MCLEAN BIBLE CHURCH

OCTOBER 2, 2011

PASTOR LON SOLOMON

>> LON SOLOMON: It's great to be together as the family of McLean

Bible Church today.

You know, several years ago I received a letter from a young man

who was a student at Lehigh University. And I want to read a small part

of that letter to you. And I quote.

He said, when I was a high school student, my parents brought me to

McLean Bible Church nearly every Sunday. However, since then I have

discovered that irreconcilably at odds with Christian -- you and McLean

Bible Church seem to support very strongly the creation story found in

the book of Genesis. The idea, he says, that a supernatural being that

is omnipresent, yet stands outside the universe and interacts with the

universe, this, he says, is an absurdity.

I must remind you, he says, that the theory of evolution is a

scientific one and is as much a fact as gravity.

End of quote.

Now, the reason I bring that up is because it reemphasizes what I

said to you last week. I said last week that for many Americans,

especially those under the age of 40, what the Bible says about how the

world came into being represents a major obstacle in their coming to

faith in Jesus Christ. And because of this, we as followers of Christ

must be able to show that the Bible's explanation for how the world and

life came into being is at least possible.

That it is at least plausible. Last week we demonstrated that what

the Bible says about the origin of the universe and the cosmos is not as

crazy as your science teacher told you that it was, but rather in fact

the Bible's account in Genesis 1 may actually be the most intelligent of

all the theories.

And if you missed last week, I encourage you to pick up a copy of

the CD at our book store or to go on line and download or listen to that

message. But what we want to do today is we want to look at what the

Bible says, not about the origin of the universe or the cosmos, but what

the Bible says about the origin of human life here on planet earth.

Now, I got a lot to give you today. So buckle in. You ready?

Here we go.

Genesis 1:21. So God created the great creatures of the sea and

every living thing with which the water teams after their kind.

And every bird after its kind.

And God said, let the earth bring fort living creatures after their

kind, cattle and creeping things and wild animals, each after its kind.

And it was so.

And God made the beasts of the earth after their kind and the

cattle after their kind, and everything that creeps on the ground after

its kind.

Now, I'm sure in these verses you picked up that there's one phrase

that was repeated seven times. And it was what?

"After its kind." Right. And the Bible is telling us here

something that is very important. Because the whole foundation of

Darwinian evolution is that there was transition between the species and

the genesis, and the families of life here on earth, amebas became fish,

fish became reptiles, reptiles became mammals and mammals became monkeys,

and monkeys became us. But in contrast to that, the Bible says no. The

Bible says God created each creature after its kind, that God placed

absolute and insurmountable boundaries around every genus and plant and

animal here on earth. And no amount of lightning and no amount of cosmic

radiation and no amount of gene mutation has ever, will ever, or can ever

successfully cross those boundaries.

Dogs produce dogs.

And cats produce cats.

Cats can't turn into alligators, and dogs don't turn into sheep.

And Yogi Bear did not come from the Geico gecko. And none of that

happened. This is the Bible's explanation for how plants and animal life

got on this planet. But how about man?

What about human beings?

Well, the bible says, Genesis 1:26, then God said, let us make man

in our image, and according to our likeness.

I'm sure you notice here the first person plurals, us, and our.

Some commentators think that God here is talking to the angels. Or to

the seraphim or the cherubim or some other heavenly creatures. The Bible

is clear, we're not made in the image of angels or the image of cherubim

or seraphim, we're made distinctly in the image of God himself alone. So

what we really have in Genesis 1:26, is we have the three persons of the

God head. God the Father, God the son, and God the Holy Spirit talking

among themselves. That's pretty amazing, huh?

Versus 27, God created man in his own image, in the image of God he

created him, male and female he created them. Genesis 2:7, and the Lord

God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils

the breath of life and man became a living being.

Once again, the Bible presents a very different explanation for how

we got here as human beings than we get from the Darwinian evolution

model.

The Bible tells us we did not come from monkeys and we did not come

from chimpanzees and we did not come from orangutans or anything else

like that. The Bible tells us we are not just highly evolve the forms of

lower life, but rather the Bible tells us that we are the crowning apex

of God's creative activity here on earth. We're different than every

other creature that God made in that God created us in his very image.

