Essay - part 2

What the Bible says about creation:

The creation account:

The great flood:

Jesus and creation:

Creation and evangelism

Jesus in creation:

Evidence in design:

Adam:

The bible starts and ends with God as Creator:

Concepts of biblical creation:

The creation account:

As we would expect the bible speaks loud and clear concerning God as Creator. The fact of God as creator is declared and not argued in the bible, as the Roman's passage above indicates God has made it plain to man that He is the Creator because of the things He has made i.e. evidence from design. On the first day God created physical matter, when God made the plants, fish, animals, birds and creeping things he made then according to their 'kind'. That is a limited amount of variation was possible within a 'kind', but a dog could never become a cat. The bible starts out with the fact of God as the Creator.

Gen 1:1 (NIV) In the beginning God (elohiym) created (bara) the heavens and the earth.

There follows some of the details. This includes the creation of things on days one, two and three and living creatures on days three, five and six. In particular while referring to the creation of living things God said that he created them after their kinds. This implies limited variation within the species.

Third day - the plants:

Gen 1:11-13 (NIV) Then God said, "Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds." And it was so. 12 The land produced vegetation: plants bearing seed according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good. 13 And there was evening, and there was morning--the third day.

Fifth day - fish and birds:

Gen 1:20-23 (NIV) And God said, "Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the sky." 21 So God created the great creatures of the sea and every living and moving thing with which the water teems, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 22 God blessed them and said, "Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the water in the seas, and let the birds increase on the earth." 23 And there was evening, and there was morning--the fifth day.

Sixth day - animals and insects:

Gen 1:24-25 (NIV) And God said, "Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: livestock, creatures that move along the ground, and wild animals, each according to its kind." And it was so. 25 God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.

Sixth day - man.

Gen 1:26-31 (NIV) Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground." 27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. 28 God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground." 29 Then God said, "I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. 30 And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air and all the creatures that move on the ground--everything that has the breath of life in it--I give every green plant for food." And it was so. 31 God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning--the sixth day.

This can be summarised as follows:

Gen 2:4 (NIV) This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created. When the LORD God made the earth and the heavens--

Gen 3:20 (NIV) Adam named his wife Eve, because she would become the mother of all the living.

Gen 5:1-2 (NIV) This is the written account of Adam's line. When God created man, he made him in the likeness of God. 2 He created them male and female and blessed them. And when they were created, he called them "man."

The six days of creation are used as the basis for the Sabbath day because God rested on the seventh day:

Exo 20:8-11 (NIV) "Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. 9 Six days you shall labour and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates. 11 For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

Deu 32:6 (NIV) Is this the way you repay the LORD, O foolish and unwise people? Is he not your Father, your Creator, who made you and formed you?

The great flood:

The great flood destroyed every living thing on the face of the earth apart from the people and creatures in the Ark. Biblical creationists believe that this catastrophe is the cause of the geological stratification and fossil deposits. This is completely ignored under an evolutionary interpretation which is gradualistic, although in the past the Catastrophic flood was widely believed, but then men believed in God and the bible.

Gen 6:7 (NIV) So the LORD said, "I will wipe mankind, whom I have created, from the face of the earth--men and animals, and creatures that move along the ground, and birds of the air--for I am grieved that I have made them."

Gen 6:17 (NIV) I am going to bring floodwaters on the earth to destroy all life under the heavens, every creature that has the breath of life in it. Everything on earth will perish.

Gen 9:19 (NIV) These were the three sons of Noah, and from them came the people who were scattered over the earth.

Mankind has forgotten about the flood and the second coming of Jesus:

2 Pet 3:3-7 (NIV) First of all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires. 4 They will say, "Where is this 'coming' he promised? Ever since our fathers died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation." 5 But they deliberately forget that long ago by God's word the heavens existed and the earth was formed out of water and by water. 6 By these waters also the world of that time was deluged and destroyed. 7 By the same word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgement and destruction of ungodly men.

Jesus and creation:

This is the testimony of Jesus concerning creation, Jesus uses Genesis 1:27 and 2:24 to support his teaching on divorce, clearly if Jesus believes in Genesis chapters one and two so should we:

Mat 19:4 (NIV) "Haven't you read," he replied, "that at the beginning the Creator 'made them male and female,' 5 and said, 'For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh'?

