SEMESTER 1
408 – The Creation of Inanimate Life
BIBLE INSTITUTE OF CORRESPONDENCE
COURSE: BIBLE SURVEY I LESSON # 8
THE CREATION OF INANIMATE LIFE
INTRODUCTION:
1. By inanimate life, I mean that which lives, grows, produces, reproduces itself, and dies, but does not move or have volition.
2. There is much to be learned about the creation from this category of life.
I. PLANTS PRODUCED THE SEED NOT VICE VERSA
1. Again the Gap Theory runs into trouble here, read Scofield note #3, page 4.
i. This theory holds that plants pre-existed (before the beginning) of Gen. 1:2
.
ii. It holds that their “reappearance” on earth was natural, not an act of creation.
iii. It holds that animate life had lived on the earth, before the beginning of Gen. 1:1.
2. The problems with this theory are as follow:
i. Not a single verse in Scripture reveals this.
ii. It denies an immediate 6 day creation and implies an earth covered with seedlings.
iii. It has the earth bringing forth from seed, without the presence of the sun.
iv. It either denies a literal 6 day creation or has the plants germinating and shooting forth in less than seventy-two hours.
v. It denies the possibility of Adam being placed in the garden of Eden, with trees and fruit at the time of his creation.
3. I must hold that God spoke into existence (causing His earth to spontaneously and instantaneously produce) mature grass, trees, etc., with their fruit on them and their seed in them.
II. VARIETY OF TREES AND GRASSES
1. One of the objections to instant creation has been the existence of new varieties which have come into being.
2. This same “variety objection” has been made to the ark’s capacity.
3. Any knowledgeable husbandman knows there are families of trees, grasses, etc.
4. Thus, we need not suppose that the Bible is claiming a direct creation of every plant and herb we see today, or that none of those then created is now extinct.
III. AFTER THEIR OWN KIND
Herein lies one of the simplest, yet most impregnable, arguments for creation and against evolution.
1. Evolution essentially holds that all plant life (through random mutation) sprang from a single lower form of life (no “kinds”).
2. Scripture’s account of creation states there were “kinds” which produced after and only after their own kind.
3. Science defines fact as that which may be either observed or demonstrated and theory as that which is thought to be, but which has not been observed or demonstrated.
4. Plant life very ably demonstrates for creationism and for God’s glory.
i. Trees will not cross-pollinate (outside family).
ii. They keep producing seed and seed producing them.
iii. You cannot bud and graft outside families.
iv. Hybrids will not reproduce.
v. Hybrids must remain in the family.
vi. Seeds from cross-grafts, return toward the fruit of the mother tree.
vii. There is no evidence of evolution (from one kind to another) in plant life today.
5. Behold the intricate balance of nature put in trust to the world’s plants, and you behold the mighty hand of God.