What About Creation Origins

Before, most of you know him. If you are a visitor, you'll get to know him this morning.

! And I'm sure you are aware from the announcement of the subject that his subject matter is not easy.

I'm sure he'll have more to say about that. We thought of setting up the screen and the overhead

projector. He could do that, but you folks are smart and you have a paper and pencil, and if you don't,

you better get it out. And this is an informal class and we want you to be interested in what

he has to say this morning. Brother Greer, we're happy to have you here. We're going to finish our

offering, but you go ahead and start because the time is yours. It's nice to be with you this morning,

and I'd like to add my little word of thanks. I too have a Christian dad who was 80 years old yesterday,

pastored a GRB Baptist church in New York City, the same church for 46 years of ministry and retired

two years ago. So I have a rich heritage in the things of the Lord. As far as my home is concerned,

and on Father's Day, I would surely acknowledge my great thanksgiving to God, not only for the kind of

dad he was, but for the quality of the spiritual life he guided me into. This morning, our subject is

origins. The question of origins is a question that everyone has to face. It's impossible to be a

thinking person and not ask the question about the origin of life and not ask the question about how

life has developed. We live in a day and age in which many answers have been given to the problem of

origins. There's one word in philosophy and in science that has permeated thinking since approximately the

17th century and that word is process. Process has become the key concept to explain everything as

far as development is concerned. It's not just a word that has been used in the biological sciences.

It is a word that is used in the historical sciences, the sociological sciences. Almost in every facet of

learning today, we move with this idea that a long time ago things were simple and as time progressed and

process went on, simple things became complex. Man started out having very few social relationships.

He started out in caves struggling against his environment. As man developed, as he learned to

overcome his environment, family life was established, other institutions of society were established,

and therefore the sociological matrix that we live in today has come through time by process.

Of course, this philosophical idea has been at the heart of Western philosophy since the sixth century BC.

It's an idea that only lately has been applied to biology and to life science. Those of us who believe

perhaps that Darwin was the man who came up with the idea of evolution would make a very bad mistake.

That idea has been a constant permeating idea in Western thought. Darwin simply took that idea and applied it

to life sciences. I want to expose you first of all this morning before I go to the content of scripture

to what I would consider to be the reigning answer of contemporary science to the problem of origin and the problem of development of life.

The present viewpoint runs something like this. Hundreds of millions of years ago, in the primordial oceans, under just the right conditions,

the right conditions, and during an electrical storm, some chemical synthesis took place that produced low yield amino acids.

Now, amino acids, ladies and gentlemen, are the building blocks of all life forms in our world.

A man by the name of Miller did these experiments down in Florida about 12 years ago. He got a vat,

and into his vat, and into his vat he put some ammonia, he put some methane, some hydrogen, and some water. And he closed this vat, and he put a vacuum system on the vat, and he sparked the vat with electrical current, and when he would spark that vat, he would get some low yield amino acids there in the midst of that vat.

And science speculated that during thunderstorm activity with hydrogen, water, methane, and ammonia present, and under the sparking activity of the electrical storm, low yield amino acids were formed, and they began to float on the surface of the waters.

Now, amino acids, of course, are not living cells, and they are not self-replicating, and they are not life.

Something has to transpire with these amino acids before you will ever get any kind of life forms.

Now, a second scientist, about 10 years ago by the name of Fox, took some of those low yield amino acids, and he put them in a beaker, and he held them close to a flame.

And he found some very interesting things transpire when he heated amino acids.

He found that those amino acids began to pop together.

Did you ever see your children play with pop beats?

And formed what science has called a protonoid, or a protein life chain.

This is still sub-life, but he did get that to transpire.

It is not self-replicating.

It does not meet the definition of biological life.

But it did show how the possibility of those amino acids on the primordial oceans might stick together and might be able to bring about some sort of protein life.

Now, it's easy to speculate.

All you've got to do is add some heat to that early speculation.

So you've got a primordial ocean with methane, hydrogen, water, and ammonia present.

You've got an electrical storm, and you've got to be close to a heat source.

So science has speculated that this took place close to volcanic activity, so that the water in that area was quite warm, which caused these amino acids to kind of pop together.

And from these early yield amino acids by natural process, life forms as we know them today have developed.

Now, of course, science wants time.

They've got to have vast time to explain how we can get the complexity of life forms that we find in our world today.

So that science's answer to the problem of the origin of life is basically random circumstances with particular materials present under just the right conditions,

and by chance, the protein, chemical, life substance was formed, somehow developed the capacity for self-replication,

and from those simple organisms, those pre-life to life, and finally from simple to the most complex living forms,

everything has developed from that process or in that process to what we know today.

Now, the development process is known in science by a big word.

It's the word uniformitarianism.

You see the word uniform in there.

This word simply means that science asserts that the processes by which nature operate are uniform in character.

The processes we find in nature today have always existed in nature.

And therefore, looking at present process, using present process plus time, we can explain how everything has developed.

Now, that's the key.

In fact, those are the two keys to the understanding of the contemporary scientific viewpoint about origins.

