How Can I Believe?...the Conflict Regarding The Origin Of Life Series

How can I believe…the conflict regarding the Origin of Life

Genesis 1:20-31

The Bible …best accounts for the Beginning of Life

Evolution says, “In the beginning, We don’t know”

Creation says, “In the beginning, God created”

…best accounts for the Development of Life

Evolution says life developed over billions of years

Creation says life developed over 6 days

Cambrian Explosion

…best accounts for the Variety of life

Evolution says the variety of life is due to new genetic information

Creation says the variety of life is due to loss of genetic information

Slide

Intro

We are back into our Godquest series this morning. In this series, we have been seeking to answer questions that people who struggle with Christianity and even within Christianity ask. The point of the series is to not only answer these questions, but to help those who know Christ to walk more assuredly in the faith and to help you be able to answer these questions for others who will never darken the door of a church, but that the Lord will lead across your path.

So far in this series, we have talked about

How we can know God exists

Why we can believe the Bible to be God’s word

And

Why we can believe in a good God even when there is suffering.

This morning we are going to deal with an issue that everyone is challenged with at some point, whether it is in biology class, or just in what society seems to take as fact.

And that is

Slide

How can I believe in Christianity when Science and the Bible seem to contradict each other regarding the origin of life?

This is basically the seeming conflict between creation and evolution.

This morning, we are going to begin with the biblical account of the origin of life.

It is found in Genesis 1.

Slide

We are going to start in verse 20.

In the first 19 verses, The Bible describes God’s creation of the universe and the world as we know it.

And then it goes on to describe the origin of life from the Bible’s perspective.

Let’s read Genesis 1:20-31, and see what the Bible says about how life began.

Genesis 1:20-31

20 And God said, "Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the sky." 21 So God created the great creatures of the sea and every living and moving thing with which the water teems, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 22 God blessed them and said, "Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the water in the seas, and let the birds increase on the earth." 23 And there was evening, and there was morning--the fifth day.

24 And God said, "Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: livestock, creatures that move along the ground, and wild animals, each according to its kind." And it was so. 25 God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good. 26 Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground."

27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

28 God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground." 29 Then God said, "I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. 30 And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air and all the creatures that move on the ground--everything that has the breath of life in it--I give every green plant for food." And it was so. 31 God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning--the sixth day.

Pray

Now this account of the origin of life, where God is the creator of every living thing according to its kind, was the predominant view of how life began up until about 150 years ago.

It was then, in 1859, that Charles Darwin published his book, The Origin of Species, and the theory of naturalistic evolution of life began to be believed by some and as time went on, more and more began to believe this theory.