Does believing Genesis is wrong make me a bad Christian?

[GodLovesCats]

Nobody can disprove what has been proven, obviously. Proof is everywhere that the whole world and all of nature evolved over billions of years, not less than a week. Mass extinctions including the biggest flood in world history are known to have occurred hundreds of millions of years prior to the existence of humans, especially homo sapiens - the last remaining species. I simply cannot for the life of me believe what the Bible says about the Creation and timing of the Great Flood, at least in terms of being the worst ever, is more accurate than what scientists discover. But in my heart I believe the Bible is God's Word and believe in miracles, so I don't want to feel like I am betraying Him in favor of sinners. Am I screwed up about my religion?

 

[GodsGrace101]

Nobody can disprove what has been proven, obviously. Proof is everywhere that the whole world and all of nature evolved over billions of years, not less than a week. Mass extinctions including the biggest flood in world history are known to have occurred hundreds of millions of years prior to the existence of humans, especially homo sapiens - the last remaining species. I simply cannot for the life of me believe what the Bible says about the Creation and timing of the Great Flood, at least in terms of being the worst ever, is more accurate than what scientists discover. But in my heart I believe the Bible is God's Word and believe in miracles, so I don't want to feel like I am betraying Him in favor of sinners. Am I screwed up about my religion?

You're not screwed up about your religion.
It's a proven fact that the earth is about 3 billion years old and the universe is about 14 billion.

If the earth was created in 6 literal days,,,when were the dinosaurs created...and when did they become extinct?

Just love God, trust Jesus, and don't worry about how the universe got made.

God made it...that's all we know.
The O.T. is not a history book.
(but it contains history).

 

[d taylor]

The Bible and the Given account in the Bible of Gods creation is true as stated in the Bible. Any accounts that state otherwise from science is a satanic lie. So if you want to place your trust in the lies of satan, about Gods creation, God has given you that ability to make that belief choice.

Same as in the Tanakh, when Jesus came to earth, the Jews had the choice to believe, was Jesus the promised Messiah from the prophecies of the Tanakh, or was he not. As is seen (in the Bible) they decide to reject Jesus as their The Messiah.

 

[expos4ever]

You should not worry about this. It is basically a fact that a literal interpretation of Genesis is silly, given the mountains of evidence for evolution and an old Earth.

 

[grasping the after wind]

You're not screwed up about your religion.
It's a proven fact that the earth is about 3 billion years old and the universe is about 14 billion.

If the earth was created in 6 literal days,,,when were the dinosaurs created...and when did they become extinct?

Just love God, trust Jesus, and don't worry about how the universe got made.

God made it...that's all we know.
The O.T. is not a history book.
(but it contains history).

It's not actually a proven fact that the earth is 3 billion years old but there is mountain of evidence to suggest that creation took place billions of years ago that the earth is probably in the vicinity of around 3 billion year old. Other than that I concur with your post.

 

[Celticroots]

No. Not every Christian takes Genesis literally. Nor should they. I don't.

 

[GodsGrace101]

It's not actually a proven fact that the earth is 3 billion years old but there is mountain of evidence to suggest that creation took place billions of years ago that the earth is probably in the vicinity of around 3 billion year old. Other than that I concur with your post.

The universe is about 14 billion years old...
I might have misspoken...
but yes,,,the earth is not 6,000 years old.
And it's a shame that Christians have to be taken for such fools for believing this.

 

[grasping the after wind]

The universe is about 14 billion years old...
I might have misspoken...
but yes,,,the earth is not 6,000 years old.
And it's a shame that Christians have to be taken for such fools for believing this.

We need to be careful in what we say are proven facts. I heard someone say the earth was 3 billion and ten years old. That is because ten years ago he was told it was 3 billion years old. I don't consider people that believe something that I don't believe to be fools. They a have a strong faith in what they were taught was true. Unless one is involved in the particular field of science that deals with this sort of thing, the age of the earth or the universe is actually irrelevant to anything we want to accomplish with our lives so if some people are inclined to believe it is only 6000 years old, I see no harm in that.

