ORIGINS #1: CREATION
THERE HAS TO BE MORE TO LIFE:
It was September 1990, twenty years ago, and I had just graduated from high school. I was at an all-nighter drive-in with some of my friends. It was early in the morning, hours before the sun came up, when I turned to one of my friends and said, “There has to be more to life than this!” We were living the so-called good life – going to bars, getting drunk, dating girls, living it up and partying – but there was still something missing. There was an emptiness inside of me. That weekend was a catalyst that sent me on a journey to discover how to find lasting satisfaction and fulfillment in life.
Do you ever wonder where we came from? How did we get here? And what is our purpose on this third rock from the sun? What is the meaning of life? What is our destiny? These are some of the questions that we are going to consider in this ‘Origins’ series.
CREATION VERSUS EVOLUTION:
There are two main beliefs about our origins. One is atheistic evolution, and the other is the Biblical account of creation. What are these two different beliefs? Ankerberg and Weldon give a great contrasting look at these two different viewpoints in the following chart:
Materialistic View
Ultimate Reality: Impersonal matter. No God exists.
The universe was created by chance events without ultimate purpose.
Man is the product of impersonal time plus chance plus matter. As a result, no man has eternal value or dignity nor any meaning other than that which is subjectively derived.
Morality is defined by every individual according to his own views and interests. Morality is relative because every person is the final authority for his own views.
The afterlife brings eternal annihilation (personal extinction) for everyone.
Christian View
Ultimate Reality: An infinite, personal, loving God.
The universe was lovingly created by God for a specific purpose.
Man was created by God in His image and is loved by Him. Because of this, all men are endowed with eternal value and dignity. Their value is not derived ultimately from themselves, but from God Himself.
Morality is defined by God and immutable because it is based on God’s unchanging character.
The afterlife involves either eternal life with God (personal immortality) or eternal separation from Him (personal judgment).
(John Ankerberg & John Weldon, Darwin’s Leap of Faith: Exposing the False Religion of Evolution).
The theory of evolution teaches that life began billions of years ago by a cosmic accident. This event, called The Big Bang, “led to the formation of the universe, according to the prevailing cosmological theory of the universe's early development.” This theory teaches that from this chaotic explosion, life (somehow miraculously!) evolved from non-life, and that we as human beings share a common ancestry with apes and monkeys. This theory was “first proposed in the nineteenth century by Charles Darwin, according to which the Earth's species have changed and diversified through time under the influence of natural selection. Life on Earth is thought to have evolved in three stages. First came chemical evolution, in which organic molecules were formed. This was followed by the development of single cells capable of reproducing themselves. This stage led to the development of complex organisms capable of sexual reproduction.”
The Biblical account of creation on the other hand teaches that we’re not here by chance, and we’re not just some cosmic freak accident. Rather, we are the special and unique creation of a God who made us in His own image, loves us, and has a wonderful plan for our lives. The Bible says, “Long ago, even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. His unchanging plan has always been to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. And this gave him great pleasure. So we praise God for the wonderful kindness he has poured out on us because we belong to his dearly loved Son.” (Ephesians 1:4-6, NLT).
What are the ramifications of these two different belief systems?
If we believe in the theory of evolution, then we are only complex animals with no ultimate purpose or meaning in life. If Charles Darwin’s The Origin of Species is correct, that we are just the chance product of natural selection, then we are only slightly more evolved then our near-relative the chimpanzee. If we’re just animals, then it doesn’t matter how we live. If there is no God, then there is no absolute truth, no definitive right or wrong. If that’s what we believe about our past and where we came from, then how does it affect our future? When we die, our final destiny is to become worm-food, rotting in the grave.
However, if we believe in the Biblical account of creation, then we’re not here by accident. If God created this universe, and He created you and me in His image, then we have intrinsic value and worth. We are special and important. How then does this truth speak to our future? When we die, we have the hope of life after death. Our final destiny is to live forever with God in the paradise of Heaven.
WHAT DOES SCIENCE SAY?
Which of these two positions is more valid from a scientific perspective? Science is defined as: “systematic knowledge of the physical or material world gained through observation and experimentation.” Based on this definition, evolution is not science – it is merely a theory, a belief, a guess. There is nothing scientific about either evolution or the big bang. There is no way to go back to the beginning of time to do any kinds of tests or make any observations on what took place there. No one was around to witness The Big Bang taking place, and no experiments have ever been done that have created life from non-living materials. It is a physical impossibility to create life from non-life!
