Genesis 1:11-13 - “11 Then God said, “Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds.” And it was so. 12 The land produced vegetation: plants bearing seed according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good. 13 And there was evening, and there was morning—the third day."

 

Introduction

With the appearance of dry land 2.5 Ga (billion years ago), God had already set up the first dominoes for producing seeded plants. What other dominoes were these? First, there was Fossilized bacteria dating back to 3.5 Ga, fully 1 billion years before there was dry land. The other is nucleas-based cell-life (eukaryotes), which date back to at least 2.7 Ga. Evolution apparently had already gotten a start.

 

Then God said, “Let the land produce vegetation:

seed-bearing plants and trees on the land

that bear fruit with seed in it,

according to their various kinds.”

 

And it was so.

 

"Let the Land produce"

According to scripture, God did not create plants directly. He let the land produce them. It was the command of God the Father that Jesus, the Father's master craftsman, remove anything that could hinder the land from producing plants... not just any plants though. The scripture is surprisingly specific.

 

"Seed-bearing Plants"

There are many kinds of plants the land has produced, yet God only mentions one general kind... seeded-plants. Why not succulent plants? Why not thornbushes? Why not sea plants? Why not algae? The answer has to do with how plants reproduce.

 

Like animals, plants reproduce through the fertilization of an ovum (basically a sperm and egg). In the sea, that fertilization can take place through the water. Flowering bushes use pollenation. Succulents simply break off and grow a new plant. What sets seeded-plants aprt is how they combine the ovum with the sperm, and wrap it up in a single package of water and nutrients... a seed!

 

Looking at the fossil record, it would appear that plants evolved through all the various kinds, starting with sea algae and leading eventually up to seeded land plants. By telling Jesus to let the land produce seeded plants, He was basically telling Him to kick off the evolution of plants, starting the eukaryotes and prokaryotes that existed, and leading up to the seeded plants listed in the scripture.

 

Was it Evolution?

Yes and no.

 

The Evolution of plants began with the symbiosis of two kinds of cells, eukaryotes (which have a nucleas) and prokaryotes (which do not have a nucleas). The symbiotic result itself is eukaryotic. The such life discovered is a kind of algae, and they were discovered 2.1 Ga, 400 million years after land was created, and 200,000 years before the sun was visible on the earth. This places the Creative act firmly within Day 3 of creation.

 

The creative act of Genesis 1:11 was symbiosis, not Evolution. Evolution is when a cell changes in a way that makes it easier to survive. A symbiosis is when disparate cells learn to live with each other as a single form, to their mutual benefit. To clarify, there was evolution occurring until now, and it continue, but it was this symbioses that set the land up for plant Evolution to occur. The dominoes were set up, and tipped.

 

While this may seem in line with what many Theistic Evolutionists believe, they do not generally present a good scriptural basis for it in Genesis. So, here is the scriptural basis for God setting up the dominoes for producing seeded plants:

- Scripture says that the land produced seeded plants

- Scripture says that God let the land produce them

- This implies that the land would produce the plants if allowed

 

This lines up with the science, which suggests that a symbiosis of eukaryotes and prokaryotes would allow the land to evolve seeded plants.

 

There is a subtlety here that should not be missed... God acted through evolution, which was already occurring within His creation. He did not merely start it and walk away, but He interacted with it many times.

 

Psalm 104:14-18

14 He makes grass grow for the cattle, and plants for man to cultivate— bringing forth food from the earth:

15 wine that gladdens the heart of man, oil to make his face shine, and bread that sustains his heart.

16 The trees of the LORD are well watered, the cedars of Lebanon that he planted.

17 There the birds make their nests; the stork has its home in the pine trees.

18 The high mountains belong to the wild goats; the crags are a refuge for the coneys.

 

As He did at the close of Days 1 and 2, Jesus rode his chariot-cloud (the Holy Spirit) into the sunset, and on into the sunrise of Day 4.