Date post: | 13-May-2015 |
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I BELIEVE in God the Father Almighty, Maker
of heaven and earth: And in Jesus Christ his only
Son, our Lord; who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried; he descended into hell; the third day he rose
again from the dead; he ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the
right hand of God the Father Almighty; from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead. I believe in the Holy Ghost; the holy
catholic church; the communion of saints; the forgiveness of sins;
the resurrection of the body; and the life everlasting. Amen
The Creed
I BELIEVE in CREATION
I BELIEVE in God the Father Almighty, Maker
of heaven and earth: And in Jesus Christ his only
Son, our Lord; who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried; he descended into hell; the third day he rose
again from the dead; he ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the
right hand of God the Father Almighty; from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead. I believe in the Holy Ghost; the holy
catholic church; the communion of saints; the forgiveness of sins;
the resurrection of the body; and the life everlasting. Amen
The Creed – I Believe in Creation
" In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”
- Genesis 1:1
“Astronomy leads us to a unique event, a universe which was created out of nothing, one
with the very delicate balance needed to provide exactly the conditions required to permit life, and
one which has an underlying (one might say ‘supernatural’) plan.”
- Arno Penzias, Physicist, Nobel laureate
The Creed – I Believe in Creation
“Out of nothing didst Thou create heaven and earth – a great thing and a small – because Thou are Almighty and Good, to make all things good, even the great heaven and the small earth. Thou
wast, and there was nought else from which Thou didst create heaven and earth.”
- Augustine, Confessions
The Creed – I Believe in Creation
The Creed – I Believe in Creation
“An atheist before Darwin could have said, following Hume: "I have no explanation for complex biological design. All I know is that
God isn't a good explanation, so we must wait and hope that somebody comes up with a better one." I can't help feeling that such a
position, though logically sound, would have left one feeling pretty unsatisfied, and that although atheism might have been logically
tenable before Darwin, Darwin made it possible to be an intellectually fulfilled
atheist.” - Richard Dawkins, The Blind Watchmaker
What about Evolution?
Question: Does evolution answer the question of existence?
The Creed – I Believe in Creation
“It seems to me that Richard Dawkins constantly overlooks the fact that Darwin himself, in the fourteenth chapter of The
Origin of Species, pointed out that his whole argument began with a being which already
possessed reproductive powers. This is the creature the evolution of which a truly
comprehensive theory of evolution must give some account. Darwin himself was well aware that he had not produced such an account. It
now seems to me that the findings of more than fifty years of DNA research have
provided materials for a new and enormously powerful argument to design.”
- Anthony Flew, philosopher and former atheist
What about Evolution?
Key Question…
“How did God create all that we know?”
The Creed – I Believe in Creation
The Creed – I Believe in Creation
The Creed – I Believe in Creation
Three Possible Creation Scenarios
1. Ex Materia 2. Ex Deo 3. Ex Nihilo
Christianity teaches an Ex Nihilo creation
The Creed – I Believe in Creation
Plato taught that matter was eternal and in his work Timaeus , he gives posits the Demiurgos (although there is some foreshadowing of this being in previous works) who is the world former of the Good that Plato writes about in his work the Republic. The Demiurgos works in an ex materia way. He is also a producing cause and not a purposing cause. Finally, the Good is not a personal God of any kind to be worshipped nor is it a creator. Plato is the only Greek philosopher to believe time had a beginning.
Ex Materia – Out of Existing Matter
Key Points: Matter is eternal; creation=formation; Demiurgos is a former not producer; God is not sovereign over everything.
The Creed – I Believe in Creation
Aristotle posited the one he called “The unmoved mover”. To Aristotle, the universe is eternal and the unmoved mover or “First Cause” was Pure Form or Actuality and not infinite. Like Plato’s Good, it was also not a being to be worshipped, but unlike Plato’s Demiurge, the First Cause is a final and purposing cause, but still should not be equated to the same efficient/producing cause of Christianity that brought the universe into being out of nothing since Aristotle held to an eternal universe.
