The Progress of Creation: Day 6

Well, we're going to get into day six.

In fact, we'll do all of day six. So, you do understand that when you get on into chapter two and beyond there, we're going to get into the creation of man, but as we finish up the specific days of creation, we'll get into the creation of land animals, which happened on day six.

That's the first thing that's mentioned in the passage. And then to the creation of man, or mankind, and so, well, man first.

A man, Adam, and then his lovely wife Eve. All that will be given in more detail when we get on into chapter two.

But we'll just kind of deal with some of the issues surrounding or related to the creation of land animals and man.

All right, so let me go ahead and read. First of all, we'll take the land animals first, and it's Genesis chapter one. Of course, you know that. Verses 24 and 25.

Let me go ahead and read those two verses. Then God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature according to its kind. Cattle, creeping thing, beast of the earth, each according to its kind, and it was so.

God made the beast of the earth according to its kind, cattle according to its kind, and everything that creeps on the earth according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.

Now, he's not done with day six. He saw that it was good. He's got some more to do. But here we have, first of all, the land animals. He's already created the fish in the sea and the birds in the air.

He did that on day five. And here on day six, he's creating everything that crawls on the earth. You know, in this translation, the creeping things. Those are the things that give me the willies.

Think, what kind of creeping thing is that? Well, just things that walk on the earth. All right? And so that's what has been created here. Now, there's not really a lot that we need to discuss or need to consider when it comes to creating land animals.

He just created them, and it was so. And he created all of them according to their kind. And we'll get to that here in just a moment or at least make at least one comment about that.

But I cannot help, and I think it's important, but I cannot help but constantly connect what the Bible says here in the Genesis account, in the creation account, connected with this pervasive theory in our culture today, and that is evolution.

And we need to continue to compare what the Bible says about creation and what many scientists and even those who are not scientists are saying and are really forcing us, trying anyway, to have us believe as well in this theory of evolution.

And I want you to notice that how this, the creation account diverges from the evolutionary account. Evolution gives the order this way.

First insects, then amphibians, then reptiles, then mammals, and then after all of that, birds. But if you remember the creation account, God started with birds.

He started with birds. Birds didn't come last. They came first. And then all the other animals were created on the next day, but all on the same day. That is day six. That is completely different, opposite of what the, quote, experts on how things evolved in our world and in our universe.

Completely opposite to what they would have us believe. And then again, I want you to notice the absolute redundancy of this phrase according to its kind.

Now, I don't know if you picked that up as I was reading that a moment ago, these two verses. But here, two verses, four times, you see that phrase repeated over and over again.

Is this just poor writing on the part of Moses who wrote Genesis? I don't think so. But it sure has a significance, I think, doesn't it, to this whole theory, really to debunk the whole theory of evolution.

That one species can evolve and become another one and that one eventually become another one. That there is this evolution from one kind to another kind to another kind to another kind.

When the Bible is very clear, God created all these things, each one individually, according to its kind. Do you think that God knew in advance that we would have this big controversy in our world today?

I think so. And so there's the reason, I believe, for the redundancy. Now, when God says something one time, that ought to be enough, obviously. But when he repeats it over and over again, then we'd better sit up and take notice because he's trying to tell us something here that is extremely important.

Now, rather than, you know, try to discover some unknown thing that maybe you didn't know before about cattle and creeping things, we'll just let that stand.

It's pretty straightforward. We know God created all things that crawl on this earth. Rather than dwell on that, let's ask the question, what about the dinosaurs? Have you had that question?

Have you ever wondered about them? And I don't remember. It seems like we kind of covered something about the dinosaurs way back when I was dealing with some Bible questions.

But have you ever wondered about them? You know, we sure hear a lot about them and a lot of movies made about them and a lot of pretty strange science out there about dinosaurs and what about them?

Like, for example, when were they created? Or, when did they live? What killed them? What were they like?

And we're not going to answer all these questions, by the way, here tonight. But these are kind of some of the sub-questions that come under that general heading. What about the dinosaurs? Tell us about the dinosaurs. Does the Bible say anything about them?

