Why Fundamentalists Cling to Genesis 1:1

Why Fundamentalists Cling to Genesis 1:1

Believers and nonbelievers alike often come to this site to ridicule and/or condemn writers they disagree with. If the scoffers on both extremes of the spectrum hang around long enough, they can see that among us there is a solid core of commenters who cordially accept other views than our own. We do try to reach out to the confused, and we often recommend our own viewpoints. We just don’t insist that everyone else should adopt them. We acknowledge that the important thing is for each of us to find a place to stand on solid philosophical and psychological ground, a place that provides a perspective for viewing the physical and social universe that makes sense to the viewer.

To me a literal interpretation of Genesis makes no sense at all. The world looks all jumbled and surreal if I view it from there. However, I do not believe that people who see the world comfortably from that spot should be dragged away from it—only that they should be prevented from forcing our legal and educational systems to operate from their literalist perspective.

This short essay illustrates my thinking. It is expanded and edited from a comment I posted to another blog, The Sensuous Curmudgeon. 

Retired Prof 

Milton W. Howard, pastor of Kitchens Creek Baptist Church in Ball, LA, avers “The person who denies that ‘In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth’ must deny everything else in the Word of God. . . .”

This is the pithiest and most straightforward expression I have seen of why the scientific study of origins (tagged as “evolutionism,” “scientism,” “naturalism,” or “Darwinism”) terrifies fundamentalists so much. Genesis 1:1 is their fixed landmark, their homing beacon. It organizes existence for them.

While attending a [non-ACOG] religious college I had a few dates with a fundamentalist. When she found out I was skeptical about the existence of her god, the first question she asked was “How do you explain that tree over there?” The next one was “How can you ever love anybody?” It was about that time when we each began to find other people more attractive.

Mr. Howard’s foundational scripture serves the function Wallace Stevens claimed for a physical artifact:


I placed a jar in Tennessee,

And round it was, upon a hill.

It made the slovenly wilderness

Surround that hill.

Having been lost in the woods occasionally, I know the terror of having no bearings. Once when a snowstorm hid distant landmarks and made my immediate surroundings unrecognizable, I got completely turned around. I had to trust my compass to point me back toward my hunting companions. The route led across thin ice on a pond choked with button-brush. It was either struggle straight across and dread falling through, or veer off course and risk wandering for hours through terrain that had become grotesquely unfamiliar. I finally spied my friends in their blaze orange coats and made my way over to them. They seemed to be facing the wrong way. I said, “I don’t know where I am.”

One of them said, “You’re right here, at the beaver dam deer stand.”

I said, “I know that, but I still can’t recognize it. It’s like I’ve never been here before.” They led me to the river channel where we had left our canoe. Immediately the slovenly wilderness
surrounded that spot and everything made sense again.

So it’s not hard for me to see how fundamentalists would fear to abandon a comforting fixed reference point—the TRUTH of Genesis 1:1—considering that life in general can be way more bewildering than a river bottom in a snowstorm.

Living Church of God Smacks Down Bob Thiel, James Malm, and David C. Pack-- Again!

Poor Bob, James and Dave.  No matter how hard they try they just cannot poach members from the various COG's.  Dave's Great Reunification turned into the largest failure ever in Church of God history, right after William Millers numerous failed prophecies.  Bob Thiel's little personalty cult can't seem to move out  of his home spare bedroom studio with it's crooked bookcase. James Malm's legalistic mumbo-jumbo is the ultimate bastardization of the law which no one is interested in.

Now, Rod Meredith and LCG's staff are hitting back at Dave pack and Thiel warning members of deceitful men in their midst.

To Whom Do You Listen?

The Apostle Paul pointedly asked the Corinthian brethren, “Is Christ divided?” (1 Corinthians 1:13). Already in Paul’s day, the Church was being pulled apart by factionalism and personality worship or dislike. People were more interested in following their favorite minister, rather than maintaining a spirit of godly unity.

As the years went by, self-appointed leaders began to stray further and further from the foundation, as laid down by Christ and the apostles. Paul warned the ministers of his day to be careful of outsiders who would worm their way in to pervert the truth. The ministers were also to guard against deceiving themselves into thinking that they should be the focus of attention, rather than humble servants of God’s people.

Humbleness is certainly NOT a trait of any Church of God leader.  Never has been and never will be. Thiel and Pack do not have a humble bone in their bodies.

Next, the LCG staff and Rod call the message of Thiel and Pack "perversion."  OUCH!

...the problem of false ministers has been around since almost the very beginning. Even ancient Israel had false teachers who tried to deceive the people of God. The Creator sent true servants to prophesy against the religious perversions being taught, and to point the sons of Jacob toward the true worship of their God. “And when they say to you, ‘Seek those who are mediums and wizards, who whisper and mutter,’ should not a people seek their God? Should they seek the dead on behalf of the living? To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.” (Isaiah 8:19–20).

What's Rod's god going to do to Dave, Bob and James?

And what is the ultimate fruit of that selfish approach? God will spew such self-interested Christians out of His mouth! “I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth. Because you say, `I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing’—and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked”

 Then they slap the unrighteous trinity dudes with this:

Today, there are men who call themselves “prophets” and “apostles” and claim leadership in the Church of God, yet by their words and deeds we can see they have forgotten Who it is that can cause water to flow from solid rock. Instead of humbly yielding to God’s word and to those whom God has placed in authority, they presumptuously modify God’s instructions and seek to draw a following.

 The threesome have "strayed wildly from the truths of HWA...." Ouch!

In this “Internet age,” it is easy to find dozens and hundreds of teachers proclaiming their own messages, claiming to follow Mr. Armstrong but in fact straying wildly from the truths Mr. Armstrong taught from the Bible. Some would have you believe that the Work is finished.   Yet Christ made it plain that He expects His followers to be doing what He did—preaching the true gospel of the coming Kingdom of God (Matthew 24:46). Others have corrupted the gospel by teaching a message “about” Mr. Armstrong, while distorting Mr. Armstrong’s actual message—thus mimicking the same error that took first-century Christianity off the track!

LCG warns members to not listen to these self-appointed guru's and their asinine messages:

We live in a world where self-appointed teachers are free to say and publish what they want, contrary to God’s word. But we have a job to do. What should our approach be? Solomon said it well: “And further, my son, be admonished by these. Of making many books there is no end, and much study is wearisome to the flesh. Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: fear God and keep His commandments, for this is man’s all. For God will bring every work into judgment, including every secret thing, whether good or evil” (Ecclesiastes 12:12–14). Let us keep our eyes on the goal as we carry out our responsibilities, listening obediently to the true Shepherd, Jesus Christ!