Shadows of Darkness Now Falling on Beasts and Men

You are not an animal. The worldview of evolution lies when it says that you are. This is not just a lack of understanding, which might be forgiven, but a deliberate attempt to avoid the truth and, what’s worse, to try to keep that truth from others as well. For this there is no excuse and those who thus defy God fall under his wrath:

“The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities–his eternal power and divine nature–have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse” (Rom. 1:18-20 NIV).

Notice that Scripture here says that those who espouse such a worldview as evolution are not ignorant of the truth. They know it but suppress it. The passage then goes on to declare that such knowledge of the truth is plain for all to see; there is no excuse for saying that one cannot see that there is a God who made everything.

“For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened” (v. 21).

Is there a better description of the folly of evolutionary thinking than this? It is futile thinking. It neither explains things as they really are nor leads to further insight into the depths of God and reality–things for which God created man, so that man could share in the awareness and consciousness of existence which God possesses. The consequence of evolutionary thinking is not light but darkness. “Their foolish hearts were darkened.”

But, of course, those who espouse evolution do not see it that way. In fact, they think that Christians are the ones who are fools, believing fairy tales about a non-existent God and all manner of other tales for gullible people. They think that they are the wise ones, too smart to be fooled by such nonsense as the Bible teaches.

“For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written: ‘I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.’ Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?

“For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe” (1 Cor. 1:18-21 NIV).

“For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength” (v. 25).

The same Book which evolutionists disdain rightly describes their plight:

“Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools” (Rom. 1:22).

This passage ends with this final pronouncement:

“They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator–who is forever praised. Amen” (v. 25).

This Romans passage speaks of the thinking of defiant man as being darkness. There is an interesting corollary to this found in the Psalm 104:

“It is night when all the beasts of the forest creep about” (v. 20 ESV). At dawn they slink back into their dens to rest” (v. 22 TLB) “. . . and men go off to work until the evening shadows fall again” (v. 23 TLB).

Night is for animals, the day for man. Day is when light is available to see the deeper things that only man can appreciate. Unreasoning animals are unable to see and appreciate the deeper things of existence and reality. We are not animals; God created us as human beings for much more. It is a great tragedy, then, when men create a system of viewing reality that is the exact opposite of the truth and view man as an animal who happened to come by his reasoning abilities without God’s help. It is to demote man back to a lesser and ignoble status, whereas the psalmist declares:

“What is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him? You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. You made him ruler over the works of your hands; you put everything under his feet: all flocks and herds, and the beasts of the field, the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, all that swim the paths of the seas. O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth” (Ps. 8:4-9 NIV).

Evolutionists readily accept the power of authority over animals that man has, since they elevate man to the pinnacle of evolution, but they stop at crediting God and giving him glory for this, while that is the psalmist’s whole aim, to give glory to God. But since there is no God for the evolutionist, he claims for himself that for which he had no hand in bringing about. His aim is to glorify self and man, not God. He does not acknowledge that God is the One who created both him and all else, including the animals which provide him a lesson in recognizing and acknowledging the truth:

“​​​​​​​Listen, O heavens, pay attention, O earth! For the Lord speaks: ‘I raised children, I brought them up, but they have rebelled against me! ​​​​​​​An ox recognizes its owner, a donkey recognizes where its owner puts its food; but Israel does not recognize me, my people do not understand'” (Is. 1:2,3 NET).

Nature is full of lessons for unbelieving man, to draw him to God. That is the way Psalm eight starts out, with an acknowledgement of this way for God to draw man to himself:

“When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place . . . ” (Ps. 8:3 NIV).

The obstinate refusal to consider the creation as abundant evidence and proof of God’s existence carries with it the severest of consequences:

“Yet these men speak abusively against whatever they do not understand; and what things they do understand by instinct, like unreasoning animals–these are the very things that destroy them” (Jude 1:10 NIV).

“But these men blaspheme in matters they do not understand. They are like brute beasts, creatures of instinct, born only to be caught and destroyed, and like beasts they too will perish” (2 Ptr 2:12 NIV).

