| | Print | |
We recommend "Landscape" print layout.
Creation“In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He [Jesus Christ] was with God in the beginning. Through Him [Jesus Christ] all things were made; without Him nothing was made that has been made…The Word [Jesus Christ] became flesh and made his dwelling among us.” Key to the Christian account of creation is recognition of the eternal triune character of God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit (see Holy Trinity). The Bible always takes for granted, and never argues God’s existence; everything else has a beginning. The opening chapters of John, Colossians and Hebrews all refer to the second person of the Trinity (Jesus Christ) as the divine agent in creation. The “Word” in the Bible has many applications and meanings, here in addition to the direct meaning of the person Jesus Christ, the term also implies the “unspoken word” or “reason,” the Greek equivalent is logos. Scripture reveals that the rational principles and natural designs that govern the universe (the logos - mathematical and scientific certainties – formulae, DNA pattern, gravity etc.) have their origin in God. “For by Him all things were created, things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible.” The Genesis account starts with God having already created the heavens and the earth and then gives a very specific chronological description of God bringing earth from a formless empty darkness covered in water to a state of land, air and sea teaming with life, including humankind; apparently all in six days. On the seventh day He rested from all His work. Although the chronology of events may be literally true, we know as scientific fact that the creation events on earth were not accomplished in literally “144 hours.” The actual timeline for earth is measured in billions of years and life on earth existed before humankind for millions of years. To apply the 144-hour timeline literally is an absurd notion. Obviously, there exists considerable controversy between believers and non-believers over how, in the context of time, material and space, the universe and life came into existence (see Creationism Versus Evolution). This ongoing controversy notwithstanding, Christians place their belief in God as creator and designer of the universe. Ironically, most who are opposed to the Christian account, place their faith in a theory that does acknowledge a creation moment. While declaring with certainty the impossibility of divine design and providence in creation, opponents argue that everything in existence (including math, DNA pattern and humankind etc.) is the result of purposeless random chance. Existence, according to evolutionists, is the result of a colossal accident, starting with a bang. The chief challenge to the Biblical creation account is not scientific fact, just a theory. In The First Three Minutes: A Modern View of the Origin of the Universe, Steven Weinberg describes the “Big Bang” theory: In the beginning there was an explosion. Not an explosion like those similar on earth, starting from a definite center and spreading out to engulf more and more of the circumambient air, but an explosion which occurred simultaneously everywhere, filling all space from the beginning, with every particle of matter rushing apart from every other particle. ‘All space’ in this context may mean either all of an infinite universe, or all of a finite universe which curves back on itself like the surface of a sphere. Neither possibility is easy to comprehend, but this will not get in our way; it matters hardly at all in the early universe whether space is finite or infinite. At about one-hundredth of a second, the earliest time about which we can speak with any confidence, the temperature of the universe was about a hundred thousand (10¹¹) degrees Centigrade. This is much hotter than in the center of even the hottest star, so hot, in fact, that none of the components of ordinary matter, molecules, or atoms, or even the nuclei of atoms, could have held together. Instead, the matter rushing apart in this explosion consisted of various types of so-called elementary particles, which are the subject of modern high-energy nuclear physics.[i] Weinberg goes on to conclude: The standard model sketched above is not the most satisfying theory imaginable of the origin of the universe.…there is embarrassing vagueness about the very beginning, the first hundredth of a second or so. Also, there is the unwelcome necessity of fixing initial conditions, especially the initial thousand-million-to-one ratio of photons to nuclear particles. We would prefer a greater sense of logical inevitability in the theory.[ii] One can say with certainty that the Christian worldview is incompatible with the accidental, big bang, and random chance, creation account. R.C. Sproul put the point this way: “If chance exists in any size, shape, or form, God cannot exist. The two are mutually exclusive. If chance existed, it would destroy God’s sovereignty. If God is not sovereign, he is not God. If he is not God, he simply is not. If chance is, God is not. If God is, chance is not.”[iii] Ge 1:1-2:25; Jn 1:1-3, 14; Col 1:16; Heb 1:2; Jn 17:24; Eph 1:4, 3:9; 1Pe 1:20; Rev 13:8, 17:8 |