Peter Enns Continues to Promote Heresy

Enns Continues to Promote Heresy Sponsored by a Baptist Church [Excerpts]

By Ken Ham—Many of you may be familiar with Peter Enns, who is a former fellow with BioLogos, an organization dedicated to promoting a form of theistic evolution (or “evolutionary creation” as they call it). We both spoke at the same homeschool convention a few years ago.

During my talk, I showed a few video clips of him, demonstrating in his own words that he doesn’t believe in a literal Adam or Eve or in a literal Fall. After we were told by conference organizers that I could critique Enns’s beliefs during the conference, we had informed them that we were considering it, and we were cleared to do so. Well, I was dropped from the next homeschool convention and Peter Enns was retained.

Well, Dr. Enns is coming to Dayton, Ohio on Monday to be a keynote speaker at a conference (sponsored by First Baptist Church of Dayton) on science and theology. The goal of the conference is to present what organizers believe are alternative positions to biblical creation, such as theistic evolution. So I thought it would be important to present a new critique of Enns’s theological positions.

The pastor of First Baptist Church, Dr. Kennedy, said the following in one interview: “The conference has one goal, to offer alternative truth claims to those that are presented by the Creation Museum and other advocates of a literal six-day creation of the earth,” said Rodney Kennedy, lead pastor of First Baptist Church on West Monument Avenue in Dayton. “Science has taught us that the universe is about 14 billion years old, and that the best available explanation for the beginning is the ‘big bang.’ There is nothing in scripture to refute the big bang. God created the heavens and the Earth, and I believe she took her sweet time doing it. . . . "My desire is that conference attendees will be strengthened in their faith by hearing our 21 presenters offer an alternative to six-day creationism, intelligent design and scientific creationism.”

The report continues as follows: "The main sponsor of the conference is First Baptist Church. This conference is offered through a grant from the Fordham Institute. Conference co-sponsors are Temple Israel, Christ Episcopal, United Theological Seminary and the University of Dayton Continuing Education Department. Interesting that on the church’s website, we read this statement: “We study the Bible along with the gift of critical scholarship through the ages. Literalist interpretations are left to others.” So it‘s not surprising at all this church is sponsoring this conference that undermines the authority of God’s Word and the gospel.

Associated Baptist Press has released an article on this conference. The reporter did speak to me for a considerable length of time. It is a shame he didn’t include the information I gave him as to why it is important to take Genesis as it is written. I was asked why it matters what one believes in Genesis—as long as one preaches the gospel.

I explained that to compromise Genesis is not a salvation issue per se (salvation is conditioned upon faith in Christ—not what one believes about the age of the earth or days of creation). However, compromising on Genesis is an authority issue and a gospel issue. It is an authority issue because reinterpreting Genesis is undermining the authority of God’s Word and exalting man’s fallible words. It is also a gospel issue because to believe in millions of years, evolution, or both is to blame God for death and evil in the world instead of blaming our sin in Adam.

http://www.worldviewweekend.com/news/article/enns-continues-promote-heresy-sponsored-baptist-church