I saw an ad on a TV Channel recently, promoting a forth-coming film/documentary and in his script I heard the voice-over man speak of, “the mythical history of human origin as presented in Genesis.” It took me back to my days on the streets as a gospel messenger. Not too many of those days would go by without someone wanting to discuss “the myths of Genesis.” They were interesting people most of them … very intelligent, well spoken, well educated and seemingly well clued-up when defending their humanist/evolutionary belief systems. I sometimes mentioned this fact to mature Christians back in my church. How quick some were to dismiss such people and put them down.
At the same time however, one or two were not too convincing when taking their stand for “the truths of Genesis.” Certainly they were able to say, “the Bible says……..,” but not in a manner that would encourage the people out there with opposing views, to listen. Digging a little further to discover what it was they could show of their own beliefs from the Scriptures proved interesting too … not nearly as articulate in their defenses as the humanist/evolutionist people in theirs. I’ve been giving this a lot of thought lately and have been asking myself why it is in the church that we concentrate lots on God as Lord, Savior, Redeemer etc, but seemingly much less so as Creator.
Could it be that we simply take this for granted? This is not the case with the Holy Spirit and writers of the Bible. Not only were they in awe of the Creator, but the same applies to His creation. Combined, we see the words ‘Creator’ ‘create’ ‘created’ and ‘creation’ mentioned 57 times. God only has to mention any word one time in the Bible to grab our attention, so I’m wondering … how about 57 times? How come the church has allowed Satan the devil all that ground without some sort of public take-back? Are we not in awe of God as Creator as well as Redeemer? Are we not in awe of the reality that He has in fact made us new creations (creatures) in Christ 2 Corinthians 5:17?
Isaiah 40:26 “Lift up your eyes on high and see who has created these things…..” That’s a plea from the Lord Himself. We don’t need a lack of scientific knowledge to hinder us in being obedient to that call. We just need to act on it as the Holy Spirit prompts us. If we do so, He’ll fill us with awe, then at some point He will open our mouths and speak through us. There’s no need for us as Christians to dismiss the humanist/evolutionist or get all agitated, threatened and defensive and start running off at the mouth in our attempts to make him look foolish in his beliefs. With such responses, there’s only one fool in his eyes and it is not him! Besides, Christians who act in this way make God look foolish.
Since I became a Christian I’ve sat under lots of preaching and teaching with emphasis on calling us to become God-conscious, sin-conscious, Savior-conscious, Redeemer-conscious, Lord-conscious and church-conscious. But for whatever reason, a lot less emphasis on calling us to to become Creator/creation-conscious. And yet, months before God revealed Himself to me as Savior, He revealed Himself as Creator. In the Spring of 1984, I was standing by a heater looking out the window and my eyes became fixed on the pink blossom of our nectarine tree. It was amazingly beautiful … as though each flower was dancing before my eyes. I said to my wife, “That blossom is so beautiful, there just has to be a God.” That is how God first grabbed my attention.
After that glorious experience no longer did I simply note trees or flowers, but rather, a tree and a flower and I began to take note of the uniqueness of each one. Years earlier I had heard that no snow-flake is exactly the same. Based on what God was now showing me, I didn’t have any trouble accepting that to be so. Psalm 19:1 tells us, the heavens declare the glory of God and the sky displays what His hands have made. As God’s people, can we do any less? We don’t have to apologize and rationalize this truth for them, all we have to do (under the Spirit’s anointing) is to proclaim it and challenge the humanist/evolutionist to consider the reality of it, then leave the outcome in God’s hands.
Then, instead of shaking our head and criticizing such people who hold those beliefs, we should thank them for granting the opportunity to speak with them, shake their hand and walk away blessing and praying for them. As often as that was my practice, the easier it was on my next visit to pick up the discussion again, drop a few more seeds and challenges, then move on till another time. As Christians if we seek God as Creator and glorify Him as such in our quiet time, He can be relied upon to give us someone to witness to … especially work colleagues. Will we evidence change in them if we speak up? Possibly not, but they’re left with an alternative to contemplate.
