HOW THINGS WERE MADE by G. B. Thompson

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Oct 3, 1900

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 26, No. 40.

HOW THINGS WERE MADE.

By G. B. Thompson

THE so-called wise men of the earth have indulged in much vain philosophy concerning the way the earth, and all that it contains, was made. They have speculated and reasoned; and while their deductions in nowise agree, each is confident that his conclusions are correct.

The cause of all this jargon is stated in Matt. 22:29, in the rebuke administered by the Saviour to the self-righteous Pharisees. He said, “Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God.” These two things—the Scriptures and the power of God—were unknown to the professed Biblical expositors of those days. They therefore reasoned themselves into erroneous conclusions. “Lo, they have rejected the Word of the Lord; and what wisdom is in them?” Jer. 8:9.

So it is now. Error fills the earth. We are taught it from childhood. The Biblical account of creation is everywhere discredited. A few days ago I took up a text-book on physiology which was written for, and used in, the public schools. In the first line of the introduction I found the statement that “the human body is the abode of an immortal spirit” (an unscriptural statement); and in a note at the end of the first chapter I read this: “Fossil bones deposited in the ground long before the appearance of man upon the earth, have been found by Cuvier, exhibiting a considerable portion of cartilage.” How cruel thus to deceive the youth! Any one who knows anything about the Bible knows that prior to the sin of Adam there was no death in this earth, and that therefore there could not by any possibility be in the earth “long before” this time any fossilized bones, the remnants of animals once living.

And we are taught this same heresy by the “higher critics” of the land. We hear it from the pulpits. Scientists in their research claim to have discovered that the account the Lord gave Moses of the way the earth was created is not correct. The Mosaic account of creation is represented as unreasonable. Instead of things being created as stated in Genesis, we are told that they evolved through long geological ages of pollywogs and ancestral apes up to man, who governs and controls all things about him. To be sure they must have something with which to begin a “germ,” they call it; yet we are never favored with an explanation as to where this “germ” came from. The egg, they tell us, was before the hen, for all things came from a germ; but where the egg originated they are not quite certain. How their theory helps matters, the writer does not see. Personally, it is as easy for me to believe that a hen existed without an egg as that an egg came into existence without a hen. One would be as great a wonder as the other, and would take as much power to produce.

How much better than all this confused mixture of human speculations is the clear statement of Him who created all things for His glory! How much better to believe that we have a God, possessing all power, even to create worlds, and that having done so, He tells us how it was done! It is true we may not, with our finite minds, be able fully to comprehend creation, any more than we can fully understand Him who created. But “by faith we understand.” He did not need the lapse of ages for things to “evolve,” or “grow,” or “form,” but “He spake, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast.” Ps. 33:9. “By the word of the Lord were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth.” Verse 6. The words He spoke were words of power, the thunderings of the almighty Architect. He spoke, and “the breath of His mouth” was formative. Worlds came into existence at His command; He simply spoke, and they were. What power is this! Reader, behold the earth at your feet, and then scan the heavens by the most powerful telescope, and realize that all things, from the most tiny grain of sand to the suns which glimmer on the furthest outposts of telescopic vision, have been made by the word of God. And this same word is preached by the Gospel unto us for our salvation. In these things we see the word of God working to create worlds and uphold them, while in the Gospel we see the same word working to save men and women from the terrible consequences of sin.

See how this is illustrated in the first chapter of Genesis. When God wanted a firmament, He said, “Let there be a firmament,” and we are told “it was so.” Likewise, on the third day, when vegetation was wanted, “God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth; and it was so.” God spoke, and these things existed. His words have life, and have produced the life which is in all vegetation even to the present hour. It was the same when He peopled the sea with the finny tribes. He simply spoke, and they came into being. It was thus that all things came into being. How great a God is our God, who can speak with such mighty and such lasting results! Who spoke will be considered next.

G. B. THOMPSON.