Genesis - 2
How the Earth Began (Part 1)
In our first talk on the Book of Genesis we thought about beginnings and roots. Now we need to think about one of the greatest mysteries that has occupied the minds of brilliant scientists for centuries, namely, “How did the earth begin?”
As we begin to discover this book of “beginnings”, it is right that we start just where we are. Beneath our feet is this globe or sphere we call “Earth”. It measures almost thirteen thousand kilometres across and weighs many millions of tonnes. In spite of its size and weight, it spins on its axis at sixteen hundred kilometres an hour at the equator, giving us hours of sunlight followed by the darkness of night. The earth travels through space on its orbit around the sun at one hundred and seven thousand two hundred kilometres per hour, covering many thousands of kilometres in a year. I suppose you could say that each one of us is a space traveller aboard the spaceship Earth!
The book of Genesis, the first in the Bible, opens up with this majestic yet simple statement: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth”. Within the sweep of that one sentence we have the beginning of time and space as we know them. Before that beginning all that we see around us and above us did not exist. In the New Testament letter to the Hebrews, chapter 11 verse 3 it says: “By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what is visible”.
In other words, the universe, all physical matter, is not eternal, it had a beginning, and with this the scientists agree. Stores of energy in the world and in our sun are diminishing all the time, because energy given off may change its form, but it never gets replaced. So, how long ago did it all begin? Scientists have many different timescales, but they are not certain about any of them. Genesis simply states “In the beginning”, and that verse in Hebrews, that I referred to just now, records that mighty act of God in bringing the worlds into being out of nothing.
Can we learn anything about this God who has made everything. Can we understand in some way how He did it?
The Bible record is simple and straightforward in its description of creation. After all, even the greatest minds in science only understand the merest fraction of all that is going on in the physical world. Because of the laws he himself discovered, Albert Einstein, one of the greatest scientists of the twentieth century, concluded that a divine, mathematical mind was behind creation. Genesis chapter one does not give us the mechanics of creation. After all, we wouldn’t be able to understand all the complexities of the physics, chemistry, biochemistry, biology, botany or zoology even if we had it in front of us. We are simply told that it was God who created everything.
So what do we learn about this mighty God who made all things? In the Bible we have the fullest written picture available to us. In the Bible we also see Jesus Christ, God’s Son. He is the perfect revelation of God’s character and being.
He is also the one who came to give his life for the sins of the world.
It may be that you have never read the Bible, so let’s look into the book of Genesis and see what we can discover together. The first thing we learn is that God is a person. He is not a “thing”, not some indefinable force or influence or cosmic energy. Ten times in Genesis chapter one we read, “And God said…” He is the God who speaks. He is a personal God who communicates.
In verse 26 we read that God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness”. Here we begin to see the teaching of Scripture that although God is one being, He reveals Himself to us in three distinct yet not separate personalities. With our limited minds this is something that is difficult for us to understand. The Bible speaks of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, the one God seen in different aspects of his being.
Some people charge Christians with believing in three Gods, but this is not so. The Bible clearly teaches us that “The Lord your God is ONE”, and this is what we believe and teach. For example, in the second verse of Genesis we read that, “The Spirit of God was hovering over the waters”. In the New Testament, in the first chapter of John’s Gospel, we read: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made, without him nothing was made that has been made.” These verses go on to say, “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.” This is speaking about the Lord Jesus Christ, telling us that the One who made all things became a man and lived among us. So you can see how the one Godhead, God, The Word, who came into the world as the man Christ Jesus, and the Holy Spirit, were involved in creation.
We can further learn something of the wisdom, power and greatness of God when we consider all He has made. In verse three of this opening chapter of Genesis we read that God created light. Without light everything is darkness, nothing can be seen. God created a water vapour canopy above the earth that produced a balanced temperate climate across the world. That is why evidence of sub-tropical vegetation is found in the rocks of Antarctica. It is that vapour canopy that seems to have broken up and deluged the earth at the time of the universal flood in Noah’s time and brought about a change in climate.
Genesis chapter one goes on to speak about the creation of the plants and trees, and who cannot but be amazed at the wonderful variety of species and colours that abound in our world? In verses fourteen to eighteen God sets the heavenly bodies in place. As we look up to the heavens the stars still fascinate us, just as they have for centuries. Radio telescopes and the Hubble space telescope are revealing more and more staggering information about the breathtaking distances involved and the immensity of it all.
Have you ever considered how wonderful is the positioning of the sun in relation to our world? Giving just the right amount of heat for warmth, growth and health, if it were slightly nearer everything would be scorched; further away and we would be frozen! That perfect distance is a miracle in itself and evidence of a creator’s mind. Likewise the moon, with its beauty in the night sky. Its regular changes influencing our tides and our calendars should cause us to marvel at its exact location in space.
I’ll be looking further into God’s work of creation in our next “Discovery” programme. However it may be that even now you find it difficult to imagine the power that created such a wonderful universe. We have finite and limited minds that cannot understand an eternal, all powerful God who by his word alone brought every created thing into being. We must not limit God by our own understanding of things for He is unlimited in his power and wisdom. Sadly, many today are trying to explain creation by denying the great Creator. Paul has this to say about this in Romans chapter one verses eighteen to twenty:
“The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what be made known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For 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, so that men are without excuse.”
This great and mighty God can be known personally. He has promised to reveal Himself to all who will turn from their sins and place their faith in his Son, Jesus Christ. If you will do this you will experience the love and forgiveness of God who made all things and who made you.