Question and Answer Program No. 84

My paper had to give way to Mr. Darwin's for reconsideration. Scott, it's interesting. Here's a man saying all of my observations.

I had to give them up because everyone was buying into this idea that no God created what he created and the adaptations of varieties were actually species changing and he says I reluctantly gave it up. Hello and welcome to Wisdom for the Heart. The clip that you just heard was Stephen answering a question that he received from a listener. The first and the third Fridays of every month, we set aside our normal Bible teaching so that Stephen can answer the questions that have come in. We've received several interesting questions and we're eager to get started beginning with this question from Kevin. My name is Kevin.

I'm calling from Hartzell, Alabama. The question I have is found in Genesis chapter 1 and verse 24. It says, And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle and creeping thing and beast of the earth after his kind.

And it was so. Verse 25 says, And God made the beast of the earth after his kind and cattle after their kind and everything that creepeth upon the earth after his kind. And God saw that it was good.

My question is this. I saw a commercial last night on TV and it was advertising a brand of dog food that showed a picture of two wolves running with a dog. And they basically said that the dog evolved from the wolf. And I was confused as to whether or not that was true or not in relationship to what these two verses have to say after their kind. And I want you to expound on what exactly that means as a phrase after their kind and whether or not that might be true, that a dog did evolve from a wolf and everything. I'm not 100 percent certain.

And maybe you can clarify that for me. Thank you so much for the great work that you're doing worldwide. Thank you.

Bye. Kevin, thank you so much for calling in with that question from Genesis and I guess from a TV commercial that you saw. Steven, how did you do in high school biology? Well, that's a good thing to say at the very outset of this Q&A day.

Let's just say I did better in Bible. Friends, I love sitting down at the microphone and Scott and I enjoy approaching these questions with biblical answers. But I do want to say I'm not a scientist.

I'm not a biologist. But I will take these questions and tell you what I believe the Bible teaches in relation to these. Because we want to encourage the faith of those who believe. And if you don't believe, perhaps give you some thoughts to reconsider as you explore the truths of Christianity. What Kevin mentioned was the idea of a kind, or what we think of when we think of the word species. The word species, by the way, came from a Latin word from the Bible translation that was performed in about the fifth century. And so we think of species and kinds as similar, although I think there are scientists that would argue differences. But for our point today, we need to consider the truth that when God created everything that he created, the Bible repeatedly in Genesis chapter 1 talked about producing after their own kind. And what we believe the Bible teaches is what we would call a fixed species. That is, there isn't evidence of a species evolving into a different species. What we do believe is that there's a variation or an adaptation within a species. And there are two words. If I had been awake in biology, I probably would have been a better student at this gut.

But there are two words that are important. One is macroevolution, and the other is microevolution. Now for the believer, just hearing the word evolution sort of puts you on edge, but these are important to understand. Macroevolution is basically the Darwinian belief that species can evolve over millions of years into entirely different species. So in other words, a fish can eventually become a dog.

Microevolution is simply the reference to the variation within any species type. In other words, look at the variations, as Kevin mentioned, in the canine species, or the canine kind. You have in that kind a wolf, a dingo, a collie, a coyote, a basset hound, a German shepherd, whatever.

But they're still dogs, they're canines, I should say more correctly. You have all the variations within the bird kind or species. The dinosaur kind or species.

The cat kind or species. There are lots of variations within a kind. Think of the human kind as well. We believe the Bible clearly teaches that we have all descended from one original couple, a literal historical Adam and Eve. But look at the variety within the human kind. Based on the variation within the species type. By the way, this also answers the question of how Noah could have carried on the ark a thousand different kinds of dogs and cats and birds. He didn't.

He carried a male and female couple within a kind. And from that, then over time, has come tremendous variation and adaptation. Stephen, I think your illustration of humans is, I think that's just really helpful. You know, even just little things like hair color, right? So Adam had a hair color in Eve, but now we have red hair, blonde, brown, black, all of these. It all came from Adam and Eve.

All of that genetic data was present there. Yeah, and it shows the creativity, frankly, of God, so that you can have such an amazing variation of color. Flowers and humans and birds and flora. It's just amazing what God has built into his creation and has allowed creativity to flourish. That's right, and humans have even used this animal breeding, for example, where we'll take a couple of kind of dogs and actually make a new kind of dog.

Sure. We've done that within the equestrian kind. You have an animal mating with a donkey that produces a mule. Those aren't different species. They're simply adaptations within a kind. Now, the world, for the most part, has been duped by the evolutionists who constantly mixes macroevolution, which we have no evidence of. We have no evidence of a species evolving into a different, entirely different species. And microevolution, simply the adaptation over time.

So keep that in mind. So Kevin, when you saw the commercial, they're telling you that the dog evolved over however many thousands or millions of years from a wolf. We're talking about the same dog species or kind.

It's simply a variation within this species. And it shows the creative ability of God building into the DNA all of the different, unique qualities that we get to enjoy as we see these kinds and the varieties of these kinds developing over time. Steven, I know that we need to move on to more questions, but I also just want to compliment Kevin for thinking biblically about the TV commercials that he sees. You know, that's the way that we as Christians are supposed to view the entire world. We take what we see and what we hear, filter it through scripture, and that's exactly what Kevin did.

I agree, Scott. And before we do leave this, let me read, friends, just a clip from a letter written on May 30th, 1882 to Francis Darwin, that was Charles Darwin's son. It's written by a scientist who had done a tremendous amount of research on flora, British flora. And he talked about collecting a number of observations and facts, illustrating, and he's writing in this letter and I'm sort of editing here as I read it, but he's writing to Francis and he's saying, all of the facts prove to me a fixed species, although difficult to assign the limits and showing a tendency of abnormal forms formed by cultivation. He's describing this long paper coming from his research on fixed species and he was presenting it to the Linnean Society on July 1st. Well, he says this, and let me just read the clip, And I cancelled all that out of my paper, which urged original fixity, that is, fixed species.

And then I published only portions of the remainder of my paper in a different form. Scott, it's interesting. Here's a man saying, all of my observations, I had to give them up because everyone was buying into this idea that no God created what he created, and the adaptations of varieties were actually species changing, and he says, I reluctantly gave it up. What that scientist experienced is also something that Christians are tempted to do.

They're tempted to give up on what the Bible says and yield their views to what they think science teaches. And we want to encourage all of our listeners to remember that God's word is true and it's fixed and everything that we believe is filtered through the lens of scripture. Well, thank you so much, Kevin, for calling in. And friends, let me give you that phone number one more time. That number that Kevin used to ask his question is 910-808-9384. I will make sure that you're aware that we can't and don't answer that number. That number is set up only to record your question. This Bible question line is set up just for you to ask, Stephen, a question you have about the Christian faith or the Bible.

910-808-9384. Here's another listener that we heard from. This is Julia from Richmond, Virginia, and I have a little disagreement with my husband's friend.

And he tells me that Jesus is black, and the real Jewish people are black from Africa. So this is my question. If you can help me to know, and I want to look forward for next month to hear my question. Thank you, Mr. Daly. I love your show and I listen every day. Thank you. Bye-bye.

Thank you so much for calling in with that question. You know, Stephen, it seems to me like the heart of what she's asking or what her friend is trying to convince her of really boils down to who is it that can claim Jesus? To whom does he belong as far as races go? Yeah, and in fact, if you travel the world, as I've had the privilege of doing, it's interesting to see little icons or pictures or statues of Jesus that resemble where I'm traveling. In India, he's strikingly Indian-looking. In South America, he looks Hispanic. Africans have made him black, and Europeans and Americans have made him white. Well, let's kind of go beyond that to a more fundamental question, and that's the idea of races, period. And we'll talk about skin color, okay?

We know, in fact, we talked in the last question about the variety within a kind. So within the human race or humankind, even though it's one couple, Adam and Eve, you have all of these varieties now, which show the creative genius and the wonder of God. We have people of all sizes, you know, short, tall, you mentioned hair color, eye color, skin color. The problem is we tend to group people according to one or more of these characteristics into what we call races, and that's tragically unbiblical. There are not many races. There's one race. God created one race from Adam and Eve.

Now, there are differences, but those differences, frankly, if I can do a little play on words, is only skin deep. And that's it, because we're basing so much of it on the color of skin. But there's only one race of people, beginning in Genesis, as he made it abundantly clear in Genesis 3 and verse 20, where he said that Eve was the mother of all living. So Adam and Eve are the original couple, and we've all descended from them. So if we understand that there's only one race, by the way, Scott, you mentioned earlier, as we discussed this question, that one race is divided into two only in this.