 

[Pavel Mosko]

Nobody can disprove what has been proven, obviously. Proof is everywhere that the whole world and all of nature evolved over billions of years, not less than a week. Mass extinctions including the biggest flood in world history are known to have occurred hundreds of millions of years prior to the existence of humans, especially homo sapiens - the last remaining species. I simply cannot for the life of me believe what the Bible says about the Creation and timing of the Great Flood, at least in terms of being the worst ever, is more accurate than what scientists discover. But in my heart I believe the Bible is God's Word and believe in miracles, so I don't want to feel like I am betraying Him in favor of sinners. Am I screwed up about my religion?

Contrary to many folks on the board, I believe your position is OK.

I would not call Genesis "wrong" but rather acknowledge it was originally written / derived from an ancient near eastern culture that is radically different than our own.

(I am an old Earth Creationist myself.)

 

[hedrick]

How could God want you to deny the truth?

Biblical inerrancy is believed by the most conservative Protestants. More liberal Protestans and many Catholics prefer to look at the Bible without ideological preconceptions. If you do that, you find it written by lots of authors, with differing opinions, all of whom had in one way or another encountered God.

The core of Christianity is Jesus. Unlike Genesis, which is typical "long ago and far away," the Gospels were written within a few decades of the events, though you can see at least some difference in perspectives even there. So we know what Jesus was about with reasonable accuracy. But even then, Paul, James and Peter had very different views of what it meant to follow Jesus and (at least according to conservative views) they'll all authors of NT documents.

We should learn from them, but start by listening to Jesus himself. There's simply no reason Christians should tie following Jesus to accepting 1st Century views of the world. There are plenty of Christians who are happy to opt out of the modern world. That's their privilege (though anyone participating in CF is opting out of a pretty selective way). But I don't see why Christians should be required to do that.

 

[SeventyOne]

Am I screwed up about my religion?

Yup. Completely. Need to repent.

 

[GodsGrace101]

We need to be careful in what we say are proven facts. I heard someone say the earth was 3 billion and ten years old. That is because ten years ago he was told it was 3 billion years old. I don't consider people that believe something that I don't believe to be fools. They a have a strong faith in what they were taught was true. Unless one is involved in the particular field of science that deals with this sort of thing, the age of the earth or the universe is actually irrelevant to anything we want to accomplish with our lives so if some people are inclined to believe it is only 6000 years old, I see no harm in that.

I think the 3 billion and 10 years old guy was JK.

As to the harm in believing the earth is young....
If we don't understand the bible correctly...
and some day we discover that the earth IS billions of years old....might that not affect our faith?

I do think we need to grow up a little bit....
We shouldn't believe something that is not true.
Even Rabbi's do not teach a young earth and understand that Genesis 1 is not literal.
History in the O.T. begins with Abraham.

 

[venksta]

Nobody can disprove what has been proven, obviously. Proof is everywhere that the whole world and all of nature evolved over billions of years, not less than a week. Mass extinctions including the biggest flood in world history are known to have occurred hundreds of millions of years prior to the existence of humans, especially homo sapiens - the last remaining species. I simply cannot for the life of me believe what the Bible says about the Creation and timing of the Great Flood, at least in terms of being the worst ever, is more accurate than what scientists discover. But in my heart I believe the Bible is God's Word and believe in miracles, so I don't want to feel like I am betraying Him in favor of sinners. Am I screwed up about my religion?

This is a question we'll never get a solid and fully explained answer to, in this age. The main thing is, don't allow your belief and other's, to "confine" your faith in God's power, into a box. I believe God is capable of literally creating the universe, word for word in Genesis. I also believe, God is capable of creating the universe based on what evidence shows us with science, and continues to reveal. I also believe, the time it takes to snap my finger, God's power is so great, he could recreate what Genesis records, in that micro second of a time.

Ultimately, your faith and peace should always rely on Jesus, what he taught, how he lived, and why he sacrificed his live for us all.

 

[fwGod]

The Genesis account is just as inspired and truth as the parts of the Bible that anyone is to believe in order to be saved.

There's a definite incompatibility between evolution and the Bible. There are reasons why people would think that the Bible is wrong. However, anyone who does think that, they are accepting the influence of the unbelief of atheists who teach the evolution to explain everything in the universe. For christians who sit in the seat of scoffers, they are only hindering their own faith in God who created everything within 6 24hr days.

He is the God of salvation.

