A Special Creation

Pastor Dave Cottrell

Many years ago, before modern science, it was thought that human beings were a distinct group, separate from all other forms of life, both plant and animal. Modern science has proven that to be false. It’s common knowledge, today, that human beings are animals, primates, in the same family as monkeys and apes. Furthermore, we are part of a much larger group, called “mammals,” which includes all animals that nurse their young. DNA and embryonic research proves conclusively that we are all related and come from a common ancestor… or do they?

Grab your Bible or open the KJV Bible Online and let’s take a look.

A special creation

Read Genesis 1:24 – 28; 2:7

Modern, secular science tells us that we are animals, evolved from other animals, who in turn evolved from still more primitive forms of animal life. God tells us that we are a special creation, formed by him after all the animals were created, separate and superior, because we were made in the image of God. It comes down to this: Who will you believe? Will you believe in what secular, humanistic scientists with their godless world-view tell you, or will you believe God?

Sadly, many who identify as Christians, today, including pastors, try to explain away what God has clearly said to make Christianity agree with secular science. That’s something like putting baby rabbits in a rattle snake pit and telling them to all get along!

I Creation

The history of creation begins with the words in Genesis 1:1, “In the beginning God created…” For Christians and Christianity, this really is where the rubber meets the road. If you do not believe this, all the rest of the Bible becomes irrelevant. Without God being the primary cause, the rest is meaningless. Unless we accept and believe that God was truly and fully in control at the beginning of everything, how can accept that he is truly and fully in control now, and that the Gospel is true? Where do we stop calling the Bible myth and begin to accept it as truth?
1. Unless we accept “In the beginning God created,” we have nothing. If God was not powerful enough to do what is recorded in Genesis, how can he be powerful enough to defeat evil, and indeed, how can he be powerful enough to raise us from the dead?
2. If God was not powerful enough to speak the vast universe where our home, Earth, is situated, how could he be powerful enough to give us everlasting life in a perfect eternity?
3. If God was not powerful enough to do what he says he did in Genesis, exactly as he said he did it, who is he and why should we care, if he even exists?
The short history of creation as it is recorded in Genesis is very specific. It is not metaphorical, as many theologians try to make it, so that it fits with secular science, nor is it a myth created for primitive man to understand, but it is both simple and specific at once.
1. God describes the six specific one day periods of creation for us, telling us exactly what he did in each 24 hour period. He did not use vague terms for time that could be interpreted as long ages, but used the Hebraism for a specific and normal 24 hour day, “evening and morning.” In scripture, evening and morning means a single, normal day, or one full turn of the Earth’s axis.
The Bible CLEARLY tells us that there was no death before man sinned, yet secular science requires eons of death before the creation of man. Some theologians try to get around this by what is known as the Gap Theory, but that is simply unbelieving men putting more faith in what the secular science worldview believes than what God say. God says, “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:” Romans 5:12. Simply put, there was no death before man sinned. None. The very first animals that died are mentioned in Genesis 3:21, where God made coats of skins to clothe them. Adam and Eve died, spiritually, the moment they sinned.
1. There is no need to force many thousands or millions of years of death into the Bible to make it agree with science. Secular science is driven by a godless evolutionary world-view that requires eons of time to be plausible, yet even with the time presently allotted to it, it is still not even close to mathematically plausible.
2. All the empirical data collected DOES fit the Biblical record. It’s not the data that is flawed, and it is not the Bible that is incorrect. The interpretation of the data is coloured by the world-view. The reality is that all the empirical data WILL fit the Bible record, while it often does not fit the secular world-view and is then shelved for further study or even discarded as being somehow tainted.

Nothing is too difficult for God, who spoke all things into existence by the power of his Word “By the word of the LORD were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth.” Psalm 33:6 “Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.” Hebrews 11:3

II The Creation of Animals vv 24,25

God created land animals on the sixth day. Again, this clearly denies the tenets of evolution. All aquatic life and all birds were created on the fifth day, distinct kinds that have neither evolved into land animals, nor evolved from land animals. Everything was created after its own kind. Everything got along fine, including the huge dinosaurs whom secular scientists now tell us were the most vicious and bloodthirsty creatures ever to inhabit the Earth.
1. Please note that these scientists have ASSUMED that the huge teeth of Tyrannosaurus rex prove it was a meat eater. They do nothing of the kind. That’s a guess, and again, it’s based on their world-view. The teeth found on the handful of Tyrannosaur specimens would have been equally useful for tearing up and shredding tough plant material.
2. Out of all the millions and perhaps billions of fossils ever found, not one transitional example – the missing link – has ever been found.

