We live in a world teeming with a vast assortment of living creatures. There exist the one celled microbes, such as bacteria and protozoa, invisibly small microscopic creatures that nevertheless under powerful magnification show complex and intricate design. On the other end of the scale are huge blue whales which may be 100 ft. long and weigh as much as 115 tons. The earth is home to birds that soar miles above sea level and also to creatures that live in the deepest parts of the ocean. There are plants which produce flowers of exquisite beauty and fragrance, and others that look and smell like rotten meat. From space earth looks like a shimmering blue and white jewel. The earth, unique among planets, is perfectly suited for life. Its uniqueness has been further highlighted by the Mariner, Viking and Voyager spacecraft probes which have shown the other known planets to be completely hostile and forbidding to life.

Why is the earth a uniquely living planet? Why is there such a teeming abundance and variety of life on earth? Is it an accident? Or is it planned and is there a purpose behind it? If there is a purpose, what is it? These are some of the questions I want to explore with you today.

Is there any real evidence for the theory of evolution, “macroevolution” as it’s sometimes referred to, as espoused by Charles Darwin and others. Few if any doubt that organisms can adapt to an environment by limited adjustments in their genetic code (or how the code is expressed under varying conditions). But mutations that eventually produce something like a horse from what began as a fish is entirely different. Such a theory flies in the face of considerable evidence. Many, including numerous reputable scientists, have concluded that those who believe in Darwinian evolution do so in spite of, not because of, the many physical evidences concerning the origin and history of life on the earth.

Please examine with me some of the factors weighing against Darwinism. And also, consider the testimony of God’s word concerning the matter of creation. Doing so may lead you to a better understanding of some of the principles and purposes according to which God works, which are manifested both in his word and in his physical creation.

First let’s ask if the Bible deals directly with the concept of evolution itself. It may surprise you to know that it does, even though we shouldn’t really be surprised because the concept of evolution is nothing new. It is in fact very ancient. Various cultures from early in history may have viewed the details in different ways, but the basic concept of evolution is very old. For example the Babylonians believed that the earth and sky developed spontaneously out of a primeval watery chaos. Although the Babylonians personified the earth and sky and other physical manifestations by giving them names and referring to them as gods, their system nevertheless is one which is often driven by a blind evolutionary force, or you might say, by fate. In their cosmology the Babylonians confused certain elements of truth with much that was false. According to some versions of their cosmology man sprang from drops of blood from one of their gods. In other versions man was fashioned by the gods from the blood of of a condemned god. In the early cosmological mythologies, which were meant to express certain truths in poetic form and not necessarily to be taken literally, the gods are often ruled by fate or chance. Which is basically the driving force behind modern evolutionary theory.

It should be understood that at least some, if not most, ancient cultures had differing versions of how the earth and life, etc., came into being, as does our culture today. Some involved various features of the universe being personified as gods. Other versions remind one very much of what one might read in modern texts of what evolutionists call science. Among the teachings of the Egyptians was the belief that the earth arose spontaneously as a primordial mound out of a watery chaos. Man evolved from worms which lived in the Nile river.

Some versions of early Greek cosmology are very much like the Babylonian. Another popular version of early cosmology makes no mention of gods, but follows very closely the outline of modern evolutionary speculations. This system, having its origins centuries before, was summarized by Diodorus of Sicily in the first century B.C. Paraphrasing what he wrote: As the universe began heaven and earth were mingled. Eventually the fiery parts ran together forming the sun and the rest of the heavenly bodies. Meanwhile the slimy and muddy part together with moisture congealed forming the earth. The moisture collected to become the seas, the more solid parts became land.

Then the story says the sun’s heat acted on the moisture and produced bubble like membranes, such as you see today in marshy areas. In these membranes life was generated. Later, when conditions had changed, the membranes could no longer generate the larger creatures, but they continued their existence by the union of the sexes. [cf. 1.7, Bibliothēkē (“Library,” also known by the Latin title “Bibliotheca historica”); an English translation titled The Library of History is available as part of the Loeb Classical Library which can be found on the Internet].

Here we see a very clear outline not all that different from modern evolutionary theory, based on the idea that life was generated spontaneously by chance in ponds or pools of water early in the history of the earth’s existence.

It’s interesting that while the ancient pagans were teaching that men came from the blood of slain gods, or evolved from worms in the Nile river, the Biblical account is very lucid, straightforward, and truthful. The Bible says that God created the universe by the word of his power. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made” (John 1:1-3).

