APPENDIX - 1

 

BIBLICAL TEACHING ON CREATION AND CURSE: WHAT IT IS - WHAT IT IS NOT

Introduction

This Appendix is placed here simply for convenience to the reader who may not wish to take the time to search out these facets from: The Shadow of a Mighty Rock.

There they may be seen in full context. Here however they are ready to hand, and a preliminary survey is facilitated. These materials have been slightly re-organised for the present purpose, and revised. Changes of format also occur, since on the Internet, format may readily be improved; but the essence is quite unchanged.
 

1. What the Bible Does not Teach in Perspective:

A God Dabbling in the Diabolical,
Creating by Cursed Means

 

SECTION A

On The Curse - Creation Confusion
of Theistic Evolution: What The Bible Teaches Christianity and Theistic Evolution: An Antithesis

 

CHRISTIANITY AND THEISTIC EVOLUTION:
AN ANTITHESIS
(adapted from SMR pp. 179-197)

 

1. Christianity and the survival ethic

The Immediate Collision

The special pleading of popularisers of the irrationalism of organic evolution makes it desirable to deal rather directly with this aspect, for the sake of clarity: you might say for clarity about charity. As the exponent of charity, Jesus Christ is equally Biblically presented as the co-Creator with the Father, to use the apostle John's words, of `all things'; so that `without Him was not anything made that was made.'

The crisis of collision is perfectly apparent - it is a matter of using power to protect or using power to delete (others) and advance (oneself)... and we turn to the scripture to prevent philosophic accretions posing as `Christian'.

Apparent, then, from the Bible are a number of points strongly relating to theistic evolution. At once, one recalls that Scripture concerning Jesus Christ, which states:

"He, though He was rich, yet become poor, that we through His poverty might be made rich" (II Corinthians 8:9).

He paid a ransom to redeem those who, being penitent and having faith in Him, were n themselves wholly unacceptable.

Imagined (*42) evolutionary procedures, on the other hand, hold rather a strong relation with the doctrine that a creature, though it be strong - rich, possessed of power to secure its desires - yet will annul the life of another creature, if its own survival (or perhaps even its own satisfaction) is at stake... and this, it purports, is the way of creation! The given creature will secure itself; and the devil, or anything else that may happen to be in the rear, take the hindmost.

This amiable philosophy holds the view: the creature must survive.

`Thou shalt survive' echoes its elevating exhortation! This is the extra-Biblical commandment, here biologically pronounced. If the reason for it is less obvious, the popularity of this call with Hitler, Stalin and an impactive, large segment of teachers and politicians, those very vocal in these areas, is too well known to deserve further comment here. (Biblically, this is the creation's "subjection to vanity" - Romans 8:20. An illustration: "The Party must get In, mustn't it, so we had better do this and do that, WHATEVER we think right, or we won't be there to do it!" In America, at one time, a presidential candidate changed one of his major policies and made a new alliance, conceivably in deference to this principle. It may not appear selfish, but survival is too significant to be superseded ... by anything. )

The two procedures, Christ's and this one, may now in principle be related. They differ roughly as do God and the devil, harmonise 1ike plus and minus, are akin, like light and darkness.

In the way of Christ Himself, one dies for the unfit (in the sense of `deserving damnation'- John 3:30-36, Luke 13:1-3); while in the other way, the creature takes what it can get... (You might almost paraphrase the spirit of it: `And be damned to the consequences for the rest'!)

The relatively recent issue of the Columbian drug trade `lords' and their attitude seems to summarise it very aptly, if rather more raucously than some seemingly unthinking academic zealots, charged with the instruction of the young, and inventing an unseen process from nowhere with such serene authority. If there be any body, any authority, any reason, any grounds, any opposition, any obstruction in the way of our survival, while doing what we see fit, let it be removed! This seems to cover a goodly part of the battle plan... We look at East and West, North and South, plus and minus infinity; ways of life as diverse as those of deity and the devil: Christianity and survival.

The one forgets itself, the other asserts itself. One dies for the deliverance of others; the other lives by and through its fitness, for itself, dispensing with life not for itself, but for what gets in its way, according as it has power to make the opposition... un-happen.

Yet even the disciples of Christ must, Biblically, follow Him:

Now we who are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves... For even Christ did not please Himself; but as it is written, The reproaches of those who reproached Thee fell upon me.

(This is taken from Romans 15:1, and may be compared with 1 John 4:20, where to hate, not to love, means divorce from God, earning the title `liar' to this sort of `Christian' practitioner. In other words, such a procedure constitutes categorical pseudo-Christian fraud. One may deceive in such a process, oneself, one may deceive others; but before God, by the word of God, such a person is unmasked- cf. Hebrews 4:12-13.)

Thus in the one case, the creature is keen to continue as it may: but in the other, He, Christ, discontinued, through voluntary and indeed planned death, where He might have continued:

"Put up your sword again into its place... Do you think that I cannot now pray to my Father, and He even now will send me more than twelve legions of angels? But how then should the Scriptures be fulfilled, that thus it must be?" (Matthew 26:53-54.)

This `Prince of Life' then, and thus, discontinues where He statedly could rather at will have displayed power, allowing no interruption of His location in this world of so much strife, divesting Himself, at one sweep, of those intent on His non-survival here!

This however He did not; and in fact He deemed such a step a violation of scripture. True, He continues anyway, but only through the supernatural intervention of the bodily resurrection after death (Acts 2:31- "concerning the resurrection... His flesh did not rot"). "Does a spirit have flesh and bones as you see me to have?" asked Christ, returned after the sacrifice of ultimate service.

Christ dis-survived that the unfit might survive; and continued by the power of God, because this is the way God has it in terms of truth, virtue and Christianity.That is the situation in terms of that Christ who was co-Creator and does not change, that Jesus Christ who is scripturally declared to be "the same, yesterday, today and forever" (Hebrews 13:8, cf. Hebrews 1:12). That is the teaching of Christianity.

One by predestinated thought proceeds to deliver those not only unfit but unsavoury ( Acts 2:22-28) by God's own standards; and the other by its own violence proceeds to deliver to death the opponents of its own mere continuance. Darkness is nearer to light than this to God.

One proceeds by self-sacrifice to enable survival of the unfit; the other proceeds by self- assertion to enforce death (if need be and as often as need be) on the unfit. (The problem for the evolutionist, of theoretical definition in the latter case - see Macbeth's Darwin Retried - may be met, though not to cover the theoretical case, by defining the `unfit' to mean the `dead-in-the-process'- a sort of irrelevant, pragmatic, a posteriori shrug.) Christ, by stark and absolute contrast indeed, delivers those who receive Him.

Now Jesus Christ, as we saw the Scripture informs us, is the same today, yesterday and forever; and God swears in Malachi (3:6) that He does not change (cf. James 1:17). The Psalms (90:2, 102:26-27) advise us that from everlasting to everlasting God is the same- indeed His years do not end- "in Him is no shadow of turning"- "no variableness", says James.

In John 5:19, for example again, Jesus advises us that He does whatsoever the Father does in the same way. It is all akin. As God's thoughts are above ours, so are the heavens above the earth; and as to His understanding, it is infinite (Isaiah 55, Psalm 147:5). His ways are similarly disjunct from ours (Isaiah 55:9), but are definitively declared in Christ (Hebrews 1:3-8, cf. John 16:15, 17:10).

This comparability of Christ in quality and scope with the Father implies the status of deity for Him; but that is not all. We are also told that all should honour the son just as (Greek) they honour the Father (John 5:19-23). Short of idolatry, which the Scripture excludes (Isaiah 42. 8, Psalm 89:6) with emphasis, and which excludes from heaven (1 Corinthians 6:6-9), this entails that Christ is deity. Now God is a Spirit (John 4:24).

As deity, Christ is by nature therefore that spiritually unchanging Being, who thus in redemption, and all it implies, has an approach which is ethically unchanged from that at the episode and performance of creation itself... till now (Genesis 2:1-3, cf. Malachi 3:6, Psalm 102:26-27, Hebrews 13:6).

Accordingly, we read (Hebrews 11:3):

"By faith we understand that the worlds have been framed by the Word of God, so that what is seen has not been made out of things which do appear."

Indeed, Genesis 2:4 tells us that Genesis 1:1-2:3 has told us just how God did it! It would seem that one reason for the recapitulation, selectively and with emphasis, for the particular focus and extension to a new thrust of specialty in Genesis 2 after Genesis 1, is precisely to remove from wandering or casual minds any tendency to depart from the specific declarations already made, like a teacher, with deft and subtle emphasis ensuring that what is taught, what is necessary, gets through...

Moreover, Christ's participation in the creation of all things from the beginning is perfectly explicit (John 1:1-14, Colossians 1:16, Ephesians 3:9). Colossians states that:
 

i) by Him all things were created;

ii) heavenly or earthly things

iii) visible and invisible alike

iv) including powers, dominions, authorities and that

v) He is BEFORE all things, while

vi) BY Him all things consist, have their status, state and condition and continuance. In line with this, He is

a) the head of the body, the Church and

b) the firsborn from the dead,

so that "in all things He might have the pre-eminence". He has (1:15), statedly the position of firstborn "BECAUSE" all things were created by Him. Having come as a categorical prince and unique Saviour to this world, He humbled Himself to take the form of a man, long into the sinful motions of human history. YET though in this lowly Messianic state, because He is Creator, He is called firstborn. In rising from the dead, without human intervention, at His Father's judicial power, being sinless and acceptable to Him, He, one of the Trinity, becomes also the firstborn from the dead, pre-eminent over that as over all creation. In such wonderful ways, in company with the Father and the Holy Spirit, He has made all provision.

From Him, "having made peace through the blood of His cross" - is the open willingness for reconciliation, which it has pleased the Father to provide. To this, man is directed with an urgency as great as the provision. Christ has acted characteristically, markedly, definitively, love in action (I John 4:7-10, 1:1-4,2:2, Romans 5:6-8, 8:34, 2:5-9, Colossians 3:10-11).

b) the firsborn from the dead, so that "in all things He might have the pre-eminence".

He has (1:15) the position of firstborn BECAUSE all things were created by Him: even coming as a categorical prince and unique Saviour to this world, yet in this lowly Messianic state, YET because He is Creator, He is called firstborn; and in rising from the dead, without human intervention, at His Father's judicial power, being sinless and acceptable to Him, He, one of the Trinity, in company with the Father and the Holy Spirit, has made all provision, and from Him, "having made peace through the blood of His cross" - is the open willingness for reconciliation. To this, man is directed with an urgency as great as the provision. Christ has acted characteristically, markedly, definitively, love in action (I John 4:7-10, 1:1-4,2:2, Romans 5:6-8, 8:34, 2:5-9, Colossians 3:10-11).

It is thus systematically out of the question to reconcile any form of evolution and its survival ethic- or dis- ethics, Biblically defined - with Christianity or its Christ, declared in Scripture. There is a systematic, indeed a satanic contrast in view. Christ created (John 1:1-4, Colossians 1:16-17); and changeless in nature as in love (1 John 4:6-20), He does not do things that other way. Nor should His followers 1 John 4:20). Nor did He, ever. Nor would He (1 John 4:8-10, Amos 2:9-3:8, Psalm 50:16-21, Psalm 10, 1 John 1:5, James 1:17).
 
 

2. Christianity: the distinction between creation and curse... and an exhibition
of the scope of God's mercy

Now the question may arise, is God immune to morals in the lesser creation ? Is the animal world a matter of indifference ?

Is God `guilty' of Biological Apartheid ?

In answer, very emphatically in the negative, we shall adduce a number of crucial considerations.
 

i) God may be judged by none whose sin obscures, whose limits constrain or whose knowledge is not omniscient. Only by God can anything ultimately be judged. Thus we hear from James: "There is one Lawgiver who is able to save and to destroy. Who are you to judge another ?" (4:12)... and "Who are you to judge another's servant ? To his own master he stand or falls" (Romans 14:4). Again, of the Messiah, we find this (Isaiah 11:3-4):

"He shall not judge by the sight of His eyes, nor decide by the hearing of His ears; but with righteousness He shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth." That is God's prerogative.
 

ii) But let us now consider the elements, though properly speaking there should be no need. Let us procedurally waive the point, in order to examine the essence of the principle in view. Whilst some may allege that in organic evolution we are concerned merely with material processes, and that spiritual categories do not apply, this is demonstrably false.

Firstly, it is not only a question of that to which mercy is shown or righteousness secured; but of Him who shows it, being by nature merciful, and with no flicker of unrighteousness (James 1:17): loving mercy (Isaiah 7:18 ) for ever (Psalm 100:5); abundant in it ( Numbers 14:18), possessing it (Psalm 62:12) so that the earth is full of it (Psalm 119:64)...
 

• Mercy is part of God's own name (Exodus 34:6). Unlike many British citizens in World War II, He does not have to evacuate anything, but is changeless (Malachi 3:6), and "Thou art the same and Thy years will have no end" (Psalm 102:27). It is not for us to tell Him He need not bother with certain fields of work; being by nature thus, in all fields, He will have the same qualities (cf. Psalm 89:8,14*1). Nor is it for us to circumscribe, far less compress His qualities; for what He says they are, is expressible only by Himself, and as for what is expressed with no limit or qualification, so must it be received. How much more is this so when it is affirmed dramatically and categorically of His name, by Himself... to whose word we are looking, in order to find the contrast between this philosophy and the teaching of the Bible, for the sake of clarity.

 

• Secondly, what of the actual field that some might wish to exempt from God's moral qualities, that of sentient life? What actually is involved, to the point ? Can we rightly refer to these in merely material terms ?

The fact is that material processes are one category, and living forms are another. Of the latter, some have integrated procedures for defence, locomotion and performance. Others also have consciousness, instinct and a variable measure of liberty in instituting their protective, assertive or other devices.

Man also has symbolic rationality and predictive powers relative to the material realm; formal analytical prowess and the capacity to give worship, whether inanely, self-assertively... or to God.

None of these categories may accurately be dubbed merely material, without the conceptual destruction of their specifics, something indeed already shown and which will in essence be further shown, in Chapter 3 infra. To attempt anything of this kind is a clear case of reductionism, that desire to ignore categorical differences in the interests of some philosophic point of view, in dereliction of intellectual duty.

