Monday, June 6, 2016

Earth Day - Part 1

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!
You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road today…have a blessed day!

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[1] Title Image: By Meghana Kulkarni from Pune, India (Happiness), via Wikimedia Commons
[2]Morris, Henry M., The Genesis Record, (Grand Rapids, Baker Book House, 1976), 37
[3]Ibid, 39
[4]G. Campbell Morgan, Great Chapters of the Bible, (New York, Fleming H. Revell           Company, 1935), 15

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