Transcript Render unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s And unto God

IN THE BEGINNING
Genesis from the Creation
to Abraham
GENESIS CHAPTER ONE
•
•
•
•
Review of Gen. 1:1-5
The “creation” before the creation
The role of Christ and the Holy Spirit in creation
Thinking, love, relationships, personality,
“personhood:” present in the Trinity before
creation; given to us
– Our bodies, brains do not create our consciousness
of God, our spirits
– Our bodies are the vehicle for consciousness
• Genesis 1:2 and the “gap” theory
• The creation of angels and the angelic fall
GENESIS CHAPTER ONE
• The creation was commanded by the Word of
God
• The week of creation was devoted to
separating, differentiating, ordering creation:
– Light from dark, land from sea, inorganic from
organic, plant from animal, God-conscious
man from non-God-conscious animal
• The “week” of creation: days of God vs. 24
hour days of man
• God the Father, time and Einstein’s theory of
relativity
GENESIS CHAPTER ONE
• To experience God we need a sixth sense:
– Our awakened human spirit: awakened by the
Holy Spirit
– Or awakened to the occult by the occult
disciplines
• To appreciate the fifth dimension that God
and the spirit realm inhabit, we need to use
our spirit, our sixth sense.
– If we have never become aware of our spirits,
we will live exclusively in the natural
– Either God’s revelation must occur, or a
deliberate spiritual quest must be undertaken
GENESIS CHAPTER ONE
• We cannot appreciate the existence of God
fully by our five senses, although Paul and the
psalmists writes that by all logic, we should:
• Rom 1:19-20
• Because what may be known of God is
manifest in them, for God has shown it to
them. For since the creation of the world His
invisible attributes are clearly seen, being
understood by the things that are made, even
His eternal power and Godhead, so that they
are without excuse
GENESIS CHAPTER ONE
• Ps. 19:1-3
• The heavens declare the glory of God;
and the firmament shows His
handiwork. Day unto day utters speech,
and night unto night reveals
knowledge. There is no speech nor
language where their voice is not heard.
GENESIS CHAPTER ONE
• We need a sixth sense to appreciate
spiritual reality outside the physical
realm
• We need this sixth sense to “feel” and
communicate with the fifth dimension
(where God and spirits exist)
• We do this by faith and by relationship
with God
GENESIS CHAPTER ONE
• Heb 5:12-14
• For though by this time you ought to be
teachers, you need someone to teach you
again the first principles of the oracles of
God; and you have come to need milk and
not solid food. For everyone who partakes
only of milk is unskilled in the word of
righteousness, for he is a babe. But solid food
belongs to those who are of full age, that is,
those who by reason of use have their senses
exercised to discern both good and evil.
GENESIS CHAPTER ONE
• Rom: 10: 6-9
• But the righteousness of faith speaks in this way,
"Do not say in your heart, 'Who will ascend into
heaven?' " (that is, to bring Christ down from
above) or, " 'Who will descend into the abyss?'
" (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). But
what does it say? "The word is near you, in your
mouth and in your heart" (that is, the word of
faith which we preach): that if you confess with
your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your
heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you
will be saved.
GENESIS CHAPTER ONE
• If God told Moses that He created the
world in six days, the God created it in
six days
– Six of His days, not our days, about
6000 + of our years ago
– The first five days, up until the creation
of the Garden of Eden and man and
woman, may have taken billions of
years in human time
GENESIS CHAPTER ONE
• When Adam gazed around at the earth on day
six, the day he was created, the earth had to have
looked much more than six days old
– There were billions of years of animals, living, dying,
becoming fossils before Adam
– Most were extinct by the time of human creation
• They were created in the order listed in Genesis:
– Plants then sea creatures, then land creatures
– From the simpler to the more complex
– The simpler organisms were created earlier in the
week,
– The more complex later in the week
GENESIS CHAPTER ONE
• This is reflected in the strata of the earth:
– Simpler organisms are found in the deeper
levels
– More complex, higher organisms are found in
the more superficial levels
• The more complex organisms did not rise or
evolve from the simpler, but were created later in
the week, died after the simpler ones, and now lie
on top of them in the strata
– Most (99% perhaps) of the original creation
went extinct and do not occupy the higher
strata
GENESIS CHAPTER ONE
• All species (or at least genus) were original
creations and either survived, or went
extinct
– But not one has became an entirely different,
more complex animal
• Microevolution has occurred (and is
occurring).
– But macroevolution has not
– That is, there has been no formation of
completely new creatures from simpler, older
ones
© 2015 Pearson Education, Inc.
GENESIS CHAPTER ONE
• Many humanoid apes could have lived and
died (and had some basic skills involving
tools, like apes today)
– But none were human with a spirit and our
souls’ capacity for thought, creativity, emotion
(all which come from God’s spirit having been
breathed into the dust that formed Adam)
• It is the fossils of these humanoid apes that
archeologists find, not human ancestors
Figure 19.11
0
Paranthropus
robustus
0.5
1.5
Millions of years ago
2.5
3.0
5.5
Australopithecus
anamensis
(fragments)
Homo
erectus
Homo
habilis
Kenyanthropus
platyops
Ardipithecus
ramidus
6.0
6.5
7.0
Homo
neanderthalensis
Australopithecus
afarensis
4.5
5.0
Homo
sapiens
Australopithecus
africanus
3.5
4.0
?
