Genesis: The Earth & The Heavens
In The Begining
As we kick off a new month, I want to bring to your attention that we are also kicking off a new year. One year ago today, the first blog post on Wyld Theology was posted! With this now being the start of year two of these posts, we are going to take a break from the many ologies we’ve dove into and begin diving into the Bible itself. Throughout this year we are going to look at specific books of the Bible and break them down each month to see what these books have to teach us and to see what God wants us to walk away with. And what better place to start this study than the very beginning of the Bible itself, Genesis. When many people break down the Bible into categories, we see it broken down into sections like creation, history, prophets, poetry, church, gospels, letters, and the second coming. What’s very fascinating about these topics is that very few of them have just one book dedicated to them, but that’s exactly what we see when it comes to the creation account. Everything that we see around us today had a beginning and this is why the book of Genesis is a vital one to grasp. This is why John MacArthur so boldly points out, “In Scripture, the Creator Himself has revealed to us everything essential for life and godliness. And it starts with an account of creation. If the biblical creation account is in any degree unreliable, the rest of Scripture stands on a shaky foundation.” This is why even though this may be the first book study we’re doing this year, it is crucial we understand what we read in this book because everything else builds off of it. With that in mind, let’s dive in.
The Age-Old Question
To begin, we’re going to break down one of the biggest debates in all of creation. That debate, of course, is about how old is the earth. When we look at God’s Word, we are given a solid hint of how we can figure this out. Genesis 1:5 tells us, “God called the light “day,” and the darkness He called“night.” And there was evening and there was morning, one day.” There are many people who believe that the creation account happened over billions of years and this is why we have multiple scientists stating that the earth isn’t thousands of years old but billions. However, while this explanation may line up with how scientists today view the beginning, it doesn’t exactly line up with the Bible. If God calls the light ‘day’ and He ends the first creation day by saying ‘there was evening and there was morning, one day’, we have full reason to believe that God is talking about a 24-hour period. The expression of time being passed here is described as morning and evening, which would lead us to believe that the event taking place during God’s creation period is a literal day that we know of today. Furthermore, when we look at the word ‘day’ in its original Hebrew context, we see it is the word ‘yom’ which means ‘day’ and ‘age’. Now there are some people who make the argument here that if day means age in this verse, then you could see why the creation account would be longer than 6 literal days. However, with what we see about the mention of morning and evening, I believe God has made it clear that the period in which the earth was created was a literal 6 days and not billions of years. This means that all creatures, plants, and planets didn’t evolve over a plethora of years, but rather were created by the words of God Himself when He spoke them into existence. Again, this is a view that is very much countered today because of flawed tests like carbon dating and things of that nature, but the other side of the argument isn’t solid by any means either. As Terence McKenna so brilliantly says, “Modern science is based on the principle: ‘Give us one free miracle and we’ll explain the rest.’” The one free miracle that so many scientists and atheists want these days is the beginning of the universe with the Big Bang. And if science has no explanation for how the Big Bang occurred, then I see no difference in believing that a being outside of space, time, and matter made everything in 6 days.
The Heavens
The other fascinating observation from creation is found right in verse one which has caused less debate but is often glossed over. Genesis 1:1 says, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” We see in this verse the plurality of ‘heavens’. Does this mean that there is more than one heaven?! Not quite. Look at what Genesis 1:16-17 says, “God made the two great lights, the greater light to govern the day, and the lesser light to govern the night; He made the stars also. God placed them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth” Heaven in this particular passage refers more to space where the sun and moon dwell. Even in verse 20, we see that God creates birds to fly in the ‘expanse of the heavens’ as well. This is another verse where we can benefit from the original Hebrew context. The Hebrew word for ‘heavens’ in this passage is ‘shamayim’ and means ‘heaven’ or ‘sky’. It seems quite clear then, that these heavens we see mentioned here are different levels of the sky, going all the way up to space itself. I remember learning on one of my very first days in college that the creation account has a vast amount of intriguing details if we would just stop and look carefully. One of those details was how the sun dwelled in the heavens of space, marking out the morning of each day, and yet, realizing the sun wasn’t created until day four.
However, when we look all the way back at verse 3, we see God say, ‘Let there be light’. For the longest time I always just assumed that this was the creation of the sun and I never cared to look further into it. But when you study the history of idols and false religions, a vast majority of the first ones came about by worshiping the sun. I remember learning from my professor that it wouldn’t surprise him if the reason God created the sun on day four, and yet still had light from day one, was in order to prove to these false religions that there is a light and a creator that comes before the sun. This type of intricate attention to detail in these few verses got me very invested in the creation account, and I hope our small study today does the same for you. I know the views on how old the earth is, what all the heavens mean, or even how there was light before the sun are all non-salvific issues, but I hope they are topics that spike your interest in the Book of Genesis nonetheless. As we continue our study on this book and look further into creation this week, I hope and pray that you will follow along and see for yourself why Genesis is a very intriguing foundational book.
Sources
[1] Blue Letter Bible. (n.d.). Blue Letter Bible. https://www.blueletterbible.org/
[2] How important is Genesis 1-3? (2009, August 27). Grace to You. https://www.gty.org/library/articles/A176/how-important-is-genesis-13