Hence to allege that spiritual categories do not apply to lower forms of life (i. e. lower than man) because these (living) things are material only, is simply false.
The case is worse. The abused differentiae, the qualities of life here overlooked (by such reductionists) are the very crucial issues at point. It is one thing to overlook some item of evidence in a murder case; it is quite another when it is in itself a sufficient cause of the death - like arsenic.
 

iii) More particularly, we must observe that Christ is termed the "Prince Of Life" (Acts 3:15). Therefore, since scripture is our current topic, and what it teaches must be duly applied to the factual field - this `life' over which He is Prince, is as broad as the term. Not merely human life is comprehended by this term. Indeed all things were created by Him (Colossians 1:16); and the case is comprehensive, "all things... in heaven and... on earth, visible and invisible... all things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things and by Him all things consist."

That shows how intimate is Christ to every phase and form of life in its creation. Not merely was it done through Him but for Him, and it all consists by Him.
Clearly His mind, might and morals are pervasively and intimately relevant at all times. All of this creation as creation therefore was in accord with His character. Since then this is Biblically the case, then the Bible teaches that just so far as arrogance, cruelty, mercilessness are relevant to any form of life in its creation, to this degree is there a violation of His character.

Since He is almighty (Revelation 1:8, Isaiah 9:6) who creates, such did not occur, by the most obvious Biblical teaching. Indeed, He called it all `very good' at creation, and has expressly declared a curse on the ground (Genesis 3:17) on the one hand, and subjected the creation on earth to vanity ('futility' or `decay', a judgment - Romans 8:19-21).

How much more, to the degree there is imagined creation by violence, self-assertion, the treading on the weak by the strong, does this violate scripture: which has specifically asserted that creation was by Him, who opposes and denounces all these qualities! There is a point in the ridiculous when serious study ceases and mere mirth supervenes.

This is that point; only by this desperate seeming desire to cling to the illusory anti-observational myth of organic evolution, or some similar extremity, could one understand such mental lapse as in the face of this, to think that. It is excluded by contradiction.

iv) Not merely is it contrary to His actions, claims and example, it is diametrically opposed. If it were to have occurred at lower levels of life, yet these incorporate very often, cruelty and the voidance of pity. Terror and pain, loneliness and dismay may not be experienced as we can experience them in the case of such lower forms of life; yet physical responses, facial expressions, sounds made and the parallel behaviour of domesticated creatures demonstrate aptly enough that such qualities are there.

Theistic evolution is simply not an interpretation of scripture: its god is in the form of the devil or some near ally: `the adversary' as scripture puts it. What we now see to be its means, violate both what we found in Chapter One to be the necessary righteousness of God; and what is in fact the declared righteousness of God, who is "without iniquity" (Deuteronomy 32:4, Psalm 89:14..."righteousness and judgment are the foundation of Thy throne" and "a God of truth and without iniquity").

Is it, in part, because of the politicians, that inexpressibly contorted mistakes of this kind are made; as if the frequently found fraud, corruption, inconsistency, divorce between words and deeds, special pleadings and taking of profitable exceptions to stark principles, so often seen in the Press for many in this sort of power, were some sort of indication for the Master of morals Himself ? Is this a reason why some might think, as seemingly here, that God also would be merely mouthing principles which He does not perform as broadly as His utterance clearly indicates?

However, not only is His righteousness clearly demonstrable (Chapter 1 supra), but in this expository section, we simply find that all righteousness is based on His, and as for Him:

"Righteousness and justice are the foundation of Thy throne; mercy and truth go before Thy face"

(Psalm 89:14). As to tongues framing deceit (Psalm 50:19 ff.), He is unimpressed, saying:

"Your tongue frames deceit ... These things you have done, and I kept silent; you thought that I was altogether like you; but I will reprove you ... Now consider this, you who forget God, lest I tear you in pieces, and there be none to deliver. Whoever offers praise glorifies Me; and to him who orders his conduct aright, I will show the salvation of God."

This is reminiscent of John 14:21-23 where Christ indicates that love for Him and for His commandments may act a prelude to His manifesting of Himself to such a saved sinner. God is vigorous on consistency, on charity and on holiness, wholeheartedness and truth in the inward parts (Psalm 51:6, 10). He is neither indifferentist, inconsistent nor unzestful on the topic. Moreover, His Throne is over all, and His mercy over all His works (Psalm 145:9) His throne operates, and He is both on it and rules over all (Romans 11:33). "For of Him, and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever" (Romans 11:36).

There are no exceptions to His supervision, no exemptions from His purvey, no pits past His perception, no actions past His knowledge.

v) Would the confused proponent of such theistic evolutionary views have the God of truth, a hypocrite! The Bible notes that the righteous man is kind to his beast. Cruelty and kindness are indeed relevant to life forms well below man.

Will God be less so, be less merciful than He exhorts man to be, man made in His image- to the beasts ? will He, whose word constitutes truth, who cannot lie (Titus 1:2) mouth morals relative to animals for us which He, who became man and made him in His image, did not keep in the... little matter of the creation! Here is explicit teaching on God's perspective on the applicability of mercy to beasts.

Is God indeed to create by what He Himself condemns! Such a thought involves the sort of contradiction already laid to rest concerning deity; transgresses several impossibilities; achieves blasphemy, reconstructs God; attributes to Him the devices of the devil. It would be the mildest of comments, therefore, to observe that in theistic evolution we are moving into a new area, a new `god'. Like those coming up newly, mentioned with such exquisite but poignant irony by Moses in Deuteronomy 32:17, new boy gods, such creations of the mind of man are not only irrelevant to the God of the Bible, but verbal assault on Him, when mentioned in His presence. What then are they when confused with Him?

Such a concept is by implication, one of the total condemnation of God. Since God then is allegedly involved, we have need to consider which god: it is one who involves the condemnation of the God of the Bible, and this is the point that we make. It is in fact normal, certainly scriptural, to refer to this particular `god' as the devil.

In scriptural terms, what confuses God with the devil is somewhat beyond an error; it is a verbal catastrophe. It is more than travesty; it reduces talk at best to childish gabble, and at worst to an especially acute form of blasphemy... if indeed this is not an understatement.

vi) But someone might ask: how is it then that now these merciless, cruel and arrogant elements, these strong-crushing-the-weak situations, components, activities are to be seen ? Has God forgotten to be gracious?

They are, let us notice at once, present for a reason similar to that for which they are found among many of the human race: a combination of sin and judgment. It is no argument concerning the nature of God to note that men who have a few powers in the area of self-determination, often use them amiss. It is not always so: sometimes the sight is spiritual and excellent; at other times, we see vice. We see sacrifice and squalor; nobility and horror; quiet continuance of good in some and awe-inspiring agonies of evil in others.

Man is not programmed; his passions are not required; but his responsibility is provided for, and he uses it!

But let us answer more precisely. This scriptural answer in its exact form is so categorical, as simply and powerfully to confirm what has been said.

That answer, since we are consulting the Bible relative to theistic evolution, is this. The Bible states that the creation labours and travails at the present time (Romans 8:18-22, an area of scripture which we have recently consulted). It also declares that the reason is creation's subjection to vanity, to worthless things. It is, we learn from Paul, to be "delivered" from this "bondage of corruption" (Romans 8:18-22). When was this `subjection'? Genesis designates the curse on the earth in the arena of man's sin (Genesis 3:17-18); and it is here shown as broad as the whole of creation resident upon earth.

Now that it was at one time subjected to corruption (Romans 8:20 for the creation `was subjected' to corruption) implies that prior to such subjection, it was not so treated. That it is to be `delivered', indicates a vain, an abnormal, a currently harassed condition. Further, the subjection not only occurred relative to a previously non-subjected creation: it concerned also one that was not `willing' (8:20) so to be subjected. It was, then, not only a present creation, that which had already been created; it was also one quite lacking in desire for this change.

Man's madness is then mirrored in some of the lower creation; man's sin is given environmental reflection; his curse is provided with a scene of repugnance (one like himself in so many elements), in some respects a prison, a place of deprivation to aid reflection, as may occur when we incarcerate criminals. The world is by no means wholly lacking in beauty, utility, facility or even charm; but there is a reminder nonetheless.

vii) This excursion into the question of which God is back of the theistic evolutionary concept, is thus useful. It facilitates a composition of correlative items.

Thus this concept does not relate to the God of the Bible, or to what may be discerned of Him by reason, any more than it relates to evidence (along with any other concept of organic evolution), which the God of the Bible very greatly stresses in both Testaments (e.g. Isaiah 43:9, 44:7, 25-26, 45:5-6, 18-25, 46:9-11, 48:3-14; Acts 1:3, 4:20, 2:32, John 16:4, 15:22-29, 14:11, I John 1:1).

No evolution has been observed in the sense relevant to creation (elevation of design attributes). Much degeneration has been seen; but what is relevant, this has not been seen.

It is the same in life. Your Jaguar car may vary quite markedly as you knock it about in the world of driving: but that change is not in the area of an elevation of its design, and that is what is relevant.

Theistic evolution therefore not only offends as a concept against reason, but equally as one against observation; and as a simple matter of fact, it relates only by contradiction, to the Bible.

viii) To revert to the lesser creation in particular: do we not ourselves exhibit modes of governance over children, or puppies or any creature, that express what we are! Now as already noted, the Bible certainly declares the relation between a righteous man and a mode of treatment of an animal (Proverbs 12:10); so there is no need even for inference at this level. The whole topic is perfectly explicit.

Biblically, part of being righteous is to be considerate to animals, just as mercy is a benediction to its possessor, an intrinsic excellence (Proverbs 11:7). Further, the parallel point (12:10) relative to animals, and in this very same verse, is this: "the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel."

Relative to beasts, God says there is a relevance of cruelty on the one hand, or consideration on the other; of regard or oppression. Derogatively and incisively exposing the folly of those who are cruel to their beasts, He makes ironic reference to their `tender mercies', challenging cruelty. This leaves, to say no more, no room for doubt concerning His own attitude in this field. Not merely, then, does His mercy cover the nature of beasts, He castigates those who fail in this dimension, with high, offended feeling.

How solemn a farce then is the attribution to God Himself, of creation by such means, through tracts of time when, if this were true, His own condemnation could be equally applied to Himself, with this addition: Hypocrite! How vast a space, how yawing a flight is there between this daft and arbitrary assault on the divine name, and worship of it! If ignorance or cultural conditioning has led any reader to this impasse, this chasm, then let today be the day of voidance of vanity and return to the word of God, the testimony of reason (Romans 1:18-20) and the facts of observation.

ix) To assume that God, who forwards peace as a critical and endless feature of His reign (Isaiah 9:6, 48:18, Philippians 4:6-7), in fact used war to gain (create) a realm to reign over, at whatever level such war be conceived, this bespeaks nothing of interpretation, elemental confusion and contradiction. Further, He predicts, shows, declares the coming removal of just those qualities that once provided the means of debased warfare in the time when, as Paul noted in Romans 8:21:

"The creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption".

Then the scene is characterised thus: "The wolf shall dwell with the lamb,
The leopard with lie down with the young goat."

This is seen in Isaiah 11:6, in a Messianic context (11:1- 10), reaching its climax in the statement:

"They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain" (11:9)...

Cruelty to beasts is linked with `corruption'; the creation upon earth is currently subjected to vanity; in due course, after Christ's return, this creation will be delivered from this vanity; and when it is, the lion will lie down with the lamb. Indeed we must consider the way Isaiah proceeds: "They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain" (11:9).... God did not create by corruption! when judgment is past, it will be excluded. The very thought is a blasphemy, a cartoon, a caricature, a barb, a dart of daring on the board of folly.
 

• x) Thus we come to a generic feature. Sin occasioned the vanity which Darwin childishly (because both irrationally and without relevant observation) proposed as the method of creation! It is in one sense like making influenza the source of the body, its creator. True, it might be said, we have never actually observed it do so, have no method to show the arrival of body through influenza (though there is some mucous which some say `might be related to arrival'...); we have no law by which to give credible argument for such imagined occurrences, find laws contrary in kind without exception: yet so we affirm.

As with organic evolution, one wonders if this is straight farce, (*43), or merely farcical in result.

Yet the former would, in other circumstances, be deemed but the imaginative work of children, either in off-moments, or who have no suggestion of a factual bent, possible future novelists, unusually prone to the thoughts of fantasy.
Sin, then, occasioned the vanity Darwin so mythicised; and salvation is to remove it, now justifying the heart of forgiven Christians, then providing the externals of a universe that is itself a "new creation" in which dwells, as the Scriptures says, "righteousness" (II Peter 3:13). Such is the "earnest expectation of the creation" - Romans 8:19.)

In the meantime, it is a judgment of God, and the earth groans and travails (Romans 8:22). Theistic evolution, like organic evolution in general, to the extent it relates to God at all, implies that God's judgments on sin are His method of creation. It is like mistaking the womb for the cane - something an erratically rebellious child might do.

It is not merely a denial of reason, revelation and Jesus Christ in particular: it collates the curse with the creation, the devil with God, pollution with production and meekness with mercilessness (cf. Matthew 5:3, 5, 11:29). Nothing further from Jesus Christ could possibly be envisaged, at the spiritual level. It is a case of cryptic immorality, hidden in creation, double-minded doctrine that dabbles in the diabolical*2 , shuts its eyes to observation and assaults the very character of God.

But who would confuse creation with its curse, or the crushing with the engendering, judgment with jubilation (cf. Proverbs 8:22-31), or the designs springing forth from the Creator with the tempests ravaging creation! It is like making a fever the cause of man, death the engenderer of life.

`Theistic' evolution has only this as an advance over other types of the concept. Like them, it ignores what may be seen and reasoned from observation and law. Unlike them, it is perfectly in line with an explicit assault on the very character of the Almighty. Such an `advance' has ascended, however, in dizzy irrationality to the height of folly, with nothing between it and the earth.

In sum: No, God is not an apartheid god! He does not use morals for some, but exempt Himself from their activation towards others.

He did not create by what He condemns as corruption. His righteousness is entire (Psalm 9:8, 11:7, 33:5, 45:7, 85:13, 96:13, 97:2, 119:42, 172; Proverbs 8:8, I John 1:5-6, Romans 3:4, 19, Psalm 51:4); and His exhibition in deed accords with His nature in fact: "righteousness and judgment are the foundation of His throne" - (Psalm 97:2) and "in Him is no unrighteousness" (Psalm 92:16).

