The Begingin of it All or the End of Nothing

Phil Pagliari

Genesis • Sermon • Submitted 2 months ago • Presented 2 months ago

Genesis 1:1–2

Doctrine of Creation

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When you come to The Holy Scriptures you must approach them with reverence and wonder. You must come with the understanding that you cannot interpret them based upon the World but upon the Word.

There may not be a more contested passage of Scripture within the church and the world.

I have come to a lot of conclusion over the past few weeks. I have been challenged and tested by the diffrent world views of creation mainly with those within the church. It is very hard and infact almost impossible to not bring preconceived notions to the text. I did not want to come to the text with my own presuppositions my own forethought and just because they said it it must be true aspect. But can I wrestle with the intellectual giants of this world - in short no and yet yes. Because, I have the scriptures and the spirit of God to help in the discernment and understating in what has been presented and challenged in the text. And so do you!

I continue to be assisted and challenged in theses vast studies by the help writings and lectures from Theologians and Scientist such as James Montgomery Boice, John Lennox, John MacAruthor, Jonathan Edwards, R.C. Sproul, Ken Ham, John Gill, John Gerstner, Joel Beeke, and Paul Smalley, Ken Ham and Answers in Genesis, The team from Is Genesis History, Institute for Creation Research and much more.

And the only way to not look like a crazy religious fanatic in comparison with the World we are forced into a few direct atheistic categories:

Naturalists - Just deny the existence of God and suppress all that can plainly be seen in the universe and ascribe it to “natural”.processes. Naturalists simply assert that nature is reality, the whole of it. There is nothing beyond, nothing “other than,” no “other world” of being.

Materialism- Materialism is a philosophy which holds that matter is the fundamental substance in nature, and that all things, including mental states and consciousness, are results of material interactions of material things.

There are people within the church throughout the ages who attempt to reconcile the latest scientific findings with the Word’s of God. They try to mesh and fit the majority view of the scientific community :

There are people within the church throughout the ages who attempt to reconcile the latest scientific findings with the Word’s of God. They try to mesh and fit the majority view of the scientific community into the Bible And the only way to not look like an anti scientific crazy religious fanatic in comparison with some of the people in the church is that we are forced into a few direct Theistic categories:

1. Old Earth or Progressive Creationism - Were it is said that there is a “ Two Book Reading of Scripture” as stated in the Belgic confession. Bible tells us about redemption and the scientist tell us about the universe. They push this into the scriptures by what is called the Day Age approach where when God speaks of Days “ Yam” that really means a long period of time even up to Billions of years.

2. Evolutionary Creationism - Also calming to hold to the “Two Book Reading of Scripture” is that nature and science speak with out contradictory views. And that all that science can tell us about evolution is they way in which God created the Universe all the way from the “Big Bang”.

3. Intelligent Design- leverages the important discoveries and improbable properties of DNA that point to an “intelligent cause.” Importantly, he engages the philosophical objections that claim the theory is merely “religion masquerading as science”

“Though intelligent design is not based upon religious belief,” he argues, “it does affirm a key tenet of a biblical worldview—namely, that life and the universe are the products of a designing intelligence…”

4. The Gap Theory or The Restitution Hypothesis - Made famous by Thomas Chalmers:

"My own opinion, as published in 1814, is that it [Genesis 1:1] forms no part of the first day, but refers to a period of indefinite antiquity when God created the worlds out of nothing. The commencement of the first day's work I hold to be the moving of God's Spirit upon the face of the waters. We can allow geology the amplest time...without infringing even on the literalities of the Mosaic record."[6]

And this became wildly popular While made popular through the 1917 release of the Scofield Reference Bible

Bernard Ramm

"The gap theory has become the standard interpretation throughout hyper-orthodoxy, appearing in an endless stream of books, booklets, Bible studies, and periodical articles. In fact, it has become so sacrosanct with some that to question it is equivalent to tampering with Sacred Scripture or to manifest modernistic leanings".

The Gap Theory can sort of stuff whatever of the first forms it wants to in the gap of time betweek Genesis 1:1“1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” and Genesis 1:2 “2 Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness covered the surface of the watery depths, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters.”

The can stuff Billions of Years, Try to account for the fossil records, the Big Bang

But they then try to preserve the account of the order of creation and use Genesis 1:2 and following as a literal 6 day re-creation. That what formed after the chaos that was issued by the fall of the angels and destruction for the dinosaurs and such.

And while these to some may seem like a good way to not look like a crazy religious fanatic in comparison with the Scientific community there a few major issues:

The Science is always changing- Every thing that you claim to be true must always shift with new theories. The new theories are created because the old theories prove to be incomplete or untrue.

