The culture war and the sovereignty of God...

…when looking at the culture war today, we run smack into the face of the sovereignty of God. Let us look at what John Morris has to say about it.

Doxology to the King
by John D. Morris, Ph.D.
"Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen" (I Timothy 1:17).

In this stirring doxology to the One who allowed him into the ministry (vv.12,13), whose grace "was exceeding abundant" (v.14), who "came into the world to save sinners" (v.15), who showed mercy and longsuffering, and who grants "life everlasting" (v.16), Paul uses several majestic descriptive terms. Each deserves our attention.
The King eternal. God's sovereign kingship is in view here. The phrase literally translates, the "King of the ages." "But the LORD is the true God, He is the living God, and an everlasting King" (Jeremiah 10:10). He is the King, and we must stand in submission to Him.
Immortal. The Greek word used here implies more than mere exemption from death. A fuller meaning would include total incorruptibility; i.e., the inability to be stained by either decay or death. What a comfort to realize that the believer's crown in glory will be likewise incorruptible (I Corinthians 9:25) as will his resurrection body (I Corinthians 15:52).
Invisible. God is a Spirit, and as such cannot be seen. He has chosen to appear on numerous occasions, most notably as Christ, but is usually unseen, the primary meaning of the word. Christ "is the image of the invisible same word God, the firstborn of every creature" (Colossians 1:15). Seen or unseen, He merits our praise.
The only wise God. God is unique in His existence and wisdom, "God only wise" (Romans 16:27). He stands alone, solitary, apart from all others.
Surely to this eternal, incorruptible, unseen, unique, wise, sovereign King belongs "honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen." JDM

Clearly, God is in control. He is sovereign. He is Lord of all. All our wills bow down to the will of God! Check out this quote:

“[Evolution] is a general postulate to which all theories, all hypotheses, all systems must henceforth bow and which they must satisfy in order to be thinkable and true. Evolution is a light which illuminates all facts, a trajectory which all lines of thought must follow – this is what evolution is.” –Teilhard de Chardin

Wow! What a statement! Let us dissect this for a second. First, de Chardin claims that “all theories, all hypotheses, all systems must henceforth bow” to evolution “in order to be thinkable and true.” And we wonder why there is a culture war? This man just made the bold statement that evolution was, in fact, God!

Actually, he said even more than that. He basically stated that God must bow down to evolution! Talk about some “in your face” stuff. There it is. Out there on the table for all of us to see…God must be subservient to evolution. What an atheist! What a heretic! What kind of man could claim that even God, being only a hypothesis, must bow to evolution?! Read on…

Is this much different than Theistic Evolution? Is this much different than the Day/Age theory? Is this much different to the Gap Theory? Is this much different than Progressive Creation? I don’t think it is. Let me explain each briefly…

Theistic Evolution is basically a thought experiment to try to fit what secular scientists say about science into what the Bible says about Creation. Basically it goes as follows: The Earth is really, really old and God used evolution as the means by which he created everything. Ok, there you go! Biblically, this is easily debunked because God rested (ceased) from creating on day 7. Clearly, those that subscribe to this view have subverted God’s infallible Word (The Bible) for the apparently infallible word of secular scientists. It is a sovereignty issue! Who do these people view as sovereign? God? Or secular science? I think the choice is clear to whom these people bow…

The Day/Age Theory states that the days of creation were actually huge long eras of time. They claim that the word “day” in Genesis 1 doesn’t really refer to a roughly 24 hour period of time, but could possibly refer to thousands or millions of years. Obviously then it would be possible to cram the millions/billions of years of evolution into the first chapter of Genesis that way, right? The Hebrew word for day is “yom.” Yes, it can mean some length of time other than a typical (roughly) 24 hour period of time…except when it’s used in association with a number. Each and every time the Old Testament uses the word “yom” associated with a number, the context is quite clear that the author is referring to a roughly 24 hour period of time. Each time the word “yom” is used in Genesis 1 it is associated with a number and therefore means roughly a 24 hour period of time. Again, those that subscribe to this theory are subverting the sovereignty of God for the god of secular science… “Secular scientists say this so it must be true…how can I change the Bible to fit science…?” Wrong question!

The Gap Theory claims that there is Genesis 1:1, and then there are millions/billions of years of evolution passing, and then there is Genesis 1:2. Using hermeneutics one can infer that the context of the text does not imply a huge passage of time between these two verses. Again, subscribers to this theory are subverting God’s sovereignty and infallibility and setting up a different infallibility…one of secular science.

Progressive Creationists lay claim to the theory that God created new living things gradually over the course of millions/billions of years. Again, there is a blind acceptance (dare I say faith) in the millions/billions of years of age to the Earth. There is no such acceptance to the Word of God in His first book…the one that talks about the origins of living things.

All of these could not happen when looked at Scripturally. All of these involve death and dying for millions of years before the first sin. Scripture is quite clear that sin is the cause of death, and that the first sin was credited to Adam eating of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Therefore, all this millions/billions of years of death could not have occurred…that is if you accept that God is sovereign and in control and that His Word is truth.

But this is coming from churches, Christian churches, all over the world. Instead of standing up tall and proud for God’s Word and both Biblically and scientifically defending that stance with sound theology and science, many have decided to accept that millions/billions of years is acceptable to the Biblical account…it is not.

Can one be a Christian and still believe in evolution and an old Earth? Sure. I did! I have no doubts about my salvation. I have not doubts that my regeneration occurred whilst I was still an old Earth evolutionist. But eventually sound theology started me guessing as to whether or not my acceptance of the science was sound or not. And as I delved into the science of old earth evolution more and more over the years, I have discovered that there is so much evidence for a young earth and for creation that I can’t believe I ever didn’t believe it!!! But isn’t that how the story always goes?!

Our culture has been infiltrated and usurped by a minority of people that want to indoctrinate us with the belief that God’s Word is not sovereign and infallible. It takes hard work, every day, to be able to spot the cultural aspects of our commercials, our sitcoms, our movies, our news, our politics, our lives in general. And it takes harder work to read the Bible without bringing in millions/billions of years, naturalism, and uniformitarianism to God’s Word. Start noticing how the culture is twisting truth. Start noticing how truth is being eliminated bit by bit. “Shades of gray,” or “this is true for me but may not be true for you,” or notice the inordinate amount of interesting Jesus documentaries that only portray the human aspect of Him (and badly I might add) or some other common figure of speech. These sayings are barometers to the culture around you.

On an up note, I have noticed a huge percentage increase of people working in businesses that have said, “Merry Christmas” after our business was transacted. I personally think that’s awesome! People are starting to notice that the culture is eliminating God from every aspect of reality. Science is making discoveries that daily provide veracity to the Biblical account of Creation. The information age we live in has gotten the secular humanist/evolutionist/post-modernist in a twit. We are making a turn toward God in this day, and we need to keep turning toward Him!