Can Bible Based Christains Believe In Evolution? Series

Many of you will have heard of the Big Bang Theory. The idea that the universe began from nothing when matter exploded into existence.

But do you know who came up with the concept? [take suggestions]

In 1927 the idea was first proposed by Fr George Lemaitre a Belgium Roman Catholic Priest. Many atheist scientists at the time were horrified by the idea. The Universe had to have gone on for ever. If the Universe had a beginning that might imply someone created it – which might imply God….

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When I was a student at Oxford St Aldates church did great evangelistic work. One event they organised was a free Sunday lunch with a talk. They had invited a scientist who was a Christian to come and talk about his faith and how he could be both a scientist and a Christian. He was a professor of Genetics.

Well there was another church in Oxford called Oxford Community Church – they arranged to flood this lunch with their members to harangue the professor with their questions. How could he claim to be a Christian when he believed in the heresy of evolution.

I don’t know what any atheists who had come along to the lunch made of it. They certainly didn’t get a look in when it came to questions. As I sat there I was SO embarrassed – though in hind sight I wonder whether seeing that Christians had different views on this matter and were not all creationists might actually have been helpful for any non-Christians present.

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So – what does the bible say about Creation?

For this I need someone either with a bible or with a phone to look up for me Genesis chapter 1.

So tell – how many days does Genesis 1 say it take to make the heavens and the earth ?

[get answer – 6]

Hang on, hang on hang on…

But in our reading today from Genesis 2:4 it says “In THE day that the Lord God made the earth and heavens”

Ok lets try another one.

In Genesis 1 on which day are the plants made and on which day in humanity made?

[after someone gives and answer – perhaps get them to read out –

1:11Then God said, ‘Let the earth put forth vegetation: plants yielding seed, and fruit trees of every kind on earth that bear fruit with the seed in it.’ And it was so. 12The earth brought forth vegetation: plants yielding seed of every kind, and trees of every kind bearing fruit with the seed in it. And God saw that it was good. 13And there was evening and there was morning, the third day.

And

1:26 Then God said, ‘Let us make humankind* in our image, according to our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth,* and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.’…..[skip to verse 31]

31God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.

So you are saying that plants were made first and then humanity later?

[get an answer yes from congregation]

Hang on, hang on hang on…

But in our reading today from Genesis 2:5-7 "when no plant of the field was yet in the earth and no herb of the field had yet sprung up… 7then the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground,* and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living being"

So our reading today says that humans were created first and plants afterwards.

Ok

what about animals?– according to Genesis chapter 1 – which was made first animals or people?

[get the answer: "animals." Get them to read out from Genesis chapter 1;21ff]

"1:21So God created the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves, of every kind, with which the waters swarm, and every winged bird of every kind. And God saw that it was good. 22God blessed them, saying, ‘Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.’ 23And there was evening and there was morning, the fifth day.

24 And God said, ‘Let the earth bring forth living creatures of every kind: cattle and creeping things and wild animals of the earth of every kind.’ And it was so. 25God made the wild animals of the earth of every kind, and the cattle of every kind, and everything that creeps upon the ground of every kind. And God saw that it was good.

26 Then God said, ‘Let us make humankind* in our image"