Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/Sermons/zz20111218.htm

CHRISTMAS INTERLUDE
The TRUE Angel Gabriel's TRUE Christmas Message Of Hope
Part III: God's TRUE Savior To All TRUE Believers
(Luke 1:34-35 et al.)
    Introduction: (To show the need . . . )

    The Angel Gabriel plays a key role in three major religions -- in Christendom, in Islam and in Judaism. However, his message in Luke 1:34-35 to Mary that she would bear the Son of God by virgin birth is countered by a fourth influential world "religion", that of evolution:

    (1) Evolutionists themselves have called evolution a religion: Michael Ruse in, "Saving Darwinism from the Darwinians" in the May 13, 2000 National Post, p. B-3 wrote: "Evolution is promulgated as . . . a full-fledged alternative to Christianity, with meaning and morality . . . Evolution is a religion. This was true of evolution in the beginning, and it is true of evolution today." (Henry Morris, "Evolution Is Religion -- Not Science," icr.org/article/455/)

    (2) Accordingly, some evolutionists openly admit that evolution is not even science: Morris (Ibid.) cites evolutionist Peter J. Bowler's review in the March-April 2000 American Scientist, p. 169 of another evolutionist's work, In Search Of Deep Time, 1999, by Henry Gee, noting how Bowler admitted: "We cannot identify ancestors or missing links,' and we cannot devise testable theories to explain how particular episodes of evolution came about. Gee is adamant that all the popular stories about how the first amphibians conquered the dry land, how the birds developed wings and feathers for flying, how the dinosaurs went extinct, and how humans evolved from apes are just products of our imagination, driven by prejudices and preconceptions."

    (3) Well, evolution would deny the Angel Gabriel's message that a virgin would bear the Son of God since this would require a miracle to occur, and lead evolutionist Charles Darwin wrote: "my deity [is] Natural Selection'". (William L. Krewson, "Evolution's Deadly Theology," Israel My Glory, July-Aug. 2005, p. 15)

    (4) Some Christians claim God used evolution to create. Yet, that forces one to assume death existed before man to make room for Darwin's "survival of the fittest" to work. However, that leaves death not the exclusive result of sin, and subverts Christ's work on the cross versus the Bible's claim that He died to save us from sin and death, 1 Corinthians 15:1-22. If Christ did not need to die, He did not need to be born of a virgin to qualify to save us as Matthew 1:20-21 claims!

    So we ask, "Was Jesus born of a virgin birth as taught in the Bible, or is such a miracle impossible as it violates evolution? How would the Angel Gabriel respond?!"

    Need: "Was Jesus miraculously born of a virgin to be our Savior as the Bible claims, or is that impossible because it violates evolution? How would the Angel Gabriel respond to this question?!"

