I want to read you the beginning of the Bible. Open your Bible to Genesis 1. And I’m reading from the NAS version that Moses used. Do I detect some skepticism? “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters. Then God said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light. God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light day, and the darkness He called night. And there was evening and there was morning, one day.

“Then God said, ‘Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.’ God made the expanse, and separated the waters which were below the expanse from the waters which were above the expanse; and it was so. God called the expanse heaven. And there was evening and there was morning, a second day.

“Then God said, ‘Let the waters below the heavens be gathered into one place, and let the dry land appear’; and it was so. God called the dry land earth, and the gathering of the waters He called seas; and God saw that it was good. 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. There was evening and there was morning, a third day.

“Then God said, ‘Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night, and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years; and let them be for lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth’; and it was so. God made the two great lights, the greater light to govern the day, and the lesser light to govern the night; He made the stars also. God placed them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth, and to govern the day and the night, and to separate the light from the darkness; and God saw that it was good. There was evening and there was morning, a fourth day.

“Then God said, ‘Let the waters teem with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth in the open expanse of the heavens.’ 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. God blessed them, saying, ‘Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.’ There was evening and there was morning, a fifth day.

“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.

“The God said, ‘Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.’ God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. God blessed them; and God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.’ Then God said, ‘Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the surface of all the earth, and every tree which has fruit yielding seed; it shall be food for you; and to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the sky and to every thing that moves on the earth which has life, I have given every green plant for food’; and it was so. God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.

“Thus the heavens and the earth were complete, and all their hosts. By the seventh day God completed His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.”

Two years ago, I opened our Shepherd’s Conference by speaking on the subject “Why Every Self-Respecting Calvinist has to be a Premillennialist.” Last year, I opened the conference on why every self-respecting Calvinist has to reject church growth strategy. This year, I want to follow in that vein and talk to you about why every self-respecting Calvinist evangelical Christian must be a six-day creationist. And if there’s any question, you weren’t listening to what I just read. I want to help you with this seemingly-distressing subject of six-day creation, young earth, old earth, theistic evolution, progressive creationism, et cetera.

So I want to talk to you about theology of creation, the theology of creation. Theology used to be called the “queen of the sciences,” which is to say it was the ultimate reigning truth. That is to say that what the Bible taught trumped all other categories, including science. And so, theology should still be recognized as the queen or king of the sciences because it trumps all other ideas. It is absolutely true; it is absolutely accurate. The Bible is not theory. It is fact, it is reality, it is truth, it is the way things really are; it is the way things really happened, including creation. The Bible does not take a back seat when it comes to getting things right, scientifically. If we start from the most ignorant position and suggest this line of reasoning, you may see what I mean.

Whoever created the universe and all that is in it gets it. Is that not true? Whoever did it understands it. Whoever created the universe and all that is in it understands how it works. He understands how it works perfectly, accurately. And since He created it, He is not waiting for scientific advances to comprehend it. He is not waiting for someone to discover a system and inform Him about how it works. Since the Creator designed it and created it and sustains it—and will one day bring it to an end—He understands it. He knows the earth is spherical, He knows it turns on an axis, He knows it is suspended on nothing, He knows it sweeps through space in a fixed rotation in an orbit more massive with a solar system that drags it from one end of the universe to the other. He knows the galaxies, He knows the staggering reaches of the galaxies. He understands black holes better than Stephen Hawking. He knows the reaches of space, the countless stars. He knows the cycles of air and water, He knows about chemistry, He knows about biology. And if He wrote a book, His book would reflect that perfect knowledge.

Whoever is intelligent enough and powerful enough to design, create, and sustain the incalculable complexity of the universe and of everything that’s in the universe is certainly intelligent enough to do the relatively simple task of authoring an accurate book which describes it. And since He designs to reveal to us something so that we can know, rather than to obscure things, we can assume that when He tells us about these things, what He tells us will be logical, consistent, and understandable. If the Creator wrote a book and revealed reality regarding His creation, then we would know about creation. If the Creator didn’t write a book, no one would know about creation because only the Creator was there.

And by the way, the Creator, if He wrote a book about His creation, would never say the moon is fifty thousand leagues higher than the sun and has its own light. He would never say the earth is flat and triangular, composed of seven stages, one of honey, one of sugar, one of butter, one of wine, and the earth sits on the heads of countless elephants who produce earthquakes when they shake. That’s what the Hindu holy book says. So we know that wasn’t written by God. A ridiculous lie. The Hindu Upanishad says the sun is the source of all energy in the universe. Absurd. The Creator would never say there are only thirteen members of the body through which death can come. But that’s what the Taoist holy book says. Or earthquakes are caused by wind moving water and water moving the land, as the sacred Buddhist source suggests. Or if the Creator of the universe, He wouldn’t say that Adam fell that men might come into existence, and they are that they may joy, as it says in 2 Nephi 2 in the Book of Mormon, which also says in Alma 7:10 that Jesus was born in Jerusalem. Or if the Creator of the universe wrote a book, He wouldn’t say that man is not made up of brain, blood, bones, and other material elements, and he is incapable of sin and sickness and death. That’s what it says in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures. By the way, Christian Science is like Grape-Nuts: It’s neither grapes nor nuts; it’s not Christian or scientific. I don’t know what that cereal is, but it isn’t grapes and it isn’t nuts.

