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Who are you? Where did you come from? Why are you here? Where are you going, and where will you spend eternity? These are valid questions, every human being sooner or later faces, that need answers. I'm Dennis Finnan and today on the World, the Word & You! Broadcast, we'll try to answer them in just one moment.
As I opened the program I asked some relevant questions, that every healthy seeking soul sooner or later begins to think about. Questions that ask the meaning and origins of our life and existence. Have you ever asked yourself these questions? "Who am I? Where did I come from? Why am I here? Where am I going, and where will I spend eternity?" Today there are answers, but only two are available for you to consider. You see, they all surround what we believe about our origins of life. The two theories of origins are called Creationism and Evolution. The former teaches all mankind that all things exist, especially our humanity due to the special creation of an infinite personal God who has revealed Himself in the Word of God, the Christian Bible. The latter teaches that all around us including our existence, is the result of the impersonal random and mindless forces of matter, chance and time. - with all that it implies. Now which theory is right? Actually, the answer to this dilemma, has the power to influence one's personal philosophy, alter social and political institutions, even direct the entire course of human history! Out of belief in the theory of evolution has come some of the world's worst ideologies such as Communism, Marxism, Islam, and to date Atheism and Secular Humanism that rules most of the known world today.
In the history of mankind, few theories have had the impact that evolution has had on our world. Evolution is the belief that everything that exists has always existed in some form which millions of years ago by random and mindless chance just happened to form itself into the ordered cosmos and world we know today. Moreover, everything in it including all life on this planet simply formed by the impersonal forces of nature over millions of years. If that is true then our questions, Who are you? Where did you come from? Why are you here? Where are you going, and where will you spend eternity, are meaningless and have no answers! This unfortunately has been the understanding of many of our youth, who in response to this miserable conclusion decide to spend what's left of their existence in carnal indulgence and dissipation, often with the banner - "eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we cease to exist!"
However, if this theory of mindless impersonal existence is wrong, the consequences of such are unthinkable. Now we must ask, where , when and why did evolution become the popular dominant thinking of the intellectual establishment? The answer is in the late 19th century through the writings of a man named Charles Darwin. I think everyone knows this name and even more His famous or shall I say infamous writings called "THE ORIGINS OF THE SPECIES."
Yes, Darwin brought our world what many have come to believe as conclusive proof, that there is no personal, loving Creator God, and we are all here by accident, existing for no purpose, and going nowhere except to oblivion. However, although the world of science and intellect jumped at Darwin's theories that the world and all that's in it came about by the process of evolution and not Creationism, we must be reminded that it was not readily believed by everyone. In fact, history is replete with men of science who strongly rejected Darwin's theories and stood firm in their beliefs that an infinite, omnipotent and personal God who has been revealed to us in the Bible, is the entire source of all the space, time, continuum of life as we know it.
Who are these men? Well let me give you a few names. Men like Leonardo da Vinci, Johann Kepler, Francis Bacon, Isaac Newton, Michael Faraday, Samuel F.B. Morse, James Joule, Gregory Mendel, Louis Pasteur, Lord Kelvin, Joseph Lister, William Ramsey, John Ambrose Fleming, George Washington Carver, and even Werner Von Braun --all these men and more who became renowned scientists stood firm in their beliefs that all things came into existence through the carefully planned work of an intelligent infinite God who has reveled Himself to us through Jesus Christ and His Word. Although present godless academic instruction tries to teach our young people evolution is a proven fact. These men and their established teachings would take strong issue with this, for they know that the theory of evolution is based on unproved, false and even dangerous ideas. Therefore my friend, the issue of origins is important, for what you believe about it will forge your destiny in this life and the life to come. So let's talk about it and see where it leads.
I guess what I'm most concerned about these days is the constant barrage of teaching that tries desperately to establish as fact the theory that our existence is an evolutionary one. Men like Julian Huxley, George Gaylord Simpson and Carl Sagan have strongly promoted evolution as an established fact. Why Sagan, the distinguished Cornell University astronomer boastfully said, "Evolution is fact not a theory." [1] Today textbooks, magazine articles, even Hollywood entertainment is immersed in teaching evolution as a fact so much so, that our younger generation has believed this lie, and cast their destiny upon it.
How sad that the Dawn of Darwin brought all this about. How sad too, that many who have come to believe in evolution by the wanton chanting of the godless crowd, really have never known the full truth about Darwin himself. Yes, Darwin who advanced the theory of evolution, was only the stepping stone to a world that rejected God. When Darwin's theories came along, the world was ripe to accept it. Many of the intellectual crowd that inhabited the sciences of the day, were looking for some means of explaining God away, so their lifestyles and philosophies could exist in a conscienceless bliss. But Darwin after he wrote his work, THE ORIGIN OF THE SPECIES, had long and lingering doubts. Why Darwin himself in his own words confessed it was, "grievously hypothetical" [2] and worse, he actually called it," the devil's gospel." [3] Yet in spite of the many who falsely and foolishly claim this unproveable theory as fact, the truth of Creationism still reigns in the hearts of those who are unbiased and have no ax to grind against the Creator God to whom all life is accountable.
