"In the Beginning"

I. INTRODUCTION.

"Behold your God !" Isa. 40:9.

"Worship Him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters." Rev. 14:7. This expression equivalent to Greek kosmos, or universe. Object of this discourse is to encourage faith and worship; and to counteract superstition and magic. Definitions.

2. MODERN PAGANISM.

Ancients had difficult time to account for universe without a God. They taught matter to be eternal; hence their god was merely a builder, not a real creator. Strangely enough, this absurd idea has been revived in modern times, by such men as the late H. G. Wells. Most evolutionists hold this view. All this a libel on Jehovah, the Creator, for it makes evil something inherent in matter, or the stuff of the universe—always was and always will be. These moral (ethical) ob­jections to evolution theory are stronger and more important than the scientific, though the latter are conclusive enough.

3. METHODS BY WHICI:1 GOD TEACHES US. Nature is only one of methods by which God teaches us. Other methods are Scriptures, divine providences, and direct action of Holy Spirit. All these are perverted and counter­feited by Satan.

4. SCIENCE WITH GOD LEFT OUT.

A blind man groping in the dark. Abundance of modern testimony to this effect.

5. MODERN DEISM.

a. "False science" to make "marked distinction" between natural and supernatural. Testimonies, vol. 8, pp. 259, 260.

b. No "independent laws of nature." "It is through the immediate [direct or without any medium] agency of God" that the various phenomena of nature take place. Review and Herald, Nov. 8, 1898. Cady's Principles of True Science, p. 424.

c. Deism, or theory of an absentee God, contradicted by Nehemiah 9:6; Isaiah 40:26; Psalms 104:27, 28; Hebrews 1:3.

d. Scientifically, deism is contradicted by phenomena of "action at a distance," such as gravitation, magnetic and other "attractions" (which admit of no scientific explanation), taken in connection with law of conservation of energy. (See Gen­esis Vindicated, pp. 81-89.)

6. ORIGINAL CREATION.

Now confirmed by such high-grade scientists as Sir J. H. Jeans, Arthur Eddington, A. H. Compton, etc. "Everything points with over­whelming force to a definite event, or series of events, of creation at some time or times not infinitely remote."—JEAN, Eos, p. 55, (London, 1928.)

7. THE SABBATH VS. EVOLUTION.

a. Theory of geological "ages," with its fuller expression in theory of organic evolution, promotes belief in Deism on part of those who still believe in a su­preme Deity. But Sabbath is a protest against all false ideas about origin of world, and about way in which universe is now managed by its Creator.

b. Modern Sabbath reform arose about same time as evolution theory (in its geological form); and now these two ideas (Sab­bath and evolution philosophy) are rivals and antagonists for attention and alle­giance of modern men and women.

8. TIMELINESS OF THE SABBATH.

a. All true reforms have been timed for a particular world situation. Last-day Sab­bath reform is divinely adapted to needs of present day. See last chapter in Genesis Vindicated.

b. God's creative power needs to be empha­sized; for creative power is only power that can redeem or save soul from sin.

9. SUMMARY: Both God's original creation and His present-day methods of managing His universe are memorialized by Sabbath. Mes­sage of the Sabbath needs to be "proclaimed more fully" by God's messengers today.