Are There Two Creation Accounts

Genesis 1:1-2 says, "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters."

Never in scripture do you find God arguing to prove His existence, He simply declares He is God and it is He who has created all things. Through His creation (what we call natural or general revelation) man knows that God exists and are without excuse when they live a life in rejection to what they already know but suppress. In their suppression of the truth, self professing atheists (to which do not exist) attempt to come up with many ways and ideas to discredit God and His Word.

One of those ways in which they seek to discredit God's Word is by claiming that the Bible is full of contradictions. One such foolish contradiction is that of the two creation accounts. The claim is that we have two different creation accounts between Genesis chapter one and Genesis chapter two. Genesis seems to be the most attacked book of the Bible, at least since Darwin and his theory of evolution, many claim that science disproves God's word and that instead of being created in the image of God, we are left with being pond scum that evolved over billions of years. Instead of life having value and meaning because God has created us with value and meaning, we are left with having no purpose but only coming into being by some random chance with no sense of value. And who is to say that since the claim is that we evolved from a common ancestor that we do not evolve back into that common ancestor or become like planet of the apes. 

So the argument is that we have two creation accounts, and atheists use this argument to say that the scripture is contradicting itself. Any one who does any true research on this would see just how ridiculous this argument is and probably not waste anytime on dealing with it. However, I thought it might be helpful to some who are new believers and possibly even those professing atheists (again no such thing as an atheist) who would want to actually examine the claims made and not make the same foolish claims in their arguments. 

Is there two creation accounts? The answer is... NO! Genesis chapter one gives a broad outline of the events of creation which begins on day one through day 6 with the creation of man in the image of God being the climax. Chapter two begins with the seventh day in which God rests. Some atheists make the claim that because God rests here on the seventh day and then in verse 4 we see the creation of man that there is an eighth day creation in which God creates Adam and Eve. This is really just another ridiculous attempt to discredit the Bible and shows a  lack of understanding in their own arguments on the topic at hand. Chapter division in the Bible were developed by Archbishop Stephen Langton of Canterbury around A.D. 1227 and the first Bible to use them was the Wycliffe English Bible of 1382. In A.D. 1448 The Hebrew Old Testament was divided into verses by a Jewish Rabbi named Nathan. Stephanus used Nathan's verse divisions of the Old Testament and was the first to divide the New Testament verses in A.D. 1555. 

This is where we have a first problem when you attempt to read it as if there was these divides and it somehow starts a new account or a contradiction. Now knowing this we can look at the end of Genesis chapter one and see here in the beginning of chapter two that after this broad outline of His six day creation on the seventh day He rested. Now beginning in verse four of chapter two, we see the writer Moses, going into a more focused view of God's creation with the emphasis on His creation of man and the garden in which God placed man along with the creation of Eve the first woman ever created out of the rib of Adam. So this is a more detailed account of God's creation of man in His image. 

So as you can see and I hope you see clearly here that this is not a contradiction but rather flows perfectly as only God The Holy Spirit can do as He moved in inspiration on Moses to pen this account of God's creation. 

Now let me move in a little closer on some of these verses that atheists use in their attempts to support their erroneous view that we find two different creation accounts. 

As taken from the Skeptics Annotated Bible online making this claim that the Bible contradicts. They state this...  "In the first creation story, humans are created after the other animals." citing Genesis 1:25-27 
25 And God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds and the livestock according to their kinds, and everything that creeps on the ground according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” 27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

They compare this passage of scripture with Genesis 2:18-19 and state this... "In the second story, humans were created before the other animals."

​Lets look at Genesis 2:18-19 and see if this is a contradiction. 
18 Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.” 19 Now out of the ground the Lord God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name.

What they would like you to believe is that leading up to verse nineteen we see the creation of Adam and then we see another creation of the land animals. Honestly, this should be obvious to the reader, especially if you understand that chapter one was a broad outline and chapter two is coming in and putting the emphasis on man. Verse nineteen is not saying that God created the animals here but reminding you of His creation of the animals which were created before man which was laid out in chapter one. Remember the emphasis being on Adam here in chapter two, if you continue to read verse twenty, Adam names the animals that God brings to him and in naming these animals in which God brings to Adam it is made clear to the reader that there was not found a helper that was fit for Adam. So the Lord causes Adam to sleep and God takes one of his ribs and creates woman. And Adam declares in verse twenty three.... "This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.”

Now you would think that should cover it completely but there is one more aspect of this story that is connected and ties together with what has already been said, I feel I am repeating myself but for the sake of being thorough I will continue just a little further. 

The also make this claim on the skeptics bible under contradictions... "In the first creation story, the first man and woman were created simultaneously." citing Genesis 1:25-27 then state... "In the second account, the man was created first, then the animals, then the woman from the man's rib." citing Genesis 2:18-22.

Again what we have here is the broad outline of chapter one into the more focused emphasis on the creation of man in chapter two. Not two different creation accounts, not contradictions between the two chapters but a perfect cohesive account of God's creation.

My prayer for you atheist or those who claim to be a Christian but seek to dismiss God's word by making claims such as this one, is that you would repent and believe in Jesus Christ. He is God in the flesh, the creator of all things, the very one you are arguing against when you attack His creation account. He is Lord and deserving of all glory, honor and worship. Bow the knee to Him today, repent and believe in Christ, who changes the heart of stone and gives you a heart of flesh, changing your desires, that natural desire to rebel against Him because we are born sinners because of Adam's sin, which if you continue to read in chapter three of Genesis, has been passed on to us which is why we need Christ to save us. 

The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge and fools despise wisdom, don't be a fool in your self professed atheism, turn to Christ who is the wisdom of God.

by Ricky Gantz