11. CREATION WORLDVIEW
BY DR. EARL PARVIN
8/26/19
INTRODUCTION
In this 21st. century, Biblical Creationists have made serious inroads in the world of academia. Years ago when I was gaining an education, I was taught the Evolutionist teaching on origins in the public schools attended. I did not even know what questions to ask. As most Christians at that time, we were overwhelmed with the enlightened scientific knowledge exuded by these learned instructors. After all, modern research, we were assured, was far more apropos in the 21st century than any ancient knowledge from the dark ages of the past. After all, the Bible was not a textbook on scientific matters.
However, Christians today are far less cowed by the lofty claims of the Scientific community , that they know how things happened. It has been discovered that their conclusions are not based on scientific investigation, [after all, no one witnessed the beginnings of the cosmos, nor are they able to recreate conditions as they were when the beginnings took place], as scientific investigations require.
So, it is important for us as believers in Biblical Creationism to be conversant with both models [Evolutionist and Biblical] purporting to explain origins to determine which one more accurately explains the origin of the cosmos as we perceive it today. At the least, when discussions take place with non-believers who think they have the last word on this issue, we know the right questions to ask, such as…
THE PRESUPPOSITIONS:
1. THE NECESSITY OF FAITH
Remember the definition of faith. “Belief that does not rest on logical proof or material evidence”. However, this faith is not a leap in the dark accepting any wild idea presented. The Creationist’s faith is bound to and limited by the Word of God. The Owner’s Manual, the Bible is not a Science text as such, but where in it speaks it is accurate and reliable. The Christian encourages scientific research and discovery of what God has done, but he also requires two guidelines. One, the premise with which science starts is not in violation to the Owner’s Manual. Two: that the conclusions draw from the facts not in any way violate the Truth of Scripture. [Note: It violates Scripture to start with the premise that “life on this planet evolved; therefore, why not elsewhere” when this is not a proven fact. The Bible indicates that God created the earth to be in habited without any idea that there might be others].
It is revealing to discover that the concept of FAITH, as the dictionary defines it, is absolutely essential for those who present the evolutionary model of origins. It is also absolutely essential to understand how an intelligent scientist, who claims to be a Christian, can hold to an evolutionist position for which there is ‘no logical proof or material evidence and eliminates God. A position to which he is driven because he is not willing to accept the directives of the Bible alone as the Word of God without error, and sees it as irrelevant in matters of origins, relegating Intelligent Design to the realm of religion.
Because of the Creationist’s Biblical orientation and definitions, he can better relate to those holding other positions because he UNDERSTANDS where they deviate from TRUTH. Without that understanding, it is easy to fall prey to impatience or even anger and thus diminish or even loose one’s ability to effectively witness to them of God’s emancipating grace.
The Creationist’s understanding of faith leads him to the next presupposition, that of the existence of God.
2. THE EXISTENCE OF GOD [Elohim]
The Owner’s Manual clearly states: In the Beginning God…” [Gen 1:1], and repeats the fact in John 1:1 “In the Beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God”. The fact is nowhere proven, only verified & amplified. The Creationist accepts this fact by Faith.
Even the Atheist believes in the concept of god, which is defined by the dictionary as ‘the principle object of faith and worship’. Tragically for him, he sees himself as the end of all things and therefore he becomes his own ‘object of faith and worship’. He lives in a very small, limited world, imprisoned within his own intellect, and thus is limited to what his mind can conceive or seek to understand. There is much in this world that cannot be scientifically explained or understood as a Mathematical Formula: [i.e. water = H2O] and is therefore, either denied or accepted by faith.
As a Christian, the Creationist has access to the limitless knowledge of his omniscient God through the power of prayer and the indwelling Holy Spirit, as well as the counsel of other godly Christians. Indeed, he is freed of human limitations and has knowledge of and access to the limitlessness of God’s omniscience, with Christ Jesus. But how does he come by that understanding of God?
His experience as a human being, exploring the vast creation in which he lives, both microscopically and telescopically, along with many fellow travelers, drives him to look for meaning beyond his fellow creatures, both human and animal, as well as all other creatures in this natural world. He looks for a Significant Other who is not encumbered with the same limitations with which all struggle. He examines all the options devised by men throughout time, and determined they are all wanting; therefore, there must be a Diving Being who has revealed Himself to man. Not one which man has designed with his finite ability.
However, the typical Evolutionist has eliminated God from his thinking, unless he purports to be a Theistic Evolutionist. God is not needed in his realm of accepting only that which he can scientifically investigate. The Creationist on the other hand, is rewarded in his search for an understanding of the cosmos, for his model more accurately represents conditions as the Bible reveals them, and how they have become what the Christian discovers them now to be.
The THEISTIC EVOLUTIONIST seeks to reconcile a god concept in his model, by allowing that his god created the original primeval material and then the process proceeded through evolution. This concept violates the Biblical concept of God’s creating and sustaining grace in the running of the cosmos by Natural Laws. [Which we believe man has discovered that God meticulously designed].
INTELLIGENT DESIGN This term sounds good but must be carefully understood. It allows the concept of “Designer [Creator] versus Chance [Evolution]” to be taught in the public sector without reference to God or the Bible. The Designer is not identified for the market place. Meanwhile, the Christian is able to label the Intelligence factor God. But cre must be taken that the Designer can be identified by any religion as their Significant Other.
