Answers Bible Curriculum 2nd Edition Unit 2 Lesson 12
In this lesson, we begin our chronological study of the Bible starting in Genesis 1:1. Specifically, we overview the creation account and answer some fundamental questions: What genre of literature is the creation account? What is the relationship of Genesis 1:1 to Genesis 1:2? And can modern, secular scientific theory genuinely be fit into the Genesis 1 account?
Our main text for this lesson is Genesis 1:1-31.
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all right good morning welcome to Sunday school please find your seats good to be with you in person I always relish these opportunities because I love what we’re able to do via the live stream but there’s nothing like actually being with you and being able to see see you up close so I’m really happy to be here and it’s really good to see you all we’re back into our answers Bible curriculum 2nd edition and we’re proceeding onward with our actual chronological study we are going back to the beginning we’re starting in Genesis and we’re going to have just a little heads up I know it stopped working maybe you can advance the slide but I would just want to show you the lessons that we have for unit 2 it’s lining up here but nothing’s happening maybe it froze but we have seven lessons on creation and then we have one lesson on corruption and then we have a review there it is unit two good so you can see those on the screen here various lessons on creation and you might ask why so many why are we spending so many lessons on creation pool it’s simple understanding creation rightly is critical for you and for me and why is that it’s because you need to believe and young Earth Creationism in order to be saved well no there are implications for the gospel however that are based on how you interpret Genesis 1 and many important doctrines in the Bible are related to your interpretation of Genesis one two and three but the reason I think that understanding creation rightly is critical is because it is a clear test of what you and I think is ultimately authoritative is the plain sense of Scripture authoritative or are man’s ideas and scientific claims authoritative well you and I start with the scriptures and then assessment series based on the Scriptures or will we start with man’s theories and then use those to assess the scripture this is something we’ve been talking about but I just want to remind you again this is something that we need to grasp especially when it comes to creation we don’t want to forget the truths that we previously discussed in unit 1 the Bible is our ultimate authority and foundation for truth we must not bring our assumptions to the Bible and then interpret the Bible according to those assumptions rather we let the Bible speak for itself let the meaning come out of the text study the text inductively observe the details interpret and then apply I do not let other sources of knowledge interpret the Bible we use the Bible to interpret those sources in other words to pull back that metaphor that Ken Ham uses we look at the world with biblical glasses and we can do this because the Bible is totally sufficient and trustworthy now as we proceed forward we don’t want to forget those principles but we also don’t want to forget these 7 seas of history we talked about those for two lessons these function as are outlined for understanding the flow of history and the most important events who can name the seven seas of history in order can you do it Juliana that’s it very good the seven seas right there excellent creation corruption catastrophe confusion Christ cross and consummation yeah I want to keep those in mind going forward too well we’re starting with that first sea today creation if I go back to my previous slide oops God creates the universe that’s our lesson title and what are we doing in today’s lesson we’re going to overview the creation account by watching a video that dramatically goes through the verses of chapter 1 then we’ll do an activity that compares the universe’s beginning earth the earth more specifically the earth beginning sequence according to the Bible compared to prevailing scientific theory prevailing secular theory and then we’ll finish by talking through some application questions let’s pray as we before we go on Lord God we thank you for your word especially that it is so clear it gives us the information we need to know about the beginning where we came from why things are the way that they are we thank you that you’ve given us this revelation help me to be able to explain it well I pray that this to be a profitable time Jesus named human please open your Bibles to Genesis chapter 1 and we’re going to get our video started this video is not that long only about 5 minutes but it’s going to narrate us through Genesis 1 in the beginning God created the heaven and the earth and the earth was without form and void and darkness was upon the face of the deep and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters and God said let there be light and there was light and God saw the light that it was good and God divided the light from the darkness and God called the light day and the darkness he called night and the evening in the morning were the first day and God said let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters and let it divide the waters from the waters and it was so and God called the firmament heaven and the evening in the morning were the second day and God said let the waters under the heaven be gathered together into one place and let the dry land appear and it was so and God called the dry land earth and the gathering together of the waters he called seas and God saw that it was good and God said let the earth bring forth grass the herb yielding seed and the fruit tree yielding fruit after its kind whose seed is in itself upon the earth and it was so and the evening in the morning were the third day and God said let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years and let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth and it was Saad and God made two great lights the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night and God saw that it was good the evening in the morning with a fourth day and God said let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that has life and birds that may fly above the earth across the face