Vast time in the past, under random chance conditions, protein life forms developed,

then by the present processes that we're able to observe in science today,

with the use of those processes and those processes alone,

there has been in vast time the development from simple to complex.

You can see what this asserts about human life.

It simply asserts that human life has come about as a consequence of randomness or chance.

That there was possibility that it might never have come about,

and by randomness, atoms were formed and random collocations came together.

There was no benevolent, wise God who created with a purpose.

Chance was operating at that primordial level.

And if chance was operating, then man indeed, as a creature, has come wholly by chance.

He was not purposed. He had no goal.

There was no purpose or direction to his life.

He has come out of the strange randomness of the past.

And man is just a possible creature who has sprung up as a consequence of chance operating forces.

And thus, when man comes to maturity, man will not be able to find purpose in life,

and man will finally be his own God.

Because there was no God who purposed him,

and there was no God who indeed defines who he is and what he is to do.

And this is what we find today, is it not?

We find men today living with a basic viewpoint that says,

origins are explained by chance and development is explained by present process.

Now, if man is a creature of chance,

why should I talk to man about a moral judgment at the end of history before a righteous God?

If man is the product of chance,

why should I talk about moral absolutes and values that must guide man in life and decision making?

Why isn't every man free to choose his own morals, free to choose his own values?

Why isn't every man, if he's a product of chance,

why isn't he free to do anything he wishes,

and why should he ever be bothered with religion or any kind of moral principle?

And of course, we have seen this and undate our culture.

We've had this thing taught in public education for 25 to 30 years now,

and the end product of it has finally grown up in our culture,

and we wonder what's happened to us.

Right this morning, I'd like not to spend my time with the scientific and the philosophical.

I'd like to give the bulk of my time to answering the question of origins from a biblical perspective.

It's interesting to note that in 2 Peter chapter 3,

2 Peter 3 · chapter mention

the apostle Peter indicated that in the last days,

scoffers were going to come,

who are going to walk after their own desires,

and their basic premise was going to be this question,

where is the promise of his coming?

For since the fathers fell asleep,

all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation.

Peter says in the last days,

people are going to say,

why should I worry about Jesus Christ coming back in history for moral judgment?

Because nothing like that has ever happened in the past,

and the processes of nature have remained constant ever since creation.

And Peter says,

of this they willingly receive amnesia.

They choose to be ignorant of this very thing,

that the heavens of old and the earth,

standing out of the water and amidst the water,

being overflowed with water,

never perished.

Peter says that the thing that the uniformitarian scientist refuses to acknowledge

is the fact that God has acted in history,

and God's acts in history have changed the processes in nature.

So I want to suggest to you this morning

that the key to origins is to be found within the framework of scripture.

I have just finished some graduate work in writing a thesis in the early chapters of the book of Genesis,

in which I have sought indeed to argue that Genesis 1 through 3

is not constituted as Hebrew poetry,

it is not constituted as mythology or symbolic representation,

but its intent, as far as Moses was concerned,

was to record trustworthy history.

I'm going to make an assertion to you, ladies and gentlemen,

one that I believe is absolutely essential for us all to face.

If Genesis 1, 2, and 3 cannot be trusted,

when it comes to its clear statement on origins,

then you will never know if you can trust John 3, 16 with its clear statement on salvation.

For you do not cut this book up into pieces

and take the little piece of pie that you like.

I want to tell you, if any of this book is suspect, all of it's suspect.

And is it not interesting today

that man wishes to sit and judge

which part of the word of God is acceptable to the contemporary mind?

The salvation pie which promises fire insurance against hell

and eternal bliss and happiness in heaven

is very acceptable to the 20th century man.

But a clear statement about a recent creation in six days

which stands in direct contradiction

to the contemporary intellectual scientific viewpoint of our age,

all of a sudden the believer backs off of that

and we've got all kinds of weird interpretations of Genesis.

I want to suggest to you this morning a model.

I want to say it's not a model based upon dispensations.

I'm not interested in trying to revise the dispensational chart for you.

But I do want to suggest to you

that there's a way to divide biblical history

that will help us understand this problem of origins

and this problem of development of life.

And the model I wish to use is the model of judgment.

I would like you to be able to think

in a number of time periods discreet in character.

I would like to suggest to you that Genesis 1

begins with that first biblical world

as it came from the hand of God.

That world was characterized by certain things.

That world was declared by God to be perfect

and man was rightly related in every facet of his life.

But something happened in that world that brought change.

And what happened was man sinned against God

and as a consequence of man's sin,

in Genesis 3 we find God brings judgment into his world

and judgment changes things.

Then you go to the world from the time of the fall

or the curse in the Garden of Eden

and you go up to the time of the flood of Noah.

And in this second time period,

certain things were characteristic of life in our world.

Certain particular things could describe life in that world

from the Edenic curse to the flood of Noah.

A time period of approximately 1,656 years.

At the end of that time period,

God brought a catastrophic judgment

and that catastrophic judgment has tremendous implications

for science and for scientific process.

