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Friday, August 9, 2013

Henry M. Morris Hammers Out True Christianity


I have in my library the book The Revelation Record: A Scientific and Devotional Commentary on the Prophetic Book of the End of Times[i] by Henry M. Morris – a commentary on the final book of the bible and a sort of bookend companion piece to his similarly named commentary on Genesis.  And it is a howler, ridiculousness on nearly every page, far too many to share them all...

There is the old proverb that says, “If all you have is a hammer everything looks like a nail.”  Replace that hammer with Young-Earth Creationism and you’ll get an idea of what Morris’ books (even those not specifically about Creationism) are like. For him everything – everything – leads back to creation.  Every question, every issue.

And that leads him to some very weird and problematic statements.  Like the following in his commentary on Revelation 4: 11 “Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are created.” Now it’s pretty easy to see how he gets from this passage back to creationism; the path is pretty clear.  The word “created” is in there twice.  The problem is what he makes of it: 

“Before God can truly be known as Redeemer, He must first be believed and acknowledged as Creator.  [ii]

How’s that?  It’s impossible to accept the salvation of God without first believing in him as the creator?  This is the litmus test that Morris puts on the Christian faith.  Don’t believe in a literal 24 hour 6 day creation 6,000 years ago?  You’re not a real Christian.  You can’t truly know God until you believe he created the world.  According to Morris you can’t be a Christian if you accept the evidence for evolution.  You can’t be a Christian – not a true Christian if you believe the earth is billions of years old.

The jailer called for lights, rushed in and fell trembling before Paul and Silas.  He then brought them out and asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”
 They replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household, but first acknowledge that God created the world in a literal period of time not exceeding 144 hours …”

Acts 16: 29 -31 HMV (Henry Morris Version)





[i] Morris, Henry M. The Revelation Record: A Scientific and Devotional Commentary on the Prophetic Book of the End of Times Tyndale House Publishers, Inc, Wheaton IL, 1983
[ii] Page 82

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