Mark 13:19 (NIV) because those will be days of distress unequalled from the beginning, when God created the world, until now--and never to be equalled again.

Creation and evangelism

Paul uses the fact of God the Creator as the starting place of evangelism among the heathen:

Acts 14:15 (NIV) "Men, why are you doing this? We too are only men, human like you. We are bringing you good news, telling you to turn from these worthless things to the living God, who made heaven and earth and sea and everything in them.

Acts 17:24-27 (NIV) "The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. 25 And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. 26 From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. 27 God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us.

Jesus in creation:

John 1:1-3 (NIV) In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.

Col 1:16 (NIV) For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him.

Evidence in design:

Psa 19:1 (NIV). The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.

The passage below is important because it brings out the fact that men know in their hearts that there is a creator God because of the evidence of design. However men try to suppress this truth. It is interesting that mankind has exchanges the glory of God for images made to look like created beings. This is precisely what evolution does, it claims that instead of being created by God we have evolved from the animals, instead of being made in the image of God we are descended from the apes. It also shows the results of those who deny that God is the creator. The theory of evolution has been the source and inspiration of a number of sinful philosophies including humanism which effectively makes man his god.

Rom 1:18-32 (NIV) The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, 19 since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20 For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities--his eternal power and divine nature--have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. 21 For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles. 24 Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. 25 They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshipped and served created things rather than the Creator--who is forever praised. Amen. 26 Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts.

Adam:

Paul's contrast between the one man Adam and the one man Jesus Christ would be meaningless if the man Adam did not in reality exist.

Rom 5:12 (NIV) Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned--

Rom 5:14 (NIV) Nevertheless, death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking a command, as did Adam, who was a pattern of the one to come.

Rom 5:17 (NIV) For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God's abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ.

The bible reaffirms that we believe in a Creator God by faith. God spoke and it came into being:

Heb 11:3 (NIV) By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God's command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.

The bible starts and ends with God as Creator:

The bible starts with Genesis which describes the beginning and the last book in the bible also refers to the Creator God.

Rev 4:11 (NIV) "You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honour and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being."

Rev 14:7 (NIV) "Fear God and give him glory, because the hour of his judgement has come. Worship him who made the heavens, the earth, the sea and the springs of water."

God's final judgement of man is that he did not acknowledge God as Creator.

Concepts of Scientific Creationism:

It was Paley who said the evidence of design in nature indicates a Designer. Clearly because God is the Creator this explains the design that is apparent in nature.

The bible says that God created plants, fish, animals and birds after their kinds. The kind is a basic type of animal or plant, a kind is not rigidly fixed there is variety allowed within a kind but within limits. For example if one examines the dog 'kind' human breeding shows that there is plenty of genetic variety within the dog 'kind'. A Chihuahua looks completely different to a Saint Bernard but it is still a dog.

The fossil record and geological strata are explained by the great flood which was violent and world-wide not localised. The bible is quite clear that the flood killed every living thing on the face of the earth (Gen 7:4, 7:21-23). In order for a creature to become fossilised it must be buried rapidly which would occur during the flood, otherwise it would just decay. The description in Genesis indicates that the flood was violent:

Gen 7:11 (NIV) In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, on the seventeenth day of the second month--on that day all the springs of the great deep burst forth, and the floodgates of the heavens were opened.

The fact that man is generally on upper levels of the geological strata would not be surprising since man would climb to higher ground in order to avoid the flood. The apparent sudden appearance of new species in the fossil record without the transitional forms that are predicted by the theory of evolution is in fact evidence that favours creation since because God created the species fully formed, there would be no transitional form.

Other aspects of scientific creationism are more speculative but include the following concepts:

1. A young earth: there is plenty of evidence that the earth is much younger than the 4,500 million years usually quoted. Radioactive dating is inaccurate and speculative, it depends on a number of assumptions such as half lives remaining constant. Many radioactive dating techniques give widely different answers.
2. Water canopy: Creationists and the bible suggest that before the flood there was a water vapour canopy above the earth, before the flood there was no rain and therefore no rainbow, see Gen 1:6-8, 2:5-6, 7:11, 9:13.
3. Reduction in age after the Flood: After the flood, according to the bible, there was an exponential reduction in mans life span from around 950 to 120 years. This may be because the water canopy protected man from harmful radiation from space.

One does not of course have to believe in these concepts in order to believe in a Creator God.