The Biblical Case Against Young-Earth Creationism

By Ken Sauter

When Ken Sauter heard about young Christians losing their faith in college as they were presented with evidence for evolution, evidence of an ancient earth, astronomical methods of dating the universe, and many other secular assaults on their faith, he became concerned about how young people deal with these issues. The fact that so many Christians grow up in a protected Christian environment where they are taught the earth is very young does not prepare them to deal with the assault of secular science on their faith, and as a result, many young people lose their faith. They are simply not prepared to deal with the hard evidence they are presented with along with the assault on their faith.

Rest assured there are good biblical answers to these issues, and any Christian can ably defend his faith with the arguments in this book. It is not necessary to believe in a young earth or abandon your faith. The Bible, when understood as it is written, does not contradict science and actually answers questions about the universe and our existence that science is unable to deal with.

If you’re looking for a good argument that reconciles biblical faith with true science concerning the age of the earth, this book will give you a good start on making that argument.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Mar 11, 2024
• ISBN: 9798891307094

Book preview

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The Biblical Case Against Young-Earth Creationism

Ken Sauter

ISBN 979-8-89130-708-7 (paperback)

ISBN 979-8-89243-386-0 (hardcover)

ISBN 979-8-89130-709-4 (digital)

Copyright © 2024 by Ken Sauter

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Christian Faith Publishing

832 Park Avenue

Meadville, PA 16335

www.christianfaithpublishing.com

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

Chapter 1

My Journey Out of Young-Earth Creationism

How My Journey Developed

Chapter 2

What Is Truth?

The Origin of Everything

The Origin of Intelligence

How Did Life Come to Exist?

Appearance of Design

Truth

Interpreting Data

The Atheist's Delusion

Chapter 3

Interpreting Scripture

The Bible Says

The Young-Earth Community

Just What Is Going on Here?

Theological Constructs

Point of View in Understanding Scripture

Chapter 4

What Scripture Says

When Do the Six Days of Creation Begin?

What Does Formless and Void Mean?

Tohu and Bohu

The Meaning of Formless and Void

Chapter 5

Noah's Flood

The Time of the Flood

Flood Legends

Geological Evidence

Scriptural Evidence of the Flood

Physical Evidence

The Reports

What Does This Mean?

Chapter 6

The Age of the Earth

Radiometric Dating

Chapter 7

Scientism and Creationism

Intellectual Honesty

Scientism

What Is Scientism?

Young-Earth Creationism

Chapter 8

Evolution

Why Is Young-Earth Creationism Such a Big Issue?

Concerning Intelligent Design

One Last Question

Chapter 9

Why Is This Issue Important?

How Albert Pike's Predictions Worked Out

How Christianity Will Be Destroyed

How Atheism Will Be Destroyed

Chapter 10

Who Is a Christian and What Does Being a Christian Have to Do with This Issue?

My Hope for You, the Reader

The Sinner's Prayer?

What Is It to Get Saved?

About the Author

Chapter 1

My Journey Out of Young-Earth Creationism

How My Journey Developed

In the early 2000s, I started questioning how old the Earth was. I believed what the Bible said, but I couldn't find a specific reference in the Bible that said the Earth was six thousand years old. It wasn't there. The young-Earthers assumed day one of creation began in Genesis 1:1. I didn't see anything about day one in that verse. It simply said God created everything in the beginning, whenever the beginning was. Assuming day one began in verse 1 was an interpretation, not a literal reading, I didn't particularly oppose that interpretation; I just didn't know what the truth was.

So I asked myself a question: just how old is the Earth? I honestly didn't know. I wanted some independent, unbiased source of information that would give me an objective way of determining just how old the Earth was. I figured that determining if radiometric dating was true or not would be key to that answer. I didn't want to hear what the YEC camp said about radiometric dating because I knew they would simply deny it. I also didn't want to hear from the evolutionist community because they would certainly say it is accurate, because that would support the assumptions they make. I wanted an honest Christian perspective on radiometric dating that I could trust. I wanted to hear from someone who understood radiometric dating and respected the Bible but didn't agree with the young-Earthers. I immediately found Roger Wien's paper, Radiometric Dating: A Christian Perspective.¹ It was thirty-seven pages long and detailed forty different methods of radiometric dating, showing that some methods are used for relatively recent dates, like C14, and others, like potassium-argon, are used for things that are billions of years old. He convinced me that radiometric dating was a valid method of dating artifacts. It turned out that radiometric dating was regularly used to date archaeological artifacts, and those dates were regularly verified by other means and accepted by the scientific community as accurate.

I had my answer that the Earth was most likely very old, on the order of 4.5 billion years, and the universe was likely 13.7 billion years old. There were other dating methods used to date the universe, but the scientific community seemed to agree on them and accept that age as accurate to within a few billion years, at least. The appearance of age in Earth rocks and geological formations confirmed an ancient age for Earth. The universe had to be much older than the Earth since the Earth was obviously created after the universe was created. John Gribbin's book In Search of the Big Bang² provided a fascinating account of how the big bang was discovered and how the universe was dated.

I believe that most Christians who believe in young-Earth creationism honestly believe they are taking the biblical position that honors God by believing in YEC. After all, Genesis 1 clearly says the Earth was created in six days, and it's not far from that to think that the entire universe was created in six days. The young-Earth apologists encourage that assumption. Unless you are inclined to research the issue, it is perfectly understandable to believe what the YEC community says about the universe's origins if you are a Christian. When the debate is framed as believing in a young Earth and universe or dishonoring God, of course, most Christians are going to believe in a young Earth and universe.

The six days of Genesis 1 appear to be twenty-four-hour days, but Genesis 1:1–2 doesn't specify exactly when those days started. They could easily have started in verse 3. I just didn't know, and I wanted to find out.

I've been wanting to write this for a long time. Ever since I started questioning young-Earth creationism, I've been investigating how God created the universe and the Earth, and the more I think about and investigate it, the more absurd young-Earth creationism becomes. As I investigate the things said by people who are former young-Earth creationists, the more their arguments make sense and the young-Earthers' arguments don't make sense. One has to twist science into pretzel-like knots to make it support the notions of Young-Earth creationism.

My aim here is not so much to attack young-Earth creationism but to get modern Christians to believe what the Bible actually says, not what they're told it says or what they want it to say by so-called scholars who have an agenda to support.

We can't have a serious discussion about what the Bible says about creation unless we can all agree to seriously consider one another's interpretations as equally valid as our own, subject to what the Bible specifically and clearly says and the other physical evidence we bring to the table. Dogmatism does not overrule truth, no matter how many people agree with you.

The young-Earth community makes assumptions about things said in Genesis that are entirely unreasonable. When Noah talks about the flood covering the Earth, he is talking about the Earth that he knew. He was not aware of South or North America, nor was he aware of Antarctica, Siberia, or other such places. Scripture gives us no indication whatsoever that Noah was even aware of those places. There is no specific mention of them anywhere in Scripture. He was aware of the land of Canaan and the world around the land of Canaan. When he said the flood covered the whole world, he was talking about the whole world that he knew about. As far as he was concerned, it covered the whole world. To impose a modern young-Earth perspective on what Noah said is entirely unreasonable and invalid. It is violating the rules of hermeneutics to support a specifically modern point of