Author: Charlie Garrett

Genesis 1:20-25
Tasty and Delicious

One day a zoo-keeper noticed that a monkey was reading two books – the Bible and Darwin’s The Origin of Species. In surprise he asked the ape, “Why are you reading both those books?”
“Well, I’m trying to figure out if I’m brother’s keeper or my keeper’s brother.”

Most people love to go to zoos and see all the fun animals God created. When Hideko and I lived in Japan, we lived literally right next door to the Hamura zoo. My daughter has just started out on a new adventure – raising and handling big cats. She’s responsible for three tigers right now. One of them she named Thorr after our son, her brother.

Wherever we go, there are animals to excite our imagination and entertain our lives. I was watching a special on crows just a few days ago with Hideko and it was amazing to see how intelligent they are. They are one of only three types of life that not only use, but actually make their own tools. They can also perform cognitive thinking in multiple stages – something that was previously thought only humans and primates could do.

Crows can recognize individual humans and remember them for over two years and can communicate their knowledge of specific humans to hundreds and even thousands of other crows. If I catch a crow and keep him trapped, after I release him, he will instruct all the other crows to stay away from me, teaching this even to the next generation.

At the Hamura Zoo by our house in Tokyo, they kept crows in a special area so that the people could accurately predict coming earthquakes before they happened. They are such amazing creatures and yet crows are a miniscule part of the vast array of life God created on planet earth.

Introduction: In a little less than two days, the fifth and part of the sixth days of creation, which were Thursday and Friday of the first week, God created every type of animal that exists. On Thursday He created the birds and other winged creatures and all of the life in the sea. And then on Friday, before creating man, he created all of the land animals that we’ve come to know and love – as pets, as natural curiosities, and as nummy nummy dinners.

Just as with the rest of creation, these creatures were prepared by God for man’s expected arrival. Today we’ll talk about the six verses which have come to be the focus of our fishing vacations, our dreams of flying like the birds, and our afternoon naps with snuggle partners of the four footed variety.

Text Verse: Who knows if the spirit of man rises upward and if the spirit of the animal goes down into the earth?” Ecclesiastes 3:21

May God speak to us through His word today and may His glorious name ever be praised.

I. God’s Creation

Remember the words which open the pages of the Bible –

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

God is the Creator and therefore the creation is His. What happens to the creation should be as He purposes. He divides up the lands and the nations as He so chooses. He ordains what man can and cannot eat. He bestows authority on His creatures as He sees fit. He is the Creator and therefore the entire creation is subject to Him. He is the potter and the clay can be used, reformed, or disposed of as He determines.

Although all of this should seem painfully obvious to us, we unfortunately often fail to see it as clearly as that. Our modern world treats God’s sovereign decisions as if they came from a lunatic.

God has reserved the land of Israel for Himself. Eight times in the Old Testament God specifically calls that piece of property “My land” and He implies it probably thousands of times. It is His alone to parcel out to whom He sees fit. And He has sovereignly given it to one group of people, Israel –

And because He loved your fathers, therefore He chose their descendants after them; and He brought you out of Egypt with His Presence, with His mighty power, driving out from before you nations greater and mightier than you, to bring you in, to give you their land as an inheritance, as it is this day. Deuteronomy 4:37, 38

But like many other issues, we snub God, spit on His word, and actively work against His ordinances. The land of Israel belongs to the Jewish people as a heritage forever. And because the world is actively working against this edict, the judgment of God will fall on all nations –

For behold, in those days and at that time,
When I bring back the captives of Judah and Jerusalem,
I will also gather all nations,
And bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat;
And I will enter into judgment with them there
On account of My people, My heritage Israel,
Whom they have scattered among the nations;
They have also divided up My land. Joel 3:1, 2

Several things don’t matter a bit, not an iota concerning this verse, 1) what you think about it, 2) what I think about it, or 3) what the rest of the world thinks about it. The only thing that matters is what God thinks about it. We are currently working to divide the land of Israel in a search for peace, but the Bible says that instead of peace we will only find war, destruction, and judgment.

Another unfortunate action man has recently pursued is the folly of “global warming.” In an attempt to restrict how we live and what we do with the world God has given us, people make up bizarre theories about our ability to affect global temperatures, despite the evidence being exactly the opposite.

Because of following this path, the oil God placed in the earth for our use is considered unclean. The trees God gave us for houses and fuel are placed as sacred idols which deserve worship instead of a chainsaw. But God ordained a different path for us –

“Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” Genesis 1:28

King David elaborated on what God ordained in Genesis when he penned the 8^th Psalm –

What is man that You are mindful of him,
And the son of man that You visit him?
For You have made him a little lower than the angels,
And You have crowned him with glory and honor.
You have made him to have dominion over the works of Your hands;
You have put all things under his feet,
All sheep and oxen—
Even the beasts of the field,
The birds of the air,
And the fish of the sea
That pass through the paths of the seas. Psalm 8:4-8

Just like the Land of Israel and the earth we blasphemously call “Mother,” it’s become fashionable to reject the foods that we are given by God. Instead we treat them in a harsh manner as well. We can’t enjoy a good steak without being made to feel guilty about it by someone. People demand rights for animals when God has ordained that animals are to be eaten if we so desire. Later in Genesis 9 we read this –

Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth. And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be on every beast of the earth, on every bird of the air, on all that move on the earth, and on all the fish of the sea. They are given into your hand. Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. I have given you all things, even as the green herbs. Genesis 9:1-3

And even those who do eat meat will often put restrictions on what kinds of meat we can and can’t eat. Misunderstanding our freedom in Christ, sects and denominations forbid pork, shellfish, and other tasty treats. None of this is biblical and all of it is harmful to the relationship we enjoy in the freedom of Jesus Christ.

Speaking of nummy nummy food, Paul says in 1 Corinthians 14 –

I know and am convinced by the Lord Jesus that there is nothing unclean of itself; vs 14.

We’ll talk more about the food we can eat a little later, but remember that the God of creation is the ultimate authority on what is allowed and what is forbidden in the use of His creation. If He allows something, then we interfere with that at our own peril. If we add restrictions that He didn’t without obvious and valid reasons, then we are adding to that which isn’t at our prerogative.

Likewise, if we detract from His restrictions, then we violate what He alone has the right to mandate. Either way, when we disobey God’s law, then we state that we are more intelligent, more compassionate, or more important than He is.

II. The Fifth Day – An Abundance of Life

Have you ever taken the time to watch a bird of prey catch what it’s after? My mom sent me a link a while ago of an Eagle Owl coming in for a piece of meat which was attached to a camera. The camera was set to record 1000 frames per second and the video lasted 59 seconds or a flight of 59,000 frames was recorded.

At first, the bird swoops in at ground level, below where the target is. As it gets closer, it starts to flap its wings to slow itself down while at the same time lowering its legs with its massive claws tucked in like a clenched fist.

As it got closer, it tucked it’s legs back behind itself and put its wings out straight, having readied itself for the final few feet – its eyes never diverting from the target. A little closer and its tail feathers begin to fan out like a parachute behind the space shuttle as it lands. Within just a couple feet of the target, the wings fan out along with the tail so that the bird is flat like a wall, facing the target.

Just at this time, its legs rise to point straight out in front of it, while its body remains completely facing out. Within inches of the target, the claws open up just like the mouth of a monster on a sci-fi show. During this entire time, the eyes of the bird never divert in any direction. At the same time its claws are opened up, its wings draw back and the wind rushes against them as it prepares to grab the target and simultaneous fly away.

The perfection of what occurs during this entire display is simply amazing to watch. When all of this occurs in real time, it happens faster than we could ever imagine. This type of beauty and precision comes directly from the mind of God as He constructed His creatures to both amaze us and dazzle our senses.

On the fifth day, which was Thursday, God did a marvelous work when He ordained life in the form of birds and sea life to flourish on the earth.

Then God said, “Let the waters abound with an abundance of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the face of the firmament of the heavens.” ²¹ So God created great sea creatures and every living thing that moves, with which the waters abounded, according to their kind, and every winged bird according to its kind.

As a side note on these verses, the King James Version translates verse 20 differently than most other translations. It says, “And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.”

This translation seems to imply that the sea creatures and the birds were produced out of the waters. However, a different translational choice will allow for a more probable interpretation –

Then God said, “Let the waters abound with an abundance of creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the face of the firmament of the heavens. …”

The modern translations clear up any sense that the waters were the source of the life of these creatures. Instead, God is the source and the water was the medium in which He created the sea life. The birds of the air were created by the same great Creator and their domain is the sky above us.

This should seem obvious, but it’s important to separate these so that people can’t jump to the conclusion that the waters are the source of life. For all we know, Darwin, who was raised in a Christian context and most probably with the King James Version, could have come to this insane conclusion as he developed his notion about the origin of species.

On this day God created the immense and much debated Leviathan which is mentioned in the book of Job. The description of it takes up the entire chapter and this, along with another beast we’ll talk about later, the Behemoth, are highly disputed among liberal and even some conservative theologians today. Here’s a portion of the description about Leviathan –

7 Can you fill his skin with harpoons,
Or his head with fishing spears?
8 Lay your hand on him;
Remember the battle—
Never do it again!
9 Indeed, any hope of overcoming him is false;
Shall one not be overwhelmed at the sight of him? …
14 Who can open the doors of his face,
With his terrible teeth all around?
15 His rows of scales are his pride,
Shut up tightly as with a seal;
16 One is so near another
That no air can come between them;
17 They are joined one to another,
They stick together and cannot be parted.
18 His sneezings flash forth light,
And his eyes are like the eyelids of the morning.
19 Out of his mouth go burning lights;
Sparks of fire shoot out.
20 Smoke goes out of his nostrils,
As from a boiling pot and burning rushes.
21 His breath kindles coals,
And a flame goes out of his mouth….
26 Though the sword reaches him, it cannot avail;
Nor does spear, dart, or javelin.
27 He regards iron as straw,
And bronze as rotten wood.
28 The arrow cannot make him flee;
Slingstones become like stubble to him.
29 Darts are regarded as straw;
He laughs at the threat of javelins.
30 His undersides are like sharp potsherds;
He spreads pointed marks in the mire.
31 He makes the deep boil like a pot;
He makes the sea like a pot of ointment.
32 He leaves a shining wake behind him;
One would think the deep had white hair.
33 On earth there is nothing like him,
Which is made without fear.

I didn’t cite the whole description, but it was something that God spoke to Job about as if he was already well familiar with it. Modern scholars try to claim this was probably a crocodile, but describing a crocodile like this would be like giving a description of a 747 when speaking about a little boy’s toy kite. This was undoubtedly a dinosaur of some type that Job had seen with his own eyes.

Have you ever wondered about the question “Which came first, the chicken or the egg?” We have the answer in the verses we’re looking at as well. God created the birds in a dazzling array of types and kinds, including the chicken. When the first rooster sidled up to the first hen and rolled his eyes at her, she gave a coo, he gave a cockle-doodle-doo, and a little while later there was mom sitting on the first eggs.

Matthew Henry says of the fifth day of creation, “Each day, hitherto, has produced very noble and excellent beings, which we can never sufficiently admire; but we do not read of the creation of any living creature till the fifth day, of which these verses give us an account. The work of creation not only proceeded gradually from one thing to another, but rose and advanced gradually from that which was less excellent to that which was more so, teaching us to press towards perfection and endeavour that our last works may be our best works.”

Mr. Henry is equating each day’s increased nobility of the creation with a general guideline for us to live our lives. We should endeavor to increase the quality of our works as we develop in life so that what we accomplish is progressively better, thus emulating God’s handiwork in creation.

In a similar manner, our lives as Christians should develop as well. Instead of getting saved and then spending the rest of our lives at a marginal level of Christian maturity, we should be actively reading our Bibles, learning about what God has given us in creation, and working out the fruits of our salvation in the help of others through discipleship and ministry.

And God saw that it was good. ²² And God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.” ²³ So the evening and the morning were the fifth day.

Let’s move on to verse 24 and into the sixth day which is Friday –

²⁴ Then God said, “Let the earth bring forth the living creature according to its kind: cattle and creeping thing and beast of the earth, each according to its kind”; and it was so. ²⁵ And God made the beast of the earth according to its kind, cattle according to its kind, and everything that creeps on the earth according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.

Have you ever stood and watched a cow as it chews the cud? Their mouths just kind of move from side to side and their eyes look off into absolutely nothingness. I can’t think of a more monotonous sight in the world. When I see them doing this, I wonder what they’re thinking… The funny thing is, God knows.

Every animal on earth, whether it’s the bizarre cats that control our entire life, or the monkey swinging from the tree, whether it’s a squirrel or a yak, every animal has a specific purpose and was designed in a specific way in anticipation of the coming man. God knows every thing about every one of them, every thought they think, and every move they will make. King David says in the 139^th Psalm – “Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; It is high, I cannot attain it.” This is exactly how I feel when I think of the works which come from the hand of God.

On this day came the other great and marvelous creature described in Job. This animal is often footnoted as an elephant or a hippopotamus but listen to the description of the Behemoth and see if it matches either –

15“Look now at the behemoth, which I made along with you;
He eats grass like an ox.
16 See now, his strength is in his hips,
And his power is in his stomach muscles.
17 He moves his tail like a cedar;
The sinews of his thighs are tightly knit.
18 His bones are like beams of bronze,
His ribs like bars of iron.
19 He is the first of the ways of God;
Only He who made him can bring near His sword.
20 Surely the mountains yield food for him,
And all the beasts of the field play there.
21 He lies under the lotus trees,
In a covert of reeds and marsh.
22 The lotus trees cover him with their shade;
The willows by the brook surround him.
23 Indeed the river may rage,
Yet he is not disturbed;
He is confident, though the Jordan gushes into his mouth,
24 Though he takes it in his eyes,
Or one pierces his nose with a snare.

First, this description says that he moves his tail like a cedar. Have you ever seen the tail of either an elephant or a hippopotamus? Both of them are like little dinky pencils. This creature had a tail like a large tree. Second, this guy is said to be the “first of the ways of God” as spoken from God’s own mouth. To say this is a hippo or an elephant is to call into question the truth of the inspiration of the Bible. This creature was massive; so large in fact that when the Jordan was at flood stage, raging at a full flow, the Behemoth remained unmoved.

As with the Leviathan, this creature was both familiar to Job and perfectly fits the description of a dinosaur. As a final nail in the doubter’s coffin, no such animal exists in the Jordan basin today, clearly indicating that it was neither an elephant nor a hippo. Rather, it was a type of animal no longer in existence today’ a dinosaur

III. Tasty and Delicious

On of my favorite things to do, second only to sleeping, is to eat. And tasty animals are right at the top of my food enjoyment meter. Other than bread and an Asian fruit called durian, I don’t think I enjoy anything more than eating a well cooked beast.

If you’ve been to one of my barbecues, you’ve seen that I buy enough meat for 5 times as many people as show up. This is so I can eat barbecued tasties for weeks after the party. (buuurp… oh excuse me!)

One area indicating a weak understanding or a poor interpretation of the Bible is revealed on the dinner tables of the Christian, or pseudo-Christian world. What God ordains as good is acceptable for the believer. Finding fault in or misrepresenting what God has allowed then is sin…plain and simple.

Christians have every right to claim as their own the Chinese proverb which says, “If it flies in the sky, if it swims in the ocean, or if it moves on the earth, I will eat it.”

We saw earlier that in the first verses of Chapter 9 of Genesis, God allowed Noah and those after him to eat all forms of life. “Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you.” Not every “every” in the Bible really means “every” just as not all “alls” in the Bible mean “all.” Context is always king when interpreting the Bible, and in the context of this verse the “every” does mean every.

There were no restrictions on the people of the world about what they could eat all the way up until the time of Moses and the Law. At that time, God set aside a special group of people for His own special purposes. The restrictions levied upon them were upon them alone and all the other people of the world were allowed to continue with Saturday morning bacon fests and Tuesday afternoon possum cook-offs.

When Christ came, He fulfilled the Law on our behalf and the law is set aside in Christ. This is stated explicitly three times in the book of Hebrews and it is alluded to numerous times in the New Testament. The Law is in no way binding on the Christian, in any way shape or form. We obtain our doctrine for life and conduct from the New Testament. To add to, subtract from, or misrepresent the New Testament for the believer is sin. Period.

There are numerous references to the suitability of all foods for the believer, but the example of Peter in Acts is as clear as they come:

Peter went up on the housetop to pray, about the sixth hour. Then he became very hungry and wanted to eat; but while they made ready, he fell into a trance and saw heaven opened and an object like a great sheet bound at the four corners, descending to him and let down to the earth. In it were all kinds of four-footed animals of the earth, wild beasts, creeping things, and birds of the air. And a voice came to him, “Rise, Peter; kill and eat.” But Peter said, “Not so, Lord! For I have never eaten anything common or unclean.” And a voice spoke to him again the second time, “What God has cleansed you must not call common.” This was done three times. And the object was taken up into heaven again. Acts 10:9-16

This account hearkens back to the book of Ezekiel where he was told to eat defiled food as a sign to the people of Israel that they would likewise eat defiled food in their exile. But Ezekiel cried out to God –

“Ah, Lord GOD! Indeed I have never defiled myself from my youth till now; I have never eaten what died of itself or was torn by beasts, nor has abominable flesh ever come into my mouth.” Then He said to me, “See, I am giving you cow dung instead of human waste, and you shall prepare your bread over it.” Ezekiel 4:9-15

In the case of Ezekiel, God allowed him to substitute a clean source of fuel for an unclean one. By doing this, he maintained Ezekiel’s ability to uphold the law. However, in Peter’s case, God repeated His statement that what was presented to him was no longer unclean and he was to acknowledge this.

This account actually has two separate applications, both of which are equally valid and both of which are to be understood in the greater context of the New Testament. In the first application, God was ordaining all foods as clean because of the work of Jesus – the fulfillment of the Law.

In the second application, God was showing Peter that Gentiles, whose tummies were full of these previously unclean animals, were to be considered clean when they called on Jesus as Lord. He purified them of any defilement and therefore no further cleansing, such as dietary restrictions, was needed then or in the future.

Because we’re talking about food today, and specifically about what the Bible allows I want to take a moment and warn you about “biblical diets” which people promote in advertising and on Christian channels. These are never more than a sham and are always taken out of context for someone to make a buck. Maybe you’ve heard of the Ezekiel Diet.

This is a diet which supposedly is the biblical way of staying healthy… it must be right? It’s in the Bible. The Ezekiel diet comes from the passage I referenced a moment ago – “Also take for yourself wheat, barley, beans, lentils, millet, and spelt; put them into one vessel, and make bread of them for yourself.”

So some money grubber put together bread made of this stuff and is selling it as a nutritious diet so you can live forever. Never mind the fact that the reason for Ezekiel eating this stuff is mentioned a few verses later –

Moreover He said to me, “Son of man, surely I will cut off the supply of bread in Jerusalem; they shall eat bread by weight and with anxiety, and shall drink water by measure and with dread, that they may lack bread and water, and be dismayed with one another, and waste away because of their iniquity. Ezekiel 4:16, 17

Ezekiel was told to eat this stuff as a subsistence level diet – just enough to keep a person alive each day, but not enough to live properly. The devil is in the details that the Ezekiel Diet folks left out. Be really careful about anyone who promotes a diet which is supposedly a biblical remedy to health and fitness. Whether it’s the Daniel Diet, the Jesus Loaf of Bread Diet, whatever…

Paul explains in the New Testament the goodness of the foods God has placed in the world and the deception concerning them which is pushed upon the unsuspecting –

Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, ² speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron, ³ forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from foods which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. ⁴ For every creature of God is good, and nothing is to be refused if it is received with thanksgiving; ⁵ for it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer. 1 Timothy 4:1-5

IV. Care for the Creation

We have just one more short section today because I feel compelled, after talking about eating all the tasty animals that God has given us, to make sure each of us looks at God’s creation as valuable and worth preserving and that we don’t abuse it or waste what is so precious.

I talked about the owl awhile ago and how splendidly it flew in to grab its meal. When we carefully consider them, every animal, every bird, every sea creature that God created is a marvel of imagination and a delight to our minds. Let me read a few of the marvelous things God has given us in the animal world –

Flying frogs change color throughout the day. They are greenish-blue in sunlight and green in the evening. At night there are black.

The king Cobra can grow to almost 20 feet in length and is regarded as the largest poisonous snake in the world. A tiny amount of its poison can kill up to 30 people.

Anteaters protect their long claws by walking on their knuckles. That’s why they look as if they are limping.

Bats eat all types of food. There is no restriction where their diet is concerned.

The hippopotamus’s eyes, ears and nostrils are on the top of its head. This enables it to stand or sit, almost completely covered by water with as little showing above the surface as possible.

There is no sideways movement for a cat’s jaws.

Armadillos have four babies of the same sex at a time. They are perfect identical quadruplets. They sleep for an average of 18.5 hours a day and they can walk underwater. They are the only other species outside of humans that can carry and transmit leprosy.

Giraffes have no vocal chords, but cats have 100 vocal chords.

A goat’s eyes have got rectangular pupils.

A camel’s milk never curdles.

I could go on with fun facts all day. God has presented us with such a dazzling array of life on this planet and every type fills a specific role. If God has given such tender care and detail to the life He’s created, we then should be equally careful to preserve it for the generations to come.

I love my little dogs,
But to me cats just don’t please
The way I enjoy a cow,
is with potatoes and some peas

Bears are amazing, but one needs to keep some space
If not you may lose an arm, or the nose right off your face

Watching squirrels reminds me
That God knows humor too
Who can’t but laugh at how they act
And the funny things they do

Wherever you go on this big round ball
All types of creatures abound
From the really big to the really small
Everywhere, they can be found

God has lavished us with His loving hand
In the beasties that He’s made
Everywhere and in every land
In the open sun or in the darkest shade

So let us take good care
Of the beasts He put under our control
Whether out in nature, or in a zoo,
Or beside our dinner roll

And God saw that it was good.

This is the middle of the first Friday on earth which is the sixth day of creation. Everything to this point has been created by God in anticipation of His final great act. The house is complete and He has one more thing to make to finish His marvelous work. Next week we’ll look at the stupendous wonder of the sixth day – the creation of man.

Last week I told you that only on the third day of creation did God say “it is good” twice. However, after creating the animals on the sixth day he says “it is good” and then pronounces an even greater blessing at the end of the day. The first Friday on earth was a very good day. And since the time of Jesus’ cross, Friday has become known as Good Friday, forming a wonderful parallel to the first Friday when God finished up His wonderful works of creation. Next week, we’ll look over those last verses.

 

Genesis 1:2-19
From Chaos to Order

The online dictionary defines chaos as, “A condition or place of great disorder or confusion.” It defines order as, “A condition of methodical or prescribed arrangement among component parts such that proper functioning or appearance is achieved.”

What we perceive around us in the universe is reflected in the definition given for order not chaos. If you were here last week, it should be painfully evident that this order came about by the hand of a Creator, and not by itself.

In fact, there has never been an instance in known history where order has come out of disorder. If you take a bag of rocks, which are a little bit orderly and a little bit disorderly and shake them long enough, your result will be far less order and far more disorder. You cannot take a bag containing the parts of a watch, shake it, and come up with a watch. You will only come up with broken watch parts.

In the article, The Fine Tuning of the Universe, we read – “According to growing numbers of scientists, the laws and constants of nature are so “finely-tuned,” and so many “coincidences” have occurred to allow for the possibility of life, the universe must have come into existence through intentional planning and intelligence. In fact, this “fine-tuning” is so pronounced, and the “coincidences” are so numerous, many scientists have come to espouse The Anthropic Principle, which contends that the universe was brought into existence intentionally for the sake of producing mankind.”

For people to deny the precision and perfection of the cosmos in every detail is impossible, so those who deny the existence of God simply acknowledge this detail and then attribute it to chance – even despite the numerical odds which bring this chance to impossible numbers.

Rather than believing such lugheads, we need to pull our heads completely out of the sand, look around us and understand that we humans were, in fact, expected guests of a creation with no other recognizable purpose than to support … us.

Dr. Paul Davies, the author and professor of theoretical physics at AdelaideUniversity says it this way –

“The really amazing thing is not that life on Earth is balanced on a knife-edge, but that the entire universe is balanced on a knife-edge, and would be total chaos if any of the natural ‘constants’ were off even slightly. You see,” Davies adds, “even if you dismiss man as a chance happening, the fact remains that the universe seems unreasonably suited to the existence of life—almost contrived—you might say a ‘put-up job.’”

Introduction: Today we’ll look over Genesis 1 verses 2 through 19. There’s a lot of information there and we could talk on verse 2 alone for many hours, but we’ll grab some highlights and wander through these verses like a guy in an apple orchard, grabbing the appealing ones as he goes.

Text Verse: To whom then will you liken Me,
Or to whom shall I be equal?” says the Holy One.
Lift up your eyes on high,
And see who has created these things,
Who brings out their host by number;
He calls them all by name,
By the greatness of His might
And the strength of His power;
Not one is missing. Isaiah 40:25, 26

May God speak to us through His word and may His glorious name ever be praised.

I. The Heavens and the Earth

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. First, there was only God and then God created. This is what Christians believe. Whether we accept this or whether we accept the Big Bang doesn’t change the fact that there was nothing and then there was something. The only difference is the stupidity of believing that the universe could create itself. In order for the universe to create itself it would have had to have existed before it came to be. Such is the depravity of man that we have to reduce ourselves to something that stupid in order to get away from God.

The Genesis account doesn’t tell us “how” God created. However, the psalms do. The Genesis account just says He did and then tells us the order in which all this took place. The creation account is only 31 verses long and yet it has been the subject of untold hours of thought, countless books, and has been divided into an amazing number of theories.

Some believe the account is literal and to be taken as written – six days. Some say it represents billions of years of development and the 6 days represent 6 epochs of God’s creation. Some say the earth was inhabited and destroyed once before man was created. This is known as the “Gap Theory” and inserts an entire period of Satan’s rule and fall on earth between Genesis 1:1 and 1:2. This idea came as a knee-jerk reaction after Darwin proposed evolution.

The list of theories is long and often very convoluted, but in the end the Bible really only presents one option. Even the honest non-believer in the Genesis account will agree that God intends for us to believe this is a literal 6 day period.

James Barr, Oriel Professor of the interpretation of the Holy Scripture at OxfordUniversity, says this about the account –

“… probably, so far as I know, there is no professor of Hebrew or Old Testament at any world-class university who does not believe that the writer of Genesis 1… intended to convey to the readers the idea that … creation took place in a series of six days which were the same as the days of 24 hours we now experience.”

After the initial creation, verse 2 says this –

The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. The terminology for “without form and void” is –

Tohu v’ bohu from the Hebrew, but let me share how different Bibles translate this one concept –

Formless and Void
Formless and Desolate
Formless and Empty
Without Form and Void
Without Form and Empty
Void and Empty
Unformed and Void
Without Form and an empty waste
Empty and had no form
Unseen and unready
Chaos and vacancy
Soup of nothingness; a bottomless emptiness
Barren with no form or life
Didn’t have any shape, and it was empty
Waste and void
Waste and empty
Waste and wild
Waste and without form
Welter and waste

This same phrase – tohu v’ bohu is used one other time in the Bible, in Jeremiah 4:23 speaking of the judgment upon the land because of the rejection of God, “I beheld the earth, and indeed it was without form, and void; And the heavens, they had no light.”

Verse 2 continues, “And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.” This is the first distinction made in the Bible about the character of God. The word for “Spirit” is ruakh and can also be translated as “wind.” Because of this, Jewish commentaries and even some Christian translations use wind instead of Spirit here. But Spirit is far more likely and in context makes much more sense. It also parallels Jesus’ words about the Spirit in John chapter 3, and so is accepted by almost all Christian translators.

What should be obvious is that if the “Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters” back then, that God’s Spirit is still hovering over the creation even now. As we live and move and exist, God is hovering around us and directing His creation according to His purposes and His will.

Before we move on, we should consider that everything about the creation account is intended to instruct us concerning the workings of God in relation to man. The earth and in fact the whole universe has been made for our benefit, not God’s. God is complete in Himself, and therefore what He has done and the way in which He’s done it is for us and for our benefit.

Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night.

This is Day 1 of creation which would have been a Sunday. What is the light God created at this time? It’s not until the fourth day that the sun is placed in the sky. There are two main possibilities that have been put forth. The first is that the sun and stars were created at this time, but weren’t placed where they are now until the fourth day. This is possible, because a different word than “create” is used later when the sun appears.

The Hebrew word for “create” is bara, but the word used about the sun and moon and stars on day four is asah. This can then mean that they appeared on the fourth day but were created earlier.

However, this would make a simple and obvious reading of both accounts somewhat convoluted. Just as it’s easier to try to reconcile Genesis with evolution by inventing theories which accommodate both, it’s also easier to reconcile this light with the sun and stars than it is to imagine that God meant a different light.

A second point is that the words bara and asah are used synonymously throughout the creation account. Like
the sun and the stars, God made the firmament, he made the beasts of the earth, and he made man. But it also says He created man. At the end of the creation account and using the term asah it says “Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good.” So you see bara and asah are synonymous.

Personally, I take the account at face value. God created light on the first day. There is every reason to assume that all the matter of the universe was created immediately and then was later rearranged on the days the rest of the account maintains. In other words, we’re going to see God create the trees and the fish and man. All of the matter for these existed instantaneously and was then rearranged by God – made into different things. Why should we assume that the sun, moon, and stars are any different?

This light then is part of what was created; not a part of God Himself. Some have tried to explain that this is the same light referred to when speaking of God. In the New Testament it says “God is light, in Him is no darkness at all” for example. But the light John was speaking of in that verse is the very nature of God, not a created aspect. What God created light on the first day then is a reflection of His nature, not a part of it.

“So the evening and the morning were the first day.”

This is where the biblical day finds its home, right in verse 3. Each new day starts at sundown because of this. Even to this day in Israel, the new day starts at sundown, just like ours starts at 12pm. Also, the Hebrew here doesn’t really say “the first day.” Instead it says יוֹם אֶחָד yom echad – one day.

As a parallel to the work of Jesus, just as God created light on this first day, which was a Sunday, so He also brought the light of the world out of the grave on the same day. After the darkness of the tomb came forth the shining splendor of the Light which can never be diminished or hidden – the radiant light of eternal glory.

Before we move on, I’d like to tell you about something called Fractal Geometry.

In 1975 Benoit Mandelbrot coined the term from the Latin fractus, which means broken or fractured. A mathematical fractal is something based on an equation that undergoes iteration. Iteration means the act of repeating a process usually with the aim of approaching a desired result. Each repetition of the process is also called “iteration,” and the results of iteration are used as the starting point for the next iteration.

This isn’t meant to confuse you. Just think of a computer doubling an image again and again and again. Mandelbrot looked at the world around him and realized that everything we see – from the clouds in the sky, to the shape of mountains, to the way lava flows – everything – is based on fractal geometry. When he first proposed this, he was shunned and called a lunatic, but within a few short years, the scientific world realized he was right.

Fractals can identify cancerous cells in a person simply by analyzing the flow of blood through their body. Streams and rivers both flow in a fractal way. Leaves are fractal. Lightening is fractal. The human body is fractal. Wings, spores, viruses, coastlines, planets, galaxies, the skeletal system… all are based on fractal geometry. Even the crashing of the waves is a result of fractals.

With the advent of the use of computers for TVs and movies, you can’t get a job as a graphics designer unless you understand the use of fractals. The first time fractal algorithms were used in a movie was in Star Trek, The Wrath of Khan, to produce the “Genesis effect.”

Later in the “Return of the Jedi” fractals were used to create the geography of a moon, and to draw the outline of the dreaded Death Star. And fractal signals can also be used to model natural objects, allowing filmmakers to define the environment with a higher accuracy than ever before.

Having told you that, I thought we’d look at a supposition made by a biologist about the form of a virgin forest. Understanding fractals, he supposed that if he cut down and measured a single tree in an unspoiled forest, he could estimate the sizes of all the trees in that forest. So he and a group of biologists went to South America and entered a completely unspoiled piece of land. They cut down a single tree and measured all of its branch sizes, from the lowest large branch to the highest twigs.

They then made a size guess about the entire forest based on their measurements. After this, they mapped out the trunk sizes of all of the surrounding trees, from the largest behemoth to the smallest sprout. The result was a perfect match. After doing this, they said how amazing it was that nature had evolved in such a marvelous way. They attributed to random chance that which clearly came from an intelligent Being. Don’t ever tell me that scientists are any smarter than the average cinderblock.

There’s one more area where geometric mathematics prove the amazing intelligence of God. In the most astonishing study of all, we can look to the pages of the Bible to demonstrate the preplanned landscape of God. Gaon of Vilna told Barukh of Shklov, the translator of Euclid’s geometry into Hebrew, “To the degree that a man is lacking in the wisdom of mathematics he will lack one hundredfold in the wisdom of the Torah.”

In other words, the Bible has detailed and specific mathematical patterns which could in no way have come about by chance.

Vernon Jenkins, Mathematics Professor at the University of Glamorgan in Scotland, who has become a personal friend of mine, calls the Bible a self-authenticating text. He has produced an immense volume of geometric information from the Bible, and his findings from Genesis 1:1 alone would take many course studies at the university level.

His concluding remarks are that “These evidences of deep design in the Bible’s opening words throw a completely new light on the true status of the Judeo-Christian Scriptures, for Who alone is capable of simultaneously speaking into existence a meaningful sentence copiously embroidered with such a variety of significant number structures – these incorporating the Author’s own signature?!”

