An amazing thing happened to me a few days ago. I was walking down the street near a metal shop. All at once there was this huge explosion which sent bits of metal flying all over the place. A few seconds later, I felt something hit my arm. When I looked down to see what it was, I found that by mere chance the explosion had formed a working watch which just happened to land on my wrist. Isn't that amazing?
By now, I imagine that every rational reader is ready to tell me that the above story is pure nonsense! Do you believe it? Why not? Do you believe that just because my watch shows signs of design and order that there must be a maker behind it? Don't you think a precisely functioning instrument like a watch could be the result of random arrangement from an explosion?
If you don't believe my watch could be the result of random arrangement from an explosion, why would you believe that a system as complex as our universe is the result of random arrangement from an explosion popularly called "The Big Bang"? Our universe is far more complex than my watch. Its design, order and precision are unparalleled even down to the atomic level.
The general theory of evolution would have us believe that the order we see around us is the result of mere chance. Whether it be the complexities of the gravitational balance that exist within our solar system or the complexities of the living things, the evolutionists tell us that it is the product of an accident, not the effect of the rational design of a Creator.
Many people have blindly accepted this theory without thinking about its plausibility. Over the next few weeks, we want to examine the problems with this theory and show the rational alternative -- that our world and its inhabitants are the result of divine design and power. Though the proponents of the "Big Bang" theory and the general theory of evolution often like to present their theories as the "only scientific" explanations for our world, such is not the case.
As we find ourselves increasingly faced with those who ridicule "Creationists" as people who believe in "fairy tales," Christians must be ready to defend Bible teaching. Peter spoke of this responsibility saying, "But sanctify in your hearts Christ as Lord: being ready always to give answer to every man that asketh you a reason concerning the hope that is in you, yet with meekness and fear" (1 Pet. 3:15). W. E. Vine defines the word answer (Gk. apologia) in this verse as referring to a "verbal defense" or "a speech in defense." It signifies a full and systematic answer rather than an off-the-cuff answer without thought. It demands that we understand the arguments being made against Bible teaching and that we be able to defend Bible teaching against those attacks. The need to be ready for such a defense is obvious in our time. From the media to the schools to our own brethren, we are being faced with influential people who actively oppose the Bible account of Creation. Our children are forced to face this fact daily and we must be ready to help them. Even in the religious world, many deny the Bible account of our world's origin.
Let us first establish the fact that the Bible clearly claims that this world began by the creative genius and omnipotence of God. Various passages from our Bibles could be used to sustain this fact. Note the following as examples:
The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament shows His handiwork (Psa. 19:1).
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 (Exod. 20:11).
For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh day He rested and was refreshed (Exod. 31:17).
By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, And all the host of them by the breath of His mouth. He gathers the waters of the sea together as a heap; He lays up the deep in storehouses. Let all the earth fear the Lord; Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him. For He spoke, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast (Psa. 33:6-9).
Lift up your eyes on high, and see who has created these things, who brings out their host by number; he calls them all by name, by the greatness of His might and the strength of His power; not one is missing... Have you not known? Have you not heard? The everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, neither faints nor is weary. His understanding is unsearchable (Isa. 40:26, 28).
God, who made the world and everything in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands (Acts 17:24).
But from the beginning of the creation, God made them male and female (Mark 10:6).
For every house is built by someone, but He who built all things is God (Heb. 3:4).
This point is made at the very start of the Bible as it opens with these words: "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth" (Gen. 1:1). The first two chapters of Genesis give the foundational claim of the Bible -- that the God of the Bible created this world and gave life to its inhabitants in six days of creation (see also Exod. 20:11). It is stated in the same declarative style used to inform us about all of the other facts presented in the Bible. Indeed, the power of divine instruction, the Word, in bringing about the Creation is the very point of John in the introduction to his Gospel (Jn. 1:1-5).
Man is not pictured as a product of development arriving on the scene millions or billions of years later, but as the designed creation of God from the very beginning. Jesus reaffirmed this truth from Genesis saying, "He who made them at the beginning made them male and female" speaking of the first human beings, Adam and Eve (Matt. 19:4). Mark 10:6 makes clear that "the beginning" specified is "the beginning of creation."
Obviously, one cannot maintain that Jesus spoke the truth while at the same time affirming that humans evolved by chance over billions of years as asserted in the evolutionary time scale. If the proponents of the general theory of evolution are to be believed, humans came into being much closer to the present than the beginning. However, the Bible is consistent in its claim, both in the New Testament and the Old Testament, that man was created by God within the same literal, six days of time in which all other things were created. Either the evolutionists are wrong, or Jesus did not tell the truth. There is no middle ground. Thus, if one teaches that human beings were the product of an act of special creation much nearer our end of time than "the beginning of creation," he finds himself in direct conflict with the God of heaven.
Over the next few weeks, we want to examine some of the problems of the general theory of evolution as well as compromises made with that theory. We will see that the theory is not a proven fact, nor can it be. Those who believe it must do so by faith. We will ask whether it is more reasonable to believe that our universe evolved by chance or to believe that it is the product of God's design and power by which it was formed in maturity in a six-day beginning.
We will not ask one to accept the Bible account on blind faith, but upon a faith founded on reason. True faith in God as Creator is based upon a rational understanding even as the Bible says, "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 the end analysis, such faith is more reasonable than faith in the evolutionary theories.