davidbowerkingwood

 What is so Scary About Genesis?

The Biblical account of creation demands a God who has the power and will to create; a God who exists outside of time and is capable of speaking creation into being. A God who can do this is a frightfully powerful God and someone with whom one must reckon.

Recognition of a God this powerful is frightening, intimidating, and very humbling; one is reduced to a small insignificant lump hardly worthy of notice. For all too many this notion is entirely unacceptable, it is too humiliating, too embarrassing to seriously consider.

The idea that there is a superior power under which we live out our lives requires a profound adjustment in one’s perspective on life and living. The Biblical teaching that we and all of creation are actually held together by an all powerful God is a reality altering thought.

The ramifications of this thought result in questions as to responsibility toward that all powerful God; is this God aware of us individually and does He have requirements we must satisfy and if so what are they? These are threatening thoughts and can lead to some very uncomfortable conclusions if we let them.

The subject of evolution versus creationism is, therefore, a highly emotional topic; supporters of evolution will often strike out with vitriolic language as they attack any defense of the Biblical account of creation. The basic issue is not creation, it is God; is there or is there not a God? Atheistic attacks on Genesis 1 – 11 were going on long before Darwin published his “On the Origin of Species” theory.

It is interesting that atheists see the critical nature of Genesis 1 – 11 whereas many Christians do not.

Can We Choose an Alternative? 

Evolution is Darwin’s 19th century effort to provide a Godless alternative to the Biblical account that can possibly explain reality as we know it. The fact that evolution requires greater faith than the Biblical account is not considered as it accomplishes the primary goal of eliminating the need for God.

The further fact that the theory of evolution is like a bucket with many holes in it, it has a very difficult time holding any water, is also conveniently overlooked or explained away; any leap of faith required is approved if only the need for a God of infinite power can be eliminated.

The most straight forward approach is to deny the existence of God; it can be postulated that creation came into being without a cause, it simply happened as a random cosmic event, something from nothing, and then gradually evolved into what we have today by a very slow process of natural selection, the survival of the fittest.

Although this line of thought requires astounding assumptions and monumental leaps of faith even these are acceptable if they eliminate the need for a divine creator.

In his book in Chapter VI Darwin wrote: “If it could be demonstrated that any complex organ existed, which could not possibly have been formed by numerous, successive, slight modifications, my theory would absolutely break down. But I can find out no such case.”

At that time the technology did not exist that would later permit discovery of the complex interelated nature of the human cell which alone demonstrates a complexity that could not have evolved; the human cell completely discredits Darwin’s theory.

Can Evolution be Reconciled with Christianity?

Others, claiming to be Christian, attempt to reconcile the Biblical account of creation with the theory of evolution by trying to explain how the Biblical account doesn’t contradict evolution but explains it in different terms.

The biggest challenge is the time frame for creation; whereas the Bible tells us God took six days, the evolutionary theory requires millions or billions of years. There are two popular approaches to explaining the difference; the gap theory, and the day age theory.

Sadly both of these views are held by Christians who have the mistaken notion that reconciliation is required and possible; I believe it to be neither required nor possible.

We will consider these two theories in Part 3

Is the Biblical Story of Creation Relevant Today?

When thinking of Christianity one’s thoughts usually turn to the books of the New Testament; it is there the life and teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ are most fully explained. It is there we discover what kind of a man the Lord was and what kind of life He lived here on earth; it is there we discover His plan for the church and the future of mankind.

Although it is usually understood that Christianity has its roots in Judaism and most agree that some knowledge of the promised Messiah is revealed before the giving of the Law, few may realize the vital importance of the very beginning of the Bible, the first eleven chapters of Genesis, to the validity of Christianity.

To some, these first chapters are sort of “throw away” parts of the Bible; they can be accepted or rejected or allegorized either in whole or in part with no further consequence to the balance of Scripture; such a cavalier approach is unwarranted and extremely dangerous.

The Biblical account of creation provides the foundation for the ministry and work of the Lord Jesus Christ and helps explain the reason why Christ had to die on the cross. To dismiss the creation account is to dismiss the need for a saviour, the need for a kinsman-redeemer.

