Take it or leave it

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By Timothy Johnson

Preacher’s Point

God starts His Word with a great take it or leave it statement. Genesis 1:1, “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.”

Either God created everything, or He did not.

The theory of evolution puts doubt in people’s minds about the validity of Genesis 1:1. This doubt begins in kindergarten or before. When a child is very young, an adult will pick up a book with a colorful cover and happy-looking dinosaurs on every page. The adult will begin to read, “Billions of years ago…”

Instead of a six-day creation, the theory of evolution explains that the origins of life took billions of years to develop. Some have tried to explain that the six days of creation are six periods of millions or billions of years long, thus attempting to get the Biblical account to co-exist with evolution.

Several things tell us that God did not take years to create everything. We read, “…And the evening and the morning were the first day.” “…And the evening and the morning were the second day.” “And the evening and the morning were the third day.” This pattern repeats with all six days of creation (Genesis 1:5,8,13,19,23,31). Genesis is clearly pointing out that the days of creation are one spin of the earth, equivalent to our current day.

Another Biblical fact that refutes evolution is that death did not come until Adam sinned. Romans 5:12, “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.” Without anything dying for billions of years, the earth could not contain all the animal life that would have come before us.

Okay, I threw out a couple of items used to argue for creation, there are hundreds of things more that can be said, and there are arguments on both sides. Still, the Bible never attempts to “prove” creation or the existence of God.

The critical element in science is observation. Suppose two chemicals are mixed together a thousand times and explode every time. Observing this reaction, we can scientifically conclude that chemicals A and B are highly volatile when mixed.

No human was there to witness the creation; neither was any human there to see the big bang or the billions of years of something turning into us. Both creation and evolution, therefore, must be taken by faith.

God wants us to take Him by faith. So, God begins His Word with a statement that can only be accepted by faith.

This column may look like it is about the argument between creation and evolution, but it is not. It is about how God issues take-it-or-leave-it statements, leaving us to believe or disbelieve Him.

Genesis 1:1 is a take-it-or-leave-it statement on creation and a take-it-or-leave-it statement about God’s existence. After all, there must be a Creator for an act of creation.

God does the same thing with salvation. There are dozens of take-it-or-leave-it statements when it comes to salvation. “Christ died for our sins” (1 Corinthians 15:3), “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29), “He shall save his people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21), “For the Son of man is come to save that which was lost” (Matthew 18:11), to name a few.

Many believe you earn your way to eternal life, a home in heaven. There are various beliefs on how a person can achieve a heavenly home.

One way would be for the good in your life to outweigh the bad. Here is the problem with that theory. Assume a heart surgeon commits murder. In a rage, he pulls out a gun and shoots someone. During his trial, the defense, unable to refute that their client is a murderer, parades dozens of character witnesses across the witness stand. Person after person praises the doctor for extending their life or the life of a loved one. But the jury is forced to convict. Helping a hundred people does not erase the murder. It only takes killing one person to be a murderer. The good cannot erase the bad, regardless of how well the scales balance in our direction.

Other people will attempt to achieve eternal life through some religious ritual. These rituals would include baptism, communion, church membership, and so on in Christian circles. Other religions would have their practices, but even if a person could turn over a new leaf and never sin again, religion cannot erase past sins.

Instead of attempting to earn their way to eternal life, others try not to bring eternal judgment upon themselves. In other words, some people believe that as long as they are not a killer, rapist, child molester, or another despicable monster, heaven will be their eternal home. The problem is that although they are not a monster, they are still a sinner. The Bible does say, “…all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone…” (Revelation 21:8). Many are known as honest. Still, even the most honest of us have told a lie somewhere along the way.

The blood of Christ is the only thing that can remove sin so that a person can stand before God as righteous.

1 Corinthians 1:30, “But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption.”

1 Peter 1:18-19, “Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.”

Revelation 1:5, “And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood.”

Take it or leave it.

Preacher Johnson is Pastor of Countryside Baptist Church in Parke County Indiana. Website: www.preachers-point.com; Email: [email protected]; Mail: 25 W 1200 N; Kingman IN 47952. Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Timothy-Preacher-Johnson-101171088326638. All Scripture KJV.

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