of the firmament of heaven and God blessed them saying be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas and let Birds multiply in the earth and the evening in the morning were the fifth day and God said let the earth bring forth the living creature after its kind livestock and creeping thing and beast of the earth after its guy and it was so and God said let us make man in our image after our likeness so God created man in his own image in the image of God he created him male and female he created them and God blessed them and God said to them be fruitful and multiply and build the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth and God saw everything that he had made and behold it was very good the evening in the morning with a sixth day that’s pretty amazing right I feel I know I just felt you’ve been getting a little emotional about that just like wow what God has done anyways we’re gonna examine each part of that Genesis count in more detail in the next few weeks but let’s see if we can make some general some beginning observations of this Genesis 1 narrative or the Genesis 1 text yeah I kind of gave away the next thing I’m gonna say but hang on just a second what type of literature is Genesis 1 does it sound like a narrative does it sound like a poem does it sound like a letter or does it sound like some other type of writing say it’s a narrative it’s clearly a narrative now some people don’t want to admit that but let’s let’s clarify some things and I think it will be even more abundantly clear a narrative what is a narrative it’s just a story with events told in an orderly sequence a narrative the story with events told an orderly sequence do we see an orderly sequence in Genesis 1 we do how give me some evidence that there’s an orderly sequence here the number of the days we have certain time details not just the day numbers but in the beginning evening a morning day 1 day 2 there’s a summary at the end of the creation account the beginning of chapter 2 that emphasizes chronology thus the heavens and the earth were completed and all their hosts this is chapter 2 verses 1 & 2 by the seventh day God completed his work which he had done and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had done so we see some time details that indicate sequence but what else yes do you write in the beginning that’s another time detail very good what else Roy okay there does seem to be even a logic a reasoning for why the water perceives as it does now what’s interesting as we’ll see later on that does not really or someone today might not think that this is the most logical order someone maybe who’s he was used to secular scientific theory and we’ll talk more about that a little bit later on I do want to draw your attention to even the verbs that we see here in Genesis chapter 1 verbs when things happen when actions happen that also was an indicator of sequence and we see a number of verbs indicating sequence God created then God said God saw God separated then God said etc in fact if you examine the the type of Hebrew verbs used here again and again in this passage they are verbs that specifically indicate sequence as well call what’s called a Y ik toll verb and all that means is that a verb that indicates sequence it can almost be translated and then and then this happened and they’re almost always translated in the past tense and you see them frequently in historical or that you see them frequently in narrative they appear much less frequently in poetry but they’re very frequent in narratives in the Bible so from the verbs and from the time markers it’s not difficult to discern that we have a set of events presented in sequential fashion sequential fashion and as these are historical events they purport to be historical events the beginning of our world we can confidently include this text in the genre historical narrative this is a story narrative but someone will say what about the literary devices and the stylistic elements in this passage well what about them do we see literary or stylistic elements in this passage well we do what’s an example of a stylistic choice that’s evident in this passage repetition we see a lot of repetition it’s the most striking stylistic element in this passage you might see our you see phrases like then God said God called God made God said let there be and it was so God saw that was good so there was evening a morning the next day according to its kind these phrases keep on getting repeated in the passage there’s also a repeated structure in the passage almost a formula it starts with then God said the description of what God created then it finishes with and there is evening a morning the day X so that’s clearly a stylistic a literary choice what else is there another literary element evident here you might notice an apparent symmetry some have thought to use a or to point out at apparent symmetry between days 1 2 3 and days 4 to 6 and they use this as an argument to interpret this passage not as narrative but as figurative non time sequential poetry instead of historical narrative and one must acknowledge there is a degree of correspondence between the first three days and the second three days day one we have the creation of what I will argue is earth heavens time light day and night and in day four particularly with day night and light day four we have the celestial bodies that rule day and night needs to be some correspondence there and day two we have the water separated into the waters in the heavens and the waters below and then day five we have the sea and air creatures that seems to correspond right you got the creatures in the heavens and the creatures below and then day three we have the land and water separated and then the vegetation is created and in day six we have what do you know the creatures that go on the land the land animals and man are created in day six but one shouldn’t go too far with this parallel with this symmetry because it’s not exact those who are advocates of what’s called a framework hypothesis that’s basically the idea that this is all figurative it’s just presented in this really literary parallel way because that just shows the logic of what God was doing it’s not chronological some of those advocates will posit that in day 1 2 3 we get the realm created Earth water heaven and in day 4 2 6 we get the rulers of those realms we get