Better Than The Fancy Of Most Learned Men

Today is February 1st, which means it is the first day of February. That means today will be the first day of the succeeding 28 days of February (2012 Is a leap year). So that means we are starting February 2012 today.

You’re probably thinking I must be starving for a topic on which to write. Actually, God gave me this topic as I opened my eyes and laid in bed after my alarm awoke me. God told me He wanted me to write about beginnings. Why? Because everything starts somewhere. There is always a beginning.

However, there are many beginnings we take for granted. These are called presuppositions and when studying God’s Word they are required of everyone if any serious exploration and exposition on God is to be accomplished. In theology this is known as prolegomena, which means “things that are said before.”

If you do not come to the study of theology with a presupposition, or prolegomena, of God’s existence, it will affect the attitude of your study. And your attitude always determines your altitude. Dr. Elmer Townes, writing in Theology For Today, compares prolegomena, or our presuppositions, to blueprints that “will determine the shape of the building to be constructed.”

The Bible begins the Creation Story with a presupposition:

    “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” (Genesis 1:1)

If you cannot get past the first four words of the Bible, then you cannot really begin any serious study of theology. If you cannot defend the first four words of the Bible, then you cannot defend the Bible. If you cannot defend the first verse in the Bible, then you cannot defend the Creation Story.

Well meaning theologians have given right ground on this important truth to the destruction of a generation’s faith. In his excellent DVD “Already Gone”, Ken Ham of Answers in Genesis starkly outlines how giving up on the first eleven chapters of Genesis has caused our youth to stop believing in the inerrancy and sufficiency of the Bible, based off of theologians doubting the literal Creation Story as told in Genesis because science doesn’t believe in it. They say all that matters is belief in Jesus, and Dr. Ham rightly states that scientists don’t believe in the Immaculate Conception, Jesus’ walking on water, His feeding gatherings of five thousand and four thousand, raising Lazarus, and others, from the dead, His raising from the dead, and His ascension to Heaven. That all being said are were to give up right ground on Jesus? Our children do because if the Creation Story isn’t true, what makes anything written about Jesus true?

If you could get any nonbeliever to read just one book in the Bible, which would you recommend? Most rightly would recommend the Gospel of John. Relearn its beginning:

    “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” (John 1:1)

Try getting past that one with your skeptical scientist. What humanistic thinking scientist would ever accept as truth that Jesus is the Word and He has always been and has always been with God, and—just for good measure—has always been God? That’s what that verse says.

Beloved, it is at best nonsensical and at worse madness to give right ground to those who are smarter than us about science but lack faith in the miracle of the Word of God. Our old friend Matthew Henry puts it in right perspective. Writing on Genesis 1:1:

    “The first verse of the Bible gives us a satisfying and useful account of the origin of the earth and the heavens. The faith of humble Christians understands this better than the fancy of most learned men. From what we see of heaven and earth, we learn the power of the great Creator. And let our make and place as men, remind us of our duty as Christians, always to keep heaven in our eye, and the earth under our feet. The Son of God, one with the Father; was with Him when He made the world; nay, we are often told that the world was made by Him, and nothing was made without Him. Oh, what high thoughts should there be in our minds, of that great God whom we worship, and of the great Mediator in whose name we pray!”

Do you find the first verse of the Bible both satisfying, meaning it is complete, and useful with which to defend Creationism? Let me help you. Most people miss the connection between the Creation Story and the Gospel Story. To believe in both you must believe in something else.

You must believe in miracles.

There is no explanation for Mary being born without being inseminated naturally or artificially.

There is no explanation for Lazarus walking out of the tomb still wrapped in his burial clothes.

There is no explanation for Jesus taking 5 small barley loaves and two small fish from a little boy’s lunch and feeding nearly 10,000 people.

There is no explanation for Jesus rising from the dead and ascending into heaven.

Nor is there any explanation for God creating the heavens and the earth by speaking them into existence.

Exception for one…

…they are all miracles.

And you have to believe in miracles. And believing is faith. And faith is trust. And without it you are a crippled Christian.

    “But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.” (Hebrews 11:6)

Let’s break this down. To please God you must have faith in Him. And to have faith in God you must come to Him and believe that He is. Believing that He is means believing what He has said. The Bible, His Holy Word, says that He created the heavens and the earth, and man, in six days. And if it wasn’t a literal six days, why wouldn’t God make it clear that it wasn’t? Because you must believe that He is. You must have the presupposition that God is Who the Bible says He is. If you cannot, you cannot please Him. But if you do, you will be rewarded by Him. And this could include the ability to convince creationism skeptics that Creation is part of the miracle stories in the Bible.

Those are the basics of belief my beloved readers. May we be found faithful with these truths. May we take back right ground where we have given so freely. And may God be glorified in all that we do.

In Christ
Dave
Ps. 37:4

If you’re receiving these devotionals for the first time and would like to receive them on a regular basis, please email me at jeffers221@bellsouth.net and use “Please add to Devotional List” as the subject.

    Copyright © 2012 David Jeffers

Tags

, , , , , , , , , , , , , ,