The Creation of the World (Genesis 1)
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The Creation of the World
Genesis 1–Sudden Creationism, part 2
Tough Stuff 2015
I love the Bible–it’s the Lord God’s Word. Our Maker speaks, making the Bible the authority for all genuine born again Christians. It tells us exactly what our God did, and what our God says, and best of all who our God is. When you embrace the Bible, you quickly realize what God says to you is more important than what you say to Him.
Now as you open the Bible to page one verse one, your Bible simply declares God exists. How do we know God exists from chapter one verse one? God created the world, and we see His hand in all He made. This world was created by God to show off His character, His majesty (students—His awesomeness), and His glory.
Psalm 19:1, “The heavens are telling of the glory of God; and their expanse is declaring the work of His hands.” Romans 1:20, “For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.” God created this world with all knowing intelligence, and with a unique purpose—to declare Himself to all.
But thankfully our God did not stop there. He also knows just how sinful, dull, and blind we are. Even though it’s obvious God created the world, He knows we still won’t respond to Him because of our fallen hearts–so God spoke to mankind perfectly and comprehensively with His written revelation, the Bible. When we are given faith, we believe 2 Timothy 3:16 and 17, “All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; 17 so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.”
We can study God, but we can’t put God under a microscope or test Him in a laboratory. We can only know what He chooses to reveal to us. And because He is so awesome and so personal and loving, you can be confident that what He chooses to tell us about Himself and this world is good for us and useful for us.
When those who are born again look at the Bible, they look at it and understand it literally–that is as straightforward, clear and true. The Bible is much more than a book–it is a library of books, and it is made up of books written in different literary forms. Some portions of the Bible give a historical account, others are poetic, and some are prophetic.
So we understand the Bible literally according to its literary context. For example, when David wrote in Psalm 6:6, “All night I make my bed swim; I drench my couch with my tears,” he used a poetic form. We understand David didn’t literally mean he cried so much he flooded his room and set his bed afloat. And as Psalm 119:128 says, “All Your precepts concerning all things I consider to be right.” The psalmist declares the Bible is right concerning all things.
When the Bible gives us history, it is right and true–the events actually happened as described. When the Bible gives us poetry, it is true–the feelings were real for the writer and ring true to human experience. When the Bible gives us prophecy, it is right and true–the events described will come to pass just as it is written. When the Bible gives us instruction, it is right and true–it tells us the will of God and the very best way to live. When the Bible tells us about God, it is right and true–it shows us what God is really like.
If we don’t approach the Bible this way, then we can only come to it with how we feel and what we presume–then it’s we who decide what is true or false about the text, making ourselves greater than the Bible itself, as if we are the authority, and we are sovereign and not God. Though the teachings of Scripture have many applications, they only have one true interpretation. Most interpretations are easy to discern but a few are not–yet God meant something with every verse revealed to mankind.
So as we approach the Bible, chapter one verse one–as Henry Morris says, “The only proper way to interpret Genesis 1 is not to ‘interpret’ it at all. That is, we accept the fact that it was meant to say exactly what it says.”
The Bible is not a book of science–yet where it touches science, it speaks the truth. After all, if the Bible is false in regard to science we can prove, then we cannot trust it as reliable in regard to spiritual matters we cannot prove. The importance of the beginning verses of the Bible being understood correctly is not a small issue–the book of Genesis has unique importance. Why?
1 The Bible would be incomplete and perhaps incomprehensible without the book of Genesis. It sets the stage for the entire story of redemption, which unfolds in the rest of the Bible.
2 Almost all doctrines have their foundation in the book of Genesis–the doctrines of sin, redemption, justification, Christ, the personality and personhood of God, the kingdom of God, the fall into sin, Israel, the promise of the Messiah, and more.
3 Genesis shows us the origins of the universe, order and complexity, the solar system, the atmosphere, the origin of life, man, marriage, evil, language, government, culture, nations, religion. It is precisely because people have abandoned the truth of Genesis that society is in such disarray.
4 Genesis is crucial to the New Testament. There are at least 165 passages in Genesis, either directly quoted or clearly referred to in the New Testament. Many of these are quoted more than once, so there are at least 200 quotations or allusions to Genesis in the New Testament.
5 Jesus declared the importance of believing what Moses wrote in John 5:46 and 47, “’For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me, for he wrote about Me. 47 But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe My words?’” We can’t say we believe in Jesus if we don’t believe in the book of Genesis.
6 Even my favorite German (not Marco, but) Martin Luther said, “I beg and faithfully warn every pious Christian not to stumble at the simplicity of the language and stories that will often meet him there [in Genesis]. He should not doubt that, however simple they may seem, these are the very words, works, judgments, and deeds of the high majesty, power, and wisdom of God.”
7 According to Luke 24, Moses wrote the Book of Genesis. We can surmise he did this with help from actual written records from the past God had preserved. There are even indicators in Genesis of where these records begin and end. Note the phrasing of Genesis 2:4, 5:1, 6:9, 10:1, 11:10, 11:27, 25:12, 25:19, 36:1, 36:9, 37:2.
“Thus,” Henry Morris says, “it is probable that the Book of Genesis was written originally by actual eyewitnesses of the events reported therein. Probably the original narratives were recorded on tables of stone or clay, in common practice of early times, and then handed down from father to son, finally coming into the possession of Moses. Moses perhaps selected the appropriate sections for compilation, inserted his own [Spirit-inspired] editorial additions and comments, and provided smooth transitions from one document to the next, with the final result being the Book of Genesis as we have received it.”
Last week I showed you . . .
#1 BIBLICALLY, the overall Bible demands a six-day creation
#2 THEOLOGICALLY, sound theology demands a six-day creation
And now today . . .
#3 EXEGETICALLY, the text of Genesis 1 demands a six-day creation
We are in the midst of a series called TOUGH STUFF, teaching difficult issues found in Scripture rarely heard today. Today is part two of why we believe creation was accomplished in six literal 24-hour days. So now look at Genesis 1:1–you gotta love the beginning.
Genesis 1:1, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” God created–a simple summary statement which will be detailed in the following verses. The Bible simply and straightforwardly declares the world did not create itself or come about by chance. It was created directly by God who, by definition, has always existed/is eternal. God is the subject of verse 1, and the Hebrew word God is used 35 more times in chapter 1. Genesis 1 is about God. The issue of creation is not about science, it is about God Himself. If you believe Genesis 1:1, you will have no problem believing the rest of the Bible.
The Hebrew word for God is Elohim. Grammatically, it is a plural word used as if it were singular. From the very beginning, the Bible describes God as one yet three. The Trinity is immediately exposed in the early chapters of Genesis. And verse 1, “Our God created the heavens.” This is even more amazing when you consider the greatness of God’s universe.
Listen to this–a typical galaxy contains billions of individual stars. Our galaxy alone (the Milky Way) contains 200 billion stars. Our galaxy is shaped like a giant spiral rotating in space, with arms reaching out like a pinwheel, and our sun is one star on one arm of the pinwheel. It would take 250 million years for the pinwheel to make one full rotation. But this is only our galaxy–there are many other galaxies with many other shapes, including spirals, spherical clusters, and flat pancakes. The average distance between one galaxy and another is about 20 million trillion miles. Our closest galaxy is the Andromeda Galaxy, about 12 million trillion miles away.
For every patch of sky the size of the moon, if you could look very deep, you would see about a million galaxies. And our awesome God did all this Himself. Isaiah 48:13 says, “Surely My hand founded the earth, and My right hand spread out the heavens; when I call to them, they stand together.”
And never forget, God is bigger and greater than all His creation. Isaiah 40:12, “Who has measured the waters in the hollow of His hand, and marked off the heavens by the span, and calculated the dust of the earth by the measure, and weighed the mountains in a balance and the hills in a pair of scales?” God is great, greater, greatest–your God.
God created the heavens and the earth–if God created the heavens and the earth, then we must forever put away the idea that anything happens by accident or chance. If God made everything and sustains everything, then nothing happens by accident—nothing. The idea that creation all happened by accident, by chance, by some mysterious big bang is in direct opposition to Genesis 1.
