Creation

There is no doubt in my mind that someone can be a sincere Christian and not be a creationist. Many people view Genesis 1-2 as a poetic account explaining the purpose of humanity, and see no conflict between this and the Big Bang theory. Perhaps God created a Big Bang. Either that, or Christians feel unsure what to think, how to reconcile the Bible account of creation with scientific theory.

I want to suggest that the creation controversy has many far-reaching implications in a Christian's worldview and life, and encourage Christians to prioritise what the Bible teaches above what men theorize.

Firstly, the whole apprach of marrying evolution and the Bible shows our human tendency to patronise our ancestors and believe that future = progress = better. We like to smile and say knowingly, "Yes but the people who wrote the Bible were unscientific. They didn't know all that we know now." I think it's a mistake to dismiss the intellect of people from Bible times. Cain built a city with no precedent! (Gen 4:17) If humans are inventive and intelligent now, they certainly were from the beginning- after all, we were made in the image of God and He is the ultimate Inventor and intelligent One.

Secondly I think it's dangerous to bring human ideas to the Bible, and try to squash the Bible to fit them- or worse, ignore what the Bible says, in favour of a human idea. The Bible was certainly written by men at a specific time in history where they didn't have space travel and electric power etc, but it was ultimately God-breathed (2 Tim 3:16). It is God's book about Himself and the world He created. It is His gracious revelation to us. It defines wisdom.

We, as flawed and sinful human beings, are not smarter than God. We weren't there when the universe was created. God was. Our puny human ideas don't touch a smidgen of the immense capacity of God's mind. He has NO LIMITATIONS!

Many people cling to evolution because they have rejected God and want to find a way of explaining the universe without Him in the picture. Many non-Christians scoff at a creationist: 'How can you believer that the universe was created in six days?' Their worldview does not include a God who is all-powerful, all-knowing and 100% good.

The crux of the matter is this: if you are a Christian and believe in a God who can raise from the dead, then you believe in a God who is the author and giver of life, who is perfectly capable of creating a universe in six days. And if you believe in this God, what exactly is so ludicrous about creationism? If you believe that God IS capable of a six day creation (which Genesis 1 asserts that He is), and yet choose to believe that He chose instead to form the world over millions of years from tiny cells, why exactly are you making that decision? What motivates you? If it's social acceptance, then surely you're valuing the theories of men above the Word of God?

Wayne Grudem in Systematic Theology points out that there are a number of problems with being a theistic evolutionary:

• Randomness vs God's clear purpose. 'after three hundred eighty-seven million four hundred ninety-two thousand eight hundred seventy-one attempts, God finally made a mouse that worked'.
• Scripture says God's word has immediate response
• Scripture says God made different species
• Adam and Eve were specially created to be different from other animals
• The New Testament affirms the historicity of Adam and Eve as real people (Rom 5, 1 Cor 15, Lk 3:38 etc)
  

Christians who support evolution have some seriously tricky issues and questions to grapple with, such as:

1. When did humans first exist? When did a Neanderthal become a human being with a soul?

2. Who were Adam and Eve? Two of many people who had all evolved at the same time? Mythological characters? If so, how much else of the Bible is mere mythology?

3. When did the Fall happen? There has to be a Fall, because even if you don't believe God created the world in six days, you have to believe that God created the world good-unless ou have God create something imperfect which throws open a whole other can of worms.

4. When did death enter the world? Evolutionary theory is based upon survival of the fittest, and the development of species over generations. The Bible teaches that death is a consequence of sin. No sin = no death. God HATES death. It is the antithesis of who He is- the life-giver. It makes no sense that He would create death as part of His perfect world. Any thinking which suggests death is necessary is only based on the world we see today- we cannot imagine a world without death. Yet that is what Jesus came to save us from, and the future we have to look forward to in heaven.

There are many things I don't understand about the world, the universe and the Bible. But I believe that God created everything and knows best:

'By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God's command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.' Hebrews 11:3

I don't want to bury my head in the sand and ignore science completely. But I feel happier taking God at His word and waiting for heaven where I'll understand much better! I'd rather stand before God and have Him say, 'You fool, Sophie, for taking Genesis 1 literally!' than to have Him say, 'Why did you believe what men said above what My word revealed to you?' And judging on Jesus' reaction to His contemporaries ('for they loved praise from men more than praise from God' Jn 12:43; 'You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to the traditions of men' Mk 7:8), I think the latter is more likely than the former.

How can I trust the Bible? #2

How can you trust the Bible when it's so unscientific?

I've been asked this question so many times.

The idea that the Bible is unscientific probably comes from people's perception of the Genesis account of creation in six days, which contradicts their evolutionary science education.

There are several different Christian responses to the whole question of creation-evolution, and I don't want to tackle that issue now. Firstly, I want to combat this common stereotype that the Bible is 'unscientific'.

Christians believe that the Bible is the 'Word of God'. This means that although men wrote it, the words they were writing were given to them by God. They were 'inspired' by the Holy Spirit. God ensured that what they wrote was free from error.

Now God is the biggest, greatest Scientist in the universe! He INVENTED science! He created this incredibly complex universe and all its natural laws and delicate eco-balances come through His design.

So it's unsurprising that the Bible contains various comments that reveal an awareness of science far beyond its historical era, pointing towards God's authorship behind the human writers.

Look at Job 38:31: 'Can you bind the beautiful Pleiades? Can you loose the cords of Orion?'
Only in the last 30 years have we discovered what this verse means- scientists found that Pleiades is a loose cluster of stars, whereas Orion is a tight cluster. God thus is speaking to Job about His formation of the stars, something Job would not have understood but was led to write down.

Job 26:7 states 'He hangeth the world upon nothing', a bold statement regarding the gravitation of the earth that means it doesn't have to be supported by anything physical. At the time, ancient Greeks believed the world was held up by Atlas, and the Muslims believed the world was held up by a bull. The Bible was right.

Isa 40:22 says that earth is spherical: 'He sits upon the circle of the earth'.

And to top it all off, Job 38:14 states that the earth is spinning: 'The earth takes shape like clay under a seal'. What does that mean? Well, a Hebrew seal was a cylinder that you rolled along the parchment- it rotates on its axis. Here is a perfect picture of how the earth moves through space.

Luke also shows that the earth has different timescales, a concept unknown to the people of his day. Luke 17:24-25- 'I tell you, on that night two people will be in one bed; one will be taken and the other left. Two women will be grinding grain together; one will be taken and the other left.'
Jesus is talking about His Second Coming, and we know there will only be one Day of the Lord. But what do these verses say? Two people are in bed, sleeping- it must be night time. But two women are going about their daily work in the daytime. Thus this shows that when Jesus returns, half the world will be in daytime, and half in night time.

These are just a few examples of how the Bible makes scientific statements that are way ahead of its time. But really, you need to read it for yourself to see how amazingly practical a book it is. Unlike the Qu'ran, which is a collection of Mohammed's sayings, the Bible is a collection of 66 inspired books, which vary in genre from history, poetry, letters and law. You need to be aware of these differences in style when you read it.

This book, 'Dig Deeper' by Nigel Beynon and Andrew Sach, is really helpful in explaining how to read the Bible: