Creation vs. Evolution (Part 1)

Creation vs. Evolution I. Purpose of this study 1. For the last 150 years, there has been a concerted effort to destroy people's believe in God by casting doubt on the belief that the universe and life were created by God. 2. This has been accomplished by developing and promoting the Theory of Evolution which is said to be the process by which species of organisms arise from earlier life forms and undergo change over time through natural selection. 3. The Theory of Evolution requires astronomical amounts of time for this hypothesized process to take place. 4. By teaching that the universe is billions of years old, the Bible and the account of Creation are contradicted and called into question. A. The doctrine of evolution is an example of "oppositions of science falsely so called" (1Ti 6:20). B. The result of this pseudoscience is that "some professing have erred concerning the faith" (1Ti 6:21). C. Many who have erred concerning the faith are little children who have been force-fed these lies in schools from a very young age. D. Those guilty of teaching it to them better fear and repent (Mat 18:6). 5. The purpose of this study is to present what the scriptures have to say about Creation and the origin of life and to show the fallacy of the Theory of Evolution. II. Definitions 1. Evolution - n. 1. The opening out or unfolding of what is wrapped up (e.g. a roll, a bud, etc.); fig. the spreading out before the mental vision (of a series of objects); the appearance in orderly succession of a long train of events. 6. Biol. c. The origination of species of animals and plants, as conceived by those who attribute it to a process of development from earlier forms, and not to a process of ‘special creation’. Often in phrases doctrine, theory of evolution. 2. Science - n. 1. a. The state or fact of knowing; knowledge or cognizance of something specified or implied; also, with wider reference, knowledge (more or less extensive) as a personal attribute. Now only Theol. in the rendering of scholastic terms. 4. a. In a more restricted sense: A branch of study which is concerned either with a connected body of demonstrated truths or with observed facts systematically classified and more or less colligated by being brought under general laws, and which includes trustworthy methods for the discovery of new truth within its own domain. 3. Creation - 1. a. The action or process of creating; the action of bringing into existence by divine power or its equivalent; the fact of being so created. 2. a. gen. The action of making, forming, producing, or bringing into existence. III. Creation 1. In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth (Gen 1:1). A. Universe is made of two words: uni-verse (one verse). B. Create - v. 1. a. trans. Said of the divine agent: To bring into being, cause to exist; esp. to produce where nothing was before, ‘to form out of nothing’ C. This was an ex nihilo (out of nothing) creation. D. All that God created was created fully mature including the earth, sun, moon, stars, and life. i. God didn't create Adam as an embryo, but as a full grown man. ii. God is able to create things with the appearance of age. iii. Adam looked older than he was. iv. Jesus demonstrated this when he created wine, not grape juice (Joh 2:1-11), and bread, not grain (Joh 6:5-14). v. It therefore should be no problem for Christians that some parts of the universe appear to be old such as the starlight which is supposedly millions of light-years away. vi. When God created the stars in the heavens, they were likely much closer to earth and then God stretched them out. Consider the following verses: a. "It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in:" (Isa 40:22) b. "Thus saith God the LORD, he that created the heavens, and stretched them out;..." (Isa 42:5) c. "...I am the LORD that maketh all things; that stretcheth forth the heavens alone; that spreadeth abroad the earth by myself;" (Isa 44:24) d. "...the LORD thy maker, that hath stretched forth the heavens, and laid the foundations of the earth..." (Isa 51:13) e. "...the LORD, which stretcheth forth the heavens, and layeth the foundation of the earth, and formeth the spirit of man within him." (Zec 12:1) E. The creation was brought into existence by God's voice...God said...(Gen 1:3,6,etc.; Psa 33:6). i. This perfectly agrees with the fact that creation is ascribed to the Word, the second person of the trinity (Joh 1:1-3 c/w 1Jo 5:7). ii. God's voice is powerful (Job 37:5). iii. God's voice causes spirits and bodies to come alive (Joh 5:25,28-29; Joh 11:43-44). iv. God's voice can destroy (Rev 19:15). F. Notice how all three persons of the Trinity were involved in the creation: i. God (the Father) (Gen 1:1). ii. The Word (God said) (Gen 1:3). iii. The Holy Spirit (Gen 1:2). 