Why I am a Creationist

The word “creationist” is an incendiary label in discussions about human origins. Creationists are charged with being anti-science, dogmatic fundamentalists and just a plain nuisance. Evolutionists are credited with being the enlightened and scientific people who want to uphold the academic integrity of our educational system. The issues involved here run deep. The debate between creationists and evolutionists is not simply one of how a science class should be conducted. It is a collision of two different worldviews. If the discussion does not begin at this point critical issues will be obscured and faulty conclusions will be drawn. Evolutionary theory believes (this is an important verb) “that all life forms on Earth, including humans, share common ancestry and developed over millions of years through the mechanisms of natural selection and random mutation.” The creationist believes that God is the Maker of all things. To be a creationist is a commitment to belief in the Triune God, a central plank in orthodox Christianity. However, to call oneself a creationist opens up another issue. For the purposes of brevity and succinctness, Christians fall into different camps of interpretation of the Bible when it comes to origins. Some believe in what is known as theistic evolution. In this view God is integrated into the evolutionary philosophy. There are others who subscribe to what is known as progressive creationism. It teaches that in the “Big Bang” origin of the universe over 16 billion years ago, death, bloodshed, and disease existed before Adam and Eve, the days of creation were long periods, and Noah’s Flood was a local event. It is my view that theistic evolution and progressive creationism qualify as lamentable creation compromises.

My intention is not to critique these interpretations of human origins, but to set forth my reasons for being a biblical creationist. I am of the conviction that God created the earth in six literal days. My first reason is a belief in the absolute trustworthiness of the Bible, that it is God’s infallible, inerrant, and all-sufficient Word. This is the claim of the Bible for itself (2 Tim. 3:16; 2 Pet. 1:21). This is also the historic view of the church. Jesus Christ has given witness to the absolute authority of the Scriptures, Old Testament and New Testament (Jn. 10:35; 16:13). Either the Bible is our final authority for life and godliness, or it is not. This battle over the Bible has been fought by every generation of believers since God spoke to Adam and Eve. Satan’s “has God said” has seduced its millions. Resistance to the belief that God is our Creator will be fought on the hill of biblical authority. Any compromise here will result in unbelief strutting through a short-lived victory.

I am a creationist because the Genesis account of creation, when interpreted by a consistent literal, historical, grammatical method (the way the Bible interprets itself), is perspicuous (lucid or clear) in its teaching. It is, at best, misguided desperation to attempt to shoe-horn into the text and chronology of the Bible millions or billions of years. The days of Genesis 1 and 2 are not elastic numerals. The six-day creation week was established as a model for man’s work week (Ex. 20:11). The literal 24 hour-day-view is the clearest reading of the text. One wonders if interpretations that deny this (e.g. each day equivalent to an age) have been developed in response to the pressures of evolutionary philosophy.

I am a creationist because Jesus Christ was a creationist. He believed that the creation was God’s work (Mk. 13:19). He believed Adam and Eve were created by the hand of God (Matt. 19:4-5). It is evident from the teaching of Jesus in the Gospels that the creation record is historically true and divinely inspired. Jesus was a creationist because He did the creating (Jn. 1:3; Col. 1:16). Every created thing “passed through the intelligence and will of the Son of God. All nature dances to His tune by His sustaining power” (Mk. 6:39; Heb. 1:3). The miracles of Jesus Christ in the Gospels tell us much about His miracles at creation.

I am a creationist because nature has God’s finger prints all over it. The grass and the lilies of the field are the product of His design and decoration (Matt. 6:28-30). He is the Intelligent Designer and creation’s complexity is a witness to the Creator’s infinite knowledge and power, not chance through vast periods of time. When I look at the stars against the black velvet of the night sky for some reason my first thought is not “what a glorious accident.” All nature sings of God’s glory (Psa. 19:1). Sin-blinded mankind looks at the wonders of nature and worships it. And in so doing, condemns itself (Rom. 1:18-32).

I am a creationist because of the tragic alternative. Evolution says that we exist because of some cosmic accident that occurred billions of years ago. It tells us that we are a mere collection of molecules caught up in a brief, meaningless experience on this imperiled planet. Death is the end of it all, so get used to it. Glorified road-kill, that’s what we are. As Richard Dawkins, the high priest of the First Church of evolutionary thought, has said, “Charles Darwin hit upon a brilliant idea that elegantly explains all of life on earth without any need to invoke the supernatural or the divine.” I refuse to yield to the intellectual bullies and thought police of our age. Evolution does not stand on scientific merit. It is at its core a philosophy placing its own spin on fossils, mutating viruses, and molecular biology. We were made to worship the Creator and any attempt to deny that, no matter what the form, is idolatry.

