The 10 Things You Should Know About the Creation vs. Evolution Debate (21 page)

To say the universe is eternal would be nonsensical. After all,
all the stars are burning out. If time reached back eternally into
the past, our universe would have burned out long ago. What
the Bible says makes much more sense-that is, the space-time
universe was created at a point in time (see Genesis 1: 1; John
1:3; Colossians 1:16).12

The Bible provides evidence for the scientific laws we have
been discussing-and the Bible precedes the formulation of these
laws by thousands of years! The Bible is clear that this universe,
and all that is within the universe, is running down. This
includes our human bodies. Noting the brevity of life, job, the
great Old Testament servant of God, said that "man born of
woman is of few days" (Job 14:1). He appealed to God,
"Remember, 0 God, that my life is but a breath" (7:7).

The psalmist likewise pondered before God, "You have made
my days a mere handbreadth; the span of my years is as nothing before you. Each man's life is but a breath" (Psalm 39:5).
Reflecting back over his life, he said, "My days vanish like smoke"
(102:3).

The New Testament continues this emphasis on man's
brevity. In James 4:14 we are told, "You do not even know what
will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that
appears for a little while and then vanishes." First Peter 1:24
likewise instructs us that "all men are like grass, and all their
glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the
flowers fall." Life is short. The days relentlessly pass. We grow
old so quickly. And then we die. Entropy rules.

As for the universe, Psalm 102:25-27 speaks of how it will
one day pass away: "In the beginning you laid the foundations
of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands. They
will perish, but you remain; they will all wear out like a garment.
Like clothing you will change them and they will be discarded.
But you remain the same, and your years will never end" (see
also Hebrews 1:10-12). The description of the universe perishing and wearing out like an old garment is a graphic illustration of the second law of thermodynamics.

Likewise, in Isaiah 51:6 we read, "Lift up your eyes to the
heavens, look at the earth beneath; the heavens will vanish like
smoke, the earth will wear out like a garment and its inhabitants die like flies. But my salvation will last forever, my righteousness will never fail." The "heavens" in this verse refers not to the
domain of God but rather to earth's atmosphere and interstellar space. Scripture speaks of three heavens. The first heaven is
earth's atmosphere (Job 35:5). The second heaven is that of interstellar universe (Genesis 1:17; Deuteronomy 17:3). The third
heaven is the ineffable and glorious dwelling place of God in all
His glory (2 Corinthians 12:2), elsewhere called the "heaven of
heavens" and the "highest heaven" (1 Kings 8:27; 2 Chronicles
2:6). Isaiah 51:6 teaches that the first two heavens-earth's atmosphere and interstellar space-will vanish like smoke.

Jesus likewise taught that "heaven and earth will pass away,
but my words will never pass away" (Matthew 24:35; see also
Mark 13:31 and Luke 21:33). The apostle Paul addresses the
reason why heaven and earth will pass away:

The creation was subjected to frustration, not by
its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected
it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from
its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. We know that the whole
creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth
right up to the present time (Romans 8:20-22).

When did this "bondage to decay" begin? Christians have
different views on this, but the great majority believe this
bondage began at the fall of man. As a result of man's sin against
God, man's entire domain was judged by God. Other Christians believe the universe began winding down as soon as He
created it-that is, the stars began burning off their mass as soon
as they were created.13

The good news is that one day this bondage will end and God
will renew the universe. Before we can see the eternal kingdom,
God must deal with this cursed earth. Indeed, the earth-along with the first and second heavens (the earth's atmosphere and
the stellar universe)-must be renewed. The old must make room
for the new.14

In the book of Revelation we read, "Then I saw a new heaven
and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had
passed away, and there was no longer any sea.... He who was
seated on the throne said, `I am making everything new!"'
(Revelation 21:1,5). The Greek word used to designate the
newness of the cosmos is kainos. This word means "new in
nature" or "new in quality." Hence, the phrase "new heavens
and a new earth" refers not to a cosmos that is totally other than
the present cosmos. Rather, the new cosmos will stand in continuity with the present cosmos, but it will be utterly renewed
and renovated.''

