As I was looking for a way to stay productive during the COVID-19 epidemic, and to prepare for additional quiet time over the next few months, I decided to spend some extra quality time in the Bible. I ordered a couple of study guides online and one of them touched on the first book of the Bible, Genesis. Now many of us have read the first couple of chapters in the Bible, so I was a bit surprised when I was drawn into the details of creation in more depth as I was looking over each day of creation. Towards the end of the first chapter, my exercise activity from the study guide was to respond to a handful of statements based on my readings in Genesis. They were as follows:
- This world as we know it was formed by chance as new forms of life developed from matter that spontaneously became more complex.
- The sun, moon, and stars influence a person’s destiny.
- God is one with nature.
- The human body is inherently evil.
- Everything and every day are equally sacred as well as ordinary.
- God was lonely, so he created people.
I have to say that I felt confident that I had all the answers already. Then when I considered expressing my point of view to others, my perspective, and my belief along with supporting scriptures, that’s when realized I had some more studying to do. So, I went to work!
I will start with the fact that I believe the Bible, the whole Bible — not parts and pieces, not just the easy parts or good parts. The whole Bible. In my opinion, if I do not trust the whole Bible to be true then I could not trust any of it to be true. I understand at a high level, all the Old Testament prophecy and the extreme probability of the 300+ prophecies not coming to fulfillment. Yet, the fact that every single one of them have been fulfilled up to this point is amazing!!! I also believe the Bible to be true because I personally have experienced a relationship with God and I have seen first hand how God has worked in my life in many ways!
Now, let’s get started with each of the statements in question—-
- This world as we know it was formed by chance as new forms of life developed from matter that spontaneously became more complex.
The bible tells us that all things were created by God. Created means to be made of nothing. When we create a beautiful painting, work of art, or a fabulous new recipe – we are using pre-existing materials. And as much as science would try to influence us to believe that life evolved by itself over time, many scientists have come to realize that though they may not be able to see God’s presence and activity directly evident in the science, they realize that God is the artist of the natural mechanisms that sustain life. Additionally, we must come to realize that no new creation is taking place. Mutations occur but only within a species and do not cross over to another species. More complex does not necessarily mean better either—as frog cells are more complex than human cells I am told! And though matter is constantly changing the trend is deterioration not new creation!
Genesis 1:1 “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth”.
John 1:3 “All things were made through him, and without him nothing was made that was made”.
Colossians 1:16,17 “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. And He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together”.
Hebrews 1:3 “He (Jesus) reflects the brightness of God’s glory and is the exact likeness of God’s own being, sustaining the universe with his powerful word.”
So, no, I do not believe that the world was formed by chance as new forms of life develop from matter that spontaneously became more complex! God created the world and everything in it!
2. The sun, moon, and stars influence a person’s destiny.
Now I must say that this is the question that probably drove me to document my efforts. I am exhausted with the worshipping of the sun, the moon, the stars, and the universe from people I know and people with whom I have relationships! I want to sit people down and talk through it ….but of course we all need to be politically correct these days and that would not be socially acceptable in most situations and in today’s environment. We can continue to find ways to share God’s word so that it can reach others and pray that they accept and receive the wisdom of God.
Ok, back to the question. The bible not only tells us that God created these heavenly bodies and named them, but it also tell us the purpose in which they were created. Don’t you think that if they were designed to influence our destiny, that God would certainly have told us?
Genesis 1:14, 15 “God said, ‘I command lights to appear in the sky and to separate day from night and to show the time for seasons….I command them to shine on the earth”.
Deuteronomy 30:19 “I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the Lord your God”.
Genesis 1:14-19 And God said, “Let there be lights in the vault of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark sacred times, and days and years, and let them be lights in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth.” And it was so. God made two great lights-the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars. God set them in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth, to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening, and there was morning-the fourth day”.