2. The Creation account in Genesis 1&2 is a literal, factual, historical account of the creation of the universe and all that is in it, including all life. It is not a fictional story or allegory. A. Jesus quoted from the first two chapters of Genesis and appealed to them as literal history (Mar 10:6 c/w Gen 1:27; Mat 19:5 c/w Gen 2:24). i. If you don't believe Genesis, you have no basis to believe Jesus (Joh 5:46-47). ii. If Jesus told us about earthly things (the creation of the earth in Genesis 1&2) and we don't believe Him, then how shall we believe Him when he told us of heavenly things (heaven, eternal life, etc.)? (Joh 3:12) iii. Since they don't believe Moses, it's no wonder that atheistic evolutionists are not even persuaded by Jesus' resurrection from the dead (Luk 16:31). B. Thomas Huxley, "Darwin's Bulldog", did a superb job in showing the folly of Christians who try to allegorize away the first 11 chapters of Genesis. i. "I am fairly at a loss to comprehend how any one, for a moment, can doubt that Christian theology must stand or fall with the historical trustworthiness of the Jewish Scriptures. The very conception of the Messiah, or Christ, is inextricably interwoven with Jewish history; the identification of Jesus of Nazareth with that Messiah rests upon the interpretation of passages of the Hebrew Scriptures which have no evidential value unless they possess the historical character assigned to them. If the covenant with Abraham was not made; if circumcision and sacrifices were not ordained by Jahveh; if the “ten words” were not written by God’s hand on the stone tables; if Abraham is more or less a mythical hero, such as Theseus; the story of the Deluge a fiction; that of the Fall a legend; and that of the creation the dream of a seer; if all these definite and detailed narratives of apparently real events have no more value as history than have the stories of the regal period of Rome—what is to be said about the Messianic doctrine, which is so much less clearly enunciated? And what about the authority of the writers of the books of the New Testament, who, on this theory, have not merely accepted flimsy fictions for solid truths, but have built the very foundations of Christian dogma upon legendary quicksands?" (Thomas Huxley, quote from creation.com) ii. Concerning Mat 19:5, Huxley wrote: "If divine authority is not here claimed for the twenty-fourth verse of the second chapter of Genesis, what is the value of language? And again, I ask, if one may play fast and loose with the story of the Fall as a “type” or “allegory,” what becomes of the foundation of Pauline theology?" (Thomas Huxley, quote from creation.com) 3. The days of creation A. God created the heavens, the earth, and all that's in it in six normal 24 hour days (Exo 20:11). i. The law concerning resting on the Sabbath was based on the fact that God worked for six days and rested on the seventh (Exo 20:8-11). ii. It would make no sense whatsoever for God to tell Israel to work for six days and rest for one day if God really worked for six eons of time and rested for an eon of time. iii. Exodus 20:11 single-handedly destroys the Gap Theory which hypothesizes that there is a huge gap of time between Gen 1:1 and Gen 1:2 in which Lucifer's rebellion happened and therefore God destroyed the earth which He made in verse 1. iv. Genesis 1 and Exodus 20:11 also destroy the Christian-compromiser's theories of Theistic Evolution, Progressive Creation, and the Day-Age Theory which all teach that God used millions of years to create the universe and life. v. A crucial theological problem with these false doctrines is that they all place millions of years of death and suffering before the fall of man. a. All of God's creation was "very good" (Gen 1:31). b. This could hardly be said of a "creation" which used millions of years of death and suffering to bring about man. c. The Bible is crystal clear that death came by Adam (Rom 5:12). d. Contrary to the doctrine of evolution and it's pseudo-Christian offshoot-doctrines, Adam did not come by death, but rather death came by him! e. Death not only came to Adam and his descendants by his sin, but rather the "whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together" (Rom 8:22). f. Any idea that puts death before sin is heresy. g. Listen again to Thomas Huxley: 1) "And again, I ask, if one may play fast and loose with the story of the Fall as a “type” or “allegory,” what becomes of the foundation of Pauline theology? (Thomas