Dr. Howard E. Dial
Berachah Bible Church

A Letter to Nikki

Dear Nikki,

As I write, a host of memories sweep over me. I think back to your growing-up years at Berachah. Your father and mother were faithful to bring you and Shay Sunday after Sunday, month after month, year after year. I remember you quietly sitting there with those big brown eyes listening to Bible exposition (Were you really listening?). But now as I fast forward my thoughts, that picture your mother sent on the internet is fresh in my mind’s eye. It’s the one of you and Railin with the bandanas on your head. What makes that picture all the more poignant is the story it represents. Since you were first diagnosed with breast cancer wave upon wave of emotional issues have washed over you and all of us who love you. Chemotherapy and radiation treatments have now become unwanted but necessary guests. Nausea, loss of hair, and weakness have become new milestones in your life. We have heard these stories from other women and wondered how we would feel if this happened to someone we knew well. Now we know. Your battle with cancer has drawn so many of us into your suffering. God’s people have come alongside you in prayer, gifts, and help with your daily routine. Your family is bearing your burdens in extraordinary ways. As we have prayed together, the preciousness of trust in God has become even more meaningful and real.

But what is faith? How does it express itself when God’s providence frowns? Is faith merely some abstract feeling that everything is going to work out for the better? If we exercise enough faith, can we see our ailments vanish? As I recall, you were told by someone that very thing. This theologically flawed understanding of faith is offered as hope in our times of sickness and need. We are told to claim our healing. The words of Jesus (“Whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says is going to happen, it shall be granted him” Mk. 11:23) are used as heavy weapons against our supposed lack of faith.

It would be helpful if we pondered the words of our Lord in their context. The disciples of Jesus needed to understand the vital place of confidence in God, if they were to bring the greatest glory to Him. The withered fig tree provided the opportunity to teach an indispensable lesson in how to move the mountains of the seemingly impossible. Prayer is very powerful in its effect. Jesus was using the figure of a mountain to refer to mountainous difficulties (like fighting cancer). Biblical faith does not have to overcome a reluctant God but rather expresses confidence in God’s power and goodness. God wants to display His perfections by our calling on Him for the help we need. He is the “rooter-up of mountains of great difficulties.” Faith that honors God is the assurance and conviction that what God has said is true and that it is to be acted upon. This is a far cry from that cruel idea that by our faith we can create reality (“Faith in God can make my cancer go away”). This is nothing more than a mental game of having faith in faith or faith in oneself. The kind of faith Jesus was talking about is rock solid confidence in God and in His Word.

Nikki, when you pray about your cancer, ask that God’s will be done, as any of us should when we encounter obstacles in life (“That, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us” 1 Jn. 5:14). God could, of course, eliminate every cancer cell in your body. But He may choose not to do this. Many years ago I heard a wise pastor speak about our struggles “when God doesn’t come through.” He drew his thoughts from Hebrews 11 by highlighting four characteristics of faith. Sometimes faith changes our circumstances (Note the list of things in Hebrews 11 that God did as a result of faith). Sometimes faith does not change our circumstances (some “were tortured”). We should never judge God by circumstances. We have to hold firmly to the fact that God loves us even when the pain does not go away. Faith is not merely receiving from God the things we want. It is the ability to receive what God gives us. We must not build our theology from our emotions, but from the teaching of God’s Word. Bible faith always leads to ultimate victory. The victory is finding delight in God as He works out His plan in our lives for the achievement of His glory.

I certainly don’t want this to sound like a cold lecture. But, in the words of the psalmist, “Whom have I in heaven but Thee? And besides Thee, I desire nothing on earth” (Psa. 73:25). As the long shadows of cancer hold sway over your life, continue in your hunger for God. He wants to take you places in your trust in Him where you have not been before. Thank you for the encouragement you have been in these last several months. Your presence among your brothers and sisters in Christ in our worship services says volumes. You are telling us what you think is most important. We rejoice at what God is doing in your life and Kyle’s. As Railin is in the infancy of her journey in life, may God use you as an example of unshakeable, joyful confidence in God.

