My Letter to Kent Hovind - Young Earth Creationist

Re: http://www.drdino.com/contact-us.php

Kent Hovind,

1. How can the earth be only 6000 years old when scientists measure the light from some stars to take 6 billion years, for example, and their best estimate of 13.7 billion years since the singularity?

Even if they are way off, it is still much longer than 6000 years. Dinosaurs existed prior to 6000 years ago. A child can glean profound knowledge from a verse, but when he is an adult, he will see as adults do and read more deeply into that passage. The same is true with the 6 days: a Hebrew word used for creation in Genesis 1.1 and words of restoration for the 6 days.

2. Why is day 2 not called a good day?

The way I read Gen. 2.7 is God formed the body from dust over a long period of time then breathed the breath of life, directly creating man's spirit, into the body about 6000 years ago to create the soul life. Man's spirit was directly created giving him God-consciousness which can never cease to exist. PreAdamic man ceases to exist which is the body formed from dust. The reason animals eat each other is because of the fall of Lucifer with the angels corrupting the earth which was made perfectly in Gen. 1.1. And some of the creatures became disembodied spirits when God made the earth desolate and waste in Gen. 1.2 due to the sin of the inhabitants of earth's earliest ages. Why are all the days good except day 2? Because when God split the firmament inevitably up came some of those demons, one of which came into the serpent to tempt Eve.

The 6 days are six literal 24 hour days which summarize the period of restoration. If you would like a detailed explanation how these days are reconciled as restoration days, you will be greatly edified by these words, http://www3.telus.net/trbrooks/moc12.htm

3. Your denomination has problems, so are you willing to repent of them?

You keep saying the highest are Baptists, but the Bible says don't say "I of Cephas" or "I of Apollos". In my experience most Baptists are Calvinists or at least teach Total depravity which is a heresy in which God would have to irresistibly impose salvation on some and deny others sufficient grace to have the choice; then regeneration would be before repentance and faith.

And some individuals in the Bible were baptized without water, but Baptists teach baptism by water only. This creates a divisive legalism, like the Pharisees would add on 500 rules, which we are to fear as Christians. Starting with the Spirit, ending with the flesh. Legalizers like those who try to keep the Sabbath or claim there is a Christian Sabbath. Baptism should be with or without water in burial and resurrection with Christ and the rest is now the Holy Spirit indwelling.

4. How would a person innocently read the Scriptures for the first time?

A person reading the Bible who knows nothing about it would see a perfect creation in Gen. 1.1 (unassumingly over a long period or instantly), a strange desolation in verse 2 without asking if they read the Hebrew, and either an immediate creation or restoration period summed up in the 6 days if they read the Hebrew. With no judgment on those who don't have enough knowledge, they may read it as just 6 days of creation without any other issues. But with more knowledge, they are free to read it as a "gap restorationist".

I wanted to enter into the possibility that you might not be born-again, are a cult denying what science clearly teaches and are a legalizer, that is you have a letter of a law, but not the Spirit of the law. But if you can repent of these false teachings, I hold nothing against you.

Troy

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Originally Posted by Luke Myers

I could not agree with the extrabiblical view of the gap theory and female pastors.

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The reason why women were not teachers is because they usually had 10 to 20 babies and they wouldn't have the time. That's why Paul said he wished we could all be single to spend more time in the word of God. And because women were generally not accepted as testimony in court back then. It was a cultural thing and unfair to an extent, so the world was not yet ready for women as apostles, elders and teachers. It would be unreasonable for the body of Christ to make too rapid a change that would make society nonfunctional. However there was one female apostle mentioned in the Bible by the name of Junias, and if there can be women apostles, you can have women elders and teachers. Of course, women can vote just this past century, are presidents of corporations and prime ministers of countries, because the birth rate has come down and women are considered good witnesses.

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1. The God of the Bible created the sun, moon and stars to be for signs and seasons (Gen. 1:14). The next verse says, "and it was so". Light from the sun, moon and stars must have already reached Earth by the end of the fourth day of creation. Why would God create a star that humans wouldn't be able to see for millions of years. The God of the Bible can make cooked fish (feeding of the 5,000 & 7,000), wine from grapes that never existed and light between stars and the earth. His creation was already mature when He made it. Adam "looked" like a full grown man on the first day of his existence. In the same way, it is no problem for God to create stars and the starlight between them and the earth.

