The doctrine of God as the Creator is under serious attack! It is being effectively denied or at least heavily watered down by a false, humanistic idea that is unquestioningly believed by millions. Ask most evangelical Christians about this, and you will find them in hearty agreement. They might even go on to give you a little diatribe about how terrible this false, humanistic idea is. They would be referring, of course, to Darwin’s theory of evolution. And they would be dead wrong.
The humanistic idea that I believe most dangerously contradicts the doctrine of creation is not the theory of evolution, but rather is sadly a theory strenuously insisted upon by many of those very same Christians who imagine themselves as creation’s staunchest defenders. And while I do not intend this essay to be offensive toward those Christians, I believe the theory they hold should be exposed for what it truly is with relation to the full truth of creation.
Before discussing this theory that goes against creation, we need to understand what is meant by the doctrine of creation to begin with. It is one thing to see God simply as the mechanism by which everything came into being. It is quite another thing to see Him as the actual Creator of all things, in the truest sense of the word. The difference is in whose plan it was to create every individual thing in the first place. Who designed it all? Who decreed that it should be the way it is? Did God act as the Master Architect, using His freedom to draw up the blueprint exactly as He saw fit? Or did He act merely as a builder, following a blueprint drawn up at least in part by other forces or beings?
This question has very personal significance. When we teach a child to say, “God made me,” we are not talking about the mere mechanism of creation. Sooner or later the child will learn that there was in fact a biological mechanism by which he came into physical existence, and we would not want or expect him to see this mechanism as a denial of his creation, but rather to realize that God works through such mechanisms. What we hope the child understands when he learns that God created him is a much deeper, more profound truth. Our creation was not only at the hands of God, it was more significantly by the mind of God. He had a personal purpose and plan for the existence of each one of us. This idea should be fundamental to our understanding of creation. It is what gives us our personal value.
If we believe in God as our Creator in this fullest sense of the word, it means we acknowledge our existence as being utterly and exclusively the product of His creative genius. He is the architect as well as the builder. He created exactly as He saw fit, without consulting anyone else in the matter. There is not one feature on my blueprint that can ultimately be attributed to any constraint or being other than Himself. He designed me, planned me, and ordained that my existence would come to pass. I am not just a random person who happens to be who I am partially as a result of some kind of cosmic accident or blind fate or anything else outside of His control. He didn’t just ordain that someone would be created at a certain point in history who would fit my general description. He ordained that I would be created, with all of the background and characteristics that make me me. I am His personal creation.
This is a marvelous, awe-inspiring truth that I believe is strongly supported by Scripture. God is described as the Potter who has the right over the clay to make exactly what He chooses (Rom. 9:20-21). “He commanded, and they were created” (Ps. 148:5). He fashioned the hearts of each and every one of us, not just en masse, as an entire species, but individually (Ps. 33:15). This includes the fact that He distributes gifts and abilities to each one “just as He wills” (1 Cor. 12:11). His decisions were not determined in any final analysis by chance or circumstance, but only by His own design and purpose. “I am God, and there is no one like Me . . . saying, ‘My purpose will be established, and I will accomplish all My good pleasure.’ . . . Truly I have spoken; truly I will bring it to pass. I have planned it, surely I will do it.” (Isa. 46:9-11). We were created “for Him” (1 Cor. 8:6, Col. 1:16), and we can say to Him that it was purely “because of Your will” that all things “existed and were created” (Rev. 4:11). Small wonder that we are described as His “children” or “offspring” (Acts 17:28). A lesser doctrine of creation simply does not do justice to either God or His creatures.
