Is Genesis History? The Movie

(4 Minute Read. With video.)

What really happened
“In the beginning“?

Did God create the world in six days, or did it take billions of years?
How did the vast diversity of plants and animals originate?
Did Man descend from apes, or was he created in the image of God?
Was there a real Adam and Eve?
Was there a global flood that destroyed the world, or is that a myth?
Why do we have so many different languages?
In short,
Is Genesis really true?
Is Genesis historically accurate?

A new documentary film investigates these vital questions. Theaters nationwide will show
Is Genesis History?
on Thursday, February 23, 2017.

The most attacked book of the Bible has always been Genesis. Today the assaults come from skeptics and liberals as well as from within the church. The Book of Genesis is bombarded with unrelenting skepticism, derision, and scorn. Even among evangelical Christians, Genesis is now a hotly debated, highly controversial book.

The documentary, Is Genesis History?, is a comprehensive investigation into the scientific and historical evidence pertaining to the historicity of Genesis. Via interviews with renowned, respected researchers, the film presents a case that Genesis provides a true account of man’s history from the Beginning.

Is Genesis History? examines two competing views of history, two paradigms. A paradigm is a framework or model or belief system within which evidence is interpreted. The Conventional Paradigm postulates natural processes with no designer operating across billions and billions of years. The Biblical Paradigm accepts Genesis as true history describing the activity of an Intelligent Creator.

This is not Science vs. Religion. It’s not two views of science. It’s two competing views of history. Proponents of each view interpret differently the same evidence from the real world.

Does it matter whether or not one accepts Genesis as history? Yes, because this choice of paradigm determines one’s view on the origins of the universe, life, mankind, sin, and even something as prosaic as geological formations.

I watched a pre-release cut of the movie and found it very interesting and enjoyable. It contains a great deal of excellent content presented in a clear, straightforward, easily understandable manner.

Here is the official trailer for the movie.

The film answers the question, “Is Genesis History?,” with a resounding “Yes!” through interviews with over a dozen Ph.D. experts in geology, philosophy, Hebrew, biology, microbiology, marine biology, paleontology, taphonomy (study of fossilization), astronomy, archaeology, and theology. The lineup of scholars interviewed is deep with academic credentials. Innovative sketches and diagrams illuminate the scholars’ points.

A variety of intriguing settings and locations serve as backdrops for the interviews; this includes museums, zoos, marine parks, fossil digs, the Grand Canyon, and Mount St. Helens.

Here are some insightful snippets from the scholarly experts interviewed in the film:

​”Time is not a magic wand that solves all the geologic problems of the world.”
Regarding the Grand Canyon,
“It’s not a little water and a lot of time. It’s a LOT of water and a little time.”
– Dr. Steve Austin, Geologist

“We have a witness to those events, and we have to take that into consideration when we’re evaluating the data.”

“All the world’s greatest Hebraists affirm that Genesis 1 is not poetry; it’s narrative. That means you should understand the words in the normal way.”
“In the Flood account, the Hebrew word kol (כֹּל, Strong’s H3606) meaning all occurs 35 times.”
“The Biblical text is not compatible with the standard conventional paradigm.”
– Dr. Steven Boyd, Hebraist

“We cannot use present day rates to understand how quickly and how majestically in terms of scale the geologic formations accumulated.”
“The present is not the key to the past, because the past holds massive catastrophic events that are not going on today.”
“There is much evidence for catastrophic events that are not going on today. We have an open system, so dating methods cannot give us dependable dates for rocks. The ‘clocks’ are not reliable.”
“Localized sedimentation does not produce the vast unified layers, large extents reaching over thousands of square miles, with no evidence of erosion.”
“There is evidence of very rapid formation and deposition of geologic layers, in some places a matter of hours.”
“Cross-beds also indicate very rapid deposition.”
– Dr. Andrew Snelling, Geologist

“It’s an error to take the present processes and just extend them all the way back.”
– Dr. Kurt Wise, Paleontologist

