The Beginning (Creation) Series

“In The Beginning”

Genesis 1:1-11

Introduction to Series:

Play opening of X-Files clip: {“Are you familiar with the so-called X-Files?” Agent Scully replies, “I believe they are unexplained phenomenon.”}

That lays the foundation for the television show The X-Files. Each week, starting in 1993, Agents Muldar and Scully came into our living rooms, studying and contending with some of the most bizarre stories, cases that they could not explain rationally but that always taught them something. The X-files became a huge cultural hit and remains so for many.

Well, for the next four weeks we want to look at God’s X-files. Some of the places in Scripture where God works in the area of “unexplained phenomenon.” God often uses things that are unexplainable to inform or help us understand who He is and what He wants for us. Next week we will look at the “Crossing of the Red Sea,” where close to 3 million Israelites passed on dry land, through a body of water that should of been uncrossable. Then in two weeks we’ll look at one of the most bizarre happenings in Scripture... a man who’s donkey actually speaks to him! And this is no animated tale but real life! In three weeks we will study the story of a man who was reportedly swallowed by a huge fish... and lived to tell about it. As we investigate these stories my hope is that we will see, through unexplained phenomenon, God’s unique desire for each of us. My prayer is that in the next 4 weeks your minds will be stimulated and your hearts brought closer to Him through God’s X-Files. Prayer

Introduction to Sermon:

In the 70’s the sitcom All in the Family broke new ground. The Bunker family talked very openly about issues that had not been previously talked about on TV. For example there is an episode where Archie and Edith are having a discussion about God and Mike, their openly atheistic son-in-law, asked the question, “What God.” Archie is just about to respond when his own daughter, Gloria, says, “Yeah, what God.” Archie can’t believe his ears. He knew his son-in-law was an atheist, but he could not believe his daughter said such a thing. He looks at her and says, “Yous wern’t brought up that way little girl!” To which she responds, “I know Daddy, but we just don’t see any evidence of God.”

A recent Gallop poll found that 47% of Americans do, in fact they hold a strict creationist view, that God created man pretty much in his present form within the last 10,000 years. Some 30% believe in some combination of evolution and creationism, where God was involved. Only 9% of Americans believe in strict evolution. And yet, in our colleges, universities, most public schools & state parks evolution is not taught as theory but as fact. What should we believe? And then maybe the tougher question, “Does what we believe really make a difference?” Let’s look at maybe the ultimate X-File in terms of unexplained phenomenon.. The Bible would have us accept that God took absolutely nothing and made the earth and all that is in it. That’s what Psalm 24:1 says: “The earth and everything it contains are the LORD’s. The world and all who live in it are his. He laid its foundation...”(GW)

I. THE CHANGE: From Creation to...

Creation of life by God had been the prevailing theory of origins until the 1800’s. All European scientists from Galileo to Newton accepted the literal interpretation of Genesis and believed Genesis 1: “In the beginning God created..” But in the mid 1800’s some geologists began to question the Creation story. Friction came to a head when Charles Darwin wrote his now famous book: The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection. Darwin’s theories were not readily accepted and in fact in 1925 a man by the name of John Scopes, a biology teacher, began teaching evolution in his class in Dayton, TN. At that time, much like today, but in reverse, it was unlawful to teach anything but creation. The trial ended with Scopes losing, still lawfully unable to teach evolution, but it opened the door for an entire different theory of man’s beginnings. 25 years later, in the late 1950’s the National Science Foundation funded the Biological Sciences Curriculum Study which was instrumental in emphasizing the theory of evolution in high school biology textbooks. In less than 10 years biology, as it was instructed in public schools, was framed explicitly in evolutionary terms. Don’t get caught down in the details but just realize that it only took about 40 years to go from “Creation only” to “Evolution only” after the Scopes trial. Indeed in 1968 the late historian, Richard Hofstaedter wrote: “At this time opposition to evolution seems only a very distant memory.”