You have to always read into the Bible - You are forced to come to the Bible with a conclusion and attempt to fit your conclusion within the pages of the text. You are left with a presupposition that is constantly shifting that leads the interpretation of the Bible to move right with it.

You have to deny Basic truths of the Bible its self- Sin entered the world as a result of the fall. Death is a result of sin. There was no death before sin. Ultimately taking the logical conclusion from any of these aforementioned areas of thought will bring us to a position in which we have no need for or purpose of Jesus coming to the earth to save sinners from their sin and death and that the end of this world and the immediate recreation of the universe as told in Revelation 21:1 “1 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.” is as meaningless, impractical, and as impossible as the first creation in Gen 1.

Genesis 1:1–2 “1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

The only reason why the scientific community exists at all is because God is the creator of all things!

Scientific method; plural noun: scientific methods a method of procedure that has characterized natural science since the 17th century, consisting in systematic observation, measurement, and experiment, and the formulation, testing, and modification of hypotheses.

The Battle for the Beginning:

Evolutionary philosopher Herbert Spencer, one of Darwin’s earliest and most enthusiastic advocates, outlined five “ultimate scientific ideas”: time, force, action, space, and matter.11

John F. MacArthur

Genesis 1:1“1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”

Accounts for all of Spencer’s categories.

“In the beginning”—that’s time.

“God”—that’s force.

“Created” — that’s action.

“The heavens” — that’s space.

“And the earth” — that’s matter.

In the first verse of the Bible God laid out plainly what no scientist or philosopher ever cataloged until the nineteenth century. Moreover, what evolution still cannot possibly explain —

the actual origin of everything that science can observe

the Bible explains in a few succinct words in the very first verse of Genesis.

Creation Ex Nihilo

Before the beginning there was God.

God did not use preexisting matter to create the world.

There are several creation stories that come from the middle east that have even been written down before the creation story in the Bible. Such as the

Babylonian Creation Myth

The Enuma Elish (also known as The Seven Tablets of Creation) is the Babylonian creation myth whose title is derived from the opening lines of the piece, "When on High". The myth tells the story of the great god Marduk's victory over the forces of chaos and his establishment of order at the creation of the world.

Near Easter mythology The Sun Moon and Stars and Sea monsters as seen as powerful gods. Light emanates form the gods.

All the creations stories the universe is already in existence.

Johnathan Edwards understanding of creation our of God Creation Ex Deo

Genesis 1:2 “2 Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness covered the surface of the watery depths, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters.”

The earth was Tohu Vavohu-

It was not made formless and void it did not become formless and empty.

That is what God does for us- Our lives can feel formless and voice empty and meningless but GOd brings Order. God Brings Light.

Young Earth Creationist

Exodus 20:11 “11 For the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and everything in them in six days; then he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and declared it holy.”

God Created everything in a 6 literal Day Period

Colossians 1:16 “16 For everything was created by him, in heaven and on earth, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities— all things have been created through him and for him.”

After studying the text and all of the onslaught that has come from those both in the church and the word I have come full circle to the the conclusion of biblical theological archeological and scientific position of a Young Earth Creationist.

When we get down to it we have to have Faith

We have to exercise faith knowing the God the creator of all things stands in and outside his creation. He controls and Govensrs all his creature and all their actions.

Hebrews 11:1–3 “1 Now faith is the reality of what is hoped for, the proof of what is not seen. 2 For by this our ancestors were approved. 3 By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was made from things that are not visible.”

Deuteronomy 29:29 “29 The hidden things belong to the Lord our God, but the revealed things belong to us and our children forever, so that we may follow all the words of this law.”

Conclusion

The beginning of it all or the end of nothing. If the universe did not begin with God the universe will not end with God. If everything has not been created by God than there is no God. If God did not create the universe He does not hold if together. If God did not create the universe then He doesn't Govern all thing in it. If God did not create the universe then right and wrong are subjective. There is no sin. There was no fall. There is no need for a saviour. There is no need for Jesus. There is no need for redemption. There is nothing the Bible has to offer us and in the end there will be nothing.

The Creation of the Universe is the beginning of it all! The universe began with God and there is no end! God created the universe by the word of His Power. In the depths of the Mind of God He conceived the universe and all things in it. All life cycles all functions of every bacteria and germ every cloud and gust of wind every bird of the sky and fish of the sea. Every plant and tree. And the apex of his creation where thoes who are made in His image you and me! But we are effected by the fall. We do sin. There is absolute right and wrong. And we need a sacior! We Need Jesus! We need to be redeemed. The Holy Scriptures are the only sufficient, certain and infallible standard f all saving knowledge, faith and obedience. And so we follow Christ!

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