It would seem that there are many Christians who are willing to accept that God may have created the universe through the process of evolution as promoted by the scientific community today. After all, who can dispute the best scientific minds and the conclusions they come to based on their extensive research?

The Vatican's Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches:

337. "God himself created the visible world in all its richness, diversity and order. Scripture presents the work of the Creator symbolically as a succession of six days of divine 'work', concluded by the 'rest' of the seventh day. [Gen 1:l - 2:4 .]

That says that creation week was not 7 literal days of 24 hours, but rather that the days are symbolic, introducing the view that these symbolic days were actually longer periods of time, perhaps millions of years, in an apparent attempt to bring the creation account into harmony with the modern scientific dogma of human evolution, which requires vast period of time, and a very old Earth. If you accept the Bible as true, then what possible evidence is there that would invalidate evolution? Can the Christian believe in evolution?

The answer is actually quite simple, if you believe the Bible.

Before the fall of Adam and Eve the Earth was a perfect paradise in which there was no sin, and consequently no death. There were no predators, every animal that was created was a vegetarian, living in perfect harmony with the other co-inhabitants of the Earth-

The food for man was specified by God:

Gen 1:29 And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat (food).

The food for animals was specified by God:

Gen 1:30 And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat (food): and it was so.

Before the fall, nothing had ever died, not even to provide food for man or animals. All of that changed with the introduction of sin by Eve and then Adam. God had clearly warned them-

Gen 2:17 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.

Gen 3:3 But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.

So both Adam and Eve originally existed in a world free of sin and death. When Adam sinned, death was introduced into the world:

Rom 5:12 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:
Rom 5:13 (For until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law.
Rom 5:14 Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come.

1 Cor 15:21 For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead.
1 Cor 15:22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.

If you believe this at all, then evolution is an impossibility. Why?

To propose that the "days" of Genesis are not literal, but are symbolic for undefined eons of time, in an attempt to weave evolution into the creation story, introduces death before Adam and Eve existed, since it proposes that man is the peak of a slow process that took millions of years to evolve from simple forms of life. And if death was not introduced by God as the penalty for the sin of Adam and Eve, then the wages of sin is not death, God is actually responsible for creating an imperfect world that had it's origins in death and random evolutionary events BEFORE man ever sinned - and this makes Genesis a lie! Man then did not fall, he evolved as a sinner since he is the product of a process of death and he therefore bears no guilt at all for sinning against God and introducing death to the world. If man is not responsible for sin and death, then the need to repent and turn to our Savior Jesus Christ evaporates before our very eyes!

The creation story in Genesis is presented by the Word of God as a factual story for every generation, not as a parable or fanciful story intended only for the unsophisticated Old Testament era believer who lacked the supposed advantages and "proofs" of modern science.

If you truly believe the Bible to be an inspired word of God, then there is only one conclusion possible. Creation took a literal seven days, with Adam and Eve being created on the sixth literal 24 hour day and God resting on the seventh literal day. That seventh day (Saturday) Sabbath stands as an eternal memorial to creation. This is confirmed in Exodus-

Exo 20:8 Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.
Exo 20:9 Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work:
Exo 20:10 But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates:

So why remember and keep the Sabbath of the Lord on the seventh day?

Exo 20:11 For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.

This reaffirms that in Genesis the days were 24 hours long and that the week as we know it today is the same duration in time as creation week.

So Adam and Eve through their sin incurred the death penalty for the entire human race, and because of this, we all stand in dire need of the salvation offered by Jesus. Attempting to introduce evolution into the creation story actually destroys the very foundation of the Gospel message: that the Bible is the trustworthy word of God presenting the absolute truth about creation, the origins of sin, death and the possibility of salvation by faith in Jesus Christ.

But, perhaps you never thought of it this way before. So now I ask you, is it possible for the Christian to believe in evolution? The answer should I hope, now be quite obvious.

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See also: Pope John Paul II Declares Evolution to be Fact!

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