By Rev. Mark Creech
Christian Action League
B.H. Carroll, who founded Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and served as its first president, wrote:
“’In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth (Gen. 1:1)
“‘Beginning’ means the commencement of time, and shows that the matter of the universe had a definite origin.
“Matter is not eternal…Matter did not start itself. God alone is eternal.
“‘God’ is the explanation of this origin.
“‘Created’ means brought into being without the use of pre-existing material. This verb, having God for its subject, is generally used in the Bible when something, not before existing, is brought into existence by divine power, and is distinguished…from other verbs signifying to make, shape, or to form out of pre-existing material.
“As there could be no human witness when the original foundations were laid, and as human science deals only with pre-existing material, our knowledge of this origin of things cannot come by science, history, or tradition, but by revelation, and must be received by faith.”
This one verse of scripture is foundational to every truth in the Bible. If we really believe it, there should be no difficulty believing anything else recorded in its pages.
God is the start of everything. He created all things and rules over all things.
Moreover, this text refutes every false philosophy concerning earth’s origin and meaning: atheism, pantheism, polytheism, materialism, dualism, humanism, and evolutionism. Each one of these suggests in some manner that there is no personal, transcendent God, and that ultimate reality is found in the cosmos itself – ultimate reality can only be known by the senses, and what we can measure by the sciences.
It is utterly foolish to live without an earnest faith in God. In fact, it takes a greater faith to accept the complicated tenants of those systems of thought arrayed in opposition to revelation, than it does to embrace the simple creation account in Genesis.
I have studied Darwin and I have studied Moses. Darwin essentially contends the universe by random processes became a place of life, order, and beauty. Moses said that an intelligent, beneficent and omnipotent power imparted life, directed the movements of nature, and provided a well-ordered and lovely planet. I believe Moses.
Let me tell you something else. Jesus, the central figure of human history, believed Moses too. Were you aware that in his teachings Jesus quoted from all five books of Moses: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy? In doing so, he put his stamp of approval on the authority and historicity of these books.
In his book, “Portraits of Christ in Genesis,” the late Dr. M.R. Dehaan rightly asserts that to undermine the creation account in Genesis is to also undermine Christ. He writes that when the skeptics “try to make us believe the first few chapters of Genesis are mythology and fables, [t]hey are trying underhandedly to make a ‘monkey’ of Jesus Christ himself.”
He also says:
“The word pictures of Christ are etched upon every page of the Scriptures, if we only had the spiritual perception to recognize the outline. At first these references to Christ are vague and indefinite, and can only be recognized as we read the rest of the Scriptures, and then all become clear and plain. We find the first mention of Jesus in the very opening verse of the Bible. The Bible opens with the words, ‘In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth (Gen. 1:1)
“If we read no further than this we would never recognize a reference to Jesus Christ in this verse. But when we go to the New Testament we read in John 1, ‘In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him: and without him was not anything made that was made.’ (Jn. 1:1-3)
“Now all is clear, for the God of creation in Genesis 1 was the same as the Word of God, Jesus Christ, or John 1. That this great Creator, the Word of God, was Jesus Christ is established beyond a shadow of doubt by John 1:14: ‘And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father), full of grace and truth.
“Jesus Christ as the Word of God is the Creator of Heaven and earth…It was by the Word of God all things were created…Paul says in Colossians concerning the Lord Jesus: ‘For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: And he is before all things, and by him all things consist’ (Col. 1:16-17).”
Any theory of our world’s origin that leaves God out as the beginning and our rightful Sovereign isn’t worth consideration. Any life lived without the recognition of Christ as one’s Creator and his rightful potentate isn’t a life that’s spiritually alive, well-ordered, and beautiful.
Have you received Christ? Have you repented of your sins and let him re-create a new you. Invite him into your life as Lord and you’ll be amazed at the way he can make all things new – at the way he can make something out of nothing.