The Bible Doctrine of Creation is Essential to the Christian Faith
What do you believe about God and His Word? Is your Christian faith consistent with Biblical Theology? Have you trusted in Jesus as your Savior from sin? Biblical Creation is essential to our understanding about who God is, what sin is, and why we need a Savior. This article presents the third reason why it’s important for Christians to believe in the Bible doctrine of Creation; because it is essential to the Biblical Theology upon which our Christian faith rests.
If you would like to start this series from the beginning, please see, “Why is Biblical Creation Important?” If you would prefer immediate access to a more in-depth study on the importance of Biblical Creation to Christian faith, you can get “Why Creation Matters” on Amazon as a Kindle eBook or paperback.
This article discusses the importance of believing in Creation based on the teachings of Scripture in the Bible. It will not address scientific arguments. For science-based articles on why you should believe in Biblical Creation rather than evolution, please see: “Is Evolution Science or Religion?” and “How Evolution is Like a Fairytale”.
Genesis 1-3 Explains Existence
The first three chapters of Genesis introduce the Bible doctrines of God, creation, sin, the fall, death, and the need for salvation. These essential Christian doctrines explain who God is, where the world and life came from, the meaning / purpose of life, why God permits death and suffering, and our need for a divine Savior from sin and death.
The first chapter of Genesis records God’s 6-day creation of heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them in 31 verses. This short narrative pauses six times after a significant creation event to say, “and God saw that it was good” (Genesis 1:4, 10, 12, 18, 21, 25). God finished His creation on the sixth day by creating the first man and woman (Adam and Eve) in His image.
When God completed His creation, the Bible tells us, “And God saw everything that He had made, and behold, it was very good” (Genesis 1:31). A world formed over billions of years with life evolving by “natural selection” and death would not be “very good.”
The second chapter of Genesis elaborates on the creation of the first man and woman on the sixth day. This chapter records God forbidding Adam to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, with the warning that when he ate the forbidden fruit, he would surely die (Genesis 2:17).
Before the first woman was even created, man was warned that the penalty for disobedience (sin) would be death. This penalty for sin would make no sense if there had already been millions of years of death before Adam existed.
Genesis 3:1-6 records the temptation of Eve by a talking serpent (Satan in snake flesh). The woman ate the forbidden fruit because she was deceived (1 Timothy 2:14). She then gave Adam the deadly fruit to eat with her, and he ate it (Genesis 3:6, 12). They died spiritually that day and began their physical decay.
Death is the Penalty for Sin
God judged the first man and woman for their sin. Adam and Eve each died spiritually the moment they ate the forbidden fruit. They were immediately cut off from God’s life-giving Holy Spirit, and their bodies began the slow decay that ultimately ends in physical death.
Spiritual Death and Rebirth
As a result of Adam and Eve’s sin, people are all sinners by nature, spiritually separated from God from birth. Fellowship with God therefore requires a spiritual rebirth, through the indwelling of God’s Holy Spirit in response to faith in Jesus Christ as our heavenly Savior from sin and eternal spiritual death.
Anyone who dies physically without connecting with God spiritually (by confessing their sin and trusting in the death of Christ as payment for their sin) will be remain spiritually cut off from God and everything good He created. They will experience eternal death in Hell.
Physical Death
God told Adam that the earth was cursed because he listened to the voice of his wife rather than obeying God (Genesis 3:17). Growing food would now require sweat and toil. Man would have to work hard to get food from the ground until he died and returned to the soil from which he was made (Genesis 3:18-19). Women would also experience hard labor, but of another kind (Genesis 3:16).
The first record of physical death in the Bible occurs in Genesis 3:21, which says “Unto Adam also and to his wife did the LORD God make coats of skins and clothed them.” Innocent animals had to die as a sacrifice to provide a covering for the nakedness of their sin.
The first human death recorded in the Bible is found in Genesis 4. Cain (Adam and Eve’s oldest son) murdered his younger brother, Abel (Genesis 4:1-8). Why did Cain kill his brother? “Because his own works were evil, and his brother’s righteous” (1 John 3:12). Ungodly rejectors of God have been persecuting righteous believers in God from the beginning of creation.
Genesis 1-4 clearly teaches that God created a perfect world that was “very good” up through the creation of the first man and woman on the sixth day. Death only entered creation after Adam and Eve sinned by eating the forbidden fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
The theology of death being the result of man’s sin permeates the whole Bible. But Evolution teaches that death is a creative process, through which life improved over time. Evolution teaches that life progressed and became more complex through millions of years of death, struggle and natural selection before humans evolved.
These beliefs are completely contrary. If human life evolved through millions of years of death, then death cannot be the result of the first human’s sin. If death were not the result of Adam’s sin against his Creator, then there would be no reason to believe you need to be saved from your sin. You would have no need for a Savior. This is why the Bible doctrine of Creation is essential to the Christian faith.
Christian Theology is based on Biblical Creation
In Romans 5:8-21, the Apostle Paul described the relationship between Adam’s sin, the entrance of death into the world because of sin, and everyone dying because “all have sinned.” Paul also explained how Christ’s righteousness could be applied to all people to save us from our sin. We are justified through faith in Jesus Christ having paid the penalty for our sin, by shedding His blood and dying on the cross.
“God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by His blood, much more shall we be saved by Him from the wrath of God. (Romans 5:8-9 / ESV)
For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by His life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation. (Romans 5:10-11 / ESV)
Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned— . . . death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the One who was to come. (Romans 5:12-14 / ESV)
But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man’s trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many. And the free gift is not like the result of that one man’s sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification. (Romans 5:15-16 / ESV)
For if, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ. Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. (Romans 5:17-18 / ESV)
For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous . . . leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Romans 5:19-21 / ESV)
Christianity is a religion of life. God is life, and true life is only possible through connection with Him and the indwelling of His Holy Spirit. Sin separates people from the Holy God, Who is the Creator and the source of all life. Separation from the source of life results in death.
Christianity seeks to reconnect sinners with their Creator, Who is life, through faith in Jesus Christ, Who said, “I am the way the truth and the life” (John 14:6). When a person trusts in Jesus Christ as their savior, they are born again spiritually and reconnected with God through the indwelling of God’s Holy Spirit (John 3:1-19).
The theory of evolution, on the other hand, is a religion of death. Evolution teaches that upward progress is the result of struggle and death. Evolution teaches that there was no intelligence in creation. Time and chance were the magic hands that produced the “apparent” design we see in physical life through small changes selected through “natural selection” and the “survival of the fittest.”
Meaning of Life
Everyone wants their life to have meaning and purpose. Biblical Christianity provides meaning and purpose in life. The evolutionary worldview does not.
The Meaning of Life for Evolutionists
According to evolution, there is no meaning to life. The only purpose in life is to survive and reproduce to pass on your DNA. Once that has been done, it is time to die to make room for the next generation, the next round of trial and error, struggle and death.
Evolution offers no hope, only the promise of death and decay.
The Meaning of Life for Christians
According to the Bible, meaning in life comes through having intimate fellowship with God, our Creator, through faith in Jesus and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. This is the only way to truly live spiritually.
Christianity offers the hope of eternal life and a home in heaven.
Understanding that your Creator loves you so much that He was willing to empty Himself, being born into His creation as a man, to die a terrible death on a cross to pay for your sins is both humbling and thrilling. Understanding the seriousness of your sin and the inability to deserve forgiveness is humbling. But being blessed with the gift of eternal life, provided freely by the God we sinned against, is both amazing and reassuring.
Knowing you are a child of God, and a citizen of Heaven provides meaning and purpose in life. It motivates us to show our love and gratitude to our Heavenly Father and our Savior by loving God with all our heart and pleasing Him in all we think, say, and do. It also drives us to love others as ourselves and share our faith with them so they too may have their sins forgiven and pass from death to eternal life by trusting Jesus as their Savior.
No Compromise
Christianity and Evolution are diametrically opposed belief systems. Christianity offers the hope of eternal life and a home in heaven. Evolution offers no hope, only the promise of death and decay.
Compromising by believing in “Theistic Evolution,” by which God used evolution to create the universe and life, is unacceptable to God. To believe that God used millions of years of trial and error through evolutionary struggle and death to create life as we know it is insulting to God. This belief would rob God of His glory by denying His omniscience and omnipotence. It would also make God a liar because that is not what His Word says He did.
Elevating Evolutionary teachings over the truth of Creation as revealed in the Bible violates the first of the 10 Commandments (Exodus 20:3; Deuteronomy 5:7) and is a form of idolatry. As Jesus told Satan, “. . . it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve” (Matthew 4:10; Luke 4:8).
Trying to mix faith in Christ with evolutionary beliefs is a form of spiritual adultery. God destroyed the nation of Israel for mixing Baal worship, and other forms of idolatry, in with their worship of Him. It is impossible to please God while holding on to an idolatrous belief in evolution.
There is no legitimate way to reconcile the opposing beliefs of the Bible and evolution.
Conclusion
Creation is essential to Christian Theology. Biblical Christianity clearly teaches that God created everything perfectly good in six literal days, and that death entered the world through the sin of Adam, who was made fully formed on the 6th day. Evolution teaches that humanity evolved from “lower” life forms over millions of years through the process of evolution; through death, suffering, and decay.
The theory of evolution is a religion of death, which teaches that struggle and death are the driving force for upward evolution. If humans evolved over millions of years, then death was always present, long before ‘the human species’ arose. If evolution were true, death could not possibly have been caused by a man’s sin, and death would not be an enemy (1 Corinthians 15:26). Therefore, if evolution were true there would be no need for a Savior.
Biblical Christianity on the other hand is a religion of life, which teaches that a self-existent, all powerful, all knowing, loving God is the Creator, and the source of all life. Death is an enemy resulting from the first man’s disobedience. Death entered the world through Adam’s sin, and now all people are sinners by nature.
The natural consequence of our sin is eternal death; eternal separation from God in hell. As a result, we all need a Savior to save us from the penalty for our sin, so we can be reconciled to God and have eternal life. Jesus, the Creator, is that Savior.
Jesus is the eternal Word of God who was born into His creation as a man, to die on the cross to pay the penalty for our sins. As a result, we can now receive new spiritual life and be saved from eternal death and hell, through faith in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Biblical Creation and Evolution are completely contrary. There is no way to reconcile these opposing beliefs.
If you have not already done so, you might like to read the first article in this series, “Why is Biblical Creation Important?“
Or the second article in the series: “Creation and the Authority of the Bible“
Or the third: “Creation is Essential to God’s Identity“
If you would like immediate access to a more in-depth study on the importance of Biblical Creation to Christian faith, you can get the book on Amazon. “Why Creation Matters” is available both as a Paperback and as a Kindle eBook.
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