Readings Gen 1, Psalm 19, Romans 1
Sooner or later EVERYONE asks the question — Is there a God? Was my life created?……and if so, Did GOD make me?
We all know that Darwin’s theory of EVOLUTION is taught in all of our schools – and many teachers present it as a FACT.
The word EVOLUTION makes us think that the Universe was NOT CREATED but began with one or more catastrophic events (usually called the BIG BANG) when chemicals and other basic elements collided and combined in such a way that LIFE had its origins in what was NOT LIFE… and over millions of years, single celled organisms have changed and developed into more and more complex creatures, with apes and humans being at the top of the pile.
Do YOU believe THAT? Are we here by CHANCE? or by Divine DESIGN?
The truth is that many people in our society couldn’t care less about this. They ask WHY is there such a song and dance about our ORIGINS? Most of us just GET ON with life every day…..and can’t see WHY Evolution is such a DANGEROUS idea!
Today, in this 5th study under the heading Clearing the lines to follow Jesus, we’re going to take a few moments to THINK about what the IMPLICATIONS of evolutionary theory are for YOU and for ME, in the Light of God’s Eternal REVELATION in Holy Scripture. You WON’T read this in your science textbooks!
The honest TRUTH about you and me, IF Darwin and Co. are CORRECT is that every one of our lives can be summed up using 3 (not very complimentary) terms…..ALL beginning with the letter ’F’:
(1) The FIRST conclusion is that We’re all just FLUKES of Nature
Your life was NOT planned. You were not INTENDED to exist. You are the PRODUCT a series of chance changes or mutations. You’re just slime that got lucky!
You bring NO VALUE with you into this life! There is NO GOD that CREATED you…….. and the mindless FORCES that brought you into being by pure CHANCE are NOT capable of KNOWING you or CARING that you even EXIST!
Dear friends……THAT is what EVOLUTION says to YOU about your ORIGINS and your life to date! You’re just a FLUKE!!
(2)AND………..to add INSULT to INJURY—- Your existence on this earth is just a FARCE! – something that is ridiculous! absurd! ludicrous! pathetic! meaningless!……and utterly POINTLESS!! THAT is what evolution says to YOU about YOUR life……here in Portstewart in 2006. It’s GOOD…..Isn’t it? It really makes you feel like getting up in the morning and facing the challenges of each day, when you KNOW that your life is a FLUKE and a FARCE!!
Is it any WONDER that so many of you friends and neighbours just DO WHAT THEY LIKE for the few years that they have on this earth? Nothing really MATTERS!! They think that their lives have no ultimate SIGNIFICANCE at ALL!! They weren’t CREATED…….. and their lives have NO VALUE and NO PURPOSE! The mindless FORCES that created us will one day destroy us…and so the prevailing attitude to life is SO WHAT! You might get 70 or 80 years on this planet IF you’re LUCKY! If NOT you might only get very FEW years before you die of CANCER or some ACCIDENT befalls you…… BUT…….. that’s the way the cookie crumbles! LIFE means absolutely NOTHING — and any kind of wishful thinking that you MATTER is just a foolish ILLUSION!!
Do you KNOW anyone whose mindset and lifestyle are like THAT? Well……..the SOURCE of such DRUDGERY is Darwin and his theory of Evolution!! It’s TRAGIC!…….
(3) We’re just FLUKES! Life is a FARCE……and the THIRD point, which follows on, is that our ULTIMATE value on this planet is as potential FERTILISER!
Here’s how you will END — as food for the WORMS!
There is NOTHING BEYOND this life — ALL that you are ROTS — and THAT’S the END of the story!…………AND………..very importantly, the TRUTH according to Evolutionists is that HOW you have lived DOESN’T MATTER! You are NOT ACCOUNTABLE to ANYONE…………. because GOD DOESN’T exist! ……..
and so followers of Darwin can shout Heil Hitler for killing millions of Jews! Well done, Idi Amin for murdering and eating Ugandaans!! Congratulations Slobadan Milosovitch for untold evil in the Balkans! Nice nuclear bomb, Kim Jong-il! YOU GOT AWAY WITH IT!
There is no such thing as MORALITY or ETHICS……and so, eat, drink and be merry in whatever way YOU like…..because your life DOESN’T MATTER at all! You’re just a FLUKE of Nature, whose life is just a FARCE….and you’re going to end up as FERTILISER!!
Dear friends THAT is the Gospel according to EVOLUTION! Is THAT what YOU believe??
If it’s TRUE… it’s TRUE! We CAN’T just REJECT it because we DON’T LIKE it!……..
BUT……please DON’T be in ANY doubt that EVOLUTIONARY thinking is what is BEHIND so much of the EVIL and EMPTINESS that we see in a society today that is DEVOID of GOD!!