Yes, that is the issue isn't it? Accountability! You see mankind when we rebelled in our first parents Adam and Eve, the great and ongoing sin in us all is rebellion to God having the right to rule our lives. We, from the cradle to the grave, shake our fists up toward heaven and cry "we will not have You to rule over us." In order to feel comfortable with this, fallen humanity devised this theory of evolution to eliminate God from one's minds and thoughts. Yet the Bible has much to say about it. For instance, God remind us of our sinful attitude? We read in,
Psa 2:1-3 (NIV) "Why do the nations conspire and the peoples plot in vain? 2 The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together against the LORD and against his Anointed One. 3 "Let us break their chains," they say, "and throw off their fetters.""
Jer 8:9 (NIV) "The [worldly] wise will be put to shame; they will be dismayed and trapped. Since they have rejected the word of the LORD, what kind of wisdom do they have?"
God asks what kind of wisdom do the rejecters of truth have? The answer is none. Paul the apostle writes in,
Rom 1:18, 21-22 (NIV) "The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness,"… 21-22 (NIV) "For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools"
How has mankind become like a fool? The Psalmist answers,
Psa 83:5 (NIV) "With one mind they plot together; they form an alliance against you--"
Yes my friend, God wants all men to know that any teaching that tries to explain God away, and out of their lives is but the wicked sinful response of a heart in rebellion to God. In fact, honest evolutionists have even admitted this is the basic reason for promoting evolution. Did you know that? Well listen to some of their own words. Dr. George Wald the Nobel prize-winning biologist of Harvard University said, "One has only to contemplate the magnitude of this task to concede that spontaneous generation of a living organism [evolution] is impossible. Yet here we are - as a result, I believe, of spontaneous generation…"[4]
What he was saying is and he actually said in other literature, that when faced with the option that evolution is false, the only alternative is God and a special creation - so they will believe the latter, even if untrue. That my friend God says is the wisdom of a fool! However, the many scientists before Darwin that I spoke about at the inception of this talk, chose to believe God's Word about their origins, not because it was simply a choice, but because it was good science and honest intellectual reasoning. You see it takes faith to believe in any origin theory, Creationism or Evolutionism. Both are scientifically unproveable. Both carry considerable consequences in this life and the hereafter. Yet both must be followed strictly on philosophical terms. So the choice is yours! Will you believe God and His Word, or will you believe the wild extrapolations of men in rebellion to God, whose admitted goal is to establish a world without His rulership of their lives? For those who are Christians there is no choice. For the Bible tells us that God created all there is in seven solar days. Not million or billions of years, nor did God choose out of a myriad of creatures to form what is the human species today. Yes, God created man and woman directly on the sixth day of creation (Gen. 1:27), and when He finished His work He says everything was very good (Gen. 1:31). The Psalmist declared that all that exists today including the universe itself came into being by instantaneous divine fiat, not millions of years of gradual evolution ,
Psa 148:5 (NIV) "Let them praise the name of the LORD, for he [God] commanded and they [all existence] were created."
Why even the Lord Jesus Himself affirms the Biblical account of creation. In Matthew 19:4-5, Jesus taught God made the progenitors of our race, the first man and woman at the beginning of time and space.
Mat 19:4-5 (NIV) ""Haven't you read," he replied, "that at the beginning the Creator 'made them male and female,' 5 and said, 'For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh'?"
In addition, we know that Jesus Himself accepted a divine creation as opposed to evolution ( Mar. 13:19), He also accepted Moses' account of a global world-wide flood of Noah's day, and the saving of the human race through this one man and his family (Mat. 24:37-39). Yes if one is to be a Christian, they must of necessity accept the Bible's literal interpretation, and all that it declares about a special creation by an omnipotent creator God, who was finally revealed to us in the Person and work of Jesus Christ.
In many ways, no issue is of more importance that what we believe about who we are, why are we here, and where we are going. For from the perspective of God's Word, nothing can be worse for you or me than to enter eternity having lived our lives based on a wrong view of reality. And, my friend that wrong view is Evolution! Yes, men like Leonardo da Vinci, Johann Kepler, Francis Bacon, Isaac Newton, Michael Faraday, Samuel F.B. Morse, James Joule, Gregory Mendel, Louis Pasteur, Lord Kelvin, Joseph Lister, William Ramsey, John Ambrose Fleming, George Washington Carver, and even Werner Von Braun - these were men who believed God and His Word and trusted that science and truth as revealed in the Scriptures were not incompatible, nor in conflict. I'm reminded of the words of Samuel F.B. Morse the inventor of the telegraph who said in the years before he died, "The nearer I approach to the end of my pilgrimage, the clearer is the evidence of the divine origin of the Bible, the grandeur and sublimity of God's remedy for fallen man are more appreciated, and the future is illumined with hope and joy."
