Stories of the Bible, Podcast 2, “The Creation Pt 1.”
Whenever we open the Holy Bible, we come face to face with its succinctness. This is nowhere better illustrated than in the first sentence of the first verse of Genesis.
Genesis 1:1
“In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.”
The word ‘Genesis’ means origin, beginning, birth, or creation.’ What does ‘in the beginning mean’? Scientists have been wrestling with that for ages. How large is heaven? What is the age of the universe? What is the age of the earth? We learn early that the Bible is not concerned with that. We must take the Bible on its own terms.
We learned from the previous podcast that everything was created first spiritually and then temporally. Before coming to the earth, we were (and still are and always will be) spirit children of God made in the image of God. We are all brothers and sisters. Our identity does not begin on earth. Who knows how long we lived in heaven before the earth was created? That is a question that only God can answer? As said in the previous podcast, as spirits we were very excited to come to earth to get a physical body.
Job 38:4-7
“Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast understanding. Who hath laid the measures thereof, if thou knowest? or who hath stretched the line upon it? Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? or who laid the corner stone thereof; When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?
Earth has an entirely different set of laws than heaven. We call the laws that govern earth temporal laws. We distinguish among the following laws: Laws of Nature, Laws of God, and Laws of Man.
Mortality means that we are now subject to death. Death did not exist in heaven. There were no mortal laws or laws dealing with death. On earth scientists use the word ‘entropy,’ meaning we move from order to disorder, life to death. It deals with randomness and decay, a new experience for an immortal spirit. We have both an immortal spirit body and a mortal physical body, one is the image of the other. The Holy Bible does not address the laws of thermodynamics. The Bible primarily addresses men and women’s relationship to God. It is interested in the spiritual over the temporal. Earth life changes the dynamics of our relationship to God. A physical body is both a blessing and a burden. It is a blessing because it gives us more freedom, agency, liberty, and freewill. It is a burden because we are subject to greater temptations. For example, it pits the natural man against the spiritual man. The Bible focuses on how we should conduct ourselves in a mortal world.
It is up to mankind to figure out the physical science of things, a subject that some of the greatest minds in the world have devoted their lives to. Though by necessity there will be overlap, we do not generally look to scripture to advance natural science. God is perfectly comfortable using the term ‘in the beginning.’ Through Radiometric Dating, Meteorite Dating, and Moon Rock Dating scientists have come up with the idea that earth is 4.54 billion years old and the cosmos is 13.8 billion years old.
Does that contradict Genesis? No. It is fruitless to quibble about what a day means. Time is a mortal matter only. We measure a day by the spinning of the earth, a month by the revolution of the moon around the earth, and a year by the revolution of the earth around the sun. Change any of those and time changes. Even that would mean nothing if it were not for entropy, from things moving from order to disorder. Entropy gives time its arrow. Scientists also tell us that time is related to the speed of light.
