Have you ever had a skeptic tell you to keep the Bible out of it when discussing origins? Skeptics claim we Christians argue in a circle, that we are using the Bible to prove the Bible. Although this objection has an air of wisdom to it, Christians shouldn’t fall for it.
Bible skeptics claim to be open-minded people who fairly weigh the evidence. If so, they won’t object when Christians show that the Bible makes better sense of the scientific and historical data than other worldviews.
The Bible’s creation account (Genesis 1–2) provides a logical explanation for the staggering complexity and design of living things. But it also resolves a paradox. Why do disease and degeneration cause such exquisitely designed bodies to malfunction and eventually die? Why do bad things happen? Why is there suffering in the world? The Bible provides the answers in its account of the Fall (Genesis 3).
The Bible makes sense of our spiritual condition. That God has written His law on our hearts explains why we feel guilt for doing wrong despite our frequent efforts to rationalize or justify our wrongdoing.1 It also explains how God provided a way to remove our estrangement from Him. We can be forgiven of our wrongdoings by turning from those wrongs and believing that our Creator became a man, the Lord Jesus Christ, who paid for our wrongdoing by living a perfect life, dying in our place, and proving His claims by rising from the dead!2
Genesis explains facts of our existence that could easily be overlooked were it a human invention. It explains why, despite the awesome, obvious design behind human reproduction (especially at the microscopic level),3 women experience pain in childbirth. It also explains why we experience shame at nakedness. If you were inventing your own cosmology, would you have thought to include those details?
The Bible makes sense of recorded history. Despite the claims of skeptics, evidence of the Bible’s historical reliability, even from the earliest chapters of Genesis, is abundant.4
Finally, the Bible makes sense of Earth history. God’s judgment in the Flood makes sense of the billions of fossilized plants and animals entombed within water-deposited rocks around the world. Marine and land fossils are often jumbled together, as one would expect from a global cataclysmic flood. The hundreds of cultural memories of the Flood retained by people groups around the world is exactly what one would expect from a global cataclysm like the Flood.5 The Flood even provides a framework for explaining the Ice Age that’s vastly superior to secular explanations.6 In light of the Bible’s ability to make sense of these observations, how can you possibly justify leaving it out of the discussion?
Note, however, that Scripture’s strength in explaining these observations depends on it being taken as written. The Bible can’t explain these facts of our existence if one allegorizes Genesis. This is precisely why secularists have tried so hard to impeach the Bible’s creation account over the years with pseudoscientific claims of evolution and millions of years. It also shows why creation ministries like the Institute for Creation Research are so important.
It’s absolutely legitimate to use the Bible as evidence for creation, and Christians should not hesitate to do so. Since it is the testimony of an infallible Eyewitness who never lies or makes mistakes, one should not be at all surprised that it does such a good job of explaining the facts of our existence.
References
- Romans 2:14-16.
- Romans 10:8-10; 1 Corinthians 15:1-4.
- Guliuzza, R. The Miracle of Human Life: Darwin or Design? DVD. Dallas, TX: Institute for Creation Research.
- Cooper, B. 2012. The Authenticity of the Book of Genesis. Portsmouth, UK: Creation Science Movement.
- Morris, J. D. 2014. Traditions of a Global Flood. Acts & Facts 43 (11): 15.
- Hebert, J. 2018. The Bible Best Explains the Ice Age. Acts & Facts 47 (11): 10-13.
* Dr. Hebert is Research Associate at the Institute for Creation Research and earned his Ph.D. in physics from the University of Texas at Dallas.
