The Start
Anchored in Truth: The Importance of Understanding Our Faith's Foundational Stories • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
0 ratings
· 1 viewNotes
Transcript
Handout
1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
The NET Bible translates this verse: “The visible has its origin in the invisible.”
The Lord
What this verse states in contrast to the vast array of myths and stories about existence around the world.
What we can see in this text:
I. Creation, all that is see and unseen, comes by a Personal and All Powerful Being.
God is not some force or power that evolved consciousness. Unlike other creation stories that posit chaos or the uniform state of no differentiation just sitting in a timeless eternity waiting for a bang. In other stories, things or gods just sort of pop out of this uniform nothingness or they fight each other and use the body of the loser to shape the world and the universe for the most part. The Bible speaks clearly and directly in a manner that has parallels AND major contrasts.
Further the Bible chooses to use BARA only of the Lord.
Heaven and Earth are straight forward, but "bara" is not. "Create" (bara in Hebrew) means to call forth out of nothingness. There was no darkness, void or non-existent space. Elohim (God) made the universes by the mere will of having them appear, without any use of pre-existent matter.
Self-existence and self-sufficiency are two important concepts in understanding the nature of God.
Self-existence refers to the fact that God exists independently of anything else. He does not depend on anything or anyone for his existence. This means that God has always existed and will always exist, and he does not need anything or anyone else to continue existing.
Self-sufficiency, on the other hand, refers to the fact that God is completely self-sustaining. He does not need anything from anyone else in order to continue to exist or to be complete. This means that God is completely self-sufficient in every way, and he does not need anything from his creation to be who he is.
In summary, self-existence refers to the fact that God exists independently of anything else, while self-sufficiency refers to the fact that God is completely self-sustaining and does not need anything from anyone else.
While the noun “Elohim” has the plural ending, the verb “bara” is third person singular in inflection. So despite the claims of critics that the Bible has a polytheist outlook, that doesn’t hold water with the text. Those who have an axe to grind like to make much ado about Elohim being in a plural form. Some people do not receive the rules or know the rules of Hebrew grammar. The use of a singular suffix on the verb indicates that the preceding noun will be identified in the Singular, not plural or polytheist view. While we interpret Elohim in English as “God” and then we have been trained correctly to think of God as the 3 Omnis or Alls, All Powerful, Present, Knowing, self-existent, the Jews viewed only Yahweh as possessing those qualities.
However, the utilized the term Elohim as a designation of the realm or general type of being as well. Any being that existed in the Spiritual realm could also be called an Elohim. We see that term used of Samuel when the witch at Endor calls him back. She sees and Elohim.
So in the Hebrews minds, there were many Elohim, but only one Supreme Being who made and created everything else. I hope you will tuck that away in your Bible or minds so you will not be lead astray by some rogue college professor who tries to undermine your kids faith by playing word games or you come across a cult that tries to teach you something other that what Semetic and Hebrew scholars know to be true based on the accepted practiced language rules of Hebrew.
II. Creation comes from a Self Existent and Self-Sufficient Spiritual being, not random chance or chaos.
Self-existence and self-sufficiency are two important concepts in understanding the nature of God.
Self-existence refers to the fact that God exists independently of anything else. He does not depend on anything or anyone for his existence. This means that God has always existed and will always exist, and he does not need anything or anyone else to continue existing.
Self-sufficiency, on the other hand, refers to the fact that God is completely self-sustaining. He does not need anything from anyone else in order to continue to exist or to be complete. This means that God is completely self-sufficient in every way, and he does not need anything from his creation to be who he is.
In summary, self-existence refers to the fact that God exists independently of anything else, while self-sufficiency refers to the fact that God is completely self-sustaining and does not need anything from anyone else.
III. In one verse the Bible answers or prepares us to receive answers to the perennial questions everyone asks.
Where did this all come from?
Why are we here?
How do we live in the world?
Where are we going?
IV. This verse makes sense out of the “science” we do see. Romans 1:20
20 For his invisible attributes, that is, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen since the creation of the world, being understood through what he has made. As a result, people are without excuse.
Things do not come into existence uncaused.
The universe came into existence
Therefore the universe must have a cause
Whatever this cause, it had to exist outside of space and time i.e. spaceless, immaterial, eternal.
It had to be all powerful and all knowing.
How do we model what we are, what we should be doing and prepare for what we become.
When the Lord had Moses and the Jews write this text, they did not seek to answer the questions about science that you
The Lord answers the questions that matter.
We can talk about creation, but he gives the time, space and matter.
The beginning, without time, when would it happen?
Without Space? Where would you put creation?
Without matter? What would it be besides chaotic nothingness or meaningless non-differentiation.
The creation view while sharing some similarity with other creation stories, really turns them all on their heads, quite literally.
According to the creation story in Egyptian mythology, the world was created by the god Atum, who emerged from the primordial waters of chaos and created the first gods and goddesses.
The Babylonian account, a mass called chaos exists and some proto beings emerge. Then they have a conflict, war, where other divine beings come into existence. In some accounts like the Babylonian account the dead bodies of the defeated become the earth, the moon and celestial beings. Then humans will come from the gods typically to be servants or slaves.
But typically in creation accounts, you have a mass of chaos pre-existing their gods and then some gods pop out of this chaos and a fight ensues by which they start shaping the chaos.
The Biblical witness indicates God existed before and by His Word everything came to be. He doesn’t need anything outside Himself to exist. He is.
The reality about those that think modern science has removed or disproved God really falls in on itself.
The Bible also makes sense.
Matter cannot create matter.
Mathmatical formulas have no power to cause anything. they only describe.
So all the conjectors of scientists come as they move out of science and into theological speculation for which they are neither trained, and when they try to gaslight anyone beyond the extent of their formulas and speculation, they speak out of religious convicition or ani religious conviction.
People like to critique the Bible as being old, how can we trust it? Yet we have fairy tales that have existed in their current form for over 3000 years.
The Lord makes clear that He exists before any created thing that we see. We see from the first line of the Bible that the understanding God wants us to hold. He alone is truly eternal in that He has no beginning or end. He did not come out of chaos as some random being who has to fight or figure His way around reality. There is nothing to existence that will be accidental or which He will be out of His hands or beyond His control. He made everything and nothing which exists whether unseen or seen came before Him.
He planned and shapes it all, even our destiny. That doesn’t mean we don’t have legitimate choices. Him knowing our decisions does not mean he made our decisions or made our nature where we would only choose the thing He wanted. But that in His Sovereign control of the universe He planned for our decisions. He planned that those who would turn to Him would receive blessings and honor and those who reject Him will find shame and loss.
Just as God intentionally chose to create this universe and reality, we will find that God wants us to intentionally choose to love, follow, and be loyal to Him alone. We do that through worship, prayer, fellow-shipping with His family the church, and our witness to the world that out of all the gods presented for fallen angels and foolish thoughts that the Lord Yaweh is the only All Powerful, Every Present, and All Knowing Creator God. All others are charlatans.
Take away:
The Universe, the world, and you have meaning and purpose because God intentionally created them.
This week look up at the stars and thank God that one represents you in God’s promise to Abraham.
Your choices and life matter because you God created you for a reason, but not out of necessity. Ask God to guide your decisions every day.
Honoring Him through worship, relating to Him, discovering more about Him are the greatest pursuits. Make choices that reflect those privileges.