Nothing Created Everything: The Scientific Impossibility of Atheistic Evolution (12 page)

I
T IS HUMAN
nature to shed personal blame for our sins. Take for instance these words: “It is strange that you believe God created a set of rules that we are supposed to live by and created these rules and we humans in such a way that none of us can follow them. We all sin. When we sin God blames us for following our nature and being incapable of living sin free.”

But that won’t hold water on Judgment Day. It wouldn’t even work in civil court: “Judge, society’s rules are too hard to keep, and you are trying to blame me when it’s merely my nature to violate the law.”

Let’s ask the question as to which of God’s “rules” is unfair? Is it the one that says it’s wrong to lie? Steal? Murder? Commit adultery? Perhaps it’s the one that says that we should love Him above all things. But the First Commandment is reasonable. God gave us life and every blessing we enjoy. All the rules do is what the mirror does for us each morning. It shows us that we need to go to the water and wash. It reflects the truth. The mirror of God’s Law shows us that we are ungrateful, sin-loving sinners who desperately need to be washed from the uncleanliness of our sins. And that was the purpose of the Cross. Jesus took the punishment
for our sins so that we could be morally clean on the Day of Judgment.

Someone e-mailed me and said that I teach “that lust in the heart is a sin. Lust is a biological impulse, not a freely chosen activity.” Before we look at the issue of whether or not lust is a sin, let’s define the word. Lust is “unlawful” desire. It is not to be confused with the sex drive. God gave us the pleasures of sex, but it came with an instruction Book. The Bible tells us that it is to be confined to the institution of marriage. That’s the rule. All around us we see privileges that come with rules. If you have the privilege of driving a vehicle, the rule in the United States is that you stay to the right side of the road. Drive on the left and you will cause big problems. Think of the marriages that have been destroyed because the rules were broken. Think of the STDs that plague humanity because the rules were broken.

Adultery begins in the mind. It is an unlawful desire. The thought precedes the deed, and God Himself says that if you desire to commit adultery you have as much as done the deed. He also warns that if you hate someone, you have as good as killed them.

The Scriptures tell us that we share our thought life with the One who gave us a brain. He sees what He created, and He destroyed an entire generation “because the imagination of their heart was continually evil.” So pleading that you couldn’t help lusting will not exonerate you from moral responsibility and its terrible eternal consequences. However, repentance and faith in Jesus will.

In other words, it is obvious that there is a God, but what is His identity? Moses asked the same question on Mount Sinai.

The One who created the universe must be supernatural. With all our “genius,” humanity can’t create one grain of sand, a leaf, a flower or a bird, from nothing. The Creator must have powers that are infinitely greater than those of the greatest human being. The claim of the Gospel is that this Creator will reveal Himself to all who repent and trust Jesus Christ.

This isn’t a reference to a change of belief or a change of religious philosophy. It’s the supernatural experience of being born again. It was radical for me to be born the first time (natural birth). I didn’t exist, then (in a matter of nine months) I was breathing the earth’s air. The second birth (supernatural birth) I had on April 25th, 1972, was just as radical as the first. Only the Creator could do that. It was through the cross that I was able to understand God’s love for me.

How can you demonstrate that you love someone? You could buy that person an expensive ring. I’m sure that would help, because it’s tangible evidence of a sacrifice. Still, it comes back to belief. If the person you love chooses not to believe that you love them, there’s nothing you can do about it.

I was in New Zealand early in 2009, at a university where local Christians had organized a debate between me and an atheist.
Just before it started a tall outspoken man named Ryan enthusiastically approached me and said something like, “I’m honored to meet you. I have watched your videos on the Internet, read your material, and here I am actually getting to meet you. I am really excited about this debate.” As he was walking back to his seat I called out, “Which side are you on?” and he replied, “I’m against
everything
you stand for.”

During the question time Ryan asked some good questions. The next day he showed up at another meeting at which I was speaking, then he listened to me again, for another hour or so at a church service. Afterward we chatted. I signed a book for him, we had our photo taken, and he even helped at the book table. I really cared about Ryan and was pleased to hear him say at the end of the evening, “Man, why are you so likeable!!!” The fact that he could feel my love and concern for him was more powerful than any argument I could give him for the existence of God.

Some atheists read everything I write as if I write in hatred. Yet I love and care about you. If I could have lunch with you, I would, and I would gladly pay the tab. But if you refuse to believe that, I can’t do anything about it.

You accuse me of making money from the sale of my books, but did you know that I have preached open air more than five thousand times and never been paid? I do that because I love people and care where they spend eternity. If I didn’t care, I wouldn’t bother with preaching, blogging, producing a TV program, or writing Christian books. I had a very successful business before I became a Christian and could have made a good living, but I chose to spend my life pleading with people like you to consider where you will spend eternity.

So think about my motive and then please think of God’s motive for the Cross: “But God shows and clearly proves His [own] love for us by the fact that while we were still sinners, Christ (the
Messiah, the Anointed One) died for us” (Romans 5:8,
Amplified Bible
). That’s the ultimate sacrifice. It’s up to you to believe it.