Now, listen, folks, some monkey way back in time may have actually

been exposed to too much cosmic radiation, but that did not make him your

great, great grandfather. You understand what I'm saying?

I mean, it probably killed him or if it didn't kill him, it gave

him a bad sunburn. But he did not turn into your great, great

grandfather. And the Bible goes on to tell us that God created two

different forms of human beings. Genesis 2:21. The Lord God caused a

deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he was sleeping, God took one

of the man's ribs and closed up the flesh at that place.

Then the Lord made a woman from the rib he had taken from the man

and brought her to the man.

Verse 23. And the man said yabba-dabba-do.

And the -- said this is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh, she

shall be called woman, for she was taken out of man.

Ann it is critical for us to know what the Bible is saying here,

that God did not create woman in a separate act of creation from man.

This would have given her a different gene pool than the man. This would

have produced two different human races here on earth. Instead the Bible

says, God created woman out of man, bone of his bone, flesh of his flesh

so that there is one gene pool, one human race, not two.

This has huge implications for what's going to happen in Genesis

chapter 3. We'll talk about that when we get there. But please make

sure you take note of that.

And so, let's summarize. Where -- what exactly is Genesis chapter

1 asking you and me to believe?

Well, it's calling on us to believe that life on this planet is not

the result of evolution or mutation or natural selection or random

chance, but rather that God personally and directly, an almighty life

possessing, life giving, omnipotent God, created all the life we see on

this planet, culminating with his creation of mankind in his own personal

image.

Now, you say, well, you know, Lon, I see what you're saying; but I

have some questions. I got some what-abouts like I had last week.

Okay. What are they?

You say, well here's my first one. What about the fossil record?

When we look at the fossil record there are a lot of species there

that aren't around anymore. Don't some of them explain how life evolved

up the chain to where we are today?

Well, you're right. There are a lot of animals present in the

fossil record we don't have around today. Everything from wooly mammoths

to saber tooth tigers to our friends at Jurassic park. That's not the

issue. That proves nothing. The issue is not whether we can find some

animals that don't exist anymore in the fossil record. The issue is can

we find any transitional animals. Can we find any animals in between

amoebas and fish? In between worms and alligators. Can we find anything

that's like part bird and part reptile? Part amphibian and part mammal?

And the answer is no.

Charles Darwin himself said, and I quote, “if my theory be true,

numberless intermediate varieties must assuredly have existed.”

Darwin said, hey, if I'm right, there should be scads of these

intermediate animals halfway between the genuses and the families and the

fossil record. And yet in the entire fossil record, in the more than 100

years since Darwin, 150 years, there has been absolutely not one

transitional species ever found.

Dr. Luther Sutherland, a paleontologist, went to the five greatest

fossil museums in the world and asked if they could show him one

transitional creature. He wrote a book entitled Darwin's enigma. And

here's what he said, and I quote: he said “None of the museum officials

from the five greatest fossil museums I visited could offer a single

example of a transitional series of fossilized organisms that would

document the transformation of even one different kind, type of animal to

another.” Not one.

Dr. Mark Czarnecki, an evolutionary paleontologist wrote an article

in a magazine, saying “A major problem in proving the theory (of

evolution) has been proving the fossil record. This record has never

revealed traces of Darwin's hypothetical intermediate variance.”

“Instead” he says, “species appear and disappear abruptly, and this has

fuelled the creationist argument that each species was created by God.”

Then there's Dr. Carlton Brett, professor of geology at the

University of Cincinnati. He said “Did life on earth change steadily and

gradually through time? The fossil record emphatically says „no‟.”

And finally, Dr. Steven J. Gould, who is professor of geology and

Paleoanthropology at Harvard... Harvard. Here we go. Here's what he

said. And I quote -- you probably heard of him. He said, and I quote,

“from such scrappy data, it is hard to see how anyone could derive with

confidence the gradualistic interpretation (of Darwin)... unless one were

predisposed to it from the start.”

