The God Of Creation Series

This month, we are beginning a new series in the book of Genesis called “Dust to Life.” I believe Genesis is one of the most important books to study because it contains God’s revelation to the world of how life began, what life was meant to be, what the world has become because of sin and the Fall, and what the world will become through the promised Redeemer. As one scholar said: “Genesis is an embodiment of a future hope.”

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” is probably one of the most well-known phrases in the western world.

How shall we read the book of Genesis? As metaphorical? as an allegory? a historical myth? or as a literal text?

Martin Luther, John Calvin, Zwingli, and other 16th century reformers adopted a literal approach to the Genesis text by taking its words in their natural or customary meaning, and then applying the ordinary rules of grammar. They took this approach as opposed to treating the text with mystical or allegorical interpretations. In other words, they believed, “Scriptures are first to be understood in their natural, primary sense” - expressed by the actual wording of a passage, as distinguished from any metaphorical or suggested meaning.

John Lennox, professor of mathematics and philosophy at Oxford University uses the example of the narrative of the crucifixion of Christ with this natural or primary sense of interpretation of Scriptures. Scholars don’t interpret the crucifixion, Jesus dying for the sins of the world, as metaphorical but as a historical and physical event. Jesus physically came back from the dead and is alive today. There were times when Jesus spoke metaphorically (John 6) to His disciples about eating His flesh and drinking His blood, but people took it literally when it should have been taken as a metaphor. But even when Jesus spoke metaphorically, He was always pointing to an actual truth, for example, when He referred to Himself as the door, the bread of life and the living water.

In the book of Revelation, when John was speaking about the great dragon he was speaking metaphorically about the devil. We speak metaphorically in our everyday speech, but it is pointing to an actual truth or reality. Have you ever used the expressions, “That car was flying down the road” or “He’s as strong as an ox,” or “She’s as stubborn as a mule”?

When we look at Genesis, we need to look at its words in context. We want to be faithful to the text and so we need to ask how these words were meant to be understood in their primary sense. What truth does the author want us to see in Genesis?

The consensus amongst Old Testament scholars is that Moses wrote most of the Pentateuch. Moses had an intense interest in the past and how that past would play out into the future.

As we take this journey through Genesis, we will discover three levels. The upper level is theological. Every story teaches us something about God through what He says, through what other characters in the story say about Him, and/or through His actions. The middle level is historical. Israel’s history is traced through the Bible’s stories. The bottom level is biographical. As one author put it, “Here we will meet people just like us muddling through life as best they can under God’s watchful eye.”

Let's read the very first verses of the Bible, the account of creation in Gen 1:1-2

1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 And the earth was a formless and desolate emptiness, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters.

These words are the foundation of all that is to follow in the Bible. There is a threefold purpose of this statement:

1. to identify the Creator

2. to explain the origin of the world, and

3. to tie the work of God in the past to the work of God in the future.

These words, “In the beginning” have an eschatological implication that what the Lord has begun He will also bring to its perfect conclusion. In other words, the last things will be like the first things. Moses of course only saw the beginnings of the fulfillment of God's promise. We have the privilege of knowing how it will end in the book of Revelation.

Though conservative scholars agree on Who created it all, there has always been a debate on how long it took and how it all happened. Early Christian theologians such as Clement of Alexandria (AD 150-215), Augustine, and Origen took a figurative approach to Genesis 1 and argued that God created everything instantaneously in the very beginning (Gen 1:1).