In Mark 10:6-8 Jesus replied to a question about divorce by saying, “...at the beginning of creation God ‘made them male and female.’ ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.’” That is pretty plain language! Jesus didn’t say, “Billions of years after the beginning....” He directly quotes Genesis 1:27 and 2:24, recorded in the creation account. Clearly the institution of marriage occurred during creation week, called by Jesus, “the beginning.”
When Jesus quoted scripture He didn’t take it lightly. He plainly believed that all scripture was the Word of God. In John 10:35 Jesus said, “...the scripture cannot be broken....” Matthew 5:18 says, “I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.”
After His resurrection Jesus told the two on the road to Emmaus, “This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms.” Luke 24:44. In Jewish reckoning the law of Moses included Genesis. In fact the first prophecy of the gospel was in Genesis 3:15 where God spoke to the serpent and said, “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.” And so it was at the cross: Christ crushed the serpent’s head!
Let’s consider for a moment just who Jesus was. Was He, as “modernists” contend, simply a child of His time, ignorant of all of our advanced knowledge? Anyone who believes that might as well throw out the whole Bible and quit any pretense of following Christ. Jesus had, in fact, a most particular position of authority when it came to creation.
The Bible plainly sets forth the fact that while the Father was the “architect” of creation, His Son was the “project engineer.” Hebrews begins, “In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe.” Hebrews 1:1-2.
Hebrews 1:10 says of the Son, “In the beginning, O Lord, you laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands.” This is a quote from Psalm 102.
Paul says of Him in Colossians 1:16-17, “For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.” Notice that not only did our Lord create all things but He presently holds everything together!
John 1:3 says, “Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.” Verse 10 says, “He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him.”
That kind of makes Jesus an authority on creation! Not only was He there, He was the Creator! It was out of His mouth that the Words flowed that flung galaxies across unimaginable distances. And according to Paul, He is the One Who still holds everything together. The Mighty Creator stooped to become a man that you and I might become sons and daughters of God! What a dimension that simple fact adds to the great plan of salvation!
And think about this: when Jesus quoted from Genesis regarding the institution of marriage, He was not only quoting scripture; He was quoting His own words! He was the One Who uttered those words in the first place! Do you suppose He knew what He was talking about? I do!
The Bible is clear and consistent, Genesis is written as a simple narrative, real history, and treated as such everywhere else in scripture. To contend otherwise is to set the pronouncements of science and the intellects of men above the Word of God.
And so, not only is the Bible’s central message at stake...redemption from the sin of Adam that has passed down to all his children...but also the authority and trustworthiness of God’s Word, not to mention the very character of God. These are not secondary issues! If we sacrifice such a foundational passage of scripture on the altar of modern science where will it stop? It is a slippery slope that leads to full-blown unbelief. The floodwaters of the modernism that has turned countless people away from genuine faith spring from these very issues.
Not only we, but our children also, are bombarded with evolutionary dogma. A day doesn’t go by without references being made in the media to evolution and millions of years, etc. It is part of the flood out of the serpent’s mouth aimed at sweeping away the church (Revelation 12:15). I wouldn’t go so far as to say that everyone who believes in millions of years is necessarily lost...not at all...but such a belief did not come from God’s Word!
Those God would call through the gospel will respect us far more if we take our stand on the Word of God and give a reason for the hope that is in us than if we compromise to maintain “respectability” in the eyes of unbelievers. God is not a beggar who bows down to men’s ideas to avoid offending them. The gospel is a loving ultimatum delivered to those He would turn from the road to hell. It offers men the only hope they have of sharing in His original purpose in creation.
Of course, all of this begs the question: but what about science? What do we do with its claims?