Jump Start # 2956
Genesis 1:31 God saw all that He had made, and behold it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.”
I have been teaching a class that revolves around questions—tough questions. Questions that we have but are much too afraid to ask. Questions that our family and friends ask us. Questions such as, “What if we are wrong?” Another was, “How do we know that God wrote the Bible?” which led to, “How do we know that we have all of God’s word?”
This week the question was about naturalism. Is naturalism possible? By naturalism, I mean organic or macro-evolution. It’s hard to cover the topic of creation/evolution in one setting. There are so many things to consider and look at. And, at stake is so much more than how did we get here. Our values systems, purpose all come from either a secular worldview or a Biblical worldview. Hot topic subjects such as gender, climate change, same-sex marriage are built around which worldview one holds.
We need to remember that origins is not a matter of faith or science. In fact, creationists and evolutionist look at the same material. It’s not that one has all the evidence and the other side doesn’t. Preconceived ideas and prejudices color how one looks at the material. Where one starts determines where one ends up. Having said that, one must remember that evolution has not been proven factual and true. It has not. It remains a theory and it’s a theory that has a lot of questions to answer, such as how does life come from non-life?
Our verse today ends the first chapter of Genesis. On the sixth day land animals and humans were created by God. Now, there are some conclusions that we can pull from this passage. Hold on. Some of this may shock you.
First, there is no such thing as pre-historic. History is about life, human life. So at the most, pre-historic covers five days before Adam was created. That’s certainly not the way it is presented in museums.
Second, man and animals are not connected. Humans are not part of the animal kingdom. We are made separate and distinct from animals. We are made in the image of God.
Third, man from the beginning was intelligent and able to function. He was not a caveman that grunted and pulled his woman by her hair. Adam is the first man. That’s what Corinthians calls him. There was no human before Adam. Java man, Neanderthal man, Fred Flintstone—just the imagination of others. Adam could name all the animals. Adam could tend the garden. Within the first few pages of Genesis you read about metal tools and musical instruments.
Fourth, man and dinosaurs co-existed. They had to. Death didn’t enter the world until Adam sinned. So, the idea that no man ever saw a living dinosaur is not true. One would think then that there ought to be examples or evidence of man and dinosaurs. And, there is. Worldwide evidence. In the middle ages, there are numerous accounts of dragons being slayed. Why weren’t they called dinosaurs? The word ‘dinosaur’ was not developed until the late 1800’s. There is a stone column in Cambodia which has a picture of a dinosaur among other animals. The tomb of Bishop Bell in Europe is outlined in brass with carvings of animals. Some of those animals are distinctly dinosaur in appearance. Cave drawings throughout the world show stick figure people shooting arrows at dinosaurs. An eight mile long carved mural in Amazon rainforest has many images of mastodons and other dinosaur like animals. Now, where did all of these come from if no one ever saw one?
Fifth, the first animals were all vegetarian. That includes lions. That includes T-Rex. The end of Genesis one declares that God gave fruit for you and to every beast of the earth. Every green plant was food. So, when did animals begin to eat meat? When did man begin to eat meat? Abel offered a lamb to God. After the flood, God gave a green light to eat “every moving things that is alive” (Gen 9:3).
Sixth, death came into the world as a form of punishment. The first to die physically must have been the animals that God used to provide garments of skin for Adam and Eve. I like to think it was leopard print, but that’s just me. So the extinction of animals took place after the appearance of man, not before.
Seventh, the color scheme of dinosaurs is strictly the imagination of the artist. Skin is tissue. It’s the first to go after death. What we have are the bones of dinosaurs, not the skin. So when you see replicas that are green, stripped, dotted, with a touch of red here and there, that is just how one person dreams it up. We don’t know. No one knows.
All of this tells us that you and I have been fed a bunch of ideas that are not necessarily true. From school, children’s books, museums, to shows on TV. Let’s be bold and stick with what the Bible teaches. And, of course, the question will be asked, “What happened to the dinosaurs?” Some died in the flood. Some, as other species of animals, have become extinct because of hunting, growing population of cities, and the changes that took place after the flood. Now, I have not touched the topic of fossils. Evolutionists want us to believe that fossils are their ace that they hold in their hand. It’s not. The fossil record doesn’t follow the theory of evolution. But that’s for another time.
Aren’t you glad that you know. You know where you came from. You know why you are here. You know what you are supposed to do. And, most importantly, you know where you are going. The theory of evolution has no hope, help or future beyond the grave.
In the beginning God…that’s how it all starts.
Roger