Reflections on the Carmen Christi

Philippians 2:5-7 explains the heart of the Incarnation. The study of Christology is laden with complex philosophical ideas and intense theological assertions. One small mistake can brand someone a heretic. Christology is perhaps the most nuanced and specific branch of evangelical theology, and which it should be. However, this passage states the best aspects of Christology. Jesus, who was in the form of God, did not count equality a thing to be grasped. In being God, Jesus had a humble spirit and did not consider his status as something that he would not lay aside. Instead, he made himself nothing; lowering his status on our behalf. The King of the Universe became the servant of man. The one who gave us his image, took on our likeness. The one who is majestic, became defiled by men. The one who had every right to maintain his status in heaven as the most holy being, departed willfully from his throne and became in every way like us. Such clear Christological themes are presented in this passage. Christ is God. Christ became man. All of our theological terms and philosophical terms cower in comparison to this passage. Christ represents the highest degree of humility in this single act. Therefore, if our God can humble himself in this way, we ought also to act as he did.

In Philippians 2:8 we see the greatest example of humility demonstrated in all of human history. Not only did the God of the universe come to the world in the likeness of men, but he came and died. This idea becomes even more profound when we consider that we died convicted as a criminal, when he himself knew no sin. But it gets worse! They didn’t just hang him, or stab him. Instead, they killed him in the worst way possible. They crucified him! He hung on a tree. Still it gets worse. The law says that cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree. Christ became a curse for us. The sinless, perfect, matchless, undefiled, unblemished, spotless King of Glory was treated worse then most murderers today in America are. What absurdity! Now, I know that this tells me a lot about my Savior. He is humble, loving, and gracious in a way that no words could express and in a way that no actions or deeds could equal. However, this event tells me a lot about myself as well. I am so evil, so utterly despicable, so incapable of goodness, so profoundly inept, so wicked, and so totally depraved that it took all of that to atone for me. Not an angel, or any creation could fix my problem. Only the subsiding of God’s wrath through the propitiation of Christ could draw me out of darkness.

In Philippians 2:9-11 we see the crowning moment in Christology. In becoming a man, Christ willfully subjected himself to suffering, yet he is now highly exalted above all things to the glory he previously had with the Father before his incarnation. His name is superior to all other names. God did not exalt Mohammed. God did not exalt Joseph Smith. God did not exalt anyone other than Christ. The very name of Christ exhorts such glory that even at the sound of his name, everyone will confess and bow to his lordship. This is an amazing thought. Our Savior is also our King! Now, something that is very interesting about this passage is that Christ is the one who is exalted, and Christ is the one with the greatest of all names…If God is jealous, desiring his own glory in all situations, what does this tell us about the Deity of Christ? The entire “Christ hymn” ends with such a profound statement that if not considered with its proper ramifications, it could be shrugged off as an old cliché statement about Christ. However, of all the things stated about Christ in this passage that point so clearly to his Deity, this one shouts it! Christ is the name above all names. No one else can say that. God would not be giving glory to himself if he allowed a creature to have the name above all names. Instead, Jesus is God. And there is no other way to understand this passage. When we read this passage we ought to sit back and proclaim that Christ is our Savior, King, and God!

Biblical Anthropology

God chose to create man for his own glory (Is 43:7, 21; Eph 1:12), and did not need to do so (Acts 17:24-25). Man is therefore dependent upon God (Acts 17:28), and is distinct from Him (Num 23:19; John 8:23). However, God created man uniquely among His creation by giving him dominion over the animals, and allowing him to name them (Gen 1: 28, 2:19).

All Men are created in the image and likeness of God regardless of status, race, or gender (Gen 1:26-27, 5:1; Prov 22:2). Our creation in the image of God demonstrates our worth, purpose, and dignity. This is not based upon what we do, but who we are as humans. Therefore, we are not to kill or even curse those who bear his image, but love them as ourselves (Gen 9:6; Jas 3:8; Mt 22:39). God’s image is manifested through our creative abilities, innate morals, abilities to relate to others, reasoning skills, and spiritual nature.

God created Men and Women equally, yet with different functions. Man was created first and the Woman was created as his helper (Gen 2:18, 23; 1 Cor 11:8-9; 1 Tim 2:13). Man was made as the head of the Woman in a functional sense (1 Cor 11:3), yet the differing functions do not change their ontological equality, how they relate to God, or the fact that they both bear His Image (Gen 1:27, 5:1-2; Gal 3:28).

Man is essentially composed of two distinct substances; the physical and spiritual (1 Cor 7:34; 2 Cor 7:1). These two substances do not work separately but are unified and can affect each other. After the death of our bodies, the soul does not die but continues to live eternally in either Heaven or Hell (Mt 10:28; Lk 23:43; Phil 1:23, Rev 6:9). Although physically we inherit our parent’s genes and DNA, we do not inherit our spirit for it is given to us from God (Ps 139: 13; Ecc 12:7, Zech 12:1).

Adam was originally created in a state of righteousness, but through his disobedience death and sin spread to all men (Ro 5:12). Consequentially, man inherits Adam’s sin (Ro 5:18-19), and is born as a sinner (Ps 51:5; Eph 2:3). Sin has ruined man’s relationship with God and renders him without an inclination towards doing good or pursuing God (Ps 14:3; Jn 6:44, 65; Ro 3:10-11, 7:18, 8:7; 1 Cor 2:14). The failure to meet God’s perfect standards is ultimately what constitutes sin (Ro 3:23; Jas 2:10).

God is transcendent above mankind in his nature and abilities (Is 55:8-9; John 8:23), yet he also displays immanence through upholding creation and showing intimate concern (Lk 12:6-7; Acts 17:27; Col 1:17). God acts within his creation for the praise of his glory and according to his own purposes (Is 46:10; Eph 1:11-12), which includes natural disasters and man’s evil intents (Gen 50:19-20; Is 45:7; Am 3:6; Acts 4:27-28). However, God is not charged with evil (Job 1:22). God’s sovereign purposes also do not minimize man’s moral accountability (Gal 6:7-8). However, salvation is ultimately God’s work and is not based on man’s will or efforts (John 1:13; Ro 9:16; Acts 13:48; Eph 2:8-9).

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How I Became An Amillennialist

The current state of eschatological studies within evangelicalism is quite polarized. Describing yourself as either a Premillennialist, Postmillennialist, or Amillennialist can carry an incredible amount of theological baggage. Our hermeneutical methods are automatically exposed, and somehow we get labeled as either "spiritualizing" the text, or taking it too literally. Recently, I've been spending some time studying this issue and although I don't think that I understand everything that pertains to each view, I've come to a personal conclusion after weighing the evidence.

Like most American evangelicals, I grew up attending a dispensational church. I also attended a Christian high school that taught basic Dispensationalism. This is usually enough to create any evangelical into a dispensationalist, but throw in reading the increasingly popular end-times series, Left Behind, and you have all the necessary pre-requisites to be a full blown pretribulational premillennial dispensationalist. Obviously, when you're a dispensationalist nothing is more abhorred then Amillennialism. I too was there. I hated Amillennialism. I viewed it as liberal theology like most do (never mind the historical precedence), and I thought that it essentially threw away the book of revelation and simply turned it into a giant symbolic analogy of the present age in an arbitrary fashion. Amillennialism, I thought, was a horrible position to hold.

My own wanderings in eschatology over the past year have lead me towards an Amilleninal conclusion, despite my prior assessments. The first problem came with pretribulationalism. After studying the "rapture" I realized that it is always in relation to Christ's physical return. Despite the arguments about imminence, I realized that 1 Thess 4, and Mt 24 give us no understanding of a "secret" return. Without going into detail here, I quickly rejected the notion of a pretribulational rapture. I realized that the view of a pretribulational rapture is actually more tied to ecclesiology then it is to eschatology. This seemed highly problematic to me. The only reason the pretrib rapture exists in theological studies is because of a staunch dichotomy between Israel and the Church. Something that I have now rejected for a covenantal approach to their relationship (cf. Ro 2:29; Ro 9:6-8; Gal 3:15-29; Gal 6:16; Eph 2:11-22; Phil 3:3; 1 Peter 2:9-10; Heb 8:6-13).