It is we who must be reminded that "faith without works is dead" (James 2:20). All His works flow harmoniously in accord with His character: it is not merely the hypocrisy which would be implied of Him, if He told us to regard the beasts with alert pity (implying of course that this was relevant to their need and condition, and indicating it to be merciful so to do), and did not do so Himself in their creation.

Rather it is to assume Him guilty of misstatement, it is an explicit affront to His statement, quite unequivocal and unrestricted, on delighting in mercy (Micah 7:18) and being merciful in name (Exodus 24:6); while equally implying, in view of this divine statement that there is in Him, some shadow of variation (contra James 1:17), some penchant for cruelty (contra Psalm 92:7, 97:6, 119:142, 137, 75, 89:14, Romans 3:5-6, Psalm 33:4-5, 145:17). It would be this which alone could devise a processive evolution, a bringing of things to be by force of oppression (as theistic evolution teaches), by self-serving rather than a creation that He found good, as the Bible teaches.

It is a creation in which He who came to earth as Jesus Christ, and co-operated intimately with the actions of the Father. Now to accord to Christ, this same Jesus Christ, as a means of creation, the procedure of the curse on sin (i.e. judgment): to make of this, a very basis of the character of His creation is a blasphemy, not merely gratuitous, but flamboyant with caricature. As God indeed says: "Shall the throne of iniquity, which devises evil by law, have fellowship with thee!" (Psalm 94:20). No, it will not, for: "the Lord is righteous in all His ways, gracious in all His works" (Psalm 145:17).

Caricaturing Jesus Christ is far from following Him; denying the word of God, is far from believing it.

Theistic evolution, if it be taught, is fitting for the devil: it ignores the Bible, observation and the character of Christ in its formation; but in its implication, it makes assault on the crucified Christ, as have so many others who have misused Him, "teaching for doctrine the commandments of men" (Mark 7:7)
 
 

3. The first and the last of it

We have considered the contradiction between the god of theistic evolution, and that of the Bible, morally, ethically and procedurally. We have further pondered the direct and intense involvement of the Lord Jesus Christ in creation, and the heightened contradiction of attribution to Him, of what is fact the process of curse, for the procedure of creation.

It might however be asked, Why go to this trouble ? for after all, since organic evolution is proven false prior to this extension, does it matter, why it is also morally, ethically and conceptually not merely contrary to the Bible, an attack on the name of God, but a libel on Jesus Christ ? If organic evolution is not the case, why be concerned thoroughly to destroy the very idea of theistic evolution ? What does not happen at all, need not be shown, surely, to be contrary to the God of creation in its style and thought, does it ?

In one way, this is right. The evidence is against the whole concept (*43) of evolution, as earlier shown; it supports completely the concept of a finished creation running down. Incidentally, there is no evidence of evolution in reverse. We do not see new genes actively being constructed which automatically, as it were, simplify the complex linguistic constructions currently in place: a winding down in the same sort of code construction as in reverse, constituted a large slice of the original creation. What we do see is merely this: wear and tear; disintegration and that is precisely, as is always the case when fact and Bible are related, what we would expect.

The amorphous may return; but lower designs are not being created.

However, granted it might be in a pure sense be unnecessary to expose this satanic, anti-evidential contrivance, theistic evolution, in the sense that scientifically it is built on imagination, is not under observational constraints, and does not meet the requirements of scientific method where it is testable (see pp. 149-150 supra for summary and focus): yet there is more to life than scientific method.

To be sure, there it fails abysmally to be rightly based, and then to meet the proper criteria, even those which could apply, but instead renders a negative result. But it is also in order to show that this anti-scientific construction just as well to be anti-Christian.

Any god - (though alas such a god leaves no trace) which saw fit to use this imagined theistic evolutionary procedure to create, matches all too well the ethos of the devil. This we have shown, and it is good to reflect on this. It is also good to remember the wonder of the Bible once more, in that there was no... confusion in presenting an evolutionary basis wedded to an ethical God; for that would have been eminently negative evidence against the Bible.

But no, as always, the Bible, presented to the world in some parts thousands of years ago, does not make gaffes. It is some theologians who appear rather to make buffoons of themselves by bending the ethos of the Bible to its exact opposite, without apparently noticing; or, if noticing, caring; or, if caring, seeing need for repentance.

Let us then return to the first of it. Not merely is this theory of theistic evolution contrary to the morals of God, the ethics of His word, to evidence and known law, it is also contrary to the first detailed statement on the topic.

Morris in his work, The Long War Against God, shows how broadly the thrust of evolution has been pushed in pagan history, and for how long; but the Bible at no time entered the lists of its pushers. Its consistency and its very first presentation of stark and absolute creation is one of its distinctives that becomes, if it were possible, the more impressive as the ludicrous writhings of contemporary evolution proceed, with their new and more frolicsome theories sliding down the bannisters of the house of unbelief, as we have seen earlier in this chapter.

Here then is a verification of stature and quality in the Bible, which we have found while expounding it for clarity, on a topic of current confusion, and ancient error into which the word of God did not fall.

We revert then to the broader considerations of creation, time and nature.

Dr Carl Wieland has referred to the words of Professor James Barr, which he wrote in a letter of 1984 (see Prayer News of the Creation Science Foundation, August 1990, p. 1), when Regius Professor of Hebrew at the University of Oxford: Probably, said Professor Barr, so far as I know, there is no professor of Hebrew or Old Testament at any world-class university who does not believe that the writer(s) of Genesis 1-11 intended to convey to their readers the idea that... creation took place in a series of six days which were the same as the days of 24 hours we now experience...

It is not our present purpose again to review the length of days 1, 2 and 3 on the consideration, noted by Professor Gleason Archer in his A Survey of Old Testament Introduction, that the text may signify the sun disclosed, rather than created in the fourth day (pp. 177-178): the results we found were, practically, not diverse in kind from the normal day conception we experience seven times per week. The days might be different mechanically, if the mechanics were different; but their character and kind, we have reasoned, is clear, even if they are to be treated with care and precision, where the motions of these bodies (sun and moon, conceivably, on one interpretation), might not then have operated.

As to day one, we showed that in general terms, the institution before the normal means of time sequence (as was necessarily the case there), called for care. We need not again consider the fact that, in terms of the actual construction of events in Genesis 1:1, day one could be a wholly distinct event; for at the first, the motions of the sun and moon did not appear, nor did their regulative and defining functions operate. In general terms, The institution of darkness, as noted earlier, before the means of time sequence designation, is in itself one in danger of intrusion in our interpretation, if it is to be crammed into some one concept. Even here, however, having made the point in principle, we found significant constraints, beyond this point, covering day one.

Biblical days are correlated, then, quite explicitly with our world and its inhabitants, and in the divine action, there is a certainty of sequence that relates closely to the condensed coverage in Genesis 2:4. Present is no sense of process. On the contrary: there is a sense of immediacy, there is a sublime monergistic or sole-worker emphasis; there is the utmost correlation between the divine power, mind and result in a manner which intimately associates with the use of the verb `bara', indicating as its basic position, what we call creation, as distinct from mere forming. Thus Colossians 1 uses a most emphatic Greek term, in indicating that Jesus Christ created all things.

When one refers to the Creator, one is in the vein of what His power performs, in interpreting His mind. We ourselves use such terms similarly, such that process is not to the point: the idea and its outcome are closely related, and the more powerful the mind that has the idea, and the more profound, the more intense and intimate is its correlation, in general, with the outcome; and the more entirely irrelevant to the contribution in what is depicted, is anything else. Creation is a derivation of the one who creates; and where it is to God that we refer, it is to infinitude of creative power.

We have earlier reasoned that the days are of a kind which correlates not with ages but with our rotational days. In the case of days 2-3, not necessarily with the same rotational mechanisms at work, this is nevertheless the basic situation. We are speaking of the requirements of the text at this point. Day one, we reasoned, while not divorced from such a conception, held somewhat more richness of meaning, because of the institutional element, as distinct from the constitutional processes coming later; yet it also, in its monergistic irruption (Genesis 1:3), is not to be divorced from the character of the declaration.

The days of Genesis 1 are in line with the days we now have, once instituted, in their character. This fact correlates intensely with the monergism of method, the infinity of power of the Creator, and the terminology, so that anything further from process would be extraordinarily difficult to express. It was first the institution of the platform, and then of the different parts upon it, all in the area of creation; to be followed in each case by performance of the thing created. There is crisp, sovereign, undeterrable fluency combined with the eloquent dynamism of speech. Never was saying more clearly correlative to doing.

Thus, the intense emphasis on `spoke', and `was', is without doubt an explicit indication of the utterly irresistible (I should prefer even `resistless') power and unhindered performance, majesty, as it were... a streamlined and no-obstruction work, the production from infinite power. To deny such things is merely to distort the words provided, which are as radical in terms of utter power performing, without restraint from anything or anyone, of utter resolve at work with majestic specifications fully fulfilled, as one could wish.

Accordingly, while it is not to the point in a work of this kind, to deal with interpretations where there is any openness, and it is on the other hand most important to give to the actual words of scripture, the reverence which is their due, in view of their Author, by not compressing a likelihood into a certainty: it would without doubt be vagrant interpretation to allow for any message of process, patient continuance and the like, in Genesis l. The words of Professor James Barr sufficiently underline the direction of the matter.

This, for our purpose, is merely peripheral, though it is structurally quite relevant.

The vital point is this: within such a depiction of immediate power, sovereign jurisdiction - the days of 24 hours is not vital, 24 seconds could as well fit the case, were it so written - comes a notation in the text that God made man in a certain manner. It is to this that one must now refer. In a simple rotational day, day six, God reveals in this divine account the creation of man. And what is difficult about that ? Remarkable we are, but our limitations are infinitely lower than the infinitude of splendour which is the Almighty's.

In the context, God has provided heaven and earth, stars, sun and moon, used purpose and presented a fait accompli, moving here and there, water, earth, light, and then life. He has instituted things, like a builder bringing on the scene his sand, cement, reinforcements, power-tools and so on. Yet it is far beyond this; the means are at His command, all depending on His mere speech, for whom performance knows no barrier. (See infra in detail pp. 482-498, Creation... The New Creation and pp. 560 ff..)

He has, as it were, itemised the situation and components - like a laboratory text, telling you what to bring, where to put it and to have it set up in such and such a manner.

Then He tells us in particular the procedure relative to the creation of man. We have observed that the specialised word for `create' is employed (bara), in this instance - Genesis 1:27. It is described as a creation distinctively within the setting. This is not surprising since it is a matter of being in the image of God, where the most intense creative power would be assumed to be required, so that if anything were deserving of so special a term, this would be; just as the most immediate action might be expected as the work moves closer to the very heart of God. The spirit's mind and character on the one hand, and the bodily format enabling its expression are to be in the utmost sense an intimate expression of the unduplicatable.
 

Just as, on the other hand, a master musician can make magnificent music on a base not greater dissimilar from that used by lesser lights, so there is room for some parallel in the instrument, the body. It depends on what was put into the other creation, and what is required for the expression of man, as an image-bearer of God: certainly the functional difference must be radical. Of course, that image is wholly spiritual, in this, that God IS a Spirit, and the body assigned is merely instrumental for action in this world; yet the organic means to this end are subject to stringent conditions.

God created consciousness, intelligence and instinct, imagination and rationality, conceptual mobility and ideational manipulative power, a sense of fellowship and a capacity to analyse both this and other things, to the limits desired; and in man He created the capacity to act at a level consistent with fellowship with Himself. This amazing advent was a subject of two simple conditions: earth and spirit. He used the dust and conceived the spirit for man.

What then is interesting most of all, for our purpose, is this: Having itemised the ingredients of His creation very carefully, in terms, then, of earth, light, moisture, this and that form of animal life, these biota and so on, God then specifies what He does concerning man, in order to institute him.

We find that

i) God creates him.

ii) In 2:7 in the review we read the manner of it: "and the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground".

Now He might have said: He formed him out of the mist of the skies; or the depths of the ocean; or out of a stew of animal meat; or out of a special elixir of the creation thus far. He might have done so; though it would be quite out of style with the admirable directness and majestic correspondence of word and action, conceiving and accomplishment which is not only present, but exceedingly heavily underlined throughout. In fact, all that need concern us here now, is one thing. He did not say any such thing; He specifies rather than he takes a specific one of the ingredients so far particularised, part of the earth, indeed the ground, indeed, more specifically, the dust of the earth.

That is not only clear. It is contradistinct among the various elements by now on the creative scene, within the Creator's scenario to that point. It is, further, exactly specified, and indicated with a certain robust directness. Ground is here, very well, dust: see that. Not some special organic glue; not an elixir: just old dust. A basic ingredient; perhaps offensive in its simplicity, but as a selected item from the list so far given, eminently obvious.
 

• This is where preconceived ideas can be so dangerous; and when one is looking at what God does, such a peril is surely the greater. When the infinite mind is at work, let finite minds beware of knowing the answers before the questions are asked, or conceiving, `Well this is what he means,' as if God were some stumbling student. Imagine such an approach to a visiting professor, on the part of the class of students. It would be a bizarre arrogance, when in fact the studious mind of the great man might be most likely to have astute word selection, coupled with a finesse of knowledge far beyond the scope of the Class.

The result of all this is simple for our purpose: God, in His account (you recall that procedurally we are currently interpreting what is written) states what He did, declares what is there, and selecting one of the items from among the living and the non- living, He names it.

Dust. Dust of the ground. This, He reveals, is in fact what He took in the creation of man. It was creation indeed, not merging, mixing, vitamising, but an imprint of life into a format of matter.

Someone may wish to instruct God differently; such a person, when perhaps creating his/her universe, might demonstrate the preferred mode. But as far as the actual Creator is concerned, His man was created from His dust -which He had made and His creative power. I do, as to the concept of creation, something similar when I use pen and ink, plus creative power, to write a poem. That is not ridiculous; it is ridiculous rather to imagine I must have a few lines of some other poem, and a few pieces of punctuation drawn from that poem.

That would merely harass my creation. I take raw materials, and invest them with creative thrust. Again, if you know anything of house building, you may realise how enormously difficult it readily becomes to adjust what is there, compared with the rather simpler operation of starting anew! Renovations and alterations can be profoundly exacting. But all this apart, the fact is, the text is clear: it was for man, a creation which the text specifies, and the base was mere matter.