No, Genesis 1:1 says God created. Inherent in that statement is that God is an intelligent designer. Only an intelligent designer could create a just-right universe. Not chance, not accident–our universe is a just-right universe. The universe has a just-right gravitational force. If it were larger, the stars would be too hot and would burn too quickly to support life. If it were smaller, the stars would remain so cool nuclear fusion would never ignite and not provide heat and light. The earth is the exact distance from the sun–closer and we’d burn, or farther and we’d freeze. The universe was made with exact precision.
Verse 1, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” God used no pre-existing material to create the earth. The Hebrew word bara (created) is specific. It means to create out of nothing, showing God created the world out of nothing, not out of Himself. God is separate from His creation. And do not mess this up. Unlike pagan gods, the Bible teaches the universe could perish, but our God would forever remain.
Men can’t create the way the Hebrew create is used in Genesis 1:1. We can only fashion or form things out of existing material. Some believe Genesis only records a creation myth, meant only to show the greatness of God in poetic grandeur. Though there’re poetic elements to Genesis 1, the overall thrust was still written to record a historical reality. Other Scriptures, in their approach to Genesis 1 demonstrate this.
Psalm 136 connects the Genesis account of creation with the rest of Israel’s history in a seamless fabric. The creation account is never put in a category of historical fiction. Plus, last week we saw Jesus and the apostles quote Genesis as historical fact. God did all this in the beginning.
What happened before the beginning of creation? “In the beginning God.” God Himself was before the beginning. Psalm 93:2, “Your throne is established from of old; You are from everlasting.” Some are troubled by the questions, “Where did God come from?” and “Who created God?” The answer is found in the definition of God–God is the uncreated Being, eternal, and without beginning or end.
This is demonstrated in several passages of Scripture. Psalm 90:2, “Before the mountains were born, or You gave birth to the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God.” Your salvation was decided before creation. Ephesians 1:4, “Just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him.”
At some time before the beginning God created the angels, because they witnessed the creation of the heavens and the earth. In the context of creation Job 38:7 says, “When the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy?” But what was the state of the earth before God organized creation? Genesis 1:2, “The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters.”
These three expressions describe the condition of the earth at the dawning of day one. Like a great potter desiring to make a vessel of beauty, God started with an unformed lump of clay covered with water. Nothing was formed, and the Spirit of God was ready to begin. I love the Hebrew phrase, “the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters.” It’s the same word describing a mother hen brooding over her chicks, showing God’s intimate care for His creation. The Spirit, the prime mover, is ready to transform the inorganic to become organic.
When God created the earth, He built an “old” earth, creating things in the midst of a time sequence with age built in. For example, Adam was already mature in age when he was created–there was age built in. Likewise, the trees in the Garden of Eden had rings in them, and there were undoubtedly canyons, strata, and more in Adam’s world.
Now look at the first day, the creation of light, matter and time. Genesis 1:3 to 5, “Then God said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light. 4 God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light day, and the darkness He called night. And there was evening and there was morning, one day.”
The first step from chaos to order was to bring light. It was enough for God to merely speak the words, “Light be!” and there was light. And this is light not coming from the sun or stars–this is light which came from God Himself. Genesis tells us light, day, and night each existed before the sun and the moon were created on the fourth day in verses 14 to 19.
This shows us light is more than a physical substance–it also has a supernatural aspect. Don’t freak out–in the future, in the new heavens and new earth, Revelation 22:5 tells us there won’t be any sun or moon. God Himself will be the light. Like it was at the beginning, it will be at the end. Verse 5, “And there was evening and there was morning, one day.” This is pretty clear–evening and morning, one day.
If you read that wanting to understand exactly what Moses meant, you’d decide he meant one single 24-hour day, wouldn’t you? And friends, the only way to make it mean ages is to impose, add, read in something extra on the text. Yes there are some passages in Scripture where a day means an indeterminate period of time, like the day of your gladness, or with the Lord one day is as a thousand years.
