Creation Day 2

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Creation Day 2

Riverside Indonesian Fellowship
Published by Stanley Pouw in 2018 · 12 August 2018

As we look again to Genesis 1, we come to that now familiar verse to us, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth,” and that answers the questions of origin. The heavens and the earth, was a Jewish phrase by which they described the universe. Now, let us look what the Word of God in Genesis teaches about origin. This account here in Genesis is telling us about the origin of the universe.

And it says that the eternal God, at some point in time past, created out of nothing, without preexisting material, the universe as it is now in six solar days. He culminates creation on the sixth day by creating man in His own image, with intelligence, with personality, with self-consciousness and cognition, meaning the ability to think and reason. On the seventh day it was finished, and God rested from creating

This occurred about 6000 years ago, and the entire creation was mature and aged at the instant of its creation. At the time of creation, death did not exist. In fact, no corrupting influence of any kind existed. And that’s why God looked at His creation and said, “It is very good.” There were no animals nor any plants dying. There was no natural selection process going on. There was no survival of the fittest, everything was perfect.

Death and corruption entered the creation for the first time when Adam and Eve sinned and disobeyed God. And that is described in Genesis 3 and has nothing to do with the six days of creation. Later on, after the fall, the surface of the now-cursed earth was reshaped drastically by a worldwide flood. It was so deep that it completely covered the mountains all over the face of the earth.

It was that cataclysmic world flood that also deposited fossil beds all over the globe. That flood wiped out all humanity, with the exception of eight people and the animals in Noah’s ark. They alone were the survivors. All of humanity then are the descendants of those eight. Noah, his three sons, Noah’s wife and their wives. That is the Genesis record. And the Bible is superior to human science.

The accuracy of the Genesis text is no different than the accuracy of any other portion of Scripture. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God. 2 Peter 1:21 says, “For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.” The Bible is true whether it is Revelation and prophecy or whether you’re talking about Genesis and historic origins.

Furthermore, since origins are not repeatable, they are outside the realm of science. Since origins were not observable, since there was only one there and that was God, no one can comment on origins but God. And so what you have in Genesis is the only accurate firsthand eyewitness account of origins by the Creator, Himself. Now, in spite of that fact, many people, including Christians, believe scientists who criticize Genesis.

In fact, there are many theologians, bible commentators, well-known pastors and preachers, who deny the Genesis account because they accept evolutionary science to one degree or another. Science has proven nothing that negates the Genesis record. In fact, the Genesis record is what answers the mystery of science. But sadly, Christians and Christian theologians have denied the Genesis account, being intimidated by science.

Now, there is one book that comments on Genesis. One book that is the absolutely infallible, inerrant, authoritative commentary that has ever been written on Genesis. And that Book forever settles the issue of the accuracy of Genesis. It is the New Testament. It was written by simple men, who were given the words to write by God, Himself, so that the Creator is the author.

You have in Genesis the account of the creation. And you have, in the New Testament, the Creator’s commentary on the Genesis record. There you will find the affirmation there of the six-day creation. There is an affirmation of instantaneous creation. There is an affirmation of man being made in the image of God, an affirmation of Adam being created and then Eve. There is an affirmation of the fall there in very specific terms.

There is an affirmation of the flood there in very specific terms. There is an affirmation of Noah and the surviving family of Noah. All of the Genesis record is very carefully referred to by the inspired New Testament. You can’t find anything about evolution in Genesis. Without exception, references to creation and especially in Genesis 1 to 11 describe historical events in past times.

Citations of creation given in Genesis 1 to 3 are considered in the New Testament to be literally true and historical. The New Testament doctrine is based on these citations in Genesis 1 to 3, and would be without any validity and even erroneous if the events of Genesis were not historically true. If Adam were not the head of the whole human race, then Jesus Christ, the last Adam, is not the head of the new creation.

The New Testament makes a large number of references to Genesis and to creation. And it does so very naturally. There is no attempt to defend, no attempt to explain it, it’s simply stated as fact. Mark 13:19 says, “For in those days shall be affliction such as was not from the beginning of the creation which God created.” John 1:3, “All things were made by Him and without Him was not anything made that was made.”

Romans 1:20, “For God’s invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made.” 2 Corinthians 4:6, “For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” That’s what He did on day one.

Colossians 1:16, “For by Him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through Him and for Him.” Hebrews 1:10, “And, You, Lord, laid the foundation of the earth in the beginning, and the heavens are the work of your hands.” Hebrews 11:3, “By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God.”

Acts 17:26 says, “And He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place.” He is the creator of all the nations of men. 1 Corinthians 11:8-9, “For man was not made from woman, but woman from man. 9 Neither was man created for woman, but woman for man.” Again God created.

And in 2 Peter 3:5, Peter refers to the flood and even to the pre-shaped world when it was engulfed in water, when he says, “For they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God.” Ephesians 3:9, “and to bring to light for everyone what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God, who created all things.”

Romans 1:25, “Man worships and serves the creature more than the Creator.” Revelation 4:11, “Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created.” Revelation 14:7, “Fear God and give Him glory, because the hour of His judgment has come, and worship Him who made heaven and earth, the sea and the springs of water.”

