#5 ABOUT TURN!

This is IOPNA’s 5^th article of 6 in the ‘Missing Link’ series.

 This is my personal story - maybe you will be able to identify with some of it.  Even if you don't claim to be a Christian perhaps this factual trail of evidence we are discovering, by dusting off the 19^th Century, offers food for thought.                                                                

I was brought up in a strict Christian family who valued the Bible and 50 years ago, at the age of 8, I personally dedicated my life to my Saviour, our Lord Jesus Christ. Our family was involved in a brethren fellowship that distanced itself from mainstream denominations with their clerical hierarchies, and constantly reminded us that we upheld the teachings of John Nelson Darby (1800-1882).

As high-schoolers we were warned against the teaching of evolution so I was ready to protest if a teacher tried to say that we had evolved from apes.  Never did I hear this taught but what we were taught was the geological time scale or column, with its millions of years.

For years I simply accepted that if scientists want to claim that the Earth is millions (or now billions) of years old that was fine by me - I could easily fit them between verses 1 and 2 of Genesis 1. Whenever I saw people with their heads in Creation magazines I would look on them as 'baby Christians' who needed convincing about that elementary stuff by subscribing to someone’s pet project. That was until I realized that this 'Gap Theory' of millions of years undermines the whole message of salvation for mankind!

After finding myself teaching Scripture in primary school classes to children who aren't sure if God exists, I commenced looking for evidence of God or 'iopnas' around us and sharing them on Facebook, then blogspot. 
We added variety and started to dust off the 19th century to find that the 'millions of years' have their roots in ancient philosophy and were finally endorsed by the Church publicly - and still are!  We are yet to look at the legacy of all this.
So why did I think I could fit something between verses 1 and 2? (...despite the Bible warning us not to add or omit anything!)                                                                                                            

I find that the teachers that I looked up to, such as Darby, also accepted the Gap Theory!

J.N. Darby Collected Writings, Apologetic No.2, Vol 9, p87-115

            "I should not suppose chaos to have been a first creation of God. It looks like the result of some catastrophe. Here all the Orphic, Grecian, and Phoenician cosmogonies begin, and the Romans.....Ante mare et terras et quod tegit omnia coelum, Unu s erat toto naturae vultus in orbe, Quem dixere chaos."

"Scripture, which does not reveal scientific facts, is totally silent as to them, but leaves a gap which may have been filled by millions of years when we were not..."                                                                           

(Actually Scripture does reveal many scientific facts that we are presenting as ‘iopnas’ on our Discovery Safari. We are going to take a look at Genesis 1 soon and will see just how scientific this ‘religious book’ is!)

Well, THERE ARE NO VERSES in the original Hebrew text and THERE IS NO GAP for us to fill – on the contrary the word ‘and’ (Heb:waw) is there to maintain continuity.                                                       

(Remember being taught in primary school that ‘and’ is a joining word?) 
Modern translations have had a field day with that little word: 'and'.                             

Where does that leave me?

• We have Bibles all over the house, written in mostly plain English, but I never got past Genesis 1:1 without meddling with God's Word using human notions, despite the warnings not to (…and I presume to be a Scripture teacher!?)
• I presumed to know what God has not told me, making God a liar for saying that His Creation was 'very good', assuming Adam and Eve were standing over millions of dead animals. 
• My presumption not only undermined the Christian teaching on salvation for mankind but destroyed the credibility of the whole Bible as God’s Word
• I am complicit in the endorsement of 'millions of years' by the Church that gave token credibility and respectability to the 'theories of evolution', so my criticism of 'evolutionary science' is flawed. I must cease scoffing at David Attenborough, Richard Dawkins & co. with their ‘billions of years’.   At least they stand up for what they believe in! 
• I accept responsibility for the awful legacies of evolutionary teaching because I tolerated ‘millions of years’
• I must “About turn!”...and now devote myself to undoing the lies and telling people the truth. 

So help me God.

NEXT:  The legacy- '...even mums & kids'  Click on:
http://hotspuds.blogspot.com.au/2013/12/even-mums-kids.html