Then God gave man a spirit, that special capacity to view and review, to reason and speculate, to imagine and love or hate, to survey and in general to be such a being as would be apt and able for the very companionship of God who is a spirit and whose Spirit brooded, you recall from Genesis 1, on the waters.

For the moment, however, we are thinking of the body of man. As far as theistic evolution is concerned, the Bible teaches otherwise. It does so in spirit, in style, in word form, in detailed specification. It does so in retrospection in the New Testament (Matthew 19:4 ff., 1 Timothy 2:8-15, Romans 5:12-16), both in recapitulation of Genesis and in application of it. It uses chronological items as in Timothy for derivation of practical consequences, it uses as in Matthew verbal items. It takes it as read, historically applicable; it singularises Adam and applies the singularity in the setting of sin for the derivation in various later epochs of what is to be (Romans 5).

This theory is contrary to the text, to the ethics, to the divinity and to the use and application of the text in one place, when applied to another, by the Bible writers. It invents what is not written, contradicts what is and divorces the whole splendour and atmosphere of what is written to the point that the only honest solution is this: the propounders of any such view should follow Gladstone's reputed advice, and found their own religion, starting by being crucified and resurrected. Then they would ethically be at liberty to mention any ideas about evolution they pleased, subject to scholarly and psychological scrutiny. As it is, however, the joint presentation of the term Bible and the terms theistic evolution should only be for contrast.

So much for what we called the first of it, in this section. Now we come to the other pole, the last of it.
 

4. The last of it

This phrase, involving the concept of the thrust and finality of things, brings to mind the supreme comedy of the concept of theistic evolution applied to man. What would you have ? A body being prepared over millions of years with various parts being set in motion ? ready in some elements for use when the times come which would make it possible for them to be activated ? one being made ready for a spirit at such time as it would be donated by divine action, which would at the last make man able to be in the image of God ? (Genesis 1:26, 2:27, Proverbs 20:27, 1 Thessalonians 5:23,
1 Corinthians 2:9:13).

Aeons of time, on such a basis, would be set aside for the completed preparation of what was not yet ready for such a spirit in man, and the development of the structural and neural groundwork for such a spirit, when at last its time had come.

It would be like putting on power steering and air- conditioning on a car, without the power to run them; they become rather worse than useless appendages in those circumstances, having to be first maintained and then carted about with no useful product for the time. But that is what evolution is all about, time. Thus the man being equipped for the great day when he would be ready for being a truly rational, symbolic logic type of linguist and thinker, and a worshipper, would for millions of years (on the usual model, but for whatever time) have the disadvantage, the anti-survival problem of useless, vulnerable equipment. This of course counters the usual approach in the evolutionary fairy tale, forgetful as normal of arrival and talking uselessly of survival; for in that setting, however inept, this is a minus, not a plus.

Worse is to follow for this model, relating to the Creator. God would, for the theistic evolutionist, have to be as it were oiling and maintaining this useless mess, till the spirit was given to man. Or would it be different, would the specifics of man, in his spirit, be poured into the inadequate receptacle of an unprepared form, so that it could not operate aright, beng without the right equipment! Would God then provide man with a spirit and its desires, together with bad equipment (less development `time' taken) unable to interpret them, guaranteeing a caricature of God in the mind of almost-man!

Such a god might be the devil, but then he has shown no power to create at this level. The caricature of God is hardly in line with the clear statements of scripture, which, as we see, indicate God is very careful about his name, and will not lend it to comic or other irreverent antics. Truth matters to Him, He requires it, He is it. He is acutely concerned for the due use of His name, which expresses His character, and for the avoidance of foolish libels, labels, comedies, misconceptions and misuses. It is one of the Ten Commandments which features this point (Exodus 20:7), frequently in focus in the Bible (e.g. Deuteronomy 32:21, Ezekiel 36:22, 8:12-18, Jeremiah 14:13-17, 23:14-30, v. 24 in context).

The concept of making a systematically necessary deformation of truth as part of God's creation, an item in the way He chose to bring it to be, is not merely wholly and outrageously contrary to what Genesis 1-11 teaches; it is systematically wholly divorced from all God teaches of Himself. This it is not necessary to repeat in detail; but it is necessary to mention.

In fact, evolution in general, and theistic evolution in heightened form, bears a relation to the Bible of... divorce, contradiction and in effect rugged condemnation. Each curses the other. Theistic evolution has this special extra effect: it damns the hand that castigates it, caricatures the One who executes discipline, and ends, implicitly, telling Him that that is the sort of thing He does without provocation, for it is in His own heart.

It is like a prisoner telling the judge that if he were God, this sort of `cruelty' is just the sort of thing that would appeal to him in a work of creation. (Of course, godless non-theistic evolution has the same implication; it is just that the exponents would not realise it. In fact, they also deny God outright, as if to tell the judge: `And furthermore, you don't even exist! Get that!' Pardon is merely the more distanced by such irrational and intemperate indulgences of fancy.)

One must however repeat this, for it is too good to let go readily: the failure of the Bible to endorse mutually exclusive propositions like those of theistic evolution and its entailed teaching on God's morals, ethics, work, is one more of its wonders.

If you study the work of students, you will realise that consistency is not always achieved. The broader the scope, the deeper the attempt, the greater the danger. The Bible, the most intense, extensive, analytical work, with mutually conformed depositions from the Lord spreading over thousands of years, never once has an inconsistency of its thought or teaching, its principles of presentation. Men may invent contradictory theologies; but this, the Bible does not do. Fantasies (*44) arise and fall; the Bible does not join them. Believers may be assaulted in this century or that; but the Bible does not change; it does not have to, for it speaks the truth.

This current field is merely one more delightful exhibit, where men, even recently, have set forth ideas and notions (cf. Chapter 2, earlier, and esp. pp. 128-140 supra) which are becoming so utterly ludicrous, even scientifically, as knowledge progresses, that we look in awe to see that the very first writer of the Bible in God's name, made no such mistakes.

When God is for you, you are perfectly safe: with God, one is enough.

The presentation of a spirit of man, all at once, a spirit made, all at once, is precisely what the Bible teaches. It is apt, adequate and significantly free from the defenestration so abjectly suffered by competitors. And what does it teach here ?

It is this: that One Creator, adequate in power, does what is cohesive in concept, to produce what holds no confusions or alien admixtures: that is, man at the outset.

As it is written: "God made man upright; but they have sought out many inventions" (Ecclesiastes 7:29).

This being, this created person, is made in His own image (not geometrical, since He is a Spirit, but personal), so that thus a product is created. Able to act aright or awry, being free to respond or react, this being, man, defiles itself so liberally that we even have anti-evidential (where evidence applies), illogical and illusory hypotheses presented as if science by some scientists and, in some States like South Australia, blithely foisted on the young, denied normal liberties of debate, while... While what ?

It is done while the Christians are told not to be concerned, for they can have a god of some kind lying around somewhere. A god of some kind indeed; for as we have been at pains to demonstrate, the kind of `god' concerned, Biblically is the devil. Thus man in government, provides for man governed, the wildest irrational folly, out of his own mind, in defiance of logic, scientific method and evidence. For this, as for various other misrepresentations which man in his confusion makes against son or daughter, wife or friend, and for such things over the ages, man is judged, and the force of the judgments is being augmented with time. This same man, however, if he is so moved, may repent of his follies, seek his Creator, accept His remedy, cease blaspheming His name by acting as if He did not have one, and be re-created.

But if not ? Where God is mocked by such dire misuses of His name (even children do not always reflect that they are mocking, though still responsible), what then ? Then, as for example in South Australia: then is our freedom eroded, many children are educationally abused, and truth is set aside - in favour of illusion - by command. And the children ? they are being taught to mock... It is scarcely surprising that with many, there seems an increasing facility to apply this caricature of learning, sad distortion of man, in the corruptive eruptions of disillusion.

What then is this mode of education ? It is

Command delinquency!

Civilisations have come and gone, and follies have been foisted onto the name of God. Is it surprising ? The beauty has its basis, as does the judgment, in God. The sin has its cry for recompense; God in His mercy may delay it, but judgment comes; while God in pity, has provided a remedy, a remedy for what, after all, is His creation.

Man is so marvellous a production that he can mock or even deny its Maker; and He is so infinitely wonderful a Creator that in advance, He has prepared and announced the procedure for pardon, in the Messiah, who came in the form of the man whom He had created, and spoke face to face with man the sinner. Offering Himself in a blessed humility with a love that inspires man in His image, He came as Himself the sacrifice, the only sacrifice, for that miscreant, man... man who has erred, but who may return on the path, prepared as surely as the circuitry of his brain, or the power of his thought, or the functionality of his will. Man may return on the path of God, to the heart of God, where he was first prepared.

Endnotes:

1. Deuteronomy 32:4, with Psalm 89:8,14 use Hebrew terms expressive of faithfulness, steadfastness, truth, stability; the God of truth, He is and is affirmed to be "without iniquity". For His name, He has "pity" (Ezekiel 36:21-2) and for His word, zeal (Isaiah 9:7, Ezekiel 5:13, Isaiah 48:3-11, Matthew 26:54). See pp. 805-836, 931-943; cf. 329-330, *36, *43 infra.

2. See pp. 327-328, `diabolical'.

Please note that endnotes outside single digits, as these, are in fact part of the SMR text, and these may be found by referring to the trilogy itself.
 
 

SECTION B

A FURTHER EXCERPT,

this time from pp. 614-615 SMR may shed further light on the whole matter of the power of God, which not only makes processes, but the scope for them.

The downfall of Darwin

And Darwin ? His delusion is the same. Scholar after scholar (and we could mention Morris, Løvtrup, Nilsson, Goldschmidt, Gould, Kouznetsov, Korochkin, Bird) acknowledges its failure. Neither has it given any evidence in over one hundred years, to verify it, as the noted Professor W.R. Thompson pointed out in his introduction to a new Everyman edition of Darwin's famous book; nor could it, nor is it workable technically, while men like Denton, Eden, Schützenberger show it is contrary in nature to the technology now revealed in the cell. In short, it has neither the evidence nor the logic nor the method. In fact, it is not even dealing with the origin of species, as has been pointed out, but rather with their sustaining, which sidesteps the issue, and Darwin himself noted that the eye could only by absurdity, be seen as coming to be by his methods! (Dysfunctional specialised components are blind!)

Again, if men were made by mere manipulation of matter (`manipulation' - but not even that, for in this theory, there is no one to manipulate)... by mere interaction then, within a system, then of course by definition, they can only apprehend within the conditions of a component; cannot evacuate from either its limits or its constraints; cannot invade from beyond its thrall to see it as it is, for on this view, there is no beyond. Therefore, in this schema, there is no way in which a simply interactive part, embodied within a system as a component, can envisage a whole, cognise, construe and capture the system: for that is a different feature from mere action at a point. Hence Darwin could not possibly, on his own system, have known what the truth was, as with Marx, as with Freud. In the rigours of relativity, there is no absolute, so that it is absolutely impossible to know... even the rigours of relativity as the truth. The theory dies with the opening of the mouth, to declare it (*1). {See also That Magnificent Rock, pp. 103 ff., SMR pp. 100-101, Ch.3.}

As to `theistic evolution', it is not merely idly blasphemous in attributing to God the movements within a system which uses trickery, treachery and force to `advance' (this being the principle, and man on this basis coming to be as consequence), to elevate creation to the `pinnacle' of man from the slimy depths... That is not all. It is not merely that this would implicate God in obliterative tantrums, as he lurched through this eccentric process of `creation', receiving magnificent help from the brave citizenry below, who by striving and conniving, helped things along; for, instrumentally, we accept what we use (*2). Such a view therefore is mortally delusive.

Nor is theistic evolution less futile than any other such theoretical fantasy, without absolute creation `thrown in': lacking as it does, the evidence of self-activated advance in design complexity, of progressive continuity of change. It is as ludicrous as anything else in the God-bypass area, in meeting the evidence of the Cambrian Age, that sudden apparent bursting forth of a large percentage of advanced creatures very near the first (on the theoretical basis in fashion); and of stolid non-transmutation in decidedly unadventurous fossils. Refusing to co-operate, they give the impression of being almost clandestine creationists.

The evidence chronically and almost callously, for evolution, runs in manifest contradiction, indeed, to the entire observation of decline and decay which is the only evidence available, relative to overall `drift' in an established system.

This evolutionism, of whatever variety, then, is merely an added blasphemy and irrationality, in callow and ineffectual confrontation with God and His glory, and the evidence and logic jointly.

Creation and creatorremain the sole possibility; and those of us who know Him, we are not therefore `cast down'. Nor did the Psalmist long remain in that condition (Psalm 73:2-3,13-14). It is, as the Psalmist shows, wholly an error to be envious at the boastful. Their paths are indeed slippery, and the latest attack on and revolt from God comes and goes, and to use a slang Americanism, when it goes, it `goes good'!

It is all madness, revolt and revolution, refusing God, evidence and logic alike. Every lust to replace God and find a system that works, to analyse our condition and remedy it without God has failed. The 1991 collapse of Communism is merely a routine treatment, one more example of what is intrinsically unworkable, always has been, and always will be.

They fail intellectually, as humanity invariably finds, when, rubbing its eyes, perhaps 50 years later, it sees its error. They fail in behaviour, when the `Spock' generation becomes the `shock ' generation, and the `liberated' generation becomes the annihilated generation. They fail physically and morally when the generation needing no aid from God gains AIDS from man; when the enlightening liberators turn into Red Guards and the economic marvel becomes a request for grain, to avoid starvation, grain from the West... or for money, to avoid bankruptcy! Will man never learn! His brave new world, continually constructed (in mind) with morbid fascination, is neither brave nor new.

Sometimes these matters, then, weigh on the spirits of men; and the Psalmist is showing his suffering as the Psalm 73 proceeds from the first verse, a statement of conviction about the constant and continual goodness of God to His own people (He doesn't force people), to a statement of heaviness in verse 2.

But as for me, my feet were almost gone, he says,

admitting his envy at foolish people, who momentarily and superficially had seemed fortunate in their gross prosperity. Thus, temporarily blurred in spiritual vision, he suffers what you might call ...

God very simply is all-powerful, all-knowing and is not involved in hand-me-down constructions of "Nature"-like limitations that space or matter could contribute.

As to that, the things themselves are His product, it is He who delimits them. Nothing delimits Him.

He is what He is, always has been, always will be, changeless without fault, inviolable in His nature, irrepressible in His power, love though He be hated, true though He be reviled, doing always what He says He will do.
 