the sea creatures the land creatures and the air creatures and even the celestial bodies but this doesn’t work and why well again because it’s not exact more than light was created on day one over the realm of water existed since day one and it’s not divided into seas until all right not divided into the waters above and then into the seas on day two and three so if the sea creatures were indeed to become the rulers of the sea well then it would have to be on day four because that’s when the water that’s when the water was created or that would correspond to day one when the water was created mana wasn’t created on day two wasn’t graded on day three so when the sea creatures appear on day five it’s not parallel moreover the sea air creatures do not rule those realms in fact there’s only one creature who’s given charge to rule according to this account which creature man man is given dominion over the land creatures the air creatures and the sea creatures and over the earth so there is a relationship between days 1 2 3 and days 4 to 6 but it’s not an exact parallel it’s not an exact symmetry but even if it were an exact symmetry it does not follow that this symmetry must mean that it’s a figurative and not historical account and why not if there’s an exact parallel why doesn’t that mean that it’s not historically accurate because God could have chosen to create that way you could have chosen to actually do things in exact parallel you God he can do what he wanted he did choose to do this creation in a specific way and we’ll see more of those reasons as we go along you could have chosen to make a completely symmetric own that wouldn’t change the fact that he actually did it in fact there is I think a very clear reason in the text why the order does proceed the way it does and it’s because of the state of the earth it’s described in verse 2 Genesis 1:2 it says the earth was formless and void that is it is without form and it is without filling void means empty it doesn’t have form and it hasn’t been filled so what happens over the next sequence of days if you earth this formed the earth and heavens are formed we see that in days 1 2 3 primarily and the earth and sevens are filled we see that in days four six so it makes sense but all this to say do stylistic elements or literary devices like repetition or symmetry do they prevent this text from being narrative they don’t they don’t and if that were the case then we’d have to throw away all the history in the Bible because every piece of history the Gospels The Chronicles the Kings they all use stylistic elements they have their repetitions they have different formulas they have things that the author chose to put in a stylistic way the authors have the Liberty to do that and they’re not compromising the text by doing so all biblical writers use literary devices and make stylistic choices and that does not make what they say less accurate or true so Genesis one as I say it’s plainly narrative let’s make some more observations for the text what period of time does this passage describe the six days at the very beginning of the universe the very beginning of time and then it proceeds over six days who’s doing the creating in this chapter God and we’re aware of other scriptures that make it clear this is the triune God but there’s even evidence in this text the Spirit of God is over the waters and yet God is the one speaking into existence and we even had the phrase let us make man in our image that phrase itself doesn’t prove the Trinity but it does testify of the Trinity because it’s not the Angels that are our manner not made in the image of angels how do the various parts of creation come into existence they were spoken they were commanded into existence God spoke and they existed they appeared Emma’s truth is repeated in Psalm 33 6 by the word of the Lord that is by the word of Yahweh the heavens were made and by the breath of his mouth all their hosts this is what we call or what theologians call Fiat creation that is creation by decree all God had to do was command something to come in to exist and it did has some more interpretive interpretation questions now go back to Genesis one and look at look at the different phrases we have the first part that says in the beginning in the beginning of what all time the universe of this passage describes the beginning of the universe then what existed before Genesis 1:1 only God only God there was nothing else because the universe was not created only a triune God existed not even time existed not anything in the universe otherwise it’s not the beginning as someone might ask wait a second what about the Angels Bob doesn’t give us very much information about angels that we do know that they they are created beings Colossians 1:16 speaking of Jesus says the CICC washings 1:16 for by him all things were created both in the heavens and on earth visible and invisible what the Thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities all things have been created through him and for him now that phrase Thrones dominions rulers or authorities it’s best understood as referring to angels and we see that those terms using the same way in the book of Ephesians referring to spirit beings they are part of the group of things invisible that were created by the son of God we also know that angels were present during at least some portion of creation because we hear this from Joe Jobe 38 verses 4 to 7 this is part of God reproving job job 38 47 God says where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth tell me if you have understanding who said its measurements since you know or who stretched the line on it on what words bases sunk or who laid its cornerstone when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy while seeing how humans were not created when at the beginning of creation they were created at the very end of that process the phrase sons of God should be understood as referring to angels they were there rejoicing when godly the foundation of the earth which would either be on day one when the earth was actually created or day three when the earth when the dry land appeared so when were the Angels created I can’t say for sure but John MacArthur and one of his sermons on creation he reasons that the angels were probably created shortly before they would do their function which would be to proclaim the revealed