Creation or Evolution – What IS the Big Deal?
Coloring pages for The Creation by Nancy Gordon
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. This is the first sentence of the first book in the Bible. It is the most important sentence in the whole creation account – God created everything, the world didn’t create itself.
Why is it important for people to recognize God as Creator? Because without God, life has little value. We become accidents with no purpose. The life of an endangered snail becomes more important than human fetuses. And masses of humanity become expendable in death prison camps.
Our children need to know that they were created by God, and that their lives have purpose and value. They need to be able to recognize God’s loving hand, even in the bumps in the road, so that disappointments that seem like life crises don’t tempt them to try suicide.
The politically correct intelligentsia of today wants to dominate our children’s thought processes. Bill Nye, the Science Guy came out with a video a few years ago that villainized parents and teachers who taught them creationism. “Creationism is not appropriate for children,” said Nye. It was OK to believe it yourselves, “but don’t make your kids do it. Because we need them.” He seems to think that if our children don’t accept evolution they won’t be innovative, which is total nonsense. Since when has the belief that God created the heavens and earth – since when has that belief become the litmus test of innovation?
If we don’t get a handle on this; however, scientists like Nye, with the help of the liberal media, are bent on controlling the minds of our children in this and every other way.
Christians need to read the creation account carefully and not try to put things in it that aren’t really there. It was initially written to people who had no idea about much information that is common knowledge today, so it was written in a language they would understand. But the bottom line is God created everything, he had a plan, and he is still in control today.
- What is a “day.” If we get bent out of shape over 24 hours we hurt ourselves. After all, there wasn’t a sun or moon to orbit the earth until the fourth “day.” I see more sequence in the days than the technical terms to describe 24 hours.
- Light before the sun? Who says the sun originated light in the first place? There are billions of stars out there and most are bigger than the sun. God created light on the first day, not the sun.
- God rested on the seventh day. He didn’t take a permanent vacation… Numbers don’t stop with seven, and God’s days didn’t either. Perhaps he has continued to refine his creation – but not by waiting for accidents, I’m sure.
This short blog post can’t begin to say all I would share about the reasonableness of the creation account. God created a world that is ablaze with beauty – accidents don’t create, and their outcomes are not exactly beautiful. Evolution of living species requires both male and female accidents happening simultaneously – yet they take millions of years to accidentally happen??? Has anyone studied probabilities lately?
What are we doing to help our children and grandchildren understand their need to know and trust the one true loving God who created them in His image?
by Janice D. Green, author of The Creation and The First Christmas
Click here for ideas to create your own VBS or Bible study on the creation.
Janice, this is marvelous! I love your bold stance and I can hear the passion in your voice. I may snatch a couple sentences to post as FB statuses (giving you credit of course). I will definitely be reposting this to help promote your Creation book. Well done!
Thank you Linda. You might mention in your re-posting that I have a lot of information on my own blog to help create one’s own Bible school curriculum. It can be found in this link: http://honeycombadventures.com/bible-studies/the-days-of-creation/
One more thought. The idea that children who don’t believe in evolution won’t be innovative is so backward. Children who are plugged in to the Creator of the universe will likely have infinitely more creativity than those who don’t. It’s like studying under the greatest master artist. His creativity flows through those who learn from Him. Not to say those who aren’t Christians aren’t creative. Obviously they can be and are. But I believe those who know where that creativity comes from (the Creator) appreciate it even more and find more beauty in the world.
Chances are the very college/university he attended was started by Christians who valued education. Most of the “Ivy League” schools started this way, but they somehow lost sight of their roots.
Excellent post, Janice. I hadn’t heard about that quote from Bill Nye. How rude and misguided.
My husband is a big science guy. He loves all those shows that talk about the universe: past, present, and future. But he never forgets that for anything to exist, there first must have been a Creator. He’s one example of how science and faith can co-exist. It’s a shame there are some out there who would believe and try to convince others that they can’t.
In school, our daughter has been studying ancient Egypt. Moses, of course, came up. Her teacher came out and said that there is no proof of the burning bush. My daughter feels differently. She says, “The Bible is the Truth, so we know it happened.”
Thanks Cheryl. His quote isn’t hard to find. Do a Google search or find it on YouTube. I considered including the link, but didn’t want to give him any more credit or publicity than necessary.
You might enjoy this article from Christianity Today in an issue from last year: http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2012/july-august/a-tale-of-two-scientists.html
Perhaps evolution is not God’s enemy after all. And if it’s not God’s enemy, I think I won’t let it be mine, either.
Thanks for the article. I’ll read it. My biggest concern with evolution is that scientists generally assume everything happened by chance. That’s where I draw the line. If God makes changes, that isn’t chance.
I hear and appreciate your concern, and I can tell you give thought to your ways. As a physicist, I’m a huge fan of statistical mechanics (chance, but not really). I’m a way huger fan of the one who made statistical mechanics and whose every detail of creation points to him. I hate to see any of us miss out on the beauty and majesty of all the details that glorify God because we’re too busy fighting those who discover the details.
Yes, it is the beauty and majesty of the details that tell me it didn’t come about by happenstance and chance, but was guided by an awesome God with limitless power and ability.
The article is excellent. There is more not specified in the Genesis account of creation than many conservative Christians are willing to consider. I will repeat my original comment that God rested only on the seventh day, he didn’t take a permanent vacation. The definition of a day is a bit abstract considering every planet’s day is defined by the amount of time it takes for it to make one rotation. I’m not convinced we were supposed to be so ultra technical when we read Genesis. Furthermore, there is the verse often quoted that with God a day is like a thousand years… I don’t get hung up on the length of a day. What I get hung up on is the idea that there was no plan, that things just bumped around and accidentally got better. God was at work in the intricate details of creation.
There is so much scientific logic in the sequence of the Genesis account of creation. First God created the heavens and the earth, but they began as a void mass of confusion. He created light which in itself became connected with day and night. Then he went to work on the mass of confusion bringing the land out of the waters, separating the waters and creating sky. Now he had the ingredients needed to begin making plants (light, land, water). In order for the plants to grow properly, they needed seasons. God created sun, moon, and stars which made seasons possible. Once the plants were growing there would be food for animals – God made birds and fish and creatures of the sea, and later the animals of the land and people. This is not cave-man logic, God revealed this to the writers of the book of Genesis.
God’s “scribe” didn’t write Genesis as a science book for 20th century scientists, he wrote it as a record that he is the Creator of all living and non-living things. This is indisputable. Science will never prove that God didn’t direct the events of creation, or that we are all just a bunch of happenstance beings.
Thanks for clarifying your position. It’s obviously one you’ve spent time developing.
My concern is that, as the community of God, our positions are getting in the way of our worship. Ultimately, science is a masterful and heartfelt expression by its Creator, an art of God, if you will. I fear we have bloodied his canvas by turning his art into a battlefield.
You are so right. I don’t want my book to be divisive, neither do I want children to let go of the belief that they were created by God with a purpose in mind. God is bigger than every word in the Bible AND every new discovery made by scientists combined.
I could not agree more!
Very powerful message, Janice! I hope thousands of people see this!
Thanks, Crystal. So do I.
My 9 year old summed up his belief the other day – God created the World, he may have done it by evolution, but He made it.
I love how simple his faith his and how strong he is in his beliefs.
I like that. If we replace the “accident” and “chance” out of evolution and replace it with the hand of God, the battles over this issue could be seriously reduced.