Psalm 104:5, Galileo, and the Catholic Church

Psalm 104:5 tells us, “God laid the foundation of the earth that it should not be moved forever.” Galileo Galilei was one of the greatest scientists to ever live. So great, in fact, he has been called the father of modern physics. One of Galileo’s major contributions to science was promoting the belief that the earth revolves around the sun. During his lifetime many people believed the earth stood still and that the sun circled it. This belief was due, in part, to a misinterpretation of the verse we just read. Once again, Psalm 104:5 tells us, “God laid the foundation of the earth that it should not be moved forever.”

In 1633, Galileo was 69 years old, and the Catholic Church condemned him as a heretic because of his teachings about the earth circling the sun. 17 years prior to this, the Catholic Church had warned him not to hold, teach, defend, or even discuss his beliefs and had even banned one of his books. However, Galileo did not obey the Catholic order, and so he spent the remainder of his life under house arrest. He was lucky he was not burned at the stake.

189 years later, in 1822, the Catholic Church declared that it was permissible to publish books which taught that the earth moves and the sun stands still. It was not until 1992 that the Catholic Church formally admitted Galileo was correct.

Psalm 104 is poetry. It is not literal. It is not a scientific treatise, nor was it ever intended to be read as such. We can see that. We are amazed when other people cannot.

Now Consider Genesis

Now consider Genesis. The first two chapters of Genesis tell us that God created the universe and everything in it, in just six days. I am guessing that the majority of people here believe this is a literal six days. I call this the Traditional View.

According to the Traditional View, Genesis describes six, literal, sequential, 24 hour periods so that God created the world and everything in it and then rested on the seventh day, so that all of creation was accomplished in one literal, seven day week.

Many people look at us and think we have not learned the lessons of history. There is tremendous pressure in our society to accept the Darwinian theory of evolution as scientific fact and ignore the Genesis account of creation or, at the very least, to water it down into some version of theistic evolution, claiming it, like Psalm 104, was never meant to be taken literally.

Many religious people, not wanting to repeat the misinterpretations of the past, yet not wanting to abandon the Bible either, have left this traditional view of biblical creation in favor of theistic evolution. Theistic evolution is an attempt to blend the Bible and evolution. It is the belief that God did indeed create the world, but He did so through the process of evolution. That is, God got everything started, then let evolution do the rest.

The explanations of exactly how this works vary by individual. For example, there is the Gap Theory. The Gap Theory is the belief that there were gaps between the days of creation. These gaps lasted millions of years and it was during these gaps that evolution progressed at its own pace. Or, there is the Day-Age Theory. According to the Day-Age Theory, the days of Genesis one were not literal days; they were symbolic periods of time. According to the Day-Age Theory, the days in Genesis actually lasted millions of years and it is during these millions of years that evolution progressed at its own pace. Or, there is the Fable interpretation. According to this interpretation, the Genesis creation account was never intended to be taken literally, but is simply a made up story intended to teach symbolic, moral principles.

So how do we interpret Genesis? Well, you’re going to have to decide that for yourself. My intention this morning is not specifically to answer that question. We do have one main point, but before we get to that, let’s be very clear about what we will not discuss.

First, I am not going to attempt to prove to you the Bible is literal history or that we have an accurate historical account of creation in Genesis.

Second, I am not going to attempt to prove to you that Evolution is false. I will not discuss any flaws which may or may not exist in the Darwinian theory of evolution. I’m sure you’ve sat through many lessons in the past where speakers would attack evolution from a variety of angles. I am not going to repeat that.

We do have one main point this morning. If you don’t get anything else out of our lesson, understand this one thing: the Bible and evolution will not mix. They are not compatible in any form. We must choose one or the other. Which choice is correct? That’s for you to decide. My aim this morning is simply to demonstrate that theistic evolution is not a viable alternative to conflict. Theories of theistic evolution are implausible, illogical attempts at compromise, where no compromise is possible.

Why do I say that? Why do I say we cannot combine the Bible and evolution? Well, there are several reasons, but let’s start with a simple list of discrepancies. I’ve prepared a short list of 10 items in Genesis, which will not, in any way, harmonize with the Darwinian theory of evolution.

