Evolution can not be true, because it contradicts the inspired word of God. We do not speak arbitrarily and say, without proof, that whatever contradicts the revealed word of God can not be true, although such an attitude could be easily defended. Disregarding all the many other cogent and legitimate arguments in support of a divine revelation, we will appeal to the remarkable harmony between the story of Creation in Genesis and the modern sciences. This could not be, if God had not revealed to Moses the story of creation. Moses personally knew nothing revealed by the sciences of today. And the man of that day who would invent the story of creation, would be sure to conflict with one or more of the following modern sciences: geology, astronomy, zoology, biology, geography, chemistry, physics, anatomy, philology, archaeology, history, ethics, religion, etc. There is not one chance in a million that a writer of a fictitious account would not have run amuck among many of these sciences, if, like Moses, he had no personal knowledge of them.
Although the Babylonian account may have had some foundation in fact, from a tradition of a prior revelation, it plainly bears the marks of error. “The Babylonian stories of creation are full of grotesque and polytheistic ideas, while those of the Bible speak only of the one living and true God.” “All things,” the Babylonian legend says, “were produced at the first from Tiamat.” “The gods came into being in long succession, but, at length, enmity arose between them and Tiamat, who created monsters to oppose them. Merodach, a solar deity, vanquished Tiamat, cut her body in two, and with one-half of it made a firmament supporting the upper waters in the sky, etc., etc.” The Babylonian gods, like even those of the classics, were criminals fit only for prison or death.
Alfred Russell Wallace, who, with Darwin, devised the evolution theory, says: “There must have been three interpositions of a Divine and supernatural power to account for things as they are: the agreement of science with Genesis is very striking: There is a gulf between matter and nothing; one between life and the non-living; and a third between man and the lower creation; and science can not bridge them!”
This “striking agreement” between science and Genesis I, is shown by the fact that at least 11 great events are enumerated in the same order as claimed by modern science: 1. The earth was “waste and void”; 2. “Darkness was upon the face of the deep”; 3. Light appears; 4. A clearing expanse, or firmament; 5. The elevation of the land and the formation of the seas; 6. Grass, herbs and fruit trees appear; 7. The sun, moon and stars appear; 8. Marine animals were created; 9. “Winged fowls” were created; 10. Land animals were created; 11. Man was created.
The chance of guessing the exact order of these 11 great events is ascertained by the law of permutations-the product of the numbers from 1 to 11, which is 39,916,800. Therefore, Moses had one chance out of 39,916,800 to guess the correct order of these 11 great events, as revealed both by science and revelation. If, for example, the first 11 letters of the alphabet were arranged in some unknown miscellaneous order, any one would have but one chance out of 39,916,800 to guess the order. If Moses did not have the order revealed to him, he never could have guessed it. Therefore, he was inspired and was told the order.
This mathematical demonstration annihilates the contradicting theory of evolution. At once it proves that the account was divinely inspired, and man came by special creation and not by evolution. The fact that the language of Genesis is in remarkable harmony with all proven modern scientific theories, and manifestly confirmed by them, is a proof in favor of the creation story, decisive and final.
This harmony is manifest whether the Heb. yom, day, be taken to mean a long period, as advocated by many biblical scholars, or a literal day of 24 hours, followed, it may be, by years or ages of continuance of the work, before the next day’s work of 24 hours began.
Believing that this interpretation does no violence to the text, and that it is especially in harmony with the statements in the fourth commandment and elsewhere in the Bible, it is here briefly presented as one interpretation, showing the marvelous harmony between revelation and the proven, and even the generally accepted, scientific theories. The stately procession of events is the same, no matter which interpretation is accepted, and doubtless will remain, even if both must yield to another and better interpretation. This majestic divine order, in harmony with both science and revelation, removes all doubt of special creation.
Another interpretation, advocated by many scholars, is that all geologic ages may have intervened during the time indicated between the 1st and 2nd verses of Gen. I.
