Intelligibility Doctrines [That Are Commonly Borrowed]

Intelligibility Doctrines [That Are Commonly Borrowed]

Bodie Hodge, M.Sc., B.Sc., PEI

Biblical Authority Ministries, April 14, 2026 (Donate)

God has all knowledge (omniscience). God is the truth (John 14:6) and God is also the absolute standard of moral goodness. God created and upholds or sustains the existence of all things.

These are basic Christian concepts that actually shape the way we think and why man is even in a position to be able to think and reason. We are made in the image of an all-knowing God of truth, thus we are able to process knowledge and use logic to seek and understand the truth.

These things are what allow us to be intelligible. This is why we can have personal abstract communication and understand poetry, songs, record history, develop stories and be creative. God is the ultimate precondition for intelligibility to be possible. Let’s consider a few doctrinal concepts that are based in Scripture.

Intelligibility doctrines flow God and His Word and are graciously revealed to man; Image requested by Bodie Hodge (ChatGPT)

Intelligibility Doctrines

Truth
Truth is grounded in God’s nature and His Word. Scripture identifies God as the ultimate standard of truth, not man’s opinion or shifting culture. Jesus declared, “I am the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6, NKJV), showing that truth is personal and embodied in Christ. God’s Word is likewise truth: “Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth” (John 17:17, NKJV). Since God cannot lie (Titus 1:2), truth is absolute, consistent, and unchanging. Thus, all claims to truth must be measured against Scripture, which serves as the final authority.

Morality (Absolute)
Absolute morality flows from God’s unchanging nature. “For I am the Lord, I do not change” (Malachi 3:6, NKJV). This is in the context of God’s character. His moral law reflects His holiness and is revealed in Scripture, such as the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20). Moral standards are not culturally invented but divinely established by God Himself in His revealed Word. “Be holy, for I am holy” (1 Peter 1:16, NKJV).

Without God, morality becomes subjective; with God, right and wrong are fixed because God is the one who defines what is right and what is wrong. Sin (whether by omission or commission) is defined as violation of God’s law (1 John 3:4), confirming morality is absolute, not relative. The sin of omission is not being or doing what God requires and the sin of commission is doing what God forbids.

Logic
Logical reasoning reflects the orderly and rational nature of God. “For God is not the author of confusion but of peace” (1 Corinthians 14:33, NKJV). The laws of logic (non-contradiction, identity) mirror God’s consistency and faithfulness. “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever” (Hebrews 13:8, NKJV). Since God’s Word does not contradict itself, logic is grounded in His nature. Human reasoning is reliable when it aligns with God’s revealed truth (Isaiah 1:18). But due to sin, man errs and often commits fallacies (being illogical) and needs to be corrected based on God’s revealed Word.

Knowledge
Knowledge originates with God, who is omniscient. “Known to God from eternity are all His works” (Acts 15:18, NKJV). True knowledge begins with reverence for Him: “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge” (Proverbs 1:7, NKJV). Human understanding is limited and dependent, but God reveals truth through Scripture and creation. “In Him are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Colossians 2:3, NKJV). Great is our Lord, and mighty in power; His understanding is infinite (Psalm 147:5, NKJV). Thus, knowledge is possible because God has made Himself known.

When God made Adam and Eve, they were preprogrammed with perfect knowledge—not infinite knowledge, but what was sufficient for their needs as creation of God with tasks given by God. When they sinned, this affect how we use and learn knowledge.

Honor
Honor is based in recognizing God-given authority and worth. Scripture commands, “Honor your father and your mother” (Exodus 20:12, NKJV) and “Honor all people” (1 Peter 2:17, NKJV). Ultimately, honor is due to God: “You are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power” (Revelation 4:11, NKJV). Honor reflects submission to God’s order and acknowledgment of His image in others.