The true Creator gets it. True Creator understands what He’s created perfectly. And so when we come to the revelation given to us by the Creator, we’re going to get an accurate record of His creation. You can’t possibly misunderstand Genesis 1. With regard to origins, the Bible could be trusted just as it can be trusted with every other subject. Scripture opens with a very simple, clear, unmistakable statement, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” That’s not confusing. No one can possibly misunderstood what it means—misunderstand what it means. Although my little granddaughter did—not too many months ago—sit in class, and the teacher said to her in the Christian school where she goes, “God made everything. God made everything,” to which she responded, “Oh, no, He didn’t. A lot of stuff is made in China.”

But apart from such a childish response, and, of course, she’s right—God made the stuff that the Chinese make and other stuff—it is a simple statement, and yet it is a profound statement: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” 1903, Herbert Spencer died, rejected the Bible, rejected God, rejected Christ, but was hailed as a genius because he discovered the five categories of the knowable. Spencer said there are five categories into which everything that exists can fit: time, force, action, space, and matter. Time, force, action, space, and matter—brilliant discovery. Genesis 1:1, “In the beginning”—that’s time; “God”—that’s force; “created”—that’s action; “the heavens”—that’s space; “the earth”—that’s matter. It is a profound statement while, at the same time, being a simple one. And the Bible says that God created everything that exists out of nothing in six days. How many ways can you say it? Day one, day two, day three, day four; each day has an evening and a morning.

Now, I want to help you to feel the strength of conviction with regard to the biblical account of creation by hanging some thoughts on three words. The first word is fidelity, fidelity. Either you believe what Scripture says or you don’t. You can either accept it or reject it, but you can’t alter it. You say, “But what about science? Don’t we have to apply science to the Genesis account?” To be intellectually honest, I may knock down some of your props here. Let me help you. Get past that notion. Get past the idea that you have to bring any scientific information into Genesis 1. Get past the idea that you have to have any scientific information to understand creation. If you just get past that, you’ll free yourself up from confusion and needless doubts.

Let me say it another way: There is no such thing as creation science. Say, “Wait a minute. There are lots of organizations of creation science.” There is no such thing as creation science. Doesn’t exist because there is no scientific explanation for creation. There is legitimate true science. And so-called creation science can prove that evolution didn’t happen and doesn’t happen. That doesn’t tell us anything about creation—nothing. They can look, they can observe. And all science is based on observation, verification, and repetition. Observation, verification, and repetition. Creation had no observers, it cannot be verified as to its means, it cannot be repeated. So all that creation scientists can do is show that evolution has not happened, is not happening, and they can make a good case for that. But that doesn’t tell you anything about creation—nothing. Creation was not observable, is not repeatable. But I’ll promise you this: It didn’t happen by any fixed laws; it didn’t happen by any scientific laws; it didn’t happen by any observable, repeatable, predictable laws. It is a massive miracle.

So if you just deliver yourself from trying to come up with the science of creation, you’re freed from that useless effort. That is why in the Genesis account, and everywhere else in the Bible, we are told repeatedly that “God created.” There are no explicit references to any evolutionary process anywhere in the Bible. There are no implicit references to any evolutionary process anywhere in the Bible. There’s just one historical record of creation in Genesis 1, and an expansion of the creation of man in Genesis 2, and that’s it. That’s it. You say, “Well, don’t plants change and develop and mutate within species and progress and grow?” Well, of course, they do. Plants and animals do. None of that has anything to do with creation. We can prove that evolution didn’t happen, doesn’t happen. But that doesn’t tell us anything about what happened in six days. How the created material functions, how the created material operates, how the material reality progresses since its creation gives you no information as to how it came into existence in the first place.

Let’s say you met Lazarus the day after he was raised from the day. You might want to interview him. “Mr. Lazarus, what were you doing when you were away? Where were you? Can I touch your hand? Can I feel your arm? Can I rub your face? How do you feel? Do you think the same as you did? Do you have memories from your past before you were dead?” You could interview him ‘til you’re blue in the face; you could analyze the processes of his life; you could look at how he eats and how he functions and how he thinks and how he speaks and how he acts; and, my friend, that would tell you absolutely nothing about how he came to life. Because that is a supernatural miracle.

Or you could yank somebody’s lunch out of their hand, when Jesus fed the five thousand, and say, “I’m sorry. I’ll have to borrow your friend’s lunch. I’m taking this for a scientific experiment. I’m going to analyze the fish and I’m going to analyze this bread. Because we’ve never seen fish come out of nowhere and bread come out of nowhere. And then, when we’re finished analyzing this, we’re going to talk to the people and ask them, ‘How did it taste?’ and ‘When you ate it, did you respond to it the way you do other food? Did it have the same process that other food has?’” You could do all that; it wouldn’t tell you anything about how it came into existence.

