1. I don’t want it to be true
Cambridge PHD scientist Stephen Meyer relates a story that birthed his career studying the origin of life –
Alan Sandage - A world famous Astro-physicist - widely regarded as the greatest astronomer of the late 20th century, who was also an agnostic Jew – was at a conference on the origin of the Universe, life, and Consciousness.
What he brought the gathered academic audience that day shocked them. It was not a new finding or discovery on origins. It was his confession that for him personally - as a scientist and physicist - the evidence for both the beginning of the Universe and its extremely precise fine tuning for life was moving him into the conclusion that the Universe was brought into being by a divine Creator.
And as he realized this, he realized something else-
He didn’t like it. And he was trying to suppress it and realized that he had to say to stop this resistance and say to himself: “wait a minute, I’ve prided myself my whole life on my scientific objectivity. Now that the evidence is pointing me towards the God hypothesis – what is it in me that doesn’t want it to be true?”
2. “All things are continuing as they were” - The song of the scoffer
When we last left the Apostle Paul he was answering the skepticism and unbelief festering in the church about the 2nd Coming and the Resurrection.
35 But someone will ask, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come?”
And then Paul appeals to creation:
Look at what God has done in the creation of seeds that take the smallest form and turn into the most glorious trees.
Look at what God has done in creating various forms of bodies in animals and fish and various forms of earthly creations - mountains and rivers and then His wisdom in the heaven – the sun, moon, stars all created differently according to their existence and purpose in the created order – And so Paul says – Our Resurrection will be as starkly different as the tree is from the seed and as gloriously suited to our new purpose and experience as the stars are suited to theirs.
But there is a problem that must be confronted in Paul’s hearers and in us today if his answer is going to minister to us
And it is a problem embedded in that first question he is answering:
“How are the dead raised?
This question – as I understand it – is not asked in a spirit of fascinated wonder but of skeptical unbelief
And I want to go back to this because Unbelief and the denial of God have had a strong grip on the human heart
And it is no more dangerous than in this question Paul is addressing: of the return of Christ and the Resurrection of the dead.
This week as I have prepared and prayed and as you have prayed for me – this question has gripped me – “do you believe this?”
Peter expressed a great danger that will acutely infect the human heart and define the atmosphere in the time of Christ’s return in 2 Peter 3”2-4:
you should remember the predictions of the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles, 3 knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires. 4 They will say, “Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.”
Peter characterizes the scoffers as saying with mocking unbelief: “all things are continuing as they were.”
And then Peter makes the astounding statement that: ”For they deliberately overlook this fact” explaining that the heavens and the earth were formed by the word of God.
Peter says people will deny the return of Christ because they will deliberately deny the reality of God’s authorship of Creation
And Peter says they will do it this way: they will assert “all things are continuing just as they always have been”
If there is a better way to sum up the core principles of materialistic naturalism I don’t know it:
materialistic naturalism is the prominent philosophy in our day. It is what is taught in Universities, in public schools, and it is ta litmus test for many if not most academic, if not increasingly public positions of influence and authority.
Materialistic naturalism is the philosophy that says the Universe and its development can be explained through processes of undirected material phenomena – without a creator.
Functionally it says : Matter and energy – physical reality - is all there is and all there will be
God’s authoritative creative power and command is not needed.
In Peter’s phrasing: It is the philosophy that proclaims:
“all things are continuing just as they always have been” what need is there of God?
See what Peter is getting at - and Paul as he alludes to the created order to explain the Resurrection - is that there is an inseparable connection between belief in the creative and authoritative power of God in creation and belief in the creative and authoritative power of God in the Second Coming, the Resurrection of the Dead, and the judgement of the living and the dead.
The God who went to all the trouble of deciding how each seed works, how each star works, how the human body will work and how each person will be designed, The God who oversees how and when and where each person will come to be – who has overseen all that is and all that has been - surely has a plan for what is to come.
But most of us sense that we live in a world that – esp in the West – believes that atheistic evolution and the discovery of the laws of physics has demystified the creative power of God and rendered it an empty thing.
Again to put it in Peter’s phrasing:
“all things are continuing as they were”
No God needed. He is either detached or He is a fallacy.
While David cries out “The Heavens declare the glory of God” in Psalm 19. And the Angles sing “The Earth is full of His glory” in Isaiah 6, most chemistry professors, biology teachers, and many of us- as a result - look at the world, at the stars, the mountains and the people around us living and dying and we say
“all things are continuing as they were”
3. From Newton to Darwin and his kids
Why? Is this really where the evidence points? Godless materialism, life from nothing by matter and accident?