*1 Atheistically reconstructed society, psyche and cells are all alike as dead on arrival, miasmic myths that irrationally infect the mind, just as they are both alien to, and unevidenced in reality.

*2 See for example, pp. 179 ff.,supra, concerning the confusion of the curse of judgment with the course of creation. Folly inherits shame and may not even know it.

 
 

2. THE SETTING of What the Bible DOES Teach

Basic Revealed Perspectives

on Creation

Revealed Perspectives with Resultant Systematics
and Personal Applications

Introductory Note

Since this is a series of excerpts from The Shadow of a Mighty Rock, we are taking a little of the surrounding text, to put it in the perspective there given.

BIBLICAL SURROUNDS

It is time to survey the scene to which our steps have taken us. The Christian Bible, then, what does it show, declare ? It becomes a matter of beginning to know and perceive what is there. In any experiment, you must deal with the requisite apparatus, if you are in any way serious. For those looking for verification in a normal scientific way - for the sake of method, not because of any lack of preceding proof, it is time to become aware of materials. In this case, those materials comprise the books of the Christian Bible, incorporating the Jewish Old Testament and the Greek New Testament (These specifics refer to the language, not the origin...)

We have seen how our `materials' in this case, provide power to resolve philosophic and allied problems; we now see how they comprise a cohesive teaching, and convey a perspective that baulks at nothing and swallows all before it.

To expose these aspects, we shall pursue the following schedule:

1. We survey an introductory conspectus of teaching, drawn from the Christian Bible. [ Some text is here omitted as not necessary for our present purpose.]...

5. In particular, how does salvation relate to creation ? Are they merely ideas in parallel, or is there any correlation ? Can we Biblically divorce the concepts at will, or are they mutually involved ? We need to see the force of what is there, and so avoid unreal options in considering the matter.

Preliminary Survey

GOD

Is that almighty, omniscient, compassionate, independent, immaterial Being whose justice is never compromised, who gives love its name, mercy its source and fatherhood its basis; to the Church its centre and sovereign, to sin its answer, and to wickedness in His time, its results; who takes no pleasure, however, in the death of the wicked, and does not lightly afflict the children of men; of whom, to whom and through whom are all things; in whom is no iniquity or shadow of turning, who changes not; alpha and omega, the beginning and the end of all creation, Creator ex nihilo, by Himself; alone eternal, King beyond all dominion. He is triune: one in Being, consisting in, but not of, three Persons - Father, Son and Holy Spirit, all of one nature, but distinct.

CHRIST

Is the second Person of that triune Being, called the Word, who accordingly has shown the Father; the Saviour, who for each one of the human race who sins, is presented as the light, the cynosure and sacrifice before God the Father, in His just judgments; who is freely given on behalf of repentant sinners who come to Him. Their sins He bore, in grace for their guilt, in His own body on the Cross, taking the curse they deserved. He takes only what He is given and grasps nothing.

Though glorious in the Godhead, in love He delighted to take the body in which He was sacrificed, being born through a woman; and being from His Father, He actively performed as well as passively sustained the loving will of that Father, whose profound salvation this same Christ encompasses, constitutes and confers. It is He who in infinite concord with the Father is also alpha and omega, the beginning and the end, and whose timeless eternity is exhibited in His words - "Before Abraham was, I AM".

Deferring on earth to His Father ("My Father is greater than I"), He yet has equal honour conferred on Himself by the Father (men should honour Him "just as they honour the Father"). Without Him, the light of the world, none can know the Father; while He, only through His Father's will, may be known (Matthew 11:27). The knowledge of Him is more precious than anything that could be offered, being "unsearchable riches". He is that good shepherd, bishop of our souls, that "gift by grace" and bridegroom of the Church. This, like a bride is received by Him; and like a slave, ransomed and delivered from death by His death, as the ransom price - justly covering the full consequences of departure from God. To all His own is given lively immortality, which is His by nature: everlasting life (1 John 1:1-4, John 10:27).

Christ is the crux of Christianity, the author of salvation, its finisher, the authorised and announced Lord and judge of men; and His resurrected body is a foretaste of the assured state of the redeemed, to come. He with the Father sends the Holy Spirit, revealing heavenly things by His grace: and that is the third Person of that triune, immutable Being, inscrutable to profane eyes, who is God.

THE HOLY SPIRIT

The Holy Spirit reveals the Son, who sends Him from the Father (John 15:26); and interprets His work, in infallibly revealed Scripture given to the prophets. He endued and endues those who are Christ's, reproves, rebukes, comforts, consoles, communes, convinces and confers gifts on Christ's people, according to the sovereign will of God. He brooded over creation, may be grieved, but never leaves those redeemed by Christ, who never perish, and in whose lives He wells up, whose minds He quickens, sharpens, illuminates and educates, according to the word of God; and in their spirits He dynamises, energises, refreshes and renews.

He seals to the believer the salvation of Christ, against the day of judgment (Ephesians 1:13-14), refreshes the pilgrims and heirs of God; and is the indispensable, undeniable 'finger' of God on His people. He indwells the saint, and bears to God in glory the prayers of those who are redeemed (Romans 8:26-27 ), whilst working, witnessing or striving also within them, as their growth, cleansing, correction or uplift may require. Not speaking on His own authority, "whatever He hears, He will speak", and will glorify Christ (John 16:13).

MAN

Is that physically located, chemically complex, mentally investigative and spiritually kin creation of God, for whose glory he was created, from whose goodness he has deviated, to whose mercy he is indebted, from whose love he is delinquent and yet to whose salvation he is brought, person by person; and in relatively small numbers that aggregate over time, are members of his race restored.

This member of God's creation, in gross and unreasoned rebellion, frequently follows Satan, the adversary in delusion and to his own confusion.

A marvel of compactness and construction, man is capable of absurd pretensions, wicked inventions of mind, spirit and body; and may fall to that remorseless shame of the renegade which ends only in immovable judgment, everlasting destruction and divorce from glory. As helpless before God, he may receive Christ and accept His sacrifice. (Consider Ecclesiastes 3:11- "God has set eternity in his heart", and 7:29, Proverbs 20:27, John 16:13, I Corinthians 13:12). If saved from the guilt of sin, he is restored to his Creator Father, and resumes a sonship from which sin seduced him.

An experimenter with himself and history, man embezzles the spiritual funds committed to him, and runs a rearguard action of desperate ruin in which history is written, nevertheless, by the finger of God, who ordains whatsoever comes to pass and who is neither confused nor aborted by the activities of men.

SIN

Is that dishonouring of God which may be seen in disobedience to His commands, rebellion against His will, misuse of His resources, trespass against His provision, deflection from His standards, in our deficiency in His righteousness, truancy from His word, neglect of His ordinances, deafness to His answers and dullness to His questions.

In judgment, sin is seen on Christ on the Cross, as the Church's Redeemer. In desolation, it is seen in His cry - "Why have You forsaken Me ?" as He experienced it sacrificially, for others; in epidemic, it is seen described in the last verses of Romans 1; in development to its destiny, it is revealed in II Timothy 3; in it simple denial, it is witnessed in the life of Christ; in its diversity in Psalm 107; in finale and friction, in hell. It is unhallowed, unhelpful and deceptive, doomed but subject to remission for believers, only because Christ poured out His soul to death, and bearing their iniquities, died to sin once. For those who look for Him, He will appear without sin to the consummation of salvation, redeeming the body, exposing His already procured provisions for those whom He redeemed, past the ravages of sin and the terrors of time in such a world as this, in the world to come.

As to sin: its justice is death and curse; its cure is Christ; its condition is corruption; and its scope includes the human race in all its history, outside Christ.

SATAN

Is that proud, overbearing, arrogant, deadly and deceptive imitator of God who seeks His prerogatives, desires His power, is judged by God's word, is destined to doom by God's determinate will; is unregenerate, implacable and remorseless, the prince of this world, the accuser of the brethren, the adversary of actuality, the father of lies who was a murderer from the beginning; had the effrontery to seek to seduce the purity of Christ, and delights in designs to destroy and devour the saints, who are yet victors over him by the power of God, gained by the accomplishment of Christ, through whom they are kept.

JUDGMENT

To this same Jesus Christ, who suffered the afflictions of judgment in the place of those who should come to trust Him, is entrusted the exercise of judgment.

The One who was judged, is Judge:

of the world for its disbelief;

of the world rulers of thought and religion for their rebellion;

of men of the world, whose errors are endemic in the hearts and minds

of multiplied antagonists of the truth;

of those sinners who have forfeited salvation, through negating Christ;

of artful experimentation which failed to make truth its guide,

to make God its goal and His design its direction...

For those whose sins He bore, His sentence now is pardon for guilt, and His child-care includes chastening for character and joy for strength.

For those whose sins He did not bear - John 10:11,26, 8:24, Romans 2:12, Isaiah 53:5-6 (it is the "healed" whose iniquities are "laid on Him", and the Shepherd lays down His life for His sheep, some being "not of my sheep" John 10:26):thereis all the cursing and the consequence, the darkness and the destitution such as Christ bore. That is why He bore it, that we might not need to; and this is why He so performed to secure this result, because of His love to man, to humankind (Titus 3:4), to the world (John 3:16). To avoid this love, to pre-empt this offer, to evacuate from this mercy, there is a method too: it is this. As Christ said (John 3:19):

This is their condemnation that light has come into the world and men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil.

We now turn to the CREATION area in its overall setting as above. We saw earlier

• What the Bible does NOT teach.

Now we consider:

• What the Bible TEACHES in the area of our interest.
•  

3. THE SITUATION: MASTERFUL MODES OF THE BIBLICAL MASTER -

What the Bible Teaches
Concerning Creation in our Current Field of Interest

 

CREATION: THE NEW CREATION. . .

The Heavens and the Earth -
The New Heavens and The New Earth

For further reference to this topic, you may wish to consult the following treatments in this work: supra pp. 179 ff., 128 ff., 225 ff., Ch. 2 passim, Ch. 3, pp. 270-284 - with its glossary notes. At this point, there follows:

1) a short treatment of Biblical teaching on this topic; and

2) a much more extensive development of the above theme.

1. Short Summary - Creation / Salvation

In Genesis, God is declared to have created the heavens and the earth (*1). Genesis 2:4 makes it clear that this, as given to that point, is all in outline, that happened in this creative event... There, heaven and earth are the items designated; creation is the mode represented, as to their formation; the data given are the elements of the action. There is nothing omitted to the point; the account is of the facts. The entire difference between non-heavens-and-earth and heavens-and-earth, is creation. This is the teaching: a total donation of whatever it takes to produce the element or action or thing assigned. In this case, the thing is found in the compaction, conglomerate, the totality, the individual components as itemised: the heaven and the earth.

There was no question of some procedure of another kind, diversified in dimension, or doctrine, way stations beyond or of another order to this; for in the word of God (Proverbs 30:6), addition is forbidden: we may not add, He does not distort. Without supplement therefore of action or item, this results from the action of God known as creation. There is no gap. There is no pre-existing matter. There is God; there is creation; there is the result of creation: this is it.

God has measured it with design (Isaiah 40:12), acted with monergistic counsel and power (Isaiah 40:13-14,18,25-8), so that nothing is His sole companion until He makes (Isaiah 44:24, 43:13, 45:8): it is He who "stretches out the heavens all alone", and who "spreads abroad the earth by Myself" (Isaiah 44:24). Name it: He created it in all that has being and strength and power of any kind. It is HE who precedes and predates day:

"Before the day was, I am He; and there is none who can deliver out of My hand: I will work, and who shall prevent it ?" (Isaiah 43:13) -

and all that this shows: He being "from everlasting to everlasting" (Psalm 90)...

 

Indeed, the whole heavens and earth, He has not only formed but created, neither requiring nor seeking help, aid, nor counsel - there being in fact no one else there for such a purpose: "Who, being His counsellor, has taught Him ?" (Is. 40:13).

"See who has created these things!", He advises (Isaiah 40:26 cf. Psalm 89:12). All and any divinity is entirely lacking before, as after Him: "Before Me was no God formed, nor shall there be after Me," (Isaiah 43:10), He declares, and "There is no God beside Me" (Isaiah 40:4). As to Him, He is "a just God and a Saviour; there is none beside Me" - 45:21.; while nothing predates Him who made time:

``I am He, I am the First, I am also the Last'' - "I am the first, and I am the last; and beside Me there is no God"(Isaiah 48:12, cf. 44:6).

 

He created the heavens (Isaiah 45:18), man (Isaiah 45:12), the earth (40:28, Genesis 1:1). "There is none else" - 45:18. He it is "who stretched forth the heavens alone; who spread forth the earth by Myself" (43:24).

"I," He says (45:5), "am the Lord, and there is none else, there is no God beside Me..." "I have made the earth, and created man upon it: I, even my hands, have stretched out the heavens, and all their host have I commanded." - 45:12.

He is everlasting (40:28) and almighty (43:13, Psalm 115:3). He also formed the earth, establishedit with a purpose (Isaiah 45:18). That purpose includes satisfactory communication from man (45:19) and to man (Amos 4:13), with exposure of pseudo-divine imposters (Isaiah 44:25). It means the performance of His word operationally with man; as earlier, in the work of creation and formation; and in the present time, maintenance, within the universe (Isaiah 48:5,11,17, 41:21-29, Joel 2:13). Meanwhile, He retains total operative control over His creation as He sees fit (Isaiah 48:13), including its removal when He determines (Isaiah 51:6, Matthew 24:35).

Most of this short account has dealt from the Old Testament, simply to underline the immediate, total development of such monergistic splendour, with logical, ordered and consistent doctrine. God did not grow; it is we who grow; He simply declared it from the first, as it was. It does not need to change, this account, for it was true from the beginning.

The heavens and the earth, then, will pass as totally as they came (Isaiah 51:6, Matthew 24:35), despite their current security until that time comes (Hebrews 12:25-28), and the eternal kingdom will continue and become manifest, without the trappings of the temporal situation now current (II Corinthians 4:16- 5:5); while in this kingdom individuals will continue to be such, though clothed with eternal garments, constituted fitly for the closer and more patent and explicit communion (I Cor. 13:12) with God. Man comes to God, not through evolution, but in the land of pilgrimage, by the work of purification, rendered effective by redemption, freely conferred and executed by the irrepressible, irresistible grace of God.