But you can’t impose those verses into Genesis 1–why? Because whenever the Hebrew word day is used with a number, like Genesis 1 is used in the Old Testament a total of 410 times in plural or singular–and it always means a 24-hour literal ordinary day. Because whenever evening and morning are used together in the Old Testament with the word day, a total of 38 times, it always means an ordinary 24-hour day. Because whenever evening or morning are used with day in the Old Testament, 23 times total, it always means an ordinary day. Because whenever night is used with day, 52 times in the Old Testament, it always means a normal 24-hour day—that’s why!
Moses could not have been more clear. “And there was evening and there was morning, one day.” The second day of creation God makes an atmospheric division. Verses 6 to 8, “Then God said, ‘Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.’ 7 God made the expanse, and separated the waters which were below the expanse from the waters which were above the expanse; and it was so. 8 God called the expanse heaven. And there was evening and there was morning, a second day.”
The idea of a firmament or expanse means a space. God took the waters on the earth and separated them, in a sense lifting some of the waters on the earth and placing them in the atmosphere, so that there is now a canopy of water in the atmosphere surrounding the earth. So now when you looked up from the planet surface there’d be not clouds but a canopy of water.
Henry Morris describes it this way. “The waters above the firmament thus probably constituted a vast blanket of water vapor above the troposphere and possibly above the stratosphere as well, in the high temperature region now known as the ionosphere, and extending far into space.” Such a vapor blanket would greatly change the ecology of the earth, and Morris suggests several results.
1 It would serve as a global greenhouse, maintaining an essentially uniformly pleasant temperature all over the world.
2 Without great temperature variations, there would be no significant winds, and the water-rain cycle could not form. There would be no rain as we know it today.
3 There would be lush, tropical-like vegetation all over the world fed, not by rain but, by a rich evaporation and condensation cycle, resulting in heavy dew or ground-fog.
4 The vapor blanket would filter out ultraviolet radiation, cosmic rays, and other destructive energies bombarding the planet. These are known to be the cause of mutations, which decrease human longevity. Human and animal life spans would be greatly increased.
5 A vapor blanket would provide the necessary reservoir for a potential worldwide flood. The second 24-hour day.
The third day of creation the land is divided from the sea–plants and all types of vegetation are created. Verses 9 to 13, “Then God said, ‘Let the waters below the heavens be gathered into one place, and let the dry land appear’; and it was so. 10 God called the dry land earth, and the gathering of the waters He called seas; and God saw that it was good. 11 Then God said, ‘Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees on the earth bearing fruit after their kind with seed in them’; and it was so. 12 The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed after their kind, and trees bearing fruit with seed in them, after their kind; and God saw that it was good. 13 There was evening and there was morning, a third day.”
Before day 3, the earth was covered with water. Now the waters are gathered together into one place, and dry land appears. Then shockingly verse 11, “Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees.” All this happened before the creation of the sun (which is on the fourth day of creation)–which means the plants must have had sufficient nourishment from the light God Himself provided, before He created the sun.
Again, those who propose these days of creation were not literal days but successive ages of slow, evolutionary development have a real problem here. It is impossible to explain how plants and all vegetation could grow and thrive for eons before the sun and the moon. No modern evolutionist would argue plant life is older than the sun or the moon, but this is exactly what Genesis declares. Yet many wonder how the sun, moon, and stars were created on the fourth day, when light was created on the first day.
But friends, again, the book of Revelation celebrates a coming day when we won’t need the sun, moon, and stars any longer. Revelation 21:23, “And the city has no need of the sun or of the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God has illumined it, and its lamp is the Lamb.” As it will be in the future, it was the same when the world was created–God Himself illumined the planet.
And notice verse 11, God spoke on the fourth day and began life on planet earth. Life came directly from God, created by God, not randomly evolving over millions of years. Some scientists now say life on earth began when immense meteorites carrying amino acids impacted earth. A meteor hits the planet, and seeds the water with the building blocks of life, DNA just forms and it assembles into an organic soup, beginning life in a geological instant, by which they mean 10 million years. The complex chain of DNA, more complicated than a space shuttle, just pops out from the impact and life begins on earth. Friends, that takes more faith to believe than to embrace Genesis.
