The Modern Creation Trilogy. Dr. Henry M. Morris

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СКАЧАТЬ himself had told Moses: “There shall no man see me, and live” (Exod. 33:20). Similarly, the apostle Paul spoke of God as “dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can see” (1 Tim. 6:16).

      Indeed, the very concept of an everlasting, omnipotent God who created the mighty universe seems impossible to grasp by mere mortals, especially by those astronomers and cosmologists whose whole careers are spent in studying the universe and trying to understand its origin and nature. Surveys have shown that only a very small percentage of scientists in these fields are active in any kind of church. Their very purpose in life seems to be to try to explain not only the presumed evolution of the universe, but even its very existence, without God! The big-bang theory, with its initial period of supposed “inflation,” increasingly involves the assumption (at least by those who think about origins at all) that our universe simply evolved out of nothing, by means of a “quantum fluctuation in the primeval state of nothingness,” or some such strange notion.

      Such explanations are considered by secular scientists to be preferable to believing that “in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth” (Gen. 1:1). While it is true that one cannot prove that God created, neither can anyone prove that the universe created itself. At least the concept of Almighty God as Creator presents a reasonable First Cause, able to account for the complex of myriad effects that comprise the cosmos, whereas the assumed primeval nothingness explains nothing! Creationists, therefore, have a reasonable faith, based on good evidence, whereas cosmic evolutionists have a highly credulous faith, based on the omnipotence of “nothing.”

      It may, indeed, be true that we cannot actually “see” God, for He is “the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God” (1 Tim. 1:17). Christ himself said that “no man hath seen God at any time” (John 1:18). And to those in this scientific age who stress that the scientific method requires “observability,” this may seem to be a problem.

      But the fact is that God has been seen by men! Enoch and Noah both “walked with God” (Gen. 5:24; 6:9), and “the Lord appeared unto Abram” (Gen. 12:7; 17:1; 18:1), as well as Isaac (Gen. 26:2). Also, Jacob testified: “I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved” (Gen. 32:30).

      Scripture also says that Moses was a man “whom the Lord knew face to face” (Deut. 34:10). During the period of the conquest and the judges, there were several occasions when “the angel of the Lord” appeared to men and was recognized as the Lord himself (note the case of Gideon and also that of the parents of Samson, for example — Judges 6:22; 13:21–22). The patriarch Job could say, after deliverance from his sufferings: “I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee” (Job 42:5).

      Much later, the great prophet Isaiah testified: “I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up” (Isa. 6:1). Ezekiel also saw that “upon the likeness of the throne was the likeness as the appearance of a man upon it. . . . This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord” (Ezek. 1:26–28).

      Still other occasions are recorded in the Old Testament when the Lord appeared to men, either in a vision or “face to face,” as well as even more times when He “spoke” audibly to men. As would be expected, numerous skeptics throughout the centuries have said that this was one of the Bible’s “contradictions.” In many places, they say, the Bible says that no man can see God, whereas in other places it says that many men did see God.

      This superficial discrepancy, of course, is beautifully resolved by the wonderful truth of the triune godhead, and was specifically clarified by the Lord Jesus Christ, when He said:

      No man hath seen God at any time: the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him (John 1:18).

      That is to say, whenever the omnipresent, invisible God has deigned to appear to men, He has done so in the person of His eternal Son, who is “the image of the invisible God” (Col. 1:15).

      Since the Son is, indeed, “in the form of God . . . equal with God” (Phil. 2:6), He too is omnipotent and can surely assume the form of an angel or of a man or even of a burning bush (note Exod. 3:2–6), when He so wills. Thus, men have on occasion in the past actually seen God. It was not God in His essential triune glory, of course, but, rather, God declared and manifested as God the eternal Son, forever “in the bosom of the Father” (John 1:18), yet eternally “going forth” (Mic. 5:2) to manifest the godhead.

      All such appearances of God to men were what are called “theophanies,” or pre-incarnate appearances of Christ. The English word “theophany” is from two Greek words meaning “God appearing,” and it beautifully defines these many appearances of God the Son to men before He actually became man, as the Lord Jesus Christ, the Messiah!

      Now, however, He has become forever Emmanuel, “God with us!” He who was the very “brightness of (God’s) glory, and the express image of his person” (Heb. 1:3), “was made in the likeness of men” (Phil. 2:7). He was one with “the Mighty God” and “the Everlasting Father,” but has now become one with us, “made like unto his brethren” (Heb. 2:17) in order that He, as Emmanuel, might also become “JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins” (Matt. 1:21). He who had “created all things” (Eph. 3:9) finally created a human body in which He himself would dwell and in which He would then die for our sins and rise again for our justification.

      The Word [that is, the creating Word!] was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father) full of grace and truth (John 1:14).

      His 1st-century disciples were thus privileged to see God “manifest in the flesh” and then “received up into glory” (1 Tim. 3:16). We who live in the 20th century have not been given that particular privilege, although He does, even now, “abide” in us by His Spirit (note John 14:21–23; 15:15).

      But we also shall see Him in the flesh one of these days, for He is still a true man, resurrected and glorified, forever the Son of Man as well as God. Furthermore, “when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure” (1 John 3:2–3).

      And when we finally see Him, it will be far more glorious than when John and Peter saw Him by the Sea of Galilee. The only place in the Bible where His physical appearance as Son of Man is actually described is when John saw Him on the Isle of Patmos, many years later, after His resurrection and ascension. Here is how John saw Him, and this is how we shall see Him, not as a baby in a manger and not as our sin-bearing substitute nailed to a cross, but as our eternal King of kings and Lord of lords!

      I saw . . . one like unto the Son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the paps with a golden girdle. his head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow; and his eyes were like a flame of fire; And his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and his voice as the sound of many waters. And he had in his right hand seven stars: And out of his mouth went a sharp two-edged sword: And his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength (Rev. 1:12–16).

      Then, when we, as his heavenly bride, the true Church, shall “see him as he is,” we can say with thanksgiving, “This is my beloved, and this is my friend” (Song of Sol. 5:16).

      The Incarnation

      In the beginning was the Word . . . and the Word was God. . . . All things were made by him. . . . And the Word was made flesh (John 1:1–14).

      We can never understand the doctrine of the incarnation, whereby God the Creator became man the creature, for it is beyond the limits of finite comprehension. But we can believe СКАЧАТЬ