You understand what he's saying? He is saying when you get in and

just look at the data, there is no way you can end up with Darwinian

evolution unless you come in with your mind already made up. Is the only

way you can get there.

Folks, these people are saying that we could establish evolution as

a fact -- like gravity -- if we could prove from the fossil record that

even one category of life transitioned into another category of life; but

we can't.

And the amazing thing is that Darwin correctly said that if -- that

if his theory was right, and if the earth did this over billions and

billions of years, we shouldn't be able to find just one example, the

fossil record should be teeming with examples of these intermediate

creatures. And yet there's not even one.

And the point is, folks, no transitional animals, no Darwinian

evolution. Can't happen.

Which is why Dr. Edmond Ambrose, professor Emeritus at the

University of London and head of the department of cell biology at the

Chester Beatty Research Institute at the University of London said, and I

quote, “We have to admit that there is nothing in the geological record

that runs contrary to the views of creationists.” End of quote.

You say, all right, Lon, then I got another -- I got another what

about?

My second what about is what about DNA and all we're learning from

the cell seems like that if we study the cell, that should explain to us

how life evolved up here on earth. What about DNA?

Well, indeed we've learned that enormous amount about DNA since the

helix was discovered in 1953 by Watson and Crick. They won the 1962

Nobel Prize for their discovery. But what we've learned is that the

genetic make-up of human life is so complex that it defies all

mathematical odds of happening by evolutionary chance. Dr. Gunter

Wagner, Professor of Evolutionary Biology at Yale, said, and I quote,

“The set of genetic instructions for humans is roughly 3 billion letters

long.” In other words, what he's saying is if you wanted to spell the

word "human being" using the genetic code, it would take you 3 billion

letters, 3 billion genes, to do it.

Dr. George Howe, Biologist and Botanist at Westmont College said

“the chance that one useful DNA molecule could develop without a designer

is approximately zero.” Okay. Approximately zero means zero.

And I love our good friend Sir Fred Hoyle. He was the late

Professor of Astronomy and Mathematics at Cambridge University in England

and has more honors than you can shake a stick at. Google it. I

couldn't read you all the honors this guy's got. He, in a book called

Evolution from Space calculated that by the process of evolution, the

chance of obtaining the required enzymes for even the simplest living

cell was 1 in 10 to the 40,000th power.

This is why Sir Fred Hoyle said -- I love this -- he said, and I

quote, “To suppose that the first cell originated by chance is like

believing that a tornado could sweep through a junk yard full of airplane

parts and form a Boeing 747.”

Hoyle went on to say “if one proceeds straight forwardly in this

manner, without being deflected by the fear of incurring the wrath of

scientific opinion -- stop for a second. Do we get what he's saying?

He's saying if you just look at the data and you're not worried

about how the retribution that scientists are going to take on you if you

come out and say evolution is wrong, if you don't worry about that, just

look at the data, he said – “one arrives at the conclusion that bio

materials with their amazing complexity and order, must be the outcome of

intelligent design.” End of quote. And he was not a believer in Jesus

Christ.

Finally, how about mathematician Dr. I.L. Cohen, in a book entitled

Darwin Was Wrong, said and I quote, “at the moment when the DNA/RNA

became understood, the debate between evolutionists and creationists

should have come to a screeching halt. Mathematically speaking” -- and

remember, this guy's a mathematician – “based on probability concepts,

there is no possibility that evolution was the mechanism that created the

approximately 6 million species of plants and animals we recognize

today.” End of quote.

And then just one side note, you remember Dr. Francis Crick --

you're going to love this, remember the guide that discovered DNA?

We showed you his picture a minute ago. Won the Nobel Prize for

it. He wrote a book entitled "Life Itself, Its Origin and Nature." And

in this book he said that there is absolutely no possibility at all that

life on earth could have come from the random processes of chemistry like

evolution asserts. But he refuses to believe in the God of the Bible, so

instead in his book his explanation for how life got here -- and this is

true -- is that “the first living cells were brought to earth by a

spaceship from outside the solar system.” You say this guy won a Nobel

prize? Yeah, he did. But follow his logic. There's some logic here,

friends. If there's no way life could have happen by itself -- and if

there's no God of the Bible to do it, then it must have been the

Klingons. Because who else could have done it?