Ex Materia – Out of Existing Matter
The Creed – I Believe in Creation
Plotinus’ cosmogony is that God is ‘one’ that created the world ex deo, that is, out of himself. This act is a process of emanation, where the One unfolds itself as a seed unfolds into a flower. His attempt to explain unity and diversity: • Many beings exist • All multiplicity is based on prior unity • There must be an absolute unity that is the basis
of all multiplicity • This absolute unity cannot be a being as it is the
source of all being and being involves multiplicity • This One absolute unity must necessarily unfold
itself to produce self-consciousness, called Intellect
• As the One unfolds itself outwardly, it produces the World Soul, or the “many”
Ex Deo – Out of God
The Creed – I Believe in Creation
Comparing Greek and Biblical Views
One B
eing
Biblical Ex Nihilo
Plotinus Ex Deo
Plato Ex Materia
Aristotle Ex Materia S
eparate Beings
Initiator Father One Good Universe
Creates by Son Intellect Demiurge Unmoved Mover
Gives Life Spirit Soul World Soul Soul
Remember that the Greek thinkers arrived at their conclusions via General Revelation alone.
The Creed – I Believe in God
" In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of
the waters.“ (Genesis 1:1-2)
Biblical Creation
Herbert Spencer was an evolutionist/scientist who said all reality is made up of 5 components: Time, Force, Action, Space, Matter
“In the beginning, God created the Heavens and the earth.”
Time Force Action Space Matter
The Creed – I Believe in Creation
God is to creation like a painter is to their painting, or a sculptor is to their sculpture… He
created the world and manifests Himself in it. The universe and world are not “of” God
(pantheism) but distinct from Him.
Correct Way to Think about Creation
Creator Creation
Uncreated Created
Infinite Finite
Eternal Temporal
Necessary Contingent
Changeless Changing
The Creed – I Believe in Creation
Apologetic Proofs for Creation
• Everything that begins to exist must have a cause • The universe began to exist • Therefore, the universe had a cause
Kalam Cosmological Argument – Originating Cause
“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” - Genesis 1:1
The Creed – I Believe in Creation
Apologetic Proofs for Creation
• Everything in the universe is dependent (contingent) • If every part of the universe is dependent, then so is the
whole • Therefore, the universe is dependent right now on some
independent / Necessary Being for its present existence
Vertical Cosmological Argument – Sustaining Cause
"He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together." Colossians 1:17 "And He ... upholds all things by the word of His power..." Hebrews 1:2-3
The Creed – I Believe in Creation
Apologetic Proofs for Creation
• Behind every complex design is a designer • The universe has a complex design • Therefore, the universe has a designer
Teleological Argument – Argument from Design
“Biologists must constantly keep in mind that what they see was not designed, but rather evolved.”
– Francis Crick, co-discoverer of DNA
The Creed – I Believe in Creation
Apologetic Proofs for Creation
Teleological Argument – Argument from Design
“...as I became exposed to the law and order of the universe, I was literally humbled by its unerring perfection. I became convinced that there must be a divine intent behind it all... My experiences with science led me to God. They challenge science to prove the existence of God. But must we really light a candle to see
the sun?” (Dr. Wernher von Braun, the father of rocket science)
1. Anthropic Principle 2. Irreducible Complexity 3. Specified Complexity
The Creed – I Believe in Creation
Apologetic Proofs for Creation
Teleological Argument – Anthropic Principle • Oxygen currently makes up 21 percent of the atmosphere. Were it 25
percent, fires would erupt everywhere and if it were 15 percent, humans would suffocate.
• If gravity was altered by 0.00000000000000000000000000000000000000001 percent, the sun would not exist and the moon would crash into earth. Further, if the centrifugal force of planetary movements did not precisely balance the gravitational forces, nothing could be held in orbit around the sun.
• If the universe was expanding at a rate one millionth more slowly than it is, the temperature on earth would be 10,000 degrees.
• If Jupiter was not exactly where it is, earth would be bombarded by space material that would threaten life on the planet.
The Creed – I Believe in Creation
“Now some people have tried to avoid this conclusion by saying that we shouldn’t be surprised at the incredible fine-tuning of the universe because if
the universe were not fine-tuned, then we wouldn’t be here to be surprised about it. Given that we are here, we should expect the universe to be fine-tuned. But the fallacy of this reasoning can be made clear by means of an
illustration. Suppose you’re traveling abroad and are arrested on a trumped up drug charge and dragged before a firing squad of 100 trained marksmen to
be executed. The command is given: 'Ready. Aim. Fire!' You hear the deafening roar of the guns. And you discover that you are still alive, that all
the 100 trained marksmen missed! Now what do you conclude? 'I really shouldn’t be surprised at the improbability of them all missing because if they hadn’t missed, then I wouldn’t be here. Since I am here, I should, expect them
all to miss.' Of course not! You would rightly conclude that they all missed on purpose, that the whole thing was set up, for some reason, by someone. In
exactly the same way, given the incomprehensibly improbable fine-tuning of the universe for intelligent life, it is rational to conclude that this is not the result of
chance, but design.” - William Lane Craig
The Creed – I Believe in Creation
Apologetic Proofs for Creation
Teleological Argument – Irreducible Complexity
Charles Darwin admitted that, “If it could be demonstrated that any complex organ existed, which could not possibly have been formed by numerous, successive, slight modifications, my theory would absolutely break down.” Scientists now know that many
such entities exist. In Darwin’s time, scientists could not see into what biochemist Dr. Michael Behe calls “Darwin’s black box”,
which is the cell. Darwin thought the cell to be a simple structure, however time and scientific advances have proven him wrong.
