# Death Before Adam with William Dembski

An episode of [Bible Answer Man Podcast with Hank Hanegraaff](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/569236334), 6 Aug 2026, 28 min.

Audio: https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/api.spreaker.com/download/episode/73391374/bam20260806.mp3

On today’s Bible Answer Man broadcast (08/06/26), Hank shares about natural evil being the result of the fall as a point of contention between young Earth and young Earth creationists. William Dembski joins Hank once again to discuss his book, The End of Christianity: Finding a Good God in an Evil World, and his article in the Christian Research Journal titled “Old Earth Creationism and the Fall.”

## Transcript

[0:07] Speaker 1: From the Christian Research Institute and Charlotte, North Carolina. You're
[0:11] Speaker 1: listening to the Bible answer Man broadcast with Hank Canagraph.
[0:15] Speaker 1: We are on the air because life and truth matter.
[0:18] Speaker 1: The mission of the Christian Research Institute is to equip
[0:21] Speaker 1: believers to always be prepared to give an answer to
[0:24] Speaker 1: everyone who asks you, to give the reason for the
[0:27] Speaker 1: hope that you have with gentleness and respect. For more
[0:30] Speaker 1: information resources or to donate to CURI, call eight eight
[0:35] Speaker 1: eight seven thousand CRI, or go online to equip dot org.
[0:41] Speaker 1: The following program was pre recorded and now here's Bible
[0:46] Speaker 1: answer Man host Hank Canagraph.
[0:48] Speaker 2: Say very much. Randy and I want to talk about
[0:50] Speaker 2: the sharpest point of contention between Young and Old Earth creationists,
[0:55] Speaker 2: Death before Adam. Old Earth creation is hold all death,
[1:00] Speaker 2: including animal death, to be a function of the fall.
[1:05] Speaker 2: Old Earth creationists believe that carnivorous creatures and natural catastrophes
[1:11] Speaker 2: existed prior to the sin of Adam as part and
[1:16] Speaker 2: parcel of God's very good creation. The rift is unnecessary.
[1:25] Speaker 2: The false assumption underlying the debate is that Adam's sin
[1:30] Speaker 2: necessarily precedes the advent of all evil. Of course, we're
[1:34] Speaker 2: not talking about the rebellion of Satan here, and as
[1:38] Speaker 2: a result of that, young earthers are constrained to reject
[1:42] Speaker 2: astronomical and geological dating, while old earthers are compelled to
[1:49] Speaker 2: reinterpret Biblical passages that speak of natural evil as a
[1:54] Speaker 2: direct consequence of human sin. The reality is this Orthodoxy
[2:00] Speaker 2: demands faithfulness to truth in both general and special revelation.
[2:07] Speaker 2: An orthodox understanding of the creator of all things is
[2:10] Speaker 2: that he acts transtemporarily in creation, and therefore the Cross
[2:16] Speaker 2: of Christ can retroactively atone for adam sin, just as
[2:23] Speaker 2: it proactively atones for the sin of Adam's posterity, yet unborn.
[2:30] Speaker 2: In similar fashion, there is little difficulty conceiving of a
[2:35] Speaker 2: transcendent God who predestines natural evil to precede the fall,
[2:41] Speaker 2: even though the fall is the necessary cause of the
[2:46] Speaker 2: evils that precede it. Of course, it's natural for us
[2:52] Speaker 2: as humans to see Time's arrow from a forward perspective,
[2:58] Speaker 2: but we would do well to recognize that God's infallible
[3:01] Speaker 2: truth is not always presented in chronological fashion, and as such,
[3:08] Speaker 2: the advent of the last atom not only can atone
[3:12] Speaker 2: for the sins thousands of years after the advent of
[3:17] Speaker 2: the first atom, but the last atom is biblically portrayed
[3:21] Speaker 2: as a Lamb slain from the creation of the world.
[3:26] Speaker 2: The bottom line is this mining the Scripture for all
[3:29] Speaker 2: its wealth entails recognition that God's purposes are presented in
[3:35] Speaker 2: chronological as well as chirological fashion. I want to ask
[3:40] Speaker 2: Bill Dempsky about that word chirological in just a few moments.
[3:45] Speaker 2: Bill Demski is a leader in the intelligent design movement.
