Shepherd Visitors

The Shepherds worship Jesus

And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests.” When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.” So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told. (Luke 2:8-20)

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There is quite a history of shepherds in the Bible. Faithful Abel was a shepherd. Abraham kept flocks, as well as Isaac, Israel (Jacob), and Israel’s twelve sons. Perhaps the best known shepherd in the Bible is David. When the prophet Samuel went to Jesse’s house in Bethlehem to anoint his youngest son as God’s choice to be the next king of Israel, David was out in the fields tending the sheep.

Though David would become the most faithful and successful king in Israel’s history, he is equally well known as the author of Psalm 23:

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Jesus: The Good Shepherd

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not be in want. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he restores my soul. He guides me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

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It is neither an accident, nor a coincidence that Jesus was born in the same town as King David. God is perhaps the greatest poet in history, linking historical events, prophesy, and the historical fulfillment of prophesy together through Christ. Though the Holy Scriptures frequently use the metaphor of the people as the sheep and God as the shepherd, there is no passage in Scripture more memorable than Psalm 23. It shows us the proper attitude we all should have toward God that a great king such as David would consider himself a lowly lamb who dutifully follows where God leads as his shepherd. This also shows why David is considered a great king, despite his great wickedness and sins. All of David’s success came from God, and he remembered that his whole life.

Jesus: the Lamb of God

God had promised David that one of his descendants would be the long-awaited savior of the world. Jesus is the fulfillment of that long-awaited promise. Jesus is both the Good Shepherd, who cares for the sheep, and Jesus is the sacrificial lamb who endures the punishment for the sin of the world. God was with David throughout his whole life. From the time he was a lowly shepherd to when he was king of Israel, God cared for David as a shepherd cares for his sheep. And when David committed great wicked sins, God was there to rebuke David, but only to bring him to repentance so that David would know that all his sins were forgiven for the sake of the promised savior (Jesus). That is the kind of a God we have.

The shepherds who were near Bethlehem on the evening when Jesus was born surely knew God’s promises to send a savior. When they heard the message of the angel they hurried into town to see their savior in the flesh. The shepherds believed the Word of God from the angel though the baby Jesus was seemingly a helpless infant, and Mary and Joseph had to place Jesus in a manger because no one had sacrificed their own comfort to make the incarnate God more comfortable for his first night out of the Blessed Virgin’s womb. When the shepherds returned to their fields they praised God that He had kept His promises and had come to earth in our flesh to redeem us from our sins.

Hard to Believe

The Annunciation - from Emmanuel

In the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in
Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.”

Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end.”

“How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?”

The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be barren is in her sixth month. For nothing is impossible with God.”

“I am the Lord's servant,” Mary answered. “May it be to me as you have said.” Then the angel left her. (Luke1:26-38)

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When writing about the Annunciation of the incarnation of the Son of God, Dr. Martin Luther (1483-1546) quoted St. Barnard who said, “there are here three miracles: that God and man should be joined in this Child; that a mother should remain a virgin; that Mary should have such faith as to believe that this mystery would be accomplished in her.” Luther then noted, “The last is not the least of the three.”

Martin Luther certainly didn’t mean to say that Mary did something miraculous, but rather that the faith that God gave her to believe this amazing event was at least equal to the miracle of the incarnation. The High Priest, Zechariah, could not believe a slightly lesser miracle when the angel Gabriel brought him the news that he would have a son with his elderly wife (Luke 1:18). Mary, likewise, couldn’t understand how it could be that she would conceive a son as a virgin, but she believed the Word of God spoken through His messenger.

The incarnation of the Son of God into human flesh is truly THE turning point in all of history. That is why we count our years from the culmination of this event, the birth of the baby Jesus. Or I should say, we count our years from the date of Christ’s birth that was calculated to the most likely date when the Gregorian calendar was put together. Newer research suggests that Jesus was actually born in 4 or 3 B.C., but after 1,975 years (or so, as I write this) a few years doesn’t matter to me either way. The point is that we count our years from the birth of Jesus (more or less).

When God became a man with the conception of Jesus it was the fulfillment of God’s promise to Adam and Eve that the woman’s seed would come to crush the wicked serpent which led them into sin and death. It was a promise that God had repeated and reconfirmed throughout history so that faithful people would not lose hope and despair.

The incarnation is such a wonderful, and important event, that it has been attacked by many throughout the succeeding years. Ulrich Zwingli (1484-1531) maintained that “the finite cannot contain the infinite.” He was referring to the bodily presence of Christ in the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper, but if it isn’t true for the Sacrament, it can’t be true for the incarnation. Fortunately, Zwingli was wrong. Scripture says in Colossians 1:19 that “God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in Him (Jesus).” Even from the moment of conception, when Jesus was just a one-celled person, He was still in control of all creation as God. Yet, as an infant, He was still dependent on His mother (and soon-to-be stepfather, Joseph) for protection, nourishment, and other physical care.

Now, when I say that it was a miracle that Mary believed in the Virgin Birth I don’t mean to say that the story is a myth and that it didn’t really happen. Both of the Gospel accounts in Matthew and Luke tell a story that is rich in detail as if it were true and not a myth or fantasy or fiction. If we only listen to the story in Christmas carols or as told to little children then we may think it was a myth. However, note how Matthew tells the story: “This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit. Because Joseph her husband was a righteous man and did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly. But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, ‘Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.’”(Matthew 1:18-20)

It is interesting to note that God did not send the message to Joseph at the same time He told Mary. God let Mary explain the situation to Joseph first. Though Matthew doesn’t tell us all of the discussion between Mary and Joseph you know that they had to have had a heated discussion, and there must have been many tears shed. It is not easy to believe in a miracle which had never happened to that point in history (though some may have claimed that it had). The way that Matthew describes Joseph’s thinking shows that he didn’t believe Mary’s explanation of the miracle. Joseph had determined to divorce Mary, though quietly so as not to expose her to “disgrace.” What had happened to Mary was as far from a “disgrace” as you can get for a sinful human, but it was not easy to believe.

The virgin birth of Jesus is still not easy to believe. In fact, it is impossible to believe. That is what faith is all about. Faith is about believing what seems impossible. This is why unbelievers have the wrong impression that faith is “blind,” not to mention “ignorant” and “foolish.” True faith is a gift from God, and just like Mary’s belief that God would conceive a child in her with her virginity intact, it is always a miracle.

A greater miracle than the virgin birth of Jesus is the fact that God would become a man in order to save His rebellious people from their sins instead of punishing sinners as they deserve. This is truly the core of the Christian faith and the heart of the Gospel. No other god on earth would do such a thing because all other gods are fictitious creations from the mind of men, and no one could imagine a god who would do such a thing. But that is exactly what God did in Jesus Christ. For this we remember the birth of Jesus as the most important turning point in all of history. When Jesus came to us God was accomplishing our salvation as He had first promised the very same day that sin came into the world.

Don’t make me come down there!

From Emmanuel

This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit. Because Joseph her husband was a righteous man and did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.

But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”

All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: “The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” --which means, “God with us.” (Matthew 1:18-23)

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A couple years ago there was a well-intentioned, but ultimately blasphemous billboard campaign which purported to be some kind of messages from God. They showed a black billboard with white lettering ending in the simple tag, “– God.” It was blasphemous because none of the pithy sayings had any direct reference to Holy Scripture, and they only contained Law and no Gospel, and they frequently contradicted clear teachings of God’s word. Nevertheless, they were sort of amusing in a superficial (though blasphemous) way. One of my favorites said, “Don’t make me come down there. – God” as if God were a parent warning His disobedient children with vain threats.

I don’t know what the billboard writers had in mind because they were a little late with their warning. The first people that God created (Adam and Eve) long ago let that cat out of the bag. Because Adam and Eve brought sin into the world God DID come down here. Fortunately, when God came down here He didn’t bring about the punishment the billboard sponsors were insinuating. When God came down here He didn’t come to judge and condemn us. Instead God came down to rescue and redeem us from our sinfulness.

This is the Gospel message. It is also one reason why our church is named Emmanuel and it is why the windows pictured with this essay are right up front and are a prominent visible feature to all who worship in our church.

The incarnation of God into man is the central event in all of human history. That is why we count our years from the date of Christ’s birth (or as close as could be determined at the time, but that is a story for another blog). God knew before He made people that we would rebel against Him and we would be lost unless He did something to save us. Yet, He went ahead and created the people who would reject His authority and cause Him immense grief and suffering. Why would anyone do that? Only love could cause someone to go through that kind of suffering rather than avoid it. “Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:7-8)

All man-made gods require something from their followers to prove that they are worthy of favor. This makes these false gods seem very demanding, but it also makes them able to be manipulated by the actions of people. This is why false gods are so attractive to people. Though the false gods can be harsh taskmasters, they can also make it seem to the people as if they can control God. This is what people have been trying to do ever since Adam and Eve first disobeyed God in the Garden of Eden.

The true God is not like the false gods. Jesus didn’t come to us to demand anything from us. There is nothing we can give God that doesn’t already belong to Him. We can’t make up for our sinful rebelliousness. Jesus didn’t come to take anything from us. He came to give. Jesus came to live the obedient human life that none of us are capable of doing. Jesus did please God the Father with His obedient life, and then He offered His life in place of ours on the cross. Because of what Jesus did on the cross we are saved from our sins and all who trust in the forgiveness that Jesus won for us will be rescued from death and blessed with eternal life in paradise.

This brings up the one glaring omission in the “Emmanuel” set of windows in the front of our church. There is no cross depicted anywhere in this set of windows. The cross is central to what the church is all about because without Christ’s sacrifice on the cross nothing else would have any meaning at all. On nearly every other set of windows in the church there is at least one cross, and often many crosses are depicted, but not in these. There are plenty of crosses in the chancel of the church, but unfortunately not in the most prominent, and arguably, the most beautiful set of windows in the church. Well, nothing on this earth is perfect, except Jesus Christ. Even the best of these beautiful windows are only dim shadows of the beauty and the love of God that we will experience in God’s heavenly kingdom, but all the windows in our church guide us to look toward Christ for our salvation, and that is where true beauty is found.

A Sabbath Day Rest

Jesus teaching in Nazareth from Emmanuel

Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array. By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done. (Genesis 2:1-3)

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To tell you the truth, Emmanuel Lutheran Church in Dearborn, Michigan doesn’t have a window depicting the Seventh Day of Creation. Perhaps the church itself is a representation-in-action of the day that God blessed as holy. The window pictured here is a depiction of Luke 4:16-21 where Jesus was preaching on the Sabbath Day in a Synagogue in Nazareth early in His ministry and proclaimed that the prophesy of Isaiah concerning the Messiah was fulfilled by Him that day.

There is a lot of talk about a “six day creation” in the debate over the creation. What gets lost in this description is the very important Seventh Day of Creation. Though God rested from His work and did not create anything new, this day seven is a very important part of God’s creation.

When I teach this story to children they often ask the obvious, but impertinent, question, “Was God tired that He needed to rest?” The answer is “No.” God is almighty and created “life, the universe, and everything” (if I can be so bold as to quote the late Douglas Adams, who was often blasphemous before his untimely death) perfectly in only six days by merely saying, “Let there be …”, so clearly God does not need to rest. It was no great strain for God to create everything. He did not rest on the Seventh Day for His needs, but for ours. We are the ones who need the rest, so God led by example (to begin with). Ever since then God has been working on the Sabbath days serving our needs.

Angels worshipping at the cross

Most people think that worship is what we do to please God. This is a pagan idea, but it is not uncommon among those calling themselves “Christians”. The Holy Bible never says that we should try to please God. Scripture says, “Be holy because I, the LORD your God, am holy.” (Leviticus 19:2) Unfortunately, as sinners we cannot be holy no matter what we do. This makes it seem like salvation is impossible as Jesus’ disciples once realized when they asked Him, “Who, then, can be saved?” Jesus replied, “With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God.” (see Mark 10:17-27)

If God had left our salvation in our control then none of us would have a chance of salvation. However, God didn’t leave it up to us to save ourselves. God worked out our salvation himself so that we all could be saved. Even before sin came into the world God set aside one day out of the week so we could stop and remember just how much we need God.

People reject Sabbath worship because we want to think that we don’t need God. It is humbling to have to rely on God to provide salvation, but most people don’t realize that it is far more humbling to try to save yourself – and fail.

“Christ is Risen” - From Emmanuel

Because God sanctified the Seventh Day of creation making that a holy day, the Old Testament people of God set aside that day for worship. Yet, today the vast majority of Christians now worship God on the first day of the week. The reason for the change is, of course, Jesus.

From the very beginning the Sabbath rest was a typological prophesy about Christ. Jesus fulfilled the promise of the Sabbath when He rested in the grave on the Saturday after He died. Jesus was in the grave part of Friday and part of Sunday, but He had a full Sabbath day’s rest from His work of salvation. Then He rose from the dead on Sunday to proclaim our salvation. Since then we remember Christ’s victory over sin and death for our sake when we go to worship every Sunday.

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The Seven Days of Creation

In the Beginning
The Orderly Creation
Distinctions in Creation
The Center of the Universe
Designed by God
The Crown of God’s Creation
A Sabbath Day Rest

The Crown of God’s Creation

Creation Day Six from Emmanuel

And God said, “Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: livestock, creatures that move along the ground, and wild animals, each according to its kind.” And it was so. God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”

Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air and all the creatures that move on the ground–everything that has the breath of life in it–I give every green plant for food.” And it was so.

God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning – the sixth day. (Genesis 1:24-31)

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On the sixth day of creation God created animals and man. One might be tempted to say that on the sixth day God just created all kinds of creatures, but that is not how the Holy Scriptures tell what happened. It is true that man is certainly a creature created by God, but there is something very special about the creation of man that distinguishes us from everything else that God created.

