Does It Matter How God Created?

Often people ask, “Couldn’t God have created the universe using evolution and millions of years?” But that’s the wrong question. When considering creation, the right questions get closer to the heart of belief in God’s Word. At first glance, the way in which God created the world may seem like a trivial concern, but its importance quickly comes into focus when you ask related consequential questions.

Can we trust what the Bible clearly says in context? The language, grammar structure, and context of Genesis 1 clearly communicate that God supernaturally spoke the universe into existence in six consecutive 24-hour days. Adding up biblical genealogies from Adam to Abraham, the approximate 2,000 years from Abraham to Jesus, and 2,000 years from Jesus to today tells us that creation took place roughly 6,000 years ago.

Can we trust the recorded order of creation? Some suggest that adding millions of years makes the Bible’s record of creation align with the secular view and order of origins. However, this addition simply does not work. For example, the Bible says God made the earth and plants before the sun, but evolution proposes that the sun formed before the earth. The order of creation compared to the order of supposed evolution differs on at least 30 different points.

Can we trust what the biblical authors and Jesus say about creation? Every time a biblical author or Jesus references Genesis 1–11, he always regards it as literal history that’s foundational to all biblical doctrines, including the gospel. The psalmist says that God’s acts in Genesis 1 were supernatural, by his word (Psalm 33:6–9). God through Moses declared that creation week was seven literal consecutive days (Exodus 20:11). And Jesus affirmed that Adam and Eve were the first two people—ancestors of all humans—who were made at the beginning of creation (Mark 10:6–9). If God created differently from the description in Genesis, the biblical authors and Jesus were badly mistaken.

Can we trust the character of God? If you assume the earth evolved over millions of years, you are consequently assuming millions of years of animal death, disease, and extinction before Adam and his sin. But the Bible says that God called everything “very good” before man sinned. Surely, God would not describe all this natural evil as “very good.” By believing in millions of years, we are in essence blaming God—instead of our sin—for death and creation’s brokenness.

Can we trust the biblical teaching of atonement for sin through Jesus’ death and resurrection? No matter how someone tries to fit millions of years into the Bible (for example, the day-age theory, gap theory, theistic evolution, progressive creation, and cosmic temple view), the attempt assumes millions of years of animal death before Adam and Eve and thus before sin. But if massive animal death occurred before sin, then death is not the consequence of sin, which undermines the Old Testament sacrificial system that Jesus came to fulfill. And if that is so, then Jesus’ death does not pay our sin debt. Acceptance of millions of years destroys the foundation for Christ’s atoning work on the cross. Death before sin—which is necessary in any creation theory that includes millions of years—is theologically impossible.

So does it matter how God created? Yes, significantly. Because the answer is foundational for a host of crucial questions and doctrines regarding the gospel, the character of God, and the authority of his Word—the Bible.