Rediscovering The Truth About Creation

Over the past five chapters, the Theory of Evolution and the Big Bang theory have been presented, along with my belief that these theories are being used as some kind of plot against us, under the mystical control of some kind of strange force that I have called the system around us. This plot, in my opinion, first tries to keep us from knowing the truth about our creation and second attempts to keep us from knowing and serving our Lord and true Creator. In this section, we will look at those spiritual truths which oppose that system and also those truths which can set us free from this anti-God instruction. The only way to overthrow the system's masterful conspiracy, or plot against us, is to know the truth. Once a person can understand that which this system around us does not want him or her to know, then that individual can begin to take charge and seize the upper hand in their life, but not until!

As we proceed, we will start by taking a short journey through the annals of history to see how others have conducted their own personal search for God. We need to realize, as we do this, that many people during these present times believe that Christians are merely a bunch of emotionally weak, narrow minded do-gooders who cannot cope with reality. Others think that Christianity is for the naive and unlearned, and then, there are those who consider God's Word to be very cryptic, authored by uneducated or undereducated men, similar to a fairy tale, and in general, unbelievable. Consequently, even though the case for the Bible and Bible Christianity is stronger than most would say, very few individuals, either now or over time, have actually recognized Christianity as the choice among scholars!

For centuries, the fundamentals of the Faith, that is the existence of God, Jesus as Deity, and the validity of the Bible, have been pondered. As we shall see through these next eighteen short, fairly easy-to-read chapters, the Christian position in these fundamental areas is not weak, it is not ambiguous, and it does very much prove itself!

Throughout history, many, even most individuals, have questioned how human beings came into existence. Such an inquiry is really just another way of seeking to know how this universe and our life began. To respond to that widespread concern among so many, our system, by way of its scholars, scientists, and theologians, has generated or produced numerous theories which attempt to explain these uncertainties. Some philosophers, for example, have theorized their own concept of an impersonal, god-like Supreme Being who got everything started but then left. This belief is called deism. Others have leaned more toward the scientific theories like those which have already been discussed, even though those theories cannot and have not adequately resolved the issue. These scientific views, which tend to be more pantheistic in style, look to nature as the chief answer for our existence.

Finally, while some have favored either a deistic or pantheistic perspective, others have settled for the traditional spiritual view which is taught in Scriptures, namely the theistic belief that God created the world and all that is therein and that He is still around to be known and experienced. To be sure, knowing the truth about these various ideas and beliefs and about what really happened in the beginning is difficult. Even worse, though, is that if one cannot trust the accuracy of the Bible, then knowing what really happened in the beginning is probably impossible!

The simple fact about Creation is that none of us were there. We did not participate in the origins of life. We did not witness how our complicated universe came into being, so we cannot possibly know for certain what truly transpired when this whole thing of life began. Even science, as has already been noted, fails to provide a sure answer concerning these mysteries. Therefore, an individual is very much in the dark when it comes to knowing and understanding the real beginnings of this life. A person can only attempt to piece together the available data and try to hypothesize or speculate about a feasible solution. This is basically what the Big Bang and Evolution theorists have done. They originally examined the scientific evidence and then derived their respective ideas. After that, those ideas were fine tuned, put into the form of an hypothesis, and ushered into the classroom. The rest, as they would say, has been history!

While knowing what really happened in the beginning may be difficult and may even appear impossible, not knowing the truth about the Lord is very dangerous because so much is riding on the answers! Many believe in God. Many do not. Many have one point of view about certain religious matters, while many others hold completely different views. Within various religious circles, there is often heated debate. Yet, despite so much confusion and so many differences, two opposing points clearly reveal the urgency of this whole matter. If God does not exist, then the expectations of a nonexistent God do not mean very much! In such an instance, each person would be somewhat free to make his or her own choices about life and to live as he or she pleased. On the other hand, though, if God does exist, then each individual needs to know exactly what He expects!

This latter statement should almost go without saying. Yet, people are often prone to joke about the existence of God, whether He does or does not, and as a result, to ignore the potential consequences of being wrong. The significance of this issue, however, is certainly not a laughing matter! If He does exists, then it is quite reasonable to assume that each of us will someday stand before Him and give some kind of account to Him for how we have lived. Not only that, but the outcome of our accounting will be based entirely on His criteria, whatever that might be, not on our own!

For centuries, men and women have tried to know and understand about God, even as far back as the philosopher Plato. That search from those early days until now has at times been like an endless pursuit. Individuals seeking a spiritual solution have looked for a God who could fill the spiritual needs of a whole civilization. Those looking for a purely rational explanation have searched for a God who could be bounded by the rules of mathematics and logic. Some have tried to combine the attributes of both. Others have tried to leave Him out altogether. Through the passage of time, a wide smattering of all types have been cast into this debate about God's existence. Yet, very few have come forth with something which can really be called truth.

In his book, The Big Bang Never Happened, Mr. Lerner discusses the beliefs of some early philosophers and theologians. Around 400 B.C., a man named Anaxagoras looked into the heavens and asked the now familiar question about his origin. As he looked and evaluated and thought, then looked, evaluated, and thought some more, he finally settled on his belief. According to Mr. Lerner, Anaxagoras thought the universe was infinite, meaning that it had no beginning or end [1]. This type of response was that philosopher's roundabout method for implying that God did not create the world! Or as the pantheist would say, "God is the world"!