In keeping with this, Matthew 19:28 speaks of "the renewal
of all things." Acts 3:21 speaks of the restoration of all things.
The new earth, being a renewed and an eternal earth, will be
adapted to the vast moral and physical changes that the eternal state necessitates. Everything will be new in the eternal state.
Everything will be according to God's own glorious nature. The
new heavens and the new earth will be brought into blessed
conformity with all that God is in a state of fixed bliss and
absolute perfection. No more decay. No more deterioration. No
more disorder. While entropy seems to rule now, a day is coming
when all things will truly be made new for ever and ever.

1. Robert C. Cowen, "New Evidence Gives Credence to the Big-Bang Theory," The Christian Science
Monitor, May 14, 2003, online report.

2. "350,000-Year-Old Footprints Discovered," Associated Press, March 13, 2003, online report.

3. "It Was A Dino-Eats-Dino World," Associated Press, April 2, 2003, online report. See also John
Roach, "Dinosaur Cannibal: Fossil Evidence Found in Africa," National Geographic News, April
2, 2003, online report.

4. Jeremy Lovell, "T-Rex, Merciless Killer or Garbage Disposal Unit?" Reuters News Service, 2003,
ABCNEWS online report.

5. Phillip E. Johnson, Defeating Darwinism by OpeningMinds (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press,
1997), p. 10. See also William A. Dembski and James M. Kushiner, eds. Signs of1ntelligencc (Grand
Rapids, MI: Brazos Press, 2001), p. 27.

6. Johnson, p. 11.

7. See Robert Lightner, Evangelical Theology: A Survey and Review (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book
House, 1986), p. 154.

8. Class notes, "Theology 402," David J. MacLeod, Dallas Theological Seminary, 1980.

9. Del Ratzsch, The Battle of Beginnings: Why Neither Side Is Winning the Creation-Evolution Debate
(Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1996), p. 19.

10. David J. MacLeod, "Postulates of Lamarck and Darwin," class notes for "Theology 402," Dallas
Theological Seminary, 1980.

11. John Hutchison notes that Darwin's "writings show very little personal piety or knowledge of the
Scriptures, and whatever theism he held turned to agnosticism after 1860." "Darwin's Evolutionary
Theory and 19th-Century Natural Theology," Bibliotheca Sacra (Dallas, TX: Dallas Theological
Seminary [Electronic edition by Galaxie Software]), 1999.

12. Randal Keynes, Annie's Box. Charles Darwin, His Daughter, and Human Evolution (New York: Riverhead Books, 2001), pp. 54-55.

13. Charles Darwin and Nora Barlow, The Autobiography of Charles Darwin 1809-1882 (New York:
W.W. Norton & Company, 1993), pp. 92-93.

14. Keynes, p. 131.

15. Darwin and Barlow, p. 86.

16. Darwin and Barlow, p. 86.

17. Keynes, inside front jacket, insert added.

18. Keynes, p. 243.

19. Michael Denton, Evolution: A Theory in Crisis (Chevy Chase, MD: Adler & Adler, 1985), p. 44.

20. Signs of Intelligence, p. 45.

21. Hugh Ross, The Creator and the Cosmos (Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress, 2001), pp. 13-14.

22. Dylan Evans and Howard Selina, Introducing Evolution (Cambridge: Totem Books, 2001), p. 6.

23. Ken Ham, The Lie (El Cajon, CA: Master Books, 1991), p. xii.

24. William Provine, cited in Signs of Intelligence, p. 45.

25. Henry Morris, The Biblical Basis forModern Science (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1984),
pp. 392-93.

26. John C. Whitcomb, The Early Earth (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1979), p. 111.

27. John C. Whitcomb and Henry M. Morris, The Genesis Flood: The Biblical Record and Its Scientific
Implications (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1980), p. 21.

28. Huston Smith, "Evolution and Evolutionism," Christian Century, July 7-14, 1982, p. 755.

29. Evans and Selina, p. 6.

30. Evans and Selina, p. 6.

31. Richard Dawkins, Signs of Intelligence, p. 44.

32. Humanist Manifesto 11, American Humanist Association, 1973.

33. James Hitchcock, What Is Secular Humanism? (Ann Arbor, MI: Servant Books, 1982), Introduction.

34. Isaac Asimov interview by Paul Kurtz, "An Interview with Isaac Asimov on Science and the Bible,"
Free Inquiry, Vol. 2, Spring 1982, p. 9.

