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Episode 74 – Genesis Part 5 (Which View of Creation)

 Most Christians agree that the beginning of all things is described in the opening section of the Bible that begins with Genesis 1:1 and end at Gen 2:3. This opening section of the Genesis can be divided into three parts.

 ·        The first two verses stand as a sort of an introduction.

 ·        Chapter 1: 3-31 then begins what is called Day One, and the rest of the chapter covers what is called the six days of Creation.

 ·        Then in Chapter 2: verse 1-3 there is sort of a conclusion.

 Some choose to look at this opening and say these sections form.

 ·        An introduction.

·        Then a description of God’s work of creation.

·        Then a conclusion and a description of the final day.

 What I am going to do in this time is just cover the opening single verse of chapter one of Genesis. Don’t worry the rate at which we go through this book will speed up considerably later. However, there are some critical things we need to discuss in these opening verses. So, Genesis 1: 1 begins by telling us.

 1 In the beginning God.

 The bible starts by saying that, “in the beginning God”. It doesn’t try to prove that statement or give us any theological arguments about God’s pre-existence. It just assumes it.Did you realize the bible never really attempts to prove that God exists? It just starts out taking that as read…. “In the beginning, God”! In fact, it says elsewhere, if you don’t believe that God exists, then you are foolish

 The fool has said in his heart, “There is no God.”

 Is twice quoted in the Psalms in,Psalm 14: 1a and Psalm 53 1.

 The bible just assumes it and says so on more than one occasion. The 1st verse continues;1 In the beginning God…….. created the heavens and the earth. (Gen 1:1)

 There are three radically different interpretations of these opening verses of Genesis Before I explain them let me qualify this by saying Christians across the centuries have held to all of these views. The first I am going to call the traditional view. The traditional view says that these opening verses 1 and 2 are describing the original creation. In other words, the phrases used in verse 2 describe the condition of the earth as when it was first formed in verse 1. So, the long held traditional view says, this is the original creation being described here in these opening two verses. Therefore, when the earth was created it was without form and void. Now that has been the main view for centuries, the long-term view of Christian and Jewish commentators for over 1000’s of years before new ideas where introduced about 300 years ago.

 The second view is the gap theory. The gap theory says that verse 1 is the original creation but that there is a huge gap after verse 1. Then verse 2 describes the re-creation, or the new-creation. So, with the gap theory is there was an original creation, then there was a long gap in which things happens, then there is the re-creation. Some Christian will put evolution in the gap between verses 1 and 2 So, here is what I believe is the lynch-pin of that position. Look again at verse 2, “the earth “was”. (OHP 14) Therefore the word translated “was” kind of drags you back to the traditional view. But if you accept that viewpoint then you have the original creation in verse 1, and then what comes later is described in the verses that follow. It worth pointing out that this view was around long before people latched on to it and tried to put evolution in the gap between day 1 and 2. This viewpoint was at it most popular during the 1840’s and 50’s when in 1844 a famous theologian called Thomas Chambers wrote a paper on it, in an attempt to harmonise scripture as he saw it. Remember Charles Darwin’s Origin of the Species was not even conceived of until 1899. So, many years before anyone had even though of evolution this view was popular among some British Christians. Let me clarify 200 years ago many sincere Christians held the gap theory as way of trying to harmonise scripture with the emergence of what they felt was an emerging scientific view of the universe.

There is a third view and that third view has appeared more recently on the scene. The third view says these opening verses are both describing what they say is the re-creation. In that third view the whole passage is not even mentioning the original creation. They say that a description of the beginning of things was beyond Moses purpose in writing what he wrote. As I said earlier the bible just assumes that God was the beginner of all things, and no one receiving the writing of Moses would have even imagined to think otherwise.

 Me personally I was brought up in the traditional view this was confirmed by the fact that one day, I read the opening verses of Genesis and decided if someone hadn’t come up with these other alternatives, I don’t think I would have ever read that into the text. And if you bear in mind Moses didn’t write the 1st book of the bible for scientists, scholars or even theologians, he just wrote it for ordinary people. So, on that basis, I personally have settled on the traditional view. In the next podcast