The result is that: many Canadian Christians today hold (or entertain) the belief that animal species and humans have developed from simpler kinds to more complex ones, through chance genetic mutation and competition. But is Darwin’s theory compatible with the revelatory light, the truth of the Scriptures? Previous generations of Canadians would have (emphatically) said, “No.” But today the theory is so pervasive that it is ubiquitous, as stated, in places of Christian higher learning. What is the proper place of evolution in Christian higher education?   

Let us take a deep dive. First, we will look at contradictions that the theory of evolution has with the account of creation in the Scriptures. Then we will consider what the record of a world-wide flood may do to help us understand the physical realities that are so often cited as evidence in support of evolution.

There are nine areas of major contradiction between the account of creation in Genesis and the theory of evolution taught, increasingly, by those who purport also to follow Christ. They are: timeframe, order, completion, goodness, death, boundedness of species, intentionality, nature of humanity, human genetic tree.

Timeframe
The Bible presents creation as taking place at an extremely rapid pace: in six ordinary days God spoke the entire universe into existence, complete with mature ecosystems on earth, involving full-grown plants, yielding seed, and with groups of stars in the heavens, with also Adam and Eve being the first human beings, fully mature and able to care for themselves and the other creatures (Genesis 1–2). This historical fact explicitly undergirds the Sabbath commandment: “For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy” (Exodus 20:11, ESV). Jesus Himself affirmed the literal creation week every time He honored the Sabbath and as he declared, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath” (Mark 2:27–28, ESV). He thereby grounded human rest in the actual, historical rhythm of God’s completion of creation, drawing on the commandment in the Pentateuch for the Israelites to observe the Sabbath.

In direct opposition stands the evolutionary story, which claims billions of years of suffering, mutation, struggle and death before the arrival of mankind – an immensely lengthy timetable. Such a timescale is, in fact, required by this theory, since the imagined, so-called naturalistic processes are far too weak and inefficient to produce the complexity of life in mere thousands of years. The biblical timeframe is not a poetic add-on; it is the plain reading of the text, repeatedly confirmed by the Lord Jesus and the prophets. The evolutionary timescale, by contrast, is a philosophical necessity imposed upon the evidence in order to avoid the obvious implication of a young creation: namely, that the Creator exists, who made everything and to whom we are accountable.  

Role of order
In Genesis, every act of creation is a sovereign imposition of perfect order upon reality. God speaks and light is separated from darkness; waters are divided and gathered; dry land appears; plants yield seed after their kind; sun, moon and stars are set in place and governed by precise laws; sea creatures, birds and land animals are formed with intricate, fully functional systems – all in deliberate sequence, with successive stages pronounced “good” or, at the end, “very good.” This process of instant order and beauty by divine fiat culminates in a cosmos of breathtaking harmony and purpose on Day Six. The only chaos – if any – is the initial form of the earth. In Scripture, God brings instantaneous cosmos out of nothing by the Word of his power, finishing his work so perfectly ordered that he rested on the Seventh Day, declaring everything complete.   

In stark contrast is the ill-conceived theory of evolution, which is inescapably wedded to chaos as its engine: random mutations, genetic accidents, survival wars and billions of years of death and extinction are claimed to be the “creative” forces that somehow produced the profound order we see in individual humans and animals, each species as a whole, the ecosystems they inhabit and beyond. There is excessive trial-and-error, waste, struggle, extinction of species. Evolution is based on an ideological preference for chaos as “creator”: matter, energy, (fields) and chance eternally struggle, accidentally birthing complexity.  

Completion
On the Seventh Day God emphatically finished his work of creation. The point is made explicitly: “Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them” (Genesis 2:1, ESV). (It is immediately reinforced: “And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done,” Genesis 2:2.) He rested, not from exhaustion, but because the work was done. It lacked nothing. Since that moment, the creation is upheld by his powerful word (Hebrews 1:3), but no new creatures have been added, no new biological systems invented. The Creator’s work is sealed with his satisfaction: “very good.”   

Evolution, however, can never declare “It is finished.” Its supposed mechanism of production –random mutation plus “natural selection” – must remain perpetually active, still producing novelty. The process is by definition incomplete forever. The concept of evolution postulates a blind process that can never rest, can never finish.  

