First Principles

First Principles

Lesson 2

Lesson Text—Genesis 1:1-5 Genesis 1:1-5 1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. 2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

Lesson Text—Genesis 1:1-5 3 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. 4 And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. 5 And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.

Lesson Text—Genesis 1:6-9 Genesis 1:6-9 6 And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. 7 And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so.

Lesson Text—Genesis 1:6-9 8 And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day. 9 And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so.

Lesson Text—Genesis 1:10-13 Genesis 1:10-13 10 And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good. 11 And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so.

Lesson Text—Genesis 1:10-13 12 And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good. 13 And the evening and the morning were the third day.

Focus Verse—Romans 1:20 Romans 1:20 For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse.

Focus Thought The doctrine of Creation is the foundation of all other truth.

Creationism or Evolution: What difference does it make? I. Creation of Principalities and Powers Why should it matter to us whether we arrived on planet Earth via some prolonged evolutionary process or by creation by a supreme Deity? Some might say, “We’re here, so what’s the point?” The difference is twofold: (1) accountability and (2) relationship.

First is accountability. If there is no God responsible for creating mankind, then he is morally, practically, and spiritually “off the hook,” unaccountable to any other entity for his conduct and choices in life. This idea belies practical reality and common sense. Without the fundamental principle of accountability, what kind of world would this be? There must be some basic code to govern conduct and actions in life, and all notions of any measure of accountability point to the Scriptures and the Creator who fashioned us. B. A Living Soul

Second is relationship. Why are we here? What is the purpose and what is the meaning in life? Evolution fails to answer these fundamental questions for humankind, but Creation answers them succinctly: we were created by God to have relationship with Him. Everything about life—from how we arrived here to how we depart here—is all about our responsibility toward the Creator and having a relationship with Him, the One who loves us supremely and who is intimately interested in the quality of our lives. B. A Living Soul

B. A Living Soul Contemplating the Topic Someone suggested that after Genesis 1:1, everything else in the Bible is commentary. There might be some truth to this. After reading the statement, “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth,” what else is there to say? From that point forward, the rest of the Bible is the story of what happened in the realm of creation, how God interacted with His creation, and His plans to restore what He created to its original condition.

Quite interesting are the parallels between the first two chapters of the Book of Genesis and the last chapter of the Book of Revelation. However, Genesis 1:1 is not the only verse in the Bible that refers to God as the Creator of all things. Although the Hebrew Scriptures were given to the people of Israel, Paul pointed out that the Gentiles also received revelation. This general revelation involves what humans can understand about God simply by observing what He has created. (See Romans 1:20.) B. A Living Soul

Romans 1:20 “For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse” (Romans 1:20).

B. A Living Soul A person can clearly understand the invisible things of God—his eternal power and Godhead—by considering the things He has made. Creation itself so clearly reveals the eternally powerful God that those who reject Him have no excuse. In his letter to the Romans, Paul referred to the Gentiles who rejected the knowledge of God in spite of the evidence of Him in creation (Romans 1:28).

Today, these words have significance for those who embrace the theory of evolution and reject the idea that God created all things. For a person to accept the idea of evolution requires him either to dismiss or to radically reinterpret the scriptural account, the legitimacy of which many evolutionists discount. Even theistic evolutionists insist that one should not take the biblical account literally in any meaningful sense, and that it is merely poetry or a metaphor. B. A Living Soul

B. A Living Soul To reject the biblical account of Creation is to reject the idea that Creation testifies to the Creator’s eternal power and Godhead. Even apart from scientific arguments against the theory of evolution, this is one more reason believers must reject the theory. It not only minimizes or dismisses what the first two chapters in the Bible have to say about the subject, but it also rejects what Scripture has to say about its revelatory value.

B. A Living Soul If God did not create all things as the Scripture says, the universe does not declare the glory of God. This notion contradicts not only what Paul wrote, but also the magnificent words of David. (See Psalm 19:1-6.)

Psalm 19:1-4 “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge. There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard. Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them hath he seta tabernacle for the sun” (Psalm 19:1-4).

Psalm 19:5-6 “Which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, and rejoiceth as a strongman to run a race. His going forth is from the end of the heaven, and his circuit unto the ends of it: and there is nothing hid from the heat there of” (Psalm 19:5-6).

