Creation vs Evolution: Day 2 – 4

Introduction

As a teenager I used to go to a park near my house and the Missouri River and I’d sit for hours leaning against a tree staring at the river and listening to the sounds of the forest. I’d think about all kinds of things, whatever popped into my mind. It was so quiet and peaceful.

Sometimes I would lay on my back when it was cloudy and stare up at the clouds and let my imagination go and try and figure out what shapes I could see. And sometimes I’d stare up at the sky at night looking at the moon and stars.

I loved nature back then and loved being outside, and I still do. Maybe you do too.

When we read Genesis 1 it’s easy to see why nature’s so spectacular and so wonderful and such a good fit for us. God made it that way! God made the Earth just for us! He molded it and shaped it over six days until it was ready for the first human beings. It had to be just right before Adam and Eve were created.

In this article we’re going to see how God made the sky, the land, the sun, the moon and the stars. We’re going to talk a lot about the Earth itself, especially water.

And yes, like the previous articles, we’re also going to talk about evolution. We can’t avoid the subject. God won’t let us. It’s unavoidable when looking at the first chapter of Genesis.

Day 2: The Expanse

Gen. 1:6 And God said, “Let there be an expanse between the waters to separate water from water.”

Gen. 1:7 So God made the expanse and separated the water under the expanse from the water above it. And it was so.

Gen. 1:8 God called the expanse “sky.” And there was evening, and there was morning -the second day.

In verse six the Lord creates something called an expanse or firmament, something that’s in the midst of the waters, something that divides the waters into two separate areas. And what is this expanse? In verse eight God names it sky. Your version may say heaven or heavens. This refers to what we see when we look up into the sky–this is basically the Earth’s atmosphere. The Hebrew word for expanse or firmament literally means air spaces.

While heaven is referred to in Scripture as the place where God can be found, heaven can also refer to what we can see when we look upward from Earth, so don’t be confused by those terms. Taken in context, “sky” is probably the best term for our understanding.

By the way, Scripture talks about three different “heavens.” One is the Earth’s atmosphere (Jeremiah 4:25). The second heaven means space, the rest of the universe (Isaiah 13:10). The third heaven is where God dwells. The heaven referred to in verses six, seven and eight, though, is clearly the Earth’s atmosphere.

Day 2: The Waters

Remember what we learned back in verse two? The surface of the Earth at this point was water and that’s a reference to one of the “waters” that’s mentioned in verse six.

But what is the other water? There are obviously two different locations of water.

The best explanation is that of a vapor canopy above the Earth. In liquid form, vapor is water. Many commentators believe–and I agree with them–that the water that’s “above” the expanse, or above the sky, is a vapor canopy. If the water was in liquid form it would fall to the Earth because of gravity. Prior to God making the sky, the waters on Earth and the waters above the Earth were apparently very close to one another. That’s why God put sky–literally space–between them.

Dr. Henry Morris, of the Institute for Creation Research, says this:

“The ‘waters above the firmament’ thus probably constituted a vast blanket of water vapor above the troposphere and possibly above the stratosphere as well, in the high-temperature region now known as the ionosphere, and extending far into space. They could not have been the clouds of water droplets which now float in the atmosphere, because the Scripture says they were ‘above the firmament.’”

This canopy surrounded the Earth and probably made the Earth something like a greenhouse. Have you ever been to the Climatron at the Missouri Botanical Garden? It may very well have been something like that. The glass roof protects the tropical plants inside from temperature extremes, particularly cold weather. Greenhouses also create a mist to fall and restricts the flow of air. Because greenhouses also help filter out ultraviolet rays, the life-expectancy of plant life is extended.

As a result, the vapor canopy, which would be invisible to the naked eye, would have been an ideal environment for the plant, animal and human life that God would soon create.

This is a great example of how concerned God is about humans. He wanted to create a safe and beautiful environment for us, and a vapor canopy would have been a big part of that.

Many commentators believe that there was no rain on the Earth until the time of Noah. Let’s go off on a tangent for a minute and explore that idea. I think you’ll find it interesting.

Let’s look at Genesis 2:4-5. By the way, many people are confused about how Genesis 1 and 2 fit together. Both talk about the creation week. Some people believe that they contradict one another, but that’s not true.

