Creation ministries have grown over the past 30 years as the creation-evolution debate matured past juvenile Darwinism and monkey trials.
While the journals, books, and research done by creation scientists are useful to give a Bible believing perspective of the science, the strongest arguments for creation come from the Bible itself.
After all, the largest opposition in America to the doctrine of six-day creation comes from other Christians who believe in theistic evolution, gap theory, etc.
The creation-evolution debate is not fundamentally a scientific debate; it is fundamentally an issue of Bible belief. Like all Biblical debates, the failure to rightly divide and consider what Paul says affects our understanding (2 Tim 2:7).
While most of the Biblical conversation centers around Hebrew words in Genesis, the strongest evidence in the Bible for the doctrinal necessity of creation is found in Paul’s writings.
Old Testament Evidence
The most popular passages in the Bible that speak about creation are in Genesis and Exodus.
“In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” – Gen 1:1
“For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day…” – Exodus 20:11
However, these passages are passed over by the liberal claim that they are symbolic legends of an ancient civilization.
“We can still be Christian and deny Genesis”, they defiantly say, confessing their own disbelief of the same book that gives them life.
Jesus’ Evidence
Stronger evidence is found in the words of the Lord Jesus Christ himself.
When the Pharisees tried to capture the Lord with their legal conundrums Jesus responded by referencing the first man and woman in the beginning of creation.
“And he answered and said unto them, Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female, And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh?” – Mat 19:4-5
This is a hard place for the Christian evolutionist since the Lord himself testifies to the reality of the first male and female.
If we trust the Lord with our eternal salvation, and the words that he speaks are truth, then why wouldn’t we believe the Lord’s account of the beginning?
Even so, people do not believe the Bible. They “accept Jesus”, but not everything he said.
Paul’s Evidence
The most powerful Biblical evidence is the theological necessity unveiled by Paul in his explanation of salvation in Romans 5.
In Romans 5:12 Paul testifies to the reality of there being one man through which sin entered the world.
“Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin;” – Rom 5:12
Without sin we do not need salvation. Bible belief in sin, death, and the need for salvation demands we believe in Adam, the first man, by whom sin entered.
By One Man
Moreover, Paul continues by explaining that Adam was a figure of him that was to come, that is the Lord Jesus Christ (Rom 5:14).
By one man sin entered, and likewise by one man righteousness and life enters the world (Rom 5:17-19).
God created the world with one man (and not a million ape-men), because he was a figure of the one man that would come to bring life to the world.
“For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.” – 1 Cor 15:21-22
Christ is called the last Adam, a fulfillment of the figure in the first Adam (1 Cor 15:45).
Romans 5:12-19 explains the cause of judgment, death, and condemnation as a result of what the first man did for us. Life, righteousness, and grace that is the basis of our salvation is accomplished for us by the one act of the second man.
A denial of the first man and his act of sin directly affects the doctrine of the second, Jesus Christ, and his act of salvation.
The Mystery of the Church
Not only so, but that one man was joined with a woman, Eve, in the first marriage in the creation account (Gen 2:23-24).
Paul calls this union of the first Adam with another a mystery concerning Christ and the church.
“This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church.” – Eph 5:19-20
The literal Adam and Eve affects not only our understanding of salvation, but our understanding of the church, since Paul describes it as a mystery from the creation.
Conclusion
Paul’s doctrine of the mystery of Christ necessitates belief in Adam, Eve, creation, and the fall.
It is the figure of Christ in Adam that is used to describe the mystery of the gospel which from the beginning of the world has been hid in God who created all things by Christ Jesus (Eph 3:9).
It is the union of one man and woman that is also figured as a mystery concerning Christ and the church.
God’s mystery purpose was to bring salvation to heaven and earth by one man: Jesus Christ (Eph 1:9-10). So, in the beginning God created one man: Adam.
Listen to our verse by verse of Romans 5 for more details about the importance of “by one man“.
Article Index Published: January 12, 2013
Last Modified: January 20, 2018