It is fitting that this first blog for 2017 be about the Beginning – for we all have this “natural” new start with the New Year upon us. What we do with it, as far as success or failure is yet to be determined. My hope and prayer is that each of you will grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to know the peace of God which passes all understanding. Now on to the Book of Genesis – the book of beginnings. We learn of OUR beginning, not God’s. There isn’t anywhere in the bible that tells us where God came from, and how He came to be. “In the beginning” refers to when God began to do His creative work. Now I have to predicate this study in Genesis with a caveat, there is no way to address the entirety of Genesis and all that it discloses. Even in my own reading, I found more questions to ask than before. The blog will try to give a synopsis of our reading. Obviously this will be limited to time and space.
There is great debate on the “day” definition. Are we to think that each day is a 24 hour day or some era of time, like an age/time span? This has been debated over and over again. The struggle with the “day” is the need for us to have a long enough time to reconcile the findings of scientific experiments; that and reconcile the long life span of the early primordial fathers. I have an example that may shed light to this. In John 2, Jesus turns the water into wine. The wine was chronologically only minutes old, yet it tasted aged or mature. When we try to reconcile the scientific measurements of time, they are given as chronological time, yet when God created, He is not limited to Chronos time, but kairos time. In other words the earth and all of creation was as old as God wanted them to be when He created them. Adam was a mature being, he had the ability to fend for himself, oil in the garden and the ability as an intellectually developed man to name all the animals. So when we hear that billions of years ago scientific remarks, we must remember that their findings may be true, but that the earth was the age that God wanted it to be [or appear] when He created. I am a young earth proponent. This means that I hold to an earth that is 12,000 years old or so. I don’t have time space to go into why, but the explosion of Mount St. Helen’s and the geological data recorded clearly establishes the argument for a young earth. ***note look at http://www.icr.org for more information.
When we look at the creation week, we find that God was in fact preparing the earth and universe for the habitation of mankind. Mankind is placed in an already mature, producing agricultural environment. It is interesting, that the old question of which came first the chicken or the egg is answered in chapter one. Clearly and repeatedly we find that everything reproduced after its own kind. This eliminates evolution from the macro sense. Chronos time doesn’t start until day four. [Genesis 1:14-19] Our time is marked by seasons and orbits, God’s is not. In creating God created by “speaking into existence” all things – this is called Ex Nihilo – from nothing came. When we think of the absolute power of God – the things He spoke into existence had to come about for His power is omnipotent!
Genesis 1:26-28; gives us the implied Trinity existence – “Let Us” the plural use indicates the Father, Son and Holy Spirit in cooperation creating man. Now man was created from dust, formed and fashioned by God – unlike all other creation. Also, man became a living being – a soul person by virtue of the “breath of God” breathed into man. As God created, His commentary about what He created was – It was good, but mankind, the pinnacle of creation He says It is Very Good. In Chapter 2, we get a synopsis again of creation; plus the addition of woman; being formed from the side of man. The institution of marriage is captured for us – the reason “It is not good for man to be alone.” God created deliberately, by design and with dutiful functions for all of creation. Male and female were created by God – the ongoing distortion of what mankind is doesn’t change the fact that God created Male and Female; only two gender identities. It doesn’t matter how someone “feels” what matters is how they were created biologically and physically.
preachbetweenthelines 