People are confused because there are things in Genesis 1 that aren’t in Genesis 2, and there are things in Genesis 2 that aren’t in Genesis 1.

That doesn’t mean they’re in conflict, however. The second chapter of Genesis is focused primarily on the first human beings–Adam and Eve–whereas the first chapter of Genesis is focused on the entire week of creation. Genesis 2 is a more detailed look at a part of Genesis 1.

Imagine if I said that last Sunday I preached on Genesis 1:1, 225 people heard the sermon, and two people made decisions for Christ. Then, ten minutes later, I said that last Sunday I talked about geology and fossils.

Some of you might jump in and say, “hey, you’re contradicting yourself.” But I wouldn’t be, because both statements are true. I DID talk about geology and fossils during my sermon on Genesis 1:1, on the same day that 225 people were at church and two people made decisions for Christ.

Do you see the point? It’s the same thing in Genesis 1 and 2. Genesis 2 is talking in more detail about a very narrow part of what was given as an overview in Genesis 1.

Anyway, let’s read Genesis 2:4-5 and find out more about rain.

Gen. 2:4 This is the account of the heavens and the Earth when they were created. When the LORD God made the Earth and the heavens -

Gen. 2:5 and no shrub of the field had yet appeared on the Earth and no plant of the field had yet sprung up, for the LORD God had not sent rain on the Earth and there was no man to work the ground,

Gen. 2:6 but streams came up from the Earth and watered the whole surface of the ground -

Verse five tells us that God had not yet sent rain on the Earth. But how were plants watered? Verse six. “Streams of water came up from the Earth and watered the whole surface of the ground.” The word translated “streams” in the NIV implies springs or some kind of gushing water from the ground. Other translations are more accurate when they use the word “mist.” That’s more the idea of the Hebrew word. So the Earth at that time was watered by mist, probably not unlike what happens in a greenhouse. Water and water vapor are trapped inside.

But there was still plenty of water on the Earth, even after God made land. Now let’s really stray from Genesis 1 and look at Genesis 7:11-12.

The Flood

Gen. 7:11 In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, on the seventeenth day of the second month -on that day all the springs of the great deep burst forth, and the floodgates of the heavens were opened.

Gen. 7:12 And rain fell on the Earth forty days and forty nights.

The floodgates of heavens seems to be an obvious reference to rain. I don’t believe that the “springs of the great deep” is the same as the mist that we just read about in Genesis 2. It seems more likely to be water under the surface of the Earth, from the “great deep.”

That’s how God flooded the Earth. Not only did He cause it to rain for the first time, God also caused huge amounts of water from underground to force its way up through the crust of the Earth.

Even though we’re getting pretty far away from our text in Genesis 1, I think this is an important topic–especially in terms of comparing the two world views, creationism vs. the theory of evolution. We need to say more about this flood.

First of all, it was real. That may seem painfully obvious to most of you, but there are some Christians who doubt whether this account of Noah and the ark and the flood are real. If that’s you, let’s remind ourselves what we talked about last time: ALL Scripture is God-breathed, not just things found in the New Testament or not just everything except Genesis, or not just everything except things like the flood and Jonah being swallowed by a big fish.

From cover to cover, the Bible is God’s Word.

We could say a whole lot about the flood, but the most pertinent thing I want to stress before we go back to Genesis 1 is that the flood was worldwide, not just the Middle East.

The reason I want to make this point is to refute the critics–especially atheistic evolutionists–who believe that this was a very local flood, if it even happened at all.

The idea of a worldwide flood is bad news to an evolutionist. One of the reasons is because it would have destroyed all evidence of what they hold near and dear: their geological ages.

A worldwide flood also goes against the popular evolutionary belief of uniformitarianism, which means that everything is the way it’s always been–there’s never been any kind of dramatic, far-reaching event like a flood.

Now let’s read Genesis 6:5-7.

Gen. 6:5 The LORD saw how great man’s wickedness on the Earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time.

Gen. 6:6 The LORD was grieved that he had made man on the Earth, and his heart was filled with pain.

Gen. 6:7 So the LORD said, “I will wipe mankind, whom I have created, from the face of the Earth -men and animals, and creatures that move along the ground, and birds of the air -for I am grieved that I have made them.”

Notice that God said He would wipe out mankind from the FACE of the Earth, not just a small part of the world. Now look at verses 12 and 13.

