Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Evening Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/ev/ev19990606.htm

GENESIS: THE SOURCES OF GOOD AND CALAMITY IN OUR ORIGINS
Part I - The Universe's Origin By Special Divine Creation As OPPOSED To All Others
B. The Genesis Author's Counter To ANYTHING Evolutionary In Creation
(Genesis 1:1-2:25)
  1. Introduction
    1. A debate circles Evangelicals regarding whether God might have used evolutionary processes in creation.
    2. The theological fallout from taking one side or the other is enormous, and we clarify this as follows:
  2. The Genesis Author's Counter To ANYTHING Evolutionary In Creation, Genesis 1:1-2:25.
    1. The author of Genesis intended to write a polemic against the cosmogonies that allocated the authorship of origins to some force(s) or entity(s) other than the Creator-God of the Old Testament:
      1. Other Ancient Near Eastern cosmogonies all picture a hero-god struggling to defeat an evil restraining force so that innate life forces in the earth could spring into life, Waltke, Creation and Chaos, p. 48.
      2. However, opposite such a thesis, the author of Genesis pictured God sovereignly hovering over an inanimate, helpless chaos in total sovereignty before the creation began, Genesis 1:2a,b.
      3. Additionally, opposite the heavy emphasis on the sun god worship of Egypt and a great worship of the stars among Gentiles, Genesis mentions the creation of the sun after daylight had been established for two days, and mentions the creation of the stars as an afterthought in Gen. 1:14-16.
      4. Thus, Genesis 1-2 critiques the view that any force but God accounted for the origin of the universe.
    2. In his description of creation, the author of Genesis allows for no evolutionary process to have occurred:
      1. Theistic evolutionists argue that the word "day" in Genesis 1-2 can mean an evolutionary age because Peter says "one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day," 2 Pet. 3:8b.
      2. However, the days in Genesis 1-2 are described as each consisting of an "evening" and a "morning", an expression typical of the Jewish reckoning to describe a 24-hour day, cf. Leviticus 23:32. Nowhere else in Scripture is an age said to consist of such descriptions -- only a solar day!
      3. Also, everywhere else in the Pentateuch (Genesis thru Deuteronomy) where the word "day" is modified by a numerical adjective ("first," "second," etc.) as it is in Genesis 1-2, the word "day" always refers to a solar day, cf. Ryrie Study Bible, KJV ftn. to Gen. 1:5. This argues for solar days in Genesis 1-2.
      4. Additionally, the numerical adjectives modifying "day" in Genesis 1-2 use the cardinal form for the first day (literally, "day one") and the ordinal form for days two through seven (literally, "second day," "third day," etc.), cf. Kittel's Biblia Hebraica, p. 1-2 and G.K.C., Gesenius' Hebrew Grammar, p. 288, 292. According to Dr. Kenneth Barker, Gen. Ed. of the New International Version, this format in all Semitic Ancient Near Eastern languages always defines consecutive solar days within a calendar month!
      5. The creation of man, a mammal, pictures the female being created directly from the male's rib, Gen. 2:20-25. Since mammals have to evolve male and female together were they to come into existence with evolutionary processes, the Genesis record shows that man could not have evolved!
      6. Since man came from the dust of the ground (Gen. 2:7), and we know from Genesis 2:20-25 that he did not evolve, and since every land animal and bird likewise came from the dust of the ground according to Gen. 2:19, it is reasonable to assume that the author meant these were created without evolution, also.
    3. In the broader Biblical theology context, the author of Genesis could not have allowed for evolution:
      1. To allow for evolutionary processes is to promote the survival of the fittest, and thus to allow for death!
      2. However, the Bible teaches death did not exist before God's final creature, man existed, 1 Cor. 15:21f.
      3. Also, Jesus conquers the death brought on by Adam's sin as the Second Adam according to 1 Cor. 15:22. Thus, death cannot have existed before Adam or Jesus' salvation does not provide for physical resurrection and victory over death opposite what 1 Cor. 15:22-2 3 teaches.
      4. Besides, Romans 8:18-23 teaches nature was subjected to an undesirable bondage in man's fall quite opposite the "very good" creation description of Genesis 1:31!
      5. Death is man's enemy (1 Cor. 15:26) that God will destroy. How could God have used it in creation?
Lesson: From the intent of Moses in writing Genesis 1-2, from the content of his cosmogeny and the broad theological context of the rest of Scripture, evolution runs contrary to truth and salvation themes.

Application: Scripture leads us to uphold special creation and oppose allowing for ANY evolution!