Paranthropus
boisei
1.0
2.0
Homo
ergaster
Sahelanthropus
tchadensis
GENESIS CHAPTER ONE
• God did not go into the detail of phyla, class,
family, order, etc. when explained to Moses that
He created plants, sea creatures, birds, land
animals
– The Bible is not an exhaustive revelation of
both God and science
• The Bible’s main purpose is God’s message to
fallen man
– What man needs to understand to reestablish a
relationship with God
– What God did for us in order for this
relationship to become possible
GENESIS CHAPTER ONE
• With God as the creator and artist, the
people in the story can petition Him to
change the storyline and outcome
• There is an interaction between the
Writer and the subjects
– The movie “Stranger than Fiction.”
GENESIS CHAPTER ONE
• The author says:
• “My books are usually about a man who
doesn’t know he’s about to die, and
• then dies. But if the man does know he’s
going to die and dies anyway, dies
willingly, knowing he could stop it,
then...I mean, isn’t that the type of man
you want to keep alive?”
• Who does this remind you of ?
• Jesus, maybe?
GENESIS CHAPTER ONE
• Is 53:8-10
• For the transgressions of my people He
was stricken. And they made His grave
with the wicked-- But with the rich at His
death, Because He had done no violence,
Nor was any deceit in His mouth. Yet it
pleased the Lord to bruise Him; He has put
Him to grief. When You make His soul an
offering for sin.
GENESIS CHAPTER ONE
• Suggestion: if we want to keep alive
in God’s story, maybe we should try
living for others, not caring if we die
or not, maybe even be willing to die
for others. Then God may keep
someone as valuable as us around a
bit longer.
GENESIS CHAPTER ONE
• Ps. 41:1-3
• Blessed is he who considers the poor;
the Lord will deliver him in time of
trouble. The Lord will preserve him and
keep him alive, and he will be blessed
on the earth; You will not deliver him to
the will of his enemies. The Lord will
strengthen him on his bed of illness;
You will sustain him on his sickbed.
GENESIS CHAPTER ONE
• Gen: 1:6-8
• Then God said, "Let there be a firmament
in the midst of the waters, and let it divide
the waters from the waters." Thus God
made the firmament, and divided the
waters, which were under the firmament
from the waters which were above the
firmament; and it was so. And God called
the firmament Heaven. So the evening and
the morning were the second day.
GENESIS CHAPTER ONE
• Separation of water above and below
• The expanse between?
– The air beneath the clouds
– The Firmament: refers to the layer of air
between the water-covered earth and the
water-filled clouds above
• Creations on this day are not referred to as
“good”.
– Why? Nothing new was created during this
day
• This concluded the second day
GENESIS CHAPTER ONE
• Gen: 1:9-13
• Then God said, "Let the waters under the heavens be
gathered together into one place, and let the dry land
appear"; and it was so. And God called the dry land
Earth, and the gathering together of the waters He
called Seas. And God saw that it was good. Then God
said, "Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb that
yields seed, and the fruit tree that yields fruit according
to its kind, whose seed is in itself, on the earth"; and it
was so. And the earth brought forth grass, the herb that
yields seed according to its kind, and the tree that
yields fruit, whose seed is in itself according to its
kind. And God saw that it was good. So the evening
and the morning were the third day.
GENESIS CHAPTER ONE
• Land and water are separated
– Dry land appeared—called earth: the water on
the earth is called the seas
• No rain yet, just a mist of water vapor
• Plants were commanded to grow
– Plants were created after their own kind
• God is a God of order:
– Water, light, earth needed for plants
– Plants needed to for food for animals
GENESIS CHAPTER ONE
• Gen. 1:14-19
• Then God said, "Let there be lights in the firmament
of the heavens to divide the day from the night; and
let them be for signs and seasons, and for days and
years; and let them be for lights in the firmament of
the heavens to give light on the earth"; and it was
so. Then God made two great lights: the greater light
to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night.
He made the stars also. God set them in the
firmament of the heavens to give light on the
earth, and to rule over the day and over the night, and
to divide the light from the darkness. And God saw
that it was good. So the evening and the morning
were the fourth day.
GENESIS CHAPTER ONE
• Sun and moon and stars were created to provide
light in the day and some light at night
– And for signs and seasons
• Ps 147:4-5
• He counts the number of the stars; He calls them
all by name. Great is our Lord, and mighty in
power; His understanding is infinite.
• Job 9:8-9
• He alone spreads out the heavens, And treads on
the waves of the sea; He made the Bear, Orion,
and the Pleiades
GENESIS CHAPTER ONE
• Why does it appear that the sun and moon
and stars are created on the fourth day,
after light was created on the second day?
– Initially light may have been similar to the
light in the New Jerusalem in the book of
Revelation
• Rev 22:5
• There shall be no night there: They need
no lamp nor light of the sun, for the Lord
God gives them light.
GENESIS CHAPTER ONE
• Or: the developing earth had a constant
mist or fog
– The sun and moon and stars were not
visible until the fourth day
– But had been present to supply energy
to the plant growth of day three
• They are described here as appearing for
those on earth
• To provide light, signs, and seasons