The point is, yes, we've learned a lot about DNA that has helped us

figure out how life began here on earth. And what we've learned is life

here on Earth is so complex that only a masterful God could have possibly

created it.

And you know, in studying for this message I came across an

interesting article in National Geographic that I just thought I'd throw

in for interest here. National Geographic said, and I quote, “Genetic

analysis has traced all modern males back to a common Y chromosome

ancestor nicknamed Adam, whose descendents spread from there all around

the world.” End of quote. Well, hello? The Book of Genesis. It is

exactly what the Book of Genesis says. Yes. Are you guys okay?

Do you need oxygen?

Are we all right out there?

All right. Let me know you're there. Isn't that exactly what

Genesis says?

>> ALL: Yes!

>> LON SOLOMON: Thank you. All right. It's great to see National

Geographic catching up.

Now, you say, Lon, I got one more what about. What is that?

You say what about never say never?

I mean, okay, so the mathematical odds aren't good and the

probabilities are bad. But what about never say never?

I mean, can't anything happen?

Anything's possible, right?

Well, folks, there's a problem with this. This is kind of a hope

against hope approach to evolution. But there's a problem. It's called

the Second Law of Thermodynamics. And let me give you the layman's

definition of the Second Law of Thermodynamics. It basically says that

things always get more random and more disorderly unless you put

directive energy into keeping them organized. Every parent of a teenager

understands this. (Laughter.)

>> LON SOLOMON: This is how a teenage room goes to where it goes.

Now, I like the way evolutionists and anticreationist science fiction

writer Isaac Asimov put it. “We have to work hard to straighten a room

but left to itself it becomes a mess again quickly. The same truth

applies to our workplaces, our yards and bodies. All we have to do is do

nothing and everything deteriorates, collapses, breaks down and wears out

all by itself. This is what the second law of thermodynamics is all

about.”

The problem is, my friends, is that Darwinian evolution demands the

exact opposite of the Second Law of Thermodynamics. It demands that a

random system here on Earth, left to itself with no input of directive

energy from God or anybody else, didn't get less organized, it got more

and more organized to a level of orderliness that defies all mathematical

probability.

You say, well, maybe evolution is an exception. To the Second Lw

of Thermodynamics. Maybe the Second Law of Thermodynamics just didn't

apply to evolution.

Well, physicist G. N. Haspoulis said, and I quote, “there is no

recorded experiment in the history of science” -- listen – “that has ever

contradicted the Second Law Thermodynamics or its corollaries.” End of

quote.

In other words, Darwinian evolution, if it's true, would be the

only example in the history of the world where the Second Law was ever

contradicted. That's what people who believe in evolution are asking you

and me to accept.

Now, you know I said last week it takes faith to believe either

model of how the universe and the life came into existence. It takes

faith to believe the Bible's account of creation. Right?

But it takes faith to believe the evolutionary model of creation.

And as I said to you last week, I'm sorry, I just don't have enough faith

to be an atheist. Can't do it.

And let me tell you why. I don't have enough faith to believe that

the Second Law of Thermodynamics completely went out the window somehow

for this one thing and never for anything else in history.

I don't have enough faith, second of all, to believe that the

people who really understand DNA and say that evolution could have never

produced it, that they're all wrong.

And finally, I don't have enough faith to believe that transitional

animals existed when the fossil record is utterly devoid of even one

single example. To me believing in evolution isn't even faith. It's

foolishness to believe this. Foolishness.

To conclude, with two quotes. First Dr. Michael Behe, Biochemist,

Lehigh University who wrote a book entitled “Darwin's Black Box”. He

said “life on earth is the product of intelligent activity. This

conclusion”, he says, “of intelligent design, flows naturally from the

data itself, not from any sacred books or any sectarian beliefs. The

result of investigating the human cell is a loud, clear, pierces cry of

design."

