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In the Beginning | Part 1: The Evidence for God
IN THE BEGINNING
Part 1
The Evidence For God
As we begin a new year it is a time of beginnings. Therefore, it seems appropriate that we take this opportunity to see what the bible says about the beginning. It is a subject of much controversy in the world - especially in our schools where evolution and the “Big Bang” (theory?) is taught as forgone conclusions of scientific fact. Anyone, including students, who have enough con- viction to speak up against such false teachings are often ridiculed, and in the case of many students (especially college students) they are even given failing grades unless they renounce their beliefs and comply with the status quo of false teaching. This reminds me of the Roman persecution of Christians under Nero, Domitian and other emperors who demanded them to renounce their faith in Christ and to offer them praise (as human deities) or suffer death. While failing grades do not compare to losing ones life, you have to admit that inflicting punishment, in whatever form, for not renouncing our conviction to God and His word, is on a par with what Rome practiced during the first three centuries.
Even our young children sit in classrooms where they are fed little tidbits of this godlessness. It is a deliberate, calculated curriculum designed to be fed in small doses to unsuspecting children whose parents are not concerned enough to find out what they are being taught. The end result is intended to remove any belief in God while indoctrinating them with humanistic principles. In other words, parents beware! There is a war going on in the classrooms as well as in every facet of the media - and the casualties are our children (along with everyone else who is too lazy or indifferent to find out the truth of God and His creation). Fathers, you are responsible (and accountable) to “...bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord. (Eph. 6:4b) Every parent needs to be familiar with what’s going on in the classrooms of America, and to be arming your children with the word of God so they won’t be swept away in the human philosophy that will result in the eternal loss of those “...who do not know God and...who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1 Thess. 1:8b)
This classroom battle has been going on for a long time as the following excerpt from a scientific publication will show. As you read this, it will become evident where the evolutionist and unbelieving scientists and educators stand. Its author, Richard Milner, stated the following: “Three years ago members of the Dover (Pa.) school board decided to require teachers or administrators to read a formal disclaimer in ninth-grade biology class, urging students to be skeptical of Darwin’s ‘theory’ of evolution and to consider intelligent design (ID) as an alternative explanation for the origin of life. They also sought to introduce an auxiliary textbook that promotes ID, ‘Of Pandas and People; The Central Question of Biological Origins’ by Percival Davis and Dean H. Kenyon. Tammy Kitzmiller, a working mother with two daughters in the high school, along with
ten other parents, sued the board for violating their constitutional rights under the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause. Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School Dis- trict was the first time anyone had challenged a public school district in the federal courts about the teaching of ID, which the parents argued was not a sci- entific theory at all.” (NATURAL HISTORY magazine; June 2007, Vol. 116, No. 5; Darwin in Court)
Notice that the interference against teaching truth in the classroom came, in this case, from unbelieving parents rather than school staff. This gives evidence to the past success of those who have been promoting the subject of evolution and who deny the biblical creation account on previous generations. But consider this excerpt near the end of the same article: “The battle no doubt will go on, but there may be one saving grace in the fabric of American culture: vast apathy. Attempt- ing to interview teenagers about the case, Chapman discovers that many have absolutely no interest in the controversy. Slack finds the kids he speaks with equally clueless. ‘So this is the front line of America’s culture war,’ he writes, ‘pimply kids who don’t have the foggiest idea, or care much, if at all, what natural selection or irreducible complexity are, let alone which one suggests a better explanation for the diversity of life on Earth.’” (ibid. ¶5, page 32)
It was a response three months later in the same publication that gives testimony to the seriousness of this problem. In the words of the respondent we hear the sheer contempt for those who take a stand for the biblical account of creation and human existence. Listen to his reply under the heading of Evolution on Trial: “I congratulate Richard Milner for his review article [‘Darwin in Court,’ 6/07]. As it happens, Randy Olson’s film Flock of Dodos, which Mr. Milner discusses, was screened at ‘Evolution 2006,’ a meeting of evolutionary biologists held last year at Stony Brook University. Our audience did not need the cheerful determination of the creationists in the film to remind us of the threat they pose. Evolutionary biologists need to communicate the undeniable fact of evolution to the public. Creationism is not just a threat to a few intellectuals; it is the cutting edge of a broad attack on science that endangers America’s security, public health, prosperity, and liberty.” (NATURAL HISTORY magazine; Sep- tember 2007, Vol. 116, no. 7; [editorial] “Letters.” by Michael A. Bell, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, New York)
Right here we might consider what Paul wrote to Timothy regarding those who promote godless teachings; “Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. But evil men and impostors will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. But you must continue in the things which you have learned and been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them, and that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.” (2 Tim. 3:12-15)
The subject of our study is one of faith - which is not to be confused with unfounded convictions or wishful thinking. “Faith is the substance of things
hoped for, the evidence of things not seen... By 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 are visible.” (Heb.11:1, 3) The very existence of the stellar universe gives testimony to its Creator; “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament shows His handiwork. Day unto day utters speech, and night unto night reveals knowledge. There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard. Their line has gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world.” (Psm. 19:1-4) It’s as though the stars are screaming out in a universal language that all mankind can understand, saying, “Look at us! God made us!” How sad that so many have their eyes and ears closed to the voices of evidence.
What they fail to understand is the fact that true science cannot contradict God’s evidence. Science is “the systematized knowledge which is derived from observation, study and experimentation carried on in order to determine the nature or principles of what is being studied.” Yet no one can prove the existence of God on the basis of this kind of empirical knowledge. Solomon acknowledged this when he said, “He [God, gvw] has made everything beautiful in its time. Also He has put eternity in their hearts, except that no one can find out the work that God does from beginning to end.” (Eccl. 3:11) He also said, “As you do not know what is the way of the wind, or how the bones grow in the womb of her who is with child, so you do not know the works of God who makes every- thing.” (Eccl. 11:5)
That which is unseen (which precedes mankind) and cannot be perceived by our 5 physical senses (sight, hearing, touch, smell & taste) can only be under- stood based on faith. Therefore, God invites us to look up at the evidence of His creation and to believe, saying, “Lift up your eyes on high, and see who has created these things, who brings out their host by number; He calls them all by name, by the greatness of His might and the strength of His power; not one is missing.” (Isa. 40:26) The Big Bang Theory is based on random chance and does not answer the Who of creation as the bible declares intelligent design. In this study we will be listening to the voice of reason while examining the evidences of science as it so simply harmonizes with the biblical account of creation.
To be continued...
- Gary V. Womack -