“By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, And all the host of them by the breath of His mouth. He gathers the waters of the sea together as a heap; He lays up the deep in storehouses. Let all the earth fear the Lord; Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him. For He spoke, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast” (Psalms 33:6-9).

“He has made the earth by His power, He has established the world by His wisdom, And has stretched out the heavens at His discretion” (Jeremiah 10:12).

“Ah, Lord God! Behold, You have made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and outstretched arm. There is nothing too hard for You” (Jeremiah 32:17).

“You are worthy, O Lord, To receive glory and honor and power; For You created all things, And by Your will they exist and were created” (Revelation 4:11).

“God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds; who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high” (Hebrews 1:1-3).

Scripture implies that the creation consists in his Spirit or power. The closer science has gotten to understanding the nature of matter and the material universe the closer it gets to the picture presented thousands of years ago by God. Matter is simply a manifestation of energy, or power.

The Bible says in a number of places that God stretched out the heavens. “I have made the earth, And created man on it. I—My hands—stretched out the heavens, And all their host I have commanded” (Isaiah 45:12; the phrase “My hands” is a metaphorical expression, as comparing God to a workman who makes something with his hands). Evidence from modern scientific observations and calculations established only about a century ago that the universe is expanding, just as the Bible portrays it to be. But instead of life emerging spontaneously from mud or from slime the Bible says God made or created the different life forms. As we learn more about the nature and complexity of life it becomes more and more apparent that life could have come into existence only by being created by a supernatural Supreme Being.

By the time of Jesus Christ the two most influential philosophies in the Roman world were Stoicism and Epicureanism. The Stoics believed that God was the spirit of the universe or that the universe itself was god. God was in everything and was everything. Ideas of this kind are becoming increasingly popular among many people today.

The Epicureans were atheists and completely materialistic. They believed the universe to be a result of an accidental concourse of atoms, not created and without purpose. There is no god, no supreme moral law, and no supreme judge. The world is governed by blind chance. Both Epicureanism and Stoicism held that man’s destiny is controlled by fatalistic forces over which he has little or no control.

Lucretius was a Roman writer of the first century B.C. He was an Epicurean. He wrote a poem consisting of six “books,” with the goal of explaining Epicurean philosophy. The Epicurean view of the origin and nature of the universe as expressed by Lucretius is summarized in the following:

The universe, according to Epicureanism, is mindless and without a creator, being a purposeless and non-intelligent concourse of atoms without any cosmic source of direction sustaining it. Its invisible particles or atoms are constantly in motion, jostling against one another without guidance or direction. There is no end or purpose to existence, only ceaseless mutation, creation, and destruction, governed entirely by chance, in which atoms swerve around now this way, now that. Since there is no original scene of mythic creation to be invoked, Epicureanism proposes that plants and animals evolved via an extended process of trial and error. This random process, which continued over immeasurable tracts of time, is said to be responsible for the emergence of all species, animal and human. In some cases that random process was unsuccessful, resulting in creatures not properly equipped to compete for resources or to create offspring, and which succumbed to extinction — in contradistinction to perfectly formed creatures able to adapt and reproduce. (Quotation from “Evolution Versus Design: An Ancient Debate,” evolutionnews.org; article is an excerpt from the book Taking Leave of Darwin: A Longtime Agnostic Discovers the Case for Design, by Neil Thomas).

All life is a result of an accidental coalescence of atoms, according to the Epicurean view. This outlook is of course at the core of modern materialistic evolutionary thinking. Scripture addresses these ideas, showing that God has a plan, fate, or chance, is not in control. The Bible presents an altogether different viewpoint, as follows:

Then certain Epicurean and Stoic philosophers encountered him. And some said, “What does this babbler want to say?” Others said, “He seems to be a proclaimer of foreign gods,” because he preached to them Jesus and the resurrection. And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, “May we know what this new doctrine is of which you speak? For you are bringing some strange things to our ears. Therefore we want to know what these things mean.” For all the Athenians and the foreigners who were there spent their time in nothing else but either to tell or to hear some new thing. Then Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, “Men of Athens, I perceive that in all things you are very religious; for as I was passing through and considering the objects of your worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Therefore, the One whom you worship without knowing, Him I proclaim to you: God, who made the world and everything in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands. Nor is He worshiped with men’s hands, as though He needed anything, since He gives to all life, breath, and all things. And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings, so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also His offspring.’ Therefore, since we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, something shaped by art and man’s devising. Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent, because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead” (Acts 17:18-31).

