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.
Because of evolutionary propaganda, many Christians consider the very existence of strange creatures which are now extinct to be adequate proof of evolution. Yet Genesis records that the creation of all animals was complete by the end of the sixth day. We can reach a scientifically valid conclusion from what Genesis says: All the different kinds of creatures that can be shown to have ever lived were alive and well by the end of the sixth day of the existence of the universe, and lived at the same time as man.
Psalm 104:26 mentions that God had created the leviathan to sport in the sea. On the basis of Genesis 1:21, we can conclude that the leviathan was probably created on the fifth day, but what was leviathan? The description of leviathan in Job 41:1-34 agrees with Psalm 104:26; this was apparently a large sea-dwelling creature. Many commentators have suggested that leviathan was a crocodile. But the animal described in Job 41 has some important differences when compared to a crocodile. The first two verses of Job 41 point out that man cannot hope to capture this great creature, a point which is also obvious in verses 33 and 34. But history shows that man has captured, killed, and made good use of the crocodile throughout his time on earth. How do verses 6 and 7 rule out the crocodile as leviathan?
Read Job 41:26-30. Would the methods described here succeed in killing or capturing a crocodile? Does the text indicate that these methods work with leviathan? Note that in verse 30, leviathan is described as having armor plates protecting his underside, as well as his upper parts. Yet a crocodile’s underbelly is very soft and vulnerable. Those who accept evolution cannot imagine this text describing a “prehistoric” animal, yet creationists have suggested that leviathan could be a sea-dwelling dinosaur, of which there were several types. Is there any animal that is “prehistoric” to man, based on Genesis? Could Job have been describing a dinosaur? So the existence of dinosaurs does not prove evolution, but it does supply a testimony to the amazing creativity of God.
The same principles hold for the birds. While Archaeopteryx is an unusual bird, even its more unusual features are also found on other birds. Therefore we can conclude that Archaeopteryx was among the birds which God created on the fifth day, as recorded in Genesis 1:20-23. Note here that verse 21 says that God looked at what He had made “and God saw that it was good.” If God makes something that He calls “good,” how good is it? Is there need for improvement in something God declares “good”?
So the scientific prediction we can make here is that no intermediate forms will be found in the fossil record, since all creatures will be complete. What does our Scriptural knowledge on this point allow us to predict about kinds?
Unusual animals should not make us think about evolutionary transitional forms either. Consider the bat, a mammal that flies. Yet no one supposes that it is a transitional form between birds and mammals. There is a very good reason for this – evolutionists don’t need a transitional form between birds and mammals, since they don’t believe that mammals evolved from birds. But what if evolutionists believed that mammals did evolve from birds? How would you expect evolutionists to speak of the bat then? The bat is simply evidence of the extreme creative genius of God. Psalm 148 is an example of Biblical praise of God for His creative genius.
In Genesis 1:11 we read God’s command which created the trees and other plants. They are commanded, as part of their design or structure – one of their essential features – to produce fruit and seed after their kind. This principle is easily understandable to the shepherd. He knows that the grasses his flocks fed from last year will be safe for this year’s feeding. He knows that the grasses have not turned into some other non-edible and possibly poisonous plant. They always reproduce after their kind.
When Scripture stresses something, we know that it is for a purpose. In Genesis 1:12, we find an important stress in the repetition of this principle: “And the earth brought forth vegetation plants yielding seed after their kind, and trees bearing fruit, with seed in them after their kind, and God saw that it was good.” This repetition for stress is included in the inspired text for a reason.
After their kind is an important principle in plants, as it is with animals – it is part of their very nature. What well-known principle is contained in this command of God? Is this principle a result of man’s experience with plants and animals? While selective breeding can favor certain characteristics which are already present in the genetic information, it does not produce the new genetic information which would have been necessary for evolution to have taken place. Science shows that plants reproduce “after their kind.”
Close this Bible study with a devotional reading of Psalm 148.
Footnotes:
1987 Bible Science Newsletter.
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