4 Reasons to Believe in Creation

Those that believe in creation believe that the universe and all human life is the result of divine creation. For creationists, God is responsible for the creation of the entire cosmos.

While there are differing opinions among Christians regarding creation (e.g. young earth creationism, gap creationism, theistic evolution), almost half of Americans now consider themselves to be creation believers, with almost all of those acknowledging that God created the universe, as described in the Biblical accounts. A recent article in the Daily Mail states that:

“Nearly half of Americans believe God created mankind in a single day about 10,000 years ago, a literal interpretation of the Bible, according to a new survey that shows the view toward evolution in the United States hasn’t changed in 30 years.

About 46 percent of people say creationism explains the origin of humans. Just 15 percent say humans evolved without the assistance of God.” (Read the article)

With so many now believing in the creative work of God, it’s important to look at why creation continues to stand up, in spite of modern scientific theories which appear to contradict the Biblical accounts. We hope this list of four reasons to believe in Biblical Creationism will inspire your faith in God’s creative work, and strengthen it.

The Bible Reveals Creation

The Bible states over 30 times that God created all life including plant, animal and human.

The first two books of the Bible are even specifically devoted to the accounts of God’s creative activity and our origins. Genesis functions as the foundational book of the Bible and tells the story of the beginnings of the universe, the earth and humanity. The accounts of God’s creation serve to help us understand the book we are about to read, and to grasp God’s redemptive plan for the world.

As a complete work, the Bible reveals the nature of God through his creation, and through his relationship to creation – from Genesis to Revelation. The Primeval History laid out in Genesis 1-11 is referred to over 100 times throughout the New Testament alone, and is referred to by every New Testament author. The importance of the Genesis accounts of creation cannot be overstated.

A belief in evolution is a misreading of scripture as it cannot be reconciled with passages such as Genesis 1 or Exodus 20:11 which states:

“For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.”

Beliefs in anything other than God’s creation of the universe are inconsistent with the omnipotent, omniscient and redemptive picture of God that the Bible paints.

Jesus Confirmed Creation

Jesus referred to Genesis himself, on several occasions – always affirming his belief in the accounts as historical realities.

In Mark he states that:

“But at the beginning of creation, God made them male and female.” (10:6)

And in Matthew Jesus responds to the Pharisees questions on divorce:

“Haven’t you read,” he replied, “that at the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female,’ and said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh’? So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.” (19:3-6)

Jesus confirmed the accounts of Genesis: Adam and Eve were real people, as were Cain and Abel. Jesus also affirms the historical validity of Noah and the flood later on in Matthew.

For Jesus, the events described in Genesis were real events with real people. The historicity of The Primeval History is bound up with much of Christ’s teaching on theological matters. Understanding Jesus relies on our understanding of, and belief in, the creation narrative.

The Authority of Scripture Relies On It

If we deny creation, or allege that some passages should be understood as mere myth or allegory, then we are putting the authority of the canon at risk for two reasons:

Firstly, if these stories do not describe events as they state, then what other parts of the Bible might be misleading? Deciding not to believe in the creation accounts of Genesis will inevitably lead to questions about the reliability of other parts of the Bible, and the Bible as a complete work.

Secondly, if the Bible is in fact unreliable, then we undermine our own belief in God’s inerrant word. If we do not subscribe to the creation accounts which appear throughout the Bible, then we open the Bible up to be considered full of errors and not divinely inspired – as Christians usually understand it.

God’s Character is Grounded in Creation

The Bible reveals God’s nature through his creation. In the beginning we are created in his image. Throughout the Old Testament the people are called to be the people of a creative God and in the New Testament we see God revealed through Jesus, who was with the father at the creation:

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.” (John 1:1-3)

The New Testament even closes with the promise of a new creation, in which God will carry out his redemptive plans and see his kingdom reign on earth. In order to understand God, we must believe and recognise him as the creator of the entire cosmos. The Psalmist wrote that:

“The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.” (19:1)

To exist within creation is to exist within the presence of God. God is deeply embedded into his creation.

To celebrate God’s creation, sign our petition to establish Creation Day as an official holiday

How Old is the Earth and Humankind?

What Does Science Say?

From a scientific point of view, the earth has been functioning for over four billion years. This age is based onevidence obtained from ‘radiometric age dating’ which measures radioactive decay of meteorite material and lunar samples in order to calculate a minimum age for the earth. Scientific evidence obtained from African fossils suggests that humanity, as we know it today, has only been walking the earth for around 200,000 years, making humankind a very small part, and rather late addition to, the earth’s history.