Notice verse 12, “plants yielding seed after their kind.” The plants were created not as seeds, but as full-grown plants each bearing seeds. They were created as mature plants, having the appearance of age. This is so exciting–the chicken really did come before the egg. The phrase, “after their kind” occurs ten times in Genesis 1, meaning God allows variation within a kind, but something of one kind will never develop into something of another kind.
“And God saw that it was good.” God does not call the earth good until it became habitable–a place where man can live. The fourth day of creation, verses 14 to 19, “Then God said, ‘Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night, and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years; 15 and let them be for lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth’; and it was so. 16 God made the two great lights, the greater light to govern the day, and the lesser light to govern the night; He made the stars also.
17 God placed them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth, 18 and to govern the day and the night, and to separate the light from the darkness; and God saw that it was good. 19 There was evening and there was morning, a fourth day.”
Wow, look at verse 14. “And let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years.” Since the beginning, people have used God’s provision of the sun, moon, and stars to measure time and direction–and God set them in the heavens with exactness. God knew how far to set the sun from the earth. Any more and we’d freeze, and any less and we’d cook—exactly.
The intricate balance of our ecosystem argues strongly for the existence of a Creator. We live in a very complex world. It’s so precise, the Bible says in Isaiah 40:26 that God has each one of the 300 sextillion stars named. Every single one of the 3-followed-by-23-zeros stars has a name. And Psalm 19:1 to 6 says the heavens contain a message from God–that your God is alive, in charge, active, orderly, purposeful and more.
With all the other stars and planets in our universe, do you ever wonder if there is life on other planets? Yet when you consider all that’s necessary for sustaining life, the galaxy type, star location, star age, star mass, star color, distance from stars, axis tilt, rotation period, surface gravity, tidal force, magnetic field, oxygen quantity in the atmosphere, atmospheric pressure–at least 33 important factors . . . the probability of all 33 occurrences happening for any one planet is one in 10 to the 42nd power. There is very little chance–and Genesis 1 is Earth-focused.
At one time, the US government spent $100 million a year looking for extraterrestrial intelligence. Personally, I think it would have been wiser to spend that money cultivating intelligent life in Washington DC.
The fifth day of creation in verses 20 to 23 is when the birds and sea creatures are created. “Then God said, ‘Let the waters teem with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth in the open expanse of the heavens.’ 21 God created the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarmed after their kind, and every winged bird after its kind; and God saw that it was good. 22 God blessed them, saying, ‘Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.’ 23 There was evening and there was morning, a fifth day.”
The great variety of birds and sea creatures was created at the same moment–not fish to dinosaur to bird–not evolving slowly over millions of years. Even though plant life was created before animal life, animal life was not created out of plant life. All life did not come from the same primordial cell, but it did all come from the same Designer.
All animal life reproduces according to their kind–all animal life is created according to its kind. God deliberately structured plenty of variation within a kind, but one kind does not become another kind, again undermining the evolutionary assumption. For example, the structure among dogs is diverse–a teacup poodle is very different from a Great Dane, but they are both dogs. However, they won’t ever become mice, and never a cat—never, no matter how much breeding is done.
Evolutionists often give convincing examples of microevolution, the variation of a kind within its kind adapting to the environment. For example, the ratio of black to white peppered moths may increase when pollution makes it easier for dark moths to escape detection. Or finches may develop different beaks in response to their distinctive environment. But the moths are still moths, and the finches are still finches–there has been no change outside of their kind. Microevolution does not prove macroevolution.
Some believe the fossil record actually shows creatures slowly evolved into existence instead of suddenly appearing. They go to museums where they show all the transitions from the mini horse to the large horse of today. But the truth is, there are no transitory fossils. Most people are unaware that Darwin’s strongest opponents were not Christians, but the fossil experts.
Darwin admitted the state of the fossil evidence was “the most obvious and gravest objection which can be urged against my theory,” and because of the fossil evidence, “all the most eminent paleontologists . . . and all our greatest geologists . . . have unanimously, often vehemently, maintained” that the species do not change.