According to the theory of evolution, the heavens tell us nothing of the glory of God, and the firmament—the skies—reveals nothing as well. All that is indicated by the vast universe, with its marvelous galaxies and swirling solar systems, is that blind chance has been at work. This we cannot accept. To do so would require us to discard yet another biblical witness to Creation: “Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear” (Hebrews 11:3). B. A Living Soul

Searching The Scriptures I. Creation of Principalities and Powers Creation of Principalitiesand Powers “Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: for by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: and he is before all things, and by him all things consist” (Colossians 1:15-17).

The Invisible Things A. The Invisible Things The God who was manifest in genuine, authentic human existence, Jesus Christ, is the God who created all things. (See I Timothy 3:16; John 1:1-3, 14; Hebrews 1:2, 8-10.) Creation involved not only the visible things that can be seen by the human eye, but also those things that are invisible. Apparently these visible and invisible components include thrones, dominions, principalities, and powers. In other words, there are visible and invisible thrones, dominions, and powers.

B. A Living Soul In The Message of Colossians and Philemon, David K. Bernard writes, “Jesus is the Creator of ‘all things,’ whether heavenly or earthly, visible or invisible, spiritual or physical. This verse specifically lists thrones, dominions (lordships), principalities (rulers), and powers (authorities) as originally created by Him. These designations cover all beings or forces, whether now good or evil.”

Angels, Spirits, and Souls B. Angels, Spirits, and Souls Although it is beyond the scope of this lesson to discuss in detail the various aspects of the invisible realm—especially as it pertains to evil or fallen thrones, dominions, principalities, and powers—we should note that angels are included in this realm as spirit beings. God made “his angels spirits, and his ministers a flame of fire” (Hebrews 1:7).

B. A Living Soul Although angels appear in various biblical accounts, this is apparently due to their ability to appear much like theophanies, which were temporary visible manifestations of God. The theory of evolution makes no provision for the invisible spirit realm. In other words, the acceptance of evolution truncates reality only to the tangible and leaves no room for angels or invisible thrones, dominions, principalities, or powers—whether good or evil.

B. A Living Soul Furthermore, it renders inaccurate and meaningless the vast number of biblical references to the invisible realm. People of faith should reject such a theory for that reason alone. If angels do not exist, then Gabriel did not appear to Daniel, Zacharias, Mary, or Joseph, which would also mean the story of our Lord’s conception and birth is false.

B. A Living Soul The foundational accounts of the Incarnation and the plan of redemption would be reduced to nothing more than fiction or, at best, mythical tales using metaphorical language to express something less than the literal meaning.

Creation of the World and the Universe II. Creation of the World and the Universe While students of the Bible hold varied understandings of the first chapter of Genesis, it is not the purpose of this lesson to fully explore these views. Instead, we are pointing out the incompatibility between the biblical account of Creation and the theory of evolution.

B. A Living Soul To do this, we need look no further than the first verse of the Bible: “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth” (Genesis 1:1). This statement sets forth two essential elements of biblical faith:

Transparency 2

B. A Living Soul 1. There was a beginning. Before God created, nothing existed; when He began creating, the measure of time began. The theory of evolution cannot point to a specific moment of beginning. It can only theorize about something that happened in the unknown past. Furthermore, it cannot answer the question of how something came from nothing. To believe the biblical account certainly requires faith, but to accept the evolutionary hypothesis also requires faith.

2. There is a God. Some theistic evolutionists agree that some unknown deity initiated the evolutionary process through which everything that exists to this point came into being. However, this is not the God that the Book of Genesis describes. The Hebrew verb bara, translated as “created,” is in the perfect tense. Strictly speaking, the Hebrew language does not have tenses, and this would simply be called the perfect. B. A Living Soul

However, it is quite common to refer to the perfect and imperfect as tenses. The most common usage of the perfect is to note the completion of the action. The point is that Genesis 1:1 is not about God beginning creation; it is about Creation as completed by God. This will not work with the idea of theistic evolution nor with evolution that rejects the existence of God in favor of the notion that evolution is ongoing. B. A Living Soul

B. A Living Soul God’s creative work included the heavens (the universe) and the Earth, which encompasses the entirety of all material existence. In other words, Genesis 1:1 is a summary statement that precedes the more detailed account beginning in Genesis 1:3. The phrase “the heaven and the earth” is a figure of speech expressing the totality of the present world. (See Joel 3:15-16.) Thus, nothing exists that God did not create in the beginning.

