| Septuagesima Sunday, 2001
Genesis 1; Psalm 24
The Sixth Day of Creation
Last Monday I took my four oldest kids overnight camping. We found a perfect site in Cleveland National Park. After a short hike in the mountains we caught the sun setting on the ocean. The weather was perfect. We returned to our campsite to build a fire and settle in for the evening. Sitting around the burning logs I read a book out loud by the light of a lantern. The moon shined nearly full; an owl landed in the treetops and hooted. And just then our neighbors turned on the music full blast, and decided to celebrate a mini-Woodstock. The pounding cacophony continued until after midnight, marring the wonders of God's creation.
Our Old Testament lesson and Psalm set forth for us today a foundational truth: "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth;" and from our Psalm, "the earth is the Lord's, and all its fullness; the world and those who dwell therein." It is on Septuagesima Sunday that the lectionary starts us at Genesis chapter one. Once a year the Church calls us to appreciate the wonder and worth of creation, to thank God for it, and to be reminded of its importance. Therefore, on this Sunday it is appropriate for us to touch on the trustworthiness of the Genesis creation account.
Some of you are aware of the debate that has gone on in the last century among orthodox, Bible believing Christians over the age of the earth. There is the young earth side that holds to a view that God created the universe about 6,000 years ago in six, 24 hour days. The old earth position, though rejecting the naturalism of materialistic evolution, accepts a version where God created the universe millions, if not billions of years ago. There are faithful Christians in both camps. Although I hold to the young earth position I do not mean to impugn the faith or motives of the old-earthers. We simply have a difference of opinion, and I would like to persuade you to the young earth viewpoint. Since an examination of all six days of creation would take us too long, I have chosen to zero in on the sixth day.
We begin with the assumption that the Holy Spirit inspired the author of Genesis, (probably Joseph, maybe Moses), to present a literal, historical account of how God created all things. What did the Triune Lord do on the sixth day? He was busy. Besides creating land animals, He made Adam from the dust of the earth, and Eve from Adam's side. He planted and completed the Garden of Eden. He furthermore herded the animals past Adam for naming, and lastly He announced the cultural mandate. Some modern biblical scholars entertain doubts whether so many things could take place in a single day. It seems impossible.
Well let's see if it is. We will attempt to put in chronological order what transpired that day beginning at 6:00 o'clock in the morning. [For the following outline and insights I am indebted to James Jordan's Creation in Six Days: A Defense of the Traditional Reading of Genesis One -- a masterful work.]
6:00 a.m. - God makes the animals. Genesis 1:25 says, "And God made the beasts of the earth according to its kind, cattle according to its kind, and everything that creeps on the earth according to its kind. And God saw that it was good." That shouldn't take more than a minute.
6:01 a.m. - God takes counsel with Himself to make man. We see this decision in verse 26, "Then God said, Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness" The three Persons of the Trinity decide that they will now crown creation by shaping a creature in their own image. This creature would be mankind. The stamp of the divine image would give men and women superiority and priority over all other earthly creatures.
6:02 a.m. - God makes Adam. Forming him of dust takes one minute. This we learn from Genesis 2:7. "And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.
6:05 a.m. - After talking with Adam for a minute or so, God starts to plant the Garden. The Garden-Orchard we are referring to is the Garden of Eden. "The LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden" (Genesis 2:8). Most likely Adam watched while God sowed the tree seeds in the earth. Adam learned what it meant to tend the world by watching his Father. As for the trees springing up rapidly, there is nothing odd about that. Maybe you have seen one of those science clips which shows a plant growing in fast motion. The film depicts the seed bursting out of the soil and growing to maturity in a matter of seconds, or minutes. That is possibly what Adam watched God perform on that sixth day. There is Scriptural precedent for this idea. An item from the book of Numbers reports about the budding of Aaron's rod. Numbers 17:8 tells us that Moses left Aaron's rod overnight in the Holy Place of the Tabernacle. The next day the stick had "sprouted and put forth buds, had produced blossoms and yielded ripe almonds." That is fast growth. Clearly, God can carry out "miracles of acceleration."
6:10 a.m. - The Garden is completed. The Garden-Orchard was a fragrantly scented and colorfully fruitful paradise. A gushing spring with its origin in Eden divided into four rivers that flowed over the rest of the globe. Numerous gems and precious stones were strewn about. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil was there. It was an exceedingly pleasant place.
6:11 a.m. - God puts Adam in the Garden (Gen. 2:15 ff.). He charged Adam to tend and keep the garden. Actually those two words "tend and keep" could more accurately be rendered, "cultivate and guard." First, he was to "cultivate" the Garden of Eden, enhancing its already great fruitfulness. And secondly, he was supposed to "guard" the Garden, which meant protecting it against the encroachment of the surrounding wilderness that made up the rest of the earth. In other words Adam and all his progeny were not to abuse their environment. They were to exercise good stewardship of the earth.
6:12 a.m. - God warns Adam about the one forbidden tree. We know that the serpent later tempted Eve with the fruit of this plant. Adam could eat of any other tree except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Eventually, God would possibly have given men and women permission to eat of this tree. However, for a period of time they were to refrain.
6:13 a.m. - Adam has breakfast. This is not stated explicitly, but we have to assume that Adam did not waste time in tasting some of the luscious fruits of the Garden.
6:30 a.m. - God reveals His decision to make Eve. He announces, "It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him" (v. 18). But before woman is created, Adam is given a task.