When we worship the sun, moon, and stars and do not acknowledge God who created them, It angers him. This is called worshipping idols in the Bible. God is a loving, merciful, and a just God. When we worship other things like people, money, possessions, or power for a few examples, we are worshipping idols too.
Galatians 6:7 “Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction: whoever sows to please the Spirt, from the Spirit will reap eternal life”.
The Bible says that what we need to learn, to train us in righteousness and good works, is the Bible itself!
2 Timothy 3: 16,17 tells us that “All scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”
So again, no. I do not believe that the sun, moon, or stars influence a person’s destiny! Turning to the Bible is the most optimal focus to impact our own destiny! As the Bible is sufficient to teach us all that God intended!
3. God is one with nature.
The Bible tells us that God created nature, not that he is one with nature! This included the sky, dry land, water and the sea, vegetation, seed bearing plants and trees that bear fruit. And that through God’s creation of nature we can see God’s invisible qualities!
Genesis 1:9-12 “And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so. And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good. And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so. And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good.“
Romans 1:20 “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 people are without excuse.”
Psalm 19: 1,2 “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge.“
Nature itself attests God’s existence. Nature is not identical to God–but rather that God communicates and reveals himself through nature that us humans may not otherwise know.
Like his attention to detail and his imagination that we can see in the intricate beauty of all creation. Just take a walk in a garden. The flowers with so many different colors, shapes, and kinds! I saw a beautiful dragonfly a few weeks ago that was just breathtaking! Take a look at this detail! Wow!
What about the beauty of the sunrise, the sunset, and the clouds? The beauty of the moon, the stars, and the night sky? You can see God’s love and kindness in creating such glorious beauty for all to see and enjoy!
The diligence and consistency in which God sustains life through the placement of the sun, the rotation of the earth to provide the warmth we need –yet not too much to burn everything up!
These “messages” that are delivered to us day in and day out leave us without excuse. Mankind suppresses the truth of God every single day in the choices we make, the way we live our lives, the way we do not acknowledge or give thanks and praise for every single blessing we have in our lives!
James 1:17 “Every good and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows”.
Next time your eyes look upon a marvelous sight, offer a prayer of thanks to our Creator!
I believe that God created and sustains nature. God is not one with nature! And that we can learn so much about God through nature!
4. The human body is inherently evil.
We need to stop for a moment to just consider the fact that God made us in his image and that God breathed into us His breath of life! We were infused with the most significant and magnificent substances. We were created beautifully and in the image of God! This means that we have a spirit and that we are eternal beings just like God! Just let that sink in!
Ecclesiastes 3:11 “He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart!”
In the whole of Genesis 1, God uses the word “Good” seven times and on the last day it was “Very Good”. When God created, formed, and filled the world he stepped back to look and evaluate his work. God deemed it all “Very Good”! God is Good! The world was created Good. I was created Good! You were created Good! It was not until the fall of man when Adam and Eve sinned when the image of God in them became distorted. God also, through Jesus Christ, provides a remedy to resolve the implications of the fall which restores our relationship with God when we trust in him and acknowledge Jesus as our Lord and Savior! ***I will cover that in more detail in the last portion of the article below.
Genesis 1: 31 “And it was so. And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good.”
The human body was created GOOD! The human body is not inherently evil.
5. Everything and every day are equally sacred as well as ordinary.
The bible tells us that this is not truth. After God finished creating, he gave us an example of the blessing of rest. He set a pattern that man would enjoy and rest in our Creator. It signified the completion of the creating work that was done. We remain on a seven-day cycle because God is on a seven-day cycle. God then blessed the seventh day and made it sacred.
Genesis 2:2,3 “By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done”.
We also learn in Colossians that there is no room for judgment or legalism with a life that is centered on Jesus. The focus needs to be on Jesus not practicing a perceived religious requirement!
Colossians 2:16, 20 “Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath Day! Since you died with Christ to the elemental spiritual forces of this world, why, as though you still belonged to the world, do you submit to its rules”.