So the judgment again brings change in creation.

There was change in the curse in the Garden.

There was change at the flood.

There's going to come another drastic change

in the relationships of nature

when Jesus Christ returns in glory

to establish his kingdom

and to establish his thousand-year reign on this earth.

Now, we don't have time this morning

to work this model all the way through.

We have the judgment of the Edenic curse.

We have the judgment of the flood.

Right after that one,

there's another one that's fascinating

and that's the judgment of the confusion of tongues

or the Tower of Babel.

But we live in the time period of the post-flood world.

The next major catastrophic event

that's going to change process in nature

is going to be the revelation of Jesus Christ

for the establishment of his kingdom.

And at that time,

there will be new operative principles

transpiring in nature.

For that thousand years,

these principles will operate.

Then at the end of that time period,

there's going to be a final and a fourth judgment,

a judgment by fire,

in which God is going to totally renovate

the heavens and the earth which are now,

and he's going to bring about new heavens and new earth.

Now, I want to suggest to you

that these four judgments

will enable us to have a key

to see how life has developed

and what changes have come

within the framework of the created world.

In other words,

I'm suggesting to you this morning

that as a creationist,

I do not hold in a static creation.

I do not believe that the world I live in today

is exactly the same world

with the same processes

that God created back in Genesis chapter 1.

Genesis 1 · chapter mention

And we need to be very sure we understand that.

The evolutionist says

that the creationist,

the Bible believer,

holds to a static world

in which nothing changes.

I do not hold to that.

The Bible will not allow me to hold that.

There has been change in creation.

It hasn't been a change

from simple to complex

between species and phyla

and all the breakdown of the animal kingdom.

It hasn't been a change of progress

from a single life source

to the vast complexity of life forms

that we find today.

But neither has it been a static world

because God has acted in this world

and God has brought change in this world.

It isn't enough to say this morning

that we reject evolution

and we accept the Bible.

It isn't enough to know

what you don't believe.

You must know positively

what you do believe.

It isn't enough to say,

no, I can't accept any forms

of organic evolution.

It seems to me we must place there

a positive biblical answer

to the problem of development.

I'm not going to spend much time

with the concept of origin

because I'm sure we are all committed

to the basic principle

that the origin of life

has come as a consequence

of the special creative activity of God.

In the beginning,

God created the heavens and the earth

and the earth did not have any boundaries

and the earth was empty

and darkness was upon the face of the deep

and the Spirit of God

moved over the waters

and God said,

let there be light

and there was light

and God divided the light

from the darkness

and the light he called day

and the darkness he called night.

Right on down through verse 26

of chapter 1,

we have that full delineation

of the direct creative fiat of God

where he created,

we commonly say,

ex nihilo.

That means he created into nothing.

God spoke and he brought into existence

those things which were a part of his plan

and his purpose

and therefore the origin of our world,

the origin of our universe,

the origin of our life forms

are in the creative fiat of God

whereby he brought to pass his purpose

when indeed he had chosen

to bring about a creation.

Now you want to think a staggering thought.

Why did God create?

Was he lonely?

Free person,

sharing a common essence

and absolute harmony and fellowship?

Did he have a need?

Was he deficient?

Was there a part of him

that was incomplete

and he had to take steps to complete it?

I hope not.

He's an absolutely self-sufficient God.

Why did he create?

There's only one answer to that question,

because he chose to.

You say,

well,

why did he choose to do it?

And I ask you a question then.

What is there that's antecedent

to the will of God?

Do you know of anything?

Then don't ask dumb questions.

If the will of God

has no antecedent,

then don't ask why about it, huh?

Well,

there is no other place to go.

When you say,

he chose to,

and you say,

why did he choose to?

What would you like to find?

Well,

he wasn't incomplete.

He didn't have to create.

Creation is an activity of God

that comes from his free choice

and his free purpose,

and God,

for purposes known to himself,

determined in eternity past

to create,

and then actually did the creating.

Now,

my own view of Genesis 1

very simply is this.

God created

in six consecutive

literal days.

I do not accept

the gap theory,

and if you do,

I respect that.

I'm not going to take time

to argue the viewpoint

this morning.

I just simply want

to assert to you

that I believe

that exegetically

the best way

to handle Genesis 1

is to see

six consecutive days

of creative activity

by God,

and it wasn't

because God got tired

and he had to rest up

so he'd have enough energy

for the next day

because God was doing this

in order to establish

a model

which would become

the pattern of life

for his image bearer,

Genesis 20,

clearly tells us.

By the way,

Genesis 20, 11

seems to me

to be an overwhelmingly

difficult view

for the gap theory

to work with,

and that's this.

In six days,

Jehovah made

the heavens

and the earth.

What does Genesis 1, 1 say?

In the beginning,

God created what?

The heavens and the earth.

And Moses says

in Exodus 20, 11,

In six days,

Jehovah made

the heavens

and the earth

and all that is

in them is.