Goodness
At stage after stage of creation, God beholds what he has made and declares it is “good” – the light, the seas and dry land, the plants yielding seed, the heavenly lights, the sea creatures and birds, the land animals – all intrinsically excellent in design, function, beauty, efficiency, reproductive fidelity and potency – each perfectly suited to its purpose and environment (Genesis 1:4, 10, 12, 18, 21, 25). Then, when all creation has been completed, with man in God’s image, the verdict rises to “very good” (Genesis 1:31) – flawless, harmonious, without defect, waste (or moral deficiency). It is a masterpiece radiating the goodness of its Maker. Nothing needs a future upgrade; everything is already optimum.   

Evolution, however, is built on the premise that nothing is ever truly good. Every organism is a compromised, imperfect version that must be upgraded to version 2.0 (or beyond). Individual specimens are ruthlessly improved upon through the next round of chaos (involving death, suffering, genetic accidents). The present form is always inadequate, always awaiting the next mutation that will make it “better,” for survival. In this view, goodness is never achieved; perfection is an ever-receding mirage. The account of goodness glorifies a perfect Creator; the story of evolution enshrines perpetual dissatisfaction, calling it progress.  

Nature of and role of death
The evolutionary narrative brazenly enshrines death as the indispensable “architect” of life: countless millions of organisms must suffer, die, and go extinct – through predation, disease, genetic failures, natural catastrophes – for even the slightest “advancement” toward a new form or species to emerge. Death is the force, in this myth, that supposedly enabled the sculpting of the beauty of the eagle’s wing, the intricacy of the human eye and the majesty of the whale. Make no mistake: death is hailed as the creative force without which no progress could occur.   

Scripture, however, thunders the opposite truth: in the beginning, when God surveyed all that he had made, it was all very good (Genesis 1:31). And that goodness emphatically excluded death, bloodshed, suffering or decay. No creature devoured another; no body wasted away; no thorn pierced, no grave was dug. Death was not present because sin was not present. And the entire creation pulsed with the abundant life that flows from the living God alone. Death entered the world as an intruder, an enemy, the enactment of a grand curse – precisely because of human rebellion against the Creator’s command (Genesis 2:17; 3:19; Romans 5:12). Death is the wage paid by sin (Romans 6:23); the sting sin wields (1 Corinthians 15:56); and the last enemy that Christ will destroy (1 Corinthians 15:26). Every fossil graveyard, every thorn and thistle, every cancer cell and mass extinction bears witness not to the patient “creativity” of evolution but to the horrific consequences of humanity’s fall. Where evolution glorifies death as the giver of life, the Bible exposes death as the great thief that stole God’s perfect creation – and proclaims that Jesus Christ, the Last Adam, has conquered death through his resurrection, promising the day when death itself will be cast into the lake of fire and God will wipe away every tear (Revelation 20:14; 21:4).  

Boundedness of species
In Scripture, God repeatedly creates boundaries between the various spaces, objects, plants and living beings he creates. Ten times in Genesis 1 the Holy Spirit records that God created plants and animals to reproduce “after their kind” (example, Hebrew: lemino, למינו, according to its kind) – a deliberate, repeatable boundary written into the very structure of life. Grasses, fruit trees, sea creatures, birds, livestock, creeping things, and beasts of the earth each appear fully formed, bearing seed and bringing forth offspring strictly within the parameters of their own species. These “kinds” are robust, information-rich categories that allow astonishing variety (think of Darwin’s finches), yet they never transcend their created limits (a microbial never morphs into a mollusk, nor a reptile into a mammal). The Bible is emphatic and unambiguous: biological novelty arises by divine fiat, not by gradual transition, and reproduction is always “according to its kind.” Indeed, cross-mating of animals is forbidden.   

Evolution, by stark contrast, must deny the existence of any such fixed boundaries. In its story, kinds are illusions. Every species is merely a temporary stopping-point on an endless continuum of change. One kind is constantly dissolving into another through the alleged accumulation of random mutations – mutations that, by definition, degrade or scramble existing genetic information – while the theory desperately insists they somehow generate vast new libraries of complex specified information. In fact, the evolutionary myth insists that all kinds of life are genetically interrelated, however distantly. In short, evolution takes as its starting point denying a central revelation in the Bible: namely, that plants, birds, sea creatures, land animals and humans reproduce according to their kinds.  

Intentionality (or lack thereof)
The Bible recounts God’s actions in creation as being full of intentionality. He designs three realms – the heavens, the sea, the earth – and he then successively fills them (plants; sun, moon and stars; birds and sea creatures; and, again on the earth, ground-based animals and humans). God knows what he is doing. When it comes to his creation of humans, even God’s inner intentions are revealed, prior to his act of forming them. He says (Gen 1:26) – “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” The intentionality here is double. Humanity is made in God’s image, intentionality. And humans are formed with a purpose: to have intentionality, just like God in whose image they are made. The humans are fashioned to exercise dominion over all other living creatures and over the earth itself. Then God executes his plan.   

In contrast, the myth of evolution has, be necessity, an alleged, impersonal force or feature of reality in action, namely chance mutations, followed by competition and dominance, whether by superior prowess in procuring food and other necessities or by devouring other species. The key impersonal agent, randomness, can have no intentionality. (Even “trial and error,” as a heuristic phrase, betrays a misconstrued paradigm of understanding evolution as possessing intentionality of some kind.)

Nature of humanity
The Scriptures declare loudly: of all God’s creation, humans are unique. In a psalm, David resounds (Gen 8:4–6): “[W]hat is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him? Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. You have given him dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet…” Humans are vastly different from beasts, birds and sea-dwelling creatures. We are uniquely made in God’s own image (Gen 1:27) – “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.”   

By way of contrast, the theory of evolution can posit no material difference between humans and all other animals. According to this myth, humans are essentially akin to animals. Indeed, the story posits that humans have descended genetically from ape-like animals (or thereabouts). But this is a lie. And neither Jesus nor any author of Scripture, inspired by the Holy Spirit, would accept it.  

Human genetic tree
A closely related point, we can examine the human genetic or family tree. The Bible is not silent on this crucial topic. Rather it raises salient points. Luke the physician makes it abundantly clear that Jesus’ human lineage comes from not only Jacob, Isaac and Abraham (chronologically in reverse), but also Noah, Enoch, Seth and, finally, Adam (Luke 3:23-38). Adam, in turn, was fashioned by God directly (Luke 3:38). The first book of Chronicles shares this perspective: Adam is the first human, who is then followed by son, grandson and beyond, involving both Enoch and Noah, leading to Abraham and the family that are his progeny (1 Chronicles 1:1–4, 24–28). Paul describes Adam as a man of “dust” (1 Corinthians 15:47–49), recalling the account of God fashioning him out of the earth, directly (Gen 2:7). Adam and his wife, Eve, were originally created perfect. Because of their rebellion against God, decay and death entered into creation.   

But, in contradiction to this luminous clarity from Scripture, anyone who promotes evolution would have to state that Adam (if they believe he existed at all) was ultimately the descendant of an animal predecessor, not formed by God directly. The earliest humans, it is claimed, were less intelligent than those of the modern period. Ultimately, the claim is that humanity is the genetic descendent of unintelligent, voiceless, tiny organisms. The contrast with Scripture is immense.  

A pernicious lie
Let us review the points of contrast, even incompatibility. God’s activity in creation is quick, effective; evolution is painstakingly slow. Scripture extolls the Creator God, whose actions always create order; evolution’s engine is disorder, disruption – the theory effectively deifies chaos and calls it “nature.” What God does is completed after six days’ work; evolution’s haphazard regimen of permutations never ceases. God creates with absolute excellence, from the beginning; evolution is an insatiable process that can never pronounce anything “good,” because it ever drives to make what is better. One view makes death man’s maker; the true account makes death Christ’s defeated foe. Scripture reveals that each plant, animal and human kind is bounded, being a created, stable reality that glorifies a wise Designer; in evolution one continually bleeds into another, while “species” is ultimately a fleeting, man-made label pasted onto an imaginary chain of accidents. The God of the Bible intentionally designs his creation in all its aspects, with exquisite attention; what is called evolution is the accumulation of happenstance mutations that cannot rightly even be called a process in any meaningful sense. According to the Bible, humanity is created directly by God, in his own image; in evolution, humans are merely the chance descendants of an ape-like predecessor species (or something of this nature), which in turn are a permutation of earlier animal species. In the Scriptures, both Old and New Testaments, all humans – including the Lord Jesus Christ! – are descendants of the originally flawless Adam and Eve; in evolution, humanity does not descend from an originally perfect pair, but from inferior animals.   

Finally, we may add that one account is divine eyewitness testimony, communicated through revelation to humans; the other is mere postulation, a whim of human thought, a modern myth dressed in scientific clothing. In summary, there is total incompatibility between the theory of evolution and the Biblical account of God’s creative enterprise. The former is, in fact, a pernicious lie, nothing more.  

As we begin, let us keep Peter’s words, infused with power and ensured of their truth by the Holy Spirit, before our minds’ eye. He prophesies about the end of the present age (2 Peter 3:2–7) –   “…you should remember the predictions of the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles, knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires. They will say, “Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.” For they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God, and that by means of these the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished. But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.”   

Peter foretells that at the age’s end scoffers will deny that the land mass that is now the continents originally arose out of water, at creation (Day Three). In the same way, they will deny that the earth was judged with deluge for human wickedness, though Noah and his family were preserved, along with a pair of all living creatures in air and land. Is this what we are in fact seeing today? It is. And scoffers populate pews in churches, too.

Local or global flood?
Already, in Peter’s second letter, cited above, we see how denial of the flood is a clear indication of the end of the age. Peter relates the flood directly to creation. Twice in history the earth has emerged out of the water covering the globe. But let’s not stop there. Let’s see what the symphony of Scripture says.   

In Genesis 6–7, the narrative describes God's decision to flood the earth due to widespread corruption and violence among humanity, instructing Noah to build an ark for salvation. The account emphasizes the comprehensive nature of the deluge, covering the entire planet and exterminating all life outside the ark.   

A verse highlighting this global scope is Genesis 7:19 – “And the waters prevailed so mightily on the earth that all the high mountains under the whole heaven were covered” (ESV). The original Hebrew is abundantly clear here.   

Luke 17 uses the flood as an analogy or, better, precursor for the comprehensive scope and suddenness of the Son of Man's coming, at the end of the age, comparing it to the days of Noah where people continued normal activities, despite their godless living, until the catastrophe struck. This passage underscores that the flood was not limited but annihilated all humanity except Noah's family.   

A key verse is Luke 17:27 – “They were eating and drinking and marrying and being given in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all” (ESV).   

In the same way, Jesus says, when he returns to earth, all will be affected (Luke 17:24): “For as the lightning flashes and lights up the sky from one side to the other, so will the Son of Man be in his day” (ESV). The consequences will be mixed – some will experience his goodness, others judgement.   

In 2 Peter 2, the apostle warns against false teachers by referencing historical judgments, including the flood as an example of God's punishment on the ungodly. It portrays the event as sparing only Noah and his seven family members while overwhelming the rest of the world.   

A significant passage is 2 Peter 2:5, 9: "…if he did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly... then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials…." (ESV)   

In 1 Peter 3, the flood is linked to baptism as a symbol of salvation, noting God's patience during the ark’s construction amid disobedience. It stresses that only a few – eight persons – were saved through the water, indicating the destruction of all other human life.   

A key verse is 1 Peter 3:20: “because they formerly did not obey, when God's patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water” (ESV).   

Hebrews 11 recounts heroes of faith, including Noah, who built the ark in obedience to God’s warning about unseen events. This act of faith condemned the world, signifying the flood's role in judging all of humanity outside his household.   

A crucial text is Hebrews 11:7: “By faith Noah, being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen, in reverent fear constructed an ark for the saving of his household. By this he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith” (ESV).   

In summary, the witness of Scripture, taken as a whole, clearly indicates that the flood was a global phenomenon, encompassing the entire earth and submerging all mountain peaks under water, resulting in the destruction of all human and animal life except for those preserved in the ark.   

But is the record of the flood preserved in just the pages of Scripture – though that is more than sufficient and wonderful, as is?

And this is only a sampling. We could speak of Hawaii and beyond. Creation Ministries International (article by R. Grigg and R. Conolly) notes that “There are at least 500 legends of a worldwide deluge.”   

Dr. John D. Morris has collected and analyzed more than 200 of the stories, reported by missionaries, anthropologists and others. He notes these general trends, stating, “While the differences are not always trivial, the common essence of the stories is instructive as compiled below:”   

Is there a favored family? 88% 

Were they forewarned? 66% 

Is flood due to wickedness of man? 66% 

Is catastrophe only a flood? 95% 

Was flood global? 95% 

Is survival due to a boat? 70% 

Were animals also saved? 67% 

Did animals play any part? 73% 

Did survivors land on a mountain? 57% 

Was the geography local? 82% 

Were birds sent out? 35% 

Was the rainbow mentioned? 7% 

Did survivors offer a sacrifice? 13% 

Were specifically eight persons saved? 9%   

Morris’ conclusion is that this convergence of sources makes sense – if and only if – everyone living today are descendants of those who survived the global flood. Though we are separated by geography, language and culture, we are the survivors’ offspring.   

