Dr. Jack L. Arnold                                    Equipping Pastors International                                           Genesis

 

Lesson 11

The Creation Of Animal Life

Genesis 1:20-26

 

I.  INTRODUCTION

A.  The fifth and sixth days of creation deal with GodÕs creation of all animals (sea and land). A direct act of creation can only accurately account for the animal world as we know it.

B.  Because of the first four days of creation, all that was necessary for animal life--water, air, light, plants, and the chemical materials of earth——was now available.

 

II.  THE BIBLICAL ACCOUNT ON THE CREATION OF ANIMALS

A.  The statement, ÒLet the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creaturesÓ (v. 20), may imply that God used water as a mediating agent in creating marine life1 but literally in the Hebrew this says, ÒLet the waters swarm with swarmers, and let the flyers fly above the earth.Ó .

B.  God created (bara) animal life out of nothing; that is there was no connection with any pre-existing materials. This verse clearly states that animal life did not evolve from lifeless matter. It also states that creation of all animals (sea, air and land) was immediate and completed NOTE: It is interesting that this is also what the fossil records suggest. One of the many puzzles to scien­tists has been the total absence of missing links, intermediary bodies, between inorganic matter and the first appearance of life, as well as between the earliest forms of life and some of the more complex structures we know today. The fas­cinating thing is that, according to the fossil record, life in the seas appears suddenly and fully developed. The major divisions of animal life as we know them except vertebrates, appear nearly simultaneously very early in the fossil records. The crustaceans (shell fish such as lobsters, shrimps, crabs, barnacles, etc.), for instance, only vary slightly from those we know today. This phenomena is in accord with the Genesis record which says that God produced all marine life suddenly.

C.  In verse 21, it states that ÒGod created great whalesÓ (sea monsters). Literally this means Òlong-extended things.Ó NOTE: It is quite possible that this refers to reptile monsters, which may have been amphibious such as the dinosaur. This, of course, is only speculation. NOTE: The creating of sea monsters is very difficult for the evolutionists to handle, for he says that all things evolved from a single cell,, from the simple to the complex. But God picks out sea mon­sters, very complex creatures, as an example of His creation.

D.  Verses 20 and 24 both speak of living creatures. Living creatures is a translation of a single Hebrew word, nephesh, which means soul. Here we have the first appear­ance of creatures with souls. Animals have souls and it is the soul that marks the difference between animal and plant life. The three factors of a soul are:

the rational, the emotional and the volitional.  Animals are distinct from plants because they can feel, think and decide to some degree.

E.  The creation of the various types of animals was Òafter their own kind.Ó Each family division of animals had its own skin, blood, genetic makeup, etc., so that there could be no interbreeding between kinds.

F.  God put his blessing upon the creation of the animal world (Òit was goodÓ) and His blessing seems to be linked somehow with the function of sex, for He says, ÒBe fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.Ó NOTE: Plants also reproduce, but it is without the qualities of volition arid emotion.  Yet, there is in the animal kingdom the addition of desire and choice to the function of sex, and this seems to be the meaning of GodÕs blessing.

 

III.  SUPPORT FOR SPECIAL CREATION OP ANIMALS

A.  Biology.  Modern biology tells us that there can be no interbreeding of major divisions, families (sometimes referred to as species), in the animal world. The result of interbreeding is a hybrid, which is generally sterile. NOTE: There may be variation within kind but no crossing of kinds.  There are hundreds of types of dogs and horses, but no one has been able to cross a dog and a horse

B.  Animal Instincts.  Every animal is not only equipped with its own structure and form but is also provided with an instinct suitable to its own mode of life: birds build nests, migrate thousands of miles; the wasp knows the exact place to sting the caterpillar so as to paralyze it; and the grunion knows just when to deposit its eggs on the beaches of California at the exact same time each year. Where did animals get instincts? Not from evolution, but from God!

C. The Dinosaurs.  Dinosaurs were huge creatures that roamed the earth in its early history. Neither the evolutionists nor the creationists have a complete answer to their extinction. It is quite possible that these monsters were able to live when there was much vegetation on the earth but became extinct because of lack of food. Some have suggested that they went extinct by volcanic upheavals, eating of dinosaur eggs by increasing numbers of mammals or some sort of dinosaur disease epidemic. NOTE: There seems to be a mystery as well in connection with the great dinosaur graveyards found in various parts of the world. The entombment of such numbers of such great creatures literally demands some form of catastrophic action. Perhaps these great monsters were destroyed in the worldwide flood of old.

