Creation (1)
September 17, 2000 / No. 3011
Dear radio friends,
Recently the State of Kansas Board of Education made a decision to allow the truth of creation by God to be taught in their public schools. The decision pointed out the fact that evolution is, after all, a theory, not scientific fact. The Board reasoned that since so-called creation science and evolutionary science are both unproven theories as to the origin of the world, school boards, communities, and parents ought then to be allowed to teach as they decide on the question of the origin of the world.
A very important fact was thus brought to the attention of the public, a fact which, apparently, has been suppressed in the realms of science and education, and a fact which the opponents of the decision bitterly resented. The fact was this, that evolution is a scientific theory, by the standards of science itself and as defined by the discipline itself. The origin of the world is something which is not scientifically discernible. Science itself admits that it can posit as fact only that which is observable and repeatable. But, plainly, the theory of evolution precludes both. Though a man may reason backwards and speculate over cause and effect and the time needed to produce various changes, nevertheless, no one witnessed the origin of life which the theory of evolution posits.
The evolutionist maintains that, at some point, amino acids and whatnot more collided together and so influenced each other that there was at that moment the production of the first spark of life. Clearly, if such a marvel took place, it was not observable. Not only was it not observable, but it was not repeated. Although many a trained scientific eye has stood watch countless hours over the microscope and lens hoping to witness the inorganic become organic, the rock to breathe, the sand and stone to wiggle as a single life-cell, alas, it has not happened.
The decision taken in Kansas has been held up to ridicule and scorn by many educators, editors, and TV commentators. Misguided religious fervor was said to be behind the decision. Back to the Stone Ages was the jeer made by many self-appointed defenders of free thought and intellectual advance. A setback for science, said some. But worse, bemoaned the opponents of the Kansas decision, the children are being cheated. In their words, Darwin’s amazing theory which, they claim, has been proven time after time, is a necessary foundation upon which the structure and wonder of life sciences rest. The repercussions from this decision, they say, reach beyond the classroom. How will students fare in life when the background of the fundamentals of evolution is questioned? How can students gain the self-confidence necessary to make it in today’s competitive world if the underpinnings of evolution are removed?
Note, all this response when merely the fact is stated that evolution is, after all, a theory. The decision was not so much that creation was the truth, which it is. Nor was the decision that evolution must be banned, though it ought to be. That was not the decision. The decision merely pointed out the fact that evolution is a theory. But, apparently, that was in itself far too much for man to reckon with. And bitter opposition followed.
It is not my point today to enter into, throw my hat into, the ring of this debate. It is not my intention today to offer my opinion on scientific questions or political issues. But, rather, I want to answer one question, a question which, I trust, every Bible-believing child of God feels to be at the very heart of this issue: What does the Bible say about the origin of the world in which you live? That question is the same as this question: What does the living and only God say about the origin of the world? For the Bible is the Word of the living and only God. The Bible expresses His truth. The Bible is not simply the interpretations of men. But the Bible is the declaration of God’s absolute truth. What does the Bible, what does God, say as to the origin of the world?
As the question is straight forward, the answer of the Bible is also straight forward: God made the world. Hebrews 11:3, “Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.” That is God’s answer. The Bible declares (God declares) that there is only one God. Jehovah is His name. His Son is Jesus Christ. And He alone is the deliverer from sin and death. And as the Bible is very clear on those claims, there is one God (God alone) and there is one Savior (Jesus Christ only) and one way of salvation (by the gift of faith in Him), so, the Bible says, there is only one explanation for the origin of the world: God made it.
We read in the Bible (Gen. 1:1), “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” That chapter tells us that in six days of twenty-four hours God gave existence to each creature. He gave existence to them out of nothing, by His Word, and framed them all into a beautiful and harmonious creation. God made the world in all of its manifold aspects and in all of its manifold wonders. God made the many parts of the vast creation. God made the world of time and space, which did not exist before God created them in the beginning. He made the world of heaven and earth. He made the animate (living) things and the inanimate things, the organic and the inorganic. He made the vegetable, mineral, and animal kingdoms. There are humans and angels. All of this God made. All things that can be seen and all things which do appear and exist were made by God. Every grain of sand. Every rock and pebble on the shore. All the vast glaciers and stars. All the galaxies, the insects, the birds, the plants – the origin of all these things is that God made them. Once all these things were not. There was no earth, no planets, sun, stars, time, space. There was only God who is the eternal God. Then God spoke and they sprang into being, for God is the Creator.
We read in Hebrews 11:3 that God framed the world. That is not the usual word in the Bible for God’s work of creation. It is a word which calls our attention to the order and harmony of God’s created work. Creation glorifies God in its order. God made all things in a perfect, well-arranged, and orderly way. Each creature is there exactly as it should be, not by chance. And all creatures are related one to another, so that we may sing of the glory of God and His work, so that the entire universe may serve the purpose for which God made it. He created the movements of planets and galaxies. And He made all the cycles of the creation. Genuine science looks into the creation and discovers all of these things. And the believer is amazed at the glory of God in the creation.