So what is the humanistic theory that effectively denies this fullest sense of the doctrine of creation? Again, it is not evolution, contrary to the assumption of many, both Christian and non-Christian alike. Actually, in and of itself, the theory of evolution says absolutely nothing about whether or not God is the Creator of all things in this sense. The theory of evolution only describes the mechanism by which new species are believed to have arisen—just as the theory of nuclear fusion describes the mechanism by which new kinds of atoms are believed to arise in the sun, for example, or sexual reproduction describes the mechanism by which new individual human beings come into physical existence. None of these ideas should be taken as asserting or even suggesting that God is not ultimately responsible for the creation of new species, or new atoms, or new individuals, using the processes that each idea describes.
At this point some will no doubt object that even if evolution does not argue against the doctrine of creation in abstract form, it nevertheless directly contradicts the Biblical account of creation as described in Genesis. I am not personally convinced this is true, but I will concede it is an arguable point. Depending on how we interpret the Genesis account of creation, it may or may not be possible to reconcile with the theory of evolution. The important thing is, we cannot truthfully claim that evolution is an intrinsic contradiction to the Biblical doctrine of creation, precisely because it is an arguable point. Like it or not, it is possible to be an evolutionist who also believes in the truth of the Biblical account of creation. Many people are.
There is another theory that actually is an intrinsic contradiction to the full doctrine of creation as I have described above, however. This is the theory of libertarian free will, or what most people simply call “free will” without any further qualification. This is without question a popularly held assumption among Christians today. Many would even describe the concept as fundamental to the Christian Gospel. But in spite of its popularity, this theory is a clear detraction from the doctrine of creation, and is an absolute denial of the fullest sense of that doctrine. The two ideas are mutually exclusive.
The theory of libertarian free will is simply the idea that man has free will in an absolute sense, meaning he is the final determiner of his own will, so that nothing outside of him—not even God—is ultimately in control over what he chooses. Therefore, in this theory it was not God who sovereignly ordained that your parents would make certain choices that led to their meeting one another, getting married (hopefully), and conceiving you. All of these decisions were rather ultimately made by their own free will, apart from God’s control.
The theory does not deny that God may have heavily influenced certain important choices to try to bring your parents together. It holds that God would have foreseen where these choices would lead, that when coupled with His own cooperative work of performing your actual creation, they would lead to the very good result of your existence. It furthermore acknowledges that God would have known all along whether or not His influences would be successful in leading your parents to actually make those choices. But it still insists that in the final analysis God did not ultimately ordain those choices or ensure they would come to pass, because it holds that would be a violation of free will. Therefore, although the theory acknowledges that it was God who created you in the sense of actually forming you and giving you life, it views Him as doing this ultimately in a fairly constrained way, as a builder working within the parameters of a blueprint of choices that were not his own decision. So according to this theory God did not independently and unconditionally purpose that you would be created. Instead, He simply took advantage of certain choices that your parents made, and used them as an opportunity to decide to create such a person as you. Your very existence is reduced to a conditional decision on His part.
Similarly, according to this theory we cannot view God as ordaining and decreeing that there would be such a person as Paul, created at just the right moment in history, born of just the right parents so that he would inherit just the right physical traits that suited him for the task God had for him. God simply worked within the possibilities determined by which people happened to decide to come together during that time, and He made the best of it by deciding to use whichever pair He foresaw as being the best match for the person He wanted to create, who would best be able to accomplish what He wanted him to do. It was not God who ordained and decreed that there would be such a person as John the Baptist to prepare the way for the Lord Jesus, or Mary to carry Him in her womb, or Judas to betray Him and Pilate to crucify Him. (Note that this is in plain contradiction to Acts 2:23, which says He was “delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge or God,” and Acts 4:27-28, which says that Pilate and the others were doing “whatever Your hand and Your purpose predestined to occur.”)
Some Christians who mainly hold to the theory of libertarian free will nevertheless acknowledge that there might be some human decisions that God is still ultimately in control of, in spite of their view of human free will being generally incompatible with such a thing. But they will universally insist that the most important decision, namely the decision to put one’s trust in the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation, is never predetermined by God. (This is in spite of the numerous Scripture references to God’s predetermination of that very choice—e.g., John 6:44, Acts 13:48, Rom. 9:14-24, Eph. 1:4, 2 Thess. 2:13, and 1 Pet. 2:8.) And yet even if this choice to receive Christ is viewed as the only decision that is not under God’s ultimate control, this would still leave the theory of libertarian free will intrinsically opposed to the doctrine of creation in the fullest sense.
