Week 2: God With Us - The Creation of Man

God Created Adam

The created order in :

Day 1 - God created light and separated the light from the darkness. Note - earth was present in verse 1 without shape and was empty. There was evening & morning the first day.

Day 2 - Creation of sky. Separation of waters from air.

Day 3 - Creation of land and this is called Earth and creation of vegetation and their ability to bear plants.

Day 4 - Creation of vegetation and their ability to bear plants.

Day 4 - Creation of “lights in the expanse of the heavens”. Creation of sun, moon, and stars.

Day 5 - Creation of sea creatures & birds. “According to their kinds” and multiply over the seas and the sky.

Day 6

Day 6 - Creation of livestock, creeping things, and beasts of the earth, including man. Additional note in verse 26 that man was then made in the image of God and gave him some things:

1. Have dominion over the earth. Our dominion over the earth has come from our intelligence.

2. Blessed them to be fruitful and to multiply. Fill the earth and subdue it.

3. Every green plant is given for food.

Day 7 - God rested and called it holy.

Struggle with the Text Today

Struggle to reconcile theology with science. Early 1800’s we had archeology and scientific discovery taking place. We reduced mystery to atoms and laws. Great discoveries took place and then theologians were told they were wrong and needed to reconcile a text with these new discoveries. We held rationalism higher than the text.

Struggle today to understand from a social perspective how we can have so many different religious followings: Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, etc. Rational thought seems to indicate that someone is wrong. Yet good people who might even seem smarter than us hold these positions. So we have retreated to skepticism. We believe that all of them must have some truth and none of them have all the truth. We then concede to the sciences as the arbitrator in these matters.

various denominations,

So is the beginning of time early or millions of years old? There are good arguments on either side; early if you argue only from the text and old if you argue from a rational scientific point.

Personal Reflection: I do not think the Bible is concerned in proving which theological camp is correct. It is more concerned in establishing that God created life, set it in order, and the pinnacle of His creative act were human beings.

Setting of the Stage:

Chapter 2 goes back to repeat the created order but from the perspective of a story.

God creates man from dust and breathes life into him.

He places him in a garden that is amazing and setup for him to thrive.

He also places in this garden 2 trees. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil (tree of death) and the tree of life.

An assignment is given to name everything (high level of intelligence)

Woman is created from man.

Marriage is instituted between a man and a woman. Both are naked and there is no shame or need for clothing.

Personal Thought

The story of the beginning of time is that God made everything and made it perfectly. There was a man and a woman who fully loved each other and life was perfect.