Monday, March 28, 2016

Creation as Foundational Truth, Week 4


Following are some notes from week 4 of our Sunday school study of "Creation as Foundational Truth." 

2:21-25  Creation of Woman 

God took the material for making Eve from Adam’s side. “Woman was not taken from man’s head to rule over him, nor was she taken from his feet that he might walk all over her.  She was taken from his side to be his equal, from under his arm to be protected, and from near his heart to be loved.” (Author Unknown)

“Woman is the crowning jewel of all creation.”

God established marriage as one man and one woman. "What God has defined, let not man redefine." 

The Fall of Man (3:1-13) 

When God’s six-day work of creation was complete, everything in the world was “very good.” There was nothing out of order, no pain, no suffering, no disease, no struggle for existence, no disharmony, no sin, and no death.

But things are not “very good” in the world now.  All those things listed above do exist now.

How did sin come into the world?  “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned” (Romans 5:12). 

3:1-3   The serpent cast doubt on the Word of God

3:4-5   The serpent denied the Word of God. 

3:6-7   Adam and Eve disobeyed the Word of God. 

3:8-10   God desires the fellowship of man, but sin breaks fellowship with God. They were afraid of God after they sinned. 

3:11-13   Man departed from God and denied his guilt. 

3:12   Adam blamed Eve, or actually God Himself. 

3:13   Eve blamed the serpent. Every individual must accept responsibility for his or her own actions. 

3:14-19    God’s Plan for Their Future 

The serpent was cursed. The Redeemer was promised. Humanity was cursed. The earth was cursed. 

The Doctrine of Redemption Introduced  (3:20-24) 

Eve was the “mother of all the living,” including the Redeemer. A blood sacrifice was necessary for forgiveness of sins. Man was driven from the Garden of Eden. 

Section 3:  The Great Flood (Genesis 6-8) 

The flood is a very significant piece of the whole creation account.

Men deny the flood, because it destroys the “millions of years” part of their evolution story.

“Uniformitarian geology” is an obvious outcome of denial of the flood. Charles Lyell, a lawyer, was an early proponent of uniformitarian geology. He influenced Darwin.

The flood means that if God judged once, He can judge again. Men deny this.

Peter predicted this.  “… knowing this first: that scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts, and saying, ‘Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation.’  For this they willfully forget (“…they willingly are ignorant…” or “they are dumb on purpose…”) that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of water and in the water, by which the world that then existed perished, being flooded with water. But the heavens and the earth which are now preserved by the same word, are reserved for fire until the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly” (2 Peter 3:3-7). 

The Days of Noah (Genesis 6) 

Cause of the Flood  (6:1-7) – (See Matthew 24:37-39) The earth was “filled with violence” (6:11). Man’s thoughts were only “evil continually” (6:5).

God said there was an end to His patience.  He gave man 120 years.

God was grieved that He had made man. God stated His intention to destroy man.

God’s deliverance from the judgment of the Flood (6:8-14).

Noah found grace in God’s eyes.  Noah was a godly man, but he was saved by grace.

Like Enoch, Noah walked with God.  He was a “preacher of righteousness.”  (2 Peter 2:5)

The grace of God:   “But I will establish My covenant with you…” (6:18).

God’s grace extended even to the animals:  Noah took every KIND of animal alive at the time. Dinosaurs would not have been left out.

Reptiles continue to grow, and pre-flood life spans were very long. How did they fit on the ark? Noah would not have taken the oldest ones. The average dinosaur would have been small, about the size of a sheep or large dog. Some were as small as chickens.

Were there dinosaurs after the flood? Did men ever see them

1)     There were references to “dragons” in history.

2)     Job was familiar with very large animals. 

“Look now at the behemoth, which I made along with you; He eats grass like an ox. See now, his strength is in his hips, and his power is in his stomach muscles. He moves his tail like a cedar. The sinews of his thighs are tightly knit. His bones are like beams of bronze. His ribs like bars of iron (Job 40:15-18).

Obviously, this animal was created on Day 6, the same day as man.

A note in some Bible versions says this may have been a hippopotamus. The tail is a dead giveaway on that idea. Is a hippo tail really like a cedar?

Possible answers as to what happened to the dinosaurs:  They died out after the flood for a variety of reasons, such as harsh conditions, not enough food, hunting, breathing issues, etc. We don’t have to explain it. 

