Note: All of the articles below have a link to a downloadable PDF version at the end of each article.
By Richie Temple
Cary, North Carolina
One of the most well known and important verses of the Bible is set forth in the very first Book of the Old Testament:
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth (Gen. 1:1, NIV).
Though this verse is often thought to be out of date by today’s modern secular world, in actuality it sets forth the foundation for understanding life and for understanding mankind’s relationship to his creator, God. In short, the central and foundational truth for both understanding the Bible and for living life successfully is to know that there is a personal and sovereign God who created the heavens and earth, along with all its inhabitants, with a godly and loving purpose in mind.
To ignore this central truth of life is to doom oneself and one’s society to a meaningless existence with all the consequences that inevitably result from such a point of view. In fact, the Books of Psalms and Proverbs are clear in their characterization of those who reject this central truth set forth in Genesis 1:1:
The fool has said in his heart, ‘there is no God.” (Psalms 14:1)
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline. (Prov. 1:7)
According to the Bible, all true life is built on belief in the one true God of the Bible and all meaning in life is derived from a reverence for that God. In short, apart from a knowledge and reverence for the one God of the Bible a person is destined for a life of confusion, discontentment, and ultimate destruction. It would, therefore, be the height of foolishness to choose any other path than to live one’s life in a proper faith relationship with God.
Since the created world itself testifies to God’s “eternal power and divine nature” (Rom. 1:19-20), the most “rational” of all thinking is to build and frame one’s life on faith in God and to seek to know and live for him. The apostle Paul set forth this plain and simple truth in his testimony to the “very religious” - yet skeptical – citizens of ancient Athens in Acts 17.
“Men of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: ‘To an Unknown God.’ Now what you worship as something unknown I am going to proclaim to you.
“The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. From one man he made every nation of earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’
“Therefore since we are God’s offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone – an image made by man’s design and skill. In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead.”
There are several interesting points in Paul’s argument to the ancient Athenians that are still very relevant for us today. As Christian believers we live in the midst of a world dominated by pagan religious belief on the one hand, or by evolutionary and scientific naturalistic philosophy – i.e., modernism - on the other. Anyone who has had to deal with the politically and religiously “correct” idea that “all religions of the world are good and equal”; or on the other hand, the so-called rationalistic idea that “there is no God, and the world evolved out of nothing,” should take note of what Paul had to say on these subjects.
First, from Paul’s perspective all religions of the world not built on the knowledge and reverence for the one true God are perversions of the truth and lead to a downward spiral of idolatry, spiritual blindness, sin, and finally, destruction. These truths are not only plainly evident in the history of the world they all stare us the face at the beginning of the 21st century. This understanding of the spiritual roots of the problems of the world – beginning with a refusal to acknowledge and live for the one true God – are repeated over and over in the Bible and are crystal clear from Paul’s teaching as set forth in Romans chapter one:
“The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities – his eternal power and divine nature – have been seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.
“For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.
“Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshipped and served created things rather than the Creator – who is forever praised. Amen.” (Rom. 1:18-25).
Second, even apart from having a knowledge of the Scriptures a truly rational person should realize from God’s created order that there must be a God and then, logically, he would seek to know that God in a personal way. Paul says that God has made this knowledge “plain” to mankind and failure to acknowledge this is willful “ignorance.” Those who go down any other path are simply “fools” – self-deluded and deceived - and are on the road to idolatry of self, of nature, of possessions, or, of other gods.
It is almost startling to see the simplicity with which Paul views this subject. He cuts right to the heart of the matter and allows for “no excuse” on the part of mankind. The knowledge of God is available for those who choose to acknowledge the “plain” truth that all of God’s creation testifies to. God’s creation demands that we “seek him” and, as Christ himself stated, “those who seek will find.” The Book of Ecclesiastes sums up these truths:
“Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.
For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil.” (Eccl. 12:13-14)
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By Richie Temple
Cary, North Carolina
There are few more controversial chapters in the entire Bible than the first three chapters of the Book of Genesis. However, if one reads the Bible from the perspective that it is indeed inspired by God, it should be possible to find broad agreement amongst Christians on the fundamental, or first, principles that these chapters set forth. Most Bible believing Christians would agree that the first three chapters of the Book of Genesis set forth the foundational truths for understanding the rest of the Bible. In fact, the truths taught in these chapters are confirmed over and over again both in the pages of the Old Testament and New Testament Scriptures, including by Christ himself. In short, to understand the origins of life, the universe, and God’s purposes for both mankind and his entire creation we simply must have a firm understanding of the creation account of Genesis chapters one through three.
Having been a student of the Bible for some 30 years now I would like to offer my own views on the proper understanding of these chapters. At the same time, I would also like to invite our readers to send articles and letters about what they have learned about these chapters in Genesis for possible publication in a future issue of The Unity of the Spirit devoted entirely to this subject.
