“Is creation a first-tier issue?”

Let’s consider the following. Does the Bible state you have to believe the following to be saved?

• Jesus walked on water.

• Jesus fed thousands as a miracle.

• Jesus healed the blind, deaf, and mute.

• The Israelites’ shoes and clothes didn’t wear out in the desert.

• Jonah was in a fish for three days.

• Jesus was born of a virgin.

The list could go on and on. The answer to each question is “no”—the Bible doesn’t say a person has to believe those accounts to be saved.

So does that mean the list doesn’t matter then? Of course not, as these accounts are plainly taught in Scripture when you take the text as written.

Is it important to believe in the list? To reject them is to undermine biblical authority. It ultimately opens the door to reject anything in Scripture.

So where do you draw the line between what’s vital (first tier) and what is not? Well, consider this verse:

“All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness” (2 Timothy 3:16).

Taking the Bible naturally, as written, according to the literature and its context, is of great importance. Biblical authority is indeed a first-order (first-tier) issue.

What would be a litmus test to determine if someone is undermining biblical authority? Well, one way is to see if the person is working from the actual words of the text (exegesis) or if the person is taking ideas outside of Scripture and bringing them into the text and interpreting the words (eisegesis).

I’ve said so many times that it’s true that in the church, people have different views of eschatology, modes of baptism, speaking in tongues, the Sabbath day, etc. But all these issues involve people arguing primarily from Scripture to justify their positions, not basing their ideas on influences outside Scripture.

However, when it comes to Genesis, all the different views within the church, such as day-age theory, framework hypothesis, theistic evolution, local flood, and so on, have one thing in common. Every one of these positions involves taking man’s belief from outside the Bible, regarding millions of years (based on the religion of naturalism), and trying to fit old ages into Scripture. Many of these views involve adding biological evolution and astronomical evolution into Scripture. This approach uses eisegesis, not exegesis, and it undermines biblical authority.

So creation is a first-tier issue because it’s a biblical authority issue, and biblical authority is a first tier issue!