The first day ends and God saw that it was good…

II. The Firmament Above

Have you ever wondered why people could live to ancient ages before the Flood? Or why the rainbow didn’t come about until Genesis chapter 9? The first rainbow was 1657 years after the creation. The reason is most assuredly given in verses 6 through 8:

Then God said, “Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.” Thus 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. And God called the firmament Heaven. So the evening and the morning were the second day.

You can’t make a rainbow without a prism to refract the incoming light. In today’s world, there are droplets of water in the air which act like prisms as the sun shines through them, thus a rainbow is produced.

When God created the earth, He made a firmament above it. The Hebrew word is raquia. This was probably a solid and fixed firmament, like a pellucid sapphire above the earth. Thus the “waters above” isn’t a fantasy of speech, but an actual body of frozen water which kept out all of the harmful solar and electromagnetic radiation. Think of it as a super ozone layer.

Because this raquia was there, the light that was needed to produce a rainbow was already refracted and therefore no rainbows occurred. When Noah stepped out of the ark and saw the rainbow, he also saw for the first time a completely different view of the heavens. There was no raquia and there was a gentle blue color to the sky. He probably saw the sun much brighter than he’d ever seen it before and he and his family probably got their first sunburn very quickly and realized they needed suntan lotion.

The raquia not only affected the appearance of the skies and the brightness of the sun, but the solar and electromagnetic rays that were kept out certainly allowed people to live for exceptionally long periods of time. There is no reason at all to assume that people couldn’t easily reach immense ages.

Add in a higher atmospheric pressure and the animals themselves would live for great periods. Reptiles, which never stop growing, could have grown to immense sizes, just as the archaeological record shows us in the bones of dinosaurs.

Day two ends without the great irresolvable problems that many people think the Bible holds. In fact, they are reasonable and probable explanations about the past history of our world.

III. The Waters and the Land

⁹ Then God said, “Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear”; and it was so. ¹⁰ And God called the dry land Earth, and the gathering together of the waters He called Seas. And God saw that it was good.

Remember the fractals we talked about a little while ago? A computer generated fractal landscape looks exactly like an actual landscape. Whether it is a mountain scene as viewed from a valley, or the outline of an island filled with rivers and trees as viewed from above, these are produced with relatively simple computing devices. When God calculated the landscapes, the rivers, the trees, the gullies and ditches, the mountains, and the beaches – He did it not in two dimensions, but in three.

The great Mathematician and the Author of Order brought the waters into submission at the feet of the land.

God asks Job “who has such knowledge?” –

“Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?
Tell Me, if you have understanding.

Who determined its measurements?
Surely you know!
Or who stretched the line upon it?

To what were its foundations fastened?
Or who laid its cornerstone,

When the morning stars sang together,
And all the sons of God shouted for joy?

“Or who shut in the sea with doors,
When it burst forth and issued from the womb;

When I made the clouds its garment,
And thick darkness its swaddling band;

When I fixed My limit for it,
And set bars and doors;

When I said, ‘This far you may come, but no farther,
And here your proud waves must stop!’ Job 38:4-11

The answer to the question shouts back at us. The Lord God Almighty – that’s who! Six thousand years ago, through the use of mathematics so complicated that we couldn’t even see them, much less understand them, God created order. And not just order that we can see… We have order that we can hear, and smell, and taste. We can feel it and we can enjoy it.

Let’s pick a flower and revel in the immense beauty of a highly complicated mathematical calculation – one that a loving Creator has placed in our midst. Anyone who says, “Oh how I hate mathematics” has never truly understood the enjoyment which comes with the taste of an apple.

All of this beauty around us as land came out of the waters and a stable platform for the life we enjoy was prepared. An anxious creation was getting ready for its expected guests.

And God saw that it was good.

IV. Splashed with a Thousand Shades of Green

¹¹ Then God said, “Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb that yields seed, and the fruit tree that yields fruit according to its kind, whose seed is in itself, on the earth”; and it was so. ¹² And the earth brought forth grass, the herb that yields seed according to its kind, and the tree that yields fruit, whose seed is in itself according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. ¹³ So the evening and the morning were the third day.

One of my favorite things in the world to eat is bread. I said in another sermon last week that my wife knows if she heats up 10 slices of bread with dinner, I’ll eat that and nothing else. The third day is when the bread of the earth came forth as wheat, just as Jesus came forth from the tomb on the third day after His cross – the Bread of Life rose to nourish the earth with the power of His resurrection. And this is the blessing given over the Bread even to this day when communion is taken – Blessed art thou O Lord our God, King of the Universe, who brings forth Bread from the earth!

On the third day there was grass, herbs, plants, trees, and fruit. Everything that man would eat for the next 1650 plus years was created on day three. I say this because it wasn’t until after the flood that God ordained that man could eat animals.

By the end of the third day things on earth had changed immensely from the way they were just two short days earlier. It was so extravagantly beautiful that only on day three of creation does it twice say that God saw that it was good – ki tov in Hebrew.

It’s for this reason that many Jewish people choose Tuesday to get married. If God said it was good twice on a Tuesday, then it seems propitious enough to set your wedding for such a day as well.

Just think of what it was like! At the beginning of this day there was just land and sea. There was nothing alive, nothing growing, just a barren landscape waiting for the Master Gardener to dazzle us with His magnificent mind. In the most amazing display of wisdom, love, tender care, and beauty God provided grass, fruit, herbs, and trees. I can’t even imagine what the world was like with complete order and perfection in a bewildering array of every shade of green – perfect and unsullied.

Here are some of the interesting things which we have, to this day, from God’s wisdom which was revealed on day three of creation –

-Each watermelon has an even number of stripes on the rind.

-Each orange has an even number of segments.

-Each ear of corn has an even number of rows.

-Every bunch of bananas has on its lowest row an even number of bananas, and each row decreases by one, so that one row has an even number and the next row an odd number.

-Each stalk of wheat has an even number of grains.

-And not only wheat, but all grains are found in even numbers on the stalks, and six times the Bible specifically mentions even number harvests of thirty fold, sixty fold, or a hundred fold.

God has caused the flowers to blossom at certain specific times during the day, so that Linnaeus, the great botanist, once said that if he had a conservatory containing the right kind of soil, moisture and temperature, he could tell the time of day or night by the flowers that were open and those that were closed.

One of my favorite flowers is the night blooming cereus, it’s one of the plants native to Sarasota and blooms on an unattractive, snake-like cactus that grows up the side of trees. But every year about May, little white balls that look like cotton pop out. They grow a little bit day by day until June when the moon is full. When the sun goes down, the flowers open up and follow the moon across the night sky. At the sun rises, the flowers close and die.

Around the world there are fruits to delight,
There are flowers to please our smell and our sight,
There are grains of every kind to feed us each day,
And there are grasses for the horses, we call it hay.

Trees give us wood to build all kinds of things,
And they give us shade for sermons…
And for Angelica while she sings.

All of this comes from the Lord Almighty who is marvelous in wisdom and perfect in His tender care of His creatures.

And God saw that it was good. So the evening and the morning were the third day.

V. Diamonds in the Sky

¹⁴ Then God said, “Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs and seasons, and for days and years; ¹⁵ and let them be for lights in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth”; and it was so. ¹⁶ Then God made two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night. He made the stars also. ¹⁷ God set them in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth, ¹⁸ and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness.

On the first Wednesday the world existed diamonds were revealed in the sky. Even if there was a solid firmament of frozen water above the earth, it was clear enough to allow the stars to be seen. In fact, it’s been theorized that the raquia which was the waters above, may actually have acted like a tuning device. The sound of the heavens may have been audible to the pre-flood world. If this is true, then an orchestra of pulsars, magnetic storms, and other cosmic events may have played tunes for the people as they lived out their lives.

It also may have made the stars clearer than the sky we have now. Today we have all of the dust and debris which keeps the atmosphere more turbid than it would have been then. This is all speculation, but for certain we know that the stars were visible through the raquia.

The Bible says these stars were set in place for signs and for seasons, for days and for years. The word for sign is owth and this signifies a heavenly portent. Throughout the Bible, heavenly signs are given to alert the people to a divine event.

This doesn’t mean however that we can either predict the future or the nature of things by these signs – such as through astrology. This is forbidden in the Bible. So the only signs we can use to determine God’s hand are those signs which His word tells us have come or are coming such as when God spoke through Israel about the coming King –

The scepter shall not depart from Judah, Nor a lawgiver from between his feet, Until Shiloh comes; And to Him shall be the obedience of the people. Genesis 49:10

It’s believed that the star which appeared at the time of Jesus’ birth is this same alignment prophesied here by Israel as he blessed his son Judah.

