The Humility Factor

This special issue focuses on God’s role in our understanding of fossils. His Word is the key that helps us unlock the mysteries of the universe (see “Stumbling Stones or Stepping Stones,” p. 35). But what’s our part in the equation?

Humility is what we bring to the table.

God promises to give us wisdom liberally, without reproach, if we come to Him in humility. On the flip side, God actually hides truth from those who refuse to trust Him.

God promises to give us wisdom liberally, without reproach, if we come to Him in humility (James 1:5). Being humble is something anyone can do! It doesn’t take a big brain or years of schooling. Even a child can be humble.

On the flip side, God actually hides the truth from those who refuse to trust Him (Matthew 11:25). As a result those who reject God’s Word in these last days are “ever learning and never coming to a knowledge of the truth” (2 Timothy 3:7).

What a delicious irony! God ordered the world in such a way that His truth is readily available, as easy to access as the nearest Bible, but only those who come to Him in childlike faith can find it.

The sad irony is that we Christians often get accused of arrogance because we trust the Bible absolutely and stand behind it as the infallible truth, tolerating no alternatives. In our world, that absolutism is condemned as the height of arrogance.

It seems to me that Christians who hold this high view of Scripture are the ones who display true humility. Who are we clay pots to denounce the Potter (Isaiah 29:16–17)? Who are we to set up our opinions against the Almighty?

I’ve run into such accusations of arrogance myself. During the spring before the opening of the Creation Museum, a writer for the New York Times was sitting among a group of creationists at a late-night blab session during a science conference. I mentioned how marvelous it was that God could do so much through just a handful of faithful followers.

In the back of my mind, I was thinking of the verse “Five of you shall chase a hundred, and a hundred of you shall put ten thousand to flight” (Leviticus 26:8). I had intended to praise the handiwork of God, not that of humble men.

But here’s how it came out in the writer’s book later that year: “ ‘With just a little money, a handful of young scientists have done what the other side has done in over two hundred years,’ Matthews bragged. ‘Poor little thing called evolution.’ ”

The fact that we praise God for working this way is not pride or arrogance, unless you consider it arrogance to brag about our heavenly Father. I consider it praising Him when we build our understanding of fossils (and everything else in the world) on His Word. It is the only logical thing for humans to do, and He has promised to bless the efforts of those who turn to Him for wisdom.

It takes the eyes of humble faith for humans to see that “the whole earth is full of His glory” (Isaiah 6:3). God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. It’s His marvelous way.

To His name be praise, for the marvelous works He has done!