How many millions of words have been used in the debate on Evolution and, or, a Creator God. Surely no more are needed? Except for one theme which may not have had the scrutiny it deserves.

MAN IN THE IMAGE OF GOD

Genesis 1 "...and God said let us make man in our image..."

In this lies our greatness and our destiny. But also the horror and tragedy of man's fall into the rebellion of Satan and so in bondage to him, sin and death. Man had been accorded the highest honour in all creation and stood to rule God's handiwork under God's authority and for His glory.

How can we understand our personhood and purpose without this springboard?
How come this clear statement of man's origin has been relegated to the dusty past?

Natural Selection, the wisdom of evolutionists, has taken its place leaving us asking at what point in man's development did he become a creature able to communicate with God? How many thousands were there awaiting this metamorphosis? What about Adam as the representative head of man? What happens to God's story of rescue encompassing His entire creation?

How did it come to this?

In the 1660's Francis Bacon opened the future pathway of man and his search for truth using the Inductive Method, it's purpose for man to reach a utopia of existence. He was set to rule the world through science and knowledge which would give him power to use its fullness to serve his interests and well-being. Man was to observe, postulate a theory and set out to prove it, but without a God-premise.

Using the Inductive Process, life became secular and based on human reason. What place did God have? In order to try and accommodate this perspective man has sought to come to a happy synthesis between science and God, but with man's observation and human reason taking pride of place.

It is surely time to discover what God intends us to know about Himself and His acts in creation. The only synthesis in all of existence is God Himself. All things consist and cohere in Him whose ways are not our ways.

In all of this pursuit of knowledge, progress and prosperity, do we ever stop to ask if God is pleased with our feverish exertions in the present and absorption with the past? In many ways it is a science of the study of death, civilisations past and fossilised life forms. There is a strong contrast in Proverbs between those who hate God and love death, and those who come daily to the gates of God's temple to seek wisdom from the One who is wisdom. Knowing Him is our salvation, not the Tree of Knowledge.

Running through the Scriptures is the revelation of man in the image of God, how this image was defiled and ruined through sin, and how it is to be restored in likeness of Jesus Christ, truly human but also the 'express image of God'. We neglect this teaching at our peril. As many secular writers note, it is the dignity of man that is being annihilated. How else can it be restored? What hope when many so-called believers show so little concern for the well-being of man and his world.

Where do we start? Perhaps to see what the different writers understood God to say about His creation in His word. From Genesis to Revelation God claims it is His work however it came about. We may assume the integrity of the Scriptures in Old and New Testaments as God gave a witness to their truth in sending His Son not only to verify them but to fulfill them and leave man a witness to the truth of creation.

Moses set out to record God's revelation of Himself in the first five books of the Scripture. It is clearly recorded that there is only one beginning, rooted in God's existence: a God who spoke and it was so, bringing all creation into being. If it were not so why would God delude us in books which speak of Him by name.? From beginning to end of the holy writings, this declaration of a Creator God holds true. Not only this but God is immanent in his creation, sustaining life moment by moment.

How can a believer present a theory of evolution without acknowledging this every step of the way? From evolutionists one tends to gain the impression that it is the force of natural selection that drives our world; a process which attains personhood and a life of its own. There is no doubt that forms of natural selection occur but it is always God who is immanent in the process and deserving of all praise. Anything less incurs the wrath of God.

There will always be an element of mystery and unanswered questions. But what does Moses record of God in creation? What does God want us to understand?

The written word in Genesis declares that 'in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth'. A very simple statement echoed down through the generations until the disciple, John, records that in heaven, the elders worship God 'For you created all things, and by your will they exist and were created.' Not a beat missing in the song of creation.

What else does God reveal to Moses? That creation is a birth from the spoken word of God and that it was good. No thought of incompleteness or progress required. God revealed an order to this creation and in creation itself. Creation in its fullness did not occur instantaneously, but day followed day whatever those days were. Plants and animals were to be fruitful 'each according to its own kind'. Fruitfulness is God's first command, the ongoing act of creation.

