Are we to confront and combat this type of teaching as it
infiltrates our church and infects many Christians whose faith is shaken when compromise
is affirmed by potentially trusted teachers? The answer is certainly in the
affirmative. 1st Timothy chapter one begins with just this mentality. Paul
opens by telling young Timothy “As I urged you when I went into Macedonia
–remain in Ephesus that you may charge some that they teach no other doctrine,
nor give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which cause disputes rather
than godly edification which is in faith,” 1st Timothy 1:3-4.
The
Christian ought to be on his guard, equipped with the whole armor of God
(Ephesians 6:13-18) as we contend with the attacks of the Devil that are meant
to make a saint ineffectual, to render our witness void, or to damage our faith
and our walk with God by planting doubts in His word; this he did to our first
parents with great efficiency, Genesis 3:1-5.
Further along in 1st Timothy we see the thought
established by Paul continued as he writes, “This charge (referring back to
verses 3-4) I commit to you, son Timothy, according to the prophecies
previously made concerning you, that by them you may wage the good warfare,
having (both) faith and a good conscience, which some having rejected,
concerning the faith have suffered shipwreck, of whom are Hymenaeus and
Alexander, whom I delivered to Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme,”
1st Timothy 1:18-20. We may only wage the good warfare in faith, when faith has
been compromised all manner of perversion runs riot. Paul charged the men in
question that he excommunicated with blasphemy. Such a charge could be likewise
leveled against many professing Christians today who doubt or reject God’s
witness about creation and the uniqueness of the salvation He offers in Christ.
It is blasphemous to suggest, much less plainly admit, that God was either in
error or lying; I’ll leave you to take your pick as to which of these
alternatives your find more comfortable. Either God is inept or deceitful;
neither gives me any faith in such a being, who appears much more human than
divine.
Finally we must simply ask: why stress so much importance
on creation? Is this battle really necessary or is this just an exercise in
semantics? Let’s have one final look at the creation to determine its
legitimacy, and its place in a Christian’s faith.
It is no small secret what Jesus Christ thought of the
creation. Debating with the Pharisees at the time, He quoted Scripture in
regard to the topic of divorce, stating “from the beginning of the creation, God made
them male and female. For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother
and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh,’ so then they
are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined let not man
separate,” Mark 10:6-9. The Greek term for “creation” here is “ktisis”
and means “formation, either the act or the thing created.” In laymen’s terms,
our Lord Jesus used a word that suggested that Adam and Eve existed very
shortly after the creation of the earth. Many more quotes from the New
Testament could be brought to light regarding the initial chapters of Genesis,
but we shall go to our primary problem with the rejection of the creation
account and the terrible wreckage it creates concerning the gospel.
The prolific damage to New Testament theology is
demonstrated in Romans chapter 5 and 1st Corinthians chapter 15; both chapters
becoming spurious mythology if the Genesis account is not a literal depiction
of what occurred “in the beginning.” Romans chapter 5 begins with the
conclusion of what Paul is attempting to reach through chapters 3 and 4: namely
that a man is justified before God by faith in Christ alone apart from works or
merit of any kind, Romans 5:1. The result of being justified (being declared
not guilty) with God, we may have peace with God, again verse 1. It is through
Christ our Lord that we have justification and peace with God, and also access
to God and a spirit of rejoicing in the hope and glory of God, verse 2. Moving
past the positives of what we receive from the Lord Paul tells us that these
attributes and our relationship with God continues through the tribulations
that the world brings, Romans 5:3; John 16:33.
Great post Ian.
ReplyDeleteAs you pointed out in an earlier post, creation has to be taken by faith, and Hebrews 11 says it is the same kind of faith by which we are saved. It raises the question whether a person who cannot believe God's statement as to how he created the world can have the faith to believe God's statement that Jesus can pay for his sins.