When God had made nearly everything in the universe and had come to the last part of His creation He said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness….” So God created man in His image. This is special because God did not do this for anything else in creation. Man is the “crown of God’s creation” because God made people in His image. What does it mean that man is made in God’s image? It means that Adam and Eve were made holy, like God. They were made immortal because death only came after the fall into sin as a punishment for their disobedience. The image of God is also seen in verse 26 in the passage above where God gave Adam and Eve the authority to rule over the earth and all other creatures just as God has authority over us and ultimate authority over all things.

We should also see that it wasn’t for Adam and Eve’s sake that God made them in His image. Yes, God loved them dearly, but He also knew that they would rebel against Him, reject Him, become His enemies, and face His wrath and condemnation. Instead, it was for the sake of Jesus that God made man to be the crown of creation. Even before anything was made, God knew that He would need to become incarnate as a man to redeem his beloved, but rebellious people. Saint Peter wrote, “For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake. Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God.” (1 Peter 1:18-21) This shows us that God had planned to save us before the creation of the world. It was for the sake of His beloved Son (Jesus) that God made people the crown of creation, though because of Jesus, God did this for our benefit and eternal joy.

Saint Paul also said much the same thing when he wrote “For he chose us in (Christ) before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will-- to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding.” (Ephesians 1:4-8) Here again we see that it was according to God’s plan of salvation from eternity that He created us in His image, but it was for the sake of Christ, who redeemed us that we might be “adopted as His sons”. Strictly speaking, Jesus is the crown of God’s creation, but because of Jesus, we have been redeemed through His blood, forgiven of our sins, and adopted into God’s family so that through faith in Jesus we can share in the glories of His eternal inheritance.

There is so much in the creation account that I can only begin to describe the importance of it in this short essay. It is important to note that the creation account in chapter one of Genesis is not the only information we have on the creation of people. Genesis chapter two gives a more detailed account of what God did when He created Adam and Eve. Some people try to discredit the Biblical account of creation by saying that the stories in chapter one and chapter two are different stories, but that is stretching the text too far. It is very clear that the account in chapter one is a general summary of God creating man, and then chapter two gives more details about the creation of man on day six. There is nothing in chapter two that contradicts chapter one, it only expands on the details.

We see in the creation of man that God also created marriage. Eve is described as Adam’s “wife” just as soon as she is formed out of Adam’s rib and given life. Here is the answer to all who would redefine marriage as something other than the lifelong union of one man and one woman. When God created people He also created marriage and blessed this union and commanded them to be fruitful. We also see that the woman is not a lesser being to be dominated, but a true partner, as Adam declares that this woman who was formed out of his rib is “bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh.” (Genesis 2:23)

Nevertheless, there is still a hierarchy in the order of creation of the husband and the wife. The wife is to submit to the husband as the husband is to submit to God, but this doesn’t mean that the woman is the man’s servant or property. After sin came into the world man started getting some strange notions about the roles of husband and wife and twisted around God’s good institution. However, people who take seriously the Genesis account of creation have throughout history have had a higher view of marriage, and women in those cultures have enjoyed greater protections and stability than those cultures which either put women down to the level of servant or property, or those which raise women up to a level of superiority over men.

In the New Testament Jesus acknowledges the sanctity of marriage when He was asked a question about divorce in Matthew 19:1-9. Jesus references the creation to show what God intended and says that marriage is “what God has joined together” so that no one should separate those united in marriage. Saint Paul also gives a bold endorsement of marriage in Ephesians 5:21-33 even though he remained celibate in his life. Even though Paul’s words have been twisted throughout history he gives a beautiful picture of marriage where the wife submits to the husband, and the husband loves his wife and submits to God. If you read Paul’s words carefully as written you see that he does not give the husband the authority to dominate his wife, but requires him to give his life for his wife as Christ gave His life for the church (all believers). So if the husband loves his wife enough to die for her, then he will not dominate her, but will care for her as he ought.

We see God with us in the account of creation in that He not only made all things for our benefit, and made us in His image, but also in what God did for us when we rebelled against Him and became His enemies through our disobedience. God could have destroyed all people for their sin. He maybe should have, but out of love for us creatures God came to earth Himself as one of us. Jesus came to keep God’s law, which we are unable to do, and also to endure the punishment for sin as our substitute so that we are freed from that threat of punishment. This is what Jesus did out of love for God’s disobedient creatures.

