To evolution advocates everywhere:
Please forgive the young earth creationists who reject evolution for its very long time spans and changing lifeforms. Many of them are friends of mine and even Bible teachers I respect. However I consider it pretty plain that they reject evolution's timespans and lifeform changes because they fail to take literally that:
- We are to study God’s creation itself because it reveals His truth, majesty and power, although not necessarily His mercy and love (Psalm 19, Romans 1).
- Anyone who attempts to confuse the wisdom of God’s own words, or add to them will be rebuked by God (Job 38:2, Proverbs 30:5).
- God created heaven and earth from nothing in the beginning, before the “first day” (Genesis 1:1). Since men of every era understand the sun to be the key part of the heavens, literally this indicates the sun was created before the earth.
- After the earth was created and before the “first day”, God made the seas through a natural seeming process of unknown duration, which ended with a thick cloud layer that darkened the natural light (Job 38:8-9).
- Literally, God only says air-breathing sea creatures, birds, and mankind were created from nothing during the six days (Gen 1). We must remember that the scriptures were written for the understanding of mankind of every era, so only plants and animals familiar to every man are actually discussed. God’s only summary of the six day period itself says God made heaven and earth complete then (Exodus 20:11). Therefore we should assume all other aspects of heaven and earth, such as the planets and less familiar living things may have been created from nothing, or made from other existing things at any point between in the beginning and the sixth day. The Bible has no word for a species, so no one can claim that the existence of a new species is against the Bible. It does describe kinds of plants and animals reproducing according to their kind, and God resting from His acts creation, which might be interpreted as meaning a creature of one scientific phylum could never mutate into a creature of another phylum, and that no new phyla came into existence since the sixth day.
- The "first day" may be so named because it was the first day men of every era would understand, when heaven and earth were nearly complete and literally natural light became apparent at the surface of the seas. The Hebrew word translated “day” has several literal meanings, including a period of unspecified duration (usually defined by a continuing event which marks it, examples of which could be the land producing vegetation, or the appearance of the heavenly bodies through the thinning cloud layer).
- The words for “morning” and “evening” may be used figuratively for some of the six days (as Moses uses them in Psalm 90:5-6) to support God’s purpose for creation,, namely that all men should seek to know and serve God on a weekly basis (Exodus 20:11) for their own personal good (2 Tim 3:16).
- The land produced seed-bearing plants the third day (Gen 1:11-12). Literally the sun must be providing energy, since it provides natural light that is apparent, even though the sun as a heavenly body cannot yet be seen. Notice the activity God controls appears natural and would literally be of long duration, involving change in the apparent lifeforms. Interpreting the third day as a long period is giving weight both to God’s literal “land producing” words and to known scientific evidence (which is obtained by study of something God says reveals of Himself).
- The sun, moon, and stars were literally made apparent the fourth day in the order it would have occurred due to thinning cloud cover, which enabled using them for light and to mark time, thus completing God’s purposes for them (Gen 1:14-19). Sometime during the fourth day, the dark cloud layer that God established during the making of the seas (Job 38) is largely removed.
- Fish, air-breathing sea creatures of all sizes, and birds were created from nothing the fifth day (Gen 1:20-23). No mention is made of microscopic lifeforms, fungi, arthropods, or non-air breathing creatures. Since these mentioned are divine creations of God, we must assume something more obvious and drastic than precise intelligently guided radiation causing an exact pre-designed mutation of DNA was occurring. The Darwinian mechanism for natural selection is obviously excluded, since that would appear natural. Whether such acts of creation are beyond evolution itself depends on what one means by "evolution".
- The land produces air-breathing land animals of all sizes and kinds during the sixth day (Gen 1:24-26). No mention is made of creating them and we are not to add to God's word (Proverbs 30:5-6), therefore considering what God's creation has taught us, we can assume they were made from pre-existing sea creatures or simpler land animals God does not speak of. This also is literally a long period where lifeform changes become apparent.
- The creation of mankind also occurs the sixth day (Gen 1:26-27). Notice divine “creation” from nothing is mentioned closely with “in God’s image”. Later the mechanics about making Adam's physical body is described as making him from the dust of the earth (Gen 2:7). This may mean the divine spark of spirituality, intelligence, and moral decision is “in God’s image,” somehow present in mankind only by way of obviously divine action, and that the physical form of men was first constructed from pre-existing dust, which may literally include the DNA of earlier creatures that had died.
- When God presents living creatures for Adam to name on the sixth day, to see if they are suitable companions for him, Adam should be understood to study each creature so it can be accurately named according to the Hebrew traditions. Such study is not done hastily out of respect for the creature and its' Creator (Gen 2:18-20). Here is recorded the first scientific activity of mankind. When Eve is presented, Adam exclaims "at last", which would hardly be suitable if he had only been waiting for merely part of one day (Gen 2:21-24).
- God ends the sixth day God completing His work with giving dominion over the earth and all its creatures to mankind. This includes that green plants are given for air-breathing land animals and birds to eat, so no predation among those animals occurred from the sixth day (Gen 1:26-31). Literally this means land animal predation could have occurred earlier, but young earth creationism rejects that also. When Satan portrayed God as evil, Adam failed to stop his deceptions, and cooperated with it despite knowing God well, which gave dominion of this world to that deceiver. That is why we have land animal predation occurring later.
