Compromising God’s Creation Account
2024-03-30
Many have tried to reconcile evolution and millions of years with the Genesis account. Many of these are genuine, well-meaning, born-again believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. However, they are so hung up the on philosophies and religions of this world that they have tried to force the square peg of evolution into the round hole of Scripture. Here, we will look at some of these philosophies.
There are two major groups of theories that I can see. The first is the interpolation of evolution and an old earth into the Genesis text. Your conservative Christians that otherwise have regard for the Bible seem to take these approaches. The second is that the Genesis account is just a poetic work that is symbolic and perhaps borrowed from pagan cultures. One could adopt one of these or have a synthesis of multiple views.
Creation Account Interpolations
Day Age Theory
This theory asserts that the seven days in Genesis 1:1-31; 2:1-3 are not literal, 24-hour days. Augustine and Cyprian held this view, so this is not a new view. Each of these days could mean periods of millions of years.
Theistic Evolution
This theory posits that God used evolution as a means of creation. All the Big Bang, life from nonlife, and evolution were used by God throughout the endless ages.
The Gap Theory
This theory may accept literal 24-hour days in the Genesis account of creation. However, they state that there was a gap between Genesis 1:1 and Genesis 1:2. This corroborates the Genesis account with the alleged geological record.
The Creation Account as Symbolic Poetry
Literary Framework
According to this view, Genesis is not literal history. It is a poetic description and says nothing about the age of the earth. It correlates between days 1 and 4 (creation of light/lights), days 2 and 5 (separation of the waters for sky vs. creation of water and air creatures), and 3 and 6 (creation of dry land and vegetation vs. land creatures who eat the vegetation). It also emphasizes creation kingdoms (days 1-3), creature kinds (days 4-6) and God as creator king (day 7). While the observation of these patterns is good, the rejection of the literal history is the problem.
Cosmic Temple
This says that God created the world as His own temple, which is copied after pagan gods in pagan literature. This may be the biggest piece of trash of all these views.
Historical Creation
This view purports that Genesis 1:1 is an unspecified time of perhaps billions of years where earth and all its creatures except humankind was created. The subsequent verses describe the preparation of Eden, which is the predecessor of Israel.
Problems with These Views
Death Before Adam
These views all suggest that death was not a consequence for sin but rather something that naturally occurs. The Scripture plainly teaches that death was a result of rebelling against God’s commandment. “But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die” (Genesis 2:17).
Why is this a big deal? It is because Jesus died for our sins. He suffered the death penalty that we were supposed to receive. “For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God” (1 Peter 3:18). If death is not a consequence for sin but a normal occurrence that God designed, then Christ cannot pay for our sins by dying for us. All forms of evolution, which required the death of multitudes of creatures for the advancement of life, are anti-Christ and anti-Christian.
Moreover, if death is just something normal that God ordained, how could God’s creation be “very good” (Genesis 1:31)? It would have been a very faulty creation, and therefore the Creator Himself would also be faulty. And if Christ is the Creator, He could not be the perfect Son of God needed to pay for our sins.
Like Begets Like
The Bible teaches that plants and animals beget after their kinds. “And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good” (Genesis 1:12). “And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good” (Genesis 1:21). The apple tree does not bring forth oranges, and the seagull does not bring forth puppy dogs, not in a single generation or in a million.
God wrote this for a reason. He knew there would be people that would come along with lies of life coming from nonlife and creatures evolving from simpler forms.
The Image of God
Humankind, the Scripture says, was created in the image of God. The man and the woman were not created from other animals and were not in their image. “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them” (Genesis 1:27).
The Scripture explains how He did this. “And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul” (Genesis 2:7). Adam came from the dust of the ground, but it took God to breathe real life into him. True life does not come from nonlife without God.
Eve came from Adam. Every human being came from Adam and Eve. “And Adam called his wife’s name Eve; because she was the mother of all living” (Genesis 3:20). “And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation” (Acts 17:26).
Evolution says that apes and humans have a common ancestor. With evolution, humans have been demoted to the animal kingdom. You have seen the fruit of this worldview, where people everywhere are acting like animals. Abortion, euthanasia, murder, and other crimes of killing become acceptable because of this demotion. “And surely your blood of your lives will I require; at the hand of every beast will I require it, and at the hand of man; at the hand of every man’s brother will I require the life of man. Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man” (Genesis 9:5-6).
In addition, animals existed long before humans according to the evolutionary model. In God’s account, animals existed no more than 24 hours before the humans were created. In the evolutionary view, animals lived for thousands of millennia before humans were around. Humankind was given dominion over the world; with evolution, they were absent for endless generations over a world without any rule.
The Young Earth
The Bible teaches a young earth. Not only do we see six days in Genesis 1:1-31, God explicitly says they are 24-hour days. From “the beginning” in Genesis 1:1 to Genesis 1:5 where He says, “And the evening and the morning were the first day,” it was 24 hours. The wording includes “evening,” “morning,” and a number. This is an actual day.
The evolutionists might have a case if they were missing those three elements. Consider where it says, “Now it came to pass in the days when the judges ruled...” (Ruth 1:1). The judges ruled over hundreds of years, but it says “days.” The term is open to an epoch of time in this context. But with words like “evening,” “morning,” and a number, God is telling us about a real day in Genesis. Epochs do not have a single evening and single morning.
However, would they really have a case? “Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God... 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 20:9-11). If the days were ages, that would be a long workweek.
Moreover, after creation, we are given the genealogy of 10 antediluvian patriarchs as well as 10 Semite postdiluvian patriarchs. They are given the ages when their sons were born and the length of their lifespans. From this, we know that from creation to Abraham it was a little over 2,000 years. The way it is written, there is no room for gaps in the genealogies. An old earth is not possible from the Biblical narrative.
Why Do Christians Compromise?
The first problem listed above is the foremost problem with evolution and interpolating it into the Scriptures: Death before Adam undermines it as a penalty for sin. “Yea, hath God said...?” (Genesis 3:1). “Ye shall not surely die” (Genesis 3:4). Therefore, Christ’s vicarious death for humankind is nullified.
So, why do Christians compromise so much? First, they want to be loved by the world and do not want to be called stupid. The world laughs at the “antiquated” account of Scripture. The evolutionists think that their view is verified history when they know nothing of what happened at the beginning. The Christian wants to appease this group.
Some also, I believe, want to appeal to atheists and academics to win them. They want Christianity to look more “sophisticated” to the world. So many apologists and Christian professors believe it because it is the worldly academic thing to do. They want to show Christianity is an academic discipline worthy of respect by all the God-hating scholars and scientists.
However, God’s kingdom does not work that way. “For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called: But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are: That no flesh should glory in his presence” (1 Corinthians 1:26-29). If you are looking for admiration of your intellect, Christianity is not for you. At the same time, the Spirit of God will draw people to see His wisdom. And some will appreciate that and be born again.
The Scripture says, “Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you” (2 Corinthians 6:17). And again, “Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach” (Hebrews 13:13).
Domino Effect
If you compromise on Genesis, on what else will you compromise? The historicity of Israel, the historicity of Jesus Christ, His virgin birth, His miracles, His death, burial, and resurrection? If we doubt the beginning, on which the rest of Biblical history rests, why shouldn’t we doubt the rest?
If the Bible contains theological truth, but not historical truth, the Scriptures’ power is diminished. You cannot separate theological truth from historical truth because the Scriptures’ claims are rooted in real history. Jesus really did die for us, and He really did rise again. He really is coming again. If this is just a nice story, what hope is there in this life or the next?