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The Seven Days of Creation
In the Beginning
The Orderly Creation
Distinctions in Creation
The Center of the Universe
Designed by God
The Crown of God’s Creation
A Sabbath Day Rest

Designed by God

“Creation Day Five” from Emmanuel

And God said, “Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the sky.” So God created the great creatures of the sea and every living and moving thing with which the water teems, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the water in the seas, and let the birds increase on the earth.” And there was evening, and there was morning--the fifth day. (Genesis 1:20-23)

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Once again we see that in creating, God progresses in an orderly manner. Now that He had prepared the world for living creatures by creating orderly day and night cycles, and seasonal cycles, and creating plants for creatures to eat, now on Day Five God creates birds and fish.

As God created the living creatures on the earth He also provided for them to reproduce according to their own kind and commanded them to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and the seas. The fact that creatures reproduce according to their kind has been known by all people going back to Adam and Eve (Day Six). The precise physical mechanism that God created to accomplish this was unknown until James Watson and Francis Crick published their paper describing the structure of the DNA molecule in 1953. What they discovered (though they would likely never have put it this way) was that God had ordered and arranged His creation down to the molecular level (at least) so that, barring the odd defect, life would propagate in an orderly fashion according to His plan. Subsequent study into DNA and genetics such as the Human Genome Project found that while the genetic information in DNA is extraordinarily stable, the DNA molecule contains the potential for vast diversity that even now cannot be understood, though macro-evolution is ruled out.

Unfortunately, since the fall of man into sin (Genesis 3) people have been questioning the truth of God’s word, even when they know the truth. Though the structure of DNA is so complex and contains so much information that it cannot have been assembled by accident, evolutionists would have us believe that is exactly what happened despite all evidence to the contrary. The evidence is the same for both sides of the argument, and all who approach with an open mind would have to conclude that, at the very least, the structure of the DNA molecule shows that life came about by design, and not through random accidents and macro-evolution. This is the basis for the study of scientific intelligent design.

From Emmanuel

The study of intelligent design will never directly lead people to know that Jesus Christ is the Son of God who died on the cross to redeem mankind from our sins. Only God’s Word can reveal who God is and what He has done for us. The study of intelligent design can, however, suggest that design by an intelligent God is possible and can certainly allow for a better explanation for the origin of the universe than a godless Darwinistic explanation that must ignore the most basic human and scientific observations.

Christianity isn’t against scientific inquiry and research. In fact, most of the greatest scientific discoveries throughout history have been made by Christians who pursued scientific research to understand the world which God created for us. On the other hand, Darwinism can only flourish through the religious zeal of its adherents. Though the United States Constitution forbids the establishment of religion, Darwinism is – in practice – the functionally established religion in state schools. Though Darwinism is portrayed as “science,” any scientist who dares to investigate its claims scientifically is summarily dismissed as anti-intellectual, backward, and (ironically) a religious zealot. If nothing else this proves that sin is real and has continuing tragic consequences for mankind.

Fortunately for us, God is still in control of His creation despite the fact that it seems like He is losing. God has provided a solution to our sin and the obstinate ignorance which results from our sinfulness. Holy Scripture tells us that the same God who created this amazing world for us, and provides all things for our benefit and the sustenance of our lives (even when we deny Him), also sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to redeem us from our sin and bring us to live in His heavenly paradise forever.

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The Seven Days of Creation

In the Beginning
The Orderly Creation
Distinctions in Creation
The Center of the Universe
Designed by God
The Crown of God’s Creation
A Sabbath Day Rest

The Center of the Universe

Creation Day Four - from Emmanuel

And God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark seasons and days and years, and let them be lights in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth.” And it was so. God made two great lights--the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars. God set them in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth, to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening, and there was morning--the fourth day.
Genesis 1:14-19

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It would almost seem to the objective viewer that God’s creation activities on Day Four were a little out of place. Of course, since we are all part of God’s creation there is no such thing as an objective viewer. God has a purpose to all that He does, and Day Four of creation is no exception. As I noted in my essay on Day One God created light before there was any natural source for that light. The light that existed on days one through three was provided and sustained by God Himself. I also noted in my essay on Day Two that God does everything in an orderly manner. On the surface it doesn’t seem that Day Four is in order, but that is only because we live in God’s orderly world where certain “natural” phenomenon have “natural” causes.

