Creation or Accident
Notes
Transcript
We are going to start a 7 week series on applogetics.
The meaning of the word Apologetics comes from the Greek apologia which means a 'defense' or 'answer.' Christian apologetics is the body of knowledge that defends the philosophical, historical and doctrinal truth of true Christianity against attacks by others who possess (usually) a very different belief system.
Editor’s Note: There are varied opinions among Christians as to the time period of creation—seven days, ages, etc. This message is going to address these issues of God as the divine Creator, not of how He did it or how long it took Him.
The Golden gate bridge originally opened on May 27th, 1937 at a cost of just under $27 million. It took more than four years to build and was completed ahead of schedule and under budget.
The Taj Mahl
22 year.
Building of the Taj Mahal began about 1632. The mausoleum itself was completed by about 1638–39. The adjunct buildings were finished by 1643, and decoration work continued until at least 1647. In total, construction of the 42-acre (17-hectare) complex spanned 22 years.
The Empire State Building
1 year and 45 days
From the start of construction to modern day fame, the story of the Empire State Building is one you'll never forget. Intended to be the world's first 100+ story building, construction of the Empire State Building began on March 17, 1930. Construction was completed in a record-breaking 1 year and 45 days.
The Titanic
three years
The White Star Line's Titanic was built at the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast, Ireland, starting in 1909, with construction taking three years.
The Lincoln memorial
eight years
Henry Bacon was the New York architect who designed the Lincoln Memorial, which stands at the west end of the National Mall as a neoclassical tribute to the 16th President of the United States. The construction of the memorial took eight years to complete, from 1914-1922.
My question is this: did it take forty days and forty nights for God to give Moses the ten commandments in Exodus 34:28; or was God also giving Moses the account of creation? We aren't told for sure but we do know that Moses is responsible for writing the first five books of the old testemant. Which means that at some point God had to give Moses the account of creation if we say we believe 2 Timothy 3:16.
2 Tim 3:16
All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness,
NIV
Open your bibles and read with me if you will at the passage this morning in Genesis 1:1-5.
Genesis 1:1–5 (NIV): The Beginning
1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
2 Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.
3 And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.
4 God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness.
5 God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day.
Introduction:
I found this article written by Ted Cabal in my apologetics study bible that I want to read to you.
In this article you will hear words like, Theistic, evolutionist, and neo-Darwinism. I am going to give you the definitions before I read the article to you.
the·is·tic
/THēˈistik/
adjective
adjective: theistic
relating to or characterized by belief in the existence of a god or gods.: "theistic religions" "the idea of theistic evolution".
ev·o·lu·tion·ist
/ˌevəˈlo͞oSHənəst/
noun
plural noun: evolutionists
a person who believes in the theories of evolution and natural selection.
ne·o-Dar·win·ism
/ˌnēōˈdärwənˌiz(ə)m/
noun
noun: neo-Darwinism noun: neoDarwinism
a modern version of Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection, incorporating the findings of genetics.: "debates over neo-Darwinism in the scientific community".
Are the Days of Genesis to Be Interpreted Literally?
by Ted Cabal
This question has stoked controversy among conservative Christians in recent times, but it has proved to be of little interest to theistic evolutionists (those who accept evolution as God's mechanism in creation) and those rejecting Genesis as God's inerrant Word. The debate has been primarily between young- and old-earth creationists, who believe that God literally created the various kinds of living things (as opposed to the common descent of Darwinism). Both sides hold that humans have not descended from other species, and both reject the atheism and macroevolutionary theory of neo-Darwinism.
The two creationist camps, however, differ in interpreting the creation days of Genesis. If the days were consecutive 24-hour periods, and if the earth was created on the first day, then calculations based on biblical genealogies reveal that the earth was created only thousands of years ago. If the days were either of indeterminate length or nonconsecutive, then the Bible does not reveal when the earth was created. Interestingly, both sides agree that the genealogies reveal that Adam and Eve were specially created only thousands of years ago.
Young earth creationists (YCs) interpret the days as 24-hour, consecutive periods for reasons such as the following: (1) The days in Gn 1 are consecutively numbered and comprised of an "evening and morning." (2) Exodus 20:8-11 commands a literal week of six days of work and one day of rest based on God's original creation/rest week. The two weeks would seem, then, to be of equal duration. (3) According to Rm 5:12, "sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin," but old-earth creationism would have animal death entering the world before the sin of Adam and Eve.
Old earth creationists (OCs) argue against 24-hour creation days for reasons such as these: (1) The Hebrew word for "day" (yom) is used in different ways in the creation account. For instance, Gn 1:5 refers yom only to daytime (daylight), not nighttime. Also, Gn 2:4, literally translated, speaks of "the yom that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens." (2) God's rest on the seventh "day" has no evening and morning (Gn 2:2-3), and Heb 4:3-11 portrays this same Sabbath as continuing to the present time. (3) Adam could not have named all the birds and animals in 24 hours according to Gn 2.”
Both sides believe they have strong arguments favoring their interpretation and rebutting the other side. And historically, debate regarding biblical interpretation has often led to a clearer understanding of God's Word. But it is also highly debatable whether this issue merits the rancor and “division often attending it. Some YCs accuse OCs of compromising the Bible with evolutionary science. Some OCs charge YCs with undermining biblical credibility by generating a false conflict between science and the Scriptures.
Happily, one thing is not debatable among those who believe the Bible: even if the correct interpretation of the creation days is not readily apparent in the present generation, the Bible can be trusted in every way. Debates about biblical interpretations should not be interpreted as the failure of Holy Scripture
.
