THE SPIRITUAL BATTLE – 12 God Is Great

“Behold, God is great, and we know him not, neither can the number of his years be searched out” (Job 36:26). KJV

Loved ones, in our Spiritual Battle it helps to know that it is beyond anyone's capabilities to adequately verbalize how great God is! After all, God spoke heaven and earth into existence!

"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth" (Genesis 1:1).

"By the word of the Lord were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth" (Psalm 33:6).

"Let all the earth fear the Lord; let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him. For He spake, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast" (Psalm 33:8-9).

David declared in praise to God, "Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God” (Psalm 90:2).

The apostle Paul spoke of the "living God, which made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all things that are therein” (Acts 14:15).

Try your very best to plumb the depths of God's creative genius and power. Reflect on the myriad forms of life and contemplate One so wise and powerful as not only to "think up" all the creatures we know to exist, but also to design them with infinite wisdom, and then to actually bring them into existence. It is mind-boggling!

And consider further the vastness of the cosmos — it is staggering in its magnitude! God has placed us in a universe so immense that distances are measured in thousands upon thousands of "light years" (remember that light travels at 186,000 miles per second!).

So, when frail humanity reflects upon the enormity of it all, and considers the omniscience and omnipotence of the Creator, no wonder there is failure to magnify Him fully.

Fathoming to some extent His "eternal power and Godhead” (Romans 1:20), yet we fall short in our ability to enunciate the eternal attributes of Him who upholds “all things by the word of His power” (Hebrews 1:3). Quite honestly, it just cannot be done.

We feel so inept in our preaching to convey to others how truly great God really is! However, we know He deserves our praise, and the “glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end" (Ephesians 3:21).

Question: How Long Ago Did Our Great God Create The World?

There has been a great deal of focus in the popular press about the discoveries of the Hubble and James Webb Space Telescopes. These discoveries are being interpreted in light of an "old age for the universe" bias. Remember, most scientists today believe that life evolved from inanimate matter, and this process would take vast eons of time.

So, each new discovery is interpreted in a way to support a long period of time. This does not rule out other possibilities as being the right answer; it simply gives one explanation.

Well, this question of how old the earth is, is an important one, for if it is not billions of years old, then evolution could not have had time to occur.

Let's look at what we can know about how old the earth is. First, the Bible does not tell when the earth was created! But when the Bible gives information that relates to the passing of time, it is not wrong! It does this in the genealogies given in Genesis 5, 1 Chronicles 1, and the New Testament (Matthew 1 and Luke 3).

By taking the ages given here, it is possible to get a time on how long ago the creation was. This number comes out in the 6,000-to-10,000-year range. This is a far cry from the 4.5 billion estimated by evolutionists.

Are each of the genealogies exact in the names and dates given, no, but the problems that we know about are because of other lists that point them out. There may be some unfilled gaps in the chronology given in the Bible, but they do not give billions of years of time!

What should the Christian believe? We should realize that knowing the exact time of creation has nothing to do with our salvation (cf. Acts 4:12). Have faith that it happened in the way our great God said it did. Jesus and the inspired writers believed it, and their obedience to God's commands is a most important example for us.

We can have questions and look at the evidence from the physical world around us, but we need to remember that when an explanation is given that disagrees with what God's Word says, we can know it is wrong, no matter how many scientists believe it. The Bible's answer is the right one, and that should end it.

Realize that there is much evidence that indeed show the earth is not billions of years old. This evidence is not well known because the evolutionary scientists do not want it to weaken their case; so, they do not mention it.

Even the historians have now dated with accuracy the events of the Bible back to the time of Abraham. This does not leave many generations back to Adam for the millions and millions of years to occur if we try to hold on to evolutionary dogma and the Bible.

There have been many in the religious world, and indeed some in the churches of Christ, who have tried to accept the interpretations of the evolutionists and make them fit what the Bible says. This is sad and very dangerous, because it questions what God has said. We should take the Bible as fact first and then examine the evidence to see if and how it might fit into what happened.

Let us strengthen our faith to believe, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth" (Genesis 1:1).

Shared with you by Samuel A. Matthews, preaching with the Liberty NW church of Christ, meeting in Portland, Oregon, USA. The God of Heaven and Earth is so good, and His love reaches all. He is in control, so trust Him. We love you with the love of the Lord (John 13:34-35).