Before Creation: What Do We Know?

What was God doing before creation? Our limited human minds have great difficulty making sense of God’s existence before the world was created, but the Bible does give us some hints about what took place before creation week.

Trinity

The Biblical account provides limited information about what took place before the creation of the world, but what it does make clear is that while God was alone before he created the earth, he was still the Triune God that we have come to know through the New Testament. John tells us that:

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.” (1:1-3)

From this we know that Jesus existed with God from before the creation of the earth. In John, Jesus’ own words reveal the relationship that existed between the Father and the Son, before creation:

“And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.” (17:5)

Colossians confirms this when it writes that Jesus was present at the creation of the world:

“For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him”

Titus also states that eternal life through Christ was “promised before the beginning of time.” (1:2)

Scripture also indicates that the Holy Spirit was present with God before creation. Genesis opens by telling us that:

“…the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.”

Before the creation of the world, God existed in three distinct persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. God did not dwell alone before the beginning of time, but existed within his Trinitarian nature, completely satisfied by the perfection of himself. We know from passages such as Ephesians 1:4-5 that even before creation, the trinity had a redemptive plan for the human race:

“For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will“

John also discloses the loving relationship of the trinity before creation, when Jesus appeals to his father,

“…you loved me before the creation of the world.”

The trinity dwelt in perfect community before creation, existing in perfect love and unity: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Angels

While we know very little about what happened before the first day of creation, the Bible does tell us something about a major event which took place in heaven, before the creation of the earth – God created the angels.

Because scripture largely focuses on the history of the earth and humanity, we do not know exactly what day the angels were created but we know from Job that the angels were witnesses to the creation of the earth:

“…when I laid the foundation of the earth…the morning stars sang together and all the heavenly beings shouted for joy” (38:4-7)

This passage indicates that the creation of the angels must have preceded creation week. We also know that the amount created was large in number, making their creation a significant event. Passages such as Nehemiah 9:6 indicate that God created a multitude of angels before the creation of the earth and Hebrew states that the number of angels totals “thousands upon thousands” (12:22).

Time

God does not exist within time in the same way that we do. Because God is the creator of time, there was no space or time before creation. Time was not a reality, and had no meaning for the trinity. For this reason, there is no way to understand ‘what happened’ or ‘what God was doing’ before creation, as both the universe and time had not yet come into being. God has always existed, “from everlasting to everlasting,” (Psalm 90:2) so questions such as these are meaningless.

When we think of ‘before creation’, we do so in a way that resonates with us: with our understanding of time. However, time is a created entity, created on the first day of creation week. This means that time was meaningless before this, so we cannot ask questions of God’s existence in relation to time. God’s experience of time is very different to ours, so even if we could go back and see the existence of the triune God, or the existence of the angels prior to creation week, it would make little sense to us. Our experience of time is linear, so we see the time before creation as a set number of years. We try to picture ‘ before creation and imagine God sitting idly for a number of years. This is not an appropriate way to understand God’s activity before creation – God was not bound to time because it had not been brought about yet. God exists within timelessness, not within time.

God’s existence is also outside of the history of the universe, which is what we see in the Bible. History, for us, began at Genesis 1:1. Our finite minds cannot understand anything outside of our own history, but that’s exactly what God is – an existing person, outside the framework of history. Before this history began, there was simply eternity. There was no moment prior to the creation of the universe – time began at creation.

(To read more about God’s experience of time, read “Does God Exist Within Time?)

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The Bible: From Creation to New Creation

Though the Bible is filled with many different books and authors, it tells a cohesive story about the history of the world, functioning within God’s holistic and redemptive purpose – from creation, to new creation. God’s creative activity unfolds throughout scripture, providing a meta narrative that reveals our God and his plan for the entire created order.

The Bible begins and ends with creation, and ultimately uses creation as a way of reflecting on the nature of God, of humanity and of His plan for the cosmos. Scripture affirms that God has been intimately bonded to creation from before the creation of the world, in the now, and through to the ‘not yet’.

Original Creation

One of the most well-known stories in the Bible is the seven day creation of the world seen in Genesis 1. This chapter reveals the creative process and creative nature of God, and sets the foundation for creation as a theme throughout the Old and New Testaments.

Through God’s creative activity, we learn that our God is a God who is actively present within his creation, and who continues to care for and sustain this creation throughout history.

Genesis 2 outlines the creation of the first man and woman, and once again reveals a God who is deeply connected to the earth, so much so that he breathes his own breath into Adam as part of his creative process.