And we'll maybe delve into a few of these things along the way. Or how about this question? How could the dinosaurs have been on the ark?

And were they? And I would say to you that they were. But how could that be? You know, when scientists have identified, and I think some of this is maybe a stretch, but they've identified somewhere around 300 different types of dinosaurs.

And most of them are large, of course. In fact, when we think of dinosaurs, we always think of big, don't we? I mean, but of course they were little ones too. If you've seen Jurassic Park, you know that they were little ones too.

Yeah, pretty mean things. Of course, that's Hollywood. And Spielberg, you know, to boot. But anyway, so a lot of them were big.

I mean, very big. Some of them were gigantic. And I don't think there's really any doubt. And you're not disbelieving scripture somehow if you believe that scientists tell us that some dinosaurs were as tall as a five-story building.

Now, just exactly what they were like and what they did, and whether they were really ferocious like the T-Rex, some of those, you know, there's a little vague there. But they weren't large, very large.

So how could they fit on the ark? Well, we'll talk about that here in just a minute. But many of the questions that I've kind of posed there, just general questions, can be answered.

Or the beginning point for answering them is to answer the question, when did they live? When were they around? When were they on this planet in relation to other creatures?

Evolutionists say that dinosaurs lived and died and became extinct at least 60 million years before man came on the scene.

I don't mean before he was created, before he evolved to what he is today, or something like he is today. 60 million years before, that's what the evolutionists say, and almost all school textbooks will have that, and that's what they're teaching our kids.

But movies and television, of course, they reinforce the notion, you know. And Discovery Channel, if you like to watch the Discovery Channel, and National Geographic, and some of those programs, you know, we're constantly being told, or we will constantly hear this very impressive sounding kind of statement, you know, 200 million years ago as dinosaurs ruled the earth.

You know, you almost hear that, you know, and have heard something similar to that. And you hear it, of course, and see it at Disney World, if you've been there, and, you know, and been on some of those particular rides at Epcot Center, where you're indoors, where it's air conditioned, you know.

I like those better than any of the others. But, of course, here are the dinosaurs, and you hear all of this kind of stuff being taught there. And we're told this, that every educated person believes all of this, and yet, there's no evidence to support it, that dinosaurs lived here before man, you know, in the space of time to the tune of 60 million years.

There's no evidence for that at all. No evidence for that at all. But there is evidence to support the belief that dinosaurs lived on this planet the same time man lived on this planet. Same time.

Not some ape-like man at some point early on in our so-called evolutionary process. But I mean intelligent man, man created by God.

Dinosaurs were here at the same time. Scientists in the former Soviet Union, and I read an article about this some time back, have reported a layer of rock containing more than 2,000 dinosaur footprints.

And guess what? Alongside human footprints in the same layer of rock. And, you know, obviously both types of footprints were made at the same time.

They were made in the mud or sand, and then later it hardened into rock. And so there they are side by side. And you don't hear much about that. In fact, I don't think I've ever heard anything about that on Discovery Channel or any of these other shows like that.

Now, if some are, if they're really human footprints, and I've seen pictures of them, it's very obvious that they are. Then man and dinosaurs lived at the same time.

And similar discoveries have been made in Arizona and some other places. Also, soft dinosaur tissue has been found from several dinosaurs that have lived so-called 60 million years ago.

And, you know, it's kind of ridiculous to believe that soft tissue could still be preserved or could be preserved for 60 million years.

And yet scientists have proven that tissue can be preserved for 5,000 years. So that's much more within the time kind of time period or probably that long ago is when the dinosaurs did walk this earth 5,000, 6,000 years ago.

The Book of Job is one of the oldest books ever written. I believe it's the oldest book in the Bible written before any of the others. But in it, God tells of a particular creature by the name of Behemoth.

If you remember that, in fact, let me read it to you. Job 40, I believe this is King James. Behold now, Behemoth, which I, of course, have been movies made about Behemoth and a lot of really fanciful things about this creature.

But anyway, he says, which I made, God said, I made as well as you. I made the Behemoth, I made you too. And he eats grass like an ox.

Behold now, his strength is his loins, in his loins, and his power in the muscles of his belly. He bends his tail like a cedar, like a tree.

Sounds kind of similar, doesn't it? Familiar. The sinews of his thighs are knit together. His bones are tubes of bronze. His limbs are like bars of iron.

Now, you know, kind of interpret the description there. We're talking about a pretty big animal, a pretty strong animal. You know, it's got a tail.

By the way, it doesn't say that he was eating a man or eating other animals. He was eating grass. I think probably the dinosaurs were not meat eaters. But that's another story.

An animal with a tail, though, that is huge and strong, strong as a cedar tree, is probably a dinosaur. And Job is describing it here in this text.

Or God is describing it to Job. Really, he's not describing something that Job didn't see and would not have been familiar with. He's primarily telling Job of his greatness as creator.

And then he describes this animal. He says, I created that. Job, later on in that chapter, in Job 40, verses 19 to 24, and I'm not reading it, but he goes on to say that this is a giant animal and that it's difficult to capture him.

I can imagine. And he's not bothered by a raging river. He describes it there. So I guess he could just walk right across a swiftly moving river and not have any problems.

So we're talking about a strong, big animal, some kind that you can't just go capture. This is a dinosaur. In Job 41, verses 1 to 10, the Bible describes another huge creature.

And it's a sea monster named Leviathan. And, of course, there have been movies made about that creature as well.

And they just get that out of the Bible. And, of course, they take it, you know, how Hollywood takes it. It goes in many different weird directions. But verse 9 in Job 41 says, Any hope of capturing him, the Leviathan, proves false.

Does a person not collapse at the very sight of him? That means a pretty frightening creature. I guess if you were out there in a boat doing a little fishing and you saw the Leviathan, you might be terrified.

But now, some say, well, it was just a big whale or maybe even a crocodile. The problem with that is that the Hebrew language has words for whale and crocodile and did not use those words.

He used the word Leviathan and it only appears in the Bible a handful of times. The Leviathan may have been, and this is speculation, may have been a plesiosaur.

Okay? A large seagoing reptile that evolutionists say became extinct 60 million years before man evolved. That's what they say.

And yet, if Job knew of that dinosaur, and apparently he did, that evolution, the evolution position is wrong. And man and dinosaurs existed at the same time on this planet.

Now, think about this also. And this, of course, gets into the realm of mythology and legend and lore. But think about the many accounts of dragons, okay, that we read about and civilizations, cultures have believed in and written about back through the ages.

I mean, nearly every ancient civilization has had dragons in their lore. Now, I'm not saying that they were actually what they described them to be, you know, fire breathing, all the other things that go along with that.

It's mythology. And yet all myths, many myths are based upon some point of reality. And I think the simplest, most obvious explanation for so many common descriptions from various cultures, the obvious answer is that these were dinosaurs.

And that man observed them and legends, you know, developed and myths developed from them. All right. What caused the extinction of the dinosaurs?

Well, the obvious answer to that would be the flood. And, you know, dinosaur bones, you know, are found, collections of them are found together with many, many other fossils of animals, including man, as if they were kind of washed into a certain area and kind of collected in one spot and then covered over with mud and then became rock and so forth.

And I think the flood is the best explanation for that occurring. Now, were the dinosaurs on the ark? I asked that question a while ago and I would say, yes.

Yes, I will. Come on, Brother Don. You know, Noah will really have a couple of T-Rexes on the ark there, you know, a mama and a daddy T-Rex.

My goodness, as big as they were and some of the other dinosaurs that were much larger. I mean, what? You have us believe that the dinosaurs were there on the ark? Well, they had to have been.

If they exist at the same time as man, and they were certainly created the same day as man, I guess one could argue that they were extinct prior to, maybe prior to the flood.