What Does the Bible Say?

If we are to pose this question from a biblical point of view, one might easily form a very different answer. The Bible describes man as having been made on the sixth day of creation. According to this account, humanity was created almost at the beginning of the earth’s timeline, rather than later. The biblical account also perceives the creation of human beings to be a significant event in the creative order, rather than an evolving afterthought. If we are to subscribe to the biblical timeline rather than the scientific timeline of evolution, we may find that our world is younger than we have been told.

Evidence for a Young Earth

Much speculation abounds regarding the age of the earth. Much of this is driven by the idea that we can gauge more reliable evidence for the age of the earth from the Bible. According to this idea, Genesis provides an accurate, reliable account of creation which sees God create the earth and humanity over a period of six 24-hour days. Creationists also claim that scientific estimations for the age of the earth are filled with flaws and errors.

Here are just a few examples of where scientific methods may be falling short;

• Dinosaur bones have been found to contain red blood cells, which could not last more than a few thousand years. This dates dinosaurs well ahead of the 65 million years ago that science typically sets them as having inhabited the earth.

• Helium is escaping into the atmosphere due to radioactive decay, but the total amount is not reconcilable with an earth age of four billion years.

• The moon is slowly withdrawing from the earth at a rate of around 4cm per year. If the moon had begun in direct contact with the earth, it would only have taken just over a billion years to reach its current distance from the earth. This gives the moon a maximum possible age that is too young to be in keeping with scientific age assumptions about the moon, and with radiometric dates assigned to moon rocks.

• Salt is filling the sea at a faster rate than it is discharging. This means the sea is not salty enough to be billions of years old.

Is the Earth be Younger Than We Thought?

Young earth creationists acknowledge that they cannot prove the age of the earth using any scientific methods, but what they do encourage is questioning of so-called scientific ‘data’, and the reliability of scientific methods in order to produce this data. Those who advocate for a young earth recognise the limitations that dating methods have, and acknowledge that all attempts at age-dating are guesswork, at best.

What young earth creationists promote is the use biblical genealogies as a method in which to attempt to date the earth’s lifespan. Those who subscribe to this view regard the Biblical accounts as historically accurate, thus forming a reliable record that we can use to understand our earth and its story.

Studies have shown that almost half of adults living in the United States claim to hold the view that God created humanity as we know it today, within the last 10,000 years.

What do you think? Comment below with your thoughts, and be sure to sign the petition to establish Creation Day as a national holiday!

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We Came in Like a Wrecking Ball

We Came in Like a Wrecking Ball

The Problem

Christians need to face up to a problem that we have not always taken adequate responsibility for.

We, as humans, and as Christians, have failed to take proper care of the earth, and at times have even been directly involved in its destruction. Christianity has not only participated in this destruction, but has failed to take any action to correct it. Economist and Creationist Wendell Berry argues that, not only are Christians being counted in those who add to the destruction of creation, but have often been amongst the worst of its perpetrators;

“Christian organizations, to this day, remain largely indifferent to the rape and plunder of the world and of its traditional cultures. …most Christian organizations are as happily indifferent as most industrial organizations to the ecological, cultural, and religious implications of industrial economics. The certified Christian seems just as likely as anyone else to join the military-industrial conspiracy to murder Creation.”

A Sinking Ship

Fundamentalist eschatological theories have indirectly cultivated a culture in which Christians have lost all sense of responsibility for the created order. Movies, blogs and books including best-selling novel series “Left Behind” have come to foster a philosophy that perceives the earth to be a temporary dwelling which will succumb to ruin before Christ’s second coming. The line of thinking is this;

If the earth, in the future (possibly near future) is going to become a desolate wasteland which will only be redeemed upon Christ’s return, then why should we, as Christians, make any efforts to care for it now? This philosophy leads to a focus on evangelization and the ‘saving of souls’, over care for the environment. DL Moody himself felt this way, and said; “I look upon this world as a sinking ship…”

According to this view, the earth is a kind of Titanic, beyond redemption and doomed to founder. Moody’s statement implies that the only recoverable component of the wreckage is people. While we must keep mission in focus at all times, saving souls created by God, we must not do so at the expense of the rest of God’s creation. The Bible describes the future earth as gloriously redeemed and rebuilt, but this does not give us permission to use and abuse it in the present age. The blessed hope that we look to of a future re-creation does not provide license for humanity to abandon the care for this creation. The opposite is the case – we must utilise the inherent goodness of the material world in order to please God and care for his creation in our own time and place.

It is with this philosophy, that Luther famously remarked;

“If I knew Jesus would return tomorrow, I would plant a tree today.”

A Witness to all Nations

The relationship between Christianity and creation is becoming increasingly urgent. Humans are perceived to be the most intelligent life form that roams the earth, and yet we are responsible for almost all of the damage that the planet has suffered. As Christians, we are even further enlightened through the Light of Christ, and yet we are passive when it comes to issues concerning the created order.

Over the last few decades, there have been many movements which have taken up the environmental flag and advocated for responsible earth care in order to preserve God’s creation. Christians, however, have often distanced themselves from these movements, or just failed to act with conviction when it comes to environmental issues. This stands in opposition from scripture, which sees creation as deeply bonded and relational with God, as well as revealing God’s glory and omnipotence. Christians should be leading these campaigns which address environmental concern.

We are no longer in a position to sit back and pray for a miracle. Stories of pollution, climate change and animal extinction are endemic in our media, yet we are no more compelled to make changes than we were four or five decades ago. As Christians we must respond with conviction, to represent and take responsibility for the environment that we recognise as God’s. The entire cosmos matters deeply to God, and thus it should matter deeply to us. If we abuse the environment, neglect it, or fail to advocate or it, then we are allowing the earth that our God cares about, to perish.

Biblically speaking, to not take action is a failure on our part, to understand our role in the created order, and in the Gospel.

Why should we care?

The Bible gives many reasons why we should be concerned for our world:

God himself is pleased with his creation
God is in relationship with his creation
God expects humans to exercise responsible stewardship over nature
God commanded us to care for the environment
The entire created order will be renewed and re-created

The significance of the earth in our estimation ultimately depends on our understanding of the story in which we are taking part. We must spread the Gospel to the four corners of the earth – as we have been commissioned – but to preach the Good News whilst failing to model it by caring for God’s creation, is a failure to understand our place within God’s redemptive plan.

The biblical story outlines a framework in which we are all participants. After five days of creating planet earth, the sixth day is used to create human life. The first man is then formed from the dust of the earth, and filled with God’s breath. Humans were created to be in relationship with the earth in the same way that God is – we are bound to the earth and rely on it to care for us, as we in turn should care for it.

So What Can We Do Today?

To become a part of the solution TODAY, the first thing you should do is subscribe, and sign the petition to officially inaugurate Creation Day. Help establish Creation Day as a national holiday in which all of humanity will recognise the need for responsible, caring stewardship over God’s creative handiwork.

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/creation-day

How Big is God?

How Big is God?

We can begin to have an idea of how big God is by looking at his creation. Let us take the universe for example – a large, endless, expanse of space, with innumerable planets, stars and other planetary bodies – many of them several thousands of kilometres bigger than our earth.According to the International Astronomical Union, the diameter of our galaxy – the Milky Way – is approximately 100,000 light years. To get an idea of the massive expanse that this occupies, it is helpful to know that one light year is equal to 10 trillion kilometres.

Astronomers using the Hubble Telescope have discovered billions of galaxies in the universe, observing that each of these galaxies have billions of stars. Limiting their records to only what they can observe with the telescope, they have concluded that our own galaxy has about 300 billion stars alone.

The distance between our galaxy and our neighboring galaxies ranges from several hundred thousand, to millions of light years away from the earth.

It is not hard to see why the Psalmist says;

When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have ordained; Ps 8:3-4 NASU

The one who created the endless universe can never be a small creature himself. The bible says He is so big in stature that he made the earth His foot stool.

It is unfortunate that though man has been able to discover the wonders of the universe, he has not been able to fully grasp the God who made it.

What is man that you take thought of him and the son of man that you care for him? Yet you have made him a little lower than God, And You crown him with glory and majesty! You make him to rule over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen, And also the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens and the fish of the sea, whatever passes through the paths of the seas. Ps 8:4-8 NASU

If God can exalt humanity to the point of putting all things under his feet, then we should feel compelled to reciprocate His love by using every opportunity to worship Him.

The Day of Creation has been set aside for this purpose; all we need to do is to give it more recognition by help making it a recognized holiday.