April 22, 2020, was the 50th anniversary of Earth day, the birth of the modern environmental movement in 1970. God encourages us to be good stewards of what He has created. It is a wonderful thing to love and care for our beautiful, amazing planet. Who doesn’t enjoy watching sunsets, drinking clean water, breathing clean air, or walking in the outdoors? Earth is a truly majestic planet and words cannot fully capture its diversity, complexity, and beauty. However, problems arise when we start to idolize creation over the Creator. In this article, we will explore what the Bible says about creation and how we can trust God and His Word over alternative creation theories, like evolution.
The Role of Evolution in My Own Testimony
I attended public schools in the 1980s and 1990s in several Southwestern and Southeastern states. When we attended church, it was the Catholic church and catechism. Most of what I was taught on the origins of humanity and the universe was at school through evolution. Evolution was taught extensively, and to me it explained everything much more convincingly than a God creating everything. I remember sitting in Catholic mass at 8 or 9 years old and rejecting God. I decided God and the Bible were fairy tales. Evolution must be the answer to everything.
Skip ahead to my college years. I started dating a Christian guy (my future husband) and he gave me a book on creationism vs. evolution. It was through the evidences presented in this book that I started to see so many holes in evolutionary theory! It required more faith in evolution as the basis of earth’s origins than having faith in God as the Creator! I started realizing the mathematical impossibility for so many complexities, like the human body, to have happened on their own. At the same time, I began to understand that there is a much more convincing argument for a Creator behind these complexities. For instance, we don’t look at a painting and ever deduce that it came together by accident. We see a painting and know there was a painter behind it. And a painting is so simple! How can we view the universe, our planet, and complex life and believe that it all came together on its own by accident? I didn’t give my life to the Lord at that time, but these realizations knocked down my biggest stumbling block that prevented me from giving my life to Him, which eventually happened a few years later. To read my full testimony, check out the post, “My Testimony.”
The Bible begins with the Creation account and discusses God’s creation throughout the Scriptures:
Genesis 1:1 (NIV)
1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
Genesis 5:1-2 (NIV)
5 This is the written account of Adam’s family line.
When God created mankind, he made them in the likeness of God. 2 He created them male and female and blessed them. And he named them “Mankind”[a] when they were created.
Psalm 74:13-17 (NIV)
13 It was you who split open the sea by your power;
you broke the heads of the monster in the waters.
14 It was you who crushed the heads of Leviathan
and gave it as food to the creatures of the desert.
15 It was you who opened up springs and streams;
you dried up the ever-flowing rivers.
16 The day is yours, and yours also the night;
you established the sun and moon.
17 It was you who set all the boundaries of the earth;
you made both summer and winter.
Check out this link for over 100 verses on creation!
“Both Testaments of the Christian scriptures directly reference creation. Forty percent of the Bible’s books, 26 out of 66, with a third of the books in the Old Testament and almost half of those in the New affirming special creation. Finally, there are 208 individual verses that directly reference creation.” (https://kgov.com/list-of-all-bible-verses-on-creation)
Why is it important to understand biblical creation vs. evolution?
Because when we start to doubt the book of Genesis, we can start to doubt the whole Bible!
Scripture doesn’t tell us how long ago Creation happened, the mechanics God used to create, if Adam was fully grown or a baby when God created him, or how to think about fossils and the long history we can observe in the world and universe around us. However, there are different views within creationism, such as Young Earth Creationism, Old Earth Creationism, and views in between.
The age of the earth is not a primary or secondary doctrine, which means our understanding of earth’s age is not consequential for Salvation or living as Christ-like disciples. We need to be careful not to be dogmatic about theological opinions when Scripture is not dogmatic. With that being said, Young Earth Creationism is one of the most widely accepted explanations among theological scholars. The Answers in Genesis ministry has written a great deal of compelling arguments to support this view:
“For example, consider what happens when you attempt to add evolution into the Bible. Adam and Eve are no longer the first humans, and original sin goes out the window. This does irreparable damage to the biblical redemption narrative. The Bible says that death came into the world because of man’s sin (Romans 5:12) and that all of creation labors under a curse because of sin (Romans 8:22). Scripture also says that Christ is the last Adam, come to redeem us from the sin brought into the world through the first man, Adam (1 Corinthians 15:22, 45). If Adam were a mythical figure, which is what evolution demands, even in a Christianized form, the entire parallel between the two Adams and the kinsman redeemer concept is destroyed. By advocating evolution, theistic evolutionists are undermining the very tenets of Christianity.” (https://answersingenesis.org/evolution/)
“Those Christians who reject evolution but accept millions of years have an equivalent problem. Jesus, when explaining marriage to the Sadducees, referred to Adam and Eve as existing from the beginning of creation (Mark 10:6). According to those who accept millions of years, Adam and Eve only existed after billions and millions of years of death: this makes Jesus either ignorant or a liar. Further, when God finished his creation he called everything very good (Genesis 1:31). In order for the millions of years to be true, God would have to be calling the fossil record, which records disease, death, violence, and suffering, very good. That is inconsistent with the character of God revealed throughout the rest of Scripture.” (https://answersingenesis.org/evolution/)
“God tells us in Genesis exactly how he created the world, and even the order of events doesn’t match the evolutionary tale. In addition, one of the things that drives evolution is death. But the Bible teaches that death was introduced into the perfect world as a result of Adam’s sin. When Christians try to reinterpret God’s infallible Word based on the ideas of fallible men, it undermines the gospel of Jesus Christ.” (https://answersingenesis.org/evolution/)
Evolution and the Flood
“Further, attempting to combine evolution or millions of years with the biblical text forces Christians to reject the reality of the global flood of Noah’s day. If the fossil record was laid down before man, then the flood is not necessary to bury the fossils and, in fact, conflicts with the existing record. Therefore, according to these individuals, the flood had to be local or mythical. This raises all manner of questions such as; why did God not just tell Noah to move or how did a local flood cover all the mountains and yet remain local? The only way to get around these questions is to torture the Hebrew text and the concept of biblical inerrancy.” (https://answersingenesis.org/evolution/)
“Evolution, whether couched in Christianized language or presented in its natural atheistic colors, remains an utterly bankrupt and failed hypothesis about the origin of the universe or the diversity of life on earth. In no instance has cosmological, geological, or biological evolution been demonstrated, and the most common evidences for evolution all have been debunked. Attempting to add evolution to Christianity is both unbiblical and irrational, since evolution itself is not science but anti-science. Neither the Bible nor empirical science support its claims.” (https://answersingenesis.org/evolution/)
Evolution Requires Faith
“For many, a belief in evolution comes from the desire to remove the need for God as Creator. Some would say evolution comes from what the evidence says to us. But evidence never speaks for itself, it’s always interpreted using your assumptions and starting points. And only when you examine the evidence through the lens of the Bible does it makes sense.” (https://answersingenesis.org/evolution/)
“Evolution is rooted in the belief system of naturalism that doesn’t allow for anything outside the laws of nature to explain how our world operates. Ironically, naturalism requires the violation of several known laws of the universe.” (https://answersingenesis.org/evolution/)
- The law of biogenesis (life only comes from life)
- The uniformity of nature (uniformity cannot exist or be expected without a creator)
- The laws of physics (the big bang requires the suspension of the laws of physics, nor could those laws exist without a creator)
- The laws of probability (the fine tuning of the universe requires a creator)
- The laws of logic (logic requires a logical source)
- The laws of chemistry (the consistent properties of the elements require intelligence)
- The laws of information (information can only come from an intelligence)
“To accept that all of these things truly operate in the world without God as their Creator and Organizer requires an immense amount of faith. While it is often used as a criticism of Christians, those who have an evolutionary worldview must accept all of these things by blind faith since there is no naturalistic explanation for the existence of these laws. While Christians also accept certain truths by faith, it is faith in the Creator and Lawgiver who provides a basis for those truths, not a blind faith in blind, chance processes.” (https://answersingenesis.org/evolution/)
“There are numerous anatomical structures that are clearly designed. Many are irreducibly complex, meaning the parts serve no benefit unless they all exist and are working together. There are many such examples of design in biology. All of these point to an intelligent Creator and Designer.” (https://answersingenesis.org/evolution/)
Romans 1:20 (NIV)
20 For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.
“So we’re left with an inescapable conclusion: there must be a powerful and super-wise Creator. With such a Creator, you no longer need billions of years. He could create everything in much less time—say . . . six days. This Creator gave us a clear record (the Bible) of how he created the world, how long it took him, how humans fell into sin, and how God the Son (Jesus) came to earth to save us from our sinful rebellion against him.” (https://answersingenesis.org/evolution/)
To continue your personal study on biblical creation, check out the following resources:
- Answers in Genesis
- https://biologos.org/about-us
- https://reasons.org/about
- 40 Questions About Creation and Evolution by Keathley and Rooker
- And of course, investigate the Scriptures yourself! Time spent in God’s Word is always time well spent!
Proverbs 30:5 (ESV)
5 Every word of God proves true;
he is a shield to those who take refuge in him.
Your Creator loves you! As long as you have breath, it is not too late to invite God and His Son, Jesus Christ into your life. Today, make the best and most important decision you’ll ever make and ask God to forgive your sins and acknowledge Him as your Lord and Savior.
Romans 14:11 (NIV)
11 It is written:
“‘As surely as I live,’ says the Lord,
‘every knee will bow before me;
every tongue will acknowledge God.’”[a]
Edited by Allie Anson
Life with Jesus 