Genesis 1: The Creation
Genesis 1:1
The Bible begins with the Creation of the world in Genesis 1. Although Scripture says that God created the world, John 1:1-3 and Colossians 1: 15,16 say that Christ was fully participant as God in the creation that was made for His own glory. The creation is a demonstration of the omnipotent power of God to create everything from nothing (Hebrews 11:3). , The Bible never tries to prove the existence or the power of God here or anywhere else. That fact is ASSUMED because the Scriptures teach that all men have an innate knowledge of their Creator and His existence. It is built in every one of us (Romans 1:18-20; 2:14, 15). Thus you have to work hard and fight against this knowledge that is always evident to you. You have to deceive yourself into believing that there is no God because the entire creation is screaming the glory of God night and day to all its inhabitants (Psalm 19:1-4), which leaves each of them without any excuses. (Romans 1:20)
The opening verse of the Bible presents these two very important truths:
1. There is a Creator
2. And there is a Creation
You might say that the Bible teaches Two-ism about the world and reality. All is two. There is a Creator and there is a creation. The Creator is not His creation. He lives apart from it and above it. And the creation is not Him. Nothing in His creation contains divinity - not Mother Earth, not any animals, not any humans. They are creatures. They were made by the Creator. Divinity and creature remain distinct.
The Biblical Worldview of Two-ism, or The Creator and His Creation (See diagram at http://public.iwork.com/document/?a=p38279198&d=Lesson_1-_Genesis_1.pages)
But there has been a revival in recent years of Paganism, or the religions of antiquity that dominated Greece and the Roman Empire. Paganism teaches there is no Two-ism in the universe. There is only One-ism. The diagram below illustrates the worldview of paganism or One-Ism. All is one. This includes pantheism and modern Wicca. In One-ism, everyone and everything is part of the ONE, the one being, the one substance, the one spirit. There is no Creator and creation distinction as in Two-ism. In fact, there is no Creator at all like the one in the Bible. That God is despised. Almost everything about One-ism is the opposite of what you read in the Bible. Since everything is ONE, everything is in ONE circle - all humans, animals, rocks, trees, even God.This is the essence of Eastern religious teaching that was introduced into this country in the 60‘s, known today as neo-paganism. It is also known as New Age Spirituality, or the new spirituality. But it is also called Paganism, which many people today are proud to endorse as their religion. If you hear a person say, "I don't go to church, but I am spiritual," then you are probably listening to someone who believes in One-ism, not Two-ism. The Bible gives the real definition of paganism in Romans 1: 25. People who are pagans are those who "exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator."
If everything is in one circle - including divinity - and has the same nature, spirit, and substance and is not fallen creation as in Genesis 3, then everything also has divine nature too. So you are not just a human. YOU are divine. YOU are god. You have a divine, spiritual nature. Your problem is that you just need to realize this. But you are not the only one who possesses divinity. So does everything else because it is all part of the great ONE. And because everything contains divinity and is equally part of the ONE, all things are equal in value. Tiny minnows of Mother Earth in the bays of California are as valuable as any human life, even babies. Death is a good thing if one goes back into the ONE. Therefore, abortion is easily absorbed. Because there is no Creator (and there is concerted effort everywhere to eliminate God from the Western culture), homosexuality gains strength from Paganism. With the God of Genesis 1 and 2 out of the picture and the Two-ism of the Creator/creature distinction eliminated, there is no difference between male and female and no need to keep the same sexes apart from one another. Romans 1:18-28 shows the plunge into homosexuality when you exchange the truth of Two-ism for the lie of One-ism. Paganism gives rise to the occult and witchcraft, nature as divine (and not fallen as in Genesis 3), the worship of The Goddess and Mother Earth (in Bible times it was the worship of Diana) as symbols of Paganism in the place of the male image of God in the Bible, animal and nature worship, and radical feminism, which the Goddess image, not the male image, of God drives. When you abandon the Two-ism of Genesis 1, all kinds of aberrations begin to develop. Many of these are outlined in the Romans passage above. The movie Avatar was constructed on the theme of One-ism.