Fundamental Principles of Interpretation
Let me begin by stating a few basic and fundamental principles of biblical interpretation that should be kept in the forefront of our minds whenever we read the Bible:
All Scripture is inspired by God, including Genesis 1-3. This truth is first set forth in the Old Testament and then later confirmed by Christ himself and the NT writers.
All biblical writings must be understood according to the original intent of the biblical writer and should not be changed in order to fit modern conceptions of either science, archeology, history, or any other field of learning. A biblical text means what the writer meant for it to mean, plain and simple. The best way to begin to understand any section of scripture is to read it over and over and many times so as to gain an overall feel of the big picture and of the main ideas that are being conveyed.
All languages and literature express ideas in a combination of both literal and figurative language. Where the language is literal the meaning is to be taken plainly as set forth. However, figurative language must be understood according the literary conceptions or imagery of the time of the writer. Figurative language, however, is no less true than literal language. It emphasizes or calls attention to facts or truths that would otherwise be much less meaningful to us, or else, could even be beyond our understanding in a literal sense. We use figurative language every day and we do so in order to express truths or facts in ways that are more vivid or expressive than the literal statement or facts themselves would be understood. G.B. Caird’s book The Language and Imagery of the Bible is extremely helpful in understanding the usage of figurative language in the Bible. I highly recommend it.
No one particular biblical passage necessarily presents all the truth concerning any biblical event or topic. As with the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, any one particular biblical passage only presents that particular narrative or truth from one perspective. A fuller perspective can be gained from other biblical passages relating to the same topic. This is true when comparing Genesis one and two with each other and is also true when many other biblical passages about creation are compared.
Biblical revelation is progressive. It begins with an ancient understanding about God and his purposes and progresses throughout the Old Testament until the Word is made flesh in the person of Jesus Christ as recorded in the pages of the New Testament. Only with the coming of Jesus Christ is the invisible God and his true and ultimate purposes for mankind fully revealed. It is “in Christ” that the Old Testament “shadow” is removed and the true “reality” revealed in its fullest sense.
First Principles of Genesis Chapters 1-3
On the basis of these fundamental principles of biblical interpretation I will now set forth what I believe to be some first principles, or fundamental beliefs, that Genesis sets forth. These are broad principles which I believe that most Christians can, and do, agree on:
There is one and only one true God.
God is a sovereign God who existed before the creation of the heavens and the earth and before the creation of all other forms of life: animal or human.
God created the heavens and earth and all that is within them according to his own divine purpose and plan – not arbitrarily, capriciously, or through chance.
God’s creative acts were carried out through his spoken Word.
The crowning event of God’s creation was the creation of mankind - created in God’s own image and given the responsibility of ruling over the earth in accordance with God’s will.
God’s original creation was very good.
God’s creation and God’s relationship with mankind was corrupted by sin and its consequences, including death.
I will stop here because I think that these basic truths are pretty much all-inclusive of the first principles that could be, and are, agreed on by most Christian believers. In any interpretation or study of Genesis chapters 1-3 these truths should be fundamental. Most other truths could be characterized as details which may, to some degree, depend on how much of the language of these chapters is meant to be understood literally or figuratively.
Pictorial Language and Figurative Expressions in Genesis Chapters One through Three
As with most Christians who have been students of the Bible for many years I am well aware of the controversies amongst sincere Christian believers about literal vs. figurative language in the Bible. However, I will only remind our readers that all languages consist of both literal and figurative language. To say that any particular expression in a language is figurative does not lessen the truth that it conveys; on the contrary, figurative language can, at times, make truth more vivid or real than literal language. I list below some examples that I believe indicate the usage of figurative language or imagery in the first three chapters of Genesis:
The first two verses of Gen. 1 have quite a few features in them that could be intended to be a pictorial presentation of God’s preparation for creating the heavens and earth in six days. First, Gen. 1:1-2 can be translated in at least three different ways and can also be understood in at least three different ways. The traditional rendering as reflected in the KJV, NKJV, etc. states, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. And the earth was without form and void …” The second possible translation which is reflected in many modern translations such as the NRSV and the NAB says, “In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was formless and void …” These two translations leave open the possibility of two possible understandings of Gen. 1:1-2. The first is that Gen. 1:1 be taken as God’s first creative act. Verse 2 would be the result of that creative act – an earth that is formless and void. Then verses 3ff would be the setting in order of God’s creation through forming and filling the heavens and earth. The second option would be that 1:1-2 is a preface to the entire account of creation in six days and that the creation account begins with an already existing earth, though formless and void. The NIV translation is a third option and it reads, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty…” This translation could be interpreted either way as the NIV translators acknowledge. If Gen. 1:1-2 is a preface – which most scholars believe is likely - then verses 1-2 may show God’s creative activity beginning with an earth that is already formless and void existing before the creation of the heavens and earth in six days beginning with verse 3. This would fit with the picture of the Spirit of God “hovering” or “brooding” over the waters – in apparent anticipation of God’s creative acts beginning at verse 3. This would also mean that the earth existing in a formless and void state would be unexplained and thus leave the origins of the earth to an indeterminate past. In other words, when Gen. 1:1-2 begins both God and the earth already exist. This doesn’t mean that God did not create the earth – that would contradict other biblical passages – but it does leave that original creation of the earth to an indeterminate past. This imagery is similar in some respects to other ancient creation stories – though with many important differences as well, especially, the truth of a personal, loving, and caring God bringing his creation into existence according a godly and orderly plan. The vivid imagery of Genesis 1-3 would have fit well in the thought world of the ancient world and it would have been well understood by the people of Israel who first read this account. Readers are urged to compare the different Bible versions of Gen. 1:1-2 and the comments in study Bibles and commentaries for further details.