Ten Incompatibilities

Number one: Genesis and evolution will not mix because according to the Bible, a day is a day. The Bible defines one day of creation as consisting of one evening and one morning (Genesis 1:5, 8, 13, 19, 23, 31). If each day actually lasted millions of years, then we have millions of years of darkness followed by millions of years of light. It would be impossible for anything to grow in millions of years of darkness, thus the Day Age Theory is not compatible with the Bible.

So Genesis and evolution will not mix. Why do I say that? Because according to the Bible, day and night existed before the Sun (Genesis 1:3-5, 14-19). According to Genesis light was created on day one, but the Sun was not created until day four. Where do we get our light now? Now the Sun, stars, and moon divide the light from the darkness. It was not so on day one. God did this some other way. He does not tell us how, but we do know there was a light-dark cycle before the Sun existed. Evolution cannot coexist with this time frame.

So Genesis and evolution will not mix. Why do I say that? Because according to the Bible, the earth existed before the sun (Genesis 1:1-2, 13-19). According to evolutionary theory, the Sun’s gravity is what helped to form the earth and other planets. According to the general theory of evolution, after the big bang, the Sun pulled dust and debris from space into orbit around itself and eventually coalesced them into the planets. Not so in Genesis. According to Genesis, the earth was created as a formless mass on day one. On day two God separated the water above the clouds from the water below, the oceans, and put the firmament, or the sky, in the middle (Genesis 1:6-8). On day three, God caused dry land to rise from the oceans (Genesis 1:9-12). All this happened without aid of the Sun. The Sun was not created until day four. Thus the chronology is reversed.

So Genesis and evolution will not mix. Why do I say that? Reason number four is because according to the Bible, life began before the Sun. In Genesis 1:11-13, we see that plants were created on day three, but verses 14-19 show us that the Sun was not created until day four. Not only does this order not fit with evolution, but the time frame makes reconciliation simply ridiculous. If each day lasted millions of years, or if there were millions of years between the days, then plants existed for millions of years before the Sun. This is impossible according to evolutionary theory.

So Genesis and evolution will not mix. Why do I say that? Because according to the Bible, life began on land, not in the seas. We all know Darwinian evolution teaches us that life began in the seas and then creatures crawled out of the water onto land. Not so in Genesis. According to Genesis, land plants were created on day three (Genesis 1:11-13), but sea life was created on day five (Genesis 1:20-23). Once again, evolution reverses the Biblical order of events.

So Genesis and evolution will not mix. Why do I say that? Because according to the Bible, birds existed before dinosaurs. According to evolution, dinosaurs evolved into birds. According to the Bible, birds were created on day five (Genesis 1:22-23), while land animals were not created until day six (Genesis 1:24-25). Once again, the chronology makes reconciliation impossible.

So Genesis and evolution will not mix. Why do I say that? Because according to the Bible, whales existed before cows. Genesis tells us sea creatures were created on day five (Genesis 1:22-23), while land animals were created on day six (Genesis 1:24-25). According to evolution, not only did life begin in the water and then crawl out onto land, but eventually land animals crawled back into the water. According to Darwinian evolution, some ancient cow-like creature actually went back into the water and evolved into the whales we see today.

Now I know the Bible has some fantastic stories. We are told there is an invisible, eternal, all-powerful, all-knowing being that created us. We can’t see him, we can’t touch him, but we’re told he’s there and he is responsible for the entire universe. Well, which is harder to believe, the Bible story, or that life randomly arose from non-life, that this one-celled being gradually crawled out of the water and changed into cows and then cows wandered back into the ocean to become whales? Which story requires more faith, intelligent design or random chance?

So Genesis and evolution will not mix. Why do I say that? Because according to the Bible, Adam was created first, then Eve. Chapter one gives us an overview of the first week, then chapter two goes back and fills in some of the details. Some think chapter two describes an entirely new creation, but it is actually just additional details, a deeper explanation of what happened in chapter one. One of the details is the creation of Eve. Genesis 1:26-27 show both were created on day six. Genesis 2:21-24 show Adam was created first and then Eve. Evolution demands the sexes evolve together. For example, if fish morphed into frogs and crawled out of the water onto land, there must have been at least two of them. If we have only one frog, then when that frog dies, there are no more frogs. There has to be a breeding population. According to the Bible, man was created before woman, and this has serious implications which we will discuss later.

