God is Creator. Whatever He accomplishes is by creation. The Bible, the Word of God, presents no other thought than that all the works of God are of creation only. See: "In the beginning God created." (Genesis 1:1) "[He] created heaven, ... and the earth." (Revelation 10:6) "These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created." (Genesis 2:4) "By Him were all things created that are in heaven and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by Him and for Him." (Colossians 1:16) "Ask now of the days that are past, which were before you, since the day that God created man upon the earth." (Deuteronomy 4:32) "Create in me a clean heart, O God." (Psalm 51:10) "I create the fruit of the lips." (Isaiah 57:19) "The people that shall be created shall praise the Lord." (Psalm 102:18) "They are created now, and not from the beginning." (Isaiah 48:7) "We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works." (Ephesians 2:10) "Put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness." (Ephesians 4:24) "Remember now your Creator." (Ecclesiastes 12:1) "Behold I create new heavens and a new earth. ... Be glad and rejoice for ever in that which I create: for, behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy." (Isaiah 65:17-18)
There are many, many more such scriptures, but these are sufficient to make plain the truth that in all things God is Creator, and that whatsoever He does, is by creation. Now it is the essential characteristic of creation that it is done immediately, that it is done suddenly, at the moment, upon the speaking of the creative word. "By the word of the Lord were the heavens made, and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth. ... For He spoke and it was." (Psalm 33:6,9) "And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. And God said, Let there be a firmament, ... and it was so. ... And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so. ... And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, and herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so." (Genesis 1:3,6-7,9,11) "I have declared the former things from the beginning; and they went forth out of my mouth, and I showed them; I did them suddenly, and they came to pass. ... They are created now, and not from the beginning." (Isaiah 48:3,7)
It must ever be borne in mind that it was by the Lord Jesus that God created, and ever creates all things: "God, who created all things by Jesus Christ;" (Ephesians 3:9) and that it was the Lord Jesus who spoke the creative word. This same Lord Jesus came to the earth in the form and flesh of man, and still spoke here the word of God, the creative word. And in every instance, as soon as the word was spoken, the thing was done.
The centurion whose servant was sick of the palsy, said to Jesus, "Speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed." (Matthew 8:8)
Jesus spoke the word, "And his servant was healed in the self-same hour." (Matthew 8:13)
When the nobleman came to Cana, asking that Jesus would come down and heal his son who was sick at Capernaum, Jesus said, "Go your way, your son lives." (John 4:50) And, "at the same hour" (John 4:53) "the fever left him." (John 4:52)
When the leper called to Jesus, "If You will, You can make me clean," (Mark 1:40)
Jesus answered, "I will; be clean. And as soon as he had spoken, immediately the leprosy departed from him, and he was cleansed." (Mark 1:41-42)
Lazarus was dead four days, and was in the tomb, but when Jesus spoke the word, he came forth immediately.
These scriptures make plain the certain truth of the whole Bible that when a thing is created, when the creative word is spoken, it is done "immediately," "suddenly," "now." And it is certain that the whole Bible, from beginning to end, deals primarily and pre-eminently with the Creator and creation only.
And this truth that the, word and work of creation is ever accomplished "immediately," "suddenly," and "now,"--this sweeps utterly away forever all possibility of there being any truth in the theory of evolution; that is, the theory that it is only through a long, long succession of ages that the things that are, came to be. It confirms by the best possible evidence, the Word of God, the perfect truth of the statement of one of the three original and always leading modern evolutionists that: "Evolution is antagonistic to creation."
That is the truth, and so perfectly the truth that it is simply impossible to hold both at once. Yet there are those who try to hold both under a theory of so-called theistic evolution. But "theistic evolution" is a contradiction in terms. "Theistic" is from theos, which means "God." "Theistic evolution," then, is "God evolution" or evolution with God. But God is Creator. And creation is "immediate," "sudden," and "now;" while evolution is only long drawn out through untold ages. So, to dub evolution "theistic" does not, and can not, save it from what its modern originators declared it to be, "antagonistic to creation."
That is the plain truth as to the principle and the fact of creation. And the plain record of the creation in the 1st chapter of Genesis confirms and emphasizes that truth. There were six days of the creation, and nine successive creative steps from "the beginning" to the finishing of the creative purpose.
1. The first was the creation of the heaven and the earth; and the earth was without form and void, and, darkness was upon the face of the deep, while the Spirit of God brooded upon the face of the waters.
2. The second was the creation of the light.
3. The third was the creation of the firmament or atmosphere.
4. The fourth was the creation of the dry land.
5. The fifth was the creation of all vegetation.
6. The sixth was the creation of the lights in the heavens.
7. The seventh was the creation of the creatures of the sea and of the air.
8. The eighth was the creation of the beasts and other moving things upon the earth.
9. The ninth was the creation of man.
Note that in these nine successive steps to the completion of the one creative purpose, each one of the nine was a distinct creation itself. Each time there was spoken the creative word, as distinctly as if it were the only one. And all possibility of evolution anywhere in the course is excluded, not only by the creative word, but also by the very order of the successive steps.
The first was a condition of darkness and water. The second was light. But light is not an evolution from either darkness or water.
The third is the firmament or atmospheric heaven. But atmosphere is not an evolution from light. The fourth is the dry land. But dry land is not an evolution from atmosphere.
The fifth is the whole vegetable kingdom. And while it might be possible to present a plausible argument in favor of vegetation being an evolution from the dry land, it would be only plausible, for the plain word is against it.
But whatever plausible plea might be made in behalf of vegetation being an evolution from dry land, it is certain that all possibility of any such plea is excluded in connection with the sixth step in the succession; for that is the "lights in the firmament of heaven," and it is absolutely certain that the lights and stars of heaven were never an evolution from vegetation on the earth.
Likewise the seventh, which is the fishes of the waters and the fowl of the air, could never by any possibility be an evolution from the sixth, which is the lights and stars of heaven.
The eighth is the beasts and other creatures that move upon the ground, which are not by any possible means an evolution from those creatures that move in the water and in the air.
And the ninth is man, "the thinker," mind, "in the image of God;" and he is not an evolution from beasts nor from creeping things.
Thus evolution is not only "antagonistic to creation," it is likewise antagonistic in every way to the plain word and structure of the 1st chapter of Genesis. And however confidently people may hold the theory of evolution as true, it is certain that it can not be held at the same time either with the idea of creation, or with the plain reading and structure of the 1st chapter of Genesis.
No; the whole thought of the Word of God is creation, not evolution. The plain word, the whole structure, and the all-pervading idea of the 1st chapter of Genesis is creation, not evolution.--Medical Missionary, April 22, 1908.