Answers In Genesis - Sunday School - Week 17

Well, good morning. It is 9:01 and counting, so we better get started. So let's open up with prayer. Holy Father, you are very good to us.

You've given to us another day and you've given to us the opportunity to be together. To have fellowship with one another. And to come together around our worship of you and to reflect upon. You in a way that's unique from the rest of the week, and Lord, we're grateful for this opportunity, this chance to be with you.

And Lord, as we look into your word, as we study what it means, I pray your spirit would be with us, open up our minds, help us to have understanding. And help us to be open to the truth, to what you have for us to know. And Lord, may you just guide us through all of this. In Jesus' name, we ask this.

Amen. My name is Dan Whittaker. I keep forgetting to, to say my name. I'm supposed to do that when I get up here.

I, I figure that everyone knows me. But it's good to see you this morning and to be able to look at these, these things that we, we see from the Book of Genesis, from creation. Our roadmap today, what we'll be trying to do is we're gonna do some review. Some, things to consider in our conversation with other people over these, these, issues, this topic.

Be looking at God's word. And what it has to say about the origin of life, how human beings are amazingly unique. And what has gone wrong. With the understanding that we have of these things and, making the case for hope in a creator.

So that's what we're gonna be trying to cover this morning. First, we're gonna go into review. last week, we looked at Genesis one. and we looked at the 1st, 4 days of creation.

And One of the things that we really talked a lot about. was what it means when In the book of Genesis, it says, the evening and the morning was the 1st day, the evening and the morning was the 2nd day, and so on for every day. And so what we looked at was That the, the natural interpretation of Genesis 1 is that it's literal 24 hour days of creation. That's the, the normal interpretation.

to get a different interpretation, you have to read into it. Something else. And so the, what the actual words there are saying are telling us that That creation happened in 6 days, 6 literal 24 hour days. And we talked a little bit about Dane and, and we're gonna This morning, hopefully watch the video that I couldn't bring up last week.

that's gonna go into that some more. yom is the word for day in Hebrew. And so that is the the word of discussion in the video. And do I click it again to start it?

OK. God called the light day, and the darkness he called night, and there was evening. It was morning, the first day. But what does the Bible mean by day?

Yom in Hebrew, 24 hours or something else, an era or millions of years perhaps. The key is the context around it. Yom is the Hebrew word for day. And it's very much like the English word in its flexibility.

When I look at the, the context there in Genesis 1, it looks just like a 24 hour day. God is setting up just like he does everywhere else in Genesis 1. He is setting up the world as we know it today. As a matter of fact, in the creation, God specifies.

That it was evening and the morning which consisted of a day. And so when I see phrases like evening and morning, the first day and so forth, God is simply structuring days just like we see them today. Or day comes up often in the Bible. In Exodus chapter 20, for example, the text says that in 6 days the Lord made the heavens and the earth.

Let me read it to you right out of the book of Shamos, sometimes known as Exodus in the Torah. In English, it says, Remember the Sabbath day to sanctify it. 6 days shall you work and accomplish all your work, but the 7th day is Sabbath to Hashem your God. You shall not do any work, you, your son, your daughter, your slave, your maidservant, your animal, and your convert within your gates.

For in 6 days Hashem made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and he rested on the 7th day. There's really little controversy about what the word day means when he gets outside of Genesis 1. Passage like that, it seems as if it's, it's almost certain. That it's a 6 day, 24 hour day that's being talked about.

These words were actually written by the very finger of God on tablets of stone. we say the Bible is the word of God, that's true, and God moved men by His Spirit to write his words and so on, but Exodus 20 and the verse in 6 days the Lord made the heavens and the earth and the sea and all that in them is and rested on the 7th day and blessed the Sabbath day and commanded us to keep it holy and so on. That was written by the very finger of God. If we have a figurative day in the creation account, then the fourth commandment does not.

Jesus understand the creation. Did he believe that the days of creation were long eras or 24 hour days? In the book of Mark, Jesus actually says he made them male and female from the beginning. That doesn't make any sense if the beginning was billions of years before he made them male and female.