The Pagan Worldview or One-Ism (http://public.iwork.com/document/?a=p38279198&d=Lesson_1-_Genesis_1.pages)
Paganism's worldview is that there is only ONE. Everything shares the same nature, including divinity. There is no other second reality. In other words, there is no Creator.
If you wish to study this further, read the books of Dr. Peter Jones of Westminster Seminary in Escondido, CA. You can find videos of him on YouTube if you search under "Peter Jones, paganism". Access his web page and all resources at http://www.truthxchange.com/welcome/.
Genesis 1:3-31
Genesis 1:1-3 states that God made his creation in rough form, and then come the creation days in which he brings order and purpose. Genesis 1 is hotly debated in both the church and the world. It is a particularly big issue in public education because Christians insist that Two-ism be taught in schools under the Intelligent Design model. The world does not want Two-ism in its public schools for two reasons. One, they do not want God in anything they do, nor do they want the Creator to have any bearing on their behavior or conscience. Two, they do not believe the Biblical account of creation jives with the accepted theory of evolution and science. This, of course, is a ruse because Romans 1:18-21 teaches that the world is merely suppressing what they know is the truth.
But what do the creation days of Genesis 1 teach? Most people approach these creation days as telling us HOW LONG it took God to make His creation. But you have two different opinions about the length of time that it took.
2. The creation days are LONG days. They are ages, perhaps thousands or millions of years.
Many conservative, orthodox Christians subscribe to this view too - and have throughout the age of the church. Many good arguments favor this interpretation. It has been used to attempt to reconcile the teaching of the Bible with the teaching of modern science.
But there is another way to view the creation days of Genesis 1. It is called the Framework Hypothesis. It has many opponents but many conservative, Biblical scholars promote this as consistent with Biblical orthodoxy. It says Genesis 1 is not about HOW LONG it took God to make his creation. It is about the pattern, the organization - or the ORDER - God set in His creation. It says that on the first 3 days, God made three different spheres or domains or kingdoms that make up His world. This is illustrated below. (See diagram at http://public.iwork.com/document/?a=p38279198&d=Lesson_1-_Genesis_1.pages)
Days
Spheres
Rulers of the Spheres
1
Space/Light
Sun, Moon, Stars - Day 4
2
Sky, Seas
Winged Creatures, Fishes - Day 5
3
Land, Vegetation
Land Animals, Man - Day 6
You will notice that on Day 1, God made light. But how was there light without the sun, moon, and stars that were created on Day 4? It would seem that Day 1 included the creation of sun, moon, and stars in the same day. Following that logic, it would seem that birds and fishes (Day 5) were also included on Day 2 when God made the skies and seas, and land animals and man (Day 6) were also included on Day 3 when God made the land and vegetation. If this is correct, we don't have 6 days of creation in Genesis 1. We have 3.
Then there is the 7th day when God rested, the Sabbath. That is not literal either. Even though it is called a day, it has no morning or evening.
Not all the questions related to this view or any of the others can be answered here. Just be aware of them and know that Bible believers hold these various views and still believe the basic truth presented here that the Creator of the world is the Lord God Himself. You can find each of these views explained further by doing a Google Search on any of them. One excellent presentation of the Framework Hypothesis is presented here - http://www.asa3.org/gray/framework/frameworkOPC-SC.html
But what could possibly be the purpose of dividing up what happened in creation into these 2 parts - Days 1-3 and Days 4-6? Instead of giving us a chronological presentation of Genesis 1, the Bible is giving us a TOPICAL presentation of Genesis 1. In other words, Genesis 1 is teaching that God made His creation with three major parts to focus on. He is not drawing our attention to TIME. He is focusing our attention on the order, the major parts, or the organization of His creation. In the first three days, he presents those main parts of His creation. But on the second three days, he has us contemplate who or what is dominating or ruling those spheres he created. It is sort of a topical outline to help us think about what he has done in what He has made.