glory of God and to minister in his creation so that would suggest day one or day three but they would be part of that creation week two angels would be part of the creation week along with everything else and Answers in Genesis takes the same view argue similarly but before the beginning there was nothing but God now the second part of the verse in verse verse 1 says God created the heavens and the earth what does this mean tonight and I asked that specifically in this sense is verse 1 a summary of God’s creation activities on all the days of creation or is it describing what God did on the first day specifically now I take the position this is a difficult question but I take the position that Genesis 1:1 is a description of God’s first activities on day 1 rather than a simple summary of the rest of the chapter and let me tell you why because you notice Genesis 1 2 the very next verse is a description of the Earth’s state before God creates light and what do you notice about the earth a couple of things 1 it’s without form and void but it is there and what else is on the earth water there’s water covering the earth the earth is there has water in it but it’s formless and void now it’s significant nowhere else in this creation narrative does it say that God created land or created water he divides it he reveals it but he doesn’t create it yeah and that’s what we see on Days two and three and what would be strange for Moses to start the beginning of creation acts with the creation of light shining on an empty and unformed earth without mentioning that the earth was created since that would imply that the earth and the water had been there previously they were there before day one or they were eternally existent it’d be much more natural especially for his audience to mention the Earth’s actual creation before describing its state its unfinished state now I recognize there is potential difficulty about day two because it says that God separates the waters by an expanse and he called the expanse heaven well didn’t Genesis 1:1 say that God already created the heavens if you’re saying that’s the description of what God did it on day one then why is heaven being why do we have something being called heaven and day two isn’t that God creating heaven well my reply to this objection is yes he does create or he does establish heaven in day two but they they were in a sense already there the universe in the heavens were there but they were unformed they were incomplete remember days 1 2 3 appeared to be focused on finish the forming of the earth and the heavens this idea of incompletion continues on in the narrative from there so just as the earth was unformed and end empty so the heavens were as well so God finishes forming the heavens and then he fills them with the luminaries and other celestial bodies so to summarize my little argument here I assert that Genesis 1:1 is not a summary of the preceding account of creation but a description of God’s first creative acts he creates heaven picker he creates the heavens he creates the earth and then he proceeds to finish them as the day’s progress if you don’t buy my argument you still think Genesis 1:1 is a submarine or as some good men do you think it’s a summary and a description I’m not exactly sure how that would work but some people do take that position it’s that it’s a description of what he did inundated and it’s a summary but he did on all the days I would at least insist that you accept what Exodus 20:11 says Exodus 20:11 says for in six days the Lord Yahweh made the heavens and the earth the sea and all that is in them and rested on the seventh day therefore Yahweh blessed the sabbath sabbath day made it holy if you think it’s not clear in Genesis 1:1 whether that’s a description or summary Exodus 20:11 tells you that everything that was created was made in 6 days including the heavens and the earth so whether if it’s a if it’s truly a summary in Genesis 1:1 implied in that summary is that God created earth and water and the heavens on day one of the creation week and not before this is key because there are some who advocate what’s called the gap theory that there is a longest span of time between Genesis 1:1 and Genesis 1:2 and this would allow you to fit in an Old Earth but Exodus 20:11 doesn’t allow for that it’s explicit everything that was created was created in six days there’s no room for eternally existent matter or billions of years between Genesis 1:1 and Genesis 1:2 now that’s not miss the big picture though if you’re an Israelite listening to the law of Moses being read before you as you’re going into the Promised Land or hearing this soon after you’ve entered a promised land which would have been the original context of Genesis what’s the main point you’re supposed to get from this passage I think it’s actually pretty simple God is the all-powerful creator he made everything in the universe in six days and this corresponds with what we hear in John 1:3 speaking of Jesus says of the son all things came into being through him and apart from him nothing came into being that has come into God has done it all God is the all-powerful creator and he has created everything in six days everything that exists he did it in six days now why would six days specifically be important for Israel later why not do it in 20 days or one day exactly this is another reason why God chose to create the way he did he was going to establish a pattern we know God could have done it all on an instant God could have done it all in a billion years but chose to do it in six days and then rest on a seventh day because he wanted to establish a pattern for Israel visuals workweek would it consist of six days and then arrest on the seventh day seventh day just as God did in creation now creation clearly declares the omnipotence of God why would it be important for the Israelites to realize God’s omnipotence going to the promised land your being having realized to you that God the Creator is completely powerful why would that matter to know what are they gonna have to do when they go in the Promised Land they’re gonna have to conquer it they have to obtain their inheritance that means destroying and driving out the peoples of the land and those people have mighty fortresses there many many people there probably more than Israel was how are we gonna be able to do this you can’t do it but your