It only makes sense in the context of the creation week being a literal creation week of literal days. How we read Hebrew, it just reads very naturally as a literal six-day period. And that's the way people have read this passage for centuries, starting around the late 1700s, that's where you see. People wondering about how long the day is and again that's going along with the Enlightenment age, the age of reason we now need to, reason is now the chief authority, not God, not his word.

If the days of creation describe long eras of time before the appearance of humans, then death and suffering appear long before man sinned against God. When you look at the fossil record, it's full of death, disease, for instance, there's evidence of cancer in the dinosaur bones in the fossil record. There's evidence of a brain tumor. A dinosaur skeleton.

You see evidence of thorns, supposedly 43. there in the fossil record and so on. And if you're going to say all that existed before sin, we've got a major problem. First of all, at the end of the sixth day of creation, God said everything was very good.

There are some serious theological implications if the Earth is, let's say. Years old and that we have death before the fall because the problem's going to be with the apostle Paul in Romans chapter 5 verse 12 for by one man sin entered the world and death by sin. that's the teaching of the apostles so it seems as if death is part of the curse. The Bible begins with Genesis and it Upon the teachings introduced there.

Long ages would undermine the basic teachings of Christianity. When you understand that Genesis 1 to 11 is actually foundational to the whole of the rest of the Bible and all of our doctrines, you start to recognize if you can destroy Genesis 1 to 11, to actually undermine the foundation of every single biblical doctrine of theology, and that's really what's happened in in our world, in this in this modern era of history. To be honest with you, if the 1st 11 chapters. Are not true history in Christianity.

Basically, if you undermine Genesis 1 to 11, you are undermining. The issues of the age of the Earth, the issues of millions of years and then versus thousands of years, the, the issue in regard to the meaning of the word day in Genesis and so on, it's all related to the fundamental issue of biblical authority. Do we take God at His word or do we take man's fallible ideas about the past and add them into the Bible and reinterpret the clear meaning of scripture? Right, I think they do a really good job of.

Going through and explaining the importance of the, of the interpretation. Of the word yom and, and so it's, a, a, an important thing for us as we look at it to understand the importance, how, what, how much hangs on it and how much interconnected interconnectedness with the rest of scripture there is, how much of it goes back and, and connects with, Genesis one and, and the, the following chapters. So, we have, this really important, issue of, of interpreting that word day. Question number 2 is gonna deal with, is about dealing with those within the body who don't agree with that interpretation and how do we handle that becau and we're gonna talk a little bit about that disagreement today, what, what their, what their ideas are based upon but, there is a, a, a way in which we as, as believers are, to disagree with one another, not only within the body but without the body as well.

And so, we see this passage in, in First Peter who says, but sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you. Yet with gentleness and reverence. So we talked about last week, we looked at this and how we are to, learn from this verse that, when we are dealing with one another, Whether it's within the body or without the body. even when we disagree, we need to do it with gentleness and reverence, that, that our approach is, Not to win the argument.

But to glorify God. And we are to know why we believe what we believe and be firm with that and, and do due diligence in, in discovering the reasons why we believe what we believe and what we are standing upon. But you, how it is with yourself. you don't get persuaded of an argument when someone's yelling at you and shaking their finger in your face, when they're beating you over the head with their, their dogma.

we aren't gonna persuade anyone else the same way. The best way to lead someone to truth is to help them discover it. Maybe even the same way we discovered it. Take, help them go along that same path.

And help them to, to see it. And we don't have to, and, and this, and I belabor this because this is my biggest struggle maybe, at least one of my biggest struggles because, Arguments get emotional for me and just always have. when I was in first grade, I got in an argument with a friend at school over Roy Rogers being A real cowboy. Because I thought he was a real cowboy and he insisted that he was Just an actor.

And so we're walking home from school in the park, fighting with each other over this, this, literally fighting with each other. And he was bigger than me and I was on the bottom and, that's how it worked out. I lost the argument. but, but anyway, that's how my, discussions tend to go and so I have to, I have to work at this.

This is something that I really have to concentrate on and, and, when I'm dealing with people, even friends, with whom I disagree, especially on things like this where to me it seems so obvious. Why can't you see it? yeah, we need to, to remember, gentleness and reverence in our discussion, having respect for the other person. OK, when we do talk with those who disagree, A good rule of thumb is to check our own heart, make sure that Christ is Lord in, in our hearts.

always be, checking that. that really helps with our humility, when we're, disagreeing with someone, before we go on, and we should have a robust hope. And that means to dig deep into the gospel. In fact, really, truly know why we believe what we believe.