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You're assuming into Gen. 1.14 for God already created in 1.1. He does not create desolate and waste in verse 2. If you study the Hebrew you will notice each of the days are a restoration not a creation like in Gen. 1.1. The first day is a bringing into view of the light then the 4th day makes it more clear because the covering over the earth has dissipated from Gen. 1.2. These are six 24-hour days, but they sum up the period of restoration after God made the earth desolate and waste in Gen. 1.2 due to the sin of the inhabitants of earth's earliest ages. A child can read it simply, but as you grow older, read like an adult.

The reason why God creates as many stars as there are is because they are all needed for the formation of the elemental table as Hugh Ross, your nemesis, says. Exploding stars and supernovas make this happen. It takes time. How glorious is God's patience. Young Earth Creationism is an impatient belief system. The creation is mature when its point of completion is arrived from 13.7 billion years ago. It takes billions of years for light to reach us. Accept Biblical reality. Adam's body formed from dust was a fully formed man 6000 years ago made in God's image with God-consciousness (spirit), self-consciousness (soul) and world-consciousness (body), because that is when the point was reached when God decided to breath the breath of life (directly creating man's spirit) into the body from dust (dust of stars and pre-Adamic men) to create the soul life.

We know there were dinosaurs millions of years ago and pre-Adamic remains prior to 10,000 years ago. But the Bible teaches man was created in God's image about 6000 years ago according to the lineage back to Adam. Do you not trust the dating of 6000 years ago? I hope you don't think Adam was created before then for that would be unBiblical.

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2. The idea of a "Pre-Adamite" destruction of the earth and a subsequent restoration are completely extrabiblical. They are drawn from inference and specualtion. In fact, the idea of a gap theory is refuted by Jesus Christ Himself. He said, "But from the beginning of the creation God made them male and female (Mark 10:6). Adam and Eve were created from the beginning of creation. Just because God didn't say that the second day wasn't good does not mean it wasn't God. Everything you mentioned about creatures becoming disembodied spirits is completely out of line with the scripture. In fact, death was not even a part of God's original creation. In Genesis 1:31 says, "And God saw everything that he had made, and, behold, it was very good." A God who would call death, pain and suffering "very good" would not be worthy of our trust. Death came into the world by sin, as Romans 5:12 clearly states.

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You are misunderstanding Gap Restoration. The pre-Adamic man was not destroyed as you thought. He came about after the desolation and waste in Gen. 1.2. Rather the species of beings before the restoration which became demons were cast into the deep as disembodied spirits. Just think of pre-Adamic man the formation of the body from dust in Gen. 2.7. Since we have many skeletal remains of various types of pre-Adamic men, we know this transpired over a long period of time. Jesus doesn't agree with you, and He refutes your young earth creation, for He said, "But from the beginning of the creation God made them male and female (Mark 10.6). When was man created in the beginning? About 6000 years ago. This is the origin and that which begins where the person commences. Jesus was talking about the restoration beginning, obviously, for man did not come into being back when the dinosaurs were roaming or when pre-Adamic man was running about. The term "creation" here is "the sum or aggregate of things created" so obviously that includes Gen. 1.1 plus the restoration in the six literal days and in spite of God having to make desolate in verse 2 due to the previous inhabitants.

When I say Day 2 was not called a "good" day, I don't mean God didn't do the restoring for that day or that He made it evil. Rather, day 2 is not called a good day for a reason, because when the firmament was split unavoidably up came some of those disembodied spirits, one of which came into to the serpent to tempt Eve. Notice your theology doesn't have an explanation for why day 2 is not called a good day. I doubt Kent Hovind can explain this either.

You're assuming I think God created death. Not at all. In Genesis 1.31, "God saw everything that he had made, and, behold, it was very good." This is Gen. 1.1. It also includes the restoration. There you have the serpent in the Garden which according to you, God created so you teach God created death, for death reigns in the serpent. But God created perfectly. The truth is death came in because of Satan and obviously the serpent is evil, but God didn't create the serpent. It's not evil for God to let the serpent in the Garden to tempt, to afford man the free choice. It is evil to deny reality that is fully proven by the scientific community. The world is not flat. The speed of light is real. Our sun billions of years ago really was smaller.