God did not give man an auto-actualising kit, a self-made kit, but an opportunity to be what he should. That required no extension, merely performance; and that being ruined, God has penetrated the darkness (John 1) with a light which is not merely a re-illumination of a darkened soul, but a Redeemer who provides the right, and justice and payment for the restoration, by redemption. The broken oil-wells, as it were, need to be newly made, a new creation, which is costly; and the illicit use of auto-destruct powers needs heavenly clearance. In Christ, for His sake, this is provided, but neither automatically nor tentatively. It is given to be received; and if it is, it is effective; and if it is not, then to the individual, except as a basis for finding a doubly deserved and eternal destruction from His presence, it is useless.

Redemption and creation are highlycorrelative concepts, as seen in Isaiah 45:18-25, driven home repetitively; just as are creation and destruction, judgment (Is. 51:4-8, 12-13). Sole creator, God announces He is also sole Saviour (Is. 43:10-13, 12:1-3, Jonah 2:8-9, Psalm 3:8). ``God is my salvation''. Creator of earth and of man, He is also creator of Israel (Is. 43:1) and of Christians (Is. 43:7, 11 Corinthians 5:17-21). Even some of us, mere derivative creators, do a lot of creation; God does far more, being the basis, source and sovereign over all creation, including its creativity.

Remission (Isaiah 44:22-23) is also associated with transmission (Isaiah 48:16, 51:5-8, John 1:1-14, Philippians 2) of His eternal and living Word, manifestation, image. Thus the Lord Jesus Christ came to earth in incarnate format (1 Timothy 3:16, John 1:1-14, 1 John 1, Philippians 2, John 3:13, 17:3, 5:19-23, 45:22- 24), given His own unique names. The word of God, far from giving accolades to other divinities, in fact scorchingly denounced pretenders (Psalm 83:6-7), persons pretentious as if having virtually divine power, witheringly exposed in that they would `die like men'.

Therefore the Creator came to His creation, in a form itself created for the purpose (Luke 1:35). Now there appeared He who had once participated (John 1:1,3,10, Colossians 1:16) in the action of the deity's sole creation of all things, in His eternal form as God (Philippians 2:6), the Word, so that "all things were created through Him and for Him" (cf. Proverbs 8). From Him, nothing exists in independence, in all creation (Colossians 1:17, Isaiah 42:5, 43:11-13). Indeed this one God is such that all things were not only created by Him, but only by His will even exist (Revelation 4:11, Hebrews 11:3). To man in man's form He came, offering Himself a sacrifice.

Through the ransom, resurrection, justification (Romans 4:25-5:1), and in His love and salvation, this same Lord Jesus Christ by His Spirit has already engaged in an action of re-creation, not for His entertainment, but for the re-constitution worked in all Christians, so that they are re-made (John 3:6-7, 11 Corinthians 5:17, 1 John 3:9). All Christians, created new, are adopted sons of God in this present time (Romans 8:16); and this re-creation comes when they truly receive Him (Titus 3:4-7, John 3:13-33, Ephesians 1: 23, 2:1-10, 3:14-20, Romans 8:12-17, 4:25-5:21, John 1:12-16), resulting in an inalienable inheritance, adoption and acceptance (1 John 3:9, John 10:27-28, Romans 5:8-11).

As to the setting for the eternity of life of believers, now nascent with life and then completed in life, now promised paradise but then replete (Romans 5 :5, 1 John 5 3:1-9, John 5:24, 4:14, 6:51, 11 Timothy 1:9, Titus 3:4-7, Romans 8:29-39, Revelation 14:13, 7:9-17, 1 Thessalonians 5:9-11, 1 Corinthians 13: 8-13): this is itself filled with the eternity of God who chooses to give Himself such explicit expression to those once commenced, but now consummated (Revelation 21-22, esp. 22:4-5, 1 Corinthians 15:50-58).

In this, God the Father and the Lord the Lamb, are the essence and focus of worship (Revelation 22:3-4, 21:23, Is. 45:22-23, Ph. 2:6-11). While reality cannot be adjusted for the sake of sin, God invested Himself in human life, for the sake of sinners, that the creation might be redeemed (cf. John 1:14, 3:16-1, Titus 3:4-7). What is then redeemed deals not with mere creation, to which unbelievers bind themselves, for God is available only on His terms: in fact, the redeemed deal with God, for whom the whole creation was one of His majestic acts, and the redemption another.
 

2.

More Extensive Development

A. We will assume for this purpose that the reader has read at least:

a) Genesis 1:27, 2:23, with 2:7,1:12, 1:21-25,2:1; and Chs. 1-2 supra carefully.

b) Colossians 1:16-17, Revelation 4:11, Matthew 19:4-9, Psalm 139:13-16.

c) Hebrews 11:1-4, Psalm 33:6,9, 148:1-6, John 4:24, Colossians 2:3, 1 Timothy 2, 1 Corinthians 2:9-13, 11 Peter 2:1, II Corinthians 11:14-15, 2:17.

d) Romans chapters l-5,8,10-11, Galatians Chapters 3-5, Ephesians Chapters 1-2, Colossians 3, II Corinthians 5, Hebrews Chapters 7-10, John 3, 1 John 3.

e) Isaiah 40, 45, 46, 48, 51, 52-3; Zechariah 12:1.

B. It is seen in Genesis that creatures and dust are clearly described by 1:27 and that with this stated assemblage before Him, God chose dust and a spirit for the composition and creation of man. God is a Spirit so that material things are of interest as to their relation to Him.

We learn in early Genesis that He created material things (from 1:1, 2:4 indeed, that He created the whole cosmos), and the verb used is specific for noted areas of biological life (1:21) addressed separately, and for man (1:27). Now we might have been told of pre-existing materials; but we were not. We could have been told how He formed things from this base; but we were not. The word in Hebrew, here and in the just noted cases used, for `create' could have been set aside; but it was not. Where it is, it is; and there it will stay.

In 2:1, we learn that we have been told in chapter 1, how all the work (statedly one of creation overall) was done. Heavens, earth, all - were finished as described. 2:3 tells us that this was a work of creation. Creation then, all of it, is as described, and where described.
 

C. Repeatedly the concept of "kind" is introduced. Things are made or created after their kind. Several times we are advised that their propagation is similarly according to kind (verses 11,12,24).

We might have been told it was according to some other feature; but we do not hear of it. It is - according to kind. Harris, Archer and Watke in their monumental Theological Word Book of the Old Testament point out that the Hebrew term translated 'kind' can refer to species, genus, family or order, as appears illustrated in Genesis 1:12, Leviticus 11:14-29.It is apparent that there is no way it can be restricted to 'species' in some highly specific sense, for this reason; and the other ? it is as these authors point out, unfortunately the case that the definition of this term by biologists is subject to enormous variation. Dr Johannes G. Vos in his Surrender to Evolution: Inevitable or Inexcusable ? presents the scope of such diversification even of concept in modern biology, on this term 'species'.

One thing, leaving the biological crises behind, is clear, and it is that any attempt to limit the term 'kind' in the Bible beyond its assured generic usage is mere invasion of the text. It is used at various levels, and to indicate the kind of fixity which the context warrants. In the most general usage of the term in outline as in Genesis 1, there is the utmost reason to keep it to the broader classification considerations there in view, as seen in the scope of categories invoked. 
 

D. The concept of figurative speech is always possibly relevant, provided the context makes this plain, in any communication or good writing of effective expression. We mean what we say, if sober and competent - and honest - and say what we mean. If we mean something fancy, special or fanciful, we say it when teaching especially is in view, so that evidence is given how we are to be taken.

Let us consider the creation of man. In the book before us, we find man created (Genesis 1:27, Isaiah 45:12, Ephesians 3:9-10, Colossians 3:20). This we find in Genesis is done after the creation of animals, with the use of no visible animal forms, but dust only, and thereupon, with spirit. This occurs in an account statedly covering the whole creation, and is unconfusing, straightforward, explicit. Assumptions to the contrary belie the purposeful explanatory character of the address, the tenor of the speech and the purpose of the declaration, so well signalled both by the opening verse and the link with man's plight in the Old Testament - and in the New, where the same thing is stated or assumed (e.g. Luke 3:8, Romans 5, 1 Timothy 2, I Corinthians 15, Isaiah 40-53. )

Thus man is not moulded as a process, but created. The appropriate term is selected, signifying entire new arrival of all the specifics in view. The creation of the body of man (*2) is on a base of dust, of freely available chemicals found on the earth's crust; and as to these chemicals, as we may see, in our advanced century, the earth's crust is, in fact, statedly a container of all the elements of our bodily composition.

Creatures, as declared, come in kinds and reproduce in the same categories (see also Defining Drama Ch. 10). We might have been told that the creatures were constantly reviewed as to kind, either by a natural or a supernatural process. However, we are not. We might have been acquainted with upgrading procedures. We are not. In kinds they come, and according to kinds they go on in propagation. This is quite unmistakably clear.

This does not remove variability within the kinds - such as giants (6:4) may illustrate or curse may cause, in degradation and judgment. It merely states the method of instituting the universe in general, and kinds in particular; and their mode of continuation - in those kinds. Nothing could well be clearer.

It is creation; and even in our field, in the material, biological and spiritual setting, so made for us by God, we can create - so that from our spirits and minds there flash or flow new arrivals. At other times, we mould. We are familiar, in our restricted setting, with the whole matter of creation, as distinct from development.

E. How God did create, being invisible and immaterial (*3 ) (John 4:24, I Timothy 6:16, Hebrews 11:1-4, Psalm 148:1-6)... is not available for photograph or research based on the repetition of available laws. Law amongst the creation, was instituted by creation in our cosmos. Laws relate to the method of working of the thing, once it is created; and our physical laws fully accord with the concept of the operation of an existing system, whether conservation of mass and energy, or the second law of thermodynamics be in view. New laws are not flowing, but creation is going in its created setting - according to its kind.

 

Hebrews 11:1-3 gives us more data, though it simply fits with what is said above. Invisible resources, we are advised, were the basis of the things which can be seen. In particular, the word of God - giving design stipulation and specifications for matter - we learn, framed all that is visible whatsoever. This word created: that sums up what we have seen then (cf. Isaiah 40:12-14,25-28, 45:67, 48:12-13, 51:6,16, Zechariah 12:1, Isaiah 44:24 - 45:8,21-22). God exercised mind and power with expression, to create the things that are visible. The whole visible area, open to inspection, has proceeded from areas which are not visible. God is a Spirit, as Jesus Christ stated; and the Spirit of God moved creatively, as Genesis I indicates.

 

F. Christ, in particular, we learn in Colossians 1:15-18, 2:9, Hebrews 1:3-8, fully expresses God (cf. 2:3) and fully accounted for creation, both as source and focus for it, acting within the Godhead. By Him, all visible and invisible things - codes and creatures, laws and materials, beauties and creative powers able to create beauty or to misuse to desecrate truth - all were created. We are responsible for their use: not for their creation, not AT ALL. The mode of institution of the categories of the universe, of whatever depth or dimension, was creation; and the creator was Christ: "All things were created through Him and for Him" - Colossians 1:16.

G. The finer detail is supported by Jesus Christ (Matthew 19), where He based an argument concerning human behaviour, what was required of our race, on just this: the relation of man and woman as depicted in the record of their creation.

H. Paul, in I Timothy 2, bases an argument covering behaviour on the detail of which party, man or woman, in the creation record, was subject to the first deception by Satan; and Paul claims that the Holy Spirit gives him both divine depths and data, and their purified expression in words impactively `taught': to impact His mind, so giving declarative statement (I Corinthians 2:8-13, 14:37).

Nor does he contradict himself when referring to what the Lord Jesus said on earth, or to what may be urged justly in favour of options, when more than one path is permitted (1 Corinthians 7:25, 36 ff.). In the last named case, Paul is specifically presenting an option, allowing wisdom in both sides, stating a personal estimate, and doing so in the constraints of wisdom.

Here in 1 Corinthians 14:37, He makes a claim in terms of utterance and command. He does not qualify this; far less is he acknowledging that he does not know the deep things. On the contrary, he states them in a certain inspiration, such that these deep things are "searched" by the Spirit and revealed to Paul, being given to him in "words which the Holy Spirit teaches" (1 Cor. 2:8-13). With this kind of inspiration, these words, then, he `speaks'; and in referring to the Fall of man, he is referring to a single situation of historical fact (Romans 5:15).

Paul then in 1 Timothy 2 gives such a treatment of an historically presented event in determining a command for the church. That event is one part of the creation statement and what followed, as provided by the book of Genesis.

I. Revelation 4:11 confirms with the same decisively clear Greek term as used by Paul (using this verb of "all things", as again, it is used in I Corinthians 11:9 of man). Revelation here declares that God "created" all things. It adds that it is indeed by His will that they are, on the one hand, and were created, on the other. Existence, subsistence, persistence, consistence: ALL this, for all things, and for anything, is because of Him (Cf. Hebrews 11:3).As Colossians puts it in the very process of declaring the gospel, Christ preceded, created and confers continuance on all things (Colossians 1:15-17).

 

Hebrews expounds it (1:3) that Christ "upholds all things by the word of His power." Thus it is the word of God which creates, confers continuance and sustains by power the existence of all things.

 

J. Indeed, Psalm 139 tells us more detail of man in particular. There is, we find, a volume, what is called a book, an assemblage of suitable, selected, significant symbols in which the eventual parts of a coherent body are 'written' before the actual forms (legs and so on) take shape. It is the Creator who has this book. The Creator has not merely concepts, but codification and integration of everything in ground plan, quite apart from the process of bringing to be, of bringing to life and shape and form and operation, in this life.

All is coded, kept, sustained according to kind; and as kind, it was created. How refreshingly direct, this announcement prior to DNA's discovery; and beyond it. This is clarification. It is also verification.

 

K. We learn from Genesis 2 and I Corinthians 15:20-28, from Romans 5:12-21 with Luke 3 that man, indeed (I Timothy 2:12-15) woman and man in that order, fell into voluntary sin, completely without excuse, though not without aid... We find that this deformation of creation has a remedy in the Creator who voluntarily was disfigured beyond human resemblance (Isaiah 52:12 ff.), as a sacrifice (Isaiah 53:10), in and for justice, bearing the judgment in order to clear it (Isaiah 53:11, Romans 3:26), for those who would trust Him as their Saviour from sin (53:1, John 3:15 ff.). Creation... deformation... what about re-creation ?

