Creation and Evolution Don't Mix

Could God have used evolution to create?

Some Christians hold this view, but it's not compatible with Scripture.

It's important that we first establish the difference between microevolution (adaptations within species) and macroevolution (changes from one species to another). Microevolution is observable in nature and is completely compatible with creation. It would be more fitting to call it "adaptation."

Microevolution is sometimes used as an argument for macroevolution, but it's an entirely different process from the theorized macroevolution. This difference is not only noted by creation scientists but by many evolutionary theorists as well (source).

Read more about this distinction: Microevolution and Macroevolution; What is the Difference?; Nylon-eating bacteria; "New Species".   

Now that we've made this distinction, let's address three major reasons evolution (macroevolution) is not compatible with biblical Christianity:

1. Evolution does not reflect God's character:

God's divine nature is seen in creation. Even in its fallen form, nature's complexity and beauty are evidence that our world and its inhabitants did not result from a cosmic accident.

Romans 1:20: "For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities--his eternal power and divine nature--have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse." 

These are some specific ways that evolution does not reflect God's character:


A. Everything God does is perfect, but evolution is a process of mistakes.

Evolution claims that before man existed, there were millions of years of death, decay, mistakes, accidents, mutations, and non-viable creatures. Why would God waste time making inferior or non-functional things when He can instantly create perfection?

John 1:3: "Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made."

Deuteronomy 32:4: "He is the Rock, his works are perfect, and all his ways are just. A faithful God who does no wrong, upright and just is he." 

B. God speaks things into existence. He doesn't need a lengthy, tedious, process like evolution.

Read through the creation story and notice that God creates everything by His words. 

For example:

Genesis 1:24: "And God said, 'Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: the livestock, the creatures that move along the ground, and the wild animals, each according to its kind.' And it was so." 

Hebrews 11:3: "By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God's command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible."

C. Evolution is actually more representative of Satan's nature than God's.

If Satan created the world, perhaps he would create it through the death, decay, and destruction of a process like evolution. And there's no doubt that Satan promotes the false belief of evolution because it steals glory from God:

John 10:10: "The thief [Satan] comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I [Jesus] have come that they may have life, and have it to the full."

2. Death came AFTER the creation of man, not before.

Genesis 1:31: "God saw all that he had made, and it was very good." 

But God gave clear instructions:

Genesis 2:17: "but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die."

When Adam and Eve disobeyed and ate the forbidden fruit, they didn't immediately die, but death entered the world. And creation also lost its perfection.

Romans 5:12: "Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned—

See also: 1 Corinthians 15:21.

3. God made man in His image with an eternal soul, set apart from the rest of creation.

Because being made in God's image doesn't mean we bear a physical likeness to God, some suggest that God could have created man through a series of lower life forms and then placed His image on that advanced life form. But Scripture doesn't say God gave man His image. It says He created man in His image.

Genesis 1:26-28: "And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness:...27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them..."

Read more: Made in the Image of God. 

We shouldn't be surprised that evolution is so widely accepted. Scripture predicts it:

2 Peter 3:3-5: "Above all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires. 4 They will say, 'Where is this "coming" he promised? Ever since our ancestors died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation.' 5 But they deliberately forget that long ago by God’s word the heavens came into being and the earth was formed out of water and by water." (Genesis 1:2)

Both creation and evolution are faith-based beliefs. Each person examines scientific evidence in light of their presuppositions. Nothing in nature contradicts creation.

Nobel prize winner, Dr. Francis Crick, discovered DNA. Although he remained an atheist, he had something interesting to say about evolution. Read more about Crick in this 1-minute devotion: The Honest See.

Let's study God's Word, enjoy His creation, and reject godless theories (Colossians 2:8).

copyright 2018, Gail Burton Purath, BiteSizeBibleStudy.com

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