Is it even possible for God to use evolution to create? Think about it for a moment—could God use millions of years as part of his creation of life? “Of course he can. He’s God—he can do whatever he wants!” is the response I’ve received from many Christians and Christian leaders who believe God did use evolution and millions of years. But the answer to that question is actually no—he couldn’t have!
Can God Do Anything?
That statement might seem shocking. After all, God is the infinite Creator, and Luke 1:37 states, “For nothing will be impossible with God.” Now, that is true. But you know what is impossible? It’s impossible for God to deny himself and go against his character. God’s character is a truthful one, as many verses of Scripture attest. In fact, Proverbs 12:22 states, “Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord.” Numbers 23:19 states, “God is not man, that he should lie.” In other words, it’s impossible for God to lie. He can’t do it because of who he is, because of his very character.
God Can’t Go Against His Character!
God could not use (or could not have used) evolution and millions of years for this same basic reason. It would be impossible for him to do so because it would go against his character. Indeed, as I’ve said before, Christians who believe in evolution and millions of years are condoning a process that is a direct attack on God’s character.
Let me explain.
In Mark 10, we read this account:
Mark 10:17–18 KJV – “And when he was gone forth into the way, there came one running, and kneeled to him, and asked him, Good Master, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life? And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God.”
God himself is the definition of good. The attributes of God (all loving, all merciful, all truth, etc.) are part of what “good” means. When God stepped into history in the person of his Son, he healed people of diseases. He raised people, such as Lazarus, from the dead. He treated death and disease the way the Bible does—death as an “enemy” (1 Corinthians 15:26) and the other problems in this world as a result of the “groaning” because of our sin (Romans 8:22).
In Your Inbox
You see, God didn’t create the world the way we see it today. After he finished creating, he declared everything “very good” (Genesis 1:31). Our sin messed up this “very good” world, resulting in death (which is an enemy, an intrusion), disease, and suffering. We live in a fallen world, not a perfect one.
Now, evolution is a process of death, violence, disease, and suffering over millions of years—that’s all necessary, in that view, to produce all of life, including humans. The fossil record, which is supposedly a record of the evolution of life over millions of years, is replete with the remains of all sorts of animals, with many bones showing evidence of diseases like cancer, abscesses, arthritis, and more. The fossil record is a record of death, disease, and suffering!
For those Christians who take man’s ideas of evolution and millions of years (which is really a pagan religion to try to explain life without God) and add them into the Bible, they are saying all these supposed millions of years of death and disease existed before man. But after God created everything, including man, he said everything he made was “very good.” In other words, one would then have to accept that God is calling death, diseases like cancer, and violence “very good.” That is an attack on the character of God.
A Salvation Issue?
Let me pause to state something very clearly: I am not saying people who believe in evolution and millions of years can’t be Christians. Salvation is not conditioned upon what one believes about the age of the earth or evolutionary processes but is conditioned upon faith in Christ. I have never said the age of the earth and what you believe about creation are salvation issues. However, evolution and millions of years are issues that undermine biblical authority and attack the character of God. And I consider those very serious issues indeed! Also, such compromise has greatly weakened much of the church, causing many to doubt God’s Word, and many end up rejecting the Bible as God’s Word.
So, could God use evolution and millions of years to create? No! Since it’s impossible for God to deny himself and go against his character, it’s impossible for God to use a bloody, death-stained process like evolution to create life.