As we know it, light must have a source. Light always has a source as far as we know. Yet, for the first three days that the universe existed there was light with no source except for God, Himself. For the closed-minded this would suggest that God is not so orderly, or that the account cannot be trusted. However, there is a better explanation. Knowing that God is orderly, we must then conclude that there is a different order at work. God does not only order His creation in terms of cause and effect, but also in terms of importance. I have recently found some stunning photographs of Saturn’s moon, Enceladus. All of these pictures are amazing considering how far away we are from Saturn, and several of the photos are incredibly beautiful. However, you don’t have to look long at the planets in the solar system (other than earth) before you get the feeling that there is a great unfinished quality to them. Something is definitely missing, and that “something” includes all of the qualities which make earth a paradise and everywhere else certain death. There is nowhere in the universe would we rather be than right here on earth.

From Emmanuel

Earth is a paradise for people because God made it that way for us. It was no accident, nor was it an oversight, that God worked on Day Two and Day Three to make earth an inviting place for us, before He got around to making the sun, moon, and stars. This tells us that this place was a top priority for God, and everyplace else was secondary. As we shall see on Day Six of creation there is some significance to the order in which God creates and populates the world. If God had made the sun, moon, stars, and planets before Day Four then we would have more reason to think that these places have greater importance than they do. As it is, God put these created things in their place. According to the Genesis account the heavenly bodies were created to give us light and to help us keep track of time, and they still do all these things to this day. The heavenly bodies were given to serve us, and the fact that they have a beauty (though they may be cold and uninviting like Saturn or Enceladus) is just a bonus and another reason to praise God for His great wisdom.

Earth may not be the geographic center of the universe or the solar system, as the atheists are so eager to point out. Actually, you could make a case for the earth as the center of the universe. It isn’t usually done because the math gets extremely ugly real fast. I must confess that I, too, am a big fan of elegant mathematical equations in Physics so I will grant that the earth is not the geographical center of the universe. However, it is clear from Holy Scripture that people on earth are at the center of God’s attention. God proved that by His incarnation in Jesus Christ. In Jesus, God came down to earth as a man to redeem mankind from our sins. This place is not some “insignificant little speck among the vast universe.” We are so important to God that He came down to us to live and die as one of us that we might live in a new paradise with Him forever. God did not do this because we deserved it. God did this for us purely out of His love for us.

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The Seven Days of Creation
In the Beginning
The Orderly Creation
Distinctions in Creation
The Center of the Universe
Designed by God
The Crown of God’s Creation
A Sabbath Day Rest

Distinctions in Creation

Creation Day Three from Emmanuel

And God said, "Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear." And it was so. God called the dry ground "land," and the gathered waters he called "seas." And God saw that it was good. (Genesis 1:9-10)

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At the beginning of Day Three of Creation we see again that God is making distinctions in His creation. Here he is separating the seas from the dry ground. We take such distinctions for granted because we see them all the time.

Astronomy is a wonderful tool to show us how important such distinctions are. The "gas giant" planets in our solar system are examples of places where there is no distinction between "earth" and "sky" and where there is no "dry ground" and "seas." God did not create such distinctions for His benefit. God existed for eternity before there was any created thing or any created place. All the work that God did (and still does) in creation He did (and does) for the benefit of his "crown of creation," which He made last of all things. Creation isn’t for God’s benefit. It is for us. God created all things to serve us and our needs.

From Emmanuel

Then God said, "Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds." And it was so. The land produced vegetation: plants bearing seed according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening, and there was morning--the third day. (Genesis 1:11-13)

Now that God had prepared the world for living things he begins to create them. God again puts everything in its proper order. You should remember, however, that on this Day Three of creation God had not yet created the Sun, so any light is provided by God Himself. We will one day see this again as Christ tells us in His revelation to St. John. "The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp. The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it. On no day will its gates ever be shut, for there will be no night there." (Revelation 21:23-25)

Once again, on this third day of creation we see a God who is neither distant nor uncaring, and certainly not malevolent. We see that God has great attention to detail because He cares for those for whom He is making the universe. God cares for us, and we can see it in everything He does in creating this Paradise for us. Even when we later rebel against God and corrupt His gracious creation through our disobedience, God cares enough to send a savior to redeem us and rescue us from the eternal punishment that our sins deserve.

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The Seven Days of Creation

In the Beginning
The Orderly Creation
Distinctions in Creation
The Center of the Universe
Designed by God
The Crown of God’s Creation
A Sabbath Day Rest

The Orderly Creation

Creation Day Two - From Emmanuel

"And God said, ‘Let there be an expanse between the waters to separate water from water.’ So God made the expanse and separated the water under the expanse from the water above it. And it was so. God called the expanse ‘sky.’ And there was evening, and there was morning--the second day."Genesis 1:6-8 (NIV)

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God is with us in the orderliness of His creation, and we should give thanks to Him for this gracious gift. On Day Two of creation we see God beginning to create order in His creation. On Day One God created the heavens and the earth, but they were "formless and empty" and contained light without a distinct source such as the sun and stars. This has been described by commentators as "chaos." God brings order to the chaos beginning on Day Two when He separates the water on the earth from the water above the earth with an expanse called "sky" (see v. 8).

