Heavenly Hope, Part 2

As we saw in the first part of this clue series, Charles Darwin had a rather sad childhood.  In some ways, a person might think that Darwin had a fairly pleasant life.  He was wealthy, well educated, successful, and full of fairly new and radical ideas.  But something was missing in Darwin’s life; he had no hope.  Darwin did most of the research for Origin of Species on his voyage on the Beagle which began in 1832, although the book was not published until 1859.  Many people have pondered and speculated why there is such a large time lapse between Darwin’s voyage and the publishing of his work.  I believe that the true reason is that Darwin had not completely dismissed the idea of God until his beloved daughter Annie died in 1851.  She was only ten years old when she died, after suffering greatly for about a year.  Since Darwin could not reconcile himself to a loving and just Creator who would let horrible things like that happen to “innocent” people like Annie, he rejected God.

Charles Darwin rejected the creation account in Genesis long before he published Origin of Species because he rejected the part about suffering and death being the result of man’s sin, not God’s creation.  When God said that His creation was good, He was not referring to suffering, death, and pain; those are all consequences of man’s choice to sin.  But, because we can trust the account of man’s sin in Genesis, we can also trust the gospel of salvation.  Jesus was innocent and perfect, far better than Annie Darwin, but He chose to suffer unimaginable cruelty and suffering so that He can offer the gift of salvation to anyone who chooses to accept it.  Those who choose to accept His gift will receive everlasting life in Heaven, where there is no suffering, tears, pain, parting, or death.  I can live each day joyfully in the sunshine, with heavenly hope, because I know where I’m headed, thanks to Genesis and the rest of the Bible.