He Created All Things
Colossians 1:16-17
A young lady wrote to Dr. Laura Schlessinger this past week with the following question:
I'm a little embarrassed about this, but here goes: I believe in God. I pray, and I work very hard to follow God's commandments. However, neighbors and people at work tell me believing in God is just plain silly. They say that biochemical and biophysical laws are enough to explain the world and the origin of life. I really don't know what to say back. Do you have any suggestions?
Dr. Laura wrote back to the young lady and said,
There's an old rabbi's tale which moved me and might help you with your problem.
It seems that a learned philosopher approached a well-respected rabbi and told him that he didn't believe in God and that the universe, the world and life all came into being through natural means, without outside intervention.
The rabbi said nothing in reply, but some time later returned to the philosopher with a profoundly moving poem written on parchment in the most glorious calligraphy
The philosopher, seriously impressed, inquired as to the artist and poet. The rabbi told him that there was no poet or artist. He explained that the paper was lying on his desk when a cat knocked over the inkwell.
The philosopher said, "That's simply impossible. Somebody must have written the poem and somebody obviously put it to paper!" The rabbi replied: "You said yourself that the universe, the world and life, which are more beautiful and wondrous than any poem, came into being by themselves. Why do you doubt the same for this simple, humble poem?" (Edmond Evening Sun, Thursday, September 18, 1997)
Paul makes no mistake about the creation of everything that has ever been existence when, in Colossians 1:16-17, he writes,
For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. {17} He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. (Col 1:16-17 NIV)
This morning I want to invite you to join me on a trip. It is a trip that no travel agent could ever book for you. If you traveled the world and took in all of creation's wondrous sights you could never see the sights that I want to show you this morning. Are you willing? Would you like to come along? Come on, let's head out on a trip of a lifetime.
As we leave for our trip this morning I want to show you things that are literally "out of this world." Our first stop, the universe. As we peer out through space we see some of the marvels of the Creator's handiwork.
I have been to Colorado on a clear summer night when it appeared that I could reach out and touch the stars that hung in their place overhead. Scientists tell us that if you were to travel around the planet and count every star in the sky, they would number about 4000 on a clear night. We can see 4000 of the Creator's stars, but scientists have also concluded that there are approximately 100 billion stars in our galaxy, the Milky Way. 100 billion stars! That is a lot of stars folks! But that is just in our galaxy. Scientists have also concluded that there are more than 100 billion galaxies besides our own. 100 billion stars times 100 billion galaxies. Should that strike us as strange? God told us in Jeremiah 33:22 that the stars of the sky cannot be numbered.
There are billions of galaxies of the most complex structures - 500 billion light years long and 20 billion light years high!
From the outer most parts of creation let's head back to our own galaxy, the Milky Way. The Sun contains 99.85% of all the matter in the Solar System. The Sun is so large that you could put 1.3 million Earth's inside of it and still have room. The Sun's core is 27 million degrees Fahrenheit and on it's surface, called the photosphere, the temperature is a cool 11,000 degrees Fahrenheit. The pressure on the Sun's surface is 340 billion times that of the Earth's at the Equator. Such high pressure coupled with such intense heat causes nuclear reactions on a regular basis.
It is the Sun that gives us our life sustaining heat that makes life on planet Earth possible. The Sun is located 93.2 million miles away from Earth. If the distance of the Earth from the Sun were to change by a mere 2%, life on Earth would cease immediately. Any closer and all of life would burn up. Any further and life would be frozen for eternity.
Speaking of Earth, let's jump aboard and head off for our next stop, home, planet Earth. As we stop on this most remarkable planet, we've not really stopped - we are still traveling at 67,000 miles per hour, the speed that Earth travels through space. Earth is the 3rd planet from the Sun at a distance of about 93.2 million miles. It takes 365.256 days for the Earth to travel around the Sun and 23.9345 hours for the Earth rotate a complete revolution. It has a diameter of 7,973 miles.
It is so remarkable how the Creator has so precisely designed things so that life is made possible for you and me. Our planet makes one complete revolution every 24 hours. If we revolved any faster life would look much different on planet Earth. Take for example, Venus, where every ten hours the planet makes one complete revolution. Because of the more rapid rotation Venus experiences 1000 mile per hour winds on a calm day.
There are more than 40 components that make life on Earth possible. Each of the forty must be precisely in place. If any of the more than 40 are out of the realms of possibility then life ceases to exist. Dr. Hugh Ross, an acclaimed astrophysicist says that there is only a one trillionth of one trillionth of one percent chance that there could be life on other planets since all of these forty components are so essential so the existence of life. "Since there are less than a trillion galaxies with one hundred billion stars each, we can see that not even one planet, without the outside help of divine intervention, could possess the necessary conditions to produce life."
Let's move even closer to home. Take a look in the mirror. See the eyes? How about the nose? Gaze at that set of ears. You see them, but do you really realize what a marvel of God's creation they are? Take for example your eyes.