The constellations were placed in heaven by God as well. In the book of Job, several constellations are named and credited to God’s handiwork –

He alone spreads out the heavens,
And treads on the waves of the sea;
He made the Bear, Orion, and the Pleiades,
And the chambers of the south;
He does great things past finding out,
Yes, wonders without number. Job 9:8-10

In addition to signs and constellations, the Lord placed the heavenly objects up there for seasons, for days, and for years. These things whirl around us with such precision that the Mayans were able to calculate out a calendar so exact that it loses only 1 day in every 6000 years. With all of our technology, we still have to add one day every four years.

By evaluating the movement of the sun, moon, and stars, we can tell when to plant, when to reap, and when to have children. The cycle is fixed and so we can always tell the best time to do certain things.

By the alignment of the stars, ancient architects built pyramids and tombs of kings in perfect alignment with whatever they were referencing, be it true north, or a distant constellation.

We could talk all day about the marvel of the heavens God has created. Even on the clearest night, the human eye can only see about 3,000 stars. There are an estimated 100 billion in our galaxy alone and NASA estimates there may be 500 billion galaxies.

When you look at Andromeda, our closest galactic neighbor, which is 2.3 million light years away, the light you see would take 2.3 million years to reach you. If God created the universe 6000 years ago, as I believe He did, then the light you’re seeing from Andromeda came solely from the mind of God as He stretched out the heavens during His creative effort.

If you could travel at the speed of light (186,000 miles per second) it would take 100,000 years to cross our galaxy!

And God saw that it was good. ¹⁹ So the evening and the morning were the fourth day. Thus ends the first Wednesday of planet earth.

All of this marvelous majesty was placed in the heavens and on the earth by and infinitely intelligent and loving Creator. But something happened not long after His act of creation which has caused a division between God and man. Man disobeyed God and sin entered the world and death came about by sin. Now God and man are separated from each other because of our fallen state. But the Bible gives us an answer as to how this separation can be repaired – it is through the gift of His Son, Jesus Christ. Allow me a moment to explain the process to you…

In the Beginning
Genesis 1:1

Today’s talk is as much about thinking clearly as it is anything else. We all have things we think clearly on and things we don’t think clearly on. Some people think clearly on politics. Whether you like Rush Limbaugh or not he is extremely insightful on the political situation in America.

My dad is a big sports fan and can analyze a football play and see everything that happens in it when I don’t even know where the football went. When I was younger, my mom got a book about football, something like “Football for Dummies” so that she could think more clearly on what was happening during a game. I never read that book.

Some people can analyze numbers in great detail and make equations in their heads. They can think clearly on mathematics. Ben Franklin used to do mathematical calculations just to relax.

Every discipline takes time and mental effort and we normally only think clearly in the things we’re used to or are concerned about but often don’t think clearly on the greater and more important issues of life. For example abortion – most people have never thought the issue through, but they simply nod their support for what is only surface deep or what is emotionally satisfying.

When looked at it through the proper lens, the issue of abortion becomes painfully clear, but we may not want to face such clarity simply because it challenges us morally and who wants to face the moral issue of killing another human being?

Even greater than the issue of abortion is the ultimate issue – what is the nature of God? If we can determine this, then every other issue subservient to it becomes far more important in the eternal scheme of things. So today, we’re going to learn to think more clearly about the God of Creation.

If any of you have ever seen the 3D picture magic photos that used to be popular, you know that they look like arbitrary lines. But if you look at them for a while, a hidden image will eventually jump out at you. Once you’ve seen the image, you can’t “not” see it – it’s as evident as a smile on child with an ice cream cone. But until you can see it, it’s as hidden from you as the back side of the sun.

I hope after today, you’ll see things about God a little more clearly and that in the future, you’ll take time to think the larger issues through in a way which will bring you closer to the Creator.

If you’re old enough, you may know the song In the Beginning by the Moody Blues and you might remember how the song starts –

*I think, I think I am, therefore I am, I think.

*Of course you are my bright little star, I’ve miles and miles of files
Pretty files of your forefather’s fruit
and now to suit our great computer,
You’re magnetic ink.

*I’m more than that, I know I am, at least, I think I must be.

Those words were a play on the Cartesian conclusion – I think, therefore I am.

Rene Descartes was a 17^th century French philosopher who went on a journey of doubting everything… He asked himself, “What can I know is real?” He began to doubt that he was able to see things, to touch things, to smell things – “Can I be absolutely certain about anything?”

Eventually he locked himself in a closet and determined not to come out until he could come to some sense of reality. In a moment of clarity, he discovered one thing he simply couldn’t doubt – Cogito ergo sum or “I think, therefore I am.” If you can think then you must exist.

From finding certainty in this simple, yet profound statement, Descartes built an entire system of philosophy which leads from –

1) the mental knowledge of self (there is mind), to
2) an eidological (from the Greek word for “idea”) and a causal argument for God (God being the cause of reality), to
3) the necessity for a material substance to support the physical sensations around us (taste, smell, sight, etc.)

In essence Descartes went from I am, to God is, to this is.

Introduction: Because we’re sitting here on solid ground, there’s a logical sequence of thoughts by which we can deduce, and which by necessity must be true, about how we got here. This isn’t a Christian or even a Jewish idea, but is a universal knowledge that’s available to all people. The problem is, it takes thought and consideration to realize what is otherwise amazingly evident. It’s mentally challenging to go beyond “I wonder how we got here” and so most people never stop to think it through.

When someone comes to the realization that we are in fact here and then thinks on the process correctly, there are normally one of two reactions –

1)   Awe and a desire to know more, or
2)   Denial and a desire to suppress the truth.

In essence we say to God either, “You are what I strive to be, or You are what I strive to flee.”

I’m going to give you these reasonings and some of them you’ll probably grasp immediately, and some of them may seem as foreign to you as Arnold Swarzenegger’s accent. But if you take the time to ponder them, you will be able to properly process the God of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation. You will also be able to clearly determine that no other god presented in human history meets these twelve requirements.

These are called the First Principles; there are 12 of them. Before I give these 12 principles, I want to tell you that these are something we should all know, but I, like most other people had never even considered them until they were presented to me at college.

I was talking to Rhoda over here a while ago and brought these up. I pulled them out and started going through each of them and after the first four or so, she said, “Oh I already know these. My parents talked about these things to me.” If young girl from Nazareth in Israel is taught these by her parents, then we have no excuse for not knowing them as well.

Concerning these 12 principles, understand first that God is the author of reason and nothing unreasonable will come from Him or describe Him.  As Norman Geisler says it –

“He created us to be like Himself, so the basic principles of reason are not arbitrarily imposed on God, rather they come from God. … God is rational, and humans are made in His image. So using logic is not opposed to revelation; it is a part of it.”

And as Isaiah says, “Come, let us reason together says the LORD.”

We didn’t invent these principles; rather we discovered them. This might be a bit confusing at first, but by the time we finish, it should be cleared up for you.

1. Being Is = The Principle of Existence
2. Being Is Being = The Principle of Identity
3. Being Is Not Nonbeing = The Principle of Non-contradiction
4. Either Being or Nonbeing = The Principle of the Excluded Middle
5. Nonbeing Cannot Cause Being = The Principle of Causality
6. Contingent Being Cannot Cause Contingent Being = The Principle of Contingency (or Dependency)
7. Only Necessary Being Can Cause a Contingent Being = The Positive Principle of Modality
8. Necessary Being Cannot Cause A Necessary Being = The Negative Principle of Modality
9. Every Contingent Being Is Caused by a Necessary Being = The Principle of Existential Causality
10. Necessary Being Exists = Principle of Existential Necessity
11. Contingent Being Exists = Principle of Existential Contingency
12. Necessary Being Is Similar to the Contingent Being It Causes = Principle of Analogy

These principles are undeniable or reducible to the undeniable. In other words, any attempt to deny them will validate them. Take the first one for example. To doubt one’s own existence is self-defeating and, honestly, stupid. The principle of existence states that in order to deny existence one would have to exist.

If we exist, then we came from somewhere. Today, we’ll talk about the One who brought us into existence. The psalmist says –

On my bed I remember you;
I think of you through the watches of the night. Psalm 63:6

Text Verse: B’reshit bara elohim eth ha’shemayim v’eth ha’eretz. In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Gen 1:1

May God speak to us through His word today and may His glorious name ever be praised.

I.  The God of Creation

Aristotle said, “As if the now had remained the same, time would not have existed.”

Imagine an artist getting ready to paint a painting. We’re going to use this analogy for our points today, but even at point one – The God of Creation – it’s lacking good comparison. The God of creation is the One who created time, space, and matter. None of these existed before He created them and they are products of His infinite wisdom and power. But for the lack of a better analogy, we’ll assume that the paint, canvas, and easel aren’t real. Instead, the white silky canvas will simply resemble the nothingness before creation which will come to be something.

