Discipleship Workbook Lesson Twelve

D I S C I P L E S H I P W O R K B O O K Lesson Twelve by Jay Wegter

Creation (part two)

I. THE CRUCIAL IMPORTANCE OF ORIGINS A. One of the key questions in origins is, ‘What does the Bible say about creation?’.

1. If a person has a wrong view of the creation of man (Gen 1-2); he will probably have a wrong view of the fall of man, and of sin (Gen 3). If a person has a wrong view of the doctrine of sin; he will probably have a wrong view of the doctrine of salvation.
2. Adam was an historical person. Interpretations of Genesis 1-2 which attempt to incorporate the theory of evolution into the text wind up denying the historicity of the creation account (and in so doing deny the historicity of Adam).

3. Consider the fact that the biblical doctrines of sin, salvation, and marriage are built upon the Genesis account of real historical figures named Adam and Eve (see Rom 5:12-21).

B. Evolutionary theory is more a religious philosophy than it is a scientific theory.

1. The reason why evolution is philosophical rather than scientific is not only because it lacks scientific proof; but also because it functions as a worldview or starting point for the pursuit of all knowledge (it presupposes what it seeks to prove).
2. To subscribe to evolutionary ‘interpretations’ of Genesis 1-2 is a serious error. Evolutionary theory is a denial the historicity and factuality of Genesis—which amounts to an attack upon the infallibility and inerrancy of the Holy Scriptures (Waldron, p. 76).

II. MANY ATTEMPTS HAVE BEEN MADE TO ACCOMMODATE AN EVOLUTIONARY TIME FRAME AND/OR THE EVOLUTIONARY THEORY TO BIBLICAL CREATION. A. The ‘Day Age’ interpretation of Genesis 1-2 proposes that the age of the earth is very old.

1. The Scriptures state that God made the world and all that is in it in six days. The ‘Day Age’ theory regards the ‘days’ of Genesis 1-2 to be vast periods of time (ages); rather than six 24 hour days. (Almost all evolutionary concepts regard the earth to be 4.5 billions years old.)
2. ‘Day Age’ theorists propose that the word ‘day’ in Genesis 1-2 is used figuratively (as of vast geologic ages); rather than literally (as of 24 hour literal days).

3. The ‘Day Age’ theory utterly fails to reconcile the Genesis account of creation with the assumption of an old earth. It is impossible to harmonize the events of Genesis 1-2 with the order of events required by the evolutionary theory (which is usually annexed to the ‘Day Age’ theory). Consider how insurmountable the contradictions are between the two:

• Gen 1:3-5—God creates light without luminaries (light before the sun is created).
• Gen 1:6-8—God creates an expanse on the second day (a firmament—the atmosphere where birds fly—vs. 20) between the waters above and the waters below (evolution proposes our present atmosphere developed slowly over millions or billions of years).
• Gen 1:9-11—God makes the dry land appear out of water (evolution proposes that the earth began as a ‘hot ball of rock’ which gradually developed seas as it cooled).
• Gen 1:11-13—God created life on land the third day (flowering fruit-bearing trees); no life in the oceans was created until the fifth day (evolutionary theory proposes that life had its beginning in the sea, and only later appeared on land).

• Gen 1:14-19—Not until the fourth day did God create the sun—He made the earth first; then the sun (evolution suggests that the sun was the source of the earth’s matter and the source of the source of the energy needed for the appearance of its life forms).
• Gen 1:20-23—God made birds before reptiles; and He made whales before land mammals (the evolutionary ‘tree of life’ makes the development of birds depend upon reptilian ancestors and the development of whales depend mammalian land ancestors).

• Gen 1:11-25—God uses the term ‘after their kind’ 10 times in these verses. This is a clear reference to the genetic barriers which God has placed between the kinds— barriers which are designed to prevent one kind from evolving into another kind.

4. Consider the proper meaning of the word ‘day’, or ‘days’.

• The Hebrew word for day (yom) does not have to mean a literal day; it can be used to express time in a general sense. It is translated ‘time’ in the KJV 65 times.
• It is translated ‘day’ in the KJV approximately 1200 times. Yamim is the plural of form of day—and it is translated ‘days’ 700 times. Thus the most common, or normal meaning of yom and yamim is ‘day’ and ‘days’.
• Whenever a numeral or ordinal (‘sixth day’ etc.) is attached to the word ‘day’ in the O.T. it is always a literal 24 hour day. Similarly the words, ‘morning and evening’ always indicate a literal day.

• Also the term, ‘divide the day and night’ and ‘morning and evening’ refer to the earth’s 24 hour revolution (one day—Gen 1:14-19). God defines His terms!

