Ken Ham Hits Back After Matt Walsh Claims Creationists Make Reaching Others With Christianity Harder
The Creation Museum founder Ken Ham has hit back against Catholic writer Matt Walsh's claim that Young Earth Creationists make it harder to reach others with Christianity.
"Walsh's main points were that the days in Genesis could not be 24 hours and that science has proved the Earth is billions of years old," Ham summarized in an Answers in Genesis article on Saturday.
"The fundamental point that Mr. Walsh is making is that he is more willing to rely on man's fallible word than to trust God's infallible word. He repeatedly cites 'science' as the reason the Earth cannot be young. Yet, when observational science is performed, there are mountains of evidence from geology, astronomy, physics, archaeology, and so on that the Earth is indeed young," Ham insisted.
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In Walsh's video published by The Daily Wire on YouTube last week, he argued that although he doesn't "question the sincerity or the faithfulness of six-day Creationist folks," he positioned that when the belief is preached, it can "inadvertently do some harm" and "put obstacles in the way, especially for non-believers."
"There are many Christians who insist that Genesis describes a literal six-day Creation, as in a literal 24-hour day. You know, six days in a week, and they cite as their proof the fact that it says 'day.' That's pretty much it," he said.
"No one is saying, or at least I'm not saying, that the word 'day' is a falsehood, or that it's a lie," he continued, arguing that the early Church fathers, as well as modern-day theologians, were not six-day Creationists.
He provided his breakdown of the six days of creation mentioned in Genesis, as well as why he doesn't believe those refer to literal 24-hour days.
"I think the Bible does not require us to believe in Young Earth Creationism. You can draw that conclusion ... but there's a reason why faithful Christians for 2,000 years have arrived at different conclusions on Genesis," he continued.
"It's not a simple text, it is not easy to understand, it's quite dense, quite mysterious and theologically, you can justify multiple interpretations," Walsh added, insisting that science shows that some interpretations offered for Genesis, such as a literal six days Creation, are "less tenable" than others.
Ham argued that Walsh "ignores the context of God's infallible Word," however.
"By accepting secular interpretations of the past, Walsh completely ignores what a 'day' means in Scripture. He is right that the word 'day' in the Bible has multiple meanings, but not when it is combined with evening, morning, and a number as it is in Genesis 1. Every single time it is used with those words, it means a literal 24-hour day, something he completely ignores," he insisted.
"It is very ironic that Walsh regularly defends biblical positions such as biblical marriage, human life made in God's image beginning at fertilization, two created genders and so on, but rejects the foundation for those beliefs," the Creation Museum founder continued.
"Without appealing to Genesis, there is no foundation for marriage. Abortion becomes perfectly acceptable if we aren't made in the image of God. Get rid of spare cats or spare kids — what's the difference? Why should we have two genders if God did not make them male and female in the beginning? Genesis provides the answers to those questions," he added.
A 2017 Gallup survey found that Americans remain largely divided on the question of evolution and man's creation. An equal share, or 38 percent of respondents each, said that God created man in present form, and that man went through evolution but with God guiding the process.
Another 19 percent claimed that man evolved, without God playing any part in the process.
