- Victoria Tate
New Series: In the Beginning
Resource: Lead Pastor Justin Dosch
Topic: The Case for The Creator
I don’t know what it is about bedtime, but when it’s time to put my boys down for bed at night they act like they got a shot of red bull. Can anyone relate? So lately what we’ve been doing is having the boys go to their rooms and spend some quiet time drawing a Bible story. The guys love to draw so it’s a fun way to calm their spirits and heart but also give them something constructive to do to get them into the Word a little bit. So one night they’re doing this and I’m downstairs putting dishes away and one of the kids comes down and says “I got a problem.” So I ask what the problem is and he responds, “I’m drawing the story of Adam and Eve”... and he looks absolutely innocent as can be and goes “well, you know (points down)…” I let him know it’s natural and all of a sudden another one of the kids comes from the complete opposite end of the house and yells, “JUST DRAW SOME LEAVES ON IT!” Which is amazing to me because when my kids are two feet away from me they never hear anything but a conversation 400 feet away and they are like hawks.
The innocence of a child at that moment made me think about something. When it came to the creation story, this book of Genesis, the very first book in the Bible, there was a part of him that was like “I don't know what to do with this.” I think even as adults, for many of us there's this thing inside of us when it comes to the Book of Genesis, particularly in the culture that we're living in, where we look at it and we go “I'm not really sure what to do with this thing.” If I were to ask you today “what do you believe about the creation story when you read the book of Genesis” or maybe some of the stories you've heard about the Book of Genesis, what do you believe? Is it just a story to you? Is it just an allegory? Is it just kind of a metaphorical thing to get us to understand who God is but it didn't actually happen that way?
See the truth is I believe we're living in a culture that has really put Genesis, the creation story, under attack. I think sadly for many people, including Christians, they aren’t sure what to do with the first few chapters in the Bible. The problem is we are living in a world that is making science and God at odds with each other.
We're living in a world where people are looking at the Bible and they're saying how do I reconcile that whole beginning story with all of the science that's coming out about how old the world is and how the world came to be. Even for many Christians it's hard to reconcile and yet as believers, as followers of Jesus Christ, here's what I believe about Genesis:
Genesis is so much more than an allegory. It is essential to understanding who God is. After all, if Genesis doesn’t tell us the truth, then why should we believe the rest of the Bible? In the first few chapters of Genesis we are given insight into life's biggest questions like: Why do we exist? Where did life come from? What is our purpose? Questions that every person asks at some point in their lives.
This is why understanding Genesis is vitally important because in it we find the foundation of every doctrine that is essential to the Christian faith, it explains: God’s power, sin, relationships, and most of all redemption through Christ.
One of the biggest reasons people deny the existence of God is because they can’t reconcile the God of the Bible with modern science. The world has been lied to by a satanic agenda. It's the single biggest lie that has ever been because it eliminates the need for God. It’s this prevailing mindset that if you believe the Genesis account of Creation and/or believe in God, you are irrational and uneducated. We should want to change that.
So here’s to a new series, In the Beginning, where we are going to dive deep into the creation story so we can learn not only about the origin of life, but its purpose as well.
The starting point of Christianity is not Matthew 1:1, it’s Genesis 1:1
I read a quote that I really love and want to share,
If I only had one hour to spend with an unbeliever I’d spend the first 55 minutes explaining creation and the last 5 explaining the gospel. - Francis Shaeffer
It is unbelievably important for us, as Believers, to understand this and to know how to articulate this well. For Christians to be able to talk to people who do not believe this and help them see there is some truth to this whole God thing; to what God's word says in Genesis. Let’s lay the foundation:
START WITH SOME BASIC LOGIC
It takes far more faith to believe something came from nothing than to believe something created it
When you come through Fort Pitt tunnel and see the skyline of Pittsburgh, the eye-catching skyscrapers and art… you don’t look at it and think this all just came into existence, no, you would know that someone made it. An intelligent, rational mind would think that. But a lot of the scientists in academia would have you believe that the Earth is different. That the incredible complexity of earth didn’t have a maker, it just came to be from nothing. That’s not rational at all.
Evolution is a THEORY, it is not the “FACT of evolution,” yet it is treated as such.
They teach this in schools and I truly believe Satan is onto something. If he can discredit creation, he can discredit the power of God and possibly his existence altogether. He’s targeting the youth because they will grow up and go out into the world believing this.