 

[hedrick]

There's a definite incompatibility between evolution and the Bible. There are reasons why people would think that the Bible is wrong. However, anyone who does think that, they are accepting the influence of the unbelief of atheists who teach the evolution to explain everything in the universe. For christians who sit in the seat of scoffers, they are only hindering their own faith in God who created everything within 6 24hr days.

He is the God of salvation.

This is personal attack. There are plenty of people who think Genesis isn't history, but who aren't under the influence of atheists. It's pretty clear from reading the OT that it was written by people from a very different culture than ours. Not only didn't they understand astronomy the way we did, they had different ideas on how to treat others than Jesus did in some cases. But still, it's the culture to which God chose to speak through prophets and to which Jesus sent his son.

There's no reason we have to be 1st Cent Jews, or 5th Cent BC Jews, to follow Jesus. It's just this belief that the Bible is directly from God, when any realistic view shows us that it is a human document that shows how people reacted to God's actions. There's nothing atheist about saying that God came to people who don't understand modern astronomy.

 

[Tobythechristian]

Here is something which may be off interest to genesis

It is my friends YouTube channel and it has lovely videos and picture along with the word of god he plans to upload the full bible so if you could watch it to see if you like them. God bless

 

[Ivan Hlavanda]

Nobody can disprove what has been proven, obviously. Proof is everywhere that the whole world and all of nature evolved over billions of years, not less than a week. Mass extinctions including the biggest flood in world history are known to have occurred hundreds of millions of years prior to the existence of humans, especially homo sapiens - the last remaining species. I simply cannot for the life of me believe what the Bible says about the Creation and timing of the Great Flood, at least in terms of being the worst ever, is more accurate than what scientists discover. But in my heart I believe the Bible is God's Word and believe in miracles, so I don't want to feel like I am betraying Him in favor of sinners. Am I screwed up about my religion?

Since the Bible is the word of God, either believe it fully or don't. But if you claim to be a Christian I suggest you trust all of it, it is our only source of God and how to live as a Christian, if you start picking parts that you like, then you don't believe the word of God, and you don't believe in Jesus either, because you are selecting what you like and what you don't thus drawing a picture about God in your mind. That was the mistake of the Pharisees too, they were teaching about God the way they wanted Him to be, not the way He was. Then He came down to Earth and He was something completely different than what they were preaching.

If God said that He created everything in 6 days He did. If He said all those things that are in the book of Genesis then they happened exactly as He said they did. I don't need some human to say otherwise. If you believe humans more than the word of God I have a very bad news for you. If you have a problem with something in the Bible it not Bible's fault.

 

[GodLovesCats]

We need to be careful in what we say are proven facts. I heard someone say the earth was 3 billion and ten years old. That is because ten years ago he was told it was 3 billion years old. I don't consider people that believe something that I don't believe to be fools. They a have a strong faith in what they were taught was true. Unless one is involved in the particular field of science that deals with this sort of thing, the age of the earth or the universe is actually irrelevant to anything we want to accomplish with our lives so if some people are inclined to believe it is only 6000 years old, I see no harm in that.

Where did 3 billion come from? I was always taught Earth's age is 4.6 billion years old in school. Later the number was changed to 4.5 billion with no given explanation.

You can prove cats have always been obligate carnivores since the first feline species was made. Who can deny the purpose of triangular teeth and why four are long enough to cut through prey animals?

 

[Ivan Hlavanda]

You're not screwed up about your religion.
It's a proven fact that the earth is about 3 billion years old and the universe is about 14 billion.

If the earth was created in 6 literal days,,,when were the dinosaurs created...and when did they become extinct?

Just love God, trust Jesus, and don't worry about how the universe got made.

God made it...that's all we know.
The O.T. is not a history book.
(but it contains history).

Yeah let's trust scientists over our Creator, that's a great advice, what could go wrong. If God said it then it is and I don't need people to tell me otherwise. If you believe in God believe in His word. If you don't are you are picking what you want to believe or not, I have a bad news for you.

 

[Ivan Hlavanda]

You should not worry about this. It is basically a fact that a literal interpretation of Genesis is silly, given the mountains of evidence for evolution and an old Earth.

And you call your-self a Christian...I advice that you rethink if you know God. Because a person who knows God would know that everything in the Bible is truth. Or do we believe people over God? Then you have some problem.