Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/Sermons/zz20080217.htm

THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION
Genesis: Explaining The Foundations Of History
Part I: Explaining The Creation Of The Universe, Genesis 1-2
C. Explaining The Steps Of The Universe's Creation
3. Explaining God's Filling The Emptiness With Life
c. God's Filling The Earth With Animal Life For Man To Rule
(Genesis 1:20-26 et al.)

Introduction: (To show the need . . . )

The three most popular biology textbooks in American public high schools teach that "All animals share a common ancestor that evolved in the primitive seas over 600 (or 700) million years ago from colonial protists," Roger Patterson, Evolution Explosion, p. 12-13, 177.

These textbooks add that "after the first fishes had evolved, they dominated the seas and gradually grew legs . . . Complex lung structures had to develop, and new reproductive methods had to be in place for the arrival of reptiles. Some unknown ancient reptile gave rise to what we know today as reptiles, birds, and mammals." In essence, these textbooks teach American teens that all animal life evolved from simpler to more complex forms through genetic mutation and the survival of the fittest, forming the diverse animal life forms that are alive today, Ibid., p. 188.

However, this account differs greatly from the literal reading of Genesis 1:20-25, for that passage holds that on the fifth consecutive solar day of the creation of the whole universe, God created fish and bird life, and the next solar day, He made land animals and "every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind . . ." Also, opposite the evolutionary belief that birds evolved from dinosaurs (Ibid., Patterson, p. 190), Genesis 1:20-25 claims God made birds the day before He created land dinosaurs. Then, in immense contrast to the evolutionary ideas taught in American public high schools, and opposite the alleged vast millions of years of time needed for evolutionary development of all animal life to have occurred, Genesis 1:20-25 asserts that God created all animal life within a 48-hour period of time!



We then might ask, "DID all animal life evolve, OR did God miraculously create it in two solar days just like Genesis 1:20-25 literally asserts? WHY, and where is the EVIDENCE?!"



(We turn to the sermon "Need" section . . . )

Need: "Did all animal life evolve, or did GOD MIRACULOUSLY create it in a 48-hour period of time just like Genesis 1:20-25 literally asserts? WHY, and where is the EVIDENCE?"
  1. Genesis 1:3-31 explains how God's CREATIVE ACTS SOLVED the NEEDY STATE of Genesis 1:2 (as follows):
    1. The unfinished world God had called into existence out of nothing (Hebrews 11:3) was NEEDY, being formless, empty and cloaked in darkness over its surface of deep waters, Genesis 1:2 NIV, ESV.
    2. Thus, God addressed the darkness need by creating light in Genesis 1:3-5, He addressed the formlessness need by creating the structures of heaven, sea and dry land in Genesis 1:6-10, and He addressed the emptiness need by filling these structures in Genesis 1:11-31.
  2. In SOLVING the EMPTINESS, as Romans 1:18-20 claims, at Genesis 1:20-25, God exhibited His attributes of ETERNAL POWER and DIVINE NATURE in creating ALL ANIMAL LIFE:
    1. Genesis 1-2 shows God's eternal power in making all animals:
      1. By God's spoken Word, He called into existence all fish and all bird life on the fifth consecutive solar day of creation (Genesis 1:20-23), and on the start of the sixth day, He called into existence all land animals, Genesis 1:24-25.
      2. In concert with His spoken Word, Genesis 2:19 says God "formed" every bird and land animal "out of the ground", the same phrase describing His creation of man in Genesis 2:7. Now, man was created without evolutionary processes SINCE he was NOT ALIVE when God first formed him as God had to BREATH into man's FORMED NOSTRILS for him to LIVE (Genesis 2:7); in view of this context, Genesis 2:19 literally means God created all animals directly from the ground without evolutionary processes!
      3. Liberal Theology counters this idea, holding Genesis 2 is a diverse creation account by an author from the Genesis 1 account, making both chapters false myths; however, we answer this: (a) Jesus cited both Genesis 1:27 and Genesis 2:24 in Matthew 19:4-5, treating both passages as the same true creation account in Matthew 19:6. (b) Also, Genesis 2:4 uses the phrase, "These are the generations of" (KJV, ESV) or "this is the account of" (NIV) that appears eleven times through the book of Genesis to mark "a narrowing and a deterioration in the development of the theology of blessing", Bib. Know. Com., O. T., p 24; Genesis 2 is thus not a competitive false creation myth that challenges a Genesis 1 false myth, but the true, more narrowed account of Genesis 1 that focuses on God's dealings with the climax of his created universe -- man! (c) Thus, Genesis 1:20-25 and 2:19 are true, and literally claim that God miraculously created all animal life forms within one 48-hour period of time, forming each one directly from the ground without any evolutionary process by means of His mere spoken Word!
    2. Genesis 1:26 then reveals that, opposite paganism, ANIMALS are NOT for MAN to WORSHIP, but RATHER for MAN to RULE:
      1. Romans 1:23 NIV reported pagan man's rejection of God created a vacuum for his worship, a vacuum man filled by forming "images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles".
      2. This fit the pagan view that "'The position and function of man in the scheme of creation paralleled precisely the status of the slaves in Mesopotamia,'" Bruce K. Waltke, Creation and Chaos , 1974, p. 65 citing Naburn M. Sarna, Understanding Genesis, 1972, p. 7.
      3. Yet, in sharp CONTRAST to such error, Genesis 1:26 NIV shows that in creating the animals, God meant for man to " rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground."
      4. Thus, NO animal life form was meant for man to worship, but for man to RULE, for ONLY GOD, the Creator of all animals, indeed, the Creator of the universe, deserved man's worship, Ex. 20:3-6!
      5. Thus, man was not to form an idol of any creature: no, GOD had formed all animal life for MAN to RULE (Genesis 2:19) and man was to worship the One Who formed him -- the Creator, Gen. 2:7!
Application: (1) May we trust in Christ for salvation from sin for eternal life, escaping bondage to pagan idolatry, Romans 1:22-23; John 3:16. (2) As believers, (a) may we AVOID making an "idol" out of anything that replaces our reliance upon God (1 John 5:21), and (b) worship and serve only the Creator -- God, Matthew 4:10.