Another point, we think sequentially – from one thing to another, but God doesn’t do this. He knows everything immediately and intuitively, so when I say He thought X and then Y, He didn’t really think this way – you see, even thinking reflects an act of change. But there is no change in God. We can know this without the Bible but the Bible bears it out in several verses – “I the Lord your God do not change” for example.

To understand the God of Creation, we need to know what He is like. The Bible says “God is Spirit.” And we could actually know this without the Bible. Before Einstein presented the theory of relativity, monotheistic thinking had already believed in a beginning. The Bible says it; I believe it, but it sure would be nice to prove apart from the Bible. And so very intelligent minds developed ways of proving that time didn’t always exist.

They first needed to determine if the universe really had a beginning. This can be demonstrated in several ways, some more philosophical and some more scientific. One simple way is to look at time. If time always existed, there would be no Present. We couldn’t reach right now, here on TurtleBeach if there was no beginning to time. This can be represented by an infinite line of books. If the line of books has no beginning, then you can never get to the last book. You’re never starting so you’re never ending.

To help you understand that, suppose that infinite line of books is red, then black, red then black… If you took out all the red books, you wouldn’t have decreased the line by even one and yet you would have an infinitely large pile of red books taking up all the space in the universe. This is the philosophical argument. The one from physics is similar but deals with the 2^nd Law of Thermodynamics and useable energy. Both come to the same conclusion and are irrefutable. There is no way around these arguments and there WAS a beginning to time.

In addition to these concepts, comes Relativity (1920) which finally, once and forever, proved that time, space, and matter are co-dependent and came into existence at exactly the same moment.

From this understanding that time has a beginning we can use an Arabic argument called the Kalam which states that if something had a beginning, it had a cause. As the universe did, in fact, have a beginning, it must have had a cause.  As an infinite series of causes is impossible so there must have been an uncaused Cause; a necessary Being. (Existential Necessity)

However, this doesn’t explain WHY God is Spirit. The reason for this is that if the universe had a beginning – meaning time, space, and matter, then those things didn’t exist before they existed. Therefore, whatever was before those things has no parts…no parts. It also means that the Creator is pure Actuality – or no potential. If He had potential, then there would be change. Change implies time and time exists only with space and matter. Therefore He simply is. The Bible bears this out – I AM WHO I AM.

This reasoning, if properly understood, eliminates all other religious expressions but monotheism – you’re left with One God.

Polytheism is the belief that there are many gods. In order to differ (as in one god from another), a being would have to lack something found in another being. If this were the case, the entity wouldn’t be unlimited or perfect – they would be lacking something. If one is lacking what the other has then this implies change. Change implies time, and time exists only with space and matter. Remember the nothingness of the silky white canvas? This ain’t it.

Further, as previously stated, such limited beings would be contingent and contingent beings can’t be caused by other contingent beings nor can they cause other contingent beings. (*contingency). Therefore, anything that comes to be must have been caused by a Necessary Being. Polytheism is incorrect.

Pantheism is the belief that all is God. It denies the reality of limited and finite beings. However, it’s painfully evident that change occurs in us – such as my beard growing or getting gray – which indicates we’re finite. Any real change indicates a being separate and distinct from God because God is unchanging.

The very nature of pantheism is self-refuting because it claims that individuality is merely an illusion of our minds. If this were true then pantheism must be false because there could be no mind to explain the illusion; it is a self-defeating system of belief. A circle of stupidity, if you will. This thinking is kind of like what Descartes faced as he tried so desperately to get away from a mind-only belief.

Because pantheism believes that everything is God, this would also imply that everything always existed. Like before, this is impossible as the nothingness of the silky white canvas is violated by the somethingness of the ever-present universe. Something implies matter and matter implies both space and time. This isn’t an acceptable nothingness – especially when something isn’t nothing. Pantheism is incorrect.

Panentheism means “all in God.” It holds that God is in the universe like a mind is in a body. However, we’ve already seen that God is pure actuality – He doesn’t change; and He is absolutely simple. Being pure actuality, He has no potential.

Panentheism looks at God as changing (having potential) and finite. He is a director of the universe rather than the Creator. This would mean God changes essentially to us. Instead, any change between God and the creation is relational, not essential. In panentheism, there is a confusion of the world process with God.

Because this says all is in God, then the pretty silky white canvas we’re supposed to start with is already filled with the creation that isn’t supposed to exist. Time, space, and matter, clutter it up, regardless of the form it takes. Panentheism is incorrect.

In the end, we are left with the inescapable facts. God exists, He is eternal, He is One, and He is Spirit – Monotheism. And, this monotheistic God is prior to His creation, not a part of it.

As the Bible says –

“You are My witnesses,” says the LORD, “And My servant whom I have chosen, That you may know and believe Me, And understand that I am He. Before Me there was no God formed, Nor shall there be after Me. Isaiah 43:10

Have you not known? Have you not heard? The everlasting God, the LORD, The Creator of the ends of the earth, Neither faints nor is weary. His understanding is unsearchable. Isaiah 40:28

II. The God above Creation

Now that we’ve had a small, a very small, taste of the God of creation, we should look at the God above Creation. A lot of this point is tied up in the previous point, but I’ve separated them so that we can see the nature of Creation in relation to the Creator.

In the beginning… God. He is all there was before there was a beginning. There wasn’t time, there wasn’t space, and there wasn’t matter. Because He created those things, He is separate and distinct from them. Even now, while we’re enjoying them, He is not a part of them in the sense that He doesn’t change with the change going on around us. He is above His creation.

Although we tend to want to ask the question, “How long has God existed?” the question itself is a category mistake. God is eternal, but not in the sense of time going from point to point, like seconds ticking on a clock or as the sun moves above. Instead, He simply is. There is nothing to count out His days. What we perceive as time is a part of what He has created and therefore He is above it.

Time is merely a result of God’s desire to fellowship with His creatures.

Imagine now our invisible, eternal, unchanging Creator getting ready to paint His creation into existence. There is no movement in Him as He does so. He is the unmoved mover. There is no change in thought as it happens. When He paints the silky white canvas, it is an act of His very nature – “Let there be…” is how the Bible describes it – “Let there be light,” “let there be a firmament,” etc. but the words come from a concept, the concept doesn’t come from the words.

How did God create and what is His current situation in respect to the creation? There are three possibilities concerning how He did it

– Ex Deo, or out of God – meaning out of Himself; Ex morphine hules, or out of shapeless, unformed, pre-existing matter; or Ex Nihilo – out of nothing. Only one is possible and the only possible one is the one also presented in the Bible.

Ex Deo, or “out of God” is what pantheism believes, but if everything is God, then time always existed because matter must also have always existed – in God. But we’ve already seen that time going back infinitely is wrong. Ex Deo is not what happened.

Ex morphine hules or “out of shapeless, unformed, pre-existent matter” is what panentheism necessitates. As with Pantheism, you have the problem of an infinite regress. If matter always existed and time is linked to matter, then time would also have always existed. This was put to rest by Einstein with General Relativity. Creation ex morphine hules did not occur.

The only possible explanation for us sitting here at Turtle Beach and listening to the wind blow through the trees is creation Ex Nihilo or out of nothing. The Bible bears this out on numerous occasions. It says that God is eternal, God is Spirit, God doesn’t change, and so on. And the psalms say how God did it –

By the word of the LORD the heavens were made,
And all the host of them by the breath of His mouth.
He gathers the waters of the sea together as a heap;
He lays up the deep in storehouses.
Let all the earth fear the LORD;
Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him.
For He spoke, and it was done;
He commanded, and it stood fast. Psalm 33:6-9

God simply spoke the universe into existence. As God doesn’t have a mouth, the psalmist used a metaphor to explain creation via the Word, or the Logos, which is Jesus Christ; the Word of God. In His infinite wisdom and from His very nature, He created something from nothing.

Understanding this, we need to consider something more about the God above creation. “Does He still actively work in the universe?” Or, did He create and then end His work?

Deism is a theistic approach to God – one God – which holds to a Creator who initiated everything and then left for vacation – in essence, God is like a watchmaker who wound up the clock and departed. However, the universe is a dependent or contingent system. Because the universe we live in came from nothing, it could – in an instant – return to nothing. God is, even right now, holding all things together by the power of His word.

