CREATION AND DEVELOPMENT

From beginning to end, the Bible affirms that God is the Creator. This, and not the human condition, is the true starting point for both understanding and caring for the world around us. We discover who we are, and what the world is in relationship to God, rather than the other Way around. Nevertheless, this understanding of God is at odds with the conviction that achieving human happiness is at the heart of the human enterprise, and thus of our environmental relationships. Assertions that belief in the Creator is not primarily an affirmation about humankind come as a big shock to most people, including most Christians. In Christian thinking we understand that we are, firstly, in relationship with God, and then in relationship with creation. This topic will explain the nature of creation, discuss the purpose of creation, describe the unfolding of the creation week and finally analyze the uniqueness of human being created by God.

CREATION

MAIN TEXT: Genesis chapter 1
A biblical theology of Creation is summarized in the four basics of reality contained in Genesis
CREATION I. “In the beginning” -the “when” of creation II. “God” -the “Who” of creation III. “Created” -the “how” of creation IV. “The heavens and the earth” -the “what” of creation
(Hartnett 2007, Klose, F.L. and Dowson, M. 2009).

CREATION: The Creator and creation. God alone had no beginning; he is self-existent and depends on nothing for his continued existence. Everything else in the universe was created by God and for God

THE NATURE OF CREATION: REVELATION FROM GOD

From the very beginning, God crafted a universe that reveals his existence and true nature so that we would know him and worship him. Romans 1:20 asserts, “Since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made” (niv).

THE PURPOSE OF CREATION: DISPLAYING GOD’S GLORY

God made the universe to display his glory. He poured his glory into every atom and complex system, whether in the cosmos or in the ecosphere. As Psalm 19:1 puts it, “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.” (Bradshaw 2008).

All Things Created by Christ and for Christ:

Everything in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, was created by Christ and for Christ: All things were made through [Christ], and without him was not anything made that was made. (John 1:3). He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. (Col. 1:15–16). In some mysterious way God spoke the universe into existence out of nothing, and Christ was the word by which God did this powerful creative speaking (John 1:3). The universe was created for Christ (Col. 1:16), and God appointed Christ “heir of all things” (Heb. 1:2). Genesis 1:1: The Foundation. “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth” (Gen. 1:1).

THIS TEACHES THREE SIGNIFICANT TRUTHS NAMELY:

1) God preexisted the universe. God was there at the beginning and acted to bring everything else about.

2) The universe had a beginning. It is not eternal (as some scientists teach) or cyclical (as some Eastern religions teach).

3) God personally created everything in the universe. Nothing arose by merely impersonal physical forces, as atheistic evolutionists teach. The doctrine of creation is the foundation of everything that follows chronologically and theologically, and redemptive history depends on its truths.

THE UNFOLDING OF CREATION WEEK: GENESIS 1

“The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep” (Gen. 1:2 nasb). The fact that “the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters” gives a first insight into the life-giving role of the Spirit, a role progressively unpacked throughout the Bible. Then God spoke the words of sovereign power: “‘Let there be light,’ and there was light” (Gen 1:3). Here we are introduced to the central force and power of God in the universe: his powerful word. It is by words that God creates and by words he rules over his creation. What is clear is that intrinsic to the first three days of creation was the principle of separation this from: light from darkness, water above from water below, and sea from dry land. God established a seemingly fragile boundary line between the mighty ocean waves and the dry land, as anyone who has visited the beach can testify. He spoke forth the plant life of the earth, the seed-bearing plants of every kind. On the fourth day of creation, God began to spread his glories through the cosmos (Augustine, A 2002).
Though he had created light at the very beginning, now he desired to delegate the responsibility of giving light to the earth to created entities—the sun, the moon, and the stars. All that we know of light today ultimately comes from the sun and other stars, but in the Genesis account the celestial bodies are added later. On the fifth day, God filled the seas with swimming creatures and the skies with flying creatures. On the sixth day, God turned his attention to the dry land and brought forth the beasts of the earth—livestock, wild animals, and creatures that crawl along the earth. The complexity and variety of these species are clear testimonies to the wisdom and goodness of God.

THE CLIMAX OF CREATION: THE IMAGE OF GOD

The fashioning of human beings, male and female, in the image of God: Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness”. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So, God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. (Gen. 1:26–27).

HUMANS ARE UNIQUE BECAUSE GOD CREATED THEM IN HIS IMAGE

There are at least two significant ways in which humanity stands as the image of God: (1) In our nature. We are like God in certain capabilities (ability to think, reason, plan, love, choose, desire, communicate, etc.) and attributes (righteousness, holiness, mercy, compassion, wisdom, and so forth). (Murphy 2006).
(2) In our position in the world. God established humans as the rulers of the earth (Gen. 1:26, 28). God’s creation also establishes the pattern of gender. God created human’s male and female, each equally in his image yet with distinguishable emphases and roles—all by God’s design. God intended for humans to multiply and fill the world with the image of God and that this multiplication be the result of his personal blessing.
As God blesses male and female (i.e., husband and wife, as we learn to call them in Genesis 2), children are born, and the image of God spreads. God’s loving provision for humans and for all animals is laid out at the end of the creation account seed bearing plants and trees for man and green vegetables for the animals. This establishes so beautifully the sovereign providence for ongoing life (Dawkins, R 2006).

CONCLUSION

The cosmos, in all its beauty, wildness, and life -giving bounty, is the work of our personal and loving Creator. Our creating God is prior to and other than creation, yet intimately involved with it, upholding each thing in its freedom, and all things in relationships of intricate complexity.
God is transcendent, while lovingly sustaining each creature; and immanent, while wholly other than creation and not to be confused with it. God the Creator is relational in very nature, revealed as three Persons in One. Likewise, the creation which God intended is a symphony of individual creatures in harmonious relationship. The Creator’s concern is for all creatures. God declares all creation “good” (Gen. 1:31); promises care in a covenant with all creatures (Gen. 9:9-17); delights in creatures which have no human apparent usefulness (Job 39-41); and wills, in Christ, “to reconcile all things to Himself” (Col. 1:20). Men, women, and children, have a unique responsibility to the Creator; at the same time, we are creatures, shaped by the same processes and embedded in the same systems of physical, chemical, and biological interconnections which sustain other creatures. Men, women, and children, created in God’s image, also have a unique responsibility for creation. Our actions should both sustain creation’s fruitfulness and preserve creation’s powerful testimony to its Creator.

FURTHER READING

Augustine, A 2002 (354-430), ‘The Literal Meaning of Genesis, 1.1, 1.29’, in The Works of Saint Augustine: a translation for the 21st century, part I, vol. 13, New City Press, New York.
Burgeson, J., Review of Omphalos by Philip Gosse, Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith 53 (2):127–128, 2001.
Dawkins, R, (2006). The God Delusion, Bantam Press, London.
Hartnett, J., (2007).Starlight, Time and the New Physics , Creation Book Publishers, Atlanta, GA, p. 29.
Murphy, D., (2006). Maintaining respect for biblical teaching, Journal of Creation 20 (2):50–51, 2006.