Introduction
The first eleven chapters of Genesis are essential to the Christian faith. It is here that the origin of all is revealed to us. This origin is reiterated throughout the Old and New Testament.
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” (Genesis 1:1)
“The heavens were made by the word of the Lord, and all the stars, by the breath of his mouth. For he spoke, and it came into being; he commanded, and it came into existence.” (Psalm 33:6, 9)
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. All things were created through him, and apart from him not one thing was created that has been created.” (John 1:1-3)
Creation
We learn in these chapters what God created, how He created it, and that what He created was good. Moreover, we learn the origin of sin and why Jesus is needed as our savior. If we give up on the first eleven chapters of Genesis, we lose the foundation of our Christian faith. Without creation, we can’t make sense of the image of God, original sin, and our need for a savior.
What Did Jesus Say?
Jesus’ teachings affirm that the creation accounts were real events. He viewed the Genesis account as actual events that really occurred.
“So that this generation may be held responsible for the blood of all the prophets shed since the foundation of the world – from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who perished between the alter and the sanctuary.” (Luke 11:50-51, CSB)
““Haven’t you read,” he replied, “that he who created them in the beginning made them male and female, and he also said, ‘for this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two will become one flesh’?”” (Matt. 19:4-5, CSB)
“But from the beginning of creation God made them male and female.” (Mk. 10:6, CSB)
“As the days of Noah were, so the coming of the Son of Man will be. For in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day Noah boarded the ark. They didn’t know until the flood came and swept them all away. This is the way the coming of the Son of Man will be.” (Matt. 24:37-39, CSB)
If our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ took the Genesis account seriously, we who call ourselves His followers should too. This takes the theory of [macro] evolution off the table as a serious worldview because it contradicts the words of Christ. It also turns out that, scientifically, evolution has many problems.
Evolution
Note
Technically the “Kind” classification in the Bible corresponds to the “Family” level in our modern classification system. “Species” falls lower in the classification system. However, outside academia and in common language we use the word “Species” interchangeably with the “Kind/Family” classification. We will follow the more common convention and use the term “species” interchangeably with “kind”.
There is no scientific evidence of one “species” turning into another. The scientific community is continually searching for the so called “missing link” between “species”, particularly for humans. However, there is no evidence for a missing link found within the fossil record. The diagrams given in our school curriculum gives “potential” missing links between species not based on evidence but based on assumptions, conjecture, and faith.
Lucy
There have been several high profile “discoveries” of a missing link for humans only to quietly fade away as more information became known. Scientists have created diagrams of animal families with theoretical links filling in the gaps, but these links have never actually been found. One of the most famous examples is Lucy. Lucy made a huge splash in the news offering the possibility of a human evolutionary ancestor. The news ran wild with the story all but cementing this find as proof of evolutionary theory. The average person believed that human evolution had been proven.
However, there were several problems. First, there wasn’t enough of the skeleton found to support the wild claims about human-like features or walking stature. Second, what did exist showed features so different that they couldn’t possibly be human. The skeleton was clearly of an animal in the ape family. Finally, they bogusly claimed that it walked upright due to footprints found near the skeleton. It turned out these footprints were found more 1000 miles from the skeleton. The story of a human missing link was obviously manufactured. Thus, the story quietly moved from fact to fiction with the general public being none the wiser.
Darwin’s Doubts
The theory of evolution asserts that small changes over a long period of time ultimately leads to large changes progressing from simple to complex. If this were true it would logically follow that transition “species”, or “missing links”, would be the rule for what we find in the fossil record rather than the exception. However, this isn’t the case. We find distinct species instantly and catastrophically preserved in sedimentary rock. In fact, this was one of Darwin’s doubts about his evolutionary theory.
Single Cell Life Forms
Additionally, we still have single cell life forms. This class of organism has always existed and still exists today. Yet you won’t find two celled, three celled, four celled, or five celled organisms. One would think that these categories of organisms would be continually filled through the evolutionary process. The evolutionary theory doesn’t align with what the evidence shows.
Natural Selection
Scientists claim natural selection (micro evolution) is observable evidence for the principles of macro evolution. Natural selection represents the small changes over a long period of time that leads to large changes from simple species to more complex ones. But natural selection is adaptation or change within a species. First, these changes never result in a change in species (dogs never go through so many changes that they become cats). Second, we know that adaptive changes over time result in the loss of genetic information rather than a gain of information.
Loss of Complexity
For example, the original animals in the dog kind would carry the diversity of genes needed to create all the various dog offspring that we see today. However, all those offspring do not carry all the genes necessary to recreate the original dog. This is why chihuahuas and rottweilers are split off from the same dog kind ancestor, but you can’t get rottweilers from breeding chihuahuas. Both breeds have lost the necessary complexity to reproduce the other breed. The common ancestor was MORE complex than the branched offspring.
Let’s say, in another simplified example, there is a dog pair with the genes to create offspring with short, medium, and long hair. But, if an offspring population breaks off that has only inherited the genes for short hair, they would never be able to create a dog with long or medium hair nor would they be able to recreate their parents. This is a loss of complexity rather than a gain. The parents are genetically more complex than the offspring. This is the opposite of how evolution is supposed to work.
According to Their Kinds
Next, what has been revealed in scripture refutes the fundamental claims of evolution. God reveals in Genesis that the variety of creatures on the earth were created directly by Him. Additionally, He describes their creation as being “according to their kinds”. Notice that this is plural indicating multiple kinds within each grouping:
“So God created the large sea-creatures and every living creature that moves and swarms in the water, according to their kinds.” (Gen. 1:21, CSB)
“Then God said, “Let the earth produce living creatures according to their kinds: livestock, creatures that crawl, and the wildlife of the earth according to their kinds.” And it was so. So God made the wildlife of the earth according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and all the creatures that crawl on the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.” (Gen. 1:24, CSB)
God’s word directly refutes the idea that simple creatures were created that turned into the more complex creatures over time. Either God’s testimony about His creative work is true or He is a liar and a deceiver which would also mean, according to the scripture, that Jesus taught these deceptions. However, we know better.
“God is not a man, that he might lie…” (Numbers 23:19a, CSB)
“in the hope of eternal life that God, who cannot lie, promised before time began.” (Titus 1:2, CSB)
“so that through two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie...” (Hebrews 6:18a, CSB)
“Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life…”” (John 14:6a, CSB)
Conclusion
The theory of evolution isn’t a coherent worldview that is consistent with the true reality of what we find through Biblical revelation and scientific investigation. Those who choose to reject the existence of God that is obvious from what has been made (Rom. 1:18-20) continue to put forth the incoherent evolutionary worldview as the only acceptable alternative.
However, The Guardian reported on a 2014 meeting of eight evolutionary scientists who claim that the theory of evolution is in urgent need of an overhaul. The article begins with the startling admission that evolutionary theory still lacks the explanatory power to inform us on how things, like eyes, evolve. Many scientists understand that the theory of evolutions is lacking as a serious worldview while gaslighting the public into thinking that evolution has been proven to be the only viable explanation for the origin and development of life. They even continue to teach this nonsensical foolishness to our children in school.
The Christian worldview is the only one that offer the explanatory power behind the origin, meaning, morality, and destiny of life in a way that is internally coherent and consistent with reality. It is the only worldview that adequately deals with human sin in a coherent and just way. The special revelation of the Bible is continually supported by new scientific, cosmological, biological, and archeological discovery. It turns out that Jesus is The Way, The Truth, and the Life.
Blessings