“By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible” (Hebrews 11:3).

“… scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts, and saying, ‘Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation.’ For this they willfully forget: that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of water and in the water, by which the world that then existed perished, being flooded with water” (II Peter 3:3-6). This is a brief history of how present world (kosmos: world as ordered and arranged) came to be. It declares that that the world as it previously existed was destroyed by water.

“The fool has said in his heart, ‘There is no God.’ They are corrupt, and have done abominable iniquity; There is none who does good. God looks down from heaven upon the children of men, To see if there are any who understand, who seek God. Every one of them has turned aside; They have together become corrupt; There is none who does good, No, not one” (Psalms 53:1-3). God had concluded all mankind under sin, until they are brought to repentance. To deny of God’s existence, either by words or behavior, produces a lack of understanding and knowledge, and as this psalm indicates, produces evil.

Modern evolutionary theory is more sophisticated in certain respects than former theories, but it is at its core much the same from a philosophical standpoint. Is the modern theory of evolution “true” science, as many believe? Or could it be rather, despite its wide acceptance among scientists and much of the general public, a form of “false” science based on vain speculation, which has served to undermine in the minds of many the concept of an all-powerful, Creator God with absolute authority? The Bible warns us to avoid “profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called: Which some professing have erred concerning the faith” (I Timothy 6:20-21). Could evolution fit this description? Placing their trust in evolution as the correct explanation of origins, many in our secular age have indeed rejected outright any notion of God.

An important principle expressed in God’s Word is “Prove all things, hold fast that which is good” (I Thessalonians 5:21). I would not have you believe anything merely because I say it. Look carefully at the evidence, both from the Bible and from nature itself. Weigh all sides of the issue, seek God’s guidance in prayer and then decide what you will believe.

The fundamental question regarding origins is this, is the universe, and especially life, a consequence of intelligent creation or blind chance? Propagandists for evolution try to push any consideration of an alternative to their speculations out of the arena of science, claiming that religion and science are in separate spheres of knowledge and thus religion should have no bearing on scientific discussion. The Bible, however, has a great deal to say about origins, as do alternative theories, including Darwinian evolution and its offshoots. There’s nothing wrong with seeing how the evidence stacks up when the speculations of evolutionists are compared with what the Bible says about origins and the implications of its statements regarding origins.

Dr. Niles Eldredge of the American Museum of Natural History is one of the leading proponents of what is referred to as “punctuated equilibrium.” Having seen that the fossil record does not support the concept of gradual evolution as proposed by Darwin, Dr. Eldredge and others have proposed the idea that for long periods there are virtually no evolutionary changes, then very suddenly major changes occur which produce much different life forms. Dr. Eldredge is a confirmed evolutionist. He published a book in 1982 attacking those who believe the concept of creation or the idea that a Supreme Being created life on the earth. The book’s title is The Monkey Business: A Scientist Looks at Creationism. Some of what follows is in reference to some of the major thrusts of his book, but also applies generally to the issue of whether life “evolved” of its own accord or was created by God.

It’s not unusual for propagandists for evolutionary theory to claim for themselves exclusive right to the mantle and authority of “science,” and in effect attempt to silence opposition to evolutionary theory with ridicule. However, many creationists are very knowledgeable and accomplished scientists who have done an effective job of exposing the many weaknesses, fallacies and contradictions in the theory of evolution. Generally the criticisms of evolutionary assumptions by creationists are often right on the mark. Some proponents of creationism, however, but by no means all fail to recognize that Genesis one is describing a reformation of the earth’s surface and not, except in the very first verse, the original creation of the earth. This misunderstanding tends to weaken arguments for the creationist view in the eyes of those who are dubious of the idea that the earth is only 6000 years old, or even only 10,000 or 15,000 years old, as some creationists speculate. God has not precisely revealed how old the earth is, and any age assigned by either evolutionists or creationists is only speculative.

Too many among the general public have been deluded into accepting evolution as a “scientific” theory, while concluding that belief in creation cannot be considered scientific because it is not “testable” in a laboratory. However, it should be obvious that evolution as a proposed series of events occurring in the remote past is not testable in a laboratory either. Thus it is no more “scientific” in that sense than is creation. Since neither evolution nor creation can be duplicated in a laboratory experiment, we must rely on other evidence to test the validity of each.

