Author: 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.
When Charles Darwin studied the life forms of the Galapagos Islands, his views were affected by the common teachings of his day. He was under the impression that to believe in creation, one must believe that God created the plants and animals of any area in that place.
1. Could Genesis 2:8-9 be understood to uphold the view Darwin held? One thing to remember is that this is part of the original creation. Is it true that God put plants in place during the third day of creation (Gen. 1:11-12)? What else did God provide for on that third day? How does this show God’s preservation of his creatures? As God created all things during that first week of time. He also set in motion those means by which the world and what it contains may be continually renewed. This is part of the problem with the creationist view of Darwin’s day. It did not allow for the transport, movement or migration in other ways of the seeds or parents of different plants and animals.
2. The other problem with Darwin’s view of creationism, as well as the ideas of many scientists today, is that he, and they, disregard a great change which occurred between creation and today. This great change is first discussed in Gen. 6:5-7, 13. What was the reason for the change? Who instituted the change? Who was to be affected by the change? The preparations for this change are recorded in Gen. 6:14, 7:16. What was to survive the change? How were they to do so? Could anyone other than God, the Creator, have seen the corning change clearly enough to give such specific directions for some to continue on after this change? How many of the different animals were to be saved? In the latter verses referred to above (Gen. 7:14-16), we see God’s use again of the term “kind”. Compare Gen. 1:11, 21, 24. Since there are male and female of each kind (and more of the clean animals, such as some birds), God again provided for the continuation of these creatures.
3. Genesis chapter five gives us a basis for learning how much time occurred from the creation to Noah. How would we find out this time span (see vs. 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18, 21, 25, 28, 32)? To save a great deal of time, the total is roughly 1650 years. What does Paul say has been happening ever since the Fall – Romans 8:20, 22?
4. Because of this curse, all of creation has become liable to changes, combinations and breakdowns in the transmission of information from one generation to another. Through inter-breeding prior to the Flood, different genetic characteristic possibilities could have been brought together in only a few individuals. Could God have built in some or all of these possibilities in the original creation? Where else could they have come from?
5. The only true foundation we have for knowing what we cannot actually experience is God’s inerrant Word, the Bible. In it we find, not man’s suppositions, but God’s declarations of how things really are. When there is a conflict between science and God’s Word, it is best to review the Scripture to make sure we are not reading something into it that it does not say, while at the same time leaving open the possibility that science just may not have caught up with God’s revelation yet.
6. Charles Darwin took the views of his time, thinking they were scriptural, and found something he felt proved it wrong. As time passes, we see these views were misinterpretations of Scripture, and therefore, though they were wrong, God’s Word is still true. How are we tempted to set aside God’s Word in our lives today? What does this tell us of our need for the BIBLE and the regular study of it?
You may desire to close this Bible study with the reading of Psalm 119:89-104 and a prayer of thanksgiving to God for His Word, which endures through the ages and leads us to all truth.
Footnotes:
Photo: Galapagos marine iguana. PD
1986 Bible Science Newsletter.
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