“Abundant marine fossils and large sea dinosaur fossils are distributed over all continents. What force has the power and ferocity to drag them onto land?”
“Track ways preserved show death in a moment, and the next layer deposited very, very quickly.”
– Dr. Marcus Ross, Paleontologist

“Tissue, cells, collagen found in triceratops horn. That breaks down. No biological basis for how it could survive 60 million years.”
“Clearly soft tissue is in violation of the dating process. It challenges the entire dating process.”
“Evidence is rejected, thrown out because it doesn’t fit their [evolutionary] paradigm.”
– Dr. Kevin Anderson, Microbiologist

“Life is so complex that small [evolutionary] changes cannot account for it.”
“When I’m looking at the world, it’s fitting in with what I read about God and about Creation in the Bible. I don’t have a gigantic scientific conflict.”
– Dr. Rob Carter, Marine Biologist

“We’re seeing design in the very fundamental physics of the world around us.”
“Interpret the universe in terms of Genesis, not the other way around.”
– Dr. Danny Faulkner, Astronomer

“Nothing in the world makes sense
except in the light of Genesis.”
Dr. Del Tackett, host of Is Genesis History?

The film’s host is Dr. Del Tackett. He created The Truth Project, a nationwide project for Focus on the Family to teach the Biblical worldview to Christians. Tackett says, “It is hard to imagine anything more important for the Christian, especially in the times in which we live, than to stand firmly upon a solid Biblical worldview foundation … one that provides a comprehensive and systematic understanding of every area of life and reality.”

Tackett poses to the film’s experts many of the exact challenges that we often hear thrown at us in attempts to subvert Scripture’s plain account. Each time, the interviewed scientist’s response is calm and confident and understandable to an ordinary person.

This film will be an eye-opening experience, especially for skeptics and unbelievers who have scientific issues with the Biblical record. The film’s noted scientists put many of the usual concerns to rest. It’s encouraging to know that many respected scholars affirm Genesis to be factually accurate.

Over 700 theaters are showing the film on Thursday, February 23. Click Is Genesis History? to buy tickets and find a theater showing the film near you. Following the film, an on-screen panel of scientists and theologians will discuss with Tackett the impact of Genesis on Christians today.

Is Genesis History? is produced by Compass Cinema and distributed by Fathom Events. Producer and director Thomas Purifoy said, “Faith isn’t a leap in the dark; it’s an assurance and trust based on real actions by a powerful God that happen in actual history.”

Purifoy explained, “This film started from a conversation with my 10-year-old daughter about science, history and the Bible. She wanted to know how the things in the world are explained by what she reads in the Bible. Her questions led me down a lot of different paths where I heard and saw some amazing things. I tried to put as many of them as I could into the documentary.”

If the film does well enough, there may be encore showings as happened with Patterns of Evidence two years ago, but it’s not guaranteed. The film will be released on DVD 45 days after theater showings.

Questions to Ponder

1. When skeptics dismiss Genesis because it conflicts with our culture’s prevailing thought patterns, how would you answer them?
2. What questions do you need answered to convince you that Genesis is true history?

Share your thoughts on these questions in the comments below. It could encourage or help another reader.

Soli Deo Gloria.

Read my other Movie Reviews:
The Genesis Code (with video)
Marilyn Monroe and the Age of the Earth
Mystery of Noah’s Flood (with videos)
God’s Not Dead, the Movie (with videos)
Noah, the Movie (with videos)
Exodus, the Movie (with video)
1. Patterns of Evidence: Exodus – Did It Happen?
2. Patterns of Evidence: Exodus – Facing the Facts (with video)
3. Patterns of Evidence: Exodus – The Debate
4. Patterns of Evidence: What Did Jesus Think?
5. Patterns of Evidence: Exodus – Does It Matter?
Risen, the Movie (with video)

Read the next movie review:
The Case for Christ, the Movie (with video)

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©William T. Pelletier, Ph.D.
“contending earnestly for the faith”
“destroying speculations against the knowledge of God”
“for the defense of the gospel”
(Jude 1:3; 2 Cor 10:5; Phil 1:16)
Wednesday February 8, 2017 A.D.

For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day and made it holy. (Exodus 20:11)