II
His Eternal Purpose
Although anyone is welcome to read them, the Holy Scriptures were not written for the whole world. They were written to and for believers. The letters which comprise most of the New Testament are addressed to believers, to those "who are loved by God and called to be saints"; not to the world.
"We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us. This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom, but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words. The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned." [1 Corinthians 2:12-14]
These remarks of mine are not to the man without the Spirit, but to those who have been called by the Lord, to God’s children who have been taught by the Spirit, who understand that the Scriptures in their original texts and manuscripts contain the literal words of God; to have nothing added, to have nothing taken away, but changeless and timeless. They should be read in fullness, as a book is read, as a history is read, for that is what they are. The meaning is not complete until one has read the book through.
The account of creation given in Genesis is a true account.
"But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day." [2 Peter 3:8]
The Lord may mark or measure events in sequence, but not in time as man measures time. It is meaningless for man to attempt to assign any value of time to the eternal God. His ways are above our ways as the heavens are above the earth. The "when" and the "how" of creation are not nearly as important as the "who", which is God. The account of creation is a mere page in sixty-six books of history he has given us. If he had determined it to be greatly important, he surely would have given it more space in the Holy Scriptures.
One of the cosmological theories of the origin of the universe, its acceptance still under extensive debate in the highest academic circles, is that the so-called "Big Bang" was born, not from a dimensionless kernel of energy of infinite density, but, just as we are taught in the Scriptures, from nothing! That is the debate topic among the prestigious astro-physicists, that the universe was created from nothing.
"By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God's command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible." [Hebrews 11:3]
Man's best and most up to date guess at the mysteries of the evolution of living things differs very little from the sequence given in the truth of Genesis. Man's guesses are made from a limited amount of evidence with numerous gaps here and there. Much of it is conjecture.
Cain went out east of Eden. There he lay with his wife. We have no account of her origin, and certainly no indication that she was Cain's sister, so she must have been the result of evolution, just as the archeological record indicates. "According to their kinds" has to include evolutionary traits, because such traits are observable and verifiable. Selective breeding of livestock has been practiced by man for centuries. Selective breeding by environmental pressures has been scientifically documented.
Try to imagine God's knowledge of genetics and heredity. Couldn't it be that at the particular moment of his choosing, in the chain of evolution that he had created, God created Adam, "in our image, in our likeness," and so introduced knowledge of God into the world? And if there were no other men, (products of God's evolution) what was the reason for putting a mark on Cain, "so that no one who found him would kill him."? Those men who might kill him must already have been there.
Couldn't it be that Adam, and Eve made from Adam, were a genetic type which God introduced into the evolutionary gene pool at a time of his choosing, to bring about changes according to his purpose, and to reveal himself to the world? And through Satan's deception, Eve's and then Adam's disobedience brought knowledge of good and evil into the world, and cities, nations, and kingdoms. And all of this according to God's eternal purpose.
Science is not necessarily wrong in evolutionary theory, only if it denies God. Imagine the complexities involved in a plan that begins with nothing, leaves nothing to chance, and yet results in this universe and all creation that we see today. Evolution does not detract from God; it is evidence of the awesome, unsearchable reaches of his infinite knowledge and wisdom and power.
Adam was formed "from the dust of the ground," and God breathed into him the breath of life. David said,
"For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb." [Pslms 139:13]
But then David gives testimony that God's foreknowledge includes even the atoms and molecules we are made of, "from the dust of the ground."
"My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be." [Psalms 139:15-16]
All believers were chosen in Christ, the Word, before the creation of the world.
And the eternal purpose that underlies all of this marvel and complexity of creation is this: God chose for himself, in Christ, a family; then, through Christ, created a temporary home and school to train them in righteousness and teach them about their Father; to teach them everything they need to know in preparation for an eternal life in which they will share all things with their Father, including his great power. Even now, through Christ Jesus, he is "sustaining all things by his powerful word." [Hebrews 1:3]
As we are given grace to understand how truly limitless is his power and knowledge and wisdom, we can, through grace, begin to realize how thorough our training must be. We are only children.
So we are born and raised in this temporary home. Everything that has gone before is a lesson for us, as everything we ourselves undergo is also in the form of lessons. We are being trained and disciplined as sons and daughters. The most important lesson is that what we are, and what we have, comes only from the grace of our heavenly Father. We are completely and utterly without merit or ability, jars of clay formed by the Potter to suit his use and purpose. The accursed, those destined to stumble, are examples to us of our own condition, if not for God's grace and mercy. God's purpose in election is to eliminate any possible foothold for pride.
"Not by works, so that no one can boast." [Ephesians 2:9]
"For who makes you different from anyone else? What do you have that you did not receive?" [1 Corinthians 4:7]
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