“And God saw every thing that He had made, and, behold, it was very good” (Genesis 1:31).

God’s “very good” creation only occupies two chapters of the Bible before Satan and sin enter in chapter 3 of Genesis, but the Hebrew word, towb (good), is used throughout the Old Testament. It is a word used to describe the “fair” and “beautiful” Esther (Esther 1:11; 2:7), the “best” men (II Kings 10:3), and the “better” of a host of comparisons (Genesis 29:19, et al.). “Bountiful,” “fine,” “joyful,” “pleasant,” “precious,” “prosperity,” and “sweet,” are just a few of the many other translations of the word which God had used to describe His creation before sin entered it.

God saw that His creation was “good” six times throughout the creation week (Genesis 1:4,10,12,18,21,25), but at the end of the sixth day (Genesis 1:31), He pronounced it very good. If we could take all of the above adjectives and put them into one incredibly descriptive word and then add exceedingly to all of that, we might begin to have an idea of what God’s creation was like. It is deliberate ignorance to believe that God could have made such a statement at the end of some ghastly evolutionary struggle that had left multitudes of contorted fossil remains in petrified testimony to their final battle with death. But this is precisely what theistic evolutionism demands of its proponents. If the fossil record is historically placed at any point before the creation of man and God’s “very good” pronouncement, then one is faced with the irreconcilable theological problem of a God who would make such a statement about sin’s corruptive effects.

“For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope” (Romans 15:4). The doctrine of a “very good” creation by an almighty Creator will stand for eternity. It is a hope that anchors the soul! CJH