A Historical Sketch of Young-Earth Creationism
Young-Earth Creationism and Modern Fundamentalism: A Historical Study (Part 1)
The launch of the modern Young Earth Creationist (YEC) movement dates to 1961, with the publication of The Genesis Flood by Dr. Henry M. Morris and Dr. John C. Whitcomb. Dr. Morris began the Institute for Creation Research (ICR) in 1970.1 In 1987, Ken Ham came to America from Australia to begin his association with ICR, and eventually this association led to his organization of Answers in Genesis (AIG) as a separate organization in 1994. Both ICR and AIG continue to this day.2 What follows is a brief sketch of the founding of modern YEC, the beginning of ICR, and the ministry of AIG.
The Founding of Young-Earth Creationism
Dr. Henry M. Morris (1918-2006), called the “Father of Modern Creationism,” spent most of his early life in Texas.3 He testifies that he doesn’t recall a time when he did not know the LORD, having trusted in Christ at an early age. However, he did not have a strong church that he was associated with in his growing up years. Through the course of his life, God providentially led him to experience a spiritual stirring that led him to a strong Bible-believing Southern Baptist church in El Paso, Texas, in his early 20s. In that church, he also had his first introduction to the Gideon’s International organization, gaining a connection that he would often use as a ministry platform and a spiritual haven in coming years. As a very young man in his 20s, he turned to a career in education by teaching at his alma mater, the Rice Institute. Before long, he discovered the early flood geology of the Seventh-Day Adventist George McGready Price. This motivated a strong witness for Christ in the academy by defending Biblical creationism and rejecting the then-common accommodation of the Bible to old-earth views. His growing desire to defend the newly discovered timetable led him to pursue a PhD in geology to enable him to speak to the secular academy. After completing this degree in 1950, Dr. Morris spent the next 10 years in teaching positions in Louisiana, Illinois, and Southwestern Virginia. During these years, Dr. Morris often sought to find a good church where his family would be fed and from which he could both teach the Scriptures and evangelize the lost, especially college students. Unfortunately, the Morrises did not always find good churches in every location. In these situations, the Morris often sought out involvement with the Gideons and InterVarsity Christian Fellowship. Over this period, Dr. Morris’s understanding of a biblical church went through a period of development. When good churches were lacking he would seek para-church ministries to supply the lacking vitality. All through this period, his real desire was to both evangelize and write a book on flood geology that would defend the Biblical timetable. This ambition would ultimately come to pass.
In 1953, Dr. Morris visited Grace Theological Seminary, Winona Lake, IN, to speak about flood geology at a meeting of a scientific association. John C. Whitcomb (1924–) attended his talk. Whitcomb had been teaching at Grace since 1951. He would soon begin working on his doctorate. At this point, Whitcomb still held to the Gap Theory of creation having taught it for two years. (Many evangelical/fundamentalist believers of the day held the Gap Theory as the best way to deal with Darwinism and the apparent age of the earth.)4 Exposure to Morris’s views led Whitcomb to adopt flood geology and led the school’s president Dr. Alva McClain and other faculty to reject the gap theory as well.5 While working on flood geology for his own dissertation from 1953 to 1961, Whitcomb and Morris collaborated on their scientific and theological treatise in defense of flood geology that we know as The Genesis Flood. They faced many challenges, but they published the work in 1961. Its publication was the catalyst of the YEC movement.
The Beginnings of the Institute for Creation Research
Through the 1960s, demand for Dr. Morris as a speaker for YEC continued to grow. New university opportunities for his teaching career also developed, but Christians were also taking notice and seeking his ministry. His desire to promote Young Earth Creationism increased, along with a desire to see a creationist university system develop. Thus, when his position in Virginia came into conflict with his ideals, the next major phase in the modern creation movement began — the founding of the Institute for Creation Research. Providentially, Dr. Morris connected with Drs. Tim LaHaye and Art Peters and their church in San Diego, CA. The three started a creationist college with a creation research society named Christian Heritage College in 1970.6 An early setback in the creation research society led to its departure from the college and Dr. Morris’s leadership. As a result, they had to restart the research society in 1972. After this, the ministry began to grow through publications, graduate-level courses, public speaking, and even creation-evolution debates. Morris also continued developing the Christian Heritage College, but the college would not become Morris’s long-term ministry platform.
In 1981, the leaders of the ministry decided to separate ICR from the Christian Heritage College, though on better terms than before. The decision freed Dr. Morris to give even more time to ICR’s work. In the 80s and 90s, Morris continued to write extensively, and formed a Graduate School in 1983. These were fruitful years, and there was much to celebrate as the ministry reached its 25th anniversary in 1995. At that time, Dr. Morris retired as president, but he would live another eleven years, continuing to serve in the ministry.
