Young Earth or Old Earth?

A recent question I came across sparked a rant...the question:
"If Biblical creationists believe that man and dinosaurs lived at the same time, where is the evidence?"
Answers In Genesis has a through article on this topic.
This has sparked my interests, even though I am still not sure if I agree with all of the conservative ideas and theories of Ken Ham and the guys at Answers in Genesis.

I recommend that you check out the article...

My highlight is the evidence from the Flood. And what I find very interesting is that both Young Earth and Old Earth Christians use the Flood evidence to support their arguments. This is so cool because even though, our time frames are quite different, it still goes to show that the evidence from the flood is so significant...how do non-Christians deal with it?

Now my rant and what I am learning:
Some times I spend a lot of time on complex, non-essentials. Before I go into too much depth, I will admit that this is a non-essential. We as Christians are free to argue and free to agree to disagree...in the end it is not important. We are all going to be living together in Heaven in the end...in fact my step-dad chooses not to argue for any side because he brings up an awesome point, he said, "I choose not to answer your question, because it distracts me from what is truly important." He relieves that sharing the Gospel message and living the laws of the Bible are what is truly important not debating specific theological issues. I

As far as non-essentials go this one is fun to talk about, very interesting...and I will say I am no expert. I am still struggling through this issue myself and am extremely open to all sides of the debate.
Here is what I know and think of each side so far....
Ken Ham and the extreme conservative...believe that 6 day Creation is literal and actually occurred in 6 days!
This I always find so interesting and no one has really given me a good answer so far, (...I have studied the Answers in Genesis website and I even visited the Creation Museum in Cincinnati, Ohio...), but I always think to myself...yes, but the word for DAY in Hebrew "yom," has several possible meanings...(even Answers in Genesis will admit that.)

The conservative, young earth believers are so set on the literal meaning, they never really even addressed the other liberal theories. They pretty much ignored the idea that "yom" could be interpreted differently and instead merely gave me "If the earth were a billion years old then..." arguments. While, had not heard some of these external evidence arguments before (I was impressed by some of them) I still was left wondering...because I value the internal evidence of the Bible. And so far, I think it is still possible to go either way according to Internal Biblical evidence. We know that with God all things are possible, even an old earth scenario. Besides there is some great external evidence that they are also ignoring when they are making their philosophical conservative arguments. (But this blog post is not my time to get into all these arguments, sorry for wetting your appetite.) Creation Museum did do a good job though of presenting the Gospel, that was impressive and honorable, for a conservative or liberal theologian!

The staff at Apologetics.com did a show on this topic and they are Old Earth proponents. It was a little surprising to me, but I really liked their arguments. They used a lot more internal evidence from within the Bible. They gave the "yom" argument, as stated above but they also referenced several other Bible texts (one particular in Hebrews) showing how God's idea of time is completely different from ours as humans! We have no idea for sure how long each "yom/day/time period" consisted of in Genesis. It might have been thousands or even millions of years between each "day." One really strong point that stood out from their arguments was from Creation account itself....One the third 'day', God lets the plants bear fruit....(this will take more than 24 hours normally). After day five God lets the animals be "fruitful." And agian after day six God allows man to be fruitful, produce things, and fill the earth...
THe question could be asked, did God creat them with fruit or did he LET them create fruit over time?
Now agian, using my own words agianst myself, God could have done it in 6 days, sure! All things are possible with God!

Finally my final point is that I want to side with the Bible above and beyond choosing sides or picking the most correct solution. Sometimes this makes me seem like a flip flopper (or more conservative on some points and more liberal on others) but this is partly because people look at issues with a false dichotomy too many times. When in reality the middle ground is sometimes best. Be open on issues but back your self in the Word of God!

A new kind of Theologian

Theology is a passion of mine. I love studying it. I am no expert. In fact one reason why I love theology so much is because it makes me think and I challenge almost everything in it while it challenges everything in my life. My main source is the Bible. I struggle with the issues regularly. There are tons of resources, classes, theories, and what not but the most important is what the Word of God says.

What really gets me going, is the fact that there are quite a few other Gen Yers who are really strong in Theology. But they are not limited to specialization. You see, us Gen Yers are tired of all the categories, all the specific politics that is within anything, including theology.