One's redeemed and one's unredeemed. That's really the only separation you could consider within the human race. But as a race of people, we're all the same. So how do we get the skin color differences? Well, if you go to your computer and you type in answersingenesis.org or the Institute for Creation Research, some of these wonderful evangelical sources that spend their life studying the topics of geology and anthropology, and I've just done that and I've pulled up here a wonderful article from Answers in Genesis called Skin Color. And it's reminded me that pigment is responsible for the color we have, and that pigment is called melanin. And melanin is divided into two different kinds, and we share them in every human being. But melanin has one particular form, and that gives you the brown to black color.

And then another form, and I can't even pronounce these words, folks, that's why I'm not doing it, gives us the red to yellow. And the proportion of those two forms provides a skin tone in a human being. Well, why would some have dark skin and others light skin?

And this is, again, this variation over time. Darker skin on people living near the equator, God has allowed that to protect them from intense sunlight. That reduces the risk of skin cancer. People in higher latitudes, where there's less intense sunlight, need lighter skin to produce vitamin D. And by the way, I've got to take a vitamin D pill every month because I just don't produce enough of it, and I'm very pale. In each case, those who have the characteristics, they stayed in those regions, they reproduced.

So, for instance, let me make it very simple. If a dark-skinned man marries a dark-skinned woman, they're going to probably more than likely have a dark-skinned child. If a fair-skinned man marries a fair-skinned woman, they're going to pass on this genetic proportion within the variations possible, and the skin color is going to be very, very similar. I have four children, however, and the skin tone of all four vary quite a bit, and their reaction to sunlight varies.

I've got a son who tans wonderfully, and it makes the other three children a little jealous because he tans so well. The others are more like me, and we just burn and peel and go back to fair skin. So this is, within the gene pool, God's creative variabilities, and in different parts of our world, those populations have developed those propensities as they have intermarried. What we have to be careful of is assigning some skin color to Jesus. Remember, he's Jewish, which means he's probably going to be middle brown.

The Jews intermarried. Abraham is from what would be modern-day Turkey or Syria, Ur of Chaldees, so he would have more than likely been that middle brown based on the region he lived in. And to this day, because Jews have, for the most part, faithfully intermarried, they all have this middle brown skin tone. To say that Abraham is from Africa is incorrect, and frankly, even to say that somebody from Africa has to be black is incorrect as well. It has to do with the marriage within skin tones, and they develop over time. I will say this, and then I'm going to close this, but this particular article I'm reading just offers a suggestion based on the fact that the middle brown provides the greatest variability regarding skin tone, that more than likely Adam and Eve were what we would call light brown, middle brown, and that would give the whitest range, then, to their children between very light and very dark. But you know what, Scott?

We've got to say this. We don't know. We're taking this based on observation, and I think it's sound, but what we can say is that there's one race, and God built into that race the potential of variability that seems to develop by virtue of region and sunlight.

That's right, Stephen, and I think the other thing that we can say with certainty is that since God created the Jewish race from Abraham, then wherever Abraham was from, that's where they came from, and that was the Middle East. Well, thank you so much for calling in with your question. We were so glad to hear from you. Here's another question we received. My name is Tammy, and I'm calling from Knoxville, Tennessee, and my question concerns extraterrestrial life. It seems that even among Christians, there are different views on whether alien life exists elsewhere in the universe.

I tend to be in the group that is non-believed in alien life other than humans and think there are other explanations that I value your opinion, and I was wondering what is your opinion of how a Christian should view the question of whether there is intelligent life elsewhere in the universe other than humans. Thank you very much. I appreciate it and look forward to hearing your answer. Thank you.

Thank you so much, Tammy, for calling in with that question. You know, Stephen, we really don't plan out what people are going to ask us, we just kind of take them as it comes, but this turned out to be Science Week, and it's really tied to the whole topic of the Bible and science and evolution, so how can we help, Tammy? Tammy, thanks for calling in, and it is important because the basis of this love and fascination of our world today for UFOs, intelligent life on other planets, you know, from other stars, all of it is dependent upon an abandonment of God's created order, a refusal to believe, Genesis chapter 1 and chapter 2 and chapter 3 and on, and a belief in evolution. So let's go back to what we know, even though the Bible, there's not a verse that says there are no aliens out there, and I don't think God needs to say that because he said so many other things. For instance, if we go back to Genesis chapter 1, it's very clear that everything is Earth-centered, it's for the benefit of mankind, and keep in mind that stars and planets were not created billions of years before Earth. We believe Genesis chapter 1, we take it at face value, which means that Earth was actually created a few days before all of the stars. Remember Genesis chapter 1 verse 1? God created the heavens and the Earth.