God can’t and he’s promised that he will so be obedient to him this creation account would have been very encouraging to those Israelites because they could see that they can trust God they can rely on his power as they go into a parrot inherit the promised land and of course there’s an application for us there as well right we’re not going to conquer a land for ourselves but we do need to rely and trust our God rely on and Trust now some have tried to take the creation the sequence that is given here in Genesis 1 and they’ve tried to fit it with man’s modern secular scientific theories big bang evolutionism let’s see if we can fit that with Genesis to do this they suggest the days of Genesis are not literal days but they’re long ages millions of years and this was just part of a process of God creating the earth now can the Bible and modern scientific theory be united in this way well let’s find out we’re gonna do a little activity now called the order matters what we’re gonna do is we’re gonna work through certain stipulations of a typical secular science advocates view of the universe’s beginning and see how that compares to the biblical view now we’ve done this with the seven C’s of history but now we’re just doing it specifically with creation and see how the order lines up we’re going to work through nine assertions that come from modern secular scientific theory all right in the secular view of origins the Sun was formed before the earth but in the biblical view which came first the earth came first the earth was created before the Sun and we see this plainly in verse one in the secular view number two the earth was originally a molten ball that was its beginning state and in biblical view what is the beginning state of the earth it’s covered in water formless and covered in water and this is also plain in the text number three in the second of you the stars were formed before the earth but in the biblical view which came first the earth came before the Stars also in the secular view number four the dry land was present before the oceans secular view yet dry land and then the oceans come later but in the biblical view which came first the waters came first they covered the earth at dry land only appeared on day three number five in the cycle of you see creatures evolved before land plants but what about the biblical view the plants came first there were plants before there are any creatures on the earth number six in the secular view trees evolved long after simpler plants what about the biblical view all at the same time its explicit in the text if we go back to day three verse twelve actually verse 11 let the earth sprout vegetation plants yielding seed and fruit trees on the earth bearing fruit would after their kind and verse twelve the earth brought forth vegetation plants yielding seed after their kind and trees bearing fruit would their seed in them plants trees all at the same time number seven in the second of you reptiles evolved before birds birds came from reptiles in the secular view what about the biblical view birds came before the reptiles because the birds are created on day five and reptiles reptiles is a land creature beard day six number eight in the secular view reptiles of all before mammals reptiles first in the biblical view all at the same time they’re all in day six and then finally in the secular view humans evolved long after the first mammals what about the biblical view they were created on the same day mammals created day six humans created day six now we could do this but a number of other assertions but hopefully you’re already seeing a pattern and we can make a few conclusions based on what we’ve seen does Genesis once even indicate that the events described happen in a particular order yes narrative ordered sequence how consistent are the order between these two views they’re not consistent every one of the assertions we looked at they don’t line up and of course we could look at more the two orders are not consistent if you really were determined what might you do to make the secular view align with the biblical view how could you make it fit well you first have to make a day’s long ages that’s for sure but what else would you have to do ultimately you have to change your interpretation of the Bible you’re gonna have to make things more figurative you’re gonna have to change the meaning and even ignore the contextual clues of the text you have to make the day’s vast periods of time and you also have to make the days overlap one another you have to destroy the chronology of the text because regular view doesn’t agree with this chronology you have to say well you know this is just arranged topically you know this is just figurative yeah God do these things but you know these things were happening all around the same time with one another but that’s not what the text says text says this happened and then this happened and then this happened in other words you you have to ignore what the text actually says and you make it say what you wanted to say and this is because really are the secular and biblical views compatible with one another no they’re not you have to reinterpret the text according to modern scientific assumptions to make them work together but in doing this you you’ve destroyed anything the text actually has to say you might as well not even have this text are you gonna stake you that’s a great question let me repeat it real quick if we’re not to accommodate the biblical text assigned modern scientific assumptions how do we do the opposite how do we subject modern assumptions to or how do we subject the findings of modern science to biblical assumptions we’ll talk about that more going on but it is basically doing just that you’re taking the Bible as your assumptions you’re saying all right here’s the data I see how does this fit with a biblical perspective an Answers in Genesis does a lot of that and different creation young earth creation scientists creation scientists in general they do a lot of that too one of the things that Answers in Genesis emphasizes that the data itself doesn’t tell you anything it needs to be subjected to an interpretation so if you see as many geologists do rock layers orderly spaced all around the world it’s not it’s not perfect in every place but generally you have these orderly rock layers they say well for it to be everywhere then