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November 18, 2025
ANOTHER REVISION OF A VERY POPULAR CREATIONIST BOOK
Byron Christopher Nelson (1893-1972) was an American Lutheran pastor and an early apologist for creationism. He also wrote ‘The Deluge Story in Stone’ and ‘Before Abraham: Prehistoric Man in Biblical Light.’
John C. Whitcomb write in the Foreword, “It is obvious … that the time has come for a whole-hearted proclamation of the creationist world-view as over against the scientifically bankrupt and socially cancerous concept of organic evolution… Such a work is Byron Nelson’s ‘After Its Kind.’ First published in 1927, [it] has been continually enlarged and revised through sixteen editions, and has achieved unique success as a scientifically dependable, yet popular analysis of the theory of organic evolution.”
In Chapter 1, Nelson states, “While the Bible allows that new VARIETIES have arisen since the creative days, it denies that any new SPECIES have arisen, using the term ‘species’ to denote natural rather than systematic species. It permits the view that many new and strange varieties of the kind ‘pigeon’ have arisen… but it denies that any of these pigeons is anything but a pigeon… Only in comparatively few cases do men know exactly what the limits of a natural species are… The limits of the natural species of ‘dog’ are more definitely known. It includes not only the large variety of domestic animals that we know as dogs, but the jackal, the wolf, and the coyote as well. It does not include the fox, which is another natural species. All forms of ‘dog’ are capable of cross-breeding and producing fertile offspring.” (Pg. 6-7)
He continues, “it is evident that God created plants and animals in such a manner as to enable some species… to cross with entirely different species and produce … ‘hybrids.’ … Horses and asses … possess different numbers of chromosomes in their germ … cells. The ass has 32… and the horse 19. The products of crosses … are always completely sterile… A similar situation … exists in the case of the ass and the zebra… the ass-zebra hybrid is sterile… Evolutionary biologists claim today that they have produced many ‘new species’ by the crossing of different species of plants, but… the so-called new species … are essentially the same as mules…. They may be called ‘pseudo-species’… which … could never be regarded as causing evolution because they are simply the making of one out of two. Evolution requires the making of two out of one and then some.” (Pg. 8-11)
He argues, “To the believer in the Bible the similarity of structure in living organisms merely establishes the fact that there was one great … Creator, who… had in mind one plan or pattern, and this he used for as many creatures as possible… the Creator might have made his creatures all on a different plan. He might readily have created the dog with four legs, horse with five, and cow with six, the elephant with ten… He might have put one kind of nerves or digestive system in man and a totally different one in all of the apes. Is there any reason why He would not do so? Yes. Since all creatures were to live on the same earth under similar conditions… it seems reasonable that a Creator would have conceived one good and excellent plan for all creatures … and then modified this plan when … necessary.” (Pg. 20-21)
He asserts, “If close similarity in blood structure proves the evolution of certain animals from one another, what must the evolutionists conclude from the established fact that … thyroidin---the active principle of the thyroid gland---has precisely the same composition in sheep as in man and as far as we know in all other animals with a thyroid?… What is argued from the fact that when a man is sick with hemophilia… and the blood-serum of a rabbit is injected into him, very favorable and curative results follow, whereas if the blood-serum of an ox is injected it acts as a poison and dangerous symptoms result?” (Pg. 30)
He asks, “If, as was once said, the appendix is a ‘vestigial’ organ in man because its function is unknown, then evolution has produced a totally useless organ in the animal world, because no more is known about its function in the lower animals than in man. Furthermore, it is odd that the appendix should exist in what are said to be man’s closest relatives, the higher apes, but not in his less immediate relatives, the monkeys, and yet should appear again in animals farther down the scale, e.g., the rabbit, wombat and opossum.” (Pg. 47-48)
He explains, “the number of possible varieties which nature can produce in species is limited by the number of genes in them which can be combined. By new combinations of old materials new forms may arise, many of them such as have never been in existence previously. A certain evolution, if one would care to call it that, takes place. Such evolution, however, occurs within a closed system, and does not destroy, but merely enlarges the Biblical concept of the creation of fixed types…. No genuinely new, inheritable characteristic ever appears in species. Whatever appears was already contained in its ancestors in the form of hidden genes.” (Pg. 114-115)
He points out, “A highly significant light on the existence and permanence of natural species comes from the consideration of what happens when two distinct species are able to cross and produce a few offsprings that are partially fertile. What happens is that the hybrids revert to one or the other natural species, and the intermediate forms no longer exist. The progeny of interspecific hybrids split into two groups, and these two groups more or less gradually become identical with the original species which produced them, all the hybrids eventually ceasing to be.” (Pg. 162)
He adds, “Cases in plant species of what are perhaps actual cases of interspecific hybrids have been reported. These abnormal plants are usually kept in greenhouses where, under protected conditions, they are not subject to the rigors and changes of conditions, to which plants in the open are subjected. It is known that certain species of plants can hybridize only when grown very slowly---that is when the temperature is kept cool and the rate of growth of the plant is retarded. Slow growth gives the contrary elements in the hybrid time to adjust themselves to one another. But under rigorous natural conditions where there are sudden changes in temperature and moisture it is more than likely that the interspecific hybrid could not survive. The only hybrids that are permanent unions between different types are those between varieties within species. These should not properly be called hybrids, since the word hybrid implies a violation of nature.” (Pg. 166)
He summarizes, “What a mutation is according to the creation view---A mutation is believed by those who uphold the Biblical doctrine of creation to be but the revealing of hidden genes put into species by the Creator in an act of special creation.” (Pg. 177)
This book may appeal to some modern creationists.