And yet, I don't think it's necessary to come to that conclusion. The Bible doesn't say anything about, you know, all the animals on the ark being full grown.

And I think this is the best explanation, one that I'm sure you have heard before. I mean, God did bring two of every animal onto the ark. And that was required so that the earth could be replenished and repopulated after the flood waters went down.

But there's nothing to have us, you know, say that the dinosaurs had to be full grown. They could be juveniles. Young dinosaurs would take up less room.

That would be pretty important on the ark, big as they were as adults. And they would eat less food. That also would be important. In fact, I think this could apply to some other animals that were brought on the ark as well.

There's nothing in the Bible that says that all the animals, even cattle, that they were necessarily full grown animals when they went onto the ark. They would eat less food. They would be easier to manage.

I mean, certainly. It would be a lot easier to manage a juvenile Tyrannosaurus rex, you know, than a full grown one. And, in fact, even those who are not necessarily Christians who believe the biblical account would say that a juvenile T-Rex, you know, maybe two-year-old or less, only weighed 66 pounds.

Now, that's re-manageable on the ark, you see. Now, the purpose, of course, for having all the animals on board was so that they could reproduce after the flood went down, and they could repopulate the earth, and young dinosaurs would have, and other, younger animals as well, would have a more potential success in reproduction than older animals would have.

So, what happened to them after the flood? That leads us to the next obvious question. Well, I don't know that we could prove an answer over another answer with any definitive kind of proof, but it's most likely that they were just extinct, became extinct shortly after the flood.

And most of the, by the way, because of the flood, most of the food chain was buried in the flood. So, it would take quite a while for that to build up again.

It could be that they just simply did not survive after the flood because there wasn't enough to eat. And if, as I suspect, dinosaurs were vegetarians, they were plant-eating animals, then the world, this earth, was quite a different place after the flood.

And prior to the flood, I don't know that we could even imagine the kind of vegetation that was on this planet. And all of that was buried as a result of the flood, and that's why we have all these oil deposits, by the way, all around this planet.

And that's never going to be repeated again. If we were to have that flood happen again, and the vegetation we have now would be buried, surely there would be some oil deposits eventually, but nothing like it was prior to the flood.

Things were quite different. I mean, this planet was like a giant terrarium. It didn't rain until the flood. We'll talk about this when we get into the account of the flood.

And I'll believe it rained. The ground was watered from below with a heavy dew, and there was a mist, but no rain.

And the earth was surrounded by a canopy of water that God unleashed when the flood, when he sent the flood to destroy this planet. And so because of that kind of environment, we're talking about major, major vegetation on this planet.

The larger animals, like the dinosaurs, I think just had trouble surviving after that, and probably were extinct shortly after the flood.

Now, the next thing on day six, of course, is the all-important creation of man. And so let me read verse 26.

We'll read, well, we'll read just down to verse 28. And God said, Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness.

Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. So God created man in his own image.

In the image of God, he created him, male and female. He created them. Then God blessed them. And God said to them, Be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it, have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.

Now, I know that probably none of this that I'm going to say is going to come as some new information to you.

But we need to deal with some of the typical questions that are leveled at this particular passage, especially the first part of it, where he says, Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness.

Now, I'm sure if we polled the group, we would probably come up with the right answer for why God wrote this or had Moses write this in the plural.

Why he said us and our image and our likeness. Why the plural? So you probably know the answer, but you may not know some of the other answers that are out there.

And there are two primarily, other than the correct one. We'll get to that one last. Some say that the us here is God and the angels having a conversation between them.

That God, you know, he's talking it over with the angels and let us do this in our image of the Lord. Well, there's an obvious problem right off that's very clear. And that is, if indeed God and the angels were talking this over, and the way it's written, it suggests very clearly that, or the implication is, that God and angels created us.

And yet the Bible is very clear to tell us that we were made in the image of God, not in the image of God and angels. There's nothing in Scripture that says that.

