Creation

According to Scripture, God created “the heavens and the earth” fully formed and functioning in six days, about 6,000 years ago (around 4000 BC). The context of Genesis 1, as well as other places in the Bible, make it clear that these days were ordinary, 24-hour days. God’s original creation was perfect, with no death or suffering. Creation stands in stark contrast to evolution and unbelieving thought. In addition, biblical creation supports many vital concepts in Christian theology.

What Is Biblical Creation?

Biblical creation is based on the Bible where God created the universe and everything in it as described in Genesis (Genesis 1:1-2:3 is the specific creation week though commonly creation means Genesis 1-11). The Creator did not need matter, large amounts of time, energy, or anything else. He created out of nothing in six literal normal-length days about six thousand years ago.

Biblical creation is not compatible with the belief that the world just happened through an extended, naturalistic, and chance process over many billions of years. Biblical creation upholds the Bible as God’s eyewitness account of actual creation events since God was the only one there to observe what happened at the very beginning.

In addition, biblical creationists do not view the Bible or the book of Genesis as a mythological or allegorical document. Instead, the Bible is rightly considered a historical document that records what actually happened and is the only true and real history.

The Bible Teaches Creation

The Bible teaches God created the universe. In multiple verses in both the Old and New Testaments, it is clear that God created everything that was made. Here is a small listing (emphasis added):

• “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1).
• “For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy” (Exodus 20:11).
• “You are the LORD, you alone. You have made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them; and you preserve all of them; and the host of heaven worships you. (Nehemiah 9:6)
• “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made” (John 1:1-3).
• “For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him” (Colossians 1:16).
• “Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created” (Revelation 4:11).

Biblical revelation is the key for understanding this world—including how the world came to be. Opposing views are based on many presuppositions, each of which is diametrically opposed to biblical assumptions. But the Bible is the foundational, irreplaceable source of information about the creation of the universe.

Basic Assumptions of Biblical Creation

Biblical creation is based on the Bible being the absolute authority. Several biblical presuppositions are diametrically opposed to evolutionary and naturalistic beliefs, the competing religious origins narrative. Biblical creation entails:

• The Creator God of the Bible exists.
• The entire universe, heaven, created spiritual beings, and all life on earth originated at creation.
• God created all things in six normal-length days of approximately 24 hours.
• God began creating without the use of any previously existing matter.
• God’s creative activities cannot be explained merely in terms of natural laws; neither are they subject to the above limits.
• The Bible indicates that life has a purpose.
• The Bible reveals that the God of the Bible is the Designer of all things.
• There is a definite beginning point of time, per Genesis 1:1.
• The past is the key to the present.
• Death is the result of the sin of the first human couple.
• Creation was adversely affected by man’s sin.
• The present geological structures of the earth’s crust cannot be properly explained without recourse to Noah’s flood.
• Life does not come from nonlife.
• The creation of living organisms (original kinds) was completed during creation week. Speciation and variations within created kinds have been ongoing since creation.

God Created the Universe

The first verse of the Bible tells us, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1). No other entity made the world. God placed his stamp of ownership on the world in the first chapter of Genesis.

God’s glorious handiwork can be seen in what he made (Psalm 19:1) even though the creation and animals suffer under the curse. He made the moon to orbit the earth about 240,000 miles away. He made the sun to be over 100 times larger than the diameter of the earth. He made the stars, the closest being Alpha Centauri, which is 25 trillion miles away from our planet. And he made our galaxy that contains over 100 billion stars, nebulae, and star clusters. And that’s not even considering the other hundreds of billions of galaxies of stars. The immensity of the universe is unimaginable—and God made it all.

Creation in Six Days in Genesis

God created the whole universe, including the original plants, animals, and first two people (Adam and Eve) in six literal 24-hour days—not over billions of years. In the context of the six days of Genesis 1, the word day in Genesis 1 refers to 24-hour days. Every time the word day appears with “evening and morning” or with a number like “sixth day,” it refers to a 24-hour day.

There is no biblical or scientific reason to be ashamed of believing in a recent six-day creation. God has spoken clearly and truthfully.

The Order of Creation Matters

Many Christians think that if we just take each of the days of creation as being figurative, we can harmonize the Bible with the pagan religion of naturalism/evolutionism/humanism and mix it with evolutionary ideas like the big bang and a very old earth. But this only seems reasonable to those who reject the order of events according to Genesis 1 and buy into the order of events according to evolutionary models.

There are good reasons to reject such attempts at harmonization: big bang cosmology contradicts the clear teaching of the Word of God and undermines the Scripture’s supreme authority and undercuts the gospel it proclaims. There are also numerous scientific problems with the big bang as well.

Faith vs. Science?

Faith is required to believe in creation or evolution. Adherents of both views make claims about an unrepeatable past that was not observed by humans. Creationists though have the advantage of appealing to God (and his Word), who knows all things, was always there, created everything, is all powerful, and cannot lie. That’s why both models of creation and evolution compete under the category of historical science—using science to today to help confirm what we read God’s Word.