In accepting Covenant Theology, I became afraid about how this would affect my eschatology. I knew that Dispensational Premillenialism was out as an option, but Historic Premillenialism, Postmillennialism, and Amillennialism were still left to study. Initially Historic Premillenialism seemed good because it embraces a posttribulational rapture, and covenant theology. However, my problems further extended into areas of the resurrection, judgment and the end of the age. Historic Premillenialism gave insufficient answers to these questions. How can there be two resurrections? Two judgments? Or a thousand year transitional period before the age to come? Outside of Revelation, I found the NT writers teaching that the resurrection, judgment, and end of the age all happening at Christ's return. This posed as an incredible problem for any form of Premillenialism. Because of these thoughts, I started to seriously doubt Historic Premillenialism.

So I decided to study Amillennialism. I knew that Amillennialism would have a lot of explaining to do for me to accept it... and to my surprise it exceeded all of my expectations. At the outset I determined that unless Amillennialism gave a sufficient answer to my problems then I would turn to Postmillennialism, or embrace a form of eschatological agnosticism. My initial problems with Amillennialism were threefold. How could this present age be the millennial reign of Christ? How could Satan possibly be bound in this age? And How Does the Amillennialist explain the first resurrection mentioned in Revelation 20:5?

Although there are other important texts to this study (Mt 24; Ro 11; Dan 9; 1 Thess 4; 2 Thess 2; 1 Cor 15, etc…), everything ultimately hinges upon Revelation 20. Therefore, I will only deal with this particular text. I obviously won’t be able to do this issue justice at any length, so I will give a simple explanation based upon my recent studies. I’ve come to conclude that the answer to the daunting system of eschatology within Revelation can be answered in one word: Recapitulation.

Dispensationalist's view Revelation 19-20 in a chronological fashion. However, there is good reason to believe that the two chapters describe the same event from different perspectives. The battle described in Rev 19 after the second coming of Christ is one in which Christ destroys the nations in his judgment. Following this incident is the millennial reign of Christ, according to dispensationalists, which is followed by yet another major battle. However, it makes more sense to view these battles as the same event. A few reasons suggest this. One: the battles of Rev 16, 19 and 20 use imagery from the same event described in Ezekiel 38-39. Demonstrating that these major battles are not sequential but recapitulated. Two: If Christ has already judged the nations and destroyed them in Rev 19, where do the nations come from to fight Christ once again in Rev 20 and why would Satan be bound so as to not decieve them? Especially since 19:18-21 describes the completeness of the battle in all-inclusive terms. Three: In revelation there are references to battles in general terms in chapters 9, 11, 12, and 13. Yet, in the last three times a battle is described (16, 19, and 20), a definite article is used in the Greek text. These chapters are the last three times a battle is described and the only time the word battle is used with a definite article in Revelation. Four: Since Rev 15 tells us that 7 bowls will be poured out for the completion of God’s wrath, and because Rev 19:11-21 marks the end of God’s wrath against the world, then Rev 20:7-10 must be recapitulated with the battle of Rev 19. All these reasons were very convincing to me.

Therefore, if the battles of Rev 19 & 20 are recapitulated then the thousand-year reign of Christ is the present age. This would make sense because we are told multiple times that Christ is currently seated at the right hand of the throne of God, indicating that he is reigning, and because Rev 19 describes the judgment that Christ brings at his second coming. The implications of this would mean that Satan is currently bound. This idea isn't as problematic as it initially sounds. Not only do the NT writers demonstrate this idea generally all throughout their writings with the great spiritual victory that Christ won against the forces of Satan, but also Christ himself had some interesting things to say.

In Mark 3:27, after casting out a demon, Christ said, “But no one can enter a strong man's house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man.” Likewise, In Luke 10:17-18, after the seventy-two returned to Christ and announced that the demons are subject to the name of Christ, Jesus told them, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from Heaven.” Clearly, the symbolic idea of being bound by a chain in Rev 20 demonstrates that the Gospel of Christ will advance and so will his Kingdom. Another thing to consider is that Rev 20:3 tells us that Satan is bound from deceiving the nations. Therefore, Satan is bound in relation to the expansion of the Gospel. There is no doubt that he is still the prince and power of the air, and the god of this world, but his relation to the expansion of Christ’s kingdom is that he is bound from deceiving those nations that Christ commissioned his disciples to proclaim the Gospel to. Because of the binding of Satan during this age, the four living creatures that encircle the throne of God in Rev 5:9 are able to sing, “Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe, and language, and people and nation.” Truly, the binding of Satan is in effect, and the Gospel is expanding to the nations. (Paul also speaks of the restraining aspect of evil in 2 Thess 2:3-8, which ends in Christ’s coming and the ultimate destruction of evil. This passage would then further tie the battles of Rev 19 & 20 together!)

The last question that I needed answered was the idea of the first resurrection in Rev 20:5. According to Dispensationalists, the first resurrection occurs at the commencement of the millennial reign of Christ, in which believers are resurrected, and the second resurrection occurs at the end of the millennium, in which those who come to Christ during the millennium are resurrected along with the rest of the reprobates. Not only is the idea of two resurrections nowhere to be found in the bible outside of this passage, which ought to indicate something on its own, but there is contextual evidence which should not lead us to believe that the two resurrections are sequential, but of different kinds. Rev 20 contrasts the first resurrection with second death. The second death is not the second sequential death of man, but a different kind of death: a spiritual death. This would seem to make sense for the first resurrection as well, since those who participate in the first resurrection will not face the second death, as Rev 20:6 tells us. Therefore, the first resurrection is not the first set of bodily resurrections followed by another set of bodily resurrections, but is instead a different kind of resurrection. The first being spiritual, the second being bodily. This makes sense when you consider that the thrones mentioned in 20:4 are for those beheaded for their testimony of Christ. These thrones are not earthly, but heavenly. They are for the saints. With this in mind, and the multiple passages in the NT that tell us that the bodily resurrection occurs after Christ’s physical return, it further adds support to such a conclusion.

There is obviously so much more to discuss in relation to this view of eschatology. Our opinion of the nature of Israel, and our view of dispensations also determine what we believe about eschatology. There simply is too much that pertains to our eschatological views. Although I haven’t addressed those issues in this study, the arguments in favor of recapitulation in Revelation are staggering. Since Rev 20 is the only passage that teaches the millennial reign of Christ, then how we understand this passage is obviously the linchpin of our personal eschatology. In conclusion of this study, Satan is most certainly bound to the Kingdom of God, which Christ oversees from the right hand of the throne of God. Most importantly, Christ is sovereignly reigning over the history of this world during this “thousand year” period. It seems appropriate therefore, to understand that the thousand years began at Christ’s resurrection. Consider the words of Peter for further support to this wonderful truth about Christ’s exaltation!

1 Peter 3:22 "[Christ] who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, powers, and authorities having been subjected to him."

Also consider the words of the author of Hebrews,

Hebrews 1:8-13 "But of the Son he says, Your throne, O God, is forever and ever, the scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your kingdom. You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness; therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions. And, You, Lord, laid the foundation of the earth in the beginning, and the heavens are the work of your hands; they will perish, but you remain; they will all wear out like a garment, like a robe you will roll them up, like a garment they will be changed. But you are the same, and your years will have no end. And to which of the angels has he ever said, Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet?"

What The Bible Says About Jesus

Jesus Christ was fully and completely human, being born of a virgin (Mt 1:23; Gal 4:4), and growing in human likeness both mentally and physically (Lk 2:52; Heb 5:8-9). Christ also had human needs, such as the necessity of having water and rest (Jn 4:6,19:28). Although Christ was tempted by sin like all men, he overcame his temptations and never sinned (1 Peter 2:22; Heb 4:15-16).

Jesus Christ is fully and completely God. He is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact imprint of his nature (Heb 1:3); having the fullness of Deity dwell within him (Col 1:19; 2:9). However, Christ did not become God. He is the creator of all things and therefore is not created (Jn 1:3; Col 1:16-17). The Deity of the Son of God is one that is eternal with God the Father (John 1:1; 8:58; 17:5). During his earthly ministry Christ demonstrated his Deity by forgiving sins (Mark 2:10-11), reinterpreting the Law (Mt 5:17-48; 12:1-8), calming the seas (Lk 8:22-25), and receiving worship (Mt 28:9).

The Deity and Humanity of Christ are two distinct natures that compose the one person of Christ. However, these two natures are also completely unified, demonstrating that Jesus was a man and “God with us” (Mt 1:23). According to his earthly genealogy he was the Son of David, yet he is also the Son of God (Ro 1:3-4). He is the eternal Word veiled in human flesh (John 1:1, 14). Only Christ as a man could die for our sins, and only Christ as God could provide the perfect atonement to satisfy the wrath of God (Heb 2:17; 1 John 4:10). It was in God’s sovereign wisdom to place our iniquity upon him so that he would be our substitute for salvation (Is 53:6; Acts 2:23; 2 Cor 5:21). After his death, he did not descend into Hell, since the efficacy of his atoning work was enough (Jn 19:30).