If this is true, then the endless arguments about whether the six creation days were six literal 24 hour days or whether they were ages of time misses the point entirely! If the Framework Hypothesis is correct, Genesis 1 has little, if anything, to do with time or length of days.Then what IS the point? It would be that God made three major parts that dominate His interest - space with its heavenly, light-giving bodies, the seas and the atmosphere about earth with the creatures who dwell there, and the land and vegetation with the animals and the most excellent creature of all that reflects His magnificent image, man. It is interesting to note that even though the earth is a mere drop in the ocean of creation, it is the most detailed in its creation description. Most of the account of the creation focuses on the earth and the creation that dwells there. Even more detailed and pin-pointed - like a microscope moving in for a closer look - however, is the man and woman that God created, two molecule specks on the drop in the ocean of creation. Of all the creation account, the man and the woman are not only the most genius of God's creation, they and their generations are the centerpiece of his interest. This is a foreshadowing of the redemption that is coming for Adam and Eve and their generations as the narrative narrows down like a funnel from the endless breadth of the universe and hones in on the smallest entity that he made in His own image. So Genesis 1may be magnifying the glory that should be given to the Creator because out of the enormity of His creation, he set His desire and redemption that begins in Genesis 3 on man.
As Psalm 8:3-6 says:
3 When I consider your heavens,
the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars,
which you have set in place,
4 what is man that you are mindful of him,
the son of man that you care for him?
5 You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings
and crowned him with glory and honor.
6 You made him ruler over the works of your hands;
you put everything under his feet:
To summarize, Genesis 1 is above all declaring that the Lord has created a magnificent universe. But if you think that is glorious, wait till you see what He has done - and will do - with the creature most like Him! It is not about how long it took Him to do it.
The Bible begins with the Creation of the world in Genesis 1. Although Scripture says that God created the world, John 1:1-3 and Colossians 1: 15,16 say that Christ was fully participant as God in the creation that was made for His own glory. The creation is a demonstration of the omnipotent power of God to create everything from nothing (Hebrews 11:3). , The Bible never tries to prove the existence or the power of God here or anywhere else. That fact is ASSUMED because the Scriptures teach that all men have an innate knowledge of their Creator and His existence. It is built in every one of us (Romans 1:18-20; 2:14, 15). Thus you have to work hard and fight against this knowledge that is always evident to you. You have to deceive yourself into believing that there is no God because the entire creation is screaming the glory of God night and day to all its inhabitants (Psalm 19:1-4), which leaves each of them without any excuses. (Romans 1:20)
The opening verse of the Bible presents these two very important truths:
1. There is a Creator
2. And there is a Creation
You might say that the Bible teaches Two-ism about the world and reality. All is two. There is a Creator and there is a creation. The Creator is not His creation. He lives apart from it and above it. And the creation is not Him. Nothing in His creation contains divinity - not Mother Earth, not any animals, not any humans. They are creatures. They were made by the Creator. Divinity and creature remain distinct.
The Biblical Worldview of Two-ism, or The Creator and His Creation (See diagram at http://public.iwork.com/document/?a=p38279198&d=Lesson_1-_Genesis_1.pages)
But there has been a revival in recent years of Paganism, or the religions of antiquity that dominated Greece and the Roman Empire. Paganism teaches there is no Two-ism in the universe. There is only One-ism. The diagram below illustrates the worldview of paganism or One-Ism. All is one. This includes pantheism and modern Wicca. In One-ism, everyone and everything is part of the ONE, the one being, the one substance, the one spirit. There is no Creator and creation distinction as in Two-ism. In fact, there is no Creator at all like the one in the Bible. That God is despised. Almost everything about One-ism is the opposite of what you read in the Bible. Since everything is ONE, everything is in ONE circle - all humans, animals, rocks, trees, even God.This is the essence of Eastern religious teaching that was introduced into this country in the 60‘s, known today as neo-paganism. It is also known as New Age Spirituality, or the new spirituality. But it is also called Paganism, which many people today are proud to endorse as their religion. If you hear a person say, "I don't go to church, but I am spiritual," then you are probably listening to someone who believes in One-ism, not Two-ism. The Bible gives the real definition of paganism in Romans 1: 25. People who are pagans are those who "exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator."