Your pastor and friend,
Howard
Berachah Bible Church

How Must a Pastor Die?Some Personal Reflections

This past week a non-stop flight took me to the land of frozen lakes in Minnesota. As we broke through a layer of clouds to land at the Minneapolis airport, a snow covered landscape was there to greet us. The theme of the 19th Annual Bethlehem Conference for Pastors was “How Must a Pastor Die? The Cost of Caring Like Jesus.” Over fourteen hundred pastors were welcomed by the Bethlehem Baptist Church where John Piper serves as pastor. Why would pastors from all over America and various foreign countries want to go where the high temperature each day is 34 degrees and the featured speakers challenge their audience in how to die for Christ’s sake? There are very good reasons.

The three-day conference at the Hilton Hotel was preceded by a pre-conference with John Piper. It was by invitation only for a couple of hundred pastors. All attendees were asked to have read God is the Gospel by John Piper. In this book, subtitled “Meditations on God’s love as the gift of Himself,” we are reminded that the “gospel is not a way to get people to heaven; it is a way to get people to God. It’s a way of overcoming every obstacle to everlasting joy in God.” Especially noteworthy is the warning of how a “radically man-centered view of love” has captured both our culture and the church. We are besieged by the trite belief that our self-esteem should be bolstered by the fact that God has made much of us, or as Piper puts it, “We are willing to be God-centered…as long as God is man-centered.” All the pastors in America must beware of the subtle nature of this error for the sake of their flocks and themselves. The gospel message is at stake.

The Keynote Speaker was Ajith Fernando, the National Director of Youth for Christ in Sri Lanka since 1976. His topic, “How Must a Pastor Die?” was developed out of a study of Colossians 1:24-29. His home country of Sri Lanka has been torn by decades of war and was most recently hit by a tsunami. Dr. Fernando has exemplified sacrificial service for Christ for many years and has contributed much to the body of Christ through his teaching and writing ministry. The soul-strengthening from what it means to be sorrowful yet always rejoicing came from his careful handling of the Scriptures and his personal experiences in serving others. Michael Campbell, senior minister of a new multi-racial church in Jackson, Mississippi, spoke on “Sacrificing Self- The Multi-ethnic Church and the Mandate of the Gospel.” We were challenged to love all people in the gospel, no matter what their race or ethnicity. Churches are too apt to move when the racial makeup of their community changes. Pastor Campbell’s appeal was boldly simple. Don’t move.

David Sitton was our Missions Speaker. The title of his message was “Missionary Martyrs: Fools for Jesus, for the Nations.” David has worked among cannibalistic and headhunting tribes in the interior of New Guinea. His stories kept everyone on the edge of their seats, but the soul of his sermon was the privilege we have in taking the gospel to people who have never heard the name of Jesus. He called for a tenth of the pastors in attendance to go into a church planting ministry among the unreached people of this world. Many were lined up afterward to talk to him. Several of the seminary students that were sitting near me on the return flight home had already called their wives about short-term missions work this summer.

At every Pastor’s Conference John Piper presents a biography of someone in church history. This year’s message was “Always Singing One Note…a Vernacular Bible: Why William Tyndale Lived and Died.” It was superb. The strength of Piper’s preaching is that he makes you want more of God. He told of Tyndale’s life being offered as a martyr so that the English people could have the Bible in their own tongue. It was a culminating call to pastors to live and die for the sake of the gospel.
I know of no other conference for pastors that surpasses this one in reviving the heart in greater love for God and His Word. A significant part of this is the worship in song. When hundreds of pastors unite their voices by heartily singing the praises of God you are carried to the gates of heaven. But this need not be limited to preachers. Our congregational singing ought to be joyous and exuberant for the glory of God. How can we stand passively by when our God deserves the exalted language of truth in melodies that take wings and fly? I thought of some of our friends who are going through troubled waters as we sang “Be Still, My Soul.” The words, “when change and tears are past, All safe and blessed we shall meet at last,” were a special comfort.

There is a certain spiritual reinvigoration that comes from a pastors’ conference that is well done. By “well done” is not meant a slick, well-organized, celebrity cast of speakers. When Christians gather there must be authenticity of worship and preaching from the Word that grips the heart. A number of good things can happen in such an environment. One’s spiritual eyesight can become sharper. A sense of one’s sin and the need for repentance can rise up without warning. The needs of others walk across the mind. The greatness of God’s grace and mercy overwhelm the soul. The awareness of being surrounded by fellow Christian pilgrims brings encouragement. The tide of emotions ebbs and flows. The mind dances with delight in God. This is the nature of Spirit-bathed corporate worship. It is not limited to pastors’ conferences. All of our congregational worship is to be a celebration of our great and glorious God. Do you come to church to encounter God and leave encouraged in the gospel? Settle for nothing less.

Dr. Howard E. Dial
Berachah Bible Church