Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/Sermons/zz20031116.htm

HOLDING TO THE TRUE ORIGIN OF THE UNIVERSE
Part I: Holding To Special Creation In View Of Christ's Credibility
(Matthew 19:4-6; Mark 10:6-8; 13:19)

Introduction: (To show the need . . . )

Every Sunday when I first get up and begin to give the introduction that reflects our Statement of Faith, I include the words, "We believe that God created the universe without any evolutionary processes." However, the debate on this subject of origins that was begun generations ago is not only continuing, but at times intensifying even in circles where Christians meet (as follows):

(1) In his periodical, "Answers Update," in the September 2000 issue, Ken Ham of the Answers In Genesis ministry noted that "More and more Christian leaders want to be seen as anti-evolution,' but sadly still hold to billions of years, the Big Bang, etc."

(2) That is indeed happening at top levels in Christendom: Dave Hunt reported in his March 1997 issue of "The Berean Call" that the publication, Christianity Today and Promise Keeper's official magazine, the New Man allow for theistic evolution, the belief that God used evolutionary processes to create the universe.

(3) Years ago, I attended an open house for pastors at an area Christian School, and, at one point, with the school superintendent listening, I asked a teacher whether she taught special creation or theistic evolution. She answered "we present all the views on origins and let our students decide which one is true for them to believe!"

The superintendent immediately perceived I might not agree with her answer, so he quickly affirmed, "This is not a church school, but a Christian school!" His explanation exposed the idea floating in many Evangelical circles that a Church might be expected to hold to special divine creation, but individual believers do not need to do so!

(4) Another believer once told me that holding to special divine creation keeps us from evangelizing the scientific community who would view special creation as being unscientific and thus untrue!



Well, with the intensifying debate on origins that occurs both in the secular as well as religious and even Evangelical circles, WHY hold to special creation -- is it really NECESSARY? Are we building needless barriers toward evangelizing scientific people or discipling other Christians by holding to such a belief?



(We turn to the sermon "Need" section . . . )



Need: "With many OTHER Christians NO LONGER asserting ONLY special creation,' but also tolerating or even supporting the theistic evolution' view where God USED evolutionary processes to create, are we incorrect in holding ONLY to special creation?"
  1. ANY assertion by Jesus Christ on the origin of the universe would affect our WHOLE Christian faith (as follows):
    1. For Christ to qualify to be our Sin bearer and thus Savior, He had to be sinless in every way, cf. 2 Corinthians 5:21 and 1 John 4:10.
    2. Well, that means Jesus had to GIVE OR IMPLY only the TRUTH by His speech to qualify as our Sin bearer, Matthew 19:18; John 14:2b.
    3. Thus, what Jesus said or implied about the origin of the universe we must hold as TRUE in defense of His righteousness and salvation!
  2. Well, by His words, Jesus Christ AFFIRMED Special Creation in CONTRAST TO Evolution OR Theistic Evolution (as follows):
    1. Jesus countered ATHEISTIC evolution in favor of Special Divine Creation in Mark 13:19 when He claimed God created the universe!
    2. Jesus ALSO countered THEISTIC evolution in favor of Special Divine Creation by His words and their implications as follows:
      1. In Matthew 19:4-6 and Mark 10:6-8, Jesus revealed He held BOTH Genesis 1 AND Genesis 2 to be true:
        1. In Matthew 19:4 and Mark 10:6, Jesus alluded to Genesis 1:27 to assert God made human beings as male and female, Ryrie Study Bible, KJV, footnote to Matthew 19:4-5.
        2. Then, in Matthew 19:5-6 and Mark 10:7-8, Jesus referred to Genesis 2:24 to claim a man would leave his parents and cleave to his wife to become one flesh, Ibid.
        3. So, in asking the orthodox Jewish Pharisees (cf. Matthew 19:3; 23:2-3), "Have you not read . . . ?" in Matthew 19:4 in His reference to Genesis 1:27 and Genesis 2:24, Jesus implied He held Genesis 1 and 2 to be God's authoritative, inerrant Word.
      2. Then, by using both Genesis 1:27 and 2:24 to refer to man's origin and so treating them as part of the same creation account , Jesus held Genesis 1 and 2 were one creation account, not two versions of origins as Julius Wellhausen wrote in his classic, Prolegomena to the Old Testament (cf. B. K. Waltke, Creation & Chaos, p. 2).
      3. This being so, in referring to Genesis 1:27 and 2:24, Jesus clearly stated the first man and first woman were made by special creation:
        1. As Jesus relied on what Genesis 1-2 said on the creation of man as God's truth, He implied the truthfulness of Genesis 2:21-22 that states the first woman was made by God from a man's rib.
        2. Well, where humans as mammals would need both male and female parents to evolve from lower life forms, Genesis 2:21-22 shows the first woman AND the first man did NOT evolve!
        3. Thus, by His statement Matthew 19:4 and by implication, Jesus asserted humans did not evolve, but began by special creation !
      4. Combining all of these findings with what Genesis 1 and 2 teach, we see Jesus held to special creation for the origin of the universe:
        1. Genesis 2:7 KJV, ESV, NIV claims God "formed" [yaser] man from the dust of the ground, Ibid., Kittel, Biblia Hebraica, p. 3.
        2. Well, (a) since Jesus implied the credibility of Genesis 1 and 2 by His words in Matthew 19:4-6 and Mark 10:6-8, (b) since He held man came into being by God's special creation without any evolutionary processes when God "formed" him from the earth and (c) as Genesis 2:7 and 2:19 record the only two times the verb, yaser appears in Genesis 1-2, (cf. B.D.B., Heb.-Engl. Lex. of the O.T ., p. 427), (d) the Genesis 2:19 claim that God formed land animals and birds from the ground reveals Jesus held God made them by special creation like He made man!
        3. Besides, all life forms created at their various levels are said in Genesis 1 to reproduce "after their kind," so Jesus affirmed no evolutionary progress occurs from one level' of life form to another, cf. Genesis 1:11-12 for plants, Genesis 1:21a for fish, Genesis 1:21b for birds and Genesis 1:24-25 for land animals.
        4. As Genesis 1:9-19 reveals the solar system and stellar universe were made after daylight and plants existed, so Jesus opposes all possible evolutionary theories for the origin(s) of the inanimate bodies in space; rather, He asserts the non-living things in the universe came into existence by special creation!
Application: (1) Since the Bible teaches we must trust in Jesus Christ as our Sin bearer to be saved from hell to heaven, we must believe in Christ to be saved, John 3:16; 2 Cor. 5:21. (2) Then, as Jesus asserted by His words pure creation as the way the universe came to exist, we hold to it in defense of our Savior's sinlessness and His salvation! (3) We then evangelize the lost!

