This week we’re asking, “did humans evolve?” Well, consider that a literal Adam who really did sin and bring death into creation is essential to the gospel.

You see, God’s original creation was “very good.” There was no death because there was no sin. But then the first people disobeyed God, bringing death into creation. That’s why we need the Last Adam who came and died in our place, taking our penalty for us.

But if Adam just evolved from an ape-like creature then death was always part of creation. Adam would’ve been doomed to die anyway so what did sin do?

Evolution undermines the gospel!

Did humans evolve from some kind of ape-like creature? Well, Genesis says no—God created man from the dust of the ground and woman from his side.

And consider what Jesus said when he was asked about marriage, “But from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.’” Notice Jesus says, “from the beginning of creation.”

In the evolutionary story, humans evolved billions of years after the beginning of the universe. But Jesus reminds us that humans have been here since the beginning. This only makes sense if God created humans during a literal six-day creation week, just like he said he did in Genesis!

In Genesis we read that God created man from the dust and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. Now some Christians believe this means that God took an ape-like creature and breathed a soul into it, making it human.

But consider that after Adam sinned, God said, “you [will] return to the ground, for out of it you were taken, for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”

When Adam died, he returned to the dust he was made from, not to an apelike creature! If Adam wasn’t literally created from the dust of the ground this verse is meaningless!

We didn’t evolve from apelike creatures; we were specially made by God.

Our world is filled with problems—a looming economic crisis, more and more wars, diseases, family breakdown—well, the list goes on! But those aren’t our biggest problems. You see, we all have the same ultimate problem—sin and death!

Scripture makes it clear we’re all sinners deserving death. Actually, it’s because of sin that death and suffering exist at all.

But the good news is God has solved our biggest problem! Jesus came and lived a perfect life and then died in our place, paying our sin debt with his own blood. Then he rose again! Now everyone who puts their faith in Christ has their biggest problem solved—forever!

Our public education system indoctrinates thousands of students each year not to believe the Bible. Most of them are taught evolution as fact, and that through millions of years of death and disease man evolved.

Then churches tell these students about a God of love but many wonder, “how can there be a God of love with all this death and suffering in the world?”

You see, these students are looking at a groaning world, and it’s because of sin. But they’ve been indoctrinated not to believe in sin, so they don’t understand how to reconcile a God of love with this hurting world. They need the true history given in Genesis to understand it’s a fallen world.

During Jesus’ earthly ministry, tragedy struck—a tower collapsed, killing eighteen people. Jesus spoke of this event to his disciples, and he gave an answer to the question of why God allows tragedies, but maybe not the answer you’d expect.

He said, “do you think they were more guilty than all the others, I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish.”

You see, suffering isn’t always related to personal sin, but all of us suffer and die because of sin. Instead of blaming God for tragedies, suffering, and death, Jesus says “repent,” turn to the only one who can save you from eternal suffering—himself.

Genesis tells us that God’s original creation was “very good.” There was no death or suffering in that original world. Those only exist because of sin—the first man Adam’s and our continued sin.

You see, the first two people God made were created with the freedom to obey his commands. They weren’t puppets, forced to obey because they had no choice. They had the choice to obey their Creator, or rebel and be their own gods. They chose rebellion and the penalty for sin is death.

We have the same choice—obey God or rebel. Our human nature is to rebel. God, he sent Jesus to pay our sin penalty!

It doesn’t take many years of living in this broken world for someone to ask why God allows suffering. And usually this isn’t an academic question—they’re asking because they’re suffering, sometimes intensely. So why does God allow death and suffering?

Well, the Bible’s history gives us the answer. God originally created a perfect world—there was no death or suffering. But this world was ruined by the rebellion of the first man, Adam. His sin brought an intruder into the world: death, the penalty for sin.

You see, we all sinned in Adam, who represented us. In other words—it’s really our fault the world’s the way it is!

This week we’ve seen that the idea of millions of years doesn’t come from the rocks. It came from a belief about the past!

So we shouldn’t be surprised that the evidence confirms the Bible’s history of just thousands of years. For example, helium quickly escapes rocks, leaking away in less than one hundred thousand years. And yet rock crystals are filled with helium! Or consider rock layers that are bent, meaning they had to be deposited quickly and bent while still wet. Oh, and soft tissue has been found in fossils supposedly tens of millions of years old.

You know what? The evidence confirms a young earth!

This week we’re looking at where the idea of millions of years came from. Now you might wonder, “isn’t millions of years just science?”

Well, there’s two different kinds of science. Observational science is directly testable, repeatable, and observable. Think technology and medicine. Then there’s historical science, which is an interpretation of the past. Think rock layers and fossils. Because we weren’t there to observe the past, we’re interpreting the evidence in the present. And your interpretation depends on your worldview.

Millions of years is an interpretation of the evidence that ignores the history in God’s Word.