this must have happened over billions of years that’s the that’s it do that’s the logical explanation for these orderly layers but a young earth creationist might look at that and say well because we know the Bible’s true didn’t happen over billions of years must have been some other thing probably due to the flood flood would have affected the entire earth and it would have resulted in because of the same forces are happening all over the earth it would have resulted in the depositing of rock layers an orderly sequence so that would be an explanation now of course because creation is supernatural events as was the flood ultimately science can only get you so far you really can’t use science to explain a miracle to explain supernatural happenings yes there will be effects that you can see I mean we have the world it has its order all that kind of things but you can’t go back and recreate that moment scientifically you can’t do that with Jesus’s resurrection or any other miracles in the Bible it’s ultimately not a scientific question so when you come up with a model sometimes creationist young earth creationists are derided for coming up with models that don’t that aren’t surface enough to explain the scientific data well in a sense it makes sense because you’re talking about supernatural events we’re doing our best when I can be able to get all the science of this because this is what God did especially to really know what happened in creation you need an eyewitness you need someone who was there and of course no one was there except God but God revealed what happened to Moses so that’s kind of a long answer but basically it’s being honest about your presuppositions we’re relying on biblical presuppositions because we know the Bible is true modern scientists those who hold a secular scientific theory theory they rely on naturalistic presuppositions they preclude the idea of a supernatural creation or even of a God and they say it has to be explained by other forces and they assume other things like uniformitarianism which is everything that happens today happens the same way and all the ages of the past there hasn’t been anything irregular which of course is a silly presupposition in a contradicts the Bible but that’s what they have to do in order to accommodate what they want to believe anyways so hopefully you’re seeing just even from this simple comparison of the two orders that the two views are not really compatible with one another text indicates chronology and sequence to fit in the secular view you have to compromise the text you can’t let it mean what it clearly means now the Israelites certainly did not see anything in the text to interpret it according to an Old Earth Big Bang evolutionary worldview and neither did Christians up until the 1800s I mean that itself is an interesting testimony nobody saw this nobody thought the text was indicating an Old Earth until 1800 was it only then that gods were to be properly understood indeed we can trust the account of creation in the Bible over all scientific and philosophical assertions of men because only God’s Word is completely authoritative and trustworthy are we gonna have a scientific explanation for everything no but we don’t need to because we know that we’re just trustworthy in the coming lessons we’ll talk more a little bit a little bit more about the science but for now I hope you see that modern secular scientific theory and the biblical account are fundamentally opposed to one another so today we’ve over viewed the Genesis creation account we compared it to the evolutionary BIGBANG Old Earth you have origins let’s explore a few more application questions before we finish today my application slide here number one many people claim that the Bible doesn’t tell us how God created just that he did create is this an accurate statement based on Genesis one no it’s not because how did it God create he spoke it into existence by his word the text is explicit about that other sections of Scripture explicit about that no the bible does tell you does tell you how God created so to say that oh the text is not all that clear that’s again that’s just accommodating modern man’s wisdom now the text thanks tells us number two as we approach this topic in conversation with fellow believers because let’s face it many dear brethren are open to or believe in an Old Earth or even Big Bang in evolution what should be our attitude with our fellow believers I’m hearing some whispers that I think are accurate I’ll remind you of first Peter 3:15 that famous apologetics verse but sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you yet with gentleness and reverence when it comes to origins age of the earth we too need to be zealous for the truth this is clear in the Bible those caught up in error are doing injury to themselves and to the church this isn’t something he’s just saying whatever but also we need to approach the topic gently and in love thankfully this is not a salvific issue yes it has something to do with salvation but you can believe in an Old Earth you can even believe in theistic evolution it has lots of problems but you can still be saved so it is important but it still needs to be approached talk that it still needs to be approached gently and in love I’ve mentioned some of the different positions that believers take on creation some believe that the days of creation are really long ages not literal 24-hour days they’re billions of years some indeterminate period of time that’s the de-age theory some believe there’s a gap between Genesis 1:1 and Genesis 1:2 the gap theory some believe that God progressively created animals then he wiped them all out and then created a new set of animals that’s called progressive creationism some believe that God allowed life to evolve and then he gave the first human a spirit so they were spiritless until they reached a certain state and then God said you’re Adam and now you’re a real human being that’s theistic evolution and some believe we can’t really know the answer creation agnosticism we know God created don’t know how I did it all sorts of theories but who can really say what’s true now we’ll talk a little bit more about these viewpoints in later lessons but each one of these is not justified according to the biblical text as we seek to persuade our brethren of the right view the right way to view creation what should