Psalms 104:26-30 “There the ships sail about; there is that Leviathan Which You have made to play there. (27) These all wait for You, that You may give them their food in due season. (28) What You give them they gather in; You open Your hand, they are filled with good. (29) You hide Your face, they are troubled; You take away their breath, they die and return to their dust. (30) You send forth Your Spirit, they are created; And You renew the face of the earth.”
As the earth is central to God’s creation of the universe, so mankind is central to God’s creation of the earth, for God created the earth specifically for men (Psalm 115:16). Mankind however, has only been on the earth for approximately the last twenty thousand years. And so in effect, what that means is that God prepared the earth over billions of years to make it a suitable habitat for mankind to dwell in. Nevertheless, let us not forget that what to men has been a time lapse of billions of years, to God, was a mere six days. And so, it was only when the earth was completely ready for mankind, that God then created Adam and placed him on the earth. The preparation of the earth took place not only in its physical creation however, but also in its biological creatures that God would place under Adam’s dominion. Nevertheless unlike the physical creation, this aspect of God’s creation did not take place over billions but rather millions of years, i.e. days five and six in the Genesis creation account. The question is asked, if the earth was created for Adam and it would only be ready for him billions of years after God created it, why not leave the earth uninhabited until Adam was created? God answers that question by telling us that He did not create the earth to lie empty but rather to be inhabited (Isaiah 45:18). And so, even though conditions were not yet ideal for Adam, they were ideal for the creatures that God chose to place on the earth over those millions of years leading up to the creation of Adam. The above quoted passage of scripture teaches us that God decides when one species ends and when a new species is created. The terminology that God uses in this passage is that He renews the face of the earth with the new species that He creates. In other words, God replaces one species with another. We also need to understand a principle regarding God’s creation of all living things, which includes the plant life created on day three. The creation account in Genesis is mainly an account of God’s creation of the physical realm. In other words, it is an account of God’s creation of that which is seen, through that which is invisible. And so, when God created all living things from the dust of the earth as a new species, He essentially created them out of nothing. Once God created the first of the species however, from that point onwards the species was programmed, so to speak, to continue to recreate itself, because of its seed that it carried within itself (Genesis 1:11). And so, from that point on, although God would form each living thing from the seed sown, He would not create the species again from nothing.
Acts 17:24-26 “God, who made the world and everything in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands. (25) Nor is He worshiped with men's hands, as though He needed anything, since He gives to all life, breath, and all things. (26) And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings.”
The above quoted passage of scripture clearly tells us that God decides when each nation will exist on the earth, i.e. their beginning and their end, and He decides what each nation’s borders will be. So how does that truth impact on God’s creation of life on earth? Well in the same manner, God decides when each species will exist on the earth and on what part of the earth they will be located. That same principle also applies to whole eras of species. Through the scientific study of geology and the various fossils that have been discovered in the earth, there is clear evidence today that there have been several distinct eras in the timeline of the earth’s history, and each era has been populated with its own species of living creatures. The reason for that is because each age had an environment that was unique to that stage of the earth’s development, and God therefore created the appropriate species of life to survive and indeed thrive in those environments. And so, when we look at the timeline of the earth’s history a clear pattern emerges, which is that God creates a generation of species to populate the earth during a certain age. At the end of that age, God then eliminates that generation and replaces it with a completely new generation of species for the new age that the earth enters into. The mechanism that God uses to eliminate generations of species is through what scientists call, “mass extinction events”. A mass extinction event refers to the extinction of a large number of species within a relatively short period of geological time, thought to be due to factors such as a catastrophic global event or widespread environmental change that occurs too rapidly for most species to adapt. This pattern agrees exactly with God’s account in scripture as quoted in the Psalms, “You hide Your face, they are troubled; You take away their breath, they die and return to their dust. You send forth Your Spirit, they are created; and You renew the face of the earth.) Psalms 104:29-30. And so, in this section I have listed a brief overview of the various ages and their accompanying mass extinction events, which make up the timeline of the earth’s history of living creatures. It must be noted however, that not all extinction events were “mass extinction events”, and some were on a smaller scale that affected only certain regions of the earth, while others only affected a certain number of species on the earth, nevertheless I have listed the major ones here.
· In what is called the Precambrian period, around 900 million years ago, out of nowhere, simple multi-celled organisms started to appear in the fossil record of the earth.
o At the close of the Precambrian period, i.e. 544 million years ago, a mass extinction event occurred, referred to as the Precambrian extinction. It is estimated that 70% of life on earth was wiped out in this event.
· And then 540 million years ago another mysterious event occurred. Suddenly, and again seemingly out of nowhere, large numbers of species started appearing. It’s a period known as the Cambrian explosion. And so, the earth entered into what is known as the Cambrian period. In the Cambrian era, for the first-time, animals with mineralized skeletal systems lived on the earth.
o Around 440 million years ago, the Ordovician–Silurian extinction event occurred, resulting in approximately 90% of life on earth being wiped out.
· Around 400 million years ago, in the era known as the Devonian period, the first four-legged animals started to show up in the fossil records. These animals are known as Tetrapods.
o Around 360 million years ago, the Late Devonian extinction event occurred, resulting in approximately 75% of life on earth being wiped out.
· At 300 million years ago, many new species appeared, living in diverse ecologies. This period is known as the Paleozoic Era. Reptiles especially thrived in this era, both on land and in water. The first aquatic reptile to exist was known as a Mesosaur. It preyed on amphibians and other sea creatures. The most well known land dwelling ancient reptiles of this era were the Dimetrodon. This early predator had an appearance much like a dinosaur. However, the last remains of a Dimetrodon have been dated to 40 million years before dinosaurs walked the earth.
o Around 251 million years ago, the Permian–Triassic extinction event occurred, resulting in approximately 96% of life on earth being wiped out.
· 250 million years ago marked the first emergence of dinosaurs on the earth. This period is known as the Mesozoic Era, which scientists further divided into three periods: the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous. The dinosaurs weren’t initially the dominant species on the planet and it would take roughly 50 million years to take over the entire planet. In the late Triassic period (200 million years ago), the first mammals appeared in the fossil record, which was soon after the dinosaurs became the dominant species on earth. These mammals were very small, many no larger than mice. It’s unknown exactly when, but around this era saw the emergence of the first birds. The first signs of flowering plants are also linked to this time.
o 66 million years ago saw the Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction event. It was the mass extinction that saw dinosaurs wiped from the face of the earth and resulted in approximately 76% of life on earth being wiped out.
· It was after this extinction event that the first primates began appearing in the fossil records. Around 40 million years ago, the first whales also began to emerge in the fossil records. Over the next few million years, for reasons unknown, many mammal species started getting bigger and bigger, some growing to enormous sizes. These animals were known as megafauna. Some incredible megafaunal species include: Mammoths, Wooly rhinoceros, Giant beavers, Giant ground-sloths, Sabretooth tigers, Glyptodons, Megalodon, Daeodon and Short-faced bears.
o From roughly 50 thousand years ago, during the late Quaternary Ice Age most of the megafauna species on the earth were wiped out[1].
· It was toward the end of the Pleistocene era, i.e. approximately 40 thousand years ago, that the animals living on the earth today began to emerge.
And so, we see that in every new age a new series of species emerged seemingly out of nowhere as far as science is concerned, but as believers, we know that in each instance that it is God who renewed the earth with the replacement species that He created.
Michael E.B. Maher
[1] Prof Adrian Lister, Natural History Museum
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