4 May 2008 - Rev Dr Quek Suan Yew
GOD CREATED THE WORLD OUT OF NOTHING,
i.e. EX NIHILO
“Ex nihilo” is a Latin phrase which means “out of nothing.” This is a term that is used in theology to describe the creative work of God even before time began. It used to be a truth readily accepted by all Christians until the eventful year of 1859 when the book by Charles Robert Darwin (12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was published. The book was titled as “On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or The Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life (usually abbreviated to The Origin of Species).” In the book, Darwin set out “one long argument” of detailed observations, inferences and consideration of anticipated objections. His only allusion to human evolution was the understatement that “light will be thrown on the origin of man and his history.” Although the word evolution was not used, the seed of evolution was planted in the book. The reaction was mixed. Wide public interest was generated in the scientific world and the general public but the ire of the religious establishment was stirred. A religious cum scientific controversy had errupted with science becoming the victor as our present day popular evolutionary trend testifies. From kindergarten to university, man is now confidently taught as having evolved from monkeys. The theory of evolution has transformed itself into a fact. It has given atheistic and agnostic man a “unifying logical explanation for the diversity of life” as he knows it today. God is kept out of the picture completely.
There is the theory of Chemical evolution. “Chemical evolution is also known as biopoesis, biogenesis or abiogenesis. Since evolution depends on a sequence of events, then in order for man to have evolved the first single celled organism must also have evolved on the primitive earth. This is the problem of chemical evolution or abiogenesis in which chemical compounds combine in such a way to produce the first living organism.” There is the evolutionary interpretaion of the fossil records. “Darwin suggested that all of the forms of life we see on earth today are descended from more primitive ancestors by slow gradual changes over millions of years of time. This is so slow that it would be impossible to observe during our lifetime. If this actually happened then the fossil evidence should show a gradual change from one species of animal into another. In Darwin's day, and still today, the fossil evidence does not show these intermediate life forms. It shows the final species which would be expected with special creation.” These are dated as billions of years old using carbon dating and all sorts of new dating. These datings hold true only when there is no global catastrophe to disrupt the surface of the earth thus destroying the basic assumption of the evolutionist which is the constant rate of decay in matter. But there was a global catastrophe in the form of a global Flood which transformed the old world that once was into this present that we now know as our earth (see 2Peter 3:5-7 ). Any data collected and interpreted by man using the evolutionary argument has been tainted by this catastrophe and the assumption they used are thus rendered invalid. Therefore evolutionists deny that there was a global flood.
The sad part in this whole saga of evolution comes from compromising professing Christians who try to marry evolution with theism. To be accepted by the “scientific” world they claim that God used evolution to create this world. A new term in theology was coined by them - theistic evolution. They interpret the word ‘dust” in Genesis 2:7 as “evolution.” They claim that in this one word is the capsule for the entire theory of evolution!
But the Bible clearly and definitively says otherwise. The whole universe was created by God ex nihilo! Hebrews 11:3 reveals, “Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.” Man is a fool to think they can know about how life began without God. The only One who knows is God for He was the only One there when life began. Man must humble himself and submit to the fact that he knows nothing outside of what God has revealed in His holy and perfect Word, especially when it comes to the origin of the universe! Job 38:4-11 point out this fact vividly in these rhetorical questions, “Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast understanding. Who hath laid the measures thereof, if thou knowest? or who hath stretched the line upon it? Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? or who laid the corner stone thereof; When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy? Or who shut up the sea with doors, when it brake forth, as if it had issued out of the womb? When I made the cloud the garment thereof, and thick darkness a swaddlingband for it, And brake up for it my decreed place, and set bars and doors, And said, Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further: and here shall thy proud waves be stayed?”
There is absolutely no basis for the theory of evolution. Neo-evangelicals who try to marry theism with evolution only add more poison into the pottage of muck and mess. Evolution in whatever form, atheisic or theistic, is diabolically deadly. These are some of the implications if evolution is accepted. William Provine of Cornell University candidly conceded that if Darwinism is true, then there are five inescapable implications [Note-comments in capitals are added]:
1. there's no evidence for God – NO BIBLE, NO MIRACLE, NO CHRIST!;
2. there's no life after death – NO HEAVEN AND NO HELL!;
3. there's no absolute foundation for right or wrong -- SIN ALL YOU WANT WITHOUT FEAR OF JUDGEMENT FROM GOD;
4. there's no ultimate meaning for life – NO HOPE, NO PURPOSE, EAT DRINK AND BE MERRY FOR TOMORROW WE DIE! NO BETTER THAN ANIMALS,
5. people don't really have free will --
Thank God that the Bible is true and God has revealed Himself to mankind in love and in grace and mercy. We are not without hope and eternal life from the bondage of sin. From the Book of Genesis we know our beginning and from the Book of Revelation we know our end. We also learn that there is no theory of evolution or the theories of deception versus the reality of creationism as revealed in Holy Scriptures! The following list is taken from http://ourworld. compuserve.com /homepages /rossuk/christn.htm#threat.
1. There was a beginning to the universe Gen 1:1
2. God was actively involved in the creation process Gen 1:3-28
3. God ceased from his work of creation Gen 2:2
4. He now sustains the universe Heb 1:3
5. God created man after his own image Gen 1:26
6. God created man from dust and not from animals Gen 2:7
7. God created man superior to the animals Gen 1:28 , 2:19
8. Eve was created from Adam and she is the same substance as Adam Gen 2:22
9. The fall of man affected our relationship with God and our environment Gen 3
10. Suffering and death came to man because of sin Gen 2:17 , 3:16 ; Rom 8:20
11. Eve is the mother of all living Gen 3:20
12. Mankind descended from Adam Acts 17:26
13. God created man to have fellowship with God Acts 17:27
14. Jesus endorses the creation account in Mat 19:4 , 24:37 ; Mark 10:6
15. Paul contrasts Jesus and Adam and presumably therefore Adam was an actual man Rom 5:14 , 1 Tim 2:13
16. God became man and lived on the earth.