Creation or Evolution
Note: To properly understand the position of the writer please read the author's message "To The Reader".
[2.1]
In The Beginning
The bible begins with, "In the beginning." The question that each of us need to ask ourselves is, "In the beginning of what?" In the beginning of the entire universe? In the beginning when God began? In the beginning of creation itself or does it mean in the beginning of God's plan for man? Elsewhere in scripture, God indicates that he had already been at work for some time when he turned his attention toward earth, therefore I believe that what God is saying is, "In the beginning of God's plan for man, he created the heaven and the earth.
[2.2]
According to the biblical account, the earth was already in existence though without form, and void and darkness covered the face of the deep. The word deep, taken from the Hebrew, indicates a body of water, i.e. the sea or subterranean water supply, possibly both as yet undivided (Strong's Heb 8415). The fact that the earth is described as being without form and void has great significance. In this statement we can find what God means when He uses the word created, for people today misunderstand what the term "created" means or what it encompasses.
[2.3]
Potter And Clay
In the book of the prophet Jeremiah, God speaks to his prophet in a parable.
Jeremiah 18:1-6
1 The word which came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying,
2 Arise, and go down to the potter's house, and there I will cause thee to hear my words.
3 Then I went down to the potter's house, and, behold, he wrought a work on the wheels.
4 And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.
5 Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying,
6 O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? saith the LORD. Behold, as the clay is in the potter's hand, so are ye in mine hand, O house of Israel.
[2.4]
God likens Himself to a potter and Israel as the clay upon the potter's wheel. In Romans 9:20-21 we read.
20 Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?
21 Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?
[2.5]
Again, we see the potter and clay illustration and once again, God depicts himself as the potter, but this time, man is the thing fashioned; man is the clay. In Revelation, Christ, speaking of his rule over the nations, refers once again to mankind as the vessels of a potter (Revelation 2:27); vessels which will ultimately be broken. If we examine these illustrations and apply them to God's creative work, we begin to get a clearer picture in our mind of what God means when he says "creation."
[2.6]
Let us now apply this picture to the creation story. When God approached the earth, at the beginning of the history of man, the earth was without form, like a ball of clay and water lay upon it. The two elements necessary for a potter to create are water and clay, and we find both of these elements present at creation. Notice he did not begin by creating the earth or the water, they were already waiting, like a lump of clay upon the potter's wheel. These had obviously been created sometime earlier and were ready and waiting for the Master's hand.
[2.7]
Replenish The Earth
The scriptures seem to indicate that this same clay had been used before, perhaps to fashion a previous society of living things, but God finds no need to detail these former things for us. Thus they remain largely a mystery. Surely, if we knew what came before earth's creation we would seek to know what came before that, and so on. If God attempted to satisfy man's curiosity about such things by explaining all of them in his book, the book would soon be larger than earth itself. Where are these former creations mentioned? Consider the following.
[2.8]
When Noah and his family were able to land and disembark from the ark, God instructed them to replenish the earth (Genesis 9:1). We know that the earth had been inhabited before by Adam and his generations which descended to Noah himself. Thus, we understand why God instructed Noah to REplenish the earth because it had been inhabited by Adam's generations before. God could not merely ask Noah to plenish (fill) the earth because it had been filled previously so he instructed Noah to replenish (refill) the earth, and the same holds true with Adam.
[2.9]
Now, consider the words "plenish" and "replenish." What is the difference between these two words? Replenish means to do it again, revealing the fact that it had been done before. The King James translation of the bible reveals that when God told Adam to populate the earth Adam, like Noah, was told to replenish (refill) the earth, and he used the same word that He used with Noah (Genesis 1:28). Replenish is rendered in Hebrew as "male" pronounced maw-lay or maw-law (Strong's Heb 4390) and translates to a wide number of primitive root meanings, among which the word "replenish" appears. This ball of clay and water we call earth stood waiting to be reused, refashioned, and repopulated to accommodate God's new creation but may well have been used in a previous creation which he destroyed, perhaps one which had been the habitation of His enemy.
Job 1:7
And the LORD said unto Satan, Whence comest thou? Then Satan answered the LORD, and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it.
[2.10]
This could mean that the earth that awaited the touch of the master's hand had been used and fashioned before by the same hand; it had been populated before by other living things, the remains of which are now found in the clay of the earth and have been left there for man's use. Now we call these things fossils and use the energy they supply to run to and fro over the face of the earth, just as Daniel had prophesied.
Daniel 12:4
But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.
[2.11]
This energy was developed from petroleum, a resource also known as fossil fuel. Keep in mind this energy has only been in global use for the last century.
Understanding this may put to rest an old argument between science and theology regarding the age of the earth. I just love the way the King James Bible speaks of science, don't you?
