“In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth” (Gen. 1:1). Ten short words present the vital fact: God truly exists and He is the one who created the heaven and the earth. While familiar to Bible readers, this opening pronouncement sets Genesis apart from all other creation accounts.
Other ancient creation accounts
None of the ancient creation stories speak with the authority of Genesis. They tell of battles between the gods who compete with one another to glorify certain cities or races. While they share a few points of agreement with Genesis, overall they seem childish in comparison.
For example, the Babylonian god Marduk, after killing the goddess Tiamat, used the two halves of Tiamat to create the firmament of heaven and earth. The spiritual and moral contrast to Genesis could hardly be greater. Still, a few skeptics have dared to argue that Genesis was derived from such twaddle. An objective comparison, however, shows Genesis to be vastly superior.
Today’s scientific theories are like the ancient creation stories. By omitting God, they grope for plausibility and often are devoid of any moral substance.
The Biblical account is a concise and impressive statement of the mighty acts of creation entirely without the crude elements of man’s imaginations. Where did this unsurpassed account come from? The Creator Himself.
Man was not present at creation (Job 38:4). How could he know what happened? Only if the Creator revealed the events. Dare we then set this book aside and turn to fables? We do so at our peril before God, for “without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him” (Heb. 11:6).
The first verse in Genesis challenges us to believe. Upon consideration, the remaining verses produce reasons for believing.
Necessary knowledge revealed
As Genesis unfolds, what we need to understand about God, His plan and our relationship to Him is revealed.
While everything God created was termed “very good,” man alone was provided with an exalted potential. Only man was created in the likeness and image of God. The moral implication is that we must strive to fulfill our potential and grow into the likeness of God’s character attributes. The hope is that we might be exalted into the image of His very nature.
Knowledge, planning and wisdom
On each day of creation, God takes major steps to establish the earth as a suitable habitation for man. “He hath made the earth by his power, he hath established the world by his wisdom, and hath stretched out the heavens by his discretion” (Jer. 10:12). God’s creative steps were contemplated in advance and His word, wisdom, power and discretion brought them into being. He spoke and it was done. “By the word of the LORD were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth” (Psa. 33:6).
We reach our goals in the same way. For us to proceed without knowledge, planning and wisdom is to invite disaster. Clearly, the aimless path argued by evolutionists has nothing in common with God’s method of creation.
Benefits, responsibility
As humans, we may emphasize the beneficial surroundings that God created. We marvel at the resources that can be adapted to human use and the abundance that the earth can produce when rightly used. When we compare the earth to other planets, we realize that conditions for life are ideal upon the planet where we live. We may rejoice that God did it all for us, but there is another side to the picture.
God expects something from His creation. We read: “Thou art worthy, 0 Lord, to receive glory and honor and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created” (Rev. 4:11).
Although it may be far from apparent today that this earth is destined to bring God glory, He has said: “But as truly as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the LORD” (Num. 14:21). Habakkuk stresses the same point, “For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea” (Hab. 2:14).
This glory will come; God has determined it will. Will we be part of His glory or do we oppose it? Are we now developing into His likeness? Are we becoming merciful, gracious, full of goodness and truth, hating iniquity and loving the right?
Warnings
The apostle Paul sets out a warning; “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables” (II Tim. 4:3,4).
The time Paul feared arrived rapidly in the early church. Fables such as the immortality of the soul, the trinity and a supernatural devil were quick to take hold.
The early chapters of Genesis have been displaced by the fables of modem science. Consequently, a large part of the “Christian” world now considers much of Genesis to be myth. Since science has come to understand the inner working of many earthly phenomena, the public has readily accepted pronouncements of scientists on matters such as creation. The tragedy is that much of the science of “today” will be regarded as simplistic or false “tomorrow.”
The ancient creation accounts read like fables and we are not likely to be taken in by reading them. Scientific theories often sound more convincing and may mislead us by their subtle arguments.
We need to remember that while the Genesis account was written long ago, it does not contain any obvious “errors.” It is an amazing account, in harmony with scientific findings and written in language that is easily understood. It speaks to us of God’s wisdom and reveals to us the creation that we would know nothing about because no man was there. We must not exchange this eyewitness revelation for the mere fables of man.
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One