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In an increasingly godless society … truth matters!

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Published: 27 September 2011 (GMT+10)

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Have you ever wondered why some people have faith and others do not, or why some have so much more faith than others? Why did Abraham have such faith that he was willing to sacrifice his son, the boy on whom so many of his hopes rested? And what was the source of Noah’s faith, which enabled him to spend decades building an Ark, despite the magnitude of the task and the ridicule of his neighbours?

I believe much of the answer to these questions can be found in what Jesus said to Pilate: “Everyone on the side of truth listens to me” (John 18:37). Noah’s and Abraham’s hearts were inclined to the things of God, and godliness, truth and righteousness mattered to them. They shared God’s concerns, and when God spoke, what He said made sense to them. God’s words rang true and they rejoiced in them. They valued truth, and were prepared to pay a high price to honour it. Indeed, they loved it and loved the One who was truth (John 14:6). Abraham was called the friend of God (James 2:23). He cared about the things God cared about; they shared common interests and communed together on a deep level.

Conversely, godlessness leads to the suppression of the truth (Rom. 1:18) and those who love evil deliberately avoid it (John 3:19,20). Many prefer the approval of men, rather than God, and are more comfortable siding with the majority, who have no interest in God’s ways (John 12:43). Pilate asked, “What is truth?” (John 18:38), but had little time for the One who could have answered the question. Such is the animosity of many towards truth that they unrepentantly assert that God is a liar (John 3:33-34) and even attribute His words and works to Satan (Luke 11:15). Adam and Eve fell into sin because they chose not to believe God and to believe Satan instead (Gen. 3:1-13).

Educational propaganda

As has often been said, we are engaged in a spiritual battle, and the evidence for this can be seen all around us. As the Bible tells us, Satan has “blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the Gospel” (2 Cor. 4:4), and the extent of this mind control is truly remarkable. The insistence that it is a fact that ‘primitive’ life emerged out of the oceans, by purely natural processes, is breath-taking, given that scientists have absolutely no idea how it could have happened. Evolutionists are hard pressed to identify more than one or two mutations that appear to have added information to genomes,¹ yet they insist that this happened billions and billions of times throughout history, to create all the complexity of the living world. The dogma of an exceedingly ancient Earth, when current rates of erosion indicate that the continents would have been flattened many times over, were they really millions of years old, is nothing less than self-inflicted blindness.

The insistence that belief in evolution is necessary for scientific advancement and medical progress is astonishing, given the difficulty scientists have in pointing to technological breakthroughs which arose from evolutionary thinking. As pointed out by Dr. Marc Kirschner, founding chair of the Department of Systems Biology at Harvard Medical School,

“In fact, over the last 100 years, almost all of biology has proceeded independent of evolution, except evolutionary biology itself. Molecular biology, biochemistry, physiology, have not taken evolution into account at all.”²

Telling children that all their faculties, and all humanity’s achievements, can be attributed to a process of ‘survival of the fittest’ and ‘natural selection’ is surely fraught with danger, and the idea that such a belief system will not lead to the most selfish and violent of societies is folly of the highest order. Moreover, teaching that the different ‘human races’ arose through evolutionary processes will inevitably cause people to ask, “have some evolved more than others?”—and denying that such a view of humanity will not give rise to a return to state-sponsored racism, is naive in the extreme. God has given people the necessary intellectual ability to think these things through, yet most scientists, educational institutions and politicians have swallowed these deceptions, lock, stock and barrel.

In an interview on the Andrew Marr Show,³ shortly before becoming the UK Secretary of State for Education, Michael Gove stated,

“Well, to my mind, you cannot have a school which teaches creationism. And one thing that we will make absolutely clear is that you cannot have schools which are set up which teach people things which are clearly at variance with what we know to be scientific fact.”⁴

However, such views are hardly surprising, when respected scientific institutions such as the UK’s Royal Society dismiss their Director of Education simply because he opined that children should be allowed to raise doubts about the theory of evolution in the science classes and discuss alternative views of origins.^5,6

Truth matters so Genesis matters

Defending the truth of Genesis is a vital ministry to the church. Satan’s strategy today is exactly the same as the one he employed in the Garden of Eden: “Did God really say?” (Gen. 3:1). “Did God really mean that He made the world in six days? Surely, enlightened, educated people, who understand about science, don’t believe nonsense like that.” Unfortunately, few have learnt the lesson and, like Adam and Eve, are willing to question or even deny God’s word. And once it has been accepted that the Bible is not quite right in one area, people will inevitably begin to question whether it is quite right in other areas. The nature of God, His decrees about right and wrong, and the nature of His salvation all then become subject to man’s ‘scholarship‘ and ‘science’.

The Bible, when read in a plain and straightforward manner, provides a clear framework for our faith, without which we will flounder. Only by refusing to compromise in our interpretation of Genesis can we provide a coherent message. If we believe the Bible from the very first verse, then when people ask us why there is so much suffering in the world, we have an answer: It was not part of the original creation and came into the world only as a result of man’s sin. Evolution explains this death and suffering as a good thing for mankind because it supposedly led to our evolution—not a reminder to us that the Creation is cursed (Rom. 8). The evolutionary view thus immunises people from realising their fallen state.