we use is our chief support the scripture yeah we can pull in some scientific arguments or observations also but ultimately its convey the scripture show them that brother love you but have you you see how secular theory doesn’t fit with a biblical task creation was a supernatural event requires a supernatural witness ie the scriptures to correctly understand it so that’s what we want to take to our brethren now related question should this approach should our approach to supporting the biblical view of creation look different when discussing it with those who are not Christians do you think now Danny you say yes explain that’s interesting you say that you you just repeat what you said that we’re we’re coming out of presuppositional II where we know that they know that there’s a God deep down and we know that there’s a God and we know the Bible is true so we approach them that way but how is it different than approaching a fellow Christian I think we do need to be aware that all right someone who doesn’t believe they are in certain rebellion against the truth so I need to be aware of that I need to speak to them in a way that’s gonna be most edifying to them maybe they don’t know what the account of creation or maybe they’re stuck behind a certain reason for not believing the Bible and I can easily get rid of that that’s true but ultimately I would argue our approach is the same we come with God exists Bible’s true here’s what the Bible says we do that for our fellow believer I do that for the unbeliever unbeliever says well I don’t believe the Bible we can show why are we can deal with his specific objection a lot of times they’re they’re very obviously self invalidating I don’t believe the Bible because there’s no such thing as truth well you’ve just contradicted yourself because you’ve made a truth assertion that says there’s no such thing as truth doesn’t make any sense I’ll tell you what makes sense the Bible says but even if we can’t pick that pick that that contradiction out we could say look have you have you read the Bible how do you understand what it says let me show you what it says because this is the truth and when you understand this when you believe this not only will you be saved but everything everything in life will suddenly come into clarity we come to unbelievers with the Scriptures as wealth but I should emphasize our goal with an unbeliever is not to convince them of young Earth Creationism or even of creationism our goal is to see them save to see them to know Christ now again that touches on creation but more important than specific view and creation is what they believe about Christ yeah I see what you’re saying you say we can reason with believer because he has a spirit of god but the unbeliever doesn’t have the spirit so how can we use the Bible in the same way well I would ask well how are they gonna have the Spirit of God by the scriptures right faith comes by hearing hearing by the word of Christ so there is a there is a sense that even though the mind of the unbeliever is darkened we are aware that they are receivers of common grace they’ve been made in the image of God and they know the truth about God within themselves and they suppress that truth in unrighteousness I’m pulling various scriptures to give you that paraphrase so in a sense I use this analogy I talked about this analogy with my wife one time but it’s kind of like if there’s a battle we’ve got guerillas on the other side we’ve got resistance fighters the other side we’re saying you know this truth to be true deep down you know this we have an Inside Man so when we share the truth of Scripture with them it’s not like it’s just hitting up hitting a wall it’s actually drawing on what they already know within themselves and they’re gonna continue to suppress that truth until the Spirit of God quickens them but that’s why I argue that because faith comes by hearing and because of those because the image of God is imprinted on each person we’re coming at them with God’s supernatural truth come at them with the voice of God because they will recognize it they may hate it when they hear it but they will recognize it I like what someone else said talking about atheism one time he says the Atheist platform belief basically rests on two fundamental doctrines God doesn’t exist and I hate him right that’s just a show people know we want we want to show them look this the way you’re thinking and the way you’re living it’s inconsistent the contradicts itself and you want to know why the Bible tells you can I tell you one more or two more questions if we suggest the account of creation in Genesis is just a myth or it’s allegory its figurative it you know shouldn’t be taken in a straightforward way what other doctrines become affected they become mythical or allegorical or to say that one other way what doctrines that find their basis in the first few chapters of Genesis become compromised if it’s just all figurative the fall sin original sin man’s depravity if Adam didn’t really exist or if he was just some hominid that was close to a human being and this account is not really true then the fall doesn’t make sense why are we sinful what happened to us if it wasn’t with Adam then where to come from not to mention the New Testament makes his explicit connection between the first Adam and the last Adam if Adams not true and if what he did didn’t affect the entire race then what about the last Adam see true and that what he do affect the entire race of those who believed in him so salvation original sin total depravity are affected what else okay the omnipotence and sovereignty of God if he didn’t really create all these things they came from uh some other place or if he just started the process and then backed off we could very easily end up with a deistic god the clockwork universe God got us started and he’s gone now which has huge implications for salvation Christ didn’t really come because God doesn’t God doesn’t intervene in the universe in that way miracles didn’t really happen God’s not involved in your life today he’s just standing back from afar maybe he’s doing his own thing yeah it affects our view of how involved God is with creation and how involved God is in each of our lives and Aaron C is of course affected perspicuity of scriptures effected marriage is affected Genesis 1 2 3 isn’t true well maybe marriage is just a