"So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. ... God saw all that He had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning - the sixth day" (Genesis 1:27, 31).
Most people who know anything about the Bible know that it begins in Genesis 1, verse 1, with these words: "In the beginning, GOD created!" But a growing number of Christians do not understand the problem with believing in evolution ... the unbiblical theory that the various species of life, even including man, evolved from primitive forms of life over billions of years. Even Christian colleges and universities are opening the door to other "theories" that outright deny the biblical account of creation or cast serious doubt as to its importance.
We have begun to view a DVD series by Russ Miller, "Creation, Evolution and Science Ministries," during our Education Hour on Sunday mornings. Anyone with a computer can go on line to creationministries.org and download this series for a small cost. Quotes from Russ are also heard regularly on "Real Remnant Radio," (realremnantradio.com), a new 24-hour internet radio ministry, founded to proclaim the truth of God's Word to the world. Both of these ministries believe the Bible to be the very Word of God, true from cover to cover. That is also our starting-point at Lighthouse Community Church Nondenominational!
My purpose in writing this particular blog is to attempt to FIRE UP Christian parents and educators!! We need to understand the consequences of sitting back and allowing Satan and the world to indoctrinate our children and young people with lies that are not supported either by God's Word OR by the evidence of science. If you are reading this and have children in school, from Kindergarten through colleges and universities, your children NEED to hear the TRUTH!! As a pastor I feel ashamed that we have let this go on for so long. While never believing or teaching evolution, I have not made it a point to speak often about it or to encourage our Children's Ministry or our Youth Ministry to combat these lies that our children and young people are hearing. We need to do better!!
Russ points out so well at the beginning of his series that the teaching of Darwinian Evolution (1859) denies the original creation of man in God's image, rejects the idea of mankind's "fall" into sin, which separated him from God, his Creator, and thus removes the need for a Savior and makes the rest of the Bible and God's plan of salvation a fairytale. If Darwin's theory of evolution is true, then Christianity is a lie. They cannot both be true. So which is it?
The facts are that there is NO evidence for Darwinian Evolution and there is MUCH evidence for Biblical Creation. I cannot begin to go into all the evidence that Russ presents, but he makes a great point when he says that true science is the friend of the Bible and of the true Christian. True science examines the evidence and arrives at truth, contrary to evolution, which begins with a theory and then manipulates the evidence in a vain attempt to "prove" it. Too many Christians have been intimidated by false evidence and have failed to realize that the teaching of evolution is a religion!!
Darwinian evolution, established when Darwin wrote his book in 1859, begins with a philosophy that is directly contrary to where the Bible begins. It begins by saying, "In the beginning there was no God ..." ... at least not the God who created all things for His glory, who separated Himself from man because of mankind's sin, and who sent His Son Jesus Christ to pay the penalty for sin and to reconcile all who believe to Himself. This God, the only TRUE God, does not exist in the religion of evolution.
For the first one hundred years following Darwin's book most people who believed the Bible rejected Darwinism and its teaching of billions of years of evolution. Even public education left the subject of our origins to parents and churches to teach. But since 1960 secular humanists have taken control of the textbooks and have promoted what they now call "Neo-Darwinism," no longer as theory but as fact. The old saying seems to be true: "Tell a lie often enough and people will begin to believe it!" Because nearly a century of efforts to prove the theory Darwin wrote about failed to produce ANY evidence, those who did not want to believe in the God who created all things decided simply to stop calling it a theory and to present it as fact. This "fact" is now presented to grade school children and by the time they are in Middle School and High School they have accepted it as truth. Meanwhile, Christian parents and churches have been silenced by those in high places who say that we're just trying to push our religion on the unsuspecting masses.
Enough!! When the Apostle Paul entered the city of Athens, into a culture of philosophers who were much like our culture today ... wanting to consider every idea without coming to any conclusions ... Paul saw all of their statues and idols and altars and pointed out one that said, "TO AN UNKNOWN GOD." Paul's response was, "Now what you worship as something unknown I am going to proclaim to you. The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth" (Acts 17:23-24). He then went on to call them to repentance, to turn from lies to the truth, for God has appointed a Judge for all men and has given proof of this by raising Him from the dead. In this obvious reference to Jesus, Paul connects the belief in God as the Creator with His plan of salvation - sending His Son that whoever believes in Him might be saved from His coming judgment.
More than 70% of children raised IN the Church today are leaving Christianity behind. How many of these have been influenced to reject God's Word as truth because they have been led to believe that the Bible is not true from its very beginning. When Christian colleges begin teaching that there was not really an original couple, Adam and Eve, you know that we have allowed Satan to win the battle in the educational realm. Further, we in this country have believed the lie that the Constitution of the United States forbids the teaching of creation in public schools and we have retreated into our church buildings with our heads bowed and our tails tucked between our legs, apologizing for our failure to understand the difficult facts of "science."
True science cannot contradict God's Word. All of the evidence that has been found and all of the evidence that ever will be found must support the unchangeable Word of God. If it appears to contradict anything God says it is because we have failed to interpret it correctly or our information is as yet incomplete. There are some things that cannot be proven, which must be accepted by faith. As modern science has uncovered more of the complexities of the human body, including DNA studies and genetics, all of the evidence ... ALL of the evidence makes evolution impossible. There is absolutely NO evidence that living matter has ever come from non-living matter, or that one species mutated to another species ... NONE!! Yet, this "theory," which hardly qualifies as a theory because of its lack of support, is presented in textbook after textbook as fact. Shame on us for allowing this to happen!
And now the same is happening with history. Secular humanists are now re-writing the history of our nation and of the world to exclude God, the Bible, Christ and sin. Never mind that they have no explanation for the evil in our world today and no solution for the future. There is no good news apart from the Bible and the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We are in an inescapable mess and all we can hope in is human ingenuity and/or luck to change our course.
GOD offers something better! From the beginning to the end of the Bible God reveals a path that leads to life and that is filled with love, joy, peace and hope for those who come to know their Creator through faith in His Son Jesus Christ. Brothers and Sisters in Christ, we need to FIRE UP!! We need to proclaim from the rooftops, "Our God reigns!!" Jesus is on the throne and His Spirit dwells within the hearts and minds of His disciples. Are you one of them? Have you been deluded by the lies of the false religion of secular humanism? Are your children even now being led astray by the lies they are hearing from people they are supposed to trust and respect? What can you do?
Check out creationministries.org and learn yourself so that you can teach your children and others. Talk to your pastor and others in the church where you attend and call their attention to these resources. Use them in small groups and begin to gather a group in your community that will challenge the status quo. There are some states where Christians have demanded that creation be taught. To date, the courts appear on the side of the secular humanists and their religion, but our churches are called to be LIGHT!! Let's let our light shine and proclaim truth. Let's equip our children with the evidence they need to stand firm in their faith amidst the lies of the world. Let's lead them to the God who sent His Son Jesus Christ, to a Savior who is also Lord, and to the power of His Spirit to give them strength to stand when all those around them head the other direction.
To do less is to fail this generation. To do less is to fail to glorify God. The heavens declare His glory! May we be found doing the same.
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