Sermon: The Search for Life’s Origins

07262015TheSearchForLifesOriginsDonRuhl

The Search for Life’s Origins

Will man create life as God did?

Psalm 139.13–16

Don Ruhl • Savage Street, Grants Pass, Oregon • July 26, In the year of our Lord, 2015

Prelude:

The initiation,
1. the maintenance, and
2. the complexity of life
  1. should lead an enquirer to the Creator,
    
    20 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, so that they are without excuse (Rom 1.20).
    
    17 “Nevertheless He did not leave Himself without witness, in that He did good, gave us rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness” (Acts 14.17).
    
    27 “so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us” (Acts 17.27).
  2. Do those things lead you to search for the Creator?
Acknowledging a Creation implies:
1. That we must serve Him,
2. That we are accountable to Him, and
3. That we must comply with the way He wants us to live.
Attempts of Smithsonian (June, 1984, Vol. 15, No. 3) “The Search for Life’s Origins — And A First Synthetic Cell”.
1. If evolution is true, then
2. not accountable to God.

Persuasion:

The Zealous Efforts of Man
1. Like a thirsty man seeking a mirage.
  1. Darwin’s efforts
  2. Paleontologists, like those who discovered “Lucy”
  3. Focus of article
2. Re-creating the beginning
  1. Thinks he will have power to make “synthetic life”
  2. Then they will conclude:
    1. God does not exist.
    2. They created life without God.
      1. But who provided
        
        the materials?
        
        the knowledge?
        
        the ability?
      2. They will demonstrate the need for a Creator.
      3. Why can’t the materials create themselves?
It Started Itself—Arguing for Spontaneous Generation
1. Quotations, pages 43, 47, 48
  1. Bigger miracle than creation
  2. Lettuce heads
  3. Implication: mind is the designer
2. Louis Pasteur and his work
  “Pasteur’s work discouraged many scientists from discussing the origin of life at all” (Britannica, Macro, V. 10, page 900).
  
  For, “…life must somehow arise from non-living matter; if not, how had life come about in the first place?” (Ibid).
3. However, I believe that Romans 1 shows
  1. that since God is the alternative,
  2. support for spontaneous generation is sought earnestly,
    
    21 …because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened (Rom 1.21).
The Materials and the Rapidity of First Life
1. Quotation, page 44
  1. To fill missing links—sudden changes
  2. Genesis 2 shows the only way it could have happened,
    
    7 And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being (Gen 2.7).
2. Quotation, page 45
  1. Without “ability” of scientists nothing would happen
  2. God had the ability to manipulate — Genesis 1
3. From where did all the ingredients come?
  1. Genesis 1
  2. Can something come from nothing?
    1. Something has always been
    2. Universe, matter, is not eternal
    3. Mind is eternal
      
      2 Before the mountains were brought forth,
      Or ever You had formed the earth and the world,
      Even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God.
      (Psa 90.2)
The Chicken or The Egg?
1. Quotation, page 49
  1. Genesis 1 — miraculously the chicken
    
    20 Then God said, “Let the waters abound with an abundance of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the face of the firmament of the heavens.” 21 So God created great sea creatures and every living thing that moves, with which the waters abounded, according to their kind, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 22 And God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth” (Gen 1.20–22).
2. Quotations, page 50, 47
  1. Life comes from life.
  2. Produce after its kind — Genesis 1
New Ways of Thinking, and New Words
1. Autopoiesis—self-producing
2. Autogen—self-generation
  1. These are other ways of saying,
  2. Spontaneous Generation
3. Quotation, page 51
  1. Darwin’s efforts were at seeing how life continued
  2. The Scriptures reveal the answer consistent with
    1. nature, and
    2. logic,
      
      28 “…for in Him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also His offspring’” (Acts 17.28).
      
      16 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 (Col 1.16).
      
      3 …who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high (Heb 1.3).
The Hopelessness of Evolution
1. What does macro-evolution offer?
  1. It does not offer hope
  2. It does not have the answers to the struggles of the issues of life
2. If evolution is happening, how will man improve?
3. Psalm 139 shows David knew something
  1. that our generation must learn.
  2. It is what he confessed here
    1. that makes him go down in history famously, but
    2. denying this truth makes all go down in history infamously,
      
      13 For You formed my inward parts;
      You covered me in my mother’s womb.
      14 I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
      Marvelous are Your works,
      And that my soul knows very well.
      15 My frame was not hidden from You,
      When I was made in secret,
      And skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.
      16 Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed.
      And in Your book they all were written,
      The days fashioned for me,
      When as yet there were none of them.
      (Psa 139.13–16)