Genesis chapter one teaches that God created the heavens and earth in six days and rested on the seventh. I believe this record to be true and it is confirmed at other places in the Bible (e.g. Ex. 20:11). These seven days of Genesis may certainly be literal days of 24 hours each; however, they also may simply be representative of a larger pictorial presentation of the whole of God’s creative work. This is especially indicated by the correspondence of days 1 with 3, 2 with 5, and 3 with 6 where the initial creative acts “form” and the corresponding days “fill.” There are also problems with having a solar 24-hour day before the fourth day in which the sun is created. At any rate, such a possible figurative understanding would not mean that it is untrue to say that the world was created in 6 days and on the 7th God rested. There simply may be more behind this language than originally meets the eye, i.e., it may in some sense be expressing truth in a figurative or pictorial manner according to the understanding of the people to whom this was originally written.
Genesis 1:6 speaks of an “expanse” or “dome” which God called “heaven” or “sky”. This seems to portray a primitive understanding of the universe in a way in which it would be viewed from a human perspective and thus understood by ancient man.
God seems to announce major decisions to his heavenly council of angels (“let us” Gen. 1:26, 3:22). Though there are other possible interpretations of these verses the heavenly council interpretation seems most likely. This seems to emphasize the solemnity of these decisions and presents a picture of God being surrounded by his heavenly council – a heavenly council that already exists when God creates the heavens and earth in six days (Cf. Prov. 8 “wisdom” and Job 38:7 “angels” or “sons of God” being present at creation). The point here is that God’s creative activity of Gen. 1 presupposes the existence of angels before the 6 days of creation, and possibly presupposes the existence of the earth as well, though without form and void and covered by waters.
The word “man” (Heb. adam) seems to be a word play all the way through Genesis 1-3. In fact, it seems to represent a possible blending of a historical “first man” with a symbolic “the [representative] man” or “everyman” – a fact brought out by many Bible scholars through the years. (There are also plays on words of other biblical names throughout Genesis and the Bible). In addition, after “the man’s” expulsion from the Garden of Eden in Gen. 3, chapter 4 seems to relate the account of Adam’s children as though there are other people present already on the earth – e.g., the land of Nod (Gen. 4:16-17). This type of literary device would fit well in the literature of the ancient world. It should be emphasized, however, that the NT regards Adam both as a real man, the first man, and the representative man.
Genesis 3:8 depicts God as “walking in the garden in the cool of the day”. Once again, this must be figurative language because it does not accord well with what the New Testament teaches us about he true nature of God – that is, that he is spirit, invisible, and without form. In fact, though the Old Testament speaks several times of seeing God, the New Testament insists that in reality God is a God “whom no one has seen or can see” (I Tim. 6).
The serpent of Genesis three is almost certainly imagery behind which Satan stands as the New Testament specifically points out. In fact, Gen. 3 is simply loaded with figurative expressions and language throughout.
Finally, according to Gen. 3:23-24, God drove man out of the Garden of Eden and “placed on east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.” This passage is loaded with imagery and if we were to take it literally we would have to conclude that the Garden of Eden still exists somewhere on earth today (modern Iraq?!) - being guarded by cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth. This is not likely, nor is there any evidence that any believer in the Bible – Old Testament or New – considered that to be the case.
I will stop listing possible figurative elements of Gen. 1-3 here since I’m simply endeavoring to set forth in this article both first principles and possibilities of figurative language in Gen. 1-3 based on the biblical text itself. I will leave those interested with a few suggestions for Study Bibles and commentaries to consult on Gen. Chapters 1-3:
Study Bibles:
The NIV Study Bible and The Harper Collins Study Bible, based on the NRSV, have excellent and both somewhat complimentary and contrasting notes on Gen. 1-3. In addition, I also highly recommend the Roman Catholic The New Jerusalem Study Bible. All of these Study Bibles are loaded with helpful and insightful information based on the original Hebrew text. The scholars who made these Study Bibles are amongst the leading Old Testament scholars in the world and there is much to be gained by studying and comparing their comments. An honest student of the Bible should not be afraid of exploring the truths set forth in Genesis from varying points of view.