The New Testament makes it clear that the Lord Jesus Christ came to provide a solution for mankind’s spiritual death which resulted from the fall of Adam as described in Genesis. If there was no Adam there was no sin of Adam, if there was no sin of Adam there is no need for a redeemer, if there is no need for a redeemer then Christ died in vain. Romans 5:12ff

God is the Beginning and the End of Creation

The first and most important factor in the Biblical account of creation is God; God is the one who created in the beginning. In the New Testament we later learn that creation was the work of the Lord Jesus Christ who created all things and continues to hold all things together; the one who will ultimately destroy all of creation as it now exists.

If all things, including us, have a creator then is it possible this creator may have some expectations regarding us and the rest of his creation? The inescapable answer to that question must be yes, he probably does.

How then can one eliminate that potential; by eliminating the need for a creator perhaps? Perhaps it can be theorized that all things just happened to come into being by some sort of random cosmic event and after that things just sort of evolved over millions or billions of years until we have the universe the way we have it today.

Following that line of reasoning one can completely eliminate any need for a creator with its very uncomfortable consequences of creature responsibility to that creator; one becomes then the masters of their own fate and need not answer to any higher power.

An Evolutionary Leap of Faith

Unfortunately for those who choose this alternative, this line of reasoning demands a series of massive assumptions and extraordinary leaps of faith in order to cobble together a plan that supposedly provides answers to the puzzles of existence.

One of the key assumptions involves the idea that a huge amount of time must have elapsed for the evolutionary process to gradually introduce the changes needed for life to evolve. The Bible, on the other hand, clearly states that creation of the heavens and the earth took six days, not millions or billions of years.

Sadly, many well intentioned Christians have chosen a compromise position wherein efforts are made to reconcile the Biblical account with the evolutionary account when, in fact, no compromise is possible.

In Part 2 we will consider creation alternatives that either deny the existence of God or attempt to reconcile evolution and Biblical creationism.

The Northern Lights in Texas?

There was considerable interest recently when, on October 24, 2011, the Northern Lights were dimly visible as far south as Del Rio, Texas and were vividly visible from places such as Moodys, Oklahoma as shown in photos taken by Peter Henshaw and others.

Views of the Northern Lights, generally referred to as the Aurora Borealis, are normally restricted to areas of the Arctic and Antarctic regions; it is only on occasions of extraordinary solar activity that they may be seen beyond those areas. The event of October 24th was one of those occasions.

We are beginning to experience a period of increasing solar activity which, according to NASA and NOAA, will peak around the end of 2012 and the beginning of 2013. The homepage for Spaceweather.com provides a wealth of information on solar activity.

It appears we have been in a period of remarkably low solar activity for the last few years but that is starting to change. No one really knows how severe this upcoming solar maximum will be but there is concern that our highly technological society may experience serious difficulties should it get too severe.

A 500 Year Monster

I mentioned the Carrington Event of 1859 in my blog on 2012; this event, which is thought to be the most powerful solar activity in 500 years, resulted in widespread damage to the only electrical system in operation at that point, the telegraph system and displayed the lights as far south as Havana, Cuba, El Salvador, and Hawaii.

The solar flare was noted on September 1, 1859 and the auroral display was noticed early in the morning of September 2nd. The battery powered telegraph was only 15 years old at that time and the only example of an electrical grid in existence. The surge of electromagnetism caused fires to break out in telegraph offices and permitted the sending of telegrams with the batteries disconnected.

It is easy to imagine the disruption today if an event of similar intensity should occur; it has been projected that a similar event could cause between 1 and 2 trillion dollars of damage and take between 4 and 10 years to repair.  

A more complete account of this event can be found by typing Carrington Event 1859 into your search engine. To me the story of this event is completely fascinating but also rather intimidating when one considers the consequences to the highly technological infrastructure we have today.

It may well be the solar maximum that is expected to occur around the end of 2012 and the beginning of 2013 may be much less severe than the Carrington Event; one can surely hope that will be the case.

