Viewpoint of Mark Cadwallader, Creation Moments Board Chairman
Last month I discussed what can be called “the enlightenment of the Serpent” – “the ‘light’ that is the darkness visible”. Today this kind of “enlightenment” from the “father of lies” is being repackaged and openly touted – get “Woke” to the tolerance, endorsement, and immersion in evil.
It is the “enlightenment” which sinful mankind has sought for himself ever since his fall from innocence in the Garden of Eden. The result has been God’s judgment through the Worldwide Flood of Noah; and God’s judgment after the rebellion at the Tower of Babel under Nimrod. And there is now and will be future judgment of mankind’s allegiance to “the god of this world” who leads people in the way of death.
But the wonderful truth that we proclaim from the Bible, the central messaging of the Word of God, is the Glorious Life-Giving Enlightenment given by Jesus Christ! He is “the light of the world”… and … “the light of life” (John 8:12). And His is the beautiful glory-laden, wondrously-overflowing-eternal-light of life! A glimpse of that Glory was especially revealed to several very close disciples when Jesus took them up the Mount of Transfiguration, and they saw Him as He is, in the Divine Light of His Glory (Matthew 17:1-8)!
And when we trade out our fleshly bodies for those of our full redemption, we shall be bathed and transformed by the light of Jesus Christ. “Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it does not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall SEE (truly awaken to) Him as He is” (1 John 3:2). Note that His Divine Radiance is what gives us our future glory. We are the receivers of His transmission! And it will one day transform us with an “eternal weight of glory” far beyond all comparison (2 Corinthians 4:17). That “glory which shall be revealed in us” will coincide with “the redemption of our body.” “For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth (the anxious longing of the creation waits) for the manifestation of the sons of God” (Romans 8:18-23).
As spiritual “darkness” increases, so does spiritual “illumination”. For example, over the last 50 years, creation science has illuminated new detail in the biblical revelation in a way that previous generations were not privileged to. This is because modern science – even mixed up as it is with pseudo-science like evolution and other politically motivated “science” – has informed our faith. As we observe truly scientific evidence and interpret it starting from the history given in the Bible, more “light” is revealed.
Consider, for example, how the science of hydrogeology (the study of the effects of water and otherwise fluidized soils and rock in geologic formation) has upheld the biblical history of the Worldwide Flood of Noah. Henry Morris and John Whitcomb’s creation science classic The Genesis Flood (1963) thoroughly presented such evidence. And more has been added in the years since, with many examples of catastrophic hydrogeologic changes, such as what has been observed during the volcanic upheavals and eruptions at Mount St. Helens in Washington State, beginning in 1980. Even secular scientists have had to change their scenario for the formation of the Grand Canyon.
Instead of a uniformitarian story of slow, steady erosion over eons of time, they now appeal to catastrophic change from the bursting forth of great flooding.
Such catastrophic hydrogeologic change has also been accepted by secular scientists (though it took many years of persistent argument) for the Great Missoula Flood. This was a cataclysmic ancient lake outburst of flood waters estimated to have been ten times the flow of all current rivers combined* that swept across part of the northwest United States in earth’s history. It left behind the “Scablands” of eastern Washington State and carved out the beautiful Columbia River Gorge.
Geologist J Harlen Bretz recognized all the evidence of catastrophic flooding, which he called the Spokane floods, in the 1920s. Bretz’s view ran against the prevailing view of uniformitarianism (the foundation of evolutionism), and was initially disregarded. It was simply too close to a biblical worldview and, thus, clashed with “the enlightenment of the Serpent” and the desire to rid mankind of God. Bretz doggedly defended his theories and continued his research through a long and often angry 40-year debate over the origin of the “Scablands”. But his arguments were finally accepted.
The light of the Word truly reveals and transforms us to the truth. To “see Him as He is” will indeed radically transform us in the day of “His appearing” (1 John 3:2). And this is the gaze that has spiritual power for us now, for our hope and purified walk here! “And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself; even as He is pure” (1 John 3:3).
As the hymn writer says it,
Moment by moment, I’m kept in His love,
Moment by moment, I’ve life from above.
Looking to Jesus till Glory doth Shine!
Moment by moment, O Lord I am Thine! – D. Whittle, 1893
Or, from an ancient Celtic hymn,
Be Thou my Vision, O Lord of my heart….
Thou my best thought by day or by night,
Waking or sleeping, Thy presence my light! – 6th Century
It will be glory, folks, as we bodily receive the transmission of Christ’s eternal light! “This corruptible” will “put on incorruption” and “Death” will be “swallowed up in Victory” (1 Corinthians 15:53-55)! It will be far beyond what we can imagine now – with “exceeding joy” in “the presence of His glory”!
As a contemporary spiritual songwriter puts it,
Surrounded by your glory, what will my heart feel?
Will I dance for you, Jesus, or in awe of you be still?
Will I stand in your presence, or to my knees, will I fall?
Will I sing Hallelujah? Will I be able to speak at all?
I can only imagine. – Bart Millard, 1999
Once again, I want to thank you for helping us continue to proclaim the Gospel both here and around the world. Your prayers and financial support are truly the lifeblood of our ministry!
*Bjornstad, Bruce N. (c. 2006). On the trail of the Ice Age floods: a geological field guide to the mid-Columbia basin / Bruce Bjornstad. Sandpoint, Idaho: Keokee Books. p. 2.
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