Commentaries:
The best commentaries I know of on Genesis are the superb Jewish Publications Society (JPS) Commentary on Genesis, by Nahum Sarna, and The New International Commentary of the Old Testament, Genesis, Vol. I by Victor Hamilton. The first of these is extremely well done and, though expensive, is well worth the money for anyone who is interested in the details of Genesis. Sarna is a renowned Old Testament scholar and the structure of the commentary based on the Hebrew text is extremely unique, enlightening, and interesting. On a simpler level I would recommend the commentary on Genesis in the Tyndale Old Testament Commentary series which is not as detailed as the others but offers sane commentary and good background information by its author Derek Kidner. But there are lots of other commentaries as well and the student of the Bible interested in this topic can either browse in bookstores or browse on-line at CBD, for example, to decide about these commentaries.
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by Richie Temple
Cary, North Carolina
One of the most important themes running throughout the Bible is that God created the world with a purpose in mind. This purpose – accomplished in and through God’s Son - is to bring about a family of children who will share in the glory of God’s goodness forever. Though only progressively revealed during Old Testament times, this purpose is revealed in much greater detail in the pages of the New Testament. Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians sets it forth in all of its beauty:
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chose us in him [Christ] before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight.
In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will – to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding.
And he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment – to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ. (Eph. 1:3-10).
There are several interesting points that can be seen in this section of Scripture. First, it is clear that there is both a spiritual realm and a physical realm in God’s creation. Second, God’s purpose in creation encompasses both of these realms. Third, the fact that there would be a need for the redemption of God’s creation – due to sin - was foreknown before God’s creation. And fourth, God’s plan to accomplish his purpose would be carried out in and through the redemptive work of his Son, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
These truths bring to mind one of the most difficult questions in the history of mankind. It is often called “the problem of evil” and can be posed in the form of a question: Why would a loving and all-powerful God allow evil and suffering to exist in a world that he created? Though this question has often been used by unbelievers as a “proof” against the existence of God, the writers of the Bible simply assume a created order that is set forth in basic form in the first chapters of the Old Testament - with a spiritual and physical realm ruled over by God - and then explained in much fuller detail throughout the Bible, especially in the New Testament. However, nowhere does any biblical writer ever even hint that man understands the full answer to the so-called problem of evil. Instead, throughout the Bible God’s ways are considered higher than our ways and his thoughts, higher than our thoughts. No one was God’s counselor at creation nor does God need to fully reveal his plan to his creatures. As Job stated, after going through the trials of faith that he endured,
“‘I know that you can do all things; no plan of yours can be thwarted. You asked, ‘Who is this that obscures my counsel without knowledge?’ Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know.’”(Job 42:1-3).
When Job, a righteous and godly man, first began to endure his almost unbearable sufferings he tried to reason things out in his own mind based on the limited perspective and understanding he had of God and of God’s justice in the world. Despite the wisdom of much of the reasoning that took place, both Job and his friends were unaware of what was taking place in the spiritual realm; that is, Satan’s accusation of Job, along with God’s allowance of the testing of Job’s faith. The perspective of Job and his friends was limited. Thus, when God does finally answer Job the outcome is not at all what any of the characters in the plot expected. Job was vindicated as being a righteous man, thus contradicting his friends. But, he was wrong about his understanding of God and God’s ways.
Certainly for the Christian believer, as with Job, any attempt to understand the biblical truth about the problem of evil must begin with humility. We must first recognize that God, the Creator, is our Father and that we, his creatures, are his children. While our perspective about any topic in life is limited, God’s perspective is unlimited or eternal. This implies that though we may understand truth to some degree, we as creatures will never understand it to the same degree as the God who created us.
Indeed, throughout the Bible there is a consistent and powerful presentation of the reality of evil and suffering in this world. In fact, the Bible, from among all the great literatures of the world, sets forth the most realistic understanding of the sinfulness of man, the spiritual forces of evil with which we struggle, and the decaying and corrupted natural world in which we live. As Christian believers we should live in the full realization of this state of affairs, but we should also “walk by faith and not by sight” as we look forward to the ultimate fulfillment of God’s plan. Paul’s Letter to the Romans sums up this Christian point of view:
I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay, and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.
We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is not seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently (See Rom. 8:16-25)
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by Ferenc Jeszenszky
Budapest, Hungary
In the mind of a reflecting human being one of the questions that arises almost automatically is that concerning the origin of the world. A special aspect of this question is the origin of life and the origin of biodiversity, i.e. of the amazing richness of the forms of life in our world. In our civilization for a long time the answer came from the Bible: the world was created by God, as it is revealed in the Bible; life came into being by a special creative act of God; and the different forms of life were created by him separately. This answer was found as satisfactory even when the science of nature has begun. The first scientists were people believing in God. They considered the world as created by God; and they considered as their task to study God’s world. E.g. Carl von Linné (1707-1778), the father of botanical taxonomy, was firmly convinced that God created separately every kind of plants.
