Wednesday, November 30, 2022

Gen. 1:14-25, Beginning Study of Beginnings (1)

Concerning the beginning of the universe, Francis Schaeffer put the four options like this:

1.    There was nothing, absolutely nothing; now there’s something.

2.    Everything began from an impersonal something.

3.    Everything began from a personal something.

4.    There was always dualism (electromagnetism and gravity; Yin and Yang).

#1 has never been taken seriously, that something came from nothing.  Evolution does not hold to that.  It’s always “nothing” and then from “a state of high density and pressure” there was a big bang.  Evolution belongs to #2.  Outside of what is essentially “new age” or “eastern” religion no one takes #4 seriously either.  #3 is, of course, where the Bible squarely stands. 

Gen. 1:1 says: In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.  Henry Morris made a significant series of observations about this verse and what it says about “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, for God is transcendent to that which He created.

·       It refutes polytheism, for one God created all things.

·       It refutes materialism, for 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 evolutionism, because God created all things.

In reading Gen. 1 look at how God was involved in the origin of all things:

·       God created: 1:1,21,27ab; 2:3-4; 5:1-2ab; 6:7.

·       God said: 1:3,6,9,11,14,20,24,26,29; 2:18.

·       God made: 1:7,16,25,26; 2:4,9,22.

·       God set: 1:17.

·       God blessed: 1:28; 2:3.

·       God gave: 1:29.

·       God formed: 2:7,8,19.

·       God planted: 2:8.

·       God put (appointed): 2:8.

·       God put (caused to rest): 2:15.

·       God commanded: 2:16.

·       God caused: 2:21 (had not caused, 2:5).

·       God ended: 2:2.

·       God rested: 2:2.

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