And our mathematician friend, our astronomer friend, Sir Fred

Hoyle, said and I quote, “once we see that the probability of life

originating at random is so utterly miniscule as to make it absurd, it

becomes sensible to think that the favorable properties of physics upon

which life depends are deliberate... and must reflect a higher

intelligence at work." End of quote.

Folks, these are not marginal scientists I've been quoting to you

from. Hey, you may not believe what I think about evolution being crazy.

But what about what Steven Gould says about it? Huh?

These are some of the finest minds in science. These are some of

the most as tooth scientists in the world and what they're saying is that

mathematically, bio chemically, physically, paleontologically, and

genetically, Darwinian evolution simply makes no sense.

So, can I prove to you today that the Bible's account of creation

is right? Nope. Can those people who believe in Darwinian evolution

prove to you that their theory is right? Nope.

But I believe what I have proven here today is that the account in

Genesis Chapter 1 and 2 of how life came into being on this planet is not

as crazy, and it's not as impossible, and it is not as unscientific as

your biology teacher told you it was. In fact, the Bible's account

actually may very well be the most intelligent explanation at all. I

mean, it's certainly better than the Klingons. Yeah?

Certainly better than that explanation.

Amen?

All right.

Now, you guys okay?

I mean, I gave it to you. You all, all right?

All right.

Now, we're going to stop and we're going to ask our most important

question.

So are we ready?

All of you at Loudoun, all of you at prince William, on the

Internet campus, Bethesda, everybody in the edge, this is a chance to

take a deep breath. We're done with science class. And we're all going

to yell it. 1, 2, 3.

>> ALL: So What?

>> LON SOLOMON: You say, Lon, so what?

I mean, even if I believe everything you said and I believe God

created the world, what difference does that make to me on the beltway

tomorrow?

Well, let's talk about it.

You know, if the Bible's right -- and I believe it is -- and if we

were created by God in his personal image -- and I believe we were --

then folks, what this means is that as human beings we were designed to

be creatures of personal relationship. God is a personal God, and God

carries on and builds personal relationships.

Hey, remember, the three persons of the Godhead were even talking

and relating to one another inside the Godhead. And if we're created in

God's image, it means that we were created to be the same way.

And without a doubt, the most important personal relationship you

and I will ever have is our relationship with almighty God. We were

created to this one.

Genesis 3:8, “then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord

God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day."

You ever ask yourself what was God doing walking around in the

Garden of Eden in the cool of the day?

Well, and Hebrews makes it clear that this was a repetitive process

that God came there every day. The answer is simple. He came into the

garden to see Adam and Eve. He came into the garden to talk with them.

And walk with them. And have relationship with them. Adam and Eve were

connected to God on a daily basis. They had an intimate friendship with

him. When Adam and Eve sinned, they ruined all of that connection for

the rest of the human race. But praise the Lord, when we come to Christ,

the Lord Jesus restores that relationship between us and almighty God.

But that's noted end. That's just the beginning. That's not where

we kind of slap our hands together and say, okay, I'm back in a

relationship with God, done.

No. No. No. No.

Did you ever wonder why God came into the garden every day, why he

didn't come once a week? Or once a month? Or once a quarter?

I'll tell you why. You can't build a relationship when you see

people once a quarter. Or once a month. You got to be in a regular

ongoing, cultivation of that relationship.

Friendships have to be cultivated to stay healthy. Marriage

relationships have to be cultivated to stay healthy. And friends, our

relationship with God has to be regularly cultivated to stay healthy.

So as I close today, I want to share with you the three things the

Bible tells us that we can do to cultivate this relationship with God,

which is reestablished when we come to Christ. But then has to be

nurtured.

Number one, is honest and intimate communication. Hey, good

friends honestly talk with one another. Right? Marriage partners, if

it's a healthy marriage, they talk honestly and intimately with one

another about personal things. Well, as followers of Christ, this is

what praying is all about. It's about honest communication. Us to God.

God to us. On the most intimate level. You can't build a strong

friendship, and we can't build a strong marriage without lots of honest

communication. And you and I will never build a strong relationship with

God without a serious prayer life.