[3:51] Speaker 2: He's a senior fellow with a Discovery Institute's Center for
[3:56] Speaker 2: Science and Culture in Seattle, Washington. He's a highly regarded mathematician,
[4:04] Speaker 2: he's a philosopher. He's done postdoctoral work at MIT, the
[4:10] Speaker 2: University of Chicago, and Princeton University, and he has authored
[4:14] Speaker 2: more than a dozen books, including The Design Inference and
[4:20] Speaker 2: No Free Lunch. And he's also the author of an
[4:25] Speaker 2: article in the Christian Research Journal titled Old Earth Creationism
[4:30] Speaker 2: in the Fall. And that ultimately is the issue that
[4:33] Speaker 2: I want to discuss today. This is one of the
[4:37] Speaker 2: reasons that I'm so passionate about this book, the end
[4:40] Speaker 2: of Christianity finding a good God in an evil world.
[4:44] Speaker 2: This is another privilege to have Bill Demski on the air.
[4:48] Speaker 2: Good to have you back. Bill. This is such a
[4:52] Speaker 2: significant issue. You have no doubt. As I have run
[4:56] Speaker 2: into so many people who want to maintain theological integrity.
[5:02] Speaker 2: The fall seems to account for all evil. And yet
[5:06] Speaker 2: you look at the data, you look at star life
[5:09] Speaker 2: for example, and immediately you think, wow, how is it
[5:12] Speaker 2: possible that we live in a six thousand year old universe?
[5:18] Speaker 3: Well, you're absolutely right. I mean this is because I
[5:21] Speaker 3: think what you have to say is if science is
[5:24] Speaker 3: completely wrong about this, then we are basically seeing just
[5:28] Speaker 3: a light show where there's no stars or anything behind it,
[5:31] Speaker 3: because the science is telling us that light travels at
[5:34] Speaker 3: a constant speed, and that we're seeing light from galaxy
[5:37] Speaker 3: star systems that are hundreds of millions of light years away,
[5:41] Speaker 3: so that light would have had to travel a long
[5:43] Speaker 3: long time.
[5:45] Speaker 2: And want to mount people that say to you, well,
[5:48] Speaker 2: here's the solution. God created his handy work with the
[5:53] Speaker 2: appearance of age, which is, by the way, one of
[5:56] Speaker 2: the subjects you address in the book, right.
[6:00] Speaker 3: I think it just leads to the question though about
[6:03] Speaker 3: God's revelation in nature and is God being forthright there
[6:07] Speaker 3: and what does that do about the honesty of God. Now,
[6:11] Speaker 3: I think there's a sense in which, perhaps you know,
[6:14] Speaker 3: if Adam, you know, I believe that Adam was specially created, Okay,
[6:18] Speaker 3: so there will be he'll be a full grown man.
[6:21] Speaker 3: But if he's a full grown man, is there going
[6:23] Speaker 3: to be any genetic evidence that he has has aged
[6:27] Speaker 3: or you know that? I think even if you have
[6:31] Speaker 3: something that is mature, it doesn't seem to me that
[6:34] Speaker 3: you have to put deceptive marks of age there. And
[6:36] Speaker 3: I think that's what we would be dealing with in
[6:38] Speaker 3: the science if, for instance, in fact, we're we're not
[6:42] Speaker 3: seeing any further than six thousand years out and basically
[6:45] Speaker 3: this is just the light show that God has made
[6:47] Speaker 3: for us, and there really are no stars out there,
[6:49] Speaker 3: or maybe there are, but you know, it's that history
[6:53] Speaker 3: is all bogus. I think that's the question. Is nature
[6:56] Speaker 3: speaking truly to us? And and I think that is
[7:02] Speaker 3: an important issue and one that the scriptures themselves indicated
[7:05] Speaker 3: are an important issue. Romans one twenty came up last
[7:09] Speaker 3: week where Paul is saying that from nature, from the creation,
[7:13] Speaker 3: we can tell certain things about the invisible attributes of God,
[7:16] Speaker 3: that God is a god of glory that God by
[7:19] Speaker 3: wisdom has created the world. Well, if nature is not
[7:22] Speaker 3: speaking to us truly, then how can we even draw
[7:27] Speaker 3: those sorts of inferences. So I think it becomes a
[7:30] Speaker 3: double edged sword if you try to maintain this appearance
[7:35] Speaker 3: of age, because I think it can end up biting
[7:37] Speaker 3: you in the back later.
