ORIGIN, DOES IT REALLY MATTER?
The issue of our origin and how we came into existence is an age-old question. That is debatable. Or is it? And does it really matter?
In the context of the three angels’ messages in Revelation 14, we look deeper at our origin and why there is such a big debate over it and its relevance for us today.
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Seeking God’s Help
Holy Father, you are God; by faith, we believe what is written in your Holy Word, the Bible. It has not changed down through the ages, even up to our day. Help us to have faith and trust in you even when we do not clearly understand. In Jesus’ Name Amen
For everything that God offers, Satan offers a counter. What is his counter to our origin?
The age-old question is whether God accomplished in six days what would take billions of years through natural selection. By faith, we believe God in his omnipotent power, created the earth in 6 literal days.
In contrast, the theory of evolution rejects the idea that God creates life out of nothing in six literal days. It proposes that life on Earth occurred over billions of years through natural processes.
These are two opposing views of how our world came into existence. Both require faith, for neither is completely observable.
Because they are opposing, one must be a counterfeit. Based on the Bible, we see that in this cosmic battle between good and evil, God’s opponent, Satan, the devil, in his attack against God, has introduced a lie and a counterfeit. His lie is that God could not have possibly created the universe in 6 literal days. His counterfeit is to harmonize creation with evolution. His approach now is the attempt to align “scientific data” with the Genesis account of creation. In an effort to harmonize creation and evolution, the assertion is that the days of creation are long, indefinite periods of time and that life on Earth is billions of years old.
Evolution, the counterfeit, maintains that life on Earth began out of chance resulting from slow changes in plants and animals that happened over billions of years.
Now how sneaky is that? Satan mixed the belief in evolution with the truth of the Bible. This counterfeit says that the days in Genesis 1 are not literal days but millions of years. Hence this counterfeit says that life on Earth is billions of years old. But what does the Bible say? Let’s look at Psalm 33:6, 9 and Hebrews 11:3
Psalms 33:6, 9
6 By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, And all the host of them by the breath of His mouth.
9 For He spoke, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast. (Psalms 33:6, 9)
Hebrews 11:3
3 By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible. (Hebrews 11:3)
The Bible in Psalm 33:9 tells us that God made the earth and that he: “spoke, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast” (Psalm 33:9).
And Hebrews 11:3 establishes that “By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God” (Hebrews 11:3 NKJV).
Genesis 1 lets us know that God made the earth in six literal days consisting of 24 hours and then God rested on the seventh day. (split)
Even most Bible scholars who don’t believe in the literal six-day creation acknowledge that the person who wrote Genesis meant that God made the earth in six literal days.
Here is what it says about creation in six literal days in the Book Patriarchs and Prophets:
The Bible recognizes no long ages in which the earth slowly evolved from chaos. Of each successive day of creation, the sacred record declares that it consisted of the evening and the morning, like all other days that have followed. At the close of each day is given the result of the Creator’s work.—Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 112.
We need to know that the Hebrew word for “day” in Genesis 1 is “yom.” In the Bible, a number is often written before the word “yom” or day. Some examples are third day, first day, and so on. Whenever a number is written before the word “yom,” then the number limits the day to 24 hours. There is no exception in the Bible in which a number before “yom” means more than a literal 24-hour day. So, the word “yom” with a number written in front of it always means 24 hours.
This brings us to another point. If God rested on the seventh day, how did He keep the seventh-day Sabbath?
And then the question arises: if he kept the Sabbath on the 7th day of creation, how did He keep the Sabbath if it took eons of years to create the earth? And, then, why would God command us to keep the Sabbath in remembrance of him creating the heavens and earth in 6 days and resting on the seventh day?
You see why Satan introduced the counterfeit. It raises questions about the integrity or reliability of the Bible.
Furthermore, accepting the idea that God created the earth taking eons of years dispels the credibility of what the Bible says about the Sabbath.
Therefore, again Satan’s attack is about worship. His attack of the Sabbath, the day God set aside the seventh day of the creation week, is really an attack on God’s power and authority.
Satan is sly and sneaky. If he can get the people of God to accept evolution, it becomes easy to destroy our belief in the Bible and even God’s command that His people rest on the Sabbath, the memorial of his creation.
It’s no wonder so many people, including Christians, ignore the seventh-day Sabbath. What a setup for his final and most crafty deception. How is this a setup for Satan’s final deception?
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Find out, Part 5: Creation, the Sabbath and the End of Time
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