35. Carl Sagan, Cosmos (New York: Ballantine Books, 1985), p. 1.

36. Isaac Asimov, Isaac Asimov's Book of Science and Nature Quotations (New York: Weidenfeld &
Nicolson, 1988), p. xvi.

37. Frederick Edwords, "The Humanist Philosophy in Perspective," The Humanist, January/February
1984 (n.p.).

38. Cited in Christianity anal Humanism (n.p., n.d.), 12; on file at Christian Research Institute, Rancho
Santa Margarita, CA.

39. Christianity and Humanism, p. 12.

40. Christianity and Humanism, p. 12.

41. Humanist Manifesto II.

42. Paul Kurtz, Forbidden Fruit: The Ethics of Humanism (Buffalo, NY: Prometheus Books, 1988), p.
243.

43. Humanist Manifesto H.

44. Hank Hanegraaff, The Face that Demonstrates the Farce of Evolution (Nashville, TN: W Publishing
Group, 1998), p. 28.

45. Peter Hoffman, Hitler's Personal Security, 264; cited in Ham, p. 85.

46. Stephen Jay Gould, I Have Landed- The End ofd Beginning in Natural History (New York: Harmony
Books, 2002), p. 336.

47. James W. English, "Could Racism Be Hereditary?," Eternity, September 1970, p. 22.

48. Buckner H. Payne, The Negro: What Is His Ethnological Status? 2nd ed. (Cincinnati, OH: 1867),
pp. 45-46; summarized by Millard J. Erickson, Christian Theology (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book
House, 1983), p. 543.

49. See Hanegraaff, pp. 24-25.

50. See Hanegraaff, p. 29.

51. Duane T. Gish, Evolution: The Fossils Still Say No! (El Cajon, CA: Institute for Creation Research,
1995), p. 5.

52. Gish, p. 3. Evolutionists will try to argue that evolution has been observed, but in every case that
this claim is made, macroevolution (that is, evolution within a particular species) has been observed,
not macroevolution (evolution of one species into another).

53. Phillip E. Johnson, Reason in the Balance: The Case Against Naturalism in Science, Law and Education
(Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsiry Press, 1995), p. 21, insert added.

54. Norman Geisler and Joseph Holden, Living Loud Defending Your Faith (Nashville, TN: Broadman
& Holman Publishers, 2002), p. 64.

55. See Johnson, Defeating Darwinism by Opening Minds, pp. 41-42. Evolutionists may claim there
are intermediate fossils. They may claim to have evidence for positive mutations. I evaluate these
claims later in the book.

56. Evans and Selina, p. 22.

57. Ross, p. 163.

58. Johnson, Defeating Darwinism by Opening Minds, p. 35.

59. Richard Dawkins, "Put Your Money on Evolution," The New York Times Review of Books, April
9, 1989, p. 35.

1. Evolution.:AHandbookforStudents byaMedical Scientist (Toronto: International Christian Crusade,
1951), p. 7.

2. See Chris Colby, "Evolution," The World and I,, Vol. 11, January 1, 1996, 294, Electric Library.

3. Dylan Evans and Howard Selina, Introducing Evolution (Cambridge: Totem Books, 2001), p. 8.

4. J. William Schopf,, Evolution: Facts and Fallacies (San Diego, CA: Academic Press, 1999), p. 146.

5. Michael Benton, "Introduction: Life and Time," in The Book ofLife, ed. Stephen Jay Gould (New
York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2001), p. 29.

6. Millard Erickson, Christian Theology (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1985), p. 479.

7. Jonathan Wells, "Issues in the Creation-Evolution Controversies," The World and I, Vol. 11, January
1, 1996, p. 294, Electric Library.

8. Ernst Mayr, What Evolution Is (New York: Basic Books, 2001), p. 288.

9. Mayr, p. 118.

10. See "Natural Selection," The Hutchinson Dictionary ofScience, January 1, 1998, Electric Library.

11. Evans and Selina, p. 34.

12. The Science ofBiology (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1963), p. 39.