Creation or Evolution?
The Bible Says Creation (Part 1)

Brian R. Kenyon

There are three ways to arrive at truth: (1) through observation (that which can be learned from our five senses); (2) through reason, or logic; and (3) through Divine revelation (what God has revealed in the Bible). In previous articles we have examined the first two avenues of acquiring knowledge as they relate to organic evolution and creation. Through facts of observation, whether it be the fossil record, the dating techniques, the geological time table, or the proof that humans co-existed with dinosaurs, the evidence points to creation, not organic evolution. Logic also points to creation by virtue of the fact that something cannot come from nothing (as is demanded by evolution) and that morality and design imply a moral law giver and a designer. From a logical standpoint, organic evolution is impossible! In this article, we will examine the third avenue through which we arrive at truth—Divine revelation, the Bible—as it relates to the evolution/creation controversy.

The Bible Is Truly God’s Word

Before studying what the Bible says concerning the origin of the universe, it is important to note some truths concerning the Bible. First, God exists. The existence of a Supreme Being is logically undeniable. As we noted earlier in the logical arguments proving creation, there must necessarily be an uncaused cause that is responsible for this universe and all things in it. That uncaused cause is God. The existence of God does not depend on the Bible. Rather, the Bible depends on the existence of God.

Second, the Bible is the inspired word of God. People have been trying to discredit the Bible for centuries, but the Bible still stands as strong as it always has in face of such hostile attacks! There are several ways to prove the Bible is inspired of God (such as its unity and teachings being beyond mere human invention), but perhaps the strongest, single evidence is predictive prophecy. There are numerous prophecies beginning with Genesis 3:15 that are remote enough in time so as to be beyond mere guesswork, minutely detailed so as to be beyond vague generalizations, and precisely fulfilled so as to be beyond any doubt that what is being fulfilled is not simply coincidental. Why do you think there is so much effort, for example, to say that there were two or three “Isaiahs”? It is because there is no way an eighth century BC person could predict such things about the Messiah, which were undeniably fulfilled, without being supernaturally guided! But if the “scholars” can get “Deutero-Isaiah” closer to the first century, then they can say this “second Isaiah” merely studied the political climate and “predicted” what was inevitable. Rest assured, dear reader, there is absolutely no evidence that Isaiah was written by more than one Isaiah or that Isaiah was written at any other time than the eighth century BC, more than 700 years before his Messianic prophecies were fulfilled! His, and all other, prophecies would be impossible without the inspiration of God! Since God exists, and since the Bible is the inspired word of God, we can know that whatever it teaches relative to anything, including the origin of this universe, is true!

God Created All Things In Six Days

The Bible opens with the simple statement, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Gen. 1:1, NKJ). The term “the heavens and the earth,” is a way of saying everything, not simply this planet and its environment and/or outer space. The term occurs ten other times in the Bible (NKJ), and in each case it refers to all creation (Gen. 2:1, 4; Ex. 20:11; 31:17; Isa. 13:13; Jer. 10:11; 32:17; 51:48; Hab. 3:3; 2 Pet. 3:7). Thus, Genesis 1:1 best fits as an opening statement that functions as both a title and a summary of the entire chapter, rather than part of the first day’s creation. “The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters” (Gen. 1:2), is best taken as a generalization of which verses 1-31 are the particularization of God’s creative activity. The awesome and fearful picture of the creation is comforting by the majestic announcement that God’s Spirit is in control of this awesome event. Each day of God’s creative activity begins with the phrase, “And God said...” (Gen. 1:3, 6, 9, 14, 20, 24). Indeed, the word of God is powerful! The Hebrews writer affirmed, “By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible” (Heb. 11:3).

In an attempt to harmonize the Biblical account of creation with the theory of organic evolution, many—even in the religious world—have bought into the notion that the days in Genesis 1 were not literal 24-hour days, but represent vast periods of time, thus finding room for the billions of years that the evolutionist needs. This day-age idea is false because of at least the following three reasons. First, the most basic rule of hermeneutics (the science of Bible interpretation) is that statements should be taken literally unless something in the context demands otherwise. There is absolutely nothing in the context of Genesis 1 that demands anything other than literal 24-hour days. If the God-inspired penman wanted to teach vast periods of time, there would have been plenty of vocabulary words he could have used. Second, other occurrences of the word “day” in Genesis 1 and elsewhere in reference to creation can only be correctly interpreted as literal 24-hour periods. On day one, “God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. So the evening and the morning were the first day” (Gen. 1:5). Note that this day (and all others) consisted of a period of light and darkness. The period of light was called the “morning” and the period of darkness was called the “evening.” Note also that God created the stars to “divide the day from the night” and they were to be “for signs and seasons, and for days and years” (Gen. 1:14). If “days” were vast periods of time what were the “years”? The most obvious verse is Exodus 20:11: “For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day.” Third, Exodus 20:11 occurs in the context of God’s instructing the Israelites to keep the Sabbath Day—“Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 10but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God” (Ex. 20:9-10). Were they to work six eons of time before they spent the seventh doing no work? There is no way the days of creation week are anything other than literal 24-hour days!