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-57- The God Who Is I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth" (The Apostles' Creed). "I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible" (The Nicene Creed). "I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth" (Luther's Small Catechism). "The Eternal Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who of nothing made heaven and earth, with all that is in them ..." (The Heidelberg Catechism). "In the beginning, it pleased God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, for the manifestation of the glory of his eternal power, wisdom, and goodness, to create or make of nothing the world and all things therein whether visible or invisible, in the space of 6 days, and all very good" (The Westminster Confession). "The work of creation is God's making all things of nothing, by the word of his power, in the space of six days ..." (The Shorter Catechism) (Presbyterian). "In the beginning it pleased God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit for the manifestation of the glory of his eternal power, wisdom and goodness to create or make the world, and all things therein, whether visible or invisible, in the space of 6 days, and all very good" (The London Baptist Confession, 1689). The Philadelphia Confession of Faith, a Baptist confession, reads the same as the London Confession. This is the historic position of Christianity through the ages. Someone may ask, "Are there not Bible scholars who do not believe this?" To this we answer, "Yes; and this is the reason we call them unbelievers." Another may ask, "What difference does it make whether one believes in evolution or creation?" To people to whom the knowledge of God and truth is unimportant, it makes no difference, but to men and women who know that "To fear God and to keep his commandments is the whole duty of man" (Ecclesiastes 12:13b), such knowledge is the difference between life and death. It is because God made man (Genesis chapter 1) that God has the right to be the Lawgiver (Genesis 2); and it is because God is the Lawgiver, that He has the right to be the Judge of men (Genesis 3). The reason men hate the doctrine of creation is because since the time Adam and Eve sinned, and Adam begat a son in the likeness of his sinful nature (Genesis 5), men in their natural state have been at war with God. If men can repudiate the work of God as Creator, they can dismiss His right to be their Lawgiver and Judge. George Bernard Shaw wrote, "The world jumped at Darwin at the thought of being rid of God." Another may ask, "Why cannot a person believe in `Theistic Evolution,' that God used evolution to form the worlds, and in the development of the animals and of man?" Allow Thomas Huxley, one of the giants among the evolutionists to tell you why. He said, "The purpose of evolution is to do away with God." Belief in evolution and belief in God are mutually exclusive. The proof this is so is nowhere seen more clearly than in the American school system. The teaching of evolution cannot tolerate the teaching of God or of His moral law. Since a Christian accepts the Bible as the final authority as to what he should believe, and how he is to behave himself, reader, are you truly a Christian? Has God "begun a good work in you?" (Philippians 1:6). Has He worked in you "to will and to do of His good pleasure?" (Philippians 2:13). DIALECTICAL MATERIALISM First came the theory of evolution; then came "dialectical materialism," or the philosophy that teaches a man is worth only a few cents. If the human body is separated into its portions, it is worth about 88 cents. My friend Evangelist Harold Leake informs me the body contains enough Iron to make one nail; enough salt to season one order of scrambled eggs; enough sugar to sweeten one cup of coffee; enough Nitrogen to sprout one seed of corn; and enough Sulfur to rid one dog of fleas. There is enough fat to make 9 bars of soap, and enough water to give a baby one bath. There is not enough acid to eat a hole in our sleeve, and not enough electricity to even record. Therefore, in a state that has embraced the philosophy of dialectical materialism where people live who do not do what the state thinks they ought to do, that government can simply rid itself of such undesirables by plowing them into a mass grave. First came the atheistic doctrine of evolution; then came dialectical materialism; and then came Marxism. But the measure of a man is not the value of his body. Jesus "took not on him the nature of angels," but "was made in the likeness of men" (Hebrews 2:16; Philippians 2:7). "For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh" (Romans 8:3).
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