Another department in which the god of this age is active with propaganda is
that of Science. Science is the modern idol before which all are called to bow.
Science is, strictly, knowledge, but much that passes for knowledge is mere
speculation and hypothesis.
Take, for instance, the idea that permeates the text-books of all scientific
study to-day -- that of Evolution. When the scientist approaches the Scriptures
he excuses his apparent lack of reverence by the plea that science is concerned
only with that which can be demonstrated and proved. Let us test the doctrine
of evolution by the scientists' own standard. While the theories of Darwin are
rapidly becoming discredited in the highest scientific circles, the ordinary
scientist is still found quoting and asserting his doctrines. In Darwin's two
principal works the expression, 'We may well suppose' occurs more than eight
hundred times. It looks as though the scientific mind wanted to believe Darwin's
theory at all costs.
Dr. Etheridge, of the British Museum, has said :
'Nine tenths of the talk of evolutionists is sheer nonsense, not founded on observation and wholly unsupported by fact. This Museum is full of proofs of the utter falsity of their views'.
It is safe to say that had Darwin known the researches and findings of Mendel,
his 'Origin of Species' would never have been written.
Dr. Shadduck points out one cause for this unscientific eagerness to parade
mere hypothesis as science :
'It is not so much where men came from as it is where he is going, that disturbs sinners. The front end of the Bible is not so offensive to the "modernist" as the last end. If God did not create man from the dust, He will not raise him from the dust (Dan. 12:2). Comparatively few men read with comfort of a "white throne" and opening books on the reckoning day of God, and it will comfort many if the first three chapters of the book can be so emptied of meaning that the last three will be upset with lopsidedness'.
It is not necessary that we should review the theories of the evolutionists.
We are content to accept the scientist's own dictum, that science deals with
that which can be demonstrated and proved, and the most ardent advocate of evolution
is obliged to withdraw when this criterion is maintained.
The first chapter of the book of Genesis is fundamental to all Scripture. The
occupant of a New York sky-scraper maintaining that, living so high up, he was
not at all concerned as to what was happening to the foundations, would be as
unreasonable as would be a believer in the teachings of Ephesians, with its
blessings in heavenly places, who said that we could afford to dispense with
Genesis 1.
The beginning of Genesis is fundamental to the Law; its teaching is bound up
with the ten commandments.
'For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is' (Exod. 20:11).
The facts of Genesis 1 permeate the Prophets (see Isa. 42:5). Notice how the
special character of the 'heaven' made on the second day is reiterated in Isaiah
(40:22; 44:24; 45:11-13).
'Firmament' is the translation of the Hebrew word raqia, and means thinness
-- 'something stretched out'.
The third division of the Old Testament -- 'The Psalms' -- is full of references
to Genesis 1 (see Psa. 8; 19; 95; 104; 136:5-9; 146:5,6).
The New Testament retains unmodified the teaching of Genesis 1 (see Acts 14:15;
17:23-26; 2 Cor. 4:6; Heb. 1:8-11; Rev. 4:11, and 14:6,7).
The following extract from Appendix 5 of The Companion Bible may be useful:
'The introduction to Genesis (and to the whole Bible) -- Gen. 1:1 to 2:3, ascribes everything to the living God, creating, making, acting, moving, and speaking. There is no room for evolution without a flat denial of Divine revelation. One must be true, the other false. All God's works were pronounced "good" seven times, viz., Gen. 1:4,10,12,18,21,25,31. They are "great", Psa. 111:2; Rev. 15:3. They are "wondrous", Job 37:14. They are "perfect", Deut. 32:4.
Man starts from nothing. He begins in helplessness, ignorance, and inexperience. All his works, therefore, proceed on the principle of evolution. This principle is seen only in human affairs: from the hut to the palace; from the canoe to the ocean liner; from the spade and ploughshare to machines for drilling, reaping, and binding, etc. But the birds build their nests to-day as at the beginning. The moment we pass the boundary line, and enter the Divine sphere, no trace or vestige of evolution is seen'.
The reader who would appreciate the testimony of a scientist on this important
theme should consider the writings of George McCready Price, M.A. 'The Phantom
of Organic Evolution', originally published by Revell, is a good book with which
to start.