Of Creation

Of Creation

“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” + Genesis 1:1

“In the beginning it pleased God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, for the manifestation of the glory of his eternal power, wisdom and goodness, to create or make the world, and all things therein, whether visible or invisible, in the space of six days, and all very good.” + Paragraph 1 of chapter 4, “Of Creation”, in the 1689 Baptist Confession of Faith.

I wholeheartedly hold to this view of creation. That God literally created the world just as the narrative in Genesis 1 describes, and the confession communicates. I believe the Bible in the way that it describes God creating the world from nothing by speaking it into existence. I believe that God created the world according to His will, for the manifestation of His glory, and power, and for His good pleasure. I believe in the historical young earth view of creation. I will be making short, basic arguments for the young earth view of creation and against the trendy view of theistic evolution which some Christians have begun to adopt. I will also be making arguments against the view that Genesis chapters 1-11 are not literal but rather figurative language, like poetry. I have several main reasons as to why I hold to this view of creation. First, I will define theistic evolution as the idea that God started evolution and that evolution occurred under the direction of God.

First, I believe that theistic evolution robs God of glory. The manifestation of the glory of God is the motivation and purpose for everything that God does. It would have been vastly less gloriously of God to simply “get the ball rolling” or let nature take its course. If that were the case, nature itself would be worthy of some glory, or worship; because it evolved well. This is not the case! God was and is intricately involved with His creation to the deepest extents. All of creation shouts the glory of God. This could not be the case if God was not intimately involved in the creation of His creation.

“For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities – all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.” + Colossians 1:16-17

If theistic evolution were true Colossians 1:16-17 could not be true, or at least not literal. Therefore theistic evolution is not true.

This may sound harsh, but theistic evolution is a cop out for Christians who don’t want to stand on or debate socially strange biblical views. There is no biblical evidence for theistic evolution. The idea of theistic evolution opposes the teachings of scripture. Some argue that “for the sake of the gospel” they don’t care what people think about creation, and can accept theistic evolution. While a literal, young earth, biblical view of creation does not save souls, and may not be worth dying over, it certainly does not help aid the gospel by taking a theistic evolution view of creation. I believe it is always cowardly to not defend biblical teachings, whether they are the gospel or not.

I would also like to add that theistic evolution is a direct attack toward the sovereignty and omnipotence of God. Theistic evolution says that you like the idea of God, but just not a God who is truly an all sovereign God, involved in the deepest ways with His creation.

I now want to address those who say that Genesis 1-11 is figurative language. This view is not as damaging as theistic evolution, but damaging nonetheless. I believe that the bible does not indicate Genesis 1-11 to be poetry or figurative language. I agree with the expository notes of our confession that say, “any unbiased literary analysis of Genesis 1-11 will convince the reader that it bears all the marks of historical narrative.” Doubting God’s word, is doubting God himself. Do we not believe that God can create the world in the literal sense that Genesis 1 describes? Do we not believe that He is that powerful? Are we too cowardly to say that to modern scientists? Are we so afraid of modern scientists laughing at us that we must question and bring science into consideration in our view of scripture?

This leads us to my next point that we don’t have to reconcile the Bible to science, but science to the Bible. Science is not God. Science is not the gospel. Science did not create us and die for us. We are not to view and interpret scripture through the lenses of modern science. To have a Christian worldview means to view everything in the world through the lenses of scripture. This includes science. We are to view sciences through the lenses of scripture. God’s word is far more reliable than any science. Throughout the gospels we see Jesus performing miracles such as calming storms, instantly healing the sick, and even raising the dead to life. This completely defied science and all logical reasoning. Yet it truly happened. Jesus is the same God who was present at the creation of the world, defying all science and logical reasoning. Science does not command God, but science is under the command of God. If God desires to act out of step with what we think of as unnatural or not logical, then He will surely do it. Who are we to limit the eternal, transcendent, omnipotent God of the universe to science or human logic? It is quite laughable. The most brilliant scientist in the world is a fool to the wisdom of God.

My final point is that every belief in Christianity is freakish and weird, so a literal interpretation fits with the rest of scripture. Think about it, Christians believe that God was born as a man via the womb of a virgin Jew. That’s freakish and weird. All Christian hope is bound up in the fact that a man who was God was murdered and rose from the grave after being dead for three days. That’s freakish and weird. But we believe it. I am banking my life on freakish and weird truths. My soul rests in a freakish and weird thing called the gospel. It should be no issue for the Christian that creation is freakish and weird to our society.