SERMON: "Old Testament Overview, Part 2: In the Beginning"

 

Old Testament Overview

A Twelve Week Trek through the Text

Part 2: In the Beginning

• This Session:
• The Nature of our World
• Genesis and Creation
• The Biblical Record
• The Implications
  
  
• I. Introduction
• What do we believe about the world around us?
• People in the ancient world, and in many religious cultures, believed their deities created the earth.
• The Bible provides an explanation of God creating the world.
• People today think that God did not create it.
• They use science to support this notion.
• However, if there’s anything we’ve learned in the past couple of years, it’s that the science is never “settled” nor do scientists operate without motivation.
• Is the science truly “settled”?
• Science:
• Meaning (etymology): Middle English, knowledge
• Definition (Merriam-Webster, first definition):
• a : knowledge or a system of knowledge covering general truths or the operation of general laws especially as obtained and tested through scientific method
  b : such knowledge or such a system of knowledge concerned with the physical world and its phenomena : NATURAL SCIENCE
• Observation and the scientific method helps us understand the universe around us.  However, as we observe the data, we may come to incorrect conclusions due to limitations, bias, etc.  
• We assume today that we can be rationalistic observers without feeling or motivation.  We also assume that there’s a divide between faith and science.
• If, however, the God of the Bible created the world, then:
• We should expect that God is the ultimate explanation of all that exists.
• We should expect the Bible to represent the observable universe.
• We should expect ourselves to resist this notion, being sinners. 
• Is there sufficient cause to believe this?
  In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.  The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters.  Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light.
  
  
• II. Genesis and Creation
• The earth seems to be designed to support life.
• It’s the perfect distance from the sun.
• The conditions are favorable for the existence of life (oxygen/nitrogen atmosphere, etc.).
• Its position in the galaxy supports observation of the universe.
• Isaiah 45:18 — “He is the God who formed the earth and made it, He established it and did not create it a waste place, but formed it to be inhabited.”
• Does the Bible represent the universe that exists?
  The Bible describes …
• … the circle of the earth (Isa. 40:22; Job 26:10).  This was written before the Greek philosophers used mathematics to determine that the earth is round!
• … the ocean currents (Psa. 8:8, “paths of the sea”)
• … the hydrological cycle (Job 36:27–28, drops of water rise and clouds pour down moisture)
• … the Earth suspended in space (Job 26:7, the world hangs on nothing)
• … the expansion of the universe (Isa. 40:22, God stretches the heavens)
• … entropy (Psa 102:25–26, everything wears out like a garment)
• Many points which support a younger age of the earth:
• The rate of departure of the moon.
• Decay of the earth’s magnetic field.
• The cooling rate of the planets, losing more energy than received from the sun.
• The continued existence of comets.
• The incomplete “shape” of galaxies.
• Nothing here proves a young age, but it does create problems for deep-age models.
• Also, there are points which contradict the naturalistic evolutionary process:
• The existence of information (such as DNA).
• The planets don’t all spin in the same direction.
• Other “solar systems” look very different than ours (some have larger planets closer to their stars, etc.)
• The biodiversity of life require an irreducible number of components to exist.  
• The poor positive evidences — Nearly every transitional form has been debunked, the geologic column is better explained by a global flood, etc.
  
  
• III. The Biblical Record
• What does it say?
• Day 1:
  Light and Day/Night
• Day 2:
  Sky/Heaven
• Day 3:
  Land and Vegetation
• Day 4:
  Sun, Moon, and Stars
• Day 5:
  Sea Animals and Birds
• Day 6:
  Land Animals and Man
• Is it possible that we’ve misinterpreted the text?
• There are theories that account for evolutionary time frames:
• Gap theory: Maybe there are billions of years between Genesis 1:1 and 1:2
• Day-Age Theory: Perhaps the “days” in Genesis 1 describe creative periods of time.
• However, this requires us to:
• Read words with shoehorned definitions.
• Genesis 1:2 doesn’t mean that the earth “became” anything — it simply was.
• The “days” (yom) in chapter one must be read in the same way as they are throughout Hebrew literature.
• Read what is clearly a narrative text with a poetic lens.
• The text still doesn’t support an evolutionary model!
• Other texts seem to support the narrative as it stands.  Other texts supporting a natural reading of the text:
• The Ten Commandments; specifically, the Sabbath command:
  “For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day; therefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day and made it holy.” (Exod. 20:11).
• The words of our Lord:
  “Have you not read that He who created them from the beginning made them male and female…?” (Matt. 19:4).
  
  
• III. The Implications
• If Genesis gives us the real history of the world, then that means there are implications:
• God created man (Genesis 1:27; 2:7)
• God commands man (Genesis 2:15–17)
• God condemns man (Genesis 3:10–19)
• God consecrates man (Genesis 3:15)
• God comforts man (Genesis 3:21)