Creation Basics: Can Christians Believe in Evolution?

Well, the biggest problem with adding evolution and/or millions of years into the Bible is that it puts death (the punishment for sin) before sin. Instead of a “very good” (Genesis 1:31) world marred by Adam’s sin, the world would have been filled with death, suffering, pain, disease, and animal carnivory for millions of years before mankind arrived. I covered this point in depth in my “Creation Basics” blog post last week, so I will only highlight this point—but be sure to keep it in mind: death before sin is a really big deal because it undermines the foundation of the gospel message!

There’s no hint of God changing groups of creatures slowly over millions of years. Rather, God speaks, and creation instantly obeys his command by springing into existence.

But there are other problems with adding evolution into the Bible. Consider, for example, that the context of Genesis 1 is God creating everything from nothing. There’s no hint of God changing groups of creatures slowly over millions of years. Rather, God speaks, and creation instantly obeys his command by springing into existence.

Also, 10 times throughout Genesis 1, we read that God created life “according to its kind.” This implies that one kind will not turn into a totally different kind. Rather, one kind will produce in accordance with its kind (which is what we observe!). This means fish aren’t going to evolve into land creatures and dinosaurs aren’t going to evolve into birds, because that would involve a change of kind and everything reproduces “according to its kind.”

Now, this biblical teaching gives us a framework through which to interpret biology. We understand that all of life reproduces according to its kind but that there is incredible genetic diversity within a kind. This means dogs remain dogs, but dogs don’t all look exactly alike. There are various species (wolves, coyotes, dingoes, etc.) and breeds (French bulldog, Labrador retriever, pug, etc.) because of the genetic diversity God created at the beginning and placed into every kind he made.

Lastly, consider that the order of events is completely different between the creation account in Genesis and the evolutionary story. For example, in the creation account, plants are the first life that God creates. In the evolutionary story, life begins as a single-celled organism and plants arrive many millions of years later.

In the biblical account, sea creatures (including whales) are created on day five and land creatures on day six. In the evolutionary story, sea creatures evolve first, followed by land creatures, but then some land creatures evolve to go back into the ocean and become whales.

In the creation account, birds are created on day five and dinosaurs (land animals) on day six. In the evolutionary story, dinosaurs evolved first and then evolved into birds.

In the creation account, mankind was created from the dust and woman from his side. In the evolutionary story, man and woman both evolved from an apelike creature.

The order of events is totally different! You can’t blend the two and remain faithful to the plain meaning of Genesis.

No, Christians cannot accept evolution. To do so is to compromise the clear teaching of Genesis with man’s ideas about the past and is therefore lifting man as the authority over God and his Word. But “let God be true though every one were a liar” (Romans 3:4).

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying,
Ken

This item was written with the assistance of AiG’s research team.