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The Introduction to Genesis (and to the whole Bible) Gen. 1:1-2:3, ascribes everything to the living God, creating, making, acting, moving, and speaking. There is no room for evolution without a flat denial of Divine revelation. One must be true, the other false. All God's works were pronounced "good" seven times (see Ap. 10), viz. Gen. 1:4, 10, 12, 18, 21, 25, 31. They are "great," Ps. 111:2. Rev. 15:3. They are "wondrous," Job 37:14. They are "perfect," Deut. 32:4. Man starts from nothing. He begins in helplessness, ignorance, and inexperience. All his works, therefore, proceed on the principle of evolution. This principle is seen only in human affairs: from the hut to the palace; from the canoe to the ocean liner; from the spade and ploughshare to machines for drilling, reaping, and binding, &c. But the birds build their nests to-day as at the beginning. The moment we pass the boundary line, and enter the Divine sphere, no trace or vestige of evolution is seen. There is growth and development within, but no passing, change, or evolution out from one into another. On the other hand, all God's works are perfect. In the Introduction to Genesis (ch. 1:1-2:3) forty-six times everything
is ascribed to direct acts and volitions on the part of God as the Creator
(see Ap. 4. I.):--
It will be noted that the word "God" (Elohim, see Ap. 4. I.) occurs in this Introduction thirty-five times (7 x 5), the product of 7 and 5, the numbers of spiritual perfection, and grace. (See Ap. 10.) There are also ten words connected with the word "God"; this is the number of ordinal perfection (Ap. 10). There is only one verb used alone with the pronoun "He", instead of "God", and that is the verb "rested". This makes eleven in all; for the significance of which see Ap. 10. The word "and" is repeated 102 times: thus by the figure Polysyndeton (Ap. 6), marking and emphasizing each separate act as being equally independent and important. Evolution is only one of several theories invented to explain the phenomena of created things. It is admitted by all scientists that no one of these theories covers all the ground; and the greatest claim made for Evolution, or Darwinism, is that "it covers more ground than any of the others." The Word of God claims to cover all the ground: and the
only way in which this claim is met, is by a denial of the inspiration
of the Scriptures, in order to weaken it. This is the special work
undertaken by the so-called "Higher Criticism", which bases its conclusions
on human assumptions and reasoning, instead of on the documen
4e
tary evidence
of manuscripts, and Textual Criticism does.
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