The Beginning - Part IV
March 2018
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“And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so. And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also. And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth, And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good. And the evening and the morning were the fourth day. And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven. 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 1:9-14
To Give Light Upon The Earth
“And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so” (Gen. 1:15).
This proclaims the fact that God said it, and His glorious word contained such power that these planetary bodies will ever carry out their prescribed function.
Though the sun and the planets are so far distant from us, yet this does not interrupt their light and influence. The spiritual lesson we must derive from that is distance cannot hinder us from receiving the benefit of God’s care. Though God’s influence is in heaven, His eye beholds the children of men. So, we aren’t to allow distance, either in place or condition, to hinder our desires for the good of others.
Created And Made
“And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: He made the stars also” (Gen. 1:16).
This alludes to the sun and the moon. In fact, the moon has no light within itself. It is a reflection of the sun, hence, much lesser, exactly as the Scripture says.
Modern man scoffs at the idea that God, merely by His word, could make the sun, plus all the planetary bodies, and even the universe. He scoffs, as well, at God’s creation of man and, actually, the entirety of all things as they were created by God. In essence, he denies that there is a God!
The words created and made should be distinguished when they are read. The difficulties that science—imperfect and limited—finds here have been satisfactorily discussed by able commentators, and their arguments need not be repeated, except to draw attention to these important and distinctive words—created and made.
For example, the Lord created the sun, moon, and stars at some unknown period of time in the beginning. Afterward, when preparing the earth for man, He made, i.e., pointed them in relation to the earth (regulated them) as light-holders, as measurers of time, and as vehicles of revelation (Ps. 19).
God
“And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth, and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good. And the evening and the morning were the fourth day” (Gen. 1:17-19).
The life of man is governed here largely by the order of the material universe, but as he becomes a true child of God, he rises to a dominion over the sun, moon, and stars. In fact, the consciousness of fellowship with God is a sense of moral superiority to material things. Man is earthly first and then heavenly. Human nature is developed under the rule of sun, moon, and stars, but is warped and twisted because of sin. In the world to come, where there shall be no more night, the consciousness of man will then be far more spiritual than material, not unwitting of the material, but ruling it with spiritual freedom and power (Rev., Chpt. 22).
Animate Life
“And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that has life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven” (Gen. 1:20).
Verse 20 proclaims the creation of fish and birds. The Pulpit Commentary says, “Here the creatures of the sea are distinguished from all previous creations, and in particular from vegetation, as being possessed of a vital principle; this does not, of course, contradict the well-known truth that plants are living organisms; only that the life principle of the animal kingdom is different from that of the vegetable kingdom.”
The way verse 20 is translated leaves the impression that the fish and the fowl were made from the waters; however, Genesis 2:19 refutes that. The idea is, the “waters” (seas, rivers, lakes, oceans) swarmed with every kind of fish. Exactly how God created the fish, for instance, we aren’t told. It was probably done by divine command. As it regards the “fowl of the air,” Genesis 2:19 says that the Lord formed these “out of the ground.”
After His Kind
“And God created great whales, and every living creature that moves, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good” (Gen. 1:21).
By the use of the phrases, “After their kind” and “after his kind,” this verse emphasizes the different species that are created.
Some 10 times in Chapter 1 of Genesis, the phrase, “After his kind,” or similar, is used. This completely shoots down the theory of evolution. Science has never been able to cross that barrier and, in fact, will never be able. In other words, there is no such thing as an animal that is half fish and half land animal. As well, there is no such thing as a fish that is half whale and half shark. The barrier regarding the different kinds remains and ever shall remain.
The same can be said for man. There is no such thing as a creature that is half man and half animal. To be sure, if evolution were a true science, there would be some evidence of such in the world. False science answers that by claiming that the evolutionary process takes many millions or even billions of years; however, even if that were true, which it’s not, there would still be some creatures in the world that are part animal and part man. In fact, there would be mutations of every kind.
Mutations
If the rabbit did actually evolve from the frog, or whatever, there would be scores of creatures at different stages. However, that doesn’t exist and, in fact, has never existed because the iron barrier of “after his kind,” as originally created by God, cannot be changed. While man can produce a mule by the crossbreeding of a horse and a donkey, the mule is then sterile and cannot reproduce itself.
Actually, the evolutionary process fails in every capacity. Plants, for instance, do not get better and better, but rather tend to degenerate if left on their own, which is the opposite of the so-called evolutionary process.
To make plants better or fruit trees bear more luscious fruit, man has to work with these plants or trees in order to bring out their best.
It is the same with horses. If the breed is left unattended, it will degenerate. So, man has to work with horses in the realm of breeding to perfect thoroughbreds, etc.
