A Very Reasonable Creationism
“When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?”(Psalm 8:3-4)
As we interact with a world that has drastically different foundations, we must be willing and able to “hold our own”, in articulating why we believe what we do. In fact, the more that non-believers interact with Christians, the more they should come away recognizing that our “Faith” is a very reasonable one! Perhaps the greatest and widest-reaching contrast is seen in our view of “origins”; how “life” came about. It goes without saying that our beliefs surrounding this should be based upon more than one, small section of our worldview (like one author I read on the subject), but rather, it should encompass many if not most facets of my existence!
To put it another way, I believe that we were intelligently created because every observance of my life points to an incredibly wise Creator. I do not directly control most of the systems that keep me alive; I simply throw in a sandwich, chew a few times and swallow (mostly without thinking) and the result is energy within me that extends to another day! I give in to that sleepy sensation, and discover to my delight, that my body is partially recharged! “I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.” (Psalm 139:14)
In a day and age of extreme skepticism, we have a wealth of evidence that points to Divine Design, such as the 4-dimensional design of our DNA, the mighty mitochondria powerhouses which transfer our food to energy, and the irreducible complexity of our systems of sight, etc. For those who point out that all these systems “fail” at some point, we can even recognize in that, a certain longing for perfection this world cannot supply, a longing for an incorruptible body which runs as deep as our hunger for food or our thirst for water! Where did we get this “moral compass” that says something “ought” to be another way? Secularism “borrows” from all our theistic categories in their objections, usually not thinking through the very implications behind their objections! Christians, on the other hand, need not be afraid of where all truth leads, and this involves seeking worldview systems with the best consistency.
Through the best technology available to us, humanity has explored vast sections of space, and has yet to come across another planet even close to supporting complex life such as our own. Think of even the sheer complexity behind the writing and reading of this blog/newsletter! A summation of life experiences which contribute to the formation of words in my mind, transferred through the computer onto paper by a combination of skeletal/muscular/nerve impulses, to be read by another person in a different location, with the images taken in and translated into meaningful thought, hopefully close to my own! The more you think on the magnitude of what is taking place, the more we should be filled with wonder.
The secularist must believe that all life came from non-life at some point; they only have faith that the complex life formed through the systematic, yet unobservable mutation process. The Theistic Evolutionist, who believes that God orchestrated the live through evolutionary process, has a lot to explain as he/she would have to borrow from both “systems” to explain what is observable. The Creationist has the immediately observable acts in nature, the lighter and darker longings of the human heart, and the consistency of scripture to the human condition to support a more holistic worldview. Yes, we have a faith that has us take willful steps that go beyond what is observed (2 Corinthians 5:7 “We live by faith, not by sight.), but even that is based upon the faithfulness, or trustworthiness of the One who established the Reasonable Reality around us.
I firmly believe that the Biblical Christian is able to have consistent answers for more areas of life than any other, and that includes the suffering we see around us. Others may use pain & suffering as a ruse to get out of working through their own, personal moral issues and responsibilities…but their worldview is incomplete, therefore it is always going to collapse at some point! As Christians, it may serve Him well to show compassion in listening to their inconsistencies in order to provide the very category that they lack. It may take the witness of a number of Christians and from different angles/walks of life to shatter the shallower secularism, but it can happen, especially as we point to the only One capable of bringing life out of death (Jesus)! It may be like a submarine crew, all working different roles. The crew cook may not see himself “fighting the enemy”, but he too is preparing the fighting force, even if he’s “just cooking eggs”! We too, as different parts of the Body of Christ, need to see the blessedness of using these body functions of heart, liver, and spleen, even if we don’t get to see the immediate results.
Christians must place confidence in the wisdom of God, and be bold in the fight of ideas…as if we are actually going to win! We may be fighting a Goliath, but as David must have thought, “He is just too big to miss!” So take heart in what you believe from God’s Word, and be bold in explaining it to others. It could be the whale that others are missing!