5. To summarize, the ‘Day Age’ theory is an attempt to produce a middle or moderate view between the Bible and evolutionary theory—but as we have seen above; the two cannot be successfully harmonized. Any attempt to interpret the universe and its origin apart from God’s clear revelation is doomed to failure.

B. The ‘Theistic Evolution’ interpretation suggests that God ‘directed’ the process of evolution in order to accomplish His creative purposes.

1. Theistic evolution is enormously popular; but it is even worse than the ‘Day Age’ theory. Proponents of ‘Theistic Evolution’ make little or no appeal to the book of Genesis. T.E. proponents regard Genesis 1-11 as allegory, or poetry, and not as historical narrative.
2. Theistic evolution fails as a viable theory because it is contrary to God’s authoritative testimony in Scripture. The propositions of T.E. are in clear violation of the plan, character, and attributes of God:

a.) T.E. interprets the fossil record as being filled with ‘misfits’, dead ends, and extinctions—all brought about by random, aimless mutations. But poor planning and divine omniscience are mutually exclusive.

b.) In actuality, the fossil record is the record of death by the universal judgment of God (the Genesis Flood, chapters 6-8); it is not the record of the origin of life.

c.) Why would our omnipotent God waste billions of years in evolutionary meandering when He is capable of creating the universe in an instant? Suffering, victimization, and predation would seem to be a cruel method of forming new species.

d.) Evolutionists regard natural selection (non-random death) as a creative force. The view that God ‘creates’ through disease, famine, and violent death belongs more to the legacy of humanism than to the grace of God. In His grace God provides life and salvation for the weak, unworthy, and unfit—and He does so by the sacrifice of Christ.

C. Old earth theorists who subscribe to either the ‘Day Age’ theory or to ‘Theistic Evolution’ fail to consider that death has a moral context and a moral cause.

1. Sin is the origin of death (Rom 5:12). There was no death prior to sin. Before the Fall, God pronounced all that He had made as ‘exceedingly good’ (Gen 1:31). Would that divine pronouncement of universal ‘goodness’ be accurate if Adam were standing upon an evolutionary ‘global graveyard’ of billions of dead things?

2. The principle of death, decay, and corruption became a part of our existence ONLY once sin had entered the world through our first parents’ disobedience—then God cursed the very ground from which all life was taken (Gen 3:17-19).
3. The effects of the curse are also described in Romans 8:20-22 as the ‘bondage of decay’. All of God’s physical creatures ‘groan’ under the present arrangement. (Regarding this present principle of decay; see also Heb 1:10-11; Ps 102:25-27; Is 51:6).

III. THERE ARE SEVEN MAJOR BIBLICAL REASONS WHY EVOLUTION IS A LIE. A. Evolution is a lie because it deifies natural processes—attributing to them the powers that belong to our Creator alone.

1. Creation exalts and glorifies God (Rev 4:11). God is rightfully jealous concerning His reputation as Creator (Neh 9:6; Is 44:24; 45:12; 48:13; Job 26:7).
2. Worshipping and serving the creation draws down God’s wrath upon idolaters. Men commit idolatry when they deny that they see God’s invisible attributes, eternal power, and divine nature in the creation (Rom 1:18-25).
3. God is offended by the assumptions of evolution—namely that time and chance is a more sophisticated creator than Almighty God. To give the universe credit for making itself is to prefer the lie (Rom 1:25). It is wicked to attribute to the forces of nature abilities which belong only to God Almighty.

B. Evolution is a lie because it cannot be harmonized with the events of creation week.

1. What is the reason that evolutionists would never accept the order of events in creation week (Gen 1-2)? The answer is NOT because of evidence in the fossil record. No, the reason why the record of events in Genesis 1-2 is rejected is because the biblical order of events conflicts with the theory of evolution.
2. The ‘god’ of time and chance could not produce the order of events found in Genesis 1-2. The God of Scripture has given us the record of creation week to show us that He did not need to depend upon natural laws and forces to make the world and all life in it.

C. Evolution is a lie because God has established genetic barriers between kinds of animals.

1. God created genetic barriers between kinds of animals (they were created to reproduce after their kind). By contrast, the theory of evolution proposes that the ‘tree of life’ contains a nearly infinite number of transitional forms between kinds of animals.
2. If evolution were true; then the fossil record would be filled with countless examples of transitional forms (one kind becoming another kind)—but such is not the case. Evolution proposes gradualism (one kind becoming another over long periods of time). But gradualism is a bankrupt theory void of evidence.

3. Just as Scripture says ‘after their kind’—we find that there are clear gaps in the fossil record between kinds of animals. If evolution were true, instead of seeing systematic gaps between kinds; we would see an unbroken continuum between kinds of animals.

D. Evolution is a lie because man, as the image of God, comes directly from the hand of God and not from some other species.