L. These (who receive Him) are "born again" (John 3) and indeed recreated (II Corinthians 5:13-17); and they are in their living to "put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him" - (Colossians 3:10). In this way, says Paul (3:11), "Christ is all" .

No one adds to the creation; only is it for Christ. God speaks by His word and creates; and He creates kinds; and none has anything to boast of: for Christ is all. You are, after all, re-newed to the image of Him who created you! indeed, even the Christian's new life, his "new man" is "created according to God, in righteousness and true holiness" - (Ephesians 4:24). You dispense with what you made (Ephesians 4:22); you put it off: you put on the "new man" - and this ? it is created too. The new birth indeed (John 3) is wrought from the Godhead also (3:6). It is in that same image of God man had before the Fall, marvellously confirmed to a now inalienable heritage (Ephesians 1:11, John 14:1-3, Romans 8:28 ff.).

M. The cycle of creation, desecration and re-creation is complete (short of the coming for Christians of the "redemption of the body" - Romans 8:23; the great coming "rest from their labours" - Revelation 14:3; - and the final glory in all its praise and action, when "we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is" - I John 3:2).

 

As to creation, gift, talent, salvation, re-creation, everything is done by God; and the claims of the flesh are despicable as well as deceitful (Ephesians 2:8, Genesis l:l, Romans 4:5, Galatians 3:1-3, II Corinthians 11:3-4). As Eve was deceived by satanic craftiness, says Paul yet again referring to the events of history in Genesis, from yet another aspect, so you need to be careful, not letting "your minds" be "corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ ".

 

Other Christs may be preached (11:4), and different spirit may come (11:4), with a different gospel, declares Paul. Beware of such novelty, such false apostles, he cries (11:13-15). Satan too has ministers; and they are not too scrupulous. They will put a new face on things; re-interpret and take away from the "simplicity" in Christ.

It is the simplicity which seems to the "Greeks foolishness" (I Corinthians 1:23): but it is Christ crucified, "Christ the power of God and Christ the wisdom of God" (1:24): there is the crux. It is not something else, some other creation, some other salvation, some other basis, process or claimant for glory in creation and re-creation! You are warned. Paul had it covered some 1900 years ago. We as a race (but especially the people of the church) have had time to take care and avoid this fault, be alert to this deception. Evolution is merely one format for the misconstruction, misteaching and denial of doctrine to which Paul refers. It brings in a very different Christ, a totally other gospel; and if opposites are held in confusion, then God is not the author of confusion; He is a God of order, and demands acceptance of His word - something instantly applicable to those who are His (cf. John 7:17).

 

N. Let us expand our series of divine creation and grace a little further. This is the kind of thing that God is doing; and by which "Christ is all".

 

The "creation" has thus been "subjected to vanity" (Romans 8:32) as a sin penalty; and this too is the doing of God. (See Romans 8:20, Genesis 3:17-19, and Endnotes for pp. 1164, 1175 infra.) Those however who truly receive Christ (Acts 8:37; Jeremiah 29:13; Luke 14:33,26) as He requires, are to find that "when Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory" (Colossians 3:4). His people shall be "like Him" (I John 3:2) who made them "in His image" at the first. Indeed, meanwhile there is a dynamic conforming to Him (II Corinthians 3:18).

Creation, kind, desecration, imputation (of sin - to Him, of His righteousness to Christians - His is the contribution by grace - II Corinthians 5:18-21), regeneration by His Spirit (John 3:8, Titus 3:5-7), new creation, renewal of divine image, redemption of the body, glory... this is the conferred, donated nature and order of divinely directed events. In this, nothing is created by man; at most he operates in the format conferred, whether physical, mental, spiritual; whether in justification, salvation. He saved us (Titus 3:5-7)... so that having been justified...by His grace... we should become heirs (Galatians 3:29, 4:7).

It is done by Him; it is done by grace, it has been done, whether justification or salvation for the Christian, in terms of being heirs (cf. Ephesians 1:11). Work on the estate does not purchase it, create it: it is an inheritance, a gift by grace (Romans 5:15), a divine justification, acquittal and recall to the lost, in fact to the ungodly (Romans 4:5,5:6), a gift incorporating indeed "the righteousness of God" transferred by faith in Him, according to His word (Romans 3:22), so that it is not of works, lest any man should boast (Ephesians 2:9), but a salvation by grace, through faith, in that exclusive context of compassionate acceptance without limit or cost (Isaiah 55, John 4:14). That is how God devotes people to His inheritance, not making heaven purchasable except by blood and that, of Christ (1 Peter 1:18) so that "Christ is all and in all", as we have seen (Colossians 3:11).

Grace! One is saved, says Paul, by this... we should become heirs (Galatians 3:29, 4:7). "You are no more a servant but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God."Once a son, always a son (1 John 3:9). It is done by Him; it is done by grace; it has been done, whether justification or salvation for the Christian, in terms of being His (cf. Ephesians 1:11). Children do not create their inheritance, nor their birth; and these children, neither do they create their forgiveness (Ephesians 1:7), receiving this freely`according to the riches of His grace' (cf. Romans 3:23, 5:15, 3:24) with express exclusion of any work principle for this gift (Romans 3:28. 5:1, Titus 3:4-7, Romans 3:26-27).

True, misbegotten misnomers, people like soil which stays hard, in which the seed lodges only to die (the seed being the word of God - Matthew 13:18-19 - not the person), people who taste and spit out, these are not in view here. There are spiritual mongoloids; there are Esaus who grow up with what they do not take. Yet without justification, there is only condemnation (Romans 8:33); and with justification, there must be glorification (Romans 8:29). When there is justification, there is conforming to the image of God's Son. There is something we do not create, and to which we conform; and since this is God, and we began in His image, it is our fulfilment. We create within what we are given; but we do not create what we are given.

 

O. This excludes variation as a means of elevation in kind, everywhere; it includes deviation as a means of degeneration. A second divine act of creation in the area of the invisible Spirit, then, has worked on Christians. By this, they are what they are; and their renewed "image" of God - "according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy spirit, whom He poured out abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour" (Titus 3:5) : this new creation (II Corinthians 5:17) proceeds, forgiven, to glory so that Christ is all and in all (Colossians 3:11, Romans 5:9). The re-creation is "renewed in knowledge after the image of Him who created him", and so the "new man", who is "in Christ" is back to the natural, supernaturally crafted format, the one originally constructed: man indeed.

 

These are not mere events; it is all of grace, of gift; even repentance is something "granted" (Acts 11:18 ). By grace you are a having-been-saved person, says Paul (Ephesians 2:8); you are a having-been-justified person as well (Romans 5:1,9, cf. Titus 3:7), and it is a gift as such (Romans 5:15): for a purpose, to prevent boasting (Romans 3:27, Ephesians 2:9-10). Indeed, Paul continues, it is reasonable, for we are His workmanship! (Ephesians 2:10). Reality, reason and redemption, together with the very nature of creation, all constrain and compel; and so it is written.

 

P. Advance in kind, then, is categorically and unconditionally excluded by human effort. Whether it be kind, the first creation, regeneration and glorification, self-directive advance in kind is excluded by our own Source as a species, whether the matter be spiritual or physical. Even salvation, "by grace through faith" as we saw, "is the gift of God, it is not of yourselves" (Ephesians 2:8).

Any concept of an unfinished creation to which species, creatures, contribute either physically or spiritually to make them what they are, is foreign to the word of God. It would also appear a most extraordinary presumption and pride, in view of the infinite understanding of the Almighty, and His creative capacities (Psalm 147:5, 62:11, 115:3).

As Christ emphasises (Matthew 7:16-19) so dramatically, the tree produces fruit - its own fruit. You simply can't get the good fruit from the bad tree. Trees create fruit according to what they are. They don't become what they are because of their fruit!

Works to secure salvation similarly and equally, then are excluded, "Lest any man should boast" (Romans 11:6, 4:4,6, Ephesians 2:9). Indeed, Christ though He was rich, yet He became poor, that we through His poverty might be made rich (II Corinthians 8:9). Where then is the `theistic evolution', to which the South Australian Circular to Principals makes such presumptuous reference, in pursuing its deadly way ?

It is creation pure and simple, wrought by the strong Christ who deliberately engaged in non-survival (resurrection apart - according to the flesh - Acts 2:23, Isaiah 53, Matthew 26:53-54, Philippians 2). This, Christ did so that those unable to be what they should, all men not being what they should be (Romans 3:23, 11:30-31), might be delivered. And this ? it was by the gift of an available provision (I John 2:1-2), specifically purchased for them (Ephesians 1:7,14, Romans 8:23, 1 Peter 1:18-19, 1 John 2:1-2, 1 Peter 2:24, Romans 5:6-9); a gift so vast as to be broad enough for all, though effected for those alone who would receive it.

 

As to His, He chose them (Ephesians 1:4, John 15:16, Romans 9:11); making the gift personal, while forcing none and offering to all (1 Timothy 2:1-3, 1 John 2:1-3). Creation is by the work of God and salvation is by the grace of God. God does both (Genesis 2:1-3, Ephesians 2:5-8, Titus 3:5-8). In mercy He washes, and saved us, we read. Thus having been justified as well as renewed, begotten again by God's own will by the word of God (as was the earlier creation! the first time) as James tells us (1:17-18), we who have faith in Him, are heirs of eternal life (John 6:35,44,51, 1 John 5:4,11-13). We `"have obtained'' an inheritance (Ephesians 1:11).

False trees will not bear the fruit; good ones will: and God makes the trees. He makes the physical trees; and He makes the human parallels. He also makes the point. He creates, they produce. Bogus trees, like sheep in wolves' clothing, are interesting; they do not however alter the principle of creation.

Thus Jesus Christ says:

Truly I tell you, He who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from (a state of) death to (a state of) life .

John 5:24 - the Greek perfect gives the sense as expanded here; but note that upon an event stated occurring, certain future events are excluded in the name of the Lord personally: condemnation is excluded, and so is death. Certain events are with the same certainty (that is, Christ's, than which there is none greater), included: and these are the condition of life, everlasting life. The key? Faith is statedly so; all the rest follows; this precedes. John in 1 John 5 tells believers that he wants them to realise that they have everlasting life; it being a matter of faith. According to your faith... works being irrevocably irrelevant.

Now Hebrews has a particularly lovely message in this theme. First notice that in Colossians 1:14 (cf. Ephesians 1:7) we are told, as Christians (those who are so) that "We have redemption through his blood"; and to this we add 1:22, which advises Christians that they have reconciliation with God through the action of Christ, and this in particular is thus described:

in the body of His flesh through death.

The question must arise: Is a particular person really in this state ? That is a matter of fact. It is known to God whether he/she has faith; but God gives it also to man (Romans 8:16, 1 John 5:13) to know, as a norm and provided bounty. Now it is here that Hebrews shows it all so tellingly. In Hebrews 9:12, we learn that Jesus Christ obtained eternal redemption. It is this which He purchased, as we have seen in Romans 5:9-10, so that if justified, how much more shall we be saved from wrath through His life! It is eternal and not temporary in kind, which He procured, who is eternal Himself.

As Hebrews is at pains to point out, He in effect sums up into Himself all the sacrifices which could ever have been made in terms of repetitive animal performances at the request of or for sinners (Hebrews 9:25 ff., 10:10 ff.), and indeed it is precisely here that the point is verbally summed with the term eternal, in the phrase, eternal redemption. This, we are told, is what He obtained. Now in 9:15, we further learn that those who receive this sacrifice have their transgressions redeemed, paid for, so that:

For this reason He is the mediator of the new covenant,

by means of death,

for the redemption of the transgression under the first covenant,

that those who are called

might receive the promise of eternal inheritance.

It is a promise, not a performance consequence of ours, as always stressed. (See next Section, and Romans 3:28, 4:4-5, 13-16, 25, 5:9-10, 8:32; and notice that all things - Romans 8:32 - are given to the one for whom Christ has been delivered up; He being delivered up for these, and "raised up for their justification", 4:25, this resurrection being also already done, and decidedly... done by Him. Fascinatingly, the promise to Abraham, received by faith, encompassed not only his own whole life as under divine direction, protection and promise, but that of generations to come, in the promised respect; and it all came by the "righteousness of faith" - 4:13, which Christians are told of in terms of this example - Romans 4:11,14-16, and of sharing the same faith. This is its nature, and it does not change.)

It is done by Christ's action, Hebrews is telling us; and His particular action of death. That is what it says, and declares clearly. The result is an eternal inheritance, just as the redemption was an eternal redemption. It is all eternal: All received in fulfilment of promise; All excludes works; All is His securing by death, and it is received by faith.

Thus in Hebrews 10:10 we find that one offering by a person called Jesus Christ - not you or me or any combination of others, or works or anything else for that matter - has sanctified us who are believers. The tenor of this: "Their sins and their iniquities, I will remember no more" (Hebrews 10:14)... but for how long ? 10:14 is equally insistent: "By one offering He has perfected for ever those who are sanctified".

There it is stated that the completion of the salvation through sacrifice in all its beneficial implications is performed by one sacrifice. The point here is firstly that it is His; and secondly, that it has already been done! It is performance oriented, but only to Him; He had to do it, did it, and passes on to the believer the result.

The believer ? Yes that is the medium of exchange. Thus Hebrews 10:22 tells us: Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. (Cf. John 13:10.)

Christians are to be bold, and thereby in faith (Hebrews 10:19,22), not linger at the door, or consider and vacillate, but enter (v. 19) by this living way which is Jesus Christ who has obtained these eternal things, by His own work, and receiving them, do it by faith, so that those things become - which He acquired - ours by benefaction, donation, being delivered to our hearts. This is the nature of the things given; this is the nature of the transfer. The additions are zero, excluded in name, in force and repetitively. Those thus coming by one offering are sanctified for ever. If they don't so come, nothing is achieved at all; if they do, then the achievements are Christ's, and they are eternal, so that: ``By me if any man enter he shall be saved.'' (John 10:9,27-28).

There is nothing new; only the same God who in His one action by His one Son has restored the lost who as new creations (11 Corinthians 5:17) are reconstituted, reinstituted in His sight, and this ? By Him (11 Corinthians 4:6, John 3:3-6), we being no more involved than is a baby in its birth.

Redeemed man, bought back, is "renewed in knowledge after the image of Him who created him" (Colossians 3:10), and "renewed in the spirit of his mind" (Ephesians 4:23). It is the same and only God (Isaiah 45:21 ff.) and the same creation brought back to "true holiness" (Ephesians 4:24).

