THE BOOK THAT SHINES IN THE DARKNESS

MIKE CUNNINGHAM

JUNE 14, 2009

What can be known about God is plain to all people for the simple reason that He has made it plain to each and every one of them. All human beings have been aware of His invisible attributes such as His eternal power and divine nature ever since the creation of the world. The light of nature, together with God’s works of creation and divine providence are clear evidence of His goodness, His wisdom and His awesome power. So much so, that it’s impossible for anyone not to be aware of these obvious facts. Whoever ignores them puts him or herself in danger of condemning themselves to the torment of eternal separation from their Creator. Nevertheless, in and of itself, this kind of general revelation isn’t enough to give anyone sufficient knowledge of their Creator and His will which is absolutely necessary for salvation. Therefore He caused special information to be written down on scrolls which have since been copied into a book which is commonly known as the Bible. Of all the books which have been written in the history of mankind, the Bible alone shines in the kingdom of darkness in which all humans live and which every person passes through on their way to their eternal home. (Psalms 19:1-3; Proverbs 22:19-21; Isaiah 8:20; Luke 16:29; Luke 16:31; Romans 1:19-21; Romans 2:14; Romans 2:15; Romans 15:4; Ephesians 2:20; 2 Timothy 3:15-17; Hebrews 1:1; 2 Peter 1:19-20.

As well written as it is, folks often misunderstand what God has actually revealed in the Bible. For example, my young grandchildren are apt to arrive at the following conclusion after reading the Genesis account of Creation. “In the beginning, which occurred near the start, there was nothing but God, darkness, and some gas. The Bible says, “The Lord thy God is one, but I think he must be a lot older than that. Anyway, God said, ‘Give me a light!” and someone did. Then God made the world. He split the Adam and made Eve. Adam and Eve were naked, but they weren’t embarrassed because mirrors hadn’t been invented yet. Adam disobeyed God by eating one bad apple, so they were driven from the Garden of Eden.” Unless those children come to a correct understanding they will remain spiritually malnourished. Hopefully, their parents will set them straight.

John 21:15-17 (ESV) ¹⁵ When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, "Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?" He said to him, "Yes, Lord; you know that I love you." He said to him, "Feed my lambs." ¹⁶ He said to him a second time, "Simon, son of John, do you love me?" He said to him, "Yes, Lord; you know that I love you." He said to him, "Tend my sheep." ¹⁷ He said to him the third time, "Simon, son of John, do you love me?" Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, "Do you love me?" and he said to him, "Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you." Jesus said to him, "Feed my sheep.”

Among the duties of Christian pastors is for them to prayerfully seek to learn everything they possibly can about the God’s revelation, and then in humble dependence upon Him, convey it in a spirit of obvious love to those folks He has entrusted into the man’s care. As your pastor Jesus wants me to do my very best to serve you folks plenty of scripturally sound spiritual food which we all need. One way or another, I must try to get that nourishment into you. The following quote is from a story I told a year ago this past Mother’s Day. Some folks bought into that story hook, line and sinker and believed it was true. I closed that message by reading a portion of a letter from someone who was a figment of my imagination. Allow me to share: “Hey Pastor Mike. It’s me Douglas, again. That was real cool the way you worked my letter into your sermon. Chloe thinks it was awesome. I’m still reading my Bible and other good stuff besides. I have some more questions for you. Why did God tell Moses to write something that He had to know wasn’t true? Why did God have Moses come up with such a whopper of a story that later on made Christians who believed it look like fools?” Douglas goes on to explain and closed with, “Your friend, Douglas.”

Without going into all the details of the young man’s letter, Douglas had become confused because he had been advised that everything written in the first chapter of Genesis was literally true. He knew it couldn’t possibly be, and that posed a dilemma for him. For instance, either God didn’t know what He was talking about, or the Holy Spirit inspired Moses to fabricate parts of the Creation account in Genesis One. Douglas concluded God knew what He was talking about; nevertheless He inspired Moses to tell those ancient Israelites a real whopper which they believed just as many of you folks did the story I told on Mother’s Day 2008.

Genesis 1:1-8 (ESV) ¹ In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. ² The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. ³ And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light. ⁴ And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness. ⁵ God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day. ⁶ And God said, "Let there be an expanse [firmament (KJV)] in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters." ⁷ And God made the expanse and separated the waters that were under the expanse from the waters that were above the expanse. And it was so. ⁸ And God called the expanse Heaven. And there was evening and there was morning, the second day.

Those ancient people understood and believed everything Moses said to be factual. How about you? Do you feel the same way about everything we just read as being literally true as those Israelites did? Let’s look at those passages again and we will see what those ancient people actually believed. I have highlighted their understanding with red fonts.

