Throughout the history of the church we have seen many attacks on Biblical creation. Those attacks have become more prevalent in our day. Sadly, many of the attacks today come from so-called ‘Christians’ and even ‘Ministers’. God’s people, more than ever, need to be equipped in defending their faith and in particularly the Genesis account of creation. The very foundation of our faith lies in the creation account. God’s divine act of creating the world is the pivotal foundation on which our faith in God is built. To deny and to compromise on the creation account as recorded in Genesis is to abandon all faith in the one true and living God who provided a way of redemption for all of mankind through His Son on the Cross of Calvary. Our text in Hebrews 11:3 says, “Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the Word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.” There are several things that we need to understand that our faith in God produces in regards to creation: Faith in God presupposes His existence, Faith in God stands on the truth that He created the world in six literal days, Faith in God stands on the truth of a young earth, and Faith in God overcomes all compromise and attacks on Biblical Creation.
The first thing that we need to understand is that Faith in God presupposes His existence. It is interesting to note that nowhere in the Bible do we find an attempt to prove the existence of God. The scriptures automatically assume His existence. The scriptures, divinely inspired by God Himself, have no need of proving God’s existence. God does not have to prove Himself. Proof of His existence is stamped on every corner of the universe, in the beauty of earth, in the order of things, in the unique design and workings of the human body, and on everything else in between. God does not have to prove Himself. He is God. We don’t question the existence of the artist who paints a beautiful picture. We see the picture, therefore, we know that the artist exist. God has placed His signature on the canvass of creation and that is enough proof for me. In Genesis 1:1 we read, “In the beginning, God…” It’s that simple. You see, we develop our world-view and subsequently our moral code on what we presuppose. If you begin with the presupposition that there is a God, it will affect your entire outlook and your entire belief system. If you begin with the presupposition that there is no God, it will also affect your entire outlook and your entire belief system. This is where faith comes in. Remember, faith is the substance or the reality of the things that we have the evidence for but yet it cannot be seen. Faith makes what we cannot see a reality. The complexity of our world points directly to an intelligent design, thus we have our evidence. Though we cannot see God, we know (have the faith) that He exist because the evidence causes that which we hope for (have the confident expectation in) become the reality (or the substance) of that which we believe. To say there is no God makes you a fool as the Bible plainly states: “The fool hath said in his heart, there is no God.” When you come across someone that does not believe in the existence of God, there is no debating him. You can’t argue with a fool. All you can do is point them to the folly of their ways in hopes that they will see their error. When it comes to faith, there is no proving that God exist, it presupposes His existence.
The second thing that we need to understand is that faith in God stands upon the truth that God created the world in six literal days. To compromise on this truth is to undermine the authority of scripture. If you don’t get the beginning right then you will get the ending wrong. The Bible clearly teaches that God created the world in six days. There are many believers who have compromised on this issue in order to make peace with modern science. My friend, science is not the final authority. Man’s ideas are not the final authority. God’s Word is the final authority! God said it and that settles it! However, for those who need some type of proof or explanation that God created the world and six days, let me give you some proofs that God indeed created the world in six days. PROOF #1: The word for ‘day’ in Genesis one refers to a literal 24 hour day. It comes from the Hebrew word ‘yom’. In Genesis chapter one, the word is used to refer to the light and dark cycle. PROOF #2: ‘Yom’ is used with ‘evening and morning’. Everywhere in the Old Testament that the words ‘evening’ and ‘morning’ are used with or without the word ‘yom’ it always means a literal evening and morning of literal day. PROOF #3: ‘Yom’ is used with a number. Every place in the Old Testament where this word is used with a number it refers to a literal day, an evening and morning cycle. PROOF #4: The word ‘yom’ is used in Genesis 1:14 in relation to the lights dividing the day and the night. Think about it. Why would God use this word that is used to mean a literal day cycle in every other place in Old Testament and not use the same meaning in Genesis chapter one. You see, those who claim that God did not create the world in six literal days are doing nothing more than trying to reconcile so-called science with the Bible. If you compromise on the days of creation then you open the door to compromise on everything else. To have faith in God, you must stand on the fact that God created the world in six literal days.
