“HOW BIG IS YOUR GOD? YES, I’M ASKING YOU THAT QUESTION BECAUSE EVERYONE HAS A GOD HE OR SHE WORSHIP IN ONE WAY OR ANOTHER. HOWEVER, IN THE BIBLE WE ARE PRESENTED WITH A GOD SO BIG, HE IS IMMEASURABLE BY ANY HUMAN STANDARDS.”

 I’m Dennis Finnan, host and speaker on the World, the Word & You! Broadcast and in a moment we’ll talk about the wonderful and marvelous “Creation” of God …

…Of all the topics in the Bible that can be spoken about, I guess the one I love the most is the subject of God’s creation. Yes, the Bible clearly tells us much about it and in the process it tells us about the One who created it all! Indeed, the entire Bible is a message from this Creator God, who fashioned all things out of nothing that exists today in our space, time, continuum we call the universe. However, not all are agreed with the truth and teaching of all things being “created,” nor the fact that behind it all there is a God of Creation so big and immense that He could do it all in six literal days!

Well, that’s my subject and topic I’d like to share with you after we pause for one more moment of music. Then I’ll return to challenge you with some simple and made easy truths you can grasp and give thanks for. But first let’s listen to this…

…One of the most hotly contested topics within and without the Church of Jesus Christ is from where has mankind arisen? Has he come forth out of a primordial slime, fashioned by the god of chance? Or, has he and all things come forth by the magnificent hand of an immense being so great, it is beyond any human calculation and comprehension? Well for years, it was simply the latter. From scholars and scientists, to theologians and every day people - all believed what the Bible told them about the origins of man and the Creator who brought it all into existence.

Yet something happened in the last two hundred years. An element of humanity arose that began questioning the Bible’s account of creation, and worse this questioning arose within the ranks of those who professed to believe the Bible and God’s ability to produce all things as they exist. These detractors outside the Church of Jesus Christ are called “evolutionists,” and within the Church they are called “progressive” or “theistic creationists.” The truth is, regardless of what name you have the issue is centered in one common thought – HOW BIG IS YOUR GOD? That’s right, how big is YOUR God? You see, everyone worships something, it is either a god or being so great that He could have created all things that exist, or you have chosen to reject that and substitute yourself or other humanity as the sole source of your existence. However today, I’m talking about “creationism,” the teaching found in the Bible that says everything that exists does so because a divine Being of immense immeasurable eternal power created all things out of nothing and did so, as the Bible reports in six literal days.

Now the latter part of that is the greatest “rub” against those who cannot fathom such a Being, being able to accomplish this. This is why even among evangelical Christians some have arisen to deny this, and substitute their own human reasoning in the vain attempts to accommodate the atheistic teachings these days called evolutionism. Now, the followers of this mindless god of evolution have said that our world, by their standards, is 4.5 billion years old, and the universe itself is some 15-50 billion years old; and, all of it evolved out of a freakish uncontrolled and unordered and undirected event called the BIG BANG!

The idea that all things exist because of an eternal Being called God, is preposterous to them.

Yet, the teachings of evolution and the intensity of those who proclaim it has been so strong in the intellectual and educational fields, that many Christians have been fearful to exercise outward faith in the Bible’s account of creation.

So again I ask you “how big is your God?” Your answer will reflect what you believe about creation itself. Now let me share with you how big my God is that I’ve found in the pages of Scripture. In it we are told, without a doubt, that such a Being, who existed long before there was anything that is made, revealed Himself as a triune Being who tells us about His creation and how and why He made all things. Listen to a condensed account of it from His own Word called the Bible…

Gen 1:1-2,31,2:1-2 (NIV) “ In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth…God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day. Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array. 2 By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work.”

Moses wrote those words, dictated by God the Spirit, to tell us “how” God created all things. In essence God said, everything came forth out of nothing, for there was nothing that existed before all things, except God Himself; and, once He created it all, He fashioned all into its present marvelous existence and did it all in seven solar days as we know them!

 “My!” What a God He is to be able to do all that. Yet, He is questioned inside and outside the church and made a liar for His words are not believed by a growing number of people. For them it’s intellectual suicide, and worse insanity to believe a God created all things in six days. However, that’s what God said, and what Moses correctly reported. For later on he reaffirms this fact so there would be no mistake. We read of this in,

Exo 20:11; 31:17 (NIV)  For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested and abstained from work on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy."

Now, if one truly believes the Bible as written, they can come to no other conclusion that what God said through Moses, is a literal fact – God created all things in six days. Yet today, apart from those who angrily reject the notion that they are created beings, we have in the church a new breed of rejecters of God’s Word called creationists. Yes, what I’m about to tell you represents a growing number of evangelical believers who have come up with what they believe allows for evolutionist teachings of an ancient earth and universe. For them this explains what can be found in our world and universe that seems to deny the Bible’s account of origins.