[7:39] Speaker 2: How significant is this issue of the fall from your perspective?
[7:45] Speaker 2: There are so many progressive creationists who are saying, look,
[7:48] Speaker 2: what happened prior to the fall is part of God's
[7:51] Speaker 2: very good creation. Why is it that you can't stomach that? Well,
[7:56] Speaker 2: it just.
[7:56] Speaker 3: Seems to me, you know, And I came to this
[7:58] Speaker 3: through the study of intelligence. And I mean, so I'm
[8:01] Speaker 3: looking as signs of intelligence in the natural world, and
[8:05] Speaker 3: are there patterns in nature that point us to a
[8:08] Speaker 3: transcendent intelligence? And I think there's very good evidence of that.
[8:12] Speaker 3: But I look also what the stumbling blocks have been
[8:15] Speaker 3: for people accepting that position, And probably the biggest one
[8:19] Speaker 3: is the problem of evil evil in nature. And there's
[8:23] Speaker 3: an interesting contrast to me. You look at, for instance,
[8:25] Speaker 3: at William Paley, He's the watch in the field. You know,
[8:28] Speaker 3: if you find a watch, you're going to infer a designer,
[8:31] Speaker 3: there's very common watchmaker argument. Well, fifty years later Darwin
[8:36] Speaker 3: takes that argument apart, or claims to. But where he
[8:39] Speaker 3: really focuses on is the problem of evil in suffering
[8:42] Speaker 3: in nature. If you read Paley's Natural Theology, the biggest
[8:47] Speaker 3: chapter is the second to the last chapter. It's about
[8:49] Speaker 3: twice as long as any other chapter there. And basically
[8:51] Speaker 3: he says, yeah, after all, he goes through all the
[8:53] Speaker 3: wonderful things in nature, says, you know, yeah, there's some
[8:56] Speaker 3: death in suffering, but it's really pretty short. Animals don't
[8:59] Speaker 3: suffer very long, and he tries to put a nice
[9:02] Speaker 3: touch on it. Charles Darwin takes a trip around the
[9:05] Speaker 3: world five year trip on the hims Bgle and sees
[9:09] Speaker 3: the sort of brutality and violence that's out there humans
[9:12] Speaker 3: against humans, but then also within nature, and when you
[9:15] Speaker 3: look at some of the things that are going on
[9:17] Speaker 3: in nature, some of the I mean it's not just
[9:20] Speaker 3: the things are dying or getting sick, but that you've
[9:22] Speaker 3: got parasites that seem exquisitely designed to upset aism. That's
[9:30] Speaker 3: where I think you really get some problems. So it
[9:32] Speaker 3: seems that this can't just dismiss it as though, well,
[9:38] Speaker 3: it's really not that bad, and it's not really morally
[9:40] Speaker 3: significant because humans are really not suffering it. In fact,
[9:44] Speaker 3: I mean I would say, you know, the evil that
[9:46] Speaker 3: we see in nature, those become our prime metaphors for
[9:49] Speaker 3: understanding evil. I mean, when John the Baptist will say
[9:52] Speaker 3: you brewed of vipers, you know, I mean, it's things
[9:56] Speaker 3: in nature that, as it were, God has put there
[9:59] Speaker 3: is a mirror to our own, the sin in our hearts.
[10:03] Speaker 3: But that mirror does represent real evil.
[10:07] Speaker 2: That, by the way, is a profound insight, and it's
[10:10] Speaker 2: one of the things that you'll find in this book,
[10:13] Speaker 2: one profound insight after the other. Darwin did say that,
[10:18] Speaker 2: he said, I can't persuade myself that a beneficent, omnipotent
[10:23] Speaker 2: God would have designedly created parasitic wasps with the express
[10:30] Speaker 2: intention of their feeding within the living bodies of caterpillars,
[10:35] Speaker 2: and that conundrum ultimately led Darwin to dispense with the
[10:39] Speaker 2: notion of a creator God. In reality, however, Adam not
[10:43] Speaker 2: the Almighty, bears culpability for the origin of moral and
[10:46] Speaker 2: natural evil in the world. We're going to be talking
[10:49] Speaker 2: about that and so much more when we continue the
[10:52] Speaker 2: discussion with Bill Demsky on the other side of the
[10:55] Speaker 2: break again. Doctor Dempsky is author of the End of Christianity.
