The Heresy of Ham, Revised Edition: What Every Evangelical Needs to Know about Young Earth Creationism, the Creation-Evolution Controversy . . . and What We All Can Learn about Rigid Ideology and “Fighting the Culture War”

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Walking the Plank on Noah’s Ark

I don’t believe in evolution, I know creation’s true

I believe that God above created me and you

Buddy Davis

Pastor Clark, a local Southern Baptist pastor whose children I had taught at the small Evangelical high school in town, wanted to meet with me. He came in during my free period right before lunch to talk to me about what I was teaching in Biblical Worldview. Pastor Clark was a rather large man with a thick Mississippi drawl and could easily pass for the big brother of Al Mohler, the president of the Southern Baptist Convention. As soon as he came in and sat down, I had a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach.

Pastor Clark began in the following manner: You know, Joel, let me just say up front that you are a brilliant man. I have read a number of posts on your blog, and you clearly have a sharp mind. Now, I probably should have come to you a few years earlier over some of my concerns, so for that I apologize. But last week, my son told me that you mentioned in class that you thought the book of Jonah was a parable. When you said that, you were telling my son that I was a liar.

What?!?

I certainly didn’t see that coming. No, I stammered out, I wasn’t saying you were a liar. I simply mentioned in passing that Christians interpret Jonah differently, and that I personally thought it read more like a parable.

But when you told my son that, you were telling him to doubt that the Bible is true. Now that’s just the most recent concern that I’ve had.

Thus began a 90-minute inquisition that lasted through lunch, in which Pastor Clark grilled me on topics that ranged from Jonah to Genesis 1–11, biblical inspiration, biblical inerrancy, the atonement, the resurrection of Christ, salvation by grace, and, of course, hell. Let me tell you, inquisitions are no fun at all, especially when they cause you to miss your lunch!

Be that as it may, I was forced to discuss the historicity of Genesis 1–11 with a Southern Baptist pastor on an empty stomach. Even my attempts at finding common ground seemed to fall on deaf ears. Yes, I said, I didn’t believe Genesis 1–11 was meant to be read as straightforward history, but this was a topic that Christians have had different opinions on for 2,000 years. One’s salvation didn’t depend on it, and it certainly shouldn’t be something that divides the Church. He responded by saying, Well, there are some things that I’m willing to divide the church over.

Lunch ended and students began to trickle into my classroom. The 90-minute inquisition had to come to a close. As he got up from his chair, Pastor Clark said, I have deep concerns over your qualifications to teach Worldview here at the school, and I don’t know what I’m supposed to do about it. He then walked out. Needless to say, I wasn’t exactly in top form for my afternoon classes. I had been a teacher in Evangelical schools for 15 years, I had two master’s degrees and a PhD in the Bible, yet I knew that when a local pastor of a large church in the area issues a veiled threat that he was going to try to get you fired, you had better be concerned.

So, that night at the school football game, I made it a point to talk to Mr. Spencer, the new headmaster. I figured the best thing I could do was be open and honest, and make sure the headmaster had confidence in me. After all, I had been at the school for seven years, was one of the students’ favorite teachers, had never had any problems my entire time there, and had even been told by Mr. Spencer himself that when he took the job at the school, he considered my Biblical Worldview classes to be one of the selling points of the school. Surely my job wouldn’t be in jeopardy, right?

When I told Mr. Spencer about the conversation I had with Pastor Clark that afternoon, I actually broke down and teared up. At one point I said, Now, I’m not a young earth creationist, but I don’t see that as a fundamental issue of the Christian faith. I’m okay with Christians having different opinions on that topic. Mr. Spencer’s response struck me as odd. He said, Well, I am, but if the Board doesn’t agree with me, I’ll back off.

What? What kind of answer was that? What did that even mean? Back off from what? Needless to say, that was one odd answer.

A week later, Pastor Clark sent me an email with a list of questions he wanted me to answer. Apparently, his lunchtime inquisition of me had caused him to question whether or not I was even a Christian, so he wanted some clarification on a few theological issues. To be honest, I was quite hurt by that insinuation. My Christian faith is the most important thing in the world to me and I have dedicated my life to the study of the Bible and the teaching of the Christian faith to others. Nevertheless, I decided to take the time to answer his questions as thoughtfully as I could. I ended up writing twelve pages.

Pastor Clark asked if I believed in the bodily resurrection of Christ, the second coming of Christ, and that salvation is by grace through faith. Obviously yes. The next question seemed to come out of left field. He asked if I believed the gender distinctions in reference to God were accurate. Pastor Clark must have figured that since I thought the book of Jonah was a parable, I must be one of those liberals who thought God was a woman. I’m not. I replied, yes, God is the Father and Jesus is a man.

