Background Consideration:
- Dr. Joe Galusha points out in this broadcast that the evolutionist views the geological data in the earth’s crust as evidence of the process of evolution, but creation scientists typically view the geological data in the earth’s crust as pointing not to creation but to a world wide flood. From this point of view, the actual “how” of creation remains beyond scientific inquiry. And, correspondingly, there is little or no strictly “scientific” evidence to support the story of the creation week found in Genesis 1-3.
On the other hand, a study of present living organisms, even at the molecular level, suggests an extremely high level of intelligent design and, for many scientists, a Designer. The possibility that chance and time alone could produce the complexities of the human eye, for example, seems to vanish.
A close examination of the words used in the biblical account of creation finds little evidence for the six days of creation week being long periods of time, rather than normal twenty-four hour periods. Supporting evidence is the declaration in Exodus 20, “For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth”, used to explain the observance of the weekly Sabbath.
For Discussion:
- What is the connection between the way the first chapters of the Bible are read and the way the last chapters of the Bible are read? Is the belief in the literal coming of Christ and the creation of the new earth, described in Revelation 19-22, dependent on a belief that the creation account in Genesis 1-3 is a literal account of earth’s beginnings?
- What do you make of the belief that God used natural selection and the process of evolution to produce what we see today? In other words, “theistic evolution”?
- Is Dr. Galusha’s analysis of the difference between “creationists” and “evolutionists” helpful? How should a Christian approach the data interpreted by scientists as pointing to long time periods of human existence?
- Does the Bible state that the world was created 4000 years before the time of Christ? On what biblical basis is the figure of 6000 years arrived at?
- According to Genesis 1 the first humans were made by God in or into the image of God. What capacities are included within “the image of God”? How much of this original likeness to God remains after thousands of year of sin?
- Christians understand Jesus to have been involved in creation. How shall we understand the brief descriptions of his role as the agent or means of creation, described in John 1:3, 1 Corinthians 8:6, Colossians 1:15-17, and Hebrews 1:2?
