1. BIBLICAL CREATIONISM
BY DR. EARL PARVIN
August 18, 2019
I. INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF BIBLICAL CREATION PPT – INTRO.
The purpose of this study is to seek to more fully understand the CHARACTER of GOD in creating the cosmos as revealed in the Bible. Each element of creation will emphasize a character of God. We therefore, approach the study of cosmology from the perspective of a Biblical Christian Philosophy of Life which causes us to envision the universe from a Christian Worldview. That Worldview is conditioned by the following five presuppositions:
A. The necessity of FAITH— Heb 11:1
Faith is defined by Webster as: belief that does not rest on logical proof or
material evidence. Even philosophical premises are based on faith; therefore,
we start with--
B. The existence of God--- Gen 1:1 We accept by FAITH Elohim’s existence. Can you
philosophically prove the existence of God? The Bible does not seek to prove His existence. We believe by FAITH that He has spoken…through Holy Men moved by HS [II Peter 1:21]
C. The Word of God--- II Pet. 1:21
We believe The Bible is that Word which God has spoken
D. The Standard of Truth--- II T 2:15
The Bible proclaims Absolute Truth which is applicable to everyone.
E. The standard of Ethical Morality--- Ja 1:21
Ethics is defined as: standards governing conduct. Morality is defined as: the
quality of conduct judged according to the ethical standard. The Word of God is that standard.
A STATEMENT OF A BIBLICAL WORLDVIEW could be: I accept by faith that Elohim God exists. That He has spoken as recorded in His Word, the Bible, which has set a Standard of Absolute Truth applicable to ALL mankind and a Standard of Ethical Morality incumbent for All mankind. These are NON-NEGOTIABLES. This Biblical Creation account is presented as Historical not an Epic.
May we also note as we begin this study, that it was no happen stance that Biblical Hebrew was chosen for the language in which the Biblical account is recorded. God wanted the account to verify clearly that everything He created did not exist before [ex-nihilo], and that the order and sequence was exact. This is expressed in Hebrew with what is called ‘waw consecutive + with the Imperfect tense”. It declares this is a logical sequence. Hebrew is also excellent in “Word Pictures” to express some special event. This account is accurate as expressed using the Hebrew verb form called, “wayyiqtol”. Not mere Myth nor “War Among the Gods”.
II. THE BIBLICAL ACCOUNT OF CREATION PROCEEDS WITH A CHRONOLOGICAL, METICULOUS SEQUENCE OF EVENTS: THERE ARE THREE “ACTS OF CREATION”: 1. He creates TIME-SPACE- MATTER-ENERGY UNIVERSE. 2. HE CREATES ANIMAL & VEGITATION LIFE IN KINDS. 3. HE CREATES MAN FROM THE DUST OF THE GROUND AND BREATHES INTO HIM THE BREATH OF LIFE, AS A SPIRITUAL BEING AFTER HIS OWN LIKENESS. [DR. HENRY MORRIS]
A. There are 6 literal, 24 hour days in which creation is accomplished [Ex 20:11]. The 7th DAY God “rested” [better FINISHED], for He certainly didn’t need to rest, but as an example for us to follow. We need to finish our work and rest, while body refreshes itself as God designed it.
B. The FIRST DAY: The Genesis account boldly establishes much about our Great God. It starts with: “In the beginning God”. Our Eternal God is timeless and self existent = His aseity [Ps 90:2 “Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever You had formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting You are God.] He must establish TIME, for it did not exist in His world for He is Eternal. Then we learn that God [Elohim, plural / a singular verb = Godhead Ro 1:20] is the great ARCHITECT who, through His Son, the BUILDER [the Second Person of the Trinity [Jn 1:8,10;Col 1:16; I Cor 8:6] methodically creates space [heaven], a PLACE [which did not exist], to put His grand cosmos which will showcase this Earth. Next, He creates the elements or building materials [earth] or Elements, which He stock-piles in suspension or solution in a sphere of water. Then the Spirit of God [Holy Spirit or Third Person of the Trinity] THE ENABLER, patiently pours all the energy needed for making it all come together. Finally, He creates LIGHT in all its glorious spectrum to support life, including human life, THE PURPOSE for which He is making this universe. It will contain a unique Solar system [bubble], finely tuned to be INHABITED [Is 45:18]. As we shall explore later, the visible light we can ‘see’ with our eyes, is but a small portion of the ‘electromagnetic spectrum’ of light. That spectrum of light, ranges from radio waves to gamma rays, revealing an Omnipotent Creator/Architect!
C. The SECOND DAY He creates a [raqiya = ‘pounded out plane’] firmament. A fabric or plane in which He will place His celestial bodies, each in its own plane.
D. The THIRD DAY He gathers the waters, perhaps by enacting gravity, so that the Earth which was congealing from the elements, stockpiled in water, appears as dry land in preparation for living things, i.e. vegetation, after their own KIND, which would be available for food , ‘mature, ready to eat’.
E. On the FOURTH DAY He created the celestial bodies, sun, moon, stars, which He placed in the fabric [firmament] or planes of the cosmos in which they accurately and faithfully move [orbit]..
F. DAY FIVE HE created aquatic and avian life after their own KIND.
G. DAY SIX He created animal life after its own KIND, numbering 1500 Kinds. THEN, He climaxes His work with the creation of mankind, male and then female in ch. 2:21-22. The woman was created from man, because he found no animal was a suitable helper. A clear indication that God did not plan for animals to evolve by natural selection to become man. Each in his own KIND. It is also interesting that God created a WOMAN for Adam to marry, thus denying the tragedy of homosexuality or transgenderism. [See: TIME 9/12/16--- The Man Who Gave Birth].
H. SEVENTH DAY GOD RESTED or FINISHED HIS WORK.
I. It is also interesting to note: [God’s attention to detail]
1. In Verse 1, God creates: TIME, SPACE & MATTER = which is what science calls the “Spacetime Continuum”. That is man’s [Einstein if you will] ‘best’ explanation for Gravity. Newton taught that Gravity is a FORCE in which Matter attracts Matter. But, neither explanation explains what Gravity is; only what it does.
2. V.2 the Spirit of God is introducing ENERGY to congeal the elements [Matter] into recognizable shapes [from tohoo & bohu, ie. formless + void – Gen 1:1].
3. Vs.3-5 God creates LIGHT[which sustains life] as well as in its full “magnetic spectrum” [the end of Day 1 = all the building materials and energy needed are now in place]
4. Vs.6-8 Day 2 = God creates the FIRMAMENT [NIV] expanse [KJV]. This ‘plane’ [raqiya] becomes the fabric or ‘planes’ in which He will place HIS celestial bodies v.14, which includes the plane of our Solar system. Then, wonder of wonders, He creates stars and Galaxies a plenty, using only 7 words. Note, the lack of emphasis here on deep space, but clearly on inhabitable earth. Scientists have misplaced emphasis.
J. One of the obvious indications of God’s attention to details is the subject of MATHEMATICAL CONSTANTS. It is often frustrating to note that everything in science is usually expressed in a MATHEMATICAL FORMULA. In these mathematical statements there is often a CONSTANT… a number which is most of the time TRUE. In measuring gravity, there will always be a symbol ‘g’ in the equation, which is the gravitational constant. It is = 9.8.
K. Dr. Henry Morris, PhD [hydrology] in his 1966 book: Studies in the Bible and Science, exclaims: Daniel had no idea how right he would be when he wrote [in 537 BC] about the future “explosion of knowledge” [12:4]. Today, Morris says, “no man can possibly presume to make such a statement as: ‘Science contradicts the Bible’”. There is just too much knowledge in a given field for anyone to know it all!
L. FINALLY, but not inconsequentially, the greatest INTANGIBLE for science is the source of KNOWLEDGE. How does science account for, quantify or devise a mathematical formula for the knowledge ‘to make it happen’, like DNA, which is expressed as three languages: DNA, RNA & Protein? [Omniscience if you will!, versus ‘natural causes’ which cannot account for endless complexity, i.e. DNA = three languages result in: Protein, Genetics & Epigenetics!]
M. May I conclude: the choice is: will it be, 1. Evolutionary FAITH or 2. Creation FAITH? Neither can be SCIENTIFICALLY proven. It was not meant to be so. It is a FAITH venture for both Models. In DEBATE you start with PROPOSITIONS. Not Religion versus Science.
