My question: Does it really matter? Is this an issue that will determine one's salvation? If not, why do we spend so much time debating it? Why do some people seem determined to convert others to their view?
Yes, it matters, if we do not believe God, then he can not call us to Him. God says in Genesis that Abraham believed God, therefore it was counted as Righteousness unto him. The same with believing on Jesus. But we can not believe that creatures created themselves, and still say God created us. There are many verses that say God created us, and tat Adam named all the animals. Being confused about the Creation of the universe is understanding, in that the English translations say it was 6 Days, when in reality it was 6 Eras, the Hebrew language had 4000 words or a little under, compared to 400, 000 word for the English language. So words like YOM had many meanings, Period of time, Day, warm or Hot, and in verse 5 where it says God called the Light day, it can also read God called the Illumination warm or hot. The the First day would be the Evening (400 million years of Darkness after the Inflation) and the Light or Stars bringing Warmth, Hotness. The first YOM (Period of Time had to last 9.2 Billion years, because Earth formed at 4.5 Billion years BC, so 13.7 - 9.2 = 4.5. So as you see, I am not an inside the box thinker, but the evolution theory is bogus, and without any merit or facts or proof.
Because evolution is not only supported beyond a reasonable doubt by evidence, but is critical to many of the technologies that run our modern world. B
I will try to make these shorter answers....It never works, LOL. Evolution is not and has never been a proven fact. Adaption within species is a given, but the evidence Darwin said must needs be there, is not and will never be there, because God created all things as he intended. And Man is only 6000 years old. What about the fossils that show an older man you might ask ? My belief is God at the 500 million BC mark, or close, created the Sea Creatures and Birds and He created many during this span of time or ERA/YOM, which a day can be called, but a YOM can also be an indefinite period of time. Then at the 250 Million BC mark, God starting creating the land animals of which many died out at the 70 Million BC mark when the asteroid hit. God continued creating until He finally created man IN HIS IMAGE at the 6000 year BC Mark. Now there might have been, probably was an animal, just like man, that lived a long time, but which did not have the SPIRIT OF GOD in him, which of course God did at the 6000 BC Mark, when He said let US (Jesus/Father/Holy Spirit) make man in OUR image and in OUR likeness. This is why we only have 6000 some odd years of recorded history, but proof of animals that looked like men, but acted like animals. THEY WERE ANIMALS.
Creationists, if that's not your main concern, or if I misstated it, please correct me.
Nope, we preach the Gospel of the true God, and He created all things, just as he said, the real problem is men have such a small capacity to understand complex things, they are all to often wrong, but too stubborn to admit this fact. It is evident that we were created, PATTERNS/DNA/etc.
I think the concerns raised above can be (indeed, must be) ignored by any Christian today. Why? Because that train has left the station long ago. Christians today already take large portions of scripture non-literally - portions that have a stronger claim to a literal reading than Genesis. Christians today can already read larger portions non-literally without any problem with calling fundamental doctrines into question.
Dis gonna be fun.........Christians who don't read the bible as literal, (except for Jesus' parables, think the have to give up their beliefs for a lack of evidence, but as you are aware, a lack of evidence in no wise proves ANYTHING, if that was the case hen the world would not exist because scientist do not know how we got here any more than some Christians, via only their Faith. In essence, all scientist have is much faith, they cling to maybes like the Multi-verse theory (because the chance of our Universe forming against all odds was proving more and more to be a ridiculous argument, so they invented a Multi-verse theory, lol), which can never be proven, etc. etc.
Which sections? Many. Some examples:
Literally dozens of sections of scripture make it undeniably clear that a literal reading of the Bibles gives a flat earth under a hard sky dome. There is a much stronger case for biblical globe-denial than there is for evolution denial. You can see some of them in post #32 here:
The bible clearly says the Universe had a BEGINNING time and time again, all Scientist 100 years ago said the Universe was eternal. The bibles says the Universe was expanding, God spreadeth out the skies, something scientist just recently figured out. The bible says the Earth is a Circle. Case Closed here.
Jesus' return by the 3rd century. There is a much stronger case for Jesus' return before 200 AD than there is for evolution denial. Large sections of scripture, and many of Jesus' own words, are taken non-literally by nearly all Christians today on this topic.
Read John chapter 20, this clearly proves Jesus returned after ascending to Heaven. Jesus told Mary, Don't touch me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. He then appeared to the Disciples, Thomas was not there, so he doubted. 8 Days later Jesus appeared again, and told Thomas to put his fingers in his wounds. Jesus has Returned and probably many, many times.
Acceptance of slavery. There is a much stronger case for biblical support of slavery than there is for evolution denial. Large sections of scripture - including the 10 commandments, are taken non-literally (or just outright ignored) by nearly all Christians today on this topic.
Evolution is just no a fact as you guys present it, juxtaposing it against anything, doesn't change the facts. In Gods OT Law, he forbid any Israeli from capturing a man and enslaving him, it was punishable by DEATH. But men could sale themselves into servitude, which is called slavery, but really isn't, because its a contract between two people. When the SERVANT LEAVES, they were to be given grain, a percentage of the flock, money etc. etc. Sorry, Slavery ain't getting it here.
A lower status (as property) of women. There is a much stronger case for biblical sexism than there is for evolution denial.
Woman had her place and man had his place. Let me spell it out. Just because this world has perverted this, means nothing, the whole world was basically the same. Women are supposed to nurture children, we have a huge problem with Kids in America not getting the guidance they need, via divorces etc. etc. Men were supposed to be providers. God thought it was best that way, this in no wise diminishes who a woman is.
and so on. In the near future, as we move past many other outdated beliefs, new sections will join this growing list of topics where we Christians move past a literal reading of our scripture. Some of these are already pretty clear. Within a few decades the condemnation of homosexuality will likely be seen in the same way as slavery and sexism. The same goes for spanking children. Adding evolution to the list above will be easy and inevitable - especially since one can make a good case for a non-literal reading (much more so than any of these other topics).
Within a few years, Jesus Christ will be ruling in his 1000 year reign. All of the sill notions will be destroyed. The Anti-Christ is in the world today, I was shown that in a vision 30 years ago. So very soon, you will get the proof you have been dying to see.