A third thing that needs to be understood when it comes to our faith in God in creation is that faith in God stands on the truth of a young earth. Again, this is another area where many believers have fallen prey to compromise. Secular Scientist will tell us that the earth is millions of years old. However, the Bible indicates that the earth is only 6,000 to 10,000 years old. How do we know this? Because from the time of Adam till now is roughly 6,000 plus years. Now, how can we as Christians believe that the earth is millions of years old when the Bible tells us different? The idea that the world is millions of years old is actually a fairly recent development. During the first eighteen centuries of the church is was the belief of most all Christians that God created the world in six literal days approximately four thousand years before Christ. They also believed in a global flood at the time of Noah. It was not until about two hundred years ago that scientist came up with new theories that the earth was millions of years old. Unfortunately, instead of standing firm on God’s word, many Christians compromised and came up with their own theories such as the day-age view, the gap theory, the local flood view, framework hypothesis, theistic evolution, and progressive creation. However, due to recent discoveries and understanding of history there are those scientists out there that are now admitting to the fact that the earth is much younger. In the New Answers Book 1, Ken Ham list nine reasons as to why Christians should not accept the idea that the earth is millions of years old. I’d like to share those with you and comment on each one. 1. The Bible clearly teaches that God created the world in six literal 24-hour days a few thousand years ago. We looked at this already in reference to the word ‘yom.’ Let me just emphasize here that in most every case in scripture where that word is used it refers to a literal day. Imagine if the word ‘day’ on the Bible did not mean a literal day and could mean a long age of time. What about Joshua marching around the walls of Jericho? The same word is use for ‘day’ as in Genesis chapter one for Joshua marching around the walls in seven days. Now, if the word ‘day’ is not literal, how could Joshua march around those walls for millions of years? It just does not make sense. As Christians, we must stop trying to make the Bible fit with our ideas and with what makes us comfortable. Again, we have already looked at this, but may I add in Genesis we have an ‘evening’ and ‘morning.’ The word ‘day’ is also used with a number. Why would God number the day if the day was not literal? Those who do not believe that God created the world in six days has no leg to stand on, it is just pure speculation. 3. The genealogies of Genesis 5 and 11 make it clear that the creation happened only about 6,000 years ago. Study the genealogy and you will find precise detail. When you do the math, it always adds up to the earth being created about 6,000 years ago. 4. Exodus 20:9-11 blocks all attempts to fit millions of years into Genesis 1. In this passage God gives the reason for the children of Israel to work for six days and then rest. The reason given is because God said, “For in six days they Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.” Now, all true believers cannot deny the fact that the ten commands were inscribed by God Himself. The Bible clearly teaches this. Therefore, to say that it took millions of years for creation to take place is to make God a liar. 5. Noah’s flood washes away millions of years. I do not have time to go into detail here, but it has been proven time and again that a world-wide flood as seen in Noah’s day would alter the earth and would provide a complex geological record. Ken Ham says, “Noah’s flood would produce exactly the kind of complex geological record we see worldwide today: thousands of feet of sediments clearly deposited by water and later hardened into rock containing billions of fossils.” It was the flood that gave us all the different fossils and rock layers, not millions of years. Just study the Grand Canyon, the evidence it clear. 6. Jesus was a young-earth creationist. Throughout the New Testament, Jesus referred to Old Testament events as fact. In Mark 10:6 Jesus says, “But from the beginning of the creation God made them male and female…” We know by looking at the genealogies that Adam and Eve was on this earth roughly 6,000 plus years ago. Why would Jesus say that Adam and Eve was made from the ‘beginning’ of creation is the earth was millions of years old? My friend, do you see, do you understand the danger here. If we compromise on the six days of creation and the age of the earth, we must then explain away the very words of Jesus Himself. The danger of compromising on the creation week is too great. Child of God takes the Bible for what it says. Do not compromise! 7. Belief in millions of years undermines the Bible’s teaching on death and on the character of God. Death was not in existence until Adam sinned. Death came by sin. If we take these fossils that scientist claim are millions of years old and we believe what they say about the age of these fossils that apparently were animals that lived millions of years ago then we would have to rewrite the Bible. Nothing could have died before Adam sinned, yet Adam lived just over 6,000 years ago. If there was death and decay millions of years ago, then what the Bible says concerning Adam and sin is wrong. If we go here and because we compromise on creation, we thus must compromise on Adam and sin that then leads us to compromise on Jesus and salvation. Do you see the danger in compromising? Death came from the curse of sin. At the end of the Bible in Revelation 21:3-5 we find that there is coming a day when the curse of sin is gone and there will be no more death, decay, sorrow, pain, and the list goes on. Sin is what brought sorrow and death in the world. If there was pain and decay and death before Adam then the Bible is wrong. That’s how serious this matter is. Church, we must not compromise on the Word of God in any way, shape, or form. 8. The idea of millions of years did not come from the scientific facts. The men that came up with these ideas in the early nineteenth century were deistic and atheistic geologist. They used their anti-Bible and their religious assumptions to interpret geology. In other words, they approached their studies from a secular world-view instead of a Biblical-world-view. Their purpose was to undermine the Bible’s authority. The other day I watched a movie about the life of Charles Darwin which was very interesting. If you study the life of Darwin you will find that what drove him to the idea of evolution was his personal struggle with the loss of his daughter and his anger against God for allowing sorrow and death in the world. His entire notion of the millions of years of evolution came, not from science, but from his own personal problems with God. In that movie there is a scene where the man who is pushing Darwin to write his book said to Darwin, “We finally did it, you killed God.” Think about it. The idea of evolution and millions of years was based on emotions, not on science. Unfortunately, because Darwin’s ideas were seen as science, the church began to create their own theories in order to reconcile the Bible with science and that’s where the compromise began. 9. Radiometric dating methods do not prove millions of years. The study of radioactive dating is something that we will reserve for the most scholarly among us. However, let put summarize in a simple way. These dating methods were not developed until the twentieth century. By this time most of the world grew to accept the millions of year’s idea. Also, it has been recently found that the majority of these dating methods put the earth at only a few thousand years rather than millions. However, scientist only uses the dating methods that give the impression that the earth is millions of years old. There is a lot more detail that we can consider here that we must reserve for a later time. The bottom line is that every notion given by the scientific community that the earth is millions of years old can easily be refuted. The question for us as Christians must be, will we compromise or will we take the Bible for what it says?
Finally, faith in God overcomes all compromises and attacks on Biblical creation. Remember, if we do not get the beginning right, we will get the end wrong. It all comes down to faith. We were not there when God created the world. All we know is what the Bible tells us. The questions we must ask ourselves is, do we have the confident expectation that what God says in His word is true in such a way that what He says is a reality for us and provides the evidence for those things that we cannot see. Our faith in God should be so strong that no matter what science says and no matter what other Christians do; we stand strong on God’s Word knowing the Bible is the final authority. So, what about you? Is your faith in God? Or is your faith in man? That is the choice we must make. You either believe the entire Bible or none of it. You cannot mix man’s ideas and philosophies with the Word of God. It’s your choice. Where is your faith?