Download Survival of the Truest - Ann Arbor Free Methodist Church

Survival of the Truest
A Sermon by Pastor R. D. Johnson
Preached at the Ann Arbor, MI Free Methodist Church
Scripture Text:
Genesis 1-2
July 31, 2011
Sermon #0263
On our journey to discover or rediscover what we as followers of Christ believe to be most
true – those ideas and teachings that are most foundational to living a God honoring life and
surviving the second death to live forever with our creator, we have looked at the sinfulness
of man by analyzing the myriad of religions that fall short of connecting with God. We have
investigated the accuracy and reliability of the Biblical text. And we looked at how the Bible
describes the Triune nature of God.
But while we have demonstrated that the testimony given to us in the bible is trustworthy, we
have not yet explored WHY we should trust the Bible as literal history as I am convinced we
should!
The most controversial aspect of the Bible is its claim that Jesus is God, that He was
resurrected from the dead, and that He is the ONLY way to reconnect with God a live
forever.
But a very close second in the last hundred years or so is a subject that the Bible devotes
ONLY two chapters to. An aspect of belief so central to a biblical worldview that for
thousands of years people have sought to prove the Bible wrong by attacking the validity of
these two chapters.
It deals with a question that philosophy has been trying to grapple with for at least 2500
years. That is the question of “Where do I come from?” “How did I get here?” “Where did
life begin?”
Charles Darwin attempted to answer that question in his book, “Origin of Species” but he
was not the first. The Divine Creation -vs- natural process has been debated for thousands of
years. Greek philosophers hundreds of years before Christ were already considering an
evolutionary process to explain origins without the need for a ‘god’ creator.
Why is this debate and the side we agree with so important to our faith?
1) Origins define purpose – If God created we have purpose and value
2) God is not a liar – The Bible specifically describes divine creation
3) Many Christians don’t believe it is!!! – When the world contradicts God and we
believe the world, that is a MAJOR PROBLEM!
This question was posed on yahooanswers.com
“What percent of Christians believe in evolution?”
The answers ranged from:
 Cannot put a % on it however 90% of my Christian friends accept evolution as fact.
 IF you are asking what percentage of true born again Christians belive in evolution, the
answer to that is none of them.
To:
 Your question is silly and perpetuates the ignorance that everyone has about evolution
and science in general. Would your question make any sense if you changed the word
evolution for gravity?
Gravity is a theory too.
But a theory is STRONGER than a fact.
A theory is based on a large body of
MANY facts and supported by evidence
and scientific proof.
- FALSE Gravity is a term that describes a
scientific law
- FALSE A theory can’t be proven, if it ever IS,
it becomes known as a fact!
- FALSE Theories CAN BE based on many facts,
not all of them are.
People who do not believe in "evolution"
are ignorant of what any of these terms
- It is hard NOT to be ignorant of terms that seem
mean and what the science of evolution
to change definition randomly!
Says.
All rational and intelligent christians "believe" in evolution,
evolution is NOT incompatible with any religious system of beliefs.
Do you see how dangerous this ‘THEORY’ is, if God did in fact create as the Bible says?
In the Bible mankind is given meaning, purpose and value by God. Created in HIS
LIKENESS! Loved, and set above the rest of creation to rule over it.
Evolution was contrived to get rid of God and in its quest to be a god unto itself has thrown
out purpose and value of human life. In attempting to destroy God, it is destroying man.
…for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards
those who seek him. – Hebrews 11:6
So what do Christians do? Do we deny a worldly theory full of holes that is ever changing
because every change is discovered to be refuted by scientific experimentation and fact, and
cling to the words of God in the Bible we have already shown to be trustworthy according to
textual analysis, Historical record and Archeological evidence?
NO. Foolishly we try to merge the two and claim God used evolution. STUPID!
Survival of the truest. I could spend weeks going over all the evidences, the facts, the reason, and
the implications of believing Biblical Creation -vs- Theistic Evolution -vs- Naturalistic Evolution,
but for time’s sake I will just ask this question: Which came first, the chicken or the egg?
The Bible claims – the Chicken
Evolution claims – the Egg
(Did you ever realize this was not a silly riddle but a test of evolution?)
The EGG Without God’s Help
If the chicken egg came before the chicken, then logically it was produced by another life
form. A not chicken laid a chicken egg. As absurd as this sounds, and despite the FACT that
no instance of this can be found in recorded history, it IS the position of evolution.
But before we try to understand how, first consider that evolution is NOT the product of man
gradually becoming smarter and science gradually becoming more sophisticated and myths
becoming obsolete as science can now answer questions unanswerable in the past.
About 600-500 BC we have records of the notion of evolution being contrived, NOT based
on science and fact, but for the same reason it reared its ugly head in the 19 th century.