The authors of a book called The Mystery of Life’s Origin: Reassessing Current Theories (published 1984) are all professional scientists. They are Charles B. Thaxton, Walter L. Bradley, and Roger L. Olsen. They refer to science that deals with nonrecurring events as “origin” science. Evidence may be brought to bear by which theories of origin science can be judged “plausible” or “implausible.” But such theories cannot be “falsified” by direct observation as in the case of operation science. Chemical evolution is a speculative attempt to explain a singular event — the origin of life. But is it plausible or implausible? That is a question science can answer, according to the authors.

Many accomplished scientists have rejected the Darwinian theory of evolution and its offshoots, such as the so-called “punctuated equilibrium” theory, as implausible. A document titled “A SCIENTIFIC DISSENT FROM DARWINISM” signed by more than 1000 scientists is available on the Internet. Their statement is: “We are skeptical of claims for the ability of random mutation and natural selection to account for the complexity of life. Careful examination of the evidence for Darwinian theory should be encouraged.” Signatories include scholars and professors from a number of disciplines, including especially biology, biochemistry, chemistry, etc. The document and a list of signatories is available at dissentfromdarwin.org.

Both evolution and creation theory, if you want to call it that, suggest or “predict” what we might expect to find as we search the evidence available.

Dr. Eldredge asserts that evolution predicts “one coherent pattern of similarity interlinking all forms of life.” The Bible does also. “…what happens to the sons of men also happens to animals; one thing befalls them: as one dies, so does the other…. All are from the dust, and all return to dust” (Ecclesiastes 3:19-20). “God…made the world [kosmos—the world as structured and ordered] and everything in it…. He gives to all life, breath, and all things” (Acts 17:24-25). “…God is not the author of confusion but of peace [or harmony]” (I Corinthians 14:33).

The Creator is described in the Bible as a Being of law, order, and harmony. We would expect these qualities to be reflected in His creation. (The Bible of course goes further and explains the reasons for the chaos and confusion that at times prevail on earth.) If evolution predicts a “hierarchical arrangement of similarities” so does the Bible. In fact, a hierarchical arrangement is implicit in the order of creation found in Genesis one.

What’s interesting though is what we find when the predictions of evolution and the Bible record diverge. If Darwinism were true, as Darwin himself recognized, the fossil record should show evidence of many intermediate forms in a gradual change from “simple to complex” (though there are no “simple” life forms, any form of life is exceedingly complex). The Bible reveals that the principle God follows in creating living organisms is that each kind should reproduce its own kind (see Genesis 1), thus we would not expect to find transitional fossils among those buried if the Bible is an accurate record of what happened. After well over a hundred years of searching the fossil record since the publication of “The Origin of Species” in 1859, which prediction has proven accurate? First, what about the claim often made that simpler forms of life appear in the fossil record earlier than more advanced forms as though there were some kind of progression? Following is a statement from a college Biology text, “The Science of Biology,” by Paul B. Weisz, “It is a very curious circumstance that rocks older than about 500 million years are so barren of fossils, whereas rocks younger than that not only are comparatively rich in them, but also include representatives of most major categories of organisms. Many hypotheses have been proposed to account for this sudden and simultaneous appearance of different fossil groups. But to date, a satisfactory explanation has not been found” (p. 677). It should be further noted that as more and more fossils have been uncovered, all major categories of animal and plant life have now been found in the earliest fossil bearing rocks, the Cambrian. Actually, a satisfactory explanation has been found, it is found in the Bible, which would lead one to look for a sudden and simultaneous appearance of diverse life forms.

Evolution, however, has a real problem with the fossil evidence, since it doesn’t show the gradual progression from “simple” to complex the theory predicts. It is true that a small number of single celled fossils have been found in rocks dated much older by evolutionists. However, the evidence does not at all suggest that these evolved into any “higher” or more complex organisms. In fact, what are believed by evolutionists to be the oldest known fossils, found in rocks they claim are three billion eight hundred million years old, “are morphologically identical to modern yeasts.” Not much help for Darwinism there. It’s worth noting too that the rocks contain no trace of the proposed prebiotic soup that supposedly led to the first organisms, which if it existed should have left “either massive sediments containing enormous amounts of the various nitrogenous organic compounds…or alternatively in much-metamorphosed sediments we should find vast amounts of nitrogenous cokes…” (Brooks and Shaw, “Origin and Development of Living Systems,” p. 359)

