Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/Sermons/zz20120129.htm

THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION
Numbers: Lessons From Spiritual Casualties And Conquerors
Part XXVI: Resisting Paganism's View That Death Is Part Of Creation
(Numbers 19:1-22)
    Introduction: (To show the need . . . )

    Every Sunday morning in my introductory remarks as your pastor, I claim that we at Nepaug Bible Church believe "God created the universe apart from any evolutionary processes whatsoever."

    However, Ken Ham of Answers In Genesis reported in his March 26, 2009 blog that "most of our Bible and Christian colleges and seminaries" tolerate or promote "progressive creationism," the view that though God made "a number of acts of divine creation," after "each creative act there was a certain amount of diversification [by evolution], but there was a limit as to how far such change could go." (Bolton Davidheiser, Evolution and the Christian Faith , 1976, p. 175)

    However, allowing for any evolutionary processes forces one to accept Darwin's "mechanism" of the "survival of the fittest," the view that weaker life forms DIE OUT while the stronger, more "fit" forms survive and pass on their superior characteristics to future generations, resulting in the evolution of higher life forms. (Ibid., p. 187) In other words, physical death must be held to be part of God's original creation if one accepts evolutionary theory!

    However, if death existed as part of God's original creation, then death existed before man was created on the sixth day of Genesis 1, making death not the result of man's sin. If that be so, then Christ's atonement saves only from sin and not from death, so that there is no hope of immortality through the cross of Jesus Christ, cf. David H. Lane, "Theological Problems with Theistic Evolution," Bibliotheca Sacra 150 (April-June 1994): 155-74.

    Thus, if as Ken Ham reports, MOST of our Bible and Christian colleges and seminaries in America promote progressive creationism where death is presumed to be a part of the original natural order created by God, and if that view makes Christ's atonement unable to save us from physical death opposite the Creationists' view that we at Nepaug Bible Church hold, we need an UNDISPUTEDLY CLEAR SCRIPTURE PASSAGE to discern IF DEATH is PART of the ORIGINAL CREATION!



    Accordingly, we ask, "Is there a CLEAR Scripture passage explaining whether DEATH was a PART of GOD'S ORIGINAL CREATIVE ORDER, or if it is ABNORMAL as a JUDGMENT for SIN, and hence to be OVERCOME through Christ?!"

    Need: "Is there a clear Bible passage on whether death is a normal part of origins (evolutionism) or if it is abnormal (creationism)?!"