construct maybe there is no reason why it should be limited to just one by logical man and one biological woman the line of the Messiah is compromised and I think yeah even the gospel is affected so again I think there’s good reason for us to contend for a true view of creation a true view of Genesis many other doctrines are affected one more question here again I’m gonna want to miss the big picture how should understanding that God created the universe in six days by simply speaking into existence affect us yes we can have the right view of creation that’s good but even more basically how should that affect you and me should put us in total awe of God have if any of you have ever been to mountains or bent on a mountain they are awesome this is huge and when you’re on it there’s a little bit of fear in you like wow I’ve got to be really careful to fall off this mountain it’s the really long way down God needled and he could just blow on them and their God the power and Oh God God has created God a sustainer that should provoke an awe and praise and thanks to him especially for all the goodness we see in creation or look at these mountains they’re beautiful no you don’t get to see too many mountains around here but where we live we can see that the mountains in the distance and it’s like wow those are great yeah hmm wait can explain that last part laid out physically okay I think I understand what you’re saying but I just repeat your idea in in creation we were beginning to see God’s plan unfold the plan that ultimately culminates in the redemption of his own they have a noted those scriptures that talk about how we were predestined before the foundation though the the world we were even for known the interesting study if you look at the term for known as used in the New Testament it’s almost always personal doesn’t say the God for known for knew a certain event would happen it says he foreknew people and they’re always associated with Redemption he for knows his has saved once and he for knows Christ as the one who would save them so the word for know is not I think is well argued it’s not simply a an intellectual knowledge its relational he for loved them that’s what it meant by for known and that happened even before creation and that love was going to be manifest in creation as God begins to make it all unfold yeah that’s a good point and I think that is particularly encouraging to repeat your point God didn’t just create all at once just on a whim because he could but it was with a plan it was according to a certain order and it would result in this Sabbath and the in the workweek and it would result in many other things and that’s really encouraging to us because what are we sometimes tempted to believe what things that happen in our lives is this random is this outside God’s plan how could this be good how how is this wise how is this right we can even look back to creation said God knew what he was doing then and God still knows what he’s doing it’s all unfolding according to his plan you know there’s a there’s a brand of teaching out there which apparently has become less popular but I had to research from one of my classes it’s called open theism has anybody ever heard of that basically it’s the idea that God doesn’t know the future and it’s it’s an attempt to over literal eyes certain passages of the Bible and get rid of God’s responsibility for evil and to make him very personal but if God doesn’t know the future then man that makes life a lot more scary it makes God hard to trust because he can make mistakes even open things will admit that but when you know no God has always had everything that happens in his plan nothing happens apart from his will that’s that’s the bedrock of encouragement we can point to other things I’ll just say that quickly as we wrap up here God’s omnipotence should give us faith in his promises especially that he is able to give new life and that we find ultimately in Christ victory over sin life eternal with Christ God’s Majesty should give us on thankfulness and being able to know him God’s ownership should convict us of our rebellion and cause to seek reconciliation with him we say God’s creator he created me I’m subject to him that’s what the Apostles say in the New Testament right God he doesn’t need anything but he is calling all people to repent and you’ve not yet done that you’ve not given him the worship that he’s due as creator you must be reconciled to him and of course that’s only possible through his for known for ordained mediary intermediary Jesus Christ we’ll talk more about that and it severed today anyways that’s the end of today’s class next week we’ll be back in California unfortunately but I’m glad we can still continue to do the class together we’ll be looking more closely at the first four days of creation and the meaning of the word day as it’s used in the text that much talked about Hebrew word Yom if you’d like more information on creation old earth young earth various arguments that go back and forth I would recommend of course the Answers in Genesis website WWE in Genesis org but also a great book I think we still have it in the book now coming to grips with Genesis I use this when I first put this on a school lessons together I’ve used it in seminary I used it recently on one of my papers about old earth vs. young earth it’s such a great resource it’s very thorough trying to be fair to the arguments used by older advocates and those who ascribed a secular theory but just great answers and really top-notch so I would recommend you get that book or at least check out that book because I think will be a great encouragement to you let’s close in prayer how great God we do want to give you praise for wow what an amazing creator you are and you didn’t just create it but you’re continuing to sustain it you govern it and you direct it just as as we have said here we thank you God but we know that means that we are beholden to you God we kind of get away from you we cannot live independently from our Creator you created us to depend on you so God any of us are not with you not clinging to you but running from you I pray that you’d turn us around bring us back to our Creator who is so wise and so good and so right so powerful what I pray that we would give you but we would enjoy worshipping you more than the rest of the service and time today Jesus name Amen yuck