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Smyrna Christian Church -- Lee Delbridge, Minister
910 Concord Road SE -- Smyrna, Georgia 30080 -- 770.435.1723
www.SmyrnaChristianChurch.org

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The Creation Controversy
Part IV

The Lord has made everything for its own purpose, Even the wicked for the day of evil. (Proverbs 16:4) God created everything with a purpose. The world is not an accident! You are not an accident. You have a purpose. There is a reason you are here on earth. We Christians agree that we were created by God for a purpose. We Christians disagree about “how” God created us. Let’s look at this part of the creation controversy - the part where sincere, honest, born again Christians disagree.

1. THE CONTROVERSIES WITHIN THE CREATIONIST CAMP
   • The Theistic Evolution Creationist
     • This group believe that God created the world over billions of years by using evolution
     • Although they are trying to reach the Darwin evolutionists; the Darwin Evolutionists don’t like it because the Theistic Evolutionist put “God” in the process
     • The other creationist don’t like it because they have a perfect God using the most inefficient, time-consuming, wasteful method imaginable to bring the world into existence
     • I think this is the official position of the Roman Catholic Church
   • The Old Earth Creationist (two groups)
     • The Progressive Creationist that believe the “days” of Genesis chapter one are long periods of time (maybe millions of years each)
       • This is the position taught in most Christian colleges (including Atlanta Christian College)
       • The most well known progressive creationist today is Hugh Ross of “Reasons to Believe” (www.reasons.org)
     • The Gap Theory Creationist believe that there is a “gap” of millions of years between Genesis 1:1 and Genesis 1:2 that included people and animals who lived and died during this time
       • The Scofield Study Bible takes this position (see its note on Isaiah 45:18)
   • The Young Earth Creationist
     • The Young Earth Creationist believe that God created the world in 6 literal 24 hour days about 4000 years before Christ
     • The two best known organizations taking this position are: Answers In Genesis (www.AnswersInGenesis.org) and The Institute for Creation Research (www.icr.org)
   
   
2. WHY I BELIEVE THE YOUNG EARTH CREATIONIST POSITION IS THE CORRECT ONE
   • My bias is that the Bible is the inspired Word of God, that is written in normal language and was intended by God to be simple enough to be understood by normal people
     • By the way, everybody is bias -- even the scientist
   • If I use the Bible and the Bible alone as my authority and I study it as I would any normal literature, this is the conclusion I would make
     • The Progressive Creationist and the Gap Theory Creationist are trying to make the Bible “fit” with today’s accepted scientific “knowledge”
   • The Hebrew word “day” when used with a number (first day, etc.) and the phrase “evening” and “morning” always means a normal 24 hour day
   • The genealogies given in the Bible strongly indicate that Adam and Eve lived about 4000 years before Christ
   • The Bible teaches that physical sickness and death came as a result of and after Adam and Eve sinned
     • Romans 5:12-21
     • The Old Earth Creationist believe that there was sickness and death before Adam and Eve sinned
   
   
3. WHAT ARE THE KEY ISSUES IN THE CREATION CONTROVERSY
   • Do you believe the word of fallible men who were not there or the word of the infallible God who was there? (evolution or creation?)
   • Do you accept that since God created you, you are responsible to Him?
   • Are you teaching your children and your grandchildren that God created them and that there is purpose and meaning for their life?
     • Acts 13:36 - For David, after he had served the purpose of God in his own generation, fell asleep, and was laid among his fathers and underwent decay;
     • Ephesians 2:10 - For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.

The Lord has made everything for its own purpose, Even the wicked for the day of evil. (Proverbs 16:4) God created everything with a purpose. The world is not an accident! You are not an accident. You have a purpose. We Christians agree that God created us. We Christians disagree about “how” God created us. Today, we’ve looked at this part of the creation controversy - the part where sincere, honest, born again Christians disagree. Even though we disagree about “how” God created us, the fact is that He did create us. We are responsible to Him! We should obey Him and teach our children and our grandchildren that He created us and that we should obey Him.

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