So Genesis and evolution will not mix. Why do I say that? Because according to the evolution, man is nothing more than an evolved ape. In Genesis 2:18, God says it is not good that man should be alone. In verse 21, God creates Eve. There are two verses between God saying man needs a companion and God creating a companion for him. These two verses tell us about Adam naming the animals. In verses 19 and 20 God brings all the animals he has created to Adam and lets Adam name them. Now why would this story come in between verses 18 and 20? Because it’s all part of the same story. The animals are not the main characters of the story; they are the supporting cast. God says it is not good for man to be alone and then he shows both Adam and us, how alone man truly is. After Adam has seen all of God’s creation, Adam realizes he is still alone. In the midst of all the animals of the world, Adam knows there is no one like him. Adam realizes there is a qualitative difference between man and beast. So then God creates woman and Adam’s reaction shows that he realizes he finally has a compatible companion.

Genesis 1:26-27 explains this difference between man and animal. According to the Bible, man was created in the image of God. This is not a physical description. Male and female were both created in God’s image. It is a reference to our immortal soul. Apes were not made in His image. They were not created with a soul. This spiritual essence is not something that apes somehow developed and passed on to their human descendants, but something which, from our very beginning, differentiated us from the apes. According to the Bible, we are fundamentally distinct from the animals. We are like God. According to evolution, we are animals. We have less hair, an opposable thumb and a bigger brain, but we are still just animals. Consider moral implications, purpose in life, and the very reason for our existence.

So Genesis and evolution will not mix. Why do I say that? Because according to the Bible, man’s death is the result of sin, not the result of random chance for millions of years. In Genesis 3:19, when God is pronouncing the curses on Adam, he says, “By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”

There is a lesson to be learned here about the severity of sin and the holiness of God. “Holy” means set apart. When we say God is holy we are saying he is set apart; specifically, he is set apart from sin. He can have nothing to do with it. Death is separation, both physically and spiritually. Physical death is the separation of spirit and body. Spiritual death is the separation of the soul from God. So when Adam sinned, he was condemned to death, both physically and spiritually.

This is the foundation for the entire biblical story and even serves as our introduction to redemption through Christ in Genesis 3:15. You see, God created us to live forever in fellowship with him. We sinned and broke that fellowship and are now condemned to die.

Remember, there were two special trees in the Garden. One was the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, the other was the Tree of Life. When Adam and Eve sinned, God kicked them out of the Garden of Eden so that they would no longer have access to the Tree of Life, so that they would not live forever, and he even placed cherubim with a flaming sword to guard the way back. Now do you know where we finally see the Tree of Life? We find the Tree of Life in the last chapter of the Bible. In Revelation 22, we see the Tree of Life in heaven.

From Genesis to Revelation, we see God’s plan for bringing us back to life, both physically and spiritually. So when we throw out the story of how death came upon man, we throw out the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, because that is our story.

This is not a long list, but it is sufficient to show that neither a gap theory nor a day-age theory, nor even a fable interpretation, are compatible with the Bible.

The New Testament

This oil-water relationship goes beyond chronological differences and it goes beyond the Old Testament. Evolution not only destroys the story of the Bible, but it destroys the characters of the Bible as well. Paul and even Jesus accepted Genesis as real history. Both Paul and Jesus based their New Testament teachings on the historical validity of Genesis. If Genesis is not actual history, New Testament teaching is bogus. Consider just two examples.

When describing the different roles of men and women in the church, Paul references creation as the reason for what he teaches. In 1 Timothy 2:12-14 we read, “And I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man, but to be in silence”.

Why Paul? Why can a woman not teach or have authority over a man? Two reasons. First in verse 13, “For Adam was formed first, then Eve.” This is a reference to Genesis chapter two which we have already read. Second, in verse 14, “And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived, fell into transgression.” This is from Genesis chapter three. When Eve sinned, she was duped into thinking what she did was OK. Not so with Adam. Adam simply rebelled. But he was not deceived. Paul says because of these two historical facts, a woman is not permitted to teach or have authority over a man.