There are at least two processes that debunk evolution:
1. The first is the iron barrier of the species, which cannot be crossed.
2. The second problem is degeneration, even as we have already addressed.
Evolution
Can a person be a Christian and also believe in evolution? No, he cannot. To believe in evolution is to disbelieve the Bible, and to disbelieve the Bible is to disbelieve God.
Some so-called Christians attempt to cover this by claiming that they believe in creation, and that God is the one who has created all things, but that He did it by evolution. Once again, this flies in the face of the Word of God.
Not only is evolution unbiblical, but at the same time, it is unscientific. I read just the other day of the death of a particular man in England, who exposed the Piltdown hoax. This was a skeleton found in a certain part of England, which was supposed to prove the evolutionary process. He found that the skeleton had been doctored with plaster of Paris, or whatever, to make it seem to be something it wasn’t. He exposed the fraud, which meant that many schoolbooks had to be rewritten.
If the evolutionary conception is true, it naturally follows that the biblical account cannot be accepted in its literal interpretation. One of these accounts pictures the different species and general types as coming into existence gradually out of preexisting ones, whereas the other represents them as created by a divine fiat.
The Bible And Evolution Cannot Be Harmonized
All efforts to harmonize Genesis with evolution lead at best to the negative conclusion that these two are so far different in their purpose and scope as not to involve radical contradiction. A positive agreement between them simply cannot be claimed.
The general theories of evolution are not proving true in either the biological or geological field. This fact is so true that one scientific observer has aptly remarked that the present vogue of these theories in the popular and pseudo-scientific mind may be likened to the continued, though dwindling, activities of a central commercial trust, whose supporting subsidiary companies had all gone into bankruptcy. Furthermore, it is highly significant that many, who at first were fascinated by the generalizations of evolution, turned from it after further examination of its proffered evidences and more mature consideration of its claims.
The truth is, evolution is not a fact of science but a dogma of philosophy. Both its history and its essential nature prove that it belongs primarily to the realm of subjective speculation and not to the field of objective fact.
Unchristian
It is significant that the idea of evolution originated in heathen and pagan minds and was not a native product of the Christian intellect, which means that it’s not biblical.
The general run of modern definitions of evolution is also not only completely independent of any thought of a living God but, for the most part, is either directly antagonistic to that thought or irreconcilable with it. In fact, the standard definitions of evolution, which are given by real evolutionists, are, therefore, consistently and completely in line with anti-God theories.
Actually, as it regards evolution, that is, if one takes it to its final conclusion, there is no God and no need for God. In fact, all definitions of evolution, of necessity, have to substitute blind force and mere chance for the creative power of a living God. Those who try to reconcile these theories with the Christian system of truth assert that such is not the case, yet the definitions given—and many others that might be given—prove that God is, of necessity, ruled out in favor of chance. Evolution must be seen to be diametrically opposed to the Christian system of thought at all essential points.
Opposed To Real Christianity
Some claim that an all-powerful God could have made the world and created man and woman by evolutionary process if He had so desired and willed. However, the Bible revelation tells us that He did not so make the world, man, and woman, and that we may stand upon that revelation with full assurance. In the words of Professor Mullins, Professor Machen, and Dr. Conrad, evolution leads to a type of religion that is radically different from Christianity and, as well, diametrically opposed to Bible Christianity.
A final and conclusive consideration in this whole problem of alleged evolution is that there is evidence on all sides, going to prove that the whole world and all that is in it is running down, degenerating, and moving toward some climax of judgment and re-creation, even as the Bible says, instead of ever evolving upward into higher and better forms.
Chemistry
It is most significant that in the science of chemistry, through which we come closest to the deeper facts and forces of both inanimate matter and life, there is no evidence of any resident urge upward. Not only is it true that the laws of chemical affinity seem to be static and unchangeable as to their operations, but it is now known that there is a disintegrating tendency downward instead of upward that seems characteristic of all matter. In other words, there is a degeneration, even as previously stated.
It is not true that we came up from the slime and the beast through the jungle, and that we pass out into a night of oblivion unlighted by a single star. It is true that “in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” and that He made “man in His own image.”
It is true that we came from God through the garden, and that we are destined by obedience to Him to an eternity of joy in a land that is fairer than day, where we will meet again our loved ones who went before, and upon whose blissful shore there falls no shadow and rests no stain.
Again, we irrevocably state that a person cannot claim biblical Christianity and at the same time believe in paganistic evolution, and there is no other type of evolution but that which is paganistic.
(The author is grateful to John Roach Straton for most of the material given above regarding evolution.)
This article is an excerpt from the book 'The Fall Of Man' by Jimmy Swaggart.
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