Author: Pastor Paul A. Bartz
Note: Creation Moments exists to provide Biblically sound materials to the Church in the area of Bible and science relationships. This Bible study may be reproduced for group use.
Goal: Our goal in this study is not only to acquaint you with some of the terms and concepts encountered in a study of origins, but also to shed some biblical light on our understanding of these issues.
1.Read Genesis 1:1-2:3 quickly for a brief overview of the Biblical account. In our Bible study A Twenty-first Century Look at Genesis 1, we look at this text in more detail.
Genesis 1:1 says that God “created” the heaven and the earth. To create in the sense that this word is used here means, “to make out of nothing.” This is much different than the artist who is said to “create” a painting. Only when he has the materials can he arrange them into a work of art.
2.Those who believe that God created the whole universe out of nothing (or ex nihilo), are said to believe in creation.
But today, many more of the details of His work of creation are becoming known to us. We gaze in awe at the complexity of a single living cell, and at the power and mysteries found in space.
The systematic, careful study of the creation is called science.
Is the study of and use of knowledge about our creation wrong in and of itself? See I Timothy 4:4-6.
3.Discuss: Can a better knowledge of the creation, gained from a scientific perspective, help us to praise and give thanks to the Lord?
How can learning more about the wonders of all the different processes within a single living cell lead us to better appreciate God?
How has He blessed us here on earth as a result of such study?
4.Scientists and others who study about the creation, in the belief that God did create it supernaturally in six days, and still preserves it, are called creationists. Non-scientists who also believe this are also called creationists.
Scientists and others who study the same creation in the belief that it came about by natural means still operating today and that this is a process that took place over great spans of time – are called evolutionists.
Those who believe that the world came about by evolution which was directed by God over long spans of time are called theistic evolutionists. Theistic evolutionists say that God created, but that He did so using evolution as His method. Ultimately, theistic evolution is neither good theology nor good science.
5.Science is based on the witness, measurement, and recording of events and things. Obviously those of us who believe in creation believe that man was not around until the sixth day when all the creating was essentially completed. Can man, therefore, scientifically establish, in the strictest sense of science, what actually happened?
But the evolutionist also believes that man came along only after evolution brought things almost to where they are today. Therefore can the evolutionist scientifically establish, in the strict sense of science (witness, measure and record) that evolution took place?
6.So both the creation-believing scientist and the evolution-believing scientist must witness and measure the world today and, like detectives, try to figure out what most likely happened in the past.
If the world came about as the evolutionist says, time, chance, and accidents are the cause of the world we know today. If the world came about as the creationist believes, God, design, and intelligence produced our present world.
Which of these six elements (time, chance, accident, God, design, and Intelligence), do we find mentioned in Hebrews 3:4 and Psalm 19:1?
Does the world as we know it lead us to believe that it happened by time, chance and accident (evolution), or by God, design and intelligence (creation)?
7.Consider this: The earth is just the right distance from the sun. If we were even one percent closer or one percent farther away from the sun the resulting changes would make the earth uninhabitable. Does this fact indicate chance or design in our world?
Or consider: Water is one of the very few liquids which expands when it becomes a solid (ice). If it became more dense as most liquids do, it would sink to the bottom of our lakes, and almost all our northern lakes would freeze solid, killing almost all the aquatic life. Does this important exception to the natural behavior of liquids and solids indicate design or chance?
8.In a very simple way this is how the creationist scientist recognizes the evidences of the way in which the world was created as he searches our present world. But he doesn’t do this to prove the Bible is right. His goal is to witness to the evidence of God’s purposes, especially His greatest purpose in saving us through the payment made by Jesus Christ for our sins.
9.How does John 1:1-3 show that the Son of God, our Redeemer, had a lot to do with creating? Is there anything that was made without Him (verse 3)?
And while we begin to enjoy the blessings of His salvation even now, the whole creation groans with us under the burden of sin waiting for His final return and the complete end of all sin and its results. Read Romans 8:18-23. What are the effects of sin on us and the creation?
Can any science totally correct sin?
10.Only God’s grace, His saving power, can help us or the creation. Here even the creation-scientist recognizes the need for this power of God as he uses God’s creation to witness His grace and glorify Him!
Suggested closing: pray Psalm 90 in unison.
Footnotes:
1986 Bible Science Newsletter.
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