SPRING 2019
WE SEE JESUS IN CREATION
By Elder Kenneth W. Clevenger
The Old Path Contender, Vol. 13, No. 4, Fall 2009
"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth." This carries us back to the creation, which, like everything else that comes from the hand of God, must have been perfect, beautiful, and glorious. Such also was the original condition of man. Made in the image of his Creator, endowed with the breath of God, he was pronounced "very good."
"And the earth was without form and void: and darkness was upon the face of the deep." Darkness is the opposite of light. Well do these words describe the natural condition of our fallen race. Great darkness rests upon the entire mass of unregenerate humanity. But this only furnishes a black background upon which can be displayed the glories of Divine grace. "Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound." The method of this "abounding grace" is, in type, outlined in God's work during the six days of creation: we will briefly consider the first thirteen verses in this study.
When Adam sinned he plunged all his posterity under the curse, which was, "for in the day thou eastest thereof thou shalt surely die." If fallen and sinful men are to be reconciled to the Holy God, what must be done? There "is a great gulf fixed," separating man and Deity, a gulf which no man can cross. How then can this infinite chasm ever be bridged?
Only one answer is possible to these questions. The work of redemption must be by the incarnation of Deity. "And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us." The Word must become flesh. God Himself must come right down to the very pit where the problem lies. The Son of God must take upon Himself the form of a servant and be made in the likeness of sinful flesh. Thusly we shall see in our lesson that, "in the beginning God," and "the Spirit of God moved."
"The Spirit of God moved (Hebrew: "brooded") upon the face of the waters." So also was the order of God in the incarnation of Jesus. "And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the son of God." (Luke 1:35).
"And God said, Let there be light: and there was light," and we read also that "In him was life: and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehendeth it not." (John 1:4,5). So it was when Mary gave birth to the Holy one "The glory of the Lord shone round about" the shepherds watching over their flocks by night, (Luke 2:9). Jesus said, "I am the light of the world." (John 8:12).
"And God saw the light, that it was good." How obvious these words are applicable to the Son of God; the Father said, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." (Matthew 3:17). But how blind man is by nature, that he would see in Him no beauty that he should desire Him. "He came unto his own, and his own received him not" (John 1:11). They (the Jews, His own) declared, in Luke 19:14, "But his citizens hated him, and sent a message after him, saying, We will not have this man to reign over us."
"And God divided the light from the darkness." Which is the work of the Holy Spirit. He divided "the light from darkness," and so He does with men. The light of Jesus was separated from the darkness of fallen man. Jesus said, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but hall have the light of life." (John 8:12). The apostle Paul said to the Thessalonians, "Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness." (I. Thessalonians 5:5). It has always been the work of God to divide light from darkness, to divide the living from the dead. This cannot be the work of man.
"And God called the light Day." God gave the name to the light, and so also it was with Jesus, who was "The Light of the World." It was not left to Joseph and Mary to select the name, but God said, by the angel, "thou shalt call his name Jesus: for he shall save his people from their sins."
"And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters." Jesus said, Suppose ye that I am come to give peace? I tell you, May; but rather division," (Luke 12:51). He said, "And I will put a division between my people and thy people," (Exodus 8:23). "So there was a division among the people because of him," (John 7:43). In the scriptures "waters" symbolize peoples, nations, and tongues. See Revelation 17:15.
Jesus, who was "separated" from His glory, came into the world to make a difference in His people and separate them from all other peoples, and He did. The cross of Christ has become the great divider, as the firmament divided the waters, so the cross has divided the peoples. On the one hand, "the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God." (I. Corinthians 1:18).
When Jesus hung on the cross, He was suspended there between heaven and earth; He was, even for a time, separated from His Father: He was between two thieves, one on each side of Him, one would soon be with Him in paradise, but He would be separated from the other. So as the firmament became the great separator, so it was with Jesus.
The work of the firmament was on the second day of creation. It is deeply significant that God's words, "and God saw that it was good," are omitted at the cloe of this day's work. The complete work of separating the waters were not yet complete, and so did not receive God's words of approval. The work of God are always complete: He never looks beyond Himself for the ultimate completion of any work that He began. So we may be "confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ." (Philippians 1:6). God is the author only of finished works, and He certainly didn't begin the work of eternal salvation and then leave the final stroke of completion to puny incapable man.
