Genesis 1
Sunday Morning Bible Study
November 5, 2006
Introduction
The book of Genesis is the book of beginnings (“Genesis” means “beginning”)
It’s the beginning of creation.
It’s the beginning of man.
It’s the beginning of sin.
It’s the beginning of redemption.
It’s the beginning of faith.
:1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
I believe in the Big Bang Theory. God spoke and “Bang”, the heavens and the earth were created.
It has been said that if you can believe the first verse in the Bible, then you should have no problem with the rest of it.
If you understand that God is big enough to have created everything, then God can do anything. Why should a big fish have trouble swallowing a man named Jonah if God created it? Why is there a problem with Jesus raising from the dead if God created life?
:2 The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.
:3 Then God said, "Let there be light"; and there was light.
:4 And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness.
:5 God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. So the evening and the morning were the first day.
The first day of Creation – God creates the heavens, the earth, and light.
:6 Then God said, "Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters."
:7 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.
:8 And God called the firmament Heaven. So the evening and the morning were the second day.
firmament – raqiya‘– extended surface, expanse; we could call it our atmosphere.
Some see the “waters above” as God creating a canopy of water in the atmosphere creating a sort of “greenhouse” which might have shielded the earth from the more dangerous forms of radiation. When the flood of Noah occurs, this canopy will collapse and contribute to the flood.
: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.
: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.
The third day – dry land appears, plants appear.
Are these literal 24 hour days?
If these are, then according to the Bible’s own chronology, the earth is somewhere between 6-10,000 years old.
How could this be when science keeps telling us that the universe is billions of years old and getting older all the time?
1) Some hold the idea that these are not literal days, but ages, periods of time, perhaps a billion years for each day. But if you pay attention to the order of creation, it doesn’t match with the typical evolutionist idea at all. Birds created before land animals? Grass created before the sun and moon?
2) Could God have created the universe with the appearance of age?
How old would Adam have looked when he was created? Was he a newborn baby? Did God create someone who looked thirty years old? Was there an appearance of age?
Could it be possible that God created the universe with the appearance of age?
I hold to a 24 hour day in Genesis. I have found over the years that whenever the Bible disagrees with my ideas, I’m usually the one that’s wrong.
: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;
We track our time and calendar by the sun, moon, and stars.
: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. And God saw that it was good.
:19 So the evening and the morning were the fourth day.
Day four: God creates the sun, moon, and stars.
Some suggest that there are probably lots of planets in the universe that contain habitable life. Carl Sagan thought there might be millions of intelligent civilizations in the universe like ours. That’s what the “SETI” project (Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence) is all about – though they have yet to find anything intelligent.
NASA has scientists known as “astrobiologists” who study the qualifications for complex life to exist on a planet (the following is from “The Privileged Planet”, DVD by Illustra Media, www.illustramedia.com)
Astrobiologists have already identified more than 100 planets outside our solar system – most are gas giants. Are habitable planets rare or common?
Qualifications for complex life to exist:
1. Liquid water – the chemical properties of water are necessary for life. It transports chemicals vital for our bodies. It has an ability to absorb heat from the sun – critical for regulating temperature.
2. Distance from the star – for water to exist, the planet must be the right distance from its star. Our planet is in the “Goldilocks” zone (not too hot, not too cold, just right) a very narrow zone in our solar system.
If the earth was just 5% closer to the sun, it would be like Venus, surrounded by vapor, too hot, up to 900 degrees.
If the earth were just 20% farther, carbon dioxide clouds would form in upper atmosphere, an ice age would occur, and the earth would become like Mars.
3. The type of star - orbiting a “main sequence G2 dwarf star – If the sun was less massive (like 90% of the stars in the galaxy), the habitable circumstellar region (where a habitable planet orbits) would be smaller and closer to the sun. If the earth were closer to the sun, then the sun’s gravitational pull on the earth would be greater and eventually stop the rotation of the earth, and one side of the planet would cook while the other would freeze.
4. Orbited by a large moon – ¼ the size of the earth, the gravitational pull of the moon stabilizes the earth’s rotation axis at 23 ½ degrees, which insures temperate season changes and the only climate in the solar system able to support complex life.
5. Magnetic field – the liquid iron in the core generates a magnetic field that protects us from the solar wind; if our planet was smaller, the field would be weaker and the solar wind would strip away our atmosphere.
