The world has not always been the same as it presently is as scientists have discovered plant fossils in Antarctica that point to much warmer climates in the region at some point in history. Both evolutionists and Young Earth Creationists (YEC) both agree that the world has undergone changes throughout its history but what they disagree on is what those changes may have been.
Both YECs and evolutionists believe that the earth had a much warmer and more uniform climate than today. What they disagree on is when the climate had been much different since evolutionists believe that the period during which the climate was more uniform was millions of years ago, and YECs believe that since the earth is only a few thousand years old, based upon the Genesis account of creation which they accept as historical account.
Whereas evolutionists may point to the changes that the earth has undergone as being a natural process that has always been in place, YECs believe that the changes that the earth has undergone is due to two events that took place in history, but in order to understand those changes, we have to understand what things were like according to the Genesis account.
According to scripture, the hardships and struggles that we experience today did not exist and death had not entered into the world. Even the animals did not prey on one another as they do today because all animals and man were given plants for their food. (Gen. 1:29-30)
There were three commands given by the Creator that man was given:
1. Be fruitful and multiply (Gen. 1:28)
2. Subdue and rule over the earth (v. 28)
3. And finally, and most importantly, there was a certain tree that man was told not to eat from and that was the Tree of the Knowledge of good and evil. (Gen. 2:16-17)
Man was given a choice; to choose everlasting life or death. The tree of life would have enabled man to live forever, but sadly at the behest of false promises made by an evil entity, man was led into sin and eventually death.
As soon as man had eaten from the very tree that God had had forbidden to, things suddenly changed and not for the better, but for the worse and would lead the world into the present state that it is now. (Gen. 3) Man would now be subjected to hardship and would eventually die which is why it is written that the wages of sin is death. (Rom. 6:23) The sin of the first man Adam was then inherited by all of humanity, distorting our very nature as it had done to his and because we all sin, we all die. (Rom. 5:12)
And because of sin, man only increasingly sought after that which was evil in the eyes of God to the point that He had no choice but to destroy the world with a flood save for Noah who was righteous before God who was spared from destruction when he was told to build the very Ark that spared him, his family, and all the animals that were brought to him. (Gen. 6-8)
The flood is credited by creationists for having changed the geologic and geographic face of the entire earth as well as its climatic stability and is largely credited for the formation of the fossil record, believing the flood and post flood catastrophes were responsible for the rapid burial of all life that perished in the flood, rather than the slow gradual formation processes insisted on by evolutionists. In fact there are numerous examples of fossil formations that could only take place by way of rapid burial and which point to a widespread catastrophic event that took place at some point in our history.
Before the flood, men live hundreds and sometimes nearly a thousand years, but after the flood, lifespans became shorter and shorter and people began to age more quickly until the average life span of a man was somewhere between seventy and eighty years old (Ps. 90:10)
But most importantly, after the eating of that forbidden fruit, man’s relationship with God was never the same again. In the garden where the first man Adam and his wife Eve dwelt before their fall, scripture indicates that they had fellowshipped regularly with their Maker, (Gen. 3) but when they had sinned, their relationship with God was never the same again. (chapter 3) They would no longer have the direct fellowship with God that they had once had.
But according to the evolutionists, death and the present hardships and sufferings we face have always been a part of the natural process and are not a resultant consequence of anything which is why it is a futile attempt to reconcile the Genesis account of creation with evolutionary thought yet so many professors of the Christian faith, because they have blindly bought into the claims of professed scientists and educators, have been led to believe that in order to answer this otherwise seemingly insurmountable intellectual challenge, they must somehow reinterpret the Genesis account and approach it from an allegorical standpoint rather than one that is literal as presented by the text.
Every doctrine devised in an attempt to overcome this intellectual challenge has placed death before sin thereby discrediting the scriptures which have declared death to be the penalty for sin and if death is not the consequence of sin, then sin is without any consequence which then renders redemption from sin meaningless.
This is why any attempt to reconcile evolutionary thought with the Bible has failed to retain the confidence of many within the Church, especially those who have been raised in the faith, the saving Gospel of Jesus Christ because they know that there is a disconnect and because there has been nothing presented to them by the Church in most cases to soundly refute the philosophy of evolution, they then decide that the Bible cannot be true in deciding that the Bible is a lie, they then refuse to believe the Gospel of Christ which they might otherwise continue to believe in if a sound defense could be made for the faith against the faith-destroying theory of evolution.
The entire reason for why Christ came to earth in the first place was to redeem us from the sin that separates us from our Maker, death which is the penalty from sin, and the curse which has subjected the entire creation to the present struggles and decay that it presently experiences (Rom. 8:22)
But if death and that which is associated with the curse was before sin, then what did Christ die on the cross for? What death did He come to vanquish? And what curse is the creation waiting to be liberated from?
Evolution and scripture cannot both be true and there are a lot of skeptics and enemies of the faith who know that and this is why the Genesis account is the most heavily attacked out of any portion of scripture because it is the very foundation upon which all of the scripture rest and with the scriptures, the Gospel message that the scriptures were written and compiled to deliver to all of us and if there is no sound defense of the foundation upon which the authority of scripture rests, then there can be no sound defense of the Gospel message and how well of a case we can make for the Gospel message can make all the difference in whether or not a soul is won over to our Lord.
Scripture admonishes all who follow Christ to earnestly contend for the faith (Jude 3) and to be ready to give an answer for the faith and hope that lies within us (1 Peter 3:15) because as we go out to take the Gospel to the lost, there are strongholds that need to be taken down, wicked imaginations that need to be defeated, philosophies, religions, and even political systems that exalt themselves against the truth of our Lord which need to be discredited, and ways of thought that need to be conformed to the mind of Christ. (2 Cor. 10:4-5) but unfortunately, many of our congregations, many within our church leadership and members of influence neglect these duties and capitulate to the norms of this present world and appease the cultural preferences and opinions rather than challenge them and take the firm stand for Christ that they should, or worse, they are deliberately undermining the influence of the Church because what they know they cannot destroy from without, they will attempt to tear down and discredit from within.
