In the ancient world, it was easier for people to believe in the creation of the world by god or gods, since for them this was the norm of their culture. Why did I write “god” with a lower-case letter? Because many pagans did not know the True God, who created the heaven and the earth, which means that there were many assumptions about the creation of the world based on human imagination. With the official arrival of Christianity in Europe, this trend changed. However, in the Middle Ages, the thought comes to human consciousness that there is no God, and the world must have developed and formed with the course of random circumstances. Although scientific research has been known since the ancient times, the beginning of contemporary science dates back to the early modern period, known as the Scientific Revolution. This change of thought occurs with a series of scientific discoveries in the 16th and 17th centuries in Europe. At that time, man began to occupy a central position in all areas of life. After the Catholic Church’s persecution of dissenting scientists, the society developed the idea that science and God cannot coexist together. However, one has to admit that many of those scientists were believers who acknowledged the existence of God.
So, if we really believe in God the Creator, we should not have any doubts that to some extent His existence will be confirmed even by scientific research.
When I was evangelizing on the central streets of Chatham in England, I encountered many young people who had once attended church with their parents. To my question: “Why did you stop going to church?”, most of them proudly declared, “As soon as I went to college or university, I began to believe in science. And everything that our grandparents and our parents told us is a relic of the past, traditions passed down to us from our ancestors.”
In the contemporary Church, for some reason, many believe that it is not so important to cover the issues of creationism (from the Latin creationis “creation”, that is, a scientific explanation based on discoveries and facts that the whole world and the entire Universe were created by God), but according to statistics, this subject becomes the main reason why young people give up faith, leave churches and go into the world. So this is not surprising, since, having entered higher educational institutions, professors of liberal views skillfully bombard them with questions and ostensibly “facts” from the “scientific world”, refuting the idea of the existence of God the Creator. Never faced with such topics, young people naively take it at face value, and then make the decision to leave faith that is, as it seems to them, unjustified and baseless. Of course, first of all, the reason lies in a personal search for God. Having found Him and having experienced His presence in life, a person is so established and rooted in faith and truth that he does not have the slightest doubt about the existence of the Creator. Another reason is the faith of the parents themselves grew cold, which is obviously displayed in their vain life, conduct, conversations and actions. Because of the pursuit of material wealth, surrounding themselves with cares and worries, their parents do not have time for the family to gather in the evening to read and reason over the Word of God, praise God in songs and hymns, and also pray to Him in simplicity and sincerity, entrusting our needs to the One who created us, share our joy and express our gratitude to Him. Observing the life of parents, devoid of interest in faith and walking with the Lord, and consequently, the power of God, young people are left, as we say, to the mercy of fate. Parents, in our time, do everything possible to send their children to higher educational institutions and get the best education and a high degree. However, after some time, with bitterness in their hearts, they learn about their changed worldview.
That is why it is very important to convey the truth about God’s creation to the next generation. It is vital to teach children how to answer the tricky questions of modern society in order to be ready to give an answer with meekness and fear of the Lord to anyone who ask you a reason for your hope (1 Pet. 3:15). It is worth admitting that Christians read and know the Bible less and less, not to mention how closely they take the words of the Lord to their hearts by faith in order to live according to it.
Modern man asks himself the following questions: “How does one cell develop into a human being?” “What happened to dinosaurs? Are they even mentioned in the Bible?” And “Where does life come from?” According to the latest data, 65% of the earth and more than 80% of the ocean have not yet been explored, let alone the entire universe.1 When you listen to modern scholars proudly making loud statements that there is no God, then the words from Psalm 14:1; 53:1 immediately come to mind, “The fool has said in his heart, “There is no God.”” There are some scientists who honestly admit that they cannot answer many of the above questions. However, others “became futile in their thinking (imaginations), and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools” (Rom. 1:21-22). And what is the reason for rejecting the existence of God? Psalm 10:4 gives us the answer, “In the pride of his face the wicked does not seek Him; all his thoughts are, ‘There is no God!'” So, the reason for such bold statements is pride.
I remember when I was a teenager one of my favorite subjects at school was Biology. While studying it, many questions arose in my head. Then just in time I was advised at the church to watch a series of seminars on the creation by Dr. Kent Hovind. After watching all of his seminars, I realized why people believe in evolution so blindly, because it is merely another religion, not based on facts, but only on faith. Many scientists who became Christians testified that they did not take everything on faith while attending university, but decided to do the experiments. As a result, they came to the only conclusion – everything that exists must have a Designer.
Nothing could come into being by itself without the intervention of force from the outside, and the structure of organisms and their design do testify that this Someone is the Person who created this world. The Bible provides numerous passages on creationism. And it is not necessary to have a Doctor of Science degree to understand completely simple things and make a logical conclusion. Scripture also testifies to this, saying, “For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead (divine nature), so that they are without excuse” (Rom. 1:20). So, by looking at the nature and even studying it, you can clearly see it. Therefore, there is no excuse for people who don’t believe. Hence we see that the Bible is not at all alienated from science. God is the Best Scientist, since He Himself created all this and knows everything down to the tiniest particles that challenge the most powerful microscopes.
One of the men of God in the Bible, Job, lived four thousand years ago, and he wrote interesting words, ““But now ask the beasts, and they will teach you; and the birds of the air, and they will tell you; or speak to the earth, and it will teach you; and the fish of the sea will explain to you. Who among all these does not know that the hand of the Lord has done this, in whose hand is the soul of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind?” (Job 12:7-10) When I go out to talk to my Creator, I love looking at the starry night sky. Looking into its infinite expanse or space, I am comforted with faith and hope that no matter what happens here on earth, He is above all and His name is great and magnificent. No one can stand before Him and evil can never triumph over good, wickedness will not overshadow His holiness. At the end of time, everything will be subdued under the feet of our Lord Jesus Christ. As we can see from his words, Job admired God’s creation. Through this your faith is also strengthened. Even the twenty-four elders fall down before Him who sits on the throne and worship the Creator, saying, ” “You are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power; for You created all things, and by Your will they exist and were created.”” (Rev. 4:11). Based on these Scriptures, we should also know our Lord as the Creator who created the heavens and the earth and the entire universe.
The Bible tells us that there were “waters above the firmament” (Gen. 1:7) “And God called the firmament Heaven.” (Gen. 1:8), that is, in the past there was a certain water canopy surrounding our planet. Therefore, thanks to it, the land was irrigated with water and there was no need for rain (Gen. 2:5-6); there was a stronger oxygen density, which contributed to faster wound healing and a longer life span; because of the low penetration of ultraviolet rays, people did not age for a long time.
It is also interesting that the Lord does not mention rain anywhere before the Flood. The Bible says, “In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened. And the rain was on the earth forty days and forty nights.” (Genesis 7:11-12). Do you know that from space you can clearly see a huge long crack across the Atlantic Ocean. The fountains of the great deep were broken up. The windows of heaven were opened and it rained. What were those windows of heaven? What were they like? This was the very same Water Canopy. Namely, after that Canopy was destroyed by God, the human life span began to decline. And all that remained of it today is the ozone layer. This means that we are now exposed to more ultraviolet absorption, which causes a faster aging process. As a result, a person’s life was gradually reduced. This fact is confirmed by the Bible. According to various sources, Job lived for about 240 years; Abraham lived 175 years (Gen. 25:7); his son Isaac lived 180 years (Gen. 35:28); Isaac’s son Jacob lived 147 years (Genesis 47:28); and finally, Joseph, the son of Jacob, lived 110 years (Gen. 50:22). Do you see how the life span gradually decreased? And in the end, the Lord Himself set a limit that a person will live on average 70, and with a greater strength 80 years as Moses said, “The days of our lives are seventy years; and if by reason of strength they are eighty years” (Psalm 90:10). According to official sources, between 2010 and 2015, the average life expectancy worldwide was 70 years for men and 72 years for women.2
So, everything that God created initially “indeed was very good” (Genesis 1:31), not just good, but very good. Scientific discoveries from the times of the ancient world confirm that the environment was completely different from what we see and experience today. We can say that before the Fall, the world was perfect. Interestingly, the legends and myths of the peoples and tribes of the world tell the same story even before Christian missionaries set foot on their lands. This confirms the same source of the history of mankind passed down to us by our ancestors. And again, this points to the One Creator. But people, over time, having ceased to follow the True God, began to rely on their own imaginations and began to worship the creation instead of its Creator. This reached such recklessness that it went as far as opening their spiritual world to evil spirits, who, in turn, instilled such fear in them that they even sacrificed their own children. We read about this in the Holy Scriptures. For example, such idolatry was practiced by the nations of Canaan before the Israelites entered this land and took possession of it.
In today’s world, some nations still worship idols. In more developed and economically prosperous countries, idolatry has changed its face. It began to represent the pursuit of material things, sports, television, games, alcohol, drugs, etc. In these countries, people rebelled against God’s holiness and His moral principles. And thus, they began to “suppress the truth in unrighteousness” (Rom. 1:18).
Today people say that the Earth, according to official sources, is more than 4.5 billion years old.3 Such data is not supported by either Scripture or scientific facts and evidence. In some Christian circles, even on the official level, they have put up with this idea. You may be asking, “Why is this so important?” Only because it goes against the doctrine of the Fall of man, since it turns out that death existed before the Fall. So, it turns out that death is not the cause of the Fall and curse of the world. Many believe that dinosaurs had lived before the man appeared which means that death had already reigned, since dinosaurs must have gone extinct before. However, there is ample evidence that humans lived with dinosaurs. This is evidenced by data from fossils, various depictions on rocks and vases that resemble these creatures, as well as legends and myths of the tribes of the world tell us about some dragons. Let’s not forget that the word “dinosaur” was invented by Sir Richard Owen in 1841 to describe those giant reptiles. Before that, people called them dragons. This word is also used in the Bible along with such strange creatures as the leviathan and the behemoth which means a huge or monstrous creature. “Look now at the behemoth, which I made along with you; he eats grass like an ox. See now, his strength is in his hips, and his power is in his stomach muscles. He moves his tail like a cedar; the sinews of his thighs are tightly knit. His bones are like beams of bronze, his ribs like bars of iron” (Job 40:15-18). Obviously, this is the exact description of a dinosaur. Don’t you think so?
In conclusion, I would also like to note that the finds of the remains of ancient civilizations also indicate that the ancient people were not so primitive as they are usually described or portrayed.
In future articles, if the Lord permits, I would like to set off with you to the world of exploration of our amazing planet, created by God the Creator.
“The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament (expanse of heaven) shows the work of His hands.” (Psalm 19:1)
Max Volkov in Christ
1 https://www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/ocean/; https://sentientmedia.org/earth-is- unexplored /
2 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_life_expectancy#:~:text= Worldwide% 2C% 20the% 20average% 20life% 20expectancy, according% 20to% 20The% 20World% 20Factbook
3 https://www.nationalgeographic.org/topics/resource-library-age-earth/?q=&page=1&per_page=25