When we come to Genesis 3 we see that all is not well within creation. Though God is seen to be walking with Adam and Eve in the garden, they have forgotten God’s creative generosity and have taken it for granted. In eating from the tree, Adam and Eve set off a chain of events which not only affects their own existence, but unravels the very fabric of the created order. This unravelling will continue to deteriorate until God takes action in Genesis 6.

The Flood

By Genesis 6, the created order has declined into a state of irreparable disrepair, and God feels compelled to take matters into his own hands. Scripture describes God’s grief and regret at having created, and his plans to flood all of creation and remake it through Noah.

In carrying out His plans, God is returning the earth to its pre-creation state of watery chaos that preceded his six day creation process – he is carrying out a systematic reversal of his own creation. This ‘de-creation’ is done by destroying everything in the order that it was created;

The windows of heaven are opened, and the fountains of the deep are released. This parallels Genesis 1 where God separated the water from the land
Noah’s ark is seen as floating on the face of the waters, an echo to God’s spirit which hovers over the face of the waters
Land animals, birds and sea creatures are destroyed
Humans are destroyed
God manifests a wind to blow over the waters, alluding to the breath of life God gives in Genesis 2

Finally, the flood episode ends with a reinstatement of the original creation – God gives Noah and his family directions akin to what he gave Adam in the garden, and even instructs him to “be fruitful and multiply”, an exact replica of the command given to Adam and Eve.

After establishing a convenant with Noah, God offers him a sign in the form of a piece of creation – a rainbow.

The Torah and Deuteronomistic History

God’s desire to renew his created order is bound up with the renewal and recreation of Israel as a nation. The writer of the Torah describes this and acknowledges God as the creator of the earth;

^“Behold, to the Lord your God belong heaven and the heaven of heavens, the earth with all that is in it.”

These first books of the Bible also point to the responsibility that we have as humans to become diligent stewards of creation. Leviticus states that creation is the property of God, and is not to be defiled. Moses, the likely author of Leviticus, even commands that creation itself, including the land, will observe the Sabbath.

In Numbers, the Israelites are told;

“You shall not pollute the land in which you live…. You shall not defile the land in which you live, in which I also dwell; for I the LORD dwell among the Israelites.”

…and this mandate is repeated in Deuteronomy.

The Old Testament closes with the Prophets, who urge Israel to come back to their creator and their God. The Prophets also urged God’s people to care for creation, and respect the earth in a way that adequately pays homage to the creator of all things (Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Joel, Hosea).

The Gospels

John opens with a retelling of Genesis 1.

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

He was in the beginning with God.

All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being.”

This mirrors the words of Genesis, and gives us insight into Jesus’ role in the cosmic order – he himself was a fundamental part of the original creation from the beginning.

Later in John, Jesus is described as having breathed on the disciples, in order for them to receive the Holy Spirit. This has echoes to Genesis 2 where God breathes into Adam.

The Gospels portray Jesus as asserting authority over all of creation – defying natural laws by walking on water, stilling a chaotic storm, multiplying a small amount of fish in order to feed a multitude, raising the dead and defying death himself.

Jesus

John’s passage reflects on Jesus as being integral to the creation of the world. As the New Testament goes on, it become more and more clear that Jesus was not only involved in creation, but is central to it. In this way, we must regard all of creation as thoroughly Christocentric in nature. Paul tells us in Colossians that “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation; for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created…”

In 2 Corinthians, Paul writes that:

“…if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation…”

The same God who created all things in six days has now established a new creation through Christ. All those who embrace Jesus are now living out of this new creation.

Through Jesus, God reconciles himself to his created order once more, bridging the gaps that were made broken through sin. Christ’s life, death and resurrection do not only affect the human condition, but affect the fundamental order of the entire cosmos.

Groaning Creation

We know from Romans 8 that the entire created order longs for redemption – and that the brokenness established at Eden reverberates throughout the entire natural world.

“For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God… in hopethat the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now.”

We can see this groaning as early as Genesis 4 when Abel is slain and God tells Cain that:

“The voice of your brother’s blood is crying to me from the ground.”

The entire created order all looks forward to the restoration of the world through God’s redemptive plan. This includes the stars, the spiders and everything in between!

New Creation

As early as Isaiah, we are told that God will

“…create new heavens and a new earth, and the former things shall not be remembered or come into mind.”

Revelations confirms this, when John has a vision;

“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the former heaven and the former earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.”

Paul also validates this when he writes in Peter that:

“…according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.”

The promise of a new creation is a promise which will be fulfilled throughout the entire cosmos.

Tracing the history of the world from creation to new creation helps us to see that creation was never merely a background theme in scriptures – creation is in itself the story of salvation. The entire created order was made, fell from glory, groans in anticipation, became a new creation in Christ and looks forward to the complete and final restoration of the entire cosmos. There is no biblical narrative without creation, and without an understanding of this fundamental theme, we cannot fully grasp the biblical story.

To honor the redemptive purposes of God from creation to new creation, please sign our petition, to establish Creation Day as an officially recognised holiday!

To sign, click here

Scientific Evidence for the Great Flood

“The waters swelled so mightily on the earth that all the high mountains under the whole heaven were covered; the waters swelled above the mountains, covering them fifteen cubits deep…

…He blotted out every living thing that was on the face of the ground, human beings and animals and creeping things and birds of the air; they were blotted out from the earth.

Only Noah was left, and those that were with him in the ark. And the waters swelled on the earth for one hundred fifty days.”

A Great Flood

The account of Genesis tell of a monumental flood that describes the earth being plundered by the ‘fountains of the great deep’ when God let loose on his creation. We can only imagine the catastrophic destruction that took place. Modern floods – though devastating to both life and land – pale in comparison to the cosmic demolition that this flood brought about.

Flood Geology is a branch of ‘pseudoscience’ that deals with analysing features of the Earth which have been shaped by the Genesis flood. The scientific community considers flood geology to be ‘myth’ and ‘falsifiable’ because it is seen to contradict mainstream science.

However, mainstream science has provided evidence which reinforces the idea of a global flood, such as is described in the Old Testament.

Evidence For The Flood

-Flood Stories-

The story of Noah’s Ark and the great flood is so famous that even young school aged children are familiar with Noah and his ‘Arky Arky’.

What children and some adults aren’t aware of, is that ancient flood legends exist in every corner of the earth. Many of these stories contain elements that are common to all of them:

the construction of a boat in advance
one family that is spared
some amount of animals that are kept out of danger
a rainbow
the release of birdlife to determine if the water has subsided and the destruction of humanity

These are all examples of common themes that appear. When a famous Babylonian text – The Epic of Gilgamesh – is compared to the story in Genesis 6-9, the similarities in the two flood stories are remarkable.

The overwhelming consistency amongst these traditions indicates that they have derived from the same origin. In other words, after one global flood, an oral tradition developed which was passed down through a kind of ‘Chinese whispers’. These stories were eventually written down in different parts of the world, by people living within different cultures. What is left is a mosaic of stories which have different features and nuances, but which ultimately reflect the one event.

Since we know that shortly after the flood was the scattering of languages at Babel, it seems likely that this played a part in the way the story was orally developed and altered as it was passed down through generations.

-The Black Sea-

The Black Sea, located in South-eastern Europe is famous for its concentrated salt level, but scientists are now claiming that it was once a freshwater lake before an enormous flood deluged it.

The most recent proponent of this theory is Robert Ballard – an underwater archaeologist who rose to fame after discovering the underwater wreckage of the Titanic in 1985. Ballard acted from a hunch that The Black Sea must have preserved items from antiquity because of its concentrated salt intensities and lower oxygen levels. When Ballard and his team unearthed an ancient shore line, this was an indication that a catastrophic event took place in the Black Sea.

The volume of water that caused the flood into The Black Sea is said to have been 200 times more than that of Niagara Falls. This caused the original shoreline to plunge underneath hundreds of feet of salt water. This theory is reinforced by the fact that there are layers of freshwater molluscs below the surface of the Black Sea. By carbon dating these shells, Ballard believes the timeline for the flood to have taken place around 5,000 BCE. Further to his findings, is the discovery of a vessel, and one of its crew members in The Black Sea. The ancient shipwreck is said to be perfectly preserved, along with the bones and teeth of the seaman.

-Fossils-

Rock layers all over the world are filled with fossilised marine animals, insects, spiders, amphibians and plants that are buried in places miles above sea level – including the walls of the Grand Canyon and high in the world’s tallest mountain range – the Himalayas.

The presence of these fossils are silent testimonies to the waters that flooded over every continent before being buried in massive flows of sediment as a result of powerful flooding.

