Introduction: One problem that some Christians, especially new
converts, seem to have is difficulty in distinguishing between
theological issues which are important and those which are not. These
Christians waste all sorts of time paying attention to things which
do not matter. Is that true with the creation account? Is this
something that does not matter? Is the debate between the creation
account and the evolutionary theory a waste of time? Let’s plunge
into our study of the Bible and see what we can discover on the
topic!
- The Close of the Show
- Read Revelation 14:6. What is the mission of this angel?
(To deliver a message to all humanity.) - What is the subject of the angel’s message? (The
eternal gospel.) - Read Revelation 14:7. Is this the eternal gospel? I
thought the gospel was that Jesus lived, died and rose
from the dead on my behalf? (Jesus did those things so
that I could avoid the judgment. Judgment is part of the
eternal gospel.) - Why does the angel mention creation in this judgment
message? (The creation is the foundation for God’s
claim to authority over all humans. He made us, and
therefore He has the authority and power to bring all
things into judgment and to destroy all things.) - Read Revelation 10:1-3. Is this a powerful being?
- Let’s read on. Read Revelation 10:5-6. What is going on
when this powerful angel swears? (He is pledging
allegiance.) - What is the basis for this powerful being giving his
allegiance to God? (God is the Creator!) - Read Revelation 4:9-11. Why do these exalted beings
believe God is worthy of praise? (He created all things.) - Let’s step back a moment and contemplate this. If you
were thinking of reasons to praise God, what would
first come to your mind? What about God’s love? What
about the redemption story? What about the rescue of
humans and their home in heaven and the earth made
new? - Who do you think has a better grasp of heavenly
values, you or the twenty-four elders who sit in
heaven’s throne room? (They do! Of all the things we
can think of, God stakes His claim to our worship on
the fact that He created us.) - What kind of message would be appropriate if
evolution was the way in which God created all
things? (“We were lucky and we were fast and natural
selection made us last (meaning endure)!” The
message would also include something about our role
in this.) - What do the last days of earth’s history tell us about the
importance of the creation debate? (Our understanding of
the creation is not some little spiritual backwater.
Creation is not some quaint theory that makes no
difference. As God is winding up the great battle between
good and evil at the close of earth’s history, His claim
to allegiance and worship is His power as Creator.
Heavenly beings, those closest to God, understand this.) - The Power of the Logic
- Read Acts 17:16-17. What is Paul’s goal? (To evangelize
the people of Athens.) - Read Acts 17:18-21. What was Paul preaching? (“The good
news about Jesus and the resurrection.”) - Read Acts 17:22-25. Is Paul off-topic? Why would he start
his argument about the good news of Jesus in this way?
(This shows that the creation account is foundational to a
proper discussion of the nature of God and the good news
of Jesus.) - Notice that Paul says “God does not need anything.”
Does the evolutionary theory suggest that God needed
something in bringing about life as we know it today? - Read Acts 17:26. Some may argue that Paul does not
indicate here precisely how God created. How is the “from
one man He made every nation of men” statement an answer
to that criticism? - Read Acts 17:27-28. What reason does Paul give for God’s
act of creation? (That we would seek Him.) - Does this make sense to you? (We look at the
creation, we look at how we are created, and the
logical questions are: “How did this happen? How did
we get here?” This leads us to the conclusion that a
God exists who is responsible for all of this.) - Does Satan want us to ask these questions?
- Have you ever doubted the existence of God? I clearly
recall one day in college when I thought, “I don’t believe
this anymore.” I recall from time to time since then
asking myself if my belief in the existence of God was
correct. Every time I first go back to what I can see – a
complex universe, a complex me, and it all tells me that a
tremendous intelligence must lie behind all of this. As I
get older, my thoughts go next to all of God’s wonderful
interactions in my life. Paul teaches us that the logical
argument for God begins with the creation. - Designer Authority
- Read Isaiah 45:11. When God tells us about the future,
what should we avoid? (Questioning His plans or His work.) - Read Isaiah 45:12. On what basis does God say He is
entitled to avoid answering such questions? (He made us
and everything else. What right does the creature have to
question its Creator?) - Read Isaiah 45:18. What other claim to authority does God
make based on being the Creator? (The claim to being the
only God. God says there are no other Gods.) - What if we came into existence as some sort of group
effort. The “group” being a God that is not really paying
attention, luck, natural selection, fast and hungry
animals, etc. Would God be able to logically argue sole
authority over humans? - The Limits of Logic
- Read Job 1:1 and Job 1:6-11. If you know this story, you
know that many bad things happened to Job thereafter. Why
did they happen? - Read Job 9:32-35. What does Job think about the bad things
which are happening to him? (He thinks some mistake has
been made. He thinks God is being unfair. He knows that
good things should happen to good people. See Deuteronomy
28.) - What does Job want? (He wants to sue God. He wants to
bring God into court (or arbitration) and have God
explain why the system is not working fairly in his
case.) - Read Job 38:1-7. We looked at this briefly two weeks ago,
but we did not trace the sequence of what is happening.
What answer does God give Job? (I’m the Creator and you
are not. Sit down and shut up. If you continue reading
chapter 38 God continues in the same vein.) - Is there some reason why God did not say: “Why Job,
you are at the center of a debate between Satan and
Me! You are representing My interests. You’ve been
doing great Job, just hold on.” - Which answer do you want, the one Job received or the
one God could have given about the actual situation? - Why does the book of Job appear in the Bible? (We
know what is going on, but it seems Job never knew
the real reason for his suffering. God wanted us to
know this happens some times.) - What does God’s authority as Creator teach us about
sad and difficult times in our lives when God does
not seem to be fair or paying attention to our needs?
(God’s message to us is that He is the Creator. He is
all powerful. We need to just trust Him. We need to
trust that He has the big picture in mind. We need
to know that He is dealing with sin and Satan in the
best way possible. We need to know that we will not
always understand what is going on in our life.) - Read Matthew 19:3. What motivated this question? (The
religious leaders wanted to test Jesus.) - Read Matthew 19:4-6. Which theory of the origin of humans
did Jesus accept as true? (The creation account.) - Why is creation an answer to a divorce question?
(Jesus teaches us that the creation account is not
just some irrelevant story. Instead, it is
foundational to many of our important Christian
doctrines.) - What does the creation account teach us about the
current controversy over same-sex marriage? - What does Job’s experience add to our decision-making about the propriety of same-sex
marriage? (Creation is just as authoritative on
the issue of divorce as it is on same-sex
marriage. Job’s story teaches us that even if
we cannot explain everything (or anything) we
need to trust God’s answer.) - Friend, will you acknowledge God as your Creator and
accept His authority? Will you trust Him and praise Him
because He created the universe and everything in it? - Next week: Creation and Morality.