1 Timothy 6:20
O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called:
[2.12]
The Fossil In The Cup
Paul warns Timothy of the very thing that lies at the base of this biblical quote. Science claims that the materials found in the earth are older than the bible claims the earth to be. The fact is, the bible doesn't say how old the earth is, remember it was without form and void when God began to fashion it into a new creation. Let me explain what I mean in a few simple illustrations.
[2.13]
Let's pretend that I'm holding a ceramic cup before you. A piece of the cup has been broken away revealing a tiny fossil embedded in its clay. Scientific analysis of the fossil reveals that the fossil found in the clay is ten thousand years old. The firing date printed clearly on the bottom of the cup indicates the cup was fashioned two years ago. How old is the cup? Is it ten thousand years old or two years old? Science says its ten thousand years old and here lies the controversy. If you add up all the generations of man dating back to Adam, you'll arrive at approximately six thousand years, yet the materials that form this creation appear to be much older. Science won't figure this out. It's not that it can't, it won't! Ask a scientist how old his or her car is and they'll answer one or two years old or perhaps a few years more, but the materials found in their automobile date back thousands of years. If the scientist can figure out the age of their car, why can't they understand that the age of God's creation is less than the age of the materials used to form it?
[2.14]
"In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth and the earth was without form and void." When was that? When was the beginning? God doesn't choose to tell us. We have no way of knowing how long the materials of earth remained in their unfashioned state. This creation truly starts when the Potter, the divine sculptor, begins the process of fashioning, shaping and molding the clay of this earth into the habitation of man.
[2.15]
The fact that "darkness was upon the face of the deep," only serves to reveal that the earth at this point was not in God's presence. God is light and nothing in His presence remains in darkness (1 John 1:5).
James 1:17
Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.
John 8:12
Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.
[2.16]
When God said, "Let there be light," He was speaking of himself, it wasn't until the fourth day of creation that he set lights in the heavens to illuminate the earth. For four days the earth was clothed only in the light of God's glory. Is it any wonder that the grass and herbs of the field grew and yielded seed and the fruit trees brought forth fruit all in a single day?
[2.17]
How Long Is A Day
The New Testament scriptures tell us that to God, a day is as a thousand years and a thousand years as a day (2 Peter 3:8). I have often heard this scripture used to explain that God didn't create the heavens and earth in six days but rather developed them over thousands of years. Each day, of course, representing a thousand years and falsely justified by the above quote. What God is saying through Peter, however, is that he can accomplish as much in a day as one could accomplish in a thousand years and that a thousand years in the face of a timeless God is as one day. God is limitless, so even the constraints of this quote must be regarded as figurative, but not because they expand God's potential but rather because they limit it, for God is fully able to accomplish much more in a day than any man could in a thousand years.
[2.18]
Theistic Evolution
Another theory of science embraces theistic evolution. This false doctrine holds that God created the spark of life, programmed it with all its genetic possibilities and turned it loose to grow and evolve into each life form that exists now or has ever existed. Those who believe and propagate this lie teach that the biblical account of creation is mere poetry and not to be taken literally. Not only is this heresy found among believers, but it is taught in churches and Christian colleges, even among those regarded as conservative.
[2.19]
Literal Truth
What is heresy? Any teaching that contradicts the literal word of God as recorded in scripture. God recorded all events as they literally came to pass. Dreams and visions given to prophets had literal meanings. His parables and hyperbole can be reduced to literal truths and all scriptures is given by his divine inspiration.
2 Timothy 3:16
All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:
2 Peter 1:20-21
20 Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation.
21 For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.
[2.20]
When it's a song, poem or dream, God states it (Deuteronomy 3:19) (Daniel 7:1), and if he doesn't call it poetry it's fact. Truth is, even his so-called poetry is fact; for example, Psalms 22.
[2.21]
God's Emphasis
Those who study the scriptures soon realize that whenever anything is repeated again and again, it's because God is trying to get our attention and drive a particular lesson into our stubborn heads. Such is the case in the first chapter of Genesis in the story of creation.
[2.22]
God, who knows man better than man knows himself, knew we would try to explain away the miracle of creation. He knew when science couldn't explain it, they'd find some way of rationalizing it, even if it meant perverting his word. To counter this stupid behavior, he reduced his account of creation to a series of repeated statements in the same way that a parent teaches a child through repetition. Take a look at how careful God was to make certain points clear.
[2.23]
A Twenty Four Hour Day
After each period of creation, God records the same statement, "and the evening and the morning were the first day, second day, third day," etc. There is but one evening and one morning in each twenty four-hour day. If, as some claim, the length of a day was a thousand years then there would be many evenings and mornings in a single day. We have those who believe in the alternate meaning for the word day. For example, "in the day of Christ," meaning in the time of Christ. This too, falls by the wayside for in this meaning we have no need for an evening or morning at all. The use of these terms limits us to one understanding and that is that we're dealing with, a single day with a single evening and a single morning.