 

IV.  THE EVOLUTIONARY THEORY REFUTED

A.  Definition Of Evolution.  Organic evolution states that life originated through spontaneous generation from non-living material, and that all living things developed from lower forms of life (single-celled organisms). It took millions of years for this to happen.

B.  Order of Evolution.  The evolutionists attempt to arrange organisms in a graded system from the most simple to the most complex (from the lowest to the highest). He arranges them in the following order: amoeba (single-celled animal), hydra (multicellular), three layered worm, amphioxus, fish, amphibian, reptile, lower mammals and high mammals (man).

C.  Proofs For Evolution

1.  Comparative Anatomy.  Upon a study of anatomy a person realizes that there is similarity among animals in bones, muscles, arteries, veins, etc. Certain animals resemble others and a supposed logical order is set up. OBJECTIONS: (1)Similarity is probably due to function and purpose; (2) Similarity is more likely to prove the fact of one great Architect (God), who had in mind one great pattern which He used while making His natural species with such modi­fications as were necessary for their different conditions of life. ILLUSTRATION: A table and a chair have many similarities but each is different for their specific function. It would be illogical to conclude that the table evolved from the chair.

2.  Vestigial Organs.  Some animals have organs that appear to be useless while the same type of organ may be quite functional in other kinds of animals, The hind limbs and claws of a python are an example. Why would a snake need claws? The evolutionists would say it was evolving into another kind of animal. OBJECTION: (1) Scientists now teach that all parts of an animalÕs body do have a function In the case of the python, the hind limbs act as legs and the claws as a crusher to kill food; (2) This is a proof for de­-evolution, not evolution, for if the evolutionists are right then they ought to be able to show the development of new organs in animals, which they cannot do.

3.  Embryology.  It is claimed by some zoologists that during the development of an organism from a single cell to the adult form (in a human being) there is a recapitulation of its racial history. That is, the embryo develops through the stages of evolution (many cells, fish, reptile, monkey stages). They think they can detect gills and tails. OBJECTIONS: (1) This is but natural growth in the unequal development of the embryo; (2)This has been rejected by most authorities in embryology

4.  Fossils.  Evolutionists feel that by the fossil record they can prove evolu­tion. T. H. Huxley said, ÒIf evolution has taken place, there (on the rocks) will its mark be left: if it has not taken place, there will be its refuta­tion.Ó OBJECTIONS: (1) The fossil record actually shows the sudden appearance of all the invertebrates with their distinct specialization in the Cambrian Era, and the complete absence of undisputed fossils In the pre-Cambrian rocks; (2) There are no missing links. In fact, there are embarrassing gaps in the fossil record. (3) The oldest known fossils of horses, rodents, bats, etc. are still horses, rodents, and bats. NOTE: The dating of animals, which were supposed to be pre-historic in character and millions of years old is very revealing. The Saber-tooth tiger, which was to have lived in the Pleistocene period and at least five million years old has now been dated at U.C.L.A. by radio-carbon dating at 28,000 years. The mammoth bone which was said to be over 20 million years has been dated at 12,000 years and the mastodon (elephant) bones said to be millions of years have been dated at 11,000 years. POINT: After one hundred years of evolution, they should have been able to present

one missing link but there is no evidence for it.

D.  Seven Assumptions of Evolution That Cannot Be Proven

1.  The first assumption is that non-living things gave rise to living material, i.e., spontaneous generation occurred.

2.  The second assumption is that spontaneous generation occurred only once.

3.  The third assumption is that viruses, bacteria, plants and animals are all interrelated.

4.  The fourth assumption is that the Protozoa gave rise to the Metazoa

5.  The fifth assumption is that the various invertebrate phyla are inter-related.

6.  The sixth assumption is that the invertebrates gave rise to the vertebrates.

7.  The seventh assumption is that within the vertebrates the fish gave rise to the amphibia, the amphibia to the reptiles, and the reptiles to the birds and mammals, Sometimes this is expressed in other words, i.e., that the modern amphibia and reptiles had a common ancestral stock, and so on.