If He did then none of those processes appear in the early parts of Genesis. In fact the very opposite is true. The writer of Genesis seems to go out of his way to refute any possible link between God's Creation and the much later Darwinian insights that brought about evolutionary theory. When God's Word tells us about the events of history and the people who are recorded in the genealogies, then I believe Christians are expected to accept them as true accounts and real people: from Adam and Eve to Abel, Enoch and Noah. All five of these men appear early in Genesis and the last three are all referenced in Hebrews as examples of faith. And Hebrews is a New Testament book devoted to teaching the truths of God's revelation.
God's Word speaks of creation occurring over a span of six twenty four hour days. He speaks of it being "good" and of all creatures eating plants for food. He speaks of animals reproducing after their kinds, not evolving into other kinds. He speaks of mature trees and animals coming first and then producing seeds and offspring. There were Hebrew words available that could have supported the use of long ages, but they were not used. Why would God, who is Truth, leave his own people deceived for thousands of years, awaiting the time when we would be corrected by a man who had as one of his stated objectives, proving the Genesis accounts of Creation wrong?
Theistic Evolution, the Belief held by many Christians that God used Darwinian processes is based on an idea that is difficult to incorporate into the Bible. The idea is that God used the influence of pagan, Ancient Near Eastern legends and myths to underpin the teaching of the early chapters of Genesis. This idea is near impossible to accept for many reasons; the foremost being it is against the character of God, who is in part defined by the moral order that abhors lies and deceit, and secondly because throughout scripture God seeks to create a firewall between his people and any kind of pagan influence. God first threatens then punishes His people every time they drift towards pagan idolatry. God Himself makes sure we have no hiding place. We either accept His Word as it stands or retreat into the academic undergrowth and dream up our own Creation Myths. Adam and Eve tried to hide from God in the Garden of Eden. It did not work for them and it will not work for us. Genesis chapters 1 - 11 reads as a historical account. Listen to what an expert says on the subject.
Nevertheless, Professor James Barr (then Oriel Professor of the interpretation of the Holy Scripture, Oxford University) wrote in 1984:
‘… so far as I know, there is no professor of Hebrew or Old Testament at any world-class university who does not believe that the writer of Genesis 1–11 intended to convey to their readers the ideas that:
A. creation took place in a series of six days which were the same as the days of 24 hours we now experience
B. the figures contained in the Genesis genealogies provided by simple addition a chronology from the beginning of the world up to later stages in the biblical story
C. Noah’s flood was understood to be world-wide and extinguish all human and animal life except for those in the ark.’
It often seems that as Christians we don’t have any problems believing that God exists, Jesus was born of a virgin, Jesus was crucified and then rose from the dead and some time in the future Jesus will return, the dead will be raised and we will be changed in a twinkling of an eye and we will be taken up to heaven to live there forever.
Why Why therefore do we have such a problem with the simple but true account of creation, as so very very clearly written in Genesis. If we can believe all the other mind-boggling stuff listed above, do you think God would allow a sort of fairy story to be written to explain creation?
Why is it we can so easily believe the accounts of Evolution and the big bang given by the scientists, to the point that we feel we must rather excuse what is written in the Word of God and try to explain it away by fitting the Bible into the Science.
It is and should be the other way round.
We would challenge you to try an experiment and for a while forget the facts we have been taught to believe - that all things started with a Big Bang and Life formed by a process of Evolution and go and check out the evidence that shows that these things cannot be true.
When you have seen that these things cannot be true for yourself then ponder what the real answer must be.
- The more Science tries to prove Evolution is true the more it finds what it has set out to prove is wrong and simply cannot be the truth.
- The media, natural history programmes, science journals will all continue to proclaim the “facts” of evolution etc while at the same time the scientists know this cannot be true.
Christians leaders are tempted either to ignore the Genesis account of creation altogether or to reinterpret them in the light of long ages and evolutionary explanations. This way many in the Church have found a way around these embarrassing scriptures. Is this necessary and is it a good idea?
If you truly examine the evidence of science, and don’t choose to believe some of the biggest mass lies ever, you can be astounded that science is continually proving that evolution and the big bang cannot be how all things began. The more scientific research which is done to prove how evolution happened etc, the more it proves that life is so complex it is almost unexplainable.
We know the answers anyway, it is so simply written in Genesis, so we wouldn’t get confused and misunderstand the foundations of Life.
“You shall know the truth and truth will set you free” - just for a moment understand how liberating it is to know God created all things the way His word describes and therefore how much more this allows us to trust the rest of His word if we can truly believe it from the very beginning.