So, no; everything and every day are not equally sacred.
6. God was lonely, so he created people
We were created in God’s image that we might be God’s representatives in his creation to do exactly what he had done. We were created in his image to work, to fill the earth by being fruitful and to multiply, and by bringing order to creation by cultivating the earth and exercising dominion over every living thing on earth!
Just like God filled the earth through creation and brought order to it! We must understand that we were not the main focus in creation but rather it is the glory of God which is at the heart of creation. We were created to glorify our creator and enjoy him forever.
Genesis 1:28-31 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. And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.”
The bible clearly tells us why we were created and does not say that God was lonely.
7. What makes a person good is how he or she treats the people and the world around him or her.
This is the most important question in this entire article. I hear many people shut down the discussion regarding a relationship with God or knowing and needing Jesus with a statement that they are good people. They say they do not need Jesus. They say that they are kind, they treat people right, they give to the needy, they do not cuss, they do not drink, they do not steal, they have never killed anyone, and on and on! Those are wonderful behaviors, but they also do not qualify to make a person good by God’s righteous and just standards…they do not make a person righteous or blameless in God’s sight. These are current earthly human standards. Being righteous and blameless in God’s sight is what really matters considering that we were created with eternity in our hearts and we will live in eternity somewhere forever. We have a choice to make because God created us with free will. Do we need a personal relationship with God? Do we need Jesus or not? How will this decision or lack of a decision impact each of us? Let us find out.
Now we have already covered that each of us was created good. Then I mentioned “the fall” when Adam and Eve sinned in the garden–***(Genesis 3). God created us with the ability to make choices – they executed their choice of free will! Adam and Eve made a choice to disobey God. The result was that the image of God in them became distorted but was not lost completely. And the scriptures tell us that their relationship with God was destroyed. Because God is a righteous and just God. The same as when you and I get angry when we see injustice in the world today. God gets angry when he sees injustice!
Through this sinful choice of Adam, all of humanity has ‘inherited’ our sinful nature through our bloodline…. from Adam! The good news is that all of humanity can progressively grow in our likeness of God through redemption in Christ Jesus and be reconciled to God once and for all eternity.
The scriptures tell us that we are all sinners through Adam and that our relationship with God has been disrupted and broken!
Romans 5:12 “Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way, death came to all people, because all sinned”.
Romans 3:23 “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”
Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord”.
You see God has been holding back his wrath for all the sin and sinners in this world. He has been mercifully waiting for humanity to recognize and acknowledge our glorious creator, savior, and redeemer.
One must understand that:
- We are eternal beings
- We have all sinned
- We were created with free will and need to make a choice. With God or without God for eternity
- Being a good person with today’s human standards does not make a person good in God’s eyes
So, no, the way we treat others does not make a person good! What makes a person good is to be reconciled to God through His only son Jesus Christ who paid the cost for our sins on the cross. This justice satisfies the wrath of God for our sins. But we must make the choice.
John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life”.
Romans 5:8 “But God demonstrates his own love for us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us”.
John 3:3 “Jesus replied, ‘Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again’”.
John 14:6 “Jesus answered, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No man comes to the Father except through me’.
You can make that choice right now if you have not yet done that! Thank Jesus for paying the penalty for your sin and ask him to be your Lord and Savior. The amazing thing is that when you do this, God will hear you and draw you near to him. Your relationship with God will be reconciled forever! For eternity! Your new life starts right away!
Romans 10:10 “If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith”.
2 Corinthians 6:15 “And he died for all, that those who no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again”.
Revelations 3:20 “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me”.
2 Corinthians 3:16-18 “But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.
God will also work in your life and the Holy Spirit will show you the way as promised…..Pick up your bible and start reading it. God teaches us through his word, the Bible!
John 14:26 “But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you”.
Thank you for reading my article!
“May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all”. 2 Corinthians 13:14
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