The lack of transitional forms in the fossil record, contrary to what Darwinism predicts, is in fact the very reason the “Punctuated Equilibrium” theory has recently become increasingly popular among evolutionists. The theory of evolution failed to accurately predict what would be found in the fossil record! As it was stated in a Newsweek article on “Punctuated Equilibrium,” a warmed over version of the 1940’s “Hopeful Monster” theory, published November 3, 1980, “Evidence from fossils now points overwhelmingly away from the classical Darwinism which most Americans learned in high school…” (p. 95). That’s why many have been forced to conclude that a major overhaul of the theory is necessary to save the basic concept of a creation without a Creator. Of course, the fossil record presents no such problem for one who understands and believes the Bible record.

Since the principle revealed in the Bible is that kinds reproduce after their own kind, we would also expect to be found in the natural order a fixity of kinds, or genetic stability over long periods of time, if the Bible is true. On the other hand, since evolution asserts that kinds evolve into other kinds we would expect to find a lack of fixity of kinds or genetic stability. Which idea has proven accurate? Again the evidence confirms the Biblical record. There are numerous instances of kinds which have remained virtually unchanged over “hundreds of millions of years” according to the evolutionists’ own dating methods.

In their book “Evolution from Space,” Fred Hoyle and Chandra Wickramasinghe use the example of fossil insects: “It is particularly remarkable that no forms with the wings at an intermediate stage of development have been found. Where fossil insects have wings at all they are fully functional to serve the purposes of flight, and often enough in ancient fossils the wings are essentially identical to what can be found today” (p. 86). “…beetles have an ancient history going back to about 250 million years ago. When complete specimens of beetles are found in the fossil record they are little different from present-day forms” (p. 118). Another example: “The earliest monotreme fossils come from the Australian Pleistocene, and they are essentially the same as the living forms…” (p. 87). In summarizing the evidence the authors state: “The factual evidence is overwhelmingly confined to lines of creatures that do not change very much from generation to generation, as for example the various orders of insects…. Wherever one would like evidence of major changes and linkages…the evidence is conspicuously missing from the fossil record” (p. 89). Again the prediction of evolution has proven false, that of the Bible true. Creatures remain stable over long periods, and one kind does not change into another!

The claim is made that radiometric dating has verified the positioning of the strata as previously worked out by geologists. However, radiometric dating is unreliable. Variables are involved which are subject to the researcher’s own guesses and interpretations – which in turn will be influenced by his biases shaped by the general acceptance of the theory of evolution. Even then, “anomalous” dates show up quite regularly, which are usually discretely ignored by evolutionists. For example, lavas from volcanoes of known geologic ages measured in centuries or less have yielded radiometric ages varying from 100 million to 10 billion years. Petroleum, formed millions of years ago according to evolutionary geology, yields radiocarbon dates of 3000 to 9000 years. A number of coal samples, supposed to have been formed millions of years ago, have been radiocarbon dated at 30,000 to 45,000 years old. The vast majority of fossils yield radiocarbon dates of less than 15,000 years, including dates for Homo Sapiens no older than 8,500 years and an indicated age for Australopithecus fossils of about 12,500 years. Wood found in “100-million year old” Cretaceous limestone has been dated by the radiocarbon method as 12,800 years old.

Radiometric dating techniques cannot be used for most sedimentary rocks themselves, where most of the fossils are found. Fossils are typically dated by the rocks they are found in, and most rocks by the fossils found in them, which is circular reasoning. There are many problems, discrepancies, anomalies and contradictions in the age dating methods of evolutionists. A science writer named Roger Lewin wrote a book about this some years ago, called Bones of Contention.

There are many phenomena which cannot be accounted for by the “accepted” methods of age dating. Among them polystrate fossils such as trees that extend through supposed hundreds of millions of years worth of sediment, man made artifacts which have been found embedded in strata supposedly hundreds of millions of years old, and fossils found in strata which supposedly predated the living forms by hundreds of millions of years.

Throw in besides the so-called “living fossils,” such as the okapi, which was said to have become extinct in the Miocene Epoch about 30 million years ago, until one was captured in 1906, or the coelacanth, a fish supposedly extinct for 65 million years, until they began to be caught off the coast of Africa some years ago, as well as others. Consider too that some part of “every” geologic period rests “directly” upon Precambrian deposits. The example mentioned above of yeast fossils in “the world’s oldest rocks” raises another question relating to rock dating methods. Since yeasts are saprophytic fungi, dependent on dead organic cells for nutrients, how could they have existed hundreds of millions or billions of years before other life forms? Another problem regarding such fossils: They are found in what is supposed to be the earliest known rocks, which leaves little or no time for prebiotic evolution. All dating methods for ancient phenomena are based on highly risky assumptions and must be considered speculative. As Professor Edward Deevey, Director of the Geochronometric Laboratory at Yale University, wrote in an article for “Scientific American” in February 1952, geological dating is “inspired guesswork.” My question is: who’s doing the inspiring? He also discusses some of the many variables and unknowns that can affect the outcome of, in this instance, radiocarbon dating. The truth is, no human knows for sure the age of the rocks, the earth, or the universe. Based on what the Bible reveals, and other evidence, the renewal of the earth’s surface and the restoration of life on the earth as described in Genesis one occurred about 6000 years ago, but the earth itself is older, probably much older, than 6,000 years, but how much older is anybody’s guess. It’s likely, as geological evidence seems to indicate, that multiple episodes of catastrophic events leading to the extinction of many or most living creatures on the earth have occurred, followed by episodes of renewal of life in various forms at the hand of the Creator, as Scripture seems to indicate (Psalms 104:24-30).

Is there really anything to “Punctuated Equilibrium,” or the idea of sudden evolutionary leaps? Norman Macbeth is a critic of evolution (though not a creationist) and author of Darwin Retired: An Appeal to Reason. In an interview published in “TOWARDS” magazine, Spring, 1982, he characterized the concept as a “pipe-dream,” a “counsel of despair, a wild hope.” He stated that the very fact evolutionists have to invoke such a concept indicates, “They are in a condition of bankruptcy.” He says, “…as any fool can see, it is extremely difficult to document, in fact impossible. It is not a scientific theory, it is only a statement that we are in such terrible shape that it must have been something on the order of a miracle.” I find it interesting that Dr. Macbeth has had intimate association with many of the scientists at the American Museum of Natural History, and has even lectured before them. He makes the point “that among themselves the scientists admit great weaknesses [in evolutionary theories, including punctuated equilibrium, genetic drift, or the Sewall Wright Effect] but they do not reveal these to the public…and at the Museum that’s what’s going on.” There’s not a lot of space in the Bible devoted to the pre-Adamic world. But we are given a broad outline with certain “key details” of what God has done along with the principles and purposes according to which God works. From these we should be able to determine within broad guidelines what fits and what doesn’t. Among those truths which are revealed which have a direct bearing on the discussion at hand are the following:

(1) God has from the beginning and throughout all the ages since had a “specific purpose” in mind for His Creation. In Ephesians 3 Paul writes about the mystery of God’s “eternal purpose” which “from the beginning of the ages” has been hidden in God who “created all things through Jesus Christ” (vs. 9-11). We understand that that purpose involves reproducing Himself or, if you will, reproducing seed after the God kind (Malachi 2:15; 1 John 3:2; Revelation 21:7).

(2) God took a special interest in the creation of the earth, and personally designed and made it. “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell Me, if you have understanding. Who determined its measurements? Surely you know! Or who stretched the line upon it? To what were its foundations fastened? Or who laid its cornerstone…” (Job 38:5-7). Proverbs 8:22-31 states unequivocally that the earth is a result of God’s planning or wisdom. “Who…calculated the dust of the earth in a measure? Weighed the mountains in scales And the hills in a balance?” God asks rhetorically (Isaiah 40:12). That the earth’s features (size, shape, tilt, distance from the sun, chemical composition, etc.) make it an ideal habitat for organic life is according to the Bible no accident. It was all carefully planned, arranged and brought into being by God.

(3) God is the source and sustainer of life. “God, who made the world and everything in it…gives to all life, breath, and all things” (Acts 17:24-25). Speaking of the living creatures of the earth Job spoke: “…the hand of the LORD has done this, In whose hand is the life of every living thing…” (Job 12:9-10). A number of Scriptures tell us that God is the designer and sustainer of the living things of the earth. “O LORD, how manifold are Your works! In wisdom [denotes planning and purpose] You have made them all. The earth is full of Your possessions–This great and wide sea, In which are innumerable teeming things, Living things both small and great…. These all wait for You, That You may give them their food in due season. What you give them they gather in; You open Your hand, they are filled with good. You hide Your face, they are troubled; You take away their breath, they die and return to their dust. You send forth Your Spirit, they are created; And You renew the face of the earth” (Psalm 104:24-30). The latter verse may be a reference to the destruction of the pre-Adamic world and the renewal — which the Bible indicates occurred about 6000 years ago — described in Genesis one, or that along with a succession of catastrophic events in the history of the earth and subsequent renewals. And yet another scripture that reveals that all life on earth is utterly dependent on God: “Who gave Him charge over the earth? Or who appointed Him over the whole world? If He should set His heart on it, If He should gather to Himself His Spirit and His breath, All flesh would perish together…” (Job 34:13-15).

(4) In its design, the physical creation reflects God’s eternal purpose.

Among the ways in which it does so is that God specifically designed and created organic life so that any individual of each kind, or family, “is formed according to the peculiar characteristics inherent in the seed or lifegerm of its own kind.” Various scientists have written in recent years about the “information content” in the makeup of living cells, and especially the set of instructions or genetic “code” (genome) that determines the peculiar characteristics of each individual life form. The information content in the genomes of mice, flowers, humans “are enormous, fantastic, quite out of all nonbiological experience” (Evolution from Space, p. 4). Even in the genomes of the most “ancient” life forms found in the “earliest” rocks, “the information standard remains enormously high” (p. 8). After a thorough analysis of proposed early earth models and simulations attempting to explain how life could have arisen spontaneously from non-living matter, the authors of The Mystery of Life’s Origin conclude: “The early earth conditions appear to offer no intrinsic means of supplying…the configurational entropy work necessary to make the macromolecules of life” (p. 184). In essence, what the authors are saying is that the information content of organic living forms has no explanation apart from the intervention of an outside intelligence to put it there. As Hoyle and Wickramasinghe put it: “For life to have originated on Earth it would be necessary that quite explicit instructions should have been provided for its assembly” (Evolution from Space, p. 30). And for each different form of life, a different and unique set of instructions is needed.

The authors go on to conclude that by far the most probable explanation is that “life was assembled by an intelligence.” Indeed, they conclude that this explanation “is so obvious that one wonders why it is not widely accepted as being self-evident. The reasons are psychological rather than scientific” (p. 130). Who, what intelligence from the very beginning placed within each organic life form its own individual genetic makeup giving it its own peculiar characteristics? “…God gives it a body [its own peculiar form] as He pleases [or more correctly: “as He purposed”], and to each seed his [or its] own body” (I Corinthians 15:38-39). In other words it is God who has as Creator placed within each seed or germ of life the information that determines the physical characteristics of that particular kind of creature, be it men, beasts, fish, birds, etc. Very interestingly, Paul is using this analogy of the seed containing encoded within itself the form of the creature that shall arise out of it to show how we, as the seed of God, shall bear the image of God in heaven, whose spiritual seed we are: “And as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly Man” (I Corinthians 15:49).

I’ve already discussed evidence that creatures remain true to form generation after generation, whether existing before or after Adam, allowing for limited variations within family groups. I believe these scientific and Biblical evidences rule out absolutely any consideration of the possibility of organic macroevolution either before or after Adam.

I’m convinced that a genuine knowledge of and belief in what the Bible teaches about Divine creation does not permit us to be neutral about organic evolution as conceived by Darwin, Huxley, and their ilk. It is a philosophy emanating from and propagating a lawless spirit, hostile toward God—as even a cursory review of their writings will clearly reveal. From a historical point of view, such a theory is an attack in the name of science against the very concept of God as Creator.

The evidence of intelligent design in nature should be unmistakable to any rational person. In fact, I consider it one of the most powerful proofs of God’s existence, and it is a proof that is taken for granted in the Bible itself, as the following scriptures demonstrate: “…what may be known of God is manifest in [or among] them, for God has shown it to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse…” (Romans 1:19-20). “’To whom then will you liken Me, Or to whom shall I be equal?’ says the Holy One. Lift up your eyes on high, And see who has created these things…” (Isaiah 40:25-26).

Note: For some suggestions on further study about this subject click on the following link: Intelligence verses Nonsense.

This article is available in pdf format: God as Creator

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