ORIGINS #1: CREATION
(November 2010 – Beausejour Church – Pastor Chris Jordan)
ORIGINS: CREATION VERSUS EVOLUTION:
About 20 years ago, the fall after I graduated from high school, I sat down at an all-night drive-in with some friends and said, “There’s got to be more to life than what we’re living!”
Did you ever wonder where we came from, or what our purpose is on planet earth? What is the meaning of life? What is our destiny? Let’s ponder those questions over the next three weeks.
• What are the two main beliefs about our origins? One is atheism and evolution, and the other is the Bible’s account of creation. What are these two different beliefs?
1. If we believe in the theory of evolution, that life began billions of years ago by a cosmic accident called The Big Bang:
o We are only complex animals with no ultimate purpose or meaning in life.
o Our final destiny is to become worm-food, rotting in the grave.
2. If we believe in the Biblical account of creation:
o We are a special and unique creation of God and life has great purpose.
o Our final destiny is to live forever with God in the paradise of Heaven.
WHAT DOES SCIENCE SAY?
• Which position is more valid from a scientific perspective?
• Science is defined as: “systematic knowledge of the physical or material world gained through observation and experimentation.” Based on this definition, evolution is not science – it is a guess. Is there any evidence for the big bang or evolution?
• If evolution is true, then where is the missing link – the transitional fossil forms between species? There is none.
• QUOTE: “Why, if species have descended from other species by fine gradations, do we not everywhere see innumerable transitional forms? Why is not all nature in confusion instead of the species being, as we see them, well defined? … As by this theory innumerable transitional forms must have existed, why do we not find them embedded in countless numbers in the crust of the earth?” (Charles Darwin, The Origin of Species).
ILLUSTRATION: Bomb in Canadian Tire. CHAOS never produces order or life!
ILLUSTRATION: William Paley’s example of the watch and the watchmaker.
• “The heavens tell of the glory of God. The skies display his marvelous craftsmanship.” (Psalm 19:1). What does this mean? Where’s there’s a design, there’s a Designer.
The Bible says: “From the time the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky and all that God made. They can clearly see his invisible qualities – his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse whatsoever for not knowing God.” (Romans 1:20).
OPENING TEXT: “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” (Genesis 1:1).
• The first four words in the Bible are foundational to our beliefs about origins:
• In the beginning, GOD. The Bible doesn’t try to prove the existence of God.
• He is an eternal being and has always existed.
THE BIG IDEA: As human beings, we have been created in the image of a God who loves us and has a wonderful plan for our lives.
THE IMPORTANCE OF GENESIS: (The Defender’s Study Bible, Henry Morris).
“In a very real sense, the book of Genesis is the most important book in the world; for it is the foundation upon which all the other sixty-five books of God’s written Word have been based… The greatest doctrine of all – the special creation of all things by the eternal, self-existent God – is revealed in the very first chapter of Genesis, the foundation of all foundations…
It is hardly surprising, therefore, that the greatest attacks on the Bible have been directed against the integrity and authority of Genesis.”
• Why is it important to study the OT Book of Genesis? Because what we believe about our origins will affect our lives today and our destiny tomorrow.
INTRO TO THE BOOK OF GENESIS:
Author: Moses
Title: Genesis – Greek geneseos, which means birth, genealogy, or origin.
Date: Written around 1440 BC, sometime after the Exodus from Egypt.
Purpose: “Genesis reveals that humans were divinely created, that they suffered a fall, and that God proceeded to provide redemption… The account then focuses upon the origin and growth of the nation of Israel which God chose to fulfill a key role in implementing His plan of redemption.” (Pentateuch, L. Thomas Holdcroft).
DAY ONE OF CREATION:
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” (Genesis 1:1).
• In the beginning, GOD. God has always existed. Here we see the beginning of time.
• Elohim = A plural word that points to the Tri-unity of God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
• Historic Christian Creeds declare: We believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of Heaven and Earth. This is a powerful statement of what we believe about who God is.
“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.” (Genesis 1:1-5).
• “Light… the energizing of the vast cosmos through the marvelous electromagnetic force system which maintains all structures and processes in matter.” (Morris).
DAY TWO: (Gen. 1:6-8).
“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.”
• The firmament ‘Heaven’ here refers to the sky. There are three heavens in the Bible:
o First Heaven – the earth’s atmosphere (sky) or realm of the birds (Jer. 4:25).
o Second Heaven – the starry heavens or the realm of space (Is. 34:4).
o Third Heaven – the throne of God, the place where God lives (2 Cor. 12:2).
DAY THREE: (Gen. 1:9-13).
• On the third day, God commanded the Earth to bring forth the plant kingdom.
• Here we see an important creation principle: “the tree that yields fruit, whose seed is in itself according to its kind.” Like produces like.
• Cats produce cats. Monkeys do not produce human beings! This branch of science is called genetics. DNA is one of many modern sciences that support Intelligent Design.
• QUOTE: “DNA is an incredibly detailed language, revealing vast amounts of information encoded in each and every living cell – design which could not have arisen by purely naturalistic means. In every other area of our world, we recognize that information requires intelligence and design requires a designer. With our present-day knowledge of DNA, this presents a formidable challenge to Darwinian evolution.” (Ray Comfort, from the introduction to Charles Darwin’s Origin of the Species).
• Darwin’s idea of natural selection is scientifically impossible. Animals may experience adaptations or variations, there is never any new information added – no new DNA.
DAY FOUR: (Gen. 1:14-19).
• On the fourth day, God set the sun, moon and the stars in their place.
DAY FIVE: (Genesis 1:20-23).
• On day five, God created all of the birds and sea creatures.
DAY SIX: (Genesis 1:24-25).
“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.”
• On day six, God created all of the land animals – including the dinosaurs!
• Contrary to the evolutionary lie, mankind and dinosaurs were not separated by 65 million years! See Genesis 2:19: “Out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to Adam to see what he would call them. And whatever Adam called each living creature, that was its name.”
• If we are to take the Bible literally (and I suggest that we should), when Moses wrote that God created EVERY animal on day six, it means every animal, including dinosaurs.
• We will talk about dinosaurs and their mention in the Bible in a latter session.
GOD’S MASTERPIECE: (Genesis 1:26-31).
“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." 27 So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. 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…” 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.”
• God’s greatest masterpiece – human beings – created in His image!
• Discuss why what we believe about our origins is SO IMPORTANT: We are created in the image of God, loved by Him, and have value, worth, importance and DESTINY!
• Why are atheism and evolution so dangerous and harmful? Because they rob people of their intrinsic value and worth – special creations of God! You are not an animal…
CLOSING TEXT:
“You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb. Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous -- and how well I know it.” (Psalm 139:14-15).
RESOURCES:
The New Answers Book by Ken Ham (www.answersingenesis.org)
The Defender’s Study Bible by Henry Morris (www.icr.org)
The Case for a Creator by Lee Strobel (www.leestrobel.com)
Evidence that Demands a Verdict by Josh McDowell (www.josh.org)
Mere Christianity by C. S. Lewis
Darwin’s Leap of Faith by John Ankerberg & John Weldon
Beausejour Community Church Website: www.beausejourchurch.ca
Pastor Chris Jordan’s Blog: http://thelandofpromise.blogspot.com/