There is no more fundamental and important characteristic of any person than the question of whether or not that person is born again into a saving relationship with the Lord. Would any believer not say that this is a crucial part of who they are? Our spiritual life is clearly even more important than our physical life. If God created me in every true sense of the word, designing all of my characteristics and the other circumstances of my life that would mold and shape me, except He left out the one detail of deciding whether or not I would have eternal life, where would that leave the doctrine of creation? It again reduces God to the status of a blueprint-following builder rather than the Master Architect, and man to something significantly less than His personal creation. It may be a popular idea, but it is not a pleasant one to those who have experienced the joy and rest of knowing God as the true Creator.
What then is the Biblical alternative to this theory of libertarian free will that so unattractively denies or waters down the doctrine of creation? It is called compatibilism or the theory of compatibilistic free will. This is the view held primarily by Calvinists, or those who share with Calvinism a similar understanding of the sovereignty of God. (In contrast, the libertarian view of free will is almost universally held by all other Christians, including Arminians and those who are not fully Arminian and yet share with Arminianism the same fundamental assumption about the nature of free will.)
The compatibilistic view of free will does not deny that people have free will in a real sense, but it does deny that their free will is absolute or libertarian in nature. Christians who hold this view believe human free will is compatible with the idea that the choices we make are predetermined by a sovereign, almighty God. These choices are still willing choices, in the sense that God does not compel us to choose contrary to our wills, and so we are still rightly held responsible for our choices. However, God is seen as ultimately being in control of even what we will in the first place (that being rightly understood as a function of who we are, or who He makes us to be), and therefore also of what we end up choosing.
I believe the Bible clearly teaches the fundamental doctrines of Calvinism, and I believe the implications on the doctrine of creation are truly glorious. I believe it is only when we accept the Biblical assumption of compatibilism that we can fully appreciate God as our personal, sovereign, loving Creator. Obviously, there will be many who do not agree with this assessment, and I want to stress again that I mean no offense. I have no quarrel with those who do not see things the way I do. There is no need for us to be in agreement on these things, as thankfully God does not require us to grasp the full meaning of His Creatorship in order to be saved. But I believe it is a tremendous blessing when we do.
The libertarian free will doctrine that pervades so much of Christianity views God as not only leaving the question of your physical existence up to factors outside of His control, it also views Him as leaving the most important detail of who you are, namely the question of whether or not you have eternal life, up to something outside of His control. This is an impoverished view of creation that I do not believe can inspire anyone to a truly deep love for his Creator. (In the fullest sense of the word it is not really even creation at all; it is merely actualization—like the product of an artist whose canvas is a paint-by-numbers book.)
How much better it is to acknowledge God not only as the one who accomplished your creation, but also as the one who sovereignly purposed and designed it for His glory all along. How much more thrilling and wonderful to realize that even if you were an “accident” or the result of sin from a human standpoint, your creation in all its particulars was still absolutely and unconditionally a part of God’s perfect, loving plan. He not only decreed and created the initial state of this world with all its species, He also decreed and created the present state of this world, including your individual existence and mine. How can we help but revel and worship at such a grand truth? Our hearts sing for joy in praise to our Master Creator in whose book “were all written the days that were ordained for me, when as yet there was not one of them” (Ps. 139:16). Let us say once again in conclusion, with the elders of Revelation, “Worthy are You, our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor and power; for You created all things, and because of Your will they existed, and were created” (Rev. 4:11). Amen!
This page copyright © 2009 Edward A. Morris. Created March 3, 2009. Last updated March 3, 2009.