Gen. 6:12 God saw how corrupt the Earth had become, for all the people on Earth had corrupted their ways.

Gen. 6:13 So God said to Noah, “I am going to put an end to all people, for the Earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy both them and the Earth.

How many people will God put an end to? ALL people. “I am surely going to destroy both them and the Earth.” That seems all inclusive, not just local. Now look at verse 17.

Gen. 6:17 I am going to bring floodwaters on the Earth to destroy all life under the heavens, every creature that has the breath of life in it. Everything on Earth will perish.

He’s going to destroy ALL life under the heavens and EVERY creature and EVERYTHING on Earth will perish. Now look at Genesis 7:17-24.

Gen. 7:17 For forty days the flood kept coming on the Earth, and as the waters increased they lifted the ark high above the Earth.

Gen. 7:18 The waters rose and increased greatly on the Earth, and the ark floated on the surface of the water.

Gen. 7:19 They rose greatly on the Earth, and all the high mountains under the entire heavens were covered.

Gen. 7:20 The waters rose and covered the mountains to a depth of more than twenty feet.

Gen. 7:21 Every living thing that moved on the Earth perished -birds, livestock, wild animals, all the creatures that swarm over the Earth, and all mankind.

Gen. 7:22 Everything on dry land that had the breath of life in its nostrils died.

Gen. 7:23 Every living thing on the face of the Earth was wiped out; men and animals and the creatures that move along the ground and the birds of the air were wiped from the Earth. Only Noah was left, and those with him in the ark.

This passage is pretty clear.

“ALL the high mountains under the ENTIRE heavens were covered.” “The waters rose and COVERED THE MOUNTAINS to a depth of more than twenty feet.” “EVERY living thing that moved on the Earth perished…ALL mankind.” “EVERY living thing on the face of the Earth was wiped out.”

I know what you’re thinking: “He went a little overboard on this flood thing. What does it matter? Why is this point so important?”

You’re right, I did go overboard on the flood. No pun intended. But it IS important, very important.

You see, a worldwide flood is the reason why we’ve found millions of fossils. Evolutionary scientists think that so many fossils had to come about because of millions of years of life, but the Bible presents a totally different picture: a very young Earth with millions of fossils, most of which were created from every living creature dying very suddenly, being buried with sediment caused by a cataclysmic event: a worldwide flood.

Belief in what Scripture teaches about the flood is EXTREMELY important to the creationist viewpoint and it’s another deathblow to the theory of evolution. Again, most evolutionists believe in uniformitarianism, the belief that there’s never been a worldwide catastrophe like a flood. This is bad news to their theory.

By the way, did you know that the Bible predicted that there would be evolutionists who scoff at the idea of a worldwide flood? Look at 2 Peter 3:3-6:

2Pet. 3:3 First of all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires.

2Pet. 3:4 They will say, “Where is this ‘coming’ he promised? Ever since our fathers died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation.”

2Pet. 3:5 But they deliberately forget that long ago by God’s word the heavens existed and the Earth was formed out of water and by water.

2Pet. 3:6 By these waters also the world of that time was deluged and destroyed.

This passage captures the view of so many evolutionists. They want to deny the existence of God and be free from His authority. Most of all, they want to reject any idea of judgment because of sin. In order to push God away and keep Him out of their lives, evolutionists reject the Biblical flood by saying that it either didn’t happen at all or it was only a local flood like those here in the 20th century.

They don’t want to believe–or refuse to believe–that God has ever judged the Earth. If that’s true, God may judge the Earth again. Worst of all for the atheistic evolutionist, a worldwide flood means that someday each of them will have to answer to a holy God. And that’s something that they can’t accept. Or don’t want to accept.

Now let’s return from our tangent on the flood to our main text, Genesis 1. Verse eight says after God finished separating the water from below from the water above by making the sky, He called it a day. Another literal 24-hour period of time, day two in the creation week.

Day 3: The Land And Seas

Now let’s look at the third day in verses 9-13.

Gen. 1:9 And God said, “Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear.” And it was so.

Gen. 1:10 God called the dry ground “land,” and the gathered waters he called “seas.” And God saw that it was good.

Gen. 1:11 Then God said, “Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds.” And it was so.

Gen. 1:12 The land produced vegetation: plants bearing seed according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.

