Understanding the Creation Account

Open: Richard Dawkins is an 82 year old British Evolutionary biologist who has written many popular books on the fact of evolution, including the God Delusion, The Blind Watchmaker, and The Greatest Show on Earth. A quote from his book, The Greatest Show on Earth is this: “If the history-deniers who doubt the fact of evolution are ignorant of biology, those who think the world began less than ten thousand years ago are worse than ignorant, they are deluded to the point of perversity. They are denying not only the facts of biology but those of physics, geology, cosmology, archaeology, history and chemistry as well.

Transition: You may have never hear of Richard Dawkins or read any of his books, but the thinking presented in that quote is the mainstream understanding of millions of non-believers. Sadly, some level of his type of thinking has entered the Church and many Christian leaders are teaching that the earth is billions of years old and that God may have used biological evolutionary processes in bringing Adam and Eve into being.

As I mentioned last week, the study of Genesis is critical in our understanding of who we are and how we got here. It is therefore, important that we interpret the Scriptures correctly as we study them

READ the TEXT: Genesis 1:1-5.

I want to share 4 truths from these verses and then discuss the importance of worldview and the process of interpretation.

#1 Creation was an action of the Trinity (Genesis 1:2)

Explanation: The second verse of the Bible describes the earth as being “without form and void.” This describes a shapeless and empty place, one that most-likely appeared as a dark, watery mass without clearly defined form or structure. It was a state of existence that could not be inhabited as it was. This was the beginning phase after God created it and called it into being.

At the end of verse 2 the reader is introduced to the Spirit of God. In this verse the Holy Spirit is seen as the person who energizes the initial creation. He is pictured as “hovering” over the dark waters and through His actions, change takes place.

Argument: Of course, this one mention of the Spirit in this context would not lead an OT believer to arrive at the Doctrine of the Trinity. It is in the pages of the NT that the 3rd person of the Trinity is more clearly revealed. Given that the Bible is an unified whole that makes sense, we can look back from the NT into the OT and understand more fully the implications of the Text.

Implication: The same Triune God who created the world is the same Triune God who brought about Redemption: God the Father sent the Son, the Son carried out the plan in time and space, and the Holy Spirit convicts and draws lost persons to place their faith in the Atoning work of Christ on their behalf.

Note that the Spirit of God is personal - He is not an impersonal force (think Star Wars).

#2 Creation was by Divine Fiat (Genesis 1:3a)

Explanation: God spoke and the action took place. God said, “Let there be light: and there was light.” A simple, straightforward understanding of the text is that God was the originating cause and He brought light into existence through His Word. As we will note in future messages, this identical phrasing is repeated on the other days of Creation (1:6; 1:9; 1:11; 1:14; 1:20; 1:24; and 1:26).

Argument: This certainly seems to indicate that God said it, and then it happened in each occurrence. The text gives no indication of a process being involved. There are, however, many evangelical voices that speak of God using and guiding a evolutionary biological process to bring about His intended end. (see Tim Keller’s article on the Biologos site, “Creation, Evolution, and Christian Laypeople, biologos.org/articles/creation-evolutioan-and-christian-laypeople, 2/23/2012, accessed on 6/9/23)

Implication: A literal understanding of the Genesis account is at direct odds with any understanding of evolutionary processes.

#3 Creation was Good (Genesis 1:4)

Explanation: We are told that God saw the light that He had just created and then declared that “the light was good.” According to Kenneth Matthews the use of the term good “indicates that God is Judge . . . who evaluates the consequences of His creative word.” (NAC Commentary, Genesis 1-11, p. 146).

Ken Ham, founder of Answers in Genesis states, “when God describes something as ‘good,’ it must be beautiful, perfect, without any defects” (Creation to Babel, A Commentary for Families, by Ken Ham, p. 31)

Argument: If God states that His creation is good - and He does so repeatedly (1:4, 1:9, 1:12, 1:18, 1:21, and 1:25), and if, at the end of His creation week God declares that all He had done was very good (1:31), then it must be perfect and without any defects. Evolutionary theory is built on the idea of millions and millions of years of death and destruction; therefore creation by Divine Fiat is incompatible with any type of evolutionary process.

#4 The Days of Creation were normal 24 hour days (Genesis 1:5)

Explanation: The reader is informed that God separated the light from the darkness. He reveals that the Light is called the Day and the darkness was named Night. The phrase that God used to complete His first day of creation was “there was evening and there was morning, the first day.” When a number (such as one, two, three, etc.) is used with the Hebrew word for Day, it always refers to a normal, 24 hour period. This is the pattern found in Genesis chapter one and throughout the remainder of the OT (Creation to Babel, Ken Ham, pp. 35-36)

Argument: The Hebrew word for Day CAN and does have meanings other than a 24 hour period. Think about how we use the word day to refer to an indefinite amount of time, such as when we say, “well, back in the day things were very different.” The Hebrew word functions in a similar manner, such as in Genesis 47:28 where it is stated, “the whole age (YOM) of Jacob was a 147 years.” The context clearly indicates the intended meaning of the word.

The counterpoint to this is that the Sun is not created until Day 4. How can these days be 24 hour days when the sun is not present? Having light without a sun is not how we normally think, but the Bible informs us that in the future there will be no need for the sun.

Revelation 21:23 KJV 1900

And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.

If God is going to do away with the sun in the future and still give light by His Glory, why is it so difficult for us to believe that He gave light through His Glory in the Creation week?

Worldview and Interpretive issues

When a person simply reads the text of Genesis 1 and 2, he or she will naturally come to the understanding that the author’s intent was to present the creation of all that exists by Divine Decree in a literal six (6) day period. Now, to be sure, not everyone who reads the Genesis account is going to believe what is written, but he or she will be able to comprehend the meaning.

Example: I can read parts of the Koran and understand what the human author is trying to say. I don’t accept it as truth and I don’t believe it, but I can understand the meaning of the words used.

Argument: This is where the issue of worldview shows up. This is very important! Worldview is how a person looks at and interprets what he or she observes. A scientific naturalist looks only at what can be observed and understood by natural process and physical laws. This person rules out the possibility of the supernatural from the start!

The naturalist rejects, up front, the idea of a Divine Being who supernaturally created the Universe. This person then develops an alternate understanding based on evolutionary processes that occurred over vast amounts of time.

Decision Point: Evolutionary theory and the concept of Deep Time is all that is taught in our public schools and universities. Our students are taught that the Universe is 17 billion years old, that the earth is 4.5 billion years old, and that mankind has been around for several millions of years and that man has evolved from the lower animal species. In many ways this is taught as fact (see Richard Dawkins) instead of theory, and this idea is presented by those with advanced degrees in biology, geology, and physics.

The Christian, however, is not without resources. We have the revealed word of God that presents God’s unchanging truth. [the naturalist model continues to evolve when the current model encounters difficulties - more on that later]. The believer also has a wealth of scientific observations from accredited scientists who are also believers that support the Genesis account of a literal 6 day creation.

As I said last week, true science and the Bible will never be in conflict. The idea that you have to believe only one or the other is a false choice.