Christian apologist Ken Ham recently took aim at Christian author Eric Metaxas for entertaining the idea that the biblical account of Noah’s worldwide flood is not meant to be understood literally.
On Friday (April 3), Ham’s Answers in Genesis organization posted a video in which Ham and Answers in Genesis researcher Dr. Terry Mortenson lambasted Metaxas for his conversation with Christian apologist Dr. Hugh Ross, who does not believe that the flood depicted in Genesis 6-9 covered the entire globe in water.
“We have some problems with that,” Ham said. “In fact, the Bible has some problems with that.”
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Ham, who is the founder of Answers in Genesis, the Creation Museum, and the Ark Encounter, is well-known for his hardline stance on issues of creationism. Ham has often expressed that denying that God created the earth in six literal days is tantamount to rejecting the authority of Scripture.
Nevertheless, a variety of opinions on the matter have existed within the church across the millennia, with Christian leaders and Bible scholars arriving at differing conclusions.
For instance, Ross is a Canadian astrophysicist and Christian apologist who for decades has been defending the idea that God created the world—just not in six literal days. He is the founder of Reasons to Believe, a nonprofit organization offering resources exploring the scientific evidence for faith. Ross is the author of numerous books, including his latest, “Noah’s Flood Revisited: New Depths of Insight from Science and Scripture.”
Ham and Ross represent two sides of a debate that has been active among Christian scholars since the 18th century and that intensified after the advent of evolutionary theory in the mid-19th century.
In a video titled “Can These Christian Leaders Now Be Trusted?,” Ham began the discussion by quoting 1 Corinthians 11:19, which says, “For there must also be factions among you, so that those who are approved may become evident among you.” The context of the verse is the Apostle Paul’s rebuke of the Corinthian Christians for their lack of unity regarding the Eucharist.
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“Now that’s not saying that Paul wants division or wants to create division,” Ham said. “But in the Christian church, there’s going to be division. And as a result of that division, you will see who is really standing on truth.”
