The doctrine of creation sets the tone for everything else we believe about God and about our own origins. What we believe about the origin of the world and ourselves will literally determine what we believe about the purpose of life. At its core, the central debate of creation is whether or not there is a God. Because we believe that God revealed Himself truthfully in the Bible, we learn a lot from it’s pages.
What does the Bible say about the beginning of the universe?
By faith we understand that the entire universe was formed at God’s command, that what we now see did not come from anything that can be seen.
Hebrews 11:3 (NLT)
The belief that God formed the universe gives us hope that He can answer prayers and ultimately save us from our sins as He claimed. The amount of evidence in biblical literature and extra-biblical literature confirms that God can actually bend the natural laws of this world because He created them. There is no conflict between science and God because He not only created science, He also gave us the curiosity to discover scientific principles.
What does life without God as creator look like?
That Man is the product of causes which had no prevision of the end they were achieving; that his origin, his growth, his hopes and fears, his loves and his beliefs, are but the outcome of accidental collocations of atoms; that no fire, no heroism, no intensity of thought and feeling, can preserve an individual life beyond the grave; that all the labours of the ages, all the devotion, all the inspiration, all the noonday brightness of human genius, are destined to extinction in the vast death of the solar system, and the whole temple of Man’s achievement must inevitably be buried beneath the debris of a universe in ruins—all these things, if not quite beyond dispute, are yet so nearly certain, that no philosophy which rejects them can hope to stand. Only within the scaffolding of these truths, only on the firm foundation of the unyielding despair, can the soul’s habitation henceforth be safely built. -Bertrand Russell
2 Primary Beliefs about the creation of the world
1. Divine Creation
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was formless and empty, and darkness covered the deep waters. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters.
Genesis 1:1-2 (NLT)
2. Biological Evolution dating back to 6th Century BC and made popular by Charles Darwin in mid 1800’s
- Macroevolution – that the building blocks of life existed already and over time, the combined and mutated to eventually form life quite randomly and by accident. This view claims the creation account from the Bible is false. It’s most visible challenge to the Bible occurred in the early 20th century during the Scopes “Monkey” Trial in Dayton, Tennessee. A biology teacher was taken to trial for teaching a non-biblical account of creation and gave national attention to the growing tension between science and religion.
- Microevolution – the belief that life undergoes small changes and adaptions to it’s environment over time without being a source of life or the ability to create new life. This belief does not require you to be a proponent of Macroevolution.
What is the purpose of the creation account?
You might think we have the account of creation in Genesis to give us the specific facts about it. Instead, the purpose of the creation account is to demonstrate who the creator is rather than describe the act of creation itself.
What does the Bible tells us?
1. Who made the earth
In the beginning the Word already existed. The Word was with God, and the Word was God. He existed in the beginning with God. God created everything through him, and nothing was created except through him. The Word gave life to everything that was created, and his life brought light to everyone. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it.
John 1:1-5 (NLT)
2. Why the earth was made
Bring all who claim me as their God, for I have made them for my glory. It was I who created them.’”
Isaiah 43:7 (NLT)
3. How the earth was made
What do we learn about God?
- The Eternality of God
- The Omnipotence/All Powerfulness of God
- The Creative Nature of God
- The Trinity in Action
- The Love of God
- The Desire for a Relationship with His Creation
God’s continual act of creation
This is what God the Lord says– he who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and all that comes out of it, who gives breath to its people, and life to those who walk on it: “I, the Lord, have called you in righteousness; I will take hold of your hand. I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people and a light for the Gentiles, to open eyes that are blind, to free captives from prison and to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness.
Isaiah 42:5-7 (NIV)
Christ’s love controls us. Since we believe that Christ died for all, we also believe that we have all died to our old life. He died for everyone so that those who receive his new life will no longer live for themselves. Instead, they will live for Christ, who died and was raised for them. So we have stopped evaluating others from a human point of view. At one time we thought of Christ merely from a human point of view. How differently we know him now! This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun! And all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to himself through Christ. And God has given us this task of reconciling people to him.
2 Corinthians 5:14-18 (NLT)
Bottom Line
We were created by God, for God, and only find true hope, purpose, and fulfillment through God.