In coming to earth, Christ provided the greatest demonstration of humility. Though he was in very nature God, he lowered himself and became a servant (Mark 10:45; Phil 2:6). Furthermore, he humbled himself by obeying his Father’s will and dying on a cross (John 17:4; Phil 2:8). Although three days later God raised him from the dead and exalted him with the name above all names. After appearing to more than 500 witnesses, Christ physically ascended to heaven at the right hand of the Father (Mt 26:54; Luke 24:51; Acts 1:9; 1 Cor 15:6; Phil 2:9-11), where he will continue in his physical resurrected state for all eternity (Lk 24:39; Acts 1:9-11). Because of Christ’s humility and obedience, God has highly exalted him to the glory he shared with him before creation, demonstrating that Christ is forever glorious and worthy of all praise (John 17:5, 24; Rev 5:9-12).

Christ is now our prophet, king, and priest. As our prophet he has brought the final revelation of God’s truth to us (Heb 1:1-2). As our King of Kings he is the preeminent head of the Church who ushered in the kingdom of heaven under his lordship (Mt 4:17, 23; Col 1:18). As our permanent high priest he offered himself as a blameless sacrifice for our sin; enabling us to enter God’s presence (Heb 6:19-20; 7:24-27). He is also continually making intercession for us as our mediator with God (Ro 8:34; 1 Tim 2:5).

In Six Days

A Brief Case For Young Earth Creation

The question of How God created the world is often debated amongst Christians. To be sure, the most important issue at stake in this whole debate is Who created. Whether or not we have an unbiblical view of How the Earth was created is peripheral to the question of Who did the creating. So, may we enter into this dialogue with an understanding that God did in fact create everything, and let us remember that is ultimately what is most important.

As a matter of introductory into this discussion I'd like to first make a few remarks as a way of prefeace. I do not believe that God is more powerful for creating in six days as opposed to six billion years. Obviously my argument would be stifiled by the thought of God creating in six seconds. So, I am not concerned with what is more powerful. Also, I am not concerned with Young Earth. Although that is the view that I will advocate, I do not do so for the sake of being Young Earth. I do so because I believe there are major theological implications at stake. I only intend to briefly outline some of these thoughts as well as provide opposing viewpoints.


Naturalistic Evolution

Naturalistic evolution is the explanation of the origin of the universe through the course of nature and not by God. According to the theory the earth came to be the way we see it now over the course of many millions of years, the processes of mutation and natural selection were the factors that created every species of life that we see in the world today, from the simplest bacteria to humans and everything in between. The age of the earth allows for multiple mutations and adaptations to occur in order to change species into one that is more complex. “I view all beings not as special creations, but as the lineal descendants of some few beings, ” wrote Charles Darwin in The Origin of Species.

One of the biggest forms of “evidence” for evolution is said to be found in the fossil record. Carl Sagan agreed by saying, “Evolution is a fact, amply demonstrated by the fossil record.” In order for a fossil to occur there has to be a rapid burial of a living creature. After this occurs, the chemicals of the creature will begin to undergo a series of changes. As the creature decays, water infused with minerals passes through it, replacing the chemicals in the shell with rock-like minerals. The evolutionists believe that this process must also include millions of years of slow decay to occur, but this is not the case. A rock hard miner’s hat was found in a mine in Tasmania, Australia. The hat was permeated with mineralised water in its burial site. The minerals replaced the materials of the hat showing that millions of years are not a factor of fossilization after all (answers in genesis).

The Bible gives an account of a global flood that destroyed all life on earth. It also says that the “fountains of the deep” were broken up. This would have meant that catastrophic events were occurring along side of the flood. Considering that volcanic rocks are interspersed between the fossil layers in the rock record, it makes sense that volcanoes were erupting underneath the oceans which would have shifted the earth rapidly, and mineralise the water. Both of which are needed for fossilization. It is also interesting to note that 95% of all fossils that have been found are marine invertebrates. Obviously, at a time when the earth was being transformed by oceanic volcanoes, marine life would not be able to escape the wrath of these cataclysmic events. The Flood account helps prove that the Earth is not as old as some scientists say. Another recent discovery in Montana has added some more heat to the issue of the earth’s age.