Here is where the proponents of a godless "big bang" origin of everything run into trouble explaining their theories. Almost by definition explosions are exercises in entropy, which is to say that when you have an explosion you will always move from a state of order to chaos and never the other way around.

This is why the study of scientific intelligent design is becoming more and more popular among scientists who truly have an open mind and desire to learn all that can be known about how creation works. Conversely, this is also why intelligent design is attacked with fervent religious zeal. Those who must imagine a creation without a creator know that this is where their theories are weakest, so many feel that they must not permit further inquiry into intelligent design, lest they begin to lose funding for their research.

Science does not contradict creation, though many scientists pursue it as if it does. Actually, true scientific pursuit of knowledge actually assumes an orderly creation such as described in the Holy Scriptures. If all that exists is truly the result of a series of accidents which contradict the law of entropy, then there is no way that truth can be known because there is no way to test theories and reproduce results which came about by accident.

However, in Genesis 1-2 we see God creating an orderly world in an organized way. The world works according to certain laws which God has set in place for our benefit and comfort. Science works because of who God is, and how He has set up our world according to certain laws which do not change. God is not bound by those laws, but we see the grace of God in the fact that we can always go to bed secure in the knowledge that out of His love, God will keep the law of gravity in effect while we sleep, and we will not wake up and find ourselves flying off into space toward the sun because the "accident" of gravity has suddenly corrected itself.
Sleep well, but before you go to sleep tonight give thanks to God for His gift of an orderly creation.

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The Seven Days of Creation
In the Beginning
The Orderly Creation
Distinctions in Creation
The Center of the Universe
Designed by God
The Crown of God’s Creation
A Sabbath Day Rest

In the Beginning

From Emmanuel

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. God called the light "day," and the darkness he called "night." And there was evening, and there was morning--the first day. Genesis 1:1-5 (NIV)

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This is how everything began. There was no destructive "BANG." There was only God saying, "Let there be …" and it was just as He planned it to be, and it was good.

Notice that already here in the first few verses in the Holy Bible we see the Triune God. Do you see Him? When we see the word "God" we take for granted that it refers to God the Father, and that is true. In verse two the Holy Spirit is said to be "hovering over the waters." The eternal Son of God is there in the Word that God speaks as described by the Evangelist, St. John: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made." (John 1:1-3)

From Emmanuel

The Triune nature of God is also seen in the original Hebrew language where the word for "God" is found in the plural form. In Hebrew the singular form of the generic word for a "god" is "el." This elsewhere can refer to anything that is seen to be a god, whether true or false. The Hebrew Scriptures refer to the true God using the plural form "Elohim" but the contextual pronouns refer to this God in the singular as "He" and not "They." Jewish scholars, and others who do not wish to acknowledge the Triune nature of God explain this away as simply a literary convention where the majesty of God is demonstrated by using the plural form, while simulataneously refering to Him in the singular, as there is only one God.

From Emmanuel

Another interesting thing to note about the seven days of creation is that God does everything in an orderly manner. This reflects God's nature as a rational, orderly, intelligent being, who is involved with His creation, and not absent or uncaring. "The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands." (Psalm 19:1) And, "God is not a God of disorder, but of peace." (1 Corinthians 14:33) This refutes the idea of creation as an "accident" which miraculously evolved over an impossibly long time. Science does not contradict the account of creation in Genesis, and actually confirms it in many ways, as long as the scientists are not ignoring any evidence which suggests that creation is God's handiwork. Unfortunately many scientists (though by no means all) use their God-given talents to vainly try to disprove God through God's own creation.

You may find it strange that God creates light several days before He creates a natural source for the light. This wonderful fact shows us that God is in control of His creation and not the other way around. God can separate light from darkness so that there is "day" and "night" without any natural source for either light or darkness. This is very reassuring that God is with us through the gift of His creation. This is not to say that creation is God -- it is not. However, God remains active in keeping creation from going the way of all entropy, and He does it out of love for us. God does not need His creation, He is above it. We need creation and God's power to sustain our lives, and God provides that for all people, even all those who do not acknowledge Him as creator. Note also that "day" and "night" clearly denote one day, and not an impossibly long period of evolution.

"God saw that the light was good." Everything that God created was good, as God Himself is good. Whatever we see in this world that is not good did not get that way because of any deficiency in God. Many ask the question, "If God is so good, then why is there so much evil in the world?" That is the wrong question to ask because it assumes that God is the cause of everything in the world, and if you answer this question you will always get the wrong answer.

