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The God Who Is
UNIFORMITARIANISM
In II Peter chapter 3, beginning at verse 3 we read, "Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, and saying, `Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.'" This is known as the doctrine of "Uniformitarianism," and it is the backbone of evolutionary teaching. It presumes that everything has continued to age and to change at the same rate since the beginning of time. This is just not so.
There was nothing "normal" about the flood that occurred in the days of Noah. It covered the entire earth, covering the highest mountains 15 cubits and upward (Genesis 7:19,20). Peter testifies, "For this they willingly are ignorant of that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water: whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished: but the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.
"But beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance."
Nothing can be done for people who are willingly ignorant. There is neither help nor hope for them.
Allow the writer to take a brief rabbit trail. Second Peter 3:9 is the most misquoted verse in the Bible. It does not read "God is not willing that any should perish:" the verse reads, "The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance." The verse is written to Christians, and not to the heathen; it is written to believers, not to unbelievers.
God has ordained that all "His people" on whom He has set His affections in eternity past will repent and believe the Gospel because He is not willing that any of them should perish, but that all of them should come to repentance. Such is the meaning of Matthew chapter 1, verse 21 where the angel instructs Joseph about Mary's child: "...and thou shalt call his name `Jesus:' for he shall save his people from their sins."
In verse 10, Peter resumes, "But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness, looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat?
"Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless" (II Peter 3:3-14).
The historic position of the Christian church is that God created out of nothing the heaven and the earth. In the fourth century, Augustine wrote in his City of God, "Though God formed man out of the dust of the earth, yet the earth itself and every earthly material is absolutely created out of nothing." To adopt the "profane and vain babblings" of evolutionists is to deny the faith.
Mythology
The Greeks taught that men and women were figures baked in clay by Prometheus. It is evident they had some lingering vestiges of truth, for God did make man of clay.
The Egyptians said that the creation was a cosmic egg out of which the god Phaeta created the world.
The ancient people of New Zealand said the god Tane made the world; the god Ru made the mountains; the god Tanga-Wa made the fish; the god Mani set the sun and moon in place; and the god Khnum made men out of clay on a potter's wheel. Tane was said to have formed the shape of a woman out of the soft red sand on the seashore of Hawaiki, and "breathed into her nostrils, ears, mouth and eyes."
People who willingly remain ignorant of the Word of God are left to believe myths and legends, including the myth of evolution. It is far more reasonable to believe the myths of the uneducated heathen than it is to believe the evolution myth of the educated heathen.