Why are so many Christians so ready to fly the white flag?

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Why are so many Christians so ready to fly the white flag? By Geoff Chapman

December 12, 2012

JUST over 70 years ago the Second World War was taking place. The forces of Hitler’s Germany had already taken control of large areas of western Europe, and on May 20th 1940, just 10 days after Winston Churchill became British Prime Minister, German troops reached the English Channel. There was a real possibility that they would cross the Channel and invade southern England.

NO SURRENDER!

Let’s imagine that, faced with this threat, the British Government had offered a deal to Hitler. For example, he would be permitted to take control of the counties bordering the English Channel, provided he advanced no further. Initially, this might have saved many lives, but even if he had agreed to such a compromise, Hitler would never have kept his word, and sooner or later would have advanced to take control of the whole of the British Isles.  Winston Churchill was adamant that there would be no appeasement. In his famous 4th of June speech he said, “We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender.” We owe our freedom today to Churchill’s uncompromising stand and the brave sacrifice of thousands of courageous people who were emboldened by Churchill’s  determination not to give in.

FIRST COMPROMISE

When Charles Darwin published his famous Origin of Species in 1859 most scientists were sceptical. However, many leading churchmen readily embraced Darwin’s  ideas, and devised ingenious ways of trying to marry evolution with Genesis, which inevitably resulted in compromise. Even before Darwin, the view that the earth was millions of years old had become popular. This meant that the days of Genesis needed to be redefined as long periods of time, death and suffering were seen as part of God’s creative plan, Adam and Eve became little more than a myth — or at the very best, representative figures — and “The Fall” was no longer seen as an historical event.

  Although many of those who advocated this compromise were godly people who genuinely (but wrongly, in our view) believed that it was necessary to accommodate Darwin’s theory, the result has been disastrous for Christianity. Dr Michael Denton, an agnostic  molecular biologist, commented: “As far as Christianity was concerned, the advent of the theory of evolution.... was catastrophic... the decline in religious belief can probably be attributed more to the propagation and advocacy by the intellectual community of the Darwinian version of evolution than to any other single factor”1

NOT CONTENT

Just as Hitler would never have been content simply to have control of the southern counties of England, so the secularists — who have always used evolution as their main weapon against Christianity — are not content that many theologians and church leaders have surrendered the early chapters of Genesis. Why are many Christians so ready to “fly the white flag”, and give more and more ground to those whose aim is the total destruction of Christianity?

  By surrendering belief in Genesis as true history, the Church has simply opened the way for further compromises which seriously undermine and weaken the faith, because Biblical authority has been undermined. There are some strong voices calling for the watering-down of Bible-based sexual ethics, although tully, most of the main-stream denominations have expressed strong opposition to the Government’s plans to introduce “gay marriage.” Some within the Church have reached a state of total apostasy, as, for example the Sea of Faith network, which “explores and promotes religious faith as a human creation.” Some of its members even describe themselves as “Christian atheists”!

  There is nothing new about error in the Church. In the 1st century, the apostle Jude wrote: “I felt compelled to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints.”2 However, there was never a greater need to “contend for the faith” than today, since it is under attack as never before. This is why CRT has developed a special apologetics CD resource (see back page for details).

  To attempt to defend our faith without the Genesis foundation is short-sighted, even foolish. That’s why, as creationists, we echo Churchill’s famous words: “We shall never surrender!”

1. Evolution: A Theory in Crisis (1985) p. 66.
2. Jude 3