Let’s examine those who do not believe in a six day creation. First we discover in the church today the teaching called,

1.  PROGRESSIVE CREATIONISM – This is a fairly new approach to harmonize the teachings of evolution and creation. Clearly, “Progressive Creationism,” supports the foundational tenets of evolutionary science and causes doubt to arise among believers that indeed God's word cannot be rightly understood by its plain sense presentation. Although there is little agreement among Progressive Creationists, they generally believe the following:

• The "Big Bang" theory of evolutionists they say was God's method of forming stars and galaxies through billions-of-years of natural processes He set in motion.

• The Earth and universe are not young in age, but rather billions of years old.

• The days of Creation were not six literal twenty-four hour days, rather overlapping periods of millions and billions of years.

• Death and bloodshed have existed from the very beginning of Creation and were not the result of Adam's sin. Man was created after the vast majority of earth's history of life and death had already taken place.

• The flood of Noah was local, not global and it had little affect on the Earth's geology, which represents billions of years of history.

I believe this is a clear and honest representation of those who bring this teaching into the Church today. Men like Hugh Ross and others promote this in the vain attempt to make evolution’s findings of an ancient universe in harmony with the Bible. However to do this brings more problems than it tries to solve. Now there are two other popular teachings today that try to deny the Bible’s clear and plain account of a six day creation. The second is,

2. GAP OR DAY-AGE THEORY CREATIONISM – This has been an older teaching that arose after the early 19^th century, when God rejecting scientists made evolution popular. This troubled many Christian thinkers who reexamined the Bible and tried to harmonize its teaching with the findings of evolution. In so doing, they came up with the idea that between the first and second verse of Scripture, lays an indeterminable “gap” of time. Now there are many different versions as to what supposedly happened in this "gap" of time. Most versions place “millions of years of geologic time” (including billions of fossil animals) in-between these two first verses of Genesis. This is also the "ruin-reconstruction" theory.

However this idea of origins undermines the gospel as it allows for death, bloodshed, disease, and suffering before Adam's sin. Because most "ruin-reconstruction" theorists have accepted the millions of years faulty dating for the fossil record, they have allowed the false theories of godless scientists to determine the meaning of Scripture. Some further put the fall of Satan within this supposed period. However, friend, any rebellion of Satan during this gap of time contradicts God's description of His completed creation on day six as all being "very good" (Genesis 1:31).

Indeed, all versions of the gap theory impose outside ideas on Scripture and thus open the door for further compromise. Within this camp are the DAY AGE theorists who deny a six-day creation too. They change this a bit and say that the days of Genesis are not 24 hour solar days, but long periods of time, to fit the evolutionists’ geological timetables. But, this too denies the Bible and causes the following false views to be acceptable.

• The Gap and “Day-age” theory accepts as real, the existence of death before sin, in direct contradiction to the Biblical teaching that death is a divine judgment on man’s dominion because of man’s sin (Romans 5:12).

• The Earth and universe are not young in age, but rather billions of years old.

• The days of Creation were not six literal twenty-four hour days, rather either a re-creation time period or overlapping periods of millions and billions of years.

The Gap or “Day-age” Theories are the most anti-literal conservative views, theologically. Both Gap Theorists and Progressive Creationists definitely consider themselves to be Bible-believing Christians. Yet, both of these that attempt to deny a literal six-day continuous creation present serious biblical problems that result in heretical beliefs. Therefore, the only proper way to interpret Genesis 1 is not to “interpret” it at all. That is, we accept the fact that it was meant to say exactly what it says. The “days” are literal days and the events described happened in just the way described. This fantastic first chapter of Genesis tells us what we could never come to know any other way, the history of creation. Moses said it right,

Exo 20:11 (NIV)  For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

Finally, there is a third viewpoint that attempts to harmonize evolution with the Bible, which is called,

3. THEISTIC EVOLUTIONISM – Now of the three that reject a literal six-day creation, “Theistic Evolution” is by far the most liberal theologically. In fact, Theistic Evolutionists often reject the entire Creation account. For some, the only active role for God is the He started the "Big Bang" and occasionally stepped-in to supersede natural processes. The atheistic formula for evolution is: Evolution = matter + evolutionary factors (chance and necessity + mutation + selection + isolation + death) + very long time periods. This the God-denying scientist says brought all things into existence. But in the theistic evolutionary view, God is simply added as the One who set it all in motion. This sounds good, but no evolutionists worth their salt will ever accept it because the whole theory of evolution came about to simply remove god from the equation! Sinful man has cried out in his heart “we will not have this man (God) Jesus Christ to rule over us!” Therefore, rejecters of God needed a system of beliefs that seems plausible to explain God away. Those who claim to be theistic evolutionists are the worst of the lot for they deny the Bible truthfulness and its proper teachings.

In fact, an entire religious group, through its supposedly divinely appointed leader, the Pope of Rome, came out a few years ago affirming that it he supported theistic evolutionism. Yes, Roman Catholicism promotes this teaching to the further detriment of those who follow their erroneous theological and now scientific views. In all though, these three basic teachings on creationism are designed to essentially deny God His glory due Him for creating all things in six literal days.