What a terrible tragedy and utter waste, to consider man to be no more than an animal in a physical, material universe, who has no soul and lives and dies like an animal! And all the while, those who do this do not realize that they are themselves becoming exactly what they proclaim man to be: animals. For what you exalt or worship or value or follow is what you become. If you follow after God, you will become like him (not God but like him); if you follow after lesser things, you will become like those lesser things.

“They followed worthless idols and became worthless themselves” (Jer. 2:5 NIV).

“My people have exchanged their Glory for worthless idols” (Jer. 2:11 NIV).

It is just so sad that human beings should want to throw away the glorious nature that God has given to them, such as the ability to think and reason and analyze the world God has made, and instead idolize the very reasoning ability which God gave to man to recognize the greatness of the creation and the One who created it. To elevate the creation above its Creator is make an idol, a false god–and the true God has warned of his judgment on this horrible sin:

“But the Lord is the true God; he is the living God, the eternal King. When he is angry, the earth trembles; the nations cannot endure his wrath. Tell them this: ‘These gods, who did not make the heavens and the earth, will perish from the earth and from under the heavens'” (Jer. 10:10,11 NIV).

On the day when God does this–judges the world for its preferring his creation over Himself–then the darkness of man’s thinking will finally reach its lowest and ultimate point: The darkness within will become darkness without, and the whole world will witness this final darkness and see the folly of preferring darkness to light, for darkness will cover the whole world.

“Woe to you who long for the day of the Lord! Why do you long for the day of the Lord? That day will be darkness, not light. It will be as though a man fled from a lion only to meet a bear, as though he entered his house and rested his hand on the wall only to have a snake bite him. Will not the day of the Lord be darkness, not light–pitch-dark, without a ray of brightness?” (Amos 5:18-20 NIV).

And so the cycle of turning from light to darkness will be complete. Man has rejected the light of God, preferring his own reasoning as the light to guide him through life.

“This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil” (Jn. 3:19 NIV).

Yet in so doing, man has descended to the level of animal instinct, his thinking becoming dark and futile. Therefore it is only right and fitting that as the world descends with man into darkness that the beasts of prey should turn on those who have become animals like them.

“It is night when all the beasts of the forest creep about. . . . At dawn they slink back into their dens to rest and men go off to work until the evening shadows fall again” (v. 20,22,23 TLB).

The evening shadows are already falling. The hour is late for this world. You see it on the news more and more frequently, human beings behaving like animals, slaughtering one another for the slightest perceived grievances; in school shootings, in conflicts between nations; in ocean piracy; in large corporations treating employees as near-animals or robots–you can make your own list. And all the while, even after experiencing these increasing instances of ever-deepening darkness descending upon the world, yet people shrug it off as if this is nothing new and “men go off to work until the evening shadows fall again.”

But soon that will no longer be possible. God will not forever allow the wickedness of this world to continue. He has promised a day when men will no longer be able to go off to work as though nothing has changed. “Things shall not remain as they are” (Ezk. 21:26 RSV).

Things shall not remain as they are because on that great Day, God will banish all things that belong to the darkness to the eternal darkness, and the glory of his light will finally reign everywhere supreme.

“And night shall be no more; they need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they shall reign for ever and ever” (Rev. 22:5 RSV).

When will this day be? When will it come? Scripture says that no one knows the hour or the day (Mt. 25:13). But it also says that we will see signs beforehand that that day is approaching (Lk. 21:28). One of those signs is that this world will keep on descending into ever-increasing darkness (Rev. 22:11). These are the evening shadows that are now falling upon the world. Let us pay attention to what is happening around us every day, see the increasing darkness, and prepare for that final day by letting the light of God banish from our hearts all darkness through Christ in our hearts, the very Christ whom the prophets of God foresaw coming to this world’s darkness as its only salvation and light: Jesus, the morning star.

“And we have the word of the prophets made more certain, and you will do well to pay attention to it, as to a light shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts” (2 Ptr. 1:19 NIV).