Answers with Ken Ham

Does the name Sargon sound familiar? Well, he was a great Assyrian king, and he’s mentioned just once in the Old Testament where we’re given the detail that his commander captured the city of Ashdod.

Now, for a long time, Sargon’s name and achievements weren’t found anywhere else, so many people assumed the Bible was wrong. But all that changed when an archaeological dig uncovered an enormous palace of two hundred rooms, and it belonged to King Sargon! And it gets better: the very battle the Bible mentions was found preserved in Assyrian records.

We shouldn’t accept the doubts of archaeologists over the truth in God’s Word!

Many people believe that archaeology’s disproved the Bible. But it hasn’t. The truth is there’ve been many finds that have confirmed the Bible’s history. But before we look at a few of those exciting finds consider these two foundational points about archaeology:

One, God’s Word is the authority over archaeology. God’s Word is infallible. But archaeology is a fallible human tool. So, trust God over man every time.

Two, archaeology doesn’t replace what we know from the Bible. It can enhance our understanding with helpful details, but we always start with God’s Word.

Today we’re wrapping up a series on the question of “could God have used evolution to create?” Well, we’ve discovered the biblical answer is no! But does it matter?

Absolutely. The creation/evolution issue is so important because, ultimately, it’s an authority issue. You see, you won’t find evolution or millions of years in the Bible. Those ideas come from outside the Scriptures. So when we add them in, we’re making man the ultimate authority not God!

We don’t know everything, and we weren’t there at the beginning. But God was. So let’s allow our all-knowing Creator to be the authority—from the very first verse!

This week we’re asking if God used evolution to create. But there’s a big problem with this idea—you can’t fit the millions of years into the Bible!

You see, the days of Genesis were literal days. Whenever the word “day” is used with evening and morning or a number like first, second, or third, like we see in Genesis, it always means a regular day!

And Exodus says that God created everything in just six days. So, yes, the days were ordinary days.

Now if you can’t fit millions of years into Genesis, you can’t fit evolution either. And we don’t need to because Genesis is the eyewitness account from the perfect Creator!

Many Christians say God used evolution to create. Now this idea has a lot of problems, including that the order of events is wrong!

You see, Genesis teaches that God created earth covered in water; in the evolutionary worldview, earth was first a hot molten blob. Genesis teaches God created plants as the first life; evolution has life first evolving in the sea. Genesis has birds and then land creatures, like dinosaurs. Evolution has birds evolving from dinosaurs.

You can’t mix evolution and the Bible! Instead of starting with the ideas of people who weren’t there, let’s start with the eyewitness account of history.

Could God have used evolution to create?

Well, let’s think about what evolution is. Evolution involves death over millions of years as creatures who are less fit die out and those that are more fit live on to reproduce. It’s a very wasteful process of death, death, and, well, more death!

But God describes his creation at the end of creation week as “very good.” Would God call a world full of death, suffering, disease, and bloodshed “very good”? No! To say he did is an attack on his very character. It makes God into an ogre, instead of an all-good, kind, and gracious Creator.

God couldn’t have used evolution!

Many Christians today try and add millions of years and evolution into the Bible. But doing that puts death before sin. And that’s a great problem!

You see, God’s Word tells us that God’s original creation was “very good.” There was no death or suffering in that original creation. But then Adam and Eve sinned, and the punishment for sin is death. God cursed the ground because of them and now our world is broken and groaning from the effects of the fall.

But if God used evolution to create, then there were millions of years of death before sin. And that contradicts what the Bible clearly teaches! God did not use evolution!

Some people wonder how plants could die before sin if death is the consequence for sin. But let’s consider the definition of die. We commonly use the word “die” to describe when plants, animals, and humans no longer function biologically. But that’s not how the Old Testament uses the word. There’s a specific Hebrew word for die that’s only used in relation to the death of man or animals with the breath of life.

Plants don’t have the breath of life. They’re different from both animal and human life so their “death” before sin is no problem.

Animal and human death is a result of sin.

In Genesis we read that God’s original creation was “very good” and that death came because of sin. So before the fall there wasn’t any death. But some people wonder, what about plants? Since people and animals were given them for food, didn’t they die before the fall?

Well, I think we all just intuitively know that plant death and animal or human death are not the same. On a hike through the woods, you might sit down on a fallen log to rest, but you won’t sit on a fallen deer carcass!

Plants and animals and people are totally different kinds of life both intuitively and biblically. But more on that tomorrow.

By what standard do you judge what you hear or read? You see, science isn’t neutral—especially when it comes to the science of the past. The facts, the evidence, must be interpreted and your worldview drives your interpretation of that evidence.

If you start with evolution, you’re going to interpret the evidence through millions of years of chance processes. But a creationist, well, they will look at the exact same evidence and interpret it through the lens of the Bible’s history.

Ultimately your interpretation it comes down to your starting point—the perfect eyewitness account in the Bible or the imperfect word of man?