The second option is also impossible because since evolution is impossible, any kind of evolution is impossible, even theistic evolution. We are really left with only the third option, and that is that the universe is created by God. And we are confirmed in that belief. It is the only reasonable belief. More than that, it is the testimony of scripture. How the universe came into existence is clearly told to us in Genesis Chapter 1 and 2. There is nothing in any part of the scripture to indicate that any evolutionary process existed. God created everything as it is now, and He did it in six 24-hour days. And the genealogies later on in Genesis indicate to us this likely occurred six to 7,000 years ago; that’s all. This is what the Bible says, and the Bible is the word of God, inspired and inerrant.
It is unmistakable. When God began the Bible, he initiated revelation with the historical record of creation. That is because it is foundational to the gospel. It’s foundational to all theology and all history. Creation is the foundation of all truth and all true religion, because the issue of origins is critical to any understanding of the role God plays in the universe. So we’ve been saying all along the Bible is to be taken seriously in Genesis 1 and 2, just as it is in John 3:16 or anywhere else. If you question the inerrancy and authority of scripture in Genesis 1 and 2, you are striking a blow against the integrity of the Word of God, and you are dishonoring the God who inspired it, and that is a serious crime. And we’ve been saying that Jesus Christ is not really the beginning of the gospel. Christianity does not begin with accepting Jesus Christ as Savior. It begins with accepting God as creator. When the church seriously demands that people recognize God as creator, sustainer, sovereign and consummator of the time-space universe, they will know God is acting in this world, where they live, and that they are accountable to this God who is creator, sustainer, sovereign and consummator. And when they understand that they are accountable to the creator, and that the Bible is true when it speaks of creation, just as true as when it speaks of the gospel, they then become aware that they are under God’s sovereign authority, they view scripture completely different. And we have been saying that science never has found one shred of evidence that anything has evolved, or that the record of Genesis is anything but absolutely true.
So we have come to this point in Genesis where we affirm what it says; that the heavens and the earth were completed in six 24-hour days, about six or 7,000 years ago most likely. So when you come to day seven in that original week, all creation has ceased. If you believe in evolution, even theistic evolution, you have to believe that things are still evolving. And that is in direct contradiction to the clear statement that the heavens and the earth were completed and all their occupants, “all their hosts.”
Now, we remember on day one, “God created light.”
Day two, He created water and the firmament. On day three, He created the dry land.
On day four, the “sun, the moon and the stars.”
Day five, the fish and the birds.
Day six, the land animals and man.
He did it in each case in a 24-hour day, as indicated by the phrase there was morning and there was evening, or “There was evening and there was morning,” and at the end of the six days the heavens and the earth were completed. Back in Verse 31 of Chapter 1: “God saw all that he had made and behold, it was very good.” And that is God’s final stamp of approval on his completed creation. It was finished. It was complete. It was “very good,” which was to say it lacked nothing.
Now that takes us to the second verb here, “rested.” By the seventh day — literally could be translated and since by the seventh day God had completed His work which He had done, “He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done.” Repeatedly, I told you, three times it tells us that His work was done; his work was done; his work was done. In Verse 3 using the words: “He rested from all His work which God had created and made.” Three times it has said God was finished creating everything that has existence. Now, the verb “rested” is very interesting; wysbuff (phonetic) in the Hebrew. It is not to imply any kind of weariness. It is not that God was worn out after a tough work week. Isaiah 40:28, you ought to remember this Verse. Isaiah 40:28 says: “He faints not, neither is weary.”
There is, when God works — whether He is working in creation or whether He’s “upholding the creation by the word of his power,” as we saw in Hebrews 1, or whether He’s accomplishing any particular task — there is no dissipation of energy. There is no law of entropy. There is no breaking down of matter. There is no disintegration in the absolute ineffable, pure, holy power of God. That’s why Psalm 121:4 says He doesn’t “slumber” and He doesn’t “sleep.” He needs no replenishing. He needs no refreshing, because He never gets weary. He never gets tired.
“This article originally appeared here at Bible Bulletin Board.”
