"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth," Gen. 1:1.
"For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified," 1Corinthians 2:2.
Foundations, we all have them. We have them under and connected to our house and any durable structure we see. Presuppositions, we have them. Every thought and word we have is girded by the foundation of our underlying worldview or presupposition. For the Christian, we must have several of these and the first one we come across in scripture is, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." The very first verse of scripture makes a critical, declarative statement about our reality: it is Gods. He was in the beginning(eternal), He is creative(the only One truly capable of creating) and the Creator and He is sovereign over the heavens and the earth. If we miss these or fudge these truths even a smidgen, we start to become agnostic about God and His word.
The reason this struck me this week is because at the republican debate this week, the candidates were asked whether they believed in evolution or creation. It is a question that is meant to humiliate those who do not believe in a Darwinistic understanding of our environment. The government/media complex uses this not unlike how H. L. Mencken did back during the era of the scopes monkey trial. Mencken hounded and attempted to humiliate the creationist William Jennings Bryan to the point that, after Bryan died shortly after the trial, Mencken celebrated his demise. Mencken mocked anyone who did not live in the ivory towers of evolutionary dogma. It is interesting to note that Bryan was a democrat. He was a Bible believing, evangelical Christian in fact. This was the last stand for Bible believing Christians in the democrat party. They are almost extinct in this day and age. Almost extinct. As a lifelong democrat and an evangelical, Bible believing Christian, I can attest to at least one! The journalists who cajole conservatives about God's creation are just following in the line of their acid tongued hero, Mencken. They taint their questions in cynicism like the heretic Rob Bell taints his questions about God's love, Hell and so many other great propositions Christ has delivered to man.
This is where we must not fail. Their presupposition, foundation, is that only apes believe in God's direct creation revealed to us in Gen. 1:1. We must be bold and not shrink back. We must hold fast to our anchor and quote the truth back to them. The Gospel must be preeminent in all that we do! Knowing that God's word is a light unto our path, we need to shower them under the cleansing rain of the word of God. Stand boldly on the ground our God created and quote back to them His marvelous account of creation. Tell them about our sin and darkened heart and about Hell. They will heckle and scream and maybe even dance in circles but their may be one, their only need be one, that is shook to his core with his own sin and God's holiness.
I say this because when we begin to argue along any line other than scripture, we get off track...way off track. We begin to consider all matter of arguments and our pride puffs up and before you know it, we have forgotten the glorious Gospel. I know this from experience. I spent too much time studying useless information to argue with people who have no hunger for the truth. What they needed was for me to spend time studying useful information, live giving information, God's word. What they needed was for me to go before the throne of grace and seek the Lord in prayer and ask Him to soften their hardened hearts. What they needed was for me to share and show them the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It is of some value to know some information pertaining to our world. It is of infinite value to know the word of God and share His glorious Gospel.
Brothers and sisters, is this not more edifying than arguing. Planting the seeds of the Gospel is far better than planting the seeds of discord. Are we not being obedient, in this way, of having these words in our hearts and sharing them along the way? Is this not what Paul did in Athens?
Remember always, learn, live and love the glorious Gospel!
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