Faith or Unbelief: The True Root Issue

Genesis 1:1 “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”

Our Wednesday night Apologetics / Theology lesson has come to this conclusion: The root issue is sin, but the true battle in “Creation verses Evolution” is about “Who is sovereign, God or man?” Not physics, but metaphysics. The Creator’s holy Word, Will and Way or our word, will and way? Philosophically, who has ultimate authority? The answer leads to belief or unbelief as the means to the end. 

Quote: “I do not want to believe in God, therefore I choose to believe in that which I know is scientifically impossible, spontaneous generation arising to evolution.” Dr. George Wald, Nobel Prize winner and professor emeritus of biology at Harvard University.

Genesis 1:27 “So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.”

Remove the Biblical account of Creation and replaced it with impersonal naturalistic Evolution and you eliminate God (in their mind). People reject Creator God because His sovereign authority over their life, which they are accountable to, so is offensive. In particular, the judgment and wrath of God, but nowhere do we find God involved in capricious or arbitrary acts of judgment. His wrath is never directed against the innocent. His anger never flows without reason. It is always directed against human rebellion and sin. 

Quote: “Evolution is unproved and improvable. We believe it because the only alternative is special creation, which is unthinkable.” Sir Arthur Keith, physical anthropology and head of the Anatomy Department at London Hospital.

It is ironic that it is “the cross” that reveals the most violent and mysterious outpouring of the wrath of God that we find anywhere in the Scriptures. Here the sinless and innocent Son of God does suffer the wrath of God, but only after He willingly takes upon Himself, by imputation, the sins of the world. Without this act of wrath there is no grace. But it is precisely through this act of wrath that grace is made available for a rebellious people by the mercy of a holy and loving Creator God. If anyone is offended by God, perhaps the fault is not in God but in their own corrupt and distorted sense of values.

Quote: “I suppose the reason we leaped at the origin of species was because the idea of God interfered with our sexual mores.” Sir Julian Huxley, the late president of UNESCO and grandson of Darwin’s colleague Thomas Huxley.

Romans 1:18 “The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness.”

Notice that God’s wrath is not against innocent or ignorance but against ungodliness and wickedness. What kind of wickedness? What is the specific  act that is provoking the divine wrath? The “suppressing of truth”. What truth is being suppressed? The rest of the text provides the answer:

Romans 1:19-21 “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 people 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.”

The apostle gives us a description of “general revelation”. This simply means that God has revealed Himself generally in His creation. God reveals that He is and That He has eternal power and deity to all mankind. First, this general revelation is plainly manifest to them. God has shown it to them and it is clearly perceived. Thus, this knowledge is not obscure. Second, the knowledge “gets through” and finds its mark. God does not merely provide an available objective revelation of Himself that may or may not be subjectively received. “They knew God.” Man’s problem is not that he doesn’t know God but that he refuses to acknowledge what he knows to be true. Third, this revelation has been going on since the foundation of the world and continues in a constant way. Fourth, the revelation comes by way of creation. God’s invisible nature is revealed “through the things that are made.” The whole creation is a glorious theater which gives a magnificent display of its creation. Fifth, the revelation is sufficient to render man inexcusable. “So they are without excuse.” What excuse? Obviously, the excuse eliminated is that of ignorance.  None will ever be able to say to God: “I’m sorry I didn't worship and serve you. I didn't think that there was sufficient evidence to affirm your existence.”

Romans 1:22-25 “Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles.  Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts … They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. 

The apostle explains pagan religion as a distortion of the truth. An “exchange” takes place between the truth of God and the lie. God’s glory is replaced by the substitute of the “glory of the creature.” Evolution is a religion, but it is the religion of idolatry. Idolatry represents the ultimate insult to God. Darwinian Macro-Evolution through spontaneous generation with macro-evolution over time and chance is viewed then not as growing out of an honest attempt to search for God, but out of a fundamental rejection of God’s self-revelation. In the war against Creator God, the battle between faith and unbelief wages on daily.

John 3:19 And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.

Worship the Creator, not the creation nor the creature. Look at this beautiful world, created to be inhabited by you and I, and give praise, honor and glory to our Father in Heaven, Maker of heaven and earth.

In Christ, Brian