[11:00] Speaker 2: Be right back with more of Bill Dempski, Stay tuned.
[11:03] Speaker 1: The famous British apologist G. K. Chesterton once noted, the
[11:07] Speaker 1: true soldier fights not because he hates what is in
[11:10] Speaker 1: front of him, but because he loves what is behind him.
[11:13] Speaker 1: Because at CRII we love what is behind us, our faith,
[11:17] Speaker 1: our families, and our freedoms. We will never retreat quietly
[11:21] Speaker 1: from the growing assaults on life and truth, even when
[11:24] Speaker 1: the costs are great. We will stand to join like
[11:28] Speaker 1: minded friends in making a difference at home and around
[11:31] Speaker 1: the globe, and to equip fellow believers to stand their
[11:34] Speaker 1: ground courageously. Become a member of CRI's support team. Simply
[11:39] Speaker 1: call eight eight eight seven thousand CRII.
[11:42] Speaker 2: That's eight eight eight.
[11:44] Speaker 1: Seven thousand CRI. Or visit our website at equip dot org.
[11:50] Speaker 2: Stay with us.
[11:51] Speaker 1: Hank Canigraph will return in a few moments. The Complete
[12:01] Speaker 1: Bible answer Book Collector's Edition is the comprehensive collection of
[12:05] Speaker 1: the most often asked questions Hank Hannigraph has received throughout
[12:09] Speaker 1: his four decades as host of the Bible answer Man broadcast.
[12:13] Speaker 1: With more than half a million copies already in print,
[12:16] Speaker 1: this newly revised and expanded Collector's Edition helped seekers and
[12:21] Speaker 1: skeptics alike sort through the truth on topics such as
[12:24] Speaker 1: reliability of the Bible, religions and cults, the resurrection and afterlife,
[12:29] Speaker 1: and many more issues vital to a better understanding of
[12:33] Speaker 1: God in Christ and our relationship to Him. To receive
[12:37] Speaker 1: your copy of the Complete Bible answer Book Collector's Edition
[12:41] Speaker 1: Revised and Expanded, call eight eight eight seven thousand CRII
[12:46] Speaker 1: and make a gift to support the Christian Research Institute's
[12:49] Speaker 1: life changing outreaches eight eight eight seven thousand CRII or
[12:54] Speaker 1: visit us at EQUIP dot org. The number of wolves
[13:02] Speaker 1: surrounding the Christian flock is growing, and they relish nothing
[13:05] Speaker 1: more than docile's sheep, Utterly incapable of defending themselves from
[13:10] Speaker 1: militant secularists at home to militant Islamists abroad. The assaults
[13:15] Speaker 1: on Biblical Christianity are growing dangerously, but Christian Research Institutes
[13:20] Speaker 1: Support Team members aren't in favor of feeding these wolves. Instead,
[13:24] Speaker 1: each day they're making possible an array of outreaches that
[13:28] Speaker 1: defang these wolfpacks with solid arguments and evidence that have
[13:32] Speaker 1: stood the test of time. What's more, support team members
[13:35] Speaker 1: are equipping themselves with criis Equipping Essentials, a handpicked collection
[13:41] Speaker 1: of the best apologetics tools around. Your selection of resources
[13:45] Speaker 1: are just our way of saying thanks. To learn more
[13:48] Speaker 1: about the benefits of membership, simply visit equip dot org.
[13:52] Speaker 1: Once again, that's equip dot org. Has God Spoken? Are
[14:07] Speaker 1: the words of Scripture merely human in origin? Or are
[14:10] Speaker 1: they in fact the very words of God himself? Three
[14:15] Speaker 1: years in the making and based on two decades of
[14:18] Speaker 1: research and reflection, Hank Henagraph's monumental book Has God Spoken
[14:23] Speaker 1: answers what is surely the most important question facing our world.
