THE ONLY PAGE
TO BE ON
MIKE
CUNNINGHAM
February 17,
2008
For those of you who were here last Sunday and
heard my message or read it later on the internet, you may recall a suggestion
I offered concerning Christians interacting with atheist evolutionists. I said,
“I wouldn’t
attempt to waltz the non-Christian evolutionist through the Bible in an attempt
to prove why he or she is wrong and I’m right. To do so would knock the person
right off the page we have them on, and we want to keep them there. Think about
it; “if someone doesn’t
believe in Creation how can we expect them to seriously consider anything
supposedly Authored by the Creator? That person has their own preconceived
opinion of what constitutes truth. And they are convinced Bible believers are
scientifically illiterate pathetic fools. Remember the page they’re on, and
stay on it with them.”[i]
Then, after citing several examples of the absurdity of atheism, I quoted how
God characterizes an atheist and how we should interact with such a person.
Psalms 53:1 (ESV) 1The fool says in his heart, "There
is no God."
Proverbs 26:4-5 (NIV) 4 Do not answer a fool according to his folly, or
you will be like him yourself. 5 Answer a fool according to his folly, or he
will be wise in his own eyes.
I concluded my sermon by suggesting, “We must keep the fool on the same
page and force him or her to live with their own foolishness, until they make
themselves crazy and can’t stand it anymore. Then, in complete prayerful
dependence on the Lord for Him to add His blessing to our efforts, and with an
unmistakable sincere spirit of love and humility, gently persuade the person to
move over to another page, the first one in the Bible, which starts by saying, “In the beginning, GOD….”
I then ended with my usual, Lord willing, next week….”
It looks as though He wanted me to be back
with you folks again this morning, so I’ll pick up where I left off last week
by finishing the sentence: Genesis
1:1 (NIV) 1
“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the
earth.” Now in recognition of today being “Evolution Sunday” in
honor of the 199th birthday of Charles Darwin, I thought it would be
kind of nice if I translated that particular verse from Genesis using my very
own creation; the DAV Translation which I introduced you folks to a year ago
tomorrow.[ii]
For those of you who aren’t familiar with it, I named it The Devil’s Amplified Version.
Allow me to quote the first verse in Genesis using my masterpiece
of idiocy. “In the beginning was nothing, and all of
a sudden; nothing exploded, and lo and behold, in the course of time nothing
became everything,”
(DAV). Now let that precious gem sink in for a moment.
Think about the awesome wonder of such an
event. Can you imagine a “Big Bang” emanating from nothing suddenly creating perhaps
billions of sun’s, moon’s, stars, meteors, comets, galaxies, black holes and
all the planets, most of which are without names because we haven't discovered
them yet, or the zillions upon zillions of microbe’s, germs, atoms, and
elements such as hydrogen, deuterium, and helium, together with everything else
in the never ending universe that we don’t even have a clue about? I don’t know
about you, but that word MIRICLE which modern science frown’s upon pops into my
mind. In fact what I have just described is so awe-inspiring that even a Christian Science
Practitioner, a person who believes that because God exists, sin, sickness, death and the entire material world doesn’t
that person would probably be tempted to scratch his head, look around him,
then gaze up into the starlit sky and say something such as: “This sure seems like a whole lot of nothing!”
But what about our brothers and sisters in
Christ, fellow followers of the Risen Savior, wonderful people who do believe
in evolution? Surely
they’re not on the same page as the atheist activists I spoke about
last week, are they? Of
course not! Nothing could be further from the truth. But neither are they on the same
page as Christians who believe all of the Bible is the divinely inspired
inerrant Word of God. We must remember this fact whenever we’re
interacting with them, and, up to a certain point we must stay on their page in any discussion about
evolution. For instance, speaking of the first two chapters of
Genesis, the highly acclaimed scientist Francis Collins, who is also a
Christian, has concluded that: “This powerful document can best be understood
as poetry and allegory rather than a literal scientific description of origins.
Collins goes on to ask, “Is the description of Adam’s creation from the dust of
the earth, and the subsequent creation of Eve from one of Adam’s ribs, so
powerfully described in Genesis 2, a symbolic allegory of the entrance of the
human soul into a previously soulless animal kingdom, or is it intended as
literal history?[iii]
Elsewhere Collins adds, “Other parts of the Bible, such as the first few
chapters of Genesis, the Book of Job, the Song of Solomon, and the Psalms, have a more lyrical and
allegorical flavor, and do not generally seem to carry the marks of pure
historical narrative.[iv]
Now that’s the page this brother in the Lord
is on, and that’s the page we want to keep him and all other likeminded
Christians on, up to
that certain point in the discussion as I mentioned earlier. And
don’t forget to remember those other important factors I mentioned last
week.