So I suggest to you

that as far as

origins are concerned,

we hold to

special creation,

we hold to

direct divine activity,

we hold to the

creative breath

of God operating

at creation.

Now don't answer

too quickly,

for I don't want

to embarrass you

on Father's Day,

but who created?

Who is the creator?

Christ.

Please learn that.

John 1.

Creation is a

Christocentric

activity of God.

He is the creator.

I think very often

we view the father

as the creator.

I think what we

need to see is

that creation

is a revelation

of God.

Christ is the Logos.

Without him

was not anything

made that was made.

And everything

made came through

him, and he is

the one active

in creation.

Now you're going

to get intellectual

indigestion now

because I'm going

to pour a great

bulk of material

to you in about

ten minutes

about that creation.

Okay?

When God created,

certain things

were true

about that creation.

Certain characteristics

described it.

Characteristics,

some of which

we have in our

world today,

others that we

do not have

in our world

today.

The first thing

that God created

was life, right?

It's interesting,

that was created

on day one,

but the sun

wasn't created

until day four.

So in the biblical

view,

life precedes

the sun.

And it's interesting

if you read

the book of Revelation,

light is going

to be after

the sun as well

because in the

new heaven

and new earth,

there is no need

of sun for the

Lamb is the light

of it.

So you have

the light-darkness

boundary,

and we have

light-darkness

today,

don't we?

We have that

same boundary

that God created

at the beginning,

and we have

that boundary,

and that boundary

has been a constant.

The second thing

God created

was a firmament,

and the purpose

of the firmament

was to divide

water from water,

and the firmament

was called heaven,

and God had

water above

the firmament,

a water canopy

above the firmament,

and then he had

water on the earth.

Now, we do not

have a water canopy

above our firmament,

do we?

May I suggest

some things to you?

You go back

and read it.

God created

a firmament

which divided

water from water.

With a water canopy

above our present

atmospheric heavens,

we would have

a wholly different

climate factor

governing our earth.

water.

There would be

no poles,

no polar ice caps.

There would be

absolutely

a temperate climate

over the face

of the entire earth.

There would be

no vast ice areas

unable to support life

and covered

with a very thick

ice cap.

If indeed

in our world

there was water

above the firmament

as it was

at the time of creation,

the quality

and climate of life

would be very different.

While that water

was up there

before the flood,

people lived

very long lives

didn't they?

And right after

the flood,

lifespan went smooth.

That water canopy

no doubt

acted as a filter

that handled

some of the

cosmic radiation

and also the

x-ray of the sun.

Now we know

today that the

x-ray is very

much a part

of the aging process

for life in our world.

You ladies who

love to

eye out in the sun

and get all

sun tan,

aren't helping

yourself

and particularly

as far as aging

is concerned

for you know

what it does

to your skin.

Well,

we had longevity

of life

in that time period.

There was probably

a temperate climate.

The water was

over the face

of the entire earth

and the third thing

God did was

he said

let the waters

be gathered together

into 17 oceans,

right?

Now what does it say?

Let the waters

be gathered together

into how many places?

one place.

I suggest to you

that the world

as it came

from the hand

of God

was not 70%

drowned with water

as our world

is today.

I suggest to you

when you read

Genesis 1 carefully

you find

that the sea

or the water

was gathered

together into

one place

and there was

a very large

contiguous landmass

not divided

by vast oceans

as we find

in our world

today.

That the landmass

was probably

contiguous

that is

it was all

joined together

and there was

one large

body of water

in which God

had caused

the water

that covered

the entire earth

to be gathered

together

and the dry land

to appear.

When you go

to the book

of Revelation

and you read

about the new heaven

and the new earth

the first thing

John saw was

that there was

no more sea.

Remember that?

The new earth

when it comes

from the hand

of God

is going

to be

oceanless.

You can look

at the present

world and say

the world

has always

been like this

it's always

been 73%

of our earth

is ground

with water

and it will

always be

that way

because of

the relationship

of water

to earth

and the climate

factors

and the polar

ice caps

and all the

tectonic

and earthquake

activities

and you'd be

wrong.

When God

created the world

the waters

were in one

place

and there was

one contiguous

landmass.

God said

to the earth

let the earth

bring form

grass and herbs

and fruit trees

and let them

reproduce after

their kind.

Now do you

suppose the earth

obeyed that

creative field?

Suppose there

were vast

deserts like

the Sahara

desert that

said I'm

trying to learn

but I just

need it?

Bad salt

plants unable

to support

vegetable life?

You can go

out in our

world today

and you can

look at

salt flats

and you can

look at

deserts

and you can

say there

have always

been wastelands

incapable of

supporting vegetation

in the world

and you'd be

wrong ladies

and gentlemen

because the

present isn't

the key to

the past

but scripture

is.

For God

said to the

earth

let the earth

bring forth

and the scripture

says so the

earth brought

forth.

That first

biblical world

was covered

with a rich

luxuriant

verdant

vegetable

coverage.

There were

no vast

areas

incapable of

supporting

vegetable

life.