If everything is in one circle - including divinity - and has the same nature, spirit, and substance and is not fallen creation as in Genesis 3, then everything also has divine nature too. So you are not just a human. YOU are divine. YOU are god. You have a divine, spiritual nature. Your problem is that you just need to realize this. But you are not the only one who possesses divinity. So does everything else because it is all part of the great ONE. And because everything contains divinity and is equally part of the ONE, all things are equal in value. Tiny minnows of Mother Earth in the bays of California are as valuable as any human life, even babies. Death is a good thing if one goes back into the ONE. Therefore, abortion is easily absorbed. Because there is no Creator (and there is concerted effort everywhere to eliminate God from the Western culture), homosexuality gains strength from Paganism. With the God of Genesis 1 and 2 out of the picture and the Two-ism of the Creator/creature distinction eliminated, there is no difference between male and female and no need to keep the same sexes apart from one another. Romans 1:18-28 shows the plunge into homosexuality when you exchange the truth of Two-ism for the lie of One-ism. Paganism gives rise to the occult and witchcraft, nature as divine (and not fallen as in Genesis 3), the worship of The Goddess and Mother Earth (in Bible times it was the worship of Diana) as symbols of Paganism in the place of the male image of God in the Bible, animal and nature worship, and radical feminism, which the Goddess image, not the male image, of God drives. When you abandon the Two-ism of Genesis 1, all kinds of aberrations begin to develop. Many of these are outlined in the Romans passage above. The movie Avatar was constructed on the theme of One-ism.
The Pagan Worldview or One-Ism (http://public.iwork.com/document/?a=p38279198&d=Lesson_1-_Genesis_1.pages)
Paganism's worldview is that there is only ONE. Everything shares the same nature, including divinity. There is no other second reality. In other words, there is no Creator.
If you wish to study this further, read the books of Dr. Peter Jones of Westminster Seminary in Escondido, CA. You can find videos of him on YouTube if you search under "Peter Jones, paganism". Access his web page and all resources at http://www.truthxchange.com/welcome/.
Genesis 1:3-31
Genesis 1:1-3 states that God made his creation in rough form, and then come the creation days in which he brings order and purpose. Genesis 1 is hotly debated in both the church and the world. It is a particularly big issue in public education because Christians insist that Two-ism be taught in schools under the Intelligent Design model. The world does not want Two-ism in its public schools for two reasons. One, they do not want God in anything they do, nor do they want the Creator to have any bearing on their behavior or conscience. Two, they do not believe the Biblical account of creation jives with the accepted theory of evolution and science. This, of course, is a ruse because Romans 1:18-21 teaches that the world is merely suppressing what they know is the truth.
But what do the creation days of Genesis 1 teach? Most people approach these creation days as telling us HOW LONG it took God to make His creation. But you have two different opinions about the length of time that it took.
- The creation days are literal 24 hour periods of time. So the world was created in six 24 hour days.
2. The creation days are LONG days. They are ages, perhaps thousands or millions of years.
Many conservative, orthodox Christians subscribe to this view too - and have throughout the age of the church. Many good arguments favor this interpretation. It has been used to attempt to reconcile the teaching of the Bible with the teaching of modern science.
