The first time the writer addressed in the printed page the question, "Why I Believe in Creation", was in 1979 when the Believer’s Magazine published two articles in its Young Believer’s section. A great deal may have changed over the course of thirty years, but the writer’s conviction is unaltered. There is One who is the Creator to whom every created being from the archangel to the humblest form of life owes its existence. As has often been noted, creation itself provides evidence of the fact of creation, as Paul stresses in Romans 1.18-25. Despite the evident effects of the Fall, there is so much to wonder at in creation’s beauty, variety, and infinite detail, all of which reveal the handiwork of God. However, there is but one unerring record of creation; it is also the work of God Himself, that record being the Bible, the Word of God.
In the introductory paragraph of that first article, the reader was asked to look back to the time when Charles Darwin resurrected the old Greek myth, dressed it in scientific guise and called it Evolution. The year was 1859, the work On the Origin of Species, the publisher John Murray of London. Most will recall the 2009 celebrations of its publication which coincided with the 200th anniversary of Darwin’s birth. Much analysis of Darwin the man and Darwin the biologist took place during that year. Fewer analysed the response of society to his theories. Wittingly or unwittingly, Darwin met a need in western thinking for a world view that did not need God. He claimed to describe "a fully natural process, inherent in the physical properties of the universe, by which life arose in the first place and by which all things, past or present, have since developed divergently and progressively". His work, based on meticulous observation, drew many admirers, and over the intervening 150 years to those admirers have been added millions who have little interest in observing natural life but who were attracted by the thought Darwin’s followers proclaimed more vehemently than Darwin himself, that no divine involvement was involved in the origin and development of life forms.
Over the 150 years from when Darwinism began to engage the minds of men, Christians have recognised that the fundamentals of their faith were under attack. Even when no overt attack took place some Christians "recoiled into pseudo-scientific argument" for which few were well-equipped; others searched the Scriptures in the hope of finding some middle ground to share with the evolutionist. But virulent attacks against others did arise. The first protagonist was not Richard Dawkins!
The Lord endorsed the Biblical record of creation
I believe in creation because the Lord Jesus endorsed the reliability of the sacred Genesis records of creation. He spoke unequivocally of "the beginning" of the human race: "…he which made them at the beginning made them male and female" (Mt 19.4). Those words identify a Creator – "he that made them" - and the act of creation about which the incontrovertible conclusion is that those made were those who were involved in the first marriage. The commentary the Lord provided on Scripture revealed to His hearers a personal Creator with a personal interest in His creature’s need of emotional support as well as a supportive environment to meet his needs. No impersonal force took account of Adam’s needs as Adam became conscious of them (Gen 2.20). The Lord presented to His hearers not just the facts about the creation of the physical environment, but also of the very origin of human life and human society as we know it. In rejecting the Lord’s statements, the alternatives are grave: either He was not omniscient and so, like His contemporaries, accepted the writings of a deceived, or deceiving, Moses; or the Lord deliberately misled His hearers and millions thereafter; or the Gospels are fraudulent in recording our Lord’s endorsement of the Genesis account of creation.
Acceptance of creation is based on faith in the Scriptures
The New Testament provides another compelling reason for rejecting the solutions that human ingenuity would offer for the origins of the inanimate and animate around us. Hebrews 11.3 declares: "Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear ". K L McKay puts it well: "This means that the Biblical doctrine of creation is based on divine revelation and understood only from the standpoint of faith". God has revealed Himself as the great Creator, so that not just the scientifically literate can understand the origin of creation, but every saint can do so no matter his or her background. Faith accepts that, in revealing how the universe was created, God did not issue interim statements that fell far short of a true and adequate record in order to satisfy man’s curiosity, until such time as the development of science would enable men to arrive at their own views as to the origin of life and the world in which we live. I believe in creation as revealed to faith in the unerring Word of God.
The apostles agreed on creation
Among the many who "by faith understand" that the worlds were not created out of pre-existent material, are writers of the New Testament. As well as the unnamed writer of Hebrews, the Apostles John and Paul provide doctrinal statements that are clear testaments to their firm belief in creation. Any undermining of the apostolic testimony to creation is grave. John stated emphatically: "…he that knoweth God heareth us (the apostles); he that is not of God heareth not us. Hereby know we the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error" (1 Jn 4.6). Paul wrote equally emphatically: "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine…" (2 Tim 3.16). Those two men were among those whose testimony did not lack clarity: "All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made" (Jn 1.3); "For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him and for him: And he is before all things, and by him all things consist" (Col 1.16-17). I believe in creation as revealed by the apostles, now contained for us in the New Testament.
One day, when the righteous Judge publicly rules over God’s creation, the Creator will be praised by the creation, both by the animate and the inanimate. The poetic language of Psalm 148 looks on to that day when the Creator’s name alone will be excellent. Then the whole universe will own Him, not just "young men, and maidens, old men, and children", but also "Beasts, and all cattle; creeping things, and flying fowl". On human lips there will be a vocal response to the exhortation in the Psalm: "Let them praise the name of the Lord: for he commanded, and they were created". Even today there are many who respond to "the living God, which made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all things that are therein", who "(fills) our hearts with food and gladness" (Acts 14.15,17). Surrounded by idol-worshippers, Paul let them hear that he believed in creation.
Heaven acknowledges the Creator
John, who wrote the Gospel that bears his name, records how, while exiled on the isle of Patmos, he heard a voice saying, "Come up hither" (Rev 4.1). In that chapter he records worship that he saw and heard. He saw the elders prostrate themselves in the presence of the One they worshipped. The words he heard acknowledge the Creator: "Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created" (Rev 4.11). We learn immediately that heaven acknowledges, and will acknowledge eternally, the creatorial glory of the Throne-sitter. Every creature will one day acknowledge Him, willing or unwillingly. Those John saw believed in creation and willingly expressed their homage to, and adoration of, the great Creator. I believe in creation and eternally will praise the Creator with all who will surround the throne.
Gladly I confess to believing in creation as revealed in Genesis and expounded by the Lord Jesus. I value the testimony of the apostles to creation, and long to see heaven and earth respond to the Creator. To that faithful Creator I have committed the keeping of my soul (1 Pet 4.19). To be continued.
