Dr. Carolyn Reeves
[Originally published as Creation by God’s Wisdom and Power]
I was recently reading an account about the earthly life of Jesus from Matthew 12:29-37. A demon-possessed man who was blind and mute was brought to Jesus and he healed him. The people were astonished when the man could both talk and see, and they began to ask if Jesus could be the Son of David.
When the Pharisees heard what the people were saying, they told them that Jesus had only driven out demons by the power of Beelzebub, the prince of demons.
Then Jesus, knowing their thoughts, first talked briefly about how a house divided could not stand. If He was chief of the demons, He would be working against Himself.
He then went on to warn the Pharisees in the strongest terms about the danger of what they were saying. They had just seen an amazing miracle, and they gave Satan credit for it. Miracles and other mighty works of God were always intended to bring Him glory. Robbing God of the glory He is due is a great wickedness.
As I read these words, I realized that all of the original first living things—plants, animals, humans, etc.—had been created by God’s wisdom and power. But, instead of giving God glory for the incredible beauty, order, and complexity of created things, many people believe, and even teach, that all living things evolved from one common ancestor by means of natural selection, other natural processes, random events, mutations, and variations in inherited traits.
It is highly likely that a large variety of dogs, coyotes, wolves, and similar animals are the descendants of an ancestral pair of male and female canines. One evidence of this is that dogs and coyotes and dogs and wolves can mate and produce live puppies, although this is somewhat rare in nature.
The same thing is true of felines. Lions, tigers, house cats, panthers, cheetahs, and other felines are most likely the descendants of an original ancestor pair of felines. Lions and tigers do not normally mate in the wild, but occasionally do in captivity, producing liger and tigon kittens.
These kinds of changes that occur over the years, sometimes called “micro” evolution, do not result in dogs evolving into cats or cats evolving into dogs. They show original “kinds” (the Bible term) of living things diversifying into variations of the same kind. These examples showcase God’s glory in giving the kinds of plants and animals He created the ability to adapt and adjust to different environments.
Macroevolution is a theory proposed by Charles Darwin that every living thing—presently living or once living—evolved from a single common ancestor.
“Microevolution” is good science. Macroevolution is a glory thief!
Great application of Bible truth to creation. The thief comes to steal! That’s the devil’s job and he has a lot of unwitting pawns who steal His glory as creator. I always desire to give glory to God as creator in all my nature writing and photography, just to stick it to the thief! William