Sir Isaac Newton said:

Charles Darwin’s
Origin of Species
hasn’t always had that title. The book’s full title is
On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life
. For some reason, in the sixth edition of 1872 the title was changed. Deborah Drapper said, “Yes its title really is a bit too long. So why don’t we call it
The Preservation of Favoured Races
? Don’t you think it is time to give the other half of the title its turn? It might catch on really well.”

Of course Darwin’s followers don’t think he was a racist. When he was talking about “favored races,” he wasn’t talking about people, but cabbages:

However, before faithful believers stand in line to look at the facial hair of Charles Darwin in England’s Natural History Museum, they may want to rethink the character of the man to whom they are paying homage. Darwin also said:

Lastly, more than one writer has asked, why have some animals had their mental powers more highly developed than others, as such development would be advantageous to all? Why have not apes acquired the intellectual powers of man? Various causes could be assigned; but as they are conjectural, and their relative probability cannot be weighed, it would be useless to give them. A definite answer to the latter question ought not to be expected, seeing that no one can solve the simpler problem why, of two races of savages, one has risen higher in the scale of civilization than the other; and this apparently implies increased brain-power.”
²

At some future period, not very distant as measured by centuries, the civilized races of man will almost certainly exterminate and replace throughout the world the savage races. At the same time the anthropomorphous apes, as Professor
Schaaffhausen has remarked, will no doubt be exterminated. The break will then be rendered wider, for it will intervene between man in a more civilized state, as we may hope, than the Caucasian, and some ape as low as a baboon, instead of as at present between the negro or Australian and the gorilla.”
³

How do atheists justify the fact the Charles Darwin was a racist? They say, “Darwin himself was far less racist than most of his contemporaries.”
⁴

When I once mentioned that I had had the flu, an atheist wrote and said, “Sorry to hear that you’re unwell. I just wonder why are you sick? I mean, really. Your irreducibly complex immune system obviously isn’t complex enough to handle the flu, and we all know there’s no evolution to make the virus evolve. Did God create the flu? Is it then part of His ‘mysterious ways’? I’m actually interested in your answer here (for once, I might add), because you often talk about the big things but rarely about the everyday things. What glorious explanation do you have for the flu?”

When God made Adam and Eve He made them perfect. There was no disease, suffering, pain, or death. When they rebelled against Him, He cursed them and the earth, and we now live in what is commonly called a “fallen creation.”

Study the soil for a moment. It naturally produces weeds. No one plants them, no one waters them. They even stubbornly push through cracks of a dry sidewalk. Billions of useless weeds sprout like there’s no tomorrow, strangling our crops and ruining our lawns. Pull them out by the roots, and there will be more tomorrow. They are nothing but a curse.

Consider how much of the earth is uninhabitable. There are millions of square miles of barren deserts in Africa and other parts of the world. Most of Australia is nothing but miles and
miles of useless desolate land. Not only that, but the earth is constantly shaken with massive earthquakes. Its shores are lashed with hurricanes, tornadoes rip through creation with incredible fury, devastating floods soak the land, and terrible droughts parch the soil. Sharks, tigers, lions, snakes, spiders, and disease-carrying mosquitoes attack humanity and suck its lifeblood. The earth’s inhabitants are afflicted with disease, pain, suffering, and death.

Think of how many people are plagued with cancer, Alzheimer’s, multiple sclerosis, heart disease, emphysema, Parkinson’s, and a number of other debilitating illnesses. Consider all the children with leukemia, or people born with crippling diseases or without the mental capability to even feed themselves. All these things should convince thinking minds that something is radically wrong. Did God mess up when He created humanity? What sort of tyrant must our Creator be if this was His master plan? Sadly, many use the issue of suffering as an excuse to reject any thought of God, when its existence is the very reason we should accept Him. Suffering stands as terrible testimony to the truth of the explanation given by the Word of God.

But how can we know that the Bible is true? Simply by studying the prophecies of Matthew 24, Luke 21, and 2 Timothy 3. A few minutes of open-hearted inspection will convince any honest skeptic that this is no ordinary book. It is the supernatural testament of our Creator about why there is suffering…and what we can do about it. The Bible tells us that God cursed the earth because of Adam’s transgression. Weeds are a curse. So are flu and all other diseases. Sin and suffering cannot be separated. Again, the Scriptures inform us that we live in a fallen creation. In the beginning, God created man perfect, and he lived in a perfect world without suffering. It was heaven on earth. When sin came into the world, death and misery came with it. Those who
understand the message of Holy Scripture eagerly await a new heaven and a new earth “wherein dwells righteousness.” In that coming Kingdom there will be no more pain, suffering, disease, or death. We are told that no eye has ever seen, nor has any ear heard, neither has any man’s mind ever imagined the wonderful things that God has in store for those who love Him (1 Corinthians 2:9). Think for a moment what it would be like if food grew with the fervor of weeds. Consider how wonderful it would be if the deserts became incredibly fertile, if creation stopped devouring humanity. Imagine if the weather worked for us instead of against us, if disease completely disappeared, if pain were a thing of the past, if death were no more.