THE SEARCH FOR EVIDENCE
“Always be ready to give a defence to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear”
1 Peter 3:15
Because of the generalized teaching of the theories of evolution starting from the primary course and of its almost generalized acceptance in the scientific media, it becomes more and more difficult to obtain acceptance of the doctrines of the Gospel in a materialistic, humanist and atheist world.
Many Christians are satisfied with their simple faith. They say: “for me if creation really took six days, six millennia, or it was done gradually through billions of years, it doesn’t matter: I am content with my faith in Christ, who brought me salvation”. Unhappily many of them do not take care in having the “mind of Christ” (1 Corinthians 2:16) and declare that faith and science should not be mixed. As a result, they accept without protest the interpretation given by atheists to the facts of “nature”, and carelessly acquiesce with their arguments that lead to a refusal of the existence of God. It is the substitution of the Christian faith by the evolutionist faith.
No doubt who is ready to trust God and His Word fully deserves compliments (2 Thessalonians 1:3 - 4, 10, etc.) and, after all, “without faith it is impossible to please God, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him” (Hebrews 11:6). But true faith has never opposed the evidence of the facts, i.e., it isn’t blind. Who wisely accepts the Word of God as being the supreme truth, inspired by the Holy Spirit, isn’t swerved by the discoveries made by science in the world where we live and in the universe that surrounds it, finding in them concrete evidence of the infinite wisdom of God in His creation, and sees in the world and the universe the sovereign hand of God in all His magnificence.
A believer must always be disposed and prepared to defend his faith before the sceptics, attitude which requires an intelligent knowledge of the doctrines of sin and salvation, and an ability to defend them with meekness,which is avoiding blind dogmatism and an aggressive petulance which are indications of lack of personal conviction. Above all, fearing God for he is His servant (1 Peter 2:18). The Lord Jesus confirmed the commandment: “You shall love the Lord your God with... all your mind.” (Matthew 22:37). This is the duty of every believer, and the apostle Paul declared: “the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5).
It is very important to know that the Christian mind and that of the sceptic think in diagonally opposing ways of basic things, so the believer has to arm himself powerfully with what God can supply to him. It is not only increased knowledge of the Word of God, but also the knowledge of the work of God seen in nature and discovered by researchers and scientists. Far from contradicting the revelation of the Bible, they give each time more evidence proving its legitimacy, thus allowing him “to cast down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God”. A Christian must not have fear of following the discoveries of science. There are an increasing number of “secular” historians who are recognizing that they were Christian principles that gave impulse to the immense advances in scientific and social areas in the last centuries. A current author has argued that the main contribution of Christianity was “reason”, that it is the “mind” of this commandment in Matthew.
For millions of souls who, since infancy, have been taught the theories of evolution as being proven realities, which in fact they have never been, mercy is required: “on some have compassion, making a distinction; but others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire” (Jude v. 22, 23). It is not necessary to be a scientist to discern many of its great weaknesses, for they are evident to an observer not contaminated by them, particularly so if he believes in God, has the “mind of Christ” and knows the Scriptures well.
But to those who are immersed in evolutionism, of which the great majority have never learned anything else, it is generally necessary to present convincing evidence. They want “to see to believe”, which is not surprising: the apostle Thomas needed to see the risen Lord, not believing in the word of the other apostles (John 20:29); when the “other disciple” entered in the tomb and saw it empty, he believed in the resurrection (John 20:8); the proconsul Sergius Paulus, “an intelligent man”, believed when he saw the sorcerer Elimas blinded by the apostle Paul (Acts 13:12).
The man of God can prepare himself for combat against devilish atheism by arming himself with undeniable evidence that is presented by enlightened and courageous scientists, who confirm the veracity of the Biblical story and unmask the hoaxes committed by evolutionists. The volume of these hoaxes is very great, so we will see here only some examples amongst the most important, as subsidy.
Nobody can scientifically prove the origin of the world and the universe. For this it would have to be possible to reproduce the event in a laboratory, or through acceptable mathematical formulas with the aid of computers. But it is not. We have only one Witness who was present and left us His report in writing. This Witness declares Himself to have been the Creator of everything, and its Sustainer. Can we believe what He tells us?