Byron Christopher Nelson (1893-1972) was an American Lutheran pastor and an early apologist for creationism. He also wrote ‘The Deluge Story in Stone’ and ‘Before Abraham: Prehistoric Man in Biblical Light.’
John C. Whitcomb write in the Foreword, “It is obvious … that the time has come for a whole-hearted proclamation of the creationist world-view as over against the scientifically bankrupt and socially cancerous concept of organic evolution… Such a work is Byron Nelson’s ‘After Its Kind.’ First published in 1927, [it] has been continually enlarged and revised through sixteen editions, and has achieved unique success as a scientifically dependable, yet popular analysis of the theory of organic evolution.”
In Chapter 1, Nelson states, “While the Bible allows that new VARIETIES have arisen since the creative days, it denies that any new SPECIES have arisen, using the term ‘species’ to denote natural rather than systematic species. It permits the view that many new and strange varieties of the kind ‘pigeon’ have arisen… but it denies that any of these pigeons is anything but a pigeon… Only in comparatively few cases do men know exactly what the limits of a natural species are… The limits of the natural species of ‘dog’ are more definitely known. It includes not only the large variety of domestic animals that we know as dogs, but the jackal, the wolf, and the coyote as well. It does not include the fox, which is another natural species. All forms of ‘dog’ are capable of cross-breeding and producing fertile offspring.” (Pg. 6-7)
He continues, “it is evident that God created plants and animals in such a manner as to enable some species… to cross with entirely different species and produce … ‘hybrids.’ … Horses and asses … possess different numbers of chromosomes in their germ … cells. The ass has 32… and the horse 19. The products of crosses … are always completely sterile… A similar situation … exists in the case of the ass and the zebra… the ass-zebra hybrid is sterile… Evolutionary biologists claim today that they have produced many ‘new species’ by the crossing of different species of plants, but… the so-called new species … are essentially the same as mules…. They may be called ‘pseudo-species’… which … could never be regarded as causing evolution because they are simply the making of one out of two. Evolution requires the making of two out of one and then some.” (Pg. 8-11)
He argues, “To the believer in the Bible the similarity of structure in living organisms merely establishes the fact that there was one great … Creator, who… had in mind one plan or pattern, and this he used for as many creatures as possible… the Creator might have made his creatures all on a different plan. He might readily have created the dog with four legs, horse with five, and cow with six, the elephant with ten… He might have put one kind of nerves or digestive system in man and a totally different one in all of the apes. Is there any reason why He would not do so? Yes. Since all creatures were to live on the same earth under similar conditions… it seems reasonable that a Creator would have conceived one good and excellent plan for all creatures … and then modified this plan when … necessary.” (Pg. 20-21)
He asserts, “If close similarity in blood structure proves the evolution of certain animals from one another, what must the evolutionists conclude from the established fact that … thyroidin---the active principle of the thyroid gland---has precisely the same composition in sheep as in man and as far as we know in all other animals with a thyroid?… What is argued from the fact that when a man is sick with hemophilia… and the blood-serum of a rabbit is injected into him, very favorable and curative results follow, whereas if the blood-serum of an ox is injected it acts as a poison and dangerous symptoms result?” (Pg. 30)
He asks, “If, as was once said, the appendix is a ‘vestigial’ organ in man because its function is unknown, then evolution has produced a totally useless organ in the animal world, because no more is known about its function in the lower animals than in man. Furthermore, it is odd that the appendix should exist in what are said to be man’s closest relatives, the higher apes, but not in his less immediate relatives, the monkeys, and yet should appear again in animals farther down the scale, e.g., the rabbit, wombat and opossum.” (Pg. 47-48)
He explains, “the number of possible varieties which nature can produce in species is limited by the number of genes in them which can be combined. By new combinations of old materials new forms may arise, many of them such as have never been in existence previously. A certain evolution, if one would care to call it that, takes place. Such evolution, however, occurs within a closed system, and does not destroy, but merely enlarges the Biblical concept of the creation of fixed types…. No genuinely new, inheritable characteristic ever appears in species. Whatever appears was already contained in its ancestors in the form of hidden genes.” (Pg. 114-115)
He points out, “A highly significant light on the existence and permanence of natural species comes from the consideration of what happens when two distinct species are able to cross and produce a few offsprings that are partially fertile. What happens is that the hybrids revert to one or the other natural species, and the intermediate forms no longer exist. The progeny of interspecific hybrids split into two groups, and these two groups more or less gradually become identical with the original species which produced them, all the hybrids eventually ceasing to be.” (Pg. 162)
He adds, “Cases in plant species of what are perhaps actual cases of interspecific hybrids have been reported. These abnormal plants are usually kept in greenhouses where, under protected conditions, they are not subject to the rigors and changes of conditions, to which plants in the open are subjected. It is known that certain species of plants can hybridize only when grown very slowly---that is when the temperature is kept cool and the rate of growth of the plant is retarded. Slow growth gives the contrary elements in the hybrid time to adjust themselves to one another. But under rigorous natural conditions where there are sudden changes in temperature and moisture it is more than likely that the interspecific hybrid could not survive. The only hybrids that are permanent unions between different types are those between varieties within species. These should not properly be called hybrids, since the word hybrid implies a violation of nature.” (Pg. 166)
He summarizes, “What a mutation is according to the creation view---A mutation is believed by those who uphold the Biblical doctrine of creation to be but the revealing of hidden genes put into species by the Creator in an act of special creation.” (Pg. 177)
This book may appeal to some modern creationists.
Displaying 1 of 1 review