Creation, Physical

David C. Grabbe:  In Psalm 92:4-5, the psalmist proclaims: For You, LORD, have made me glad through Your work; I will triumph in the works of Your hands. O LORD, how great are Your works! ...

Martin Collins, reflecting on the Creation account in Genesis, notices evidence of patterns suggesting an artist systematically filling a canvas, populating it according to a certain order of species equipped to multiply. Mankind, the highest rung of physical Creation, has always displayed a knack for genius-level intelligence, as is seen anciently in the invention of the Lycurgus cup, wherein colors in the cup indicate the presence of poison. Today, engineers develop optical materials from bird feathers, utilizing nano-structures of light rather than pigments to generate color. Automobile manufactures copy biomimetic structures, inspired by the impact-resistant skull, to make automobile frames stronger. Engineers have copied the nose-structure of the Kingfisher beak to make bullet-trains more aerodynamic and shock resistant. Other engineers have produced surveillance cameras based on the structure of Swift bird wings. Engineers have copied bat-sonar, enabling blind people to navigate more safely by means of ultra [sound] canes. The military has also employed this principle for its ComBat surveillance plane. Scientists and engineers often mimic God's patterns and structures when creating 'modern' technology.

Ronny Graham, focusing on Mathematics as another part of creation that low-information scientists are loath to attribute to God, points out that mature scientists such as Albert Einstein have proclaimed that the more they study science, the more they believe in God. Physicists see order and regularity in nature, seeing the ubiquitous pattern of the golden ratio unifying the shapes of rose petals, sunflowers, pine cones, sea-shells, the human body, the pyramids, the dimensions of Noah's ark, the rings of Saturn, and the Milky Way. The fingerprint of God, including the pervasive number 7, is seen in the gestation cycles of many animals, the musical scale, the colors of the visible spectrum, the seven days of creation and the frequent appearance of the number in the Scriptures, showing completion and perfection. No matter where one looks throughout the universe, he will see God. If people observe us, will they also see God?

Martin Collins warns against accepting the secularist doctrine that technology demonstrates the primacy of human intelligence over anything else. If we measure intelligence as the ability to adequately respond to challenging situations, humans are faring no better than ancient civilizations. As a matter of fact, archeology has demonstrated that even in technology, modern man has some gaping deficits in comparison to earlier civilization. Humans have never invented anything new, but have relied on biomimicry—mimicking what God had already created in nature. As examples, consider that Velcro mimics the adhesive properties of the cocklebur, e-readers mimic the properties of luminous butterfly wings, and medical tape inspired by spider silk which will not damage the flesh when peeled off tender skin. God created these intricacies from nothing. It is important for us to distinguish the creation from the Creator, giving the honor and worship to the Creator and not the creation.

Clyde Finklea, focusing on Psalm 19:1, which proclaims that the heavens (the firmament) proclaim the glory of God, and on Isaiah 6:3 which avers that the entire earth reveals God's glory and perfection, reminds us that the pinnacle of God's Creation, beings created in His image started out as mud sculptures, into which He breathed the spirit of life. The vastness of the universe has not even been tapped with the accuracy of the Hubbell telescope, which helps us to estimate that it would take eight minutes to travel to the sun at the speed of light and 20 billion light years to travel to the edge of Milky Way, not even scratching the surface of Creation. David proclaimed that we are awesomely made, with the human brain, for example, containing 10 billion nerve cells. God is bringing many sons to glory, implanting His character traits through the means of His Holy Spirit, including the multiple aspects of love described in I Corinthians 13. As our sanctification process comes to full term, we will see our Creator as He is, having attained the same glorified state. In response to this, all we can say is "Wow"!!!!!!

Richard Ritenbaugh, acknowledging that only fools are blind to the marvels of Creation, observes that even empirical science has substantiated the need for six factors to support life: 1) crust, 2.) temperature, 3.) moon, 4.) star with a stable energy source, 5.) core, and 6.) right planetary neighbors. The earth, having all these prerequisites, displays the magnificent design demanding an Intelligent Creator (Romans 1:18). Human nature, without God's Spirit, follows a trajectory into ignorance and stupidity. If people do not believe in God, they will believe in anything, following the darkness of their unregenerate hearts. God has called some individuals now, crafting them as His workmanship, equipped for good works and the opportunity to be in His family. Unlike the Protestant notion that the end of the spiritual creation process is baptism, to be capped off with grace and eternal security, God's true Church teaches that the salvation process has merely begun, with the Sabbath being an integral part of sanctification. The Sabbath, a hallowed time of restorative rest, provides an opportunity for God's called-out sons and daughters to develop a relationship with Him, reflecting on the spiritual as well as the physical creation. Far from being a period of lounging, the Sabbath rest generates spiritual energy and develops a trusting relationship with the Creator. As God's called-out ones, we must not use the hallowed time for our carnal pleasures, but for renewing our relationship with our Creator. Keeping the Sabbath Day holy is a major key to our spiritual growth.