Is this why so much of the world says this?
Well, Sandage pointed to something important when he admitted that despite the evidence for God, “I didn’t want God to be true and I tried to suppress it”
In Romans 1 Paul says there is something much deeper going on in the denial of God in creation:
18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. 19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.”
God is not indifferent to the denial of His authorship over creation and I am burdened that we not be either, for we live in an atmosphere increasingly like Peter predicted: scoffers who say “where is this God? Everything continues just as it always has.”
Especially in the last 20 years we have seen something perhaps new to Western Civ – what are called “The New Atheists”, like academic Richard Dawkins – they don’t just deny a need for a creator, they assail belief in God as harmful ignorance and hateful ideology.
This new found brashness has fueled a more aggressive hostility not only to a Biblical world view–– it has also severely handicapped science’s ability to do what it was meant to do from the point of view of God – to declare His glory.
To move in our hearts as it moved in David’s when he sang in psalm 8:
“When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,
4 what is man that you are mindful of him,
and the son of man that you care for him?”
It wasn’t always like this…
The academic system - the idea of the University itself - was predicated on the idea that God is a rational creator and because he was rational – guided by His reason – then the Universe was knowable by man who was created in God’s image as rational with the capacity for wisdom and knowledge .
Perhaps the greatest and most important thinker in the history of Physics, Sir Isaac Newton, who discovered the law of gravity 300 years ago, upon finding no explanation for the what causes gravity - Newton ascribed the foundation of gravity – which seemed to be the foundation for everything else - to the direct activity of the Holy Spirit and quoted Col 1 – “in Him all things hold together”.
To Newton, the Universe had laws because there was a law giver who - as Romans 1 says - “had made them known”. 300 years later – we still don’t know what causes gravity.
But in the 1800s - Science in the West shifted away from a Creator and began to assert the ancient Greek theory of Socrates : the universe always was. No beginning needs no beginner.
“all things have continued as they always have”
Charles Darwin put the nail in the coffin - so it was thought - by theorizing that all living forms – even the extremely complicated ones - were simply evolved from a single simple cell.
His idea was that through random spontaneous mutations popping up in cells combined with then natural selection – life circumstances - that kept the best versions alive and let the worst versions die – over time- if you do that long enough we got from amoeba to shrimp to fish to whale to frog to lizard to bird to mouse to cat to dog to bear to monkey to man – or something like that.
Now the idea that living beings can change form over time was not new – Even Scripture illustrated this in Jacob’s sheep breeding enterprise in Genesis 30 where we see sheep’s color changing through selective breeding.
What was new with Darwin and esp his newer advocates - was the idea that – opposed to a Creator who created different kinds of life forms in diff periods, kinds who would multiply and vary within and according to their kind - instead of this – Darwin’s claimed that all changes in all life forms from came from one simple cell through an uncreated, unguided, unintentional processes. Or as Peter said…
Psalm 139 says that God knit us in our mother’s womb, Col 1 says that in Him all things hold together, but to Darwin’s adherents what was most attractive was to Peter’s phrase:
“all things have continued as they always have” No God needed.
For over a hundred and fifty years Western thinking has to a large degree embraced the denial of God’s direct and active work in creation .
And this denial spread into all spheres of human life: it strongly inspired and influenced economic theory in atheistic Marxism, governmental theory in atheistic Communism, atheistic philosophical theory in Nietzsche who famously proclaimed “God is dead” and that “good and evil” are illusions, and functional atheistic psychological theory in Freud and many others, and social philosophy in racism and abortion.
When you lose God, you lose a moral reference point and you fear no moral judgement.
But – even though atheism and its children have continued to grow – the actual scientific evidence of a Universe and life without a supernatural cause –has not fared well at all since Darwin.
4. “God has shown it to them” - Of big bangs and talking genes
It turns out that when Paul declared that God’s “invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature” are perceivable in the things that have been made” he was not mistaken.
A Big Bang Needs a Big Creator
In the 1920s Edwin Hubble was astonished to discover through his telescopic research that the entire observable universe was expanding away from one central point. This mean the Universe had to have a beginning. Albert Einstien’s own cosmic calculations verified the same conclusion – an expanding universe from a single point in time and space, but he was so set against the idea that he had to artificially amend his equations to keep the Universe eternal - and always existing. When Hubble invited him to observe his findings, Einstein begrudgingly surrendered:
They both knew the establishment was wrong: The Universe indeed had a beginning - and not just a beginning but apparently a beginning from an infinitely small amount of mass and energy – that shrinks to zero.
