"The Partnership Between Faith In Christ And Science"
Listen to a few of the verses in the first chapter of Genesis to get us started in hearing the message of the creation story. Verse 11 begins “And God said, let the earth put forth vegetation…” This indirect creation of the vegetation by God does not mean that the Lord is not the author of all the creation process. Verse 13 says, “And there was evening and morning the third day.” The Jewish day started in the evening. The Jewish day started in the dark. I believe that we can say that we all start life in the dark and it is by the word of God that we enter the light. We often add much frustration and anger to our lives because we think that life should begin in the light. Verses 14-18 focuses attention on the sun, moon and stars and their purpose-- God creates time to help us know the need of accountability to God. Some worship these lights, but they were created by God—even the "light" that they give was brought into existence by the word of God (verse 3).
The Bible is not a science book. The Bible is a book of faith directing men and women to trust the Lord. The Bible was not constructed according to the scientific method (test your ideas with experiments and observations/bulid on those ideas that prove true/cast away those that don’t and follow the facts wherever they lead you and question everything). The Bible was constructed by revelations delivered by the Spirit of God. The Bible approves the scientific method (1 Thessalonians 5:21) for searching for the truth but the Word of God is in charge. The love of God and the character of God are real and knowable but not subject to or dependent on the findings of science.
The conflict and disagreements that have been manifested the last 150 years between faith and science are like the division we see in John 7:37-52. The conflicts are manipulated by our inexperience and misunderstanding. The only way that we can be sure about God is come to Christ and drink of Holy Spirit. Our questions can only be answered by coming to Jesus. Some people claim that the theories of science and evolution deny the existence of God and disprove the creation story in Genesis. That is not true. God is not denied by science. Science is God's Servant. Unfortunately some scientists and Christians have and are doing Christ a disservice by voicing opinions and trying to make every word in the Bible literal. We need to come to Jesus and allow him to guide us without demanding to know everything before we know anything.
If I opened up a science book and it said God is real, that would be horrible because it would mean that somebody thinks that they have proven God by a scientific method. That would mean that God has been fitted into our human language and calculated by our mathematical formulas. This would be a dialogue with the “serpent” (Gen. 3) one more time. My Lord is bigger than our human language and cannot be calculated by our formulas. God has no beginning. God is both immanent and transcendent--beyond knowing but known in Jesus Christ.
If I had an audience with a state legislature or permitted to argue this case before the Supreme Court, I would plead with them to not allow the creation story in Genesis to be taught as science because it is not science (the Word is faith knowledge). We are driving persons away from Christ instead of encouraging them to listen to what Jesus wants to tell us in this remarkable revelation. We are sealing the Church off from possible believers because we will not allow them to listen to Christ because we insist on a 6 day creation when far more is being said about the Creator. The Lord makes science a servant for our faith and trust in the Lord. There are stars that are millions of light years away from earth that show us our Universe is far more than 7000 years old. We don’t want to be connected to monkeys for status reasons but when we learn about DNA we see that all of life is connected. We are kin to alligators and trees! Name the life form and we will have some kinship. We are one in Christ!
God is the author of everything. God has set every process into effect. (This is faith in God talk not science talk.) When God calls his work good that means it is serving the purpose that he has willed. God calls all that he has made very good on the sixth day so that we may know that his grand plan will be successful. This is no random plan. This plan is orderly and well mapped out as it marches through the days (periods) of consummation. Let Jesus teach us through the creation story about God and his mission for us. Let science teach us to humble ourselves as we discover the principles of the mighty works of God who created nature (natural selection). Let scientists and believers alike respect the limits that tell us we can never travel at the speed of light. Let the creation story tell us that God created those limits. The Lord will always be ahead of us. There are no scientific facts that deny God and the word of God does not deny science. The Word of God informs science because it is the light by which we need to walk.
Cordova Baptist
Church Theme:
"Help Family and Friends (Oikos) Connect With The Lord's Friendship" Mark 5:19
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