Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made from things which do appear. Hebrews 11:3
This verse about creation is somewhat strange in the gallery of the heroes of faith. All the other verses in this chapter speak of people; this verse does not mention any Old Testament saint, but speaks rather of God's work of creation. And, of all things, it says, in so many words, that a person can hold to the doctrine of creation only by faith. that brings up an interesting point.
Let me try the point with an incident out of my own life.
In the years I was studying in Calvin College as a pre-seminary student, I was required to take a two semester course in Physical-Chemistry taught by a professor named, John De Vries. He had to be among the top two or three professors in the college. At that time, there were five or six professors in the science department, and all, with one exception, were theistic evolutionists. They all believed in a very old earth and, because the college was "Christian" and even "Calvinistic," they all believed in God. But they taught that God used evolutionary processes in creation.
Dr. John De Vries, who had worked on the atomic bomb project in Los Alamos, New Mexico, defended an old creation by making the word "day" in Genesis 1 refer to a period of time as long as many millions of years. He began his course by saying something like this: "I know that there are many creationists in this class (there were probably forty or fifty students in all), but I guarantee you that by the end of the year you will all believe in the period theory." (At the end of the year, I and two or three others told him that we remained unconvinced. He hung his head, got a mournful look in his eyes, and sadly said, "My first failures!")
He had many arguments that he raised in support of his views, but one argument especially seemed to be effective in the class. It was an argument used widely and repeated innumerable times by those who defended this particular brand of evolutionism. The argument was intended to be a major concession to creationists, but an attempt to draw creationists to evolutionism by, what I considered to be, dishonest means.
We were told, and I heard the same thing repeated times innumerable over the years: "It makes no real difference whether you believe in six-day, twenty-four-hour-days, or not, for the whole question has nothing to do with salvation nor with the gospel. It has to do only with creation. The gospel came after the fall. One can readily believe in and defend evolutionism and still have faith in Christ by which he is saved."
Early in my ministry I taught an Essentials of Reformed Doctrine class to about thirty catechumens. They were all in high school. Our own high school did not exist at the time, and so they all went to a Christian, but not Protestant Reformed, high school. They were taught evolutionism, particularly, the period theory, in the school they attended. They were a rather unusual class of catechumens for from them came many ministers, teachers, elders and deacons who served with distinction in our churches. And so they were not exactly inclined to make a minister's word for it when it came to doctrine. The class meetings were filled with debate, argument and questions. It usually took at least two classes of an hour each to cover a lesson, and when we got to the doctrine of creation, we must have been on that lesson for at least six weeks. They defended the period theory, which they had been taught. They argued, among many other arguments, that it didn't make any real difference what one believed, for the doctrine of creation was not part of the gospel.
I gave the catechumens periodic tests and, quite obviously, I asked in the test what the Bible taught concerning the doctrine of creation. One, very intelligent and very articulate person, gave the right answer, but wrote also, "It really does not matter what one believes, for creation is not part of the gospel of Jesus Christ." I wrote in the margin, "It matters this much hat if you still hold this position when you make confession of faith, I will refuse to accept your confession." I think I had barely finished saying, Amen in the closing prayer and this person was in front at my side. "Do you really mean what you said in the margin of my test paper? You will refuse to accept my confession if I hold to the idea that what we believe concerning creation has nothing to do with our salvation?" I assured the person that she had understood me correctly and that what I wrote, I meant. The person turned away and the only word I heard was, "Wow!"
I bring all this up because it leads up to the crucial importance of this text. And this text is decisive for the truth of creation. The text tells us that by faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God. And as I said in an earlier article, faith always has Christ for its object! The one truth in all Scripture which is fundamental to all our faith is that Christ is the eternal and only-begotten Son of God who came into the world to save sinners. Everything else we believe is only a part of that one great truth concerning our Lord Jesus Christ. If it is by faith that we believe that the worlds were framed by the word of God, then creation also is part of the doctrine of Christ. I shall explain why this is so in the next article, God willing.
I want to point out to you now, however, that there is good reason why the chapter, which is the roll-call of the heroes of faith, begins with a verse on creation, while all the other verses deal with people. Think of it: All the heroic deeds of God's people as acts of faith could be performed only because these people had faith in Christ, even though He was as yet, in the Old Testament, only promised. And so, by putting creation at the beginning of the list of saints who performed such mighty works of faith, Scripture is saying: "You have to believe in creation first of all, if you are to have the faith of Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham.... They believed in creation as part of the gospel; and so they believed in Christ, the heart of the gospel. If you do not believe in six-day, twenty-four hour day creation, forget it; forget the whole chapter; forget what these saints did; forget your faith all together. It means nothing."
To believe in creation as Genesis 1 and 2 describes it and to believe in Genesis 1 and 2 as a literal description of the origin of the worlds is to believe in Christ. Does that sound strange to you? It shouldn't. It's the teaching of the whole Scripture. We shall see.
Perhaps you [in the Philippines] do not have the battle on your hands that we have here [in the USA]. Here it is altogether too common that people try to teach a "Biblical" evolutionism. Christian schools at e very level teach evolutionism. It is preached from the pulpits and taught in the classrooms. It is accepted without question and Christians who do not teach some form of evolutionism are considered old-fashioned, behind-the-times Christians, who cling to old and out-worn theories, who hate science, and who are so totally irrelevant to our 21st century that they cannot even witness to our modern generation.
Creation is a doctrine we must believe - as it is taught in the Scriptures.
Prof. Herman Hanko
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