[14:27] Speaker 1: In Has God Spoken? Memorable proofs of the Bible's divine inspiration,
[14:32] Speaker 1: Hank counters the contentions of the Bible attackers and clearly
[14:36] Speaker 1: shows that belief in the Holy Scriptures is not a
[14:39] Speaker 1: guess or wishful thinking. It is the only logical conclusion
[14:42] Speaker 1: after an honest examination of overwhelming evidence. Order Has God
[14:47] Speaker 1: Spoken from the Christian Research Institute by calling eighty eight
[14:51] Speaker 1: seven thousand CRII, or go online to equip dot org.
[14:56] Speaker 1: Equip dot org. Now back to the Bible answer Man
[15:09] Speaker 1: broadcast and your host and canagraph.
[15:12] Speaker 2: Back to the discussion with doctor William Demski on the
[15:16] Speaker 2: book The End of Christianity. And before we get too
[15:19] Speaker 2: much farther into the discussion, it bears repeating the title
[15:23] Speaker 2: of your book. What's the point?
[15:26] Speaker 3: Well, it's a play on words. I mean in the
[15:29] Speaker 3: end there and can mean the demise. And I think
[15:32] Speaker 3: a lot of the atheist would like to read it
[15:34] Speaker 3: that way as the demise of Christianity, but I took
[15:36] Speaker 3: it as the purpose or end goal. Where is it
[15:40] Speaker 3: all going? What's it all about? And so that's what
[15:42] Speaker 3: I was referring to with the end of Christianity.
[15:46] Speaker 2: And of course the book does deal with a word
[15:49] Speaker 2: that many people are not familiar with, but theodicy. How
[15:52] Speaker 2: could a good God create a world in which things
[15:55] Speaker 2: go so desperately wrong? In other words, we're dealing with
[15:58] Speaker 2: the problem of good and evil that we encounter in
[16:01] Speaker 2: the world. And at first blush it may seem as
[16:04] Speaker 2: though there are as many responses to that question as
[16:07] Speaker 2: there are religions, but truthfully there are only three. Pantheism
[16:12] Speaker 2: denies the existence of good and evil because God is
[16:16] Speaker 2: All and all is God. And then, of course philosophical naturalism,
[16:19] Speaker 2: which is the worldview that undergirds evolutionism, it supposes that
[16:24] Speaker 2: everything is a function of natural processes, brain, chemistry, genetics,
[16:29] Speaker 2: and the like. Therefore, there is no good, there is
[16:32] Speaker 2: no evil. So we come to the conclusion that theism
[16:36] Speaker 2: alone has a relevant response, and only Christian theism has
[16:41] Speaker 2: a satisfactory response. But it seems that evangelicals or people
[16:46] Speaker 2: within the evangelical Christian world are mucking things up. And
[16:50] Speaker 2: I want to read a quote that you have in
[16:52] Speaker 2: the book. That quote is from Tony Compolo, where he
[16:56] Speaker 2: says God has chosen to not be all powerful. If
[17:02] Speaker 2: God were in control of everything, there would be no
[17:07] Speaker 2: such thing as human freedom. In the economy of God,
[17:11] Speaker 2: love is more important than power, and therefore the loving God,
[17:15] Speaker 2: in order to give us the capacity to love, has
[17:19] Speaker 2: limited power. And thus when there are tragedies, he's the
[17:23] Speaker 2: first one who cries, what kind of a God is this?
[17:27] Speaker 2: What does that do to our fundamental concept of who
[17:31] Speaker 2: God is?
[17:33] Speaker 3: Well, I think Tony is moving in this whole open
[17:36] Speaker 3: theism process, theism approach which has very much taken the
[17:41] Speaker 3: evangelical at least certain portions of the evangelical intellectuals by storm.
[17:46] Speaker 3: And it seems to me that that position is just incoherent.
[17:49] Speaker 3: I mean, you can't. It certainly doesn't agree with the
[17:53] Speaker 3: Christian tradition orthodoxy here. I mean there's just no way.
[17:57] Speaker 3: I mean, divine omnipotence, that God is sovereign, that he
[18:01] Speaker 3: is in control, that everything, that he's almighty, that everything
[18:05] Speaker 3: is subject to him. I think that's been orthodoxy across
[18:08] Speaker 3: the board, Protestant and Eastern Orthodox, Catholic right along. But
[18:13] Speaker 3: this idea, I mean, you know, the classic notion is
[18:15] Speaker 3: that God simply restrains himself. He does not interfere with
[18:19] Speaker 3: human freedom, or he allows people to muck up things.