III The Creation of Humans vv26 – 28

God also created humans on the sixth day, but he created them separately, a special creation. Humans were not created along with the animals as just one more species of animal. “And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness:…”
1. God created humans in the image of God; in other words, we are spiritual beings. “God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.” John 4:24 Contrary to pantheism and other pagan religions, only human beings are spiritual creatures. We are a special creation.
2. God is eternal. “Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God.” Psalm 90:2 Human beings also exist forever, because we are created in the image of God. Animals live out their lives without fear of death, then die and cease to exist. Humans have an immortal soul, which is why we fear death. Deep down inside every human being is the knowledge that we will exist forever, somewhere, and that after the body dies, we have to stand before our creator. “… it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:” Hebrews 9:27 We have are a special creation with a living soul.

IV A Special Creation 2:7

God spoke all the world and everything in it into existence, right up to all the animals.
Then God formed man in his image.
1. The way God made humans was different from everything else. In another place, our creation is referred to like the relationship between a potter and clay. “But now, O LORD, thou art our father; we are the clay, and thou our potter; and we all are the work of thy hand.” Isaiah 64:8 Just as a potter turns the clay and forms an exquisite vase or cup from materials out of the earth, God formed the exquisite and intricate human body from materials out of the earth.
2. God did not simply create us like the animals, who he created as living creatures, but he breathed into us the breath of life, his immortal breath, and man became a living soul. Unlike the animals, we will exist forever, because we are a special creation, living souls.
  1. A living soul is a soul that has a spirit, and will exist forever. “Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.” Ecclesiastes 12:7

Conclusion

Secular science says that you evolved from nothing by accident, and therefore have no meaning, live a meaningless life, die a meaningless death and that’s it. You come from nothing, mean nothing, and in the end, return to nothing, so live as selfish a life as you can, grab all that you can while you’re here, because this is all there is and all you’re going to get. Nothing that you do really matters, because when you die, it’s all over.
1. If that were true, it would make sense to live like that…
However, deep down, everybody knows this isn’t true. Deep down, our God-given logic and God-given soul tells us this can’t be true. All that is could not possibly have come from nothing.
Everything in the known, physical universe has a cause, including us. The physical world must have a cause from outside of itself. Since space and time are part of the physical world, the physical world must therefore come from timeless eternity, from a timeless, eternal Cause. The Bible describes that Cause in Genesis 1:1: “In the beginning God…”

We are a special creation. God, who at sundry times and in divers manners (Hebrews 1:1) has revealed himself to us, has told us we are special, has let us know that we are living, immortal souls, and has warned us that we will one day stand before him. (Hebrews 9:27). He has told us that all have sinned (Romans 3:23) and that the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23), but that the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord (Romans 6:23).
You and I are a special creation. You and I are specially formed in the image of God with living, immortal souls. You and I are going to exist forever… somewhere. Skepticism does not change reality. Not believing in God will not change the fact that he is and that you will one day have to stand before him and give an answer. “…as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:”
1. Is your name written in the Book of Life? “And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.” Revelation 20:15
2. There is only one way for your name to be found in the book of life when you stand before God. You must repent and believe. It isn’t enough to be good. The Bible says that all our own goodness is as worthless as filthy rags. (Isaiah 64:6) It isn’t enough simply to believe. The Bible says the devils believe “Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble.” James 2:19 They sure are not going to be saved!
3. You and I must repent and believe the gospel. Jesus said, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel.” Mark 1:15 You must turn from trusting in yourself and the things of this world to trusting in God, and as a part of that, believe in the gospel, trusting in the shed blood, death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ alone to save you from your sins. “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” Acts 4:12
You are a special creation, created to live forever as a child of God. You will exist forever, no matter what. Will you live forever? That comes only by repentance and faith in Jesus Christ to save you. Are you certain, right now, that you have eternal life? Are you ready for eternity? You could step over in the next minute. Are you sure you’re ready?

The Gap Theory

A Special Creation