Lesson: JESUS CHRIST held Genesis 1 and 2 report the same account, and HE supported this account's assertion that God used special creation ALONE to create the universe. Since JESUS CHRIST can only tell the TRUTH to be our Savior, we hold to special creation as He verbally did!

Conclusion: (To illustrate the sermon lesson . . . )

 When we began this message, we alluded to the charge that by standing for special creation, we hurt rather than help our efforts to evangelize the unsaved scientific community.

However, Dr. Bolton Davidheiser's testimony in his book, Evolution and the Christian Faith, "A Personal Testimony" reveals nothing hinders God's power from reaching evolutionary scientists.

Though raised in a Mennonite church, Bolton Davidheiser wrote that when he first heard the gospel of salvation by faith in Christ, he could not accept it because of his evolutionary views. He thought that if man evolved, the "Biblical account of the fall of man [into sin] is not true but is a myth or an allegory . . . If man evolved, Christ was just a reformer and not the Redeemer; He was a martyr and not the Savior. Then the Christian religion becomes a code of ethics and not the way of eternal life through a risen Lord." (Ibid.)

Then, many years later, in the spring of 1944 in North Dakota, Dr. Bolton Davidheiser with his Ph. D. in Zoology from Johns Hopkins University with a specialty in genetics attended an evening service of a Gospel preaching church. He writes: "The pastor was not gifted, and everything he said I had heard many times before. He preached a simple gospel message of salvation by grace, and that evening I found myself saying, I believe that,' to everything he said. This surprised me for I had said many times that I could not believe unless someone would first disprove evolution to me. But there I was, agreeing with everything he said and telling myself I believed it . . ."

Dr. Davidheiser reports that after he became a believer in Christ, he found by his own research that views he had presumed were true in support of evolution were not at all certain. He came to reject evolution as true and worked to aid others who had stumbled over it.

Yet, in conclusion, he wrote: "It is good to know something of the other side' of the evolution problem, and I have tried to present that in my writing and speaking. But this is not enough. It is the preaching of the gospel that leads to salvation." (emphases ours)

Take it from a former evolutionist with a Ph. D. in Zoology from Johns Hopkins -- the POWER of GOD in the GOSPEL is what we need to reach the unsaved, cf. Romans 1:16! May we thus hold to CHRIST'S view of origins, to Special Creation, and testify the GOSPEL of His salvation to reach the unsaved for Christ!