The fossil record is marked by two great principles. First, most species are unchanged in all their documented history. The way they look when they first appear in the fossil record is the way they look when they last appeared in the fossil record–they’ve not changed. Second, sudden appearance, which means in any local area, a species doesn’t arise gradually but appears all at once and “fully formed.”
Apologist Philip Johnson says, “If evolution means the gradual change of one kind of organism into another kind, the outstanding characteristic of the fossil record is the absence of evidence for evolution.” Evolutionist Nile Eldredge wrote, “We paleontologists have said that the history of life [in the fossil record] supports [the story of gradual evolution], all the while knowing that it does not.”
The sixth day of creation, verses 24 to 25–the creation of man. First God makes land animals, “Then God said, ‘Let the earth bring forth living creatures after their kind: cattle and creeping things and beasts of the earth after their kind’; and it was so. 25 God made the beasts of the earth after their kind, and the cattle after their kind, and everything that creeps on the ground after its kind; and God saw that it was good.”
God now turns His creative attention towards land animals of various types. God made the beasts of the earth according to its kind. When we look at the infinite variety in the animal kingdom (both living and extinct), you have to be impressed with God’s creative power, as well as His sense of humor. Any Creator who makes the giraffe, the platypus, the Kiwi bird and the Cassowary bird is a God of joy and humor. And again, God allows tremendous variation within a kind, but one kind will never become another kind.
According to its kind–second God plans to make man in His image, verse 26. “Then God said, ‘Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.’”
Look at what God says—“Let Us make man in Our image.” The use of the plural, “Let Us . . . in Our image, according to Our likeness” is consistent with the idea that there is one God in three Persons–the Trinity. Commentator Leupold does a good job showing the plurality of “let Us make” cannot be merely the plurality of royalty, nor can it be God speaking to the angels. It’s a clear indicator of the Trinity.
In Our image–man is different from every other created being because he has a created consistency with God Himself. This means there is an unbridgeable gap between human life and animal life. Though we’re biologically similar to certain animals, we are distinct in our moral, intellectual, and spiritual capabilities.
This means there is also an unbridgeable gap between human life and angelic life. Nowhere are we told the angels are made in the image of God. Angels cannot have the same kind of relationship of love and fellowship with God we can have. Wonderfully, this means the incarnation of Jesus Christ was truly possible. God (in the Second Person of the Trinity) could really become man, because although deity and humanity are not the same, they are compatible. In Our image means . . .
1 humans possess personality–knowledge, feelings, and a will, and this sets man apart from all animals and plants
2 humans possess morality–we are able to make moral judgments and have a conscience
3 humans possess spirituality–man is made for communion with God
God said, “Let them have dominion.” Before God ever created man, He decreed man would have dominion over the earth. Man’s pre-eminence over the created order and his ability to affect his environment is no accident–it is part of God’s plan for man and the earth. We are supposed to own, lead, direct creation–not be submissive to its natural state. Man is to have dominion, meaning you should kill a deer, walk on grass and take paper or plastic bags.
Third God’s creation of man and commission to Adam in verses 27 to 31, “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 God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.’ 29 Then God said, ‘Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the surface of all the earth, and every tree which has fruit yielding seed; it shall be food for you; 30 and to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the sky and to everything that moves on the earth which has life, I have given every green plant for food’; and it was so. 31 God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.”
We are plainly told that God created man fully formed, and created him in one day–not gradually over millions of years of progressive evolution. The idea a slow, progressive evolution could produce a complex mechanism like the human body just doesn’t hold up today. It is said there would be at least 40 different stages of evolution required to form an eye. The mathematician, D.S. Ulam argues it was highly improbable for the eye to evolve by the accumulation of small mutations. Darwin wrote, “If it could be demonstrated that any complex organ existed which could not possibly have been formed by numerous, successive, slight modifications, my theory would absolutely break down.”