[18:23] Speaker 1: You know.
[18:23] Speaker 3: But to say that God has, as it were, put
[18:26] Speaker 3: himself in a prison, thrown away the key and now
[18:28] Speaker 3: he can't get out, it seems to me that that's
[18:31] Speaker 3: just incoherent. So Tony, I've watched him over the years.
[18:35] Speaker 3: I mean, he had a book in nineteen eighty four,
[18:38] Speaker 3: The Power Delusion, which actually enjoyed where this theme of
[18:42] Speaker 3: power came up. And I think yes, in the Life
[18:44] Speaker 3: of Jesus Jesus didn't flatten the Romans. He did restrain
[18:48] Speaker 3: his power. But it's one thing to restrain one's power.
[18:51] Speaker 3: It's another thing to give it up entirely. And so
[18:53] Speaker 3: in that passage you read afterwards, I make the comparison
[18:56] Speaker 3: with King Lear, who did give up the power and
[18:58] Speaker 3: then suddenly things spin out of control. I mean, the
[19:01] Speaker 3: problem with this view is if God has really given
[19:04] Speaker 3: up the power and we are free, what guarantees are
[19:07] Speaker 3: there that that God is going to be able to
[19:08] Speaker 3: pull it pull it off, that that love will triumph.
[19:12] Speaker 1: Uh.
[19:12] Speaker 3: It's it's a position that I think really doesn't offer
[19:16] Speaker 3: any hope in the end.
[19:17] Speaker 2: There are people, though, doctor Demski, who will look at
[19:21] Speaker 2: your book and think, you know what, You've got a
[19:24] Speaker 2: problem as well, because you have a benevolent God who
[19:29] Speaker 2: allows natural evil to afflict the world prior to Adam's sin.
[19:35] Speaker 2: How in the world is that a coherent view of God.
[19:40] Speaker 3: Well, I mean, if you're going to take that view,
[19:42] Speaker 3: then then I think you're also going to have to
[19:44] Speaker 3: find fault with God for allowing evil in families where
[19:48] Speaker 3: parents sin and it affects their children. I mean it
[19:50] Speaker 3: seems that that somehow in this life. Humans are at
[19:57] Speaker 3: the pinnacle. They are the covenant heads, and what they
[20:00] Speaker 3: do does affect the rest of creation, and this is
[20:05] Speaker 3: the way the world has been structured. I don't think
[20:07] Speaker 3: I've got anything really much more to offer beyond that.
[20:10] Speaker 3: I mean, we're all complicit in this life, so God
[20:14] Speaker 3: includes us all together, and the animal world as well,
[20:17] Speaker 3: and the animal world suffers because of the sin of Adam.
[20:20] Speaker 3: But I mean, I think the broader theological issue there
[20:24] Speaker 3: is that God is doing this to bring good out
[20:26] Speaker 3: of this. And I think the important theme here is
[20:28] Speaker 3: that natural evil is allowed because it points up our
[20:34] Speaker 3: own evil, the evil in our hearts. We need, as
[20:36] Speaker 3: it were, natural evil to keep us honest, to bring
[20:39] Speaker 3: us to our senses. What would happen in a world
[20:42] Speaker 3: in which we are falling corrupt human beings? But there
[20:46] Speaker 3: is no natural evil. We don't get sick. We can
[20:48] Speaker 3: just we can live out our lusts, live out our
[20:51] Speaker 3: evil desires, and do so without any restraint, without anything
[20:55] Speaker 3: to bring us back to sobriety. That's actually I think
[20:59] Speaker 3: a very terrify lying prospect. So natural evil, if you will,
[21:03] Speaker 3: is a grace. I mean, it's what we said in
[21:06] Speaker 3: the earlier portion of this program. You know that this
[21:09] Speaker 3: natural evil is a mirror to our own selves. I
[21:12] Speaker 3: mean you think about the scriptures, I mean all the
[21:14] Speaker 3: images of evil, the wolf in sheep's clothing, you know,
[21:17] Speaker 3: the wolf. I mean, that's that's something from nature. The serpents,
[21:23] Speaker 3: the brewed of vipers, the snake in the garden of Eden.
