A View from the Ground up

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.” (Genesis 1:1-2 ESV)

God created, ex nihilo, out of nothing. There was nothing, get it. So, the next time the big bang argument comes up, ask what exploded. If there was nothing, and then a big bang, something exploded. You cannot get something from nothing except in the creation model. If there was a speck that grew and grew and exploded, where did the speck come from? If the answer is matter, then where did the matter come from if there was nothing? This idea of creation without God is a modern scientific worldview; the world denies the creation account, and scary enough, so do many Christians without even thinking about it. If you hold a biblical worldview, you cannot reconcile yourself with this idea. All through the Bible, acknowledgment of God’s creation has been written. Just look at Psalms 103:15, 115:15, 8:1, and 24:8. How about Hebrews 11:3? It is God who created it.

Some think the world is eternal. We know differently; it is finite, just as we are finite. The world had a beginning and will have an end. Some think God is in everything. His Spirit or DNA resides in rocks, trees, and even water; this is panentheism. This idea does not work either. Creation tells us God created man with faculties not found anywhere else in creation. It is the only man whom God breathed His Spirit into. We do not worship creation; we respect it.

The denial of creation by God denies more than you realize. A worldview erases many Christian doctrines. Creation establishes our view of God, man, truth, and ethics. The first eleven chapters of Genesis have been under fire since science deemed Darwin’s theory as fact and published it for the world. Denying the first eleven chapters of Genesis destroys the doctrine of God, the doctrine of the Trinity, and the doctrine of creation; there lies our cosmology, our anthropology, our doctrine of man. Gone are our aesthetics, ethics, the necessity for work, the fall, and the nature of sin. If we say we are wrong about the nature of sin, it becomes much more profound. We are saying that Peter and Paul were wrong about the nature of sin; worse yet, so was Christ. We lose the foundations of redemption and atonement, marriage, and family. There would be no doctrine on human sexuality, the flood, and God’s wrath on sin. We lose the doctrines of worship, the Sabbath, the idea of nations and languages, ethnicities, and the sanctity of human life. All gone when we deny just the first eleven chapters of Genesis.

Many Christians will say that the first eleven chapters of Genesis are a story, not truth and history. They deny it because it causes a disparity in their worldview. Their worldview is not one hundred percent biblical, or they still want to fit in with those who have a non-biblical worldview. But we are called out to be different. Peter wrote, “But in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect.” (1 Peter 3:15 ESV) We are not to compromise on God. Moses wrote in Exodus 34:12–16, “Take care, lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land to which you go, lest it become a snare in your midst. You shall tear down their altars and break their pillars and cut down their Asherim (for you shall worship no other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God), lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and when they whore after their gods and sacrifice to their gods and you are invited, you eat of his sacrifice,  and you take of their daughters for your sons, and their daughters whore after their gods and make your sons whore after their gods.” God is God; He is omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, and eternal, and He has never changed and will never.  

Our worldview essentially defines who we are in this world and what we believe. Is yours a biblical worldview? Do you think the Bible is the given word of God? Do you believe the word of God is inerrant? You may not have realized the complexity of the worldview and how it can impact your Christianity. Once you compromise, you will never stop.

Be the salt and the light; proclaim the Gospel when difficult. When you compromise on scripture, you are compromising God. He died for you. He chose not to compromise but to lay down His life for you. Shouldn’t you be willing to do the same?

Peace and Grace!