“He Could Have Done It That Way . . . Couldn’t He?”

Many times I’ve heard people tell me something like “God could have used evolution” or “God could have created over millions of years.” Also, some say: “As long as we believe He is Creator and Savior, He could have created in all sorts of ways.”

My answer back to them has always been, “It’s not a matter of what God could have done, but what He said He did!”

A major theme for AiG in 2004 is “Operation: Refuting Compromise.” We declare from the start that our emphasis in examining the fallible ideas of fallible scientists should follow (if we truly believe that the Bible is the inerrant, revealed Word of God) that of the Bereans in Acts 17:11:

These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.

After I had spoken at a conference, the wife of a pastor came up to me and said, “I’m not like you literal creationists. I don’t limit God to six days of creation. I allow Him millions of years.”

I answered her by saying, “I don’t limit God to six days, but I limit myself to letting God tell me what He did and not try to tell God what I think He did. And may I humbly suggest that you should stop telling God what He did and instead listen to what He is telling you?”

may I humbly suggest that you should stop telling God what He did and instead listen to what He is telling you?

If God’s people truly adopted this way of thinking, compromise that is so rife through the church (teachings like the gap theory, progressive creation, theistic evolution, day-age theory, framework hypothesis, and so on) would disappear.

There is another compromise position prevalent in the church. In fact, probably the majority of prominent Christian leaders in this country claim that Christians can (and should) accept the big bang hypothesis—as long as you say that God used the big bang to create the universe.

A “Berean” approach to Scripture, however, quickly makes it obvious that God did not use this way to create the universe.

Those who teach the big bang idea declare that our sun came long before the earth formed. Also, the earth was formed from a hot molten blob for millions of years before it cooled down. Eventually water formed on the surface.

Now, if we read Genesis 1 in a straightforward way (taking it as it is written—literal history), then we find that God clearly tells us that the earth was created before the sun—and it was not a hot molten blob, but was covered in water on the very first day of creation.

One other vital aspect of truly understanding Genesis concerns the nature of God (which we also learn about from God’s Word). A holy, loving, merciful God could not have progressively created over millions of years anyway. The fossil record that, according to the majority of secular scientists, was supposedly laid down over millions of years, is a horrible record of death, disease (like cancer, brain tumors, and so on) and suffering.

The God of the Bible, because of His very nature, could not create using (or permitting) such a horrible, wasteful process of death, struggle and suffering before sin came. And besides, His Word tells us He created everything “very good” in six literal days—and according to all the data from the Bible, it occurred only thousands of years ago.

So, as we proceed through 2004 with “Operation: Refuting Compromise,” let’s get the message out: “It’s not a matter of what God could have done, but what He said He did.”