Evolution and The Bible

Atheistic Faith

A thousand years before the birth of Christ, David wrote, The fool has said in his heart, there is no God (Psalm 14:1). The Hebrew word rendered fool means literally a senseless person. The Septuagint version of the Old Testament (Greek translation of the Hebrew) uses a word that means literally mindless and represents a lack of common sense. Why is the atheist a fool? To begin with, to deny the existence of God is to defy one of the most elementary principles of logic: that something came from nothing; that zero plus zero equals something greater than zero. Consider this. The universe is estimated to be 20 billion light years across. How big is that? That s the distance that light could travel in 20 billion years at the speed of 186,000 miles per second. And yet atheists believe that the universe accidentally developed from a submicroscopic particle of matter that is many billions of times smaller than a single proton, one of the atom s basic particles. On top of this, atheists believe that billons of years ago life was spontaneously generated by accident from inorganic materials. They believe that from this tiny speck of inorganic matter of self-generated life, human consciousness and moral sensitivity evolved. How logical is this? Far more faith is needed to be an atheist than to believe in God.

Why Evolution?

Organic evolution, the notion that human beings are but mere animals, the offspring of more primitive creatures, is undoubtedly one of the most insidious and destructive theories every perpetrated by man. Unfortunately most people have, to one extent or another, embraced the hypothesis of evolution as truth. Why is this so? There are several reasons. First of all, there has been a type of forced indoctrination by propaganda disseminated by our public schools for the past 75 years. Because of this, along with the brainwashing accomplished through the media, which began with the radio broadcasts of the Scopes Trial of 1925 and continues today through regularly broadcasted scientific programming which treats this unproven theory as fact, society has generally accepted evolution without really questioning its veracity. Second, there is a type of intimidation by academia and the scientific community that places all who do not accept evolution into a category of uninformed ignoramuses. Since most people have been led to believe that all educated people believe in evolution, and since most people want to be thought of as educated people, most people believe in evolution. They have bought this Darwinian hoax and believe it to be fact because the scientists say so. Well, what does God say about it? We shall see.

Time and Evolution

Many people today are impressed with the case for evolution because of the evidence they believe is presented in the fossil record. There is no scientific data that proves all living creatures have evolved from primitive inorganic substances by means of natural process. In fact, not a single fossil has ever been discovered that clearly demonstrates a link between the kinds of organisms. An attempt to answer this dilemma is to make an appeal to time as a means of explaining the theory of evolution. The claim is that evolution occurs much too slowly to be observed by humans; that it has progressed over vast eras of time. Without explaining how, evolutionary chronology has the universe coming into being some 15-20 billion years ago, with the earth being approximately 4.5 billion years old and life being spontaneously generated about 2-3 billion years ago. Finally, man (homo sapiens) is to have appeared some 3 1/2 million years in the past. While the atheist has no problem accepting these enormous figures, it does create difficulties for one who believes in God and the Bible, for the first chapter of Genesis teaches that not only did God create the heavens and the earth, He did so in six days. can this biblical record be reconciled to this system of evolutionary chronology? We ll find out next week.

Genesis and Evolution

There are many in the religious world that claim to believe the Bible to be the word of God but who also believe in the theory of evolution. Feeling the pressure of academia and society in general, they feel the need to somehow reconcile the Genesis record of creation with this human hypothesis. Therefore, the Scriptures are manipulated to embrace evolution. Let s look at one attempt to combine evolution and the Bible. The Bible clearly says that God created the heavens and the earth (Gen. 1:1). Furthermore, this creation is accomplished in a six-day period of time (Gen. 1:2-31). In an attempt to bring the Bible in harmony with what is believed to be scientific fact, many take the evolutionary chronology and attempt to apply it to this six-day period of time. To do so it is said that the word day in Genesis chapter one does not refer to a literal twenty-four hour period of time, but represents millions of years during which the evolutionary chain of events occurred. There are, however, powerful arguments that force the objective Bible student to the position that the days of the creation period constitute an ordinary week six twenty-four hour periods of time. The fact is, the theory of evolution and the Bible are contrary to one another, and any attempt to combine the two perverts the word of God.

Days of Evolution

In an attempt to reconcile the biblical record of creation and the evolutionary theory, some have considered the term day as used in Genesis chapter one as being figurative rather than a literal twenty-four hour period of time. If this is done, the term day can then represent millions of years, thus allowing evolutionary chronology time to exist. We must remember, however, an important rule of Bible interpretation: words must be understood literally unless the context demands otherwise. In Genesis one the word day is used in two senses: 1) God called the light Day (1:5); and 2) there was evening and there was morning, one day (1:5,8, 13, etc.). Obviously Moses used the term in precisely the same ways we use the term: 1) to refer to the daylight hours as opposed to night; 2) and to refer to a twenty-four hour period of time. To propose that there is anything within the context of this chapter to remotely suggest that a day consists of millions of years is totally unwarranted. Furthermore, notice that the text clearly distinguishes between days and years, for the lights in the firmament of heaven were to not only divide the day from the night, but the days and years (Gen. 1:14). If the days of Genesis chapter one signify millions of years, what does the term years mean? Think about it.