A lot of times, the more sure we are, of our belief, the more confident that we are in our belief, the more patient we can be with others who disagree with us. And sometimes our impatience. is rooted in, in in fear that we really aren't sure about what we believe about something. be humble and gentle.

we, can admit that there are things that we're ignorant and about and make mistakes over. But we can also share what Paul says about suppression of truth. And, and, we can say, what? I'm a truth suppressor too.

we all have these, these places where we, we, push down the truth and, and, that's something that's, that's true in our humanity and we need to, to try to overcome that. Recognize it and overcome it, so that we can find the truth because the truth is what we're after. The truth is our gold, and that's what we're trying to discover. Doing it with reverence and fear, that our hearts and minds are captive to God and His word, that we're really attached to what God has to say.

and that this is my truth. This is God's truth. This is what belongs to God. And so I can, speak the truth in reverence.

that's how, that's how my demeanor, my attitude should be. Some things to consider. avoid ice of Jesus when investigating the present and the past. You see, we've talked about ice of Jesus.

With using God's word, and how it's inappropriate. We're not to read into God's Word what it has to say, but we're to let it speak out to us, what it is saying. But I said Jesus is not just for God's word. It's not just wrong with God's word, it's also wrong with history.

With, archaeology, with, with any endeavor. When we try, when we bring into an area of study, our own preconceived notions, And we're, we're pressing that into what it is that we're trying to learn that always will distort it, of course. And so we need to have the attitude of, of learning with humility and not bringing into it what we have already, our preconceptions about it. Think carefully before applying what we know from revealed truth to historical.

In current phenomenon. This is the area where I think, some of the issues in our Christian world. has caused some of the disagreement over this particular issue. we have history in the church.

That has been, had a, had a negative impact upon this very idea. In 1543. you will know this name, Nicholas Copernicus. put forth the idea.

He actually published a book right before his death. In this book were, was a a really a treatise about His idea that the sun was actually the center, the earth revolved around the sun. Up until that point, everyone, scientists, religious people, everybody in the civilized world that ever thought about it. Believe that the sun Went around the Earth.

That's what we see, isn't it? And, and so that was the idea. When he published the work, it really didn't cause too much trouble. For about 60 years.

But finally, it received enough attention. That, scientists and church leaders, began to speak out against it, write against it. They said that his theory didn't have enough, scientific evidence, that, and from what I understand, some of his calculations didn't work, that had to do with the movement of the stars and so on. And they did work with the idea of the sun going around the Earth.

Everything had worked up to that point. They could navigate, they could do what they needed to do. And his calculations weren't quite right and it wasn't until much later that they got those calculations corrected. And it wasn't until much later that it became generally accepted.

as being true that Copernicus was right, that the Earth does go around the sun. And One of the is one of the side effects from all of that is that there were major church leaders who spoke out against what Copernicus had, had put forth. Men like Martin Luther. and, and others that were very well known, both in the, in the Protestant camp and in the Catholic Church.

Excuse me. And so As a result, because of, I believe because of that, I've heard this talked about. there are many very respected theologians, Christian leaders today. who are very hesitant.

To be dogmatic about. The literal interpretation of Genesis Genesis one. because again, we, we, we We want to, not go just haphazardly into contradicting. What people are discovering and what science is saying.

And so, they're very reluctant to do that. In fact, many of them still do hold on to an old earth., position and, are not ready to, to move off of that. We, in, in our, the last time we did this class, we showed a video. Of Very, some very prominent people, including RC Sproll who will, who do take that position, people I respect.

And, and so, I say all that to say that within our family, the family of God, we're gonna have disagreement on this issue, and how we handle that is gonna be really important. And, and so we need to deal with each other with respect and not make accusations and, and, and, and so on with people because some of these people care very deeply. About God's word and have on every other issue, sacrifice things for the truth of God's word. And so, we need to Excuse me, to be, to be, thoughtful about that.

