Kepler-science.nl

Bible and origins

Science has its limits and is principally unable to tell us much on the origin of matter and life. The laws we have discovered in creation are all about the existing situation and can't give us a real clue to the origin of matter. Take the law of conservation of matter and energy:  this law doesn't fit the bill very well as regards the origin of matter and energy.

That's why it doesn't seem very strange to ask the One Who was there when it all began: the Creator.

The Bible informs us about the beginning, in the Old as well in the New Testament. That we don't understand everything seems pretty logical: our understanding is limited - so different from that of the Creator. The Almighty God can tell us very well how it all began - and also why and how it all went so wrong.

Some questions listed

A number of things ar important to consider if we ponder on the relationship between Bible and science, like:

• How do we read the Bible? What genres can we find, is Genesis history?
• What does the Old Testament tell us about Creation and about God?
• How does the Lord Jesus speak about the beginning?
• What do the apostels tell us about it?
• Which effects does it have is we don't read Genesis 1-11 historically?

The links lead to more information and go deeper into the matter, on this page you will find the basics.

What difference does it make?

Why is it s important to consider Genesis 1-11 s real history? What's against thinking creation happened through evolution?

• It's against the consistent testimony of the whole of Scripture.
• God is reliable: it shows in His acts and in His speaking. If we can't trust Him when He speaks about the beginning, how could we trust Him for anything else?
• If He didn't create Man as related in Gen.1+2 put in stead chose Adam and Eve from a group of people (like He did with Abraham): why didn't He tell us? Why complicate things this way?
• If theïstic evolutionists are right, all believers (Jews and Christians) were wrong in their belief all these ages. Do we really need theologians to understand it? Have we been so stupid all along?
• The triad creation-fall-redemption looses it's significance without the first two  really taking place.
• Overseeing the whole of His work at the end of the six days of creation God says that everything was very good. That doesn't match with an evolution processwith death and struggle for life from the beginning - these could only have started taking place after the fall - not before.
• According to the Bible creation happened by speaking (momentarily). We do find processes in the Bible, but nowhere connected to creation.
• The Bible founds marriage, the coming of the Messiah and the future very clearly in the first chapters of Genesis. If we can't read the first chapters historically, why should we believe in prophecies about the future?
• The strata bear witness to God's judgment by the Flood (though not all strata will have been formed by the Flood). The Flood points towards the future judgment - so we deny God's judgments if we deny the Flood. A local makes God a liar, because He promised something like that would never happen again (Gen.9:9,10).
• It is striking how much the alternative readers (theistic evolutionists) disagree and how meager their exegeses often is ...

More pages about this topic

This page relates the basics of the discussion. Sub-pages (see menu above) tell more: about the perspective of the Bible writers, about Genres in the Bible and about what the Bible has to say about it..

The scientific arguments for (theistic) evolution are discussed on BioLogos and Body plan. Also see Origins (five sub-pages) and Strata (with sub-pages about fossils and the flood).

The creation of Adam by Michelangelo on the roof of the Sistine chapel

Links:

1. Articles on theistic evolution on creation.com
2. What about the two creation accounts?

Greg Haslam wrote (in book nr. 3)

If God didn't say what He meant in Genesis, why should we trust Him anywhere else? If God couldn't get creation right first time in the beginning and was forced to use a 'hit and miss', 'road-kill' method involving eons of death and destruction, then how long might we have to wait for God to re-fashion the world at the end? It could be long wait for our final resurrection and new residence! Yet both are said to be instant outcomes of Christ's return in the Bible. Why not at the beginning also?

Recommended books:

1. The Quest for the Historical Adam by William VanDodewaard (2015), Reformation Heritage Books, Grand Rapids / it tells the story of the hermeneutics on the creation of Adam from the early Church fathers to the present day.
2. The Genesis Account by Jonathan Sarfati (2015), Creation Book Publishers / a theological, historical and scientific commentary on Genesis 1-11
3. Should Christians Embrace Evolution? edited by Norman C. Nevin (with contributions of theologians and scientists)