This witness is the omnipotent God Himself, the eternal Spirit who sent His only begotten Son to live among us for about thirty years, two millennia ago. All the wonders of creation, in our planet and the universe, testify to a coordinate planning and a perfect execution above any human intelligence, as the discoveries in really scientific research prove day-by-day. Therefore, true science has the necessary evidence of the existence of this creative Being.
The account of the Witness, contained in our Bible, is not less surprising and wonderful, for even though it was written by means of human hands throughout some centuries, millennia ago, it kept a coherence and current spiritual value as in no other book, proving not to be the product of the intelligence of a mere human being. Its success has been such that its production has exceeded that of any other book, and it has already been translated into almost all written languages, and even those only spoken. No other book has had so great an influence on humanity.
Although the Bible describes facts which occurred in the remote antiquity, those whose vestiges are still within the reach of archaeology have been confirmed to a large extent, even the names of people involved in them. It deserves, therefore, all our credibility. The Supreme Author only tells the truth. Why should we therefore doubt His account of the origin of the universe, Earth and human beings? This information answers our questions and is essential to explain our relationship with Him.
The theories of evolution are formulated on the premise that there is no Creator, therefore all that surrounds us, even we ourselves, would be a product of the incompressible sprouting of matter from nothing. The resultant chaos would be ordered by means of “natural” laws without a Legislator, there would have been evolution of matter to acquire life by itself without a Source, and living matter would be automatically ordered into cells themselves capable of feeding, reproducing and forming organisms of increasing complexity, until arriving at man, whose united and specialized cells can inexplicably form abstract images and thoughts.
Any statistician will be able to calculate that the probability of this to happen in reality is null. Mathematics, therefore, confirm that the theories of evolution are impracticable. Nevertheless, in their insistence to deny the existence of God, evolutionists persevere with these theories, and they frequently change them as calculations and discoveries contradict their premises. In their endeavour to give some credibility to evolution, they stretch out into astronomical periods the time for the changes and transformation to take place, and for the formation and evolution of live matter. After all, infinitum provides them with ample time...
So far no evolution of living creatures has been proven. The fossils only prove that there was a great cataclysm on earth ages ago, in which animals died and were quickly covered by layers of mud, land and rocks. We know that this happened in the Flood. The flora and currently existing fauna can be identified with a great part of the species of fossils, and some species are lacking which probably did not resist the action of time.
As a consequence of the sin of the man, God cursed creation (Genesis 3:17, 5:29, Romans 8:22). The animals, which had all been peaceful because all was good, became aggressive and some of their species turned into carnivores. Death came upon the animals as well as humans. There was adaptation, part of the excellent properties with which they had originally been provided, and the transfer and loss of qualities because of the resultant degeneration of the curse. That is confirmed by science.
The study of DNA of live cells, made intensively in our days, provides undisputed evidence that all living creatures have a very sophisticated code of construction, from microbes to humans. The code can be deformed, lost or exchanged through natural action or human interference, but there has been no evidence so far of a spontaneous manufacture of a new element, no matter how hard the evolutionists look for it, as it is essential for a confirmation of their theories.
The evolutionists thought they had found two powerful weapons to defend their theories: the calculation of the age of things on earth through carbon dating, and the calculation of bodies in space by function of the speed of light. They are dogmas they created and convinced many people. But true science has demonstrated serious imperfections in both measures, there being now other theoretical and mathematical alternatives which, in contrast to them, confirm that the earth and the universe could have been formed as recently as the six Biblical millennia. The explanations are of a very technical order, very specialized and of difficult reading and understanding for the uninitiated; therefore I will not give them here.
However, for those who are interested and know the English language, I recommend that they look up the following excellent websites run by famous Christian scientists: http://www.creationontheweb.com/and http://www.answersingenesis.org/. The first one is from Australia and the other from the U.S.A., with representations in various countries, in English and other languages, including Spanish, but lacking in Portuguese.
R David Jones
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