6:20   Noah did not have to go find the animals.  They came to him.  God brought them.

Noah obeyed the Lord completely.  “Thus Noah did; according to all that God had commanded him, so he did”  (6:22). This is how we ought to obey the Lord. 

The Flood (Genesis 7-8)

7:1-10   Eight people went aboard.  Noah, his wife, their three sons, and their wives.

There were two of every KIND of animal, but seven of every clean animal.  These were the animals used for sacrifices. 

Destruction of all flesh and the salvation of those in the ark   (7:11-24) 

The “fountains of the great deep broke open.”  This likely indicated volcanic activity which released tremendous amounts of underground water.

“The windows of heaven were opened.”  The water from above turned to rain. (May have been the collapse of the vapor canopy.) The rain fell for forty days and forty nights.

The Lord closed the door behind them.  They were secure because the Lord closed them in. 

Was the flood universal or local?  (7:19-20) 

(1)    “And the waters prevailed exceedingly on the earth, and all the high hills under the whole heaven were covered. The waters prevailed fifteen cubits upward, and the mountains were covered.”

(2)    God’s promise to never do this again would have been meaningless if the flood was local.

(3)    Noah would not have needed an ark to escape a local flood. He could just have moved.

(4)    During this flood and its aftermath is when billions of fossils were buried. It explains why there are fossils of sea life on high   mountains, etc. Darwin saw this and concluded it was evidence for evolution.

(5)    All animal life and all human life outside the ark died.  In the same way, those who are outside the safety of Christ today will perish.

(6)    “…only Noah and those who were with him in the ark remained alive.”  (7:23)  This is the grace of God.  He could have destroyed everyone and everything, but He chose not to. 

God’s Promise: 

(1)    “I will never again curse the ground.”  (8:21)

(2)    “I will never again destroy every living thing.”  (8:21)

(3)    “While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, winter and summer, and day and night shall not cease.”  (8:22) This certainly shoots a hole in the "man-caused global warming" / "climate change" idea, which clearly illustrates the arrogance of man. Even very "smart" people are not immune to believing very foolish things.

(4)    “…never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.”  (The Rainbow Covenant, Genesis 9:8-17).

Continued in two weeks with “After the Flood” and then on to Section 4, “Progressive Creationism.” … There is no Sunday school next week due to an all-church meeting.


Monday, March 21, 2016

Creation as Foundational Truth, Week 3

“Believing in a supernatural creative God who made everything is the only possible RATIONAL explanation for the universe, for life, for purpose, and for destiny” (John MacArthur).

God’s answer to men who think they can question Him: “Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said:  ‘Who is this who darkens counsel by words without knowledge? Now prepare yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer Me. Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell Me, if you have understanding’”  (Job 38:1-4).

Section 2:  The Six Days of Creation

The Day-Age Idea

This idea is popular among those who want to deny that creation took place in six literal 24-hour days. It says that each of the days of the creation week was a long period of time, and God used evolution as the means of creation.

Some point to 2 Peter 3:8 as proof of this. “But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.”  However, thousands of years do not meet the millions of years the evolutionists arbitrarily assume. This merely tells us that God is outside of time.

Day/Age puts death before sin and denies the plain teaching of the Bible.

We should not “interpret” the creation account.  Rather, we should simply believe it.

The clear teaching of Scripture is that the creation took place in six literal 24-hour days.

The First Day  (1:1-5)

Creation of time.

Only God can even understand time in light of eternity, since He created time, and He lives in eternity. “…Only an ‘observer’ to all events that have occurred in the past, present and those yet future can actually relate to the true nature of time. There is only one who can be that ‘observer.’ It is God, the infinite One who inhabits eternity. God is effortlessly aware of all events that ever occurred or those that will occur in the future as well as those events occurring now, with a perspective of choice to look either way at any time unhindered by the present” (Ken Schmidt, “Time and our Future,”

Creation of the heavens and the earth. God created space and matter in addition to time.

Creation of light (before the sun). Skeptics doubt this … yet God is not subject to man’s understanding of science.

Beginning of day and night (probably the beginning of the rotation of the earth).

The Second Day (1:6-8)

Separation of the waters above and below the atmosphere. This gives credibility to the “vapor canopy” theory.

There are many scientists on both sides of this, but either way, we know there was water both above and below the atmosphere. God did this according to His will.