So, if Genesis is not true, then the very foundation of Paul’s commandments is bogus. Not only that, but if Genesis is not factual, then Paul was mistaken. If his claim to inspiration is not true in this instance, then how can we trust him on anything? Paul wrote at least 13 of the 27 books in the New Testament, 14 if we count Hebrews.

If we cannot trust Paul, what’s left? We’ve still got Jesus, right? Wrong.

Jesus takes the same approach to Genesis as Paul. When discussing marriage and divorce, Jesus references creation to show why divorce is sinful (Matthew 19:3-6). This discussion is repeated in Mark 10 and refers to Genesis 2 that we have already read. Notice especially Genesis 2:24, where we read “Therefore” or because of this. Because of what happened before, something else should happen now. Because Eve was taken out of Adam, Adam and Eve should be rejoined. The idea is that man and woman were originally one. Not that there were two spirits in one body, but that they both came from the same body. God made two from one, and in marriage, God symbolically makes the two one again. God separated and God joined, we do not have any right to alter what God has done.

Here’s the point. Jesus treated the story of Eve’s creation as a real event. If Genesis is not true, then Christ’s lesson has no foundation. He built his laws on events which never happened.

Not only that, but if the story is not true, then Jesus was mistaken. If he was so wrong about this, then how can we trust this man, who claims to be the Son of God, on anything? If you are going to claim to be divine, you had better be 100% right 100% of the time. So not only have we thrown out Paul’s writings, but now we have thrown out Jesus as well!

Now if we cannot believe Paul’s testimony or Jesus’ claims to be the Son of God, how can we trust either one of them about the resurrection? This goes straight to the heart of the entire Bible! Remember, the Bible story is about us regaining the life we lost. Jesus promised this and then proved it was possible by rising from the dead himself. In fact, he was the first person to rise from the dead, never to die again. He offers himself as proof that eternal life is possible. If his resurrection is fiction, our entire faith is pointless (1 Corinthians 15:14-19). If we cannot trust the Bible, if there is no resurrection from the dead, Christianity is the biggest lie ever told and we are the biggest saps to ever live for believing it. We give up so much in this life in hopes of finding something better in the next life. If there is no next life, we miss out on both counts! It’s all for nothing.

Review

So what have we seen so far? We’ve seen ten discrepancies between the Bible and Darwinian Evolution. Ten reasons we cannot combine the Bible and Darwinian Evolution. Ten reasons we must choose one or the other.

Now understand I have repeatedly referred not just to evolution, but to Darwinian evolution. I do that purposefully. Sometimes there is some confusion about what evolution really is. We all know we can selectively breed animals to enhance some traits while reducing, or even eliminating, others. This is not what I mean by evolution. There are limits to this type of change. For example, we breed dogs to be faster. Yet no matter how skilled the breeder or how many generations we have to work, we will never a produce greyhound that can outrun a cheetah. We breed horses to be stronger, but no matter how skilled the breeder or how many generations he has to work, he will never produce a horse that can out-muscle an elephant. There are limits to the change that is possible.

When I say Darwinian evolution, I am not talking about the limited amount of change we see from one generation to the next. When I say Darwinian evolution I am talking about the unlimited change that would change monkeys into men. I am talking about the unlimited change that would change a one-celled organism into all the life we see around us. I am talking about random chance producing life from non-life. When I say Darwinian evolution, I am talking about random chance producing intelligence from non-intelligent, inanimate matter, about random chance producing morality from amorality, about random chance producing a spiritual nature from a purely physical universe. Limited change, that we see in the world around us, and the unlimited change proposed by Darwinian evolution are not anywhere near the same.

What else have we seen? We have seen that if evolution is true, we must throw out not only the first few chapters of Genesis, but the New Testament as well. If evolution is true, the entire Bible is suspect. We cannot trust any of it. We have seen that if evolution is true, Jesus is not the Son of God and Christianity is the biggest lie ever told.

Once again, the Bible is our record of Jesus. How else do we know anything about him? The Bible tells us Jesus accepted Genesis. As followers of Jesus, we cannot reject what he accepted. Rejecting Genesis undermines our entire faith.