Instead of preserving sound doctrine within their ranks, they endorse doctrines contrary to scripture and they who preach them instead of standing against those false doctrines and heresies introduced and holding those who bring them accountable and instead of holding their members accountable for harbored sin, they tolerate, appease, and even celebrate it because they have decided that the scriptures inspired of God (2 Tim. 3:16) is not sufficient enough to address all those essential matters pertaining to the issues of life and our relationship with our Lord and that it is not authoritative in all matters addressed.
In order for the Word of God to be trusted as an authority in the spiritual matters, it has to be trusted to be equally authoritative in even the matters that are not spiritual that it addresses as well for as our Lord has said, “If I tell you of earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things?” (Jn. 3:12)
But that means being able to give the most reasoned and sound defense as possible of scripture’s authority because trust in the authority and message of the Gospel which is delivered by the scriptures is tied to the trustworthiness thereof because the scriptures center around the very Savior by whom the Gospel came and upon whom the Church is built
There are so many resources that have been produced for the purpose of refuting those challenging arguments and answering those questions pertaining to the faith that it is a wonder why those congregations and ministries, to whom these things are made available, are not making good use of the information and products offered to them. What is the excuse? Probably none that are good. Even this blogsite has on its Links Page a list of reputable ministries that have dedicated themselves in assisting fellow saints and congregations, leaders and influential members within the body of Christ to be better able to answer those questions asked and refute every challenging argument posed, no matter how formidable, and Contender’s Edge is also dedicated to doing what it can to do the same.
Readers, I urge you to visit those ministries listed on my Links Page and to even share anything you find worthy of note on this site. There is no reason not to. In order to be make as effective and as persuasive of a case that we can for the Gospel, we all have some part to play, big or small. I cannot tell you how God wants each and every one of you to do your part; you will all have to ask Him that and if you take the time to ask, I can guarantee you that He will show you. He will not tell you to do nothing. The voice telling you to not do anything is the voice of your sinful flesh or even that of Satan, the adversary of our souls and enemy of God because he wants you to be complacent, lazy, and lulled into a false security, getting caught up in the cares of this present life rather than striving for the highest honors of the life to come.
The time you spend watching some meaningless junk on television, reading worthless trash, or playing video games (and I’ve nothing against video games by the way) could also be spent acquiring the knowledge needed for you to make a reasoned defense for the faith you claim to have when required of you and there will come those times when it may be required of you, especially if you happen to be in a position of leadership or influence in the body of Christ.
The lack of apologetic knowledge within the body of Christ where it ought to be widespread is just absolutely abysmal and because of that, we are paying a heavy price coming in the form of those members, who might have otherwise remained in the faith, leaving the faith and in the loss of souls who might have otherwise repented. That is unacceptable and our desire to see the lost won over ought to be such that we no longer tolerate the apathy and complacency that has plagued our ranks, but if we would be the light to the world that we are supposed to be, we need to clean out our own house and keep it maintained and in doing so, our light will shine all the more brightly, bringing glory and honor to our Lord who will reward us for a job faithfully well done.
Evolution does not offer any hope for a better world and the evolutionists who dated the plant fossils as being millions of years, when according to history, those fossilized plants are much younger than those dates give, probably are without any hope themselves, only looking forward to an endless cycle of endless struggle, extinctions, and rise of new life forms that will also eventually die in order to give rise to other life forms, but in Christ we have in us an unfailing promise of a new world where there is no death, no struggle, no evil, adversity, harship, grief, or suffering of any kind (Rev. 21-22) because it was never a part of His orginal design to begin with and they who have placed their trust in Christ and have given themselves over to Him will have a place in this new world to come, but they who continue to refuse the love of our Savior and the offer of redemption will have nothing to look forward to except endless torment; forever separated from our Lord.
I would urge any readers, if you have not yet received Christ as your Savior today and want to be a part of the coming world that one day replace this present one, turn away from your sins, repent, and ask Jesus to forgive you of your sins and be your Savior and Lord today. If you do not know exactly what to say, here is an example of a prayer you might pray:
"Lord Jesus I need you.
I realize that I am a sinner
who has fallen short of the glory of God
and that my goodness falls short
of His standard of Moral perfection.
Please forgive me of all of my sins.
Come into my heart and into my life
to be the Savior and Lord of my life.
Make me into the servant and follower
that you want me to be.
In your name Lord Jesus, I pray.
Amen."
Know that God is not concerned with the words that you use but with the attitude of your heart and if you have repented of your sins and have called upon the name of Christ for forgiveness in the sincerity of your heart, then you have already been forgiven of yours sins and are assured entry into Heaven.
End notes:
Christopher Carbone, “Evidence of ancient rainforest in Antarctica point to warmer prehistoric world,”
Fox News, April 2, 2020
https://www.foxnews.com/science/ancient-rainforest-antarctica-point-to-warmer-prehistoric-world
Scripture references:
1. Genesis 1:29-30
2. Genesis 1:28
3. Genesis 2:16-17
4. Genesis 3
5. Romans 6:23
6. Romans 5:12
7. Genesis (6-8)
8. Psalms 90:10
9. Romans 8:22
10. Jude 3
11. 1 Peter 3:15
12. 2 Corinthians 10:4-5
13. 2 Timothy 3:16
14. John 3:12
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