Life Matters - March 15, 2023
The god of materialism has been troubling this troubled world since the Garden of Eden was invaded by it in the form of a pleasant snake appearing harmless enough, but nonetheless, inhabited by the devil himself. “Yea, hath God said?” he asked. A suggestion that God was being taken too seriously. Upon Eve’s response in the affirmative, the devil went on to suggest that the needs of herself and her husband were not being taken seriously enough. And while he had her attention he went on to accuse God of withholding information from the two of them, suggesting that He (God) had a vested interest in keeping them ignorant, insinuating that God wanted to keep His position of superiority by holding back information from them. What he didn’t say is that God is, and will be, superior because He, well, just is. He is Creator of the universe and of everything in it and upholds it all by the word of His power. Sin is understood by His word. Condemnation is understood by His word. Salvation is understood by His word. Our reason for being here is understood by His word. He washes us with the water of His word. Jesus Christ is made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. (I Corinthians 1:30) He does for us what we cannot do.
Ever since that Garden debacle it has been the nature of mankind to take our natural life and sustenance here too seriously and the spiritual life that goes on into eternity not seriously enough. The god of materialism has been tenacious and kept its grip on the hearts and lives of many to the troubling of nations, and indeed of the whole world, beginning in personal lives and spreading out from there. Many have been the struggles of mankind pertaining to materialism.
It was not until the last half of the 19th century, however, that materialism had a creed. And from 1859 onward that creed was increasingly accepted by the world of science that hitherto would not accept anything as a scientific fact until it was repeatedly tested with always the same results. That creed, which went on to upset the world of science to such a degree that “science” has never been the same since, is a book titled The Origin of Species written by a man recognized as the “household” name of Charles Darwin. Mr. Darwin called his “discovery” a theory, because he could not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that all we see and know evolved from lower life forms. The main source of “evidence” he produced was the varied forms of beaks, perfectly suited to their own unique food source, sported by a variety of finches (now known as “Darwin’s Finches”) on the Galapagos Islands. And various fossilized remains he picked up around the world on his four-year voyage aboard the Beagle.
The idea that animals change over generations as those best suited to their environment survive, and those that are not meet their demise more readily in nature is, and was not, a strange or a new idea. As kinds within species. But the idea that material life can and has changed from a species to an entirely new species through natural selection is the idea, formulated in Darwin’s mind, that staggered and continues to stagger, the world of science. The idea that all of life has developed by evolving from lower life forms to higher, better developed life forms is the intoxicating idea that has staggered the world of science into the millions of years vacuum being taught today as if it were defensible fact in U.S. and many another country’s learning institutions. The idea of evolution by natural selection has been, and is still, lauded as the true understanding of “science” while our Creator God and His word, The Holy Bible, has been pushed out as so “unscientific” that He is not worthy of consideration. Not even to be tolerated.
Truth is immortal, however, and Jehovah God who created the cosmos and everything in it, including our first parents, in six days, will have the last word when “millions of years” ideas disappear into the ether and eternity becomes either an inevitable tragedy, or gratefully embraced, depending on whose altar we have bowed to in our hearts, in our minds, and in our lives.
Life Matters!