The Third Day  (1:9-13)

Separation of the dry land from the water.

Creation of plants. Notice that the plants were created a day before the sun. Those who want to change the days into long periods of time must also change the order in order for plant life to survive. Once someone starts playing with the Scriptures, it is necessary to continue to modify them, kind of making up a new lie to cover an old one.

The Fourth Day (1:14-19)

Creation of the sun, moon, and stars.  (See Isaiah 40:26.)

Objection by skeptics:  If stars and galaxies are millions of light years away, then the universe has to be old enough for the light to reach us.

Possible answers:

1)  Decay of the speed of light. In 1982, Dr. Barry Setterfield made an amazing discovery that tabulated the speed of light between 1675 and 1983. His computer-generated curve showed that the speed of light of slowing at an exponential rate and predicted an age of the universe of 6,000 – 7,000 years. Immediately, the scientific community immediately tried to discredit his report, but much of their work only verified that he was likely correct to an extremely high statistical probability. Obviously, evolutionists would ignore any such study, because it doesn’t fit with their narrative.

Such a decrease in the speed of light would be consistent with the fact that everything is winding down in a fallen universe. “…because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now” (Romans 8:21-22). If evolution works at all, it works in reverse.

2)  We know that God created light before He created the sun. What is to say that He did not or could not create the starlight at the same time as He created the stars? Scientists come down on both sides of this idea as well. Evolutionists will downplay such ideas. They say all we have to fall back on is “God did it.”

So? God DID do it. We don’t have to explain miracles. He is all-powerful. It is possible that neither of these explanations are correct, but that doesn’t matter. We don’t need to know HOW. Our inability to figure it out just shows His omniscience and omnipotence compared to our limitations.

God is not limited by fallen man’s understanding of what he thinks he knows through science. Science changes all the time. His Word abides forever. “…having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever” (1 Peter 1:23).

“By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible” (Hebrews 11:3).

His creation praises Him. “The heavens declare the glory of God; And the firmament shows His handiwork” (Psalm 19:1). “I tell you that if these should keep silent, the stones would immediately cry out” (Luke 19:40).

If we could have stood on the earth when God created the stars, we no doubt would have seen them immediately. HOW doesn’t matter. That’s His business.

The Fifth Day  (1:20-23)

Creation of fish, other sea creatures, and birds.

Another poke in the eye of evolutionists:  God created birds before the land animals, yet evolutionists say birds evolved from dinosaurs. Any creationist who accepts evolution must deny and modify the Scriptures in many ways.

The Sixth Day (1:24-31)

Creation of land animals, insects, etc., and man. This would include the "dinosaurs."

“Let Us make man in our image…”  (The Trinity in cooperation.)

“Let them have dominion…”  (Man is to rule over all other forms of life.)

Man was created in God’s image. Man has an eternal spirit. In many other ways, man has characteristics like God’s:  emotions, will, ability to reason, etc.  Animals do not have these characteristics.

Man was blessed and told to multiply.

Both man and animals were vegetarians in the beginning. Otherwise, there would have been animal death before sin came into the world.

The Completed Creation  (1:31-2:4a)

His creation was “very good.”  It was complete and in perfect harmony. They were not standing on the fossil remains of millions of years of death.

God “rested” on the seventh day. He was not tired. He ceased from His work and set a pattern for us. “God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it…”  He gave us a pattern for rest from our work.

The Creation of Man and Woman (Genesis 2)
2:4-6   

Genesis 2 gives a more detailed description of the creation of man. It does not contradict chapter 1.  The conditions of the earth were ready to support man. There were plenty of plants for food. A mist went up to water the vegetation and keep it plush.

2:7-14

God formed man and prepared the Garden of Eden for him.

Man was made from the dust of the ground.

God breathed into him the breath of life. Only human life is described in this way. Humans are truly a special creation.

Man was placed in the garden. There were two important trees:  The Tree of Life, and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.
Exactly where is the Garden of Eden? There is no sense in looking for it. It would have been destroyed by the flood.

2:15-17

God’s one commandment to Adam:  “…of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die” (verse 17).

2:18-20

Adam named all the animals.

Adam needed an appropriate helper.

Continued next week with “The Creation of Woman”…

Tuesday, March 15, 2016

Creation as Foundational Truth, Week 2

Genesis is the book of beginnings. If the Book of Genesis were removed from the Bible, the rest would be incomprehensible.

The word genesis means “origin,” and the Book of Genesis gives the only true and reliable account of the origin of all the basic entities of the universe and of life. Genesis describes the origin of the universe, order and complexity, the solar system, the atmosphere and hydrosphere, humanity, marriage, evil, language, government, culture, false religion, etc.

Christianity begins in Genesis 1:1, not in John 3:16.

If a person really believes Genesis 1:1 he will not find it difficult to believe anything else recorded in the Bible.
 
This one verse refutes all of man’s false philosophies concerning the origin and meaning of the world:
 
It refutes atheism, because the universe was created by God.
 
It refutes pantheism, because God is transcendent to that which He created.
 
It refutes polytheism, because one God created all things.
 
It refutes materialism, because matter had a beginning.
 
It refutes dualism, because God was alone when He created.
 
It refutes humanism, because God, not man, is the ultimate reality.
 
It refutes evolution, because God created all things.
 
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1)  This is the beginning of the First Day.
 
Each word in this verse is all-important.
 
“God.”  (Elohim) the name of God which stresses His majesty and omnipotence. A plural name with a singular meaning, a “uni-plural” noun, thereby suggesting the uni-plurality of the Godhead.  God is one, yet more than one.
 
“Created.”  Only God can create; that is, call into existence out of nothing. (Romans 4:17 and Hebrews 11:3).  Men can “make” things or “form” things, only God can create things.
 
“Heavens and Earth.”  God created the physical universe of space and matter. 
 
“Without form, and void…”  Not everything was yet formed. He was not finished yet.
 
“In the beginning.”   The creation of time.
 
Genesis 1:1 can be paraphrased as follows:  “The transcendent, omnipotent Godhead called into existence the space-mass-time universe.”  or  “In the beginning God created time, space, and matter.”
 
Either we believe that or we don’t. God is the creator of all things, or He is not. If we accept that He is not, then it comes down to chance or coincidence.  It becomes “Nobody times nothing equals everything.”  That is a preposterous notion, at best. It is foolishness.
 
The Gap Theory
 
This theory says that Genesis 1:1 may have taken place billions of years ago, with all the geological ages inserted in a tremendous time gap between Genesis 1:1 and 1:2.
 
Following the gap, God then “re-created” the world in the six literal days described in Genesis 1:3-31.
 
This was an effort by some well-meaning Christians to make the Bible fit with “science.”
They thought science had “proven” the earth to be billions of years old.  No one can “prove” something that is not true.
 
The past can only be proven historically, not scientifically.
 
The Bible says that death came into the world only when Adam brought sin into the world (Romans 5:12, 1 Corinthians 15:21).
 
This fact directly contradicts the assumption in the gap theory that death prevailed for ages before Adam.
 
Time, and therefore “the first day,” began in Genesis 1:1. There is no scientific or theological reason to accept the Gap Theory.
 
Time is a created thing. We live in time, God exists in eternity.
 
Verse 2: “…the earth was without form, and void…”  The initial creation was not “perfect” in one way, because it was not yet complete.  But it was perfect for that first stage of God’s six-day plan of creation. When initially created, the earth had no inhabitants; it was “void” or “empty.”
 
Paraphrase of verses 1 and 2: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, and the earth so created was at first unformed and uninhabited.”
 
“…darkness was on the face of the deep…” This darkness does not imply evil.
 
“…For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it” (Exodus 20:11).
 
Continued next week with “The Six Days of Creation”…

Monday, March 7, 2016

Creation as Foundational Truth, Week 1

I started a new 13-week study in Sunday school on March 6 entitled "Creation as Foundational Truth." The study of creation is extremely important to the understand of the rest of the Bible, and Bible doctrine only makes sense in light of the truth of creation as found in Genesis. Following are a few of the points from week 1.


Introduction

Creation vs. Evolution is NOT “Religion vs. Science,” as so many say today. Neither creation nor evolution can be proven scientifically, since the scientific method cannot be used to look at the past. The past can only be proven historically.

The same data is available to creationists and evolutionists. Data is interpreted according to the creation model or the evolution model. The real issue:  Which model best explains the evidence? Did a new car come into existence by an explosion in a junk yard or was it made in a car factory? The answer is obvious.