Creation of Life III. Creation of Life Only God can create something from nothing. Even the most optimistic evolutionists recognize that something must exist in order for it to evolve into something else. Is it possible for scientists to create life in a laboratory?

On the website Creation Ministries International, Dr. Carl Wieland, past president of the Christian Medical Fellowship of South Australia, observes: “When considering how life began, there are really only two alternatives. Either life was created by an intelligent source or it ‘made itself’—i.e. evolved. That’s really what ‘evolution’ is all about—things making themselves, arising spontaneously from within nature—the material world—with no outside assistance. B. A Living Soul

So if someone were to claim that synthesizing life in a test-tube wipes out the idea of creation, they would in effect be saying, ‘Synthesizing life in a test-tube proves that it evolved.’ Now substitute the italicized words in that phrase with others of identical meaning, and the absurdity of it becomes clear: ‘Using intelligence to make life in a test-tube proves that it made itself and did not arise through intelligence’” (creation.com/creating-life-in-a-test-tube, accessed February 17, 2010). B. A Living Soul

B. A Living Soul Whatever scientists may eventually be able to do by manipulating preexisting materials, it will not be the creation of life out of nothing as God accomplished in the beginning. God created everything that exists, including the materials that are used for experimentation in scientific laboratories.

Plant Life A. Plant Life We should note the biblical references to seed and kind: “And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind” (Genesis 1:12). The New Living Translation makes this very clear: “The land produced vegetation—all sorts of seed-bearing plants, and trees with seed-bearing fruit. Their seeds produced plants and trees of the same kind. And God saw that it was good” (Genesis 1:12, NLT).

B. A Living Soul This process of seeds producing after their kind has endured throughout the history of mankind. Although there can be mutations and grafting to develop new strains of plants, this is always within the kind of the original seeds. For example, roses will never become walnuts and horses will never become monkeys.

Animal Life B. Plant Life Seven times in Genesis 1:21-25 the phrases “after their kind” and “after his kind” appear. As with plant life, the idea is that the animals God created would reproduce their own kind. God commanded, “Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth” (Genesis 1:22). Multiplication has to do with reproduction.

B. A Living Soul Academically qualified scientists who are also believers in the biblical account of Creation point out the importance of the fixity of the species: The website Reasons states, “The species were specially created by God and began with their distinctive features already intact. We maintain descent with modification is not capable of producing new species regardless of the timeframe.

B. A Living Soul We would concede speciation might occur with plants and with organisms at the level of microbes—bacteria, protists, fungi and viruses—(i.e., those species that have large population sizes with short generation times) but not to anything above that level. . . . “The fixity of species is what separates special creation from theistic evolution and Darwinian evolution.”

Creation of Manand the Eternal Soul IV. Creation of Man and the Eternal Soul A Living Soul The materialistic view of origins as set forth by the theory of evolution has no place in the life of faith. Not only does evolution reject the invisible spirit realm, but it also leaves no room for the existence of the human spirit. Evolution reduces human beings simply to the status of material beings without a soul.

B. A Living Soul In evolution’s view, what is commonly thought of as soul is merely the animating principle inherent in all living things. In his book Responses to 101 Questions on God and Evolution, John Haught writes, “Darwinian science compels us now to reconsider what we mean by the ‘soul.’” Instead, we must reject the Darwinian view of the soul and recognize that God created mankind with a living soul. (See Genesis 2:7.)

Genesis 2:7 “And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul” (Genesis 2:7).

B. A Living Soul There are different interpretations of what Scripture says about the immaterial aspect of human existence. Some people believe that a human being is a trichotomy, consisting of body, soul, and spirit as distinct entities. Others believe that a human is a dichotomy, with the terms soul and spirit used as virtual synonyms. Yet another idea is described as conditional monism, with its focus on the integration of the material and immaterial aspects into one being.

First Principles