The World's Architect: Part 2

Allen Webster

Topic(s): Evidences, God, Science

Links to this entire series:

• The World's Architect: Part 1
• The World's Architect: Part 2

We should expressly seek to do something each day that will bring a smile to God’s face. It could be resisting a temptation, talking with Him extra in prayer, singing Him a song of praise in devotion, or speaking up for Him in the workplace. If we look for an opportunity, we will find something each day.

God created for His own glory (Isaiah 43:7, 21). The theme of Scripture is: The salvation of man, through Christ, to God’s glory. How can we fulfill our purpose to glorify Him? “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven” (Matthew 5:16). Our godly lives and good works turn the spotlight on our Father. Paul later gives more specific instructions about the kind of lives that glorify God, based on both gender and chronology (Titus 2:2–9).

Older men¹: What kind of traits would one in this category need to glorify God? “That the aged men be sober, grave, temperate, sound in faith, in charity, in patience” (Titus 2:2).

Older women: We like to keep ourselves in the young category² until past retirement age, but we pass into this stage about the time our children reach adulthood. What characteristics do older women need to glorify God? “The aged women likewise, that they be in behaviour as becometh holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things” (Titus 2:3).

Younger women: This would apply to Christian teens, college age, young adults, but especially to those who have married and started families. What characteristics do they need? “That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed” (Titus 2:4–5).

Younger men: “Young men likewise exhort to be sober minded. In all things shewing thyself a pattern of good works: in doctrine shewing uncorruptness, gravity, sincerity, sound speech, that cannot be condemned; that he that is of the contrary part may be ashamed, having no evil thing to say of you” (Titus 2:6–8).

Practicality. God’s creation—while beautiful—is not just for show. Plants are beautiful to look upon, but many of them are also good to eat! God said, “I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat” (Genesis 1:29). Some that are not tasty, or even healthy to us, are good for animals. Plants are good for medicine, and pro-duce the air that we need to breathe. They provide materials for shelter and clothing.

Animals are graceful and beautiful, but they also serve practical purposes. After the flood God gave permission to eat them, except their blood (Genesis 9:3). They are useful when tamed to do man’s bidding—as a part of the dominion we have been granted over them (Genesis 1:26).

The earth itself is aesthetically pleasing, but its minerals and fossil fuels provide for our needs. Everywhere we look we see that God has tucked away resources for us. For instance, God once asked Job, “Hast thou entered into the treasures of the snow? or hast thou seen the treasures of the hail?” (Job 38:22). For a long time no one understood the benefits that snow provides for man, but now scientists know that

• Snow helps farmers. The cold associated with snow kills many bacteria living in the ground that are harmful to crops.
• Snow is a source of building up the water table which is vitally important in the late summer and fall (cf. Isaiah 55:10).
• Snow insulates the ground. Nighttime temperatures can be more than twenty degrees warmer beneath a layer of snow. This insulation keeps the ground from freezing as deeply, an important safeguard that prevents widespread permafrost.
• A blanket of snow protects small animals, such as mice. Such creatures are part of the food chain, and their survival is necessary to many other creatures.
• Falling snow is an excellent air purifier. Every snowflake captures floating dust particles as it begins its growth. As snow falls, it sweeps other contaminants from the atmosphere.³

Perpetuity

Elaborate ice statues are made for winter festivals, which the artists know will only last a few weeks. Many fast-food restaurants are now designed and built only to last about ten years. They are built to be torn down. Even those who build houses and businesses know they will likely last only one generation—at the best a hundred years.

The divine Architect built His world to last. Man would come and go every three score and ten years (Psalm 90:10), but the earth upon which he walked would last a hundred times longer. God designed the universe so well that it still runs remarkably well thousands of years later. Consider:

• The planets and moons move around inside of galaxies and yet do not run into each other.
• Animals breathe the oxygen that plants give out, and plants need the carbon dioxide that animals can’t use.
• Water is constantly recycled through the condensation/evaporation cycle (cf. Ecclesiastes 1:7).
• Living things are recycled as fertilizer for the next generation (Genesis 3:19; Psalm 104:29; Ecclesiastes 12:7).
• Tides move the water of the too-full seas from one side of the earth to the other each day. ⁴

Amazing architecture! Almighty Architect!

Endnotes:

¹πρεσβύτης presbutēs - an old or aged man - a word which occurs nowhere else in the New Testament except in Luke 1:18, “For I am an old man,” and Philemon, “being such an one as Paul the aged” (Barnes’ Notes).

²The tendency is probably to think of “old men” to be someone much older than us, but the apostle only lists two types—old and young. If we no longer fall into the latter, then we are in the former. In our culture, this would probably refer to those who are mid-forties and above. Robertson’s Word Pictures on Philemon 1:8: Paul was called neanias (a young man) at the stoning of Stephen (Acts 7:58). He was perhaps a bit under sixty now. Hippocrates calls a man presbutēs from 49 to 56 and gerōn after that.

³http://www.creationsensation.com/benefits_of_snow.htm.

⁴As the moon orbits the spinning earth, two high tides and two low tides occur during each 24 hour period at a given location on earth. Due to the moon’s orbit, the time of high tide at a given location shifts progressively 50 minutes later each day.