We need to, to move on with this, to make sure that we think critically, that we get our facts straight, so that we have good understanding. But I would tell you that, in, in seeing the arguments, looking at them, and I'm, I'm sure you all have as well. That I have a really difficult time. Accepting the, the old, the old earth theory that there are too many things that are contradictory and I, I really don't think it's necessary for us to give in to what the, the scientific community is trying to put forward to it.

In fact, not all the scientific community is in agreement anyway. And, it's like some other issues that are, are prominent in our culture today that where science says something and then, later on, they say, oops, I guess we were wrong about that one. science isn't always right. And, sometimes it has to do with that very first point.

The eyes of Jesus, we, we go in and, and we're looking at things and we have preconceptions and we have to have the humility to be able to identify those, get rid of them so we can really find the truth. And that's what science is supposed to be. It's supposed to be finding the truth. another thing is make sure that sources that we're gonna quote are not being distorted because of them being taken out of context.

Sometimes we can run with things. how it is, you get an email from somebody and they've got this, this great new message. When email was new, I used to get all kinds of, of things and, and then find out that, that most of it was just made up by somebody, and, and so verifying our sources, making sure that they're contextually correct and so on. is, is really important.

Now, where do we look for the origin of life? This is not a new question. As you can see from the, the pictures, it goes back to an early rock and roll band. Up there.

That's supposed to be a joke. The, this, the question goes back a long time. men. have been looking for answers to this, particularly people who don't have access to Genesis 1 And so trying to determine.

Where we come from, but we have access to Genesis one. And so we'll be looking at verses 20 to 31 today. Days 5 and 6. And we'll see.

Life, from the standpoint of things that are not plants. plants are created on day 3. That certainly is life, but we're talking about animal and human life that God created. So, Picking it up in verse 20.

Moses wrote this, then God said, let the waters teem with swarms of living creatures and let birds fly above the earth in the open expanse of the heavens. God created the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves with which the waters swarmed after their kind, and every winged bird after its kind, and God saw that it was good. God blessed them, saying, be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas and let birds multiply on the earth. There was evening and there was morning, a 5th day.

Then God said, let the earth bring forth living creatures after their kind, cattle and creeping things and beasts of the earth after their kind. And it was so. God made the beasts of the earth after their kind. And the cattle after their kind and everything that creeps on the ground after its kind.

And God saw that it was good. Then God said, let us make man in our image according to our likeness and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky, and over the cattle and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. God created man in his own image. In the image of God, he created him, male and female, he created them.

God blessed them and God said to them, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky, and over every living thing that moves on the earth. Then God said, behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the surface of all the earth, and every tree which has fruit yielding seed. It shall be food for you, and to every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the sky, and to everything that moves on the earth, which has life.

I have given every green plant for food and it was so.

God saw all that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning, the 6th day. We see here that Some, some interesting things about the origin of life. that it was spoken into existence.

God's word has power. And so he speaks creation into existence. According to his design. According to the order that he wants it to be.

the order of creation is very specific and planned out by God. It's, it's that way on purpose. And so we don't see a a thing, like when I do a project, I get about halfway through and I think, oh, I should have done this back here. And so that's how my projects go.

But God doesn't do projects like that. He knows exactly how it's supposed to go together. And so you see his, his plan and the way he does it. And, and so we can, we can look at things like light being created at the beginning, the first day, and yet the sun, moon, and the stars, not till day 4.

The plants are made in day 3. So why would God do it that way? That's, that's the interesting part of God's design. And he does it that way on purpose.

Now light already exists, so the plants can grow. They don't need the sunlight to grow. We already know from our culture around here that plants can grow without sunlight, right? We have all the indoor agriculture that goes on in people's houses, in different places around.

and, and people, people can do it. So light, light is all it takes. to make things grow. But God then puts the the solar system in place and all of the stars out there and, and then we see the order of it.

Then he creates the animals. And he, he, he speaks them all into existence. So you have the birds, you have the, the sea creatures. And then on day 6, you had the land animals.

And so, all of these things God is, is putting into place in the order that he wants it done. And then finally, He takes the dust of the earth. And this time molds it together. Takes that dust of the earth, molds it together.

