"Not Enough 'Jesus'" Part II

It is significant that a fundamental premise of secular “science” includes the conviction that miracles are in principle impossible.  Secular scientific belief (properly labeled “scientism”) asserts that since (as they say) matter is all there is, the only possible source of influence on a given natural process must itself be a previous mechanistic event.  Big Bang cosmology (notice my letter to Dr. Richard Dawkins in my previous blog) challenges scientism on that very contention.  To repeat that argument briefly, the Big Bang reveals, in absence of scientific materials and processes, an absolute beginning of all things out of absolutely nothing.  This means, assuming it to be true (and it is!), that the origin of the universe is, itself, a miracle!

On the basis of such relevant recent scientific evidence just described, questions of the biblical view of creation continue in their importance.  A resurrected Christ who is left, pardon the pun, “hanging mid-air,” (that is, un-linked to other biblical truths) is NOT adequate to save.  But Christianity doesn’t teach that anyway.  Christianity says Jesus is our savior from sin precisely because He is God, and by “god” we don’t mean just “any old god.”  The Bible does not call readers to believe in a generic “god.”  To the contrary it calls us to distinguish between idols (false gods that are limited by definition and non-existent in any case) which tempt people of every culture and time, on the one hand, and, on the other, the only true and living God who both “made heaven and earth” at the beginning of time (Genesis 1:1), and in the fullness of time entered our world in the flesh in Jesus Christ (John 1:14).

An inadequate view of creation logically leads to an inadequate conception of the weight of the saving power of Christ in the blood He shed on the cross.  Because He is God, God the Son, who “in the beginning” made “all things” (John 1:1,2), the blood of the “Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world,” therefore avails for every sin and every sinner from all time who receives Him by faith (John 1:12).  No being of lesser stature would be able to accomplish that task.  This is why I do not consider matters of creation unimportant.  In itself the doctrine of creation is not adequate for salvation.  But an adequate conception of creation is necessary for the robust doctrine of Christ’s redemption according to the Bible.