Creation cannot be understood any other way than as a massive miracle. That’s the only way it can ever be understood. And the only insight we have into the massive miracle of creation is what is revealed by the Creator on the pages of Scripture, and that’s it. Now, if you don’t believe that, then just say you don’t believe it. But don’t try to impose upon that massive miracle, which cannot have a scientific explanation, some scientific idea.

Creation has no connection to all—at all to science as we observe it any more than the people who experienced the risen Lazarus and ate the food could, by their experience, explain how food came into existence or how Lazarus came to life. Creation was not a scientific event as if natural law played any role; it played no role. Staggeringly massive, only to be matched by the future un-creation, when it all implodes and melts with fervent heat and goes out of existence. Neither event is the product of any fixed, repeatable, measurable, observable scientific laws. All that is left for the reader is the opportunity to believe or not believe, OK? That’s it.

Fidelity. You either believe, or you don’t. You say, “Well, couldn’t God use evolution?” The question is irrelevant. The question is intrusive. But if you need an answer, no, He couldn’t. Because evolution requires death. And there’s no death. But the better answer is: He did what He did. Speculation is foolish. He made everything in six days. That’s either true or it’s not. If it’s not true, your problems have just begun. And now you got sixty-six books with potential errors.

Job 38, the Lord answers Job out of the whirlwind, says to him, “Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?” That is brutal. Who is this who darkens counsel by stupid comments? “Gird up your loins like a man, and I will ask you”—God says—"you instruct Me! Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell Me, if you have understanding, where were you when I set its measurements? Since you know so much. Where were you when I stretched the line on it? When I sunk its bases? When I laid its cornerstone? Where were you when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy? Or”—tell Me—“who enclosed the sea with doors when, bursting forth, it went out from the womb,” bounding the seas? “When I made a cloud its garment, thick darkness its swaddling band, and I placed boundaries on it and set a bolt and doors, and said, ‘Thus far you shall come, but no farther; and here your proud waves stop’? Oh, and by the way, Job, Have you ever in your life commanded the morning? Have you ever caused the dawn to know its place, that it might take hold of the ends of the earth? Have you entered into the springs of water? Have you walked in the recesses of the deep? Have the gates of death been revealed to you? Have you seen the gates of deep darkness? Have you understood the deep expanse of the earth? Say, Job, where’s the dwelling place of light?” I mean, this is brutal. This is just wham, wham, wham, wham. “Have you ever entered into the storehouses of snow? Where’s the way of the light that is divided? Or the east wind that scatters the earth? Who cleft a channel for the flood? A way for the thunderbolt to bring rain on a land?” And He goes on and on and on, which is a rather extensive way to say, “Shut your mouth, Job.” This goes on all the way through chapter 39: “Do you know the time the mountain goats give birth?” I mean, just nonstop. He even asks, in chapter 40, verse 2, “Will the faultfinder contend with the Almighty?” Can you harness the dinosaur, He asks him in chapter 41.

Finally, in chapter 42, Job says, “I know You can do all things.” I give. That settles that. And then he says, “Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge? Therefore I have declared that which I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I didn’t know.” Keep your mouth shut and accept what God says. You weren’t there; He was. Get it straight: People reject the creation account because they don’t want God to be acknowledged because God is not just the Creator, He is the Lawgiver and the Judge.

Evolution was invented in order to eliminate the God of Genesis and to oust the Lawgiver and obliterate the viability of His moral law. Evolution is the latest means fallen sinners have devised to suppress the innate knowledge of God à la Romans 1 and to distance themselves from any responsibility to the biblical testimony to which they are accountable and by which they are either redeemed or condemned. By embracing evolution, sinners have enthusiastically endeavored to avoid moral responsibility, guilt, and judgment. Evolution is so pointedly hostile to Christianity that it is unthinkable for Christians to embrace it in any way. It is a rejection of biblical revelation. So-called theistic evolution has demonstrated a lack of fidelity to the authority of Scripture, dethroning divine revelation and replacing it with evolutionary theory. Scripture, not science, is the test of everything. Don’t get caught up in science, falsely, so-called—1 Timothy 6.

So the first word to consider in thinking about the theology of origin is the word “fidelity,” trust in the Scripture. Now, just to give you a little illustration, one of probably the three largest ministries in America—you would know the name of it—huge, huge ministry in America claims to be Bible-based, Christ-proclaiming, gospel-centered. In a letter to—a letter was sent to the president of this ministry and asking the position on origin, position on Genesis. This is the answer—and I have this letter—answer: “Our ministry takes no stand on origins. We avoid secondary issues. Our efforts are designed to bring people together based on the historically essential doctrines of orthodox Christianity. Creation is one of those secondary doctrines we believe falls in the category of nonessentials, like eternal security and the Rapture.” And then there was another list of other nonessentials. Amazing.

