Preface: This was written for my Christians and Culture class when I was a student of Bible & Ministry and submitted August 20, 2000.
Biblical Creationism
“Evolution is the process by which all living things have developed from primitive organisms through changes occurring over billions of years.” Evolution is and has occurred, but the problem is as to whether evolution was the beginning of man. “Creationism is the name popularly given to the view of fundamentalist Christians that the biblical account of the origin of life is literally true and that the theory of evolution...must therefore be false.” The same person states these two views, and it is that derogatory view of Creationism that makes it so hard for many today to believe, even though it is the more logical and of the two theories. Creationism is in fact, “that God created the first man in His image from the dust of the ground and His own breath of life. (Gen 1:27, 2:7)”
Evolution has come to include at least two ideas. One, the general evolutionary process of humans evolving after an undeterminable amount of time; due to lack of hard evidence-like documentation such as the Bible, from monkeylike primates. With numerous “sub-species” to justify each new fossil find. For example, there is the genus ‘Australopithecus’ from the African continent existing during the time range of 5.5 to 1 million years ago. Then, they say the first direct evidence for “early humans” (thus, creation of the pre-fix ‘Homo’) emerged 2 million years ago after the extinction of the genus ‘Australopithecus’. These time frames contradict each other grossly; therefore I can easily dismiss this point of view as having faults in it, along with many other ideas within evolutionary view. The second is an attempt to uphold a “Creationism” and “Evolution” together in the same view; called Theistic Evolution. This concept “holds that God directed, used, and controlled the processes of naturalistic evolution to ‘create’ the world and all that is in it.” All that this idea needs to be ‘theistic’ is to believe that some supernatural being was an invisible force that started the evolution process. For most who hold this viewpoint, their basis is Evolution with a touch of Creationism whenever the facts do not line up correctly. This is like loving God and sinning when you feel like it saying, “I am saved by grace, so this sin doesn’t really count against me.” An easy way to live life and not have to choose a path, I believe. Hopefully choosing the path of truth, which is Creationism.
Creationism is very clearly stated in the Bible and very hard to debate against as there is only one author of this book. There isn’t a whole library on different views of Creationism, what the Bible says is what we have. No ‘if’s’, ‘and’s’, or ‘but’s’ about it. There is the book of Genesis to support the whole view, not a part of it. “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void…” (Gen 1:1-2) That seems pretty straightforward and clear as to who created what. There is an issue always brought up with fossils and the dating of them and what happened to the dinosaurs, etc. Not to say that the earth did not endure any stressful factors that could have affected life. For example, the flood of Noah can explain how a numerous amount of fossils are found in a very small circumference of land. If you think of a bowl of Vegetable Beef soup, all the actual ingredients sink to the bottom of the bowl while the water is everywhere. If it were left out, eventually the water would evaporate leaving all the vegetables at the bottom of the bowl in a pile (or layers, for fossils). This is more than likely something very similar in terms of the result of the flood and all the animals and reptiles that died for whatever reasons it was. Which is pretty logical thinking to me. Also, things created will eventually deteriorate and possible die. For example, your car; it doesn’t evolve. It was created and one day it will be in the junkyard, as will our physical bodies and maybe even the Earth. However, in evolution it is thought that things should improve. Such as the “survival of the fittest” and whatever is weak will die out. With the Free Will of man, our being in the flesh and with the help of Satan, we will always have the weak and the strong together.
I believe Creation is creation, and evolution is for those who cannot and do not want to handle the truth of God. Evolution and all its sub-topics are ways for people to justify their way of living and feel better about their sin. There is a lot of controversy and debates about this topic, some of very persuading. Just remember the way of life is with the Lord and His creations, not the way of sin with evolution. “Enter ye into the straight gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because straight is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.” (Matt 7:13-14)
1 - Encyclopedia of Knowledge, Copyright MCMXCI by Grolier Incorporated, Volume 7, pg.158
2 - Encyclopedia of Knowledge, Copyright MCMXCI by Grolier Incorporated, Volume 5, pg. 322
3 - Charles C. Ryrie, Basic Theology Copyright 1986, 1999 by Charles C. Ryrie, pg. 197
4 - Charles C. Ryrie, Basic Theology Copyright 1986, 1999 by Charles C. Ryrie, pg 196
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2000 Copyright Shannon Yáñez