Professor Richard Goldschmidt, a geneticist at the University of California at Berkley, said it is impossible for these complex organs to form on their own, even with millions of years. Goldschmidt says, “To suppose that such a random event could reconstruct even a single complex organ like a liver or kidney is about as reasonable as to suppose that an improved watch can be designed by throwing an old one against the wall.”
And note—“male and female He created them.” Adam was not some type of androgynous being, both male and female. Verse 27 gives us an overview of God’s creation of man, and Genesis 2 will explain exactly how God created male and female. Today, many say there’s no real difference between men and women. That makes sense if we are the result of mindless evolution, but it is not true if male and female were created by God.
To God, the differences between men and women are not accidents. God created them different, and the differences are good and meaningful. Men are not women, and women are not men. Yet one of the saddest signs of our culture’s depravity is the amount of gender confusion. Bruce Jenner has not become Caitlyn Jenner. No, Bruce hired doctors to mutilate his body. His desire to be a woman doesn’t make him a woman, nor did surgery make him a woman any more than me wishing to be Superman enables me to fly.
Just because his desires are met, does not make it good. The only true good for Bruce Jenner is to turn from his sin and follow Christ, even now as a mutilated man. Just because his friends or the media accept Bruce as a woman doesn’t make him a woman, because God makes men and God makes women–period. This is not Bruce’s personal business, since public decisions have public consequences. Though we pray for Bruce, because his choices were intentionally thrust upon the public by himself and others, it requires a biblical response.
Bruce Jenner today is a mutilated man. Let’s be clear–you and I are no better than Bruce Jenner in our standing before God. All people are equally guilty for our sins, regardless of what kind of sins they are. You don’t have to have a sex change to end up in Hell, just a single bad thought makes you the enemy of a perfect, holy God.
But even though all sin is rebellion against God, not all sin is the same–not all sin is intentional, and not all sin is as equally defiant against God. And when God is mocked, there’ll be consequences. Bruce Jenner is not a woman, he is a mutilated man—period. Why? Because God makes men and God makes women.
Verse 28, “Then God blessed them.” The first thing God did for man was to bless him. Without the goodness of God’s blessing, human life would be not only unbearable, but also impossible. And, “be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it.” Have dominion–God gives man a job to do. Fulfill God’s intention of man’s exercise of dominion over the earth. God commands man to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. Man cannot fulfill God’s plan for him on the earth unless he populates it. All those FBC pregnancies are God’s will.
Verse 31, “God saw everything He had made, and it was very good.” God was pleased with His creation, and I hope so are you! That’s why we need to . . .
1 KEEP READING
When God pronounced the creation good, He meant it. At the time, it was entirely good. As Genesis 1 ends, there is no death or decay on earth at all. But if you keep reading, you’ll get to Genesis 3 and understand the first man and woman rebelled against their Creator. They corrupted the human race, so now we are born in sin–we sin because we are sinners, we love rebellion as a result.
Our pure God must judge sin–your sin is an affront to Him. Your sin is in rebellion to His design for you. Your sin is a mockery to His holiness. And the only way to escape eternal punishment is to turn to His Son, who died and took the punishment His own deserved for their sin.
Christ and genuine salvation is not a mere belief or praying a prayer or hoping Jesus will save you. Salvation is not your choice, it is God’s choice. Cry out that He would choose you, save you, forgive you and transform you–cry out for mercy to your only hope, Jesus.
2 KEEP WORSHIPING
Part of the wonder of creation is the ease and speed with which God formed something so unimaginably vast, complex, intricate and beautiful. The biggest reason I love to scuba dive is the wonder of God’s creation that is hidden to most people–the color, creativity, diversity and rarely seen beauty overwhelms me. Look at creation, study creation as formed and designed by God and you will worship. You must see Him as beyond huge.
3 KEEP TRUSTING
God created this world in six days, and God is still holding this creation together by His power–meaning you live every moment under His sustaining care. You live each day with your next breath in His hands–trust Him. Surrender your trials, concerns, burdens, and troubles. Give him your heartache, hurts and pains. Not only turn to Christ–depend on Him, His Spirit and His Word. Let’s pray.
