Creation

Intro

Did God really create the world, and if He did, did He really create it in 6 literal days like the Bible says? We took our kids to Drunheller and the royal Tyrell museum. It was a lot of fun and some beautiful country. We went to this family thing they where putting on at the museum and they where passing around fossil’s and replica fossils to the kids, which some where fighting over to get at first. the workers where nice about it then informed us the fossils thy where giving to the kids to hold where worth somewhere around $50000. Then I was thinking why are you letting my kids handle that many dollars worth of fossil. ALL OVER THE PLACE YOU SAY MILLIONS OF YEARS OLD STUFF. Thankfully we had a talk with our kdis many times before about how old the earth really is and they would walk around saying “that is a lie, the earth isnt that old”. It was kind of fun.

https://creation.com/the-necessity-for-believing-in-six-literal-days

There has been a lot of debate and discussion over the creation of the world. There are even many Christians that are not sure whether God created everything in six literal days or not. There are even many that do not believe it matters whether the world was created over a long period of time of millions of years or 6 days. But why does it matter? is it important to hold to a literal 6 day creation?

the major reason why people doubt that the days of creation are 24-hour literal days usually has nothing to do with what the Bible says, but comes from outside influences. For example, many believe that because scientists have supposedly proved the earth to be billions of years old then the days of creation cannot be ordinary days. If people use Scripture to try to justify that the days of creation are long periods of time, they usually quote passages such as 2 Peter 3:8, ‘… one day is with the Lord as a thousand years …’. Because of this, they think the days could be a thousand years, or perhaps even millions of years. However, if you look at the rest of the verse, it says, ‘… and a thousand years as one day’. This cancels out their argument! This has absolutely nothing to do with defining the days of creation.

What we are going to learn today as essential to the faith, is that the Lord God created the world in six literal days and why that is important to believe ion the first place. Not only did He create the world but He also created mankind and created you and me as well. Mankind has messed with this belief, put himself on the same level as God and tried to change and modify what the Lord has made to the point of living sinful lives. We believe the Triune God created everything both physical and Spiritual out of nothing. We believe God created human beings, male and female, in His own image and Likeness and therefore with unique, intrinsic worth from conception to natural death.

Literal 6 day Creation

We believe the Triune God created everything both physical and Spiritual out of nothing (Genesis 1, Revelation 4:11, John 1:1-3, Colossians 1:16-17).

First of all we go to the creation account of the world, and for that we go to the beginning of the Bible. I want to first of all focus on the first 5 verses.

Genesis 1:1–3 CSB

1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 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. 3 Then God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.

Genesis 1:4–5 CSB

4 God saw that the light was good, and God separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” There was an evening, and there was a morning: one day.

We all know these passages of scripture. Especially after how many times we try to start a chronological reading plan, or reading the bible through in a year. We start at the beginning and sometimes struggle to get far. But within the first few verses here we get an idea of the creation account. We believe as followers of Jesus that God created the world, that is not a problem most of the time. The problem lies when believers try to line up the biblical account with the worldly narrative of evolution.

The original readers of Genesis were not scientists or Hebrew scholars. Rather, they were former slaves—mostly uneducated. Not that they where stupid but being slaves, they where likely not super educated people. This is the audience that the commanded to teach their children, so the Hebrew language, must have been very clear to the common people, even to children.

The first thing we learn is that God is eternal. It says “in the beginning God”. That is in the very beginning God was already there. This is showing us that God is eternal, He is the self existent one. He has neither beginning nor end. He is the one that created all things for His glory.

Next we look to the word here used for “Day” Everywhere else in the Old Testament, when the Hebrew word for “day” appears with “evening” or “morning” or is modified by a number (e.g., “sixth day” or “five days”), it always means a 24-hour day. Then in God commanded the Israelite to work six literal “days” and rest on the seventh because He created in six “days” (using the same Hebrew word).

After all the first thing that God created was light and dark and separated the two to differentiate between day and night.

The idea of millions of years came from the belief that the fossil record was built up over a long time. As soon as people allow for millions of years, they allow for the fossil record to be millions of years old. This creates an insurmountable problem regarding the Gospel. The fossil record consists of the death of billions of creatures. In fact, it is a record of death, disease, suffering, cruelty, and brutality. It is a very ugly record.

As I mentioned before people go to 2 Peter 3:8 to prove in the Bible that 1 day could be a period of time, that is until you read the rest of the passage. people try many ways to prove the Bible was created over millions of years.

The Bible is adamant though, that death, disease, and suffering came into the world as a result of sin. God instituted death and bloodshed because of sin so man could be redeemed. As soon as Christians allow for death, suffering, and disease before sin, then the whole foundations of the message of the Cross and the Atonement have been destroyed. The doctrine of original sin, then, is totally undermined.

This is a belief that is actually there, we need to watch out and I do firmly believe that it is an essential belief to believe that the world was created in 6 days because of what was said already.