The following is a possible, and, it would seem, a probable interpretation of the inspired creation story. The words of Scripture, whether from the American Revision, or marginal rendering of the original Hebrew, or other translation, are put in quotation marks:—
THE CREATION—GENERAL STATEMENT
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth,” including the sun, moon and stars, and all other matter in any form.
DETAILED STATEMENT OF THE ORDER OF CREATION
“And the earth was waste and void,” literally “desolation and emptiness.” And, on account of the thick vapors in the hot atmosphere, “darkness was upon the face of the deep,” and doubtless had been for ages.
“And the Spirit of God was brooding upon the face of the waters,” and perhaps was calling into being the lowest forms of marine life.
The First Day’s Work. Light Appears.
“And God said, ‘Let the light appear’,” through the thick vapors. And the light appeared, so that the day could now be distinguished from the night. “And there was evening, and there was morning, one day.” This day did not need to be an age or even 24 hours for God’s work. How long did it take light to appear? Many years, and even ages, may have followed between each day’s work as the “days” were not necessarily consecutive, and it is not so stated.
Second Day’s Work. A Clearing Expanse.
“And God said, ‘Let there be a clearing expanse (called heaven) dividing the waters which were on the earth from the waters in the thick clouds above, firmly suspended in the air’.” This may have continued a long time, though begun in 24 hours.
Third Day’s Work. Land, sea and vegetation appear.
“And God said, ‘Let the waters under the expanse be gathered together into one place (seas and oceans), and let the dry land appear’.” The contraction of the cooling earth caused the elevation of the land, and the draining of the waters into the seas. The geologist Lyell says, “All land has been under water.” Hitchcock says, “The surface of the globe has been a shoreless ocean.” “And the earth brought forth grass, herb yielding seed after its kind, and tree bearing fruit, wherein is the seed thereof, after its kind.” Though the sun was not yet visible on account of dense clouds and vapors, the warm, humid atmosphere was suitable for the grass, herbs, and fruit trees,—three great classes which represented the vegetable kingdom. Ages may have again intervened.
The Fourth Day’s Work. Sun, moon and stars made visible.
“And God said, ‘Let lights be seen in the open expanse of heaven, to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years’.” “And God made the two great lights to appear,” since neither had been seen through the thick clouds, “the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night. He made the stars also to appear.” Though created first, the stars would appear last. Ages more may have intervened.
The Fifth Day’s Work. Animal life in sea and air.
“And God said, ‘Let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth upon the face of the expanse of the heaven’.” “And God created great sea monsters, and every living creature that moveth which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kinds, and every winged fowl after its kind.” Geology and Moses alike testify that swarms of animals filled the seas. The ages rolled on while they “filled the waters of the seas and fowl multiplied on the earth.”
The Sixth Day’s Work. The creation of land-animals and man.
“And God said, ‘Let the earth bring forth the living creature after its kind, cattle and creeping things, and beast of the earth after its kind’.” The fifth day animals began to swarm the seas; the sixth day, to cover the land. “And God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness’,” in “knowledge after the image of him that created him,” (Col. 3:10) and “in righteousness and true holiness,” (Eph. 4:24). Yet a professor in a great university was so dense as to insist that the Scriptures taught that the likeness was not in “knowledge, righteousness and true holiness,” but in the bodily form. “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him.” The last of all creation as both revelation and science testify. The image is mental and moral and spiritual. No such image in any other species.
The body chosen was higher and better than the form of any animal. It resembles the bodies of mammals of the highest type. Why should it not? The vast number of animal species, of almost every conceivable size and shape, could not furnish a form so well adapted to the use of man as that which the Creator gave him. Would it have been better if man had been created in the form of a fish, a lizard, a serpent, a dog, or a horse, or a bird? How could the body have been created without bearing resemblance to some form of the million species of animals? A resemblance can be traced through the whole creation, the material as well as the animal, but it does not follow that one species is descended from another, but that there was one general plan, and one God. The existence of man, who can not be otherwise accounted for, proves the existence of the Creator.
All books are sourced from Project Gutenberg