Posts Tagged ‘creation’
The Bible and creation
For a nice blend of topics, sit back first for a leisurely Trueman on the sufficiency of Scripture, and then enjoy a bracing Mohler on the age of the universe. The former provides a good basis for the latter.
Theistic evolution and misplaced confidence
Michael Kruger gives us a dose of sense:
Theistic evolution is nothing new. For generations, Christians have attempted to import the evolutionary process into the early chapters of Genesis in hopes of finding a harmony between the two. The organization Biologos is devoted to this very task. According to its website, Biologos exists for the purpose of “exploring and celebrating the compatibility of evolutionary creation and biblical faith.”
Dullness and slowness
I had a full day yesterday, and discovered myself a little under the weather in the course of it. A dull brain that refused to accept the notion that I had made any preparation, a weary and slightly fevered body, and one or two other niggles made for a long day (and that’s just how I felt it to be).
We began with Sunday School, continuing our look at the roots of godly discipline of our children by putting the nature of liberty alongside the nature of a child. Reasonably straightforward stuff, you might have thought.
The morning service kicked off badly when I discovered that my watch had finally packed up. I discovered this when I realised that the minute hand was not moving, and that I was a couple of minutes late in starting.
These, I think, are the days when we are reminded of our own dispensability, and rejoice that the kingdom is not in our hands. It never does depend on us, but how often those days come along when we are forcibly reminded of what a blessing that is.
I preached in the morning – with a fair lack of fluency – on Biblical manhood and womanhood, concentrating now on distinctive identity. I reminded the congregation of the foundation of essential equality: created dignity, native depravity, and redemptive reality. Upon this foundation we must understand that the man and women – created in God’s image – were nevertheless created male and female, with definite, defined and distinctive roles. This identity is fundamental; our relationships are determinative; our behaviour flows appropriately from our distinctive identity in terms of a given relationship (e.g. family, church, society). I highlighted some principles for men and women, deliberately giving the men the hardest time as those who are to be courageous leaders rather than irresponsible victims. I confess that the absence of manly vigour among many Christian men and churches cuts me deep. I had to set out these things more broadly than deeply, but sought also to root the recovery of our masculinity and femininity in the grace of Christ. Only at the cross are those distinctive identities restored, for while sin dehumanises, grace rehumanises.
In the evening, I preached from Hebrews 13.5 on God himself our present help. We began with the context of the promise, looking both at what lies on and beneath the surface of the exhortation to avoid covetousness and be content. The assurance of the promise lies in the fact that God himself – the faithful, merciful, powerful, insightful, eternal God – speaks with all the reliability of divinity and the force of five negatives. The history of the promise – the times and places in which God spoke these words before – reveals a fine pedigree, broad scope, and long proving of God’s faithfulness. The substance of the promise is simply God’s presence and assistance: it is a covenant affirmation that we will ever be with us to help us. The sweetness and sufficiency of the promise lie in its being anchored at the cross and meeting every possible circumstance that any child of God individually or all the people of God together might ever meet. God has it covered! Finally, there are the effects of the promise: faith, contentment, confidence, courage, and cheerfulness.
This morning I had some errands to run, and was running them at a speed commensurate with my still slightly-ropey condition: I needed replacement tyres (semi-slicks rather than off-road monsters) on my bike, and discovered simultaneously that my brakes had been set up badly, which explained something of my laborious efforts since I bought the thing! I had been blaming the tyres and the baby-seat (or, more specifically, the growing child in it). I also discovered that my watch is probably beyond repair, picked up a book from the Post Office that for some reason could not be delivered, and came home to a monster boxful of review copies that I need to start ploughing through. Where do the days go?
Ah, well. Onward and upward . . .
“In Eden’s sinless garden”
St. Alphege 7 6. 7 6
In Eden’s sinless garden
A man and woman stood,
Each crafted in God’s image,
And both entirely good.
The serpent entered Eden,
And entered both their hearts;
And neither did resist him,
Fell to his fiery darts.
So Adam’s abdication
Was punished by the Lord;
Eve’s insubordination
Jehovah much abhorred.
Then came the Second Adam
Into the wilderness.
Where Adam fell, he conquered,
Both to restore and bless.
He raises from the ruins
Of Eden’s shattered bliss,
And by his saving power
Does Satan’s blight dismiss.