Ronny Graham, in part two of his message, "Seeing God in Creation," again focuses on Romans 1:18-20, emphasizing that humans can deduce God's presence from His creation. Hebrews 11:3 adds that the Invisible has created the visible. Hebrews 11 shows that Abel, Noah and Abraham displayed their faith by their works. Two theories of creation have tried to jettison God out of the process. The Big Bang Theory posits that some billions of years ago a brief but massive blast catapulted matter from a tiny confined source to the outer regions of the universe, ultimately accounting for the stars. Scientists remain unable to explain the cause of this explosion, simply asking people to have faith in an unproven theory. Darwin's theory of the Origin of the Species, hypothesizing that humans evolved from "lower" animals, cannot account for the present-day coexistence of these lower animals with humans. When we compare these flawed theories to the Biblical account in John 1 and Genesis 1, we have clear explanations for daily, seasonal, and yearly cycles—phenomena the Big Bang and evolutionary theories cannot explain. The unknown energy and the mind behind these cyclical patterns is God. The regularity of these cycles imply a faithful Creator. Sadly, even those scientists who advance "intelligent design" seldom attribute it to God, referring to it as Mother Nature, or some such abstraction. They refuse to acknowledge that God made all things through the Word of His Power. Thankfully, God has given His Faith to those whom He has called, enabling them to believe in Him. If we believe God, we will manifest our faith through obedience.

Ronny Graham, citing Romans 1:18-20, stating that the invisible attributes of God are clearly seen through the things that are made, reveals that the academic fools who turn their backs on this insight acquire a debased mind, worshiping the creature rather than the Creator. Evidently, the academicians of Paul's time were no different from current academicians, who have swallowed Darwin's hypothesis of evolution, claiming that apes were our ancestors. Recently, Paleontologists John Horner and Mary Switzer performed some tests on dinosaur fossils, subjecting them to acid, only to discover that these 'ancient' fossils contained soft-tissue, refuting the false claim that they had been around for millions of years. Dr. James Tour, denouncing the institutionalized Darwinism in the 'scientific' community, warned that "If you disagree with Darwinism, you take your lives in your hands." Scientists who believe in creationism are brutally and systematically driven out of academia by 'Progressivists' who tolerate no dissent. God's called-out ones must realize that the father of all these lies seeks to kill us as a roaring lion. We must exercise continual vigilance against Satan and his wall of lies, leading the unwary to worship the creature rather than Creator.

Charles Whitaker, observing the plethora of pairings (binary opposites, dichotomies in Genesis 1 and 2 (day and night, male and female, sea and land, the Tree of Good and Evil and the Tree of Life, etc.) asserts that during the first stage of Creation, God unleashed multiple universal processes of division or separation. In the New Creation in the fullness of time, God purposes to regather everything He has heretofore separated. After the Passover Jesus shared with His disciples up to the event of His crucifixion, the division between Jew and Gentile, male and female, slave and free, over the sun and under the sun, etc., was obliterated, initiating unification. During the New Order (New Heavens and the New Earth) described in Revelation, the division between night and day, as well as land and sea, will also be obliterated, indicating a thorough unification process. Consequently, God has shown His long-term plan as a two-phased project beginning as a lengthy separation process, followed by a reconciliation or unification process, in which all will be gathered, reconciled, and unified into the Body of Christ.

James Beaubelle reminds us that the creation process did not stop on the sixth day. Rather, the spiritual process of God's making offspring in His image has gone on continually from the foundation of the world. God has individually selected His people to become a part of the process of sanctification and transformation into God's family. Some of us may occasionally experience doubt whether we can complete the course set before us; sadly, sowing the seed of doubt can undermine our resolve. Doubt is a destroyer of faith. Sometimes we have doubts about what is and what is not our duty to God. Sometimes we have doubts about the gray areas within the doctrines and commandments. To have doubt is normal, but we must not stay in doubt. Thankfully, doubt can be an effective tool to drive us to seek God and His counsel, where there are plenty of resources to stabilize us from wavering between two opinions. If we remain in doubt, our faith will begin to erode. Five things we can do to dispel doubt include: 1) loving God with all our strength and might, 2) studying and meditating upon God's Word, 3) praying for wisdom and insight, 4) seeking counsel from others in the faith, and 5) giving earnest heed to the things we have heard, building steadfast faith in Almighty God.