A better question to ask is, "Why is there so much evil in the world?" People rarely ask this question because if they honestly seek the answer they will find that God is not the cause of any evil. We are the cause of all evil in the world. All people have rebelled against God and are sinners and have brought sin, death, and destruction into God's beautiful creation. I will discuss this more in the post on Day Six of creation, but here is the good news: Even though we rebellious, sinful people have corrupted God's good creation, God Himself has fixed the problem of our sin by sending Jesus Christ to redeem us from our sin and its deadly consequences. We are not perfect yet, but we live by God's grace in this wonderful world that God made for us and we still may enjoy God's blessings until we reach that new earth where we will live forever free from the evils of this world.

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The Seven Days of Creation

In the Beginning
The Orderly Creation
Distinctions in Creation
The Center of the Universe
Designed by God
The Crown of God’s Creation
A Sabbath Day Rest

A Word about the Windows

The photographs of the windows on this site are all from Emmanuel Lutheran Church in Dearborn, Michigan, where I am a member.

• The windows are more than just colored glass.
• The windows are more than just decoration.
• The windows are more than just a distraction when you don't want to listen to a perfectly wonderful Law and Gospel sermon.
• The windows don't show you how to live a better life or how to become rich and successful.

The windows tell a story. Actually they tell many stories, but all the stories that they tell are about God. These aren't mythic stories about just any god, but they tell the true story of the one, true God who came to earth and was born as one of us to redeem us from our sins. Jesus Christ is God in the flesh. He did not come to condemn us for our sins, instead He came to redeem us from our sins and rescue us from the punishment we deserve. That is why the evangelist Matthew described the birth of Jesus with these words, "The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel" --which means, "God with us." (Matthew 1:23)

My name is Pastor Paul Wolff. I am a Lutheran Pastor, but I am not serving a congregation at the present time. My connection to Emmanuel is only as a member. While I am awaiting a call to serve elsewhere it is my privilege to receive God's Means of Grace (His holy Word and Sacraments) from the faithful pastors at Emmanuel, and it is my honor to serve God's people there as a fellow believer who is redeemed by Christ.

I made these photographs in September 2008 and I began this blog to share the Gospel message that is found in these beautiful images.

I pray that you enjoy the photographs and the accompanying messages. May Christ bless you as you contemplate His Word along with the beautiful visuals on this site.

Pastor Wolff

Emmanuel = “God With Us”

From Emmanuel

“The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” --which means, “God with us.” Matthew 1:23

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Note that the angel in Holy Scripture doesn't say anything about “us with God” or “look at how good we are that God came to us and not you.” That is not how it is at all. When God almighty became incarnate as one of us it was because we could not even make the first step to go to Him. We could not please God. We could not do as God wished. We had no free will to do anything except rebel against God and incur His wrath and judgment against us. (See Romans 10:6-7; Ephesians 2:1-3; and Romans 5:8)

If this sounds hopeless, well, it is -- to a point. That point is where we must despair of any hope of saving ourselves and trust that God Himself will have mercy on us and save us unworthy sinners. Humbling? Yes, but the eternal comfort is that God has had mercy on us sinners and has rescued us from our sin through the life and death of Jesus Christ. That is why the birth of Jesus is such an amazing event in world history. We could not go to God, so God came to us. He didn’t come to us because we were somehow worthy of such great an honor. God came to us in Christ for at least two reasons: 1) to do (as a man) the good things which please God -- which we sinners couldn't begin to do because of our inherent sinfulness; and 2) to take the punishment for sin (as God and man) in our place so that we could be rescued from everlasting torment, which is the punishment for sin.

From Emmanuel

You can search every religion in the world and will find no other god in this wicked world who would humble himself and suffer and die for the sins of his creatures. Only the one, true God -- the Triune God (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) would do this, and has done this for us. All the other gods of this world are false creations from man’s imagination, and it shows. All the gods of the world require some work from man to prove himself worthy of God’s favor. Though in many religions this seems tough, it is never impossible, so the followers of these religions are tormented by being required to do what is only nearly impossible. It is true that some who falsely call themselves Christian also make this claim of the Christian God -- that God requires us to attain a certain level of holiness before receiving God’s favor and forgiveness -- but that is not true. In true Christianity God recognizes that man has no hope of saving himself from his sin, so God works out our salvation for Himself by sending Jesus Christ to redeem the world, then gives forgiveness and eternal life in Paradise to us at no cost to us. This is the beauty of the Christian Gospel. This is the amazing Grace of God in Christ Jesus. This is why it is not a frightening thing that “God is with us” in Jesus. It is a comfort and a blessing.