In the beginning, God created. The Bible starts here. The Torah starts here. It was one of the first verses that I had to memorize. The Apostle’s Creed starts here:
I believe in God, the Father Almighty,
Creator of heaven and earth
Why is it important to believe in a God who is our Creator? We will dig into the implications of this topic in today’s lesson.
The World in which We Live
Almost 150 years ago, Charles Darwin published what is considered to be groundbreaking work on our beginnings, titled, On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection. Today Americans are still arguing about the concept of evolution. To many in the scientific realm, the idea of evolution is more than a theory, it is the explanation of mankind’s beginnings, just the way that creation is the explanation for the believer.
As time and science have progressed, the idea of evolution has slipped from a perfect solution to one of several possible theories for the beginnings of life. But in the last two decades, the argument has been how evolution should be taught in schools. Accompanying this debate are the questions “Should creationism be taught? Is that violating the separation of church and state? What about the idea of intelligent design?”
Throughout much of the 20th century the debate was heard in school boards, town councils and state legislatures. Sometimes the debate wandered before the bench of our courtrooms. The famous 1925 Scopes “monkey” trial involved a Tennessee law prohibiting the teaching of evolution in the state’s schools.
But something happened in the 1960s that changed the course of the debate. The U.S. Supreme Court issued a number of decisions that imposed severe restrictions on the state governments that opposed the teaching of evolution. As a result, school boards and government bodies are now kept from prohibiting the teaching of evolution. But more devastating, teaching creation science, either along with evolutionary theory or in place of it, is also banned.
At the same time, the United States was really wanting to get serious about science. The Soviet Union had launched the Sputnik satellite, and the United States was actually facing a shortage of mathematicians. Fearing that the Soviets would become superior in technology, President Dwight D. Eisenhower and Congress passed the National Defense Education Act, a bill designed to fund and improve science education. Evolution and its teachings received a financial shot in the arm made possible by the act.
Some local and state school boards immediately began searching for scientific alternatives to evolution. The concept of intelligent design has caught the attention of several stats. The idea holds that life is too complex to have developed without the intervention of an outside, possibly divine force.
Ben Stein, a conservative American writer, lawyer, actor and political commentator, wrote and starred in a 2008 documentary film called Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed. The film contends that there is a conspiracy in academia to oppress and exclude people who believe in intelligent design.
https://www.discovery.org/v/expelled-no-intelligence-allowed-supertrailer/
The scientific community criticized the movie and its arguments, but the film opened in 1052 theaters and grossed over $2.9 million dollars its first weekend. The film is available on Amazon and through other outlets.
Lee Strobel is an American author and investigative journalist. He received a journalism degree from the University of Missouri and a Master of Studies in Law degree from Yale Law School. He became a journalist for the Chicago Tribune and he was awarded the UPI Illinois Editors Association newspaper award for public service for his coverage of the Pinto crash trial in Winamac, Indiana.
Strobel was an atheist when he began investigating the Biblical claims about Christ after his wife’s conversion. Seeking to discredit her faith, he eventually became a Christian after honestly evaluating the evidence. Since he has authored several apologetic books for Christianity, including The Case for a Creator.
https://www.amazon.com/Case-Creator-Lee-Strobel/dp/0310242096#reader_0310242096
Other education officials have begun to require that schools teach critiques of evolution, or that students are forced to read or listen to evolution disclaimers, hoping to help students realize that evolution is a theory and not a fact.
The debates rage on, in the courtrooms or on the stage of public opinion. The Pew Research Center updated their polling and analysis of a 2009 study five years later in 2014. According to their findings, six-in-ten Americans say that humans and other living things evolved over time. Interestingly, 32% of those six say that life evolved through natural processes like natural selection, but 24% say a supreme being guided the evolution for the purpose of creating humans and other life forms.
According to their research, most of the nation’s scientists defend the position that evolution is a well-established scientific theory and that it convincingly explains the origins of life on earth. They hold that evolution is more than a hunch or guess, but is an explanation of a natural phenomenon, much like gravity. These scientists dismiss creation science, including intelligent design, as religion and not science.
Overall the percentage of adults in the United States who believe that God created humans in their present form at sometime within the last 10,000 years has reached a new low. Only 38% now accept creationism, while about 57% believe in some form of evolution – either God-guided or now – saying that man evolved over millions of years from some less advanced form of life.
Further damaging the creationist argument, the Gallop poll taken in 2017 indicates that the less-educated Americans are more likely to believe in creation. Of those who believe in creation, 48% have a high school education or less; 42% have had some college classes, while 24% are college graduates and 21% have post-graduate classes or degrees.
In a highly hyped event, science communicator Bill Nye and Creation Museum founder Ken Ham debated for almost three hours on February 4, 2014. While Nye championed the evolutionary theory cause, Ham argued his beliefs in a 6000 year old earth. Both sides claimed clear victories, though the actual headway for either side is up for debate. What the episode did prove is that there is still a hunger for answers in this arena.
The Psychology Today website carried an article by Ralph Lewis, M.D. Even though the article spoke to “what we lose when we lose belief in God and the supernatural,” he goes on to conclude:
We are probably at a tipping point in the intellectual history of humankind in our understanding of how we, our world, and everything contained in it could indeed have come into existence entirely spontaneously and unguided.
Why is our world so opposed to a Creator?
Why A Personal, Creative God Matters
To some, the problem of the creator God is a simple “first-cause” question. Who created the heavens and the earth? God. Well then, who created God? This problem leads to an issue of infinite regress where each creator is presumed to have a creator.
But those who hold to a form of evolution still have to position the issue of infinite regress. How did the heavens and earth begin? A big-bang theory. What created the first molecules?
