Introduction

God is the creator

Genesis 1:1 – In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

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Is this verse true or is it false? What you think about this verse reveals what you think of the entire word of God. Why would anybody not believe this verse is true? Because evolutionists have filled the world with the theory of evolution, proclaiming it is no longer a theory, but the truth.

Have you ever been on vacation and gone to a scenic overlook, and there before you (and your children) is a placard that states, ‘The scene before you was produced millions of years ago by … so forth?’ I know I have. Is this really true? Is the world millions of years old? Did God really create the world?

It seems to me that evolution has taken a front seat in our society. As our society has turned father and farther away from God, this is a natural conclusion – that God is not our creator that we just happened to be on this earth by chance.

If you do not believe the first verse of the Bible, you will never believe any other verse of the Bible. If you want to change the first verse of the Bible to suit your own purposes and beliefs, you will change the rest of the Word of God to suit your own purposes and your own beliefs.

I. God has created the heaven and the earth and all that therein is.

A. The word ‘beginning’ means first, or the beginning.

1. If this is truly the beginning, then there was nothing before it as far as humans and this creation are concerned.

a. Genesis 1:1 is not the beginning of God, because God has never had a beginning, nor will he ever have an ending.

b. God is eternal, while the earth and the entire universe is temporary, and material.

2. Job 38:4-7 – God asks Job where he was when God created the foundations of the earth in the beginning when the morning stars sang for joy.

a. Revelation 22:16 – Jesus Christ is the morning star.

b. Indications in Job are that the morning stars (plural) are the angels that God created to praise Him and be His messengers to the earth.

3. Psalm 19:1-3 – If the italics are left out of these verses, it reads: The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handiwork. 2 Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge. 3 no speech nor language, their voice is not heard.

a. All of God’s creation glorifies God and reveals a worldwide flood.

b. Men misread the signs of nature because they are blind to spiritual truths.

4. God created man in His own likeness after His own image.

a. God gave men dominion over this present earth and everything on it

b. God gave men dominion even though he knew man would fall into sin and rebel against Him in everything.

B. Scriptures showing God created everything.

1. Psalm 89:11,12 – Everything belongs to the Lord. He has created the north and the south. The heavens are thine, the earth also is thine: as for the world and the fulness thereof, thou hast founded them. 12 The north and the south thou hast created them: Tabor and Hermon shall rejoice in thy name.

2. Psalms 102:18 – The people that shall be created (future generations) shall praise the Lord. This shall be written for the generation to come: and the people which shall be created shall praise the LORD.

3. Psalms 104:30 – They are created and they praise the name of the Lord. When God hides his face from man, they are troubled, their breath goes away and they die and return to the dust. Thou sendest forth thy spirit, they are created: and thou renewest the face of the earth.

4. Psalms 148:5 – Heaven is created, and all of this creation gives praise to the Lord. The heavens, the sun, the moon, the stars, and all the waters above the heavens. Let them praise the name of the LORD: for he commanded, and they were created.

5. Proverbs 16:4 – The LORD hath made all things for himself: yea, even the wicked for the day of evil.

6. Isaiah 14:24 – The LORD of hosts hath sworn, saying, Surely as I have thought, so shall it come to pass; and as I have purposed, so shall it stand:

7. Isaiah 45:18 – God has created the earth, made it, and established it to be inhabited. Don’t worry about other planets having life on them. For thus saith the LORD that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; he hath established it, he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited: I am the LORD; and there is none else.

8. Isaiah 54:16 – God also creates the waster. Behold, I have created the smith that bloweth the coals in the fire, and that bringeth forth an instrument for his work; and I have created the waster to destroy.

9. Ezekiel 28:13-15 (and beyond) – This is given to the king of Tyrus, but speaks spiritually of Satan, who was blessed in every way, but turned against God, and God found iniquity in him.

10. John 1:3 – All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.

11. Hebrews 1:10 – And, Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the works of thine hands.

12. Revelation 4:11 – Thou art worthy, IO Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.

II. Why did God take six days to create the world?

A. He could have created it immediately if he had wanted to, but he took six literal 24-hour days.

1. Exodus 20:8-11 – God intended to use the seven days of creation as a lesson for humankind.

2. We are supposed to work for six days, then use the seventh day for worship of God.

B. How long is a day?

1. Genesis 1:5 – The evening and the morning was the first day.

2. This is 24 hours long.

III. What about dinosaurs?

A. If there is a gap between Genesis 1:1 and 1:2, then the destruction of that world caused by Satan would not only have destroyed the dinosaurs, it would also have destroyed any evidence that dinosaurs existed.

1. Many do not believe the earth is 6,000 years old.

2. It is possible for a person to believe the earth is millions of years old, yet believe God created the earth.

3. It is impossible for a person to understand the genealogy of the Bible and believe the earth is millions of years old.

B. It is likely there are still dinosaurs on the earth today.

1. China has always been renowned for its dragon stories, and dragons have always been prominent on Chinese pottery, embroidery and carvings.

2. England has its story of St. George, who slew a dragon that lived in a cave.

3. In the tenth century, an Irishman wrote of his encounter with what appears to have been a Stegosaurus.

4. In the 1500s, a European scientific book, Historia Animalium, listed several animals, which to us are dinosaurs, as still alive.

5. A well-known naturalist of the time, Ulysses Aldrovandus, recorded an encounter between a peasant named Baptista and a dragon whose description fits that of the dinosaur Tanystropheus. The encounter was on May 13, 1572 near Bologna in Italy, and the peasant killed the dragon.

