TAYA ~ Teens and Young Adults

Getting a degree in science has its benefits: namely, how fascinating the little things in nature can be. Take for example This video. I’m sure some of you may be a little creeped out by the video, you shouldn’t because it is simply the nature of the Emerald Jewel Wasp. But it got me thinking, how did this insect survive when God first created the world. Everything was originally perfect (Genesis 1:31), so using a cockroach as an ‘incubator’ for their larvae would be possible. Really, it comes down to the amazing variability God intrinsically programmed into every living thing through the genetic code!

Poison, thorns, disease and the like could not have a place in pre-sin Earth. Or, at least they couldn’t function the same way as they do now. For example every human has lots of bacteria living in their stomach that is actually good bacteria — you need it to have a healthy lifestyle! So there are ways supposedly bad functions of animals/insects can work together.

However, I don’t believe these (I’ll call them attack structures when referring to poison/thorns etc.) attack structures existed before, but arose through the genetic variability already programmed into the creatures. When God spoke to Adam and Eve about the sin they committed, several changes took place (Genesis 3:14-19). Likewise, how things functioned biologically changed, and the world was not perfect any more. Since death was now integral to life, natural selection began to work on animals, and slowly these attack structures emerged from genetic information already present.

Another way to look at those verses in Genesis 3:14-19 is that maybe God took a more direct approach and physically changed many of the creatures to more resemble what we see today. I mean, God isn’t a deistic God (one that created everything but then disconnects from the creation), but is intimately involved with His creation. However, this may have occurred in specific places (like the snake losing its ability to walk, as suggested by Genesis 3:14), but we see incredibly variability in the genetic code across every organism, leading me to believe death (sin) was the only catalyst needed to create these attack structures.

Ultimately, death will eventually only be a distant memory when Christ returns. Death is the result of sin, but once sin is conquered, death will be no more. Isaiah 11:6 tells us that these attack structures will no longer be a problem for us once death is gone and sin is conquered. So, it turns out that attack structures are perfectly logical in the Christian worldview because they didn’t emerge until after sin had entered the world, and won’t be a problem once sin is finally defeated by Jesus Christ.