We run our website the way we wished the whole internet worked: we provide high quality original content with no ads. We are funded solely by your direct support. Please consider supporting this project.

An Apology from Greg

Ken Ham, the head of Answers In Genesis has called on me to publicly apologize and “retract [my] false statement” when I insinuated that he “preaches a false Gospel” by requiring “people to declare war on science as a precondition to entering the kingdom.” Ken pointed out that his organization’s Statement of Faith states that, “Salvation is by faith alone in Christ alone…”

In this light, I feel I do owe Ken and anyone else I offended an apology. I’m sorry. I certainly didn’t mean to suggest that Answers in Genesis or any other creationist organization officially teaches that a person must reject evolution and accept a literal interpretation of Genesis 1 to be saved. My comment was not directed toward anyone’s official Statement of Faith but toward the fact that creationist teaching has the effect of barring people who are convinced evolution is true from the kingdom.

I have known a number of people who could not seriously consider becoming a follower of Jesus and/or accepting the Bible to be God’s Word because they were given the impression that doing so required them to reject the entire evolutionary paradigm of contemporary science, which is something they could not do with intellectual integrity. I’ve known many others who assumed this as believers and who consequently abandoned their faith when they became convinced that aspects of evolution were well founded. In fact, one of the reasons I’m rather passionate about this is that this is precisely what happened to me as a freshmen at the University of Minnesota. I fortunately found a way of reconciling a version of the theory of evolution with confidence in Scripture as God’s Word, but untold numbers of others have not. I think this is utterly tragic.

It seems to me that the comments made about me in response to Ken’s remarks on this matter on his Facebook page confirm my claim that creationists tend to equate believing in a literal creation account with believing in the Bible. This is the mindset that my comments were intended to respond to. But again, it was never my intent to suggest that Ken Ham, Answers in Genesis, or any other creationist organization “preaches a false Gospel” by officially requiring people to renouncing evolution in order to enter the kingdom. For this I sincerely apologize.

Blessings,

Greg

Category:
Tags: , ,

Related Reading

Which Came First: Death or Sin? (podcast)

Greg investigates the laws of nature, the nature of law, the fall of the powers, and the power of the fall in this enlightening episode that evolves right up to the climactic ending.   Episode 561 http://traffic.libsyn.com/askgregboyd/Episode_0561.mp3

Podcast: Is Accepting Evolution with All It’s Violence Compatible with Believing in a Loving Creator?

Greg considers the violence inherent in evolution (and in nature itself) in light of our belief in an all-loving creator. http://traffic.libsyn.com/askgregboyd/Episode_0169.mp3

Overflow Episode 7 — Paul Anleitner on Our Crisis of Meaning, Science and Genesis, and MORE (podcast)

Greg considers the evangelism implications of the idea that we are all IN. Why risk someone having an opportunity to opt out? Episode 496 http://traffic.libsyn.com/askgregboyd/Episode_0496.mp3 EXTRAS! EXTRAS! EXTRAS! http://traffic.libsyn.com/askgregboyd/Episode_0496_EXTRA.mp3

Toasted Ham and Nye

So, the big debate between Ken Ham and Bill Nye is history. We didn’t really pay a whole lot of attention to it, and here’s why.  In order for there to be a winner in this debate (because of the way it was framed) you had to choose between the false dichotomy of a believing the…

Sermons: A Vision of Beauty

In this short sermon clip, Greg Boyd discusses how God, science, and nature can work together to tell us the story of our universe. In the full sermon, Greg begins the series on Revelation and shows us three things to keep in mind when reading the book of Revelation. You can view the full sermon…

Confessions of a Christian Nation (Racism)

In honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Greg Boyd, Brian McLaren and Brian Zahnd apologize to the African American community for the church’s complicity in the oppression of African Americans throughout American history. Video by Rex Harsin