Creation Science Rebuttals
Creation Magazine (Ex Nihilo)
Were Creative Acts Sudden?
Ex Nihilo, Volume 2, Issue 2, April 1979
Review by Greg Neyman
© Old Earth Ministries
This article by W. Wolnizer discusses Genesis 2:19, and poses an important question. The verse says
And out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field, and every foul of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what be would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof.
At stake here is whether or not evolution could have been referred to via the word "formed." The word formed is the Hebrew word yatsar. Of this, Wolnizer says "Now, whatever may be understood by this word, it cannot mean ‘to cause to develop by means of natural selection through immense periods of time.’ Why not? Wolnizer presents some semantic evidence from the other words used in Genesis, bara (to create) and asah (to make), and he relies heavily upon emotional arguments from the words of our Lord, but he fails to make a convincing point as to why it cannot be understood to be evolution.
He fails to address an even more potent witness for evolution, which is in Genesis 1...
11And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so.
12And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good. (Genesis 1:11-12, KJV)
Notice that God did not say, "Let there be grass," and there was grass. God told the land to produce the vegetation! It was the land doing the producing, not God. God told the earth to bring forth grass, and in verse 12, "the earth brought forth grass..." In essence, God let the land "do its thing" on its own. Instead of fiat, out of nothing creation, the text for Genesis actually supports evolution better! The same is also true of the creative events of Day Five, and of Day Six (for more, see this article).
He goes on to use several quotes from Dr. Henry Morris of ICR. In the last one, Morris says
It is absolutely impossible to believe in the Bible as the complete and literal Word of God and to believe in the theory of evolution. But, more than that, it is almost impossible to believe in a personal God of any sort if one believes in evolution. The so-called theistic evolutionists, who manage to think of evolution as “God’s method of creation”, and who profess to see evolution a grand and beautiful and orderly process of nature—one that enlarges and develops one’s conception of God—are being inexcusably inconsistent.
Today, we have millions of theistic evolutionists, who do believe the Word of God and evolution. Morris is flat-out wrong! You can be a strong, Bible-believing Christian and be an evolutionist. Are these theistic evolutionists being "inexcusably inconsistent" with the Bible? Not at all. They are "inconsistent" with Morris' interpretation of the Bible. Morris is inconsistent with his interpretation of general revelation, in his rejection of scientific facts.
This article is on the web at answersingenesis.org/creation/v2/i2/sudden.asp
If you are not a Christian, and you have been holding out on making a decision for Christ because the Church always preached a message that was contrary to what you saw in the scientific world, then rest assured that the Bible is the inerrant Word of God, and you can believe in Christ and receive salvation, while still believing in an old earth. Click here for more.
Are you a Christian who believes in young earth creationism? Now that we have shown the many difficulties of the young earth creation science model in this and many other articles, how does this impact your Christian life? If you are a young earth creationism believer, click here.
Related Articles
To learn more
about old earth creationism, see
Old Earth Belief,
or check out the article
Can You Be A
Christian and Believe in an Old Earth?
Feel free to check out more of this website. Our goal is to
provide rebuttals to the bad science behind young earth creationism,
and honor God by properly presenting His creation.