3. THE WORD OF GOD [the OWNER’S MANUAL]
The Creationist believes His God has spoken and He gave Holy Men of old the Owner’s Manual whereby he is to guide his life [II Peter 1:21]. He believes that God is Infinite and Unknowable, Transcendent; therefore, He has revealed Himself to the Believer in the Owner’s Manual. The word for God in Genesis 1:1 in Hebrew [Elohim], reveals God to be very special and just what man would need. He is revealing Himself as a Triunity, God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. Man would need God as a Father image. He would then need Him as a Son [God Incarnate] who would die for his sinful self as a Savior. He would need God as Holy Spirit who would Indwell the Believer as Guide & Advocate, as promised by the Son when He returned to heaven.
For the Creationist, God reveals His triune nature as: 1. God the Father as Architect. 2. God the Son as Builder [Jn 1:3] “Through Him all things were made, without Him nothing was made that has been made. In HIM was LIFE, and that life was the light of men”. [This appears to say that He was the Source of Life for man… not the Stardust of the Evolutionist. 3. God the Holy Spirit as the Energizer of the entire Creation of the Cosmos [Gen 1:2 “The Spirit of God was hovering over the waters”].
The Bible as THE Word of God, among the many which propose to be THE word of god, the Creationist accepts by Faith. The Bible reveals that God created this world in a literal creative week of time. That this creation was perfect as found in the concept, “God saw that it was good & very good” [H. superlative] Gen.1:8, 31. Later we read that man disobeyed God in the Garden [Gen. 3:18] and later because sin had become exceedingly sinful, God destroyed that beautiful creation with a worldwide flood [Gen. 6:18, 7:20]. This certainly explains for the Christian, the conditions of this world as we view it today.
The Christian can guide his life by the Owner’s Manual. After examining all of the options he cares to, and comparing each with the Bible, he finds much that was at the same time: satisfying, challenging, mystical, revealing and an honest revelation of his own personal, miserable, selfish nature and experience, as well as that of his fellow travelers. But most of all, it makes known to him how he could escape his sinful, haunting, driving convicting, guilty past and how he could control his natural proclivities. No other ‘bible’ explains that God became flesh in His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, so He could die to pay the price for his sins. Nor do the others have any concept of God the Holy Spirit indwelling the Believer, providing the power to overcome his faults and really begin to LIVE. It also revealed to him a marvelous and glorious future which he could spend forever with the One who made it all possible.
Can he prove all that by any means? No, he find an accurate picture of his experience and accepts the Owner’s Manual by Faith as from God, even as Paul claimed it to be: the Word of God, I Th 2:13.
The Evolutionist sadly confines himself to his own limited cognitive powers and that of his fellow travelers, seeking to explain the conditions of this world and his own experience.
Next, the Creationist needs to know how to discern truth from error in his life experiences; therefore, he accepts a standard of truth again by faith.
4. THE STANDARD OF TRUTH
As he continues to develop a Christian Philosophy of Life which controls his worldview, his next presupposition is the need for a Standard of Truth. In a world which struggles with the concept of Truth, he must determine for himself if there is indeed an Absolute Truth by which all reality can be judged. His standard of Truth is found in the Word of God, where he learns that God is Truth, Du 32:4, Ro 1:25. In Israel’s undulating history of walking & stumbling with God at times and not at other times, Hosea wrote, “Hear the Word of the Lord…there is no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of the Lord in the land” 4:1. Therefore, he discerns that without the knowledge of God, there can be no knowledge of Truth.
Paul said, When men reject God, they ‘suppress the truth in their wickedness’, Ro 1:18. They ‘exchange the truth of God for a lie, worshipped and served created things instead of the Creator’ 1:25.
Barna’s research again reveals that less than half of ‘born-again’ adults believe there is Absolute Truth. By a margin of three to one, adults say that truth is relative to the person in their situation. The Bible speaks of a time when everyman did that which was right in his own eyes, or as he sees fit, Du 12:8, Ju 17:6, 21:25 or he does what seems right to him, Pr 12:15, 21:2. Every time Israel did this, they found themselves in deep trouble. God’s standard of right and wrong keeps a person out of trouble and sets him free from a guilty conscience. Jn 8:32 says, ‘you shall know the truth and the truth will set you free’.
Accepting the Absolute Standard of the Word of God is an act of faith which sets the Creationist free from the changing sands of truth being relative or for the Evolutinist a “Work in Progress”. Such a state can only lead to anarchy and each individual becoming a law unto himself.
Finally, the Creationist Worldview or Biblical Worldview requires one act of faith. There must be a fixed standard of ethical morality.
5. THE STANDARD OF ETHICAL MORALITY
Biblical ethics rests on the belief in Absolute Truth, according to Anderson in Christian Ethics in Plain Language [p.2]. If there is no Absolute Truth, then there can be no Ethical Morality? That explains why Barna and Hatch concluded in their book, Boiling Point, that ‘moral anarchy has arrived and dominates our culture today’ as witnessed by widespread pornography, highway speeding, income tax cheating, computer hacking, copyright violations, runaway cohabitation, adultery, plagiarism, financial scandals, homosexuality, spousal and child abuse, euthanasia and desire to legalize marijuana and other drugs to mention a few of the current maladies.
CONCLUSION:
A Creationist Worldview may be expressed as follows:
Ethics cannot be relative or situational, which can only lead to anarchy, but it must be based on Absolute Biblical Truth. If everyone would live by the same Biblical ethical standards, then real peace would be enjoyed by all.
DISCUSSION:
1. How can I as a committed Christian better prepare myself to give a witness to a committed evolutionist?
2. What are the questions I can raise which will create the least friction in dialog with an evolutionist?
3. What are the strongest issues the Evolutionist can raise in presenting his case?
4. Discuss the Hebrew words involved in the creation account and how they relate to: Time, Space, Matter, Energy