The Modern Creation Trilogy. Dr. Henry M. Morris

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СКАЧАТЬ style="font-size:15px;">      1 He is the King of time, for He created time: He is “my King of old” (Ps. 74:12) and “sitteth King for ever” (Ps. 29:10).

      2 He is the King of space, for He created infinite space. He is “King of heaven” (Dan. 4:37), the “King invisible” (1 Tim. 1:17), who “hast made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host” (Neh. 9:6), although even “heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain thee” (2 Chron. 6:18).

      3 He is the King of matter, for He made all “things” in space and time. He is “King of all the earth” (Ps. 47:7), and all “give glory and honour and thanks to him that sat on the throne . . . saying, Thou art worthy . . . for thou hast created all things” (Rev. 4:9–11).

      4 He is the King of energy, for He has energized and empowered an infinite and eternal universe. God is Light, the “King of glory” (Ps. 24:10), “dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto” (1 Tim. 6:16).

      5 He is the King of life, since He is “the King immortal” (1 Tim. 1:17), “who only hath immortality” (1 Tim. 6:16), and He is the One who “giveth to all life, and breath, and all things” (Acts 17:25).

      6 He is the King of all the angels, the host of heaven, “For by him were all things created, that are in heaven . . . whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers” (Col. 1:16). He is “the King, the Lord of hosts” (Zech. 14:16).

      7 He is the King of all nations, both “the King of Israel” (John 1:49) and “King of nations” (Jer. 10:7, literally “King of Gentiles”).

      8 He is the King of all the redeemed, those who have been “translated . . . into the kingdom of his dear Son” by “redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins” (Col. 1:13–14). Therefore, He has become also the “King of saints” (Rev. 15:3), and He will one day be universally acclaimed as “King of kings, and Lord of lords” (1 Tim. 6:15; Rev. 17:14; 19:16).

      Since He created all things, He is indeed the king of all creation, the potentate and sovereign, Master and ruler, Lord and judge of all things. As His creatures, we can only acknowledge His authority, trust His wisdom, believe His Word, obey His commandments, receive His grace, accept His salvation, and praise His name!

      But the sad, strange thing is that there are multitudes of people who rebel against His authority, refuse His salvation, and even deny His true existence as the only personal Creator God. “Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things” (Rom. 1:22–23).

      In every age people have been unwilling to believe in God as Creator and to submit to His authority, so they have invented lesser gods to serve. They have given the created world itself the attributes of deity, stupidly, rebelliously believing that the universe is the ultimate reality. They have “changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the [creation] more than the Creator” (Rom. 1:25).

      Of course, the only alternative to creation is evolution, whether it be the naive evolutionism of ancient polytheism (which deified the forces of nature as heavenly “birds and fourfooted beasts and creeping things”) or the more modern evolutionism of the Darwinians (which invests such impersonal processes as mutation and natural selection with imaginary creative powers). No imagined substitute for the Creator, of course, can really create anything, and the only explanation for the age-long compulsion of men to believe in such counterfeits is that “they did not like to retain God in their knowledge” (Rom. 1:28). They have “imagined a vain thing” (Ps. 2:1).

      But whether or not men believe in the great King of creation, He still is the Creator. “For what if some did not believe? shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect? God forbid: yea, let God be true, but every man a liar” (Rom. 3:3–4).

      The believer in evolution (whether in the pantheistic polytheism of the ancients or the naturalistic humanism of the moderns) is described in the Bible as “without excuse” and “willingly ignorant” (Rom. 1:20; 1 Pet. 3:5). He must believe that effects can be greater than their causes, that random mindless particles can generate complex reasoning people, and that magic wands can transform frogs into princes.

      When the Israelites turned from serving their Creator to worshiping idols, God rebuked them with these words:

      As the thief is ashamed when he is found, so is the house of Israel ashamed . . . saying to a stock, Thou art my father; and to a stone, Thou hast brought me forth (Jer. 2:26–27).

      And if it is shameful foolishness for a man to believe that his origin was from a wooden or stone image that he himself had made, how much more foolish it is to believe that a living, thinking human being could emerge from the non-living chemicals of a primeval soup! Surely the readers of these words will not be guilty of such unreasoning credulity as that! “Know ye that the Lord he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture” (Ps. 100:3). “For the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods” (Ps. 95:3).

      Pre-Incarnate Appearances of God to Man

      Since God is omnipresent, He is necessarily invisible, at least in the essential triune glory of the godhead. Yet He had created man in His own image, for fellowship with himself, and therefore He somehow must reveal himself to man in a form of manifestation accessible to the human senses (sight, hearing, touch) — that is, in effect, He must appear in the form of an angel, or even as a man.

      God is also omnipotent, and therefore He can do this whenever and however He so wills. To actually become man’s Redeemer and Savior, however, He must do more than appear as man, He must be a man, able to suffer and die for man’s sin, and then also to defeat death and rise from the dead as a glorified and immortal man, yet still physically a real man. Here we encounter the amazing event of God’s eternal Son becoming incarnate forever as the Son of Man.

      One of the most familiar passages in the Bible — familiar because of its frequent appearance on Christmas cards and in Christmas sermons — is also one of the most profound and mysterious passages in the Bible. I am referring to Isaiah 9:6–7.

      For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.

      The mystery is how a mere child, born like other children, could also be “The everlasting Father.” The very words seem to constitute, in the modern parlance, an “oxymoron,” that is, an impossible contradiction in terms.

      The same mystery is evident in that other very familiar Christmas verse, Micah 5:2:

      But thou, Bethlehem Ephrata, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall He come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.

      That is, how could a Babe be “brought forth” (note verse 3) from a mother in Bethlehem when He had already been “going forth” from everlasting?

      Then, consider also the wondrous prophecy of the virgin birth, “which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet [that is, in Isa. 7:14] saying,” as proclaimed by the angel in Matthew 1:23:

      Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call His name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.

      God СКАЧАТЬ