So we have to throw that one out. The other one is that this is the us of majesty. Now this is a little bit complicated, but I think if you have watched enough movies from medieval times and such, you know, with kings and queens, and you hear kings speak, then there's a certain way that sometimes kings or rulers will speak.

They're not only speaking, but they're not only speaking, but they're not only speaking, but they link it with all of their predecessors, all of the kings before them, like we say.

And so that's what some would suggest that the Bible means here. That it's just the us of majesty. Well, there's a big problem with that, of course.

And that is that God is not one of many gods. God would not be speaking in the plural in reference to his forerunners, because there were no forerunners, no gods before him.

And so we have to throw that one out. And so what do Christians say? Well, the us clearly refers to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And I don't think this is necessarily the first reference to this or implication of the Trinity, but it is the first and clearest one that we find in Scripture of the plurality of God, the Holy Trinity.

And I don't know how it works, okay, the Trinity, and you don't either, so don't act like you do. But I just know the Bible teaches that there's just one God who expresses himself in three distinct persons.

And that's a pretty lame definition of it. But God is three persons in one. And here in verse 26, they are consulting with one another within the Godhead.

Now, you know, that's difficult to reconcile. And the naysayers out there in other religions and cults would say, well, you Baptists believe in a three-headed God, you know, some kind of ugly beast.

Well, it's not three gods, one God. And yet, the Bible says that they talk with one another. And so that's what we have here.

Let us make man in our image, in our likeness. And it's just a consultation within the Holy Godhead. And though this is the first time I think that we have a clear indication or statement of this in Scripture, in Scripture, it's not the only one.

In fact, there are at least three others. Just a couple chapters over in Genesis 3.22, it says, Then the Lord said, Behold, the man has become like one of us to know good and evil.

One of us. Us, three gods? Or two gods? Or multiplicity of gods? No, just one God. But it's the Trinity speaking. It's the Godhead, one of us.

And a couple of chapters over, several chapters over in Genesis 11, in verse 7, Come, he says, let us go down and there confuse their language that they may not understand one another's speech.

Of course, that's a reference to the Tower of Babel. And so there it is again, let us go down. Now, there's the plurality of God. And then we get over into Isaiah 6, verse 8, another reference to it, where it says also, and this is that famous vision that Isaiah had, and it says, And let us, oh, I heard a voice of the Lord saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?

And who will go for us? So there is another reference there. I believe it's a reference, clear reference to the Trinity. Now, that said, there is an even more important point to be made in these verses.

Verse 26, putting all kind of these other peripheral issues aside, of course, I don't think the Trinity is a peripheral issue. And putting that aside, the most significant thing here in what is taking place here on day 6 in the creation of man is that we have here the crowning creative activity of God.

And what is that? He makes man in his own image. That's his crowning creative activity. That's the last thing he did.

And when he created man, it wasn't just simply he created a creature maybe better than the others before, but he created man in a unique way.

And this man was unique in that he possessed the very image of God. And that's something different, totally distinct from any of his other creations, from fish to birds to land animals.

And so let's just consider just a few things about that. Number one, the creation account shows a progression with human life being, of course, the final stage.

And again, I would say that human life is the pinnacle of God's creative work. Number two, of all the creative acts recorded in chapter one, the creation of man is the only act of creation preceded by what is technically called a divine deliberation.

What does that mean? It means here it's very personal. When he was making man, when he made man, made Adam, and then ultimately Eve, it's very personal.

He said, let us make man. All other references to created things prior to man are impersonal.

Very important to see the distinction here. There's a big difference between let us make man in our own image and so forth. Big difference between that and let there be light.

That's impersonal. Or let the earth bring forth and then you fill in the blank. Those creations and points of creation were astounding and incredible certainly.

But there's a difference between the two. That's why this is his crowning creative activity here. Making man in his own image.

Third, only human life is created in the image of God. I know this makes some people mad, but unlike any other animal, man is the only one that's created in the image of God.

And what does it mean to be created in the image of God? Well, it's not always easy to define, but first of all, number one, man is a person. All right? A person.

