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”…