 

Q. In his gracious creation and re-creation is salvation "by His life" (Romans 5:10). By His death (Colossians 1:14, Ephesians 1:7) He redeems; and having redeemed and justified (Romans 5), He completes for the future all that is implicit in being saved "by His life". Put differently, "I am the door, by Me if anyone enters, he will be saved..." (John 10:9), and "I give to them eternal life... they will never perish," as we see in John 10:28.

Let us now review and extend. This salvation is "apart from works" (Ephesians 2:8, 1:14, Romans 4:5,16, 3:20-21,24,26). Righteousness is imputed apart from works and with it imputed, its recipients are saved by the life of Christ (Romans 5:9-10) and indeed, so reconciled and guaranteed by the one sacrifice which sanctifies for ever, that they rejoice (Romans 5:11), knowing that nothing shall separate them from the love of Christ (Romans 8:31 ff.); the justified are the elect (Romans 8:31-33).

This salvation is something which in kind has been done. Ephesians 2:8 puts it delightfully. By grace you (literally) are in saved condition and state (resulting from previous action). Grammatically, that is the perfect participle in action, so giving this definite force and meaning. Even that is a gift. The `that' in this verse is of a gender (neuter) which shows it refers not particularly to the word `faith', but to the whole operation of being saved by grace through faith.

It is not, this whole thing, of yourselves: it is totally and wholly characterisable as not of yourselves but as being the gift of God. Anything which would limit or subdue this in any way would constitute a flat contradiction. Specifically, then, this whole operation is not of works, the apostle goes on to tell us in the next verse. That would have had the obvious difficulty (Jeremiah 9:23 covers it beautifully) of proud, arrogant Pharisees telling tales, as it were, in heaven of ``how I did it''. All this is abhorrent to God, who is a Spirit and desires those who worship Him to do so in spirit and in truth. How often does He challenge the proud, defiant or delinquent citizens of a rebellious Israel to let their own works save them ... if they can!

In Job, before that time, the Lord rebuked Job, pointing out the magnitude of wonder in creation, and making it clear that He, God, alone would deal with problems of sin and salvation. If, He said, you can do this and that marvellous thing - such as ``Look upon every one who is proud and bring him low'' (Job 40:12): if all this you could do, then:

Then will I also confess to you that your own right hand can save you.

In Isaiah 24-25, amid world-wide judgments to come, we find this song of recognition and realisation, when realities at last show to the slow and subversive, that only God can save the life of man, and man's own contributions at the level of his soul, are marred by that soul:

"He will swallow up death in victory ... and it will be said in that day, lo, this is our God, we have waited for Him, and He will save us; this is the Lord; we have waited for Him, we will be glad and rejoice in His salvation," ( Isaiah 25:8 ).

"Besides Me, there is no saviour,'' God declares in Isaiah 43:11: and again,

"Surely shall one say, in the Lord have I righteousness and strength; even to Him shall men come ... in the Lord shall all the seed of Israel be justified, and shall glory," (Isaiah 45:24-25). Further, Isaiah declares:

"Listen to me, you stubborn-hearted, who are far from righteousness: I bring my righteousness near, it shall not be far off; My salvation shall not linger, and I will place salvation in Zion for Israel My glory," (Isaiah 46:12-13). To this Jeremiah adds (23:6):

"In his days, Judah will be saved ... and this is His name by which He shall be called: the Lord our righteousness," resounding with Isaiah 44:5:

"One will say, `I am the Lord's'; another will call himself by the name of Jacob; another will write with his hand, 'the Lord's' ..."

Or should men add a little here and there, to trust in this or that as well, in the pilgrimage to glory: Jeremiah puts it -

"Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches; but let him who glories, glory in this that he understands and knows Me, that I am the Lord who exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth; for in these things do I delight, says the Lord," (Jeremiah 9:23-24).

And even Abraham, what of him ?

"For if Abraham were justified by works, he has something in which to glory; but not before God, " (Romans 4:3).

His faith was justified, as was his use of it; but as for himself, he had nothing with which to glory before God. He himself personally was justified as was anyone else. God's justification of the man comes like this:

"Now to him who works is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. But to him who does not work, but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness," (Romans 4:4-5).

(For extension work, the reader is advised to check pp. 520-531, and Chapter 10, pp. 1042 ff...)

This is the way the Lord perennially works with sinful man; and this is what He says. We return then to the odious case of a potential Pharisee congratulating himself in heaven on `How I did it, and got in here!' Nothing of value comes from survival at all costs; and what God wants demands that we die daily, take our crosses and follow Him. This is emphatically not survival medicine! It is the exact opposite; being life by dying, in the presence of Christ who dies, so that we might live by Him, who is like that! Christ, then, did not survive at all costs; instead, He set His face like a flint in order not to survive in order to save; and He is the example for the Christian, whose place we are examining in the light of the Bible. Christ then is also our creator, the Bible clearly teaches, and that is His nature. That is how He operates in character, and His character does not change (Malachi 3:6. Hebrews 13:8).

Titus 2:14 puts it: "He gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works." He does the redeeming, the saving, the washing, the justifying (3:3-5); and it is done. We operate in terms of what is provided, acting as such constructions should, in character:

Not of works, lest any man should boast; for we are His workmanship (Ephesians 2:9:-10).

A reason, says Paul, that this creation, this salvation which has been gained is without works is that we are His workmanship, ourselves, `Created' in Jesus Christ, `for good works.' We are created; the result is good works. That is quite explicit. Consequences come from both the first creation and the new creation. However the consequences do not create the creation, as we have seen, and as Christ so severely expounds (Matthew 7:16-20).

These are the terms in which we are to begin as a new creation, and, as Paul so severely reminded the Galatians, they are the terms by nature, so that it is in just those terms that we are to continue. You recall ?

"O foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you, 
that you should not obey the truth, 
before whose eyes
Jesus Christ has been evidently set forth,
crucified among you ? ... 
are you so foolish ?
having begun in the Spirit, 
are you now made perfect by
the flesh ?" (Galatians 3:1,3).

For the Christian: Thus we begin, thus we live, thus we stand, and thus we continue. There is no mutation in method; you continue on the initial basis, as the apostle Paul thunders. You start, continue and end this way (Galatians 2:2-13). Christ crucified once is the whole focus for works to enable salvation - so why look to works now as having been saved! Christ has redeemed us (3:10-13), he declares, from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us.

It is focussed and performed and completed by this Christ, in whom to have faith is to receive the promise (3:22) and be justified (3:8). It is a matter of the Spirit (3:14) and the inheritance (3:26-29) by faith. Thus it was; thus it is; thus it continues. God forbid that I should glory, says Paul, except in the cross of Christ (Galatians 6:14). This begins, is the middle and the end of the donation, its means, its matrix and its method. The gift and the justification are both received by faith (Galatians 3:2-13, 4:6-7, 5:2,16-17,18-21, 11 Corinthians 1:9-10, Romans 4:4-5,16, 5:1,10,19,21, 10:3-4, 1 Peter 1:3-5).

We might pause a moment to reflect that the attempt to mutate the Gospel was predicted by Paul, and condemned by him utterly - a further verification, since there is another gospel, borne of fables which some in some churches allow to dictate to them, contrary to scripture. In 11 Corinthians 11:1-10, 11 Timothy 3:1-5 and Galatians 1:6-10, with Acts 20:29 ff., cf. 11 Peter 2, we see abundant evidence of this.

But mutation is not the way of God; rather creation. The way Abraham was saved was the way we are; except that (Hebrews 10), the procedures are now completed, the sense of sin having been sharpened by the law of Moses (Romans 4; Galations 3:24-25, Romans 7:13).

 

To pursue the parallel: we having been justified (Titus 3:3-7, Romans 5:1,9-10) and saved (Titus 3:5), "shall be saved from the wrath of God", and are assured of glorification (Romans 8:29,17)... we ? Christians. This is done in an entire operation which is a gracious gift, excluded from possession in terms relating to our performance (Ephesians 2:8-10). Indeed, we are, being justified, "saved by His life" (Romans 5:10), which, being His, is also donation, conferment, a work of His grace. Very simply, Jesus tells us (John 10:9) that if we enter the door which is Himself, then we shall be saved, amid many activities in and out, with Him as Shepherd; and as His sheep, we shall never perish. Entry by this door designates the ones who are certainly saved; and these He designates as certainly never perishing (John 10:27-28).

We do nothing, simply nothing to make ourselves sheep of His, except that we enter, and even that is a work of His grace, not of our works. The cross is never derogatedor mixed (Galatians 6:14, 16): Christians are the recipients of their salvation as a kind, and of their creation, new and old, as a kind. That is the way God did it, does it, and He declines absolutely to alter (Galatians 1:6-9).

What we do in both, being on the one hand created, and on the other hand saved, is a wholly different matter. But this is not our topic; performance of the created and of the re-created is of great interest and value. Yet scripture puts a gulf between the donation of the things and performance as an operation ; and our concern here is with the creative operation of God (John 3:3-6, 4:10, 6:29, Romans 6:23, 11 Corinthians 9:15, James 1:17).

It excludes in morality, creativity, sovereignty and spirituality ("boasting"), our fitness for survival or arrival; it donates mission to the re-created. The same unchanging God (Malachi 3:6, James 1:17, Psalm 90), brings sinners to salvation, as to kind; and, by His own unchanging life, having restored them in kind, He enables them to live in His life, which is in image-bearing relationship, made available to man:

"Because I live, you will live also," 
(John 14:19, cf. 14:6, II Corinthians 4:10).

 

R. What then of the "flesh" ? of creatures fallen from God's image, not in Christ? God alone creates, recreates, regenerates, justifies, sustains, maintains, guarantees salvation to anyone who should drink from, receive Christ once by faith (John 4:14): and He effects the guarantee by His life. It is effected by His being alive, by being resurrected and in charge (Romans 5:10), saving the Christian from wrath (5:9) as a certain consequence of justification (Romans 8:30). He confers the category and honours it.

 

The "flesh" (Galatians 3:3) is irrelevant to the completion of salvation. Its "contributions" are not creative or constructive or progressive... (Galatians 5:20-21), in fact, producing no good thing (cf. Romans 7:18).

 

That is not the way God works with sinners (Romans 3:23), has worked or accepts. The litany of condemned acts of the "flesh", in those verses in Galatians 5, sounds like the moral back-drop to Darwinism. They do apply to damnation and to contradiction of God; they do have His unremitting hatred, and this has, as we have indicated, been His approach to all such morality and trust in the flesh, over a massive history with fallen man.

In addition to direct statement in the Bible, therefore, it is manifest that God did not create directly or indirectly by these means.

You can in fact, if you follow evidence as you first follow the Bible, directly and then in implication, find only that God created in the way He said. This merely fortifies and extends the sphere of perception of that fact. It is, in the beginning, written; and the term `creation' used in the New Testament simply fortifies further, if it were possible, the direct declaration from the first. (Cf. pp. 251-252G; 114 ff., 199-203, 234-235 supra.)

He created then, in kinds. That of course is precisely the after-the-event testimony of the facts of molecular biology with its chemical code with linguistic parallel, dictating what must happen in the cell.

What we do not find in the flesh spiritually, is what we do not find physically: evidence that it writes its own program to create any good thing. Rather it defiles.

The Christian salvation continues its character as at the beginning, so to the end (Galatians 3:3 and as before): it does not alter its kind. Man's creation is the same. It may be hurt as generations pass; but it does not alter its kind. Man's creation is by Christ with the "book" of His code; the Christian, re-created is so by Christ (I John 3:9 ... *4), by His "seed", as also by the word of God (I Peter 1:23). Thus Christ "is all and in all" to those who are His (Col. 3:11). The "Word" (John 1:1) has said it all (Genesis 1, 2; John 1:12-14).

 

Endnotes

*1. The singular, sovereign, staccato dispersal of power, in creation matching the overpowering wonder of the Creator, is what is recorded, and as shown in these passages and similar ones, "DAY" does not mean DAZE, but is repetitively specified after light comes, evening and morning, with a literal force verging on the science note book kind of fact-event notation; "KIND" is the event-controlled outcome to continue, and historic reality is the scene to which this scenario imposingly comes. (Cf. A Spiritual Potpourri Ch.9. See also on time, TMR Ch. 7, Section E. )

A measure of poetry, it may indeed contain; but poetry designed, as in great music, to hallow the event; nor is it poetical in any pre-emptive sense, it being rather the magnitude of the events, in parallel with the simplicity of the style, which evokes a sense of the poetic. In fact, the language has a certain precision and economy of style, like that of a King to his commanders.

That these are the "generations" of heaven and earth, the originative activities, the accounts, records and

reports of the way from
who was and what was,
to
what is,

is made even clearer by the DECLARATION in Genesis 2:1-4 to that EXACT effect.

"Thus" it was done, thus "finished", "all the host of them", "in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens." "Generations" is likewise the term which continues to be used, of other historically specific events, such as descendants from parents. As in Luke 3, the genealogical accounts proceed from the historic to the historic, and in Luke's case, from Adam to Jesus Christ. What the Bible means is not in the least doubt; and the reader is referred to SMR for more detail...(Cf. SMR pp. 169-179, and 2^nd Edition, pp. S1-S34, 422E ff..)

*2. When that happened, we cannot precisely deduce as genealogies, depending on purpose, may omit generations in overview (cf. Genesis 46:12-15, II Kings 9:14 with 20, Ezra 7:1-5 with I Chronicles 6:7-11, Genesis 5:32), or birth dating, or focus on major representatives and concerning day 1, though there is little latitude, there is no room for precisionism (cf. SMR pp. 175ff.).

*3. Divine spiritual vitality is independent of visible process: God made time and matter. Material process to create matter is simple contradiction in terms. See p. 643 infra.

*4. By profound parallel, this 'seed' too remains within (I John 3:9), no less ineradicable than the family genes with which one is born; it "remains in" the one so born. God speaks, it is done, the world is created, as a masterful author might create a book. Again, Christ speaks and a soul is re-created: it is done -

"For God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, has shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ" - (II Corinthians 4:6).

FOR THE BIBLICAL DEFINITION OF ITS OWN AUTHORITY,
see SMR Appendix D.

For demonstration that it is the very word of the living God,
see SMR, TMR and other works on this site.