Some of my favorite PBS programming relates to the creation and its many wonders. Oh, of course, the people who produce and narrate those programs, with all their spectacular and beautiful cinematography, don’t consider that what they’re presenting is creation. They call it “nature.” And no one does it better than PBS in bringing the gospel of nature and evolution to the American viewing public.

PBS is to evolutionary theory as the pulpit is to the Gospel – well, in some churches anyway. All PBS nature programs make a point not only of presenting the beauty and wonder of the creation, but of telling us how evolution has made all this wonder possible.

Creation, for the evolutionist, represents a powerful tool for propagandizing his religion. And PBS is a most accommodating platform for evolutionary evangelists to spread their false gospel.

But there’s something for us to learn from this evolutionary programming, and it’s this: The creation, pervaded, suffused, and sustained by common grace, offers a powerful resource for bearing witness to God.

Why shy away?

Why should we shy away from this challenge? Those who believe in the religion of evolution don’t. Why can’t we point to the creation like they do and wax eloquent about the beauty, goodness, wisdom, and truth of God? We have plenty of Biblical teaching and authorization for using the creation to bear witness to God. Look at Jesus, pointing out the lilies of the field. They testify, He insisted, to the common grace and steadfast love of God.

Why can’t we do this?

I can think of two reasons. First, because we actually agree with evolutionary theory where the material world is concerned. We know what the Bible teaches about creation and the sustaining power of Christ, but we have been so harangued by evolutionary thinking that we’ve drunk their Kool-Aid, and we figure God manages the creation by the vehicle of evolution and the physical laws of the universe. We fail to realize, as Jonathan Edwards pointed out long ago, that what we call “physical laws” are only descriptions of how God upholds the universe and all things in it consistently, coherently, and revealingly, for His glory and praise.

And second, we don’t do this because we haven’t learned to read the common grace of God in creation so that we could actually point someone to it, give voice to the various creatures around us, and draw out the glory of God for all to see. We haven’t followed the example of our forebears, like Gerard Manley Hopkins, and our contemporaries, like Robert C. Bishop and Joshua Carr.

But these are only excuses, and an excuse, as Jim Kennedy used to say, is only the skin of a reason stuffed with a lie. When we give ground to the lie of evolutionary theory – and I don’t mean to say there’s no such thing as evolution, merely that evolution is not the explanation for everything – when we give ground to evolutionary theory we embrace the lie, and that lie then begins to color everything. By tacitly agreeing with that religion which makes God no longer necessary, we can hardly talk with someone about God, can we?

So because we have denied the common grace of God as the sustaining and explaining paradigm for all creation, we can hardly hope to introduce God into everyday life as though He actually, you know, mattered.

All or nothing

Our witness to the Lord Jesus Christ is all of a piece. The Gospel is all or nothing. Jesus is the Source and Explanation of everything, or He explains nothing at all. What the doctrine of common grace reveals to us concerning our Lord Jesus is two very important matters.

First, that there is literally no end or limit to the love God bears for us. He surrounds us with His love every day, invites us to consider His love at every turn, and supports and sustains us by a love we can never escape and only with great spiritual exertion consistently deny. Any God Who loves us so much, and so constantly, is worth hearing when He reveals the extent to which He has gone in revealing the full measure of His love.

And second, common grace reminds us that we need God, in every detail and aspect of our lives. And if we need Him merely to survive, and to enjoy life to any extent, how much more do we need Him to enable us to overcome the finality of death and the horrors of hell?

The doctrine of common grace deserves more attention from us, beloved, for it can help us in our calling and mission to glorify and enjoy and bear witness to God in every aspect of our lives.

Next steps

What can you identify of the common grace of God that might serve as a conversation starter leading to the Gospel? Talk with some believing friends about this question, then try it out with an unbeliever.

Additional Resources

Download this week’s study, Common Grace.

Sign up for ViewPoint Leaders Training and start your own ViewPoint discussion group.

For a deeper study of God’s grace, order a copy of T. M.’s book,I Will Be Your God, from our online store.

Men, download our free brief paper, “Men of the Church: A Solemn Warning,” by clicking here.

Except as indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.