If evolution is true, then human life is not valuable and it is essentially meaningless
On my way back from Hawaii I had a conversation with someone who sat next to me on the plane. She asked what I was doing and I explained I was working on this sermon series and what it was about. Over the next 3.5 hours we talked about our views, never once raising our voices or arguing. But ultimately, she expressed that she believed we, humans, are just animals.
If we are just “animals,” a collection of cells with no spirit, then we’re free to act like animals.
If humanity is a freak accident and we have no soul then killing a human being is no different than killing a chicken and yet most people on the planet would say “that’s messed up”. So there’s a major disconnect.
The evolutionist says matter + time + chance is the catalyst or “force” that makes life possible. BUT, chance is not a force, chance cannot determine something
An example is a coin flip. It seems random but what determines it is not random at all; speed, trajectory, bounce, wind etc. The outcome may APPEAR random but it is NOT.
Chance doesn’t exist, it says nothing is the cause of something and that’s truly irrational
The evolutionist would say if you just have enough time coupled with chance eventually, “life happens”.
An example here would be a clock being formed by tossing its pieces into the air over and over again. It doesn’t matter how much time you have or and how many times you do it, it won’t become a clock
Spencers Worldview
Time, force, action, space, matter comprise everything susceptible to scientific examination… BUT, evolutionists CANNOT account for the origin of these categories.
In ONE verse God brilliantly explains where all of these things came from:
"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." Genesis 1:1
In the Beginning - TIME
God - FORCE
Created - ACTION
The Heavens - SPACE
The Earth - MATTER
Sadly the world has foolishly rejected what is so obvious, that there must be a creator. But why? Why would anyone opt for this worldview? I love how Paul explains this;
"The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse. For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles. Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised." Romans 1:18-25
God has made it so obvious! Anyone who is thinking rationally can see that there is an intelligent designer of all this! The complexity of it all, how perfect the conditions have to be for life to exist, the human body alone. It is so clear, but because of people’s sin, they foolishly ignore it. Why? It’s not because people have a problem with God creating the world, but because they want to live how they want to live and evolution frees them from a righteous moral judge. If there is no God, I’m free to live in my sinful desires.
Ultimately, evolution makes man the pinnacle of the universe, free to glorify himself as the pinnacle of evolution. Free to pridefully do whatever pleases himself. But, if God is the creator of all, then he and he alone receives the glory. He sets the standard. Because he and he alone is the worthy creator.
BOTTOM LINE:
We all have two choices
Either NOTHING times NO ONE created everything
SOMEONE created everything
The only answer that makes sense is that our amazing God created all of this.
So to close this out, this week I want us to rest on this truth and recognize what this means for our lives: In the beginning God created…
These words should bring us great comfort and remind us:
His love for us is so great; he created this world for the US to live in and enjoy and we are HIGHLY valued.
If God is nothing then I am nothing, but if God is who Genesis says he is, I am more than just something, I am infinitely VALUABLE.
We are NOT an accident
He is a God of design and order and planning, and his plan for us is GOOD
Of his limitless power to bring something out of nothing, new life out of nothing
With a WORD he spoke the world into existence showing His power is beyond compare. The same power that spoke the world into existence raised Jesus from the dead and now LIVES in me! We were hopeless and He gave us hope. Broken, and He restored us. Lost, and He gave us direction. Dead and now alive.
That same power that created the world has the power to restore marriages, heal the sick, break the chains of addiction. Isn’t that something you want to be real, that you WANT to believe in?!
“In the beginning God created,” changes EVERYTHING and ultimately what it does is points us to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
I CHALLENGE YOU: Open your minds to this God who loves you so very much and created this world for you to live in. Who has the power to bring hope to any hopeless situation and if you want to engage in relationship with him it's as simple as this:
Jesus Christ was sent into this world to go to the Cross to pay the penalty for our sin to make it so we could have a relationship with Him and live for eternity in Heaven.
This is salvation, the conclusion to the beginning. He will redeem you and he will restore you and he will bring you back to life in a way that you've never been alive before.
If you have more questions, whether about this message or Jesus, OR if you feel you are ready to take the leap and receive salvation through faith, then reach out to us via the contact form or at info@truenorthpgh.org.
Resources used
“The Battle For the Beginning” - John Macarthur
Answers In Genesis - www.answersingenesis.org