Lesson: NO animal EVOLVED: rather, God MIRACULOUSLY MADE ALL ANIMALS and MAN DIRECTLY from the GROUND in 48-hours, and He set MAN to RULE ALL the ANIMALS. [We give evidence of this miraculous creation of all animal life in our sermon's conclusion notes!]

Conclusion: (To illustrate the sermon lesson . . . )

Evidence God miraculously made all animals is found in the platypus, a life form that borrows and modifies animal features from all over the animal kingdom: somewhat like a paddlefish, the platypus's bill has "fine nerve receptors" to "pick up electric fields given off by shrimp and other prey" (Paula Weston, "The Platypus," Creation, Mar.-May 2002, p. 42). Yet, it has a duck-shaped bill and webbed feet (Ibid.) and is fit with a broad beaver-like tail, Ibid., p. 41. It lays eggs like a reptile, but nurses its young as a mammal, Ibid. Then, unlike most mammals that have two sex chromosomes (XY), the platypus has ten (XYXYXYXYXY), with one of its "Y" chromosomes sharing the ZZ/ZW marker of a bird! (wikipedia.org/wiki/platypus). Even so, its "posture resembles that of reptiles, especially lizards" (Ibid., Creation, p. 42) and the male has barbs on its hind feet that are joined to venom ducts similar to that of a snake, Compton's Ency., 1973, v. 6, p. 207f!

Evolutionists once held the platypus was primitive, but finding its bill has a complex electrolocation system, they assert it is advanced, not an early transition between reptiles and mammals, Ibid., p. 41-42!

Instead of offering clues on the evolution of the platypus, the fossil record shows only degeneration: platypus teeth fossils have been found in Australia and South America, meaning it was once widely dispersed, and the only variation from its present form was that all adult platypuses once had teeth! It lost DNA data in breeding, so it is "'extremely degenerate' by comparison with its ancestors" says "an evolutionist expert," Ibid., p. 43, citing A. Moyal, Platypus, 2001, xii.

Scientists classify the platypus in the order of Monotremata, but all the other monotremes are echidnas, land-dwelling, spiny anteaters with long tapering snouts and thin tongues quite unlike the platypus! (Ibid., p. 40-41; Webster's Seventh New Coll. Dict., s. v. "echidna")

After over 100 years of debate, evolutionists still can not agree how the platypus allegedly evolved: the Encyclopedia Britannica says: "'Most authorities believe the order Monotremata originated from a line of mammal-like reptiles different from that which gave rise to the other mammals. Nonetheless monotremes may well represent features of anatomy that characterized the earliest mainstream mammals,'" Ibid., Creation, p. 41, citing Ref. 1, p. 180-185.

The platypus did NOT EVOLVE, but God miraculously formed it! May we thus worship the Creator God of all animal life!