The other day I read in a modern textbook on elementary science this statement, "The earth's history begins with its birth from a c l o u d of primeval dust. " The textbook didn't say where the cloud of primeval dust came from. But the first verse in the Bible says, "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth." I accept this for two reasons:

(1) Because I believe the Bible to be revelation from God.

(2) This is the only sensible explanation of the origin of matter I have ever heard.

The textbook referred to admits that, "our description of azoic times must be based on indirect evidence and scientific guesswork." But atheists reject the Bible account of creation because they think that belief in an eternal and self-existent God is unrealistic and unscientific. Atheists don't like to be bothered with origins. They prefer to start with something already in existence. (Like a fellow building a twenty-story building and trying to leave out the first floor.) But give him a "cloud of primeval dust" to start with and it is amazing what theories he can build. But let's be realistic for a minute and consider origins. The origin of matter, to be specific.

(1) Is matter eternal? If anyone thinks so, I haven't heard about it. (2) Did matter create itself? If so, then it acted before it existed. That would be quite a trick. If anyone thinks that, I don't believe I have anything to say to, him. He'll be alright. (3) If it did not create itself, then it was created by some outside force. Who, or what, was that force? The Bible says it was God. Atheism says, "we don't know, but we know it wasn't God." And that's the scientific (?) approach. Josh Billings used to say, "It ain't what we don't know that's hurtin' us. It's knowin' so many things that ain't so.''

There had to be a first cause, an uncaused cause. There cannot be an endless chain of dependent causes. To illustrate: The egg came from the chicken, which chicken in turn came from an egg, which egg came from another chicken and so on back. But there had to be somewhere a first chicken or a first egg. Every effect has its cause. The cause must be adequate to produce the effect. My typewriter is an effect. There had to be a cause. It had to be an intelligent cause. Typewriters show evidence of design and contrivance, which means intelligent planning. The universe shows evidence of intelligent design. Intelligence presupposes personality, and personality in this case is God. Not only is the God of Genesis 1:1 a "force"; he is a person.

Truth Magazine VII: 11, pp. 18a
August 1963