Greetings to you all. It is nice to get away on vacation. I pray you each are well and blessed.
Today we will continue our look into M.R. DeHaan’s book The Chemistry of the blood. Remember, what I believe is of such value in this book are the insights that Dr. DeHaan gives to us regarding scripture and science. These insights are invaluable for us today.
Out of many different wonderful teachings from Dr. DeHaan’s book, some of these today are my favorites. Let’s begin at the beginning, The first phrase of the Bible, not the complete sentence, just the first four words, from Genesis 1:1,
“In the beginning God…”
This constitutes the very foundation upon which all else that follows in the Bible is built. Everything in the Bible stands or falls with this statement: IN THE BEGINNING GOD. Doubt this one simple opening phrase of God’s Word, and you cannot and will not believe a single thing that follows in the rest of the book. Infidelity and rebellion begin right here, and faith rests here. One could say that this is the most important verse in the entire Bible. At first hearing of this statement, an individual either feels compelled to believe this phrase or instinctively rebels against this statement. Which one of these reactions is yours?
In the beginning God--not “in the beginning nebular mass”, or “in the beginning a pool of warm slime” or “in the beginning some hairy monkeys swinging by their tails but in the beginning God.
If we have any sense at all, we should believe this opening statement, and if we do not believe it, then what is said in Psalm 14:1-3 is proven true, because you either accept this as truth or reject it, and with it God.
“The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God”. They are corrupt, their deeds are vile; there is no one who does good. The Lord looks down from heaven on the sons of men to see if there are any who understand, any who seek God. All have turned aside, they have together become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one.”
With Genesis 1:1, this is where all faith must begin. Until you believe in the beginning God, you cannot believe in God’s son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Hebrews 11:6 teaches us,
“And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists…”
Once we believe this, all else becomes perfectly simple. For if we can believe that in the beginning there was nothing but God and that by Him everything was made that was made, then we can accept anything that God says about the things which He himself has made.
Before Genesis 1:1, way before, there was no time. There was no creation. Ponder this for a moment.
From a beginningless eternity, God was all alone in that perfect family-love life of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And there in that eternity He counseled with himself and planned to make a creation and a universe. But understand this, He had nothing to begin with but himself. And yet at the proper moment He spoke and creation began.
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth (Genesis 1:1, whole verse).
When the time came He reached out his omnipotent hand into the great abyss of nothingness and threw it out into nowhere, and suddenly nothing became something. From God’s fingers stretched forth the universe with its planets and suns, its systems and constellations, as He sent them forth calling each one by their names.
If we can believe this, we can believe that God could walk on water, that he could make the sun and the moon obey his command and lengthen Joshua’s day, and part the Red Sea. If we believe Genesis 1:1 we can believe that God could turn water into blood (or wine) and rain fire from heaven. Then we could believe that he could make a donkey speak, and rain bread from heaven on a daily basis for the children of Israel. If we believe Genesis 1:1 we can believe any and all miracles. That’s the kind of God that I believe in. Who do you believe in?
Juxtapose this to the theories of mankind. In the beginning there was a great superheated nebula and as it cooled it formed a semi-solid mass of matter. By its rapid revolutions, masses flew off from the mother mass and formed suns and worlds and other planets. Some “cooled off” and became inhabited. Others remained hot and became stars and suns. The one which we call “the earth” became covered in slime, and the slime began to crawl and finally developed fins and became a fish. The fish changed its fins for feet and became a reptile.
The reptile grew hair and a tail and became a monkey, which ultimately became you and me. This is the theory submitted by the minds of mankind.
But the Bible says: God created man in his own image (Genesis 1:26). Tell me please, what is the more reasonable explanation of the origin of this creation: the theory of mankind or the simple In the beginning God?
In the beginning God. The Bible contains no proof for the existence of God. It is given that you are expected to believe it. Now there is plenty of evidence that supports it. In fact, all of the Bible gives testimony to the existence of God.
The most heathen throughout history believed in a god or gods, whatever form that those gods may take. Even then the so-called most civilized and educated people of mankind felt the need to invent the theory of atheism. Whether we choose to admit it or not, we are drawn to worship. Even to the point of creating a religion of no God in which to worship.
Even the inanimate creation praises God and acknowledges its creator. Psalm 19:1-4,
“The Heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge. There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard. Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the end of the world.”
Only mankind, of all the earth’s creatures, only mankind rebels against God and says in his heart, there is no God.
What does your heart say today, at this very moment? Let me further push on your belief button. Please hear this.
True science can never be in conflict with the Bible. Wherever science and the Bible seem to conflict it is either because our scientific deductions are incorrect or our interpretation of Scripture is incorrect. The error always rests upon mankind. We are imperfect, God is perfect.
True science deals with proven facts, and whereas today a great many things are called scientific, they are nothing of the kind. They are just theories. There are many theories as yet unproven flying around today accepted as proven, true science, but they are not. Any theory which is later proved to be false proves that it was unscientific. True science rests on unalterable and eternally established facts. Then, again hear this please, when scientists have finally reached absolute truth, they will not be in conflict with the Bible, which is itself absolute truth.
Both science and theology suffer most from overreaching amateur advocates. It is the nature of our competing university and medical systems. Sometimes science is correct and our interpretation of Scripture is wrong, and then again all too often science is mere guesswork (to generate headlines and grants) and appears only to contradict the Bible. True science never conflicts with the Bible, and true science has been the greatest hand maid of Scripture in supporting the claims within the Bible. Satan wants you to choose one or the other, God gives us both.
For example, up into the latter nineteenth century, many learned skeptics took great pains to remind us that Moses could never have written the first five books of the Bible for the simple reason that scientists maintained that in the days when Moses was supposed to have lived there was no civilization at all. No culture, no community, no literature and no organized government. This was as late as the 1870s. This was a highly intellectual belief posing as science commonly taught at the collegiate level.
Then in 1877 something occurred which silenced these critics for all time. An old woman living in Egypt was digging in the ruins of an ancient city to obtain fertilizer for her garden. In the ruins she dug up, she found what seemed to be bricks of clay, and she promptly ground them up and spread them in her garden. How many bricks she ground up no one knows for sure. Then one day a missionary passing by, saw the bricks and suspected that they might have some historical value and made the discovery known. As a result, archeologists bought the garden and dug up what was left of an ancient library containing the correspondence between the Egyptians and the Babylonians in the days before Moses. So what was once a point of ridicule in regards to the Bible’s accuracy and true science only 144 years ago, has now become proven fact. In addition to the Egyptians and the Babylonians; the Hittites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Hebrews, and other cultures are now not ridiculed, but accepted as proven fact, true science.
In this age of spin doctors and hyperbole, be careful what you place your belief in. My suggestion, my testimony, is to place it in the Bible. In fact, place it in the first sentence of the Bible, in the beginning God.
Do no harm, do good, and stay in love with God.
Blessings,
Thad Brown
Opportunity House
and Harmony UMC