Lord Kelvin, the great physicist and mathematician declared in a similar way his faith in a fiat creation of all things by an infinite personal God when he said, "With regard to the origin of life, science … positively affirms creative power!" Lord Kelvin who held 21 doctorates and the chair of Natural Philosophy at the University of Glasgow for 54 years, remained a humble Christian who rejected the false and unproveable theories of evolution that Darwin set forth.
Say friend, how about you? Have you accepted evolution as an established fact simply because you were taught it by your school teachers, and had it confirmed to you by popular opinion? If so, you are headed for a disastrous life and eternity. God in His Word warns us,
Isa 5:24 (NIV) "… for they have rejected the law of the LORD Almighty and spurned the word of the Holy One of Israel."
Rom 1:18-20 (NIV) "The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, 19 since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20 For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities--his eternal power and divine nature--have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse."
John 3:36 (NIV) "Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on him.""
Evolution as Darwin himself once called it, is the "devil's gospel," that will lead all its followers who reject God, His Word and His Savior the Lord Jesus Christ, to an everlasting Hell and suffering in eternity to come. But for those who believe God and His Word about Creation and His redemptive love through Jesus Christ, they will find an eternity of blissful joy and peace. You see my friend, there is good news for us all today. The Bible reveals it is possible to know the Creator personally. We are told we can do this by inviting God's Son Jesus Christ into our hearts and lives by a sincere prayer of faith. If you don't know Christ, would you just pause wherever you are and pray this prayer with me?
Lord Jesus, I confess my unbelief in Your Word and truths,
along with my disobedience to living according to your ways. I
understand that You sent Jesus Christ to die for my sins, and
to offer me forgiveness of all sins and His gift of eternal life.
I ask You now Lord Jesus to take control of my life and guide
me into all truth upon which I dedicate my life. Grant me Your
daily presence to guide me, and care for me until You come for
me in glory. I pray this prayer in Jesus Name, Amen.
If you prayed that prayer with me and meant it with all your heart, the Bible says God fully accepts you and grants you all the privileges of Heaven and eternal life. How wonderful it is to join the forever family of God's people that encompasses great men of science, faith and society who have not capitulated to the false teachings of those who reject God. Evolution today has done more harm and hurt to all humanity than another other philosophy of life. By teaching there is no God to whom we are accountable, has removed the moral code of Christendom from our nation and the world. This has brought us the unbelievable plunge into immorality that has immersed us the AIDS crises, the drug crises, the crime crisis and the massive family disintegration we face today. If life is meaningless individual and societal ethics are meaningless too. As a result the past 100 years have witnessed the greatest horrors our world has known. Communism, Fascism, Nazism all have promoted evolution and brought the death and suffering of millions.
Isn't it time we reject this deadly philosophy wrongly called science? Isn't it time we stand up against evolutionary teaching? And, when it is taught and presented as fact and important, that we cry foul and call for its demise! Friend, the time has come where we must no longer accept by silence, this demonic and life crushing teaching. I for one will not allow in my presence or my children's presence, any presentation of evolution as a fact. I will stand up against it and will declare the truth of God's Word. I pray you too will join me in turning our world of darkness into God's world of truth and light. For herein rests the destiny of millions of souls.
Unfortunately evolution continues to stand today as an established fact by the educational and scientific community. However, you don't have to believe it or base your life upon its false and deadly conclusions. God is real, His Word is truth, all around us cries out there is an omnipotent, infinite personal God who created all things and care for us. To prove His love He sent His Son Jesus Christ to die for us and reconcile us to Himself. I trust you know Christ personally, and that you have received Him and His Word into your heart, that you are living by it and waiting for Christ's return. Herein is the real future of humanity and our world. May God add His blessing to today's thoughts for Jesus sake. Amen.
END NOTES:
[1] Carl Sagan, COSMOS (New York: Random House, 1980), 27 emphasis added.
[2] James D. Bales, WHY SCIENTISTS ACCEPT EVOLUTION, (Grand Rapids, MI., Baker, 1976), 37-42, 145, citing the "Devil’s Gospel", Francis Darwin, The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin, Vol. II, 124.
[3] Letter to Asa Gray, Nov. 29,1859 in Francis Darwin, MORE LETTERS OF CHARLES DARWIN, Vol I (London: Murray, 1903)
[4] George Wald, THE ORIGIN OF LIFE (Scientific American: The Physics and Chemistry of Life,) New York, Simon & Shuster, 1959; P 9.
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The World, the Word & You! Broadcast is a non-denominational ministry based on the historic fundamental evangelical interpretation of the Scriptures.A copy of our doctrinal statement is available upon request.These weekly radio commentaries can be heard in selected areas around the nation. Dennis Finnan has been the speaker for 16 years, and serves as General Director. These transcripts are available free of charge to all who desire them. Also available are radio cassette tapes and printed booklets of each message. A free listing of all messages is available upon request also.
For further information, reprints, or a listing of all topics, please write to our speaker, Dennis L. Finnan (wwyfin@sparc.isl.net)