Q. What does God’s Word say……. In OPPOSITION to such thinking?
Thank God, it says a GREAT DEAL……….BUT the REASON why so many of us are following the LEMMINGS in our society on the BROAD ROAD that leads to DESTRUCTION is that we’re NOT READING God’s word!!
You come to church on Sunday in the hope that a poor preacher like ME can fill your spiritual tank……and block up all the holes in your spiritual defences, so that you can spend the other 167 hours in MEANINGFUL engagements with the WORLD……….. BUT….. You CAN’T!!
Jesus says, “ABIDE in my Word……..and IT will show you the TRUTH…………and that TRUTH will set you FREE!”……..and so you must accept HIS judgement that if you ARE reading and feeding on His Word, you ARE free, this morning …………..BUT………….if you’re NOT, you are spiritually anorexic! Like the 17 year old Lauren Martin, in the news this week, you have CHOSEN to live in spiritual BONDAGE, because you just REFUSE to ACCEPT the Lord’s call to FREEDOM!!
I urge every one of you to read SOMETHING out of God’s Word EVERY DAY……..or as OFTEN as you can, OTHERWISE, the prevailing mindset on the highstreet or in your favourite club or society will became your PHILOSOPHY for living in spiritual BONDAGE!!
Let’s look at just 2 verses from God’s Word:
Psalm 19 v 1: The heavens DECLARE the glory of God; the skies PROCLAIM the work of His hands!
Romans 1v20: 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.
Take a look at our WORLD…….. and just how REMARKABLE it is….. and as you do, please ASK yourself: Is this the result of CHANCE OR DESIGN?
- We are literally hurtling through space as we sit here today and no-one even feels dizzy! The earth is rotating at a surface speed of 1000 mph at the equator (500 mph in U.K)……..and it revolves around the SUN at 66,000 mph once every year, as a small and yet integrated part of our SOLAR SYSTEM which travels around our galaxy at 500,000 mph!
- The earth is tilted at an angle of 23 degrees — if this were not so, the water vapour from the oceans would go to both the north and south poles……..condense……….and pile up as MOUNTAINS of ice.
- The SUN, which is our nearest star, is about 93 million miles away and PROVIDES for the maintenance of all life on earth. If earth were 1 per cent nearer we would be burned up! If 1 per cent farther, we would all be SNOWMEN!!
- Earth’s satellite, the MOON, is almost 250,000 miles away. If it were only 50,000 miles away the tides would flood all dry land…… including high mountains.
- If earth’s OCEANS were DEEPER, carbon dioxide and oxygen would all be absorbed and no plants could exist……because photosynthesis would be impossible!…… and we’d be DEAD!
- If earth’s ATMOSPHERE were THINNER, METEORS which are at present burned up in the air would FALL to earth and cause terrible FIRES and CRATERS!
Those are some FACTS about this little WORLD of ours! ………..and the Evolutionists like Richard Dawkins would try to convince you that ALL of that just HAPPENS……. By CHANCE!! I tell you, THEIR faith is far greater than MINE……..because I just CAN’T see how all of THAT could just happen by CHANCE!!
BUT………let’s get even more PERSONAL! Let’s think for a moment about YOU……..as you sit LISTENING to me, this morning,?
- Do you REALISE that your BODY contains between 10 and 100 trillion cells
- Each one of them contains 46 CHROMOSOMES — and if ALL the chromosomes in your body were laid out end to end, they would continue for 100 billion miles!
- Every chromosome is made up of thousands of GENES
- and every Gene is made up of chemical building blocks called NUCLEOTIDES of which there are 3 billion in every SINGLE cell!
SO………your body is made up of some of the most complex chemical and biological structures in the whole UNIVERSE! THINK about the MILLIONS of messages that your brain processes every hour, as you do all the seemingly ORDINARY things like blowing your nose, putting a fork of food in your mouth and writing a few letters on a page!
And………the Next time you look in the mirror, just THINK about the AMAZING gift of SIGHT!
It’s INTERESTING to note that in 1859 Charles Darwin wrote this in his ‘Origin of Species’ ‘that the EYE could EVOLVE by NATURAL Selection seems, I freely confess, ABSURD in the highest possible degree.’
Surely ALL of us must AGREE with that statement! We are fearfully and wonderfully made!!………..and yet Darwin’s BOOK has been the catalyst for generations of godless HUMANISM every since!!
It’s important to NOTE that some of the most influential SCIENTISTS that this world has ever known have had a profound FAITH in God as CREATOR and Sustainer of the Universe.
Sir Isaac Newton, whose work stimulated the Scientific Revolution in the 17th century wrote that the HUMAN THUMB alone would require him to believe in a creator God.