Man created in the image of God is made clear from the moment of his being formed by God, the only creature to be formed from the dust and not by a word. Perhaps this was why Paul was to use the image of a Potter and His clay. God converses with this man and sets before him a demand of obedience, the issue, a knowledge of good and evil to be resisted by man.

The story continues.
Man's fall into sin and death through disobedience follows, together with God's pronouncement of curses on all involved. His recovery was to be the focus of revelation down through the ages, culminating in the sacrifice and resurrection of a Redeemer Son. As man's shameful nakedness was covered by God, taking the skins of an animal sacrificed to this end, so the death of the Son of God would cover all man's sin.

Much else is made known in these early chapters of Genesis. If God knew that events were otherwise why did He lie and delude us in His writings? We know sufficient to live a life pleasing to Him, obeying and worshiping Him as is His due. God intended men to look ahead towards redemption and the new creation, rather than obsessing themselves with the past. We do well to remember what God said to Job: 'were you there when I laid the foundations of the earth?

When the Israelites were instructed in the Ten Commandments, Moses repeated the Words of God spoken to him on Mt Sinai. It is a direct quotation from God. Speaking of the observance of the seventh day of the week as a sabbath He declares and means them to understand that ' in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day'. He did not declare that the record of such events was merely allegorical.

We are quite prepared to declare God a liar in Scripture rather than accept that He may seem to delude us in nature, something of which Paul declared in Thessalonians. What effect could man's fall have had on all creation, perhaps aging the world in an instant? Time is nothing to Him. How can we know if we were not there?

When Job was searching for meaning and justice in his suffering, God turned his attention to consider His action in creation. The last four chapters of Job are from the lips of God to Job. If what follows is not true, then God knowingly says things which He knows He never said. Is this not the highest form of deception? It is Satan who is the father of lies and the archetype of deception. If man chooses to believe in unrighteousness then God hands him over to believe a lie.

'The coming of the lawlessness one is according to the working of Satan, with all power,signs and lying wonders and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, that they may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
2 Thess 2 vs 9-12

As mentioned before, in chapter 38 of Job, God addresses Job in his grief and anguish as he tries to find an answer to seeming injustice. He turns Job's attention to the world around him asking 'Who is this who darkens counsel by words without knowledge? 'I will question you, and you will answer Me' 'Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?' Question after question comes thudding forth, statement after statement for four chapters. Job is driven to repentence, a change of attitude, realising he and not God is in the dock. Something that we will all face sooner or later.

Passing on to the psalms of David and others, they are rooted in praise, declaring the glory of the Creator God. If it be otherwise, all hymns and songs are futile at best and irrelevant to our spiritual life. God's mighty acts continue on down through the generations and man is to be a witness to them, celebrating them in song.'The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament His handiwork.' Psalm 104 describes His immanence in all of creation.'May the Lord rejoice in His works.'

The writer of Proverbs, taken to be Solomon, talks of Wisdom personified, taken to be the Son of God, the second person of the trinity, Christ Himself. In Proverbs 8 Wisdom rejoices to be part of the mighty work of God in creation.

'When He marked out the foundations of the earth,
Then I was beside Him as a master craftsman;
And I was daily His delight,
Rejoicing always before Him,
Rejoicing in His inhabited world,
And my delight was with the sons of men.'
Proverbs 8 vs 29-31

The only access to true wisdom is through fear of God who will reveal His ways to His people. Time and again through creation He speaks of His might and it is this that draws out this fear. In Ecclesiastes the writer, possibly Solomon, admonishes the young to remember their Creator.

Later Jonah was to declare to the heathen captain that 'I am a Hebrew; and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.'

The New Testament is the final revelation of God through His Son, declared to be the author of all things.

Starting with John's gospel Christ's place in creation is made clear. 'In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God....All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.'Then again 'He was in the world, and the world was made through Him,and the world did not know Him.'

