Minister’s Message

CREATION NOT EVOLUTION, PART 2

Westminster Confession of Faith 4.1

It pleased God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, for the manifestation of the glory of His eternal power, wisdom, and goodness, in the beginning, to create, or make of nothing, the world, and all things therein whether visible or invisible, in the space of six days; and all very good.

     According to the theory of evolution, life first evolved in the oceans about 3 billion years B.C. This was followed by the Cambrian era (1 billion years B.C.) which was supposed to have been an age of ferns, worms and jellyfish. Then came the Paleozoic era (600 million years B.C.) which was supposed to have been a time of marine invertebrates, fish and amphibians. Then came the Mesozoic era (230 million years B.C.) known as the Age of the Dinosaurs. This has been followed by the Cenozoic era, or the Age of the Mammals (from 60 million B.C. up to the present day). Within this modern period we are supposed to find the Age of Man-like Creatures (1 million B.C.), the Age of Cavemen (100,000 B.C.) and then the Age of Modern Man (10,000 B.C.).

     You will also remember that according to evolution all that you see around you got here by a combination of time plus chance. There was no divine hand guiding it all; only “natural selection,” or “the survival of the fittest” rules the evolutionary horizon.

     The Bible teaches an order to creation that differs radically from the accepted order of the evolutionary system. According to the Bible, God Almighty created all we see, and even all we cannot see, in the space of 6 literal twenty-four hour days.

     Many seem to think that it is impossible for 21st Century Man to believe in a Six-Day Creation, so they try to explain away what is clearly taught in God’s Word. They say that the Hebrew term for “day” (YOM) can mean a period of time, and so the Creation took place, not in six literal days, but in six time periods.

     Now it is true that the Hebrew word “YOM” may sometimes mean a period of time longer than a day (cf. Gen.2:4), as the English word “day” also does. For example, the phrase “in the day of your suffering” does not mean that suffering lasts only twenty-four hours, but it refers to a period of suffering. In spite of this, the precise terms used in Genesis 1 lend themselves to only one interpretation.

     You see, the bare word “day” is not used here, but a phrase which says, literally, “and (there) was evening, and (there) was morning, one (or ‘first’) day” (Gen. 1:5). This is followed in the rest of Genesis 1 with the exact phrasing for “second day,” “third day,” etc. The exception is in Gen.1:31 which reads: “and (there) was evening, and (there) was morning, THE sixth day.” The definite article is found here, to cap off the whole account of the six days of creation. No clearer terms could have been chosen to convey a literal Six-Day Creation.

     Let us now look at the order of the Six-Day Creation of Genesis 1.

     DAY ONE: God creates the heavens, earth, light and then day and night. Notice that God, who is Light itself (1 John 1:5), did not need first to create the heavenly bodies we call stars (including the Sun) to be able to shed light on the earth. He Himself provided light for the world for three days prior to the creation of those heavenly bodies. And, I believe, He created the light striking the earth in transit from those bodies He would create later on the Fourth Day. This means that the light striking the earth on the First Day would have appeared to be coming from the sun, moon and stars which did not yet exist! Therefore, there is no need to postulate a billion year-old universe to account for the estimated travel time for the light that is now reaching the earth from the farthest stars. That light was created already on its way the First Day.

     DAY TWO: God created the firmament (sky) to divide the water above from the water below the sky. Evidently, the early earth was enclosed in a vapor-like canopy of water. If such a vapor canopy is the proper interpretation of these verses, it would have created uniform global temperatures, provided a natural barrier to harmful ultra-violet light, and produced a stable hyperbaric atmospheric pressure which would have stimulated longevity in both plants and animals.

     DAY THREE: God created dry land, seas, and all the plant kingdom—grass, herbs (bushes) and trees. These divisions of the plant kingdom are not given in scientific terms, but rather in their relation to man. The Hebrew words used mean: “those things which grow on the ground; those things which grow about shoulder height; and those things which grow taller than man and bear fruit.”

     DAY FOUR: God filled the heavens He had created on the first day with the sun, moon and stars. The Bible specifically states that the heavenly bodies were placed there by God for the purpose of the benefit they would produce on earth. Their purpose is given in man-centered terms—they are for “signs and seasons, days and years.” Contrary to the teachings of unbelieving astronomers, we are not living in some run-down, back-water ghetto of the galaxy, we are living at the center of all God’s redemptive activity. Nor is it the height of audacity for mankind to claim special privilege in the universe, for we alone of all God’s creatures are made in His image to serve Him by exercising dominion over all the rest of creation for God’s glory.

     DAY FIVE: God created the sea creatures and the birds (this word includes flying insects). Here there is a clear conflict with the theory of evolution. The Bible says that birds were created one day before the reptiles; evolution teaches that reptiles became birds. (Yes, it is true, evolution does teach that the dinosaur is the ancestor of the common barn-yard chicken!)

     DAY SIX: God created land animals (cattle, creeping things and wild beasts) and finally He created man in a unique act, as His own image. Again these words for the animals are given, not in scientific parlance, but in their relationship to mankind. “Cattle” means all animals domesticated by man; “creeping things” means everything which crawls along the ground (reptiles, worms, insects, etc.); “wild beasts” refers to all the other animals which are not commonly domesticated by man for his use.

     Next time we will consider more reasons for accepting the Creation account of the Bible over the theory of evolution.

 
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This page was last updated 19 June 2008.