It must not fail to impress us that the creation was a marvelous work of God, thought out in wisdom so that it reveals the wisdom, might, and glory of God. We read in Jeremiah 10:12, “He hath made the earth by his power, he hath established the world by his wisdom, and hath stretched out the heavens by his discretion.” God framed the worlds. It was a work of great wisdom to plan it. It was a work of almighty power to accomplish it, so that all of the creation shouts of the glory of the Creator. We must not accept the notion prevalent today that science has all but ruled out a creator and creation. We must not think that a cool, objective examination of the world does not testify of the Creator but testifies of evolution. A thousand times, No! Creation testifies of God the Creator, inescapably. Romans 1:20 says, “For the invisible things of him [God] from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they [men] are without excuse.” No man can say, “I do not know that God is,” for the entire creation shouts to him that God is. The reason why unbelief does not see the clear testimony in the creation that God made all things by His power is that unbelief holds down the truth. Ephesians 4 tells us that a man’s mind, apart from God’s grace, is darkened. His heart is hard so that he will not see. He refuses to acknowledge what he sees. The problem is hatred of God.
Now, by grace, the eyes of the child of God, your and my eyes, have been opened by the regenerating Spirit of Jesus Christ. Then, looking into the creation, we respond: “My God, how great Thou art! In wisdom, power, and understanding.” Or, as the psalmist put it in Psalm 19, “The heavens declare the glory of God; … day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge.”
Creation glorifies God because God made the world by His word. We read in Hebrews 11:3, “The worlds were framed by the word of God.” How did God create all things? That is an important question. You see, it is not enough to say simply, “God created all things.” Even those who would introduce the theory of evolution into the church and try to marry evolution with the truth of creation would say that God made all things. They would have no problem with that. The important question asked is: “How did God create?” The answer to that is, “By His word.” Or, in the words ofPsalm 33:6 and 9, He spoke, and it was done; He commanded and it stood fast.
I refer to those who would introduce the theory of evolution into the church in the guise of what is called “theistic evolution,” an evolution which purports to do justice to God. This is the idea that God created by guiding the evolutionary process. These will say, “We believe that God created the world all right.” But they stumble over how God made it. The Word of God says that He created it by His word. Instantaneously it came into being, not through a process but because God spoke and it was so. God said, “Let there be light.” And there was light. That is what Genesis 1 says. But with this they want nothing to do. They insist on billions of years of development, idly watched by God, except when He saw that He needed to intervene, to guide, to help along this evolutionary process.
Now this is very important to know. Always opposition to the truth of the Christian religion is focused on the word of God. From the beginning the great adversary of God, the devil, challenged God’s word. He came to Eve with the words: “Yea, hath God said…?” He attacked God’s word. So the attack remains the same. Men question God’s word. Not only do they tell us that Genesis 1 is poetical, it is mythical, it is pre-scientific, it is the attempt of pre-scientific man to explain in a figurative way his faith about God and how God influenced the origin of all things, and on and on they go; but they stumble over it that it was by God’s word that God created. A word of God, when spoken, caused the creature to stand out complete and whole so that when God said, it was so. Those who believe in theistic evolution say, “That can’t be. We believe that things came into existence by development and evolution.”
Not so, according to the word of God – the word of God in Hebrews 11, looking upon Genesis 1 and the oft-repeated words that we find there: “And God said, Let there be light. And it was so.” God created by His word, His powerful, life-giving word, by which He spoke and each creature came into existence, at that moment, exactly as God purposed it because He is God.
Again, Psalm 33:9 tells us, “He spake, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast.” For each creature God spoke a word and it was, it came into being. God did not create in such a way that He spoke and the creature was becoming, in a billion years. No, no! It was so. Instantaneous. When that is denied, that explanation, then immediately one says, No, it was a billion years instead of the six days of Genesis 1, limited by evening and morning, regular, normal, twenty-four hours.
What is being denied is that all things came into being by the word of God. The power of God itself is denied when one falls back on the absurdity of the world coming into existence through a billion-year process. Creation was God calling into being all that God had eternally thought in Himself, speaking a word so that each creature came into being from nothing. Do not stumble over that! For the Bible tells us that not only were all things made by the word of God, but all things are preserved by that same word of God unto the day of judgment (II Pet. 3:7). God must continue to speak. God upholds all things right now by His word. That God upholds all things means that not only did God cause them to come into existence, but it is the hand of God which keeps them in existence. All life is in His hand. And remember that the Bible teaches that it is by this same word of God that He shall speak in the last day as He stands before the graves of His children in Jesus Christ. He shall speak His word, “Come, come forth!” And they shall come forth.
What were the words of Jesus in John 5:28, 29? “Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth….” Why will they come forth? They will come forth because the living Son of God has spoken. And when the living Son of God speaks, it is done. That is our salvation!
The truth of the Bible is very plain. God framed all things, He created all things by His word. Sovereignly, powerfully He spoke so that all things stood forth at the moment that He spoke. For God is the Creator.
That is the truth of God’s Word. Where do you stand? Do you stand in obedience before the living and the true God? You stand right now on God’s earth. You stand and you live within His hands. You are answerable to Him. You are upheld right now and given life by Him.
Those truths ought to cause you to tremble in loving fear before the only God. Get it straight. God made the world. God made you. You are dependent upon God. And you must answer to Him.
The way of salvation the Lord has made plain to us. It is by grace, by the work of His Holy Spirit in the hearts of His own, bringing them to faith in Jesus Christ by which they know their dependence upon God and that they are fallen sinners before God, but find in Jesus Christ, God’s Son, eternal salvation.
Is that where you stand? Then praise God and confess Him as the Creator.
Let us pray.
Father, we thank Thee for Thy holy Word. We pray, O Lord, that we may hold fast to it and that we may not be swept aside by the idle philosophy of men. Amen.