The Gospel—Evidence for Creation

Why, one might ask, would anyone look to the gospel accounts and the New Testament for evidence of Creation when the whole Creation account is documented in Genesis?

Unfortunately, even many Christians do not believe the Genesis account of Creation. Neither are they willing to accept the world-wide Flood described in Genesis. These people have had their religious beliefs strongly tainted by the theory of evolution. In order to reconcile their religious beliefs with science they have accepted the theory of ‘theistic evolution’. They believe evolution to be true, but that it was directed by God.

Although their idea is not backed up by Scripture, theistic evolutionists do, to their credit, believe in God. As Christians they believe in Jesus Christ and usually admit that what He taught is truth. So what did Christ teach about Creation and Noah’s Flood?

‘God made them’

From Mark’s Gospel, chapter 10, we read of Jesus in Judea talking with the Pharisees. In a discussion about divorce Jesus said, ‘But at the beginning of creation God "made them male and female"’ (verse 6). The word ‘creation’ in this verse is all important, and the words ‘beginning of creation’ can be paraphrased ‘beginning of things not previously existing’. Matter and life forms were brought into being at the Creation. This event was never to be repeated, and only God could do it. Evolution based theory does not agree. Jesus also told us that God made man and woman, and He states this as a fact. Jesus did not say ‘God caused to develop’, or ‘God assisted in the evolution of’, He says that ‘God made them’. What could be more emphatic?

Before the Flood

Jesus also taught about the Flood. In Matthew 24 we read of Jesus preparing His disciples for His second coming. In verse 37 we read, ‘As it was in the days of Noah … ’; and in verse 38, ‘For in the days before the flood … up to the day Noah entered the ark’. In these and the following verse, Jesus described the Flood as ‘in the days of Noah’, and ‘Noah entered the ark’, and ‘the flood came and took them all away’.

The writers of the New Testament letters refer back to Genesis and Adam and Eve to explain how sin came into the world.

These are the essential elements of the Flood described in Genesis, and Jesus taught them as truth. A similar passage appears in Luke 17:26, 27.

One continuing theme in the New Testament concerns sin, with salvation through belief in Jesus Christ. The writers of the New Testament letters refer back to Genesis and Adam and Eve to explain how sin came into the world. In fact the whole account of the creation of Adam and Eve, and the introduction of sin in the Garden of Eden, can be found in the New Testament.

Scoffers

In his second letter, Peter tells us that scoffers in the last days will say that ‘ ... everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation’ (2 Peter 3:4). In Paul’s first epistle to the Corinthians we are told that Adam was the first man. ‘So it is written “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit’ (l Corinthians 15:45), and that ‘Adam was formed first, then Eve’ (1 Timothy 2:13).

The only other reference to Eve in the New Testament occurs when Paul told the Christians in Corinth he was concerned about their lapsing faith in Christ, ‘But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent’s cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ’ (2 Corinthians 11:3). This is often the danger with theistic evolutionists—creationists still love them and accept them as Christians, but must point out the dangers of their minds being led astray.

Paul told Timothy that Eve was first deceived, ‘And Adam was not the one deceived; it was the woman who was deceived and became a sinner’ (1 Timothy 2:14). However, we read in Romans that ‘sin entered the world through one man’ (Romans 5:12). Paul then wrote about ‘Adam’s transgression’ and taught that through Adam’s sin all men will die in their sins, ‘For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive’ (1 Corinthians 15:22). We also have evidence of Noah and the Flood in the New Testament in Peter’s second epistle, ‘he did not spare the ancient world when he brought the flood on the ungodly people, but protected Noah, a preacher of righteousness, and seven others’ (2 Peter 2:5).

Teaching from Genesis

We can see from the above Scripture passages that the writers of the New Testament letters firmly believed the Genesis account of Creation, which includes Adam and Eve. They actually used the material from Genesis for teaching the Christians of the first century. Indeed, Paul tells Timothy that, ‘All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness’ (2 Timothy 3:16). And we must remember that the use of the words ‘all Scripture’, quoted above, does not refer exclusively to the Old Testament, for Paul’s letters are put on a par with ‘the rest of the Scriptures’ (2 Peter 3:16).

Just as many Christians today have become influenced by the philosophies of mankind, so too had the Christians at Laodicea in the first century—so much so that Jesus in His Revelation to John says, ‘To the angel of the church in Laodicea write: These are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the ruler of God’s creation’ (Revelation 3:14). Jesus Himself says He was there at the beginning of Creation. How can Christians doubt His word by believing in evolution?