Paul's letters highlight this same truth.
In Colossians 1 'He is the image of the invisible God, the first born over all creation.For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth,visible and invisible whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him.And He is before all things and in Him all things consist.'

In Romans Paul declares that men are accountable to God for righteousness '...for since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and godhead.'

Also in Romans Paul's account of the man Adam and the man Christ, in chapter 5, looses its coherence if Adam be not a literal man with that name. Again, what does God want us to understand?

The letter written to the Hebrew believers affirms that God 'in these last days has spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom He also made the worlds; who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power...sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.'

Also 'You, Lord in the beginning laid the foundation of the earth, the heavens are the work of your hands;'

Later in Hebrews the writer makes clear' By faith we understand that the worlds are framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things that are visible.'

God's revelation of the truth of creation throughout Scripture is consistent. Scientific findings seem to conflict with this, especially the time scales involved. Does God then intend us to all be misled by the testimony of His servants? 'Let God be true though everyman a liar.' Far better to accept that we can be deluded in our view of evolution. We do well to remember:'Who speaks counsel without knowledge.'

We have a choice. Either God is deceiving us in nature or He is deluding us in Scripture. Men prefer to believe their findings rather than believe what He said. How could a God so great and glorious see men reading what He has said in Scripture knowing that He said no such thing? The price is loss of a sense of God's immanence, reflected in Paul's words 'In Him we live and move and have our being'.

A process, natural selection, takes on a life of its own and appears to be the driving force. It is interesting that Steven Pinker, a well-known linguist, has stated that evolution is described by its adherents in terms which make no sense linguistically. Species are a collection of individual creatures not capable of making a joint decision as to the way to go. Phrases such as the 'next evolutionary development addresses this problem’ – who addresses the problem? God or ‘nature’? God doesn’t do things and then have a problem.'Behold it was good' Other verbs such as Apes 'emerged’ as primates and Gibbons ‘split off’. ‘It required important changes’. Who and where are the agents of these verbs?

What do we teach our children while maintaining God's glory? We have to talk of a process rather than an act. What is a Christian to say to an uneducated peasant about the origin of the world around him. This is God's testimony to him, leaving him without excuse. How do we explain and make much of the teaching of man in God's image? The casulty is man himself, who now has a fuzzy and ill-definded place, no one quite sure when he appeared as a being capable of communing with God. It does not take long to devalue him with all that that implies and Scripture becomes disjointed in its message.

God's glorious love story of man made in His image, in whom Wisdom delighted, fallen through disobedince and then restored to the image of Christ, is dimmed. He is the bridegroom eagerly waiting for His bride as she prepares herself for the marriage feast. What bride busies herself with dusty tomes of the past when she can prepare to look her best for her dearly loved bridegroom. We are warned, woe betide those who take away from the revelation of God. Woe to those not watching for His coming. Are we not doing just this as we dabble in our evolutionary past or become absorbed in preserving our bodies which are destined for the dust?

Rather be caught up in the wonder of the works and deeds of God from before time and culminating in a glorious renewal of the heavens and earth with man renewed in the image of Christ leading that creation in kingly rule and voicing praises to God. Take away one part of God's story, God's plan for His creation and all is lost. We lose not only our heritage but our inheritance and with that our dignity and meaning, everything that makes life worth living. Man is indeed anihilated. The glory of the gospel is rescuing man and nature from the rule of sin, death and decay through the resurrection of God's Son, re-instating man as the crown of creation headed up by the One God designated as His dearly beloved Son in whom He was well-pleased. It is the fool who has said in his heart there is no God.

In conclusion we do well to listen and confess as both Isaiah and Paul say 'God’s ways are not ours.' That we 'offer counsel without knowledge.' Accept that God has declared that He 'causes men to believe a lie.' How will we answer God when He asks 'Were you there when I laid the foundations of the world?'

'Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out!

For who has known the mind of the Lord?
Or who has become His counselor?
Or has first given to Him
And it shall be repaid to Him?

For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen
Romans 11 vs 33-36