Revelation 4:11 CSB

11 Our Lord and God, you are worthy to receive glory and honor and power, because you have created all things, and by your will they exist and were created.

By the will of God through the word of God the world was created. In 6 days the world was created from nothing By God and set into motion. and our response is to glorify the Lord God in all we do. We worship the creator of heaven and earth who created the whole world. That should put things into perspective.

Back before I was married and when I was in shape I would go on road trips once a year with some friends. We would travel around tenting and climbing mountains. The first time I climbed to the peak of a mountain I was petrified. But I remember one mountain top, I was almost to scared to stand at that point. I remember looking down at a crystal clear lake that was likely miles away and you could see the bottom. I was in awe of our God, looking back on it anyways. In awe of how God could have created all of this.

How can we do anything but glorify him for all He has done. When we worship Him, when we kneel before Him, when we see Him as our father and friend this should put into perspective something. God is the creator and all Glory is do His name.

He Created Us

We believe God created human beings, male and female, in His own image and Likeness (Genesis 1:26-27, 5:1) and therefore with unique, intrinsic worth (James 3:7-10) from conception (Psalm 139:13-16) to natural death (Hebrews 9:27).

Not only did God create the heavens and the earth but He created us as well. When talking about creation we also need to remember that we are also part of creation. But humanity was going to be a little different.

Genesis 1:26–27 CSB

26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness. They will rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, the livestock, the whole earth, and the creatures that crawl on the earth.” 27 So God created man in his own image; he created him in the image of God; he created them male and female.

I once wrote something like a 15 page essay on this passage, what it means to be created in the image of God. I wont get to much into that right now. But what it means to be created in the image of God is that we where meant to be image bearers of God. We are to reflect God to the world for we are created in His likeness.

We where created in the image of God, not the animals but mankind. We therefore had a special relationship with God from the beginning. We where created male and female. We where given an inner spiritual nature that enables us to know God and worship Him. The animals didn't get this and we where given dominion over them.

Though we where created in the image of God to be image bearers for God, though we where created perfect Sin has marred that. The relationship was severed by sin. Where once mankind used to walk with God in the Garden now that relationship can be as long as we are living in sin without the savior. People mess with this, this sin has even caused people to think that they can change what God created and make themselves into whatever they want to be. But we must still understand that the way God created us is the way we where meant to be

Psalm 139:13–16 CSB

13 For it was you who created my inward parts; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. 14 I will praise you because I have been remarkably and wondrously made. Your works are wondrous, and I know this very well. 15 My bones were not hidden from you when I was made in secret, when I was formed in the depths of the earth. 16 Your eyes saw me when I was formless; all my days were written in your book and planned before a single one of them began.

God knew us from the beginning of the world. We are remarkably and wonderfully made. God knows us from beginning to end from the the beginning of time. He knows us better than we even know ourselves. Isn't that amazing to think about. That God, the creator of the universe knows me, created me, knit me together.

But the problem is sin separates us from God when we are born. We will get into this more later. But what we see sin do is mess up the way God created us. People say God created me wrong, I can do better and we see people forsake the way God created them to try and make themselves into something they where never meant to be.

If God created the world, then us in His image (even though that image is marred and distorted by sin, God said originally it was good. We are fearfully and wonderfully made by God. Sin separates us from God but we can once again become image bearers of the king of kings and lord of lords.

So What?

It is vital that we understand that God, whom we worship is the creator, He always was and always has been and He created everything in the world around us. Spend some time on top of a mountain. I would need to get in much better shape to do that again but what I saw left me with no doubt that there had to be am intelligent creator that put this all in place. It is also essential that we do not try and shift the creation account to fit the narrative the world is trying to push about how the world was created. Our God created the world in 6 literal days by His very words. But what does this mean for us.

We can have a relationship with the creator

Adam and Eve where originally created to have a relationship with God, they walked with God in the Garden. We to are created in the image of God to be image bearers of God to the world around us. but sin Gets in the way. God still wants a relationship with us and has created a way for this to happen. Through Jesus we can once again start the process of being with God for eternity. we will one day, as His children, walk with Him and talk with Him. God created us Male and female and loved us enough to send Jesus to bring us back to Himself. Remember that God did not make any mistakes when He created you, sin distorts what we where meant to be but it doesn't have to stay that way.

Are we being good stewards of what God created

I am the last one to be accused of being a “tree hugger” but I was having a conversation about God with a Hindu man on a plane once. I didn't convince Him to follow God, though I did share the gospel with Him and we had a very interesting conversation. One of the things that he said though has always stuck with me. If we as Christians believe that God created the world then why don't we take better care of it. Often there is a belief amongst some Asian countries that people from NA are rich and Christian, so that might have something to do with the statement.

But the fact remains after God created the world He put us in charge of the world and told us to rule over it. Are we being good stewards of the world God created us over and all that He has given us. We must accept creation as a gift, guard it as a precious treasure, and invest it for the glory of God. Isaac Watts said it beautifully: