Are we related to monkeys? I’ve heard human DNA and chimp DNA are the same.

Contrary to what is often thought, evolution does not suppose that humans and chimps are somehow distant “cousins.” Rather, evolution supposes that, because of visual similarities between humans and chimps, we come from a common, distant ancestor. Thus, those who subscribe to evolution often contend that similarly in DNA sequences is evidence that all organisms (in particular, humans and chimps) came from that common ancestry. Of course, a similarity in those same DNA sequences could also be attributed to a common Creator. Also, since all the living organisms on planet earth share planet earth, it shouldn’t be a major surprise that there would be similarities in DNA since all these organisms inhabiting the same planet would have equivalent needs. It would be a whole lot more surprising if every living being on the planet exhibited completely different DNA sequences, especially those that function in a very similar fashion. Scientists had estimated that chimp and human DNA was 98.5-99.4% identical. The actual truth was found to be somewhat different once a chimp’s DNA sequence was first mapped in 2005. What scientists discovered was that chimp and human DNA was about 96% similar; about 4% was found in humans that was not in chimps, and about 4% was unique to chimps that wasn’t in humans—over twice the original estimate of similarity.
The fact is, chimps and humans had remarkably different origins. According to Genesis, regarding animals, God said, “Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: livestock, creatures that move along the ground, and wild animals, each according to its kind.” And it was so. God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good—Genesis 1:24-25. God spoke the animals, including chimps, gorillas and so forth into existence—as He did all previous creation. But not man. With man, God proceeded completely differently: Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish in the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them—Genesis 1:26-27. Genesis 2 expands on this: [T]he Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being—Genesis 2:7. You get the picture of an incredibly intimate, personal moment when God was designing mankind versus His approach with the animal kingdom. And then, it is man assigned by God to rule His creation, not chimps or any other member of the animal world. And while the Scriptures record God as also forming the animals and birds from the ground (Genesis 2:19a), it is His breathing “into his nostrils the breath of life” that makes man’s creation ultimately unique. And one maybe odd picture of the difference between chimp and human: When God invaded time and space in the person of Jesus Christ, He did it as a human being, a man. He did not come as or come to provide salvation to chimps. Only man created the need for salvation, as only man was the object of God’s desire for relationship.