).. 
Joel Kontinen
In six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them.
(Exodus 20: 11,. NIV)
The supreme authority for my belief in a supernatural creation that occurred approximately 6000 years ago is the word of Jesus Christ, who believed in a recent creation (Mark 10:6). This is no wonder since He Himself is the Creator (Col. 1:15-17), the Word (Gr. Logos; John 1:1-3) through whom everything was created (Heb. 11:3). Jesus also believed that Moses wrote the Pentateuch (John 5:46), and that the Old Testament was real history (Matt. 23:35; Luke 17: 26-27). The genealogies of the Bible (Gen. 5, 1 Chron. 1; Luke 3:23-38, see also Jude 14) do not seem to have gaps; this would put the creation at approximately 6000 years before present.
I believe that the creation days were ordinary 24-hour days. The Hebrew word yom (“day”) appears some 2300 times in the Old Testament. While this does not always necessarily mean an ordinary day, the qualifiers “morning” and “evening” and number in Genesis 1 rule out all other possibilities: the creation days were ordinary days (Sarfati 2004, 67 – 105).
The Bible does not prove the existence of God but assumes that He exists. Indeed, Paul assures us that the creation itself is evidence for God’s existence (Rom. 1:20). The earth seems to be fine-tuned for life; it “stands unique in all the planetary bodies yet discovered. Its distance from the sun, temperature rage allowing liquid water, and diverse range of organic life point to an Intelligent Designer who created the world as an ideal place for life” (Sarfati 2006, 43). As Louis Pasteur demonstrated, life cannot form spontaneously from non-life. Much in our world is so complex that it cannot be the result of chance. The information that is coded in the genes of every living being points to intelligent design. Moreover, information requires a sender (Gitt 1997).
According to the creation model we would expect biological systems to be irreducibly complex. The neo-Darwinian paradigm, i.e. a step-wise accumulation of the different constituent parts, fails to explain the origin of biological systems like blood clotting, the immune system or the bacterial flagellum (Behe 1996). Irreducible complexity points to an omnipotent Creator.
Pond scum to people evolution that relies on mutations and natural selection is a weak view, since there are no known examples of mutations that would increase genetic information. Even “beneficial” mutations, e.g. the loss of the ability to fly in island beetles, amount to a decrease in information (Wieland 1997). In addition, natural selection can only select from existing genetic material.
The curse (Gen.3:7) following the fall of man rules out any upward development in living beings. (Morris 2003, 18). We can see that the trend is just the opposite to what molecules-to-man evolution would require.
Evolutionists are fond of arguing for “bad design” as proof of the non-existence of God. They often claim that the panda’s thumb and our “inverted” retina are examples of bad design, but on closer inspection both turn out to work perfectly. The “vestigial organs” argument, i.e. that we have leftovers from our non-human past is based on a priori views and not facts since such organs are fully functional (Bergman and Howe 1993). We do not have evolutionary leftovers or “junk” in our DNA (Walkup 2001). Even in our fallen world we see marks of God’s brilliant design.
The Bible clearly teaches that God created all living beings “after their kind” (Gen. 1:21, 24-25). While the biblical kind (Heb. baramin) does not correspond exactly to “species”, as a Genesis “kind” can include several modern species, the fossil record does not support the Darwinian view of molecules-to-man evolution. Ape men are figments of the imagination (Gish 1995; Lubenow 1992) and purported “transitional fossils” like the Archaeopteryx turn out not to be transitional at all. “Living fossils” like the Coelacanth are an enigma for evolutionists but understandable in a biblical framework of 6000 years.
Compromise views such as theistic evolution and progressive creationism cannot answer the problem of pain or the theodicy problem (see Goring 1995, 524 for a detailed definition of the term), i.e. if God is good and omnipotent, why is there suffering in the world? Why is nature “red in tooth and nail”? Belief in millions of years distorts the true nature of God. It would mean that there was death before the fall, since the fossil records shows that animals were killing each other millions of years before Adam’s fall, and, for instance, dinosaurs suffered from cancer. At the end of the creation week, God declared everything to be very good (Gen. 1:31). Skeptics ignore the fall (Gen. 3) that resulted in the whole creation groaning as a result of sin. Death and suffering are the consequences of Adam’s sin (Rom. 5:12-14). Animals only began eating each other after the fall, because in the beginning, all beings were vegetarians.(Gen. 1:29-30).