The evolution model is based on wishful thinking. “Evolution was invented in order to kill the God of the Bible” (John MacArthur). “Evolution is part of Satan’s plan to get rid of God, to erase God’s signature from the world He created and every person in it” (Dr. Ben Carson). The creation model is based on God’s Word and is backed up by good science and common sense.

Evolution demands design without a designer, order from chaos, life from non-life, information from no information, etc.  All of this is absurd, at best. Even without the Scriptures, common sense and intellectual honesty point to creation rather than evolution.

Creationists should avoid saying “evolution is just a theory.” It isn’t worthy of that title, now that the definition of “theory” has been reworked. Evolution is not really even a hypothesis by the new definition. It is at best only an idea, and not a very good one at that. Evolution is a story that was made up to explain the existence of everything while leaving God out of the picture.

Evolutionists claim the following to be true:  “Evolution is considered the single greatest unifying theory in biology, since it offers a comprehensive explanation for the pattern of similarities and differences that exist in all living things…” (University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee biology professor Andrew J. Petto).

This is nonsense, in that it implies no one can understand biology without belief in evolution. The list of creationists with Ph.D. degrees in biology is very long. “Creation is God’s signature, that he created the world and that He created us” (Dr. Ben Carson). Could anyone even think that someone who was Director of Pediatric Neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital doesn't understand science?

We are instructed to contend for the faith. "... contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints" (Jude 3).

How do we do this? "But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear" (1 Peter 3:15).

What does this mean?

(1) Be knowledgeable of the Scriptures and be ready to use the Bible to defend what we believe and why we believe it.

(2) Be ready to answer the objections of unbelievers. In the context of creation, understand or be ready to learn about the common arguments evolutionists use.

Never let the other side set the rules.  Evolutionists are fond of saying, "We can debate, but you can't use the Bible." That's like saying, "We can play baseball, but you can’t use your bat or glove.” While we know unbelievers by nature do not accept the Scriptures, and we don't want to just beat them over the head with Bible verses, but we also know that “…the Word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart" (Hebrews 4:12). God's Word can do a mighty work in a sinner’s heart. Our debating skills will never accomplish that. We should never lay down our most powerful weapon.

Section 1:  The Importance of Genesis:  “If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?"  (Psalm 11:3).

Basic, obvious truth – God exists. All men know, down deep inside, that God exists. See Romans 1:18-20. Those who deny God are fools, no matter how “smart”  they are. See Psalm 14:1.

It is reasonable that this God who obviously exists would communicate with us. It is also reasonable that God would amplify the witness of the heavens with His written Word.

The Bible is God’s Word, and Genesis is the foundation of the Bible. This is the reason Genesis is always under attack. Genesis 1-11 is the foundation of the foundation. Genesis 1:1 is the foundation of the foundation of the foundation.

"If we can't trust God's word in Genesis, then why are we to trust His Word in the Gospels, particularly when Jesus affirmed Adam and Eve, Noah and the Flood?" (Ken Ham).

Paraphrased quote from John Meyer, PhD:  “I am very pleased that the scientific evidence points to creation, but I believe it because God's Word says He created it, because By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the Word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible (Hebrews 11:3).

The Bible is our most important and effective weapon in the war for truth. God’s Word is truth. Truth is not found in the alleged science of men that starts with an atheistic and/or evolutionary bias.

If we want to know what happened in the past, we should ask someone who was there. There can be no understanding of purpose and destiny if we don't understand origins. There are two options:  Believe Genesis or not. Either God created or He did not. There are no other options. “Believing in a supernatural creative God who made everything is the only possible rational explanation for the universe, for life, for purpose, and for destiny” (John MacArthur).

What is science? Science means “knowledge.” One cannot “know” that which is false. Much of what is called “science” or “scientific” is most certainly not.

Where does knowledge come from? “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction” (Proverbs 1:7). “Guard what was committed to your trust, avoiding the profane and idle babblings and contradictions of what is falsely called knowledge  — by professing it some have strayed concerning the faith” (1 Tim. 6:20-21).

Evolutionists believe two pre-conceived notions:  (1) Everything must have a naturalistic explanation, and (2) Evolution is true. Who says so? Certainly not God, and certainly not the evidence. Wishful thinking comes in because humans desperately want to get God out of the picture so there is no one to whom they must answer. (See Psalm 2:1-5.)

Continued next week…