Creation and the creator

 "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." Genesis 1:1

       In these simple and yet sublime words the scripture sums up the origin of all things. With the authority of divine inspiration they reveal that mankind lives in a God-started universe and not one that was self-started.
       These words came through Moses who became God’s servant and by God’s enablement rose to be one of the greatest leaders in all history. Moses informs us numerous times that the first five books of our Bible which he humanly authored were the words of the Lord.
        Devout believers in Israel and Christianity have accepted the Genesis account of creation as true. Other peoples and nations have embraced different explanations for the origin of the universe. In the wake of Darwin’s theory of evolution most of the secular world has embraced the concept of a self-started universe and the evolution from non living matter into all life forms living today.
       Not surprisingly, controversy between creationists and evolutionists has been joined and continues to this hour. The current flash point has to do with what shall and shall not be taught to the young children in school and the bright students in the universities.

The Objective Of This Message
       It is the objective of this message to present the Biblical account of creation as clearly and correctly as possible so that those who hear or read this message will understand that the Biblical account of creation is true because it is the revelation of God and is also reasonable. We begin with:

THE CREATOR

       The subject of the universe is incredibly awesome. There are probably not enough adjectives in the dictionary to adequately describe how awesome it is. And yet, rising higher in importance than the universe is the CREATOR of the universe. The central figure in the Biblical account of creation is God. The Genesis account of creation mentions the name of God 32 times.

ELOHIM
       Our first introduction to God is by His name Elohim. The meaning of Elohim is "the strong One" or "the putter forth of power." The power of God is certainly demonstrated in creation. Elohim is strong enough to create the heavens and the earth. He is also strong enough to continually guide the stars, planets and moons in their courses through the heavens.

A TRINITY
       "ELOHIM" also reveals the Trinitarian nature of God. By that we mean one God active as three personalities. The "El" in Elohim is singular, but the suffix "him" is plural. It is a particular plural in Hebrew that means three or more. The verb "created" is in the singular. All this emphasizes the fact that creation was the work of the one true God, but all three personalities were active.

The Father was active: "Have we not all one Father? Has not one God created us?… Malachi 2:10

The Son was active: "God…has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds." Hebrews 1:1,2

The Holy Spirit was active: "The earth was without form and void, and darkness was on the face of the deep.  And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters." Genesis 1:2

In the initial creation we have:
     The beginning of TIME: "In the beginning…"
     The beginning of SPACE: "…the heavens…"
     The beginning of MATTER: "…and the earth."
    
       The writer of Hebrews provides this helpful insight, "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.
       From this original creation we grasp something of the power, wisdom and knowledge of the Creator.

THE CREATION

The Beginning
        We are not told when the beginning was. We are simply informed that at the time God created time, space, and matter it was "the beginning."
       Bishop Ussher counted backwards using the genealogies in the Bible and dated the six days of creation as having taken place in 4004 BC. However, scholarship has revealed numerous gaps in the genealogies. It is apparent that God’s interest was to provide a record of the lineage that would bring His promised Christ into the world and not a chronological record.
       Even so, the consensus of Bible scholars estimate that the time span back to Adam and Eve could not have been much more than 10,000 years. For this "recent creation" believers of the Genesis record have been greatly castigated by those who have embraced any of the forms of evolution. They say that there is much evidence that the universe is billions of years old.

Two primary answers have been brought forth by Bible scholars:

1) The Gap Theory holds that there was an indefinite period of time between Genesis 1:1 and verse 2. The proponents of the gap theory say that the most literal translation of these verses would be "In the [very] beginning God [had] created the heavens and the earth. But [as for] the earth it had become a desolation and a waste, and darkness [was] upon the face of the deep; and the Spirit of God [was] brooding over the face of the waters." They also point out that this translation harmonized with the account of creation in Job 38:4-11. They reason that the earth and the universe around it could have continued in this form for all the time necessary to accommodate the geologic ages assigned by the evolutionists.

2) A Recent Creation is the firm persuasion of many top rank scientists from every field of scientific study. Hundreds of them have become members of The Institute For Creation Research or kindred organizations. They reject the gap theory as an unnecessary concession to the evolutionists. They teach a recent creation in which all things were created with "apparent age." For example, the Genesis record teaches clearly that God created man fully grown at what we might refer to today as in "the prime of life" and yet, Adam was only one day old. It seems that all animals, fish, and fowls were created the same way. Since this was the case with living creatures it was most likely the case with every aspect of the universe.
       When asked about the many geologic layers that seem to indicate the earth is millions or billions of years old, these scientists would answer that they were laid down in a relatively brief time by the catastrophic events of the Flood in the days of Noah. As one Creation scientist put it, "Instead of a little bit of water over a whole lot of time, it was a whole lot of water over a little bit of time. They would point out that when Mount Saint Helens erupted it laid down sufficient layers of silt that would have to be interpreted as taking hundreds of millions of years according to the evolutionary interpretation, but the time period was only nine hours.
       Dr. Russ Humphreys is a nuclear physicist. At last report he was working with the highly respected Santia National Laboratories. At an Answers in Genesis seminar he made the statement that about 90% of all the processes that one could use to measure the age of things actually favors a young world. He was later asked, "How so?" He answered, "Yes, that’s true. I estimate there are probably several hundred processes that one could use to get an idea of the age of the Earth. Only a few dozen, at most, of these processes seem to give you billions of years. The other 90% give you ages much less. So, it seems it would be good science to go with the flow of the 90% of the data and use it as a working hypotheses that the Earth really is young and then try to find explanations for the other 10% of the data. That whole process seems to be a much more scientific approach than the one that is taken by the evolutionists. Basically, they concentrate on the 10% of the data, and that is the data you always hear about…With confidence, I can declare that both the scientific facts and the Bible are on the same side, and they are on the side of the young Earth creationists." Answers In Genesis booklet, Page 6

Science or Religion

        Evolutionary scientists often claim that belief in Creation by God does not qualify as a scientific theory. Creation scientists counter that the same argument can be applied to evolution.
       To qualify for establishing scientific theory there must be a controlled experiment that eliminates variable results. The experiment must produce the same results no matter how many times it is repeated. There must be qualified observers to observe, analyze, and faithfully report the experiment and its results. Obviously, there were no scientists who witnessed the origin of the universe, the origin of life, or the origin of human beings. This places belief in evolution and in creation in a belief system about the past and therefore in the category of religion. Those who believe in creation by God do not deny this. On the other hand, evolutionists claim their belief is based on science. The Supreme Court of the United States performed a good service for the public when they reviewed the above facts and ruled that belief in evolution is a religion.
       There is abundant evidence of the fundamental problems of evolution. The New Mexico State Board of Education encouraged the local school districts to include books in their curriculum that point these problems out. Some of the books they suggested were, "Darwin’s Black Box", "Evolution: A Theory in Crisis" and "Of Pandas and People." In addition to pointing out the flaws of evolution the following organizations also offer a host of materials pointing out how known evidences harmonize much more closely with "Recent Creation" than they do with evolution.
        Creation Research Society; P.O. Box 28473; Kansas City, MO 64118
       Institute For Creation Research; P.O. Box 2667; El Cajon, CA 92021
       Answers In Genesis; P.O. Box 6330; Florence, KY, 41022

       Our prayer for our hearers and readers is that they will know the true God of Creation by receiving His Son, Jesus Christ as their Savior by faith. "And we know that the Son of God has come, and has given us understanding, in order that we might know Him who is true, and we are in Him who is true, in His Son, Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life. 1st John 5:20

Copyright © 2002 Thomas E Berry
All Scripture quotations from NKJV unless otherwise noted.

 

 

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