Solid Faith: Day 3

By faith we understand that the universe was formed by God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.               

Hebrews 11:3

Until about 150 years ago, it was generally held that the world and everything in it were the result of outside forces. Today many accept as absolute fact that every aspect of the natural world, from the farthest galaxies to individual cells, has arisen from two factors: time plus chance. We live in a bottom-up creation on a closed-off planet.  

However, science has proven to be its own worst enemy. As each new generation of instruments reveal more of the inner secrets of the natural world, scientists discover new and more complex systems. (Darwin thought cells were just a bubble of jelly he called protoplasm.) Reverting to damage control mode, science has introduced other agents to explain this expanding knowledge, such as unrepeatable cosmic first causes (And who caused the cause?) and intelligent visitors from other galaxies who shaped our planet’s progress. (Don’t bother to ask where they came from!)

My point is this: don’t back-off Hebrews 11:3 and other verses that speak of the reality of a Creation event. What this verse is saying is that God—who is outside and over His creation—brought our solid, visible world from the immaterial and invisible; in this case, from the energy of His Words. All the “smart people” have to offer are straw men and naked emperors.

But this is the really good news: in the universe planned and formed by God, we didn’t just inherit a material place on which to conduct business for the few years of our existence. Inherent in His Creation is “the right to become children of God—children not of natural descent, nor of human decision, or a husband’s will, but born of God.”  (John 1:12)  And that makes all the difference.

Nancy Shirah