Welcome to Creation Corner
at Hope Of Zion . Com!
By Matthew Torres

This page has been created to touch on some of the main points regarding the creation account.
For in-depth information on the conflict between creation science and evolutionary theory,
see my Chatting with an Evolutionist webpage.

Any text in Red can be "clicked" for more in-depth information

The first question you are probably asking is "Why Creation?".  What's so important?  It's over and done, can't we move on?  As we shall see, it's a very important topic for us even today.  Many Christians are uninformed and, therefore, compromising with evolution as far as the creation account and the Scriptures in general are concerned.

Before we can adequately discuss the creation account, we need to address the topic of "evolution".  What is evolution?  Hasn't evolution been proven scientifically?  Aren't there examples of evolution?  Let's take a quick look at these questions.

What is evolution?

This is an extremely complicated question.  Few words have as many definitions and applications as the word "evolution".  One definition explains how animals adapt to their environment.  Another word for this is "variation".  Simply put, variation is why we don't all have the same eye color, hair color or texture, the same height, the same abilities and so on.  The other definition tries to explain how life started all on its own.  It also tries to explain how "simple" life forms have, purely by accident (without God), become more complex, or better.  This second definition is an attempt to remove God from His creation.

The "variation" definition fits extremely well with the Biblical account of creation.  The first chapter of Genesis uses the term "produce after it's kind" a total of ten times.  Some people will throw in the word "species" to try to discredit the Bible at this point.  They will claim that wolves, dogs, coyotes, etc. all "evolved" from a similar animal, yet are not of the same species (the ability to reproduce defines a species), therefore this is an example of "evolution".

Is this a problem?  I don't believe so.  Just because man decides to separate animals out into different categories doesn't mean that's how God did it.  I'm willing to bet that "kind" and "species" are not interchangeable words.  If you were to put a wolf, coyote, dog and a banana all together and ask a two year old child which one doesn't belong, I'm willing to bet that the two year old child will separate out the banana from the others the same way God did, by their "kind".

For the rest of this article, the term "evolution" will be used to refer to the kind of evolution that claims that life started all by itself and became more complicated all without God.  In order to reaffirm your faith in God and His written word, we need to take a look at what scientists are trying to pass off as a fact when they only have theories.

Billions of Years Old?

The first misconception that we need to clear up is that science has somehow proven that the earth is billions of years old.  This is utter nonsense.  There are several articles referenced below that will address this issue in great detail, so no real amount of room will be spent here on this topic.  If the reader finds these resources insufficient, or "lacking", please contact me for more (email at bottom).

I will not contend that the earth, while in a perfect state unaffected by man's fall, could have existed in this state for any number of revolutions around the sun.  We cannot measure something that doesn't reflect any kind of change.  The earth, and all that were on it, could have gone around the sun dozens, hundreds, thousands, millions, even billions of times.  I neglect to use the term "years" here because that implies the passage of time, which is just a reflection of decay, of things winding down, and I do not believe that the earth was in this state until after the sins of Adam and Eve.

While we cannot prove how old the earth is, we certainly can prove that decay, caused by the fall, has not been going on for billions of years (see end of Genesis, chapter 3 for reference on when this decay started).  If we were to diagram the genealogies listed in scripture, we would find that the earth, while in decay, is only about 6,000 years old, not millions or billions of years old.  Evolution theory NEEDS billions of years of death, decay and destruction to give it time for all of the random accidents that allegedly occurred to both create life and also to make it more complex.  Without that much time, their theories are that much more laughable.

Some will claim that the earth couldn't possibly be only 6,000 years old because there are many indicators that show an age much older than that.  My return question would be "At the time of Adams creation, was he a full grown (mature) man?".  In other words, did he look older than a few seconds?  Rest assured, God's creation was a mature creation.  There had to be dirt for trees to grow in.   There had to be trees and bushes for animals to live in and feed on.  And on and on and on.....

" For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day; wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it." - Exodus 20:11

Relevant Articles:
The Geologic Column:  Does it Exist?
Radiometric Dating Using Isochrons
Five Major Evolutionist Misconceptions about Evolution
Evidence For a Young World
The Age of the Earth
Age of the Earth

A Second Creation?

There is also a prominent belief that dinosaurs lived before man.  They will take 2 Peter 3:6 "Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished:", refer back to Genesis 1:1,2   "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters", add a little imagination and tell you that there was an entire world of life and time that was destroyed before the account of Genesis continues.  The claim is that there is a great period of time between verses 1 and 2 when the dinosaurs lived.  They also use this theory to explain away the alleged problem of a multi-billion year old earth.   This is simply wrong.

One main problem is people didn't take into account a verse in the previous chapter of 2 Peter.  Now their argument that "the world that was...perished" could not have had any survivors is totally clarified by the following verse.  2 Peter 2:5 says "And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly"  It is important to notice that it says "spared not the old world", indicating that "the world that was" could, and very likely is, the same "old world" of 2 Peter 2:5.

Genesis 1:3 "And God said, Let there be light: and there was light." also invalidates this way of thinking.  For this entire pre-creation world  to have existed, it would have existed without light.  Interestingly enough, if we read on, it would have had to existed without dry land (verses 9 and 10), any grass or herbs (verses 11 and 12), the sun and the moon (verses 17 and 18), sea and air creatures (verses 20 and 21), and lastly, the land animals (verses 24 and 25).  Now the argument may be heard: "God had to create all new animals and plants because the old ones were destroyed in the flood that 2nd Peter 3:6 refers to.".   That still doesn't explain why God had to create the sun again.  How about the moon?  Just how big a flood was this?

