The God Above All Things

Intro: Artemis II rocket trip, photos

Galactic, cosmic reality

Picture taken at 228,500km from earth. In this picture, there are about 1.3M pixels. Our city, Ipswich, would be represented by only four. The Ipswich region is essentially a blurry speck.

More cool space facts:

light travels at just under 300,000km/s. To travel to the sun at the speed of light, would take you 8 minutes 19 seconds. That is how old the sunlight is outside over coffee etc

If you travelled at the light of speed, if would take you about 2 years to travel to the edge of our Solar System, what’s called the Oort Cload, the fuzzy edge.

To the next star system, Proxima Centauri, 4.24 years at the speed of light.

To traverse our galaxy, the Milky Way Galaxy, from one end to the other at light speed- 100,000 years. You’d pass roughly 250B stars, if you stopped and counted each one by one it would take you 7,927 years to do so. The naked eye on earth can see about 9000 stars in the night sky, which is equivelant to 0.0000036% total stars in our galaxy.

Last fact, our galaxy is one of many in the entire universe. As you tech, AI and cameras get better the estimate of total galaxies keeps going up. Scientist today estimate there are about 2 trillion galaxies in our universe. Our next nearest galaxy, Andromeda, is 2.5 million light years away.

Here we are: Feeling small?

If ipswich is a tiny blurry speck on earth, I don’t even think we’d be even be that in the universe, and yet still, it is here on Earth that God determined to express His utter and complete glory and majesty to those made in His image.

That’s what we are talking about today- creation. There is of course plenty of discussion and debate around this topic. There is what we would called the Creationist vs the Naturalisitic debate. The naturalistic view being made up of the Big Bang Theory and Darwinian Evolution. I’m not going to sit there today, if anything some passing comments:

The size and scope of the universe as we continue to learn is creating some issues for the Big Bang Theory, mostly around the mathematical models and what we know of physics which scientist use to support the theory.

There is a category of argument here which is that science is not naturally in opposition to creationtism. False view: if you are religious, you disagree with science. Actually lots of “Fathers of Science/Math” were/became christian. 17th Century astronomer and polymath, Johannes Kepler, who wrote three laws of planetary motion, famously said “Science is man thinking God's thoughts after him".

What is does highlight for us is the short comings of human knowledge and understanding. Science lives in the world of theory and openly holds that our knowledge is as complete as the next discovery.

There is an almost endless supply of content online to get a better understanding of the debate and I’d like to leave it to the experts.

What we will cover today is the Christian view in terms of the origins of creation/the universe. We look to our passage today, which I’ll be covering the whole account from Genesis 1:1-2:3 and I want to unpack that. So much to cover- won’t do it all.

First, I’ll do a broad brush overview, very simple, of the most prominent Christian perspectives on Creationism and then I want to dig deeper later on.

Four Key Christian Positions on Genesis 1:1-2:3.

Young Earth (Literalist View) literal 6 days of creation, each day a literal 24-hour period.

Creation Evolutionist. Evolution as observed by science is part of God’s created design. World B’s of years old.

Gap Theory/Day-Age Theory. Literal/non-literal view of 6-days. Big gap between verse 1 and 2, explains age of the earth (incorporates some of our scientific theories into the creation narrative) One day to God is 1000 years.

Young Earth Appears Old (i.e. Adam was ytoung but appeared as a grown man).

Reiterate: very broad brush, that’s a couple hundred years of discussion and debate that every proponent would accuse me of oversimplifying.

What’s true? Maybe you hold to one of these, maybe you’re curious or unsure, maybe you don’t really care too much it’s kind of confusing for you.

Can I say firstly, it isn’t an issue of salvation. Unless you consider yourself a Christian and don’t believe God made the earth, that’s a problem.

Otherwise not a salvation issue but not unimportant- what you believe here can quickly bleed into lots of other theological issues, such as: sin, sin’s curse, need for salvation, the person of Adam, authority of scripture etc.

For me, I’ve wrestled with this for a long time, I’d say I’ve held a more moderate view. Where I have landed is holding the account is a literal 6-day creation. Why?

Three things I hold (principles):

What does God’s Word actually say? Here and elsewhere. Am I starting to stretch all of scripture to fit my view? Who is the person of God? The Creator - if He is the Creator, what limits would be on how He created the world? What is our ultimate authority? As Christians, we start with the authority the Word and work the world into it. Not the other way around. Am I stretching the account that I have read, to accomdate the questions I have or the views around me?

Firstly, on account of what God’s Word says. What does it record God saying? Genesis 1 says 6 days but God himself also says it elsewhere: Exo. 20:8-11; Exo. 31:17.

Exodus 20:8–11 ESV

“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

Exodus 31:17 ESV

It is a sign forever between me and the people of Israel that in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed.’ ”

If it isn’t literal in Gen 1, what do I do here?

Secondly, wrestling with the scientific debate, we acknowledge the short comings of human knowledge. No one would say we have perfect understanding. So why would we look to adopt a view point which challenges God’s Word and the traditional view to accomodate something we admit is likely incomplete or incorrect. (logical argument)

We hold the view that God made everything. An expanse of creation beyond what we can possibly beign to fathom. Are we then willing, as God’s faithful people going to possibly cast aside a view because we can’t fathom it? I didn’t think any of us would say, “God couldn’t make it in 6-days.” So that should be our starting point.