That's verse 1. Down in verse 14, he creates the stars and the planets and all those things. So he creates this Earth and the heavens and our firmament, our atmosphere, in other words, and so that lets us know Earth was created before any other planet or star existed. So if there's some alien form on some planet somewhere, they didn't have millions and millions and millions of years to get smarter than we are or to develop some kind of technology. I'm not trying to say the humans are the smartest potential creation, but I am saying there aren't millions of years for some alien form to develop systems and then seed Earth with their DNA, which is becoming more and more a popular version of how we got our start.

Earth is not the result of billions of years of evolution. We know that God withheld the creation of the sun and moon and stars until the fourth day, and Earth is uniquely positioned to benefit from them. But keep in mind this, the Bible clearly indicates that what happens in the universe is linked to God's timetable relative to mankind. Jesus is going to return to Earth. Jesus is going to set up his kingdom.

Heaven will descend the Father's house to Earth during the kingdom and then ultimately throughout the eternal state. So what bearing does this have on extraterrestrial life? Well, we know, Peter tells us, that all of Earth and the universe are going to be destroyed by fire and then God's going to recreate it. So if God has intelligent life forms in other worlds, it'd be hard to imagine that their lives would be relegated to the sin of Earth's inhabitants, of Adam and Eve. It seems rather unfair, doesn't it, that a distant planet is going to be destroyed by God because of his plan for Earth? The implication is there are no other intelligent beings besides man and animals and angels. So will God destroy the planets and stars along with the Earth? Well, we're told in Romans chapter 8 that when Adam sinned, all of creation, the entire universe was affected. Creation was subjected, the Bible says, to futility. All of Earth is groaning and all the universe is groaning for the day of redemption. And, in fact, we know that our universe is showing the signs of the fall.

Why? We know, even unbelieving scientists can tell us that stars are dying, the moon and planets have been pummeled. This isn't the perfect originally created state. Sin impacted the universe, and we know from Scripture that God is going to recreate it. Now, one more thing. Here's another question that I think is related to this one, and that is, why would God create such a vast universe?

I mean, it just keeps going. The more we explore, the bigger it gets. Why would he create such a vast universe if it's only for those on planet Earth? What purpose, then, would the universe hold? I'm looking at a wonderful article, by the way, at christiananswers.net, and they point out that Scripture tells us that God created the sun and the moon and the stars to give light and to assist mankind. That's Genesis chapter 1, verses 14 to 15.

So, think of it this way. God made the moon, God made the solar system, God created the stars to provide for mankind, to distinguish time, days, months, years, to predict the coming of seasons. Without those heavenly bodies, we couldn't keep time, and navigation would be much more difficult. In fact, from ancient days, people used the movement of stars to produce their calendars, and so God very graciously created the universe so that what we could observe would be so wonderful as it relates to timekeeping and navigation and even the giving of light. The brightening of the utter darkness of the universe is given to us in Scripture in relation to these bodies that God created. Another reason that God created all the vastness of the universe was to give glory to himself so that we would glorify the Creator. The heavens are telling the glory of God, Psalm 19, and their expanse is declaring the work of his hands. When you look at the universe, my friend, it should bring you to glorify your Creator God. That's one of the primary reasons he created it all, was to point us toward him, the author, the Creator, and the Designer. And I said one more thing, so Scott, like a preacher, there's actually one more thing.

Let me just say this, and I've got to wrap this up, we're almost out of time. If you have difficulty believing Genesis chapter 1, the first chapter of the Bible, you're going to have problems with the last chapter of the Bible, because in the last chapter of the Bible, we're given a description of heaven. How long would it take to evolve this incredible new earth that God creates?

Guess what? He's going to do it at the moment of his command. In a word, he's going to create new heavens and a new earth. I'm looking forward to heaven.

It's not this old earth that's going to be recreated and reconstituted, and it's going to be glorious, and we'll give glory to God forever, for he is indeed the Creator, not just of Genesis chapter 1, but Revelation chapter 21 and 22. Thank you so much, Stephen. Thank you, Tammy, and to everyone who called in today, we were so glad to hear from you. Before we go, I do want to give you our office number. You can call us at 866-48-BIBLE. That's 866-482-4253. We would love to hear from you. When we come back on Monday, Stephen's going to continue through his series, Antichrist and the Many Faces of Evil. I hope that you'll be able to join us for that right here on Wisdom for the Heart.