I would suggest that you ask any so-called Christian ministry, any so-called Christian college or seminary or any church, one primary question to determine that ministry’s fidelity to the Word of God. Ask them: “What is your understanding of Genesis 1?” The answer will reveal their attitude toward Scripture. If they reject Genesis 1 or 2, ask them, “Which chapter do you start believing? Do you kick in in 3, 6, 9, or maybe Exodus? And by the way, are there other chapters that you don’t believe?” How about Isaiah 53? Maybe you sort of have to believe that one. Fidelity is the issue. Men, I think, you know, those of us who are expositors of Scripture, those of us who hail the inerrancy of Scripture, we cannot equivocate in the first chapter.

So the first word is fidelity. The second word is simplicity. The Genesis account is, by all honest considerations, very simple, very plain, very clear, perspicuous, if you will, uncomplicated, unmistakable. There are other accounts of creation. “In the beginning was the Word,” and everything was made by the Word, right? John 1:1-3. Nothing was made that was not made by Him. “All things”—Colossians 1:16—"were made by Him, for Him.” All biblical references sustain the simple clarity of divine revelation on the theme. Deuteronomy 4:32 speaks of the day that God created man on the earth, the day that God created man on the earth. There are so many of these Scriptures, but I want to take a few minutes. Psalm 104, for example, “Bless the Lord, O my soul! O Lord my God, You are very great; You are clothed with splendor and majesty.” Psalm 104: “Covering yourself with light as with a cloak, stretching out heaven like a tent curtain. He lays the beams of His upper chambers in the waters; He makes the clouds His chariot; He walks on the wings of the wind; He makes the winds His messengers, flaming fire His ministers. He established the earth upon its foundations, so that it will not totter forever and ever. You covered it with the deep as with a garment; the waters were standing above the mountains. At Your rebuke they fled,” et cetera, et cetera.

“He sends forth springs in the valleys . . . . He causes the grass to grow for the cattle,” and so it goes. Verse 24, “O Lord, how many are Your works! In wisdom You have made them all.” “Let the glory of the Lord”—verse 31—“endure forever; let the Lord be glad in His work.”

Psalm 148, perhaps familiar to you, “Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord from the heavens; Praise Him in the heights! Praise Him, all His angels . . . all His hosts . . . sun and moon . . . all stars of light . . . highest heavens, and the waters that are above the heavens! Let them praise the name of the Lord, for He commanded and they were created.” If you deny the creation account, you diminish praise to God. This is a serious matter. Isaiah 40:28, “Do you know? Have you not heard? The everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth does not become weary or tired.”

I love Isaiah 42, I can’t resist just reminding you of it. Isaiah 42, maybe verse 5, “Thus says the Lord, ‘Who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and its offspring, who gives breath to the people on it and spirit to those who walk in it, I am the Lord, I have called You in righteousness, I will also hold You by the hand and watch over You, and I will appoint You as a covenant to the people, as a light to the nations, to open blind eyes, to bring out prisoners from the dungeon and those who dwell in darkness from the prison. I am the Lord, that is My name; I will not give My glory to another.” Do you see there that God’s creative power in salvation is tied to His creative power in creation? Mark 10:6, “In the beginning God made them male and female.” Ephesians 3:9, “God created all things.” And in Revelation, a number of places, it talks about God as Creator: chapter 4, verse 11; chapter 10, verse 6; chapter 14, verses 6 and 7. God’s worship is tied to Him as the Creator. Revelation, we’re told to fear God, give Him glory, worship Him, or perish. And who is it we worship? According to the book of Revelation, the God to be worshiped—chapter 14—is the One who made the heaven and the earth and all that is in it. Simple. The pattern for worship is God is Creator and God is the new Creator of those who put their trust in Him.

Edward Young of Westminster Seminary in Philadelphia, massive erudition in Hebrew and cognate languages, responded to efforts to diminish the simplicity of Genesis chapter 1 by saying this: “To escape from the plain, factual statements of Genesis, some evangelicals are saying that the early chapters of Genesis are poetry or myth, by which they mean that they are not to be taken as straightforward accounts and that the acceptance of such a view removes the difficulties. To adopt such a view, they say, removes all troubles with modern science.” Genesis is not poetry. There are poetical accounts of the creation in the Bible—Psalm 104, certain chapters in Job—and they differ completely from the first chapter of Genesis. Hebrew poetry had certain characteristics; they are not found in the first chapter of Genesis. So the claim that Genesis 1 is poetry is no solution to the question. The man who says, “I believe that Genesis purports to be a historical account, but I do not believe that account,” is a better interpreter of the Bible than the one who says, “I believe Genesis is true, but it’s poetry.” You don’t have that option. A hundred sixty-five passages in Genesis directly quoted or referred to in the New Testament, two hundred alluded to, all clear, simple, uncomplicated references. Even the New Testament writer refers to the early chapters of Genesis. You’re aware of this, I think.

So we have fidelity, and we have simplicity. And I think as a church of the Lord Jesus Christ, men, we need to take our stand on the Scriptures at the beginning of the Scripture. And when the Scripture’s called into question in Genesis 1, if we equivocate there, we give too much away, way too much away, needlessly, needlessly. The church of the living God—1 Timothy 3—is the pillar and ground of the truth. We are the guardians and the proclaimers of the true God and His true revelation, and it is an uncomplicated revelation of creation given to us in Genesis. And to fuss with trying to apply creation law—to apply scientific law to that account is a waste of time. It is a massive miracle.