Ephesians
6:12 (AMP) 12 For we are not
wrestling with flesh and blood [contending only with physical opponents], but
against the despotisms, against the powers, against [the master spirits who
are] the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spirit forces of
wickedness in the heavenly (supernatural) sphere.
That fellow human being whose sins may not
have been as great as yours and mine, a person for whom Christ died an
agonizing death to save from his or her sins and to restore their broken
relationship with their Creator, has been demonically deceived and confused,
just as you and I often have often been by those evil slime-ball cosmic forces
of darkness. We should also remember never to be argumentative or project a
know-it-all attitude. Instead, we must strive to come across with a sincere spirit
of Christ-like love for the person we are speaking with. Now it’s time to try to move to
another page which I alluded to earlier, a page which is the only one to be on,
and that’s the page Jesus was on.
Matthew
19:3-6 (AMP) 3 And Pharisees came to
Him and put Him to the test by asking, Is it lawful and right to dismiss
and repudiate and divorce one’s wife for any and every
cause? 4 He
replied, Have you never read that He Who made them from the beginning made them male and
female, 5 And
said, For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and shall be
united firmly (joined inseparably) to his wife, and the two shall become one
flesh? 6 So
they are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together,
let not man put asunder (separate).
Mark
10:2-9& Mark 10:2-9 (AMP) 2 And
some Pharisees came up, and, in order to test Him and try to find a
weakness in Him, asked, Is it lawful for a man to dismiss and repudiate and
divorce his wife? 3 He
answered them, What did Moses command you? 4 They replied, Moses allowed a man to
write a bill of divorce and to put her away. 5 But Jesus said to them, Because of
your hardness of heart [your condition of insensibility to the call of God] he
wrote you this precept in your Law. 6 But from
the beginning of creation God made them male and female. 7 For this reason a
man shall leave [behind] his father and his mother and be joined to
his wife and cleave closely to her permanently, 8 And the two shall
become one flesh, so that they are no longer two, but one flesh. 9 What therefore God
has united (joined together), let not man separate or divide.
From the beginning,
and not millions of years later after they finally evolved into becoming human
beings.
Luke
11:51 (AMP) 51 “From the blood of Abel to the blood of
Zechariah, who was slain between the altar and the sanctuary. Yes, I tell you,
it shall be charged against and required of this age and
generation.
Matthew
24:37-39 (AMP) 37 As were the days of Noah, so will be the
coming of the Son of Man. 38 For just as in those days before the flood they were
eating and drinking, [men] marrying and [women] being given in marriage, until
the [very] day when Noah went into the ark, 39 And they did not know or
understand until the flood came and swept them all away—so will be the coming
of the Son of Man.
Luke
17:26-27 (AMP) 26 And [just] as it was in the days of Noah, so will it be in the
time of the Son of Man. 27 [People] ate, they drank, they married, they were given
in marriage, right up to the day when Noah went into the ark, and the flood
came and destroyed them all.
John
8:56-58 (AMP) 56 Your forefather Abraham was extremely
happy at the hope and prospect of seeing My day (My incarnation); and he
did see it and was delighted. 57 Then the Jews said to Him, You are not yet fifty years
old, and have You seen Abraham? 58 Jesus replied, I assure you, most solemnly I tell you,
before Abraham was born, I AM.
Matthew
10:15 (AMP) 15 Truly I tell you, it
shall be more tolerable on the Day of Judgment for the
Matthew
11:23-24 (AMP) 23 And you,
Collins acknowledges,
“Many sacred texts do indeed carry the clear marks of eyewitness history, and
as believers we must hold fast to those truths. Others, such as the stories of Job and Jonah, and Adam
and Eve, frankly do not carry that same historical ring.” [v]
He simply can’t bring himself to accept the fact that Jesus was speaking about
actual historical events involving real people.
Matthew
12:39-41 (AMP) 39 But He replied to
them, An evil and adulterous generation (a generation morally unfaithful to
God) seeks and demands a sign; but no sign shall be given to it except
the sign of the prophet Jonah. 40 For
even as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the sea monster,
so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the
earth. 41 The
men of
The things Jesus
spoke about concerning Adam and Eve and Jonah appear to have had that same
historical ring to them for Jesus that they don’t have for Collins. Jesus spoke
as though these people did indeed exist. He affirmed the authenticity of the
Old Testament by quoting from it more than a hundred times. And He certainly
affirmed the reality of real people and events. Jesus regarded the Old Testament Scriptures as being the
very Word of God; words either spoken directly by Him or through godly men as
they were inspired by the Holy Spirit. For instance, in addition to the
ones I quoted earlier, consider the following.