Hebrews 2:10, “For it was fitting that He, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering.” Evolution has been introduced really as an atheistic alternative, as a godless alternative. And evolution demands irrational faith in chance. It has been proven by science that it can’t happen, because DNA, the genetic code information is fixed.

Naturalism says nature is all there is. And that is virtually the assumption that underlies all natural science. It underlies all naturalistic, humanistic philosophy. It underlies all intellectual work. It underlies all morality, or better stated, immorality. In other words, the underpinning of our entire culture is this idea of nature is all there is. If naturalism is true, then man created God, and God didn’t create man.

And if belief in God is just a groundless superstition, then we don’t have to listen to anything stated in the Bible, and certainly not the Ten Commandments, the moral laws, and so forth. So, what religious people think is a threat. They’re non-intellectuals and they intrude on our moral freedoms. In fact, we should just talk about rights and values. And rights and values are only to be decided on by every individual.

In the wake of all these massacres all over, nobody is talking about sin. People don’t do wrong because of sin. They do wrong because somehow they overextended their rights. Somehow they had warped values. They are treated as having a psychological problem rather than a theological problem. There is no Creator, and there is no moral judge. There is no purpose for life. There is no destiny and there is no true theology.

The naturalistic evolutionist hates God and loves sin. They were very perverse in their own personal lives. The theistic evolutionist who wants to impose evolution on Genesis and kind of unite it with God, will say he loves God and he will say he hates sin, but he actually loves God a little and he loves his academic reputation a lot. The governing discipline in the world, the most important arena of understanding is not science.

The governing discipline is theology. The only way you will ever understand the universe, the only way you will ever understand the history of man, the only way you will ever understand behavior and why people do what they do, the only way you will ever understand the flow of life and where we came from and where we’re going is when you understand true theology that comes from the Word of God.

You are all theologians because you know the true and living God, and you know the means by which He is known. And in a world that evolves, it’s very hard to have any fixed points. That’s why educators today are relativists on everything. And until kids learn the standards from God, things are going to get worse because there are no answers in evolution. Only society standards which evolve and are relative.

There is no hope for a society where naturalistic evolution is the queen of the sciences, where everything has to answer to that. Students are given values clarification by teachers who don’t have any moral standards. And then they’re told they need to create their own lifestyle where there is no authority, no sin, no fixed divine law, no shame, no guilt, and no set of consequences.

And they are absolutely convinced that everything that exists today is a result of chance and random processes. As one writer said, “The universe as we know it is just one of those things that happen from time to time.” But contrary to all of that, an unwavering faith in the accuracy and truthfulness of the Bible is at the heart of all sound theology. And it starts with believing the Genesis account.

That is critical to a Christian worldview. Of the Christian College Coalition consisting of 110 Christian colleges, only six affirm the Genesis account. So we have over a hundred Christian colleges that do not have a Christian worldview. I’m trying to do two things in these messages, give you some rational thought, a little philosophical thought, and some scientific stuff before we continue into the text.

So what happened in day one, is God creates time, space and matter. And it’s covered with water completely and then surrounded by darkness. And then on day one, verse 3, “God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light.” God called the light day, the darkness He called night, and there was evening and there was morning, one day.” God then fixed the light/dark cycle in the permanent day/night continuum of 24-hour solar days.

Let’s go to Day two. God separated heaven from earth. Then He separated the water from the dry land so there’s a place for the fish in the sea and the land life on dry land. Thus the universe is made ready for life in the first three days, a very reasonable approach. Light from dark, heaven from earth, dry land from water. And in between those two elements there is an expanse. Expanse conveys the idea of space.

In verse 8, God called this expanse heaven. And, some waters went up, some of the waters stayed below, and He created space in between. The separation of water above the sky and below has led to much discussion. There are many who believe that there was created around the earth a canopy of water. Whitcomb and Morris believe that the waters above the expanse were like a vapor that engulfed the whole earth.

And they suggest, that is why people, animals and plants lived so long in the beginning. You had dinosaurs and people living long enough to become like Methuselah, 900-plus years old because they were shielded from ultra-violet light because of this water canopy. And then at the flood, that canopy burst loose and drowned the earth, along with the tectonic cataclysm that broke up the earth and created the post-flood environment now.

But we don’t know that for certain. There’s nothing in Genesis about a vapor canopy over the earth. But, it seems to be a reasonable explanation. And the suggestion has been made that water vapor has the ability to screen incoming solar radiation and to disperse much of the radiation reflected from the earth’s surface. So it would serve as a global greenhouse, maintaining a warm temperatures around the world.

The combination of warm temperature, adequate moisture everywhere would be conducive to extensive stands of lush vegetation and growth around the world. No barren deserts and no ice caps. And then at the flood when God drowned the earth, we were all exposed to the ultra-violet light and life was shortened up and people just lived 60 years after that. Is that really the way it was? Well it doesn’t say that in Genesis.

As a theologian we can only say what the Bible says. We could only say that God created the kind of canopy, the kind of water in the atmosphere that was controlled so as not to produce the ill effects that creation scientists mentioned. The phrase “And it was so” used here in verse 9, verse 11, verse 15, and verse 24 lends itself to the understanding of the firm, fixed and unchanging nature of that element of creation. Let us pray.



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