Special Insights No. 2
Fourth Quarter 2006
“Beginnings and Belongings”
(Produced by the Editorial Board of the 1888 Message Study Committee)
“In the Beginning . . .”
LET’S MEET THE GOD WHO CREATED EVERYTHING
Genesis chapter one speaks of the one true God who created “the heavens and the earth.” When God inspired Moses to write this account as we have it, He foreknew our time today when the ungodly theory of evolution would bring such evil in the world (Nazism, for example, could never have arisen as it did except for the help of the teaching of evolution).
Genesis one does not tell us much about the character of this Creator God—other than that He wants the creatures He created to be happy. (If all we had of the Bible is that one chapter, we would know He wants us to be happy because He created us “male and female.” Love between us two is one of the most exquisite joys of life.)
If Adam and Eve had not sinned as they did, they would have found plenty in the sinless creation to make and keep them happy forever. They would have rejoiced in that perfect Creator and all that He had made.
But a real revelation of His character had to await the horror of sin as it developed in human hearts. Why? Because a revelation of the depths of God’s love could not be comprehended by either man or by the unfallen beings of the universe apart from that “knowledge of good and evil” which Adam and Eve gained from eating the forbidden fruit.
The existence of this evil thing called sin required the unmasking of God, the opening of the infinite depths of His being to the gaze of sinful man, and the onlooking wonder of the universe. Sinless beings in a sinless creation would have marveled at the wonders of God’s love, but it would have been a superficial appreciation at best. If Genesis 3 had never happened as it did, Genesis 1 would have ushered in only an age of innocence. Innocence is delightful; but it becomes loving character when tested by the intrusion of evil.
This is not to rejoice because sin came; but sin did come; and thank Heaven that there came also a revelation of “the breadth, and length, and depth, and height” of the love (agape) of the Father and the Son (cf. Eph.
How Can We Help People Locked in the Error of Evolution?
Arguing about paleontology may be a comparatively fruitless effort. For all the Creationist “science” you come up with they may rebut you with what they think is compulsive evolutionary “evidence.” Maybe you’ve already had these experiences of vain contention.
Let’s try presenting the “science” of agape (Ellen White discussed “the science” which is “in the simplicity of true religion” [agape] (MS 28, 1898; 3BC 1144). In more cases than we may realize, “scientific” souls are hungering to learn about “Christ and Him crucified,” but they have been severely turned off by false ideas of the gospel generated by the churches that are characterized as fallen “
Genesis 1 is wonderful as a Sabbath School Lesson; thank God we have it. But let’s approach the problem of evolution from a fresh perspective—that of presenting the truth of “Christ and Him crucified.” Do it seriously; present it point by point from the Bible. Take one chapter in the Bible, verse by verse, point by point. (There’s no end of possibilities—Isaiah 53; Psalm 22; Romans 5; Ephesians 1; Psalm 139, etc.)
What will you find? Without you’re trying to refute any “scientific” detail, you will find the human heart of your evolutionist friend being warmed in spite of himself. Now, get out of the way and let the Holy Spirit do His work! That will be the beginning of conversion to eternal life. Don’t worry about the Sabbath; that will come easy once that cross and the love that led Christ to go there is made clear.
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