End-Times and Early-Times
Dr Don Batten, former CEO of Creation ministries, makes several lucid observations about the differences between having different opinions about Genesis and eschatology – End Time events. To read Don’s biography, which is most interesting, click on his name at the top of the article. You can subscribe to Creation magazine, of which Don is the Editor, by clicking the link below: https://creation.com/ You may also like to watch Don live in the clip below, which went viral on the internet recently. Gibber! Gibber! Chugley by Dr Don Batten Bible-believing Christians can differ on their understanding of endtime matters (eschatology) and other things such as form of church government, mode and subject of baptism, and Sabbath observance. So why make an issue about the days of creation? Surely this is just another one of those issues where we can tolerate various views, without criticizing each other? On the surface, this sounds like a good argument. However, let’s tease it out. Christians generally differ in their understanding of eschatology on the basis of their different interpretations of Scripture alone. The differences in views do not originate from anything outside of the Bible. So, the Reformation principle, sola scriptura (‘Bible alone’), guides the various people in arriving at their conclusions. Disagreements over eschatology, baptism, etc. begin and end with the Bible—the authority of the Bible is not normally an issue. However, when it comes to Genesis, virtually everyone agrees about what Genesis says and how the writer(s) meant readers to understand it—six ordinary days of creation where everything was very good, and death and suffering entered the world through the sin of Adam and Eve; the global Flood; etc. (see Hebrew scholar affirms that Genesis means what it says! also in this issue). But outside influences generate the differing viewpoints—for example, the conjectures of the historical…