But later, in the 18th century, a significant turn followed. A new philosophy – that of the "enlightenment” (though a more apt name might be the "obscuration”) – was invented, and this new philosophy tried to interpret the world without its Creator. The fashion of naturalism appeared. That meant that one wanted to interpret every phenomenon of the world by the recently discovered and actually valid natural laws.
Concerning the question of the origin of life and biodiversity, the great turn followed in 1859. After certain generally non accepted experiments of giving a naturalistic interpretation of the origins – we can mention e.g. that of Jean-Baptiste Antoine de Lamarck (1744-1829) – in that year was published Charles Darwin’s (1809-1882) famous (or using a better word: ill-famed) book The Origin of the Species. The ideas expounded in that book very quickly received general acknowledgment. They represent the theory of evolution. According to evolutionism life came into being from the lifeless matter due to natural laws, and biodiversity came into being from the first living cell due to the laws of mutation and selection. That would mean that every living being is the descendant of the original one cell.
Evolutionism spread very quickly, at least in the scientific world, and the educational institutions, from the elementary schools to the universities. In the 20th century those who did not believe in evolutionism were considered as people of unscientific way of thinking, even as slaves of superstitions. Unfortunately, even the legislations and tribunals became the supporters of evolutionism, and this theory was made obligatory in the schools. But in spite of the big success of this theory, there were always scientists who could not accept evolutionism, because they were convinced that it is a scientifically unsatisfactory theory; and there were people faithful to the Bible who never gave up the original biblical vision.
The position that refutes evolutionism and believes in God the Creator is creationism. After a century of slumber, since the 1960s creationism became stronger and stronger. If we study the creationist literature, we find two main topics. The first is the refutation of evolutionism, and not only and not in the first row on the basis of the Bible, but on the basis of a scientific analysis. The second is the comparison of the biblical data and the facts observable in the nature. Creation science has shown that the biblical description of the events accords much more with the observable data then evolutionism.
In the last decades a new turn seems to appear. The criticism of evolutionism has collected grave arguments against this theory, nevertheless the official science did not show the smallest inclination to deal with these arguments. But recently the situation has changed. Formerly the arguments of creationism were left out of consideration on the basis of statements that creationists are obscure fundamentalists. But facts are facts. In the last some years a new group of scientists appeared. These people haven’t asserted at all that they have anything to do with the Bible. On the contrary, they asserted that they are not creationists, nevertheless studying the nature they arrived at the conclusion that they can understand it only by supposing the existence of an Intelligent Designer.
So concerning the opinions nowadays we can speak of three groups. To the first belong people faithful to the Bible; to the second, scientists who under the weight of arguments accept the existence of an Intelligent Designer (which, of course, is only another name for God); and finally, there are the atheists, who adhere to evolutionism because they have no doubt about the fact that if evolutionism falls, they have to accept God’s existence. Studying the history of science, we can plainly see that the motive for setting forth evolutionism was not founded on scientific facts, but on the desire of expelling God from the world.
This threefold division above is entirely in accordance with the words of the Bible. Because of their extraordinary importance and perfection we quote the whole passage:
The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities – his eternal power and divine nature – have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.
For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.
Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desire of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator – who is forever praised. Amen.
Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.
Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey they parents; they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them. (Romans 1:18-32)
What can we infer from these words? First of all, that though God revealed himself above all by his prophets, by his Son and by his Son’s apostles, he revealed himself also by his creation. To recognize God’s revelation is not possible without the special grace of God, but to recognize God in his creation is possible for everybody. So he who doesn’t recognize God is really without excuse.
The evolutionist belongs to this group of humanity. Those who recognized the existence of the Intelligent Designer, have not (we hope, not yet) participated in the redemptive grace, nevertheless they can be called normal people. Some Christians say that those who confess an Intelligent Designer, are only half way between faith and atheism, and they compare them to the deists of the 18th century. They are in some respects right. Nevertheless, if we speak about a way, it is essential to investigate in which direction one moves on it. The deists of the 18th century moved from the faith towards atheism. It seems, people who are actually on the half way, move from atheism towards faith.
We know that the Bible is neither antique nor modern: it is eternal. Yes, if we read the words of the apostle Paul, we have the impression that he is writing about our world. We read about all the sins of our modern world. I don’t want to repeat them, but from lesbianism to every kind of wickedness we find everything, and we find the main shame of our age: people who approve of all these monstrosities. And the root of all these monstrosities is the fact that people are atheist, that they don’t recognize God, who is visible in his creation.
We know that evolutionists often mock creationists that they are stupid. When we hear such words, we must never forget that they are the ones who “claim to be wise”, but ultimately “they are fools”!
There is an opinion according to which it’s true that nowadays evolution is a discredited theory, but when it was formed it was correct. But that opinion isn’t true at all. Evolution is not and never has been a justified theory. Even we can assert that from the first minute of its proclamation one could see that it is not, even cannot be true. And if we read again the biblical section we quoted, we can discover that people who taught it were people who suppressed the truth by their wickedness. That is in accordance with the assertion that in the background of evolutionism there is the wicked intention of denying God. So again: evolutionists “are without excuse.” We should remember such truths when we hear of evolution, intelligent design and creation.
Soli Deo Gloria
[To God alone be the glory].
[Ferenc Jeszeszensky is a retired physicist who worked in the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in Budapest, Hungary for many years. He has also been active for many years in lecturing on Creation Science to Christian groups in Hungary and elsewhere including at several of our summer conferences in Poland. ]
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by Richie Temple
Cary, North Carolina
Of all the “trials of faith” that Christians must endure, none has proved more harmful in the last two centuries than that due to the wide acceptance of Darwinian evolution.1 At the beginning of the 19th century the great German writer, statesman and philosopher Goethe made the extremely profound statement that,
“The deepest theme in history has been posed by the conflict between faith and unfaith.” [Lewis Spitz, The Protestant Reformation, p. 1],
Goethe’s words not only described the past that he knew but also a future that was just beginning. Though this spiritual conflict between “faith and unfaith” began in the Book of Genesis and has continued down through the centuries to the present time, it has nowhere come out into the open more vividly than in the debate over Biblical creation vs. Darwinian evolution.
This debate has raged now for almost one hundred and fifty years since the publication of Darwin’s The Origin of Species in 1859. Scientifically today, the Darwinian “unfaith” of materialism – the idea that things made themselves - dominates our universities, public schools and scientific laboratories; however, for the original scientists of the 16th and 17th century Scientific Revolution “faith” in a God who created the world with a purpose in mind seemed “self-evident” from the design of the world around them. Let’s look at a couple of examples:
“This most beautiful system of the sun, planets and comets could only proceed from the counsel and domain of an intelligent and powerful Being.” [Sir Isaac Newton].
“The purpose of the world and all creation is man. I believe that it is for this very reason that God chose the earth, designed as it is for the bearing and nourishing of the Creator’s true image, for revolving among the planets.” [Johannes Kepler]
This view, of course, remains the view of the common man today who professes faith in God. It also continues to be held by thousands of believing scientists around the world. It is not, however, the view of modern science as a whole. Instead, modern science upholds with a passion the atheistic philosophy of materialism.
This modern scientific “unfaith” of materialism had its roots in ancient Greece but only emerged full-blown in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. It was inspired by the humanism and individualism of the Renaissance era and was eventually built on the foundation of the Scientific Revolution which came to full fruition with the work of Isaac Newton in the 16th and 17th centuries. Despite the fact that the Scientific Revolution’s most famous scientists such as Kepler, Newton, Leibniz and Locke all fervently believed in a God who created and governed the world, the system of natural laws that they described was transformed during the Enlightenment period of the 18th century into first, deism, and then finally, materialism.
Deism was the religion of Enlightenment philosophers such as Voltaire and others. It taught that God was the grand watchmaker who had created the world to run on natural laws and then stepped back to let it run on its own - without his active and personal involvement – just like a clock. Since this made God a sort of Constitutional Monarch without any real power a practical atheism thus set in. From there it was an easy step into the materialism of the late 18th century and beyond. For if man, in fact, possessed the power of reason, there seemed to be no real need for God at all. Instead, it seemed more likely to some natural philosophers (scientists) of the 18th and 19th centuries that the simple cause and effect interactions of matter brought about the world that we see - apart from God altogether. Or, in simple English, “things made themselves.”
The list of ‘isms” that has grown out of this supposedly scientific worldview reads like a veritable smorgasbord of modern words that have “unfaith” at their core. Theses words include: “atheism,” “agnosticism,” “materialism,” “naturalism,” “communism” “secularism” and “humanism.” All of these words have either been invented or reinvented over the last few centuries. Put them together in any combination that you like – e.g., “secular humanism” - and you pretty much come out with the same thing: a worldview that is based on and proceeds from “unfaith.”
But the single most important factor in supporting these “isms” was the supposedly scientific materialistic underpinnings for these philosophies provided by Darwin’s work The Origin of Species. As the famous Darwinian advocate Richard Dawkins recently stated,
“although atheism might have been logically tenable before Darwin, Darwin made it possible to be an intellectually fulfilled atheist.” [Dawkins, The Blind Watchmaker, p. 6]
Or, so at least, says Dawkins. In this article we will examine whether or not Darwin’s materialistic “unfaith” really is a logical and viable alternative to the traditional biblical “faith” in a God who created the world with a purpose in mind.
“Faith” in Biblical Creation
The Bible clearly teaches that there is an all-powerful, loving and personal God who created the world with a purpose in mind. The first sentence of the Bible boldly sets out the truth that God is the Creator and the rest of Genesis chapters 1-2 sets out the design and purpose of God’s creation. Thus Genesis 1:1 -
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. (Gen. 1:1).
- becomes the foundation for the rest of the Bible and, at the same time, the foundation of our faith. For based on the clear teaching of the Word of God the response of the believer when we look at the world is –
By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible. (Heb. 11:3).
Thus, the Bible teaches that there is a God, who is spirit and invisible, who has created both an invisible spiritual world and a visible, physical world through his purposeful and powerful Word (Cf. John 1:1-3). Though we experience the physical world through our senses we understand its origin, meaning and purpose through faith in God’s Word.
The Bible also teaches, however, that all people can know that there is a God who is “eternal in power” and “divine in nature” because of the created order and design of the heavens and earth. This knowledge should lead a person to “seek God” and when they do, they will find him for God desires for “all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.” (I Tim. 2:4). God’s created order can be the first step in coming to know God for those who do not have immediate access to God’s Word. Things cannot “create themselves” and the idea that the world we know could have evolved from non-life “particles to people” is simply nonsense. This is “plain” and “self-evident” from God’s creation itself and only willful ignorance based on human decision and spiritual deception could bring any human being to such a worldview. This, of course, is exactly what both the Old and New Testaments teach:
The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge.
There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard.
Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world. (Psalm 19:1-4).
The knowledge of God is made manifest by the heavens and earth; there is no place – irrespective of race, language, or culture – where this knowledge of God cannot be known for those who desire to know God.
As Paul’s Letter to the Romans states every person who rejects this self-evident knowledge of God is “without excuse” before God because God has made this knowledge “plain” to all mankind. If man rejects this knowledge of God he starts down the road of “professing to be wise” but “becoming a fool,” of giving oneself over to “impurity” and, finally, to “worshipping and serving created things rather than the Creator.” (Rom. 1:18ff.) The history of Darwinism in the last two centuries –which has done so much to destroy biblical faith - shows that this is exactly what has happened for those who have embraced the all encompassing world-view of materialistic atheism and Darwinian evolution.
“Un-faith” in Darwinian Evolution
In looking at the world and how all of its beauty, order and diversity has come about one must make a choice: whether to accept the self-evident truth that there must be a Creator, or else, to find some other explanation - apart from God - as to how the world and all of life’s beauty, order and diversity has come about. This is exactly what Darwin set out to do. The basic premise of Darwinian evolution is that all living things have descended from one [or a few] original life-form by a process of random mutation and natural selection. Though some scientists have tried to combine the idea of God as Creator with that of Darwinian evolution, it has also generally been assumed by Darwinian scientists that the first living organism somehow arose from non-living matter and that the material universe arose through purely materialistic means such as via the Big Bang. In other words, there is no place for God in the normal scientific scheme of things based on Darwinian evolution.
This conscious choice to exclude God in the conduct of “science” is indicated by the following representative quote by the famous Harvard biologist Richard Lewotin:
“We take the side of [materialistic] science in spite of the patent absurdity of some of its constructs, in spite of its failure to fulfill many of its extravagant promises of health and life, in spite of the tolerance of the scientific community for unsubstantiated just-so stories, because we have a priori commitment, a commitment to materialism. It is not that the methods and institutions of science somehow compel us to accept a material explanation of the phenomenal world, but, on the contrary, that we are forced by our a priori adherence to material causes to create an apparatus of investigation and a set of concepts that produce material explanations, no matter how counter-intuitive, no matter how mystifying to the uninitiated. Moreover, that materialism is an absolute, for we cannot allow a Divine Foot in the door.” [Richard Lewontin, “Billions and Billions of Demons,” The New York Review, Jan. 9, 1997, p. 31].
Now to exclude God or spiritual causes in conducting experiments for applied science is logical; however, to exclude God or spiritual causes in the attempt to understand the origin, meaning, and purpose of the universe - and of life itself - is patently absurd for such an assumption necessarily rules out from the beginning finding the most obvious explanation of all - God.
But just what are the chances that the universe and life as we know it could have arisen from “things making themselves”? In fact, it is no secret amongst Darwinian evolutionists that the statistical probability of the world as we know it evolving “from particles to people” is practically zero. In fact, so unlikely is this scenario on the basis of statistical probability that by an ironic twist of logic the “unfaith” of Darwinian evolution based on atheistic materialism really becomes the “blind faith” of a person searching for any possible explanation for the natural order of the universe except for the one explanation that is both obvious and self-evident - God. In other words, Darwinian evolution is more like a “pseudo religion” based on blind faith and conjecture, rather than on solid scientific evidence that supports its suppositions.
The literature of those who promote Darwinian evolution is simply loaded with admissions that the probability of evolution “from particles to people” actually occurring is practically zero. Indeed, the famous scientists Francis Crick, L.M. Murkhin and Carl Sagan have estimated that the difficulty of a human evolving by chance processes alone is one in 10 to the negative 2,000,000,000th – which Borel’s law says is no chance at all. Let’s look at some quotes from some famous scientists that show just what a “leap of faith” Darwinian evolution, in fact, is:
“An honest man, armed with all the knowledge available to us now, could only state that in some sense, the origin of life appears at the moment to be almost a miracle, so many are the conditions which would have had to have been satisfied to get it going” [Francis Crick, Nobel Prize winner and co-discoverer of the structure of the DNA molecule.]
“The chance that higher life forms might have emerged in this way [through Darwinian evolution] is comparable with the chance that ‘a tornado sweeping through a junk-yard might assemble a Boeing 747 from the material therein’”. [Sir Fred Hoyle, founder of the Cambridge Institute of Theoretical Astronomy and originator of the steady state theory of the origin of the universe].
But surely, as we’ve all been led to believe in our schools, the fossil record provides solid proof for Darwinian evolution, does it not? The late paleontologist Stephen J. Gould, sometimes called “Mr. Evolution,” in a moment of unguarded candor puts the lie to this idea by citing the reality of what the fossil record actually shows:
“The extreme rarity of transitional forms in the fossil record persist as the trade secret of paleontology. The evolutionary trees that adorn our textbooks have data only at the tips and nodes of their branches … Most species exhibit no directional change during their tenure on earth … in any local area, the species does not arise gradually by the steady transformation of its ancestors; it appears all at once and ‘fully formed’”.
In other words, the fossil record does not in fact show gradual evolution but, if it can be relied on to show much of anything at all, it shows fully developed life-forms with only limited variation within each group – just as the Bible’s wording “according to their kinds” (Gen. 1) would indicate. Why then does science not recognize the likely possibility – at least as an alternative theory to Darwinian evolution – that the universe and life in all its variety are the result of the intelligent design of a creator God? It is entirely a result of philosophical bias: the conscious choice to exclude the possibility of intelligent design theory and its obvious connotation that there must be a creator God that designed his creation. This is plainly evident in all Darwinian evolutionary literature, for as Richard Dawkins states, all schools of Darwinian thought,
“despise so-called scientific creationists equally” and though they all agree that “the only alternative explanation … is divine creation” they would all “reject this alternative.” [The Blind Watchmaker p. 230].
Why this rejection? Because of the philosophical bias of “unfaith” in materialistic Darwinian evolution, despite the infinitesimal odds against it. In fact, when the subject is closely studied Darwinian evolution seems to be the greatest “leap of faith” of all. As Phillip E. Johnson concluded in his seminal work, Darwin on Trial,
“Darwinist scientists believe that the cosmos is a closed system of material causes and effects, and they believe that science must be able to provide a naturalistic explanation for the wonders of biology that appears to have been designed for a purpose. Without assuming these beliefs they could not deduce that common ancestors once existed for all the major groups of the biological world, or that random mutations and natural selection can substitute for an intelligent designer. Neither of these foundational beliefs is empirically testable and … neither belongs in the science classroom.” [p. 146].
Neither faith in Darwinian evolution nor biblical faith in God as Creator can be “proved” scientifically. But who says that the scientific method is the only way to know the truth? This is a modern invention of the Enlightenment. Its only source of validity is the reasoning of man. The Bible teaches that God has “made it plain” to mankind that there is a God with eternal power and who is divine in nature. Either we accept this self-evident knowledge and the testimony of Biblical revelation and begin our quest to know that God, or else we reject it and begin looking for the next best explanation [rationalization] that can be found.
But the choice is not really that hard. God’s glorious creation appeals to our common sense and intuition. So, for example, go to the beach; get up early in the morning; go out and watch the sun rise up “out” of the ocean in the east; then watch it proceed majestically across the sky; and, finally, see it set in the west in all its beauty and glory. Then ask yourself the question: is it more likely that this happened by random chance and through strictly unguided materialistic causes or that God has created the universe with a design and purpose in mind? On this self-evident and common sense truth I will rest my case. It is simply the choice of “faith” in the self-evident truth that there is a Creator God or else in the blind “unfaith” that the world, man and all of life is simply the product of chance with no intrinsic meaning or purpose at all.
[All quotations not otherwise given reference are from the excellent “Appendix” in The Creation Hypothesis, IVP, pp. 270-293].
Footnote
The Bible presents its creation accounts in pictorial and, often, poetic language according to the understanding of the people to whom these accounts were first addressed (e.g. Gen. 1-2, Proverbs 8, Psalm 8, Job 38-41, etc.). It has nothing specifically to say about the subject of evolution. If one takes the biblical phrase “according to their kinds” (Gen. 1) as the basis of life-forms, then a certain type of small-change or micro-evolution could take place within that context from that point onwards. However, Darwinian evolution which postulates evolution arising from one or a few original life forms and proceeding according to random mutation and natural selection is a direct contradiction of the biblical accounts of creation which show life to have been created supernaturally according to the purpose, will and design of a Creator God.
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