The Modern Creation Trilogy. Dr. Henry M. Morris

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      6. Foundation of Home and Family

      The most important human institution is that of permanent, monogamous marriage. This was established by God when He created the first man and woman on the sixth day of creation week (Gen. 1:26–28; 2:18–25; also Matt. 19:3–6). The family, especially the father, is then responsible for the teaching and training of the children (Gen. 18:19; Eph. 6:4).

      7. Foundation of Salvation

      The very reason we need a Savior is that we have rebelled against our Creator, both as individuals and as a whole. Because of His holiness, God must judge and condemn all sin, so none who are in a state of sinful rebellion can possibly have the very fellowship with their Creator for which He had made them. At the same time, since God is both omnipotent and omniscient, He will not fail in His purpose in creation. Consequently, the Creator himself must pay His own righteous penalty for the redemption of sinners and for the sin of the world. Neither angels nor men can accomplish our salvation. Only God the Creator can be our judge, and only He can become, as the God-man and Messiah, “the only wise God our Saviour” (Jude 25).

      The Dominion Mandate

      When God created man, He placed him in dominion over His entire physical and biological creation, as His steward, not to exploit and misuse, but to develop it for the good of all and the glory of God. He was given “dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. . . . Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth” (Gen. 1:26–28).

      This “dominion mandate,” as it has been called, is still in effect, authorizing every honorable human occupation as necessary to understand and administer God’s great and complex creation. Thus, every person has the high privilege of being a “minister” of the Creator in his or her particular sphere of service.

      1. Science and Technology

      In order to “subdue” the earth, men must first understand its systems and processes. This implies scientific research. After understanding, comes application or development (engineering, agriculture, medicine, etc.).

      Evolutionary assumptions abound in the writings of modern scientists. Leading biologist Stanley D. Beck says, for example:

No central scientific concept is more firmly established in our thinking, our methods, and our interpretations, than that of evolution.1

But it was not always thus. Beck himself, after defining and discussing the basic premises of science (that is, the existence of a real world, the capability of the human mind to understand that world, the principle of cause-and-effect, and the unified nature of the world), admits that “each of these postulates had its origin in, or was consistent with, Christian theology.”2 That is, since the world was created by a divine Creator, and man was created in God’s image, therefore nature makes orderly sense, man is able to understand its operations, and true science becomes possible. If the world were merely the chance product of random forces, on the other hand, then our human brains would be meaningless jumbles of matter and electricity, and science would become nonsense.

      Consequently, the great founding fathers of real science (Kepler, Galileo, Pascal, Newton, Boyle, Brewster, Faraday, Linnaeus, Ray, Maxwell, Pasteur, Kelvin, etc.) were almost all creationists, and they believed that they were glorifying God as they probed His works. Yet today such great scientists would not even be considered scientists at all, because they believed in the primeval special creation of all things by God!

      In order then to utilize such research and development throughout the creation, all the business occupations would be involved (commerce, communication, marketing, transportation, etc., with all the “service” functions accompanying them). To transmit the information from one generation to another, the educational professions would be necessary. To interpret and enjoy the creation, the humanities and fine arts would be developed (music, art, literature, etc.). Indeed, all honorable vocations are subsumed under this primeval creation mandate.

      2. Human Government

      Initially, there would have been no need for men to exercise dominion over other men, so such functions were not included in the original dominion mandate. Sin came into the world, however, and the ultimate result was God’s cleansing judgment by the great Flood. When God started over, as it were, with Noah and his family, He not only in effect confirmed the original dominion mandate (Gen. 9:1–2), but also enlarged it with the basic governmental control of life and death over mankind.

      “Whose sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man” (Gen. 9:6). With this authorization of capital punishment for murder, some kind of human government became necessary in order for man to be able to properly exercise his stewardship responsibilities over God’s creation. Here are implied all the governmental and social occupations of mankind (law, military, police, etc.).

      In this original mandate, God did not ordain a particular form of government, but rather only the institution of government. No doubt the ideal form would have been the theocracy that He established later for His chosen nation Israel (note Deut. 4:5–8). Israel failed, however, at least for this present age, and God turned again to the Gentile nations — especially, it would seem, to Europe, and finally, in a distinctive way, to America.

      Although not all of America’s great founding fathers were Bible-believing Christians, almost all of them were theists and true creationists, believing that God had created the world and man and all natural systems. The colonies had been settled and developed largely by Christian people who had come to this continent to gain freedom to believe and do what the Bible taught and to spread Christianity to the inhabitants, and they acknowledged that the foundational faith was belief in special creation. The historian Gilman Ostrander reminds us:

The American nation had been founded by intellectuals who had accepted a world view that was based upon biblical authority as well as Newtonian science. They had assumed that God created the earth and all upon it at the time of creation and had continued without change thereafter.3

      Note that these great pioneers were intellectuals, not ignorant emotionalists. They placed great emphasis on education and science, founding many schools and colleges, in confidence that true learning in any field must be biblically grounded and governed. Christian historian Mary-Elaine Swanson, says:

In colonial times, the Bible was the primary tool in the educational process. In fact, according to Columbia University professor, Dr. Lawrence A. Cremin, the Bible was “the single most primary source for the intellectual history of colonial America.” From their knowledge of the Bible, a highly literate, creative people emerged.4

      In a July 4 address in 1783, Dr. Elias Boudinot, then president of the Continental Congress, stated that his reason for advocating an annual Independence Day observance in America was the great precedent set by God himself.

No sooner had the great Creator of the heavens and the earth finished his almighty work, and pronounced all very good, but he set apart (not an anniversary, or one day in a year, but) one day in seven, for the commemoration of his inimitable power in producing all things out of nothing.5

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