Genesis 1:1-3

“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.” – ESV

What a magnificent beginning!

One of the first things to notice when reading this passage, a beautiful picture of the Truth to come, is that we see in these verses the TriUnity of God revealed!

1) We have God (Elohiym), the Father, creating the heavens and the earth

2) We have the Spirit of God hovering over the face of the waters

3) In what I admit is reading into the text, we have the light of the world, who is the Son!

Another thing to notice is the straightforward manner by which creation is presented. It was done by God, not some random force of nature. God alone could have created since God alone is outside of creation…He is eternal by nature and dependent on nothing else to exist. The Bible allows for no other beginning. God created. That’s all there is to it. If you doubt this, reexamine why you say you believe the Bible in any other area!

Not only is creation presented as fact, so is the existence of God. It is our enlightened age that has convinced itself there is no God, Friedrich Nietzche declaring that “God is dead.” He said it, so it must be true. I once saw a bumper sticker showing this quote…right below it was another quote stating “Nietzche is dead.” According to the bumper sticker, this quote was from God! Humorous, yet very true. God does not need our belief to exist, nor is He troubled much by our unbelief…it does not change Him in any way. So God is real. And these first few verses of Scripture declare this truth and set the stage for the rest of the Word…God is Sovereign.

So much more could be said, and has been said by great men of God throughout the ages. I wish to address another thought I have whenever I read through the book of Genesis, and that is the issue of what authority shapes our beliefs, our faith. I first thought of these things when I was a teenager and read commentary by John Morris called “The Genesis Record” (ISBN 9780801060045), a book I highly recommend to everyone.

Morris, as many of you may know, is an unapologetic Creationist and his approach to the book of Genesis is to take it at face value, as it should be taken. I realize that nowadays many Christians are afraid of what others may think of them and so they refuse to admit that they hold to what the Bible actually says about the beginning of all things. Others hide their fear behind a veil of intellectual vanity, raising themselves up as true children of the Enlightenment and scientific reason; thereby setting aside the book of Genesis as a mythical allegory and attempting to reconcile it with the current ideology of the scientific establishment. Unfortunately for these brethren, Genesis says what it does and the only thing accomplished by compromising on the Bible as God’s Word is that Christianity gains further scorn from its enemies. The most dogmatic evolutionists (like Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins) will not embrace a faith that accepts evolution…quite the contrary, they reject it as what it is; a foolish attempt to be accepted by mainstream secular thought.

Ultimately, for those among the brethren who embrace anything other than Biblical creationism, the issue comes down to authority. Which source will you trust? What I mean by this is that if you truly believe the Bible is the Word of God, His revealed Truth to us, then it is no problem to accept the doctrine of creationism, to believe in the concept of God bringing about all of the univers ex nihilio. This is not difficult to accept if we believe God and if we believe in God. If, however, you are willing to believe that some of the Bible might not be true, and your source of authority is the modern scientific establishment, then of course you will reject creationism! How could you not when your authority figures consistently prove it wrong (according to their worldview that is)!

I maintain, unapologetically, that you cannot reject any portion of Scripture as untrue and then turn around and defend any of it as true with the argumeent that you believe it is the Word of God. In other words, once you compromise on one part, you have no basis on which to defend any of it. Try it. Jesus is the Son of God? Says who? The Bible? Well then how can you know the part that teaches this is true and not mythology like the book of Genesis? Again and again, your rejection of Genesis will come back to haunt you at every turn. We come back, as mentioned above, to authority. The Bible is God’s Word. It is true in all that it teaches, whether in Genesis, John, Romans or Revelation. I believe this, but it matters little whether I believe it or not because this truth does not depend on my believing it to make it true. However, because I believe it, and it is my authority in all things, then I believe and trust those scholars and scientists who defend a true biblical worldview; including creationism. These men are highly intelligent men with scientific credentials who work for secular organizations as well as Answers in Genesis and the Institute for Creation Research. When they speak on the issue of creationism I listen to them and I believe them…how could I not when I believe in the Bible?

I am, therefore, not surprised when an unbeliever embraces evolutionary faith. Their choice is logical because their source of authority is not God and the Word He has given us! When a professing Christian, however, rejects creation and embraces evolution…I am shocked. I am saddened. And I view them as my weaker brethren in the faith.