What was pre-Adamic man doing? He was surviving. In the restoration, recall, day 2 was not called a "good day" because in restoring up came some of those demons from the deep. So it is quite clear in restoring creation, God had to contend with the influence of those disembodied spirits. This explains why the serpent was in the Garden of Eden. It also explains why in the restoration there were animals killing animals and pre-Adamic man surviving in the restoration, killing animals with food and creating sharp weapons.

Demons are disembodied spirits (distinct from fallen angels), For Jesus cast them out and they went into the swine. Why don't you believe this? God will punish you for your false teaching: God causing the serpent's sin and teaching a a false science, e.g. no dinosaurs millions of years ago and pre-Adamic men of various shapes of sizes most due to the changing environment and pre-Adamic development.

We know there are two kinds of evil spirits. The fallen angels as well as the demons. Watchman Nee goes into the proof here, http://www3.telus.net/trbrooks/moc12#fallenangels

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3. You claim that our denomination (Baptist) has problems, and then you begin to attack Calvinism as if every Baptist is a Calvinist. You have also misstated the Baptist position on baptism. We do believe in the baptism of the Holy Spirit. The comforter that teach us all things (Jn. 14:26), is for every single believer. However, Jesus did give us an example to follow by being baptized physically. Water baptism is nothing more than an act of obedience to Him. We are baptized as a symbol of what has already happened to us spiritually. We have been buried with him in the likeness of his death, and are raised to walk in newness of life. I have yet to meet the Baptist who believes that physical baptism is a requirement for salvation. In answer, to your question, Show me one Baptist doctrine which is out of line with scripture, and I will forsake it today. Don't try to blame every baptist for what some baptists have said or done. We are not followers of men, but of Christ.

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Many Baptists believe in OSAS Arminian, but also many Baptists believe in Calvinism. Many are 2 or 3 point Calvinists. Please consider this, http://www3.telus.net/trbrooks/choosingatheology.htm
But in the body of Christ we are all OSAS Arminians since there is only one way God saves.

The reason why Jesus baptized physically is because that is how Nicodemus understood as a lead in from John. But Paul was not baptized by water, and many others were not recorded as being baptized by water. And since God is not a legalizer and it would be unfair for someone who had no access to water, we know sincerely baptism is with or without water in burial and resurrection with Christ. Baptists have made baptism by water only an idol.

You won't leave the denomination of baptism because your flesh won't let you, and you won't allow God to bring you to death with Him on the cross to have power over your sin and flesh to leave. This is a "party spirit" of your particular group and evidence you hold onto the false teachings of being a legalizer of baptism by water only which violates Scripture not to say "I of Cephas" or "I of Apollos," like saying you are of this demonination or that. Furthermore, since so many Baptists are 2 or 3 point Calvinists, just 1 point Total depravists, or full on 5 pointers, the problem is the same they are all false. The correct teaching is OSAS Arminian in which God predestinates by foreknowing our free-choice: a conditional election, unlimited atonement, resistible grace, for preservation of the saints.

Many more reasons are given why baptism is with or without water in burial and resurrection with Christ which violates the commandments of your denom. May you read prayerfully, http://www3.telus.net/trbrooks/waterbaptism.htm

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4. Achild reading Genesis 1 would come to the conclusion that the perfect world was still perfect after the sixth day when God said that it was very good. There is no textual justification to insert a period of destruction between verse 1 and 2. The unformed and unfilled simply describes a world in the making. Imagine a builder who sets out to build a house in a week. A friend stops buy on day 1 and states, "What a mess, piles of lumber laying everywhere, and no sign of a structure. Was there a catastrophe?" "No" replies the builder, "I've just started. Come back on Friday or Saturday."