6. Oxygen-rich atmosphere – at less than 1% of the earth’s diameter, our atmosphere is composed of 78% Nitrogen, 21% Oxygen, 1% Carbon Dioxide. This mixture provides a temperate climate, protection from the sun’s harmful rays, and the correct mixture of gasses for water and complex life.
We’re just scratching the surface of requirements for life, all of which are coincidentally found on the planet earth. The typical list of requirements for habitable life contains about 20 things.
When you calculate the probabilities of the basics being in place on a planet and multiply it all out, scientists have come up with the probability being something like 1/1015 (or, 1 over 10 with 14 zeroes, 1 thousandth of a trillion) compared to the 100 billion stars in the galaxy, it seems very unlikely that there is any better place for us to live than the earth.
Kind of ruins the Star Trek thing, doesn’t it? Every planet they visit is vacant. Where does E.T. phone home to?
What does all this point to? It points to design. It points to a Designer.
:20 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. 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.
The fifth day – birds and sea creatures.
Some problems with evolution and the old earth (keep in mind, I’m not a scientist)
1) The use of circular reasoning - the earth is old because of the different layers of fossils. Fossil age is determined by what layer they are found in. The age of the layers are determined by what fossils are found in them. Makes sense, right?
2) Layers of earth don’t speak of the process of millions of years; it actually speaks more of a cataclysmic event, such as a global flood, than it does of evolution.
Dying creatures don’t fossilize, they decay. Fossils are created when there is a sudden cataclysmic event which kills the creature, imbeds it in sediment, then compacts it under pressure as the sediment settles. Like a flood, a very large flood.
3) The lack of transitional life forms.
Darwin’s theory requires there to be animals that were half-way between fish and a lizard, a “transitional” form.
But you cannot find record of these gradual changes from one species to another that evolutionists talk about.
The fossil record shows distinct gaps between species, not gradual changes.
4) The Second Law of Thermodynamics (2LT)
Evolutionary thinking says that things are getting better and better. New-Agers even talk about how we as humans are on the edge of evolving into a new species.
Yet a proven Law, the second law of thermodynamics, states that in a closed system, things run down.
If you wind up a clock, it will run until it runs down. It will only keep running if some outside force winds up the clock again.
Your bedroom doesn’t get cleaner with time through chance, random mutation.
2LT agrees with Mom and says it will only get cleaner if you clean it.
Chance random mutation won’t make things better, it makes things worse.
: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.
It was one thing in 1831 for the 22 year old British naturalist Charles Darwin to suggest that life was produced from chance random mutations. But the more science advances, the more difficult it becomes to hold these theories.
Dr. Michael J. Behe, a biochemist at Lehigh University (In “Unlocking the Mystery of Life”, www.illustramedia.com) says, “The more we know about life and the more we know about biology, the more problems Darwinism has and the more Design becomes apparent.”
Biologists in the 19th century thought that the cell was the basis of life, and the cell was simply a jelly of protoplasm. But in the last fifty years, our knowledge of the cell has exploded. There is an elaborate world at the cellular level. A thimble full of liquid can contain 4 billion single cell bacteria, each packed with circuits, assembly instructions, and miniature machines – things unimagined in Darwin’s time. There are machines that transport material from one end of the cell to the other. There are machines that turn sunlight into usable energy. For every function that the human body needs to accomplish, there are molecular machines that perform these functions.
The bacterium “flagellum” is a little “tail” which propels a bacterium around. The flagellum contains a hook, rotor, propeller, drive shaft, and motor – it’s like an outboard motor. It’s a marvel of engineering, but on a molecular level. When they magnifiy a bacterium 50,000 times, they find that some of these motors rotate at 100,000 rpm, and are hardwired into a signal sensory mechanism. They spin fast and then can stop on a dime and turn direction in a second. There are 40 structural parts to this machine.
Scientists have tried to figure out how this little motor could have been produced by natural selection – and they can’t. Michael Behe has coined a phrase, “Irreducible complexity” to describe these structures – the idea is that if you take away one part of this little motor, the thing doesn’t work. The mechanism has to be put together at the same time with all the parts, not in a gradual process like evolution.
Example – a mousetrap. It requires the spring, the trigger, the trap bar, the piece of wood it’s all mounted on – all need to be in a mousetrap for it to work. Take any piece away and the thing doesn’t do what it was intended to do, catch mice.
With natural selection, Darwin theorized that changes could be small and gradual, but each change had to benefit the organism. Yet with the bacterium flagellum, a bacterium couldn’t even function if it didn’t have the means to propel itself, and if only one piece of the motor was missing, it wouldn’t work. A bacterium with a tail but without a motor wouldn’t survive if natural selection was correct.
