Answers In Genesis Founder and CEO, Ken Ham, had strong words for an article published this week from Relevant Magazine, titled “Have We Made The Bible An Idol?”
The author of the article, Liberal “Pastor” John Pavlovitz, wrote the piece to claim that Christians are wrongfully treating the Bible as “a fourth addition to the Trinity.”
The article urged that believers in Jesus are relying too heavily on the “ancient text” and condemned the mentality of Believers who say, “the Bible says it, I believe it, and that settles it.”
Pavlovitz further stated that Christians have mischaracterized the Bible as “The Word of God” from John 1:1 and insisted that God speaks new things to “modern believers” because He is “not confined to 66 books and 800,000 words” (the Bible).
According to the liberal “pastor,” the Bible is something we should “cherish” as “a photo album of the family of faith we come from; those whose legacy we now steward,” as opposed to regarding it as the living and active Word of God (Hebrews 4:12).
Ken Ham, in his response, explained that from the beginning of Genesis, mankind has been warned against undermining the absolute authority of God’s Word.
“This article in RELEVANT Magazine is a classic example of the spiritual battle raging around us between God’s Word and man’s word that began in Genesis 3 when the devil tempted Eve,” Ham asserted. “The author acts as his own god (Genesis 3:5) and puts his fallible word in authority over God’s infallible Word.”
In Genesis 3, we read that when the devil tempted Eve to rebel against God’s command, he used a very subtle tactic. First, Satan, the “father of lies” (John 8:44), called into question God’s Word by saying to Eve, “hath God said”? He then tempted Eve by undermining the command of God by stating it to be inaccurate.
Genesis 3:1-5 KJV – “Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.”
Ham further pointed out that Pavlovitz’s positions on critical moral and cultural issues demonstrate why he has chosen to reject “the Bible as the absolute authority,” stating that he must do so in order to “justify his liberal positions.”
“He refers to the ‘earlier weird stuff’ in the Bible, and I’m sure he includes Genesis 1-11 in this so-called ‘weird stuff’ as he supports the LGBT position and therefore can’t accept the literal history of Genesis that marriage is one man and one woman, and there are only two genders in humans, male and female (Genesis 1:27),” Ham explained.
“The author rejects the Bible as the absolute authority to justify his liberal positions. It’s sad that so many follow this wolf in sheep’s clothing,” he wrote, adding a verse in 1 Thessalonians, which reads:
1 Thessalonians 2:13 KJV – “… when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe.”
The Bible states that in the time prior to Christ’s return, a “time will come” when people will “not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears. And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables” (2 Timothy 4:3-4).
Additionally, 1 Timothy 4:1-2 states that “in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron.”
In these times, the apostle Paul states that it is the job of Christians to cling to and be “assured” of the things we have learned from “the holy Scriptures,” stating to the young pastor Timothy in his letter:
2 Timothy 3:1, 13-16 KJV – “This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come… evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived. But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them; And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:”
