Genesis 1:1, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”
A cosmologist was having a conversation with a theologian, and he said, “I can’t figure out why you theologians get entangled with all that technical jargon, arguing over substitutionary atonement, supralapsarianism, infralapsarianism, Arminianism, and all that technicalia that the average church member just doesn’t care about at all. For me, religion is simple. It’s the Golden Rule; do unto others as you’d have done unto you.”
The theologian thought for a second, and then he said, “I understand exactly what you’re saying. I have the identical frustration with you cosmologists. You’re always dazzling us with scientific language about exploding novae, nebular variables, pulsating quasars, and astronomical perturbations. For me, the cosmos is simple. It’s twinkle, twinkle, little star!”
The current times are such that many people want to make theology and/or the natural sciences extremely simple, when the reality is that both spheres of investigation have their fair share of complexities. To be sure, both are knowable, but not always simple. Also in this day, many people want to keep these two sciences separate. The first verse of sacred scripture will not allow that. Perhaps the most controversial and intensely debated verse of the Bible is Genesis 1:1, and the first five words of that verse cause the most consternation, “In the beginning God created.”
When the word “science” is used most people think of lab coats, Bunsen burners, and Petri dishes. Likewise, when the word “theology” is used it causes nearly everyone to conjure up an image of a thin, balding, bookish gentleman with a lunar tan whose only engagement is with books rather than people. That stereotype should be broken down. “Science” is simply the knowledge gained through study and experience, and the goal of science is to save the phenomena; more plainly put, it is to understand the truth.
All truth is God’s truth. The subject may be the eternal soul of a man or the origin of man and the world he inhabits. Regardless of the topic, all truth is God’s truth, and God has revealed His truth in two ways. The first is creation itself (Rom. 1:20; Acts 14:17). The second is the Scriptures (2 Timothy 3:16). Both manners of revelation are completely true, infallible, and inerrant, because both have God as their author. While creation reveals the eternal power and glory of God (Psalm 19:1-2), salvation comes only by hearing the Gospel, repenting of sin, and trusting in Christ the Creator (Rom. 10:17). All truth, whether it is spiritual, physical, or moral, is God’s truth.
For those who honestly evaluate the evidence, everything in scripture and everything in nature clearly proves that God exists and that He is the powerful and wise Creator that nature declares Him to be, and that scripture describes Him to be. So, base your beliefs, views, and hope not on some blind wish independent of the evidence, but on an overwhelming amount of reliable evidence from God’s Word and God’s works. There is one truth. It is God’s, and like Him, it is good.
