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In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.
3 And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 4 God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day.
Maybe it is a little ambitious in a year of such divisions, over so many things, but I am hoping to preach a non divisive sermon on this passage shortly.
I figure, the best way to do that is to start on the bits that all Christians agree on and then just explain the different positions, that exist on the rest, without expressing a preference.
A) WE AGREE ON:
1) God created everything from nothing: "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." This is clarified elsewhere
John 1:3 - Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.
Col 1:16 - For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him.
As the Nicene Creed says:
We believe in one God,
the Father, the Almighty,
maker of heaven and earth,
of all that is, seen and unseen.
2) Creation was ex nihilo (Out of nothing)
This creation is not just the stuff we can see, modern scientists speculate that some 97% of the mass of the universe does not give us an electro-magnetic signature. So what is unseen, the dark matter and energy that forms the bulk of the universe, may indeed be more significant than what we can see.
As Hebrews 11:3 puts it:
By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God's command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.
Creation was out of nothing and its origin is God.
3) A conclusion of the above 2 statements is that there was a beginning
This is important to say as a great many people in the world speculate that the universe has always existed, or exists in some kind of eternal loop eventually exhausting all of its possibilities and then reoccurring once more. Christians agree time moves from beginning to end and not in an eternal loop.
4) Creation was Trinitarian
The Father created, through the Son and the Spirit was there hovering over the waters
B) WE DISAGREE ON
The bits that Christians disagree on in this passage
1) How old is the Universe?
There are two main camps: one saying VERY OLD and the other saying NOT THAT OLD. There was no question about this in Moses day when he wrote these words. The universe was then measured in thousands of years. But now we know more people have looked again at these verses and suggested alternate interpretations to the Divine meaning and inspiration here.
2) How literally should we interpret the account?
The main alternatives are:
i) LITERARY FRAMEWORK: These verses are intended as a hymn of praise to the Creator and demo his supremacy over alternate stories in circulation at the time of writing and they are not intended as an exhaustive scientific statement. The text does not say how old the universe is and so it allows for an old universe. We should handle Genesis 1-2 as a literary framework revealing deep truths about the Creator but not as a Science book. Various ancient figures also held to this view but for the opposite reason of modern scientists. They suggested it was a nonsense that God would have taken as long as 6 days to create everything so these "days" but be just symbolic of creations design.
ii) GAPS: That there is a gap between the first line and the rest between : In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth and the days of forming and filling. This would suggest that the universe could be very old but the special circumstances for life that we find on this planet comparatively recent. So life would have mainly been created recently but in a very ancient universe. This satisfies modern physicists and cosmologists but not the biologists and their theories of evolution. Others interpret the days of forming and filling as epochs spanning millions of years rather than literal days.
iii) LITERAL: A literal interpretation would be that God created the universe and all life in 7 days and there are no gaps between these literal . Thus abiogenesis, macro evolution, Big Bang become the big speculative myths of our age but lacking any way of being proven scientifically.
WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO CALL GOD CREATOR?
1) Theistic Evolutionist or Deist
This means God started the processes off that led to our existence billions of years later. WE are looking at a God whose patience and foresight are astounding. But life continues to evolve and its directions are indeterminate and not preordained. What God created has become accidental in its direction as he has left Creator to take its own course. Human life was intended but has evolved over time.
2) Literal Creationist
The universe and we ourselves have a special design and balance which we mess with at our peril. We are made in Gods image and were considered fitting vessels for the Messianic incarnation of Jesus as God and full man. The human genome is adaptable and so we see all sorts of humanoid around the earth today and in the fossil record but the unique type of human being was created as it is relatively recently
Whatever our positions on this passage we should all be able to agree that God is our Creator and celebrate him as such. That there was a definite beginning and God created out of nothing. That time itself moves from its beginning to to its end.
Do you think a sermon on these lines can be preached without setting the church on fire and starting a war?
3 And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 4 God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day.
Maybe it is a little ambitious in a year of such divisions, over so many things, but I am hoping to preach a non divisive sermon on this passage shortly.
I figure, the best way to do that is to start on the bits that all Christians agree on and then just explain the different positions, that exist on the rest, without expressing a preference.
A) WE AGREE ON:
1) God created everything from nothing: "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." This is clarified elsewhere
John 1:3 - Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.
Col 1:16 - For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him.
As the Nicene Creed says:
We believe in one God,
the Father, the Almighty,
maker of heaven and earth,
of all that is, seen and unseen.
2) Creation was ex nihilo (Out of nothing)
This creation is not just the stuff we can see, modern scientists speculate that some 97% of the mass of the universe does not give us an electro-magnetic signature. So what is unseen, the dark matter and energy that forms the bulk of the universe, may indeed be more significant than what we can see.
As Hebrews 11:3 puts it:
By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God's command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.
Creation was out of nothing and its origin is God.
3) A conclusion of the above 2 statements is that there was a beginning
This is important to say as a great many people in the world speculate that the universe has always existed, or exists in some kind of eternal loop eventually exhausting all of its possibilities and then reoccurring once more. Christians agree time moves from beginning to end and not in an eternal loop.
4) Creation was Trinitarian
The Father created, through the Son and the Spirit was there hovering over the waters
B) WE DISAGREE ON
The bits that Christians disagree on in this passage
1) How old is the Universe?
There are two main camps: one saying VERY OLD and the other saying NOT THAT OLD. There was no question about this in Moses day when he wrote these words. The universe was then measured in thousands of years. But now we know more people have looked again at these verses and suggested alternate interpretations to the Divine meaning and inspiration here.
2) How literally should we interpret the account?
The main alternatives are:
i) LITERARY FRAMEWORK: These verses are intended as a hymn of praise to the Creator and demo his supremacy over alternate stories in circulation at the time of writing and they are not intended as an exhaustive scientific statement. The text does not say how old the universe is and so it allows for an old universe. We should handle Genesis 1-2 as a literary framework revealing deep truths about the Creator but not as a Science book. Various ancient figures also held to this view but for the opposite reason of modern scientists. They suggested it was a nonsense that God would have taken as long as 6 days to create everything so these "days" but be just symbolic of creations design.
ii) GAPS: That there is a gap between the first line and the rest between : In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth and the days of forming and filling. This would suggest that the universe could be very old but the special circumstances for life that we find on this planet comparatively recent. So life would have mainly been created recently but in a very ancient universe. This satisfies modern physicists and cosmologists but not the biologists and their theories of evolution. Others interpret the days of forming and filling as epochs spanning millions of years rather than literal days.
iii) LITERAL: A literal interpretation would be that God created the universe and all life in 7 days and there are no gaps between these literal . Thus abiogenesis, macro evolution, Big Bang become the big speculative myths of our age but lacking any way of being proven scientifically.
WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO CALL GOD CREATOR?
1) Theistic Evolutionist or Deist
This means God started the processes off that led to our existence billions of years later. WE are looking at a God whose patience and foresight are astounding. But life continues to evolve and its directions are indeterminate and not preordained. What God created has become accidental in its direction as he has left Creator to take its own course. Human life was intended but has evolved over time.
2) Literal Creationist
The universe and we ourselves have a special design and balance which we mess with at our peril. We are made in Gods image and were considered fitting vessels for the Messianic incarnation of Jesus as God and full man. The human genome is adaptable and so we see all sorts of humanoid around the earth today and in the fossil record but the unique type of human being was created as it is relatively recently
Whatever our positions on this passage we should all be able to agree that God is our Creator and celebrate him as such. That there was a definite beginning and God created out of nothing. That time itself moves from its beginning to to its end.
Do you think a sermon on these lines can be preached without setting the church on fire and starting a war?