1. The theological significance that mankind is made in the image of God cannot be overstated. This doctrine of man and woman created in the image of God is guarded and preserved by the doctrine of special creation. (It is shocking to hear liberal theologians claim that God planted a human soul in the body of a primate in order to make man.)
2. The doctrine of man in the image of God is lost, or obscured by all speculation about human origins which looks away from the glory of God as Creator (Rom 1:23).

3. Unfallen man was prophet, priest, and king—the crown of God’s creation—steward and subduer of the works of God’s hands. Adam was an intellectually endowed—he selected appropriate names for all of the animals. It is degrading to God’s creative power and plan to depict Adam as a primitive and undeveloped predecessor to modern man.

E. Evolution is a lie because there was no death before sin. Sin is the cause of death. Sin, death, and the curse are inseparable.

1. Evolution yanks death out of its moral context and seeks to describe it as a creative force (supposedly species evolved through natural selection, or ‘non-random death’).
2. The Bible tells us that death entered because of man’s sin. Evolution normalizes death by suggesting that death has existed as long as there has been life. Scripture states the opposite—death is an intruder; an enemy that terrorizes; and rends soul from body and seals a person’s destiny forever (Heb 2:14-15; 9:27; 1 Cor 15:54-56).

3. The Fall of our first parents didn’t just affect the human race. The whole creation was dragged into the bondage of decay. This is a very strong assertion of the authority given to our first parents—as they went morally; so went the whole creation.
4. By rejecting the clear testimony of God concerning sin, death, and the curse—modern sinners throw out the most fundamental truth—that sin, death, and suffering are necessarily connected. They are found together because they bear a causal relationship to one another. Only by the redemptive work of Christ in His dealing with man’s sin will death and suffering ultimately be removed from the earth (Heb 9:26; 1 Jn 3:8).

a.) By placing death before sin; evolution redefines death—proving itself hostile to the most basic proposition of biblical theology—the wages of sin is death (Rom 6:23).

b.) Evolution demands that billions and billions of creatures died in order for mankind to have evolved. Is it any wonder that such a high percentage of youth today have little interest in a ‘Creator’ who utilizes such cruel methods to ultimately make people? (“The god of an Old Earth,” and “Genesis and Generation X,” Creation Magazine, 21(4) Sept-Nov, 1999).

F. Evolution is a lie because it denies the supernatural power of God. While on earth Christ demonstrated His power over the natural laws He had created.

1. When Christ our Creator came to earth 2000 years ago; He demonstrated His supernatural power over laws He Himself had created. Christ performed many miracles; the healing of lepers; the multiplication of the loaves and the fishes; water to wine; the raising of Lazarus; eyes for the blind; etc. Christ’s miracles were creative, supernatural acts.
2. Supernaturalism by definition describes activity which is above natural law—or not attributable to natural law. Scientists cannot ‘figure out’ how Jesus fed 5000 from one little boy’s lunch any more than they can ‘figure out’ how God made the universe. There will never be a mathematical formula that provides a scientific explanation for the act of creation.

3. By seeking a naturalistic explanation for everything (insisting that the supernatural is non-existent); evolution attacks the testimony of God in creation and Scripture. Christ overcame the 1ˢᵗ and 2ⁿᵈ laws of thermodynamics when performed miracles during His earthly ministry. Not only do His miracles testify to His power as Creator; they also point to the day when He will make a ‘new heavens and a new earth’ (2 Pet 3:13).

4. Victory over the grave is not wishful thinking. Jesus stated that the crowning proof for all of His claims would be His own resurrection from the dead on the third day (Jn 2:18-22). Believers cherish His promise of eternal life—believing that Jesus’ own resurrection is proof of His power to raise them to an incorruptible life (Phil 3:20-21).

G. Evolution is a lie because it proposes that the fossil record is the story of the origin of life. The fossil record is not the story of life; it is the story of death by the Genesis flood.

1. The fossil record bears witness to God’s universal judgment of the earth by water. As Ken Ham says, “Evidence of Noah’s flood is seen everywhere—there are billions of dead things buried in water-borne sediment, all over the earth.”
2. Approximately 1700 years after man’s creation; God saw that man’s wickedness was extreme—violence was universal (Gen 6:5-12). He chose to judge the world and destroy the life He had created. Outside the ark, everything with breath would perish (Gen 7:22-23). The Genesis flood was a catastrophe on a global scale. It destroyed the primeval world and heavens (2 Pet 3:3-7).

3. Paleontology (the study of fossils) reveals a story of universal death. Isn’t it interesting that the geologic record of Noah’s flood permeates the earth with an abundance of bones and oil (fossils and fossil fuels); yet modern man denies that the Genesis flood ever took place.
4. The Apostle Peter states that a willful denial of Noah’s flood (by last days’ mockers) is joined to their willful denial of the second coming—namely that Christ will return bodily and gloriously to planet earth (2 Pet 3:3-7).