Genesis 1:1-8 ^{1 “}In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. ² The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. ³ And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light. ⁴ And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness. ⁵ God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day. ⁶ And God said, "Let there be expanse (firmament (KJV)] a solid canopy in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters." ⁷ And God made the solid canopy and separated the waters that were under the solid canopy from the waters that were above the solid canopy. And it was so. ⁸ And God called the solid canopy Heaven. And there was evening and there was morning, the second day.”

I’ve reworked this message especially for our Navigator friends who are with us this morning. Each of them take their faith and the Great Commission seriously and want to do everything possible to overcome every objection a non-Christian may have for not accepting the Bible as being the very Word of God and Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. These young women and men don’t just give a Bible to a poor lost sinner and then move on after saying a little prayer hoping the Holy Spirit will take over from there and help the person sort it all out. On the contrary, each of them is committed to doing their utmost to establish a relationship with the person in hopes of persuading him or her that the Bible is the very Word of God. It’s sad to say but all too many Christians don’t take their responsibility as seriously.

“In his excellent commentary on Genesis, John H. Walton writes: “As to the solidity of the firmament, [canopy] the historical context is that all people in all parts of the world, including the ancient Near East, from the beginning of history until 200 A.D. (and almost all peoples after that until modern times) believed that the sky, the firmament [expanse/canopy] was rock-solid (2).

But God surely He knew otherwise. Why would He inspire Moses to tell those ancient people some things which thousands of years later He knew science would prove to be untrue? Well-God knew what Moses was up against and He inclined the man to communicate very important spiritual facts in a manner He knew the Israelites would understand and profit enormously by.

Walton reminds us: “We live in a world far different from the world of the Old Testament. We must recognize the elements that distinguish these two worlds and make appropriate adjustments to our expectations. In our world, we believe reality is described most accurately in scientific terms. Mythology in the ancient world played the role that science plays in our modern world-it contained the explanation of how the world came into being and how it worked.”

“The mythological approach attempted to identify functions of the natural world as a consequence of purpose. The god’s had purposes, and their activities were the causes of what humans experienced as effects. By contrast, our scientific approach identifies the functions of the natural world as a consequence of structure and attempts to understand cause and effect based on natural laws that are linked to the structure, the composite parts of a phenomenon.”

“Much of the change in our world we attribute to personal agents. But change is also attributed to natural causes, many of which are labeled natural laws. A thunderstorm is explained in terms of atmospheric pressure, convection and moisture. A dead battery is explained in terms of the law of entropy. The ancient Israelites, in contrast, perceived only personal causality. All change in the world was attributed to personal agents-to either humans (and animals by personification) or the gods. Natural events, for example, were manifestations of divine activity. Nature was not a causal agent, but rather the effect of divine agency, (3).

In his recently published outstanding book, Beyond The Firmament, Gordon J. Glover adds: “The generation of Hebrews that received the Bible directly from Moses would have been more familiar with the Egyptian creation myths. Moses, being educated in the best Egyptian schools would have certainly been very familiar with all the wisdom of Egypt, including their many creation accounts. According to the Egyptians, before there was even heaven and earth, there was a primordial sea representing the state of chaos and disorder. Chaos was associated with the destructive forces of nature that primitive man constantly lived in fear of. We don’t typically look at nature as a delicate balance between order and chaos, but this is very common in more primitive societies. Except for an occasional natural disaster in some other part of the world that makes the evening news, modern Westerners live relatively comfortable lives, sheltered by our technology from the danger of creation. Hurricane Katrina in August 2005 reminded us all about the chaos and destruction of the “primeval” waters. But ancient man was under constant threat of famine, pestilence, flood, drought, storms, wild animals, and earthquakes. Creation by the gods therefore is achieved, not necessarily by building things, but by imposing order on the cosmos-effectively restraining the forces of nature for the sake of human civilization,” (4).

These were some of the obstacles Moses faced when God appointed him to reveal profound spiritual facts to those Hebrews.” “The earth was seen as a flat disc or a rectangular table top floating in a vast ocean. Heaven was seen as a solid dome, or vault, which arched over the earth and supported another body of water above the sky. The vault of heaven was supported by pillars-thought to be great mountains-whose foundations were laid in the great waters surrounding the earth. The waters above the sky were continuous with the waters around and under the earth. The firmament [expanse/canopy], being a solid structure, had doors on the east and west sides through which the sun, moon, and stars would enter and exit each day. The rains were caused by tiny windows in the firmament that let down some of the waters from above the sky,” (5).