“Six Days”

It has been pointed out that in an effort to accommodate evolutionary chronology, some believe that the word day in Genesis chapter one is not a literal twenty-four hour period, but is used figuratively and represents millions of years during which God used evolution to create (?) life upon the earth. But notice that in recording the Decalogue, Moses writes, Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work; but the seventh day is a Sabbath unto Jehovah thy God ... for in six days Jehovah made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is ... (Ex. 20:11). By inspiration Moses shows that the Genesis record of creation is literal and not figurative as he compares the six days of the Jewish work-week and the six days of the creation-week. Does anyone believe that the Hebrew work-week consisted of six ages lasting millions of years? Of course not. Clearly the Hebrew work-week was six consecutive twenty-four hour periods. Furthermore, the six days of the creation-week are equated to the six consecutive twenty-four hour periods of the Hebrew work-week. The only reason that anyone would ever conclude that the six days of creation actually lasted millions of years is to accommodate the evolutionary theory. Who do you believe? God or Darwin?

Christ and Evolution

In Genesis 1-2, the Bible clearly shows God creating the world in which we live in six consecutive days (twenty-four hours periods of time). Yet many who claim to believe the Bible feel the need to reconcile the theory of evolution with this biblical account and, therefore, profess the days of Genesis 1-2 to be figurative, not literal. These theistic evolutionists often say that it doesn t matter whether these are literal days or not, as long as we acknowledge God as the Creator. But the fact is, it does matter, for reference to the creation of Genesis is affirmed in both the Old and New Testaments in passages such as Psa. 33:9; Jn. 1:1-3; Rom. 1:20; Heb. 11:3, just to name a few. If the historical exactness of Genesis one is called into question, a precedent and tone is set that allows one to reinterpret an historical narrative every time it is contrary to that which he deems to be reasonable. This is exactly what modernists have done regarding the resurrection of Christ from the dead. They contend that science knows nothing of a literal resurrection from the dead, therefore, Christ s resurrection was not literal, but figurative and Christ merely continues to live in our hearts. But just as assuredly as God created the world in six literal days, Christ was literally raised from the dead. How do I know? The Bible says so.

Contradictions

As pointed out previously, many who claim to believe the Bible also accept the theory of evolution thinking that the two are in agreement with one another. But are the two compatible? Please consider the following: 1) Genesis affirms that the earth was created on the first day (1:1) with the sun and stars created subsequently on the fourth day (1:14-19) while evolution has the sun and stars existing billions of years before the earth came into existence. 2) Genesis says the first biological forms of life upon the earth were plants (1:11) while evolution says the first life forms were marine organisms. 3) Genesis says birds were created on the fifth day (1:20-23) and insects and creeping things on the sixth day (1:24-31) while evolution says that insects were in existence eons before birds. These creeping things would include reptiles, hence, Scripture asserts that birds (1:21) were created before reptiles (1:24). Evolution, of course, asserts that birds evolved from reptiles. 4) Genesis clearly states that all living creatures were created according to individual groups, and thereafter reproduced after their own kind (1:11-12, 21, 24-25). Evolution has all living organism being derived from a common primitive source. Is the Bible compatible with the theory of evolution? Absolutely not!

Man and Evolution

Last week clear contradictions between the Genesis record of creation and the theory of evolution were pointed out in an effort to show the incompatibility of the Scriptures and Darwin s hypothesis. But let s consider the implications of the notion that God used evolution to bring man into existence. To begin with, the Scriptures teach that mankind has existed from the beginning of the creation (Matthew 19:4; Mark 10:6; Romans 1:20), thus, virtually from the foundation of the world (Luke 11:50-51). Evolution contends that humanity s age is but a tiny fraction of the Earth s, thus, man is a relative newcomer to the planet. The Bible teaches that Adam, the first man (1 Corinthians 15:45), came into being as a result of a miracle, as God formed him from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul Gen. 2:7). Evolution claims that all men have arrived as a result of the biological reproductive process. The Bible announces that God made man in His own image (Genesis 1:26; 1 Corinthians 11:7). Evolution scoffs at such, and suggests that man, because of his fears of natural forces that he could not understand, created God in his own image. The point is, you must choose: Scripture or evolution. You can’t choose both.