Instead, there is advanced complexity all the way down.
The Creed – I Believe in Creation
Apologetic Proofs for Creation
Teleological Argument – Specified Complexity
Darwinist Richard Dawkins admits that the message found in just the cell nucleus of an amoeba is more than all thirty volumes of the Encyclopedia Britannica, with the entire amoeba itself
having as much information in its DNA as 1,000 complete sets of the Encyclopedia Britannica. The important thing to
understand is that the makeup of these entities is not random, but instead the information is highly organized.
“It is important to understand that we are not reasoning by analogy. The sequence hypothesis applies directly to the protein and the genetic text as well as to written language and therefore the treatment is mathematically identical.”
- Herbert P. Yockey, Biologist
The Creed – I Believe in Creation
“Incidentally, is it not to be wondered at that our archaeologist immediately infers intelligent origin when faced with a few simple
scratches whereas some scientists, when faced with the 3.5 billion letter sequence of the human genome, inform us that it is to be
explained solely in terms of chance and necessity?” -John Lennox, PhD, Mathematics, Philosophy
“If science is based on experience, then science tells us that the
message encoded in DNA must have originated from an intelligent source. What kind of intelligent agent was it? On its
own, science cannot answer this question; it must leave it to religion and philosophy. But that should not prevent science from acknowledging evidences for an intelligent cause origin
wherever they may exist.” - Dean Kenyon, Biophysicist
The Creed – I Believe in God
The Power of General Revelation
“But the basic reality of God is plain enough. Open your eyes and there it is! ” – Romans 1:19, The Message
The Creed – I Believe in Creation
Seven Orthodox Views of Creation
I. Young Earth – Earth is thousands of years old. 1. Standard Six-Day Creation 2. Ideal-Time
II. Old Earth – Earth could be millions/billions of years old. 1. Long ‘Days’ 2. Revelatory-Days 3. Day-Age 4. Literary Framework 5. Gap /Ruin-ReconstructionView
The Creed – I Believe in Creation
Young/Old Earth Agreements /Disagreements
I. Agreements 1. Direct supernatural creation of all forms of life 2. Opposition to Naturalism (no supernatural cause) 3. Opposition to Macroevolution 4. Historicity of Genesis account
II. Disagreements 1. Age of the earth 2. Literal days/allegorical days view of Genesis account
Age of the earth should not be a test for orthodoxy
The Creed – I Believe in Creation
Days of Creation
29
FORM FULLNESS Day One Day Four
Day Two Day Five
Day Three Day Six
1:3-5 • Speak light into existence • Separate light/dark • Ordered Time
1:14-19 • Speak Lights into the Expanse to • Separate/Rule Day/Night for Signs, for seasons, for Days/Years light/dark
1:6-8 • Speak to Separate Waters • Order: Waters below Expanse Waters above
1:20-23 • Speak Waters to Team with Fish • Separate Birds to Fly in Expanse • Bless
1:9-13 • Speak to Separate Waters Below so Dry Land Appears • Name: Earth/Sea • Speak Earth to Sprout Plants
1:24-31 • Speak Earth to Bring Forth Living
Creation in Kind • Let Us Make Man in Our Image • Let Them Rule • Bless • Divide Plants
The Creed – I Believe in Creation
Scripture Refutes Macroevolution
“Then God said, “Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees on the earth bearing fruit after their kind with seed in them”; and it was so. The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed after their kind, and trees bearing fruit with seed in them, after their kind; and God saw
that it was good … God created the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarmed after their kind, and every winged bird after its kind; and God saw that it was good … Then God said,
“Let the earth bring forth living creatures after their kind: cattle and creeping things and beasts of the earth after their kind”; and it was so. God made the
beasts of the earth after their kind, and the cattle after their kind, and everything that creeps on the ground after its kind; and God saw that it was
good.” - Genesis 1:11-12, 21, 24-25
The Creed – I Believe in Creation
Scripture Refutes Macroevolution
“All flesh is not the same flesh, but there is one flesh of men,
and another flesh of beasts, and another flesh of birds, and
another of fish.” (1 Corinthians 15:39)
The Creed – I Believe in Creation
Scriptures Speaking to Creation
“You alone are the Lord. You have made the heavens, The heaven of heavens with all their host, The earth and all that is on
it, The seas and all that is in them. You give life to all of them And the heavenly host bows down before You.”
