5. The Creation Series

IN GOD'S IMAGE 5 - THE CREATION

This message is part of a series of 90 sermons based on the title, “In God’s Image – God’s Purpose for humanity.” This series of free sermons or the equivalent free book format is designed to take the reader through an amazing process beginning with God in prehistory and finishing with humanity joining God in eternity as His loving sons and daughters. It is at times, a painful yet fascinating story, not only for humanity, but also for God. As the sermons follow a chronological view of the story of salvation, it is highly recommend they be presented in numerical order rather than jumping to the more “interesting” or “controversial” subjects as the material builds on what is presented earlier. We also recommend reading the introduction prior to using the material. The free book version along with any graphics or figures mentioned in this series can be downloaded at www.ingodsimage.site - Gary Regazzoli

Although the focus of this series of sermons is on creating beings in God’s image, so far we have not really said much about events occurring here on earth.

• Instead we’ve talked about the two different dimensions of time, one where God dwells and one in which we dwell.

• We’ve talked about how the Trinity is a community of beings within the Godhead grounded in love and relationship.

• It is God’s dream to share this unique relationship of love with His created beings, summed up in the statement, “Let us make man in our image”.

• We’ve talked about the rebellious angels who exercised their freewill, left their first estate and were banished to this earth.

Now we return to the creation event.

• As mentioned earlier, about 13.8 billion years ago, God brought the universe into existence.

• Astronomers and astrophysicists theorize there was a huge explosion, the Big Bang, and all matter that was compressed into the size of an atom by enormous gravitational forces was blown out into what we today call the universe.

• Scientists also tell us the temperature of the universe just a few seconds after the big bang was trillions of degrees hotter than our sun. However if that exact extreme temperature had been just a tiny bit hotter or colder, carbon molecules would never have appeared yet all life is based on carbon.

• For those of us living in our four-dimensional world, we struggle to understand how all the matter in the universe came from a pinhead along with the accompanying forces that first created the Big Bang and then pulled matter back together into the various bodies that make up the universe today.

• In classic understatement, the Bible leaves out all the scientific details and simply says, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth,” and leaves all the questions unanswered.

• However in the midst of the estimated two trillion galaxies in the universe, one particular planet came in for special attention.

• It probably took a little divine prodding, as this planet was positioned with extreme precision in relation to the other heavenly bodies so as to sustain the fragile life forms we see on the earth today.

• Isaiah 45:18 For this is what the Lord says—he who created the heavens, he is God; he who fashioned and made the earth, he founded it; he did not create it to be empty, but formed it to be inhabited—he says: “I am the Lord, and there is no other.”

• One of the most fundamental requirements for a planet to sustain life is to orbit in the “habitable zone” of a star, the so-called “Goldilocks” region where the temperature is just right and liquid water can exist.

• Earth’s precise distance from the sun, the diameter of the planet, its axis tilted at 23.5 degrees, the 24-hour day, and a conducive atmosphere are crucial in producing this “Goldilocks” factor.

• Our earth, fortunately for us, also has a molten interior.

• It is a near certainty that without all that magna swirling around beneath our feet we wouldn’t be here now.

• Our lively interior created the outpouring of gas that helped build an atmosphere and provides us with a magnetic field to shield us from cosmic radiation.

• Then there is the small matter for the need of a twin planet, such as our moon.

• Without the moon’s stabilizing influence the earth would wobble like a dying top with the ensuing disrupting consequences on the earth’s climate and weather.

• The moon’s steadying gravitational influence keeps the earth spinning at the right speed and angle to provide the sort of stability necessary for the long and successful development of life.

• A recent statistical analysis by astrophysicist Erik Zackrisson from Uppsala University in Sweden arrived at this staggering figure that despite there being around 700 quintillion planets in the universe, that is a 7 followed by 20 zeros, there is only one planet like earth.