SECOND LONDON BAPTIST CONFESSION 4.1-3
Truth for Life • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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-Tonight, I want you to imagine that you were an astronaut and there was the capability to go off to far away planets. Let’s say you took a ship to a planet, you landed, and you disembarked to explore. As you were exploring you came upon a flat plain and in the plain there were rocks scattered about, but they made a perfect, large triangle. You look at that and would probably think that was an interesting coincidence, and might wonder what phenomenon might have caused it, but you wouldn’t think much more about it.
~But now, let’s say you go exploring and you come upon a flat plain and you find rocks that are placed out in a pattern, and the pattern are the words: WELCOME. WE’RE GLAD YOU ARE HERE. You would know that there is no way that those rocks spelled out those words by accident, coincidence, or chance. Only an intelligence would have been able to put an intelligible pattern together like that.
-Throughout the world and universe as found through the various sciences (such as medicine, anatomy, astronomy, archeology, etc.) we can find many different evidences of such intelligence and design. Unlike what many think, religion and science are not at odds with one another, it’s just that there are disagreements on the interpretation of what is there. The intelligent design community has grown tremendously over the past few decades, showing through the sciences the claim that Jews and Christians have made for millennia—In the beginning God created. While unbelievers in science claim a secular view, in actuality they are just following a different religion—that of naturalism—everything happened naturally and by chance.
-Robert Jastrow who was a NASA scientist, although not a believer, he seemed sympathetic to the notion of creation and wrote several books that described the dismay and frustration of scientists who are drawn back by their own scientific methods to a point that hinders them from going forward. He wrote:
There is a kind of a religion in science; it is the religion of a person who believes there is order and harmony in the Universe. Every event can be explained in a rational way as the product of some previous event.... This religious faith of the scientist is violated by the discovery that the world has a beginning under conditions in which the known laws of physics are not valid, and as a product of forces or circumstances we cannot discover.... At this moment it seems as though science will never be able to raise the curtain on the mystery of creation. For the scientist who has lived by his faith in the power of reason, the story ends like a bad dream. He has scaled the mountains of ignorance; he is about to conquer the highest peak; as he pulls himself over the final rock, he is greeted by a band of theologians who have been sitting there for centuries.
-What he’s saying is that these secular scientists are stuck in their method of explaining the universe. But if they truly followed the evidence where it led, they’ll find what theologians have been saying for thousands of years—God created. This is a foundational doctrine of the Christian faith, because nothing else makes sense if it isn’t first established that the universe and everything in it are not the product of random chance, but God created everything that exists outside of Himself. And so, we need that foundation to understand our own place in this universe.
-I have been using creeds and confessions as starting points to discuss important doctrines. Although we might not agree with every aspect of what they say, they point us to important discussions. The fact of creation is very important because it makes sure we understand who God is and makes us understand who we are in comparison. A Baptist confession that I have been using says this about creation:
Confessing the Faith: The 1689 Baptist Confession for the 21st Century (IV. Creation)
4:1 In the beginning God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit was pleased to create or make the world and all things in it, both visible and invisible, in a six-day period, and all very good. He did this to manifest the glory of His eternal power, wisdom and goodness.
4:2 After God had made all the other creatures, He created humanity. He made them male and female, with rational and immortal souls, thereby making them suited to that life lived unto God for which they were created. They were made in the image of God, being endowed with knowledge, righteousness, and true holiness. They had the law of God written in their hearts and the power to fulfill it. Even so, they could still transgress the law, because they were left to the liberty of their own will, which was subject to change.
4:3 In addition to the law written in their hearts, they received a command not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. As long as they obeyed this command, they were happy in their communion with God and had dominion over the creatures.
-The confession summarizes our beliefs, beginning at the beginning with the fact that the physical universe did not always exist, but God created it. The whole of the Triune God was involved in bringing everything from nothing. The Scriptures testify
1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
2 Now the earth was without shape and empty, and darkness was over the surface of the watery deep, but the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the water.
3 All things were created by him, and apart from him not one thing was created that has been created.
16 for all things in heaven and on earth were created by him—all things, whether visible or invisible, whether thrones or dominions, whether principalities or powers—all things were created through him and for him.
17 He himself is before all things, and all things are held together in him.
-Whether it is the spiritual realm or physical realm, everything that exists outside of God was created by God—whether it’s the angels and the realm we call heaven, or whether it’s the universe with stars and planets and galaxies and the like. In eternity, there was only God, and then God created everything from nothing.