Long ago Heb 1:3 proclaimed “the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.”
Atheist Stephen Hawking’s calculations would postulate that all matter and energy came from virtual non-existence into existence.
The led to the hypothesis of the big bang – when out of nothing – emptiness and darkness - an unimaginable explosion of energy and matter and – wait for it – LIGHT – suddenly came into being from nothing and expanded in all directions with unfathomable power creating all that is seen.
Don’t tell anyone – but a physical Universe that once did not exists and had a beginning needs a non-physical Creator to begin it – for such a creator cannot be dependent on physical reality to give it its form.
And “Let there be light” would not be a poor thing for Him to say.
Talking Genes
The glass was shattered again in 1953 when Crick and Watson discovered that all living beings were not simply a function of chemicals and tissue but were dependent on a genetic code that lives in their cells and literally commands their cells to create and form all that the host organism will be.
Remember that Darwin thought all life developed from a simple one celled living organism - a simple organism that had to come into being by accident ?
Well, here is what Watson and Crick discovered:
Within each cell - even the simplest ones - is an incredibly complex factory of information, information replication, information processing, and from this information – specific and varied tissue construction according to the commands of the information:
First there is DNA : a strand of molecules that encodes billions of bits of information - in precise sequence; - it is a language of instructions on how to make you, you.
Inside the cell
Molecular Copy separate the code so it can be read and copied – then other molecular machines come over to the DNA and make exact copies of certain segments of the DNA strand according to the structure that is to be built.
These replicas of the DNA segments are called RNA
The RNA leave the information area in the nucleus of the cell and move to the construction area where they are met w other molecular machines called Ribosomes.
There the copied data is interpreted by the Ribosome, - again - this is another molecular machine that interprets the DNA information on the RNA copy and by reading it and then somehow calling to specific body building materials requested in the DNA and then building them and sending them on their way wherever the DNA wanted them.
These structure fold into millions of specific shapes according to the instruction in the DNA. Next the structures come together with other appropriates y created protein structures to form tissues, bones, organs, according to the commandments of the DNA.
Heb 1:3 says “He upholds the universe by the word of His power”
What is so awe inspiring about this idea of the word being the means of power is that what Watson and Crick stunningly discovered – is that it is not physical matter that is at the core of the origin and the holding together of living things, but “words”- intelligible information – a biologically written true language of “words” in the form of the very specific correct sequencing of 4 kinds of molecules - into various combinations that speak and command the formation of millions and millions of specially and intentionally shaped proteins to make all your tissues, ligaments, bones, organs, and all your systems - digestive, respiratory, reproductive, immune, autonomous.
As Microsoft founder Bill Gates said, “DNA is like a computer program but far, far more advanced than any software ever created.”
Darwin did not know any of this of course – including the fact that the most basic simplest living cell is so vastly complex and intricately organized -
- with all kinds of systems and molecular machines and millions and millions of proteins needing to be formed by millions upon millions more of DNA instructions.
The cell is such an incredibly complex and organized thing that all the time in the oldest possible conception of the age of the Earth – billions and billions of years – does not even come close to allowing enough time for life to develop even one single cell!
Meyer:
Run the odds of these things falling into place on their own and you find that the probabilities of forming a rather short functional protein at random would be one chance in a hundred thousand trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion. That’s a ten with 125 zeros after it!
Scientists contend that the age of the earth is 4.5 billion years yet Trillions of years would not provide enough time for one tiny protein in a a single cell that has 42 million of them!
Committed Atheist and famed astronomer Sir Fred Hoyle called this is akin to the chances of a solar system full of blind men all solving Rubik’s cubes simultaneously. “A common sense interpretation of the data suggests that a super intellect has monkeyed with physics, as well as with chemistry and biology to make life possible”.
The discovery of the complexity of DNA led perhaps the world’s most famous atheist, Antony Flew to renounced his atheism in 2004 for belief in God.
“It now seems to me that the findings of more than fifty years of DNA research have provided materials for a new and enormously powerful argument [for] design.. the integrated complexity of life itself – which is far more complex than the physical Universe – can only be explained in terms of an Intelligent Source."
In other words – all that we have learned on the last hundred years is that this Universe needed creating by a non-material, non-physical force outside the Universe – something like a mind –
And we have learned that living being is not created and sustained by matter and chemicals, but by intelligent and purposeful and authoritative commands – meaningful “words” with such power that matter and chemicals obey their instructions.