Huxley, quote from creation.com) 2) Concerning 1Co 15:21-22, Huxley wrote: "If Adam may be held to be no more real a personage than Prometheus, and if the story of the Fall is merely an instructive “type,” comparable to the profound Promethean mythus, what value has Paul’s dialectic?" (Thomas Huxley, quote from creation.com) B. Day 1 i. God created the heaven and the earth (Gen 1:1). ii. God created light (Gen 1:3). iii. God divided the light from the darkness, making day and night (Gen 1:4-5). iv. The evening and morning were the first day (Gen 1:5). v. Notice, there was evening and morning before the sun was created. vi. As will be shown next, the first day is described identically as the other five days of creation, as an evening and a morning. C. Day 2 i. God created a firmament called Heaven to separate the waters below it from the waters above it (Gen 1:6-8). ii. This is the first heaven where the birds fly (Gen 1:20). iii. Firmament - 1. a. The arch or vault of heaven overhead, in which the clouds and the stars appear; the sky or heavens. iv. Cloud - II. 3. a. A visible mass of condensed watery vapour floating in the air at some considerable height above the general surface of the ground. v. The firmament separated the waters below (the oceans which covered the earth at that time) from waters above. vi. These waters above the firmament could simply be clouds which are made of water. vii. It has also been theorized that there was a canopy of water or ice in the atmosphere surrounding the earth. a. This canopy of water could have blocked out harmful UV rays from the sun and also caused higher atmospheric pressure, both of which would have helped to increase the length of life of all life on earth. b. This may explain why man lived for over 900 years prior to the flood when the "windows of heaven were opened" and the earth was flooded (Gen 7:11). c. This would also help to explain why dinosaurs got so large, since reptiles never stop growing and they would have had hundreds of years to grow and lots of plant life to eat. d. With huge amounts of vegetation and animals, made possible by perfect atmospheric conditions, this would also explain how all the vast coal, oil, and gas deposits all over the earth originated by being buried in the flood. viii. In addition to a possible water canopy surrounding earth, it is also very probable that there was a layer of water under the earth's crust that was let out when the "fountains of the great deep" were "broken up" (Gen 7:11). ix. The Hydroplate Theory gives a good, reasonable, and scientific explanation of what is stated in Gen 7:11. (More on the Hydroplate Theory later) D. Day 3 i. God caused the waters on the earth to gather together in one place and dry land to appear (Gen 1:9-10). ii. God then created all the vegetation on earth (Gen 1:11-13). E. Day 4 i. God created the sun, moon, and stars (Gen 1:14-19). ii. The sun was given to rule the day and the moon to rule the night (Jer 31:35). iii. The sun, moon, and stars are for signs, seasons, day, and years (Psa 104:19). iv. The heavenly bodies are in the second heaven (Gen 1:17). v. The third heaven is paradise where God dwells (2Co 12:2-4). F. Day 5 i. God created marine and bird life (Gen 1:20-23). ii. God told them to be fruitful and multiply and fill the seas and earth. G. Day 6 i. God created land animals (Gen 1:24-25). ii. God created man in His own image (Gen 1:26-27). iii. God formed man out of the dust of the ground and then breathed into him the breath of life and he became a living soul (Gen 2:7). a. Adam was formed of material already existing in the earth. b. We are dust (Psa 103:14) and we return to dust when we die (Gen 3:19; Ecc 12:7). iv. God told man to multiply and replenish the earth (Gen 1:28). a. Replenish - To make full of, to fill, to stock or store abundantly with, persons or animals. b. Man was not to refill the earth, but to fill the earth. c. Man was supposed to subdue the earth and have dominion over it (Gen 1:28). 1) Subdue - 1. a. trans. To conquer (an army, an enemy, a country or its inhabitants) in fight and bring them into subjection. 2) Dominion - 1. The power or right of governing and controlling; sovereign authority; lordship, sovereignty; rule, sway; control, influence. d. God gave the earth to men, not to animals (Psa 115:16). v. God gave man and animals herbs and fruit to eat for their food (Gen 1:29-30). vi. Everything that God made was very good (Gen 1:31). H. Day 7 i. God rested on the seventh day after creating and making the heavens and the earth and all that's in them (Gen 2:1-2). ii. God blessed and sanctified the seventh day because He rested on it (Gen 2:3).