“There is no question that the Biblical firmament of Genesis was meant to be a literal solid structure supporting an ocean of water above the heavens, just as the days of creation were clearly meant to be 24-hour periods. Any interpretation of Scripture that tries to dismiss the solid firmament and the waters above is simply taking the verses out of context for the sole purpose of avoiding the “embarrassing” fact that neither of these things actually exists. But if we properly understand the actual point of Genesis, we shouldn’t be embarrassed by “the clear meaning of the text.” These passages can easily be explained in terms of the ancient Near-Eastern cosmology that serves as the unmistakable framework of the creation narrative. By leaving these verses in their original context, we can avoid the potentially embarrassing situations that often force us to dismiss the text as merely figurative or symbolic,” (6).

“What Moses brings down from Mt. Sinai elevated the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to unimaginable heights. Yahweh is in control. He alone restrains the forces of nature that threaten to destroy them. The universe is under God’s command and He has established the boundaries of nature. By His voice, not the voice of Atum, God created the heavens and the earth. No longer were the pagan gods of their Egyptian and Mesopotamian oppression given any legitimate status. The universe was born of unity and harmony, not of violence and conflict. The Biblical account shows how infinitely more powerful and purposeful the Hebrew God is than the self-serving quarreling deities of pagan mythology. In short, Genesis gives the ancient Hebrews a theology of creation that was much more profound than anything they would have been familiar with.” “Basically, the creation narrative was God’s theological rebuttal to the Egyptian creation mythology, not a scientific rebuttal of ancient Near-Eastern cosmology,” (7).

“The Holy Spirit had no intention to teach astronomy, and in proposing instruction meant to the common, to the simplest, and most uneducated persons, He made use by Moses and the other prophets of popular language, that none might shelter himself under the pretext of obscurity, as we will see men sometimes very readily pretend an incapacity to understand, when anything deep or recondite is submitted to their notice. Accordingly, as Saturn though bigger that the moon is not so to the naked eye owing to his greater distance, the Holy Spirit would rather speak childishly than unintelligibly to the humble and unlearned.”

“This powerful principal of accommodation can have other applications as well. I recently read of another very practical example. The situation involved Western doctors trying to prevent the spread of infection by midwives in a primitive culture. Rather than try to teach them about bacteria and germs, concepts that had no familiar cultural context, the doctors decided to use the natives’ own unscientific traditions to communicate the knowledge necessary for their salvation. This instruction took the form of ritual washing so that “demons” from the hands of midwives will not be transferred to the baby or mother. The desired effect was achieved, even if by means of fictionally incomplete or incorrect knowledge. Now ask yourself this: If these natives are ever to advance their knowledge to the point of understanding the actual material mechanisms by which infections are transmitted by unclean hands, will they curse those Western doctors for not giving them factual truth? Or will they appreciate the wisdom of those doctors, accommodating their ignorance and meeting them in their time of need-so that despite their lack of knowledge, they might still be saved? What a wonderful picture of how God deals with us!” (8).

One of the many turn-off’s folks in our society have about the Book that shines in the darkness and which atheist activists do their best to discredit is that they erroneously conclude it’s full of falsehood and also that Jesus was mistaken about many things. That’s one of the reasons why whenever we read the Bible we must strive to develop the habit of first putting it into its historical context and asking ourselves what that particular passage meant to those ancient people.

In conclusion, I want to jog your memory of some vitally important life or death facts. Back in eternity past the Triune God planned, ordained and by speaking His world into existence, predestined certain poor lost sinners to cross our path. As we have the opportunity, we must do our utmost to lead them the One who says:

"I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die, John 11:25-26 (ESV)."I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me, John 14:6 (ESV).

I hope this message is helpful and that the Lord will add His blessing to our evangelistic efforts!

ENDNOTES

(1)answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20061119021645AA645qzlCy

(2) P. Seely, “The First Four Days of Genesis in Concordist Theory and in Biblical Context,” Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith 49 (1997): cited in, The NIV Application Commentary: Genesis © 2001 by John H. Walton, pg.82, Zondervan, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49530.

(3) Ibid, pg.83.

(4) Beyond the Firmament: Understanding Science and the Theology of Creation, © 2007 by Gordon J. Glover, Watertree Press LLC, P. O. Box 16763, Chesapeake, Va. 23328, pgs. , 59-60. In my opinion, every pastor and those entrusted into his pastoral care who take The Great Commission seriously ought to saturate themselves with the often profound insight contained in the pages of this Biblically sound, thought provoking, well documented, non technical, very enjoyable read. Although we may not agree with all of his conclusions we will find it to be profitable.

(5) Ibid. pg. 62.

(6) Ibid. pg. 67.

(7) Ibid. pg. 68.

(8) Ibid. pg. 79.

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