First published: Creation 28(1):36–37 December 2005 Browse this issue Subscribe to Creation magazine

The father of lies

By Neil Marsden

Christians who try to marry evolutionary teaching, with its billions of years of deep time, to the teachings of the Bible have a problem—the two just do not fit.  But many believers have tried this approach, overwhelmed by the amount of publicity given to the evolutionary, long-ages, view and not hearing anything to the contrary.

Many professed Christians have lost their faith or experienced troubling doubts because of the popularity and virility of the evolutionary ‘gospel’ (I myself went down this road).  We are warned, however, in the Bible that there is one who has gone out into the world who is not only a liar, but is called ‘the father of lies’ (John 8:44).  It is natural for him to lie—it’s what he does best.  So if evolutionary teaching destroys the faith of Christians, then it is anti-Christ in nature.  And if it is a lie, its true origin is from the father of lies.

To the Jews who refused to accept, or opposed, Jesus’ teaching, He said, ‘If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I proceeded forth and came from God; nor have I come of Myself, but He sent Me.  Why do you not understand My speech?  Because you are not able to listen to My word.  You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. 

2 Thessalonians 2:10–12 warns us of a delusion that will fool people in the last days.  Is evolution a ‘lie and a delusion to fool people?’  There are many major differences between the Word of God and evolutionary teachings.  Let’s look at a few. 

Evolutionary biology claims that sea-going mammals (whales—sea elephants—dolphins, etc.) evolved after land animals, indeed evolved from the land creatures, going from the land back into the sea.  The Bible says every living sea creature, including the monstrous ones, were created on Day 5 of Creation Week, before the land creatures. 

Many evolutionists claim that birds evolved from dinosaurs—quite late in the evolutionary tree.  The Bible teaches that birds were created on Day 5 at the same time as the sea creatures—before dinosaurs and any other land dwellers. 

Evolutionary cosmology says that the sun was here before the earth, so the earth is younger than the sun.  The Bible says that the earth is older than the sun, as the sun was not made until Day 4.

Evolutionary anthropology says that man has arisen from the apes, and before that a rodent-like ancestor.  The Bible teaches that God made man in His own image as a special creation, from dust.  Evolutionary teaching here enters the area of sacrilege—what then is God’s image?  When God walked among us in the person of Christ, His image was as a man. 

Even some Christ­ians say, ‘Perhaps God took a thousand years to create Adam.  You know—a 1,000 years is like a day to God.’  What happened when God created Eve then—did he need 1,000 years to create her from Adam’s rib?—presumably not, as Adam died at 930.  The 1,000 years/day refers to God’s patience and grace due to his eternal nature.

When we get to the great Flood of Noah’s day, we see another glaring conflict between evolutionary-based teaching and the clear Bible description of the Flood (2 Peter 3:3ff).  Evolution suggests that ‘the great flood’, so well recorded in so many civilizations, was just a large local flood that has become embellished in folklore.  National Geographic espouses this view, and undersea explorer Robert Ballard claimed to have ‘found Noah’s Flood’ on the sea bed in the Black Sea, having found undersea evidence of a large local flood.  The Bible clearly says that it was global and covered the earth for months—who is right?  It doesn’t seem to occur to the global Flood sceptics that if it was a large local flood and Noah had been given decades of warning, he could have shifted to higher ground at his leisure and so could the animals, especially the birds.  Why spend many years constructing a huge ship when they could simply move?  And a large local flood would not endanger every animal of a kind and wipe out all people not on the Ark.

Even if Noah had not saved any animals, a large local flood would hardly make a dent in the world’s creature population of the time—only a global Flood would be such a threat.  We should also remember that God promised not to make another flood like this again, so if it was a large local flood God would

Christians need to contend for the faith as never before

All these contradictions show that evolution and the Bible cannot both be true.  If evolution is true and God inspired the Bible, then God got it wrong—He becomes the ‘father of lies’, which is a total reversal and mockery of truth!  Christians need to contend for the faith as never before (Jude 3) and defend the integrity of God’s Word, for He is the truth and no liar.  There can be no compromise.

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