6. So the evidence for the existence of dinosaurs during recorded human history is strong.

C. We also have the description of two beasts that could very well have been such great reptilian creatures still existing in Job’s day.

1. The text records that God was showing Job how great He was as Creator, in causing him to observe some of the most powerful creatures he had made.

a. Job 40:15 – Behold now behemoth, which I made with thee; he eateth grass as an ox. 16 Lo now, his strength is in his loins, and his force is in the navel of his belly. 17 He moveth his tail like a cedar: the sinews of his stones are wrapped together. 18 His bones are as strong pieces of brass; his bones are like bars of iron. 19 He is the chief of the ways of God: he that made him can make his sword to approach unto him.

b. In many commentaries, behemoth is said to be an elephant or a hippopotamus.

c. However, this description is unlikely, since behemoth is said to have had a tail like a cedar.

d. Now if there is one thing an elephant’s tiny tail is unlike, it is a cedar tree!

e. The elephant is quickly eliminated as a possibility for this beast.

f. In fact, after reading this passage in Job very carefully, one is hard put to find any living creature to fit the description.

g. The closest that we know could be Brachiosaurus, one of the dinosaurs.

2. Leviathan (Job 41:1) seems also to have been some form of fire-breathing dragon.

a. Job 41:19-21 – Out of his mouth go burning lamps, and sparks of fire leap out. 20 Out of his nostrils goeth smoke, as out of a seething pot or caldron. 21 His breath kindleth coals, and a flame goeth out of his mouth.

b. Most commentaries say this animal is a crocodile, but is very apparently not so.

c. For those who wonder about this, remember that the living bombardier beetle can shoot out super-heated gases in its own defense.

d. Why not leviathan?

IV. Why don’t people believe the Bible account of creation?

A. Ecclesiastes 3:11 – He hath made every thing beautiful in his time: also he hath set the world in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end.

B. Eccl. 7:29 – Lo, this only have I found, that God hath made man upright; but they have sought out many inventions.

1. God made man perfect, but subject to falling.

2. Believers are better off than Adam. We can’t fall.

C. Hebrews 11:3 – Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.

D. If you do not believe there is a creator, you have no need of a Saviour, because there is no such thing as sin.

1. According to I John 3:4, Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.

2. God gave the law, and if there is no creator, there is no God, there is no law, and there is no sin.

3. Therefore, there is no hell, no heaven, nothing.

4. We might as well act like animals because that is all we are.

E. The Biblical account of creation is treated as pure history in the following:

1. Exodus 20:9-11 – We rest on the seventh day because God did.

2. Exodus 31:17 – We keep the Sabbath day of resting because God created the heaven and earth in six days and rested on the Sabbath.

3. Psalms 8 and Psalms 104 declares there is no thought but that God created the heavens and the earth.

4. Matthew 19:4-6 – Christ believed that man was made male and female at the beginning. Note that the Pharisees were questioning divorce because they had forgotten the facts of the creation.

5. II Peter 3:5 – Some folks are willingly ignorant of the fact that God spoke the creation into existence. Therefore they are ignorant of the fact of the soon return of the Lord.

6. Hebrews 4:4 – God resting the seventh day from all His works. So they believed that God created the creation.

F. The Bible states that God made the creation out of nothing.

1. Romans 4:17 – Christ …calleth those things which be not as though they were.

2. Hebrews 11:3 – things that are seen were not made of things which do appear.

3. Psalms 33:6, 9 – Christ made the heavens by his word, by the host of heaven and by the breath of his mouth.

4. Amos 4:13 – The Lord, the God of hosts created all things.

V. Genesis is to be interpreted literally.

A. Some believe Genesis is to be interpreted allegorically.

1. If Genesis is to be interpreted allegorically, why isn’t the rest of the Bible interpreted allegorically.

2. There is no clear scriptural division between that which is allegorical and that which is literal.

3. The Bible is clear concerning that which is allegorical.

a. Revelation 1:1 states, …and he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John.

b. The word ‘signified’ means to give a sign.

c. The prophecies given to Nebuchadnezzar and Belshazzar, and most of the prophets, were clearly allegorical.

B. We believe Genesis is to be interpreted literally, each day being 24 hours long, seven days being one week.

1. Genesis 1:1-5 describes day one.

a. This is the beginning of this universe.

b. The earth was without form and was void.

c. God created light and separated the light from the darkness.

2. Genesis 1:6-8 describes day two.

a. God created a firmament, which divided the waters of the atmosphere.

b. The firmament is called heaven.

3. Genesis 1:9-13 describes day three.

a. God caused the dry land to appear, causing a separation between the seas and the landmass.

b. The earth brought forth grass, herbs, and fruit trees, after his kind.

4. Genesis 1:14-19 describes day four.

a. God created lights in the heaven, which are for divisions, signs, seasons, and measurements.

b. The sun rules the day and the moon rules the night.

5. Genesis 1:20-23 describes day five.

a. The waters bring forth moving creatures, and all sorts of fowl that reproduce after their own kind.

b. God also created great whales on this day.

6. Genesis 1:24-31 describes day six.

a. The earth brings forth cattle, creeping things, and the beasts of the earth after their own kind.

b. God created man after his own likeness and the woman from the rib of Adam.

c. God gave to man the authority to rule over all the creation, giving him full option to do with it as he pleased, withholding only eating from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.

7. Genesis 2:1-4 describes day seven.

a. God rested on this day, not because he was tired, but because he would be an example of how men ought to work six days and rest the seventh day, Exodus 8-11.

b. God said all his creation was very good; not good, but very good.

8. Genesis 2:5-25 gives a fuller description of the creation of Adam and his wife.