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Discovering a far more powerful Creator; an infinitely more wonderful Saviour A few weeks ago in an article titled “Cyber Wars and Witch Hunts” I discussed the current internet based witch-hunt, focused on lecturers at SDA educational institutions who are brave enough to teach the data and evidence in support of evolution. In following the ongoing debate it has become clear that many who hold to a literal 6 day creation assume that we, (those who accept the possibility that creation may have happened in a different manner) are denying or diminishing the creatorship of God. For me nothing could be further from the truth.
For most of my life I accepted without question the Genesis account of creation and it is only when I began to research the matter, (ironically in order to prove the fallacy of evolution) that I for the first time honestly confronted the data. The more I researched the matter the clearer it became to me that there was very good evidence for both deep time, and for life having existed on this earth for a very long time. The above discovery led to a great deal of uncertainty and as a result I understand the dangers that such a discovery presents to ones faith. I won’t bore you with my journey through these questions; suffice to say that the end result, for me, has been the recognition of a Creator far more wonderful than I had previously understood and the recognition of a Saviour willing to sacrifice much more than I could previously have even begun to imagine. In accepting the above mentioned evidence, for a very long history of life on this earth, I discovered a Creator who was not only able to create worlds but one who could create entire universes from nothing! A Creator able to speak into existence a universe from a nothingness so unimaginable that not even the nothingness of empty space existed. In accepting this, I have come to understand the amazing sacrifice of Christ in an entirely new light. I now marvel at a God greater than the entire universe, a God beyond both space and time, a God who did not merely relocate from one planet within our universe to another, much like an immigrant from one country to another, but a God greater than the universe Who was willing to come and live on this insignificant spec within our verse, so that I can be with Him. I am well aware of the challenges that accepting that creation may not have happened in strict accordance with the Genesis account poses to other aspects of our theology and don’t claim to have all the answers. I do however strongly believe that God would not set out to deliberately deceive those who honestly investigate the evidence and so, at present, have no alternative but to accept that the way God chose to create may not have been in strict accordance with the Genesis account. I understand that many of the concepts that I have alluded to are difficult to understand and do not expect everyone to have the same understanding of God that I have. I accept and understand that my understanding of God is at least as imperfect as anyone else’s and that it will take eternity for me to fully understand. All that I ask is that those who hold to a literal interpretation of Genesis accept that, in my accepting that God may have created in a different manner to the Genesis account, I am in no way diminishing the creatorship or power of God.
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Comments
I believe that God wouldn’t put something into the Bible if it did not happen the way He told us it did. God can do anything in any way He pleases. I thank Him for reveling everything to us in his time. Keep up the good work I like your articles.
Thank you both for your very kind words about my articles.
Mike, for me many of the questions regarding both contradictions between what we read in the bible and what we see in nature, and contradictions and inconsistencies that we find with the bible itself, are best answered by Alden Thompson’s excellent book “Inspiration, Hard Questions Honest Answers”.
In his book Prof. Thompson points out that the Bible does not contain Gods own words or even his thoughts, but that God inspired men who then in their own limited words, and as members of their own time and culture, tried to convey God’s thoughts to us. I’m afraid that the there is much more to the book than my poor summary above. Anyway I found the book to be very helpful as it enabled me to keep my faith, without surrendering my intellectual integrity.