Doctor Ken Ham, President and CEO of Answers in Genesis, illustrates this well in The New Answers Book: “Consider swatting a mosquito. Then think about this question: Why did the mosquito die? You see, the squashed mosquito has all the chemicals for life that an evolutionist could ever hope for in some primordial soup. Yet we know that nothing is going to evolve from this mosquito “soup.” So why did the mosquito die? Because by squashing it, you disorganized it. Once the “machinery” of the mosquito has been destroyed, the organism can no longer exist. At a cellular level, literally thousands of “machines” need to exist before life ever becomes possible. This means that evolution from chemicals is impossible.”
It is clearly evident, based on the definition of science, that evolution is nothing more than an unsubstantiated theory. Some people would then say, “If evolution isn’t science, because no one was there to observe it, therefore creation also cannot be considered science because no one was there to see it take place!” The one main difference between these two belief systems is this: The evolutionists are limited by science – what they can see and encounter in the physical realm. However, if there is a God, and creation is true, then we have something the evolutionists don’t have: The Bible. The Word of God is a first-hand account of Someone who was there in the beginning, and is therefore an accurate record of the origins of life.
It is so important for us as Christians to understand what the Bible says about creation. This is especially true for parents with children in school who are going to be taught the lie of evolution. The Bible says, “Always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you.” (1 Peter 3:15). So many believers don’t take the time to learn the truth of God’s Word so that they can give an intelligent answer for their belief in the Biblical account of creation. Some people erroneously think that as Christians, we have to take it on blind faith that God exists. I don’t believe that our faith is totally blind faith. We are living in a universe that is so complex, ordered and designed, that creation itself testifies to the fact that there is a Creator.
CHAOS NEVER PRODUCES ORDER:
How logical is it to believe in The Big Bang? This theory teaches us that billions of years ago there was a giant chaotic explosion that created order. In the history of the world, chaos has never been observed to produce order. This isn’t science! The statistical probability of life arising from non-life, or order arising from chaos is like this: Imagine that you were to walk into your local Canadian Tire store – and let’s assume that within the store there is every part that you would need to build a car – a windshield, wheels, an engine, etc. Now imagine that you were to take a bomb into that store and blow it up. When the dust settles, what would be the chances of finding a fully functioning automobile? “All the parts just randomly came together and created this car, and it’s running, and painted, too!” Of course we laugh at that idea because we know it is a physical impossibility. And yet, these so-called smart scientists are telling us that this is how life began? It’s impossible – chaos never produces order!
WHERE THERE’S DESIGN, THERE MUST BE A DESIGNER:
British Christian apologist and philosopher William Paley put forth an excellent teleological argument for the existence of God in 1802. (A teleological argument, or argument from design, is an argument on the existence of God based on perceived evidence of order, purpose, design, or direction in nature. The word "teleological" is derived from the Greek word telos, meaning "end" or "purpose" - www.wikipedia.org). In his book, Natural Theology, he expounded on his watchmaker argument, which went something like this:
If you were walking through a forest, and were to bang your foot against a boulder, and were asked how the stone came to be there; you might answer that it had always been there. However, if you were to find a watch lying on the boulder, and someone asked how the watch happened to be there, what would your answer be? Would you jump to the conclusion that all of the complex parts in that watch sort of floated together to form the watch by accident? Of course not. When you look at the complexity and design of the watch, no thinking person would come to the conclusion that it was formed by chance. The logical answer would be that where there is a watch, there must of necessity be a watchmaker. You wouldn’t know by looking at the watch who had made it, but logic would dictate that someone had to put the watch together. The same principle applies to the complex, ordered universe that we are living in. Even if you don’t accept the Bible as the Word of God, and you don’t believe in Christianity, any logical, reasonable person examining the evidence would have to conclude that, because of the design, there had to be a designer.
“The heavens tell of the glory of God. The skies display his marvelous craftsmanship.” (Psalm 19:1). When you look at the sky and you see a colorful sunset, or an amazing starry sky, or you walk through nature and admire the beauty of nature, all of creation testifies to the fact that there is a God. This is no cosmic accident!
