Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/Sermons/zz20080203.htm

THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION
Genesis: Explaining The Foundations Of History
Part I: Explaining The Creation Of The Universe, Genesis 1-2
C. Explaining The Steps Of The Universe's Creation
3. Explaining God's Filling The Emptiness With Life
a. God's Filling The Earth With Plants For Food
(Genesis 1:9-13)

Introduction: (To show the need . . . )

After delivering last Sunday morning's message in this series out of Genesis 1, I was approached by one of our teens in Fellowship Hall who asked about a passing statement I had made in the sermon.

He had heard me refer to advance tropical life forms that have been found in the arctic, and he wondered if I could elaborate on it!

It's little wonder why he asked! After all, the three most popular biology textbooks in America's secular high schools [(1) A. Biggs et al., Biology: The Dynamics of Life (Florida Edition), Glencoe-McGraw Hill, New York, 2006; (2) N. Campbell, B. Williamson and R. Heyden, Biology: Exploring Life (Florida Teacher's Edition), Pearson Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey, 2006) and (3) G. Johnson and P. Raven, Biology (Teacher's Edition), Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, Austin, Texas, 2006] all teach "plants evolved from simple to complex forms" of necessity "over millions of years"! High school students are told plants originated as algae and developed many structures over long ages of time in their move onto land as they overcome gravity, avoided drying out and reproduced out of the water, Roger Patterson, Evolution Exposed, 2006, p. 12-13, 166.

If this view were true, plants would have needed STABLE enough climactic conditions to produce very slow changes! Thus, my sermon statement that advance tropical life forms have been found frozen in the arctic suggests a sudden climactic catastrophe interrupted and changed the world's climate; that counters the uniformitarian view behind evolutionary theory that suggests "the events of the past could be explained in the light of processes at work in the present." (John C. Whitcomb & Henry M. Morris, The Genesis Flood, 1978, p. 131).

Thus, we need to view the Bible's declaration on how plants came to exist, and what it reveals about evolutionary theory. [We will also report on material evidence that supports our stance in our sermon's conclusion notes!]



So, we ask, "Does Genesis 1 allow for the evolutionary theory's view on the origin of plants, or NOT? WHY, and what EVIDENCE is there for me to discern the TRUTH?!"



(We turn to the sermon "Need" section . . . )

Need: "Does Genesis 1 allow for evolutionary processes for the creation of plants? Why, and what EVIDENCE supports it?!"
  1. Genesis 1:3-31 explains HOW God's CREATIVE ACTS SOLVED the NEEDY STATE of Genesis 1:2 (as follows):
    1. The unfinished world God had called into existence out of nothing (Hebrews 11:3) was NEEDY, being formless, empty and cloaked in darkness over its surface of deep waters, Genesis 1:2 NIV, ESV.
    2. Thus, God addressed the darkness need by creating light in Genesis 1:3-5, He addressed the formlessness need by creating the structures of heaven, sea and dry land in Genesis 1:6-10, and He addressed the emptiness need by filling these structures with life in Genesis 1:11-31.
  2. In SOLVING the EMPTINESS of Genesis 1:11-31, as Romans 1:18-20 suggests, at Genesis 1:9-13, God displayed His attributes of ETERNAL POWER and DIVINE NATURE in creating PLANTS:
    1. Genesis 1:9-13 shows God's eternal power in His creation of plants:
      1. Genesis 1:9-13 reveals how God created BOTH dry land AND plant life on the land in one solar day by His mere spoken Word !
      2. This could NOT have occurred by evolutionary processes:
        1. By natural means, an upthrust of a sea bed to form a continent in a single solar day as Genesis 1:9-13 claims happened would have caused "an intense distortion of the [earth's] crust" and "erosion and deposition of sediments on a vast scale", leaving a coarse surface marked by melted rocks that would take long ages of "rock weathering, alluvial deposition, etc." to provide the nutrient-rich soil needed to support continent-wide plant life, Ibid. Whitcomb & Morris, p. 230-233, brackets ours.
        2. However, Genesis 1:9-13 holds all this geological activity and the creation of plants to thrive on the whole continent was done in one solar day versus evolutionary views!
        3. With the late Henry M. Morris, Ph. D., professional member of the American Geophysical Union and the American Association for Advancement of Science, we agree that: "There is no way of accounting for this, if one is going to accept the [Genesis 1:9-13] revelation as meaning what it says, except in terms of God's omnipotence and creativity," Ibid., p. 232, brackets ours.
    2. The Genesis 1:9-13 creation also shows God's DIVINE NATURE as PROVIDER of the FOOD needs of ALL EARTHLY LIFE:
      1. In miraculously creating the land from the sea bed with needed topsoil in one solar day, God showed He is the ALL-POWERFUL PROVIDER for the NUTRIENT NEEDS of PLANT LIFE!
      2. However, in view of beliefs by his pagan contemporaries, Moses at Genesis 1:9-12 revealed God ALONE is the ALL-POWERFUL PROVIDER for the FOOD NEEDS of ANIMALS and MAN:
        1. Moses' pagan contemporaries held that deities associated with the seasons cyclically caused seed germination, growth and plant death, Zond. Pict. Ency. of the Bible, vol. Two, p. 531.
        2. So, to gain rain and crop production and avoid drought and crop failure, they regularly performed religious rites to pacify their appropriate gods, Ibid., vol. One, p. 431-433 and 1 Kings 18:26-29 with Bible Knowledge Com., O. T., p. 526-527.
        3. However, OPPOSITE such paganism, Genesis 1:9-13 with 1:29-30 revealed God created plants as food for animals and man the day before the stellar bodies existed that man uses even to discern the seasons (Gen. 1:13-19), and that before any animals existed in sea, land or air, animals pagans worshiped as gods and tried to appease for rain and food (Gen. 1:20-25; Rom. 1:23), and before MAN existed (Gen. 1:26-27)! ONLY God supplies ALL the food of ALL of earth's LIFE FORMS!
        4. Also, many today who see the land as "Mother Earth", man's source of food, Genesis 1:9-13 shows God MIRACULOUSLY formed and prepared the LAND the same day He made plants, so GOD and NOT the LAND is the CAUSE of man's FOOD!
  3. [In our sermon conclusion notes, we will report on evidence in support of pure creation versus uniformitarian evolution regarding the origin of plants (and man with ancient plant life).]
Application: May we (1) trust in Christ as Savior for eternal life, John 3:16. (2) Then, may we REST in the GOODNESS of the God Who made ALL earthly life, and Who ALONE supplies ALL such life its FOOD! [(3) In our conclusion notes, we will report on evidence supporting the creationist view of the origin of plant life!]