-This claim flies in the face of other worldviews. Atheism says there is no God, but God is the only explanation of why anything exists to begin with—He is the First Cause of all that exists. Materialism says that matter has always existed—the problem is that even science itself says that the universe had a beginning…matter didn’t always exist. Pantheism says that God is in all things and in all things everything is God. However, the biblical claim is that God is separate from His creation—there is a distinction between Creator and creation. Creation is under the authority of the Creator. The Creator rules and reigns over that which He has made.
-The confession assumes a young earth creation position of a literal six days. There are other Christians who claim that the six days speak of periods of time of creation or it might be a literary tool. Physicist Hugh Ross and his works discuss how the days accurately represents from the perspective of someone if they were standing on earth how the creation would have looked over periods of long time, but he holds to God creating everything, literal Adam and Eve, etc. One of my professors, Ted Cabal, wrote a book entitled Controversy of the Ages: Why Christians Should Not Divide Over the Age of the Earth reminding us that it is not a salvation issue, but one worthy of discussion, as long as a person believes that God created the heavens and the earth.
-There is the whole issue of evolution, and while many conservative theologians in the past who have held to inerrancy of Scripture tried to reconcile evolution and creation, I believe there are numerous scientific and theological issues with the concept of macro-evolution. Instead, when we read Scripture, there was a literal garden of Eden, a literal Adam and Eve, a literal fall, etc.
-Why God created what He created was not out of any necessity, because God lacks nothing—He is sufficient in and of Himself. The confession tells us that all things were created simply for the manifestation off the glory of God’s eternal power, wisdom, and goodness. He was not lacking glory, but creation was made as a display of the glory that He already possessed.
20 For since the creation of the world his invisible attributes—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, because they are understood through what has been made. So people are without excuse.
-God created everything. But Scripture spends a good amount of time one one particular aspect of creation—the creation of man. Humanity was God’s special creation—the crowning achievement of all that He made. Unlike what some scientists claim, humanity is not just another animal among many. Humanity has some things that animals do not. And so we read:
26 Then God said, “Let us make humankind in our image, after our likeness, so they may rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move on the earth.”
27 God created humankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them, male and female he created them.
-This creation account, and that given in Genesis 2, shows that humanity is made of both body and spirit (as the confession says: with rational and immortal souls). Mankind has an invisible and visible part, and they were originally made to be together. With the introduction of sin into human nature, the visible physical part of humanity (the body) perishes, but the immortal soul lives on. After death, the soul goes to wherever it’s headed—heaven or hell. But this is just a temporary situation. There will come a day when Christ returns when souls will be reunited with a body. For believers, it is a glorified body made for the new heaven and earth and made for eternal life with Christ. For unbelievers, it is a body made for eternal death in the lake of fire.
-Unlike what some philosophies and religions claim, the physical is not inherently evil (although it is corrupted right now). God created humanity to be body and soul, and it will be body and soul with which they exist forever.
-But what makes humanity different from all the rest of creation is that only humanity was created in the image of God. The confession describes it as being endowed with knowledge, righteousness, and true holiness. While there is much debate about what the image entails, at minimum it is the fact of humanity being able to commune with its Creator and to be His representative on earth, being given dominion over what God had made. As the confession points out, only humanity is able to have the law of God written in the heart. Yes, sin corrupted the heart. But in Christ, the heart is renewed, a new spirit is given to humanity, and the law is rewritten on the heart. And since humanity alone was made in the image of God, only humanity can be redeemed by God and forgiven of their sins.
-Why is any of this significant?
Creation is the basis for all scientific endeavors. God created a rational universe that can be explored. Without God’s act of creation (besides the fact that nothing would exist) it would be chaotic and would not be sensible.
Mankind being in God’s image had been endowed with creative abilities to glorify God through the talents and gifts God has given people. Because God created, on a much smaller scale we are able to create. Because God created us in His image, we are able to be musical or artistic or rational.
Some might say that God’s trinitarian relationship in creating the world gives a basis for social and cultural relationships within humanity.
We are faced with the sovereignty of God and learn that we can trust Him. If God created everything by a Word, He is more than capable of taking care of us in our times of need.
-So, the next time you see a cute animal or you see a beautiful sunset, let it remind you of who made it, and may it lead you to praise and worship, giving glory to the Creator of all things. Trust and worship Him...