Unanswered Questions

Notice, in spite of all of this, nothing I have said so far proves the Bible is true or proves evolution is false. I told you at the beginning I was not going to try to defend the Biblical account of creation or to disprove evolution. I am just trying to make sure we understand our choices. It is the Bible or evolution, one or the other, not a combination of both.

There is one more question we have not answered. How do we know when a passage is figurative? This is not the point of this lesson, but it is something we need to figure out at some point.

A few years back a Jehovah’s Witness knocked on my door wanting to study the Bible. Really? You want to study the Bible? Twist my arm a little harder. So I invited him in to study.

Actually, he originally stopped by a week earlier when I was not home, so my wife took the material he was handing out and invited him to come back by when I was home. So I had a week to look over the material he left and pick out what I wanted to talk about.

Part of what his pamphlet taught was that the world will last forever. I thought this would be an easy place to start just to see what it would be like to talk to him, so when he came back I asked him about it. He said, yes, he did believe the world would last forever, and do you know where he turned? Psalm 104:5! “God laid the foundation of the earth that it should not be moved forever.” It just so happens that just across the page, the same opening in my Bible, is Psalm 102:25-26 which reads, “Of old you laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands. They will perish, but you will remain; they will all wear out like a garment. You will change them like a robe, and they will pass away.” As soon as I read this, he said, “I know, I know, but this other passage says the world will last forever,” and he started to turn to a third verse.

I stopped him and said that’s fine, we can go back and forth like this, and you can have your verses and I can have my verses, but where does that get us? How do we determine who’s right, by who has the most verses? Even if we do that, think about what that means. If your verses contradict my verses, some verses must be wrong! Are we going to say the Bible contradicts itself? Then, if we throw out some verses, how do we know which ones are wrong?

Furthermore, if some are wrong, how can we trust any of them? I said there is another way to look at this. Is it possible some of these verses are figurative? Maybe some of these passages were not intended to be taken literally.

So my question for you is this: how can we tell if a Bible passage is figurative? Do you know what he said? I am not being sarcastic when I say he gave me the best answer I have ever heard. He simply said, “I don’t know. I’ve never thought about that. I’ll have to study that.” There was no pride, no dishonesty.

I thought that was great, so I suggested we study it and get back together in a week. He agreed and we set an appointment for the next week. Next week came and he gave me a call. He said he couldn’t make it because he was sick.

I said I was sorry to hear it and was there anything he needed? He said no and we agreed to meet the next week. Week two came and he did not show up or even call, so I called him. He apologized and said his wife was sick so he would not be able to make it.

I said I was sorry to hear that and was there anything he needed. He said no and we agreed to meet the next week. Week three came and he did not show up or even call so I called him. He apologized and said his in-laws were sick and he had to be out of town to care for them.

I said I was sorry to hear that and was there anything he needed. He said no and we agreed to meet the next week. Week four came and he did not show up or even call and this time I did not call him either.

This man lived half a block away! I could stand on my front porch and see his front door, and I could not get him to come back to my house! When was the last time you could not get a Jehovah’s Witness into your house?

I do not want to be like that! I do not want to be the person who clings to something just because I’ve always believed it. I do not want to be the person who ignores or blindly dismisses evidence which does not fit with what I already believe.

We need to figure out how to interpret the Bible. We also need to be willing to face the hard questions.

We cannot just dismiss evolutionary claims because we do not like them. Evolution has bothered me for years. It bothered me deeply enough that in college I minored in biology, in large part, so I could study evolution. Now why do I say that? Not to say anyone has to take college biology classes. I say that to make sure we understand that we need to give evolutionary claims the same consideration we expect evolutionists to give us when we present the evidences for our faith.

So which is true, Genesis or evolution? You can guess what I believe, but understand I do not take this lightly, and what I say is not flippant. What I believe, I believe because of the evidence, not in spite of the evidence.

We’ve talked about the consequences of evolution being true. There are also consequences of the Bible being true. If the Bible is true, then Jesus really is the Son of God and Jesus really did perform the ultimate act of self-sacrifice in becoming man and dying for us. If the Bible is true, then there really is an afterlife and a resurrection from the dead. If the Bible is true, then how we spend eternity depends on how we spend our time in this life. So, how are you living?