But there’s a third word that I’m interested to talk to you about a little bit. The creation account is not something to trifle with, it is not secondary, it is not arbitrary. So I want to give you the word “priority.” It is essential, it is critical to the main theme of divine revelation and the eternal purpose of God. Priority, what do I mean by that? Well, what is God’s priority? Why is the universe in existence? Why is the earth in existence? Why did God create man? Why did He make everything that He made? What is the goal, the end, the purpose? Hence, what is the divine priority? Obviously, God had clearly in mind a designed end. God doesn’t do anything for which He does not have a purpose. God designs from the end back. So the existence of the universe, and the theater of the universe, which is the earth, and man on the earth must have an ultimate purpose. God is doing something. He is achieving something through the countless, vast array of circumstances and contingencies and changes and revolutions from person to person, and from city to city, and country to country, and continent to continent. It’s not all just wild, random stuff. There is a certain fixed purpose, objective, goal to which everyone and everything moves from creation through Providence to consummation, right?

It’s Jonathan Edwards who said it this way, “Providence subordinates all successive changes in the affairs of mankind.” It’s a great way to say it. Providence subordinates everything to the grander purpose. Everything from creation to consummation is part of one great plan being worked out. By God’s powerful providence, not one hostile molecule operates outside that plan. History will end, but only when divine purpose is accomplished, when God’s great final goal is achieved. This universe is not eternal. It will end as it began, in a massive display of divine power. It will end, as I said according to 2 Peter 3, in an implosion in which the atoms that make up this universe will melt. That will happen when God’s scheme is done and He has no further purpose for this universe. Meanwhile, divine providence subordinates, divine providence orders, divine providence overpowers, divine providence controls all things to achieve that end.

Look at Isaiah 46, verses 9–11, very definitive Scripture. Isaiah 46:9, “Remember the former things long past, for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is no one like Me.” That is to say there is only one God, so that all that exists exists within the purposes of that one God. There are not competing gods, just one. “It is I”—verse 10—“who declare the end from the beginning.” That is another way of simply saying, “When I began it, I had already ordained how it would end. From ancient times, I have ordained all that has been happening . . . saying, ‘My purpose will be established, and I will accomplish all My good pleasure.’” In the end of verse 11, He says, “Truly I have spoken; truly I will bring it to pass. I have planned it, surely I will do it.” Boy, that is a worldview you really need to have. That’s why it tells us, Proverbs 16, Colossians 1, “All things are created by Him and for Him.” And what is the grand design? What is the purpose? Redemption, right? To get a bride for His Son, to gather a bride for His Son, to collect the redeemed. And when the last person whose name was written in the Lamb’s Book of Life before the foundation of the world is redeemed, it’s over.

Creation and providence is only a means to achieve the goal of redemption. Every person, every act, every event is subservient to the great purpose of the redemption of sinners. All material realities, all material creation are subordinated to spiritual objectives. The work of redemption, the work of salvation is God’s purpose. The creation of a visible universe, a visible world is to provide the setting for the creation of an invisible people. In Ephesians chapter 3, verse 8, Paul says, “To me, the very least of all saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ, and to bring to light what is the administration of the mystery which for ages has been hidden in God who created all things; so that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places. This was in accordance with the eternal purpose which He carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord.” The eternal purpose is to redeem a bride for His Son, take that bride to heaven to display the glory of His grace to the watching holy angels. This is the unfolding purpose. That great theme is manifest in many ways in the very work of creation.

Listen to these connections. First Corinthians 15:22, “As in Adam all die, so in Christ shall all be made alive.” As it was with Adam is analogous to how it is with Christ. “As in Adam all die”: that’s the impact of one man. That demands that there only be one Man, not a long chain of half monkey-men leading up to who knows how many men. As there is only one Christ in whom men live, there is only one Adam in whom men die. Romans 5:18, “So then through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all men.” Not through any more than one, by one man. “Even so through one act of righteousness there resulted justification of life to all men.” You start tampering with Genesis, you start tampering with the understanding of the doctrine of salvation that rests in the one Man, Christ, just as the doctrine of condemnation rests in the one man, Adam. These are not arbitrary things Scripture teaches. First Corinthians 15:45, first Adam gives life, second Adam—first Adam, rather, was given life, the second Adam is a life-giver. First Corinthians 15:21, first Adam brought death, second Adam conquered death. Revelation 2:7 and later on in Revelation 22, the first Adam lost paradise, the second Adam brings paradise. First Corinthians 15:47, the first Adam is earthy, the second Adam is heavenly. First Corinthians 15:48–49, the first creation is in the likeness of God, the second and new creation is in the likeness of God. First Corinthians 15:38 and following, the first creation has bodies diverse, the new creation of resurrection bodies are diverse. There are so many salvation analogies you can work them through that draw from Genesis.