And breathes life into it. Breathes a soul into it. And this creature is different than all the other creatures. And this creature is made in his own image, a very special creature.

And what an amazing construction project that is, that God does all throughout this chapter as we see it. The, the glory and the majesty of, of everything that he does is all there. It's all part of his mind. It comes out of, of his creativity.

there's tremendous diversity in, in the life that he creates. And so when, if you've ever even seen how the DNA works and how different the DNA is for every single animal and even the subspecies that, and, and so on, the, the DNA is, is, just amazing. And it's all created according to kinds and the kinds are are most likely referenced to, to families of animals. And so Every, every animal reproduces after its own kind.

And so the, the horses are, are bringing forth horses and so on. it's, it's, everything stays within its own boundaries and, and within its own kind. God looks at it at the end, and he says, it's good. It's all good.

And he's in, at the end of day six, he looks back on everything from From the solar system and, and, and all of the the universe. Down to the microscopic. life that he has created. God can look at it and say, it's all good.

Everything is working according to what he had intended it to be. and it's not until afterwards. Chapter 3 with a Fall where things get out of whack. And that's why we live with what we live with today, but at that point in time, Everything was good.

All life was good. And, and so That's, that's a, a, a very important part of our understanding and our interpretation of Genesis one. There's nothing dying, there's nothing that is going wrong with creation. It's all good.

Humans reflect the image of God. And man was created to rule and subdue. In, the, the rest of creation. And so, excuse me, so So we have this, this, this order of creation and where man is put or is given responsibility.

In creation, a responsibility to rule and subdue. it means to discover, to learn. And to have responsibility for stewardship of And the mind of a human being is designed to do all of that. And so one of the greatest things that, that, that we do, and I think one of the things that makes God smile.

is when human beings are researching and discovering and learning about what he has made. And, and learning how to take care of it, how to use it right, and, and what these things are for. I think those are things that, that God takes pleasure in because that's what he created us to do. To, to have a part in, in his creation, and to, and for us to enjoy his creation.

To see it as valuable, and to participate in, in that part of it. We are especially designed to understand. the human mind can engage in scientific investigation. We can do research, we can, find things and, and put ideas together.

The scientific investigation often will, will, create inferences for us, because if this is true, then, then, that has to be true. And I was watching yesterday. A video on. On how Complex the DNA is and how the protein, has, how it's put together and In the research that has been done just in the last 70 years, with the advancements of microscopes and, and so on that they've been able to find out.

is, is, is really amazing and what we can see and how we can see the complexity of what God created. The complexity of the DNA which is, is really, really amazing. But man can engage in scientific investigation. And this does reflect the image of God.

And this is something that makes human beings unique. that, that we can reason, we can learn, we can, we can study these things. Human beings are unique in all of God's creation. The human mind can explore the complexities of design in the natural world.

And we can understand the mathematical nature of design and the laws of the universe. And so we can learn the physics, we can see how things work, why things do what they do, and so on., the, the calculations of sending a rocket into space is, is amazing to me. But being able to, to get the timing and, and, and how those things go is a, a, a, an amazing thing that a human being can understand and grasp and, and then fall in line with the laws of the universe. The empirical scientific method sets human beings free to use their God-given powers of observation and reason.

And so that's the empirical method is just taking a, a good look, taking a look and, and set asideing pre, setting aside preconceptions and just seeing what's there. That's the empirical method and that should set us free. To, observe and, and to, to draw conclusions. so what's the problem?

Well, There is a conflict. Between the scientific search for the origin of life. and the account that we find in Genesis, and why is that? Well, it is Because man has a problem.

The empirical method, at some point in time was wed to the materialistic metaphysic, and I'm not gonna get into philosophy with you, I'm, that's out of my league, but, metaphysics is simply what you believe to be the ultimate reality. And the metaphysics actually becomes, as we, as we talked about in, in our last series, the glasses in, from which we are looking at the world. And If our glasses are making us see things in a clouded way, we're gonna come to wrong conclusions. And so we talked about that several weeks ago.

Glasses that we wear, the, the idea was that we're to wear gospel glasses, that that's the clearest thing. The problem for mankind is that man isn't born with that. And in fact, man fights against that. He wants, wants to see it from a different angle, a different way.

And as, From, talking with, friends, relatives, people you really care about, about the truth of truths of the gospel, and how that struggle is there inside of them to, to see what, what we have been able to see clearly, because God through the Holy Spirit has helped us to have the glasses to see it. But the normal bent of the human mind. is not there. Man's bent is to suppress the truth.

And so Paul writing about this and writing about the, the, the problem that humanity has, he, he makes some very clear statements about this, and he says that which is known about God is evident within them for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world, his invisible attributes, his eternal power, and divine nature have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so they are without excuse. For even though they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened.

Professing to be wise, they became fools.

And that's The way we all would be. Without the work of the Holy Spirit within us. To teach us something else and give us A different set of glasses with which to look. And so, the problem is, is that there's a different bent.

that's, that we're born with, that is to deny God, to push back at God, and try to find another explanation, one that's, that fits me better. and so, That is what man's problem is, he, he wants to suppress the truth. And one of the most insightful, Things I've ever read about this issue is, In a book. About faith by Lee Strobel.

And he has a chapter in there that deals with evolution. And one of the. The people that he interviews for this chapter is a Christian, professor of, biology. And so he's talking about the, the weaknesses and, and, and so on of evolution and from the Christian's point of view, he, he accepts the, the creation.

presentation from the scripture. But, Lee Strobel asks him, well, what about your, your colleagues? when you, you explain to them what you, how you see things and, and what you believe and why you, cannot accept, evolution, with these great arguments that you have, what do they say? And his, his response was, well, the bottom line is The, the implications of the biblical view are too big.

They would have to change their life. And so that's, they just don't wanna go there. You would, you see, just knowing this truth is not where it stops, is it? if there is intelligent design, Then there's an intelligent designer.

If there's an intelligent designer. Who is intelligent enough to make us with reason, then he has even greater reason, and he knows us. And that's terrifying. Because if he has the power to do all of this, he has the power to take it all away.

And that's terrifying, and to the natural man. And so the implications of Genesis one are enormous. And that is part of what's behind the resistance. To Genesis 1.

The development of modern science has been mostly theistic. If we go back up until, the 18 around 1850 when Darwin. put forth his book. it was, that's how it was, mostly theistic.

The, the, most scientists were Christian. And they accepted the, the Genesis account of how things began. But from the Enlightenment and and certainly from the time of Darwin's book, things have completely changed and the scientific community is now mostly Accepting evolution as the beginning, even if they're not comfortable with it, even if there are things that don't add up. They don't have.

An alternative that they like better. And so they still stick with it. but in the, in the Christian view, that design requires a designer, and that natural laws were created by God. Genesis one tells us that God created life.

That life doesn't come from this big puddle of ooze, and the lightning strikes it and, and something amazing happens there. Now, God spoke it into existence. There's intention and purpose with life. It's not just an accident of nature.

That, that it would happen. In fact, it's impossible without purpose. for life to exist. There has to be a designer, there has to be a creator, there has to be someone who brings it into existence.

It's not possible otherwise. and here we see that life is in the animals and in man. He's done in 2 days. And that each animal.

Are done in specific kinds and that human life is unique. Now, the, in the theistic view, which is the view that there is God, and that there's a God who created, there are different points of view. We're not gonna spend a lot of time on these. Today, they will, will probably hit them in later sessions.

but I'm sure you've come across these. There's the Old Earth creationism we've already mentioned, the gap creationism, progressive creationism, intelligent design, and theistic evolution. Gap creationism was one I grew up with. And it was something that was Believed, quite a bit back in the 40s and 50s.

I'm not sure how far it went back except I, I'm, it did, it was part of a, a certain Bible translation, and, and so it became a prominent. An accepted view by many. The gap theory, if you're not familiar with it, Is that that God created the heavens, the earth. It says, and the earth was.

was void. And so that word and is supposed to be the gap. The gap between God made it, made it, making everything right. Then something cataclysmic happened.

And then the earth was formless and void. And that God had to start over again with it. And the gap is there to To create the, or to, or to give a place for the appearance of an old age in our earth. And to, to, to say that something happened and what most of them believe is that that's when the fall of Satan happened.

And he came and destroyed what God had created, and then God started over. And this gap could be a long, long period of time. that is the, the position that, people in the past have taken. I don't know how Prominent it is today.

I remember my first, semester in theology, our professor dealt with it really well and, and, And so the word and there is, is, doesn't even leave room for that. in, in the Hebrew and I. I'm not gonna tell you anything about the Hebrew. I have no idea, but, according to what he had to say, it doesn't, it's not the right a conjunction.

To leave a room for a gap. And so, that's, it's, it's not even possible in the word construction that's there. And, furthermore, as we have seen with, with the, the same problems that the gap theory has with the old earth creationism theory, and that is the problem of death coming from sin. that's in Romans chapter 5.

the problem that Everything being good. On each day of creation. and so there are some, some major issues, that the gap theory has, and that it's not even really necessary. It's, it's, it's something that has, that was brought up to try to deal with what scientists were starting to spout and it's not necessary.

You just stick with what the Bible says and let, and let the Bible speak. And so, that is, for me, the gap theory, Should not be taken seriously and, and has no value for us. If you are someone who holds the gap theory, I apologize for, Maybe stepping on your toes on that, but, that's, because I came from that, I kinda have a, a feeling toward it that's, that's pretty negative. progressive creationism is one that's, that has some popularity.

And that is that God created over long periods of time and he has progressed in his creation. And we'll get more into that, talking about that one, Intelligent design is, is a, a view. That, that says that God has created everything, but it doesn't require a personal God, a God who is, is interactive with us. And so you can be a deist and believe in intelligent design.

You can say that, God started everything up, and then has just let it go. And as we talked about last week a little bit, that, that the, the world, from a distance, everything looks peaceful and, and good. And so, that's how a lot of people view God's relationship with his creation, that he's from a distance. And that he looks at it from a distance, but he's not personally connected with that.

Scripture tells us otherwise. Scripture tells us that he is very definitely connected to us. In fact, he is, his happiness, he connects his happiness. 2 hours.

I would again, I would recommend JI Packard's book Knowing God, because he, he talks about this a lot in that book. God has so connected Himself to us and is a personal God and very involved with us. And what intelligent design should, direct us to is a God who has made human beings relational. If we are relational.

It only makes sense that God is relational. And, and so, it should, it should drive us in that way. And then we find other answers for why there are problems in the world around us. See Theistic evolution, is the the, the idea of God is the one who started the evolutionary process.

And so it's just inserting God into Darwin's theory. The arguments That Christians do make, they'll make them from biblical, scientific or philosophical. And, or I should say, and philosophical positions. the biblical is just looking at the straightforward account, seeing what the Bible says for it and accepting it that way.

The scientific is using inference based upon what can be seen. And learning from it. And so, and, and Christians really should be The most aggressive. About learning truth about the creation that God has.

Because it's learning about God. We're, we're learning about God when we look at what he has made. He has revealed himself in that creation. and then philosophical, it's using reason to, To, to learn about what God has made.

Mark Middleberg has, has given some, some some advice about our struggle in, in, in the arguments of this issue. He says our greatest opponent is not science or even evolution, but philosophical naturalism, which is materialism and it's the view many scientists hold that says only naturalistic, non-supernatural causes can be considered. Rather, good science should follow the scientific facts wherever they lead, including to an intelligent designer. And as we're dealing with People in the academic community, the scientific community that are, or sometimes just our neighbors, their neighbors that have, learned these things in school and so on.

But they take a, a naturalistic view and unless I can just see it in nature, and unless I can see it myself. I've been, I've been given this argument. I have to see it myself in order for me to believe it. as, it's a, it's a, a silly argument, but they're serious about it.

And so, how do we, how do we deal with that? Well, the, the thing that we have to understand is that's what is gonna be coming at us. More, it's, it's not really a seeking for truth necessarily. Because they're, they're caging off what they're willing to accept as data.

And so that's going to be where our, our battleground is and so it can be relatives that we have, people we really care about. that are gonna take this point of view. And that is how the, pretty much the scientific community is. In fact, The, the peer pressure in the scientific community is amazing.

for, for someone to break away and, and to come up with a different view, is very difficult because you, you're, it's easy to get ostracized in, in, in a different issue. In the science community. It's been amazing to me to watch how narrow-minded, the scientific community is over global warming. The whole, the whole issue over climate change and that whole thing.

