Introduction: Last week I wrote that you were not a Christian if you
did not believe in the Trinity. By that I meant a Christian must
believe that Jesus is fully God. This week we study another central
teaching of the Bible – that God spoke the world into existence. The
world did not evolve, and God did not “supervise” chance and natural
selection. In what ways does a belief in the Creation matter? Let’s
plunge into our Bibles and find out!
- God’s Account of Beginnings
- Read Genesis 1:1-5. Who does the Bible say created “the
heavens and earth?” (God!) - God’s main message is that He is the Creator. But,
He has a secondary message about His creative work.
What is that? (He didn’t need any help. He started
from “formless and void” and merely spoke the
universe into existence. He did not need to “lift a
finger.”) - Look again at Genesis 1:5. How long did it take God to do
this? (The Bible says a day. In case we were inclined to
interpret this “day” as a much longer period of time, God
describes the day in terms we all understand from
experience.) - Why does God call “evening” and “morning” a day?
Isn’t that half a day? (In Leviticus 23:32 we find
that sunset to sunset is the measure of a day. The
problem disappears if you say “evening” is the night
and “morning” is the day. That is a complete day
using the sun as the familiar time-keeper.) - What about the fact that the sun was not in
existence then, but was created later (Genesis
1:16)? (God uses this standard time measure during
the week both before and after the creation of the
sun. God must have created an artificial sun – not a
problem for someone who can create the real sun!) - Why Creation Matters to God
- Many people quote Job 13:15 to say that Job would have
been faithful to God even if God killed him. If you read
the entire chapter (Job 13) what Job is really saying is
“I would like to sue God in a heavenly court. God will
have to bring charges against me and I will had the
opportunity to defend myself. If I get a fair trial, I
will win. If I don’t win, then I’ll be quiet and die.”
That is the reason why the second part of Job 13:15 says,
“I will surely defend my ways to His face.” Job is
challenging God. Read Job 38:1-3. How does God answer
Job’s challenge? (He says, “I’ll give you a trial! You
ignorant human, I’ll have you answer a few questions.”) - Read Job 38:4-6. What are the answers to God’s
questions? (Job was not a witness.) - What question is God really asking? (Who are
you to challenge the Creator?) - Skim over the entire chapter of Job 38. What is God’s
point? (That He is all powerful and He has all knowledge.
The Creation runs by rules and God created the rules.) - How important is the Creation to God’s claim to be
our God? (This goes to the heart of the issue. In
the Bible God repeatedly cites His Creation as the
basis for His claim of authority over Job (and
everyone else). The creation vs. evolution debate
is about God’s power and authority. God proclaims “I
am so powerful that I merely had to speak and it was
done.” Evolution, of course, claims that God needed
a lot of help and a lot of time.) - Read Genesis 1:26-27. How does this account conflict with
the evolutionary theory? (We were made according to
design. God designed that humans should be created in His
image and likeness. God designed that humans should rule
over the animals.) - Why is this important to God? (God has a special
relationship with humans. He did not stumble upon
us when He was out walking.) - Think a moment about what the Bible says about the
relationship between humans and animals and tell me
whether that conflicts with the evolutionary theory?
(Evolution says that humans not only had their
origin in the animals, but that natural selection
was largely a result of interaction with animals.
(Meaning that we either outran or outsmarted the
animals or we died.) The Bible says in sharp
contrast that we “ruled” the animals.) - Read Deuteronomy 30:19-20. Under the theory of evolution,
who is the true designer of humans? (Death. We were
designed by death. If death is our designer, then God
lied to us about the most fundamental choice that He sets
before us.) - Read Genesis 3:1-4. This text and the text we just read
in Deuteronomy nudge us down a very important line of
logic. What is the overall “story” that God tells us
about Him and us? (That He created us perfect. We
distrusted, disbelieved and disobeyed Him, with the
result that we became subject to weakness, sickness and
eternal death.) - What is the overall story that the theory of
evolution teaches us? (That we went from weakness to
strength to become the dominant animal – thus
entitled to the very best life!) - Are these two “stories” compatible?
- Can you fit grace and works into this logical
thought process? (Yes! The Bible says both our
creation and redemption came by God’s unmerited
grace and power. Evolution is a “works” approach to
salvation and life. We improve due to our own
effort.) - Can you see, friend, that evolution strips God of His
main credential and subverts His story? - Why Creation Matters to Humans
- Perhaps the most important reason why Creation matters to
humans is that it says we came from the hand of God. But
many of our basic views of life are tied directly to the
Creation account. Read Genesis 2:20-23. One argument for
“God supervised evolution” is that the Bible writers
could not very well describe the mechanics of evolution,
so they told a story that would convey an idea similar to
evolution. Does that argument fit with the text of the
Bible? (No! God is quite detailed. The detail He gives is
completely and utterly in conflict with the idea of
chance and natural selection.) - What does this account tell us about the
relationship between men and women? (That they were
created to be equals. Eve was taken from a rib, not
the head or the foot of Adam.) - What does evolution teach us about the
relationship between men and women? (That
whoever can dominate should do so.) - Read Genesis 2:24. How are marriage and creation tied
together? (If evolution is a correct explanation of human
origin, then the “one flesh” marriage between a man and a
woman is nonsense.) - Read Ephesians 5:28-31. What does “one flesh” teach
us about how women should be treated in marriage? - Read again Genesis 3:2-4. The “rule of law” is essential
to a free society. Humans should be ruled by laws, not
by the arbitrary whim of the ruler. What does the
creation vs. evolution debate teach about the rule of
law? (God created us to be ruled by law. He believes (and
died for) the rule of law. Evolution argues for the idea
that the strongest person makes the law.) - Read Genesis 2:2-3. How is the Sabbath related to the
Creation account? (It is a celebration and weekly
reminder of a literal six day creation. Like marriage,
the underpinnings of the Sabbath are removed by the
theory of evolution.) - Read Romans 5:12-15. How does Paul explain the gospel?
(That Adam plunged us into sin and Jesus saved us from
it. Jesus triumphed where Adam failed.) - What if there never really was an Adam? What would
that do to our view of salvation? - Read 1 Corinthians 15:23-26. Is this message a critical
part of the gospel? (Yes. That Jesus triumphs over sin
and He saves us from death.) - Notice that death is “the last enemy,” and it is
destroyed by Jesus. How important is death to the
theory of evolution? (It is critical. Natural
selection picks winners and losers as a result of
death.) - Read Revelation 21:1-4. If you disbelieve God’s account
of the original creation, why would you believe His
account of the new creation? - If we believe that the creation account is an
analogy describing evolution, what does that teach
us about our new heavenly home? (Notice verse 4 –
that the things ended in heaven are essential to
evolution, the survival of the fittest and the death
of the less fit! The evolutionary theory is
completely incompatible with the gospel.) - Today, we have only touched on the problems with
evolution as an explanation of origins. Friend, if you
have accepted the theory of evolution as a possible
account for the origin of humans, will you discard that
thought and place your faith in God’s statement of
origins and His gospel plan? - Next week: God as Redeemer.