But let me have you look at a text, 2 Corinthians chapter 4 and verse 6. This is a beautiful analogy. By the way, Jonathan Edwards writes much about this particular analogy. In 2 Corinthians 4, “For God, who said, ‘Light shall shine out of darkness.’” What is that referring to? What is that referring to? Genesis 1, right? “For God, who said, ‘Light shall shine out of darkness.’” I just read that, right? “Let there be light.” “Is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.” The analogy is this: Just as God created instantaneous light, so He creates instantaneous spiritual light. This is not some long drawn-out process. In creation everything began in darkness and a formless void, as I read, until God brought light, and it was instantaneous. So in salvation the sinner was in a dark void without form until the light, the shining glory of God in the face of Christ, enlightens him by a divine miracle. The miracle of spiritual light is analogous to the miracle of material light, physical light. Jesus is even called, John 8:12, He says of Himself, “I am the Light of the world.” The recovery of the elect from the darkness by the instant power of God, who puts the darkness to flight by opening the heart to gospel light, is a parallel to the darkness that fled at the very word out of the mouth of God: “Let there be light.” This is not a process; this is a divine miracle. After that original light was sovereignly created—I think this so interesting—there followed in the next days of creation both dark and light, all six days morning and evening, morning and evening, morning and evening. Jonathan Edwards suggests that this is another picture of the believer who, though he has given—been given light, and though he has been brought out of the darkness, still experiences the reality of a present darkness and is caught between the light and the darkness.

As the creation progresses, there is more beauty, there is more perfection. Starts out with God saying, “This is good. This is good.” It ends up with Him saying, “This is very good.” The creation of man on a six-day is a picture analogous to the creation of the sinner, who was given light, the Light of the glory of God shining in the face of Jesus Christ burst upon his darkened soul, and in the days after he struggles between light and darkness. But in spiritual progress, he moves toward the experience that is more beautiful, more fulfilled, that is very good. And one day, if we can keep the analogy going, he enters into heavenly rest where all is light in that eternal Sabbath. I mean, the drama of salvation is in the creation by analogy. Adam was made in one place and put in a paradise. So the believer created here, born again here, will be relocated to the paradise of God. This is magnificent truth to be understood, to be believed, to be proclaimed.

Now, I could say more about that, but I have something else I want to say. We not only mess up the beginning, we’re starting to mess with the ending, OK? I want to take you to the un-creation. Turn to 2 Peter 3. You’re going to like this. It’s going to clarify some things for you, I think. Verse 10, 2 Peter 3, the Lord is coming: “The day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up.” Clear enough? That’s the un-creation. That’s how it ends, folks. In case you missed that, verse 12 says it again: “Looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be destroyed by burning, and the elements will melt with intense heat!” You say, “What after that?” After that, a new heaven and a new earth. That’s the eternal state in which righteousness dwells.

Are you kind of getting tired of the “greening” of evangelicalism? The latest new evangelical agenda sucking at time, energy, and money is the effort to save the planet from destruction by people. We now have evangelical environmental networks. We have a Creation Care magazine signed by several hundred evangelical leaders—you might’ve seen it—college presidents, seminary presidents, pastors, teachers. They issued a call to care for the planet, to heal the damaged fabric of creation, to work for the healing of the earth. Now the focus goes from that rather grandiose thing—and I’ve seen some of their yards; they’re not even doing it in their own neighborhood. But anyway, that’s another thing. But it goes from that very grandiose thing to “We must focus on stopping global warming or the polar caps are going to melt and we’re all going to drown.” And I just want to say, “Have you ever seen a rainbow?” Because every time there appears a rainbow, this is the promise of God that He will never again destroy the earth by water. Relax. Now, maybe you’d rather drown than burn. I don’t know, so maybe you prefer that but it’s not going to happen.

Evangelicals have become obsessed with these environmental issues. Christianity Today came out in favor of a McCain-Lieberman global warming bill, which didn’t get through the last administration. One evangelical leader said—I love this—“The earth is God’s body and He wants us to look after it.” Now there’s some bizarre theology for you. Have you seen the new green Bible? Yes, everything in the text of Scripture that relates to the environment is printed in green, and the cover is made out of biodegradable something or other. I just got a recent edition of the Biola college magazine, the greening of Biola. German churches have repented for “green sins.” In an effort for Christians to stamp out the size of their carbon footprint. Listen to what it says in the “Evangelical Declaration on the Care of Creation.” Here are the affirmations:

“We have sinned in our stewardship of creation. Therefore we repent of the way we polluted, distorted, and destroyed the Creator’s work.” Another one, “We commit ourselves to extend Christ’s healing to the creation.” I got news for you: He cursed it. He started all the weeds. He started all the disasters. Another confession, “We confess the sins of land degradation, deforestation, species extinction, water degradation”—so far, not in my faucet—“global toxification, alteration of the atmosphere, population growth.” Another one, “Human poverty is a consequence of an environmental degradation. By the way, that’s opposite the truth. Human poverty is a consequence of a failure to subdue the creation by all means possible. Another confession of these folks, “The cosmos in all its beauty, wildness, and life-giving bounty is the work of our loving Creator.” What’d they do? Skip Genesis 3? He cursed it. “God created it good, and we have corrupted it.” No, He created it good, man sinned, and He corrupted it.