I don't

have time

to go

through this

entire

creation

structure

and show

you the

characteristics.

Let me

assert some

other things

to you that

are essential

though.

When God

finished creation

he said to

man I give

you the fruit

of the trees

and I give

you the herb

of the field

and that's

going to be

your food

and man

was vegetarian.

And God

said to the

animals I

have given

you every

green herb

for food.

And as the

world came

from the

hand of

God there

was no

death in

the human

kingdom or

in the

animal

kingdom.

Now you

say there

was death

in the

plant

kingdom.

Yes there

was.

But we

need to

realize that

plants are

never called

in the

Bible living

creatures.

That is

they do

not have

an animating

life principle.

And God

did plan

recycling in

the plant

kingdom for

the basis

of sustaining

the animate

creation, man

and the

animals.

And God

gave to man

and to the

animals vegetable

life or food

for life.

That means that

the balance in

nature was very

much different

than we know

today.

Is that right?

I sit in my

yard every

spring and I

rejoice when

those lovely

little birds

come who go in

those high

houses because

I know they're

going to eat

mosquitoes and

I'll be able to

sit out in my

yard.

What do you

call those

things?

Marlins.

Couldn't think

of it for a

moment.

Yeah.

Well you say

if marlins and

birds didn't eat

mosquitoes you

couldn't live in

this world,

right?

And if foxes

didn't kill

rabbits there'd

be no place to

put your foot on

the ground.

And therefore

it's always been

that way,

right?

Animals have

had to prey on

each other and

if they prey on

each other they

that's how you

control animal

population,

right?

And therefore

that's what our

world is like and

that's the way

God is treating

each other and

God commanded the

animals to be

fruitful and

multiply and he

commanded man to

be fruitful and

multiply for it is

God's will that his

earth be full of

his creatures.

Contrary to many

contemporary

sociologists who

would like to use

all of their

energies to scare

us to death with

overpopulation so

that man will be

able to manipulate

and control

population growth.

Well you see the

character of life in

that world was very

much different than

the character of life

we find in our

world.

There's another thing

that was true in

that world that's not

true in our world and

that's this.

Man was king of the

animals.

King Kong wasn't

king.

Adam was king.

God said to man,

have dominion over

the animals.

And man stood under

God as God's vice

region.

Perfect balance

between man and the

animals, man ruled

them.

Perfect balance

between man and the

vegetable kingdom.

Perfect balance between

man and his wife.

Perfect balance in

relationship between man

and God.

And everything

functioned and God

said behold it is very

good and right

relationships were

established but

something changed it.

Sin.

Let me give you a

quick summary of

Genesis chapter 3.

Genesis 3 · chapter mention

If you don't believe

I'm giving you

scripture, I want you

to go home today and

read these first three

chapters.

If I read it to you and

then comment on it, I

won't get finished.

All right, in Genesis

Genesis 3 · chapter mention

chapter 3 we find Adam

rebels against God along

with his wife and as a

consequence certain

judgments come into the

world.

The first judgment comes

on an animal known as a

serpent.

The serpent was the

most sophisticated form of

animal life that God

created but as a part of

its judgment it is now

crawling on its belly.

You can look at serpents

till doomsday and

conclude that they've

always crawled on their

belly because they crawl

on their belly now and

you'd be wrong.

The serpent was the

highest form of the land

animals before that

judgment according to

Genesis 3.

Woman was cursed.

Excuse me, judge.

Curse is not used to.

God said to the woman,

I will greatly multiply

thy pain and thy

conceptions.

woman was going to have

an increase of two

things.

She's going to have an

increase of pain and an

increase of conceptions.

I suggest to you that the

procreation balance at

creation in which man

would have been able to

reproduce himself was not

the 28-day fertility cycle

in which woman operates

today.

Adam and Eve could have

existed in the garden up

to 70 years.

We usually conclude that

if God finished the work

on the sixth day and the

seventh day God rested,

by Sunday noon they had

eaten of the fruit, right?

Why do we conclude that?

Because if they hadn't,

they would have had

babies, right?

Wrong.

Because God said to Eve,

I'm going to multiply your

conception.

I suggest to you that the

28-day fertility cycle with

which woman lives today has

come as a consequence of

sin.

It has come about because

the fact that death was

introduced and population

structure would have to now

be adapted to the principle

of death and woman is going

to be capable of multiple

conception.

Can you imagine what it was

like for a woman in the

post-Edenic world and before

the flood when they lived for

seven, eight, nine hundred

years, fertile from the age of

75 to the age of 750 to 800

under judgment of God for

multiple conception?

Can you imagine how many

children could be born under

those circumstances?

So, sorry girls, you're kind

of like the old gray mare,

you just ain't what you used

to be.

There's been some changes and

it's been a dramatic change

and it's a change in process.

You might be a gynecologist,

you might be an obstetrician and

you might conclude that having

worked on and worked with

thousands of women that the

28-day fertility cycle and when

ovulation takes place and

fertility is present, that

indeed under those conditions a

woman can become impregnated by

the sperm and it's always been

that way and that woman would

always have pain in childbirth

because to move a child down the

birth canal is always going to

involve stretching and tearing

and you'd be wrong because Eve was

judged by God to pain at childbirth

and to multiple conception.