A group of paleontologists, led by Mary Schweitzer, discovered a T. rex thighbone in a sandstone formation of Montana. During the removal of the bone, the researchers were forced to break it open in order to extract it via helicopter. Once they broke open the bone they discovered soft tissue and elastic blood vessels within it. The dinosaurs, which are considered some of the most ancient tetra pods of the earth, are seen as living around 70 million years ago, and with this new discovery of “fresh” tissue, which supports the creationist view of young age, the evolutionist’s theory is being questioned due to the newly found hard “soft” evidence. When Mary Schweitzer discovered the tissue she said, “The bones are 65 million years old. How could blood cells survive that long?” Her statement was both interesting and sad. Instead of questioning the new evidence she should be questioning the presupposed age of the bone. Because evolution is a theory of the earth’s origins that takes God out of the equation, the evolutionists will never see God’s hand in science until they actually start looking for it.


Theistic Evolution

Theistic evolution garners all of the factors of Naturalistic Evolution and adds God into the mix. Basically, God created the evolutionary process. Theistic evolution is the proposition that God is in charge of the biological process called evolution. God directs and guides the unfolding of life forms over millions of years. Theistic evolution leads to major compromising of the fundamental beliefs of the Christian faith.

Many creationists put theistic evolution into question since it denies some fundamental beliefs. The first problem is that evolution places man at the end of the whole overall process, contradicting Mark 10:6 which says, “But from the beginning of the creation God made them male and female.” According to this passage man was made at the beginning of creation. If evolution were to have occurred then man would have been made near the end in the overall scheme of the evolutionary process. This is a problem.

Another problematic theory, though not necessarily associated with theistic evolution is known as The Day-Age Theory. This theory teaches that each day as recorded in the creation account is not literal days, but is actually time periods of possibly millions of years. Exodus 20:11 says, “For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is…” According to this verse the creation process was six literal days and not a period of millions of years. This has huge implications for the Sabbath, which was the linchpin of Judaic Law. Jew's were to cease from all working activities and rest, just as God had done with creation. Now, what kind of idea would God be presenting to the Jews if he in fact created in billions of years. The concept of ceasing work on the seventh day would have no real meaning, and would certainly not be applicable. However, each day in Genesis is given a number to represent it and at each day's pass the phrase "and there was evening, and there was morning" was used. Such dileniations are represenative of literal days. Day-Agers would argue that each day can simply represent a time period in which God created. However, plants were created on the third day, and the sun was created on the fourth. If these days are to be understood as millions of years, then plants would have no chance of survival.

Again there is another Biblical teaching that the theistic evolutionists deny. This one is concerning the Flood. The question is not whether it occurred or not, but rather it is a question of whether it was a global or local flood. The Bible tells us that “the world that then existed perished, being flooded with water.” But according to the theistic evolutionists, this is only referring to the life that existed at that time. Since man had not populated much of the world then, God only needed to destroy them and not the whole earth. This belief contradicts Psalm 104:5a, 6, &8 which says, “You who laid the foundations of the earth, You covered it with the deep as with a garment; the waters stood above the mountains.” When God decided to destroy the Earth he did not mean solely the people around at that time, he meant the whole thing. The theistic evolutionists would attempt to counter with “where did the water go?” Psalm 104:7 gives an answer by saying, “At your rebuke they (the water) fled; At the voice of Your thunder they hastened away.” God put everything in its place. Since the world was changing form during the Flood. Larger mountains and deeper sea basins would have been created, giving a perfect physical explanation for the location of Noah’s water.

Another critique can be seen in Romans 5:12 which says, "Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned." Evolution is simply an unbiblical concept because it demands death in order to explain the fossil records and bring about the vast mutations that life has experienced. Clearly, when Adam transgressed against God, he brought death. Without sin, there is no death. Therefore, before Adam there was no death, and consequentially no evolution.

