God Created
Gen. 1:1
God created
Gen. 1:1
God created
“God”
God is Personal
The fact that God created indicates that God is
personal; He is real, He is living.
God is not an object or force; He is
not an idea, the thought projection of man’s thinking; He is not the
personification of a goal; He is not a concept signifying man’s desire for
perfection; He exists (see:
God’s Existence).
To be personal means that God has a nature, meaning His attributes; God is His attributes; He is the sum of His attributes (see: God’s Essence).
To be personal means that He communicates; He has revealed Himself to man; man would not know God unless God made Himself known.
To be personal means that He can act and does act; the first verse of the Bible affirms that He created.
To be personal means that God has a nature, meaning His attributes; God is His attributes; He is the sum of His attributes (see: God’s Essence).
To be personal means that He communicates; He has revealed Himself to man; man would not know God unless God made Himself known.
To be personal means that He can act and does act; the first verse of the Bible affirms that He created.
Implications of God
being personal:
Because God is personal, man is not alone in the universe;
there is Someone out there and He is not silent.
Because God is personal, He speaks to man and man can speak to Him; there is communication through God’s Revelation to man and man’s prayer to God.
Because God is personal, there is right, and it is Him; ethics and morals find their foundation in Him.
Because God is personal, there is order in the universe, the order He gave to it which reflects His own order
Because God is personal, there is hope. If no God, then no hope in this life or in the next; without God man is left with a feeling of helplessness and hopelessness, a feeling of despair, a feeling of isolation and loneliness.
See: God is Personal
Because God is personal, He speaks to man and man can speak to Him; there is communication through God’s Revelation to man and man’s prayer to God.
Because God is personal, there is right, and it is Him; ethics and morals find their foundation in Him.
Because God is personal, there is order in the universe, the order He gave to it which reflects His own order
Because God is personal, there is hope. If no God, then no hope in this life or in the next; without God man is left with a feeling of helplessness and hopelessness, a feeling of despair, a feeling of isolation and loneliness.
See: God is Personal
Three Notes:
Madalyn Murray O’Hair at Tulane Univ. in 1969 gave three
qualifications for an atheist: no belief in life after death; no belief in
prayer; and no top banana. She also said: “I will engage in sexual activity
with any consenting male, anytime and anyplace I ____ well please”.
Paul Tillich was asked: “Do you pray?” He answered: “No, I do not pray, but I mediate.”
A small boy flying a kite that could not be seen because it was so high was asked: “How do you know that it is there?” The boy answered: “I feel the tug.”
Paul Tillich was asked: “Do you pray?” He answered: “No, I do not pray, but I mediate.”
A small boy flying a kite that could not be seen because it was so high was asked: “How do you know that it is there?” The boy answered: “I feel the tug.”
God is Powerful
In Gen. 1:1 “God” is the translation of
the Heb. Elohim, meaning “Strong One”; God is the Strong One, the Powerful
One; Elihu: “Behold, God is mighty” (Job. 36:5; see:
God is Omnipotent);
God holds the Supreme position; He is not one among many, not one among several; God is the One over all.
God holds the Supreme position; He is not one among many, not one among several; God is the One over all.
The great and awesome God (Deut. 7:21);
Our God is greater than all gods (II Chron. 2:5);
God is exalted by His power (Job 36:22);
I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up (Isa. 6:1).
Our God is greater than all gods (II Chron. 2:5);
God is exalted by His power (Job 36:22);
I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up (Isa. 6:1).
God holds the Sovereign position; He rules over all; He
determines destinies.
The Lord reigns (Ps. 93:1);
The Lord is . . . the great King (Ps. 93:5);
Say among the nations, “The Lord reigns” (Ps. 96:1);
The Lord reigns, let the earth rejoice (Ps. 97:1);
The Lord shall reign forever and ever (Ex. 15:18).
See: God is Sovereign
The Lord is . . . the great King (Ps. 93:5);
Say among the nations, “The Lord reigns” (Ps. 96:1);
The Lord reigns, let the earth rejoice (Ps. 97:1);
The Lord shall reign forever and ever (Ex. 15:18).
See: God is Sovereign
“created”
Basic
Questions: Where did everything come from? How did it all come about? The
answers
to both questions, and answers to other questions, are found in the first chapter of Genesis.
