Recently I gave a talk on how important the topic of Creation science is in the last days of earth’s history. Here is a brief summary:
2 Peter 3 says that in the “last days” scoffers would come, denying the fact that God created the world and saying that He never destroyed the earth with a flood, nor will he ever judge the world.
This is exactly what has happened. Atheists are fulfilling one of the signs of the last days by scoffing at the scriptures! Widespread atheism is something unusual in earth’s history – large groups of people, even entire nations, professing no belief in any god. Almost even nation and people group throughout history has believed in some kind of god or gods. But the Bible predicted that in the “last days” there would be a change.
A lot of people believe that the last book of the Bible, book of Revelation, is about the last days. So what do we find there?
The book of Revelation uses the word “worship” more than any other book of the Bible – even more than Psalms! The book of Revelation is all about worship. Will you worship “the beast and his image” (Rev. 14:9)? Or will you “worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters” (Rev. 14:7)?
The book of Revelation has more quotes and reference to the Old Testament than any other book of the Bible. Many of these quotes can be traced to the Septuagint version of the Bible (the Greek translation Jesus and the apostles many times quoted from).
Interestingly, that last verse, Revelation 14:7, contains one of these quotes. When it says, “worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters”, it is quoting eleven words from the Old Testament. Guess where they come from?
The fourth commandment!
This is the commandment that leads us to the Creator who made the entire world in six literal days, and it refers us back to when he rested from His work of creation on the literal seventh day, setting a precedent for the Sabbath. The last book of the Bible leads us back to the first book of the Bible, where the Creator did his amazing and wonderful work. This is what the last day scoffers are scoffing at! And Revelation tells us this is part of the last great battle between good and evil!
Which side will we be on? Who will we be worshiping?
“Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.” (Rev. 14:7)
This is God’s message to the scoffing world in the “last days” – the judgment is coming; worship the Creator!
I find it amazing that God knew ahead of time exactly what the scoffers would be scoffing at in the last days! And their unbelief is actually evidence that the scriptures are trustworthy – because God predicted 2,000 years ago that this would happen in the last days!
So this is a call for us to share with the world the knowledge of the Creator and his wonderful power so they can intelligently choose whom they will worship!
Now, for those who want to read a shorter post, you can quit here. But for those who want to dig deeper, there are a few more thoughts I’d like to share.
The book of Revelation is about false religion vs. true religion.
I think it is safe to say that every false religion throughout time has been based on the principle of salvation by works – you had to do things and offer sacrifices to appease the gods and raise yourself up to a higher level. And all true religion, throughout time, has been based on salvation by grace, through faith in Christ’s atoning blood.
In the beginning God created us in his own image (Gen. 1:26). But when man fell, that image was marred. And we read that Adam had a son “in his own likeness, after his image” (Gen 5:3).
The purpose of the plan of salvation is to restore in man the image of his Creator.
This change cannot happen by the efforts of the creature, over long periods of time. It does not happen by accident – by evolving gradually. It does not happen by the creature slowly adapting to the changing environment of the world around it.
Society is not improving gradually over time, by their own efforts at change. Individuals and society are not in an upward march to becoming better and better. No, they are degrading – going downward – instead! The law of moral entropy is acting upon the human race. It is the second law of moral dynamics – we’re going down, not up! There is no possibility of “spiritual evolution” improving the human race.
The only solution is for the great Creator to recreate us into his image – Intelligent redesign! This is not something we can accomplish by our own efforts, by trying over and over, by our own strength, to do what we know is right. (Insert here the classic image of the raptor jumping up into the air over and over trying to catch bugs….and eventually growing wings as a result. It doesn’t work that way, either in the natural realm or in the spiritual realm!)
When God created the “heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters”, he did it by his word. After he had formed man in the dust, he “breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul” (Gen. 2:7).
In the Bible, the Hebrew word for “breath” is the same word that is translated “spirit”. This is how God created man in his image – by breathing into him his Spirit. This is the same way God recreates us into his image – by breathing into us his Spirit. This is what give us new life and allows us to walk in the Spirit, and not in the flesh. “That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” (Rom 8:4) Once we have been recreated, then we will want to obey God’s law. It will be a “law of liberty” to us. (James 1:25) Righteous works will flow out of us naturally, “For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.” (Phil 2:13)
This is the only way spiritual life can come into the world – by God’s word and his Spirit giving us life. We cannot evolve into “good people” or a “good society” by our own efforts, over long periods of time. This is salvation by works of evolution, the root of every false religion.
This is the basis for the religion of spiritual “Babylon” – a word which means “mixing”. And this is portrayed in the “beast” of Revelation 13. It is a genetically mutated creature, so to speak – body of a leopard, feet of a bear, mouth of a lion, power from the dragon, etc. These are the very creatures mentioned in Daniel 7, and used to represent the various kingdoms of the world. The beast of Revelation, which is supposed to be a religious entity, has genetically mixed with the kingdoms of this world. This is what led to it’s genetic mutations. This is what the Bible calls spiritual adultery. It followed the principle of “survival of the fittest” – believing that the way to survive was to adapt to it’s worldly environment, in order to become bigger, better, and more powerful (millions of members, power, and wealth). It was was supposed to be like Christ, but became like the world around it instead.
This is false religion – a terrible mutation. Instead of becoming “conformed to the image of his Son”, by the grace and power of God, they became conformed to the image of a persecuting beast. This is the inevitable result of spiritual “evolution”.
So, are we content to just stay where we are at, without the image of Christ within us? Can we stay in a spiritually lifeless state and still be Christians?
Is it possible for us to pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps – to advance to spiritual perfection by our own efforts? Do we unconsciously believe in spiritual evolution – that we will gradually become better and better as we try harder and harder to change ourselves (like the raptor trying to jump higher and higher)?
Or will we let “him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters” recreate us into his image by his divine power, by the power of his Spirit working upon our hearts?
These are our choices; and they will decide which side we will be on in the last great battle between good and evil in these last days.
Evolution, or Intelligent Redesign?
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