This is what the Bible means when it says, “From the time the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky and all that God made. They can clearly see his invisible qualities – his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse whatsoever for not knowing God.” (Romans 1:20). God has placed within the heart of every human being a knowledge of Himself. Deep within our hearts, we know that there is a God. However, the Bible tells us what happens to people who choose to reject that knowledge of God: “Yes, they knew God, but they wouldn't worship him as God or even give him thanks. And they began to think up foolish ideas of what God was like. The result was that their minds became dark and confused. Claiming to be wise, they became utter fools instead.” (Romans 1:21-22, NLT). The Psalmist King David was right when he wrote, “Only fools say in their hearts, "There is no God." They are corrupt, and their actions are evil; no one does good!” (Psalm 14:1, NLT).
WHERE IS THE MISSING LINK?
One of the tough questions that supporters of evolution cannot answer is this: where is the missing link – the transitional fossil forms between species? Charles Darwin himself said, “Why, if species have descended from other species by fine gradations, do we not everywhere see innumerable transitional forms? Why is not all nature in confusion instead of the species being, as we see them, well defined? … As by this theory innumerable transitional forms must have existed, why do we not find them embedded in countless numbers in the crust of the earth?” (The Origin of Species). If evolution is true, that we started out with a simple life form that slowly and gradually evolved into different and more complex life forms, then where are all of the transitional forms? Where is the missing link? If human beings and chimps evolved from a common ancestor, then why don’t we find a half-man, half-monkey in the fossil record?
In his introduction to the 150th anniversary edition of Darwin’s The Origin of Species, Ray Comfort notes, “Darwin acknowledged that the absence of intermediates put his theory in doubt, but he attributed their lack to the scarcity of fossils at that time – and he had faith that they would eventually be found. However, nearly 150 years later, the situation has not improved much. After scientists have searched diligently for a century and a half for evidence, we now have over 100 million fossils catalogued in the world’s museums, covering 250,000 different species, which should be sufficient to give an accurate picture of our past.” Where is the proof or evidence for evolution? There is none. Therefore, let us turn to the only true and reliable account of our origins, as recorded in the infallible Word of God.
INTRO TO THE BOOK OF GENESIS:
Author: Moses
Title: Genesis – Greek geneseos, which means birth, genealogy, or origin.
Date: Written around 1440 BC, sometime after the Exodus from Egypt.
Purpose: “Genesis reveals that humans were divinely created, that they suffered a fall, and that God proceeded to provide redemption… The account then focuses upon the origin and growth of the nation of Israel which God chose to fulfill a key role in implementing His plan of redemption.” (L. Holdcroft, Pentateuch).
THE BIBLICAL ACCOUNT OF CREATION:
“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” (Genesis 1:1).
The first four words in the Bible are foundational to what we believe: “In the beginning, GOD.” One of the arguments that evolutionists have against God is this: If God created the universe then who created God? Outspoken atheist Richard Dawkins made this point when he wrote, “Natural selection is a better alternative. Indeed, design is not a real alternative al all because it raises an even bigger problem than it solves: who designed the designer?” (The God Delusion). His argument of course is flawed because it reveals his lack of understanding of the basic nature of God – an eternal God who has always existed. Nowhere in Scripture does the Bible try to prove the existence of God. There is perhaps no more definitive statement in all of literature: “In the beginning, God!”
But some people would complain, “It doesn’t make sense to me, how could God have not had a beginning? How could He have existed forever? I don’t understand it!” And that’s okay. We should not be surprised that in our finite, limited human minds we cannot fully grasp a Being who is transcendent and infinite!
So what did God do in the beginning? He created the Heavens and the Earth. So not only is God eternal, He is also omnipotent – all powerful. He created everything in the universe that exists. “But, very significantly, the concept of the special creation of the universe of space and time itself is found nowhere in all religion or philosophy, ancient or modern, except here in Genesis 1:1. Appropriately, therefore, this verse records the creation of space (“the heavens”), of time (“in the beginning”), and of matter (“the earth”), the tri-universe, the space/time/matter continuum which constitutes our physical cosmos.” (Henry Morris, The Defender's Study Bible).
THE IMPORTANCE OF GENESIS:
Why is the Book of Genesis so important to us as believers? “In a very real sense, the book of Genesis is the most important book in the world; for it is the foundation upon which all the other sixty-five books of God’s written Word have been based… The greatest doctrine of all – the special creation of all things by the eternal, self-existent God – is revealed in the very first chapter of Genesis, the foundation of all foundations… It is hardly surprising, therefore, that the greatest attacks on the Bible have been directed against the integrity and authority of Genesis.” (Henry Morris, The Defender's Study Bible).