Lesson: In creating dry land and plant life the WAY He did, God showed the massive POWER of His spoken WORD, and His CARE for PLANTS, ANIMALS and MAN as Provider and Sustainer of all LIFE on the earth!

Conclusion: (To illustrate the sermon lesson . . . )

Following are reports supporting pure creation regarding plants:

(1) Describing "deposits in the permafrost", or permanently frozen ground of northern Asia, Whitcomb and Morris note the "Arctic Islands north of Siberia have been described as . . . densely packed with the remains of elephants and other mammals, as well as dense tangles of fossil trees and other plants, so much so that entire islands seem to be composed of organic debris." (Ibid., Whitcomb & Morris, Ibid., p. 289). This undermines the uniformitarian evolutionary view that requires gradual climate change, and supports Genesis.

(2) Though "Coal is the . . . product of . . . tremendous quantities of plant remains," and is "not continuing to be formed in the present," "Coal has been found . . . in all parts of the world, even in Antarctica." Plants once grew in Antarctica versus uniformitarian evolution and in support of the Genesis record! (Ibid., p. 162, 164)

(3) Whitcomb & Morris (Ibid., p. 172-173) cite Albert C. Ingalls: "The Carboniferous Mystery," Vol. 162 of the Scientific American, January, 1940, p. 14 who reports on what look like human footprints in rock strata that evolutionists date as early as their alleged "Carboniferous Period", strata evolutionists hold was formed 249 million years before man! "Says Ingalls, 'On sites reaching from Virginia and Pennsylvania, through Kentucky, Illinois, Missouri and westward toward the Rocky Mountains, prints similar to those shown above [referring to several accompanying pictures], and from 5 to 10 inches long, have been found on the surface of exposed rocks, and more and more keep turning up . . .'"! (Ibid.) This means man lived during the world tropical era of the alleged Carboniferous Period!

Evolutionists deny this evidence as Ingalls' response reveals (as follows): "'If man, or even his ape ancestor, or even that ape ancestor's early mammalian ancestor, existed as far back as in the Carboniferous Period in any shape, then the whole science of [evolutionary] geology is so completely wrong that all the geologists will resign their jobs and take up truck driving. Hence, for the present at least, science rejects the attractive explanation that man made these mysterious prints in the mud of the Carboniferous Period with his feet.'" (Ibid., brackets ours)

May we trust the Genesis record on pure creation, believing our God is Sovereign Creator and Sole Provider of plants and food.