Against the tide

So the new Sunday school venture is going well, but I will admit this is a hard topic to shorten into three hours. We're talking about the compromises the Christians and the church have made because of outside influences; namely secular science. Some of the topics we'll be covering are Dinosaurs (whether the secular history of them is true and whether the bible has anything to say about them), Noah's flood (whether it happened as the bible says and what the evidences of it is), and the 6-Day creation vs. secular timescale conflict (which is what we did this last weekend). For the later, it went well, and I think many recognized that the bible shouldn't be compromised to any authority, if nothing else. It seemed that the most resistance which came was as to whether it is important or not. Comments like, "well I think its important, but it isn't a big issue. It doesn't matter how God created so long as He created." I wasn't surprised to hear it, but I was hoping it wouldn't come because of the extent we went to overrun those very thoughts in the lesson.

Consider that we do know how God created, because the bible tells us plainly. He created from nothing because their was nothing. He created in solar 6-days because the bible makes that very clear. When He stopped creating nothing else popped into being. He created man last (day 6) and as His masterpiece, the centerpiece of creation. These are things we do know so why falter in faith here and then claim that faith is a must elsewhere? Either we trust Gods word or we do not and that is the truth of it. But their are many reasons to uphold the biblical creation, from a Christian standpoint.

1. Compromising creates a stumbling block to the gospel for non, new, and even old Christians.
2. To compromise is a degradation of Gods perfect word which is the foundation of our beliefs.
3. Altering the scriptures makes God untrustworthy, because we are saying the bible is not trustworthy.
4. It places death before sin (fossil record in the geologic column), which makes Gods punishment unwarranted as death is in the world because of Adams sin according the bible.
5. It erodes many foundational Christian doctrines and ultimately destroys Christian faith.

Are you going to tell me that these few (of the many not listed) consequences of adding secular ideas the bible are not enough of a reason? Many Christians are aware of scriptures like (Luke 16:13) "No servant can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money." Obviously this was spoken to the context of money, but it applies to things of the spirit and things of the truth equally as well. Take a stand; gain wisdom and a reasoned faith through study and be faithful in all ways.