Where then do you think the idea of evolution came from? Second Corinthians 4:4 tells us, “Satan, the god of this evil world, has blinded the minds of those who don't believe, so they are unable to see the glorious light of the Good News that is shining upon them. They don't understand the message we preach about the glory of Christ, who is the exact likeness of God.” (NLT). Don’t be surprised therefore when you see the historical, archaeological, biological and scientific aspects of the Bible are being attacked! The enemy wants to destroy our faith in God’s Word.
DAY ONE OF CREATION:
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. Then God said, "Let there be light"; and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. So the evening and the morning were the first day.” (Genesis 1:1-5).
Our English word God comes from a Hebrew word, Elohim, which is a plural word. This reminds us that God is a triune being: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. In the historic Christian creeds, we declare that: “We believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of Heaven and Earth. We believe in Jesus Christ His only begotten Son, our Lord. And we believe in the Holy Spirit.” This is such a foundational statement that explains what we believe about the nature of God.
We see in the first verse of Genesis chapter one that God created time, space and matter. Now in verse three, the Lord declares, “Let there be light!” I love Henry Morris’ explanation of what took place in this supernatural event: “The result is light, the energizing of the vast cosmos through the marvelous electro-magnetic force system which maintains all structures and processes in matter. These varied energies include not only visible light, but also all short-wave radiations (ultra-violet; x-rays, etc) and the long-wave radiations (infra-red, radio waves, etc) as well as heat, sound, electricity, magnetism, molecular interactions, etc. “Light,” the most basic form of energy is mentioned specifically, but its existence necessarily implies the activation of all forms of electromagnetic energies.” (Henry Morris, The Defender's Study Bible).
DAY TWO - ATMOSPHERE:
“Then God said, "Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters." Thus God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament; and it was so. And God called the firmament Heaven. So the evening and the morning were the second day.” (Genesis 1:6-8).
When the Bible says that God created the firmament called heaven here, he is referring to the sky, or the atmosphere. There are three heavens mentioned in the Bible. Jeremiah 4:25b describes the first heaven as the earth’s atmosphere (the sky) or the realm of the birds: “And all the birds of the heavens had fled.” Isaiah 34:4 describes the second heaven as the starry heavens or the realm of space: “All the stars of the heavens will be dissolved.” And Second Corinthians 12:2-4 describes the third heaven as the throne of God, the place where God dwells: “I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven…caught up to paradise.” Moses is here talking about God’s creation of the atmosphere around the earth on day two.
DAY THREE – THE PLANT KINGDOM:
“Then God said, "Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear"; and it was so. And God called the dry land Earth, and the gathering together of the waters He called Seas. And God saw that it was good. Then God said, "Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb that yields seed, and the fruit tree that yields fruit according to its kind, whose seed is in itself, on the earth"; and it was so. And the earth brought forth grass, the herb that yields seed according to its kind, and the tree that yields fruit, whose seed is in itself according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. So the evening and the morning were the third day.” (Genesis 1:9-13).
On the third day, God commanded the Earth to bring forth the plant kingdom. Here we see an important creation principle: “the tree that yields fruit, whose seed is in itself according to its kind.” This principle teaches us that a kind will always produce the same kind. If you have an apple tree, and you plant the seed of one of the apples from that tree, it will produce an apple tree. Cats will always give birth to cats – they will never give birth to dogs! It’s amazing how the evolutionists deny this basic principle of genetics! They teach us that human beings and chimps descended from a common ancestor, but this is a genetic impossibility. The DNA molecule carries genetic information in all living systems, and is one of the more recent discoveries in science that has confirmed what the Bible has taught all along – that a kind will always produce the same kind, according to the information in its genetic code.
To say that one kind can never produce another kind does not mean that we don’t allow for small scale variations within a species. You can see all kinds of variations within the dog family, from the golden retriever or the Dalmatian, to the pit-bull or the Chihuahua, yet these are all dogs. The problem that science has with Darwin’s theory of evolution is the idea that new information can be added to the genetic code to produce a different or more complex animal. It’s true that sometimes there are mutations and defects that cause information to be lost from the genetic code, but there has never been a reported case of new information being added to our DNA. There are so many scientific processes and principles that support the Bible’s account of creation!