Jesus said from the cross, "It is finished," meaning that all the work of the cross was finished, yet there was another work to do before He would complete this work. A dead saviour could not save us, He must finish the work of redemption, He must be resurrected from the dead, and He must ascend to the Father, and He did; for we hear Him say, "I am he that liveth, and was dead: and behold, I am alive for ever more, Amen: and have the keys of hell and of death." (Revelations 1: 18).
"Let the dry land appear." This is the type from our lesson of the resurrection. Previously the earth had been submerged, buried beneath the waters. Now the land is raised above the level of the waters; this is in type, a resurrection. In verse eleven and twelve we read, that the earth which had no life, brought forth the grass, herbs, and trees; it brought forth life. Before, as it were, death had reigned, but now, not on the second day, but on the third day (the resurrection day) the earth brought forth life. It was on the third day that Jesus arose from the dead. Jesus said, I am the resurrection." "And God saw that it was good. And the morning and the evening were the third day."
"And God made two great Light." The greater light is the Sun, the lesser light is the Moon. Typically speaking the sun refers to Jesus, "But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness" arise with healing in his wing," (Malachi 4:2). The moon refers to His church, which receives her light from the Sun. Their functions are to give light upon the earth, and to rule over the night and day. Jesus said, "I am the light of the world," and to the church He says, "Let your light so shine." They both are high and lifted up above all other things in the world, so it is with Jesus and His church.
Just a few thoughts, much more might be written, but this will suffice for the present time.
May God bless us all,
Elder Kenneth W. Clevenger
Macon, Missouri
August 2009.
JESUS AND THE DINOSAUR
By Elder Kenneth W. Clevenger
The Old Path Contender, Vol. 6, No. 1, Winter 2002,
reprinted in Winter 2015 issue
Several years ago, a church that I was pastoring agreed to invite a certain Elder, which had a good report (this brother was older and had been in the ministry several years longer than me) to come and preach for them while I was away keeping some preaching appointments.
A young sister in the church there had a little family consisting of her husband, who had recently joined the church, and three children: two daughters who were in grade school and a young son who had not started to school. This young mother asked the visiting Elder if he believed there were ever dinosaurs on earth. He said, "No, I don't believe there have ever been any such animals on earth and they (the dinosaurs) are the figments of men's imagination." She returned, "But what about the bones that men have found that seem to make up the skeletons of dinosaurs on display in some museums?" His answer: "God put those bones in the earth just to confound men, and to expose their ignorance."
That Elder charged God of being the author of confusion, but He certainly isn't. However, he (the visiting Elder) certainly showed himself to be confused and ignorant concerning the great Behemoth and Leviathan (dinosaurs) spoken of in the Scriptures.
I was never able to completely undo the harm that Elder did: he had been a favorite Elder of the young sister since she was a little girl, and she had great respect and confidence in him (I was several years younger than him, and I feel she had more confidence in him than me.) She wasn't able to completely put out of her mind those things he told her that day, although I used the scriptures to show that those monsters did at one time, although extinct now, inhabit earth. Also, she wasn't as zealous as she should have been to learn the truth, consequently her children were never persuaded to the truth concerning dinosaurs, but like most children, including many Primitive Baptist children, have been turned over to the world to be taught their fabrications concerning the presence of the earth and the dinosaurs.
I became acutely aware from that experience that the Genesis record of creation and the record of re-creation (during the great flood) desperately needed to be taught in the church and by the parents in the home. If the truth concerning the Lord's record of creation and re-creation is not taught in Lord's church by His ministering servants, who teach under the tutelage of the Holy Ghost, then the Lord's children of all ages will be left in the hands of the Antichrist to be taught his lies (evolution). Satan has been given full reign in the educational institutions, the media, and in the world of science, to poison with his accursed doctrine (evolution, etc.) the minds of the Lord's people (young and old). On the other hand, the Lord's record of creation and re-creation (events during and after the flood) are not allowed to be taught, even for comparison sake. Sorrowfully, most all the people in the world, including the Lord's children in the church, believe Satan's accursed doctrines.
This unhampered success, for the most part, is because the Lord's record of creation and re-creation (the Divine disposition during the great flood to continue the species of men) has not been taught in the Lord's church and in the homes. Continuing the species of men is necessary for the fulfillment of the Eternal Covenant, that is until every child of God that was chosen before the creation of the world is born into this world.
Satan's accursed doctrine of evolution endeavors to rob God of His glory as the Creator: by denying that God spoke the world into existence, and thusly inferring that God will not have the power to speak to the sleeping dust and raise the bodies of His saints and all others at the resurrection of the just and unjust. It will take the same power to speak to our sleeping bodies to come forth out of the earth as it did to speak the world into existence. Satan hates the doctrine of the resurrection.
The apostle Peter said concerning re-creation (the earth after the flood), "For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water: Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished: But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men," (II. Peter 3:5-7).
Peter prophesied exactly what the scoffers would do, and are still doing; they continue being "willingly ignorant." If they (scoffers-unbelievers) really want to know the truth, concerning the abundant evidence of a great flood, then why not, instead of trying to explain it as a process of evolution, consult God's written word (the Bible) and find the truth concerning creation and re-creation, as given by the One who did it? The answer, They WILLINGLY are IGNORANT." This makes us wonder about their intelligence; however, we should not be surprised at anything that they may fabricate in their lustful imagination. We must be careful not to be carried away with the devised fables of the Anti-Christ.
The flood and its associated earthquakes and volcanoes brought about great structural changes to the earth's crust with its folding and faulting, and many other geophysical phenomena, which cold never have been produced by present processes. Thus, it can never be discovered from present natural forces. The evidence of the flood and the overwhelming evidence of special creation following the flood are so clearly evident that God, by the apostle Peter, has charged the evolutionists and other scoffers that "they willingly are ignorant." (2 Peter 3:6). The geological formation, stratus and fossil beds all over the earth give everlasting evidence that "the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished." (2 Peter 3:6).
If God not had not, by special creation, provided for the continuation of life following the great flood, and "brake up" for the flood waters a decreed place" and made other global changes, and by His power alone continues to keep and provide, all life would have perished; "But the heaven and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store" (2 Peter 3:7); see Psalm 104:5-14.
Most of the earth's great fossil graveyards were formed by the flood, but we know that each animal species in the dry land was preserved on Noah's ark, to continue its kind after the flood. Thus Job and his contemporaries would have seen many animals that later became extinct, possibly due to the extreme climatic changes and vastly depleted resources following the flood. For sure it is a blessing from God in men's behalf that these ferocious monsters - dragons - serpents (dinosaurs) were not allowed to continue on the earth.
Another thing the scoffers would find out is, that dinosaurs are recorded in the scriptures, and God tells us exactly when He created them: "Behold now behemoth (dinosaur), which I made with thee; he eateth grass as an ox," (Job 40:15). Now listen to what these educated ignoramuses (by their own choice, remember) have to say about dinosaurs (the term was invented by Sir Richard Owen in 1842). They say, "the now-defunct beasts (dinosaurs) lived about 225 to 160 million years ago (quite a leeway in time) and continued until about 65 million years ago, and they mysteriously vanished with only their titanic bones as evidence of their existence."
These long-extinct monsters, they say, are relics of a more primitive and experimental stage in the history of life. They (the dinosaurs) evolved into many sizes and shapes, and now actually live on today as birds: they say that the dinosaurs, in the experimental stages of evolution, were found to be too large to adapt to a successful way of life on earth and consequently died out, but technically it is wrong to say they are extinct, but live on today as birds. So, the next time you see the tiny little hummingbird, you might want to remember that those tiny little fellow's ancestors were dinosaurs. The hummingbird weighs maybe a little more than an ounce and his ancestors weighed six tons. Keep in mind these deceivers and enemies of truth are "willingly ignorant." Strange as it may seem, there are many more people who believe their fabrications (lies) than there are those who believe God's record of creation and re-creation.
A cast of Tyrannosaurus Rex's (T Rex, as he is more fondly known, is the most popular dinosaur at the present time, and known to nearly every school child) skeleton is on display at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (excavated in 1990). T Rex stood approximately 15 feet high and was about 40 feet in length, and was roughly six tons in weight. In its large mouth were six-inch long, sharp, serrated teeth (and I have no problem believing their huge size). However, I don't believe they lived 225 million years ago, and live on today as birds. But, keep in mind, these people are "willingly ignorant," so we ought to expect a blatant display of their ignorance. My source for these facts were obtained from the internet: www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/diadsidsdinosaur.html
Behemoth (land dinosaurs) and Leviathan (aquatic dinosaurs) were given their name by Adam in the Garden of Eden; "And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field." (Genesis 2:20).
