Jan. 1, 2012 - Genesis 1

Ok, quick quiz. What did God create on each day? Do you know offhand?

Honestly, I knew all the basic stuff, and the idea, but I didn’t get everything assigned to the right days. So I guess the question then becomes, is it that important? Does it matter what order stuff was created? Is a “day” during creation like an actual 24 hour day we live by, or were those more like 1,000 year “days?”

One of the things I’m hoping to do as we read through this book is to make an attempt to see how science and God mix. In this case, the obvious question comes up about how evolution fits in with the creation account of Genesis 1. I’ve had people explain to me that a Genesis day is just like one of my days, and there is no way evolution could ever have anything to do with creation. I’ve also been taught the complete opposite: that nobody knows exactly how long those days were, and God could have created everything through the process of evolution.

So, what do you think?

Whatever your opinion, and however you justify it, try to set it aside as best you can, and just read the book. There are countless preachers, teachers, religions, and who knows what else in this world, and most of them have views that are mutually exclusive. Not everyone can be right. I’m going to do my best to dig into the Bible, and uncover truth from this single reliable source, but that definitely just adds me into the picture. Just as I’m encouraging you not to rely on anything you may “know” up to this point, don’t take my word for anything. Read the book. Give me feedback with your own thoughts, and definitely challenge me if you think I’m misinterpreting something. I am not right. The Bible is right. With all that in mind, I invite you to the beginning…

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

Guess what? In the beginning, God was already there. He didn’t start at the beginning, that’s just when he started creating. If you want to mess with your mind, try to figure out how something could have always existed without ever having started. Anyways, this is just one verse and already it’s obvious that this God guy is on a whole different level of existence than you and me.

Now the earth was formless and empty…

Did you catch that? Formless. This is a verse I’ve always just skimmed over. Blah blah, God was there. Some possible definitions of formless are: without form, shapeless, lacking order, having no material existence. The earth wasn’t a sphere. It wasn’t created in any way that we would recognize yet. In science, there’s this idea called the Big Bang Theory. You might have heard about it. The basic thought is that back when the universe was created, all the matter in existence was condensed into this tiny little point, and then it exploded. So my question is, could it have happened that way? Does the earth being “formless and empty” mean that God created this speck of matter, and then blew it up and started shaping stuff out of it?

I don’t know. But it’s interesting to think about, right?

Anyways, whatever shape or level of existence the earth is in, we now get to the “days”(whatever that means) of creation.

Day 1 – Light

At this point, there is nothing to “produce” light. No sun, stars, nothing. It’s just there. This could explain why we can see stars that are 900 zillion light years away. The light came first, it could very well have been created along the entire path from where any particular star would be, to the earth.

Day 2 – Sky

Separates water below from water above. Yes, water above. All the flood water for Noah had to come from somewhere, right? Well, it’s there. Also, while I have no idea what this actually would look like, or where this water actually was, it seems that it could have formed a sort of super-atmosphere or something. This could help explain why all the people used to live so long, but then after the flood, with this protection gone, men began to die much earlier. Again, just an idea to think about.

Day 3 – Land and Vegetation
If the earth didn't have a specific shape or form before this, now it does. The waters are collected together, land is brought forth, and the earth exists. Vegetation is introduced to cover the area, providing food for the rest of creation.

Day 4 – Sun, Moon, Stars

NOT other gods. This is perhaps the single most unique thing about this story. There are all sorts of creation accounts from every religion ever. But almost every story from any ancient religion casts the sun, moon, planets, and stars as gods of some sort. Genesis is very specific, however, that they are nothing more than signs. They mark the passing of time, in the form of seasons, days and years.

At this point, a day now has a definite meaning. And while all 6 days are denoted by “an evening and a morning – the nth day,” it is now firmly established exactly what this means. An evening, and a morning, as marked by the sun and moon, a day.

Day 5 – Sea creatures and birds

Did all life began as little ooze monsters in the water, and then eventually crawl out on land, and so forth? Well if it wanted to, it was a little late. The birds were already there. Also, time’s a little short what with having only one evening and one morning.

Day 6 – Land animals and man

Everything so far (plants, fish, birds, livestock) has all been specifically created “according to their kind.” While it’s unclear exactly how large a “kind” is, it is clear that they were each created separately, and didn’t evolve out of each other. Also, they are contained in separate sea, air, and earth categories. And then we have man. Completely separate. Not just another kind, nothing that even relates to anything else in creation. “Let us make man in our image…”

Out of all creation, the thing we resemble most is the being who never had a beginning. The one who effortlessly gave form to the empty void. The one who created light from nothing. Who brought forth life at his command. This is what we are the most similar to.

And there was evening and there was morning – the sixth day.