Inside my eye are 107,000,000 cells. 7 million are cones, each loaded to fire off a message to the brain when a few photons of light cross them. Cone give me and you the full band of color awareness, and because of them I can easily distinguish a thousand shades of color.
The other 100,000,000 million cells are rods, backup cells for use in low light settings. When only rods are operating, I do not see color (as on a moonlit night when everything appears to be in shades of gray.) Still I can distinguish a spectrum of light so broad that the brightest light I perceive is a billion times brighter than the dimmest.
When use our eyes everyday, but when was the last time that you considered the marvelous creation and gift it is from our Creator?
Another marvel of God's creation are your ears. The ear makes it possible for you to enjoy your favorite kind of music, listen to your sweetie say, "I love you," and hear a friend over the phone. With our ears we can detect sound frequencies that flutter our eardrums as faintly as a billionth of a centimeter ( a distance one tenth the diameter of a hydrogen atom.) The vibration is transmitted into our inner-ear by three simple little bones - the hammer, the anvil, and the stirrup. When sound hits your ear the piston of bones in your inner-ear vibrates 256 times a second. Further inside of our ear are the cilia, comparable to the rods and cones of the eye. They transmit specific messages to our brain. Our brain combines the messages it receives and allow us to hear.
We could go on and one examining every special little feature of our anatomy and learning how God has so precisely created us, but I would like to take a look at something else. Have you ever wondered what it is that makes you uniquely you? Why, out of 6 billion alive on the face of the planet are unlike anyone else? When we look at the ears or the eyes we are talking about common body parts, but what it is that makes you so unique?
What makes you so special is found in the blue prints for you - the DNA. Walter T. Brown has said that the information programmed into one cell is equivalent to a four thousand-volume library. Now when we multiply four thousand times thirty trillion cells, you begin to understand the complexity of a living human being.
Within every cell of your body, more than 30 trillion cells total, is found the blueprint for you. The DNA carries the plans for constructing you in your own way. If you were to compact all of the DNA in your body you could fit it into a space the size of an ice cube, but if you were to lay your DNA out end to end it would reach from the Earth to the Sun and back - 400 times!
Now you may be wondering, "Where did all of this come from?" Those who have gone before us have had various ideas. Some said that an evil god created all of the material world. Others have said that evolutionary change has brought it all about from the beginnings of a primordial soup. The Bible says, (16) For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him.
An interesting experiment was conducted by one of the most prestigious scientist of our century, Sir Frederick Hoyle, former professor of Cambridge University, the discoverer of the Steady State cosmogony, one of the two major cosmogonies of the twentieth century. He decided to find out what were the probabilities of an entire cell - the simplest living cell - coming into existence anywhere - not merely on the earth - but in the entire history of the universe.
What did he discover? He concluded that the chance of a living cell's coming into existence spontaneously anywhere in the cosmos would take ten to the forty thousandth power years. Anything with less probability than 10 to the fifthieth power is never going to happen in the entire universe, we are told by probability experts. "The chances of a tornado blowing through a junkyard and creating a 747 are vastly greater."
I say that it takes more faith to believe in the theories of evolution than it does to believe that the loving, all-powerful God created all things for His good pleasure. What is truly amazing is that God has not created as unable to see His mighty hand at work. The human brain is an unbelievable creation of Almighty God.
The human brain, which as one writer has pointed out, is capable of containing more information than the twenty-three millions of volumes in the Library of Congress. If a team of scientists and computer programmers were to try to assemble a brain of comparable intelligence and complexity, using the most sophisticated digital and electronic technology known today, it would require a structure the size of the Empire State Building to house it, and it would require more electricity to run than it takes to power a city the size of New York. Yet, even if scientist and programmers were able to create such a computer, it could not produce one original thought. Machines can process information, and they can calculate and offer options, but they can't offer one original thought.
The Bible teaches us that our Creator has thoughtfully created everything that is and that it is He who holds it all together. In verse 17, we read that He holds it all together. The Greek word translated "holds together" is the word, suni,sthmi (sunistemi) translated "recommend, commend, give approval to; hold together, have one's proper place (Col 1.17); be formed, consist (2 Pe 3.5); stand with or beside (Lk 9.32) He is holding it all together. What is it that keeps the earth from moving 2% closer to the sun? Of course, it is the hand of our Savior who is holding everything He has created in its proper place.
The Gnostics of Paul's day taught that matter was evil, everything you see is not of any value, but Paul taught that Jesus not only created it, but that He approves of His creation. When God created the Universe in Genesis He said that all things were good! It is our misuse of God's good creations that brings about such perversion, heartache, and destruction. God has created all things as good, but we must come to understand His purposes if we are ever going to utilize them as good creations.
I hope this morning you have come to see the majesty and glory of our Savior's creative power. The Savior by whom all things were created is the very Savior who has died and been resurrected for you and for me. I pray you will trust Him this morning so that He can created within you a clean heart.
Mike Hays
922 NW 91st
Oklahoma City, OK. 73114
September 8, 1996