Gen. 1:13 And there was evening, and there was morning -the third day.

God does two things on the third day. First He creates land, then comes plant life. He wants the best for His creation, human beings, and before they arrive on day six, God creates two things that are needed to support life: land and plant life.

In verse nine the Lord gathers the waters under the sky–that is, water on Earth–and the result is land. Some versions say God formed “earth” and that’s true–earth with a little “e,” not the planet Earth. That’s obviously already been created. This is dry ground, soil.

Some commentators believe the land had already existed but then was uncovered when God moved the water around on the surface of the planet. Other commentators believe the entire Earth had been a mass of watery liquid that God then used to form what became dry land.

Regardless, for the first time ever, the surface of the Earth now consists of both dry land and “seas.” Even though verse nine says that the water under the sky was gathered to one place, it probably means water was gathered into several different places. Otherwise, the word “seas,” plural, wouldn’t have been used.

Slowly but surely we see how God continues to prepare the Earth for human life. First He created light. Then He made the sky. And now He makes land from an Earth that had been covered with water, land that will be critical to growing plant life which is still to come later this day.

One last point before we move on: the geography and condition of the Earth at this point was almost certainly dramatically different than that of today. God’s curse on the land after Adam and Eve sinned and the worldwide flood would have changed things a lot. As an example, the location of Eden, which is detailed in Genesis 2, is still unknown. We don’t know where it was.

After creating land, at the end of verse ten, the Lord calls it “good.”

Day 3: Vegetation

Now that there’s land, the Earth is ready for plant life. In verse 11 the land produces vegetation. Vegetation includes all plants and trees. Some versions refer to individual types of vegetation such as grass, herbs and fruit trees, but the best translation is all inclusive. God created all vegetation on the third day.

Notice also that verse 11 says that these plants and trees have seeds. In other words, God created vegetation so that it could reproduce. God put things in motion and He ingenuously creates things that can continue reproducing themselves over and over again. This way, people will always have food.

Verse 12 tells us that each plant was made according to its kind. God made individual species, each according to their kinds. This is another bold statement against evolution. Each individual plant is unique and fully capable of reproducing itself.

There’s little doubt that each “kind” of vegetation have many varieties, but none of them have the capability of creating a whole new “kind” of tree or another kind of organism altogether. In other words, there’s no evolution whatsoever. The only difference from this vegetation in Genesis 1 from the vegetation we see today is that these plants and trees were created in maturity, complete with seeds in order to reproduce themselves. From that point on until today, plants and trees have grown from tiny seeds into maturity and then, under the right circumstances, reproduced themselves. Again, no evolution, no new kinds of life forms.

If an evolutionary scientist had stumbled upon the Earth at this moment in time, he or she would never have guessed that the vegetation had just been created. It didn’t take years or ions, just God’s command: “Let the land produce vegetation.”

Here’s more bad news for evolutionists. Since some plants require pollination by insects in order to reproduce, that means that there can’t be millions or billions of years in geological ages until bees are created on day six. Otherwise, plants that need pollination to survive would have died off and become extinct. That’s another blow to the theory of evolution.

Day 3: It Is Good

In verse 13 God says for the second time that “it was good.” Creating land and separating it from the seas and then creating plant life were both “good.”

So a busy third day of creating ends. Once again, the context compels us to conclude that it was another literal 24-hour day.

Day 4: Great Lights

Now let’s look at day four. Verses 14-19.

Gen. 1:14 And God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark seasons and days and years,

Gen. 1:15 and let them be lights in the expanse of the sky to give light on the Earth.” And it was so.

Gen. 1:16 God made two great lights -the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars.

Gen. 1:17 God set them in the expanse of the sky to give light on the Earth,

Gen. 1:18 to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. And God saw that it was good.

Gen. 1:19 And there was evening, and there was morning -the fourth day.

The two “great lights” in verse 16 are the sun, which governs the day, and the moon, which governs the night. Some commentators believe that the light created in verse three was the sun, moon and stars, and that they had somehow been hidden or largely hidden ever since then.

I don’t buy that, even though I can’t explain what the source of the light was back in verse three. All I know is that the context indicates that God created them on the fourth day, not the first.

And why did God create the sun, moon and stars? Verse 14 says they “serve as signs to mark seasons and days and years,” verse 15 says they give light on the Earth, and verse 18 says that they separate light from darkness.