Matthew
22:31-32 (ESV) 31 And as for the
resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was said to you by God: 32 'I am the God of
Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob'? He is not God of the
dead, but of the living."
Matthew
22:43 (ESV) 43 He said to them,
"How is it then that David, in the Spirit, calls him Lord,
Mark
12:26 (ESV) 26 And as for the dead
being raised, have you not read in the book of Moses, in the passage about the
bush, how God spoke to him, saying, 'I am the God of Abraham, and the God of
Isaac, and the God of Jacob'?
Luke
20:37 (ESV) 37 But that the dead are
raised, even Moses showed, in the passage about the bush, where he calls the
Lord the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.
Make no mistake about
it and don’t deceive yourselves. Jesus didn’t regard the events and people He referenced from the Old
Testament as being anything other than historical events involving specific
human beings. For instance, concerning the Sacred Scriptures, we learn
that at the beginning of His public ministry:
Luke
4:14-21 (AMP) 14 Then Jesus went back
full of and under the power of the [Holy] Spirit into Galilee, and the
fame of Him spread through the whole region round about. 15 And He Himself
conducted [a course of] teaching in their synagogues, being recognized and
honored and praised by all. 16 So He came to
John
10:35 (ESV) 35 “…and
Scripture cannot be broken—
Matthew
26:52-54 (ESV) 52 Then Jesus said to
him, "Put your sword back into its place. For all who take the sword will
perish by the sword. 53
Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at
once send me more than twelve legions of angels? 54 But how then
should the Scriptures be fulfilled, that it must be so?"
Luke
24:24-27 (ESV) 24 Some of those who were
with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but him they
did not see." 25 And
he said to them, "O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that
the prophets have spoken! 26 Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these
things and enter into his glory?" 27 And beginning with Moses and all
the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things
concerning himself.
John
5:37-39 (ESV) 37 And the Father who
sent me has himself borne witness about me. His voice you have never heard, his
form you have never seen, 38 and you do not have his word abiding in you, for you do
not believe the one whom he has sent. 39 You search the Scriptures
because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear
witness about me,
If Jesus was mistaken about His understanding
of even one word in the Scriptures, what else could He have been mistaken about,
and how would you feel about Jesus being mistaken about what He promised in the
following passages for starters?
John
3:16 (ESV) 16 "For God so loved
the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not
perish but have eternal life.
John
11:25-26 (ESV) 25 Jesus said to her,
"I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he
die, yet shall he live, 26 and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never
die. Do you believe this?"
Allow me to quote
from an excellent little pamphlet entitled: 15 REASONS TO TAKE GENESIS AS
HISTORY. Concerning fossilization, the authors write, “Of course, fossilization
requires death. All attempts to marry the Bible with the secular ‘natural
history’ accept the story of billions of
years. But billions of years of what? Those unimaginable eons of time do not
float out there on ‘cloud nine’, disconnected from reality. The fossil record
of multicellular organisms supposedly covers some 600 million years in which
these creatures were dying and being preserved as fossils. There are fossil
bones with cancerous tumours preserved in them; it is a record of suffering and
death. In this scenario, man appears about a million years ago, one of the
latest results of countless experiments involving death of the unfit and
survival of the fittest. And when man appears, effectively standing on a pile
of bones kilometers deep, God says, it’s all very good’ (Genesis 1: 31). What
an insult to the loving God of the Bible![vi]
Those confused Christian’s who are bewildered by this issue are folks
who apparently have difficulty in accepting the truthfulness of all the
Scriptures. I suspect it’s because they can’t figure out how, short of a
miracle, God did all His creating and put everything together in six literal
days. I suggest that we respectfully and gently respond to them with the same words
Jesus used a long time ago when He admonished the Sadducees for being uninformed
as to the true meaning of the Scriptures:
Matthew
22:29 (ESV) 29"You are wrong, because you know neither the Scriptures
nor the power of God.” And then remind the person that the only page to be on is the one
Jesus was on. Lord willing, next week…
[i] My sermon: THE SAME PAGE STRATEGY, February 10, 2008.
[ii] My sermon: APPALLING TIDBITS FROM THE (DAV) TRANSLATION, FEBRUARY 18, 2007
[iii] Page 206, THE LANGUAGE of GOD; Free
Press 1230 Avenue of the
[iv] Ibid page 175.
[v] Ibid, page 209.
[vi]
15 REASONS TO TAKE GENESIS AS HISTORY © 2006
by Don Batten Ph. D. and Jonathan Sarfati Ph. D. page 13, emphases added,
Creation Ministries International, Brisbane.
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