Creation is a fact, a truth!
to both questions, and answers to other questions, are found in the first chapter of Genesis.
Creation is a fact, a truth!
The Bible
affirms: “God created”; the affirmation is lucid and forceful; God created
space, time, and matter; He created the Cosmos, all that is.
Two options, and only two options: believe the affirmation, or deny the affirmation.
See: Two Options and The Starting Point
Two options, and only two options: believe the affirmation, or deny the affirmation.
See: Two Options and The Starting Point
Creation was a Divine Act!
Elohim, the Strong One, is the Creator (see:
Elohim—The Creator,
The God of
Creation, and
The Act of God).
“created” translates the Heb. word bara, a word used exclusively of God; used only of God’s work; used in 1:1, 21, 27; 2:4; 5:1-2; 6:7; speaks of something new, great and epoch making.
“created” translates the Heb. word bara, a word used exclusively of God; used only of God’s work; used in 1:1, 21, 27; 2:4; 5:1-2; 6:7; speaks of something new, great and epoch making.
The
words “made” (asah) and “formed” (yatzar) are also used of God’s action;
these words are used of God and man.
See: Ps. 89:12; Isa. 42:5; 45: 12, 18
Note:
Note:
In God and the Astronomers, Robert Jastrow, Director of the NASA’s
Goddard Institute, wrote: “there is a kind of religion in science; it is the
religion of a person who believes there is order and harmony in the
Universe. Every event can be explained I a rational way as the product of
some previous event . . . This religious faith of the scientist is violated
by the discovery that the world had a beginning under conditions in which
the known laws of physics are not valid, and as a product of forces or
circumstances we cannot discover . . . At this moment it seems as though
science will never be able to raise the curtain on the mystery of creation.
For the scientist who has lived by his faith in the power of reason, the
story ends like a bad dream. He has scaled the mountains of ignorance; he is
about to conquer the highest peak; as he pulls himself over the final rock,
he is greeted by a band of theologians who have been sitting there for
centuries” (pp. 113, 114, 116).
Creation was out of nothing (ex nihilo)!
Creation was not out of pre-existing matter or material; God created
something out of nothing; something came from nothing, but Someone caused it
to happen.
See: Out of Nothing and Possibilities Regarding Matter
See: Out of Nothing and Possibilities Regarding Matter
Creation was a Completed Act!
God created at a point in time; the act of
creation was a complete act, not a continual process; bara in Gen. 1:1 does
not allow for a process, such as the movement of evolution over an unknown
number of years; the word “made” in Jo. 1:3 is an aorist tense denoting a
completed act.
Living Bible has “when God began creating”—an erroneous translation of God’s Word; perhaps a subtle attempt to harmonize Revelation and evolution.
Living Bible has “when God began creating”—an erroneous translation of God’s Word; perhaps a subtle attempt to harmonize Revelation and evolution.
An example of combining truth and error; God did it, but He
did it by a process; when truth and error are combined, the result is a
counterfeit which is deceiving and false; truth and error cannot be
harmonized; Genesis should be accepted or denied, but not changed.
Creation was by God’s Word!
Creation was by the creative command of God;
He spoke and where there was nothing, there came to be something; there was
emptiness and nothing, but when God spoke there was the cosmos.
Ten times two words are used together in Gen. 1: “God said”; seven times they are used in connection with creation; God spoke and there was light (v.3), a firmament (v. 6), the continents (v. 9), vegetation (v. 11), the sun, moon, and stars (v. 14), fish and birds (v. 20), and animals (v. 24).
See: Ps. 33:6-9; Ps. 148:1-5; Heb. 11:3; II Pet. 3:5-7; By His Word and Question of Evolution
Ten times two words are used together in Gen. 1: “God said”; seven times they are used in connection with creation; God spoke and there was light (v.3), a firmament (v. 6), the continents (v. 9), vegetation (v. 11), the sun, moon, and stars (v. 14), fish and birds (v. 20), and animals (v. 24).
See: Ps. 33:6-9; Ps. 148:1-5; Heb. 11:3; II Pet. 3:5-7; By His Word and Question of Evolution
See: Gen. 1:2 - Formless and Lifeless
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