  1. In Numbers 19, God countered potent pagan Egyptian beliefs that had impacted Israel, beliefs that viewed human death errantly:
    1. Both before Numbers 19:1-22 and after it, Israel's people mentioned or complained about the judgment on Korah, suggesting his rebellion had greatly affected them, cf. Numbers 16:41; 20:3.
    2. This is explained in noting how Egypt's influential history and beliefs had impacted the generation of Israel that had recently left Egypt:
      1. Before Israel had left Egypt, that nation's priesthood had grown in power to the point that it actually controlled the country (philae.nu, "History of the Egyptian Religion, Part V")
      2. Also, Egypt's god Osiris had become deity for more than the kings, for even nobles and courtiers in a "democratization of funerary beliefs'" worshiped Osiris, great god of the dead. (Ibid., "Osiris)
      3. The common people also loved Osiris since his theology offered even them a chance to become immortal after death. (touregypt.net, John Watson, "An Overview of the Ancient Egyptian Religion")
      4. [Now, Osiris was believed to be reincarnated as a bull with symbolic markings on its face, back, tail and under its tongue, Ibid., Anita Stratos, "Divine Cults of the Sacred Bulls."]
      5. Thus, there was a potential conflict in Egypt between an elite priesthood and a democratic surge of people devoted to Osiris.
    3. These elements of Egypt's history and beliefs evidently showed up in Korah's uprising as Biblical events involved reveal (as follows):
      1. Osiris was Egypt's god of the dead and of vegetation, and belief in his death, resurrection and return to the realm of the dead to rule it was thought to be seen in the annual drought and flooding of the Nile that yielded Egypt's grain. (egyptianmyths. net/osiris.htm)
      2. So, God's opening up of the earth to swallow Dathan and Abiram into "Sheol" below, typical of the realm of the dead (Ryrie Study Bible, KJV, 1978, ftn. to Num. 16:30 and Gen. 37:35) and having Aaron's dead rod yield mature almonds overnight (Num. 17:6-9) critique Osiris as god of the realm of the dead and of vegetation!
      3. Thus, as Israel's nobles democratically resisted Moses and Aaron's "rule" with democratic support from Israel's people, the rise of Egypt's priestly power with the democratization of the nobles and common people and Osiris cult beliefs had greatly impacted Israel!
  2. Accordingly, God's Numbers 19 dictates on the red heifer sacrifice counter Osiris views on death that helped fuel Korah's rebellion:
    1. In CONTRAST to the variously marked Osiris bull, God called for a solidly colored red heifer, Numbers 19:1-2a.
    2. In CONTRAST to the Osiris bull, God called for a heifer, a huge conflict with Egyptian beliefs where heifers were considered sacred to the goddess Isis and were not sacrificed according to Greek historian, Herodotus, bible.cc, "Gill's Expos. of the Entire Bible: Num. 19:2."
    3. In CONTRAST to the death, resurrection and return to the realm of the dead by Osiris, the red heifer was not only killed, but its entire body irretrievably burned down to the level of ashes, Num. 19:3-5.
    4. Then, in VAST CONTRAST to Osiris theology, the ashes were used with water to PURIFY what TOUCHED the DEAD , Num. 19:9-22.
    5. Even the priest and his helpers who prepared the ashes were unclean, teaching a connection between SIN and DEATH, Numbers 19:7-10.
    6. Indeed, the word "purify" in Numbers 19:12 KJV is better translated "de-sin" or "un-sin," Ibid., Ryrie, 1978, ftn. to Numbers 19:12.
    7. This cleansing of people or objects defiled in touching the dead signal "the cleansing power of the blood of Christ (Hebrews 9:13-14; 1 John 1:7-9)," Ibid., ftn. to Num. 19:16-19, a truth we see further illustrated:
      1. Plutarch and Diodorus Siculus claimed the Egyptians sacrificed red bulls to the evil demon, Typhon (Egypt's god Set) to appease him, Ibid., bible.cc, "Gill's Expos." Yet, God had Israel sacrifice a red heifer to appease His own wrath against sin that led to God's judgment of death, Rom. 3:25; 5:17 with Gen. 2:16-17 and 3:1-19.
      2. These Greeks held red bulls were odious to Egyptians (Ibid.), but Christ as God's red heifer was made odious sin to God for us that we might be made God's righteousness in Him, 2 Cor. 5:21.
  3. As God in Numbers 19 countered Osiris belief that death is part of the original universe, so He counters evolution's "survival of the fittest" view that asserts death to be a part of the original universe!
Application: May we (1) trust in Christ to be saved from sin and be given eternal life and hope of the resurrection, John 6:40. (2) May we hold that death is an unnatural part of creation, and so hold to pure creationism versus any form of evolution, 1 Cor. 15:20-26.

Conclusion: (To illustrate the message . . . )

 In our introduction, we noted that professors at "most of our Bible and Christian colleges and seminaries" promote belief in at least some evolution. This promotion often rises from fear one will be seen as "unscientific" or "ignorant" if he holds to the pure Creation stance.

Yet, evolutionary authorities themselves tell of current, vast problems with evolutionary thinking, and we cite them as follows:

(1) B. D. Dyer and R. A. Obar, Tracing the History of Eukaryotic Cells, Columbia Un. Press, 1994, p. 2-3 wrote: "In tracking the emergence of the eukaryotic cell one enters a kind of wonderland where scientific pursuit leads almost to fantasy. Cell and molecular biologists must construct cellular worlds in their imaginations . . ." (cited in Roger Patterson, Evolution Exposed, 2006 p. 149)

(2) H. P. Yockey, "A Calculation of the probability of spontaneous biogenesis by information theory, Journal of Theoretical Biology 67:377-398, 1977, wrote: "One must conclude that, contrary to the established and current wisdom, a scenario describing the genesis of life on earth by chance and natural causes which can be accepted on the basis of fact and not faith has not yet been written." (Ibid., Patterson, p. 131)

(3) Richard E. Leakey, The Making of Mankind, Michael Joseph Limited, London, 1981, p. 43, wrote: "David Pilbeam [a well-known expert in human evolution] comments wryly, If you brought in a smart scientist from another discipline and showed him the meagre evidence we've got he'd surely say, forget it: there isn't enough to go on.'"

(4) Professor Jerome Lejeune, in a lecture given in Paris on March 17, 1985 as translated by Peter Wilders, said: "We have no acceptable theory of evolution at the present time. There is none; and I cannot accept the theory that I teach to my students each year. Let me explain. I teach the synthetic theory known as the neo-Darwinian one, for one reason only; not because it's good, we know it is bad, but because there isn't any other . . . " (Ibid., Patterson, p. 51)

May we hold to God's critique of evolutionary theory as He FIRMLY ASSERTED death is NOT a part of His ORIGINAL universe, thus COUNTERING Darwin's "survival of the fittest" mechanism; rather, DEATH is an ENEMY to be DEFEATED by CHRIST! May we trust in Him and hold to the truth!