Last year Channel 4 screened a programme on the life of Stephen Hawkin the famous Cambridge Professor and physicist. The theme running through the programme was Hawkin's lifelong quest to find 'A Theory for Everything' - evolutionary speak for the origin of the universe.
Listening very carefully to everything that Hawkin had to say I was amazed by a statement he made near the end in which he said, 'If we are looking for a theory for everything we have to admit that we are no closer now than we ever were'.
What an amazing admission from one of the world's finest brains and a leading atheistic evolutionist.The fact is that if you start a journey in the wrong direction you will almost certainly end up at the wrong destination, and this is precisely what evolution does. By rejecting the truth of God's existence before even beginning their quest evolutionists have little hope of finding the answers for which they search.
Some may wonder why a prophetic magazine should major on the topic of creation and evolution. The fact is that creation and Bible prophecy are intrinsically linked together. They are no less than inseparable twins. There are, in fact, three important things that link these two themes together and we shall examine them now.
TWIN TOWERS
Firstly, both are based on the Sovereignty of God. Creationism and Prophecy share the same foundation. They are like twin towers rising up from the same solid base - God's sovereignty.
The Bible starts with this premise in Genesis 1v1, 'In the begining God created the heavens and the earth'. Scripture gives no room for conjecture or ambiguity at this point, it clearly states a first cause which brought all the universe into existence and identifies that first cause as God. An all-wise providence who brought everything into being in accordance with His own Will.
The Psalmist understood this well when he wrote, 'Praise Him all ye angels, praise Him all His hosts, praise ye Him sun and moon; praise ye Him all ye stars of light. Praise ye Him ye heaven of heavens, and ye waters that are above the heavens. Let them praise the name of the Lord; for He commanded and they were created. He hath established them for ever and ever, He hath made a decree that shall not pass'. (Psalm 148 vv2-6).
The same element of divine sovereignty was understood by the prophet Isaiah who wrote, 'For thus saith the Lord that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it, He created it not in vain. He formed it to be inhabited; I am the Lord there is none else' (Isaiah 45v18).
These Scriptures and many more like them, indicate that the whole of creation came into being by the Will of God and alone. Ceation was an act of divine sovereignty.
In the same way too prophecy came into being by the Will of God. Prophecy is distinctly separate from human mythology or cunningly devised fables. The same God who spoke the universe into existence lies behind the words of prophetic truth, a fact not lost by the apostle Peter in his second epistle, 'We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well to take heed as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn and the daystar arise in your hearts; knowing this first, that no prophecy is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man; but holy spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost' (2 Peter 1 v 19-21).
The same God who designed all of creation is the one who oversees its continuance. By the same token, the God who inspired prophecy is the one who ensures it's fulfilment.
Charles Haddon Spurgeon, in a sermon preached many years ago at the Metropolitan Baptist Tabernacle said, 'God does not act towards this world like a man who makes a watch, and lets it have its own way until it runs down; He is the controller of every wheel in the machine of providence. He has left nothing to itself. We talk of general laws, and philosophers tell us that the world is governed by laws, and then put the Almighty out of the question. Now how can a nation be governed by laws apart from a sovereign, or apart from magistrates and rulers to carry out the laws? All the laws may be in the statute book, but put all the police away, take away every magistrate, remove the high court and Parliament, what is use of laws? Laws cannot govern without active agency to carry them out; nor could nature proceed in its everlasting cycles by the mere force of law. God is the great motive power of all things; He is in everything. Not only did He make all things, but by Him all things consist'.
PARALLEL LINES
Secondly, Creationism and Prophecy are both connected with time. They are like parallel lines running harmoniously together.
In Genesis chapter one the moment we begin to read about creation we are introduced to the subject of chronology. Before the creation of the universe all that existed was eternity and the eternal God. Creation brings us into the realm of time. Creation introduces us to the laws of science and nature in which we discover a great sense of order and precision.
Much has been spoken about the so called 'Big Bang' which lies at the heart of evolutionary theory. We are expected to believe that out of the chaos and disorder of the 'Big Bang' came the order and precision of our created world. This requires a monumental leap of faith far greater than that required for intelligent design.
The God who initiated creation and time is the God who governs time, and who will ultimately bring time creation to an end, albeit with a 'Big Bang' - 'But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up ... ' 2 Peter 3 v 10.
Prophecy too is all about time. Time being that period between eternity past and eternity to come. Prophecy has to do with events that lie in between. One of the clearest statements on time and prophecy is to be found in Sir Robert Anderson's book, 'The Coming Prince' in which he says of chief value is not to bring us a knowledge of "things to come", regarded as isolated events, important though this may be; but to enable us to link the future with the past as part of God's great purpose and plan as revealed in Holy Writ'.
As we study Bible prophecy so we discover that the same sense of order and precision which clothed creation is also at the heart of God's prophetic plan.
DUAL LINK
Thirdly, we find that Creationism and Prophecy are bound together and dually linked to God's redemptive plan. It was at the very beginning of creation, in the Garden of Eden, that the fall of man took place by which sin entered the world. From this we discern that all of creation was affected and that both mankind and his environment stand in need of redemption.
This is made abundantly clear to us by the apostle Paul Romans 8 v 22-23, 'for we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain until now. And not only they, but ourselves also... even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our bodies'.
All of this centres around the theme of redemption. Early prophecies speak about the first advent of Christ and his coming to make redemption possible. Remaining prophecies centre on the second advent and the completion of that redemption, hence the words in Luke 21 v 28, 'And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads for your redemption draweth nigh'.
That this redemption will affect creation as well as humanity is made clear by the prophet Isaiah, 'Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree, and instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree, and it shall be to the Lord for a name, for an everlasting sign' (Isaiah 55 v 13).
Thus we have the inseparable twins of Creationism and Prophecy - 'What God hath joined together let no man put assunder'.
(This article was written by Rev Colin Le Noury and appeared in the February 2009 edition of Prophetic Witness).
