Christian Apologetics Class #2 Arguments for Creation over Evolution

Christian Apologetics Class #2 Arguments for Creation over Evolution

· The Hebrew word Bara is used of God's operation of the world only rarely, as in: Ps. 104;30, Amos 4;13, Gen. 1;1,21, 27, 2;3-4, 5;1-2, 6;7, Deut. 4;32, Ps. 89;11, 12, 148;5, Isaiah 40;26, 42;5, 43;1, 7, 45;8, 12, and Malachi 2;10.
· The Greek word ktisis refers to creation in Mk. 10;6, 13;19, Rom. 1;20, 1 Cor. 11;9, Eph. 3;9, Col. 1;16, 1 Tim. 4;3, and Revelation 3;14, 4;11, and 10;6.
· God's Ongoing Creation: Some uses of bara & ktisis do refer to God's continuing work or providence. God did not cease to relate to the world he had created. He continually sustains it's very existence.
· Psalm 104;30=30 Thou sendest forth thy spirit, they are created: and thou renewest the face of the earth.Here create(bara) is used, not of the initial generation of life, but of it's continual regeneration. The context speaks of God causing "the grass to grow for the cattle, and plants for the man to cultivate" in ;14=14 He causeth the grass to grow for the cattle, and herb for the service of man: that he may bring forth food out of the earth; It is He who in ;10 You make the springs pour water into ravines, so streams gush down from the mountains. And in ;20 0 You send the darkness, and it becomes night, when all the forest animals prowl about. It is God who continually provides food for all living things(v.27-28)27 Every one of these depends on you to give them their food as they need it.
· 28 When you supply it, they gather it. You open your hand to feed them. So we see the repeated emphasis on God's preservation of his world.
· Amos 4;13=13 For, lo, he that formeth the mountains, and createth the wind, and declareth unto man what is his thought, that maketh the morning darkness, and treadeth upon the high places of the earth, The LORD, The God of hosts, is his name. Bara here seems to be used of God's work in his creation, not simply of his original work of creation. The word maketh which is often used interchangeably w/ the word create (cf. Gen. 1;26, 27, 2;18) is used in other texts to describe God's continual providence.
· Other descriptions ; In numerous ways, the Bible presents God at work. In addition to creating & making, he is "doing" and "causing" the operations of nature. He sustains it (Heb. 1;3), holds it together (Col. 1;17), causes it to have being (Rev. 4;11), produces life in it Ps. 104;14. He is the continual cause of it's existence. There would be no reality of creation, past or present, were it not for God.
· Comparing Creation and Providence. God's dual work of creating & preserving the world are often presented in the same passage, even the same verse. Notice these revealing contrasts.
· God produces and yet produces. Genesis 1;1 says God created the heavens and the earth and later he is at work through the land producing vegetation in ;11 11 Then God said, "Let the land burst forth with every sort of grass and seed-bearing plant. And let there be trees that grow seed-bearing fruit. The seeds will then produce the kinds of plants and trees from which they came." And so it was. The first was an act of origin; the second was one of operation. Both are the work of God.
· God rested and yet is at work. Genesis 2;3 declares that God rested from his original work of creating. But Jesus affirmed that God is always at work in John 5;17.
· God laid foundations of earth and yet is making it productive. Ps. 104;5 declares that God set the earth on it's foundations. A few verses later God is bringing forth food from the earth in ;14. The first is a work of originating, the second of operating. God does both.
· God brought the world into being and yet keeps it in being. In Acts 17;24 the scriptures teach that God made the world. A couple of verses later it says in him we live and move and have our being, in ;28. God is both the past cause of its becoming and also the present cause of it's being.


Scriptures already shown declare that God's acts are necessary both for the world coming to be as well as for it continuing to be. There are several ways this may be stated that highlight nuances of the distinction:
· God brought the universe from nothing, and he keeps it from returning to nothing.
· God is the beginning cause and conserving cause of all that exists.
· God was active in life's production, and he is active in it's reproduction.
· God was operative in the generating of the world, and he actively governs it. Providence refers most specifically to God's governance of all that exists and occurs.
· God was involved in making the universe, and he is involved in caring for it.
· God is responsible for originating and operating the cosmos.

· Scientific Importance: Until after the lifetime of Darwin, the developers of modern science were creatonists, in that they believed in the supernatural origin of the universe & of life. Their number includes:
· Johann Kepler(1571-1630), celestial mechanics, physical astronomy
· Blaise Pascal (1623-1662), hydrostatics
· Robert Boyle(1627-1691) chemistry, gas dynamics
· Nicholas Steno(1638-1687) stratigraphy
· Isaac Newton(1642-1727), calculus, dynamics
· Michael Faraday(1791-1867), field theory
· Charles Babbage(1792-1871), computer science
· Louis Agassiz(1807-1873), glacial geology, ichthyology
· James Simpson(1811-1870), gynecology
· Gregor Mendel(1822-1884), genetics
· Louis Pasteur(1822-1895), bacteriology
· William Kelvin(1824-1907), energetics, thermodynamics
· Joseph Lister(1827-1912), antiseptic surgery
· James Clerk Maxwell(1831-1879), electrodynamics, statistical thermodynamics
· William Ramsay(1852-1916), isotopic chemistry

· In addition to these founders of scientific and mathematical fields were their forerunners, who also held to supernatural creation. Their number included Roger Bacon(1220-1292), Nicolaus Copernicus(1473-1543), and Galileo Galilei(1564-1642).

The Turn to Naturalism. After Darwin(1809-1882) published On the Origin of Species in 1859, the scene changed radically.