Creation Ex Nihilo
“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”
Genesis 1:1
“By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.”
Hebrews 11:3
In my sermon to you this past week I spoke about the necessity of believing in the biblical account of creation. I want to continue to press your faith and thinking in this area. I urge you to reconsider and reject the accepted thinking of western European culture that the origin of the world is evolutionary random time and chance. I will first explore some basic arguments related to intelligent / Divine design of the world, then connect these thoughts to some of the implications that you personally are not a product of random time and chance.
First, the biblical account of creation aligns with the scientific reality that matter is not eternal. All that exists had a beginning somewhere in the distant past. But science can give no reasonable explanation for how the world and everything in it went from not existing to existing. The Bible does. This is called creation ex nihilo, or creation from nothing. What is seen was not made out of things that are visible. God as Creator is the beginning explanation of the world. It’s not sufficient for secular science to put forth an explanation of the world that has no plausible beginning. This is not a step you can skip.
Second, in the progression of matter from non-living to living, there is again no reasonable or plausible explanation given within an evolutionary framework. The move from non-living to living is not a simple step-by-step progression. The simplest form of life is the single cell. It’s called “simple” because it is the smallest and most irreducibly complex, but it is not simple. Life progresses from the single cell to radically more complex forms of life, but the single cell has a threshold of life. The single cell can no more exist with half of its parts than you could exist with half of your organs. The single cell’s processes function as a system, similar to your body’s processes functioning as a system. Many years ago, when science was ignorant of the complex life processes of a cell, the smallness of a cell could pass for simplicity. In our day, such thinking is willful ignorance. There is again no reasonable explanation for how the life processes of a single cell could partially form, and the idea such processes would just “appear” by chance would be a leap of faith far more unfounded than believing in God. The Bible tells us that these processes were designed by God and put into motion by His living power. One Living Being creating another living being.
Third, even if you believe counter to reason that matter is eternal and that it is possible for all life processes of a single cell to click into place out of inorganic matter, you are left with the still enduring problem of humanity as a product of evolution. Early evolutionists were at least honest about where this struggle leaves us as human beings – facing the twin animalistic realities of survival of the fittest and natural selection. In evolutionary thinking human beings have risen up from the apes through an agonizingly long process of the weak and “unfit” dying off, while the smartest and strongest thrive and reproduce. This process has supposedly brought us to the high form of human development in which we now exist.
However, this animalistic view of humanity is impossible to square with the enduring human conscience and resident sense of natural moral law. The majority of human beings from every developed culture – those furthest from animalistic tendencies – know that it is morally right and good to live counter to natural selection and survival of the fittest. We have hospitals because we know in our hearts we should not just leave behind the sick to die. We have nursing homes because we know we should not just eliminate the elderly and infirm as a form of natural selection. We have rejected eugenics as a culture because we know in our souls it is immoral to breed human beings for better characteristics like we do cows and horses. Human beings relate to each other with a sense of morality and ethics in a way that animals do not. We have a sense of justice imbedded in our hearts that is not present in animals. Evolution has no explanation for our beginning, the origin of life, or the resident reality of moral ethics in the human heart.
Fourth, without question scientific laws indicate that the world is moving from order to disorder. The world is not getting better, it’s getting worse. Animal species are not forming but are going extinct. Ecosystems are not getting healthier; they are slowly decaying. In our day there is a strong sense of this decay, to the point that many fear an impending end of the world through ecological decline. However, this reality is exactly counter to the idea of evolution – that things are getting better and better. You can’t have it both ways. If we are in decline, at what point did the world shift from evolving to devolving? Why would this shift have occurred? The Bible explains these realities and gives an account of a designed world that began in goodness and moral innocence but has been in decline ever since the rebellion of humanity. The biblical account aligns with what we experience every day.
Next, are basic realities of the world we experience everyday that defy the idea that all around us, including ourselves, is a product of incremental, unguided, time and chance processes. The world is filled with animals that are “irreducibly complex.” This line of thinking is the same as the impossible leap from non-living to living. An irreducibly complex animal is one that cannot possibly have reached its current state through progressive development. It either exists as it does, or it would die. There is no possible, convenient, transitional form that would have gradually shifted from one state to the next. One of my favorite examples is the woodpecker. I’ll let you look this one up yourself, but the short of it is that without the completely unique tongue, brain, and eye structure it possesses it would die of starvation or brain damage. All three parts of this astonishingly intricate system must be in place for the woodpecker to eat and not kill itself beating its head against a tree. We hear these birds all the time in the woods around us, and their existence defies all evolutionary odds. There are countless other examples.
The artistry of the world must also be mentioned. I have spoken to the engineering and moral complexities of the world, but the world around us does not only “work” – it’s beautiful! God is the original engineer and artist. The artistry around us defies all explanations of the world rising up from random processes, and especially an explosion (bang). Nothing random displays the symmetry and artistry displayed everywhere in nature. Nothing beautiful ever comes from an explosion. Even after thousands of years of humanity carefully logging and studying the biology of the world, we are still discovering new flowers, birds, insects, and fish. We are surrounded in the world by expansive living beauty. It’s a beauty that we can steward and cultivate, but not a beauty we can replicate.
Lastly, I would like to speak to your place in this world and how vital it is to see yourself as created with purpose by God, rather than coming into this world by chance. The more you accept evolutionary thinking, the more you will enter moral and identity crisis. Evolutionary thinking sets you at odds with your own soul. We are all born with a moral sense and a sense that our lives have purpose, but evolutionary thinking tells you that you’re just an animal and morality is a social construct with no actual reality. Evolutionary thinking tells you it is by mere chance you were born as you are, but through medical technology and “advanced” cultural sensitivities, you can change who you are and become who you may want to be. You can evolve yourself to create your own reality. This sounds good, but just like standard evolutionary theory, it grates against reality in trying to press the God of the Bible out of your life.
The Bible teaches us that God not only created the world but caused you personally to come into existence. The Lord God is the author of life. By His purposes He has fixed certain aspects of your life that He providentially intended to be a part of your life and identity. These are not random accidents, but by divine providence. There are at least four things about each of our personal identities that spring directly from God as our Creator. God has caused you to:
- Be born as the gender you were born. God intended for you to be a man or a woman by His choice, not your choice.
- Be born with certain physical characteristics. Some tall, some short, some bald, some hairy, some light, some dark, etc. We do not choose our physical characteristics.
- Be born to the parents you were born to. God placed you in your family.
- Be born in the country and time you were born in.
The purpose of pointing out these things while discussing creation, is to firmly ground the idea that God has purpose for your life. You are not a random accident. Your personal meaning will not be created by your own doing, it will be found by coming into relationship with your Creator through Jesus Christ.
We all struggle with aspects of ourselves that we cannot change. Every person has things about their appearance they don’t like. The direction of our lives is often not clear. Sometimes we are at odds with our parents, and sometimes we grieve over the time and place we were born in the world. But there is purpose and direction through Jesus Christ. God has designed tremendous diversity into the world, and we ourselves are part of that diversity. Each of us as individuals, but with specific abilities and strengths. We will come to appreciate these differences and be at peace with who we are not by rebelling against God, but by drawing near to Him through Jesus Christ. In Christ we can rest and enjoy the fullness of creation around us, stewarding the world, and living in harmony with God’s will.
May we often consider the reality of God as Creator and give Him glory,
Pastor Vic