By Pastor Greg
After God created Man, Adam
became lonely. Oh sure. He had a pet rabbit, and he could hug him and
squeeze him and pet him and call him George, but he was still lonely. In the Garden there was no companion for
him. And God said, "No problem! I
will create a companion for Man that love him and make him feel special. This new companion will adore Adam. This new companion will worship Adam, regardless
of how selfish or childish or unlovable he may be. This new companion will accept Man and love
him as I do." So God created a new
animal to be a companion for the Man.
And it was a good animal. And God
was pleased. And the new animal was
pleased to be with Man, and he wagged his tail.
And Dog lived with Adam and was a companion to him and loved him. And God was pleased. And Dog was content and wagged his tail.
After a while, it came to pass
that an angel came to the Lord and said, "Lord, Adam has become filled
with pride. He believes he is worthy of adoration. Dog has taught him that he is loved, but
perhaps too well." And God said,
"No problem! I will create for him a companion who will be with him forever
and who will remind him of his limitations, so he will know that he is not
always worthy of adoration." And
God created CAT. And Cat would not obey
the Man. And when Adam gazed into Cat's eyes, he was reminded that he was not a
supreme being. And Adam learned
humility. And he was greatly
improved. And God was pleased. And Dog
was happy and wagged his tail. . . And Cat didn't care one way or the other.
Sometimes I find myself
wondering what life would have been like in the Garden of Eden. I wonder what the animals would have been
like before the Fall. What must it have
been like to walk with God? This new
creation must have been a dream world; a paradise Then the Lord God formed the
man from the dust of the ground. He breathed the breath of life into the man’s
nostrils, and the man became a living person.
Then the Lord God planted a garden in Eden in the east, and there he
placed the man he had made. The Lord God made all sorts of trees grow up from
the ground—trees that were beautiful and that produced delicious fruit. In the
middle of the garden he placed the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge
of good and evil.
A river flowed from the land of Eden, watering the garden and then
dividing into four branches. The first branch, called the Pishon, flowed around
the entire land of Havilah, where gold is found. The gold of that land is
exceptionally pure; aromatic resin and onyx stone are also found there. The
second branch, called the Gihon, flowed around the entire land of Cush. The
third branch, called the Tigris, flowed east of the land of Asshur. The fourth
branch is called the Euphrates.
The Lord God placed the man in the Garden of Eden to tend and watch
over it. But the Lord God warned him, “You may freely eat the fruit of every
tree in the garden—except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If you
eat its fruit, you are sure to die.”
(Read Genesis 2:7-17).
This was a world at peace. There was no strife, no tension, no conflict,
and no death. It was a world blessed by
its Creator. God looked at it and said
that it was very good because all of creation and certainly this Garden of
Paradise was a reflection of God’s eternal character. Too bad it didn’t last very long. It didn’t take very long for the Man to sin
and defile this Garden Paradise.
Another contrast between the
story of Creation and the theory of Evolution is the downward spiral of sin as
opposed to the upward climb of humanity.
The Creation account talks about a perfect beginning. Evolution teaches of a harsh and painful
beginning. Creation depicts Man falling
down while Evolution speaks of Man picking Himself up. And it’s important that we see this contrast
because it determines how we see the fate of the World. The Bible says God created things very good,
but because of Man’s sin things have become very bad. Evolution teaches that the world was very
bad, but things will become better and better.
According to the Creation story,
Man was given paradise. But shortly
after his first taste of paradise[1],
the Man threw it all away. He disobeyed
God and thus began the downward spiral of sin.
And death destroyed the Garden, the World which God had created, and
even Man’s relationship with God.
Because Adam sinned, the future that awaits humanity is one of
death. As time marches on, things will
only get worse. The general fate of the
world as depicted by Jesus (see Matthew
24) and other New Testament writers (see Revelation 8-11) is one of ultimate destruction. However, according
to the Secular Humanist, the fate of the World rests in the hands of Humanity
(a Secular Humanist is someone who believes human reason, intelligence,
cleverness, and ethics has brought us to where we are as a people, and that the
fate of humanity rests in our skills and abilities). This is why we hear so much about reducing
our carbon footprint. This is why
science and health are the idols worshiped by modern Man. Mankind controls the destiny of this
earth. Humanity will march onwards and
upwards thanks to advances in technology and science. We are working to create paradise. So it’s no wonder the Christian is at odds
with the Humanist. Creation speaks of
Paradise lost. Evolution teaches of
Paradise found. And truthfully they both
can’t be right.
There is a third voice in this
debate; a voice almost like the Christian, but one without hope. This voice speaks of certain doom, but it is
silent on salvation. As the fate of the
world is debated between the Humanist and the Christian, there is also the
alarm of the doomsday prophets; people who continue to shout out alarms that
the world is about to fall apart. “A
great catastrophe is coming”, they exclaim.
Sometimes it is a cosmic event (like a giant asteroid). For others it is a social event – where
society completely falls apart. And for
some people it is economical; where a great crisis of economy will drive this
world back to the Dark Ages. These
Prophets speak of a future filled with Pain, Disease, Suffering, Struggle, and
Death (remember the whole Mayan prophecy from 2012?). So in a culture that exults the cleverness of
Man, it’s no wonder people roll their eyes and shake their heads. Many in our culture believe that the fate of
humanity rests in the hands of science and technology, and they are angry and
frustrated with those who feel differently.
This is why those who have embraced this philosophy become so angry with
the Doomsday Prophets. The prophets are
telling the Humanists that there is a problem coming that no one can
solve. And then will come the end.
Now although what these doomsday
prophets are shouting sound similar to what the Bible teaches, their cries omit
the greatest news the world has ever received.
They omit the promise of God. The
Bible clearly speaks of humanity’s future; a future filled with pain, disease,
war, financial ruin, and death. However,
there is a glorious ending promised to those who accept Jesus as their
Lord. God has provided a way to regain
all that we lost in the beginning. He is
offering humanity salvation. For those
who confess Jesus as Lord, their sins will not only be forgiven, but they will experience
an ending far more glorious than the beginning.
In the end, they will be with God in paradise.
For the Humanist their only hope
lies in a science that can fix all that is wrong in this world. For the Doomsday Prophet there is no escape
from the eventual destruction and extinction of humanity. But for the Christian there is hope in a God
who promises to rescue us from this destruction. The Christian will be spared from the
annihilation of the earth and eternal separation from God (see Revelation 21:1-8). Redeemed Humanity will once again be placed
in paradise. 14 Blessed are those
who wash their robes. They will be permitted to enter through the gates of the
city and eat the fruit from the tree of life. [2]
(Revelation 22:14). Their ending will be
more glorious than the beginning all because of what God has done through Jesus
Christ, the Son.
Humanity has been struggling to
regain paradise almost from the moment it was lost. But how can an imperfect humanity make itself
perfect again? It can’t. Humanity is on a downward spiral to
destruction that no one will be able to stop.
But in His great love and mercy, the Father has sent His Son so that
those who believe will be spared the horrific ending the world must face. And I beg you this morning to take the
outstretched hand of God and be saved.
Be saved through the promise of Jesus.
Prayer of Confession and Faith -
Read John 3:14-17
Father,
I am a sinner bitten by sin and destined to die. But today I believe the promise of Jesus;
that if I turn to Him and believe in my heart, I will be saved and granted
Eternal Life. Jesus, I call upon Your
name. Cover my sin and heal me;
transform me, and move me from darkness to light. I accept You as my Savior and my Lord. I pray this in Your name. Amen
Prayer of Confession and Faith
Read John 3:14-17
Father, I
am a sinner bitten by sin and destined to die.
But today I believe the promise of Jesus; that if I turn to Him and
believe in my heart, I will be saved and granted Eternal Life.
Jesus, I
call upon Your name. Cover my sin and
heal me; transform me, and move me from darkness to light. I accept You as my Savior and my Lord. I pray this in Your name. Amen
[1]
I say that Adam and Eve spent a very short time in the Garden because they
never did have the opportunity to be fruitful and multiply. They did not have any children while still
living in the Garden because the child would not have been conceived in sin. And the Adam’s sinful nature would not have
been passed along into that child.
[2] Tyndale House Publishers. (2007). Holy Bible : New Living Translation.
(3rd ed.) (Re 22:14). Carol Stream, IL
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