THE DOCTRINE OF CREATION

During the Sunday service, Pastor (Mrs) Silvia Lia Leigh preached from the Book of Genesis chapter one. She said that we shall go and revisit the beginning of creation. The way Isaac dug Abraham’s well, we want to dig our Heavenly Father’s well of eternal life! The Bible starts with four simple words: “In the beginning God…”. The Bible takes it for granted that God exists and God is the creator of everything that is created. You cannot read the Bible without faith. You must believe these words. If not, to you, the Bible looks like a foolish book. The doctrine of creation states that creation is a miracle. God, who alone is uncreated and eternal, has formed and given existence to everything outside of Himself. He did this from nothing by the word of His power, and all of it was very good. The first four words of the Bible are these: “In the beginning God”. These words place immediate emphasis upon God. They tell us from the very beginning, even before anything else in the universe existed, that God already was. Nothing brought God into being. Nothing gave Him existence. He was around long before anything else was. He was around long before there was even such a thing as time itself. God is above time. God created time. Though God is eternal and above time, He acts in our time with perfect precision. God is never too early and never too late. God’s time is the best. “He makes everything beautiful in His time” (Ecc 3:11).

The Doctrine of creation divides all men into two groups: Some believe it and the others do not! The unbelievers do not believe in God as Elohim, the Creator. They believe that the universe evolved from something else. The Darwin theory of evolution has done much damage to many people. It says that nature started with nothing and evolved into something. Darwin did not believe that God is a Person who designed and created the universe. For example, it says that a monkey, thru a process of evolution, became a man. It gives the impression that things change by themselves, always for better; that they improve on their own, without God, without a Designer and a Creator. There is no scientific proof to believe the theory of evolution. A theory is defined as a formal statement of ideas that are suggested to explain a fact or an event. It is an opinion, or an explanation made by men. This theory of evolution is a deceptive imagination. It is a lie, but many people believed it. It takes faith to believe in an invisible Creator. That faith is a gift from the same Creator. God has total authority over His Creation because He Created it. God is the Beginning and the End of all things. Faith alone receives and understands that and rises to worship God! “By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible” (Heb 11:3). Faith is believing God, that God exists. But it is even more than that. Faith ‘understands’ God! Only biblical faith ‘understands’ spiritual things even when it does not see them. God is pleased and rewards the faith that believes He exists, as the Creator of the universe. “But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him” (Heb 11:6). This scripture speaks blessings upon those who believe the Doctrine of Creation! May you believe it! Amen!

We are told that the earth was “without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep”. In Hebrew, the words ‘without form and void’ are Ttohu -Va- Bohu”. They mean “waste and empty”; like a desert where life cannot exist. The sound of the words magnifies this picture of emptiness. God spoke light amid the darkness. Light is movement, action. Light is an electromagnetic wave seen by the human eye. Darkness is dead. Darkness does not move. Darkness is the absence of light. The Word of God creates light, a movement called life! It gives form to that which was without form. It gives life and meaning to that which was void. The Word of God goes forth in power and cannot come back ‘void’. “For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven, And do not return there, But water the earth, And make it bring forth and bud, That it may give seed to the Sower and bread to the Eater, So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void, But it shall accomplish what I please, And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it” (Is 55:10, 11). As you can see, the Word of God always produces results. It never loses its power to form and create. It accomplishes the will of God! Always! God does not speak careless, barren words. Never! You can see here the power of God! You can see the power of the Word of God!As we are praying for revival, we observe that each time there is a spiritual emptiness, a religious wilderness, it is something similar with “Tohu-Va-Bohu”. In Nigerian’ slang we say “Jaga- jaga”.

There are many problems in Nigeria: corruption in the government offices, the schools go on strike, the hospitals are substandard. Many tend to become disappointed and hopeless. But from this Book of Genesis, we see that the first thing God does when there is emptiness and hopelessness is to bring His Spirit closer to it. The Spirit of God starts to move upon the darkness. Even before God the Father speaks the Word of Creation, The Holy Spirit (Ruach Elohim) hovers over the chaos. The Spirit of God, broods over the dark deep waters. To brood describes a bird sitting on her eggs until the chicks are born. It also describes the mother bird coming to her chicks, to feed them, to protect them. It is the sound of the helicopter ready to land. To brood it means to anxiously and silently think about someone, trying to help him. True love broods. We are praying for revival. Each time God wants to do a new thing on earth, His Spirit starts to hover over a people, over a church. You can almost hear the fluttering of the mother eagle’ wings, over her eggs, covering them until they are born. As it was in the beginning, so it is now… The first two chapters of Genesis are important because they describe the earth and the creation before the fall of man. But this becomes a problem for the preacher. We are preaching the Gospel of Christ Crucified and Resurrected. Where is Christ in these two chapters? We know Christ as Savior. But without sin, there is no need for a Savior. We need the revelation of Christ in a world without sin. We need to see Christ as the Creator of all things. God the Father and God the Son created all things for their pleasure and glory! “All things were created through Him and for Him” (Col 1:13-16).

In Genesis 1 and 2, there is no sin. There is no promise of grace or salvation. It is like we do not need Christ. It is not easy to preach the Gospel from the first two chapters of Genesis. The Trinity created the world. We should see Christ preparing the stage for one purpose only: to reveal the Gospel. The Father created the world thru the hands of the Son! God knew that man would fall. The plan of salvation was done before the creation. Christ was slain before the foundation of the world. “All who dwell on the earth will worship him, whose names have not been written in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world” (Rev 13:8). We are redeemed “with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. He indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world but, was manifest in these last times for you who through Him believe in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God” (1 Pet 1:19-21). Here you see the Sovereignty of God! He knows the end from the beginning! Halleluiah! The Trinity agreed on the Plan of Redemption even before Creation. Read Genesis 1 and 2 having Redemption in mind. The Redeemer creates the stage for His Redemption. He is the director of the drama. He puts the props and the lights in their places. The world is the stage for the Cross! It is a mistake to think that man fell, and God was surprised by it! Christ created man in the image of God. Why did God create the world as it is? It was for Jesus! It was for the display of His love at the Cross! God made water! Why? So that He can say: “I am the water of life”. Why did He make the birds? So that He can say: “look at the birds…”. He made the trees. What was in His mind? To make the wooden Cross. He made the iron in the ground. Why? To make the nails, to crucify Him. In Creation, God was looking ahead, preparing for the amazing salvation! The stage is set for the Redemption story. See The Trinity behind it all. Then you can bow and call Him Holy! Worship the Lord!