Biblical Christianity

The basis for the origin of life in Christianity is found in the Bible. In the first chapter of Genesis it is recorded that God created all of creation within a span of six literal days, and that man was made in his image in a distinct way from the rest of creation. Man was made out of the dust of the ground (Gen 2:7), and not from an evolutionary chain. To the evolutionist this is impossible because they believe there needs to be millions of years to form stratification levels of rock. As seen with Mt. St. Helens, six hundred feet of strata were formed during a three-week period, disproving that only millions of years can form such layers. The event of Mt. St. Helens helps prove the Global Flood as recorded in the Bible. Demonstrating that even one small catastrophe in the face of a worldwide disaster can create canyons and stratified rock layers.

The creation account cannot be simply an allegorical story for how God really created the world. Paul warned against people that would formulate false sciences in 1 Tim 6:20 saying, “O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called.” We as Christians cannot compromise scripture to fit-in with the crowd. 1 Peter 2:9 says we are a “peculiar people,” and we should not attempt to find middle ground on this subject.

For Further Study

www.aig.org

What The Bible Says About God

God has eternally existed as three persons within one being. The persons of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are distinct from one another in their relation and function (Mt 3:16-17; 1 Pet 1:1-2; Tit 3:4-6), yet they remain ontologically one in their essence, nature, and substance. The three persons of the Godhead are unified in all their attributes and are co-equal with each other. The Father is God (Gal 1:1; Eph 5:20), the Son is God; being the exact imprint of His nature (Heb 1:3; Jn 1:1,14; Col 2:9; Phil 2:6), and the Holy Spirit is God for he is eternal and omniscient (Acts 5:3-4; Heb 9:14; 1 Cor 2:10-11). There exists eternally only one God and none will come after him (Deut 6:4; Is 43:10, 44:6-8). Therefore the three persons of the Trinity have eternally existed as one God.

God is unchanging in his nature throughout all eternity (Ps 90:2, 102:24-27). His gifts, purposes and plans are also not subsequent to change, but stand true (Ps 33:11; Heb 6:17; Jas 1:17; Ro 11:29). God is outside of time (2 Pet 3:8), and does not experience a succession of moments. Therefore, He does not need anything, nor does he change, grow, or mature (Mal 3:6; Acts 17:24-25). He is the Great “I Am” (“YHWH” Ex 3:14; John 8:58); the uncaused, self-existent, self-sufficient and immutable God.

God is a holy and perfect being who is completely unlike His creation (Ps 18:30; Mt 5:48). He cannot sin (Heb 6:18), since it would be contrary to His holy character. God’s vast holiness demonstrates his infinite worth and glory, which He jealously desires to be recognized for Him alone (Ex 20:4-6; Deut 4:24, 5:9; Is 48:11). The wrath of God is kindled against those who act contrary to His ways and do not acknowledge Him as God (Hab 1:13; Ro 1:18). This wrath is only satisfied through Christ’s atonement since God’s infinite holiness demands justice for sin (Heb 9:11-14; Ro 3:25-26; Is 30:18). The atonement wrought in Christ is the ultimate demonstration of God’s love (Ro 5:8; 1 John 4:9-10), which he wisely determined to do because he embodies love (1 John 4:16). He is wrathful and just towards sin, yet gracious, merciful, and forgiving (Ex 34:6-7; Ps 145:8).

God is the Almighty One (Ex 6:3 “El Shaddai”), able to sovereignty accomplish all of His purposes without anything hindering Him in any capacity since He is the Creator of all things (Is 46:10-11; Dan 4:35; Eph 1:11, Job 42:1; John 1:3). God is an ever-present Spirit; unable to be divided into parts spatially or seen with human eyes (Ex 33:20; Ps 139:7-8; Jer 23:23-24; John 4:24; John 1:18; 1 Tim 6:16). God is the only wise God (Ro 16:27), having unlimited knowledge of all things including future events and man’s thoughts (Ps 147:5; Mt 6:8; 1 John 3:20; Ps 139:16, Is 46:10; Acts 15:18). God’s mind cannot be known and his thoughts are far superior to ours (Ps 139:6; Is 55:8-9; Ro 11:33-34). He is incomprehensible, yet He has chosen to reveal Himself through His Word and creation sufficiently for life, godliness, and obeying His commands (Ro 1:19-20; 2 Tim 3:16; 2 Pet 1:2-3; 1 John 2:3, 4:7). This demonstrates that God is both transcendent, being utterly distinct from us, and yet immanently involved in His creation for us to know him.