Genesis is Not About Evolution

In the beginning...

The last couple of days, I have been watching the comment thread on a You Tube video posted by christianjr4  Why, oh why, won't Richard Dawkins debate William Lane Craig?  As often occurs in threads such as these, the debate has changed from the subject, namely that Dawkins should/should not debate Craig, to a debate on creation vs. evolution.  Invariably, Genesis 1 gets dragged into the debate by one or the other side.  The problem I have with this is the primary purpose of Genesis 1 is NOT to dispute evolution, but was intended by the author (God through Moses) to be a special revelation of who he is, and to foreshadow the coming Christ.

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light. — Genesis 1:1-3

When I was attending Bible college at Lincoln Christian College and Seminary (It's now a university!) we talked about  passages being "exegetically pregnant" which means there is a lot of meaning packed into a scant few words.  Notice the state of the Earth in v. 2 before God intervened.  It was:

• Formless
• Empty
• In darkness
• Under water

That's a pretty sad state of affairs.  Notice that in verse 1 God had already created the cosmos, including the earth.  In the Bible often the word "heavens" especially when plural means "outer space" rather than the dwelling place of God and the angels.  So, God created the Earth, but it was formless, empty, in darkness, and buried in water.

That's how our lives are before we accept Jesus Christ as Lord and savior.  Formless here means in chaos and confusion, which is exactly what a life without Jesus looks like.  You may think you have it all together, but then let a major catastrophe happen.  I never understood why people who lose millions of dollars commit suicide until I realized that they did not know the Lord.  They, like the earth, are empty inside and they try to fill that emptiness with material things.  The problem with this is that the emptiness inside them is God-sized and God-shaped.  NOTHING else can fill that void.  We are in darkness, and in us there is no life.  We were dead and buried under a sea of sin and disobedience to God, which overwhelms us and chokes us from breathing.  The idiom "In over your head" definitely applies.  You feel like you are drowning when you are without God and he has given you over to your fleshly desires.  If you feel like that, there is some good news!

God's word gives us life.

The unfolding of your words gives light; it gives understanding to the simple. — Psalm 119:130

Now skip ahead just a few verses in Genesis 1 to verse 9

Then God said, "Let the water under the sky be gathered into one place, and let the dry land appear." And it was so. God called the dry land "earth," and He called the gathering of the water "seas." And God saw that it was good. Then God said, "Let the earth produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants, and fruit trees on the earth bearing fruit with seed in it, according to their kinds." And it was so— Genesis 1:9-11

This is the cool part.  Once we have the light of Jesus Christ, we become a new creation.  We are not just refurbished, but become completely new.  "God doesn't shave caterpillars, he creates butterflies." according to Setting Captives Free team member Mike Cleveland.  www.settingcaptivesfree.com  The old passes away and we burst forth from out of the water into the light of the source of life and we begin to produce fruit!  This is symbolized by our baptism by immersion in water as a believer.

Now you have a testimony.  You know that you were in chaos and confusion, in darkness, and buried in your sin.  Then, God came and spoke light into your heart, raised you from the dead and caused you to bear good fruit.  How wonderful!  How marvelous!  And, did you notice that in Genesis this "resurrection" of the Earth occurs on the third day?  Hmmmmmm.

This post was taken and adapted from "The Lord's Table" course at www.settingcaptivesfree.com Day 28, Section 1.  If you are struggling from habitual sin or addiction such as overeating, alcoholism, pornography, smoking, etc. I strongly encourage you to check it out.

The question is often posed by skeptics:  "If God is so good, why did he create Hell?"  This is a good question, one that has been fumbled many, many times.  There are a lot of ways that people have attempted to respond to this, some more harmful than others.  I think I'll deal with that next time.