CREATION OF THE WORLD
We believe that the words found in Genesis 1 and 2 are a historical and accurate record of how this world came to be. That account is also a very logical explanation of the origin of our world.
Before this universe existed, there was nothing except God. God has existed from eternity to eternity. But everything else in our universe was created in time. The first chapter of Genesis gives an overall summary of the six days of creation. Chapter two gives a more detailed account of how God created human beings. As the apostle Paul was talking to the Colossians about the Supremacy of Christ, he spoke these words, “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16 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. 17 He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.” So, before God started creating this world, there was nothing. And everything that exists today, was created during those six days.
On each of the six days of creation God created specific things:
Day 1: Light Day 4: The sun, moon and stars
Day 2: Firmament, atmosphere Day 5: The sea creatures and the birds
Day 3: The Seas and the Dry Land Day 6: The land animals, and the human race
And after each day of creation the same phrase is used, “And there was evening, and there was morning,” then the number of the day. There was a period of creating, and then came evening, and nightfall, and then came morning. A period of time that would be consistent with our regular twenty-four-hour day.
Some people are quick to note that the sun, moon and stars were not created until the Fourth Day. So, without the sun and the moon, how could there be day and night, and how could there be a twenty-four-hour day? The first answer I will have to give is “I don’t have the faintest idea! I wasn’t there!” But, then, having said that, I would also say, look at the evidence given by the Scriptures. God created “light” on the first day, and then separated the light from the darkness. So, light and darkness were already in existence three days before the sun and moon were created. The second point is that in verse 14 when God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to separate the day from the night,” the word translated, “lights” actually means “light bearers!” The light was already in existence. On the fourth day God created the sun, moon and stars to bear that light, to do the job of separating day and night, and all the other jobs the sun and the moon do. And the third point is that after the creation of the sun and moon on the fourth day, the ending phrase was exactly the same, “and there was evening, and there was morning, the fourth day.” The time element of creation did not change.
Some have also asked, but “can’t the term day, have different meanings?” And again, the answer is “Yes, of course.” The Hebrew word for day is the same as our English word for day. And that word can have three different definitions. It can mean 1) the daylight period of the day, as in Mom allowing us outside during the day, but wants us in at night; or 2) a Twenty-Four-hour period, as children need to wait three whole days before we go on vacation; or 3) an era, or period of time. When Grandpa says, “Well in my day, …” So, people will ask, with that information, can’t those days in Genesis really be an era, or a period of time, that say may have lasted millions and millions of years?
Well, in English, how do you determine which definition the word day has? It’s always by the context. If Grandpa says, “Well in my day…” we know he’s not talking about June 24! He’s talking about a by-gone era. If Mom and Dad tell the children, “In three days we’ll be going on vacation to Disney World,” they’re not talking about eras that could last months. They are talking about 3 Twenty-Four-hour days.
So, looking at the context here. Listening to the refrain after each day of creation, it would seem that God isn’t talking about an era, or a period of time. He’s talking about a regular day. Plus listen to what God said about the commandments He gave to His people through Moses. When God gives the commandment for the Sabbath Day Rest, He says, “Six days you shall labor 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.” God is not asking His people to work Six Million years and then rest for a Million years like God did. He is asking them to work six days, like God did at creation, and then use the seventh day as a rest day.
So, throughout Scripture this account of creation has been used as a true and accurate account of how created this wonderful universe for us. And for millennia this is the way the world has understood the way our world came into existence. It’s only been in the past few hundred years that man has challenged that idea with a theory of their own, a theory of evolution.
Now, a very valid point is made that the Biblical Account of Creation is a matter of faith. And that is true. I cannot prove the Biblical Account of Creation to you without using the Bible as the source of that proof. You either believe it or you don’t. But then again, honestly the Theory of Evolution also cannot be proven. That too is matter of faith. You either believe in the theory of evolution or you don’t. The argument between Creation and Evolution is not a matter of Faith versus Science. God created science, and the order of the universe when He created the world. It’s a matter of one philosophy versus another philosophy. I believe the world came into existence because God created it. Others believe the world came into existence by evolution. So, let’s argue philosophy.
Some people have asked, “If the world was created like the Bible says, and if the world is only 6,000 to 10,000 years old, how can you explain all things that are calculated as millions of years old in our world?” The first answer I would give is that when God created the world, He created it with age! Adam and Eve were adults! There were trees that were producing fruit. There were stars lighting up the sky which are thousands of lightyears away.
The second answer is the Bible talks about a flood that devastated our world. It wasn’t just a gentle rain! It was an eruption of water from above the earth, and from below the earth that devastated our world, and covered the world with water some 45 feet above the highest mountains. A catastrophic flood like that would wreak havoc on this entire world, and would accomplish erosions that without the flood may have taken millions of years.
There may be other questions people would like to raise about how our world came into existence, but we don’t have room to discuss all of those here. If you have specific questions, please send them to me, and we can talk about them.
But in my estimation, there is one thing that shows me how invalid the theory of evolution is. There is a law of science that permeates every aspect of science. The law is this: “Things go from order to disorder. Never the other way around.” You have a field of corn stocks planted in a field in perfect rows, producing good corn. Leave that field unattended for three years. If you do have corn, it will be sporadic, and the whole field will be overrun by weeds. Take a brand-new Cadillac with all the options you’d ever want, and park it behind a farmer’s shed and leave it there for six years. You will have a piece of rusted out junk. That’s what this law says. “Things go from order to disorder.
Evolution’s basic tenet is that things went from disorder to order. First there was chaos, and then there was order. In other first there was a rusted-out piece of junk parked behind a farmer’s field, and then suddenly we got ourselves a brand-new Cadillac with all the options you’d ever want.
If I need to believe in something, I will believe in a God who created this entire universe for us, and blesses us with the good things this world has to offer. That makes a whole lot more sense, and is more logical than the theory of evolution.
