Part 8—The Seventh of the 7 C’s: Consummation

And these ideas can also have a profound effect on how believers understand the 7th C on our journey through the Bible’s timeline—the future Consummation of all things.

The Blessed Hope of Believers

Although there are differing views among committed believers as to exactly how these future events will unfold, almost all Christians hold to certain fundamental beliefs regarding our future because of the clarity of Scripture.

And this is the assurance that those who have repented and placed their faith in the finished work of Christ look forward to the coming consummation of all things, when the curse will be removed, and God will provide a new heaven and new earth for his children.

Simply put, the blessed hope of the believer is that creation will one day be fully restored to its sinless state—similar (but even better, with no possibility of sin occurring) to how it was in the beginning before the fall.

There will be no death or mourning or crying or pain as Revelation 21:4 clearly reveals, and we will live with God forever—Christ will be present with us in bodily form—with all of creation being upheld by the Word of his power perfectly.

Restored to Which “Beginning”?

However, for those Christians who’ve adopted the secular view regarding earth’s origins as occurring over billions of years of death, suffering, and disease having occurred prior to Adam’s fall, what should we expect the creation to be restored to—more long ages of death and suffering?

The details of the creation account really do matter and are essential to an understanding of all Christian doctrines directly or indirectly.

The fact is belief in millions of years and/or the story of evolution affects nearly every aspect of biblical theology in an extremely negative fashion. The details of the creation account really do matter and are essential to an understanding of all Christian doctrines directly or indirectly.

As stated previously, if Adam and Eve weren’t real historical figures from which all mankind descended, then who are our ancestors, and who can be saved? If Adam’s fall was not a real event in history, then what is sin, where did it come from, and what are its effects? How do we know—or could we explain—we are sinners? If Adam and Eve weren’t created just as Genesis records, then the doctrine of marriage is meaningless.

If the days of creation aren’t ordinary days, then there’s no basis for the seven-day week, and God’s Word doesn’t have to mean what the language clearly states (Exodus 20:11). If the earth is millions of years old, and death, disease, and bloodshed existed before sin, then the gospel is undermined.

A Story Arc of Redemption

As we look at the 7 C’s of History, we can see that it all ultimately focuses on our Creator, Savior, and Redeemer, the Lord Jesus Christ. It shows how God created a very good world that was marred by sin because of Adam’s disobedience and how Jesus came to pay the penalty for sin (death—both physically and spiritually), and how he will one day restore the world to its very good state.

We can see the connective symmetry between the first C (the very good, uncorrupted creation) and the 7th C (the renewed and restored world that will be at the coming Consummation).

We see how the 2nd C—Corruption—brought sin and death into the world and how at the 6th C —Cross—Jesus came to pay the penalty for sin by willingly sacrificing himself on it.

We see how the only way to escape judgement at the 3rd C—(the Catastrophe of Noah’s flood)—was to pass through the one and only door that led to safety inside the ark, and how today, the only path to salvation is by entering the “one door” provided by faith in Jesus Christ.

I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. (John 10:9)

And as we saw when examining the 4th C—Confusion (at the Tower of Babel)—all of humanity is subject to the truths that emanate from the clear teachings of biblical history because there is only one race, the human race. We are all descendants of Adam, and only the descendants of Adam can be saved by our “kinsmen redeemer,” Jesus.

Operational vs Historical Science

It is quite obvious that this explanation of the 7 C’s agrees with what all of the relevant passages in the Bible plainly reveal—it only disagrees with what the six stages of the story of evolution claim.

And this is a stumbling block for many Christians as they believe biblical creation somehow brings the Bible into conflict with science, and so, we should compromise the plain reading of Genesis to make it comport with it somehow. So how do we maintain our blessed hope of a future consummation in light of the facts we observe in science?

Different Types of Science

Bible-believing creationists have consistently maintained that there is no conflict between facts that we see in the present as they relate to the history we see in the Bible. In other words, there is no conflict between science and the Bible.

Now there are reasons for the average person’s (and scientists, for that matter) trust in science. True experimental science involves repeatable, observable testing of phenomena in specific conditions with results that we can observe in real time.

An easily understood example is boiling water. To discover at what temperature water boils, one can simply put water in a pot and heat it up. When the water starts to boil, use a thermometer to check the temperature.

Now there are qualifiers of course. Is the pot at sea level? Higher, lower? Is the water pure, salty, etc.? But the principle is that under the same conditions, experimental science done according to the scientific method reveals the same results. And this is the kind of science that people understand “proves” things.

Operational vs Historical Science

However, for example, any forensic scientist will tell you there is another type of science they deal with on a daily basis that simply doesn’t work that way. Their work certainly does take advantage of the fantastic tool that is operational science, but they also have to use historical science as well.

Why? Because, by definition, they are attempting to find out about past events that cannot be repeated over and over again such as experimental science can, and they weren’t there to see it happen. This is true of all forms of historical science (sometimes called origins science) and is the very type of science applied to the creation/evolution debate.

There are still facts to collect, data to analyze, and experiments to do regarding the surroundings of the crime and the objects within it (which may fall under operational science), but those facts can be interpreted in a variety of ways.

For example, when we observe soft tissue in dinosaur bones (an undisputed fact now in the scientific community), we maintain that it supports biblical history because those creatures obviously died out just a short time ago.

When we observe trees extending through tens of meters of sedimentary rock, we say it supports the history in the Bible where it describes a global flood, which would bury objects rapidly.

When we observe incredible, mind-blowingly complex coded language systems such as DNA regulating the construction, maintenance, and functionality of all living things, we maintain that it supports the idea of the omnipotent Creator of the Bible using his ultimate intelligence to create and sustain life.

We would also say that evolutionary interpretations of those same facts are wrong. There is no mysterious way soft tissue could have lasted for supposed “millions of years.”

Trees getting buried slowly over thousands of years makes no sense because fossils needed to be buried rapidly, or they would have rotted and disintegrated long before they ever became permineralized.

And coded language systems have only ever been observed from an intelligent mind, so believing they came about by random chance processes makes no sense of DNA’s existence.

Again, no one was there to see the origin of these things so the data can be interpreted a variety of ways, but the only conflict between the plain reading of the Bible is between the evolutionary interpretations of these facts, not the facts themselves.

No Such Thing as Historical Science?

You will often hear evolutionary apologists attempt to blunt this point (regarding operational versus historical science) by claiming biblical creationists are making up a dichotomy in science that simply doesn’t exist.

They have accused us several times of fabricating the category of origins science in an attempt to obfuscate what they claim is the better interpretation of facts, by claiming theirs is the only logical interpretation possible.

However, several evolutionists who understand the true nature of science have made the point for us. For example, evolutionary giant Ernst Mayr admitted,

Evolutionary biology, in contrast with physics and chemistry, is a historical science—the evolutionist attempts to explain events and processes that have already taken place.

Laws and experiments are inappropriate techniques for the explication of such events and processes. Instead one constructs a historical narrative, consisting of a tentative reconstruction of the particular scenario that led to the events one is trying to explain.1

And further confirmation comes from E. O. Wilson, an evolutionary biologist so influential he has been dubbed “The New Darwin” and “the Darwin of the twenty-first century” by his colleagues.

If a moving automobile were an organism, functional biology would explain how it is constructed and operates, while evolutionary biology would reconstruct its origin and history—how it came to be made and its journey thus far.2

And in case you may think me discussing forensic science to the origins debate is somehow a stretch, the link between origins research and forensics has been noticed by evolutionists as well, with one evolutionary researcher commenting in Nature magazine,

Research into evolution is a bit like forensic detective work. Because it’s impossible to carry out million-year experiments, we instead look at what evolution has produced and try to figure out what happened and why.3

Again, there is no conflict between what we see in God’s Word and what we see in his world; there is only a conflict between biblical history and the false history of the six stages of the story of evolution. However, some believers have come to think of alternate views on Genesis as similar to denominational differences, but this is far from accurate. Why?