None of us is perfect. We are all, in a sense, broken to some degree, whether from birth or by the constant grind of life. We have little hope of repair. James Beaubelle, however, finds real hope in Scripture, arguing that, if our hope is in our great High Priest, Jesus Christ, we can have faith that our hope will be fulfilled in the Kingdom of God.

Having laid extensive groundwork for the Bible's covenants, John Ritenbaugh begins to explore the first of these, the Edenic Covenant. Universal in scope, this covenant introduces God to mankind as his Creator and establishes the rules by which human beings are to relate to Him and to the earth and its human and non-human inhabitants. It is simultaneously a covenant of blessing and responsibility.

John Ritenbaugh, emphasizing that God continually uses perennial types, patterns, and examples, indicates that humankind, nature, and Satan (including his demonic legions) have been mortally impacted by sin, and that the entirety of nature awaits redemption through the appearance of God's offspring. Nature has become a slave of death and decay after the sin of Adam and Eve, whose offspring have been forced to share a prison cell with demonic forces, subject to a death penalty imposed as a consequence of sin. Neither Satan nor his demons cause us to sin; we chose to sin, and we die as the result of our own sins. We were created upright, but bring on judgments by ourselves; the judgments reveal we are still accountable. The same Creator God who placed judgment on Adam and Eve is still on His throne. Thankfully, as offspring of Adam and Eve, we reap the benefit of the curse placed on the serpent, but we must also endure hardship of pain and suffering in our sanctification process. We learn that as we sin, we impact all people; sin is never committed in a vacuum. Thankfully, God has given us gifts, skills, and abilities to enable us to accomplish our responsibilities. Ironically, the original sin revolved around food; all of the Holy Days focus on food, including the Day of Atonement where fasting automatically carries our minds to food. We live in our ancestors, in the sense that Levi paid tithes through Abraham while still in his loins.. We are all subject to the consequences of sin brought about by our first parents. The Edenic covenant was a radiant picture of joy and hope; we are all subject to the consequences of the failure of our parents to keep their part of the agreement. Like Adam and Eve, we are responsible for our part of the covenant. Everything, including ourselves, wears down by God's design, but those whom God has called out have been given a glimpse and hope of a glorious pain-free future.

Joe Baity, focusing on Zophar's truism in Job 11:7, "Can you discover the depths of God? Can you discover the limits of the Almighty?", marvels that scientists who aspire to control the destiny of mankind and discover the secrets of the Universe do not realize that they mock themselves, driving themselves into a frightening nervous breakdown. Since the time of Isaac Newton, physicists who have smugly assumed that their theories would explain the mysteries of creation, making them masters of human destiny, have forgotten to factor the magnitude into their equations. Though God has indeed placed eternity in our hearts, the collective contributions of humans (each bound by 70-100+ years of existence) does not give the human race much opportunity to plumb the depths of nature—neither in the infinite galaxies of outer space or the infinite galaxies of inner space. If human beings could travel at the speed of light, it would take four years to reach our nearest star. If it were possible to squeeze all of the space out of "matter" in this earth, the material left over could be contained in a 2-inch cube. Even with impressive advancements in quantum physics and astronomy, scientists do not know much about the secrets of life, and each new discovery brings more complications and questions. Without factoring God into their equations, physicists and other scientists prove themselves abject fools. We dare not follow in their arrogant, self-defeating footsteps.

David Grabbe, examining the righteousness of Noah, Daniel, and Job, asks what this righteousness consisted of. God characterizes Job as blameless, far beyond Pharisaical law-keeping. Job assiduously avoided the wrong things, but consistently practiced the right things, like visiting the orphans and providing for the widows. Even Satan did not bring an accusation against Job. Job desired to meet God face-to-face, as if he considered himself on equal footing with the Creator. After 34 chapters of point and counterpoint, God obliges Job and begins putting things into perspective. God is the sovereign Creator; Job is not. Job, like the rest of us, was the way he was because of the work of the Creator, forming Job's righteousness out of nothing, carefully guiding events before Job's birth and providing an environment in which Job's character could be formed. Without God's intervention and adoption, we are all Satan's children. Job indeed was blameless, but he, like many of us, lost sight of the vast difference between God and humans, forgetting our pitiful vulnerability. God may have highlighted Leviathan because Job seemed to be following in Satan's footsteps. God has called the weak and the base; when we think too highly of ourselves, we open the door to all manner of evil.

Richard Ritenbaugh reflects that the creation offers compelling testimony to the complexities and intricacies which preclude even the possibility of evolution. The symbiosis of the Clownfish and the sea anemone could not have occurred without design. Birds, with their lightweight bones, multifaceted feathers, lungs, beaks, and sophisticated aeronautical brains, could not have simply appeared by chance or natural selection. The DNA strand dwarfs any kind of man-made databank ever made, even having self-correcting enzymes. Evolution is a feeble-brained attempt to get rid of God. Job knew that the earth was a sphere hung in space, an insight that science only discovered in the last hundred years or so. Science has not yet determined the laws governing cloud formations. The secrets of our physiognomy, beginning with a uniting of ovum and sperm, are known only by God. Many of these secrets have been revealed to us in His Holy Word, showing God as a Being of intelligence and purpose, a Being with which we can form a relationship. God designed the creation to work, from the one-celled organism to the complex multi-cellular organism. If God takes such pains to create a snail, imagine what pains He is taking with us, creating us to be His sons and daughters. God's vast power compels us to give Him respect. Psalm 104 depicts God as Creator, the giver and maker of good things, designed to bring us to glory. David admonishes us to praise God for His creation; everything that God made is designed to work together with all the rest of creation. God's creation provides public revelation of God's existence, enabling us to understand something of Him, who is exponentially greater than His creation, including the power of fire, water, wind (hurricanes, and tornadoes). Not only does God sustain us, but the entirety the flora and the fauna through beneficent cycles and seasons are designed to enhance life. God is intimately involved in every aspect of His Creation including enlarging His family through the medium of His Holy Sp

Because of the secular humanist coverage of the mainstream media, it is generally thought that evolutionary thinking is the majority view. Richard Ritenbaugh shows that, though seemingly large and increasing numbers of clergy and churches accept Darwin's theory of evolution, they are in reality a rather small percentage of professing Christians.

In the church, the argument over evolution was settled long ago, but such is not the case in the wider world. David Grabbe goes beyond the science to what embracing evolution actually says about a person's—and a society's—relationship with God.

John Ritenbaugh, reflecting upon Dr. Hoeh's observation in 1987 that the church generally reflects the problems of society, suggests that while this may be a sad commentary, it nevertheless demonstrates, not surprisingly, that we definitely are products of a powerful addictive, and enticing Babylonian system. We are currently living in an axial period between two ages- the Babylonic system coming violently to an end- making way for God's Millennial government. Until we arrive at the Millennial Kingdom, God has promised to provide the resources to meet the challenges and temptations ' leaving us no excuse for failure. We dare not tempt God by refusing to make an effort to extract ourselves from the powerful temptations and pulls of Babylon, compromising our morality and principles for self-centered comfort, safety, and pleasure (Laodiceanism)- exalting desire for beauty over righteousness, abusing the earth, our relationships, and our own bodies. The love or desire for beauty must absolutely be coupled with love for righteousness and holiness- with our focus, passion, and ardor upon Almighty God and our relationship with Christ taking central place in our lives, displacing everything else.

John Ritenbaugh teaches that we must have established some relationship with God before we can rightly fear Him. Fear, faith hope and love serve as the four cornerstones upon which the whole superstructure of Christianity rests. A holy fear of the Lord is the key to unlocking the treasuries of salvation, wisdom and knowledge. Paradoxically the fear of God, because it unlocks knowledge, wisdom, and spiritual growth, should draw us toward God. Conversely, if we do not respect God, reciprocally God will not respect us. In order to reverence God, we must know Him. Christianity is experiential; we must live it to understand it. Our concept of God (and our fear of God) needs to come from observing His creation and absorbing His revealed word rather than the precepts of men.

Many pooh-pooh the idea that Genesis 1 represents a literal account of Creation, and they rally scientific support for their claims. Earl Henn, a chemist, shows how accurate the biblical account really is.

John Ritenbaugh affirms that the way to be undefiled (to become sanctified, developing character) is to walk in the Law of the Lord (Psalm 119:1). We must do God's Word or it will never be a part of us. The Colossian Christians (Colossians 2:16-17) were criticized by Gnostic infiltrators for the way they were keeping the holy days. Paul admonishes the embattled Colossians not to let any man judge them for the way they were keeping the holy days. Contrary to some misguided Bible scholars, (1) keeping the Sabbath is not a doctrine of men; (2) what Paul condemns is a philosophy; God's word is not a philosophy. (Paul is concerned about the context in the way this philosophy was impacting on those keeping God's Word.) (3) Paul calls this Gnostic system (not God's holy days) empty, vain deceit, and (4) he names the authors of this Gnostic system and its recipients demons.