September 11: THE GIVER OF LIFE
You alone are the LORD; You have made heaven, The heaven of heavens, with all their host, The earth and everything in it, The seas and all that is in them, And You preserve them all. The host of heaven worships You. Nehemiah 9:6
Nehemiah reminds all of us that holding fast to the ‘handle’ of our God as The Creator is a foundational doctrine worth reinforcing regularly; a foundation so solid that we can do ‘hand stands’ upon it. Nehemiah also rightly connects the Giver of Life to all the living things in the universe (not just those on earth) in the bright light of His graciousness: And You preserve them all.
Despite the plain record that the LORD spoke our world into existence and formed our first parents with His hands (Genesis 1; 2:7, 20-22), demonstrating an intimate and extra measure of tender love and care for humans, the world ridicules creationism and those who believe in it. The theory of evolution, sprung upon the world in 1844, has been embraced as fact and taught in American public schools for decades. More recently, it has even found its way into Christian seminaries. This has produced thousands of pastors who believe and teach that God used the process of evolution over “millions or billions” of years to create our world. But this compromise with Darwin has ongoing repercussions that make it logically impossible to believe the rest of God’s written word. Thus, the Biblical narrative of God’s love and salvation (back to a life of perfect health and flawless surroundings) is rendered a “fable” or “fairy tale.”
Our enemy works feverishly, especially targeting believers – people who claim the name of Christ – for compromise. The simple truth that death did not exist before sin, but rather is the result of it (Genesis 2:17; James 1:15) should never be put in reverse order. The theory of evolution, stealthily woven into Christian teaching, makes God look like a bumbling scientist whose experiments were mostly failures: the pileup of death upon death (the basic premise of evolution) finally led to creatures who could survive, but only for a short period of time. Pathetic!
The Spirit of Christ is the inspiration for Scripture (Luke 24:27; John 1:1; 16:13; 2 Timothy 3:15-16). Therefore, Jesus took the writings of Moses as plain truth. With authority, He quoted from the Old Testament, knowing that there are godless men who deny the straight Biblical testimony of history and law, of the Creation and the Flood (see Matthew 24:37-39; Mark 10:6-9; John 5:46-47).
Beloved, make certain of your ‘handle’ on the first precepts of Scripture, upon which subsequent building of your faith will prove to be sound and solid. This is an important aspect of coming into possession of the faith of Jesus (Revelation 14:12). The writer of Hebrews registered disappointment at some of the believers who had apparently forgotten the basics of our faith: For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God; and you have come to need milk and not solid food. But . . . those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern good and evil (Hebrews 5:12,14) will readily recognize error(s) in the presentations of misguided preachers.
Challenge yourself to find and “own” early principles of the oracles God within the first three chapters of Genesis. A few hints: 1:1, 16-17, 27, 31; 2:2-3, 7-9, 16-17, 24-25; 3:1-24. As follow-up, notice these principles reinforced and/or expanded upon throughout the rest of Scripture.