(Nehemiah 9:6)
“The heavens are telling of the glory of God; And their expanse is declaring the work of His hands. Day to day pours forth speech, And night to night reveals knowledge. There is no
speech, nor are there words; Their voice is not heard.” (Psalm 19:1-3)
The Creed – I Believe in Creation
Scriptures Speaking to Creation "By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, And by the
breath of His mouth all their host.“ (Psalm 33:6)
“It is I who made the earth, and created man upon it. I stretched out the heavens with My hands And I ordained all their host.”
(Isaiah 45:12)
“Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, and the one who formed you from the womb, “I, the Lord, am the maker of all things,
Stretching out the heavens by Myself And spreading out the earth all alone,” (Isaiah 44:24)
The Creed – I Believe in Creation
Christ as Instrumental Cause
“ In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being … He was in the world,
and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him.”
(John 1:1-3, 10)
“yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom are all things and we exist for Him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, by
whom are all things, and we exist through Him.” (1 Corinthians 8:6)
The Creed – I Believe in Creation
Christ as Instrumental Cause
“For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been created through Him and for
Him.” (Colossians 1:16)
“God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to
us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world.”
(Hebrews 1:1-2)
The Creed – I Believe in Creation
The Brilliance of Christ in Creation
John Polkinghorne, British particle physicist and professor at Cambridge, noted that the
expansion and contraction rates were so precise in the nanoseconds of the Big Bang, that it would be
like taking aim at a one-inch square 20 billion light years away and hitting
it bull’s eye on the first try. “Gentlemen”, said Polkinhorne,
“there is no free lunch.”
Why a Right View of Creation Matters
1. Creation has a bearing on how one views the Creator
Only God as described in the Bible is uncreated, infinite, eternal, necessary, and changeless. A cosmogony position that holds to anything else will be flawed in literally every direction in
which it expands
“The history of mankind will probably show that no people has ever risen above its religion, and man’s spiritual history will positively demonstrate that
no religion has ever been greater than its idea of God.” – A. W. Tozer
The Creed – I Believe in Creation
Why a Right View of Creation Matters
2. A Good Apologetic Demands a Right View of Origins
Every philosophical system and worldview must pass through the same series of questions to determine where they stand in regard
to reality:
1. Where did all of ‘this’ come from and how did it come? 2. What has gone wrong with the world? 3. How will the world be set right from the state it is currently
in?
The Creed – I Believe in Creation
The Creed – I Believe in Creation
Why a Right View of Creation Matters
“Take away the first three chapters of Genesis, and you
cannot maintain a true Christian position nor give
Christianity’s answers” – Francis Schaeffer
The God Who is There
Why a Right View of Creation Matters
3. A Correct view of Ourselves Demands a Right View of Origins
“You and me baby me ain't nothin' but mammals So let's do it like they do on the Discovery Channel”
- Blood Hound Gang
The Creed – I Believe in Creation
The Creed – I Believe in Creation
Why a Right View of Creation Matters
In Mary Shelly’s (who was not a Christian) book Frankenstein, Dr. Frankenstein is a doctor who creates a perfectly benign and peaceful being. The more the creation observes human behavior, the more it begins to mimic human behavior and starts to become
evil. The creation confronts the doctor and tells him that when he was brought into this world, he didn’t understand why people
needed government and controls and police, but as he observed people and read history, he turned away in horror at what man was
capable of. People could be kind, but also evil. Why both – where does that capacity come from? The creation concludes
this: you were created in the image of a perfect being, and you’ve fallen away from it.
The Creed – I Believe in Creation
"By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that
what is seen was not made out of things which are visible."(Hebrews 11:3)
The Creed – I Believe in Creation
“For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him
be the glory forever. Amen.” (Romans 11:36)
Originating Cause Sustaining Cause
Final Cause
I BELIEVE in God the Father Almighty, Maker
of heaven and earth: And in Jesus Christ his only
Son, our Lord; who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried; he descended into hell; the third day he rose
again from the dead; he ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the
right hand of God the Father Almighty; from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead. I believe in the Holy Ghost; the holy
catholic church; the communion of saints; the forgiveness of sins;
the resurrection of the body; and the life everlasting. Amen
The Creed
I BELIEVE in CREATION