“I built that.”
“No, you didn’t build that.”
These words echo a political argument in America about who gets credit for building business-sustaining infrastructure. No matter where one stands on who actually “built that,” everyone knows that it did not build itself. Yet, when it comes to the origination of life’s extraordinarily complex design, evolutionists insist people should believe that it somehow built itself. Why?
The intricacies of life’s design clearly look intelligently crafted and prompt many to seek an explanation for its cause. Who is life’s creator? The Bible says the creator is God.
When creationists teach the reasons that the Genesis creation account is relevant to Christians, they invariably focus on abortion, family break-up, violence, pornography, racism, or homosexual behavior. While these are important issues, they don’t come close to capturing the monumental importance of creation to the Christian faith.
Adam’s original sin explains why humanity needs a Savior, and even that fact is not the central reason for the creation account God has given us. The link of the creation event to the reality of a creator-God is the supreme reason why the Bible begins: “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth” (Genesis 1:1, emphasis added).
The Doctrine of God Is Based on Creation
“What is God like?” is a significant question. However, “Who is God?” is the more important question. Christians assert that God is the creator, but a more accurate statement is that the creator of everything is God. The principal way God chose to identify Himself was as the cause of all things—“In the beginning God created.”
The very name “God” designates a position of rank or status of one who surpasses everything. We conceive of the highest being by reckoning that He is the ultimate source, or cause, of everything. He has always existed, and all things owe their very existence to Him. The creation of the ultimate “effect,” the universe itself, is fundamentally necessary to establish the ultimate cause—the reality of God.
The Deity of Christ Is Based on Him as Creator
The creator of everything is God. So, the Lord Jesus Christ is Himself God, since the Bible identifies Him as the creator:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. (John 1:1-3)
Scripture also recognizes the creating and sustaining power of Jesus Christ:
For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: And he is before all things, and by him all things consist. (Colossians 1:16-17)
That is why Colossians 2:9 encapsulates Jesus as the incarnation of God, saying, “For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.”
For Christians, the reason why the creator of all things is God should be implicitly relevant: they are theists. Astute atheists know this. While they cannot disprove God, they can create a social climate that intimidates some Christians—those who fear others’ opinions—into disowning “In the beginning God created.” In terms of the doctrine of creation, for Christians to abandon, ignore, minimalize, fail to defend, or subjugate its relevance to social issues is tantamount to plunging a knife into their spiritual abdomens. It is spiritual suicide for theists to forsake the doctrine of creation because it is the basis for the very doctrine of who God is—the Creator of everything.
* Dr. Guliuzza is ICR’s National Representative.
Cite this article: Guliuzza, R. 2013. Design and the Doctrine of God. Acts & Facts. 42 (2): 17.