By the way, this passage isn’t saying that both the sun and moon as “great lights” are made of the same substance. The sun obviously generates light while the moon reflects light. Either way, however, they both provide light for the Earth, either directly or indirectly.

Just as God says, the lights in the expanse serve as signs to mark seasons and days and years. For instance, a day is the amount of time it takes for the Earth to rotate on its axis one time. A year is the amount of time it takes for the Earth to revolve around the sun once–365 1/4 days.

There are different seasons because the Earth revolves around the sun and spins on its axis at the same time. Sometimes the Northern Hemisphere is closer to the sun, sometimes the Southern Hemisphere is closer, and sometimes the sun is shining almost equally on both hemispheres.

Even though the other planets in our solar system aren’t specifically mentioned here, it’s my personal belief that they were created at this time. Again, just because they aren’t specifically mentioned here or anywhere else doesn’t prove anything.

We can’t forget that God’s primary purpose is to focus on the Earth and then, in Genesis 2, on humans. The planets and the rest of the universe are secondary to the Earth and human beings. We’ll have to save up all our questions to ask the Lord when we finally see Him.

The NIV uses the term “sky” in this passage, but the term heavens is probably a better translation. While the moon is relatively close to Earth, the sun is much farther away and stars, well, nobody really knows how many stars there or how big the universe is. There are billions and billions of galaxies out there that could never be reached by our current technology. Heaven or sky in this context obviously refers to the area from the Earth’s moon outward into the universe.

Stars

If humans had been on the Earth that evening, they would have been able to see a spectacular display in the night sky, since stars even billions of light-years away would have been visible. Imagine seeing that for the first time. And imagine it on an Earth with no pollution and street lights to interfere with the view. I get excited about thinking about it. God made the sun and the moon and the stars for us!

This must have been an eye-opening passage for Jewish readers during Moses’ time. At the time, the Earth was filled with all kinds of people worshipping the stars and moon and sun. And here’s God telling them that He made them all, and that what they had been worshipping was nothing at all.

Ps. 33:6 By the word of the LORD were the heavens made, their starry host by the breath of his mouth.

By the way, God never intended the stars to be used for such things as astrology and zodiac signs. That’s a corruption of His creation. Christians should steer clear of astrology.

The fourth day of creation has more bad news for evolutionists. Think about this: plant life was created on day three, but in order to survive it would need the sunlight that God created here on the fourth day. There’s no way that there could have been millions or billions of years in a geological age between the third and fourth day.

The fourth day ends in the same way that the previous three days did. “There was evening, and there was morning”–a literal 24-hour day.

Conclusion

As we wrap up, let’s summarize what we’ve talked about.

In days two, three and four God worked hard preparing the Earth for us. He made the sky. He made land. He made plant life. He made the sun and the moon and the stars. And why did He do all of these things? Because He was preparing a place for Adam and Eve and everyone who would follow. He did it for us and our kids.

Even though the creation week ended a long time ago, did you know that God is preparing something else for us?

Let’s look at John 14:1 and see what it is.

John 14:1 “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me.

John 14:2 In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you.

John 14:3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.

John 14:4 You know the way to the place where I am going.”

What is Jesus preparing for us? He’s preparing a place in heaven! that’s what this passage is talking about. First God prepared the Earth for us to live in, and now, RIGHT NOW, He’s preparing a place for us in heaven!

As great as those days were as a teenager staring at the river and listening to the sounds of the forest and staring up at the sky, that’s NOTHING compared to what I’ll see and experience in heaven. I can’t wait to see what Jesus is preparing for me, can you?

There’s a sobering point to all of this, however. God made the Earth for all humans, even people that never believed in Him and people that currently don’t believe in Him.

But heaven is NOT for everyone. It’s only for people that know how to get there. People that reject Him will be judged. Don’t be fooled. God judged the Earth with a flood and He’s the judge of all humans beings.

Verse four says “You know the way to the place where I am going.” If you don’t know the way to heaven and you want to see what God has prepared for those who love Him, listen closely.

The way to heaven is trusting in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins. It’s believing that He’s the only way to get to heaven. It’s repenting of your sins, turning away from the way you’ve been living and turning to God. It means making Him the boss of your life.