Modern Day Idols!
The sun and evolution - two for the price of one.

In today's episode, the SAB give us two objections in one under the scientific historical absurdity categories:

Objection 1 - The sun god

(Gen.1:11-13) "Let the earth bring forth grass". Plants are made on the third day before there was a sun to drive their photosynthetic processes.

Response:

This objection really does expose the SAB for what they are, a bunch of unlearned, angry skeptics who frequently use the argument from outrage tactic. But anyway... just because there was no sun created at this stage, there was light, and as most people know, plants will photosynthesize without the sun in artificial light even today. So there is no problem here and the SAB are silenced once more.

The SAB seem to have an unhealthy fixation with the sun...the terms baal worship spring to mind.

Objection 2 - The evolution god

The next objection from the SAB referring to the same verse is:

Notice, though, that God lets "the earth bring forth" the plants, rather than creating them directly. Maybe Genesis is not so anti-evolution after all.

And

Does the Bible teach evolution?
And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree. --
Gen. 1:11
And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so. -- Gen. 1:24
Notice that God lets "the earth bring forth" the plants and animals, rather than create them directly. So maybe the creationists have it all wrong. Maybe Genesis is not so anti-evolution after all.

But both Luther and Calvin rejected any non-literal interpretation of the creation accounts in Genesis.

At the Reformation the vast authority of Luther was thrown in favour of the literal acceptance of Scripture as the main source of natural science. The allegorical and mystical interpretations of earlier theologians he utterly rejected. "Why," he asks, "should Moses use allegory when he is not speaking of allegorical creatures or of an allegorical world, but of real creatures and of a visible world, which can be seen, felt, and grasped? Moses calls things by their right names, as we ought to do....I hold that the animals took their being at once upon the word of God, as did also the fishes in the sea."

Not less explicit in his adherence to the literal account of creation given in Genesis was Calvin. He warns those who, by taking another view than his own, "basely insult the Creator, to expect a judge who will annihilate them." He insists that all species of animals were created in six days, each made up of an evening and a morning, and that no new species has ever appeared since. He dwells on the production of birds from the water as resting upon certain warrant of Scripture, but adds, "If the question is to be argued on physical grounds, we know that water is more akin to air than the earth is." As to difficulties in the scriptural account of creation, he tells us that God "wished by these to give proofs of his power which should fill us with astonishment."

Response:
The answer to the absurd suggestion that the Bible teaches evolution is found in the fact that the Bible teaches literal 24 hour creation days, whereas evolution requires millions of years. For articles showing that the creation days were literally 24 hours see here.

Also, we doubt "bring forth" as used elsewhere (Joel 2:22), could mean evolution.

Referring to the Luther and Calvin quotes given above, most truly Bible believing christians will strongly agree with the quote from Luther. As for the Calvin information, whether he believed that all species of animals were created in six days and that no new species has ever appeared since is irrelevant, the Bible doesn't teach this, see here. With the other Calvin statements we agree.

Again, it seems to us that the SAB show their true colours from these objections. Their so called objections, far from furnishing any evidence for the unreliability of the Bible, are nothing more than excuses for their unbelief in the true God, and their worship of any other god (sun, moon, evolution, materialism) that comes along - they simply do not want to believe in the God of the Bible and use whatever they can to silence their consciences.

In the next installment, we will be giving a short comment on the question of whether plants were created before or after humans (as this has been answered in a previous post), and what the Bible says on astrology.

See you soon.