Monday, June 6,
2016
In the
beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Genesis 1:1(NLT)
The Bible doesn't prove (or
even try to prove) the existence of God, or that He created the world. It just assumes the reader comes to the word
with faith in those facts. I will do the
same.
Dr. Henry M. Morris is the
president of the Institute for Creation Research. He has written a fine reference work on the
Genesis account. He says about our text:
It is the foundation of all foundations and is thus
the most
important verse in the Bible[2]
Questions about the creation
are many, and should be answered.
However, we can spend all our time examining the wrapping on this
package of creation, and never get to the gift.
And the good stuff is
inside.
One question that is
profitable to answer today, and takes little time, is: Is the
creation account allegory or
historical reality? Is this a
fictional account to give us the sense of how God did things, or is it genuine
historical fact?
The evidence of Jesus should
be enough. Jesus, in His earthly
ministry, verifies the historicity of the Bible's events. If Jesus accepts the reality of creation by
His Father, I can too. After all, Jesus
was there and Scripture tells us everything was created by His hand (Col.
1.16)!
Our aim this morning is to open
these first verses of Genesis without getting caught in the trap of trying to
prove how or when God created. We accept
the fact that He did it. We simply want
to see what God did, and what that can teach us about God.
What Genesis 1 teaches us...
#1. There is only one
God
If there is only one genuine
God in the universe, we want to know about His character. We want to know Who this God is that we might
worship Him.
HE IS UNIQUE W.H. Carruth: Some call it
evolution and others call it God."
The first phrase in the
Bible sets the stage for us to see that the personality of God dwells on a far different
and higher plane than man's. His name
is Elohim. In Hebrew that name is plural, indicating
that He is more than one. Yet, it is
used in a singular meaning. Dr. Morris
has called this a uni-plural noun; God is one, yet more than one.[3]
Dr. G. Campbell Morgan, a
revered Baptist scholar and preacher, disagrees. He sees the plural ending im
as emphasis indicating the superlative nature of God. Dr. Morgan states: The
Hebrew language applies the plural in an intensive way when it is desired to
signify that the thing referred to by the noun itself is superlative.[4] That is like the Pope speaking in the third
person, plural. He says "we"
traveled to Russia, when he means "I" went there.
Frankly, I don't have a
problem. I see the Lord as superlative and plural. At the risk of reading the New Testament into
the Old, God hasn't changed! He is
unique.
For You Today
If you have a problem with
the first sentence of the Bible, you’re going to have a whole lot of problems
with the rest of it! This is the place
to exercise the faith God placed in your heart!
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