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.

The Need for Care and Compassionate Use of Earth’s Resources

There is need for us to recognize how important our environment is. It is the platform or foundation on which we live. If we do not take care of our environment we will all suffer for it, hence it is the joint responsibility of everyone to contribute to the sustenance of our environment.

We should take cognizance of the way we use earth resources because they are limited, they will not continue to be available forever, which is, water, gas, oil, trees, animals, forests, air, etc. Many people use these things as if they are unlimited in supply. Many species of animals, birds, fish, plants, and other organisms have gone into extinction as a result of this, yes many do not realize that they need to change in the way they use earth resources.

God created all of these resources for our use, and He even make them in a way that they can be regenerated if they get exhausted, but the truth of the matter is that the rate at which they are being depleted far outpaces the rate at which they are being regenerated. Many times, regeneration can take up to over hundreds of thousands of years before it fully takes place, hence many of these resources will never be allowed to get regenerated.

The earth and all its available resources are being used without any respect for the law of nature. Many people don’t find it difficult to believe there is God, but they don’t understand that He who created the earth wants us to use it in His way.

We need to ‘see’ God in our environment because He is not restricted to heaven alone. He is in the trees of the forest, among the animals in the bush or fishes of the sea. The works of Jesus are not restricted to saving souls alone, but to reconciling all things to God.

The time has come for us to begin to do what God created us for, that of care and compassionate use of the earth. God gave to Adam the special task of continuing the beautification of earth by making use of its resources in the way ordained by God. We are descendants of Adam and the same task extends to us. We need to harness the potentials in the oceans, forests, sky and other available places and use them for God’s glory.

When we use earth resources in a way that problems like pollution, oil spillage, killing of wildlife results, we are doing the damages directly to Jesus.

If God who created the earth is still sustaining and investing in it till today, it only shows that He values His creation, and if He has put us in charge; to dominate, to multiply, and to subdue the earth, then it also means that He holds us with high regard.

If we hold a special position in the creation of God, if the Almighty can entrust us to keep and care for His creation, then we too should reciprocate back by appreciating Him for it.

We should devote our lives to worship, serve, and obey Him all the days of our lives, at least for the earth’s resources that He has given to us.

A day for this purpose has been set aside already, it is called the creation day, and it falls on the first Sunday of March of every year. It is a day that we all ought to offer praise and worship to God in recognition of His great love for us, but unfortunately many do not know about this day talk less of giving it the recognition it deserves.

Here we are pushing forward the idea of making this Day of Creation a fully recognized holiday, and will like you to join us just by registering here.

Little Things you can do to Save the Earth

You might be wondering how little things you do can have any significant effect on our big earth.

the truth of the matter is that what you are doing that is depleting earth resources are the things that countless others are doing in various places where they are located, hence if your activities are less significant, by the time you add up what others are doing it becomes very alarming.

When you try to change your ways you have reduced these harmful activities by a little amount, and you have also pave the way for others around you who you can reach to hear from you how they too can save the earth.

Seriously speaking, the earth is reeling in pain, under various unhealthy, environmentally hazardous activities that individuals and corporate organizations are doing today.

Activities like; driving automobiles, running industrial machines, mining, fishing, killing wildlife, cutting down natural vegetation, etc. are actually killing the earth but you can help reduce them by doing the following on daily basis or as occasion demands, and you can also help to tell others to do them.

Take note of how you use water. Do not leave your water tap open while you do not actually need the water and in particular fix every leaking pipe in your house to prevent wastage, go for tap water when you need to drink and not the bottled version so that you will prevent littering the environment with disposable plastics.

According to EPA when you keep your car off the road just for 2 days in a week, you will reduce greenhouse gas emission by about 1,590 pounds annually. This you can do if you combine all your trips together, use bike or mass transit transportation system.

Encourage recycling by opting for products that has less packaging. A company with 7,000 workers who recycled her office paper wastes for a year will reduce greenhouse gas emission by the same amount that will result when 400 cars are taken off the road.

Reduce the amount of solid wastes you are generating to help reduce the amount of space these wastes are occupying in landfills overtime.

Above all of these points, you have to love people that are living around you. This is the most important thing you have to do if you must save the earth.

When you love your neighbor you will not do any evil against the fellow, talk of murder, lying, fighting, stealing, etc. all of these brings upon us God’s wrath making our earth vulnerable to His judgment.

You may be thinking that the wrong things you are doing are insignificant, but think of what results will come up when we combine that of others in other places on earth.

To save the earth you must recognize the one who created it, understand the reason why He did that, and also His guidelines for living on earth.

The earth is much more that a physical creation, the maker, God Almighty is watching over it to preserve it, you must be in agreement with this God if you want to enjoy the earth.

Have you heard of the day of creation, it is a day set aside to recognize God, if we all give this day the recognition it deserves we shall surely save the earth.

How Big is God?

How Big is God?

We can begin to have an idea of how big God is by looking at his creation. Let us take the universe for example – a large, endless, expanse of space, with innumerable planets, stars and other planetary bodies – many of them several thousands of kilometres bigger than our earth.According to the International Astronomical Union, the diameter of our galaxy – the Milky Way – is approximately 100,000 light years. To get an idea of the massive expanse that this occupies, it is helpful to know that one light year is equal to 10 trillion kilometres.

Astronomers using the Hubble Telescope have discovered billions of galaxies in the universe, observing that each of these galaxies have billions of stars. Limiting their records to only what they can observe with the telescope, they have concluded that our own galaxy has about 300 billion stars alone.

The distance between our galaxy and our neighboring galaxies ranges from several hundred thousand, to millions of light years away from the earth.

It is not hard to see why the Psalmist says;

When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have ordained; Ps 8:3-4 NASU

The one who created the endless universe can never be a small creature himself. The bible says He is so big in stature that he made the earth His foot stool.

It is unfortunate that though man has been able to discover the wonders of the universe, he has not been able to fully grasp the God who made it.

What is man that you take thought of him and the son of man that you care for him? Yet you have made him a little lower than God, And You crown him with glory and majesty! You make him to rule over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen, And also the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens and the fish of the sea, whatever passes through the paths of the seas. Ps 8:4-8 NASU

If God can exalt humanity to the point of putting all things under his feet, then we should feel compelled to reciprocate His love by using every opportunity to worship Him.

The Day of Creation has been set aside for this purpose; all we need to do is to give it more recognition by help making it a recognized holiday.