[21:26] Speaker 3: I mean, so there are these images, they're they're really
[21:29] Speaker 3: primal taken from nature that point up evil. And I
[21:34] Speaker 3: think it's part of, if you will, God's school and
[21:38] Speaker 3: educating us and bringing us to bringing us to our senses.
[21:43] Speaker 2: I thought there was a profound insight in the book,
[21:46] Speaker 2: and I can't remember exactly where it was, but perhaps
[21:49] Speaker 2: I can lead you to think about this. Allowed with
[21:52] Speaker 2: our audience for a couple of moments, but the profound
[21:55] Speaker 2: insight was somewhere in the book where there was this
[21:58] Speaker 2: aha moment at a men eve, they sin, and now
[22:02] Speaker 2: they don't have to wonder what the consequences of sin
[22:05] Speaker 2: would be like. They're cast into a world where they
[22:09] Speaker 2: see it up close and personal. They're brought face to
[22:13] Speaker 2: face with the gravity of their sin because it is
[22:18] Speaker 2: already extant.
[22:21] Speaker 3: Well, yes, I think perhaps the chapter you're referring to
[22:25] Speaker 3: is one where I do an interpretation of Genesis one
[22:28] Speaker 3: through three, and the question is I mean, if indeed
[22:33] Speaker 3: we have our fall is responsible for natural evil, but
[22:38] Speaker 3: natural evil still precedes the fall. I mean, this is
[22:41] Speaker 3: this is where it gets a little bit science fiction.
[22:43] Speaker 3: I mean, you've got the you've got backward causation, as
[22:46] Speaker 3: it were. But from a divine vantage, it's not a
[22:49] Speaker 3: problem because God is, as we said, trans temporal. He's
[22:53] Speaker 3: not bound by time. Indeed, he created time. So if
[22:56] Speaker 3: if God they anticipates the fall all through the fall
[23:03] Speaker 3: in nature with natural evil, then where where does that
[23:09] Speaker 3: evil reside? As Adam and Eve come on the scene.
[23:11] Speaker 3: And this is this is a point I make. Then
[23:14] Speaker 3: in that chapter that I'm referring to, you've got Adam
[23:17] Speaker 3: and Eve. They're put in a garden. Now the garden paradise.
[23:21] Speaker 3: I mean that there are a lot of primal images
[23:23] Speaker 3: and metaphors connected with that. But why does God put
[23:27] Speaker 3: them in this segregated area when on a young Earthew,
[23:31] Speaker 3: for instance, I mean, the whole world everything is perfect,
[23:34] Speaker 3: you know, but they're put in this garden. And then
[23:36] Speaker 3: when they get ejected from the garden, they want to
[23:38] Speaker 3: go back, but the angels block them, and now they're
[23:41] Speaker 3: in a world with thorns and natural evil. And so
[23:44] Speaker 3: it seems to me that there's there, there are even
[23:47] Speaker 3: exegetical grounds for this retroactive view of the fall that
[23:51] Speaker 3: I describe in the book.
[23:53] Speaker 2: And of course one of the things that we want
[23:55] Speaker 2: to learn to do is read the Bible for all
[23:58] Speaker 2: that's worth, or as I like to say, mind the
[24:02] Speaker 2: Bible for all its wealth. One thing that I wanted
[24:05] Speaker 2: to discuss before we're out of time, the issue of
[24:09] Speaker 2: chirological versus chronological. We don't have a whole lot of time,
[24:13] Speaker 2: but tackle that for a moment, because those are big
[24:16] Speaker 2: words and people oftentimes don't have a radar fix on
[24:19] Speaker 2: what they mean.
[24:20] Speaker 3: Right Well, in English we just have one word for time,
[24:23] Speaker 3: But the Greeks they had too. They had kronos, which
[24:26] Speaker 3: is usually what we mean by time, the sort of
[24:29] Speaker 3: sequential one thing happens after another. But they had also chiros,
[24:33] Speaker 3: which was time with a purpose, the time for something
[24:36] Speaker 3: to be fulfilled. And you can actually get that meaning
[24:40] Speaker 3: if you look at Artenbauer's New Testaments Greek dictionary. That
[24:45] Speaker 3: distinction is made between chiros and Kronas, and so if
[24:48] Speaker 3: you will chiros, then the way I develop it, it's
[24:51] Speaker 3: God's time. It's how you know in the if you will,
[24:54] Speaker 3: the thoughts the mind of God, how do things lay out?
