St. Paul's United Methodist Church
“This Is My Father's World, 2”
Rev. Richard W. Gray
September 25, 2005
Genesis 1:1
Alan Rex Sandage, a protégé to legendary astronomer Edwin Hubble, and a highly regarded and award-winning astronomer in his own right, was to speak at a science conference. This was a conference on science and religion in Dallas in 1985.
There were two groups on the stage. One group was made up of scientists who believed in God, the other group did not. Sandage had been a virtual atheist for many years. There was little doubt that he would sit with the doubters. The room was surprised when Sandage took his seat among the scientists who believed in the God of creation. The audience was even more amazed when he stated that he had become a Christian at age fifty. “It was my science that drove me to the conclusion that the world is much more complicated than can be explained by science. It was only through the supernatural that I can understand the mystery of existence.” Sandage later said, “Many scientists are now driven to faith by their very work.”
Dean Kenyon, biophysicist from San Francisco State University and author of an influential book on biochemistry from an evolutionist view, spoke at a presentation on the origin of life. He repudiated the conclusions of his own book. He had changed his mind about evolution. Due to the complexity of the cell and the information bearing properties of DNA, he came to the conclusion that the evidence points to a designer of life.
Our bodies are made up of trillions of cells. Just take one of those cells. The amount of genetic
genetic information in that one cell would conservatively fill 1,000 books 500 pages thick. That is five hundred thousand pages of information in one tiny cell of our body.
Darwin did not have information that we have today. He would be laughed away if he tried to promote his theory among genetic scientists today. DNA is so complex it could not have come about by random evolution.
A molecular biologist was interviewed in The Ledger, a paper in Lynchburg, VA. He was asked, “Do you believe that the information evolved?” He replied, “Nobody I know in my profession believes it evolved. It was engineered by 'genius beyond genius,' and such information could not have been written any other way. The paper and ink did not write the book! Knowing what we know, it would be ridiculous to think otherwise.”
The molecular biologist was asked, “Have you ever stated that in a public lecture, or in any public writings?”
“No, I just say it evolved.” Mark what he said next. “To be a molecular biologist requires one to hold on to two insanities at all times. One, it would be insane to believe in evolution when you can see the truth for yourself. Two, it would be insane to say you don't believe in evolution. All government work, research grants, papers, big college lectures-everything would stop. I'd be out of a job, or relegated to the outer fringes where I couldn't earn a decent living.”
When confronted with such dishonesty by the newspaper columnist the biologist replied, “The work I do in genetic research is honorable. We will find the cures to many of mankind's worst diseases. But in the meantime, we have to live with the elephant in the living room.”
“What elephant?” he was asked.
“Creation design. It's like an elephant in the living
living room. It moves around, takes up an enormous amount of space, loudly trumpets, bumps into us, knocks things over, eats a ton of hay, and smells like an elephant. And yet we have to swear it isn't there.”
I probably will not live long enough to see the end of the theory of evolution. There is too much peer pressure and prejudice to do away with it right now. It will happen someday.
The Bible says, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”
Our nation has been very concerned about hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico recently for a number of reasons. One of the reasons for our concern is there are a number of oil refineries in the Gulf. A typical large refinery costs billions of dollars to build and millions of dollars to maintain and upgrade.
Crude oil is piped through hot furnaces at temperatures of 1100 degrees. The resulting liquids and vapors are discharged into distillation towers. Those are the tall narrow towers that give refineries their distinctive look.
Inside the towers, the liquids and vapors are separated into components according to weight and boiling point. The lightest components vaporize and rise to the top of the tower, where they condense back into liquids, including gasoline and liquid petroleum gas (LPG). From there, they are piped to other locations in the refinery for further processing, including meeting government requirements.
A lot of things we buy get their start at refineries. Things like bubble gum, denture adhesive, floor polish, guitar strings, heart valves, paint, mascara, plastic beverage containers, and much, much more.
We put oil and gas in our homes, gasoline in our cars, and paint on our houses and faces because of refineries. These products did not happen by chance. There is intelligence behind their
their creation.
Did you know we each have a refinery inside of us? It is called the liver. The liver purifies the bloodstream. It is a chemical refinery.
The food we eat and drink would be fatally poisonous to us if it directly entered our bloodstream without being filtered and purified by the liver.
Acid acts on food in our stomachs and is then pumped into the small intestine where it is immediately rendered pH neutral by an alkaline solution produced by special glands.
The still deadly chemicals in the digested fluid is then pumped through a special tube into the liver. The liver has only 10 to 12 seconds to chemically analyze and process the material before it enters the bloodstream. The liver transforms the poisons into harmless material. It changes harmful food and drink into nutritious elements and then sends it into the bloodstream, where it is delivered to the sixty trillion cells through seventy-five thousand miles of veins, arteries, and capillaries. It even keeps the blood warmed to the right temperature throughout the body.
We can eat any food, including food we have never eaten before, and the liver will identify its chemical composition, analyze what chemical reactions and enzymes are needed to neutralize and make nutritious the material our body needs, and will make those chemicals. This is done all in less than twelve seconds. If it did not do this, we would die.
The liver is capable of performing up to five hundred chemical reactions at the same time. It stores up to a liter of blood, and it stores red blood cells, iron, and other proteins that it can send to any part of the body when it is needed.
The liver produces substances that can repair veins. It cleans blood of waste products. The liver can even repair itself. It can be two-thirds destroyed
destroyed and fully repair itself.
When you go to the coffee hour this morning and take your first sip of coffee, your liver will render it safe for your body. Otherwise, it will be as poison. We do not even know this is happening, it runs so smoothly and efficiently.
There is no refinery on earth that can do what the liver can do. No one denies the fact that petroleum refineries came about because of a designer and builder. How can anyone believe that the complex human liver is a product of random chance, with no designer or Creator? They disbelieve by choice, not as a result of evidence.
To make evolution the answer is irrational. When it comes to origins, there are only two views possible. Either everything came into existence over billions of years by random chance, or God created everything.
Evolution denies God's authority over the universe and humanity. It robs God of His glory. It denies the image of God in humanity.
Philip Johnson teaches at the University of California at Berkley. He remarked to one of his colleagues that the scientific community is baffled at its failure to convince the general public to believe in evolution. Despite being overexposed to the teaching of evolution, polls show that less than ten percent of the American public believes in the teaching that all living things were created by an evolutionary process in which God played no part. The other ninety percent of people are divided between biblical creationists and theistic evolutionists (who believe God created using evolution).
Why won't people believe what evolutionary scientists tell them? Johnson's colleague commented, “It's just that people don't understand the theory.”
Johnson quickly replied, “Oh no, the people understand the theory better than the scientists do
do.” That is why they do not accept it.
The Bible has it right, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”
What kind of God is this? He is not some distant God who created and then left the scene. God has revealed Himself in the world and all that is in it. Romans 1:19-20, “Since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities-his eternal power and divine nature-have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.”
We can see God through what He has made. He has revealed himself through His creation. We can see His power and His wisdom, His love, and how He cares for us by providing for us. The liver is a perfect example among many examples.
Then God sent Jesus to reveal Himself even more. We can trust this kind of God with our lives and our future.
1 Peter 5:6-7 says, “Humble yourselves, therefore, under God's mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety upon him because he cares for you.”
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