Instead of fighting between conservative and liberal theologies, the next Generation of theologians are wise in that they want to work together. They want to know what the essentials of our faith are. They want to engage culture and share the Good News, instead of gaining respect among the elite Christians fighting for their side of an issue. Instead they want to use their arguments in real life. They want to led people to Christ and be well-informed. Instead of merely arguing theology, they want to live theology. We are at a point where we can do big things through the love of Jesus. At point where we can do what truly is essential in our faith, evangelism.

Okay, yes we must be careful NOT to fall into extremely liberal thoughts. For example we do not want to be so engaging that we loose our doctrines. We need to be engaging but we do not have to compromise our doctrines and standards. We can be emerging but not emergent! And the beautiful thing is that many Gen Y theologians understand this. We are sort of trying to get the best of both conservative (strong doctrines) and liberal (engaging culture) theologies.

The point is we are able to dig into our roots, the Bible. We are to be "in but not of the World!"
And I am so excited that a lot of young theologians are ready to make social changes real, engage our neighbors with the true Gospel, and yet not loose the actual doctrines of the Word of God. We ourselves need to remian in the Wword, but also we are called to disciple followers.
Evangelism is part one, discipleship is on-going and continual!

OT laws in real life

In my Into to Old Testament class this summer, I learned a lot.
One of the most memorable things from the class is this article.
Dan Hayes talks about how the OT law applies today in real life and how it does not.

It is a great read. I highly recommend that you check it out.

But the law has a place in today's Christianity....
It is important.
What I find beautiful though is that the Christianity is not just the law.

Christianity is the law and the Gospel.

Through the law we realize our flaws, our falleness, and our need for help.
Through the Gospel we come to know our Savior, our friend, the grace and mercy that we need. The only way to fulfill the law is by accepting the Gospel.

It is so wonderful!

The best band no one knows about :

Russenorsk!


When I was a student at Ohio Univeristy, I saw this band play...I had to get their album. They are amazing. There is an acoustic guitar player who has a great voice. Then there is the cello player!
My favorite thing about this band, is the lyrics. They are deep! But all of the tunes are really catchy too.

Serious Question

The Lord has impressed my heart to share the Gospel in my neighborhood. I am new to the area.
It is suburbia and I really hate it....but I want to be obedient.

I used my status on Facebook and Twitter to ask a question:
"Any good ideas for suburbia evangelism?"

None of my friends have thrown ideas out to me yet, but I googled "Suburbia Evangelism"
and guess what, I found a neat article and a helpful blog so far....

So now I ask my blog audience (all two of you) for some ideas....
What are some creative or practical ways to share my faith in Suburbia...
(click the photo for Steve McCoy's "Mission to Suburbia Resource guide"!)
Yeah I realize it is ultimately about relationships, but how do I make the connection...should I just talk? hold a dinner party? Or what kinds of ideas come to mind?

Thanks
In Christ,
Alex

Interview Question

So I was at an interview today and a question I had not heard came up...it made me think and I froze a little. The gentleman interviewing me was generous and gave me time to think and after I gave an artificial reply smiled and gave me a life lesson. He was pretty nice.


The Questions: "LONG-TERM where do you see your self...by long term I mean at age 47...where do you want to be?"

(I was thinking, 'age 47? I have not thought past the next 5 or 10 years, far less doubling my life experience!!!)

I said, "Well, long term I would like to become a professor at some point, hopefully well BEFORE age 47!"

Then the interviewer said, "You have not heard that question before have you? When I went to my first interview, 17 years ago, they asked me that question. From that day forward I figured out what my life goals where and to this day am on my way at achieving them."

I couldn't resist, " And your goal is..."

"I wanted be retired by the time I am 47!"

It was interesting 'interview.' I do not know, most interviews are a lot more formal and life lessons are not talked about....but this guy was nice and wanted to talk not just interview it seemed like. I am not sure if that is such a good thing or not though.

Random Question

How many times can something be new?

Internet IPv4...

Is the internet running out of ip addresses?

Every device that connects to the internet needs a separate address, and 30 years ago web designers assumed four billion would be ample, but with more and more devices connecting to the web every day, this number is not looking too sufficient!

The anwser might be IPv6.



Doomsday countdown