How We Got Here

In Isaiah 40, God is speaking to His people and communicating a simple, yet powerful, message: pay
attention! We can read these verses:
28 Have you not known? Have you not heard? The everlasting God, the Lord, The Creator of the ends of the earth, Neither faints nor is weary. His understanding is unsearchable.
29 He gives power to the weak, And to those who have no might He increases strength.

Our Creator, who is mighty and glorious, tells us that He will give us strength - and we can trust that!  Paul writes in 2nd Corinthians that when we are weak, He is strong.  When we consider that God has made the heavens and earth and has created us in His image, we can be more convinced that He is able to work in our lives today.  We can draw strength from His Word and we can rely on His Spirit for direction and for empowerment, being reminded of His presence daily, moment by moment.

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We bring our worship to a mighty and majestic God, the One Who made the universe and Who rules and reigns, whose hand can be seen all around us. Colossians 1 states, referring to Jesus:
15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.
16 For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him.
17 And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist.

How did we get here?  As the human species, that is.  The Bible presents a clear narrative, and it has been dismissed because there are those that do not think that the Biblical account, inspired and transmitted by God - eyewitness at creation - is scientific enough, or fits man's ideas.  But, we can be convinced that God created the heavens and the earth and placed a man and a woman in a garden.  We carry the evidence of His design and bear His image.

ChristianHeadlines.com reports on a new Gallup survey on origins.  The article states:

Forty percent of Americans say they believe “God created human beings pretty much in their present form at one time within the last 10,000 years or so,” according to a Gallup poll released July 26. It is an increase from 38 percent in 2017, the last time Gallup asked the question.

Another 33 percent believe “human beings have developed over millions of years from less advanced forms of life, but God guided this process.”

So, while that 40 percent statistic is up over 2017, there is another, not so encouraging stat.  According to the article: "Still another 22 percent – an all-time-high – believe 'human beings have developed over millions of years from less advanced forms of life, but God had no part in this process.'"  But, overall, almost three-quarters of those surveyed believe that God had some hand in the formation of humanity as we know it.

As the Christian Headlines piece states:

Americans’ answers differ greatly based on their religion and church attendance. Sixty-eight percent of Americans who attend church weekly say they believe that God created humans in the past 10,000 years. Among those who seldom or never attend church, only 27 percent pick that answer.

A note here: the article says that, "Although the word 'evolution' isn’t used in Gallup’s three choices for answers, the text describes the evolutionary process."

I think there are several points we can consider related to this survey.  First of all, when we read Genesis, we can be convinced that the Bible lays out the story of creation.  Not only that, but the evidence of creation is all around us, including when we look in the mirror.  Uniquely crafted, with intricate DNA and biological characteristics, humanity reflects the Scripture in Psalm 139 that we are "fearfully and wonderfully made."  We are the product of a Creator, who has designed us and made us in His image.  Creation as a whole reflects the work of a careful, creative, and all-powerful designer.

That Creator wants to have a relationship with us, and to admit there is a Creator means that we are accountable for meeting His standards.  The heavens and the earth and His created beings all tell a story, the story of a God who has placed the earth in the solar system in just the right place to sustain life.  His handiwork is undoubtable, and His Word is true - if we believe in the inerrancy and accuracy of Scripture, then we have to admit that the Genesis account is true.