Tuesday, June 7,
2016
In the
beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Genesis 1:1(NLT)
One of the questions which dominate any discussion of
creation is the length of time it took God to arrange this universe. Was it six twenty-four hour days, or are they
six periods of time, maybe millions or billions of years; or maybe just nanoseconds?
In order to properly answer that question you have to
be God. I do believe, however, that
there is more evidence on the side of one calendar week for the creation
account.
Is that possible?
Can God really do that? After
all, that's a lot of creating.
I read recently that on a given acre of land, say in
North Carolina, there are some 125 million living critters. Included are 50,000 vertebrates (toads,
turtles, snakes, etc.) In addition there
are invertebrates like "...28
million collembolans, 662,000 ants, 388,000 millipedes, 372,000 spiders, 90,000
earthworms, 45,000 termites, 19,000 snails, and a large number of various other
crawling things, not including protozoa."[2]
Wow! Makes you
want to go camping and sleep on the ground!
Could God really make all those species, not to
mention the earth and heavens on and under which they live? And could He do that in a week? Psalm 90 tells us that a day with the Lord is
as a thousand years, and a thousand years as a day.
Well, Scripture tells us that nothing is too
difficult for God. Even the name of God
(Elohim)
means strength.
God is omnipotent – all powerful. He is omniscient – all knowing. He is supreme in the universe, having perfect
will and understanding. So I would
suggest to you that you put away your calendars and almanacs when considering
this matter of creation's time frame.
If ultimate, unhindered power and wisdom chose to do
so, He could create everything that exists within six 24-hour periods, or eons
of time.[3] It is simply a matter of what
God chose to do.
God chose to do.
On the other hand, simple logic tells us that current
scientific hypothesis of how the earth and all matter began sharply disagrees
with the Biblical account.
Indeed, how can they be reconciled? It is not possible.
Fossils presuppose death; often cataclysmic, violent
death on a large scale. But, according
to Scripture, death came by man.[4] The Biblical account and modern
scientific thought both indicate humans did not arrive until the final act in
creation’s drama. If all those
dinosaurs, pre-historic man, fish, fowl and other life lived and
died long before Adam and Eve, then the Bible would be wrong when
it says that death (all death) came through the sin of Adam. God's character precludes that! God is unique, all powerful and all knowing.
If, as the Apostle Paul told his protégé, Timothy, all
Scripture is inspired by God[5],
the evidence is greater for a shorter creation, in which no person or animal
died until humans chose sin. Death, in
God’s scenario does not pre-date man’s choice.
For You Today
With public opinion turning away from Scripture as God’s
Word, and towards man’s version of how we got here, it’s something of an against
the tide swim to be a creationist thinker.
But then, serving God in faith never promised it would
be anything easy.
Go to VIDEO
[1] Title Image: By NASA/ GSFC/ NOAA/ USGS [Public
domain], via Wikimedia
Commons
[2]Kirkpatrick
Sale, Human Scale, (New York, Coward,
McCann & Geoghegan, 1980), 146-47
[3]Ibid,
Morgan, 16
[4]
Romans 5:12
[5]
2 Timothy 3:16
