Creation

Anyone who has known me for a while, understands that I have a certain fondness for the outdoors.  By rite of fatherly and husbandly duty, much time is not spent in the forests and mountains these days, but every-day living in this area is like living in some vacation-destination spot anyway.  So, it is natural for me (pardon the pun) to philosophize about "natural" things - the way things are and the way they came to be.

I have always been a convinced Creationist - which is to say that I believe that God created the Earth and everything that exists apart from Himself in a span of 6 24 hour periods (which we know as days).  The Bible states this plainly and positively - actually excluding all other possible explanations.  The fossil record backs the Bible up.  The present materials all around us attest to it.  Yet, we are inundated with "scientific conclusions" that not only question Creation, but also directly and overtly conflict with it.

Science itself, which I consider to be the pursuit and proving of truth, does not actually conflict with the Bible.  It's just that many of the present conclusions presented to us in our text books, periodicals or other media today are not really scientific.  Much of what we see is beatiful 3D renderings, animations, paintings or what have you that are at most something of a guess.  At worst, many have been proven faulty or fraudulant, in some cases decades ago.  Lest you think me unfair, I will also propose that the Biblical origin is not truly scientific either.  No scientist observed it.  No one can repeat it.  No one can prove it the way you would in some experiment.  But the Bible is not wrong.  Everything around us points to the Creator simply by its very existence, let alone the complexity, beauty and function.

"Natural" or rather "Supernatural" evidence is all around us.  I have had more than one person tell me that they just couldn't believe that "God could just do all of this".  I have replied to them, "Congratulations, your faith is greater than mine, because I can't believe that all this could just make itself."  It must have started somwhere, somehow.  There is a watchmaker, a computer geek or an artist for every watch, electronic device or painting, yet we humans think that we just happened somehow?  Really?

You see, the issue of origins is not about the true facts for anyone.  Facts are all present for all of us to see.  The issue is instead entirely about the interpretation of the facts.  The facts are all around us. How you interpret them and where you place your faith is instead at issue.

By way of the Bible, I understand the purpose of God and the purpose of Creation.
...I understand how everything that has its being exists...
...I see that sin mutated and destroyed the whole of Creation...
...I see that the result of sin is death, judgement - the Flood...

I percieve things around me that corroberate the Biblical account of Creation and the Flood...
...I see how "kinds" of living things produce after their "kinds" - staying recognizable in form and purpose over countless generations...
...I see how a firmament (waters over the earth) might have made an ideal environment for every kind of creature extinct or not...
...I see how continents were literally broken up in a catyclismic, world-wide flood...
...I see how fossils by the millions, coal and crude petroleum, natural gasses and other deposits were formed...
...I understand how marine fossils are found in the highest of mountains...
...I understand how mountains and valleys took their shape.  (Use Google Earth or take a flight somewhere - it seems as though someone pulled a plug and the whole pond drained, leaving gouges where the sediment was scoured away in mind-blowing run-off.)

...Perhaps most of all, I see the tremendous effects of sin and death.

The effects of sin affect us daily. We hurt each other, lie to each other, on and on... ...eventually each of us dies.  According to the Bible, death is the result of sin. 

I often see this idea that "death is a natural part of life" on TV or whatever, and I am constantly reminded that, according to the Bible, God didn't intend for us to die. The original creation did not need death. Man and everything around him was orginally "perfect". Sin ruined it. Death was brought to limit sin.

Why is your belief about origins so important? 

Perhaps the biggest reason is the authority of the Bible.  You can take God at His word, as revealed to us in Scripture, or you can reject it.  Those who believe that they can discern away portions, trying to align the Bible to present day "science" (rather, interpretations of observable facts) will find themselves in a conundurum of conflicting and opposite faiths.  Bottom line, if God is not in complete control of finite Creation, then there is no reason to believe that He controls infinite eternity.  If He does not control eternity, then He cannot deal with sin, righteousness and judgment, and, in turn, men are not truly or fully accountable to Him.

However, in the biblical narrative, we are told that God is still in control of all of this.  Not only is there complete accountability, but there is also complete forgiveness.  He made a way to pay for sin Himself - something we could not pay for in a billion years of eternal suffering.  No matter how long we might suffer for our own sins, we cannot fix them.  No amount of self-indulgence, flagellation or penetance can sweep sin away.  But praise be to Jesus Christ, being fully God and fully man, He took on the sins of the world and offers redemption.  It took an eternal, infinite God in the form of a man to take on the sins of millions upon millions of men. 

The simple, brutal truth is that we want to avoid being accountable. We want to be our own boss, but avoiding the issue doesn't get rid of it - whether you are avoiding the issue of your own sin or that or origins of matter.  In order to ignore sin, some have taken this to levels of obsession, rather choosing to believe that advanced alien life seeded earth.  (Forgive, me this, but even if there is alien life, it had to come from somewhere, didn't it?) Pursue the truth in truth and it will lead you to the Truth, who is Christ Jesus.

It just takes some recognition from our part to our need for Him.  He can make you a new creature - all things becoming new.  He is the Creator, after all.  It just won't work any other way.