Ten Principles of Creation and Science
By Robert E. Gentet
© 2003
Creation is the process by which God brings things into existence. Science is the knowledge of God's creation, imperfect as it may be. Science by its very nature does not claim to know perfectly the workings of God's universe. The reason for this is quite simple: the Mind of God from which all things ultimately originate is past finding out.
One morning at a Church while teaching the fifth graders about God, I asked a simple question: "When you look at a tree outside and consider it, isn't it evidence that the almighty power of God brought it into existence?" (I had earlier pointed out to the students the cars in the church parking lot. They know that the cars did not just happen. They had been manufactured somewhere by the hands of man.) To my surprise, one of the boys spoke up almost immediately and confidently said: "I bet it wouldn't be too hard to make a tree, if you knew how!"
But, such is man's dilemma! Man may study God's creation all he wants, but he can only do a rather miserable job of trying to duplicate it. This is illustrated quite nicely by William Paley's classic example of the watch. If one were to happen upon a watch lying in a field, it would not be logical to suppose that the watch came into existence in the field all by itself. There had to be a watchmaker somewhere. In the same way, the world around us shows the careful handiwork of the Mind of God.
Due to tremendous advancements in molecular biology, biochemists who look at the atomic fabric of life are now finding that Paley, if anything, oversimplified the design = Designer argument! So-called "nature" is far more complex than the works of man which try to duplicate what God did from the beginning!
In my studies of both science and Scripture, I find at least ten basic principles that must be borne in mind. When one keeps these principles in mind, many of the apparent problems that arise between science and God’s Word evaporate.
What are these basic principles of science based upon faith in God?
#1 God's Word is Ultimate Truth
Romans 3:4
Romans 1:19-20
The apparent contradictions between science and the divine revelation given in Scripture are not real. The controversy is, in reality, between a BELIEF system, which automatically excludes God from its knowledge, and a belief system that automatically includes God in its knowledge.
#2 Only God Truly Knows What He Did -- And Still Does!
Job 38:4-6
No human was present at the creation of the universe, the world, or of the various "kinds” of life forms on the Earth. They were all created before Adam and Eve. This should create in us humility before our Maker when He speaks to us in His Word about His handiwork!
#3 Faith Is Needed To Believe In Divine Origins Of Things
Hebrews 11:3
It is through the eyes of faith that the Christian understands the physical things had their beginnings from the Hand of God. This is not, however, so-called "blind” faith. It is rather a faith rooted solidly in the evidence of the greatness of His handiwork. Our God-given physical senses, our mental abilities, and the instruments of science, which today probe ever deeper into creation’s complexities, confirm it.
Therefore, when it comes to a study of "beginnings," we must acknowledge that we will only know for certain as much as God has chosen to reveal. And apparently in order to test man's faithfulness, God has not chosen to reveal many of the finer details of His creative acts and interactions with His creation. For example, take Christ's creative act of making wine out of water. While the fact that He did such a miracle was known to some, it was still a mystery as to exactly HOW He did it! However, what He has revealed does not contradict the physical evidence we can examine -- when BOTH the Scriptures and the physical records are correctly perceived. (Admittedly, it is not always easy!)
#4 When God's Revelation is Rejected, False Worship of the Creation Itself Follows.
Rom. 1:28
Rom. 1:24-25
II Thess. 2:3, 9-12
The current wide-spread premises of the theory of evolution are anti-God and anti-God's laws by their very nature. It replaces the Creator with a mindless method. This snare falls upon those who reject Biblical truths. As Christians, we need to beware lest we too embrace false philosophies that have no foundations in the Word of God!
#5 Anti-biblical Theories of Origin Cause Only Strife in Man's Relationship with God and His Fellow Man.
Isa. 45:9. 11-12
Man's theories of origins, apart from divine revelation, result in strife between the created and the Creator. Ultimately, the Bible reveals that all those who fall prey to an anti-God philosophy will come to acknowledge that they have believed in a lie!
#6 Scripture Lays the Only Solid Foundation to Even Begin a Partial Understanding of How to Understand the Physical Record of Such Sciences as Geology.
The method by which science discovers and advances today (the scientific method) has as one of its prerequisites the idea of repeatability. That is, in order to know scientifically (as that word is commonly used) the origin of the universe, and in fact, of anything in the universe, one must be able to REPEAT the event exactly so as to reproduce the first result. This presupposes a huge amount of information about the past (and POWER as well!!)
The problem is, of course, that there are often many more unknowns about the conditions of the past than there are known, as has been already briefly mentioned in Principle 3. That is why science by its very nature can never lay claim to absolute truth. By its very definition, it excludes divine revelation and any divine intervention in the history of the universe. Thus, the follower must forever remain "in the dark" about the past.
With the Word of God, believers can look "through a glass darkly" and can "know in part" not only of the future, but also of the past (I Cor. 13:12). We can therefore know more than the godless evolutionary philosophy of the world can ever provide about origins. This helps us to avoid the "bottomless pit" of evolution that can never lay a firm foundation of the past.
A belief in God's Word and a proper understanding of it will lead us to a better -- even though not a totally complete -- understanding of historical questions such as posed in historical geology, archeology, etc.
#7 Christians Can Also Use Physical Data to Better Understand the Past
Proverbs 25:2
It behooves believers who have backgrounds and interest in science to see possibilities of how the information (data) which can be known can best fit into a proper Biblical framework.
#8 A Proper Theological Basis is Needed as Well as a Proper Understanding of the Sciences
Proverbs 1:7a
Matt. 22:29
Principle #7 presupposes that the educated believer also has a firm theological foundation upon which to erect the factual knowledge that we can humanly discover through the God-given senses. Without a correct theology, erroneous beliefs flow from the physical data, just as they do for the evolutionist when he uses the theory of evolution as the interpretation of the data.
#9 The Christian Researcher must Reject Ideas Which Are Contrary to Revealed Biblical Truth
John 17:17
Principal Number 9 presupposes that the believer can rationally reject any ideas which exclude the intervention of God in His Creation. Facts need a framework upon which they can be hung and tentative conclusions drawn. If the framework is anti-Scriptural, then it cannot be accepted because we then are rejecting the very words of the One who was there and who, however slight, has chosen to reveal to us in His Word some of the mysteries of how it really was "in the beginning."
#10 Faith in Christ Means Faith in the Words of Scripture Concerning Beginnings and Historical Matters as Well as Salvation
Luke 16:29-31
Hebrews 11:1-3
Arthur W. Pink said: "The beginning of faith is faith 'in the beginning.'" This is true. Without faith that all of God’s words in the Bible are trustworthy, we are left in a sea of doubt and ignorance.
Today, some try another tack. They say you can accept what Jesus said, but not what Moses wrote about the beginnings and early history of man. Why? Because, they say, Moses wrote in an ignorant, non-scientific age. But Jesus saw that unless the writings of Moses (given by divine inspiration) are accepted, what He says will also ultimately come under question! Why? Because Jesus’ teachings were based on the historical realities recorded in such books as Genesis! (A literal Adam and Eve, etc.)
So the bond that links our faith with Christ cannot be separated from the bond that links our faith in Genesis and many other such historical books of the Bible.
Further Reading: