Well, I've just come to the end of another stoush with the militant Young Earth mob. Some will say it's my own fault for "grabbing the dog by it's ears". A number of local bloggers wont touch this subject any more, as they know the response they will get from the militants. To my mind, that is conceding too much ground. If we let our opponents dictate the battlefield, we are in great trouble. This is a troubling issue for new Christians and seekers, so we need to nail our colours to the mast. If I may say, I did try hard this time to be patient. One fellow responded by repeating the same question over and over again, ignoring everything I said. This is a form of passive aggressive behaviour. The other fellow swung between patronising earnestness and violent ad hom. Hard to carry on a conversation under such circumstances, and not surprising that they scared away other commenters.
I regret some of my comments now - I feel I got sucked into the bickering. Proverbs 26:4 says, "Don't answer a fool according to his foolishness, or you'll be like him yourself." And so I don't plan to respond to any more of their comments, though they will doubtless post here, and also on their own website. Oh, I should mention that one fellow, Eric, was consistently courteous.
Is this all that big a deal? As I said above, it's still a live wire issue for some, so it's worth discussing. But I also think we need to challenge the militant wing of the Young Earth movement, because I believe they have genuinely bad theology. This was brought home again to me in the recent debate. If you want a fully-orbed critique of their theology, you need to read a ten part series written by Mark Baddeley several years ago. You can find it here - part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5, part 6, part 7, part 8, part 9 and part 10.
Mark really took them to task, and the militants had no response. They retired from the field, desperately hoping that his blog would get minimal exposure.
I want to briefly highlight a troubling part of the militant's approach that was abundantly clear in my recent debate. What I'm referring to is the way they make belief in a young earth a shibboleth, a test of true Christianity. For rejecting their particular scientific theory, the militants have branded me a heretic, a liberal, compared me to an atheist and an adulterer, and have told me that Christ does not live in me.
It seems plain to me that they think belief in a young earth is a mark of a "genuine" Christian. Back in my younger days, people would refer to this as a "gospel+" situation - that is, someone is stating that you need to believe in the "gospel+something else" in order to be saved. But the gospel+ anything is not the gospel at all. Paul dealt with this in Galatians 1, where he declares than anyone who changes the gospel, for any reason whatsoever, is accursed.
Now, I'm not saying all Young Earthers are accursed! Far from it. I think the majority that I've known have expressed the appropriate charity when it comes to this point. But regarding the particluar group of militants I'm talking about - it seems to me that they have strayed outside of the bounds of evangelical orthodoxy in their approach to this issue. I hope they will wake up soon. And in the mean time, I believe they are best avoided - especially by new Christians and seekers.