[2.24]
Some will argue at this point, that the day was much longer than a twenty-four hour period. There are several reasons that this is not a creditable argument. First, let's consider the ages of those who lived in the pages of Genesis, especially those who lived before the flood. According to the biblical record, Adam lived for nine hundred and thirty years. If each day he lived was a thousand years, then even by the shortened Hebrew calendar, which limits the year to three hundred and sixty days, Adam would have been 334,800,000 years old. Those who find it hard to believe that he lived nine hundred and thirty years will have a real problem with this. By the same standard, Methuselah, the oldest man in biblical history, would have died when he was 348,840,000 years old, making Adam just a kid.
[2.25]
Second, some two thousand years after creation, God reminded Israel to observe the day when he rested from his labors. He commanded Israel to keep this day holy and once again described its length as being from Sundown on the day we call Friday to sundown on the day we call Saturday (Exodus 16:11-30). The Hebrew day went from sundown to sundown rather than from midnight to midnight which follows the Roman tradition. Please note that either way, we're still talking about a Sabbath that's twenty-four hours long, not a thousand years.
[2.26]
Third, we must examine the meaning of the word "day" as defined in the Hebrew tongue; the tongue in which it was originally recorded. In Hebrew, the word for day is yowm, pronounced yome (Strong's Heb 3117). It means day as in sunlight hours or sunset to sunset as in a twenty-four hour day. The meaning of this word has not changed from the beginning as evidenced in Genesis seven, verse eleven.
Genesis 7:11-12
11 In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened.
12 And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights.
[2.27]
Here we read not only of a specific day but a specific month also and each just before the flood. It rained for forty Genesis days and I don't think we, as intelligent students of God's word, can interpret that other than forty normal sunset to sunset days. We certainly can't believe that it rained for forty thousand years.
[2.28]
When God Repeats Himself
The other reason for not accepting the theory of divine evolution is based upon another redundancy found in the Genesis account of creation. Just as God repeated over and over that the evening and morning were the first, second, third, etc day, so He also repeated something else over and over. Right after the dry land was assembled above the waters called seas, God said, "Let the earth bring forth grass and herbs yielding seed and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth; and it was so" (Genesis 1:11).
[2.29]
Notice please, that the herbs and trees carried their own seed to reproduce vegetation like the generation before. This means the herbs, for example rosemary, produced more rosemary. The herb called rosemary did not produce a peach tree or a peach tree produce thyme or cinnamon or aloe. For evolution to work, species must cross evolve from one to another. This means that mice become cats, cats become dogs, dogs become horses, horses become monkeys and monkeys become men or some such thing. If you believe this, then you may be a living example of scientific truth because, it would appear, that science has made a monkey out of you. According to these masterminds, all this took billions of years and of course, this is why they claim it's possible. While we have proved that the age of the earth, in its unfashioned state, is unknown, the age of its fashioned, living and functioning, existence is around six thousand years old. We arrive at this by adding up all the generations of man from Adam to the present day. It is therefore, impossible for families of species to have biologically crossed. By scientific standards, there simply hasn't been enough time in the biblical account for this to happen. By this I mean felines may be cross-bred but they can't cross over specie lines becoming canines, for example. Flowers may be cross-bred but don't cross over becoming apples. If this isn't so then why aren't major species still crossing?
[2.30]
God is so dedicated to teaching us this truth that He repeats this same fact in verses twenty-one, twenty-four, and twenty-five. Then in verse twenty-nine, he reminds us that each brings forth its own seed. Why does God insist on reminding us of these facts over and over? Could it be that he knew man's intellectual vanity would insist on reinventing the story of creation? A clear understanding of both things that he repeated make it impossible for any true believer in God or his word to believe in any form of evolution except that which God has ordained. No one denies that buds turn into flowers, caterpillars into butterflies or pollywogs to frogs; why does man insist on taking a simple, obvious truth and blowing it all out of proportion in a vain effort to explain the creation process? God's ways are not our ways.
Isaiah 55:8-9
8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD.
9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.
[2.31]
When God told the creation story he told it so we could understand it. He told it straight and true. After all, when you're able to speak things into existence, how long does it take? Anything else would have been confusing and untrue; God does not lie. Most Christians believe that Christ walked on water, cleansed lepers, gave sight to the blind and raised the dead. They believe He did this by the divine power of His Father. Why then, do they doubt the power of God to create a universe by this same power, one that does not follow the path of science? If we can’t accept the miracle of creation, how can we accept any of the other miracles that were carried out by Christ including resurrection from the dead? If we reject this miracle, where does that leave us?
1 Corinthians 15:13-21
13 But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen:
14 And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain.
15 Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God; because we have testified of God that he raised up Christ: whom he raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not.
16 For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised:
17 And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins.
18 Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished.
19 If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.
20 But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept.
21 For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead.
[2.32]
Believe God’s word. Believe it just as it’s recorded in the scriptures and do not doubt, for your very eternal life in Christ depends on your trust in His word, i.e. the bible. God says what He means and means what He says.