So – with this vast body of information available to us in this generation – why wouldn’t the wise of this world, the scholars, shout with a resounding voice: “There was once a global flood!”? The answer seems clear, the moment the question is raised. And Peter, the holy apostle of the Lord Jesus, has announced the reason long ago: a time would come in which people would deliberately forget the flood (2 Pet 3:5–6).   

But, praise the Lord that the nations of this world – at least in earlier generations – have confirmed what is clear from the pages of the Bible: the Lord once not only poured out his wrath on humanity, but also showered his mercy on a family that honoured him above all else, despite the horrific behaviour and pride of those living in their time and space. That family has changed the world. We are all descendants of Noah and his wife, their three sons and their wives – eight people.   

Here is a brief, but interesting example from the world’s cultures. The Chinese character 船 (pronounced syun4 in Cantonese), meaning “ship,” carries a fascinating layered meaning, through the story that the combination of radicals tells. Composed of three radicals – “boat” (舟, left side), “eight” (八, top right), and "mouth" (口, bottom right) – it visually suggests a vessel carrying eight people (who speak). Sound familiar?

In a lecture on flood sedimentology from Is Genesis History?, Dr. Kurt Wise presents compelling geological evidence supporting the biblical account of a global flood. The first part of his lecture focuses on the lithostratigraphic column, the sequence of sedimentary layers found worldwide, known for over 200 years (predating the theory of evolution). Averaging more than half a mile thick and often thicker near continental edges, the column has a remarkably consistent composition.  

First, we can make some general observations. The geological strata of the earth are primarily composed of three rock types: shale (47%), carbonate rocks (22%), and sandstone (19%). Shale forms from lithified (stone-ified) mud. Carbonate includes limestone, dolomite and similar rocks. Sandstone develops from fused sand grains.   

What could reasonably account for the frozen, intact bodies of mammoths in Siberia and Alaska? Dr. Walt Brown offers a logical explanation, based upon a recognition of the Scriptures’ reliable account of the flood. He says (In the Beginning: Compelling Evidence for the Creation and Flood, page 229):   

In Alberta, Ambrose University (Calgary) – with the Christian and Missionary Alliance in Canada / Church of the Nazarene Canada – presents students with “Bio 301-1 Principles of Evolutionary Biology” (Iink). The King's University (Edmonton) – non-denominational, founded by Christian Reformed Church – has “Biol 486 Evolutionary Biology” (Iink). Burman University (Lacombe) – with the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Canada – offers “Biol 120 Biological Diversity” (Iink), which teaches “the mechanisms of evolution.”   

In Manitoba, Canadian Mennonite University (Winnipeg) – Mennonite (Mennonite Church Canada / Mennonite Brethren Church of Manitoba) – has “Biol–1010 The Evolutionary and Ecological Revolution” (Iink).   

In Ontario, Redeemer University (Hamilton) – with ties to Christian Reformed Church in North America – submits to students “Bio 232 Ecology and Evolution” (Iink). Tyndale University (Toronto) – linked to Church of the Nazarene Canada, Free Methodist Church, Salvation Army, Wesleyan Church – offers “Biol 104 Introduction to Organismal and Evolutionary Biology” (link).   

In New Brunswick, Crandall University (Moncton) – owned by the Atlantic Baptist Convention – presents students with “BI4113 Evolution” (Iink). With no biology program, Kingswood University (Sussex) – founded by Reformed Baptist Church of Canada, owned by Wesleyan Church – alone seems not to teach evolution.  

We could ask questions about how enthusiastic biology professors at these institutes are. The answer is, at times, whole-hearted enthusiasm. The whole situation is tragic. It surely grieves God’s great heart. Not a single university teaches the truth of the Scriptures with regards to the most foundational part of the Bible – the creation of the heavens and the earth.

What is the solution? Those who promote false teaching – and that is what this is, because the theory of evolution ultimately denies the truth that death is part of the curse, as a divine consequence for human disobedience. It denies that Jesus, as a perfect sacrifice, needed to go to the cross to experience death, on our behalf, and defeat it. Those who promote this false teaching should be openly, graciously confronted and encouraged to repent. If they listen, beautiful – there will be great rejoicing! Then they have been won over – and this is the goal. God is quick to restore (and far more gracious than humans are). There is great hope and future for those who turn to the Lord. If they persist, however, in this teaching, then they should be removed from Christian universities immediately. The sheep need to be protected.  