The Origins Debate Is Not a Denominational Issue

As mentioned, there are several denominational interpretations as to how various believers believe the 7th C (the Consummation of all things) will come about. And of course, many knowledgeable, committed Christians have differing views on a wide variety of theological topics like modes of baptism, soteriology, etc.

So, when we talk about needing to stand on the authority of the Word of God in the area of origins, some Christians lump those ideas together and, as mentioned, conclude that the creation issue is like any other denominational issue.

They don’t see the various interpretations of creation (gap theory, progressive creation, theistic evolution, etc.) as necessarily compromising or unbiblical positions and think, “Why should this issue be any different?”

What those Christians may have failed to consider is the question of the source of their belief about the various positions they hold. For example, if two Christians are discussing their differing stances about “end times,” what would they cite as the reason for their position? What would their starting point or “source” of their belief be?

Each would undoubtedly open their Bible and point to various texts in Scripture as to why they hold their interpretation of the topic. The same would go for baptism or any other theological stance. Their starting point would be the Word of God! What other sources besides Scripture would they use to justify their position? None.

But the origins issue is different. The starting point for any other position other than the scripturally derived, biblical creationist position never originates from the text of the Bible. For example, what about the topic of the age of the earth as it applies to the origins issue?

Every other position on origins argues for a belief in God using millions of years to create. But where does that belief come from? Certainly not Scripture. It inevitably comes from the non-biblical interpretations in various scientific disciplines that are commonly taught in the Western secularized school system and throughout public institutions and media outlets.

A good question to ask someone that holds to a position other than biblical creation is: “Can you name the top three Bible passages that convinced you God used millions of years to create?” Most people’s lists are quite short!

These ideas are typically derived from radiometric dating arguments from geology or distant starlight from astronomy, not Scripture. Bible verses (used out of context) are just referenced as a biblical justification afterward to create the appearance of “deep time” being a biblically acceptable concept.

This is why the church fathers, the Reformers, and most Christians throughout history overwhelmingly held to the idea of a young earth until the promotion of old-earth ideas (originating from outside the church!) in the late 1700s and early 1800s.

Prior to this, Bible commentaries did not reference gap theory/progressive creation/theistic evolution, etc., because they were simply not available in the theological marketplace.

This is a clear indication of the fact that old-earth and evolutionary ideas are not of biblical origin; otherwise, Christians would have clearly seen them before old-earth and evolutionary ideas had been popularized.

Unifying Message for the Church

Ultimately, the origins issue is an authority issue, not a denominational one.

Ultimately, the origins issue is an authority issue, not a denominational one. It comes down to what your starting point is: the infallible Word of God from the Creator who was always there or the fallible opinions of men who were not?

That is what biblical authority is all about and why all Christians should embrace the unifying message that God’s Word should be trusted from the very first verse to the very last. And this is why the 7 C’s are the backbone of a consistent Christian worldview, where the whole council of God’s Word can be proclaimed and defended scripturally, intellectually, and scientifically.

In this way, God’s army won’t be confused with mixed messages declaring people should take parts of Scripture as plainly written—such as Jesus’ (the last Adam) life, death, and resurrection—but not the Genesis 1–11 account of the first Adam’s fall (which is why we need Jesus).

Summary

We trust you’ve enjoyed our journey through the 7 C’s of History (Creation, Corruption, Catastrophe, Confusion, Christ, Cross, Consummation) as a memorable way of showing that the Bible is the true history book of the universe.

We hope that you will continue to study God’s Word along with apologetic materials that will help you see that these seven C’s connect with real events that help us understand not only the spiritual truths they touch upon—such as the origin of sin and the need for salvation—but the earthly things they relate to as well such as fossils, rock layers, people groups, and more.

As always, begin with faith in the authority of God’s Word versus the word of fallible man and you won’t be led astray.

If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways. (James 1:5–8)