Because the universe is dependent, it always needs an independent Being on which it depends; it needs a Sustainer. Let’s suppose the universe was created and didn’t need to be sustained. What would be the result? It would become a Necessary Being; the universe would become God – an impossibility as point 8 of the First Principles demonstrates. Because it’s not necessary, it is contingent. Because it is contingent, it cannot support itself. If God didn’t actively sustain the universe, it would simply cease to exist. Deism is incorrect.

The Bible specifically bears this out – in Colossians, in Hebrews, John, etc.

“For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. (The God OF creation). He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.” (The God ABOVE creation). Colossians 1:16, 17

God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds (The God OF creation); who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power (The God ABOVE creation). … Hebrews 1:1-3

Both of these verses support what we can know even without the Bible. Jesus made exactly the same claim in the book of John –

“My Father has been working until now, and I have been working.” John 5:1

The God above creation is the God before and the sustainer of creation. The vast blank tapestry was filled with the thoughts of His infinitely intelligent mind. Through His Word, He created all things, and by His Word He sustains those things. The little spider in its web and the great sea creatures came from the same unlimited source of wisdom.

The red giant stars and the protons swirling around the nucleus of atoms were thought into existence by Him. Though to us the sizes are immensely large or unbelievably small, to Him they are equally known and equally understandable. It is no more effort for Him to create a dandelion than it is to create a galaxy full of a billion stars.

III. The God in Creation

The God of creation is eternal and unchanging. The God above creation is unlimited in intelligence, power, and place. The God in Creation is present, active, and caring. He is committed to His creation and directs it for His purposes. These purposes have one ultimate goal – to bring Him the glory He deserves. When He spoke through the prophet Isaiah, He proclaimed this to His creatures –

I am the LORD, that is My name;
And My glory I will not give to another, Isaiah 42:8

He is the God in creation, but He is not the God as creation.

How is God above and yet in His creation? He is in it like a painter making a painting. He is separate and distinct from it and yet He is active in the process. He doesn’t change in relation to His creation though, but His creation changes in relation to Him. As He applies the brushstrokes of His wisdom, the creation is directed and formed into the beauty He purposes for it.

When He acts upon creation, it occurs in time – the time He created – and yet He isn’t subject to the time. When He gets angry or responds in punishment to our sins, it doesn’t occur in the sequence we are familiar with. In other words, when I get angry I first see an offense, then I get angry at the offense, and then I respond in whatever way to the offense. All of this occurs in the stream of time and it is a developing process.

God’s anger doesn’t work this way. He doesn’t watch us committing an offense. He already knew the offense before we existed. He doesn’t then get angry at the offense. He was angry at it before we existed. And He doesn’t respond to the offense after it occurs. He responded before He created. The tapestry was completed the moment it began.

As Henry Bergson said, “Time is what keeps everything from happening all at once.”

Time is you see,
Is something made for you and for me,
Were time not to be a part of the plan,
Then in the mind of God alone.
Would exist the state of man.

Oh, but He spoke and we came to be,
Yes, God spoke and there was you… and there is me.

He made us with a special plan
His image-bearer, whom He called man

But we neglect him, yes… we do,
There’s no God… just me and you

“But when we get our thoughts just right,
And clarity returns to our sight,
It’s so plain and clear to see,
He created you and… He created me.”

The Bible shows us that everything we do, every move we make, every thought we have is occurring right in the presence of God. It does this numerous times and in specific verses. When asked about the resurrection of people who had died 1500 or more years earlier, Jesus told us this –

“But even Moses showed in the burning bush passage that the dead are raised, when he called the Lord ‘the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’ For He is not the God of the dead but of the living, for all live to Him.” Luke 20:37, 38

To God, every moment in time is present to Him. From Adam in Genesis to the last person to be born at the end of Revelation and everyone in between are alive in His mind. He is right there viewing His tapestry of creation.

Paul reminded the Athenians of this –

And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings, so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and have our being… Acts 17:26-28

IV. The Personal God

Hector Berlioz said, “Time is a great teacher, but unfortunately it kills all its pupils.”

We’ve seen the God of creation, the God above creation, and the God in (but not as) creation. Because of what He is like, we know monotheism is true and all other religious expressions are by default false. But can we finally define which form of monotheism is the only one which is accurately portrayed? We’re left with three possibilities – Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

The answer is yes, we can know that only one accurately reflects the nature of God. Judaism and Islam teach that God is a monad – a single God not represented by a Godhead. Biblical Judaism, which I will call uncompleted Christianity, naturally leads to Christianity and this isn’t the Judaism I’m speaking of. The modern form of Judaism, based on the Talmud and rabbinic teachings is what I’m equating with this doctrine.

If God is a monad, then we wouldn’t exist. The 12^th of our  12 First Principles is the Principle of Analogy. If you remember, it states – “Necessary Being Is Similar to the Contingent Beings it Causes.” This principle clearly sets aside rabbinic Judaism and Islam as possibilities concerning the nature of God.

The question one must ask is, “How could a being that didn’t understand fellowship create anything beyond Himself containing fellowship?  He’d be completely contained within Himself.” Because of the fact that we’re social beings, God must also have social qualities within Himself, such as the Trinity.

God is the painter – both of and above His creation. He is also immanent in His creation – actively working in it without being changed by it. He is reflected in the things He has created.

The wisdom of the ant reflects the wisdom of its Creator. The intelligence of the periodic table shows His intelligence. The brilliance of mathematics demonstrates the brilliance of the Mathematician who developed them. The spirals of a shell and also of a galaxy both reflect the Fibonacci series which demonstrates the orderly thinking of the great Architect.

Beyond these reflections of Himself, there are several personal ways God is related to His creation. The first is through His prophetic word breathed out and uttered by men of God. Instilled in them is a quality to speak His intentions to the people of the world. His messages through these people tell His very heart – I love my creatures; I am angry at sin; I am merciful; I am just; I am righteous; I am holy; I am full of grace; I embody truth.

His personal messages reflect His personal nature. They also reflect His infinite worth –

Let them praise the name of the LORD,
For His name alone is exalted;
His glory is above the earth and heaven. Psalm 148:13

If God were a monad, there would be no need to praise Him, nor an understanding of that praise. To His self-contained existence, praise would have no meaning. But through His prophets, praise is directed back to Him reflecting His social nature. His own words reveal His worth.

I am here and I am infinitely glorious. I have created you to acknowledge this fact.

He is also the personal God through His written word. The second question of the Westminster Shorter Catechism asks –

Q: What rule hath God given to direct us how we may glorify and enjoy him? A: The Word of God, which is contained in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, is the only rule to direct us how we may glorify and enjoy him.

Not only did the prophets speak His word, but they and other men recorded it, compiled it, aligned it, divided it into chapters and then into verses, translated it, and published it – all at His direction. His word is more than a technical manual about Himself and His creatures. It is a reflection of who He is and His intent for us.

It is the definitive explanation about how He has done things, what He expects from us, and the timeline on which He is accomplishing His purposes. It is His mind, His heart, and His will to and for His people in a language and in a form that we can grasp and respond to.

And there is one more way He is the Personal God. He united with His creation. This is the Christmas story – the Feast of Trumpets. This is the story of infinite love being displayed in a finite setting. This is the loudest cry of emotion in the universe – the voice of Jesus echoes between the finite creation and the infinite Creator.

His cries at birth heralded in a new understanding of the love God; this child breathes the air He created.

His cries to still the tossing waves demonstrated His control over the physical world. … Peace, be still.

His cries to the hurting and the sick showed His control over corruptible flesh. …Go in peace and be healed of your affliction.

His cries at the grave of a friend demonstrated His control over death. … Lazarus, come forth.

And His cries on the cross revealed the infinite breadth of His love of man and His triumph over Satan for that man. “It is finished!” He cried and the world was healed – the painting which we couldn’t comprehend suddenly came into complete and absolute clarity.

Hector Berlioz said that time kills all its pupils, but Jesus transcends time. Death is swallowed up in victory by the love of God in the Person of Jesus Christ. He calls out to you in your own time of despair –

Do not be afraid; I am the First and the Last. I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And I have the keys of Hades and of Death. Revelation 1:17, 18

Tom Stoppard said, “Eternity is a terrible thought. I mean, where is it going to end?”

As sure as God made little red raspberries, eternity will continue on forever. But it will be vastly different than things are now. Jesus has opened up a new avenue for the people of the world if they are willing to simply call on Him – no more backaches, no more divorces, or painful losses through death.

Instead, He promises an eternity of joy and blessing. But He leaves the choice up to each of us. We can continue down the path we’re on to eventual destruction and eternal separation from the Creator, or we can be reconciled to Him through this blessing of Christmas – the Gift of God, Jesus Christ our Lord – The Personal God.