True men, pursue with courage
Loving nobility;
True women, with true beauty,
Submissive dignity.
You sons of Adam, glory
That Jesus sets you free.
Eve’s daughters, bow before him,
Embrace your liberty.
©JRW
See all hymns and psalms.
In with the new?
It is a new year.
Would you like a real change?
Would you like new surroundings? A new house, a new room, or new clothes?
Would you like new relationships? New friends, new colleagues, even a new family?
Would you like a new you? A new appearance, enlargements and reductions, a new nose or chin, a new waistline, or renewed health?
Would you like a new life? A completely fresh start, being a different person altogether, sweeping away everything that is, leaving it all behind, and starting over entirely?
One way or another, many of us would like – or may even long for – a makeover of some kind. We would truly love to change something about us and our lives.
Most of these changes are – at best – what you might call ‘cosmetic.’ That is, they are mere changes in appearance, manipulating externals without ever altering reality. As a result, they rarely make us happy. If you like, many of the changes we try to make are like re-arranging the deckchairs on the Titanic: making a doomed vessel more pleasing to the eye.
You probably know by experience that such changes make little lasting difference. At best, they solve problems temporarily. At worst, they lock us into a downward spiral of more and more extreme changes, each one more desperate, expensive, or humiliating than the last. In either case, they present no final solution to problems.
Why is this? It is because whatever you do and wherever you go and whenever you change outwardly, what you carry within you remains the same. We carry our issues, our characters, our personalities, our problems, our sins, with us wherever we go.
What you need is the most radical change of all: an extreme makeover that lies utterly outside your own power of will or money to accomplish, but a change that will once-and-for-all alter everything about you for the better. It is a change that begins on the inside and works its way out, radically altering in lasting fashion our thoughts, feelings, desires, words, and deeds.
It is called “new creation.” It begins with the essential you, the heart and soul of who and what you are, and – over the course of time – works itself through your whole being. It is a new life that will reach its climax with a new body in a new heavens and a new earth.
Would you like such a change? Do you long for an extreme makeover of this sort? This is no gimmick or fable, no lie or scam. This is God’s own truth, his free and sincere offer: “If anyone is in Christ,” says the Bible, “he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.”
Would you like a fresh start? There is nothing to pay, no forms to fill out, no waiting list, and guaranteed results. Faith in Christ brings new life in him. It is the only true solution to the otherwise empty search for a new you.
New beginnings
Can you remember your last set of new year’s resolutions? Did you make any new resolutions for the millennium, just a few years ago? Have you managed to stick to all of them? Some of them? Any of them?
We often make big plans for a new beginning. Sometimes we take advantage of a change of location or vocation. You go to a new school, start a new job, move to a new area. You might hope that this time round it will be different, that the problems that might have dogged you before will disappear, that you won’t have to face old frustrations again. But don’t we often take our problems with us, and find that – although things around us have changed – we haven’t changed very much ourselves?
Sometimes we attempt a deliberate change to our way of life: a new diet, a new “lifestyle”, a new exercise regime, or something else that promises ‘a new you’. But how often do we find our resolve weakening quickly, old habits dying hard, and the ‘old you’ pushing to the surface?
If things get really bad, perhaps we would even like the opportunity to “start over” – to leave everything behind and start from scratch. Perhaps you have even tried that – family failures, broken marriages, criminal activity, wrecked lives and crushed hopes – and you haven’t really escaped yet?
Genuinely new beginnings are desperately hard to make, and the most important one – one that lies at the root of all lasting change – is a change of our relationship to God: “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. . . . God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not imputing their trespasses against them” (the Second Letter to the Corinthians, chapter 5, verses 17-19).
This is a genuinely new beginning, a radical change in our relationship with God. We are sinners, cut off from God and hope, but when we are reconciled to God – brought back into a right relationship with him – then all things become new. This lies at the root of all new beginnings: this is the starting point for a genuinely new life on earth, and eternal life in heaven.
How does this happen? “If anyone is in Christ he is a new creation.” Such a new beginning takes place through believing in Jesus Christ: “God made him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in him.” The genuine hope of a new beginning is not found in you, but in Jesus Christ. Come to him, and you will have new life and real hope, now and forever.
The Wanderer 