Sept. 2, 2007
Background Scripture: Genesis 1:1-25
Devotional Reading: Psalms 8

In the 17th century A.D., Dr. John Lightfoot of Cambridge determined that: “Man was created by the Trinity on the 23rd of October, 4004 B.C., at nine o’clock in the morning.”
In 1857, Philip Henry Gosse tried to explain fossils of long-extinct animals predating 4004 B.C., saying that when God created Adam and Eve, He also created fossils of extinct animals at the same time. (It seems to me a lot of unnecessary work to keep alive one human take on Creation.)

Recently, someone wanted to know if I believed in Intelligent Design. My answer was an unequivocal “yes” – and “no.” Yes, I believe the world was super-intelligently designed and created by God, but no, I do not count myself as an advocate of Intelligent Design because, as I understand it, the ID movement denies the validity of evolution.

Without accepting every word Darwin wrote, I believe that evolution is part of God’s intelligent design.

I do not think that Christian discipleship is founded either for or against the concept of evolution. It doesn’t matter to me if other Christians believe or disbelieve it. Neither does it matter to me if Christian brothers and sisters regard Genesis as a historical, scientific report of a Creation spread over six 24-hour days.

What does matter to me is when we permit our limited human mentalities to split us up into warring camps. The proud assumption of doctrinal and theological superiority is one of Satan’s most diabolical weapons.

A cheap substitute

Regarding Genesis as a literal account of Creation makes it something it was not intended to be – a scientific, historical textbook. What we then have is what Calvin called an idol, a deity who is not really God but only a cheap substitute for the real thing.

The “real thing” in Genesis is the Why rather than the How. Being inquisitive human beings, we, like Job, want to know how God did it. But the Creator of the Universe wants to focus us on why He did it and what that means for our understanding of why we are here and what He expects of us.

For one thing, God wants us to know that His creation is good (Gen. 1:4,10,12,18,21,25). After each act of creation, God saw that it was “good” and, in 1:31, “very good.” Why is this important? Because many of us habitually speak of this world as “a veil of tears,” “a place of torment,” “a Hell on earth” and so forth.

Granted, we – His children – seem to do all we can to adulterate God’s creation, but the creation itself, including humanity, God designed as “good.”

Secondly, God intended human beings to be stewards of His creation. It does not belong to us; none of us have a permanent title to anything. We are to manage it in a fruitful, creative manner. This is not an invitation to exploit this creation.

Christian conservation

In the early 20th century, the state of Pennsylvania had a governor who was an ardent conservationist (today we’d call him an ecologist). President Theodore Roosevelt appointed him Secretary of the Interior and the Republican Party became known as the party of conservation.

Today, however, it assumed that the conservation of our ecology is a theme of the Democratic Party. For Christians, it should be a spiritual priority, not political, and it doesn’t matter whether you call it conservation or ecology: It is all Christian stewardship.

Genesis 1:2 tells us that God’s creation was an act of bringing order out of chaos. So, creation is not just ancient history, but current and future as well. The whole course of creation has been a continuing act of bringing order out of chaos.

That is God’s work, but as His children, it is also our work with Him. At the very least, let us not turn order into chaos.

I cannot possibly entertain the popular explanation that creation was a purposeless and chance accident.

Some scientists today speak of the “anthropic principle,” the conviction that in the process of creation, Earth seems to have been finely-tuned to produce human life. Minute variations in the power of gravity or the weight of neutrons, or any number of other imbalances, would have sentenced the Earth to exist without life.
The intelligent design by which the earth was created was one of divine will and purpose: The miracle of life.

This farm news was published in the Aug. 29, 2007 issue of Farm World, serving Indiana, Ohio, Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan and Tennessee.