Plants Were Late Bloomers (Plant Evolution)

 11And God said, “Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants^e yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind, on the earth.” And it was so. 12The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed according to their own kinds, and trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind."

These two verses in Genesis get the order right as far as the introduction of plants goes. The term "vegetation" is more general and includes things that sprout. I noticed that in scripture the adjective "green" is sometimes put in front of this word, making me wonder if it would not also include some things that we don't strictly regard as vegetation, such as lichens. The seed-bearing plants who bear fruit come last. This checks out with the order we see in nature. 

Plants seem to be late-comers to the earth. The seas were full of living things before the land was full of what we would call plants. Superficially, this would be a serious problem for a concordist view of Genesis chapter one. 

This isn't a problem for the Christ-centered model of early Genesis. Creation is supposed to be slow and awkward and even incapable of doing God's will without God's help. In other words, it is a suitable creation for beings like us! A close look at the text shows that while the filling of the seas and lands with animal life was a job God commanded the lands and seas themselves to do, He participated. They had to have help. In the case of plants, the situation is different. All God did was provide the dry land (itself pointing to the Resurrection) on the third day. He commanded the land to bring forth vegetation and the land did so without any record of God's further intervention. 

Creation wants to do His will, but it does so haltingly and imperfectly. It messes up a lot. Like us. This is why God can give the command to the land to bring forth plants first, but it takes much longer for the earth to pull it off compared to, for example, the seas where God provided more help. It all makes sense, but not under the view of creation that so many churches are teaching. 

I noticed that according to this report, the rise of plants took a while, and there was a modest "burst" followed by a much larger burst recently. That larger burst seems to have been driven by the variety of insects that served as pollinators. In other words, the plants didn't have a big burst until the animals were there as a driver. This is in contrast to the seas, where the biggest burst comes early (Cambrian Explosion) and others follow. This is a pattern that the Christ-centered model, but no other I have seen, would predict. 

    You Tube Channel