People don’t understand the theology. Fifty-two percent of evangelicals support strict environmental sanctions. I’ll tell you this: Earth has deteriorated from its original goodness and probably will get worse. But it’s not because of what man’s done to it; it’s because of what God did to it. He cursed it. And what He sets us out to do is to try to recover the beauty that is there below the curse. If it wasn’t for human care, and if it wasn’t for the use of everything that’s in this earth, if it wasn’t for harnessing these things, if it wasn’t for using all of our brainpower through the history of mankind to make life good here, this earth would be uninhabitable. You have to use the sweat of your brow to prevent it from killing you. But if you subdue it, look at the riches that come out of it. If it wasn’t for man and his efforts to rule and subdue the earth, its riches would never be extracted. The most advanced societies subdue the earth and all its resources for man’s benefit. The least advanced societies live in wastelands of hunger and suffering at the mercy of their environment. We don’t need less energy; we need more. We don’t need less technology; we need more. If we want to help the poor, we got to stop crying about “greenness” and “green that” because it only destroys the most deprived people. Global warming efforts, it is estimated, will kill in the next few years between twenty and fifty million people because it halts progress that protects them from the deadly character of a cursed earth.

I mean, start with your own house. How simple is it? What kind of environment do you want to live in? You want to be a natural person? I don’t think so. Ridiculous. How can Christian leaders jump on a bandwagon of the evolutionists who think that the earth is billions of years old and they got to preserve it for millions or billions more? It’s a disposable planet. Look, you can now see what happened to it when God cursed it, but this is nothing like what’s going to happen the next time.

Just a little balance here. CalTech is the sort of—that’s the elite intellectual institution in the state of California by far. CalTech had a Michelin lecture series and lecturer had some amazing things to say about global warming. The idea of global warming ranks with the idea of extraterrestrials for which there’s not one shred of evidence. The fact that the scientific community doesn’t rise up and protest the false science of global warming means they’ve been politicized and postmodernized and there’s a crack in the scientific door and pernicious garbage is squeezing through. That’s a scientist at CalTech.

The ploy used by postmodern politicized pseudo-science is what he calls “consensus science.” “A large group of scientists agree . . .” When you hear that, you know you got a lie coming. He says consensus science is not science. It is extremely pernicious, it is the first refuge of scoundrels, it is a way to shut down debate and real science. When you hear the consensus of scientists agree on anything, you’ve just been conned; grab your wallet. The work of science has nothing to do with consensus. Science requires only one investigator who has the facts. Consensus is irrelevant. If it is consensus, it’s not science. Consensus is invoked only in situations where there is a political, social, financial agenda but no scientific support. “No one,” he says, “has ever said, ‘Consensus is that E equals MC squared.’” You don’t need consensus on that; it’s a fact. You don’t hear this: “According to a consensus of many scientists, the sun is ninety-three million miles from the earth.” It’s a fact. We don’t vote on facts. “Once you abandon strict adherence to science,” he says, “anything is possible as people who are unscrupulous manipulate for their own ends.”

He goes on to say, “Skepticism is the soul of true science.” Skepticism is the soul of true science. Science must be a skeptic until it has the facts. A scientist named Lomborg wrote a book, The Skeptical Environmentalist. Scientific American vilified him as a heretic for even suggesting that they ought to truly investigate global warming.

You say, “Well, hasn’t the temperature of the earth risen in the last little while?” Well, yes, according to some scientists, it’s gone up one degree in the last thirty years. But that’s all we got is thirty years of data, pretty short-term trend. Trends come and go in which temperature changes occur, El Niño, La Niña. Some 7–10-year changes, some 20–50-year, maybe some 100-year, maybe some 1,000-year changes—we have no data or specific temperatures in the past. But there is in literature of the past the period in the Middle Ages known as the Little Ice Age. Does it change from time to time? Sure. Can it go up for a while and stay up for a while? Sure. Can it go down for a while and stay down for a while? That seems to be the truth. Those are the facts. The best information tells us since 1880 the temperature has gone up and down. From 1940 to 1970 it was cooler, and now from 1970 to the present it’s one degree warmer.