Respect
Respect comes from the reality that all people are made in God’s image. “So God created man in His own image” (Genesis 1:27, NKJV). Because of this, individuals are to be treated with care and fairness. “Therefore whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them” (Matthew 7:12, NKJV). Respect is not based on personal merit but on God’s design and command. One can’t helps be remember the second greatest commandment—to love other as yourself. This is arguably greatest form of respect in action.

Dignity
Human dignity is predicated on being made in God’s image. Genesis 1:26–27 reveals that mankind, in spiritual ways, uniquely reflects God’s attributes and nature. This gives inherent and eternal worth to every person, regardless of status. We are made in the image of an eternal God after all.

Even after the Fall, this dignity remains (Genesis 9:6). Scripture affirms God’s care for humanity: “What is man that You are mindful of him… You have crowned him with glory and honor” (Psalm 8:4–5, NKJV). Dignity is therefore intrinsic and God-given.

Dignity, honor, and respect all work closely with loving one another and thinking morally, truthfully ,and logically about them.

Uniformity of Nature
The uniformity of nature depends on God’s faithful sustaining of creation. “While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, winter and summer… shall not cease” (Genesis 8:22, NKJV).

This promise ensures regularity in the natural world. God upholds all things: “In Him all things consist” (Colossians 1:17, NKJV). Because God is consistent, creation operates in predictable ways, making science and observation possible. Without God’s continual governance, uniformity would have no foundation.

Because God upholds nature (and the universe as a whole) in particular, predictable ways, this is what makes science methodology possible. We can observe and repeat experiments with great precision. And it allows us to make prediction based on this—not prophetic by any means, but scientific prediction (i.e., will it rain tomorrow based on our current observable data and repeated experiments by which we used previous weather data to develop our models).

A logical God upholds all things in a uniform way just as He promised in Genesis 8:22; Image requested by Bodie Hodge (ChatGPT)

Borrowed By The World

From a strictly materialistic worldview (atheism, naturalism, secular humanism), these concepts have no ultimate foundation—they can only be described, not justified.

If reality is only matter, energy, time, and chance, then truth reduces to brain states shaped by survival, not correspondence to an objective standard. There is no reason to assume our thoughts reliably track reality rather than merely aid survival. Yet materialists still depend on truth as if it is objective.

Absolute morality cannot exist in a purely material world. If humans are the result of unguided processes, moral values are products of evolution or social agreement. What is called “right” or “wrong” becomes preference or utility, not binding truth. At best, morality becomes consensus, which could then change at any moment. Relative morality becomes a decay or a cancels that destroys relationships, institutions, and cultures quickly.

Logic presents a major difficulty. The laws of logic are immaterial, universal, and invariant. In a materialistic system, everything is physical and changing, so there is no clear basis for universal, unchanging logical laws. Yet reasoning itself depends on them!

Knowledge also becomes uncertain. If the human mind is the unintended product of survival processes, there is no guarantee it produces true beliefs (or more precisely justified true beliefs). Knowledge collapses into probability or usefulness, not certainty.

Honor, respect, and dignity lose any objective grounding. If humans are simply advanced animals, there is no inherent worth beyond function or societal assignment. Concepts like “human rights” become inventions, not realities. They may be useful for temporary social stability, but they are not binding in any ultimate sense.

Finally, uniformity of nature—the assumption that the future will resemble the past—cannot be proven in a materialistic framework. It is an assumption, not a necessity. Science depends on this consistency, yet materialism cannot explain why nature should behave uniformly rather than randomly. In simplicity, doing science would be impossible since the laws of nature could change at any moment.  

In practice, secular systems borrow these concepts because they are necessary for reasoning, ethics, and science. Though not discussed, other religious systems around the world also borrow these concepts from the Bible—usually unwittingly. Nevertheless, within a strictly materialistic worldview, they are ultimately unjustified assumptions. They function, but lack a sufficient foundation or ultimate basis to explain why they should exist or be universally binding.