Something similar is true for those professors and instructors at secular universities who have the name of Christ named on them and yet promote evolution. They should be encouraged to repent, especially (but not only) by the leaders in the congregations they are a part of. If they do turn from this evil path, there will be great rejoicing in heaven.   

Whether teaching at Christian universities or elsewhere, those who are named with the name of Christ and persist in teaching evolution, disregarding any calls to repentance, should be publicly called out at their home congregations and barred from fellowship (until such time as they may repent – and that is the goal and hope of all such ostracization. And it works – see 2 Corinthians 7).   

Paul teaches that those who follow the Lord, will shine like stars in the dark, in a twisted and crooked generation (Phil 2), which is what, I believe, we are living in. The clincher, however, is that believers need to hold fast to the word of life, the Scriptures, in order to be the lights in the world that he describes.   

In a similar vein, Jesus says that if salt loses its saltiness, it becomes good for nothing (Matthew 5). He calls his followers the salt of the world. We can have a preserving effect on the people and culture of Canada, only to the degree to which we are not being conformed to that culture, but are being transformed through the renewal of our minds, through meditation on God’s holy word, becoming re-aligned to everything it teaches and commands.

Please bear in mind – I am only speaking about those who claim to be Christians and promote this false teaching. Those who do not claim they are Christians and promote evolution are not "false teachers" within the Body of Christ, because they are not a part of his Body. There is no scriptural command to avoid meals or such with those who are unbelievers, based on their faulty beliefs, even if they are teaching it.  

The alleged evolution of stars and galaxies falls into many of the same traps that the alleged evolutionary origin of the species falls into. According to this theory, the creation of the stars was never complete; indeed, it is claimed to be ongoing, even until today. God did not create the stars over a short time span, but rather over eons, it is believed. There is no intentionality to the design, only impersonal forces which allegedly “birth” stars, forming also new galaxies. Chaos and random chance rule, not God’s order.   

But is giving instruction in such a thought false teaching? It is certainly mistaken. But, unlike the theory of the evolution of a species, the myth of galaxy evolution does not undermine a core aspect of the Gospel (such as sin being the origin of death). Nevertheless, Christians who teach such a mistaken theory ought to repent and teach what is in accordance with holy Scripture.   

But how can we explain the apparent ancient age of the very distant stars? While scientists may accurately measure the distance from us to far distant stars and other celestial objects and correctly infer the time it would take for light from there to travel to us, this does not mean that the light has traveled all that distance. God created the stars with the purpose of shining upon the earth for us (Gen 1:17). Remember that the earth was created on day three and the stars on day four. So, it makes sense that God would create the stars with their light already reaching the earth, shining on it. It’s that simple. And it’s reasonable.   

The vast distance between the stars and us has not been fashioned in order to give us clues about the age of the universe! The creation account says it plainly: the stars were created in one day. Rather, the great number of stars and, related, their distance from us is to give us a sense of the vastness of God (see Psalm 147:4–5, Isaiah 40:26).

What is this similar to? When we look at matter on the smallest scale, we can see the building blocks of a chair, an orange, a human body. The kinds of atoms (and smaller particles) involved are often the same, at that scale. But gazing at the atoms of some portion of a human body cannot give the observer a sense of what a human is. It will never bring one to the understanding of human life, personality, desire, will, morality and so forth. However, studying the human body at this scale does give one a sense of the intricacies involved in God’s creation of us (from electrons, protons and neutrons, through molecules to cells and beyond). The psalmist says it beautifully (Psa 139:13–14) – “For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.” On the smallest scale, some aspects of reality are observed, but others are not.   

In the same way, when we look at matter on the largest scale – vast galaxies that are situated billions of light years away – we learn some things, but not others. Observations of the universe can tell us distances, the elements composing stars and much more. But they may not necessarily tell us how the universe was put together. Certainly, study of the universe on this scale does show us the vastness of God’s knowledge and power. (Paul says it like this, in Romans 1:20 – “For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made.” This is true for the things on the earth as for the things in the heavens.)

Please join me in praying fervently for God to establish such a university for his great glory, right here in the heart of Vancouver, BC. 

Please sign up, too, for the mailing list. You can do that below.