The global flood of Noah’s day provided ideal conditions for the formation of fossils. Compromise positions, such as progressive creationism, have to argue for a local flood, which is absurd, since it disregards the clear teaching of Scripture and the rainbow sign makes God a liar (Mortenson 2006). Marine fossils on mountaintops, huge fossil graveyards and flood legends from around the world support a global flood (Riddle 2003). The flood is the best explanation for the geological column, which has too many anomalies for uniformitarians, such as polystrate fossils and the fact that tens of millions of years are missing between strata in many places. Moreover, at some places the different strata seem to be bent while still hot (Silvestru 2004).
The mass extinctions that most secular scientists accept are more logically interpreted as being caused by one universal catastrophe, viz. the biblical flood (Silvestru 2001).
Evolutionist and other long-agers lack a mechanism for producing an ice age. However, the volcanic dust and gases that erupted during the global flood of Noah’s time probably brought about cooler summers and heavy snow during the post-flood centuries, thus making the ice age possible (Oard 2004).
The recent discovery of soft tissue in dinosaur bone (Wieland 2005) and the very existence of comets which have a maximum age of 100 000 years which supposedly were all formed 4.6 billion years ago (Lisle 2005) also support the biblical (6000 year) age of the world.
The eruption of Mount Saint Helens in 1980 was proof that valleys and geological formations can form very quickly (Morris and Austin 2003). The recent RATE project has shown that radiometric dating methods cannot be trusted, and radiocarbon has been discovered in coal and diamonds (DeYoung 2005). This should be disturbing news for evolutionists who believe diamonds are millions of years old and radiocarbon (C-14) has a half life of ca. 5700years. In addition, it would be difficult to imagine that they could somehow be “contaminated” by C-14 many miles below the surface of the earth.
The fall of Adam explains why we have severe moral problems such as violence, criminality, racism and homosexuality in society. Sin has marred the world in which we live. Paul taught that the rejection of God’s revelation leads to dire consequences (Rom. 1:18-32). It is probably no exaggeration to conclude that belief in evolution amounts to exchanging “the truth of God for a lie” (v. 25).
These are some of the reasons why I believe I can trust that the biblical view of origins, i.e. a creation in six literal days approximately 6000 years ago as well as the subsequent fall and curse and the flood of Noah’s time, is the best explanation of the reality we see around us today. While there are some questions that as yet have not been satisfactorily solved, such as the distant starlight problem that Humpreys (1994) has attempted to address, these issues pale when compared with the multiplicity of inconsistencies in evolutionary theory and in compromise positions that rely on millions of years. Compromise positions have to explain away clear biblical teaching, such as the global flood and death being the consequence of sin, but the biblical view results in a logical and consistent worldview: I can thus truly take God at His Word and be sure that He means what He says.
Sources
Behe, Michael J. 1996. Darwin’s Black Box: The Biochemical Challenge to Evolution. New York: The Free Press.
Bergman, Jerry, and George Howe. 1993. “Vestigial Organs” Are Fully Functional. Kansas City, MO: Creation Research Society.
DeYoung, Don. 2005. Thousands … Not Billions. Green Forest, AR: Master Books.
Gish, Duane T. 1995. Evolution: The Fossils Still Say No! El Cajon, CA: Institute for Creation Research.
Gitt, Werner. 1997. In the Beginning Was Information. Bielefelt: Christiche Literatur Verbreitung.
Goring, Rosemary. 1995. The Wordsworth Dictionary of Beliefs and Religions. Ware: Wordsworth.
Ham, Ken. 1999. The God of an Old Earth. Creation 21:4, 42–45. http://www.creationontheweb.com/content/view/508.
__________ . 2001. Did Jesus say He Created in Six Days? http://www.answersingenesis.org/us/newsletters/0801lead.asp
Humpreys, D. Russell. 1994. Starlight and Time: Solving the Puzzle of Distant Starlight in a Young Universe. Green Forest, AR: Master Books.
Lisle, Jason. 2005. What Does the Bible Say About Astronomy? Answers in Genesis.
Lubenow, Marvin L. 1992. Bones of Contention: A Creationist Assessment of Human Fossils. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books.
Morris, Henry. 2003. Biblical Catastrophism and Geology. El Cajon, CA: Institute for Creation Research.
Morris, John and Steven A. Austin. 2003. Footprints in the Ash. Green Forest, AR: Master Books.
Mortenson, Terry. 2006. Noah’s Flood: Washing Away Millions of Years (DVD). Answers in Genesis.
Oard, Michael. 2004. Frozen in Time. Green Forest, AR: Master Books.
Riddle, Mike. 2003. Creation/Evolution: Does It Matter What We Believe? (DVD)
Sarfati, Jonathan. 2004. Refuting Compromise. Green Forest, AR: Master Books.
_________________. 2005. Genesis: Bible Authors Believed it to be History. http://www.answersingenesis.org/docs2005/1101genesis_history.asp
_________________. 2006. Our Earth is ‘Too Special’? Creation 28:3, 42-44.
Silvestru, Emil. 2001. The Permian Extinctions: National Geography Comes Close to the Truth. TJ 15:1, 6-8.
_________________. 2004. Rocks & Ages. Do They Hide Millions of Years? (DVD). Answers in Genesis.
Walkup. Linda. 2001. ‘Junk’ DNA: Evolutionary Discards or God’s Tools? TJ 14:2,18–30. http://www.answersingenesis.org/tj/v14/i2/junk_dna.asp
Wieland, Carl. 1997. Beetle Bloopers. Creation 19:3,30. http://www.answersingenesis.org/creation/v19/i3/beetle.asp
_______________. 2005. Still soft and stretchy. http://www.creationontheweb.com/content/view/3042.
In six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them.
(Exodus 20: 11,. NIV)
The supreme authority for my belief in a supernatural creation that occurred approximately 6000 years ago is the word of Jesus Christ, who believed in a recent creation (Mark 10:6). This is no wonder since He Himself is the Creator (Col. 1:15-17), the Word (Gr. Logos; John 1:1-3) through whom everything was created (Heb. 11:3). Jesus also believed that Moses wrote the Pentateuch (John 5:46), and that the Old Testament was real history (Matt. 23:35; Luke 17: 26-27). The genealogies of the Bible (Gen. 5, 1 Chron. 1; Luke 3:23-38, see also Jude 14) do not seem to have gaps; this would put the creation at approximately 6000 years before present.
I believe that the creation days were ordinary 24-hour days. The Hebrew word yom (“day”) appears some 2300 times in the Old Testament. While this does not always necessarily mean an ordinary day, the qualifiers “morning” and “evening” and number in Genesis 1 rule out all other possibilities: the creation days were ordinary days (Sarfati 2004, 67 – 105).
The Bible does not prove the existence of God but assumes that He exists. Indeed, Paul assures us that the creation itself is evidence for God’s existence (Rom. 1:20). The earth seems to be fine-tuned for life; it “stands unique in all the planetary bodies yet discovered. Its distance from the sun, temperature rage allowing liquid water, and diverse range of organic life point to an Intelligent Designer who created the world as an ideal place for life” (Sarfati 2006, 43). As Louis Pasteur demonstrated, life cannot form spontaneously from non-life. Much in our world is so complex that it cannot be the result of chance. The information that is coded in the genes of every living being points to intelligent design. Moreover, information requires a sender (Gitt 1997).
According to the creation model we would expect biological systems to be irreducibly complex. The neo-Darwinian paradigm, i.e. a step-wise accumulation of the different constituent parts, fails to explain the origin of biological systems like blood clotting, the immune system or the bacterial flagellum (Behe 1996). Irreducible complexity points to an omnipotent Creator.
Pond scum to people evolution that relies on mutations and natural selection is a weak view, since there are no known examples of mutations that would increase genetic information. Even “beneficial” mutations, e.g. the loss of the ability to fly in island beetles, amount to a decrease in information (Wieland 1997). In addition, natural selection can only select from existing genetic material.
The curse (Gen.3:7) following the fall of man rules out any upward development in living beings. (Morris 2003, 18). We can see that the trend is just the opposite to what molecules-to-man evolution would require.
Evolutionists are fond of arguing for “bad design” as proof of the non-existence of God. They often claim that the panda’s thumb and our “inverted” retina are examples of bad design, but on closer inspection both turn out to work perfectly. The “vestigial organs” argument, i.e. that we have leftovers from our non-human past is based on a priori views and not facts since such organs are fully functional (Bergman and Howe 1993). We do not have evolutionary leftovers or “junk” in our DNA (Walkup 2001). Even in our fallen world we see marks of God’s brilliant design.
The Bible clearly teaches that God created all living beings “after their kind” (Gen. 1:21, 24-25). While the biblical kind (Heb. baramin) does not correspond exactly to “species”, as a Genesis “kind” can include several modern species, the fossil record does not support the Darwinian view of molecules-to-man evolution. Ape men are figments of the imagination (Gish 1995; Lubenow 1992) and purported “transitional fossils” like the Archaeopteryx turn out not to be transitional at all. “Living fossils” like the Coelacanth are an enigma for evolutionists but understandable in a biblical framework of 6000 years.
Compromise views such as theistic evolution and progressive creationism cannot answer the problem of pain or the theodicy problem (see Goring 1995, 524 for a detailed definition of the term), i.e. if God is good and omnipotent, why is there suffering in the world? Why is nature “red in tooth and nail”? Belief in millions of years distorts the true nature of God. It would mean that there was death before the fall, since the fossil records shows that animals were killing each other millions of years before Adam’s fall, and, for instance, dinosaurs suffered from cancer. At the end of the creation week, God declared everything to be very good (Gen. 1:31). Skeptics ignore the fall (Gen. 3) that resulted in the whole creation groaning as a result of sin. Death and suffering are the consequences of Adam’s sin (Rom. 5:12-14). Animals only began eating each other after the fall, because in the beginning, all beings were vegetarians.(Gen. 1:29-30).
The global flood of Noah’s day provided ideal conditions for the formation of fossils. Compromise positions, such as progressive creationism, have to argue for a local flood, which is absurd, since it disregards the clear teaching of Scripture and the rainbow sign makes God a liar (Mortenson 2006). Marine fossils on mountaintops, huge fossil graveyards and flood legends from around the world support a global flood (Riddle 2003). The flood is the best explanation for the geological column, which has too many anomalies for uniformitarians, such as polystrate fossils and the fact that tens of millions of years are missing between strata in many places. Moreover, at some places the different strata seem to be bent while still hot (Silvestru 2004).
The mass extinctions that most secular scientists accept are more logically interpreted as being caused by one universal catastrophe, viz. the biblical flood (Silvestru 2001).
Evolutionist and other long-agers lack a mechanism for producing an ice age. However, the volcanic dust and gases that erupted during the global flood of Noah’s time probably brought about cooler summers and heavy snow during the post-flood centuries, thus making the ice age possible (Oard 2004).
The recent discovery of soft tissue in dinosaur bone (Wieland 2005) and the very existence of comets which have a maximum age of 100 000 years which supposedly were all formed 4.6 billion years ago (Lisle 2005) also support the biblical (6000 year) age of the world.
The eruption of Mount Saint Helens in 1980 was proof that valleys and geological formations can form very quickly (Morris and Austin 2003). The recent RATE project has shown that radiometric dating methods cannot be trusted, and radiocarbon has been discovered in coal and diamonds (DeYoung 2005). This should be disturbing news for evolutionists who believe diamonds are millions of years old and radiocarbon (C-14) has a half life of ca. 5700years. In addition, it would be difficult to imagine that they could somehow be “contaminated” by C-14 many miles below the surface of the earth.