Anaximander [Miletus, 610 - 546 BC]
Anaximander made bold inquiries; he questioned the myths, the knowledge of the old, the
heavens, and even the gods themselves. He was wholly rational in his approach and his quest
was to derive natural explanations for phenomena that previously had been ascribed to the
agency of supernatural powers.
 Wholly rational in his approach, did you hear that description? So God then is
irrational. (understandably the Greek gods were myth, but the reason for evolution was
not because we are wiser but because we don’t want to follow ‘the gods’)
Other Greek thinkers followed his line of ‘rational’ explanations:
 Heraclitus (c. 500 B . C . E . ), also known as the "flux philosopher," believed that
change was a fundamental property of the universe.
 His successor, Empedocles (c.. 392–432 B.C.E.), first articulated a crude but dynamic
theory that postulated that the origin of life had taken place in a manner that suggested
evolution.
Then to prove the SAME anti-god reason for this ‘rational’ theory in the 19th century:
Sir Arthur Keith admited in the forward to the 100th anniversary edition of Darwin's book,
Origin of Species in 1959: "Evolution is unproved and unprovable. We believe it only
because the only alternative is special creation which is unthinkable."
The late Steven J Gould, whose greatest contribution to science was the theory of punctuated
equilibrium, which he developed with Niles Eldredge in 1972 was asked in a letter by a
believer in evolution to print pictures of intermediate fossils in his books so skeptics could no
longer doubt the theory. Gould’s answer was that he would certainly print such pictures IF
any existed.
The fact that natural selection or survival of the fittest is the backbone of the theory of
evolution to me removes all credibility from the theory. Many give nature the ‘god’ place of
intelligently selecting higher levels of complexity which over time would produce higher life
forms. This notion is insane! Survival of the fittest simply means winners win. Naturally the
most adaptable will adapt and survive. This would produce in mankind, over time, stronger
or smarter or healthier humans, not eventually something not human!
Was Einstein a new species? NO, he was a naturally intelligent human.
The EGG could NOT come first without an intelligent cause.
The EGG With God’s Help
Evolution unguided by any intelligence has never been demonstrated, only speculated. The
fossil record offers no links between, only similarities. Despite these flaws, IF we assume it
to be true, and we follow the speculative lineage back to the beginning, IT ALL BREAKS
DOWN!
It was once thought that life originated in the oceans, but we know now that proteins cannot
form in the oceans because the reaction in which two amino acids bond together releases a
water molecule. According to the Le Châtelier Principle, it is not possible for a reaction that
releases water to take place in a hydrate environment.
Given all the problems with the theory that the scientific community refuses to toss out
because the only alternative is special creation which is unthinkable, what do Christians do,
who have held the biblical response prepared over 3000 years ago,
Well clearly we should believe the theory that was developed to disregard God, whose form
and cause evolutionists themselves can not even agree on, but since its origin is a big black
hole of impossibility, we will place God there. He created evolution.
Problem: That’s NOT what Genesis says
Answer: Genesis was a story for primitive man
But it was a ‘story’ that Israel, New Testament writer AND Jesus Himself took literally!!
The EGG with God’s help contradicts Jesus’ understanding of Genesis 1-2.
The Chicken
In Genesis 1 and 2, we are given an account of creation that leaves NO room for theistic
evolution. God spoke and things existed in their full mature form ready to reproduce after
their OWN kind.
The creation of Mankind was wholly different than every other form of life. Man was formed
by God, life breathed into his nostrils.
The ONLY way to combine Christianity with evolution is to fictionalize Genesis 1 and 2,
most don’t even stop there. It turns out everything up to Abraham is myth.
Problem: Genealogy Jesus is traced back to Adam! When does fiction become reality?
Reason to believe the factual account of Genesis:
 Written over 3000 years ago – before any known concept or evolution of natural origin
 Order - matter-light-water-plants-sun and stars-fish and birds-land animals-Man
This order is scientifically necessary (which is why evolution has used the same order) but
the odds of the writer of Genesis fabricating this without the science we know today is
astronomical.
Consider this:
After Noah’s flood the existence of God and His authority was beyond doubt. About 1900
years later we see the Greek philosophers offering theories of origins and life to make God
obsolete. Then a few hundred years later Jesus shows up and his life, miracles, death and
resurrection turn the hearts of men back to God. The disciples take the gospel to the world.
And about 1900 years later we see Darwin’s “Origin of Species” and those in the scientific
community who desire to do away with God run with the idea.
For the last 100 years or so we are indoctrinated in school with this theory. Many believe it to
be fact. Churches and denominations step away from the Bible to agree with it. Those who
will not are cast out (i.e. ‘Expelled’ documentary by Ben Stein), called ignorant.
But the way I see it, it takes mankind about 1900 years after a universal proof to deny the
existence of God. And now we are living in the aftermath of that denial. But in the end only
the truest will survive.
God requires faithfulness, “Without God it is impossible to please God…
…for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards
those who seek him. – Hebrews 11:6
Will you trust God? Or those who seek to deny His existence?