Therefore
God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts,
to dishonor their bodies among themselves, who exchanged the truth of
God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather
than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. (Romans 01:24-25,
NKJV).
It is interesting that
Paul uses a definite article to refer to a singular falsehood that
humankind has exchanged for the truth of God. Whatever outward form
of that lie was prevalent 2000 years ago, I believe its essential
nature has been the same since shortly after the Fall of Man. It's
this: God is not the Sovereign Ruler and Author of Life and Creation.
Today
that falsehood is encapsulated in the Theory of Evolution and it has
powerful deceptive properties and ramifications. For me, it was the
single most significant obstacle to my becoming a believer.
Evolution, along with its corollary of Long Ages directly opposed the
plain truth of Scripture, especially the foundational book of
Genesis.
Do
not think that Evolution was invented by Darwin. The first recorded
instance of it was by the ancient Greeks centuries before the birth
of Christ, and the bedrock of its appeal then and now is Materialism,
and Naturalism. Its seductive delusion is that nothing exists that is
not material (meaning there is no spiritual realm and therefore no
life after death), and the only things that can exist come
from Nature (and thus nothing Supernatural – like Deity – is
allowed in the picture).
I
have discovered in life that these two basic premises, Materialism
and Naturalism, actually underpin the unspoken philosophy of many who
consider themselves religious. By this I mean that many people who
claim to believe in God, hold a kind of unexamined belief, based on
their own imaginations and largely materialistic upbringings, that
conceives of God as having invented the Universe and then having
mostly sat back and let things unwind.
This
is Deistic thinking at heart, along the lines of Ben Franklin and
Thomas Jefferson, with a token mixture thrown in of conditional
Supernatural favoritism bestowed by “the man upstairs” upon those
He favors. This is not Christianity, and for most purposes of living,
is not very far removed from purely Naturalistic Evolution.
And
the pervasive Lie, is the same: God is not the God revealed in the
Bible, who is the Creator, Judge and Sovereign Ruler over all that
is.
Today,
most professional scientists are atheistic Evolutionists. It is a
virtual prerequisite. And the vast majority of College graduates are,
as well. This is in large part due to the fact that The Lie of
Evolution is the only thing allowed to be taught in government
schools.
Make
no mistake, Evolution, with its insistence on Long Ages and Survival
of the Fittest, is a philosophy that enables unspeakable evil. It
views Life, including human life made in the image of God, as an
accident of chance over time, and thus no different in value from any
other life.
It
facilitates genocide and ethnic cleansing, and what the Nazi's termed
“Life Not Worthy of Life”. It makes abortion not only acceptable,
but despairingly logical. It gives permission for any and all human
behavior because it removes God's transcendent authority completely
from all moral equations.
Evolution
is a brilliant and effective scheme of the enemy, and plays right
into mankind's inherent rebellious hatred of God, and self-justifying
pride.
I
have heard the following said by “highly educated” men. “The
problem with the world is all these religions and all the violence
associated with people trying to impose their religious beliefs on
others.”
This
is demonstrably and historically false, especially within the
last 100 years. In reality, far more people have been killed –
millions more – by atheistic communist states than all the
“religious wars” throughout history combined. Furthermore, in the
world today there is only one “religion” that proclaims
conversion or death (the ultimate imposition), and that religion is
most emphatically NOT true Biblical Christianity.
We
will see what this reductionist view of human life leads to more
thoroughly in subsequent posts, but know this, it is impossible to
logically and consistently believe in the salvation offered through
Jesus Christ unless the book of Genesis is understood to be literal
history.
To
many this is an utterly shocking statement, instantly relegating me
to a lunatic fringe of religious fundamentalism, but do not read into
my words in the previous paragraph more than their literal meaning. I
am not saying that those who deny Genesis but believe in Jesus Christ
as their Lord and Savior are doomed to Hell.
I
am saying that their belief in Jesus and the need for Him as Savior
is inconsistent with a non-literal view of the origins of the
Universe, humankind, and sin as recounted in Genesis. Thankfully,
consistency is not a requirement for salvation, only sincere faith in
the Person of Jesus Christ.
But
consider this as well. It is obvious that Jesus viewed Genesis as
actual history. Examine His statements in the gospels about Creation,
Adam and Eve, sin and marriage. Consider also the fact of His Deity
(a necessary tenet of true Christianity).
If
the Lord Jesus rejected The Lie of Evolution, and embraced Special
Creation, then so should we.