He then wanted to know if I believed the Bible was the inerrant Word of God and if I believed in the verbal inspiration of Scripture. I told him I believed the Bible was divinely inspired, that it taught the truth about God, and that it gave us historically reliable accounts of God’s dealing with ancient Israel, as well as the life of Christ and the early Church. If that is what he meant by inerrant, then yes. But I didn’t take inerrancy to mean that it was giving scientifically accurate information. I also didn’t hold to the verbal plenary understanding of inspiration that claimed God basically dictated Scripture to the writers of the Bible (cf. 1 Cor 1:14–16).

He then had specific questions about Christ: Did I believe in the virgin birth? Did I believe Jesus lived a sinless life and that he never erred? Did I believe in the substitutionary atoning death of Christ? I told him yes, I believe in the virgin birth—it is in the creeds, and I affirm it. Ultimately, though, it’s a mystery, and it’s something that is never elaborated upon in the New Testament. Yes, I believed Jesus lived a sinless life, but what did Pastor Clark mean by never erred? I’m sure the toddler Jesus mispronounced words, maybe he occasionally got James and John mixed up (see Luke 2:52). Although he was divine, he still had human limitations like everyone else. Yes, I believed in the substitutionary atoning death of Christ. Still, that legal language isn’t the only way that the New Testament explains the significance of Jesus’ death. It uses temple language by describing Christ as the sacrificial lamb who restores fellowship and community with God. It also uses physician language that speaks of Christ as the one who heals us through his own sufferings and death. Christians need to recognize all three.

Pastor Clark then asked if I believed in a literal heaven and hell. I said the Christian hope is that believers will be resurrected with transformed, physical bodies and will live with Christ in the new creation. As for hell, I didn’t buy the medieval Catholic description of hell as being a place of literal fiery pits and devils with pitchforks. I said ultimately the real question concerning hell is whether it is a place of eternal torment for souls who haven’t accepted Christ or is it a place where those unsaved souls are annihilated and cease to exist. Either way, I believed in the existence of hell.

Finally, Pastor Clark asked if I believed Genesis 1–11 was actual, historical fact. I told him that the point of Genesis 1–11 was that God is the Creator, human beings are made in His image, but human beings sin and are estranged from God and are in need of salvation. It was speaking to the questions and concerns of the ancient Israelites in the ancient Near East (ANE), and wasn’t, thus, trying to address modern scientific and historical questions. If it was, then it would have meant nothing to ancient Israel.

With that, I touched upon the creation/evolution debate and said that regardless of one’s view of evolutionary theory, I didn’t see how it threatened the truth and reliability of the Bible. I said even though I appreciated the goal that young earth creationists like Ken Ham often state, namely, to combat atheism, secular humanism, and moral relativity in our society today, I felt that trying to tie all that directly to the biological theory of evolution was misguided. The problem with the human race isn’t the theory of evolution; it is sin, pride, and rebellion against God.

Pastor Clark didn’t respond back. At the time, I wanted to think that while he probably didn’t agree with every specific detail of my responses, he likely realized that when it came to the essential basics of the Christian faith, we really, truly were in agreement. As it turned out, I had unwittingly begun to provide the rope that would eventually get me hanged. That was November 2013.

Fast forward to March 2014. Bill Nye and Ken Ham had their debate the previous month, and I had decided to share my thoughts on it on my blog. After I had written a few posts about it, I received an email from Pastor Clark. Now, in one particular post, I had actually criticized the atheist Richard Dawkins for trying to claim that evolution proved atheism. I had made the point that what he was, in fact, doing was trying to smuggle his philosophical atheism into the biological theory of evolution. Therefore, what he was doing was fundamentally dishonest.

Pastor Clark felt impelled to write to me and tell me that my argument against Dawkins, in fact, destroyed my own claim that Genesis 1–11 wasn’t historical. Pastor Clark actually said that the only reason I didn’t accept Genesis 1–11 as historical was because there was no evidence for it. But that just meant there was no evidence to my knowledge. Therefore, according to him, my conclusion was just a mere philosophical claim.

He concluded his email with, Honestly Joel, wouldn’t it be easier and more intellectually honest to just believe what is written in the Scriptures that you say you believe God inspired or admit that you don’t believe it? Unfortunately, you seem to have chosen to make something else (literary genre, science, reason) a higher authority than the Word or the God who inspired it. That breaks my heart for you.

What???

Mystified, I read his email again. For a moment, I actually felt sorry for him. He was a pastor, a staunch young earth creationist/biblical literalist, yet he didn’t understand a thing I had written. He evidently thought it was a virtue to believe something was historical, despite the fact there was no evidence for it. And did he insinuate I wasn’t being honest, and that I should just admit I really didn’t believe the Bible was true? Yes, I think he did. Wow…

Once again, though, nothing seemed to come of it. I never heard from Pastor Clark