God directs Job's attention to the greatest animal of all, Behemoth (which means a gigantic beast), "Behold now behemoth, which I made with thee; he eateth grass as an ox. Lo now, his strength is in his loins, and his force is in the navel of his belly. He moveth his tail like a cedar: the sinews of his stones are wrapped together. His bones are as strong pieces of brass; his bones are like bars of iron. He is the chief of the ways of God: he that made him can make his sword to approach unto him." (Job 40:15-19).
This is God's description of the dinosaur (and the description will fit no other animal). God pointed out to Job, and to us, that although Behemoth is "the chief of the ways of God," indicating that he was the largest of all animals, and despite the fact that no man could approach him, God assured Job that He could. Likewise, Jesus was the only one who could approach the Behemoth (Satan and the penalty of sin) in our behalf. The Dinosaur could not stand before Jesus; the giant before David or Satan before Jesus.
Job's present condition was a living example, although Satan (Behemoth) was instrumental in bringing extreme physical and mental misery on him, he was not able to touch Job's life: Satan could go no farther than God would suffer him to go. The Dinosaur could not stand before Jesus.
Notice that God points out to Job, "Behold now behemoth, which I made with thee." The point is that God is the Creator of both man and beast. These behemoth (dinosaurs) are now extinct, but they were alive and roaming the earth in Job's day. It never occurs to modern scholars that mankind once lived in the world with the great animals that are now found only as fossils. The Bible clearly teaches that all animals, living or extinct, were made on the fifth and sixth days of creation week, along with man, who was given dominion over them: see Genesis 1:20-27. Although the evolutionists claim the dinosaurs are prehistoric, but God gives their history: "Behold now behemoth which I made with thee."
In Job chapter 41, God describes Leviathan, an aquatic dinosaur. Again, if the scoffers who are "willfully ignorant" would listen to the description of Leviathan given here, they could fill in a lot of the blanks in their mysterious case of the dinosaur.
In Isaiah 27:1, God refers to Leviathan as "the piercing serpent, even leviathan that crooked serpent," and "the dragon that is in the sea." The Behemoth and the Leviathan symbolize the great power and pride of the wicked one, Satan. Even though no one else could conquer Behemoth, God assured Job that God's own sword could reach him. The same was true of Leviathan. "None is so fierce that dare stir him up: who then is able to stand before me? Who hath prevented me, that I should repay him? whatsoever is under the whole heaven is mine," (Job 41:10-11). No person could stand before either Leviathan or satan, but they (Leviathan or Satan) could not stand before the God of creation. The Dinosaur could not stand before Jesus.
The analogy here i, like David killing the giant Goliath and God's judgment on Gog, and Gideon's victory of the valley of Jezreel, all are symbolic of the greatest victory ever: the victory of Jesus in His visitation here in this world, (in the valley of Jezreel, Megiddo, Esdraelon or Armageddon) where He, the Greater David, met Satan (Goliath, Behemoth and Leviathan, all huge monsters that are symbolic of sin and Satan) and won the battle in behalf of his people: "And I will put enmity between thee and thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel." The victory is ours; Jesus fought the Dinosaur, and won the battle. The Dinosaur could not stand before Jesus.
"And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads. And his tail (the dragon) drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood before the woman which as ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born. And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne. And the great dragon as cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him:" See Revelations 12:3-9, this is another scriptural example for us to see, that the Dinosaur (Dragon) could not stand before Jesus.
One more, although there are others, and we will quit. "And when he (Jesus) was come to the other side into the country of the Gergesenes, there met him two possessed with devils, coming out of the tombs, exceeding fierce, so that no man might pass by that way. And, behold, they cried out, saying, What have we to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God? art thou come hither to torment us before the time? And there was a good way off from them an herd of many swine feeding. So the devils (Dinosaurs) besought him, saying, If thou cast us out, suffer us to go away into the herd of swine: and, behold, the whole herd of swine ran violently down a steep place into the sea, and perished in the waters." See Matthew 8:28-32.
The Dinosaur could not stand before Jesus of the giant before the greater David or Satan before Jesus.
