It’s time that people in general, and Bible-believing Christians in particular, recognize the foundational significance of special creation—the creation of a fully functional universe by God’s direct involvement. Creation is not merely a religious doctrine of only peripheral importance, as many people (even many evangelical Christians) seem to assume. Rather, it is the basis of all true science, of true American ideology, and of true Christianity.

Evolutionism, on the other hand, is actually a pseudo-science masquerading as science. As such, it has been acclaimed as the “scientific” foundation of atheism, humanism, communism, fascism, imperialism, racism, laissez-faire capitalism, and a variety of cultic, ethnic, and so-called liberal religions, by the respective founders and advocates of these systems. The creation/evolution issue is, in a very real sense, the most fundamental issue of all.

Foundation of True Science

Evolutionist presuppositions permeate the writings of modern scientists. Stanley D. Beck said, “No central scientific concept is more firmly established in our thinking, our methods, and our interpretations, than that of evolution.”¹

But it was not always this way. Beck himself, after defining and discussing the basic premises of science (that is, the existence of a real world, the capability of the human mind to understand the world, the principle of cause-and-effect, and the unified nature of the world), admitted that “each of these postulates had its origin in, or was consistent with, Christian theology.”² That is, since the world was created by a divine Creator, and man was created in God’s image, then nature makes orderly sense, man is able to decipher its operations, and true science becomes possible.

If the world is merely the chance product of random forces, on the other hand, then our human brains are meaningless jumbles of matter and electricity and science becomes nonsense. Consequently, the great founding fathers of true science (Kepler, Galileo, Pascal, Newton, Boyle, Brewster, Faraday, Linnaeus, Ray, Maxwell, Pasteur, Kelvin, etc.) were almost all creationists and believed they were glorifying God as they probed His works. Yet today such scientists would not even be considered scientists at all, because they believed in the primeval special creation of all things by God!

Foundation of American Ideology

Although not all of America’s great founding fathers were Bible-believing Christians, almost all of them were true creationists, believing that God created the world and man and all natural systems. The colonies were settled and developed largely by Christian people who came to this continent to gain freedom to believe and do what the Bible taught, and they all acknowledged that the foundational belief was belief in special creation. The historian Gilman Ostrander reminds us:

The American nation had been founded by intellectuals who had accepted a world view that was based upon Biblical authority as well as Newtonian science. They had assumed that God created the earth and all life upon it at the time of creation and had continued without change thereafter.³

Note that these great pioneers were intellectuals, not ignorant emotionalists. They laid great stress on education and science, founding many schools and colleges, in confidence that true learning in any field must be biblically governed. Christian historian Mary-Elaine Swanson said:

In colonial times, the Bible was the primary tool in the educational process. In fact, according to Columbia University Professor Dr. Lawrence A. Cremin, the Bible was “the single most primary source for the intellectual history of colonial America.” From their knowledge of the Bible, a highly literate, creative people emerged.⁴

In a July 4 address in 1783, Dr. Elias Boudinot, then president of the Continental Congress, stated that his reason for advocating an annual Independence Day observance in the United States was the great precedent set by God Himself.

No sooner had the great Creator of the heavens and the earth finished His almighty work, and pronounced all very good, He set apart—not an anniversary, or one day in a year, but—one day in seven for the commemoration of his inimitable power in producing all things out of nothing.⁵

The fact of creation was also clearly implied several times in the Declaration of Independence itself: “endowed by our Creator,” “created equal,” “Nature’s God,” etc. Attorney Marshall Foster pointed out that at least the first 24 state constitutions recognized Christianity as the religion of their states.⁶

Yet today the Bible, Christianity, and creationism have been banned from schools of the states that were founded to teach these very truths. All this was done in the name of a gross distortion of the First Amendment. The amendment, which was intended to prevent the establishment of a particular national denomination (e.g., Catholic, Anglican), has instead been so twisted as to establish evolutionary humanism as the quasi-official religion of our public institutions.

Foundation of True Religion

True religion must necessarily be based on worship of the world’s true Creator. Other religions may deify great men, or man-made systems, or the world itself, but these are all merely variant forms of humanism as men “worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator” (Romans 1:25). It is significant that all such religions and religious books begin with the creation rather than the Creator, except the Bible! That is, they all start with the universe already in existence, and then try to delineate how the primeval space/matter/time universe somehow developed into its present array of complex systems. This attribute characterizes both ancient paganism and modern humanism; these and all other atheistic, pantheistic, or polytheistic religions are merely various forms of evolutionism. Only in Genesis 1:1—the foundation of all foundations—is there a statement of the creation of the universe itself. Without this foundation, true religion is impossible.