“He could if He wanted to. So, why didn’t He?”

God’s personhood and His Word are our authority and the lense through which we consider Creation.

Now, you may arrive at a different conclusion, again, I’m not able to go deep and give each argument its justice. If there is one more principal we can hold here, it is not to wield our views with arrogance or dismission of others, but with humility as creatures apart of His Creation.

However, if you hold this view, critics point out what appears to be an issue-

Why a second account?

This is a popular debate point if you haven’t heard it. Genesis 1 is often referred to as the “Cosmic Account” Genesis 2-3 presents what some call a “viewed in” account. The argument is that there are a number of things which seem out of sequence or contradicory to the first account, namely, the order of creation (plants, animals, etc).

I mentioned that I previosulyhad held a moderate view, which is called the Literary View or the Framework View. The general argument of the Literary View is that Genesis 1 was written later and added as an introduction to the Torah and that is was poetical, not literal. However, a number of scholars/theologians have expanded what is becoming the prominant view on this, that the two views, Literalism and Literary, aren’t antithetical but actually harmonious. Let me explain the Literary view before I speak to what it means:

Literary Argument.

It’s a poem.

Framework Hypothesis: days 1-3 three realms- light/darkness, water/sky and the land/vegetations; days 4-6 three realms filled- light/darkness with celestial bodies, water/sky with fish/birds and the land/vegetations with land creatures/humans.

Climas: day 6. (it was good) mid day 6, humans made: very good! day 7- first thing God calls holy, has no “evening/morning” end- an invitation to a future glory (come back!)

Written Later.

From the 19th century many scholars begin to adopt the view that Genesis wasn’t just written by Moses and ther may have been a few different authors from the time (many examples of this of Priests helping to “order” the narrative accounts).

The Hebrew manuscript of the first account alings much more with Exile and Post-Exile writings (5th-6th century). This includes theological terminology, writing style and the phrasing of sentances.

Important: this doesn’t invalidate the Inerrancy of Scripture. Some try to make that argument for a pure literalist argument, but then the same thing could be said the rest of the bible. That it being not one but 66 books, written by 40+ authors over a 1500 years period. None of that is an issue. God has worked through all sorts of people at all sorts of times and it is stitched together with over 340,000 cross references driving the story of creation and redemption.

All of this leads us to the question then - Why did the author write it? What is God revealing about himself through it?

Context.

Here is the accepted view by scholars on this point: That Genesis 1:1-2:3 was written by the Priests as an introduction to the Torah and as an apologetic to encourage the Israelites during the Exile or post-Exile period about their identity, purpose and hope in Yahweh, their God. They had returned from exile to a destroyed Temple, broken walls, ravished cities, desolate farmland and a land filled with devastation and destruction.

This account is much more than “How God made Everything”- but it is deeply rich in the theology of who God is and is implications flow throughtout the rest of scripture- God is the God Above All Things.

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

If you’re a near-eastern person who worships created beings, you have a pagan worship structure- this is scandalous. Firstly, it is claiming that Yahweh (the Hebrew God) created all things the “sky above us” (heavens) and tghe “land below us” (earth). So, all the things of nature you worship, are suddenly demoted to “Created things”. Secondly, the author is asserting that God is peerless- only He made the earth. It is a monotheistic view. Would you still worship a pagan God who represents the light of the sun if he isn’t the source of it? There are no autonomous gods apart from God. God’s name is Yahweh, which means God of Gods. Thirdly, there is no struggle. No great big battle for dominion, no resistance- God did it. And there rest of the passage expands this. This is only just the beginning of the scandal.

Genesis 1:2 “The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.”

Literally the world was “unordered and unihabited”, the “Deep” refers to an ancient view of the sea as being the source of chaos and darkness. “Ruach” is the Hebrew Word for Spirit. It is the most common Word used to desrcribe God’s presence and literaly translates as wind or breath. What’s interesting is that the first sentance here is common within ANE framworks, but the idea of God’s presence over it and His ‘breath’ in it connotates God’s dominion even over the disorder, chaos and darkness. All of this comes to a head on Day 1.

Genesis 1:3–5 “And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.”

Day 1: God brings forth light, His light. The opposite is darkness, but even the darkness is formed and ordered under the rule of God. He then orders His light into time, He creates time and it not subject to it. Creation subject to ordered time, not chaotic.

Genesis 1:6–13 “And God said, “Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.” And God made the expanse and separated the waters that were under the expanse from the waters that were above the expanse. And it was so. And God called the expanse Heaven. And there was evening and there was morning, the second day. And God said, “Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear.” And it was so. God called the dry land Earth, and the waters that were gathered together he called Seas. And God saw that it was good. And God said, “Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind, on the earth.” And it was so. The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed according to their own kinds, and trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning, the third day.”