Rock layers across every continent also show features that indicate they were deposited very quickly. Some strata within the Grand Canyon show clear signs that sand was deposited by huge water currents in a matter of days. In order for these layers to be deposited so extensively implies a global flooding of the continents.

Of these layers, there are large amounts which show evidence indicating that the rock layers were still wet when deposited. Rocks do not bend; they shatter and break because they are hard. Yet, in whole sequences of rock strata, we find bends without any fractures indicating that the rocks folded and rippled as if they were wet and pliable before setting as hard rock. This is best demonstrated by the Tapeats Sandstone in Grand Canyon which is folded at a right angle without any evidence of breaking.

The only explanation for this is that the layers were laid in rapid succession and buckled while still soft.

What Does This All Mean?

The Bible speaks of the events of Genesis 6-9 as real, authentic events that took place under the divine providence of God, describing a global flood that destroyed all human and animal life, except for that aboard the ark.

If the Bible is the infallible word of God, then it’s not surprising that geological evidence all over the world confirms exactly what we are told happened in the days of Noah. The physical features of the earth and its geological structure clearly indicate an event that was catastrophic, and global in nature. The evidence is undeniable.

If you want to find out more about Creation Day, or help establish Creation Day as a recognized holiday, then head here to sign the petition!

Last week we looked at how dinosaurs fit in with the biblical account, and offered one possible reason for their extinction: the global flood described in Genesis 6-9.

To check out the last article go here.

How Old is the Earth and Humankind?

What Does Science Say?

From a scientific point of view, the earth has been functioning for over four billion years. This age is based onevidence obtained from ‘radiometric age dating’ which measures radioactive decay of meteorite material and lunar samples in order to calculate a minimum age for the earth. Scientific evidence obtained from African fossils suggests that humanity, as we know it today, has only been walking the earth for around 200,000 years, making humankind a very small part, and rather late addition to, the earth’s history.

What Does the Bible Say?

If we are to pose this question from a biblical point of view, one might easily form a very different answer. The Bible describes man as having been made on the sixth day of creation. According to this account, humanity was created almost at the beginning of the earth’s timeline, rather than later. The biblical account also perceives the creation of human beings to be a significant event in the creative order, rather than an evolving afterthought. If we are to subscribe to the biblical timeline rather than the scientific timeline of evolution, we may find that our world is younger than we have been told.

Evidence for a Young Earth

Much speculation abounds regarding the age of the earth. Much of this is driven by the idea that we can gauge more reliable evidence for the age of the earth from the Bible. According to this idea, Genesis provides an accurate, reliable account of creation which sees God create the earth and humanity over a period of six 24-hour days. Creationists also claim that scientific estimations for the age of the earth are filled with flaws and errors.

Here are just a few examples of where scientific methods may be falling short;

• Dinosaur bones have been found to contain red blood cells, which could not last more than a few thousand years. This dates dinosaurs well ahead of the 65 million years ago that science typically sets them as having inhabited the earth.

• Helium is escaping into the atmosphere due to radioactive decay, but the total amount is not reconcilable with an earth age of four billion years.

• The moon is slowly withdrawing from the earth at a rate of around 4cm per year. If the moon had begun in direct contact with the earth, it would only have taken just over a billion years to reach its current distance from the earth. This gives the moon a maximum possible age that is too young to be in keeping with scientific age assumptions about the moon, and with radiometric dates assigned to moon rocks.

• Salt is filling the sea at a faster rate than it is discharging. This means the sea is not salty enough to be billions of years old.

Is the Earth be Younger Than We Thought?

Young earth creationists acknowledge that they cannot prove the age of the earth using any scientific methods, but what they do encourage is questioning of so-called scientific ‘data’, and the reliability of scientific methods in order to produce this data. Those who advocate for a young earth recognise the limitations that dating methods have, and acknowledge that all attempts at age-dating are guesswork, at best.

What young earth creationists promote is the use biblical genealogies as a method in which to attempt to date the earth’s lifespan. Those who subscribe to this view regard the Biblical accounts as historically accurate, thus forming a reliable record that we can use to understand our earth and its story.

Studies have shown that almost half of adults living in the United States claim to hold the view that God created humanity as we know it today, within the last 10,000 years.

What do you think? Comment below with your thoughts, and be sure to sign the petition to establish Creation Day as a national holiday!

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We Came in Like a Wrecking Ball

We Came in Like a Wrecking Ball

The Problem

Christians need to face up to a problem that we have not always taken adequate responsibility for.

We, as humans, and as Christians, have failed to take proper care of the earth, and at times have even been directly involved in its destruction. Christianity has not only participated in this destruction, but has failed to take any action to correct it. Economist and Creationist Wendell Berry argues that, not only are Christians being counted in those who add to the destruction of creation, but have often been amongst the worst of its perpetrators;

“Christian organizations, to this day, remain largely indifferent to the rape and plunder of the world and of its traditional cultures. …most Christian organizations are as happily indifferent as most industrial organizations to the ecological, cultural, and religious implications of industrial economics. The certified Christian seems just as likely as anyone else to join the military-industrial conspiracy to murder Creation.”

A Sinking Ship

Fundamentalist eschatological theories have indirectly cultivated a culture in which Christians have lost all sense of responsibility for the created order. Movies, blogs and books including best-selling novel series “Left Behind” have come to foster a philosophy that perceives the earth to be a temporary dwelling which will succumb to ruin before Christ’s second coming. The line of thinking is this;

If the earth, in the future (possibly near future) is going to become a desolate wasteland which will only be redeemed upon Christ’s return, then why should we, as Christians, make any efforts to care for it now? This philosophy leads to a focus on evangelization and the ‘saving of souls’, over care for the environment. DL Moody himself felt this way, and said; “I look upon this world as a sinking ship…”

According to this view, the earth is a kind of Titanic, beyond redemption and doomed to founder. Moody’s statement implies that the only recoverable component of the wreckage is people. While we must keep mission in focus at all times, saving souls created by God, we must not do so at the expense of the rest of God’s creation. The Bible describes the future earth as gloriously redeemed and rebuilt, but this does not give us permission to use and abuse it in the present age. The blessed hope that we look to of a future re-creation does not provide license for humanity to abandon the care for this creation. The opposite is the case – we must utilise the inherent goodness of the material world in order to please God and care for his creation in our own time and place.

It is with this philosophy, that Luther famously remarked;

“If I knew Jesus would return tomorrow, I would plant a tree today.”

A Witness to all Nations

The relationship between Christianity and creation is becoming increasingly urgent. Humans are perceived to be the most intelligent life form that roams the earth, and yet we are responsible for almost all of the damage that the planet has suffered. As Christians, we are even further enlightened through the Light of Christ, and yet we are passive when it comes to issues concerning the created order.

Over the last few decades, there have been many movements which have taken up the environmental flag and advocated for responsible earth care in order to preserve God’s creation. Christians, however, have often distanced themselves from these movements, or just failed to act with conviction when it comes to environmental issues. This stands in opposition from scripture, which sees creation as deeply bonded and relational with God, as well as revealing God’s glory and omnipotence. Christians should be leading these campaigns which address environmental concern.

We are no longer in a position to sit back and pray for a miracle. Stories of pollution, climate change and animal extinction are endemic in our media, yet we are no more compelled to make changes than we were four or five decades ago. As Christians we must respond with conviction, to represent and take responsibility for the environment that we recognise as God’s. The entire cosmos matters deeply to God, and thus it should matter deeply to us. If we abuse the environment, neglect it, or fail to advocate or it, then we are allowing the earth that our God cares about, to perish.

Biblically speaking, to not take action is a failure on our part, to understand our role in the created order, and in the Gospel.

Why should we care?

The Bible gives many reasons why we should be concerned for our world:

God himself is pleased with his creation
God is in relationship with his creation
God expects humans to exercise responsible stewardship over nature
God commanded us to care for the environment
The entire created order will be renewed and re-created

The significance of the earth in our estimation ultimately depends on our understanding of the story in which we are taking part. We must spread the Gospel to the four corners of the earth – as we have been commissioned – but to preach the Good News whilst failing to model it by caring for God’s creation, is a failure to understand our place within God’s redemptive plan.

The biblical story outlines a framework in which we are all participants. After five days of creating planet earth, the sixth day is used to create human life. The first man is then formed from the dust of the earth, and filled with God’s breath. Humans were created to be in relationship with the earth in the same way that God is – we are bound to the earth and rely on it to care for us, as we in turn should care for it.

So What Can We Do Today?

To become a part of the solution TODAY, the first thing you should do is subscribe, and sign the petition to officially inaugurate Creation Day. Help establish Creation Day as a national holiday in which all of humanity will recognise the need for responsible, caring stewardship over God’s creative handiwork.

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/creation-day