[su_pullquote]The Bible Affirms
Let’s look at some of the Scriptures that lay a foundation for belief in a personal, creative God. Examining several Bible verses will help our understanding.
Revelation 4:11
2 Peter 2:4
Genesis 1:1
Hebrews 11:3
John 1:3. Psalm 33:6, Colossians 1:16
Romans 8:19-23
Isaiah 40:28-31
Romans 1:18-23
Psalms 19:1[/su_pullquote]
The issue of first-cause cannot be answered by science. No one was present when it happened. No one recorded its history. The issue is answered in one of two ways. With which do you feel most comfortable? Either the first cause is personal – someone who purposely designed and created the heavens and the earth; or the first cause is impersonal – something that randomly happened with no design in mind, the outcome being pure chance.
For many the belief in God comes down to the existence of the supernatural. Things – beings or events – outside of the natural realm cannot be measured or studied. Whether we like to use the word or not, either position requires faith. It takes faith to believe in a supernatural God (He would then be able by definition to perform miracles) or it takes faith to assume that the things of the natural realm are all that exist.
An article by Debora MacKenzie on the New Scientist website (www.newscientist.com) in 2012 commented that the vast majority of people still believe in a supernatural god or gods, but that analytical thinking erodes belief in an individual, personal God.
Stephen Law, the editor of the Royal Institute of Philosophy journal THINK wrote on the website aeon.co that belief in supernatural beings is totally natural – but totally false. He goes on to cite a 2013 Harris Poll that found 42% believe in ghosts, 64% in the survival of the soul after death, 68% in heaven and 74% in God. But Law surmises we can’t be drawn to those beliefs because they are true. He states, “if we possess good evidence that humans are very prone to false belief in invisible beings when those beliefs are based on subjective experience, then I should be wary of such beliefs.”
While not everyone cares to articulate this, for others it is a matter of submission. IF a Creator exists, and if that Creator is interested in how I live, it is imperative that I submit and obey Him.
Why is belief in a personal Creator so important? Let’s consider several themes.
- The beginning point is the word “personal.” If the origin of humanity is impersonal, such as a creative force or power, several things are missing in our understanding of our existence. It takes a person to understand purpose, relationships and emotions. The human existence is filled with a desire for meaning and purpose in life. In our hearts, we seek relationships – through our families, through our work and play, and within communities. More pointedly, we desire some of those relationships to be of an intimate nature – of knowing and being known. Finally, we would not expect to be emotional if our origin was impersonal.
- When we speak of a personal God as the Creator, we begin to understand our desire and need to see something beyond ourselves. The writer of Ecclesiastes speaks of God “setting eternity in the hearts of men” (Ecclesiastes 3:11). This inner longing was described by mathematician and philosopher Blaise Pascal who spoke of a “God-shaped vacuum” in every human being.
How We Tell Others
So when people say they don’t believe in God, what does that really mean to Americans today? What are they rejecting? Are they saying “No” to a belief of any higher power or spiritual force in the universe? Are they simply turning their back on a traditional Christian idea of God?
A Pew Research Center survey in 2018 found that about one-third of Americans say they do not believe in the God of the Bible, but they do believe in some sort of higher power. Just over half (56%) of Americans say they believe in God as described in the Bible. Ten percent of those polled say they do not believe in any higher power at all.
People learn best when they are able to process new information through information that they already know. For the few that say they do not believe in God or a higher power, try to determine their understanding of the spiritual realm. Bring it to a personal level – when you close your eyes, can you ever hear yourself think? The conscience or intuition is evidence of a spiritual dimension. That is the dimension that is home to God.
Discuss creation. The personal nature of creation points to the presence of a personal designer or creator. Even if we do not have the Bible, the universe itself cries out about the existence of a creator. A painting has a painter. A five-course meal has a chef. The vastness of the universe must have a creator. The intricate, personal nature of humans points to a creator.
A personal God who is Creator is an essential of our faith. It is a revealed truth in the Scripture. To accept less than this abandons sound doctrine. HOW God did the creating is a matter of opinion. None of us were there and the Bible is not specific in its explanation or its application. Did He take literal 24 hour days to create? Were the days actually ages? Is the story of creation in Genesis literal or a symbolic allegory?
Please follow this line of reasoning. I may hold very strong ideas for why I believe that Genesis is a literal, historical accounting of the creation of the universe. My studies have led me to believe that the days of creation are 24 hour days and that God did that in six days and on the seventh day, He rested from His creation. If asked, I can explain the evidence and substance for my beliefs.
[su_pullquote align=”right”]Points to Ponder
1. What is significant about being formed by a personal Creator as opposed to an origin from an impersonal force or random accident?
2. What attributes of God do you see in His ability to create?
3. In your own words, how would you talk about the existence of God to someone who doubted or disbelieved? [/su_pullquote]
On a side note, my ability to explain what I believe is my obedience to the Scripture that bids me to share “the reason for the hope within us” to all who ask (1 Peter 3:15).
But I do not need you to agree with me. My explanation will never be an argument. It does not change my opinion of you. It is not a battle that I have to fight nor win. In the end, it does not matter. Not arguing does not water down my faith. It broadens and expands it. HOW God created the heavens and the earth becomes a question on my list of things to ask God when I get to heaven.
If you and I agree upon a personal God who is our Creator, we have an incredible point of reference that binds us together. And we have taken the first step toward becoming brothers.
If you and I agree upon a personal God who is our Creator, we move together toward understanding that our world – and our existence – was not chance nor an accident. There is purpose and creativity behind our lives and our world.
The design reflects the designer.