Darwin wrote 150 years ago,
“If it could be demonstrated that any complex organ existed which could not possibly have been formed by numerous, successive slight modifications, my theory would absolutely break down.”
What does science actually point to? It points to intelligent design. It points to a Designer.
:26 Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth."
Us – Who is God talking about? Who is He talking to?
Some suggest this is nothing more than the royal “we”, such as Queen Elizabeth talking, “We shall ride our bicycle to the mall today …”
I believe this is the Triune God, the Father, Son, and the Holy Ghost.
:27 So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.
The schools want to teach us that we are descended from apes. The Bible tells us that we were made in God’s image. Don’t treat people like animals, treat them as God’s creation.
:28 Then God blessed them, and God said to them, "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."
God created the earth and gave it to mankind to take care of. I think this has implications with issues like pollution and global warming. We’re not taking very good care of things.
:29 And God said, "See, I have given you every herb that yields seed which is on the face of all the earth, and every tree whose fruit yields seed; to you it shall be for food.
:30 "Also, to every beast of the earth, to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, in which there is life, I have given every green herb for food"; and it was so.
:31 Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good. So the evening and the morning were the sixth day.
Watch video summing up intelligent design: http://faithvisuals.com/37325
The concept of God being our Creator should have an impact on us. The Bible is filled with lessons that flow from the idea that God is our maker.
1. Responsibility to God
(Isa 45:9 NKJV) "Woe to him who strives with his Maker! Let the potsherd strive with the potsherds of the earth! Shall the clay say to him who forms it, ’What are you making?’ Or shall your handiwork say, ’He has no hands’?
Illustration
One day a group of scientists got together and decided that man had come a long way and no longer needed God. So they picked one scientist to go and tell Him that they were done with Him. The scientist walked up to God and said, “God, we’ve decided that we no longer need you. We’re to the point that we can clone people and do many miraculous things, so why don’t you just go on and get lost.” God listened very patiently and kindly to the man and after the scientist was done talking, God said, “Very well, how about this, let’s say we have a man making contest.” To which the scientist replied, “OK, great!” But God added, “Now, we’re going to do this just like I did back in the old days with Adam.” The scientist said, “Sure, no problem” and bent down and grabbed himself a handful of dirt. God just looked at him and said, “No, no, no. You go get your own dirt!”
God is the One who made you. And there will be a day when He will ask you what you did with the life He gave you.
You won’t win if you think you’re going to fight with God.
And why would you fight with someone who loves you as much as God does?
The Bible says that God loved you so much that He let His own Son die on a cross in order to pay for your sins. He paid a debt He didn’t owe because we owed a debt we couldn’t pay.
If you were designed and made by God, wouldn’t it be interesting to find out what He designed you for?
It starts by giving your heart to Him. Trusting Him.
2. Strength from God
(Isa 40:27-31 NKJV) Why do you say, O Jacob, And speak, O Israel: "My way is hidden from the LORD, And my just claim is passed over by my God"? {28} 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. {29} He gives power to the weak, And to those who have no might He increases strength. {30} Even the youths shall faint and be weary, And the young men shall utterly fall, {31} But those who wait on the LORD Shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles, They shall run and not be weary, They shall walk and not faint.
God is big. Really big. He hasn’t forgotten about you. He knows all about you.
If you will come to Him for help, He promises to help you.
Hudson Taylor, the great missionary to China, said, “Many Christians estimate difficulty in the light of their own resources, and thus they attempt very little, and they always fail. All giants have been weak men who did great things for God because they reckoned on His power and His presence to be with them.”
Illustration
I read about a woman who telephoned a friend and asked how she was feeling, “Terrible,” came the reply over the wire, “my head’s splitting and my back and legs are killing me. The house is a mess, and the kids are simply driving me crazy.” Very sympathetically the caller said, “Listen, go and lie down, I’ll come over right away and cook lunch for you, clean up the house, and take care of the children while you get some rest. By the way, how is Sam?” “Sam?” the complaining housewife gasped. “I have no husband named Sam.” “My heavens,” exclaimed the first woman, “I must have dialed the wrong number.” There was a long pause. “Are you still coming over?” the harried mother asked hopefully.
You may have had the wrong idea about God. But He’s still coming over if you’ll ask Him.
(Jer 32:17 NKJV) ’Ah, Lord GOD! Behold, You have made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and outstretched arm. There is nothing too hard for You.
