Thomas B. Warren
When confronted with the theory of evolution, many brethren allow themselves to become trapped into allowing the main battle to be pitched on such complex scientific matters as geology, paleontology, chemistry, and biology. (The question of the ultimate origin of man is not a scientific question, although the knowledge gained from science may be utilized, but is instead a philosophical and/or revelational problem).
But God has made His existence and the ultimate origin of human beings so obvious that even people who have little formal education can come to know the true answers to these questions. There are, in fact, obvious things that make clear that the theory of evolution (that all human beings now living on earth owe their ultimate origin to evolution by non-living, non-intelligent, non-purposive forces of nature—from non-human things) is simply false! One of these things is that the evidence demands the conclusion that a woman (miraculously brought into existence by God) was on earth before the first human baby. Both evolutionists and creationists agree that human beings presently exist and live on the earth. They also agree that human beings have not always existed. These points of agreement imply another point of agreement: human beings had a beginning point in time.
However, evolutionists and creationists are not in agreement as to the answer to the question: “To what (or whom) do human beings owe their ultimate origin?” Evolutionists answer: “Human beings owe their ultimate origin to evolution from some lower (non-human) form of life.” Creationists answer: “Man was brought into being by the miraculous creative power of God.” Since the two sides agree that human beings had a beginning point in time, a burning question becomes, “Just how did it happen that presently human beings live on the earth whereas at one time there were no human beings?” Or, more specifically, “What was first on earth: a woman or a human baby?” Even though it seems to be a straightforward one, this question is devastating to the evolutionists’ view.
The creationist has no problem with the question. He gives the Bible answer: a woman, Eve, was on earth before any human baby was (Gen. 1:1; 4:1). How did the woman (and her husband) come into existence? By the miraculous creative power of God (1:26-28; 2:7, 18-27)! By His infinite knowledge, wisdom, and power, God created man and woman (adult male and adult female), giving their bodies the power to reproduce themselves.
By contrast, the question forces the evolutionist to face a dilemma, both horns of which are answers with which he cannot live. The evolutionist is in trouble regardless of the answer he gives.
If the evolutionist says that a human baby was on earth first, then he faces another question about whether there was once a baby that did not have a human mother. Was it the case that the baby had no mother at all? (In which case we ask, how then did it come to be? Did it just “pop out,” say, of a hollow log? Was some non-human—perhaps an ape—its mother?) To answer “yes” to any of these questions is so patently absurd as to be incredible.
On the other hand, if the evolutionist answers that a woman was on earth before any human baby was, then he faces problems of equal intensity, for we further ask, was this woman—who, in your view, was never a baby—born full-grown of some animal (perhaps an ape)? Would it not require a miracle for a full-grown woman to come into existence suddenly? If so, would it not follow that the creationist view (God miraculously created the first man and the first woman and that their sexual union resulted in the first human baby) is true?
Is it not clear that the simple questions posed above show that the theory of evolution is just that—a mere theory—and that it is a false theory? The Bible is right. The Bible is right not only on the question of the origin of man but on every other question with which it deals. God’s Word is truth (John 17:17), and that Word teaches that God created the first man and the first woman (1 Tim. 2:13-14). The theory of evolution is false.
We must stand ready to lovingly and kindly defend in honorable public discussion the proposition that all human beings now living on earth owe their ultimate origin to the miraculous work of God—not to evolution (by non-living, non-intelligent, non-purposive forces of physical nature) from non-human things (Jude 3).