“DNA is an incredibly detailed language, revealing vast amounts of information encoded in each and every living cell – design which could not have arisen by purely naturalistic means. In every other area of our world, we recognize that information requires intelligence and design requires a designer. With our present-day knowledge of DNA, this presents a formidable challenge to Darwinian evolution.” (Ray Comfort, from his introduction to the 150th anniversary ediction of Charles Darwin's The Origin of Species).
DAY FOUR – THE SUN, MOON AND STARS:
“Then God said, "Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs and seasons, and for days and years; and let them be for lights in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth"; and it was so. Then God made two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night. He made the stars also. God set them in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth, and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. So the evening and the morning were the fourth day.” (Genesis 1:14-19).
On the fourth day of creation, God set the sun, moon and the stars in their place.
DAY FIVE – BIRDS AND SEA CREATURES:
“Then God said, "Let the waters abound with an abundance of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the face of the firmament of the heavens." So God created great sea creatures and every living thing that moves, with which the waters abounded, according to their kind, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. And God blessed them, saying, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth." So the evening and the morning were the fifth day.” (Genesis 1:20-23).
On the fifth day of creation, God created all of the birds and sea creatures.
DAY SIX – LAND ANIMALS:
“Then God said, "Let the earth bring forth the living creature according to its kind: cattle and creeping thing and beast of the earth, each according to its kind"; and it was so. And God made the beast of the earth according to its kind, cattle according to its kind, and everything that creeps on the earth according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.” (Genesis 1:24-25).
In a parallel passage in the next chapter, Moses writes: “Out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to Adam to see what he would call them. And whatever Adam called each living creature, that was its name.” (Genesis 2:19). That tells us that on this sixth day of Creation, God created all of the land animals – including the dinosaurs! I believe that in the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve were walking around with lions and tigers and bears (oh my!), but they were also living alongside of all sorts of dinosaurs as well. If you have a hard time believing that statement, then it is most likely because you have been indoctrinated by the evolutionary lie that mankind and dinosaurs were separated by 65 million years. We will take a look at dinosaurs and their place in Biblical history in the third part of this series, “The Flood.”
GOD’S GREATEST MASTERPIECE:
“Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth." So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. Then God blessed them, and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” And God said, "See, I have given you every herb that yields seed which is on the face of all the earth, and every tree whose fruit yields seed; to you it shall be for food. Also, to every beast of the earth, to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, in which there is life, I have given every green herb for food"; and it was so. Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good. So the evening and the morning were the sixth day.” (Genesis 1:26-31).
On day six, we see the creation of God’s greatest masterpiece – human beings. When you see the glory of God displayed in a starry sky at night, or a colorful sunset, as beautiful and majestic as these things are, they were not the apex of God’s creation. When God created the light, He said, “It is good.” When He created the sun, moon and the stars, He said, “It is good.” When He created the plants and birds and fishes, He said, “It is good.” But on day six, when He created mankind, He said, “It is very good!”
You are not an accident. You were not descended from the common ancestor of a chimpanzee. You have been created in the image of a God who loves you and has an amazing plan for your life. The Bible says, “You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother's womb. Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous -- and how well I know it.” (Psalm 139:14-15).
Why is what we believe about our origins so important? Because if evolution is true, then we are just a great big cosmic accident, evolved animals with no greater purpose beyond the survival of the fittest, we live until we die, and then we are no more. But if the Biblical account of creation is true, then you are God’s masterpiece. You have dignity, worth and value. You are special, important and significant, and God cares so very much for you. You have a destiny – not just here on the Earth, but your highest goal is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever in the everlasting joy, peace and bless of the paradise called Heaven. “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.” (Jeremiah 29:11).
To download a printable version of this booklet, visit our website www.beausejourchurch.ca.
RESOURCES:
For those who want to learn more about the many proofs and evidences for creation, Christianity and the Bible, this is a great place to start:
The New Answers Book by Ken Ham (www.answersingenesis.org)
The Defender’s Study Bible by Henry Morris (www.icr.org)
The Case for a Creator by Lee Strobel (www.leestrobel.com)
Evidence that Demands a Verdict by Josh McDowell (www.josh.org)
Mere Christianity by C. S. Lewis
Darwin’s Leap of Faith by John Ankerberg & John Weldon
Beausejour Community Church Website: www.beausejourchurch.ca
Pastor Chris Jordan’s Blog: http://thelandofpromise.blogspot.com/