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It is good God created perfectly in Gen. 1.1 and restored creation in six in the six days, but like a child reads as a child, when you become an adult don't still read as a child, knowing the fact that it takes billions of years for light to travel from distant galaxies and there were fossil and skeletal remains prior to 6000 years ago. Hence, gap restoration is the only proper creation view which deals with time properly, but also sin, the fallen angels and demons. Gap restoration explains what happened to the fallen angels and demons. They did not fall after the creation of man, but before was made in God's image. But that doesn't mean God created them evil. Why think that? Careful study of Gen. 1.2 makes it conclusive these words are referring to desolation and wasts. You and Kent Hovind are locked in your ideas come hell or high water and that's very sad. At least try to understand the reasons given. And if you can't overturn the evidence, then know it is true. My God doesn't create dark and void, desolate and waste, or evil serpents, whereas yours does. http://www3.telus.net/trbrooks/moc12.htm

The reason you can't understand these words is because “the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him; and he cannot know them, because they are spiritually judged” (1 Cor. 2.14). “The mind of the flesh is enmity against God” (Rom. 8.7). “God is not a God of confusion” (1 Cor. 14.33). “Thus saith Jehovah that created the heavens, the God that formed the earth and made it, that established it and created it not a waste, that formed it to be inhabited: I am Jehovah; and there is none else” (Is. 45.18). Yet you say it was created waste in Gen. 1.2? Even though you have tried to rationalize it is not, it still is under your view, but you don't have a conscience to realize it.

While you don't claim Satan fell and brought sin onto the earth when he fell from 3rd heaven to second heaven, Christians believe this is the impact of the fall of Lucifer. And God's righteous reaction like in the flood in Noah's day, was to respond by cause it to be desolate and waste. My God responds righteously, your's doesn't.

You've contradicted yourself when you said Gen. 1.2 is the world in the making, but before you said the world was created instantly. How can it be created instantly and be in the making at the same time? The Bible says be "not doubletongued" (1 Tim. 3.8). You admit He created "a mess." God doesn't do that. He creates in an organized way. God doesn't need to lay out timber for construction in your analogy. God actually foreknows intuitively for eternity even before the big bang.

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In your last paragraph you seemed to imply that a cult is what denies the clear teachings of science. I would submit to you that we simply reject "science" falsely so called (1 Tim. 6:20). A cult is what denies the clear teachings of SCRIPTURE. We do not care wether or not you hold something against us. We will be accountable to God on judgment day, and so we seek to please Him, and Him alone.

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Your "science" is falsely so called (1 Tim. 6.20), for as we have seen dinosaurs and pre-Adamic skeletons have had varying types prior to 6000 years ago. Light takes billions of years to travel from distant stars. You are a cult, and I am confident you are going to Hell. You deny the clear teaching of Scripture. You are a bad man, profiting on selling Young Earth Creationist products which misrepresent reality. This would not be a sin perhaps 4000 years ago, but today you have a conscience that knows better. Unless you repent of your false teaching, how can you ever come to Christ? If you are in Christ, then you can repent. Your choice. We shall know you by your fruit. Just know this is the idol you set up before you that keeps you eternally separated from God. "Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth" (Ex. 20.4). What is your idol? False science and thinking like an immature child when you are a grown man.

Some negative consequences of your beliefs:
1) Stymie God given development (e.g. still thinking there is a flat earth) and keeping people in the dark ages to control them for profit (you know you are doing this).
2) Not appreciating sin, for God made desolate and waste to respond to those who accept Satan's leading, yet you don't accept God's righteous response.
3) Making God the author of evil because you place the evil serpent in the Garden at the moment of your alleged instant creation that didn't occur over 13.7 billion years.
4) Not appreciating God's immense patience over such a long time. Naturally your flesh will get excited for instant fantasies. Sin begets sin so this will lead into other fantasies as part of your theology, e.g. like you teach women are not allowed to speak or teach or do work for the Church and demanding physical water for baptism.
5) You turn people off of Christ because they know the earth is older than 6000 years; but since God works all evil for good, those who do come to Christ will have nothing to do with Kent Hovind and Luke Myers. It shows Christians how corrupted the flesh is, to the extent man can rationalize his own flesh. God's verdict is for the old man to die on the cross with Christ. Unwillingness to allow God to bring you to sure death on cross with Christ produces people like Hovind and Myers.
6) Apparently you don't realize there are evil spirits AND demons, so your spiritual warfare is lacking as you don't know your enemy very well.

Only does "Gap Restoration" accurately represent reality and truly edifying!