Excerpt From
The Apologetics Study Bible
Chuck Colson
https://books.apple.com/us/book/the-apologetics-study-bible/id1566241664
This material may be protected by copyright.
Creation or Accident?
Ask someone if he or she has ever heard the words “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth,” and you will probably get an affirmative answer. The person will likely even know that the statement is found in the opening sentence of the Bible. This most famous of all Bible verses is found, of course, in the book of Genesis. Not surprisingly, the word genesis means “origin” or “beginning,” and the Hebrew of Genesis 1:1 is a seven- “word sentence. For the ancient Jews, seven was the number of perfection.
The Bible’s opening statement is simple yet deeply profound in its two premises:
There is a Designer behind the design, and His name is God.
There is a design to the heavens and the earth.
It is the answer to the debate about origins.
It is the answer to the theory of evolution.
It is the answer to man’s purpose and value as a part of creation.
It is the answer to the “green” debate currently raging in the world.
It is the answer to creation care.
How christians are to care for creation.
There is a Designer behind the design, and His name is God (“In the beginning God . . .”).
From the very first verse, Scripture throws down the gauntlet in the debate over the fundamental truth of existence.
It calls the question and states its position unequivocally.
Is there a Being who created the universe or not? And the answer is yes, and that Being is God. Everyone who has ever lived and ever will live must take one of the two possible positions on the subject: either someone created it all, or it was the product or random chance.
The debate between the evolution view and the creation view is at its core a debate about the existence of God.
The late Dr. Henry Morris, founder and president of the Institute for Creation Research, said that evolution is nothing more “than “the long war against God.”
It is a long war that began almost from the beginning. It is not the product of evolution; evolution is just a vehicle for its expression.
Psalms 14:1
The fool says in his heart,
"There is no God."
Now counter the “no God” view of Psalm 14:1 with Romans 1:19, 20.
Romans 1:19-20
19 Since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20 For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities — his eternal power and divine nature — have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.
NIV
John MacArthur, in his sermon “God: Creator and Redeemer,” says that God gave man the ability to reason:
“Reason is basically a sequence of cause and effect patterns. Anytime you do research you work on cause and effect. Anytime you come to understand a principle, you understand it because there’s a cause and effect relationship, there’s a sequence of things that builds to a conclusion. That’s rationality. Reason is the ability to link things together to come to right conclusions. And God has put into the mind of man rationality so that he can rationally go back to the fact that there had to be a first cause. That leads him back to God.
Legendary British philosopher and atheist Antony Flew turned from atheism at the age of eighty-one.
He was a noted critic of God’s existence for several decades,
Flew published books such as God and Philosophy and The Presumption of Atheism.
Dr. Gary Habermas, prolific philosopher and historian from Liberty University, debated Professor Flew several times.
Still they maintained a friendship despite many years of disagreement over the existence of God.
“Habermas interviewed Flew in 2004 after he turned from atheism. A piece of their discussion follows:
HABERMAS: Which arguments for God’s existence did you find most persuasive?
FLEW: I think that the most impressive arguments for God’s existence are those that are supported by recent scientific discoveries . . . I think the argument to Intelligent Design is enormously stronger than when I first met it.
So in the very beginning, the Bible declares Elohim!
“Elohim” often refers to Yahweh in Scripture.
For example, Yahweh is the referent in Gen 1:1, where Elohim created the heavens and the earth.
Yahweh is also often the referent of Elohim in Pss 42–83, which are known as the Elohistic Psalms.
2. There is a design to the heavens and the earth (“. . . God created the heavens and the earth”).
Many people assert that this universe is not a creation—it merely happened. Because they believe it was a gigantic accident, there is no Designer.
The big bang theory: is a theory in astronomy: the universe originated billions of years ago in a rapid expansion from a single point of nearly infinite energy density
What makes the discussion dicey is that both sides—the God and the no-God folks—have to admit that the cosmos at least looks as if it has been designed.
Our universe reflects stupendous complexity in which nothing seems to be happenstance.
https://www.amazingfacts.org/media-library/book/e/1/t/amazing-wonders-of-creation
The appearance of design is everywhere.
There is no random material floating around without purpose; the universe reflects only very intricate design.
The appearance of design in the universe is undeniable. No matter how committed someone may be to atheism, he or she will not convince me that things do not at least seem to be designed.
No one could convince me or anyone else of that, which means that the person who chooses to believe that no God designed the universe is left in a very precarious philosophical position.
While a theist (Believer in a creator) is free to believe the validity of the observation that everything seems to be designed,
the atheist is left only with the awkward assumption that the universe actually exhibits an undesigned design.
“Think about that for a minute. What are the logical implications of thinking there could be an undesigned design of some sort?
Has anyone ever seen an unpainted painting or an unsculpted sculpture?
Has anyone ever lived in an unbuilt house?
That’s a mind-bending concept—and not only because an elite, intellectually endowed few are capable of grasping the supposed truth of it (although those who maintain the undesigned design position would want us to think our mental capabilities are limited).
It’s because the idea is simply untenable.
It’s the emperor’s new clothes of philosophy.
The idea just doesn’t make any more sense than saying there can be dry rain, an elderly newborn, hot ice, or uncooked barbecue.
We can pick any analogy, but undesigned design is a world-class oxymoron.
So in conclusion, whether you are speaking biblically, logically, or scientifically, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.