III. OUR STUDY WILL PROCEED WITH 12 LESSONS:
A. INTRODUCTION… CHRISTIAN WORLD VIEW, GOD’S STORY: HISTORY
B. GOD ESTABLISHES TIME
C. CREATION VERSUS EVOLUTION
D. CREATION OF SPACE
E. CREATION OF MATTER
F. SPIRIT OF GOD [RACHAPH] BROODS, ENERGY
G. GOD CREATES LIGHT IN A SPECTACULAR SPECTRUM
H. GOD CREATES [RAQIYA] FIRMAMENT or Planes as FABRIC OF U
I. WATERS GATHERED, AND DRY LAND APPEARS… GRAVITY
J. GOD CREATES VEGETATION FOR FOOD AS WELL AS MAINTAINING THE ATMOSPHERE; & AQUATIC, AVIAN & ANIMAL LIFE AFTER ITS KIND
K. GOD CREATES CELESTIAL BODIES & PLACES THEM IN THEIR PLANE OR FIRMAMENT
L. GOD CREATES MANKIND = GOD’S ULTIMATE PURPOSE!
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IV. CONCLUSION: We will INTERPRET ‘observational & speculative science’ in the light of Biblical Authority. Great strides have been made in scientific investigation or discovery by means of amazing advances in investigative scientific equipment. All of these advances have contributed to a greater understanding of the Greatness of our Creator and succeeds in UNDERMINING the Evolutionist’s FAITH in how it all happened. He will not admit that he is operating By Faith, not science! Nor does their suggesting, without a shred of evidence, that our Cosmic Bubble Evolved by natural means; therefore, suggesting a basis for supposing the notion that other worlds or inhabitable or inhabited exoplanets exist. There are no ETs to be discovered, but they keep endlessly trying. Ultimately they will discover that Mars is not the source of ‘life on earth’, for there never was life there nor was it “made to be inhabited”.
Even Job of old understood that all of creation itself knows that it was created by God, “But ask the animals, and they will teach you, or the birds in the sky, and they will tell you; or speak to the earth, and it will teach you, or let the fish in the sea inform you. Which of all these does not know that the hand of the Lord has done this? [Job 12:7-9]. So, by Faith I agree with Jeremiah who proclaims God says: “With my great power & outstretched arm I made the earth and its people and the animals that are on it…” [27:5].
The Apollo 8 Mission of NASA in 1968 gave the world the famous photograph “Earthrise” the first glimpse of the Earth while orbiting the moon. Astronaut William Anders exclaimed: “the earth is truly something extraordinary”. Looking at that photograph gives understanding to Job 26:7 “god suspends the earth over nothing…in empty space” [but I add, in its own orbit or plane] and 38:9 “wrapped it in thick darkness”. Amazing, the more science reveals about us and our Universe, the more it explains how accurate Creation Faith is.
V. FORMAT FOR EACH LESSON:
1. BIBLICAL PASSAGE IN GENESIS
2. THE CHARACTER OF GOD IT MANIFESTS
3. WHAT WAS CREATED IN THIS PASSAGE?
4. WHAT SCIENTISTS OBSERVE: DEDUCE BY EVOLUTIONARY FAITH
5. OUR BIBLICAL CONCLUSION
VI. Notice as we proceed through the days of creation that God is, for our understanding, parceling out major aspects of the creation accounting into day frameworks: [Time, Space, Elements, Energy, Light, Kinds, Man], as if they could happen independently in their own right without respect to the other creations. However…
A. The reality is that several things must happen interdependently
B. and in a specific order: Light & energy // light before veges
C. and some simultaneously:[DNA double helix: blueprint + protein + genes + Epigenetics]
D. This raises serious problems for Evolutionary Faith.
E. Because, eons of time does not take into account entropy, for many objects [such as the structure of galaxies] would have demised in that extensive time frame, man’s DNA would have accumulated too many ‘errors’ or chromosomal ‘telomeres’ would have run out of time and resulted in apoptosis.
F. It is most amazing that the marvelous advances in scientific investigative technology: space probes, nano-technology, cloning, etc. are all confirming the need for a GRAND ARCHITECT.
G. Yet, the National Geographic Jan 2015 still propagates an old earth p.112 “It used to be said that cosmologists, the scientists who study the universe as a whole, are ‘often in error but never in doubt’. Nowadays they’re less often in error, but THEIR DOUBTS HAVE GROWN AS BIG AS ALL OUTDOORS. They can now state with SOME assurance that the U. was born 13+ billion years ago… MOST LIKELY… from something smaller than an atom under tremendous pressure. But all the Galaxies they see make up only 5% of the U. The rest is ‘dark matter’ or dark energy… “a general label for WHAT WE DO NOT KNOW ABOUT OUR U.” [But will TEACH that we DO KNOW or keep searching!]
H. Tim Lahaye says, “Evolution is an intellectual, philosophical fraud”.
I. We will proceed with the Biblical understanding, “The Universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible” [Heb 11:3; Col 1:16; Jn 1:3]. This invalidates Evolutionary Faith. NOTE: God says He Created a UNIVERSE—singular-- not a multiverse. No doubt Evolution would proceed with that idea.
j. Finally, Jn in the Revelation forewarns, “Fear God & give glory to HIM, for the hour of HIS judgment has come, & worship HIM who made heaven and earth… [14:6-7].
VII. BIBLIOGRAPHY
A. Darwin’s Design Dilemma, How 20th C Science supports the Account of Creation In Genesis—by Lowell Coker, Ph.D., Book Surge, SC, 2005
B. Institute for Creation Research publications---Morris, Gish
C. Answers In Genesis---Ken Ham
D. Internet research