bit, but we still went out there and taught. And God's in control. Yes, we got

COVID. Unfortunately, me and my wife and I got a bad case. We just kept right on going. Yeah.

Matter of fact, we, one of our courses we just updated called Apologetics Advanced Training. And also the last chapter in this

Christian Educators Conference is going to be a whole chapter on apologetics in the 21st century.

We're going to talk about the Great Reset, a little bit about COVID. We're going to talk about climate change and transgenderism in that course.

We're actually going to take that chapter and turn, we're turning it into a full one -day class called Apologetics for the 21st

Century. That'll be out later this year. But if you want to get the first part of it, we're doing that in Dallas. It's chapter 16, the last chapter in the course.

We're making it the longest chapter. Which one are you going to be, is it in June that you're going to be doing the, you know, the controversial ones, the

COVID and, okay. That's going to be the last chapter in the course there. I'm going to cover those things.

Some a lot of people don't understand what's behind climate change, what's really happened.

We have some great charts and graphs we're putting in there from top scientists around the world that just refute everything we're being told.

Oh, yeah. I think the audience here, we definitely understand, but there are some people possibly listening on Facebook that do not understand and they really need to learn.

And we'll be answering the question that comes up, not really a question, it's kind of a statement. I'm Christian and I'm gay.

We show you how to respond to somebody on issues like that. And we do it with gentleness and respect.

That's what the Bible tells us. We're not to attack people for what they believe. We're to ask them good questions and give them the truth.

But do it with gentleness and respect. Absolutely. Terri, I think Rob has something to say in the chat.

Oh, yeah. Actually, I have a few questions right now also. So on Facebook, one of the people who's watching on Facebook and asking some of these questions, including the one about whether or not you do classes online, he says that he's in Australia.

And so that's why he's asking about that. But he's really appreciating the informative talk that you're doing for us tonight.

I would, if the situation around the world wasn't what it was today, I would love to come to Australia.

It's been a while since I've been there. But I had a good time when I got there. And that was the last time

I was there was to do computer seminars. I used to work for this company called Microsoft and some other computer company.

I actually started computers in 1967. Most of you probably weren't born yet. But I went to Australia to do three and a half weeks of a training seminar on all the internals to the operating system, computer technology, how to fix it, break it and get around security systems.

Nice. Okay, and, and back here in zoom, on a personal note,

Jessica wants to know if you homeschooled your your kids. Yes, in the latter parts, we found out about homeschooling, and we ended up homeschooling them.

And I'm a strong proponent of homeschooling. Also, good proponent of Christian schools, but not all

Christian schools are good on some of these subjects. But homeschooling, I really think that's the top of the line still.

Okay, and then, and then here in zoom, also, our friend Rob is asking a day is defined as evening and morning.

It is one revolution of the earth. Note that that this doesn't say that it is a 24 hour period.

So God could stretch out the heavens during two revolutions of Earth. But couldn't the outer edges could be experiencing billions of years according to the theory of relativity?

Yes, what does it mean that was 16 or 17 times Bible teaches God stretch the heavens what that means we really don't know could just be the fabric of everything to stretch now, which gives the appearance of things happen very took a long time when we see it, but it could happen instantly.

Because God, Jesus healed instantly. He created quadrillions of stars in less than a day, he can do those things.

So he made a mature universe. And to us, we would say,

Oh, it looks old. But my question is, does why do you think it looks old? Yeah, the whole idea of a day there got evening and morning?

Yes, you could have evening morning first day because the light tells it the light and dark cycle, the earth is spinning around.

And that word or for light could be more like a flashlight type of light, just a directed light on one side of it.

So if the earth is spinning, part of it would be dark and part would be light if it's like a flashlight type light.

Wrong. So it could have given us light and dark cycle on day one right there. Now, stretching out the heavens.

Well, again, I don't know what that means when he did it, we don't know when he did. That could be why people think there was a big bang, because we're seeing the appearance of God stretching it out, not a big bang, which is not very good scientific either.

So I'm not sure if I answered that question correctly. If not, fill me in some more on that. Bill following up is asking, could it have been the

Shekinah Glory? Yeah. Shekinah, the Shekinah Glory.

Okay. Yes, it very well could have been because we don't know what that original light was.

It could have been just God, the light coming from his holiness there, providing the light originally.

So good thought there. Okay. And Linda, Linda here in Zoom with us, she's a bit of a scientific expert.

She's asking, which creationist starlight and time theory do you like the best?

Creationist and starlight time theory? Well, first of all, I like the Bible, God did it. But scientifically,

I don't know if I have a favorite one. Time dilation makes sense to me. The Russell Humphreys, I like his.

Danny Faulkner has another, some other ideas. They can all be right.

They can't all necessarily be right. They can all be partially right. Parts of it here and there that could not be true. I tend to use the time dilation, but I don't talk about it when

I'm in audiences too much. And there's a reason for that. A lot of glazed eyes, where gravity affects time.

And that's true. We do know, we've run enough experiments to know that gravity can affect time. We'd see it from our atomic clocks.

That's probably the one I would favor most. Okay. All right.

Well, I think that the questions are winding down right now. So we're going to go ahead and end the public part of our meeting.

So before we do, we'd like you to tell everybody one more time how they can find you, how they can support your ministry.

Okay. Well, we got another comment on Facebook. I think it's just a comment though.

So it's not a question. So yeah. So go ahead, go ahead and tell everybody one more time how they can find you, how they can support your ministry.

Okay. You can find us at creationtraining .org. That's our website. You can donate online there.

Or let me give you my direct email. I had info at creationtraining .org for people who have patience to listen to me here today.

My direct email is mriddle, m as in Mike, mriddle at creationtraining .org.

That'll come directly to me also. That's my direct email. Or if you want to support us through a checker, because we lose money every time we go out there and teach.

We rely on the Lord on this. He's been good to us. We've been in this ministry for almost 13 years now.

He's been good every year. We have faith in Him and trust Him. You can go.

Here's our address if you want to send something to our address there. I'll give you our post office address here.

Our mailing address, 1855 East Townline Way.

It's 1855 East Townline Way. One word, Meridian, M -E -R -I -D -I -A -N,

Idaho, 83646. And you can mail us there if you want.

That's come directly to us. So again, our website, creationtraining .org.

My direct email, mriddle at creationtraining .org. And we'd love to take one of these courses to your site.

Minimum number we look for 12 people, 15 people for minimum class. The only exception to that is the three -day communication teaching skills.

We only take a maximum of eight in that. But we can take 50, 60 people in the other courses. When you go to a church and you teach this class, are you teaching it with the mindset that like, let's suppose a pastor or other church leader was taking the class and then you left and another group from that church wanted to take it, would they be able to reteach it themselves?

Sometimes. One of the things I do is personal coaching. I've actually had people come to our house or I go to their place and spend three days with them coaching on teaching.

We usually like people to take a course and then we'd like them to take the three -day communication teaching skills course.

Because one of the things I trained people, having a PhD does not necessarily qualify you to speak or teach on anything.

This means you have a lot of information in the subject area. But communication and teaching is an art.

We don't want to be boring. We train people on teaching techniques that you don't learn in education colleges.

I only train for success. We educate for success and we train you on how to get your students to retain information much longer.

In other words, you give a lot of information, how can we get them to retain it? We've done a lot of research on that and it works very well.

I just like success. I don't want to tolerate failure. Then we train things like how do you measure yourself as a success as a teacher?

A lot of S's there. What determines your success as a teacher? Not necessarily by what you do as a teacher.

It's what your students can do or perform with the information. If they can't do anything with the information, then you haven't taught them anything.

That's the attitude we take here. We want success. We don't be like the world. We want everyone to succeed in our classes and we work hard for that.

Whereas when I teach, yes, I'm the boss in the class, but we're a team. It's like the Marine Corps. We're a team.

We want everybody to make it back alive and we want everybody to succeed in our classes and we work hard for them.

All right. Well, thank you. Thank you so much for sharing all of this information. You've been such a blessing to a lot of us here because I know that you came to the museum when we were still meeting in person and you did a class and that was the first time

I met you. I've had the blessing and privilege to come to your five -day training.

That was such a great memory. Thank you so much. Just as a reminder, we are

Creation Fellowship Santee. You can find links to most of our past presentations by typing in tinyurl .com

forward slash CF Santee. That's C like creation, F like fellowship.

Santee is spelled S -A -N -T -E -E. You can also email us at creationfellowshipsantee at gmail .com

so you don't miss links to any of our upcoming speakers. With that, we're going to go ahead and sign off the live stream and the recording.