So there have been changes.

In point of fact, so dramatic have

been the changes that there's been

very few things you have ever seen

just like God created, if anything

at all.

Let's see, what else do I have time

to cover here?

Death comes, right?

Death comes into the world.

Man is subject to death.

The human kingdom is subject to death.

The animal kingdom is subject to

death.

Man loses his dominion over the

animals.

Man now stays in tyranny of the

animals and the animals are in

conflict with man for limited

food supply.

God judges the earth.

He says to Adam,

Cursed is the ground for thy sake.

In toil and in the sweat of thy

face are you going to eat bread

because the earth is no longer

going to yield its strength to

thee and an earth which was once

covered with a pristine, worthwhile,

noble vegetable coverage is now

going to have mixed with it thorns,

thistles, and noxious growth.

Dandelion, boxtail, and all that

stuff that I keep cutting with my

lawnmower and that I pay a lot of

money to try to get rid of every

year.

The quality of vegetable life

changes.

The character of the productivity of

the soil changes so it isn't as if

God created and everything has

remained constant just like it was

when God created it.

There have been changes.

These changes have come because God

has acted directly in history by

judgment.

Now that second biblical world from

the time of the fall to the time of

the flood, the water vapor canopy was

still above the heavens.

There was still a temperate climate on

the face of the entire earth.

The day-night cycle still operated.

There was no rainfall in those first two

biblical worlds for the scripture

tells us that a moisture came up from

the midst of the ground.

water was stored in the mantle of the

earth under pressure and it caused the

mist that came up and watered the face

of the ground and the source of

moisture came from the earth through

small fissures in the earth's crust that

watered the earth and rainfall wasn't

the source of moisture in those worlds.

And life developed in 1656 years after

Adam was driven out of the garden.

Life developed and culture developed

through two lines, the line of Cain and

the line of Seth.

And these two lines came one in seven

generations and one in ten to a

threefold breakdown and these two lines

developed one in rebellion against God

one a godly line seeking to serve God

and population grew and culture and

technology developed until you come to

Genesis 6 and you read that God says

the earth is so full of violence and it

is so wicked he repents that he ever made

it and he's going to destroy it in all

flesh with it.

Except.

No.

There's one righteous man.

No.

In Genesis 6 we find that there's an

intermingling by marriage of two lines.

The consequence of this intermingling is

a breakdown of moral principle and

therefore ultimately moral principles

are set aside.

Anarchy sets in.

Rebellion.

Indeed rebellion.

Lawlessness.

Violence characterize the world and God

says judgment is coming.

Do you know how many people there could

have been in that world ladies and

gentlemen?

Do you know how many people there could

have been on the earth at the time of

the flood with only six children per

family?

There could have been one billion people

at flood times.

I think most of us had the notion that

perhaps the human family had developed

the 40,000 and they were in one little

corner of the world.

The Bible seems to teach that the

whole earth was populated by God's

image bearers and the whole earth was

populated by the animal kingdom and

there was a vast population and when

God said a flood was coming it was

going to bring dramatic changes to

life in this world.

A whole generation of godly people

lost their heritage so that there was

only one righteous perfect man at flood

time and his name was Noah.

Isn't it interesting that Christ says it

was in the days of Noah so shall it be in

the days of the coming of the son of

man.

They're going to be marrying and giving

in marriage.

And moral principles and values will be

breaking down in the Christian

community and the vitality of the

Christian community will be sacked as

indeed the value system of the pagan all

of a sudden infiltrates and permeates the

thinking of the believer so that as far

as actual external values by which one

lives there'll be no way to mark a

distinction between those who walk

with God and those who don't.

And I almost think that day is right

here.

You say well you don't know me very

well no but I know your kids I've had

hundreds of them at the college and

I'll tell you something they don't come

to Cedarville with a Christian value

system.

Oh you say but the highest value of my

life is God and Maranatha Baptist

and Pastor Brock and the school and

everything.

Is that where you give your time and

your energy?

Stop listening to what you're saying

and see what you do with your time.

Stop listening to the system that you

constantly spit out of your mouth.

In fact you ought to treat yourself as a

liar.

Don't assume that what you say actually

constitutes it.

See where your energy goes.

See where you spend your thought time.

See where you give your actual

chronological time.

What is it you pursue?

For most of us we're caught in the

same value system that permeates our

culture.

The dollar.

The possession.

And we'll put our blood money in the

offering plate and send the

missionaries out and we'll articulate a

right vocabulary but the structure and

the goal of our life is geared to the

pursuit of that which satisfies us.

The flood came.

The windows of heaven were open.

This is where I believe God released the

water canopy that was suspended above the

firmament and that the primary source of

water for the flood was the release of that

water canopy through the windows of heaven

and the fountains of the great deep were

broken up.