Day 2 & 3 - The chaos of “the deep” obeys and is ordered by the spoken word and command of God (no big boss battles). God’s free act of creation- no resistance. ‘Heaven’ just means here the percieved sky above us as it appears. Human perspective. The water of the deep is ordered into rain, rivers and streams which bring life and order to God’s creation. God orders how the earth (land below us) brings forth life.

Genesis 1:14–19 “And God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. And let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years, and let them be lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth.” And it was so. And God made the two great lights—the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night—and the stars. And God set them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth, to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day.”

Day 4 - Sun and Moon, stars & planets - often considered as gods - named as objects and God made them and ordered them. They “rule” in a lesser sense. They hold light but in a lesser sense to God who is the source of light. The seasons, months and years are also ordered here by God. He causes the harvests of the spring, the renewing of the land. All is designed according to Him.

Genesis 1:20–23 “And God said, “Let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the heavens.” So God created the great sea creatures and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarm, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. And God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.” And there was evening and there was morning, the fifth day.”

Day 5 - The sky and seas are filled with God’s creations. Every unique and wonderful species another expression of His creativity. The author is also explicitly using language to descrive as these realms as teeming with “swarms and swarms” of fish and the birds “filling the earth”. He blesses them to fruitful. God is lavish and designed the earth to be of abundance. “The great sea creatures” were in pagan mythology considered rivals to the creating gods (i.e. greek pantheon vs the titans).

Genesis 1:24–25 “And God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds—livestock and creeping things and beasts of the earth according to their kinds.” And it was so. And God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds and the livestock according to their kinds, and everything that creeps on the ground according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.”

Day 6 - the creatures of the earth made by God, God is not a creature of creation. Any gods of creation are thus subject to God and by His design.

Genesis 1:26 “Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.””

Man in His image - God then takes all of creation and places man over it with dominion. This is opposite to alot of other creation accounts where man is subject to the whims of nature. We are blessed by God and recieve authority from him to rule benvolently over creation. On top of that, possibly the most offensive line to the near-eastern auience of the time- God makes us in His likeness, His image. ANE views often held human beings as slaves to gods or simply like worms in comparison. There is no framework for morality or unalienable rights as a human being. It is the Christian view, as outlined in Genesis 1 that, no, you have innate value as being God’s image bearer and are blessed to participate and partner with God in overseing all of creation. Ps Julie and Ps Brad will unpack that for us over the next few weeks.

The creation account then ends of day 7. The author announces the end of God creating with a mirrored verse to verse 1.

Genesis 2:1 “Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.”

And God rests. The author leaves out any “morning/evening” summary here and it is purposeful. It helps draw our eyes from the work that God provisioned for us in day 6, to one day being in God’s eternal rest with Him, where we wil get to enjoy Him forever.

Perhaps though, you’re not a christian? If I can leave you with a question- have you exhausted all avenues of considering there is a God? If not, what does that mean for you if there is a God? If everything you have and all that you are has a source, do you owe anything to the source? If so, what is it- and if you’re not repaying that what you owe, what are the implications for you?

The Gospel in Genesis: From Fig Leaves to Faith Chapter 1: The Message of the Bible

Is it all accident? Is it all chance? Or is there a mind, a Creator, at the back of it all? You see, you cannot begin really to discuss your problems, your personal problems, your personal needs and difficulties, truly and well unless you somehow take all that in. And the Bible makes you do that. It reasons with you. The Bible does not say, ‘Just come to Jesus and all will be well.’ Not at all. It starts in Genesis. It starts with creation. It wants you to know and to understand why you are what you are and why God is proposing what he proposes.

For God’s people, in the post exile period, there was a recognition of something missing. There had strayed from their creator and they felt it. There was a movement then to see God’s glory and presence return to His people. One of the driving factors of the authorship of Genesis 1 is the Temple theology. The world was made as God’s temple, His presence was in it and dwelt among His people. He walked in the gardens.

By the time the Temple had been rebuilt, their hearts had wondered. Genesis 1 was written to lift their eyes to their future hope. So John, when he writes his Gospel, parallels what we read in Genesis 1.

John 1:1–4 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men.” ”

Man was made in God’s image. Jesus the first born only one who can. He is the embodiment of the “Ruach” over the deep, the source of life and the light, which not only separates the darkness but would rule over and order it.

Jesus offers to become our wellspring of life and reorder the darkness of our hearts.

Revelation 21:1–4 ESV

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. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”

The light separated us from the darkness, one day darkness will be done away with. The source of life will one not sustain but be of eternal fullness. The world, as a dwelling place will one day again be filled with His presence and restored to it’s created order.

Commander Reid Wisemen

"I'm not really a religious person, but there was just no other avenue for me to explain anything or to experience anything. So I asked for the chaplain on the Navy ship to just come visit us for a minute. And when that man walked in, I'd never met him before in my life, but I saw the cross on his collar and I broke down in tears." "It's very hard to fully grasp what we just went through… We have not had that reflection time. So I'm basing this on what we saw. And when the sun eclipsed behind the moon, I think all four of us ... I turned to Victor [Glover], and I said, 'I don't think humanity has evolved to the point of being able to comprehend what we're looking at right now because it was otherworldly.'"