I believe in God the Creator |
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Introduction
In this article it is not my intention to argue the case for "Evolution" or
"Creationism". That argument must be reserved for another article, for that is
an argument as to
HOW
things happened and I am more concerned at this point to declare that the
event
DID
happen and
WHO
was the Author of the event. Scripture does not merely mention creation at its
beginning and then ignore it. The Bible is
permeated
with the belief that
God
created the universe, that it was created according to
design
and not by accident and that it was created
good
.
The Creed refers to God as "Maker of Heaven and Earth". The Bible starts with the assumption that the universe was created by God. But the Bible's teaching on Creation does not stop in the early chapters of Genesis. The Doctrine of Creation permeates the Bible culminating with the re-creation when there will be a new heaven and a new earth. Isaiah 42:5 describes God as he: who created the heavens and stretched them out, In Revelation, John described God as him who lives for ever and ever, John 1:1-2 reaffirms God's creative role and declares that Jesus, the Logos, was fully involved in that creative process since "the Word was God". In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. In Acts 4:24 the early Christians recognised the importance of God's creative power. When they heard this, they raised their voices together in prayer to God. Indeed a whole article could be given over to Biblical quotations showing how the Bible's case rests upon the fact that In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. (Gen 1:1) The World Was Created to a DesignIf we view the opening chapters of Genesis, not so much as a scientific treatise (which it is not) as a statement of purpose we are able to leave aside the thorny arguments about how long it took to create the universe and learn from those chapters the far more important meanings that are embedded into them - meanings often ignored in the discussions of so-called "Creationists". The following truths, among others, are evident in these chapters.
The Universe is not the result of AccidentThose opening words "God created the heavens and the earth" make this point very clear. It is not an accident but an Act of God that is behind the universe. Creation has a Creator. If there was ever a "Big Bang" then the author of that Big Bang was God. If a Voice simply said "Let it come into being" then that Voice was the Voice of God. There is no room in the Biblical account for any theory of creation which leaves out God's creative power. There is Purpose to CreationIsaiah 45:18 says For this is what the LORD says-- The Authorised Version (KJV) says "He created it not in vain ." Creation was not at a chance whim of God or of fate - it was planned and purposed and at least a part of that purpose was so that it might be inhabited - which tells us that the creatures that live upon this earth, including humankind, are not the result of some accidental series of mutations but according to the design, purpose and will of the Creator and Designer. The importance of this truth is that it rejects Nihilism . If Creation has no purpose then we should not be surprised that vandalism, hooliganism, cruelty, rape, child abuse and the like are on the increase. Indeed, it is precisely because of Nihilistic teaching that these things do abound. For if there is no purpose to creation and there are no absolutes to behaviour - if we reject all existing principles, values and institutions - then we must eventually reject the code of moral behaviour based upon those principles and values. But the Bible declares that there is purpose, there are values and there are absolutes for God "created it not in vain". There is Integration in CreationI have often wondered why, if God made the Universe, he took so long about it. I'm not referring here to the millions of years propounded by evolutionists! Why take as long as six days - 144 hours? Surely God does not need a week to create the Universe? If he wanted to he could do it immediately. Six days is no more necessary than 600,000,000 years. But it is not the actual time framework that is important here. What is important is that God unfolds his creation item by item. We do not have a mass-produced creation into which God simply threw some random articles but we have a planned work of divine art in which each part is intended to work together with each other part in harmony. Where we may now see lack of harmony it is because things have since been corrupted but even now, in this polluted and corrupted world, the potential for harmony is still evident. In creation God made all things good. He did not make some things good and some things bad. He did not create a division between Sacred and Secular for all things are his. The Biblical account of creation rejects dualism . God saw all that he had made, There is Direction to CreationIf we take the point about the time-scale in Genesis on one stage further we can see that not only is there integration because God made all things to work together but also that his plan of creation was progressive. J. S. Whale says: The Deist conceives of creation as a past act, the universe being like a wound-up clock working unaided by God, who exists in transcendant loneliness and inaccessibility. The Christian doctrine of creation, on the other hand, asserts that the transcendant God creates in continuo actu ; i.e. he sustains the universe in every moment of its existence. It is not only in Genesis that we see a God who takes an interest in his creation but throughout Scripture. The whole of the Bible is an account of how God breaks through into history, whether it be the history of one chosen nation or the history of the whole world, and guides and provides. Yet at the same time he is not a God who determines every act of every man. The Christian faith is not a fatalistic or deterministic one but a faith which declares that God has placed into the hands of each man the right and the duty to make his own decisions. Nevertheless, the destiny of this world does not lie in the hands of mankind, or of fate and certainly not in the stars but in the hands of God. "I know not what the future holds (All full biblical quotations in this article are taken from the New International Version and have been inserted into the text using "QuickVerse for Windows" from Parsons Technology .) Notes
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