Essential Tenet #3: God the Father is the author of Creation, and by his providence continues to govern all of Creation.

The next tenet adopted by the Session of First Presbyterian Church of Douglasville is: God the Father is the author of Creation, and by his providence continues to govern all of Creation. To expand on that, we affirm that God created all things visible and invisible, and governs all creatures, actions, and things, from the greatest events to the smallest, by his providence, according to his will.

This tenet first speaks to the question of the origin of life. The common explanation in the scientific community is that the first forms of life emerged through a process often called abiogenesis or biopoiesis. To put it briefly, the earth’s atmosphere was an oxygen-deficient, reducing atmosphere. The first organic molecules emerged when a primordial soup of inorganic compounds were charged by a significant energy source. The simple organic compounds began to replicate forming complex compounds. The complex compounds over an incredibly long period of time replicated into increasingly complex forms of life eventually producing human life. Of course, evolution is what we call the largest portion of that process. There is much, much more to that process, but gives you the big picture.

Is that the correct explanation for the origin of human life? If it is, then is human life an accident or the defiance of the extremely unlikely odds? Many people think so. The Christian message is different. The Christian message is that we exist because God is Creator. There are different ways that Christians understand how God created the world. Some of those views are called young-earth Creationism, old-earth Creationism, theistic evolution (a view that Francis Collins prefers to call BioLogos), or Intelligent Design. Michael Behe, author of Darwin’s Black Box, was one of the pioneers of ID. He would tell you that his ideas were not offering a substitution for evolutionary theory. Instead, he was primarily challenging what he saw as the limitations of evolutionary theory to explain all of life and its diversity. One thing all views have in common is the “who” behind Creation. The God of Abraham and Isaac, the God and Father of Jesus Christ, is the one who creates.

The significance of God as Creator is great. The Creation story in Genesis says that we are made in the image of God. Christians believe that humans are of inestimable value because we bear the mark of God’s image. We possess innate dignity. Consequently, it matters how we treat those that have been considered, at different times and places, as commodities, such as the unborn, slaves, the poor, women, anyone with special needs, and children. We can no longer see one another with any less value than how God sees us. We can no longer remain indifferent when we see human life commodified in any way. Consider for yourself the significance of this tenet. Does it change how you view yourself? Does it change how you view others, born or unborn?

This tenet secondly speaks to what God has been doing since the beginning of Creation. God has not been idle. In fact, he has been very busy preserving and governing creation, walking with us in adversity, and generally guiding all things towards his good purpose. Spurgeon talks about God’s providence this way:

Men come and go, sons follow their sires to the grave, but the undisturbed mind of God moves on in unbroken serenity, producing ordained results with unerring certainty. No man can expect his will or plan to be carried out from age to age; the wisdom of one period is the folly of another, but the Lord's wisdom is always wise, and his designs run on from century to century. His power to fulfill his purposes is by no means diminished by the lapse of years. He who was absolute over Pharaoh in Egypt is not one whit the less today the King of kings and Lord of lords; still do his chariot wheels roll onward in imperial grandeur, none being for a moment able to resist his eternal will.

There may be times we feel like people have it in for us. There may be times we feel under attack from the Evil One. There may be times we think all is lost. Providence says otherwise. God has a plan and a purpose for our lives. It doesn’t mean we will not experience adversity. It means that God defines the end of our story. As the apostle Paul wrote, “Nothing can separate us from the love of God.”

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Here is a link to a video a church member made for this tenet: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6rditzXw7c.