It is difficult for me to imagine a really dramatic change to life as I have always known it; I suspect that you share in that difficulty as well. The Bible tells us major changes will come as the end times draw near and many believe that the first step took place in 1948 when Israel became a nation again.

In Luke 21:29-33 the Lord is telling the disciples the parable of the fig tree and in verse 32 says “this generation shall not pass away, till all this be fulfilled.” This is generally believed to be a reference to the restoration of Israel as a nation which took place in 1948. This makes me think unimaginable change could be in the wind.

It doesn’t appear we have long to wait to find out.

ALL CREATION SPEAKS OF GOD

We, as believers, have been given the ability to see the hand of God in everything, if we choose to use it. That means we can see the hand of God in all things animate and inanimate and in all events; that means we can believe God when He says He “worketh all things after the counsel of his own will” Ephesians 1:11b

All of us have marveled at the majesty and glory of God’s creation; we have gazed in wonder at pictures of galaxies provided by the Hubble telescope and personally watched beautiful sunsets and sunrises paint pictures of surpassing beauty on nature’s canvas.

What amaze me are God’s creative diversity and the uniqueness of each of His creations. Take for example cats, the ordinary house cat (although there is nothing ordinary about any cat or dog for that matter); each one is a unique creation with its own special personality.

If you have loved and cared for more than one cat or dog, you will probably have discovered that each one is unique, no two of them are the same; each are as distinctive from the other as are people.

GOD’S INFINITE CAPACITY

What this says to me is our God has the infinite capacity to create individually unique beings even at the level of dog and cat. I have even speculated to my wife that if we had some system of measurement that we would discover that each earthworm is as distinctive as each snowflake.

I have been charmed by the desire of God’s creatures, especially the young ones, untainted by the sorrows of the world, to play and have fun. One can observe this trait in youngsters both animal and human. They seem to be born with a desire to play, have fun, romp around and express their joy whether by barking, purring, laughing or whatever.

I’m convinced that God is giving us important information about Himself as He has designed this desire into His creation. I believe our God is a happy, joyous God who has a sense of humor and enjoys laughing just as much as His innocent young creations would suggest.

There is a time of celebration and joy coming; I most ardently look forward to that time when I can hear the Lord Jesus Christ laughing; I can hardly wait, it makes me smile just to think about it.

We serve a fantastically glorious God.

Learning to be a Christian Professional

In Part 1, we observed the ease with which the trained professional made their jobs look easy to do. Can the same principles that create excellence in other areas be applied to the Christian life? I believe the answer to that question is definitely yes; this is the secret of the supposedly “trouble-free” Christian life.

I’ve heard of some Christians being told that they didn’t know what trouble was as they obviously had no trouble in their lives because they didn’t complain or appear to be troubled by life or live their lives under a cloud of despair.

The truth of the matter is no one is free of troubles in this sin cursed world including Christians. If a Christian appears to be living a joyous, trouble-free life it may well be because they have learned to walk by faith, to cast their burdens on the Lord, to rest in the Lord and more fully utilize the resources the Lord has provided for all of His children.

Christian Professionalism Takes Work

These are learned skills; even the Apostle Paul had to learn them. In Philippians 4:11 Paul wrote: “Not that I speak in respect of want; for I have learned, in whatever state I am, in this to be content.” These words were not spoken by a man who only knew leisurely beds of ease, but by an Apostle who repeatedly suffered and eventually gave his life for the spread of the Gospel. We have the same resources available to us that were available to the Apostle Paul.

Our challenge is to apply ourselves with sweat and tears to the learning of those lessons the Holy Spirit would teach us so we might be better conformed to the image of our Saviour and our God, the Lord Jesus Christ. We are challenged to become Christian professionals.

Living the life of a Christian professional does not mean circumstances will not occasionally strike a blow that flattens us; the solution for the Christian professional is quickly calling on the resources of faith to get back on their feet and move on. “We walk by faith, not by sight” II Corinthians 5:7.

Getting Back up When You’re Knocked down by Life

You can count on the fact that life will deal you a knock down blow from time to time; our focus on the Lord Jesus Christ will help us get up again and stand in the face of challenge. Many of us can recall events in our lives that were crushing to us and our families; our family has been there on more than one occasion; the death of our son and the death of our grandson are two examples.