Number two is discovery. When you get into a relationship with a

person, a big part of the relationship is discovering what this other

person is like. I mean, learning how they tick, learning how they think,

learning how they feel about things. Getting to know them almost to the

point that you can anticipate what they're going to do in a given

situation.

Hey, really good friends know each other so well that you can --

you can tell me what your friend's going to do in a given a situation.

Great marriage partners know this. Well, when it comes to God, folks,

this is one of the reasons why God gave us the Bible. In here he tells

us how he ticks. In here he tells us how he feels.

And how he thinks about things. And by getting into the Word of

God and on every page saying, Lord, what does this page tell me about

you, we can get to know God on that same intimate basis.

Psalm 103:7, says that “God made his ways known to Moses.” And

this is what God wants to do for you and me.

You know, I've been a believer over 40 years, and I've met people

who have gotten to know God so well by studying the Word of God on a

regular basis that they can almost predict what God is going to do in a

given situation. It's uncanny. But you know, God wants you and me to

know him on that same level. And that's why he says get in here and I'll

tell you about myself.

Finally, number three, you want to cultivate a relationship, then

it takes dedicated time. Two ships passing in the night do not have a

good relationship.

And this explains why David said, Psalm 63:6, “I meditate on Thee

in the night watches.” David said I get up in the middle of the night

when there are no kingly responsibilities I got to deal with, when there

are no decisions of state I have to make, when there's no e-mails or

faxes or tweets or anything else coming in, and Lord, it's just you and

me. This time's just ours. It's dedicated to you.

Well, my friends, every follower of Jesus needs the night watch,

whether they happen in the day or they happen at night. We need these

times of dedication or we get away from all the distractions and we say,

Lord, it's just you and me. This is how you build a relationship.

So let me say, in closing, that folks, this is not rocket science.

This is not rocket science. But I want to close with a question before I

say that.

And here's my question.

How satisfying really is your relationship with God?

Think about it for a moment. If you had to rate it 1 to 10.

Satisfying is your relationship with God. And you know, if you don't

like the answer the first question, I got a second question for you.

My second question is, okay, then how much effort do you put into

cultivating your relationship with God?

As I said, this is not rocket science. It's real simple. Prayer +

Bible study, where we're discovering who God is + dedicated timed with

God = intimacy and depth of relationship with him. This is not complex.

But the first half of the relationship is ours. The Bible study.

Prayer. The dedicated time. That's on us.

We do our part, and I promise you, God will do his part.

So I want to leave you with a challenge today as a follower of

Christ. Leave myself with the same challenge.

Friends, God wants us to place our relationship with him at the top

of the priority list and to pursue it passionately. Passionately. Not

haphazardly. Passionately.

And when you do, I promise you, your score on the first question

will go up.

How satisfying is your relationship with God.

Let's pray.

Lord Jesus, thank you so much for the tremendous information you've

given us today. Reminding us that we have been told an explanation for

how life got here that's not nearly as air tight as we've been led to

believe. And I want to pray, Father, that you will bring us to the place

where perhaps we would not be as willing to write off the Bible's

explanation as we might have been when we walked in here this morning.

Father, for those of us who know you, and we accept the Bible's

explanation for how we got here, make us people who are passionate about

cultivating the relationship with you that you created us to have. God,

help us see that relationship as our absolute number one priority in

life. More important than anything else. Because it is the very basis

for which we were made in the image of God. That is, namely, to be in

connection deeply and intimately with you.

So, Lord, may what we've learned here today change our life. May

it change our priorities and change our schedules. Drive us deep, Lord,

into you. And we pray these things in Jesus' name. And what did God's

people say?

>> ALL: Amen.

>> LON SOLOMON: Do better than that. What did you say?

>> ALL: Amen.

>> LON SOLOMON: No more science class next week. We're moving on.

But if you have a friend who is really convinced about the revolutionary

model of the universe, pick up a couple of CDs over the last couple weeks

and say you know what, I think you've been sold a bill of goods.

God bless you.

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This transcript is being provided in a rough-draft format.

Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART) or captioning are

provided in order to facilitate communication accessibility and may not

be a totally verbatim record of the proceedings.

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