Luke 1:18-20 :

Zacharias said to the angel, “How can I be sure of this? For I am an old man, and my wife is well advanced in years.”

The angel answered him, “I am Gabriel, who stands in the presence of God. I was sent to speak to you, and to bring you this good news. Behold, you will be silent and not able to speak, until the day that these things will happen, because you didn’t believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their proper time.”

For the last few days we have been going over the wonderful things that Zacharias was being told by the angel. Zacharias’ response here demonstrates the depravity of humanity. Think about this for a moment.

Zacharias, a priest of God, was visited by an angel of God, in the temple of God after praying to God. Even after this obvious sign, Zacharias still asks: “How can I be sure of this?” That is an amazing demonstration of faithlessness, but isn’t that the way we all are sometimes? Perhaps this explains why God had taken so long to answer. Look at what James says about this:

James 1:5-8 :

But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach; and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith, without any doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, driven by the wind and tossed. For let that man not think that he will receive anything from the Lord. He is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

Faith is extremely important to God. We tend to focus on good works and think that God responds when we do good things, but God is very clear that it is faith that He wants from us. This means that He wants us to believe what He says and that’s exactly what Zacharias wasn’t doing here.

I want to make it clear that there is kind of healthy doubt. After all, Satan is angelic too and is not to be believed. This, however, wasn’t what was bothering Zacharias. He was concerned about God’s ability to make him have children, which represents a lack of faith in the supernatural power of God. Today, this very kind of faithlessness is being practiced in the church regarding Evolution.

The Bible clearly states that God created the world in six literal days. The Evolutionary Model requires billions of years to get from molecules to man. Christian leadership today is questioning God’s ability to create in six days because of an assumption that “facts” must modify our understanding of the Bible. The problem with this is that “facts” originate from the word of God according to the Bible. It is inconsistent to think that a fact would ever go against the Bible, leaving the Bible unharmed. I believe that this is what is fueling the atheist movement today. We should not be fooled into attempting to assume that there is any Biblical consistency with Evolutionary Model when the Bible has to be modified in order to do so!

Back to the story, Zacharias ended up getting a sign from God as He would be unable to talk until it happened. Let’s not be too quick to ask for more signs. Let’s start by reading and believing the signs that we have already been given. If God’s people don’t show respect for the word of God in regard to Evolution, it would not be inconsistent if God decided to “shut up” scientific discovery until our faith problem is dealt with.