If you have, if you're a denier, you can lose funding, you can lose your position at, at your university, you can, you can lose the right to speak. And so, it's, it, the peer pressure is great. And, and so people have chosen to just fall in line and to, to go with it. what we're gonna be doing as Christians, as believers, is going against the grain, thinking differently, and not getting into the groupthink of the world that's around us.

And so it's important for us to, to understand. That that's what we're really dealing with. We're not dealing with like pure science, because pure science takes us to the truth. And I wish that was actually more of what we were dealing with.

The materialism, naturalism view, comes up with evolution. It leaves out philosophical and biblical and claims to only use scientific method. They are trying to be purely empirical. And, and, and most of them are not trying to be dishonest.

But they are blinded. And so we have to, to have patience as we talk to them, as God gives us opportunities, be patient and let the Holy Spirit work in their hearts. Points of conversation, in the origin of life, if we were to sit down with a friend, with a neighbor, a relative, how, how do, what do we talk about when we talk about these issues? Well, life requires matter.

That's how God made it. where does matter come from? It doesn't come from nothing. No it can't come from nothing.

And so, if life requires matter, then where does matter come from? And, and that's something that, that's a good, good point to, to discuss and just have, just a, a good discussion about that. Another point of conversation could be how did life originate? can matter, self-organize.

Another great discussion. Another way of, of just having a discussion with someone who's not a believer, who's not willing to accept that, but let them try to answer. The question How does life originate? when you're in a big group, that, that question's gonna get lost.

But if you're one on one with someone where you can really have a conversation, See what they think about that. Where, where does it originate? What explains the information that is the key to life? The complexity of the DNA, is it can't just happen by itself.

It has to be designed. And how it all works. it has to be designed. And so, talk about that.

How, talk about the idea of and think about this, the, the, the fact that there, because it is so purposeful, because it is so complex, because every DNA is so different, How can that be? without a designer, without someone who had purpose. For it. Evolution is a theory that tries to explain complex life systems.

It is not a theory of everything. especially not the beginning. in this video that I was watching yesterday, it showed the, the tree, Darwin's tree where he, has the trunk of the tree and the branches and all the branches have the different animals at the end, if you've ever seen that. And so his theory is that, that over time, Small little incremental changes happened until finally, life forms took on the variation that we see today.

What Darwin could not ever answer and, and really, and did not in his book On the Origin of the Species and vaguely referred to in a letter he wrote to someone, but what he couldn't explain or didn't really try to is what's below the trunk. Where does that life come from? Where does that life start? What gives it its specialness, what gives it its ability to reproduce.

Darwin didn't have a microscope. Darwin didn't have the ability to see cells dividing, to see the activity that's going on in the cells, to see the little mechanisms that are there working, to see all those little things that are happening, how each cell is dividing. And reproducing itself exactly as it was before. He didn't have the ability to see all that.

And And so he didn't know what we know today. but life is created by God. And so, It's, it, the theory of evolution cannot explain the beginning, cannot explain how it starts. And in my view, really can't explain how life is what it is today.

For since the creation of the world, his invisible attributes, his eternal power and divine nature have been clearly seen, being understood, understood through what has been made. It's been clearly seen. God has, has shown us. God has shown us, are we willing to take a look at it?

And are we willing to accept that. And, and thankfully, God has given to us light. To be able to have understanding, the light to be able to see the glasses. With which to look at what he has made and to enjoy it.

Let's close in prayer. You are God You are amazing. And what you have made. As we look at it, can, it does set us in awe.

And before you, Father. We must be humble and we must, come before you with. With praise and adoration because we get to be part of this. You have made us as well and put us here.

To be able to know it, to see it, to enjoy it. And may we have that spirit as we carry on in our life and have the confidence that you not only have just put us here, but you have planned for us to have purpose. That you have destiny for us. That this isn't just A game for you, but this is a plan of amazing, amazing work that you have done.

Father, you have gone so far as to redeem us by Sending your son to become one of us. And Father, may we be people who respond to that in love and adoration for you because you are great. And greatly to be praised. Amen.