In the Beginning, Lesson 7: Why Creation Matters: From Eden to the Cross

Welcome to Authorized Sword Ministries. This is Lesson Seven, the last lesson of our course In the Beginning: The Truth About Creation. Today's lesson is called Why Creation Matters: From Eden to the Cross.

We're glad you're back.

We have stood on Genesis as true history. We have looked at the heavens, at the living cell, at the fossils, at the Flood, and at the first Adam and the Last Adam. Today we bring it home. This is not a side issue. Creation runs from the first page of the Bible to the cross, and on to the new heaven and the new earth.

Our Key Verse

"Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:"
— Romans 5:12 (KJV)

Sin entered, and death entered by sin. That order matters more than many people realize.

Part One: A Very Good World, Then Death

At the end of the sixth day, God looked at everything He had made:

"And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day."
— Genesis 1:31 (KJV)

Very good. Not filled with millions of years of death, disease, and dying. Man was formed from the dust and given life. Then sin came, and with sin came death. Genesis chapter 5 repeats the same sad refrain after the fall, again and again: "and he died." Of Adam himself we read:

"And all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years: and he died."
— Genesis 5:5 (KJV)

Paul says the same thing in the New Testament. "By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin." "For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive" (1 Corinthians 15:22). If the rocks are read as millions of years of animal death, and even of suffering, before any man sinned, then death is no longer the wages of sin in the way the Bible describes. It becomes a tool God used to make the world. That does not fit a "very good" creation, and it does not fit the reason Jesus came. He came to undo the curse, not to bless a process that needed death as its engine.

This is why creation matters. If we move death before Adam, we have already begun to move the meaning of the cross.

Part Two: The Bible's Timeline

The Bible also gives us a timeline, not a vague fog of endless ages. Genesis 5 and Genesis 11 do not only list names. They tell us how old a father was when the next named son was born. For example:

"And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his own likeness, after his image; and called his name Seth:"
— Genesis 5:3 (KJV)

And after the Flood:

"These are the generations of Shem: Shem was an hundred years old, and begat Arphaxad two years after the flood:"
— Genesis 11:10 (KJV)

When a record gives the father's age at the birth of the next name in the line, it is counting real years. Creation ministries such as Creation Ministries International have pointed out that these are written as chronologies, and that a straightforward reading points to a world measured in thousands of years, not billions. We will not pretend we can name the exact year from this lesson alone, and we will not invent gaps the text does not give us. We will say what the text allows us to say: Adam was a real man, the line from Adam to Abraham is given with ages, and the Bible does not leave room for deep ages of Earth history before man. Jesus said God made them male and female "from the beginning of the creation" (Mark 10:6), not billions of years after it.

The same God who wrote the Ten Commandments with His own finger tied our week to His creation week:

"For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it."
— Exodus 20:11 (KJV)

Six days of work, one day of rest. That is our calendar, built on His.

Part Three: Why the Compromise Views Do Not Fit

Many dear Christians, wanting to honor both the Bible and what they have been told about science, have tried to fit long ages into Genesis. We are not here to mock them. We are here to test those ideas by the text.

One idea is the gap theory, which puts a vast stretch of time between Genesis 1:1 and Genesis 1:2, often with a ruin and a remaking of the world. But Exodus 20:11 says that in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is. That does not leave a hidden age before the six days in which the heavens and the earth were already going to ruin. And if that hidden age was full of death and judgment, we are back to death before Adam's sin.

Another idea is the day-age view, which treats each "day" of Genesis 1 as a long age. But each day is numbered, and each is marked by "the evening and the morning." In Lesson One we saw that this is how ordinary days are described. If those days were millions of years long, the pattern God gave Israel for the work week in Exodus 20 would not make sense. Plants also appear on day three, a full day before the sun on day four. That is no trouble for an ordinary week. It is a serious problem for long ages.

A third idea is theistic evolution, the belief that God used particles-to-people evolution to create. That view has the same death-before-sin problem, and it does not fit the way God made Adam from the dust and Eve from Adam's side. It also does not fit the words of Jesus, who put man and woman at the beginning of the creation. God is not a distant watchmaker who wound up a struggle for life and called the suffering "very good." He is the God who spoke, and it was done.

We can respect the people who hold these views and still say, kindly and firmly, that they do not match the text we have studied in this course.

Part Four: From the Creator to the Cross, and to All Things New

Creation is about who Jesus is. The One who made all things is the One who came to redeem us:

"For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:"
— Colossians 1:16 (KJV)

The Maker entered His own world. He lived a sinless life, died for our sins, and rose again. And the story does not end in a ruined garden. The Bible looks forward to a new creation:

"Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness."
— 2 Peter 3:13 (KJV)

"And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea."
— Revelation 21:1 (KJV)

"And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. …"
— Revelation 21:4-5 (KJV)

No more death. That promise only shines in its full light if death was an intruder, not a tool God used for ages before the fall. The last pages of the Bible answer the first pages. The God who made all things will make all things new.

And He can make you new now:

"Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new."
— 2 Corinthians 5:17 (KJV)

"Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created."
— Revelation 4:11 (KJV)

"That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved."
— Romans 10:9 (KJV)

A Simple Step for This Week

• Read Genesis 1, Romans 5:12-21, and Revelation 21:1-5 in one sitting, and thank God that the story has a beginning, a cross, and a new creation.
• If a fellow believer holds a compromise view, speak with grace, and stay with the text: "very good," "by one man," "from the beginning of the creation," and "in six days."
• If you have never trusted the Lord Jesus, do not close this course without settling that. The Creator is the Saviour, and He is able to make you new.

A Prayer

Lord, You are worthy to receive glory and honour and power, for You have created all things. Thank You that the world You made was very good, that sin and death are the reason it groans, and that Jesus Christ, the Creator, died and rose again to make all things new. Write that hope in our hearts. For anyone who has not yet trusted You, draw them to Jesus today. In His name we pray, amen.

Thank you for walking through In the Beginning: The Truth About Creation with us. Stand on the first page of the Bible, and you will find it leads you straight to the Lord Jesus Christ.

This is Authorized Sword Ministries. God bless you.

Sources

All sources were opened and checked on November 10, 2026.

1. Genesis 5 and 11 as chronologies (the father's age at the birth of the next named son), pointing to a timescale of thousands of years rather than billions, without inserting unstated gaps: Jonathan Sarfati, "Arguments we think creationists should NOT use," Creation Ministries International, section on claimed gaps in Genesis 5 and 11, which also points to the article "Biblical chronogenealogies." https://creation.com/arguments-we-think-creationists-should-not-use
2. Six literal days, "evening and morning," and Exodus 20:11 as God's own commentary on the creation week: Terry Mortenson, "Six Literal Days," Answers in Genesis. https://answersingenesis.org/days-of-creation/six-literal-days/
3. Death before sin, and why long-age and theistic-evolution views undercut the gospel, have been a standing theme of this course's source ministries; this lesson argues that point from the text itself (Genesis 1:31; Romans 5:12; 1 Corinthians 15:22; Mark 10:6; Exodus 20:11) rather than from a new scientific claim.