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To fully believe in God is so much more than just believing God is behind a few things...
God is the creator of all things John chapter 1 tells us -- and that means (as the words say) everything
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning.
3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.
www.biblegateway.com
So, God created everything of nature...
That means not only the things in nature, but also nature itself, the design of nature -- how nature works -- all aspects of nature!
Anything in it. So, photosynthesis, but more...
Electrical fields/currents... Gravity. Magnetism.
Chemistry.
Every aspect -- all of physics and chemistry.
Therefore all things that happen naturally through the design of nature -- everything that happens in and of physics, chemistry -- is simply Nature doing what God made it to do.
So that all of creation then unfolds and works, like a flower unfolding from a seed, by His design.
Many think (I'm not alone in this) that also at times God intervened during the special preparation of Earth in particular. (for example, He might have chosen to let certain asteroids and comets hit Earth, but not others, deflecting the ones He didn't want to be part of Earth...)
So, then you have both nature operating as God made it to do, and also additionally He intervened at times to make Earth a perfect home for us.
That all is 'creation' and it's also all natural events, including all natural events -- there's no difference! Geology, you name it -- it's all merely part of creation, just like chemistry or gravity, etc.
The entire debates about science vs creationism comes from a mistaken premise: the false premise that if nature works wonderfully for life -- when we see that nature can cause and support living things -- that somehow that is wrongly thought to mean that God didn't do that....
It's an irrational premise really.
Anyone should consider the opposite idea, which makes a lot more sense: God existing would certainly make nature work perfectly to support/give rise to life....
Like we read in Genesis 1:11
11 Then God said, “Let the earth produce vegetation..."
That means anyone trying to argue any natural thing (even any evidence of evolution) would somehow disprove God is not believing in God, or perhaps not fully assuming that God is God.... The Creator of all of Nature.
To argue that any evolution would disprove God is very much like trying to argue that the Earth being an oblate sphere proves God doesn't exist (since certain verses read in isolation can be suggested to be read to suggest the Earth is flat, if you come to the text with that idea ahead of time.... but if we read the bible through (instead of only isolated verses) -- full reading -- with more a listening attitude, then we don't miss the meaning in full context.)
-------
We read in the bible that God uses visions to communicate, more than any other way.
3 The boy Samuel ministered before the Lord under Eli. In those days the word of the Lord was rare; there were not many visions. -- 1 Sam 3:1
Of course, as you know from reading it, the Bible has very many visions in it, not just given only to prophets like Isaiah or Ezekiel, but to very many.
6 he said, “Listen to my words:
“When there is a prophet among you,
I, the Lord, reveal myself to them in visions,
I speak to them in dreams."
Numbers 12 NIV
As we know, of course, the person who received the revelation from God written down in Genesis chapter 1 was not actually there in person -- the writer was not there in the beginning (Christ was, but not any mortal human!).
So, Genesis chapter 1 is of course revealed to us through a mortal human being who was given a revelation from God...
Genesis chapter 1 has both visually seen parts and also literally spoken words from God, both.
See it --
9 And God said, “Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear.” And it was so. 10 God called the dry ground “land,” and the gathered waters he called “seas.” And God saw that it was good.
11 Then God said, “Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds.” And it was so. 12 The land produced vegetation: plants bearing seed according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good. 13 And there was evening, and there was morning—the third day.
The person receiving this then would see some of it, (as in a vision) -- visually see some key things that happened -- and also hear some spoken words from God, which are in quotation marks for us.
Both.
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.
6 And God said, “Let there be a vault between the waters to separate water from water.” 7 So God made the vault and separated the water under the vault from the water above it. And it was so. 8 God called the vault “sky.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the second day.
So, as you see, we are reading the actual spoken Words from God here -- literally spoken words!!! (They are in quotation marks.)
Let's read some more visions to notice that happening.
Peter’s Vision
9 About noon the following day as they were on their journey and approaching the city, Peter went up on the roof to pray. 10 He became hungry and wanted something to eat, and while the meal was being prepared, he fell into a trance. 11 He saw heaven opened and something like a large sheet being let down to earth by its four corners. 12 It contained all kinds of four-footed animals, as well as reptiles and birds. 13 Then a voice told him, “Get up, Peter. Kill and eat.”
14 “Surely not, Lord!” Peter replied. “I have never eaten anything impure or unclean.”
15 The voice spoke to him a second time, “Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.”
16 This happened three times, and immediately the sheet was taken back to heaven.
17 While Peter was wondering about the meaning of the vision, the men sent by Cornelius found out where Simon’s house was and stopped at the gate. ...
We also read in the Bible over and over someone receiving a vision, but not at first fully understanding it (or not in all ways) (or even sometimes not at all) for a time!
----
8 During the night I had a vision, and there before me was a man mounted on a red horse. He was standing among the myrtle trees in a ravine. Behind him were red, brown and white horses.
9 I asked, “What are these, my lord?”
The angel who was talking with me answered, “I will show you what they are.”
----
So, we can expect it's likely that person given the amazing creation vision in Genesis 1 would not naturally be able to understand every aspect of what he was seeing immediately, but would be given to understand the most important things (or soon): that God created all that is, and made Earth a "good" and a "very good" home for us!....
Let's think about how the person first seeing this vision would not entirely understand every aspect of creation, just like Peter didn't at first understand above....
How could anyone thousands of years ago understand seeing Earth as being entirely a water world for example!?
How could anyone understand seeing an ocean that it meant that all the Earth was for a time just oceans....
How would they be able to know that seeing an ocean vision was about the entire Earth?
They could know -- we can know -- only when God helps us to understand.
Thus in the vision, we are given spoken words to explain this...the passage of time is shown with 'days' with a morning and evening.
That's familiar: morning time and evening time: I can understand this vision now -- it's here on Earth, and this is a day!....
In this way, the person receiving this amazing vision that would have been beyond their comprehension could begin to understand it was Earth he was seeing, being made.
And time is passing. In fact, we read that the reason we live under a wonderful starry sky instead of for instance a blank grey dome overhead is to help us notice the passage of time (in our mortal bodies: that we haven't forever in these bodies, and we should realize time is fleeting here...):
14 And God said, “Let there be lights in the vault of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark sacred times, and days and years..."
Time is passing, Earth is changing, then, the vision conveys to the wondering person seeing these amazing sights...
Of course, God can do all things, and doesn't have to work slowly, but could make Earth in 1 day, or 1 hour.....
But that would be less beneficial to us. It's better if we can notice that God is blessing us with work over time to make Earth a wonderful blessed home (initially) for us....
So, in this vision, creation is shown in a way we can understand.
It's understandable to us mortal humans. According to what people can understand.
For example, when Christ told the parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man, the words Christ chose for that audience listening at that moment in time (all descendents of Abraham) is that literally-rendered Lazarus goes to be in the "bosom of Abraham" (in the most word for word literal translation):
"And it came to pass, that the poor man died, and that he was carried away by the messengers into the bosom of Abraham—and the rich man also died, and was buried;"
Luke 16:22
Of course, heaven isn't mainly just to be at Abraham's side, nor is Abraham the central gathering person around which heaven will be... But Christ spoke in a way his listeners could understand at that moment in time.
So God also spoke words in Genesis 1 to make it clear to us that Earth was being formed/changed over time.
And the main thing we get repeated 7 times: that our home was made to be "good" for us. "Very good"....
The spoken words are enough to help make it clear -- God made our home Earth -- everything. And made it wonderful, a truly wonderful place to be.
----------
Here it's good to be sure to be clear -- visions aren't like a mere video recording or mere photograph. (it would be a disrespectful cartoon version of God to claim so!)
Of course God didn't need to set up a recorder/camera and record creation scenes so He would be able to later replay the recording for the person given this revelation in Genesis 1....
Instead, all visions are actually given from God -- He creates the vision for us.
The vision itself is created.
Made in a way so that we can (eventually) understand what we never could otherwise understand.
An actual video recording would have been even harder to comprehend we can guess....too distracting with too many details that aren't the main point.
A vision is always a kind of stylized representation of something important. A created scene.
As a parallel analogy, visions are more like (analogy) something drawn by hand or such -- in analogy, more like an drawing or animation drawing than like a video recording or photo from a camera, in the sense they are entirely created and won't have too many endless details that are beside the point being communicated.
They are stylized representations you could say. They are like something, instead of being a photo recording of something.
The Genesis 1 revelation is such a wonderful vision of course, and reading it can lift us up out of our base mind into a higher state of mind, ready to hear God's words to come in the scripture....
We should always take a time to sometimes read to just listen to the chapter, without thinking about any debate or doctrinal thing we heard, etc.
---------
That's the main best thing we must gain from Genesis 1 -- just pure listening to hear and be lifted up, ready to continue reading the word....
I hope if anyone ever listens to anything about Genesis 1, they will take from this that we should occasionally read even this chapter we've read 10 or 20 times already with just pure reading to just listen (to lay aside all previous and other stuff, even our own ideas or doctrines, and just purely listen to God's word). It's so wonderful!
God is the creator of all things John chapter 1 tells us -- and that means (as the words say) everything
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning.
3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.
Bible Gateway passage: John 1 - New International Version
The Word Became Flesh - In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light...
So, God created everything of nature...
That means not only the things in nature, but also nature itself, the design of nature -- how nature works -- all aspects of nature!
Anything in it. So, photosynthesis, but more...
Electrical fields/currents... Gravity. Magnetism.
Chemistry.
Every aspect -- all of physics and chemistry.
Therefore all things that happen naturally through the design of nature -- everything that happens in and of physics, chemistry -- is simply Nature doing what God made it to do.
So that all of creation then unfolds and works, like a flower unfolding from a seed, by His design.
Many think (I'm not alone in this) that also at times God intervened during the special preparation of Earth in particular. (for example, He might have chosen to let certain asteroids and comets hit Earth, but not others, deflecting the ones He didn't want to be part of Earth...)
So, then you have both nature operating as God made it to do, and also additionally He intervened at times to make Earth a perfect home for us.
That all is 'creation' and it's also all natural events, including all natural events -- there's no difference! Geology, you name it -- it's all merely part of creation, just like chemistry or gravity, etc.
The entire debates about science vs creationism comes from a mistaken premise: the false premise that if nature works wonderfully for life -- when we see that nature can cause and support living things -- that somehow that is wrongly thought to mean that God didn't do that....
It's an irrational premise really.
Anyone should consider the opposite idea, which makes a lot more sense: God existing would certainly make nature work perfectly to support/give rise to life....
Like we read in Genesis 1:11
11 Then God said, “Let the earth produce vegetation..."
That means anyone trying to argue any natural thing (even any evidence of evolution) would somehow disprove God is not believing in God, or perhaps not fully assuming that God is God.... The Creator of all of Nature.
To argue that any evolution would disprove God is very much like trying to argue that the Earth being an oblate sphere proves God doesn't exist (since certain verses read in isolation can be suggested to be read to suggest the Earth is flat, if you come to the text with that idea ahead of time.... but if we read the bible through (instead of only isolated verses) -- full reading -- with more a listening attitude, then we don't miss the meaning in full context.)
-------
We read in the bible that God uses visions to communicate, more than any other way.
3 The boy Samuel ministered before the Lord under Eli. In those days the word of the Lord was rare; there were not many visions. -- 1 Sam 3:1
Of course, as you know from reading it, the Bible has very many visions in it, not just given only to prophets like Isaiah or Ezekiel, but to very many.
6 he said, “Listen to my words:
“When there is a prophet among you,
I, the Lord, reveal myself to them in visions,
I speak to them in dreams."
Numbers 12 NIV
As we know, of course, the person who received the revelation from God written down in Genesis chapter 1 was not actually there in person -- the writer was not there in the beginning (Christ was, but not any mortal human!).
So, Genesis chapter 1 is of course revealed to us through a mortal human being who was given a revelation from God...
Genesis chapter 1 has both visually seen parts and also literally spoken words from God, both.
See it --
9 And God said, “Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear.” And it was so. 10 God called the dry ground “land,” and the gathered waters he called “seas.” And God saw that it was good.
11 Then God said, “Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds.” And it was so. 12 The land produced vegetation: plants bearing seed according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good. 13 And there was evening, and there was morning—the third day.
The person receiving this then would see some of it, (as in a vision) -- visually see some key things that happened -- and also hear some spoken words from God, which are in quotation marks for us.
Both.
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.
6 And God said, “Let there be a vault between the waters to separate water from water.” 7 So God made the vault and separated the water under the vault from the water above it. And it was so. 8 God called the vault “sky.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the second day.
Bible Gateway passage: Genesis 1 - New International Version
So, as you see, we are reading the actual spoken Words from God here -- literally spoken words!!! (They are in quotation marks.)
Let's read some more visions to notice that happening.
Peter’s Vision
9 About noon the following day as they were on their journey and approaching the city, Peter went up on the roof to pray. 10 He became hungry and wanted something to eat, and while the meal was being prepared, he fell into a trance. 11 He saw heaven opened and something like a large sheet being let down to earth by its four corners. 12 It contained all kinds of four-footed animals, as well as reptiles and birds. 13 Then a voice told him, “Get up, Peter. Kill and eat.”
14 “Surely not, Lord!” Peter replied. “I have never eaten anything impure or unclean.”
15 The voice spoke to him a second time, “Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.”
16 This happened three times, and immediately the sheet was taken back to heaven.
17 While Peter was wondering about the meaning of the vision, the men sent by Cornelius found out where Simon’s house was and stopped at the gate. ...
Bible Gateway passage: Acts 10 - New International Version
We also read in the Bible over and over someone receiving a vision, but not at first fully understanding it (or not in all ways) (or even sometimes not at all) for a time!
----
8 During the night I had a vision, and there before me was a man mounted on a red horse. He was standing among the myrtle trees in a ravine. Behind him were red, brown and white horses.
9 I asked, “What are these, my lord?”
The angel who was talking with me answered, “I will show you what they are.”
Bible Gateway passage: Zechariah 1 - New International Version
----
So, we can expect it's likely that person given the amazing creation vision in Genesis 1 would not naturally be able to understand every aspect of what he was seeing immediately, but would be given to understand the most important things (or soon): that God created all that is, and made Earth a "good" and a "very good" home for us!....
Let's think about how the person first seeing this vision would not entirely understand every aspect of creation, just like Peter didn't at first understand above....
How could anyone thousands of years ago understand seeing Earth as being entirely a water world for example!?
How could anyone understand seeing an ocean that it meant that all the Earth was for a time just oceans....
How would they be able to know that seeing an ocean vision was about the entire Earth?
They could know -- we can know -- only when God helps us to understand.
Thus in the vision, we are given spoken words to explain this...the passage of time is shown with 'days' with a morning and evening.
That's familiar: morning time and evening time: I can understand this vision now -- it's here on Earth, and this is a day!....
In this way, the person receiving this amazing vision that would have been beyond their comprehension could begin to understand it was Earth he was seeing, being made.
And time is passing. In fact, we read that the reason we live under a wonderful starry sky instead of for instance a blank grey dome overhead is to help us notice the passage of time (in our mortal bodies: that we haven't forever in these bodies, and we should realize time is fleeting here...):
14 And God said, “Let there be lights in the vault of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark sacred times, and days and years..."
Time is passing, Earth is changing, then, the vision conveys to the wondering person seeing these amazing sights...
Of course, God can do all things, and doesn't have to work slowly, but could make Earth in 1 day, or 1 hour.....
But that would be less beneficial to us. It's better if we can notice that God is blessing us with work over time to make Earth a wonderful blessed home (initially) for us....
So, in this vision, creation is shown in a way we can understand.
It's understandable to us mortal humans. According to what people can understand.
For example, when Christ told the parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man, the words Christ chose for that audience listening at that moment in time (all descendents of Abraham) is that literally-rendered Lazarus goes to be in the "bosom of Abraham" (in the most word for word literal translation):
"And it came to pass, that the poor man died, and that he was carried away by the messengers into the bosom of Abraham—and the rich man also died, and was buried;"
Luke 16:22
Of course, heaven isn't mainly just to be at Abraham's side, nor is Abraham the central gathering person around which heaven will be... But Christ spoke in a way his listeners could understand at that moment in time.
So God also spoke words in Genesis 1 to make it clear to us that Earth was being formed/changed over time.
And the main thing we get repeated 7 times: that our home was made to be "good" for us. "Very good"....
The spoken words are enough to help make it clear -- God made our home Earth -- everything. And made it wonderful, a truly wonderful place to be.
----------
Here it's good to be sure to be clear -- visions aren't like a mere video recording or mere photograph. (it would be a disrespectful cartoon version of God to claim so!)
Of course God didn't need to set up a recorder/camera and record creation scenes so He would be able to later replay the recording for the person given this revelation in Genesis 1....
Instead, all visions are actually given from God -- He creates the vision for us.
The vision itself is created.
Made in a way so that we can (eventually) understand what we never could otherwise understand.
An actual video recording would have been even harder to comprehend we can guess....too distracting with too many details that aren't the main point.
A vision is always a kind of stylized representation of something important. A created scene.
As a parallel analogy, visions are more like (analogy) something drawn by hand or such -- in analogy, more like an drawing or animation drawing than like a video recording or photo from a camera, in the sense they are entirely created and won't have too many endless details that are beside the point being communicated.
They are stylized representations you could say. They are like something, instead of being a photo recording of something.
The Genesis 1 revelation is such a wonderful vision of course, and reading it can lift us up out of our base mind into a higher state of mind, ready to hear God's words to come in the scripture....
We should always take a time to sometimes read to just listen to the chapter, without thinking about any debate or doctrinal thing we heard, etc.
---------
That's the main best thing we must gain from Genesis 1 -- just pure listening to hear and be lifted up, ready to continue reading the word....
I hope if anyone ever listens to anything about Genesis 1, they will take from this that we should occasionally read even this chapter we've read 10 or 20 times already with just pure reading to just listen (to lay aside all previous and other stuff, even our own ideas or doctrines, and just purely listen to God's word). It's so wonderful!
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