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Bodie Hodge, Ken Ham's son in law, has been an apologist defending 6-day creation and opposing evolution since 1998. He spent 21 years working at Answers in Genesis as a speaker, writer, and researcher as well as a founding news anchor for Answers News. He was also head of the Oversight Council.  

Bodie launched Biblical Authority Ministries in 2015 as a personal website and it was organized officially in 2025 as a 501(c)(3). He has spoken on multiple continents and hosts of US states in churches, colleges, and universities. He is married with four children.

Mr. Hodge earned a Bachelor and Master of Science degrees from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale (SIUC). Then he taught at SIUC for a couple of years as a Visiting Instructor teaching all levels of undergraduate engineering and running a materials lab and a CAD lab. He did research on advanced ceramic materials to develop a new method of production of titanium diboride with a grant from Lockheed Martin. He worked as a Test Engineer for Caterpillar, Inc., prior to entering full-time ministry.

His love of science was coupled with a love of history, philosophy, and theology. For about one year of his life, Bodie was editing and updating a theological, historical, and scientific dictionary/encyclopedia for AI use and training. Mr. Hodge has over 25 years of experience in writing, speaking and researching in these fields.

 

Uniformitarianism And Its Religious Undertones

Uniformitarianism And Its Religious Undertones

Bodie Hodge, M.Sc., B.Sc., PEI

Biblical Authority Ministries, September 30, 2025 (Donate)

What do big bang, millions of years, an ice age that goes back over 10,000 years have in common? They are all build on a concept. Not just any concept, but a religious concept called “uniformitarianism”.

Land features scraped from the Ice Age in Kungshamn, Sweden; Photo by Bodie Hodge

You can’t see uniformitarianism and can’t hear it or touch it or taste it—like I mentioned, it is conceptual. But this concept shapes so much of how the secular world thinks—particularly origins. Because the world uses this concept so much, it pervades our culture and sadly, many of us have been influenced by it one way or another.

What Is Uniformitarianism?

Uniformitarianism is the belief that the geological processes we observe today—like erosion and sedimentation—have occurred at the same rates and in the same ways throughout earth’s history. In other words, it assumes the process we see today have been “uniform” throughout the past.

Image requested by Bodie Hodge (ChatGPT)

Thus, it is a belief system about the past that is not observed and therefore not scientific. Instead, it is religious. And you may not realize this but it is a common religious view within the secular humanistic families of religion (e.g., materialism, naturalism, secularism, etc.).

This religious idea or concept is often summarized by the phrase: “The present is the key to the past.” This is in opposition to the biblical concept of the past is the key to the present (e.g., why do we wear clothes, a past event in Genesis 3; why are there massive rock layers with fossils, a global Flood in the past; etc.).

Uniformitarianism also goes hand in hand with certain naturalistic assumptions. Naturalism (nature is all that exists) and uniformitarianism (that naturals processes are uniform) are like sisters in secular-based religions. As examples:

• Earth’s features (like canyons, rock layers, and mountains) were formed slowly over millions of years.
• Catastrophic events (like local or regional floods, tsunamis and earthquakes, or volcanic eruptions) are generally excluded as major shaping forces in earth’s past.
• Time, not extraordinary events like the global Flood of Noah’s day and its aftermath which led to the post-Flood Ice Age, is the primary driver of geological change.

This philosophy was spearheaded in the late 18^th and early 19^th centuries, especially by people like James Hutton and Charles Lyell, and strongly influenced Charles Darwin’s thinking on biological evolution whose prominence rose from the 1850s-1870s.

Why Is Uniformitarianism Considered Bad From A Biblical Perspective?

Uniformitarianism is a philosophy (i.e., conceptual idea that is technically religious) that stands in contradiction with God’s Word.

For example, the adherents of the religion of uniformitarianism denies the biblical narrative of the global Flood. The Bible, particularly in Genesis 6-8, describes the global Flood in Noah’s day that catastrophically reshaped the earth’s surface (see also Psalm 104:8-9). Leaders of uniformitarianism, thinking in light of their religious perspective, dismiss such events as myths or regional incidents, contradicting Scripture.

Also, this secular religion inherently has old-earth assumptions. Uniformitarianism requires a belief in millions and billions of years of earth history. This contradicts the biblical creation timeline that is exegeted from biblical genealogies, and puts the earth's age at around 6,000 years from today.

Uniformitarianism also undermines biblical authority. By adopting naturalistic explanations for the origin of geological formations, the religion of uniformitarianism is being used to replace the Bible’s historical account with autonomous human reasoning. This shift can cause Christians to compromise on scriptural truth if they start buying to uniformitarian thinking.

Uniformitarianists largely ignores observable catastrophes when it comes to ancient origins. Even observable events like the rapid formation of canyons (e.g., at Mount St. Helens) show that massive geological changes can occur quickly, not slowly over eons.

Nevertheless, these modern catastrophes are a confirmation of the possibility that past geological features may also be the result of rapid, catastrophic events—especially the global Flood. Yet these are usually overlooked by uniformitarians when trying to discuss or understand geology from ages past.

As A Caveat: Uniformitarianism Vs. Uniformity

Some hear about the problems with uniformitarianism and falsely make the assumption that this means that uniformity of nature is equally bad. But one needs to be careful here.

Uniformitarianism and uniformity of nature are two distinct concepts that are often confused but must be clearly delineated—especially in the context of biblical creation and science. Let me explain.

Uniformitarianism

Uniformitarianism is a philosophical and religious assumption about the past, particularly in geology. Adherents of this view asserts that natural processes (like erosion or sedimentation) have always occurred in the same way and at the same rate as observed today (on a normal day, not a flood day for instance).

This idea (“the present is the key to the past”) leads to interpretations of earth’s features as having formed over long ages slowly over millions of years. Recall, it excludes the possibility of past global catastrophes like the Flood of Noah’s day described in Scripture. Uniformity of nature is much different.

Uniformity Of Nature

Uniformity of nature, on the other hand, is a biblical concept that refers to the regularity and reliability of natural laws in the present. Laws of nature can be summed up as the way that God upholds His creation—and we can test these laws and describe them.

This regularity allows scientists to conduct repeatable experiments and make predictions—because the physical laws of the universe operate consistently. Most fields of science were developed by Bible-believing Christians who understood this biblical concept.

Uniformity is rooted in the faithfulness of God as Creator and Sustainer (Colossians 1:17, Genesis 8:22), not in random chance or blind processes as in secular religions where laws changed in the past (e.g., no laws, then laws at the big bang; and they will change again in the future at a big crunch/heat death).

So key differences can be summed up as:

• Uniformitarianism deals with unobserved past events while assuming a religiously naturalistic framework that denies biblical history.
• Uniformity of nature deals with the observable present and is essential for operational (observable, repeatable, and testable) science (e.g., chemistry, biology, physics, engineering) which is in line with biblical teachings.

Conclusion

In short, uniformity of nature is good and uniformitarianism, due to its false assumptions and naturalistic religious concepts, is problematic. Uniformitarianism is a flawed from its onset and thus, it is self-refuting.

Uniformitarianism is engrained with secular religious philosophy that distorts true history and undermines the biblical worldview. This religious concept should be questioned by serious scientists who work in fields like geology.

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Bodie Hodge, Ken Ham's son in law, has been an apologist since 1998 helping out in various churches and running an apologetics website. He spent 21 years working at Answers in Genesis as a speaker, writer, and researcher as well as a founding news anchor for Answers News. He was also head of the Oversight Council. 

Bodie launched Biblical Authority Ministries in 2015 as a personal website and it was organized officially in 2025 as a 501(c)(3). He has spoken on multiple continents and hosts of US states in churches, colleges, and universities. He is married with four children.