The scripture says subterranean oceans in

the earth's crust were released under

terrific pressure as large cracks or

earthquake activity took place and all of a

sudden a sudden destruction hit the

world and the character of this

destruction is absolutely devastating.

I suggest to you that under flood

conditions when that water was on the

face of the earth when those oceanic

structures in the in the crust of the

earth were released that what we have is

an earth that is under tremendous

pressure and it's an earth going through

fantastic catastrophe.

Ladies and gentlemen if we had a water

column on the earth 10,000 feet high as a

flood position do you know how much

pressure that is represented down on the

outer side of the earth's crust of the

sea level?

Two and one quarter times of the pressure

for square inch under a 10,000 foot water

column.

You know what it is now?

14.7.

You realize our earth's crust is suspended

between two pressure systems.

We've got gravity pressing down on the

outside at 14.7 times of pressure per

square inch.

On the underside of our crust we have fluid

inside of our earth and our earth is

spinning and this fluid is pressing up by

centrifugal force and that fluid pressing

up is pressing against the lower side of

this crust and gravity and magnetism are

pressing down on the outer side and

therefore what you walk on is suspended

in between two pressure systems.

Nowhere near as solid as you think it is.

Under flood activity if the highest mountains

were covered I suggest to you that the

crust of this earth looked like a bellows.

It was in movement.

I suggest to you that the hydrocarbons that

we know of in our world today were formed

under these conditions.

The vast amount of vegetable life and vast

amount of animal life was tracked under

terrific tectonic activity and with this

pressure were fossilized in the crust of

the earth.

I suggest to you that mountain ranges as we

know them today have come as a consequence

of this activity.

I don't believe God created the Alps.

I don't believe God created the Andes.

I believe all of the typography of our present

earth was formed under flood conditions.

You say you're a radical, no?

What amazes me is this.

If all of this that I look at is so beautiful

and it's all been affected by sin, no wonder

John runs out of words to describe the new

earth.

If we find such beauty in what we have around

us today, all of it permeated and affected

by the image bearer rebelling against God.

Now I don't have time to delineate all of

this.

Flood conditions bring changes.

Now the climate changes.

We have formation of polar ice caps.

You say, where'd all that water go?

Hey, a lot of it's still here.

That's why 73% of our earth is ground by

water.

Don't believe it was created that way.

Don't believe it's going to remain that

way.

So the changes come.

And again I say to you, science says

present process is able to explain the

origin, the development of life, and to

predict the future.

That's why they say, where is the promise

of his coming?

Because nothing like this ever happened

before.

Peter says they've got amnesia, which they

willfully choose.

They have forgotten that the world being in

the water and out of the water, being

overflowed with water, perished.

And so dramatic was that change, Peter

says, that the heavens that then were and

the earth passed away, but we have heavens

and earth which are now, and our present

heaven and earth is being stored with fire

in the heavens, the same place where the

water was, for a day of perdition of

ungodly men.

For the heavens shall melt with a fervent

heat and pass away with a great noise, and

everything being on fire shall burn up.

The same place where God stored the water

by his word for that first catastrophic

universal judgment, God has presently stored

fire in the same heavens for a second

universal catastrophic judgment, which is

going to terminate history.

And it's going to bring new heaven and new

earth.

Not only is present process not adequate

to explain the past, but it's inadequate to

predict the future.

So it seems to me that when it comes to

origins and development of life, I cannot at

all operate with a contemporary viewpoint.

I'm just going to simply have to say, Mr.

Scientist, I cannot accept your basic

principle of operation because it will not

square with what my Bible tells me.

And I refuse to accommodate my Bible to what

science teaches because I'm confident of

this, that when all the facts are in, this book

will be vindicated as true and accurate in

every assertion it makes.

And I'll never misplace my confidence if I place

it in what God has said.

Now there's an area, and I'll just touch it and

then close by giving you a couple of minutes for

questions.

There's a whole area that we also could think

about, and that's this biblical idea of a kind.

God created the kind and said, reproduce after

your kind.

And there has been change and development in the

kind, ladies and gentlemen.

How many original people belong to mankind at

creation?

How many?

You could say two or one if you wish.

It really doesn't matter.

From one we got two.

For Eve was derived from that.

There were two.

Were they black?

Were they white?

What racial structure were there?

Were there three original pairs, one for each

race created?

One pair, right?

And therefore the racial continuum as we know

it today has developed since creation from the

original pair.

Is that not right?

I don't know any other way to explain.

I frankly believe it also developed after the

flood.

For I do not believe that the three sons of Noah

represented the three races.

And therefore I think the racial development as we

know it today, and I want to be careful, it's a

continuum.

There probably isn't one racially pure person in

this room.

That's a myth.

All of us probably have racial mixture somewhere in

history.

But I would believe that the race is developed in the

post-blood world.

Isn't it interesting that God was able to

preserve the whole created kind of man,

by how many people on the ark?

Eight.

Now you can go through all the animals that we know

about and you can work that out.

Horses belong to a kind.

Horse kind probably had two original created pairs.