Even when life deals us a knock down blow there is one thing we can know with confidence and that is God will use this ultimately for our good. I am so grateful that God doesn’t require that I understand because many things that happen are beyond my understanding. God simply asks me to trust Him and lean on Him in times of testing.

The most important thing I have learned from the trials that have come into my life is that God’s grace is always abundantly sufficient for any trial. I have emerged from each trial with a more complete confidence in God’s faithfulness to me and a renewed joy as I again experienced God’s abundantly sufficient grace.

A Fundamental Truth

I have found one fact to be fundamentally true and that is the better you know the Lord, and the more you know about Him the easier it is to rest in Him. There is only one way that can be accomplished and that is from your reading the Bible, both the Old and New Testaments; it is here God tells us about Himself and reveals His thoughts and His priorities.

We must never forget the Bible is supernatural; its words are living and powerful. Life comes with a great deal of assembly required; we ignore the manufacturer’s assembly instructions at our own peril.

A Parting Thought

In his final letter Paul wrote to “To Timothy, my dearly beloved son” II Timothy 1:2a and sought to share with him the thoughts he felt were most important as the time of his departure was at hand. Among those thoughts was the verse below; a verse which we are all well advised to consistently apply to our own lives.

“Study to show thyself approved unto God a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” II Timothy 2:15

 In The Hands of a Professional the Job Looks Easy

Over the years I have noticed how easy a job looks when done by a professional; whether it’s driving a nail, painting a picture, or playing a musical instrument it seems to look so easy when done by one who really knows what they’re doing.

Having worked in the building business for so many years I can recall times when I watched an experienced carpenter driving a nail, one tap to set it and one more mighty blow and the nail is completely driven in to the wood. They made that rather mundane job look so easy one might think anyone could do that and oh how wrong they would be.

I’ve also had the privilege to watch a highly competent painter paint a demonstration landscape. He too made painting look so obvious and simple that one may have gotten the impression that anyone could do that too and again how very wrong they would have been.

I remember several years ago some friends invited us to go hear a small jazz ensemble one evening. The ensemble included a string bass played by a young man who was jaw-droppingly good. He made playing the string bass look like the easiest thing in the world to do as he effortlessly moved around the strings performing his wonders.

Having played the cello for many years I had on occasion picked up a friends string bass and tried to play it and I can tell you from experience it’s really, really hard to play for many reasons so I was duly impressed by the skill of this young musician.

On Being a Christian Professional

What then is the purpose of this commentary on making a job look easy; it is this, there is an application to the Christian life. The same principles apply to the Christian life that apply to the carpenter, the painter, and the musician.

To make sure my meaning is clear; by Christian professional I am applying this potential for Christian professionalism to any and all Christians; not just Christians for pay, such as church staff Christians, but also Christians like you and me who are “good for nothing.”

In this context a Christian professional can be any believer who has practiced and studied Christianity so thoroughly that they intuitively live out the principles in their lives as automatically as breathing. They make the job of living like a Christian look easy.

Just as the carpenter, the painter, and the musician made the job look ridiculously easy because they had spent thousands of hours developing and honing their skills; just as they had worked and sweated over the details and constantly repeated their efforts until they knew exactly what to do and how to do it; so this pattern is required of the Christian professional in order to develop their skills in living the Christian life.

Both their bodies and their minds had become so saturated with the demands of the job that their performance came with apparently little or no effort on their part; this is the formula for the successful, effortless, Christian life.

Is there some way those principles can be applied to Christian living? In Part 2 we will investigate the possibilities.

What’s So Special About the Church?

As mentioned last time, I can imagine some fairly grand ideas with regard to eternity but I’m under no illusions that my imaginations will even come close to the realities God has planned for His children.

We have considered the new earth, the New Jerusalem, and the new heavens so let us now focus some attention on the Church. Who will we be and what will we do; does the Bible give us any hints? I think we can learn much from the limited amount of information that has been revealed.