  1. When the Angel Gabriel told Mary she would miraculously bear the "Son of God" by way of a virgin birth, He explained this would occur because the "Holy Spirit" would "come upon" her and the "power of the Highest" would "overshadow" her, Lk. 1:34-35 KJV.
  2. This explanation in its Biblical and historical contexts abundantly counters evolutionary thought and supports special creation:
    1. The Angel Gabriel's message that the "Holy Spirit" and the "power of the Highest" would "overshadow" Mary that she might bear "the Son of God" allude to Genesis 1:2, the only other passage in the Old Testament Scripture that Mary would have used where the Holy Spirit's hovering or overshadowing resulted in the creation of life.
    2. With such a context, Gabriel's message to Mary abundantly counters evolutionary thought and supports God's special creation (as follows):
      1. When Genesis 1 was written, the major pagan cosmogonies, accounts of the universe's origin, held a monster once restrained the occurrence of creation, a monster containing in its body the materials for the potential existence of the universe, and that a hero god slew the monster, releasing its body's materials that formed the universe, with the hero god regulating it all, Bruce Waltke, Creation and Chaos, 1974, p. 1-15, and citing Mary Wakeman, God's Battle with the Monster: A Study in Biblical Imagery , 1973.
      2. Implied in this view is the belief that the means for life to arise exists in the material universe itself, not in a separate, transcendent deity, much as evolutionists suppose life formed from non living matter via chemical evolution as in the theory that "Amino acids may have assembled into proteins on clay particles in shallow pools." (Roger Patterson, Evolution Exposed, 2006, p. 132-133)
      3. However, Moses' Genesis 1 cosmogony gave a contrasting view:
        1. Instead of a restraining monster competing against a hero deity as held in the ancient pagan cosmogonies of Moses' day, he wrote that God the Holy Spirit hovered over a formless, empty and thus a helplessly lifeless, primordial earth, Genesis 1:2.
        2. This hovering activity was done in total sovereignty: the only verse besides Genesis 1:2 that uses the verb rahap rendered "moved upon" (KJV), "hovering over" (NIV) is Deuteronomy 32:11, and it describes how an eagle or a vulture flutters over its helpless, vulnerable young in a nest as it cares for them, Ibid., Waltke, p. 52; B. D. B., A Hebr.-Eng. Lex. of the O. T., p. 934.
        3. In line with this complete divine sovereignty versus the pagan view, Moses taught that God the Holy Spirit formed the universe and filled it with life that was called into existence by God's mere spoken words, Genesis 1:3-27.
        4. A Sovereign God thus made the universe in six consecutive solar days with each day consisting of an evening and a morning (Genesis 1:5, 8, 13, 19, 23 and 31). Thus, evolutionary processes would not have had enough time to form the universe; rather, a Sovereign Creator God spoke the whole universe into existence within a solar week!
      4. Applied to the Angel Gabriel's Luke 1:35 words to Mary, this means Gabriel denied evolution and supported special creation:
        1. Gabriel's explanation of God the Holy Spirit's work in Luke 1:35 answers Mary's Luke 1:34 question of how she as a virgin could bear a child apart from natural means.
        2. Thus, when Gabriel in Luke 1:35 alluded to God's Genesis 1:2 creation, he implied that just as the early earth had itself been naturally helpless to produce life, and as Mary also was herself naturally helpless to produce God's Son, the Holy Spirit would overshadow her as He had the early earth, miraculously making her bear God Incarnate as the same God the Holy Spirit had miraculously created life on the primordial earth!
        3. The Angel Gabriel then implied that God created the universe by special creation: at creation and at Christ's incarnation, miracles by a Sovereign God were absolutely necessary for the respective new life forms involved to be brought into existence!
Application: (1) May we trust in Christ as Savior from sin to have eternal life, John 3:16. (2) May we deny both ancient pagan and contemporary evolutionary views that hold to belief in the innate power of the material universe to create life, and (3) believe the miracle of Christ's Incarnation with the miracle of special creation.

Conclusion: (To illustrate the message . . . )

 The Angel Gabriel's reference in Luke 1:35 to the Holy Spirit's work at creation bears a special emphasis when we recall a passage in Scripture that tells us he himself was a witness of that creation!

Job 38:1-7 records God's conversation with Job when the Lord was referring to His creation of the universe. After speaking in verse 6 of the Lord's laying the foundation and figurative cornerstone of the earth, at verse 7, God said "all the sons of God shouted for joy." (KJV)

This term "sons of God" is used elsewhere in this 2,000 B. C. book of Job only in Job 1:6 and 2:1 to refer to spirit beings called angels. (Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible , p. 958) There the "sons of God," angels, among whom was the fallen angel of Satan, appeared before the Lord to give an account to Him of their activities. Thus, according to God's own testimony, the angels were all present and all shouted for joy at creation when He laid the foundations and the figurative cornerstone of the earth!

Since Gabriel is himself an angel, he himself would have seen God create the earth, and would have rejoiced along with the millions of other angels (Revelation 5:11) who also rejoiced with him!

Thus, for the Angel Gabriel to allude to the Holy Spirit of God in Genesis 1:2 hovering over the helplessly inanimate early earth before creating the universe, all to explain how Mary as a virgin, helpless to bear the Son of God, that the Holy Spirit would accomplish this task, is invaluable to us! Who better to tell us of the Holy Spirit's work to produce Christ's incarnation than a spirit being who SAW the Holy Spirit hover over the world to create the universe?!

May we BELIEVE the Angel Gabriel's words to Mary as a message not only from God's messenger, but as a message from an angel from God who WITNESSED the Holy Spirit's special creation of the universe and REJOICED over it! May we believe that the production of the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus was a MIRACLE accomplished like the CREATION of the UNIVERSE was a MIRACLE of God's special creation!

May we then believe in Christ for salvation from sin, and REJOICE in God's provision of our Savior and hence of our great salvation from sin!