Ken Ham and Answers in Genesis
During the late 1980s, a figure who is now a household name came to America to become involved in the Young Earth Creationist ministry. Ken Ham and his wife arrived in America in 1987. Ken Ham was from Australia and had begun a YEC ministry in 1976.7 After 11 years of work in Australia, his organization sent him to America to work with Dr. Morris’s ICR. Ken Ham discovered The Genesis Flood in 1974, subsequently making personal connections with Dr. Morris and ICR.8 Ham’s purpose in coming to America was to be a speaker for ICR. He worked in this capacity for 7 years. However, in late 1993, Ken and his wife decided to resign from ICR and start their own ministry in America that would be on a popular, rather than academic, level.9 They departed with a donation and letter from Dr. Morris introducing their ministry. As a popular level speaker, Ken Ham would become a popular voice for YEC both inside fundamentalism and outside.
As far back as 1982, Ken Ham dreamt of building a creationist museum. Thus, he selected the Cincinnati, OH area as the location for the ministry because of its proximity to a large segment of the American population. In the early years, the ministry included speaking, distribution of the Australian magazine Creation, and maintaining a very early Christian website. In 2007, the Creation Museum opened with great response. AIG also launched a new magazine focused on a Biblical worldview of all of life. By the second decade of the 21st century, the ministry began planning and building its second major “attraction,” the Ark Encounter. The ark opened in 2016, with Dr. John Whitcomb being present for the ribbon cutting. The ministry continues to have an influential voice, with speakers traveling widely to promote YEC.
Next, Jacob Reinhardt will examine the relationship of Fundamentalism to Young Earth Creationism.
Jacob Reinhardt is an IT engineer and a M.Div. student at Maranatha Baptist Seminary. He blogs at Biblical Worldview Musings and he is a member of the First Baptist Church of West Seneca, New York, a suburb of Buffalo.
Check out our Resources page for recommended books and other materials helpful for your ministry.
- See “Who We Are”, Institute for Creation Research, accessed September 1, 2017, http://www.icr.org/who-we-are. [↩]
- Ken Ham, “The End of an Era, But…” Answers Update, April 1, 2006, accessed September 5, 2017, https://answersingenesis.org/ministry-news/ministry/the-end-of-an-era-but/. [↩]
- Unless otherwise noted, information about Dr. Morris is from Rebecca Morris Barber, Henry M. Morris: The Father of Modern Creationism, (Dallas: Institute for Creation Research, 2017.). The author is Dr. Morris’s daughter. [↩]
- Paul J. Scharf, “A Biographical Tribute to Dr. John C. Whitcomb, Jr.”, in Coming to Grips with Genesis: Biblical Authority and the Age of the Earth, ed. Terry Mortenson and Thane H. Ury (Green Forest, AR: Master Books, 2008), 441-442. [↩]
- Barber, 164-165. [↩]
- Barber, 180-182. See also Henry M. Morris, A History of Modern Creationism (Santee, California: Institute for Creation Research, 1994), 256-264. [↩]
- Unless otherwise noted, information about Ken Ham is from “The History of Answers in Genesis Through July 2017”, Answers in Genesis, last modified July 2017, accessed September 1, 2017, https://answersingenesis.org/about/history/. [↩]
- Ham, “The End of an Era, But…”. [↩]
- Note that this discussion focuses on the American side of the creation movement, though various organizations promote creationism worldwide, some with direct ties to AIG and other American ministries. [↩]
Thank you for this, it was helpful.
I would like to know more about George McGready Price, and I’m curious why this post did not start with a summary of his ideas and career. I would expect that his ideas may have their own sources as well (likely within Seventh Day Adventism).
Duncan, I think the focus of this article is the relationship between the major Christian apologists in the field and the fundamentalist movement, so Price wouldn’t have been relevant. This will hopefully be more clear as part 2 and 3 come over the next two days.
Maranatha
Don Johnson
Jer 33.3
Would it not be better to write of Ken Ham as circulating widely within Evangelicalism and occasionally entering Fundamentalism, rather than saying, “both inside Fundamentalism and outside.”? Ham is not a Fundamentalist who has also gone outside the orb of Fundamentalism to minister. There is a huge difference between being a Fundamentalist and ministering outside that realm and being an Evangelical who occasionally enters Fundamentalism, and such a difference should be noted, in my opinion.
Brian, my response is similar to the one given to Duncan above. The first part of this series is to survey the major Christian apologists in the field. Evaluation of their relationship to fundamentalism will come later.
Maranatha
Don Johnson
Jer 33.3