When people question us about whether God cares about us in our fallen state, we can tell them that, no sooner had man sinned, God announced His plan of salvation (Gen. 3:15). When they ask us why the sedimentary rocks contain billions of fossils, and billions of tons of coal and other fossil fuels, we can point them to the Noahic Flood (Gen. 6-8). When they ask us where the different ‘human races’ came from, we can point them to the dispersal at Babel (Gen. 11:1-9) and explain that there is only one human race, the one descended from Adam. When they ask us how Christ could die for their sins, we can explain that just as all sinned in Adam, so all may be redeemed in Christ (1 Cor. 15:21-22). According to Jesus, the greatest commandment is that we should love the Lord our God with all our hearts and with all our souls and with all our minds (Matt 22:37). How can we do this if we have lingering doubts that we do not get answered? If our commitment is to be total, we must have a reference point, a clear set of beliefs and a certain path to follow. Only the Bible can provide this, through its perfect revelation of God and His ways, and His great and precious promises, which enable us to participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption of the world (2 Peter 1:4). And making the Bible central and preeminent in our thinking will make God central and preeminent.

On what are we to stand when we meet trouble, hardship and persecution, and face death all day long? (Rom. 8:35-36). The answer is God’s Word, which provides “an anchor for the soul, firm and secure” (Heb. 6:19). In such days, “Did God say?”, coming from alleged fellow believers, will provide little comfort.

Blessings flow from faithful obedience

I am often led to think of Noah, who, as a preacher of righteousness (2 Pet. 2:5), ministered to a people almost all of whom rejected his message—only seven others accompanied him into the Ark. But God richly rewarded his faith, and through his obedience, humanity was saved and a new world was brought forth, in which God’s Son would be born the Saviour of the world. Eleven generations later, another man of faith, Abraham, foreshadowed Christ’s atonement, and all but sacrificed his son in obedience to God’s command. God said to him, “Because you have done this [i.e. trusted my word] … all nations will be blessed, because you have obeyed me” (Gen. 22:15-18). I look forward to the day when Christ addresses His bride and says, “Well done, good and faithful servant” (Matt 25:21). Then, we will learn just how important our work has been.

It is always encouraging to hear from CMI supporters, who are standing with us in defending God’s word. After hearing one of our UK speakers, Gavin C. shared how he and a family member:

“ … went away from the sessions feeling thrilled and encouraged and re-armed with the knowledge that the Biblical world view really is so powerfully supported by the facts of science and makes sense of all the data! Creation messages such as CMI give both magnify God’s Word and renew one’s love and fascination for science. Reconnecting the Bible to the real world is a tremendous boost for faith, enabling one to love the Creator and appreciate His creation even more! How the Church so desperately needs to take on board this message, we need a new Reformation, it is the only hope for our increasingly secular, skeptical and anti-Christian culture.”

Ronald B., one of those who follow CMI on Facebook, sent Philip Bell the following:

“ … I’m a big fan and supporter of CMI. I think that what you guys are doing [is] so important in reaching the lost for Christ. … I think that as Christians, we all need to believe in what the infallible Word of God says about creation … Most people in my church have the opinion that the whole origins creation-evolution debate is a side issue. [They do] … not understand that believing in an old earth and not believing in the literal six-day young Earth as stated in the Bible will eventually lead to apostasy as CMI frequently points out. … Anyway [I] just wanted to encourage and let you know that you are doing a fantastic job. … Only in heaven will we know the countless lives CMI and people like you have saved (mine being one of them) … ”

Of course we’re sure that Ronald would acknowledge that it’s God, not CMI, who ultimately saves lives. We too rejoice, along with all our CMI supporters, when our message leads to salvation.

Related articles

• A revealing insight into European and world politics
• The Issue of Issues
• Evolutionary professor encourages critical thinking
• Absolute truth—and winning the ‘culture wars’

Further reading

• Education Questions and Answers
• Atheists to do religious education in schools
• Evolution in American education and the demise of its public school system

References

1. When carefully analysed, it is disputable whether even these claims truly represent new information as required by neo-Darwinism. Return to text.
2. Cited by Peter Dizikes, Missing Links, Boston Globe, 23 October 2005. Accessed at www.boston.com 4 November 2010. Return to text.
3. The BBC’s flagship political programme; it screens on Sundays at 9.00GMT on BBC1. Return to text.
4. Andrew Marr Show, Sunday 14th Feb 2010, BBC 1. Return to text.
5. Mark Henderson, Royal Society’s Michael Reiss resigns over creationism row, www.timesonline.co.uk, 17 September 2008, accessed 4 November 2010. Return to text.
6. See also Reiss resigns as Royal Society stifles debate on evolution. Return to text.

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