Christ The Creator Series

Creator

Through whom also He made the worlds 1:2

Why believe in creation? Does it matter anyway?

I believe that it is vital for Christians to believe in Creation. Why? What does it matter if we believe that man evolved over millions of years rather than being created suddenly? Many Christians believe that God started off the process of evolution and kept it on track in some way after this. This is called Theistic evolution. Isn’t this enough? No! Theistic evolution poses real problems if we want to be true to the Scriptures - even if we accept some stories as only being allegories. What difference does it make whether one believes the world was created or evolved? Let me read you one person’s viewpoint:

“Christianity is - must be! - totally committed to special creation as described in Genesis, and Christianity must fight with its full might against the theory of evolution. And here is why.

In Romans we read that ‘sin entered the world through one man, and through sin - death, and thus death has spread through the whole human race because everyone has sinned.’ (5:12)

...the whole justification of Jesus’ life and death is predicated on the existence of Adam and the forbidden fruit he and Eve ate. Without the original sin, who needs to be redeemed? Without Adam’s fall into a life of constant sin terminated by death, what purpose is there to Christianity? None.

Even a high school student knows enough about evolution to know that nowhere in the evolutionary description of our origins does there appear an Adam or an Eve or an Eden or a forbidden fruit. Evolution means a development from one form to the next to meet the ever-changing challenges from an ever-changing nature. There is no fall from a previous state of sublime perfection.

Without Adam or original sin, Jesus Christ is reduced to a man with a mission on the wrong planet!”

Who said that? A fervent creationist? No, it was an outspoken evolutionist writing in the American Atheist magazine! Perhaps he understands the issues more clearly than many Christians. It is very important that we are clear. Was Christ merely a man with a mission on the wrong planet? Not at all, He was truly God incarnate on a mission of love to the right planet, as we have already seen in our earlier studies in this chapter.

The atheistic formula for evolution is - matter + evolutionary factors (chance and necessity + mutation + selection + isolation + death) + very long time periods. In the theistic evolutionary view, God is added - matter + evolutionary factors+ very long time periods + God.

In the theistic evolutionary system, God is not the omnipotent Lord of all things, whose Word has to be taken seriously by all men, but He is integrated into evolutionary philosophy. Theistic evolution holds that:

· God used evolution as a means of creating.

· The Bible contains no usable or relevant ideas to guide present-day origins science.

· Evolutionistic pronouncements have priority over biblical statements. The Bible must be reinterpreted when and wherever it contradicts the present scientific consensus.

The Nature of God

The Bible reveals God to us as our Father in Heaven, who is absolutely perfect (Matthew 5:48 Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect), holy (Isaiah 6:3 “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; The whole earth is full of His glory!”), and omnipotent (Jeremiah 32:17 “Ah, Lord GOD! Behold, You have made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and outstretched arm. There is nothing too hard for You.”). The Apostle John tells us that God is love, light, and life (1 John 4:16; 1:5; 1:1-2). When this God creates something, His work is described as very good (Genesis 1:31) and “perfect” (Deuteronomy 32:4). Theistic evolution represents God as shaping the world and all that is in it by suffering and death and, with millions of years of suffering and death before there was even any man or woman to sin. This is like suggesting that Michael Angelo shaped his great sculptures with cannon balls instead of fine tools!

God is relegated to a God of the Gaps

The Bible reveals God as the Prime Cause of all things. For us there is one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we for Him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and through whom we live. (1 Corinthians 8:6).

However, in theistic evolution the only place for God is that which evolution cannot “explain” or the designer working quietly, and very slowly, behind the scenes. In this way He is reduced to being a god of the gaps.

Undermines trustworthiness of God’s Word

We believe that the Bible is the one and only source of truth given and inspired by God. (2 Tim 3:16) The Old Testament prepares us for, and leads us into the New Testament (John 5:39 39 You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me.) The biblical creation account should not be regarded as a myth, a parable, or an Allegory, but as a historical report, because, to give you a few examples: