Monday, January 30, 2017

Is belief in Biblical creation Optional?

Read Genesis 2.

This chapter reviews and provides some details of the account in chapter one.

The Ownership of creation.
The God of the Bible claims full and final credit for the creation of all things.  Note in the opening 3 verses that three times the phrase "his work that he had done" appears.  All of creation is His personal property.  "The earth is the LORD's and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein, for he has founded it upon the seas and established it upon the rivers." (Psalm 24:1-2)

The Stewardship of creation.
 "There was no man to work the ground" (v.5).   "Then the LORD God formed the man of the dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature." (v.7)  The source of human life is a Person (God), not a process.  According to this chapter, Adam stood as an intelligent, discerning man, able to speak with an extensive vocabulary, and well able to understand the world around him.

Seven times in chapter 1, God looked at what He had made and called it good.  The first time a negative appears in the Bible is found in 2:18.  "It is not good that the man should be alone."  God's solution for the companionship, the completeness and the counterpart for man was a woman.  She was formed out of the elements of Adam's creation and, therefore, called wo-man.  The two enjoyed unashamed intimacy and partnership "in the Garden of Eden to work it and keep it" (v.15).  It was God's garden and they were charged to manage it for Him.

The Completeness of creation.
Verses 1 and 2, state that on the seventh day, God rested from His work.  The holiness of the seventh day was observed in the Old Testament Law as the Sabbath, from Friday sundown to Saturday sundown.  The LORD God "finished" the creation.  It is not an on-going process.  The Hebrew word means completed, ended, accomplished, done.

Creation is the universal and basic presentation of who God is and one's individual accountability to Him.  "For what can be known of God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them.  For his invisible attributes, namely his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made.  So they are without excuse." (Romans 1:19-20)

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