Not all humanist/evolutionists are fixed in their beliefs even though they would tell you they are. They use this to put a hedge around themselves to, “keep you Christians out.” That’s ok … God knows that and it makes not one scrap of difference to Him. If He’s patient with our phony mechanisms, He’ll be patient with theirs! Besides, it is difficult for anybody to try and glorify God when they know they’re sinners. The same with Jesus dying on the cross. Very often our, “Jesus died on the cross for you ya know” comes across to them as, “You owe Him, ya know.” Instead of messengers bearing good news, we can be little loveless, judges and jurors – little god’s, in fact.
Humanist/evolutionists are often not impressed by our challenges such as: the “wrist watch and/or the dictionary simply evolving” – or similar. They’ve heard those arguments time over and they don’t turn away from them for the reasons we think. They turn away mainly because they’ve heard it all before from God’s people. In other words, they’re hearing nothing original … nothing creative, it’s all just parroting from others gone before us. In fact for some of us, if the parrot spoke he may get a better outcome! We who believe God to be creative, must pray for, ask and believe Him to express His creativity through us. Such praying is labor-intensive. We have to storm heaven for it, it doesn’t come from half-heartedness or wishing and hoping it.
A great part of my praying for people has always been for God to fill their hearts and minds with questions dear to them. Anything that would cause them to drop their guard while talking with them. The prayer is always answered. I get questions relating to their children, new-born babies, life, death as well as concerns for what’s going on in the world – especially in times of financial crises, war, terrorism and natural disaster. These things always show up to be the greater issues in life. In other words, their thoughts are consumed more by this stuff than their humanist evolutionist beliefs. It may not remain that way but I believe it to be so in the time of God’s visitation with them.
Over the years I’ve heard or read the odd sermon based on the guilt of mankind and the righteous judgment of God, as declared from Romans 1:18-32. But the emphasis has been on the holding back or suppressing of truth in unrighteousness, giving up idolaters to uncleanness in the lust of their hearts to dishonor their bodies among themselves, judgment for those who changed the truth of God into a lie plus judgment for the sexually perverted … and so on down to those given over to a debased mind to do whatever in the way of wickedness, covetousness, envy, murder, strife etc. What a list! What a judgment! It’s a judgment already happening with worse to come if not repented from.
However, I do not recall those sermons highlighting the greatest judgment of all, which is the fact that before these people went down those paths, they first had to deny the reality of God and Creation. In other words it was not the indulging in unclean lusts, lies and sexual perversion that’s the real sin here, that is simply the by-product of a far greater sin. Romans 1:19-20 shows the Greater Sin to be the rejection and denial of The Lord God Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth even though He has made Himself plainly known to all people through His creation. Astounding. Creator/creation knowledge plainly made known to everybody not only externally, but internally.
So, when the average humanist/evolutionist challenges us to “prove God” and then seeks to bluff us with his beliefs, he needs to be reminded that God has given him the same knowledge that we have and that the only difference between us is that we have acted on it and he has not. That’s the first thing he should be challenged with. He needs to know we know he knows. And if we do tell him, it puts him on the back foot, not us. We Christians do not have to be on the defensive here, we should be on the offensive. And if we are, then God will back us up. Yes, there will probably still be denials, but our job is not to judge … simply believe God and not him or her.
Earlier I mentioned that not all humanist/evolutionists are fixed in their beliefs, so it’s my personal conviction that Christian people need to stand up for God as Creator and His creation every bit as much as we stand up for God as Savior and Redeemer from sin. Romans 1 speaks to us of a horrific judgment and it is clear that many humanist/evolutionists will experience it. But they will do so not because they were ignorant of God and His creation. There was a time when they pondered such a reality through the God-given internal workings of their heart. If that were not true then God would not say, “they are without excuse” Romans 1:20.
We do not need to know the finer points of the creation and how it all works when witnessing to these people, nor do we need to be ashamed of any lack of scientific knowledge. But we do need to know the finer points of God and His creative word and that never comes from head knowledge and/or from simply hearing the Lord’s word second-hand for an hour or two on a Sunday and mid-week home-group Bible study. These may well be Bible-based, but are they Holy Spirit-based? We need to know, because if they’re Holy Spirit-based, He will make us ever mindful that not only is Jesus Christ Savior, Redeemer and Lord, but also Creator and Upholder of the entire creation….and He wants every humanist/evolutionist to hear that. “You are worthy O Lord to receive glory and honor and power; for You created all things, and by Your will they exist and were created.” Revelation 4:11.