The ass-like variety and the horse-like variety.

You say, why two pairs?

Because of difference in chromosome count, but they're

still capable of true chemical fertilization.

That is, they are able to chemically fertilize the

seed.

I believe that's what constitutes a kind.

It's a principle of reproduction.

Now the entire horse kind could have been preserved

through the flood in the ark with four animals.

Male and female horse and male and female animals.

You don't need palominos and shetlands and arabians.

He didn't preserve male and female of every variety of

the kind.

He preserved the kind.

Dog kind probably had three originally created pairs.

There's a dog-like variety, the hyena-like variety,

and the fox-like variety.

They're all capable of true chemical fertilization.

Could have preserved the entire dog kind with six animals

on the ark.

You say, I thought he had chihuahuas and poodles.

He had to have poodles.

He'd have been lonely without his poodle on the ark,

wouldn't he?

Who would he have talked to?

Only, no.

Okay?

But I don't think we should even become static in our

concept of what constitutes a kind and conclude that

there has been no development or change within the

created kind.

I believe there has.

I believe I could manifest it biblically.

What am I saying?

I'm saying this.

That I hold to recent creation in six 24-hour days,

probably 8,000 to 10,000 years ago,

and that will show you how obscurantist I really am.

That this creation, when it came from the hand of God,

was perfect.

That as a consequence of human sin,

God has acted in the processes of nature by judgment.

He has brought about change,

and I've got to go back and trace those changes

if I want to see how life has developed

and how the quality of life has changed in the world.

And if I want to see what's future,

I've got to go what God has said about the future,

and I've got to learn eschatology

to see indeed what God is going to do yet in the future

to change the quality and the processes

that are extant in nature.

In the kingdom,

you recall that the lion's going to eat straw again,

isn't it?

And children are going to leave them.

And the lion and the lamb are going to play together.

There's going to be changes yet to come, eh?

So that the key to the past is scripture.

The key to the understanding of development is scripture.

I hold to creationism.

That doesn't mean I'm a statusist who believes

everything is in situ just like God created it.

No, there has been change.

Judgment gives me a model to trace it.

It seems to me we don't have to back down

in this area of art.

We've got three minutes.

I was going to try to leave a tent to answer questions.

I won't harass you like me.

For participation.

Can I ask a question?

Sure.

Oh, all right.

Did you equate Genesis 1-1 with the six days?

Yes, I did.

He didn't say that.

If I equate it with the six days.

In the beginning,

God created the heavens and the earth.

Exodus 20-11.

In six days,

Jehovah made the heavens and the earth.

People will say,

but there's a difference between made and created, right?

Well, if you go to Genesis 1-26 and 27,

you'll find that God says,

let us make man in our image.

And then the next verse says,

so God created man in his image.

And therefore,

I do not believe the Hebrew verb bara

and the Hebrew verb asah

have different meanings.

I believe they're synonyms.

So, yes, I do put Genesis 1-1 into the six days.

All right, I'll nutshell it this way.

I'm dealing it from chronologies.

I can't go completely backwards.

In other words,

it's easy to find out

how long between Adam and the flood.

I mean, I can tell you that.

There's 1,656 years there

if you take Genesis 5

to be a trustworthy chronology.

So you have approximately 18 generations.

Now, we can date the Exodus

rather accurately.

Now, it's between,

it's from the Exodus back to the flood

that we break down in B.C.

dating with certainty.

But allowing for all the possible gaps

that could be there.

Let me show you an instance of a gap.

Who's Moses' father and mother?

Amram and Jochebed, right?

Well, if that's father and mother,

then Moses had 2,700 living cousins,

which is a little bit impossible.

What we need to realize is

the son of, in Hebrew,

is not a technical phrase,

and it often can refer

to grandparent-type relationships.

So you can't be positive

in every instance.

So what I'm doing here

is simply leaving room

for the possible gaps.

Also, I would think

that we would have

a terrific change

in radiocarbon activity

as a consequence of the flood.

And carbon-14,

which has a half-life

of 3,007 years,

would give us a full life

of 7,004 years,

which is what I would judge

to be approximately flood time.

See, if you put a water canopy up there,

the cosmic radiation

that bombards us today,

which science uses

for its dating methods,

by the way,

would clearly be affected

by that vapor canopy.

So those two things, basically,

are what I would use there.

Thank you.

You must admit

that the 930 class

has a great deal of variety,

doesn't it?

Are you glad you came this morning?

I would remind you

that Professor Greer

will be back with us

in July.

So make a note of that.

His topic will not be the same then,

although I'm sure

it will have some of the foundation

that you've had this morning.

I'd remind you

that each week is different.

Some of you do not realize,

although the class

is mentioned for 930,

it really starts at 920,

because we give everyone

that comes their full time

to speak.

We're happy that you came

this morning.

You may fellowship

for a few moments.

When the prelude starts,

I would appreciate

if you'd be quiet.

Greet Mr. Greer,

encourage him,

and thank him for coming.

It takes time to come.

We appreciate all of those

who have taken...

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