Keep in mind that in this context the Church is the total number of individuals who have personally accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as their Saviour from Pentecost as described in Acts 2:1f through the Rapture which is yet future.

For starters I’m convinced that we will be busy with all sorts of jobs to be done. One clue that I see is in the case of Adam. When Adam was placed in the Garden of Eden he was given dominion over all the earth, all living things on the earth and on top of all that he was expected to till the Garden of Eden and keep it as well.

I have no idea how big the Garden of Eden was but tilling it and caring for it sounds like a full time job to me which would in fact make gardener the world’s oldest profession. I have no idea whether there will be any gardening responsibilities in the eternal state but I suppose anything is possible.

The Church Has Been Remarkably Blessed

As members of the Church we know several things about ourselves; for instance we are children of God and joint heirs with Christ. That alone gets things off to a rather auspicious start. Although it is impossible for us to fully realize, we now have and will continue to have throughout all of eternity a union with God which is unbreakable and eternal. We are in God and God is in us; that is an immense thought!

At this very moment you, as a born-again believer, are indwelt by God the Holy Spirit; the Lord Jesus Christ is living His life through you and spiritually you are in Christ seated in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, I Corinthians 6:19; Galatians 2:20; Ephesians 2:6.

Our mortal bodies cannot sense this or share in it; although you have been redeemed, your redemption does not extend to your physical body. I find it curious that the only part of us that has not been redeemed, and will not have a share in eternity is the only part of us that we can actually see.

Eternity Will Be a Busy Place

We also know we are royal priests joining together the administrative role of government as well as the intercessory role of priest, II Peter 2:9. That is a major departure from the Old Covenant pattern wherein the role of king and priest were clearly separated. We also learn in I Corinthians 6:3 that we will judge the angelic creation; even though we are now lower than the angels, in eternity we will judge the angels.

It sounds to me as if we’re going to have plenty on our plates to keep us busy; as members of the royal household with those implied leadership responsibilities; as priests under the leadership of our High Priest, the Lord Jesus Christ; and as judges of angels and possibly of the nations we may have a waiting list of chores needing our attention. Now that sounds pretty exciting to me and leads me to think we’ll all be very busy.

We have covered only a very small part of what eternity may be like and I’m again reminded of my early analogy of exploring the Pacific Ocean by walking along the beach in San Diego. I suppose our stroll along the beach of eternity must come to an end with most of our questions unanswered. I hope you’ve enjoyed some of my speculations and will open your minds to the possibilities and privately stroll down your own eternal beaches.

Happy strolling!

In addition to the obvious questions about our relationship to God there are several aspects of eternity that are of interest including, but not limited to what will the earth and the heavens look like, what will be the nature of our lives, how will the responsibilities of the Church differ from the responsibilities given to Israel, and who are the nations and where will they come from.

One of the first things we learn in Revelation 21 is the new earth will be different and there will be no sea. Some believe this indicates an absence of all large bodies of water on the new earth but this may only refer to the Mediterranean Sea and not other large bodies of water. The only water specifically mentioned is the river of the water of life referenced in Revelation 22:1. The very fact that it is flowing suggests a destination which could be some larger body of water. 

The New Jerusalem comes down out of heaven and is huge with a large square base that is 1,500 miles on each side and 1,500 miles high. The Bible is unclear whether it exists in the form of a cube or a pyramid; only time will tell on that The New Heaven and the New Earth, Part 4point. The New Jerusalem is believed to have been in orbit around the earth during the Millennium and was visible from earth.

When the old heavens and earth are destroyed by fire the New Jerusalem will be one of the few things that are delivered from this destruction. After the creation of the new heavens and earth the New Jerusalem will descend down to earth and rest on its surface where it will remain for all eternity.

We are told of its beauty and “the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it.” We are told it will have no need for sun or moon “for the glory of God did light it, and the Lamb is the lamp of it,” Revelation 21:23b. We are also told as a result of God’s glory there will be no night in the New Jerusalem, Revelation 21:25.

Although the New Jerusalem will have no need of the sun or moon I believe the sun and the moon will exist. The glory of God will be such that their light is simply not necessary in the New Jerusalem.

We will continue in Part 5.