In Christopher Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus there is a wonderful bit of dialogue about creation. Faustus has sold his soul to Lucifer and part of the bargain was that all his questions would be answered. After answering a series of questions, the devil, Mephastophilis, refuses one:
Faustus: Well, I am well answered. Tell me who made the world?
Mephastophilis: I will not.
Faustus: Sweet Mephastophilis, tell me.
Mephastophilis: Move me not, for I will not tell thee.
Faustus: Villain, have I not bound thee to tell me anything?
Mephastophilis: Ay, that is not against our kingdom; but this is.
Think thou on hell, Faustus, for thou art damned.
Immediately after this exchange, the conscience of Faustus is awakened and he actually cries out for Christ to save his soul; however, Lucifer appears and intimidates Faustus into repenting of his repentance.
Marlowe saw clearly that to keep up a rebellion against God, we must deny God as our Creator. Milton reveals this in Paradise Lost, where Lucifer declares, “I am self-created”. Once we admit that God is the creator, all defiance and rebellion against God unravels in stupidity and wickedness. If God created the world and humankind, logic dictates he is able to reveal himself to his creation. Logic also dictates that God has a right to that which he has made. And if God had the wisdom and power to create us, then he knows best how we should live. Our body is a gift made by him, so he gets to write the “Owner’s Manual.”
After all, how can Lucifer maintain his long war against God if he acknowledges that he, himself, was created by God? Obviously, what God has made, he can easily unmake. Both Milton and Marlowe recognize that admitting God is the Creator would shatter the foundations of Satan’s kingdom.
I think this offers some insight into why atheistic evolution has become such a desperate and emotional issue for recent writers like Sam Harris and Richard Dawkins. Dawkins in particular has no use even for the theistic evolution of Christian biologists like Francis Collins. The long rebellion of modern man over the last century depends on the denial that God is our creator. If God made us, we can’t live any way we please. The very foundation of our hedonistic, self-centered lifestyle is challenged. According to Milton and Marlowe, the refusal to acknowledge God as Creator puts us, perhaps unwittingly, in league with some dark forces. Mephastophilis would regard those who wield evolution as a weapon against God as fellow defenders of Lucifer’s kingdom.
One of the best ways we can defend the truth that God is our Creator is by faithfully following him as our Shepherd.
Know that the Lord Himself is God;
It is he who has made us, not we ourselves
We are His people and the sheep of His pasture. Psalm 100:3
Many of David’s psalms rest on the truth that since God made us, He perfectly understands us and, therefore, all his commandments express his love and intimate knowledge of us:
Just as a father has compassion on his children,
So the Lord has compassion on those who fear Him
For He Himself knows our frame,
He is mindful that we are but dust. Psalm 103:13—14
So just as the denial of God as Creator is the foundation of Satan’s kingdom, the celebration of God as our Creator is the foundation of God’s kingdom and all our obedience.