Legitimate science recognizes a close correlation—and here’s the key, friends, this is the real deal—legitimate science recognizes a close correlation between sunspots and climate change. The more sunspots the warmer the climate so that solar variations produce climate change. The sun is the source of temperature changes because of its infrared variations. There is absolutely no evidence that CO2 contributes to warming. Actually, the opposite is likely true: Warming produces CO2. The sun warms up, and it’s measurable by the increase of sunspots. That warms the oceans. When the oceans are warm, they release more CO2. So the sun’s warmth determines the CO2, the carbon amount in the atmosphere. It is not that the carbon in the atmosphere determines the temperature; it’s the opposite. By the way, plants produce CO2. What man produces is marginal, minimal, inconsequential. Warming temperature, then, is not produced by man. Industry doesn’t affect it; industry doesn’t affect CO2 in the environment or atmosphere. Water vapor and clouds make up almost all CO2, and the volume of it is dependent upon how much sun heat hits the water. Climate change is an effect of electromagnetic fields on the sun, nothing more. So what are they trying to do? What is all this about? This is all political, financial agendas, class warfare, class envy. There is no scientific reason to believe that ice caps are melting. By the way, there are three times more polar bears now than there were forty years ago. I don’t know why I threw that in. And by the way, if you’re going to vote for something, vote for warming. Less deaths due to cold, regions more habitable, larger crops, longer growing season. That’s good. Warming helps the poor. Cutting energy harms the poor who need energy desperately. Don’t call yourself a Christian and try to shut down the very energy that’s in this earth, this disposable planet to be used. If you’re going to be a Christian, then use the power, the energy that we have to help the people who so desperately need it.

There are two billion people on our planet with no electricity. You think it’s going to help them to shut down the advancement? They suffer and they are left susceptible to every natural disaster. The poor suffer the most. I mean, we see that in a microcosm; it’s always the people in the trailer park, isn’t it, that go down in the hurricane. It’s the most unprotected people. The world needs more energy. Lowering energy is deadly, and it’s not legitimate. It’s not scientific. So, you know, step on the grass, kill a deer, drill for oil now. And you can fill in anything else you like there.

Just an interesting little note, a hundred billion dollars—a hundred billion dollars has been spent to make a case for global warming, contrary to scientific method. Scientific method always tries to prove a theory wrong. Doesn’t spend a hundred billion dollars trying to sell it, propagandizing pseudo-science. All great environmental disasters occur in the poorest, most undeveloped, energy-deficient countries. We’re told to stop global warming because it causes disasters in third world; leave these people in the natural. That’s just deadly. What riches are in this plan? Fossil fuels, can you imagine that? Natural gas, atomic power. Can’t fall victim to the political agenda against business and industry born out of atheism, naturalism, feminism, class envy.

Man is not the enemy of nature; he’s the steward of nature, and God gave him this planet to use up. The earth is not a fragile ecosystem billions of years old and held together by random chance. It is a strong, robust system held together by God who upholds all things by His power. It was never intended to be left pristine. It was intended to be used.

I’ll show you a verse. I’ve been talking a lot, so we need to put a Bible verse in here, Genesis 8. Look at Genesis 8, the end of Genesis 8. Now I’ll give you another illustration; then I’ll stop. Verse 22, God created it, six days. He’ll destroy it, really in an instant. But verse 22 of Genesis 8, this is the Lord speaking, “While the earth remains, while the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night”—what—“shall not cease.” Relax. Relax.

DDT, remember that? Yeah, save millions of lives in Africa from mosquitoes and malaria. I don’t know if you know this. By 1960, malaria caused by mosquitoes was eradicated. By nineteen-six-oh in Africa. Same year, 1960, a feminist writer put out a book titled, Silent Spring. And in that book, she claimed that DDT caused cancer. DDT was banned worldwide. Since then, tens of millions of Africans have died of malaria. And now we know, scientifically, DDT does not cause cancer. Oops, sorry. Global warming is another thing in the category of DDT. It continues to pile up dead bodies in Africa and other third world places.

Biblical truth is we can use this planet, we can extract everything out of it, with a responsible kind of stewardship as men—man has already demonstrated he can do until the day when the Lord Himself brings it to its end. He made it, He sustains it. There’s coming a breakdown. There’s coming a time. Even before that final devastation, there are things described in the book of Revelation about what’s going to happen to the oceans, and the rivers, and the mountains. That’s in His power. We’re living, by the way, in the third ecosystem: pre-Fall, post-Fall, pre-Flood, post-Flood. And there’s coming another one, millennial restored earth, and then another one, a final new heaven and a new earth. We just want to be faithful, don’t we, to the text of Scripture. It’s all there.

Father, we thank You for the way You have revealed Yourself. We praise You as the Creator, Sustainer, and Consummator of the universe. And when we think about that, the wonder of it, the staggering reality of it, that You could speak a universe into existence with Your Word and it would come into existence instantaneously, and You can speak it out of existence just as fast. In the meantime, You sustain it and You fill it, even though it’s cursed, with so much riches that man by the sweat of his brow can extract and then praise you as the Creator, the Giver of all good things. Lord, we worship You as saints have worshiped You through the ages. We will not alter our worship because of a man named Darwin. We’ll worship You as the Creator and we’ll proclaim Your truth. Only You can tell us the story of creation. Thank You for doing that. We honor You as our Creator. We praise You as the Creator and Sustainer and Consummator and, beyond that, the Savior of all who embrace Christ. Give us a new commitment to Your Word, to proclaim Your truth, to be unequivocal in our devotion in our fidelity to that truth, and be honored, Lord, in our lives as we refresh our commitment to the integrity of scripture and faithfulness to proclaim it. We’ll thank You in Christ’s name. Amen.