The best reason one person gave me was simply "It doesn't make sense that man and T-Rex would live together, T-Rex would eat man".  That was the extent of his argument.  No scripture.  No scientific evidence.  Just his opinion.  A good response would be "How many T-Rex's have you seen eat anything?"  Has it been determined that the Tyrannosaurus Rex was a meat eater?  Maybe they ate at Denny's like the rest of us.  We simply don't know.

Following that same logic, one could ask "Why would God lead several hundred thousand of his people out of a nation, put them with their backs to a sea, when he knew that an army would chase them?".  This happened when Israel left Egypt.  It doesn't make sense, but God did it.  God COULD have confused the Egyptians so that they couldn't find the Israelites.  God COULD have led the Israelites another way so they had room to run.  God COULD have armed the Israelites so that they could successfully defend themselves.  Just because something doesn't make sense to us doesn't mean it can't happen (or that God won't do it that way).

By the way, the Bible answers that exact concern. Genesis 1:29 and 30 says:  "And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so."  Obviously EVERYTHING alive then was a herbivore (ate plants).

But what about those teeth (T-Rex)?  You mean to tell me he ate plants only?  Kent Hovind (www.drdino.com) uses the modern day example of the Panda bear, who's primary diet contains bamboo, which is universally accepted as a non meat item.  Ever see the teeth of a Panda bear?  This is a picture of Ling Ling, by the way.  The point is, simply judging an animal by visible characteristics is not an acceptable "science" for determining what an animal ate, especially if we've never seen this animal in the flesh.

Let's also discuss how the animals viewed man at the time.  Genesis 9:1-2 says  "And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth. And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth, and upon every fowl of the air, upon all that moveth upon the earth, and upon all the fishes of the sea; into your hand are they delivered."

I would think it's a safe bet that the "fear....and the dread of you.." wasn't upon animals before the time of Noah and the flood.  There were no aggressive tendencies of any sort toward man.  Naturally then, one can safely assume that the desire to eat man wouldn't exist either. Man and animals were able to peacefully co-exist as herbivores.

Related Articles:
How Do Dinosaurs Fit With The Bible
You Don't 'Fit' Dinosaurs And The Bible
Answers in Genesis: Q&A - Dinosaurs

The next question I would pose would be:  "How do you mesh Genesis 1:1 (In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth) with Matthew 19:4 (And he answered and said unto them, Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female)?"  Just how many "beginnings" were there?

What about Genesis 1:28?  "And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth."  Anybody with a dictionary could tell you that the word "replenish" means "to fill AGAIN".  Isn't that enough obvious proof that the world was filled once before?  Maybe that's what the word means NOW.  Is that what it meant when the Bible was first translated into English?  The big question is "What does 'replenish the earth' mean?".

Now you may be wondering why all of creation had to suffer because of what man did.  Some people get quite upset at the very idea that "innocent" animals and plants are subject to death because of what man did because they have just as much a right to live as we do.  The one thing they forget, God is NOT politically correct.  He placed a curse upon all creation because of sin.

"And unto Adam, I, the Lord God, said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the fruit of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it, cursed shall be the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life." - Genesis 3:23

The Dangers of Not Accepting a Literal 6 Day Creation

So what?  Can't we all just believe what we want to believe?  Does it really matter HOW God did it?  What kind of an impact could creationism have for us today?

These are important questions to any Christian. There have been many attempts to mesh what the majority of the scientific community teach and what the Bible teaches. A few examples are the gap theory, the day-age theory, progressive creation, theistic evolution and the framework hypothesis. They all differ in the age of the earth and the level of compromise with scripture, but they are all alike in that they make the earth much older than approximately 6,000 years. A closer examination will show that the Scriptures do not support evolution and should not be compromised by believing in it.

Let’s suppose that there were thousands, millions or even billions of years of life on earth before Adam was created. Let’s also suppose that this is when the dinosaurs and other "prehistoric" animals lived. This would be saying that God needed millions of years of cruelty and death to finally arrive at the "final product" which is man. This is essentially "survival of the fittest" which is one of the biggest components of evolutionary theory. For evolution, death is sort of the creating force. Those who believe in evolution believe that death has always existed, which is where the biggest problem lies.

"Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned." - Romans 5:12

Using this scripture reference, we see that death entered into the world because of sin. It says sin entered the world because of man. If something were to die before the sin of Adam, then that would be saying that death was not caused by sin, which alone is a contradiction to scripture. It gets even more complicated.

"For God so loved the world, that he gave his Only Begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish; but have everlasting life." - John 3:16

"For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive." - 1 Corinthians 15:21-22

If Christ died for our sins, so that we would not "perish; but have everlasting life", then this is the "cure" (a sacrifice) for the "cause of death" (sin). To accept that sin is not the cause of death is to believe that Christ is not the cure. That he died for nothing. To be a Christian means believing in and accepting Christ’s sacrifice for us and accepting that the REASON for the sacrifice was original sin.

The conclusion, then, would be that one cannot accept any form of evolution without compromising God’s most Holy purpose. And to view the first two chapters of Genesis as anything other than a literal, accurate history will tear down one’s trust in God’s Word and, ultimately, one’s faith.

To engage in discussion on this topic, visit the Creation Corner Message Thread at HopeofZion.com.

Feel free to contact me.
In Christ,
Matthew Torres

Resources:
(note: These resources are intended for a further, more technical study on the subject of creation)

- A great non-denominational defender of Creation!
Chatting With an Evolutionist - Learn their tactics and the holes in their arguments.  There is a multitude of resources available from this page as well.

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