And I'm sorry, but if you have a dog and you love that dog, that dog is not a person. He may act like a person sometimes. And I know that dogs have a kind of unique kind of personality about them.

And it does seem like they look at you and they're almost person-like. But they're not a person. A dog is an animal.

No matter how much affection you have for your dog and love your dog. If you have a cat and you probably love your cat. Or you may have hamsters or you might have rabbits or even a snake.

Anybody have a snake in here? I hope not. I'm not coming to your house if you have one. Or a lizard. I don't really like those either. But you might have a pet frog. Jonathan had a pet frog one time and just sat there in his cage and ate crickets.

And we had to pay for the crickets. And that's all it did, you know. But you had a pet frog or maybe you have some goldfish or some kind of other kind of fish. But now folks, your pets are not made in the image of God.

They're not made in His image. Only you are. And I think it's important. Now this is a very important distinction. Man has an intellect. Now that doesn't mean that animals can't be smart.

They can learn certain things and seem to be very smart. But man has an intellect that God has given him. Made in the image of God. Man can express emotion.

Unlike any animals. And I know, you know, that some dogs seem to have emotion. But man can love and hate and have joy.

Experience joy and sadness and anger and so forth. Man can exercise volition. Make choices. Make career choices. Make plans. Put together a budget.

Live by the budget. Dogs can't do that. They don't have long range plans. They do make choices. I mean, if you put a stake here and a bone there, the dog's going to look and make a choice.

It's probably going to go with the stake. But I don't know. Not necessarily so. But we're talking about more than just simply choosing out of instinct. God has given us volition.

Man understands moral realities. No animal understands moral realities. Man can appreciate beauty. All of man's conduct is with intelligence and purpose.

Second, man is a spiritual person. So man is a person. Man is also a spiritual person. Which of course enables us to know God personally. To know our Creator.

Unlike any other animal. We can communicate with God. And you know, your dog doesn't pray. Does he? You say, well I don't know.

We'll ask him sometime. See. Your cat doesn't seek the Lord, have a quiet time in the morning, and pray. They can't. They can't.

A dog is a dog and a cat is a cat, and they can never know God personally in the way that you and I can know and have a relationship with Him. Only humans have a God consciousness because that's been placed in us.

And it's there in us not as a result of evolution, but as a result of divine purposeful creation. Third, man is a social creature.

You say, well, dogs are too, but not in the same way. You know, we can interact with other human beings on many different levels and with self-determination.

Not out of instinct or habit, but determination. We're free to bless others. We're free to curse other people. We're free to love. We're free to hate.

And then also man has been created with self-consciousness. As man created in the image of God, we are concerned about our actions.

Dogs aren't concerned about their actions. They're just going to do what they do. And we are concerned about our appearance, aren't we?

How we look. Well, maybe some of us more than others. But we're concerned about what other people think about us. I have no idea what you're thinking about me right now. But I'm worried about it.

Animals are not created with any of this kind of awareness, you know, that we are. And they're not inhibited by their actions.

You know, they're not thinking, should I? You know, I don't know. They're not embarrassed, you know, with anything, with their appearance.

All right, so man is a spiritual person. Fourth, man is an immortal being, which means we can never cease to exist.

First, I know a lot of you think your dogs are going to be in heaven with you. And I did know of a professor at Mid-America that wrote a short little paper on answering the question, where the dogs go to heaven.

And I haven't read it. I thought, what a silly thing for a professor at a seminary to write. But apparently some people were concerned about it. But you will never cease to exist.

And that, of course, happens at conception. And at conception we become immortal beings. And the body will one day die. But the real you, what is it?

That is your soul and your spirit that endures. And that means you were created to enjoy everlasting life in heaven or everlasting punishment in hell.

And there will never be a time, though, regardless of what your destination is going to be, and I hope it's heaven for all of us in this room, but there will never be a time when you cease to exist as a person.

And I'm going to go ahead and quit there. I have a few other things to say, but I can tag that on to what we're going to look at next week. Okay? Thank you.