Frank Tipler (Professor of Mathematical Physics in New Orleans) said this in 1994: “When I began my career as a cosmologist some twenty years ago, I was a convinced atheist. I never in my wildest dreams imagined that one day I would be writing a book purporting to show that the central claims of Judeo-Christian theology are in fact true, that these claims are straightforward deductions of the laws of physics as we now understand them. I have been forced into these conclusions by the inexorable logic of my own special branch of physics.”
ONE of the most SIGNIFICANT statements on our topic was published recently when Prof Antony Flew (Professor of Philosophy and former leader of British ATHEISM)said this in 2004 “I think that the most impressive arguments for God’s existence are those that are supported by recent scientific discoveries……….It now seems to me that the findings of more than fifty years of DNA research have provided materials for a new and enormously powerful argument for design.”
This man outlined that his pilgrimage from Atheism to Theism was because SCIENCE had PROVEN that what the Bible teaches about God as Creator MUST be true!
If we BELIEVE that it’s true, then we must LIVE in the LIGHT of that Truth!
I leave you with this thought. What ODDS would you give to the possibility that a WHIRLWIND passing through a SCRAPYARD and produce a Boeing 747 ready for take off?
- What are the odds that an EXPLOSION in a printer’s workshop would produce the complete works of Shakespeare?
- What are the odds that I could take my watch apart and throw it against the wall and it will land on the floor COMPLETE and telling the time?
Please DON’T be GULLIBLE and just ASSUME that the prevailing pro-evolutionary stance that is taught in our schools is based on FACT! It’s NOT……….and so please REALISE that Satan is fighting a battle for the hearts and minds of your children and grandchildren!
If Evolution is TRUE then you are worth NOTHING! You are just a Fluke…..a Farce…..and future Fertilizer……….. and there is no sin, no judgment, no justice, no Saviour and no salvation.
If it’s NOT true, then you need to give GOD His rightful place in your life, becoming a Disciple of Jesus and EXPECTING the power of the Holy Spirit to TRANSFORM you into the person that God CREATED you to be………..a unique, divinely-designed MASTERPIECE……..whose chief end is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever!………….as you clear the lines to follow Jesus, all day, every day.
Postscript Something from Nothing by Curtis Peter Van Gorder
While visiting my dad for his 85th birthday, we watched some of our old family movies. It was funny to see my brother as a one-year-old, crawling around, playing with the puppies, and eating from the dog’s food dish. To think that this cute little baby would grow up to be a distinguished college professor and international lecturer! It got me thinking about how God makes special people out of nobodies. We come into this world naked and helpless, and God transforms us into the unique people we each are through our experiences and choices.
The laws of physics state that matter and energy can neither be created nor destroyed.
It’s been said that God delights in making something out of nothing, and I believe it. In fact, I believe that God made everything out of nothing. The Nobel Prize-winning physicist Dr. Arno Penzias seems to agree. He put it this way: “The best data we have [about the formation of the universe] are exactly what I would have predicted, had I had nothing to go on but the five books of Moses, the Psalms, the Bible as a whole. It was a moment of discrete [individually distinct] creation from nothing!”
Skeptics ask, “How could the universe have been created from nothing?
The laws of science say that nothing can ever be created or destroyed, only rearranged.
In our physical world, you have to have something to start with.” Perhaps the clearest and most compelling answer I’ve found to that argument is put forth by James Perloff in Tornado in a Junkyard:1
“The most widely accepted theory of the universe’s origin says that, at one time, all mass and energy were compressed in a tiny ‘cosmic egg.’ Then, about fifteen billion years ago, the egg exploded, creating the universe in the Big Bang. …
“But the Big Bang itself violates natural law. The laws of physics state that matter and energy can neither be created nor destroyed. This is the First Law of Thermodynamics, the law of conservation of energy. As the well-known physicist Paul Davies wrote in his book The Edge of Infinity, the Big Bang ‘represents the instantaneous suspension of physical laws, the sudden, abrupt flash of lawlessness that allowed something to come out of nothing. It represents a true miracle—transcending physical principles.’ 2
“If one allows for an event beyond natural law—a ‘true miracle,’ as Davies put it – then it is logically inconsistent to exclude other events, such as Creation by God. If there was a ‘cosmic egg,’ who put it there? The cosmic chicken?
Scientists have always agreed that there is a cause for every effect. How then can the greatest effect of all—the Universe itself—have arisen without a cause?”
That cause, I believe, was God’s command. God spoke and—BANG!—the Universe was created.
1 James Perloff, Tornado in a Junkyard (Arlington, Mass: Refuge Books, 1999), 29.
2 Paul Davies, The Edge of Infinity (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1981), 161.
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Alan Burke
Rev. Terry Laverty
What's the hope of Easter?