[24:57] Speaker 3: And the way God lays things out in his purposes
[25:01] Speaker 3: isn't necessarily doesn't follow a sequential pattern as our chronological
[25:06] Speaker 3: time does. And so what I argue is that Genesis
[25:11] Speaker 3: one really is in the first instance, it's chirological time.
[25:14] Speaker 3: It's God's time, which is not to take away that
[25:17] Speaker 3: what's happening there it doesn't also happen in chronological time,
[25:20] Speaker 3: if you will, but that there is that distinction, and
[25:23] Speaker 3: so it actually allows for a reading of Genesis one
[25:26] Speaker 3: and two where, if you will, Genesis two is chronos
[25:30] Speaker 3: and Genesis one is Chiros. And so I think it
[25:35] Speaker 3: offers some insights into just how God acts in the
[25:39] Speaker 3: world without being bound to the structures of the world.
[25:43] Speaker 2: Well, Bill, be encouraged. You're making a difference in the
[25:45] Speaker 2: lives of a lot of people. I deeply appreciate you
[25:48] Speaker 2: and your work, and we continue to pray that God
[25:51] Speaker 2: will richly bless and use you for his glory and
[25:54] Speaker 2: for the extension of His kingdom. You are a much
[25:57] Speaker 2: needed voice in the Christian world. God bless you.
[26:00] Speaker 3: Was fill the family about you hand.
[26:02] Speaker 2: God bless you, dear friend. We'll see you next time
[26:05] Speaker 2: with more of the Bible Instrument Broadcast.
[26:08] Speaker 1: You've been listening to the Bible answer Man Broadcast with
[26:11] Speaker 1: Hank Hanagraph. To learn more about Hank or the Christian
[26:14] Speaker 1: Research Institute, just go to equip dot org. Equip dot
[26:19] Speaker 1: org is a fountain of information and resources designed to
[26:23] Speaker 1: help you defend the faith and grow in your knowledge
[26:26] Speaker 1: of the truth. You can also stream the broadcast live
[26:29] Speaker 1: or download archived broadcast. To talk with a resource consultant
[26:34] Speaker 1: by phone, call eight eight eight seven thousand CRII, or
[26:38] Speaker 1: you can write to us at Post Office Box eighty
[26:41] Speaker 1: five hundred, Charlotte, North Carolina, two eight two seven one.
[26:46] Speaker 1: The Bible answer Man Broadcast is supported by listeners like you.
[26:50] Speaker 1: We're on the air because life and truth matter. The
[27:00] Speaker 1: Complete Bible answer Book Collector's Edition is the comprehensive collection
[27:05] Speaker 1: of the most often asked questions Hank Hannigraph has received
[27:09] Speaker 1: throughout his four decades as host of the Bible answer
[27:12] Speaker 1: Man Broadcast. With more than half a million copies already
[27:15] Speaker 1: in print. This newly revised and expanded Collector's Edition helped
[27:20] Speaker 1: seekers and skeptics alike sort through the truth on topics
[27:24] Speaker 1: such as reliability of the Bible, religions and cults, the
[27:28] Speaker 1: resurrection and afterlife, and many more issues vital to a
[27:32] Speaker 1: better understanding of God in Christ and our relationship to Him.
[27:36] Speaker 1: To receive your copy of the Complete Bible answer Book
[27:39] Speaker 1: Collector's Edition, Revised and Expanded, call eight eight eight seven
[27:44] Speaker 1: thousand CRII and make a gift to support the Christian
[27:48] Speaker 1: Research Institute's life changing outreaches eight eight eight seven thousand
[27:53] Speaker 1: CRII or visit us at EQUIP dot org.

Shows are listed from Apple Podcasts' charts and directory, and Podcast Index where it is used. Every show and episode belongs to its publisher and plays from the publisher's own feed; this site hosts none of them.
