With such luminaries as Augustine and Calvin unable to agree on whether the creation story is allegory or should be interpreted in a strictly literal sense, where does that leave us lesser souls? No matter how you interpret the story, God tells us wonderful and important things about Himself in the first chapter of Genesis.
Creator God. One thing that we all Christians can agree upon and is that God created it all. Unlike the creation myths of the Egyptians and the Mesopotamians, Genesis tells us that God created the universe out of nothing. The first words of the Bible make this clear: "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth." This most fundamental of facts is the millstone around the neck of naturalism and atheism. Without God, they have no rational answer for the question of where everything came from. I suggest that if you are going to debate a naturalist or an atheist, don't waste you time with evolution, go right to the heart of the matter. Where did it all come from without God to create it?
God is Not Limited by the Instruments He Chooses to Use. Have you ever noticed that while day and night were created by God on day 1 of the creation story, the sun is not created until day 4? Also, God created the plants on day 3 before the sun. How could you have day and night and plants without the sun? The simple answer is that God does not need the sun to have day and night. He does not need the sun to make plants grow. He may use the sun to do such things, but he does not need it. So what does that mean to me and to you? It means that the God who promised to take care of us does not need the instruments that we think He needs in order to do that. If you think God needs you to have money in the bank or a good job in order to provide for you, you are mistaken. He does not need those instruments of care any more than he needed the sun. In these uncertain economic times, it is good to know that God can take care of us even if we don't have the things that we think are necessary.
God Sustains All Things. Like the previous point, this one is based on the fact that day and night and the plants proceeded the sun. Calvin argued that God performed creation in this order so that we would know that it was Him, and not the sun that really makes the plants grow. Like the plants, it is God that sustains us in all things. We may believe that we are responsible for taking care of our families and children. Of course, we are supposed to work and to strive to do so, but ultimately, we can only trust and rely upon God, and not our own efforts, for sustenance.
Battles about the proper interpretation of Genesis chapter 1 seem to distract us from the meaningful truths about God that are there for our edification. At the end of time, we will all know the truth about how God created it all, in the meantime, let's focus on what is truly important instead.
1 comment:
Marvelous stuff!
The anti-Babylonian context of Genesis 1 brings your first point into brilliant contrast. Not only are the sun and moon not gods, they are demoted to mere timekeepers and adornments for God's creation, with the stars tacked on almost as an afterthought.
How much this transforms our thinking about the world! We are not subject to the world, but it is God's good gift, some of it simply for decoration. Some things are just fun, and not everything needs to have a purpose.
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