Now, is it intellectual suicide and worse to simply believe God’s word? I tell you the issue is Spiritual rather than intellectual. For the real question is, “HOW BIG IS YOUR GOD?” Is He capable of accomplishing this omnipotent feat of a six-day creation? If not, then your god is not God at all! Let me tell you, believing in a six-day creation is not ignorance nor unusual, nor is it anti-intellectual. There are many reliable books out today that affirm belief in a six-day literal creation event. Why more than 600 plus voting scientists of the Creation Research Society with at least an earned master's degree in a recognized area of science believe in a six-day creation. Then again, 150 Ph.D. scientists and 300 other scientists with master’s degrees in science or engineering are members of what is called, the Korea Association of Creation Research who also strongly affirm their belief in a literal six-day creation.

Now apart from modern man’s intellectual affirmation, we discover the more important one found in the Bible. It begins with..

(1)   Moses who himself believed what He wrote is truth [Ex.20:11;31:17],

(2)   Then there is the great King David of Israel he believed in a six-day creation [Psa. 33:6-9], finally,

(3)   Jesus Christ himself affirmed it in [John 1:1-3; Gen.1:27; Mat. 19:4-5].

(4)   But if that is not enough, in addition almost every Hebrew language scholar affirms that the word phrase used for “day” in Genesis One, constitutes a literal 24 hour consecutive day as we know it today.

 

Thus, there is strong scholarly and scriptural evidence that the creation days are indeed literal and to believe anything less, is tantamount to denying the major theological teachings of the Bible everyone desperately needs to know.

What do evolutionists and non-literal creationists deny? Here’s a list you need to be aware of and in the process carefully consider when you take a position on creationism which will ultimately determine your destiny in eternity. Apart from the literal six-day interpretation of Genesis One, all of these other viewpoints are…

1. A denial of the inerrancy and infallibility of the Word of God. If God’s Word cannot be understood in the plain sense of its writings, how can anyone trust what else it says about life, death and the afterlife? Moreover, in the Ten Commandments God bases the six working days and one day of rest on the same time-span as that described in the creation account by the same author who was Moses (Exodus 20:8-11). Was he a liar, and what he wrote human wishful thinking and not divine? The bible’s credibility stands or falls based on your beliefs in the literal affirmation of the Creation story. Secondly,

2. A denial of belief in Adam’s sin being the cause of all death, destruction and the slow demise of the universe – Paul the apostle writes in 1 Cor 15:21-22 (NIV)  For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. 22 For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. If Adam is not the cause of death, for it existed long before Adam was created, according to progressive creationists and theistic evolutionists, then how can we believe that through Christ the perfect human being who did not come forth from Adam’s corrupted seed, the human race is redeemed? We cannot! Worse, the Bible is in error by Paul’s statement I just quoted. Third, if you believe any other creation account that a literal six-day creation you affirm,

3. A denial of Jesus Christ’s sinless perfection  - yes, indeed! Jesus himself believed and taught that Moses’ words were to be believed as literally written. He affirmed that God the Father created humanity as a living breathing fully mature adult, and following that brought forth out of the dust of the earth, a companion being called Eve (Mat. 19:4-5) In addition, Jesus believed in a literal worldwide devastating flood of Noah’s day (Luke 17:27), which non-literalists of the Bible deny. If God didn’t create the universe in six literal twenty-four hour days – we must throw the entire Bible out as hopelessly unreliable and virtually useless!

Friend, again I repeat the real question is  ¾ how big is your god? The God of the Bible is so great that His very nature and attributes that brought forth all life, also loves us enough to  come to the earth to rescue us from our sins. Yes, the reliable and inerrant Scripture also tells us mankind sinned and broke God’s law in the beginning before any human beings came forth from the original man and woman. Following their rebellion to God, which changed their sinless nature into one that was sinful ¾  all humanity springs forth from this broken cistern of life.

As such, the Bible also tells us that we are headed from God’s righteous judgment and being destroyed and cast into an eternal Hell. Yet, the Bible is also God’s love story. God the Creator of all, doesn’t want anyone of us to go there, so He devised a plan to save the human race. This plan is Christianity’s “GOOD NEWS” gospel that says God came to earth as a man and lived a sinless perfect life to qualify as a human being not under judgment for sin, and to offer Himself as a substitute sacrifice for the sin of the world. Listen to God, the great Creator Himself speaking to you through His reliable Word,

Rom 5:8 (NIV)  But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

1 John 5:11-12 (NIV)  And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. 12 He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.

John 3:16 (NIV)  “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

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.”

May God so open all our eyes to believe God’s Word and to believe who He is and what He has done for us. May you be found among the living, who have surrendered their hearts and lives to this great, mighty, all-powerful, all-knowing God who created us all and loves us enough to die for our sins.