6:31 a.m. - God brings the animals to Adam to name. Birds and animals are paraded before Adam by "kinds," so not every specific species has to appear. For instance, if there are thirty species of turtles, it wasn't necessary that all thirty come to Adam. One turtle would do. The same goes for rats and pterodactyls, yaks and cats. Let's say that it took Adam eight hours to name them all, male and female, with a half hour lunch break. That is certainly long enough for Adam to name all the creatures.
3:00 P.M. - Adam takes a nap. Why did Adam doze off? We find out why in Genesis 2:21: "And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept; and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in its place. Then the rib which the LORD God had taken from man He made into a woman, and He brought her to the man."
3:28 P.M. - Adam wakes up and meets Eve. After naming all the other animals of earth, Adam finally finds a creature comparable to himself. Here is a helper for him. She will assist him in his work of enhancing the garden and guarding it from going wild. He looked at her, and said, "This is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; She shall be called Woman, Because she was taken out of Man."
3:29 P.M. - God speaks to Adam and Eve. This is where He proclaims to both of them the cultural mandate. We see it in Genesis 1:28, "Then God blessed them, and God said to them, Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth." This mandate Christ reiterated in the Great Commission: "Go, therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Trinity" (Matthew 28:18).
3:30 P.M. - We still have two and half hours to sunset. So there is easily sufficient time in one day to accomplish all that the Bible says God did. Furthermore, we see that there is no reason to divide Genesis chapter one from Genesis chapter two. Some critics insist that there are two separate accounts of creation in these chapters that are contradictory to one another. There is no need for this false dichotomy. In fact, the account of creation week runs all the way through the seventh day before going back and picking up the sixth day in more detail in chapter two. The reality that Bible passages are sometimes placed out of sequence does not mean that they are historically inaccurate, or not to be taken as history.
The description of the ten plagues of Egypt from the book of Exodus has its apparent problems. The scattered texts that speak of the Resurrection of Jesus from the grave can seem like a jumbled mess at first glance. How do we approach these biblical problems? The attitude of the heart is key. Do we come to hard passages in humility, with a desire to reverently harmonize them? Or do we come with a sneering skepticism that takes glee in undermining the authority of Scripture? The orientation of the heart makes the difference.
And next, how do we reckon with the challenges of evolutionary science? Let's not forget the subjectivity and uncertainty of science. Applied science is very different from theoretical science. Applied science is the branch that discovers how to use electricity to make a light bulb glow. Theoretical science comes up with theories to explain the flow of electricity itself. Here there is far less certainty. Scientific theories are not that cut and dry. This does not mean that Christians avoid science. No, in fact science originated among Christians in the Christian West. The first scientists and researchers knew that God had put order into His creation and they humbly attempted to study those patterns and use them. This humility is not so evident among Darwinists.
With supreme confidence modern scientists like the late Carl Sagan and Steven Hawking project theories about how the universe works, as if they already had all the facts needed to form a final theory. This is ridiculous. Is it a concrete fact that the red shift in the spectra of stars is caused by their rapid movement away from us in an "expanding universe"? Is it a law of science that the speed of light is the same everywhere between the stars and galaxies? Is it conclusively proven that dinosaurs became extinct millions of years ago? Does science have irrefutable evidence for earth's supposed billions of years? Of course not! None of this is proved. There is a lot of guesswork going on, and more than mere guesswork, some scientists are engaged in sheer fakery, blatant lies. Science is just beginning to scratch the surface of the earth, and has only explored the thinnest sliver of outer space. Our understanding of the universe is still so limited that hard conclusions can't be made.
In contrast, God's revealed Word is certain. The Bible speaks inerrantly and infallibly, and when it sets forth historical accounts about the physical world like it does in the first ten chapters of Genesis we ought take it as truth. Let us not fall for the Gnostic notion that reduces these chapters into gaps or figures or frameworks.
Finally, the point needs to be made that sinful man will instinctively misinterpret the data of creation. Sinful man is motivated at the root of his being to distort anything that forces him to come face to face with God. Could this not be the basis for the millions and billions of years? If the creation took place suddenly and recently, God cannot be avoided. If the creation took place gradually and in remote ages, then God, too, can be regarded as safely remote. The supposition of long evolutionary ages pushes into the shadows any god there might be.
St. Paul announces in Romans 1:20, "For since the creation of the world [God's] invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that [unbelievers] are without excuse." In other words, men and women see in the works of creation the goodness, wisdom and power of God Almighty. And yet what is the response of ungodly man? He suppresses that truth in unrighteousness. He tries to hold it back constantly. But he can't.
The late Cornelius Van Til compared rebellious man's mind to a radio, a radio that could pick up fifty stations, and of those fifty, all of them speak of the truth of God. The mind of an unredeemed sinner longs for just one station that could cancel out God's existence. If he could tune in his radio to that one station, he would leave it there forever.
That station does not exist. Every fiber of man's being, and every atom of land, sky and sea shouts out that there is a Supreme Creator, and that that God must be worshipped, and that the purpose of existence is to serve and glorify the LORD forever. And if man will not do so, he will be judged by King Jesus at the Last Day, and condemned forever. When it comes to the motivation of sinful men, we should never underestimate the drive of unbelievers to squelch God. This is the dynamic which propels the fraudulence and fakery of evolutionary science. Materialistic evolution is thus not science, it is a substitute religion.
In conclusion, the doctrine of creation is foundational. Our faith will be strong, and our theology sound to the extent that we hold to this doctrine. Let us commit ourselves anew on this Septuagesima Sunday to the goodness, wisdom and power of God revealed in creation. Return to Sermons |