Historical (i.e., origins) science is distinctly different from operational (i.e., observable, repeatable) science, which is used to build computers, create vaccines, or put men on the moon. Biblical creationists and evolutionists both interpret origins evidence based on their own beliefs (starting points) about the past, both firmly within the domain of historical science.

Creation vs. Evolution

One of the biggest challenges to biblical creation today is evolutionary ideas. The idea of evolution (i.e., biological evolution), big bang (i.e., cosmological and astronomical evolution), abiogenesis (chemical evolution), and millions of years (geological evolution) doesn’t fit with the Bible because it is rooted in the religion of secular humanism (man’s word)—a religion that tries to explain the world without God. This chart outlines the differences between creation and evolution from a biblical perspective.

The Bible is the starting point and absolute authority in all matters. Those who reject God and his authority do so by falsely appealing to man as a greater authority than God—which is arbitrary (and wrong!). Unbelievers must suppress the knowledge of God in an effort to try to defy his Word. Sadly, many Christians still choose to trust the words of fallible men more than the Word of God, which is never wrong.

Creation Science

Evolutionists and some old-earth creationists (those who mix their Christianity with the pagan evolutionary story of a big bang, millions of years, and other evolutionary ideas) frequently charge that scientists who believe in a young earth don't have real degrees and don't do real scientific research that can be published in peer-reviewed secular scientific journals. This is a false charge.

Most fields of science were actually developed by Bible-believing Christians.

Creation researchers have been studying the biblical record and the world around us to understand the history that God’s Word records. While some of their models have been discarded as new data came to light—which is to be expected in the world of science, other predictions have been powerfully confirmed. Here are a few such confirmed predictions:

Confirmed Prediction 1: Strength of the Planets’ Magnetic Fields
Confirmed Prediction 2: Decay and Helium Release (RATE)
Confirmed Prediction 3: Radiohalos in Metamorphosed Sandstones
Confirmed Prediction 4: Cold Material near the Earth’s Core
Confirmed Prediction 5: Reversal of Earth’s Magnetic Field

Best “Proof” of Creation

Simply put, past events like the origin of the universe are outside the realm of observable and repeatable science. Biblical creation is true because the ultimate authority on the subject—God—said so.

Because the Bible is true, we expect to see evidence of God’s fingerprints all over his creation. Even the building blocks of life—DNA—is a confirmation of what we expect to find because God created all things. This Creator revealed himself to us through his Son Jesus Christ and through his Word, the Bible.

Science Confirms the Bible

• The Bible states that God made distinct kinds of animals and plants. We observe genetic change today but only within certain boundaries (i.e., the cat kind only breed offspring within the cat kind).
• The Bible states that all humanity came from Adam and Eve. Genetics confirms that all people are one race—the human race.
• The Bible states that there was a global flood. As expected, today, we see billions of dead things buried in rock layers laid down by water all over the earth which is a powerful confirmation of what we read in Scripture.

The World Doesn’t Make Sense Without God

1. There’s no reason to believe in right or wrong if man is just rearranged chemicals. As the Creator, God has the right to make the rules.
2. The God of the Bible cannot deny himself (2 Timothy 2:13), which is the basis for the law of non-contradiction. A logical and all-knowing God made us in his image, and this is why we can understand logic and knowledge and learn how a logical God upholds his creation. A logical God created our senses, so they are basically reliable in a biblical worldview. Of course, due to sin and the curse, people sometimes make logical errors, have sense problems, and so forth. But God’s Word, which comes with the authority of God himself, is always right and the standard by which we can judge all matters. If the universe came from nothing and has no meaning, then why do the laws of logic and laws of science even exist if the universe is random and always changing?
3. Scientists assume things will continue to work the way they have in the past. But why? In a universe where there were no laws and then there were some laws that changed (i.e., at the big bang), why assume the laws of nature won’t change tomorrow? Why do the laws of nature exist if the universe is random and in flux in the first place? In reality, the secular world borrows biblical presuppositions and usually doesn’t realize it.

Conclusion: Why Biblical Creation Is Important

Biblical creation is important because of everything it entails. If someone denies biblical creation, they actually reject some vital theological points at the same time. The opening chapters of Genesis and related creation passages teach several important biblical truths including

• God’s power to create everything in the universe (Genesis 1:1)
• The creation of all astronomical bodies including the sun and stars (Genesis 1:14-19)
• The goodness of God in declaring everything he made as “very good” (Genesis 1:31)
• God’s order in creating in a logical sequence in six days (Genesis 1:3-31)
• The origin of all the animals on earth (Genesis 1:20-25)
• God created mankind in his image (Genesis 1:26-27)
• The origin of death through sin (Romans 5:12)
• Suffering in the world because of sin (Romans 8:20-22)
• The foreshadowing of God’s plan to save humanity through his Son (Genesis 3:15)

Most importantly, a biblical creation mattered to the Lord Jesus: "But from the beginning of the creation, God ‘made them male and female’” (Mark 10:6).

Jesus taught that Adam and Eve were made at the “beginning of creation,” not billions of years after the beginning. If the universe is billions of years old, Jesus’ statement was a lie. But Jesus did not lie. He affirmed creation, reasoned from creation, and taught the truth of a biblical creation.