IV. EVOLUTION IS A RELIGIOUS PHILOSOPHY; NOT A SCIENTIFIC THEORY. IT IS NOTHING LESS THAN WAR ON THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD.

A. Recognizing God’s acts in creation; the curse; and the flood is the main key to interpreting earth history.

1. God intends that the creation reveal His ability as Creator. Biblical creation is the starting point for understanding that God is Ruler, Law-giver, and Owner of all He has made.
2. The Genesis flood reveals that God is Judge; and the Fall reveals that man is in desperate need of God’s work of Christ who is Redeemer. Evolution denies that God is Creator, Judge, and Redeemer.

3. By denying God’s acts in history, evolution shows by its assumptions that it is hostile to God’s revelation. Evolutionary assumptions include:

• Death is before sin and not the penalty for sin.
• Human evil and cruelty are ‘normal’ and have always been and will always be here.
• By the above assumptions evolution denies the need for redemption and denies that God will reverse sin and its effects.
• Evolution denies the global flood of Genesis—and thereby denies that God is Judge and denies that Christ will return bodily to redeem His people and judge the earth.
• Evolution is a failed theory because it seeks to interpret earth history and human history without respect to God’s revelation concerning Creation; Fall; Flood; Redemption; and Restoration.

B. Biblical Creation provides the foundation for the Gospel.

1. In the book of Genesis we see that God is our good, wise, holy, loving, personal Creator. As His creatures we are utterly dependent upon Him for life and light (Rom 11:33-36; Acts 17:24-29).
2. Every person who comes to know the Lord Jesus Christ as personal Savior meets his or her Creator! Christ Jesus came to earth to bring guilty sinners back to God. The cost of reconciling us and restoring us to God was the death of Christ in our place. The price of bringing the knowledge of God back to darkened sinners is nothing less than the blood of Christ (2 Cor 4:4-6).

3. God’s plan of the ages is centered in His Son. The Lord is showcasing His grace in the Gospel of Jesus Christ—He is calling all men and women everywhere to repent and be saved. But, God is also demonstrating His wrath against those who reject His offers of mercy (Rom 9:22-24). God’s merciful disposition toward the human race is seen in His command to believe and repent and freely receive eternal life in Christ (Acts 3:19-20, 26).

QUESTIONS:

(I.A.) 1.) Why would it cloud one’s understanding of salvation if an individual believed that Adam and Eve were mythical characters and not historical persons?

(I.B.) 2.) Evolution functions as a ‘lens’ through which people see the world. How does the faulty ‘lens’ of evolution distort the message of creation—that God is the Almighty glorious Designer of everything in the universe?

(II.A.) 3.) Instead of seeing the six days of creation as 24 hour days; the ‘Day Age’ theory views the days of creation as what?

(II.A.) 4.) Why was the ‘Day Age’ theory invented?

(II.A.) 5.) Name three events in creation week (Gen 1-2) which cannot be harmonized with the evolutionary, (or ‘old earth’) order of events.

(II.B.) 6.) What attributes of God are attacked in the theory of ‘Theistic Evolution’?

(II.B.) 7.) When God had finished His work of creation; He pronounced everything He had made as ‘very good’, or ‘exceedingly good’ (Gen 1:31). Prove from Romans 8:20-25 that the principle of decay, suffering, and corruption came in some time AFTER God had pronounced everything good.

(III.A.) 8.) Do you believe that the theory of evolution promotes a form of idolatry? Why or why not?

(III.C.) 9.) Define each of these terms: gradualism, genetic barriers, transitional forms, continuum. Use a dictionary if you need help.

(III.D.) 10.) Why would it be untruthful to depict Adam as a knuckle-dragging primitive man?

(III.E.) 11.) What is the basic truth about death that is ignored by evolution?

(III.E.) 12.) In your understanding what is the ‘bondage of decay’ spoken of in Romans 8:19-22?

(III.F.) 13.) Why is there no mathematical or scientific equation that can explain the acts of God in creation and the supernatural miracles of Christ?

(III.F.) 14.) Read 2 Peter 3:1-7. Why do you think that Peter writes that the same mockers who scoff at the second coming of Christ also deny or ignore the historicity of the Genesis flood? Why is there connection between denying the flood and denying the second coming? (Hint: Locate the key phrase in verse 4 to help you find the answer.)

(III.G.) 15.) How would you answer a person who claimed that the fossil record is the ‘story of the origin of life’?

(IV.A.) 16.) When evolutionists deny what God’s Word says about human history (creation, fall, flood, redemption, and restoration) what are they denying about God Himself?

(IV.B.) 17.) What are some of the reasons why the doctrine of creation is important to a proper understanding of the Gospel?