As this unforgettable year winds to a close, and as the great Christmas hymn reminds us, in spite of all else, God so loved the world that He gave us Himself!
Joy to the world! The Lord is come:
Let earth receive her King!
Christmas is truly a time when even non-Christians in non-Christian cultures are reminded about the great joys of giving and receiving gifts of love and friendship, about doing good to others, and about the wonderful hope of “Emmanuel, God with us”! The whole world catches some of the joy, the spirit-of-giving, and the love that God has for mankind on this most celebrated of Christian holidays!
And it really does make us pause in awe and wonder at the miraculous events of the incarnation of God the Son, which put our Creator in a servant position on the very earth He Himself created! Indeed, before He gave us Himself at Christmas, He gave us fresh air and flowers, big sky and birds, and sunshine, sunsets and sunrises framed in an infinite arrangement of clouds over lakes and hills and mountains. He gave us myriad marvelous creatures of incredible array. Everything he created reflects His own awesome personality and power, beauty, creativity and care! As Martin Luther said, “God writes the gospel not in the Bible alone, but on trees and flowers and clouds and stars!”
God gave us friendships and families and children and babies to touch our hearts in a most profound way! What parent has not been touched at the birth of a child, peering in awe at the perfect little fingers and toes and other features? And indeed, He gave us Himself as a humble baby in a lowly manger. What a wonderful giving God we worship, stooping low to break through our walls of pride and fear. He is, indeed, the giver of life, of joy, of liberty and of blessings glorious!
We enjoy the blessings of God’s creation because He made it all for us! He asks only that we give a portion of what we have back to Him. And as we learn to give, we find, as the Bible teaches, that we cannot out-give the Lord!
In contrast to the blessings that are ours for the taking, evolution is a grand deception, perhaps the foremost lie that flows from the world, the flesh and the devil. It asserts that an incredible masterpiece painting was created by an undirected paintbrush. Such a thought is pure foolishness, disconnected from any rational reality. It is truly the foisting of deceptive silliness upon us all.
The Bible cautions us not to fall prey to false “philosophy and vain deceit” which, it says, is “…after the tradition of men, after the rudiments [the elementary principles] of this world, and not after Christ”, for He “… is the head of all principality and power” (Colossians 2:8-10).
Evolution is a monstrous “vain deceit”. As creationists, we have the advantage of realizing just how truly pervasive deception is, whether it be religious, philosophical, political or scientific deception. We recognize it for how evil it truly is because we have seen it and tracked it for years in the grand deception of evolution!
One of the blessings of this special season is that both Thanksgiving and Christmas can help keep a right perspective in each of us as we reflect on our many blessings, the greatest of which is the incarnation of “Emmanuel, God with us” – God becoming one of us for our salvation and deliverance! This great realization and hope of God in Christ brings joy and peace! It is what we realize as we sing “Joy to the World” and the other classic Christmas carols.
“Rejoice… Praise the Lord… and laud Him, all ye people… Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost” (Romans 15:10-13).
In George Orwell’s famous dystopian novel 1984, he wrote about the controlling power “Big Brother” that constantly twists the truth to a completely inverted view of reality. One of my favorite quotes from Orwell is this: “At a time when deceit is universally accepted, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act.”
Yes, telling the truth about creation in the face of evolution is truly revolutionary – particularly in certain circles. Yet, it is only the force of truth, through the miraculous energy of the Holy Spirit, that can turn the tide of deceit and corruption all around.
The great lie of our age, “intellectually” justified by evolution, is that God doesn’t exist. Rather, “we make our own image our own gods.” But the blessed truth is that the one true God, our great Creator, has become “Emmanuel, God with us”. Furthermore, there is coming a day when the earth will truly “receive her King”, and those who are faithful now will receive their just reward.
Author: Mark Cadwallader, Board Chairman Creation Moments
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