The fall of Adam explains why we have severe moral problems such as violence, criminality, racism and homosexuality in society. Sin has marred the world in which we live. Paul taught that the rejection of God’s revelation leads to dire consequences (Rom. 1:18-32). It is probably no exaggeration to conclude that belief in evolution amounts to exchanging “the truth of God for a lie” (v. 25).
These are some of the reasons why I believe I can trust that the biblical view of origins, i.e. a creation in six literal days approximately 6000 years ago as well as the subsequent fall and curse and the flood of Noah’s time, is the best explanation of the reality we see around us today. While there are some questions that as yet have not been satisfactorily solved, such as the distant starlight problem that Humpreys (1994) has attempted to address, these issues pale when compared with the multiplicity of inconsistencies in evolutionary theory and in compromise positions that rely on millions of years. Compromise positions have to explain away clear biblical teaching, such as the global flood and death being the consequence of sin, but the biblical view results in a logical and consistent worldview: I can thus truly take God at His Word and be sure that He means what He says.
Sources
Behe, Michael J. 1996. Darwin’s Black Box: The Biochemical Challenge to Evolution. New York: The Free Press.
Bergman, Jerry, and George Howe. 1993. “Vestigial Organs” Are Fully Functional. Kansas City, MO: Creation Research Society.
DeYoung, Don. 2005. Thousands … Not Billions. Green Forest, AR: Master Books.
Gish, Duane T. 1995. Evolution: The Fossils Still Say No! El Cajon, CA: Institute for Creation Research.
Gitt, Werner. 1997. In the Beginning Was Information. Bielefelt: Christiche Literatur Verbreitung.
Goring, Rosemary. 1995. The Wordsworth Dictionary of Beliefs and Religions. Ware: Wordsworth.
Ham, Ken. 1999. The God of an Old Earth. Creation 21:4, 42–45. http://www.creationontheweb.com/content/view/508.
__________ . 2001. Did Jesus say He Created in Six Days? http://www.answersingenesis.org/us/newsletters/0801lead.asp
Humpreys, D. Russell. 1994. Starlight and Time: Solving the Puzzle of Distant Starlight in a Young Universe. Green Forest, AR: Master Books.
Lisle, Jason. 2005. What Does the Bible Say About Astronomy? Answers in Genesis.
Lubenow, Marvin L. 1992. Bones of Contention: A Creationist Assessment of Human Fossils. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books.
Morris, Henry. 2003. Biblical Catastrophism and Geology. El Cajon, CA: Institute for Creation Research.
Morris, John and Steven A. Austin. 2003. Footprints in the Ash. Green Forest, AR: Master Books.
Mortenson, Terry. 2006. Noah’s Flood: Washing Away Millions of Years (DVD). Answers in Genesis.
Oard, Michael. 2004. Frozen in Time. Green Forest, AR: Master Books.
Riddle, Mike. 2003. Creation/Evolution: Does It Matter What We Believe? (DVD)
Sarfati, Jonathan. 2004. Refuting Compromise. Green Forest, AR: Master Books.
_________________. 2005. Genesis: Bible Authors Believed it to be History. http://www.answersingenesis.org/docs2005/1101genesis_history.asp
_________________. 2006. Our Earth is ‘Too Special’? Creation 28:3, 42-44.
Silvestru, Emil. 2001. The Permian Extinctions: National Geography Comes Close to the Truth. TJ 15:1, 6-8.
_________________. 2004. Rocks & Ages. Do They Hide Millions of Years? (DVD). Answers in Genesis.
Walkup. Linda. 2001. ‘Junk’ DNA: Evolutionary Discards or God’s Tools? TJ 14:2,18–30. http://www.answersingenesis.org/tj/v14/i2/junk_dna.asp
Wieland, Carl. 1997. Beetle Bloopers. Creation 19:3,30. http://www.answersingenesis.org/creation/v19/i3/beetle.asp
_______________. 2005. Still soft and stretchy. http://www.creationontheweb.com/content/view/3042.