Finally it is worth noting that 150 years of Darwinian evolution have not resulted in any compelling evidence in the fossil record of transitional movement from one major animal form to the next.
What scientists DO see is depressing for evolutionists: instead of gradual transitions - across the geological records is the sudden appearance of complex life forms fully formed from virtually nowhere- with no evolutionary record behind them.
Stephen Meyer
“You have Multiple abrupt appearance of major new forms of life where each new form exhibits an integrated complexity that’s distinct from forms that arose before. …
Most of the major groups of plants and animals in the history of life arise very abruptly and discreetly in the fossil record [flowering plants mammals, winged insects and birds]… not in the gradual sort of pattern you’d expect in a Darwinian POV…
if you look at the Genisis account you get the sense there is progression of new forms of life that are being created by God over time..
some people think it’s a very compressed time scale others think it’s a very long time scale but, setting that aside, what you would expect is a kind of progression of created forms.
And that happens to be exactly what you see in the fossil record where these new forms arise quite abruptly and not in the sort of gradual step by step way we’d expect in a Darwin tee of life pattern that has long been accepted in evolutionary theory”
We now know this isn’t just the appearance of new life forms but the sudden appearance of new biological information without any explanation for how it came to be.
This has driven men like accomplished atheists like Francis Crick and Richard Dawkins to hypothesize in light of this evidence that life may have been transplanted to earth by extra-terrestrial beings.
5. Why the science lesson? (Because only the Creator rules and raises)
Why am I telling you all this?
In Rev 4:11 there is a magnificent scene in heaven. God is seated on His throne being worshipped by beings that are dazzling in their descriptions. 24 elders – who may represent the 12 tribes and the 12 apostles cast their crowns before Him and they proclaim:
"“Worthy are you, our Lord and God,
to receive glory and honor and power,
for you created all things,
and by your will they existed and were created.”
This text tells us that the Lord deserves all glory and honor and power over all things because created all things, and by His will they exist and were created”.
There is = in all of us what was in Aldage – We don’t want God to be true as Creator because we know that if He is Creator of all things then He deserves to be Lord of all things – and we would rather rule ourselves.
Aldage is only confessing what Paul makes clear:
“the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. 19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made.”
The human race isn’t – including the academic establishment - doesn’t acknowledge God because of the facts of available to them, but despite them.
I am telling you all this because…
“scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires. 4 They will say, “Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were”
You don’t have to have a PhD in biology and astronomy but I do want you to know that you don’t have to be afraid of scoffers telling you there is no 2nd coming and there is no resurrection – even the scoffers that might be trying to grow in your own head.
We have good reason – to cry out with the Holy Spirit as He cried out through Jeremiah against idolatry for the Lord:
“It is he who made the earth by his power,
who established the world by his wisdom,
and by his understanding stretched out the heavens.”
God stretched out the expanse of the heavens long before Hubble discovered it.
And long before Einstein discovered the law of entropy - that all things are wearing out, it the Holy Spirit declared (Psalm 102):
“Of old you laid the foundation of the earth,
and the heavens are the work of your hands.
26 They will perish, but you will remain;
they will all wear out like a garment.
You will change them like a robe, and they will pass away,
27 but you are the same, and your years have no end.”
Yes God made the heavens and the earth – but He is going to discard them and change them like a robe - into something new and eternal – including you:
See, brothers and sisters, long ago – there was nothing – and then - in a trillionth of a second - a flash of light filled the Universe with God’s power and purpose.
A flash, an instant – and creation came into being.
Paul tells us something like that is going to happen again - possibly very soon:
51 Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed.
And what will happen will not be a transformation over hundreds of thousands of years, but in a flash – in a nano-second, the God who oversees the most complex software system ever created every second of your life – and who – at the first - created all matter and energy in a flash –
Will remake this creation in a flash.
53 For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. 54 When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written:
“Death is swallowed up in victory.”
55 “O death, where is your victory?
O death, where is your sting?”
Your DNA will be transformed, your cells will be transformed, your bones and tissue and muscles and hair and eyes and lips and fingers – all the intricacies of your body will be transformed by the Word of the same God who fearfully and wonderfully created your first body – who by His Word takes care of it every moment while He has you here.
Put your hope in Him.
He is Almighty God
“He is our Creator and not we ourselves” Psalm 100 says.
And He deserves our worship, our hearts, our love, and our faithfulness.
Let us pray for His help.