But there is another way to view the creation days of Genesis 1. It is called the Framework Hypothesis. It has many opponents but many conservative, Biblical scholars promote this as consistent with Biblical orthodoxy. It says Genesis 1 is not about HOW LONG it took God to make his creation. It is about the pattern, the organization - or the ORDER - God set in His creation. It says that on the first 3 days, God made three different spheres or domains or kingdoms that make up His world. This is illustrated below. (See diagram at http://public.iwork.com/document/?a=p38279198&d=Lesson_1-_Genesis_1.pages)
Days
Spheres
Rulers of the Spheres
1
Space/Light
Sun, Moon, Stars - Day 4
2
Sky, Seas
Winged Creatures, Fishes - Day 5
3
Land, Vegetation
Land Animals, Man - Day 6
You will notice that on Day 1, God made light. But how was there light without the sun, moon, and stars that were created on Day 4? It would seem that Day 1 included the creation of sun, moon, and stars in the same day. Following that logic, it would seem that birds and fishes (Day 5) were also included on Day 2 when God made the skies and seas, and land animals and man (Day 6) were also included on Day 3 when God made the land and vegetation. If this is correct, we don't have 6 days of creation in Genesis 1. We have 3.
Then there is the 7th day when God rested, the Sabbath. That is not literal either. Even though it is called a day, it has no morning or evening.
Not all the questions related to this view or any of the others can be answered here. Just be aware of them and know that Bible believers hold these various views and still believe the basic truth presented here that the Creator of the world is the Lord God Himself. You can find each of these views explained further by doing a Google Search on any of them. One excellent presentation of the Framework Hypothesis is presented here - http://www.asa3.org/gray/framework/frameworkOPC-SC.html
But what could possibly be the purpose of dividing up what happened in creation into these 2 parts - Days 1-3 and Days 4-6? Instead of giving us a chronological presentation of Genesis 1, the Bible is giving us a TOPICAL presentation of Genesis 1. In other words, Genesis 1 is teaching that God made His creation with three major parts to focus on. He is not drawing our attention to TIME. He is focusing our attention on the order, the major parts, or the organization of His creation. In the first three days, he presents those main parts of His creation. But on the second three days, he has us contemplate who or what is dominating or ruling those spheres he created. It is sort of a topical outline to help us think about what he has done in what He has made.
If this is true, then the endless arguments about whether the six creation days were six literal 24 hour days or whether they were ages of time misses the point entirely! If the Framework Hypothesis is correct, Genesis 1 has little, if anything, to do with time or length of days.Then what IS the point? It would be that God made three major parts that dominate His interest - space with its heavenly, light-giving bodies, the seas and the atmosphere about earth with the creatures who dwell there, and the land and vegetation with the animals and the most excellent creature of all that reflects His magnificent image, man. It is interesting to note that even though the earth is a mere drop in the ocean of creation, it is the most detailed in its creation description. Most of the account of the creation focuses on the earth and the creation that dwells there. Even more detailed and pin-pointed - like a microscope moving in for a closer look - however, is the man and woman that God created, two molecule specks on the drop in the ocean of creation. Of all the creation account, the man and the woman are not only the most genius of God's creation, they and their generations are the centerpiece of his interest. This is a foreshadowing of the redemption that is coming for Adam and Eve and their generations as the narrative narrows down like a funnel from the endless breadth of the universe and hones in on the smallest entity that he made in His own image. So Genesis 1may be magnifying the glory that should be given to the Creator because out of the enormity of His creation, he set His desire and redemption that begins in Genesis 3 on man.
As Psalm 8:3-6 says:
3 When I consider your heavens,
the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars,
which you have set in place,
4 what is man that you are mindful of him,
the son of man that you care for him?
5 You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings
and crowned him with glory and honor.
6 You made him ruler over the works of your hands;
you put everything under his feet:
To summarize, Genesis 1 is above all declaring that the Lord has created a magnificent universe. But if you think that is glorious, wait till you see what He has done - and will do - with the creature most like Him! It is not about how long it took Him to do it.