Now although creation is the foundation, it is, of course, not the complete structure. Orthodox Judaism and Islam, like Christianity, believe in one eternal Creator, as revealed in Genesis 1:1, but they have rejected Him as Savior. In addition to the general revelation seen in the creation, God explicitly revealed Himself through both His Word and His Son. Those who reject either or both, even though they believe in one God as primeval Creator and, like Christianity, are monotheistic, cannot know God in His fullness. He must be known as gracious Redeemer as well as omnipotent, but offended, Creator. Thus, biblical Christianity is the only truly creationist religion.

Foundation of Christology

By the same token, neither can one know Christ as He really is if one knows Him only as Redeemer. Faint-hearted Christians often justify their lukewarm attitude toward creation by saying that it is more important merely to “preach Christ.” They forget that we are preaching “another Jesus” (2 Corinthians 11:4) if we do not preach Him as He really is, along with His complete work. The threefold aspect of the Person and work of Jesus Christ is beautifully outlined in the majestic declaration of Colossians 1:16-20.

1. Past Work, Creation: “By Him all things were created,” Colossians 1:16.
2. Present Work, Conservation: “In Him all things consist,” Colossians 1:17.
3. Future Work, Consummation: “By Him to reconcile all things,” Colossians 1:20.

The great scope of this threefold work is “all things in heaven and in earth.” Jesus Christ was Creator before He became the Sustainer (or Savior) and Reconciler, and the awful price of reconciliation, “the blood of His cross,” is the measure of mankind’s terrible offense against our Creator. That offense, furthermore, consists essentially of rejecting His Word and thus denying that He is really the Creator.

One truly “preaches Christ” only when he first presents Him as the Almighty Creator, from whom man was alienated when he repudiated God’s veracity in His Word. Only when this is first understood is it meaningful to speak of God’s forgiving grace and saving love, His incarnation and redemptive sacrifice as Son of man.

Foundation of Faith

The great message of Christianity is that “the just shall live by faith” (Hebrews 10:38), speaking of “those who believe to the saving of the soul” (Hebrews 10:39). But exactly what is this living faith—this saving faith? Faith in the abstract is only naïve sentimentality; it must be faith in something and/or someone to have any substance.

The faith of which the apostle speaks, of course, is outlined in the verses immediately following, in the great Faith Chapter, Hebrews 11. It is the faith of Abel, offering an acceptable sacrifice; it is Enoch’s faith, pleasing God in obedient witness; it is Noah’s faith, believing and acting on God’s word; and Abraham’s faith, stepping out on God’s promises.

But, first of all, it is the foundational faith of Hebrews 11:3, the faith by which “we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible.” This affirmation clearly tells us that any meaningful faith for salvation and the Christian life must be founded, first of all, on faith in God’s special creation of all things, not out of already existing materials but solely by His omnipotent Word!

Foundation of the Gospel

Many Christians, who either ignore or compromise the biblical doctrine of creation, have urged creationists just to “preach the gospel—not creation.” But this is impossible because the saving gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ is squarely founded on creation. The wonderful threefold work of Christ (creation, conservation, consummation) as outlined in Colossians 1:16-20 is identified as “the gospel” in Colossians 1:23. The very last reference to the gospel in the Bible (Revelation 14:6-7) calls it the everlasting gospel (thus, it could never have been any different) and its message is to “worship Him who made heaven and earth, the sea and springs of water.”

While it is surely true that the central focus of the gospel is on the substitutionary atonement and victorious bodily resurrection of Christ (1 Corinthians 15:1-4), it also includes His coming kingdom (Matthew 4:23) and His great creation. Any other gospel is “a different gospel” (Galatians 1:6) and is not the true gospel.

Without the creation, a supposed gospel would have no foundation; without the promised consummation, it offers no hope; without the cross and empty tomb, it has no saving power. But when we preach the true gospel, with the complete Person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ as they really are, we build on a “sure foundation,” can promise a “blessed hope,” and have available “all authority in heaven and on earth” through Christ who, in all His fullness, is “with [us] always, even to the end of the age” (Isaiah 28:16; Titus 2:13; Matthew 28:18).

References

1. Beck, S. D. 1982. Natural Science and Creationist Theology. Bioscience. 32: 738.
2. Ibid, 739.
3. Ostrander, G. M. 1971. The Evolutionary Outlook, 1875-1900. Clio, MI: Marston Press, 1.
4. Swanson, M.-E. 1983. Teaching Children the Bible. Mayflower Institute Journal. 1: 5.
5. Address in New Jersey to the Society of Cincinnati, July 4, 1783.
6. Foster, M. 1983. Mayflower Institute Journal. 1:1.

Adapted from Dr. Morris’ article “Creation Is the Foundation” in the December 1983 edition of Acts & Facts.

* Dr. Morris (1918-2006) was Founder of the Institute for Creation Research.