Dear Dr. MacArthur,

I am a life-long committed Christian, and I greatly appreciate your ministry of Bible-based Christian teaching. However, I am also a graduate student in Planetary Sciences at the University of Arizona. I believe that the Bible is God's inerrent Word, and I also believe that Genesis 1 can be literally interpreted to describe God's creation of our world (not through Darwinian evolution) over six sequential long ages of time. I understand that you disagree with my view; and I completely respect your viewpoint, your faith in Christ, and your right to disagree with me. However, I wonder if you do the same for me.

I feel compelled to comment on a statement you made yesterday on your radio program. Concerning "supposed" Christians who accept current scientific origins models, you said:

And you ask the question, "Why do they do that? Why do people who claim to be Christians do that?" Well there are several reasons. Number one is to be accepted in academic circles. It's very important if you're in a university setting, if you're in an academic setting, that you not be a creationist if you want to maintain your position, if you want your job.

I don't know if you realize what a hurtful and insulting thing that is to say. Not only do you call my faith in Christ into question (you say I "claim to be" a Christian, with the implication that that may or may not be true); but you also completely discount the agonizing process of questioning and prayer, studying both the Bible and science, by which I finally arrived at my current views. You completely dismiss the possibility that God was leading me in that process by alleging that I was simply giving in to "peer pressure."

You ask why a Christian would believe that the Earth is billions of years old. Let me answer that question by briefly telling my story. I was brought up in a church, and went to a Christian high school, where I was taught that the Earth is young. While in high school, I began to notice some places where the young-Earth arguments didn't seem to entirely hold together, but I still believed it because I had always been told that it was the only legitimate Christian viewpoint. Partly because I wanted to find out for myself where the Truth lay in this controversy, but mainly because I love learning about the intricacies of God's Creation, I decided to become a scientist.

As an undergraduate, I came into my science classes with a strong and healthy skepticism towards any claims implying that the Earth was old, but also with a desire to examine those claims so that I could determine for myself, in an educated way, whether they were true or false. None of my professors ever pressured or coerced me, but honestly and directly answered my skeptical questions about how certain pieces of evidence are known to be reliable, or how certain processes could really be possible. To my surprise, I found that the more I studied the scientific issues, the more I found the evidence for an old Earth to ring true, and the more I found that claimed young-Earth evidences do not hold water. At the same time, I began to study Genesis 1 in detail for the first time, and I discovered that the case for a young-Earth interpretation of Genesis is also not as air-tight as I had been led to believe. After much thought and prayer, I finally concluded that a Day-Age interpretation of Genesis is not only consistent with a literal view of the Bible, it is required by the scientific evidence.

Dr. MacArthur, I have never cared much about what others thought of me. However, I am a person who is ferocious in the pursuit of Truth. For me, the quest for God's Truth extends to my study of the Bible, my study of science, and all other facets of the world we live in. That is why I find it so hurtful and insulting for you to tell me that the only reason I claim to believe in an old Earth is because I'm afraid people may not like me if I didn't. If I was really affected by peer pressure, I would not publicly be a Christian at all, but an atheist!! If I wanted to be popular, I would not point out that the Big Bang requires a transcendant Creator, or that the Universe has been fine-tuned in dozens of ways to be just right for mankind, or that the origin and development of life are only possible through Intelligent Design, or that the Bible is the Word of God. Those are all unpopular positions, and yet I hold to them publicly, and have even debated them with professors and fellow students.

I sincerely hope and pray that you will reconsider your attitude towards your brothers and sisters in Christ who disagree with you on the issue of origins. It is inevitable that disagreements will arise within the Church. In fact, I believe that is part of what Jesus meant when He talked about love God with all our minds (Mark 12:30). But it is crucial that we carry on our controversies, as Peter commanded, "with gentleness and respect" (I Peter 3:15). This is especially true when dealing with issues that do not affect the core of the Gospel (I Corinthians 15:1-4). We may disagree regarding some details of origins, but we have both honestly and prayerfully investigated the issues before arriving at our views; and more importantly, we agree that Jesus Christ is both the Creator of the world and the Redeemer of our souls.

Sincerely,

Your Brother in Christ,

Matthew Tiscareno
[and those of us here at swordandspirit]