A short while later, about 350 B.C., the philosopher Plato came onto the scene, and he, too, pondered the question of his existence. As he thought about creation, he envisioned a beneficent creator who had molded or fashioned the universe from preexisting matter. Mr. Lerner writes that Plato had tried to define a god-like Supreme Being who had used eternal ideas or forms to mold the universe out of some type of preexisting, chaotic matter, a belief which is a form of dualism [2]. In putting forth his dualistic perspective, Plato was trying to suggest that the bases for those forms were mathematical and geometrical. He envisioned a Supreme Being who was not necessarily personal, but one who could be bounded by the rules of mathematics and logic.

While Plato often spoke of gods and a creator, however, a person must not be deceived by such language. His description of a creator was not the God of the Bible! Plato was a polytheist who believed in the existence of many gods. In his writings, he spoke of Zeus as the leader of all the gods, of Dione his wife, of Aphrodite, their daughter and the goddess of love, and of many others [3]. The Greeks, during Plato's time, had a god for nearly every occasion, yet they did not recognize or worship the God of the Bible!

After presenting Plato's beliefs, Mr. Lerner goes on to share the views of others; such as, Aristarchus of Samos, Hipparchus, Ptolemy, Clement of Alexandria, Tertullian, and Augustine. These gentlemen, living between 400 B.C. and 100 B.C., generally accepted the Genesis account of Creation. By 100 B.C., two central cosmological themes had come to the forefront. The first said that the universe and its origins could be understood and explained through pure reason. The second, by contrast, suggested that the universe had been created from nothing, hence by a Divine Creator. Over the past two thousand years, scientists and theologians have debated both of these themes, the one arguing for a universe governed by mathematical laws and logic and the other clinging to the belief of a Creator.

Despite all the debate, which of course is not new, the Bible tells us exactly how we got here:

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. . . . And God said, "Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark seasons and days and years, and let them be lights in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth." And it was so. God made two great lights - the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars. God set them in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth, to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening, and there was morning - the fourth day [4].

Yet, even with this very specific, very clear passage from the Bible, the truth about God has always been and is still difficult to know. There are three reasons why this is so!

The first reason that the truth is hard to know is that we are continually being overwhelmed by the great minds of our Age. Consider those individuals who were just mentioned! When a person, like Anaxagorus, speaks of an infinite universe, he acquires a following because people listen. When a great thinker, such as Plato, uses his tremendous logical powers and speaks of a beneficent creator who put everything into motion, his words make sense. Again, people listen even though the speaker is not talking about the God of the Bible. When a present-day scientist presents his or her theory, it, too, often seems reasonable, so people listen and believe. Sometimes, however, this passive willingness by the listener to accept that which is heard, without really questioning and without ever having carefully studied the issue, can contribute greatly to one's own undoing!

Generally speaking, most people tend to accept the teachings of science. Consider one of the conclusions of Charles Darwin! In the Descent of Man, he suggested that God is only the imagined belief of evolved man. He then indicated that he had not been able to find a genuine tendency within man's natural makeup to believe in God [5]. Next, consider the remarks of a man like Nobel Prize recipient, Dr. Steven Weinberg! In his book, Dreams of a Final Theory, this author confessed his own disbelief in God, saying that the evidence in his opinion does not support the existence of a deity [6]. These specialists in their respective fields put together fancy, complicated theories and equations, all of which usually fit somewhat neatly with their observed data. After that, they draw pretty pictures and present their highly compelling logic, and the natural inclination among most listeners is to accept everything or most everything they hear.

The second reason that the truth is hard to know is that the system around us does not help! In this regard, the system does more damage than good. By failing to teach young people about the Lord, most kids grow up with a natural tendency to choose against Him. At the very least, such students lack knowledge and are confused about spiritual matters. This point was made earlier. When a student hears nothing but anti-God propaganda and is not even allowed to hear positive instruction about the Lord, then that student almost has no choice but to reject God. Our system treats the Lord like a nonexistent, make-believe being. Therefore, the young people who must pass through that system will almost instinctively do the same.

Interestingly enough, the first two reasons that the truth is hard to know are merely a restatement of those issues which have already been alluded to in earlier chapters. Scientists, educators, and the overall system in which we live have made the pursuit of truth very difficult! However, there is still another reason why the truth is so difficult to know, and this one might have been easily overlooked. It is that it is very easy to not believe in the God of the Bible! This final rationale comes from the fact that we have a hard-to-understand God. For whatever His reasons, He chooses to not speak audibly, not even to His own followers. This mysterious silence on His part is one which clearly tends to discredit His whole case! At the same time, He also chooses to not visibly reveal Himself, again not even to His own followers. Since one can never see Him, how does a person rationally explain and justify to others such a mysterious being? The natural tendency among most is to reject and not believe that which is both silent and invisible, and this kind of reasoning makes sense. Hence, it really is just like I said. Not believing in this God, One Who chooses to remain both silent and invisible, is really quite easy!

Amid these three barriers, plus in considering all the various beliefs from which one has to choose, how does an individual break through and really get at the absolute truth? In the question of God's existence, there are many sides with profound differences, yet most can be presented in ways which make some sense. When one examines a proposition like the Big Bang theory, there is enough factual data to make the whole belief seem reasonable, and the same is true for the Theory of Evolution. Therefore, while the solutions may be few, the questions are still many, meaning that a search through the annals of history really does not shed much new light on our understanding of God. If anything, such a search may have only made the whole process that much more difficult! In the next chapter, we will see how theologians have tried to answer this "existence of God" question and see at that time that they, too, have provided a somewhat shallow answer.