City Life Starter

Written by Stefan Johnsson

The Word

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

Genesis 1:1 (ESV)

⁸ But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.

2 Peter 3:8 (ESV)

Reflection

One of the most debated topics within Christianity is that of old and new earth creationism. In the words of apologist J.P. Moreland, he would wake up one day believing new earth creationism and then the next day for the old earth. Both provide a valid explanation and supporting evidence for whether the six days of creation was literal or metaphorical. I was originally planning to go into more detail, but this is enough for a quick understanding.

As the Intelligent Design movement gained momentum over the past few decades, it has relied on the old earth creationism in order to provide a more liberal view and allowing for further intellectual discussions with the secular scientific community. As Frank Turek once put it, “We believe in the Big Bang. We just know who banged it.” God is defined as the creator in both views, is the one who began it all, and exists outside of time itself. And since God exists outside of time, the quote from Peter makes sense, “one day is a thousand years for God, and a thousand years is like one day” (2 Peter 3:8).

One might say that the Intelligent Design movement helps with evangelical outreach to a generation of intellectually stimulated people who need more proof of God’s creation. Six days may require more faith in some sense because it doesn’t give much room for debate and thus it’s harder for unbelievers to grasp.

“God can create everything in six days?”

“Yes, He can!” And He definitely could do it in six days.

My mindset on how to witness to others about creationism and God boils down to the book, “The Language of God.” It was written by a famous scientist called Francis Collins, a Christian who led the human genome project. He became saved through someone giving him a copy of “Mere Christianity” by C.S. Lewis during his college years and was convinced of the moral argument that was made within. Though, Francis Collins could never give up on evolution as a standard thought and merged the two, creating a new thinking called “BioLogos.” The idea was that evolution and everything in it is true and that God, who sees everything outside of time, knew the correct path needed for life to develop as He needed it to [edited sentence after publication]. And when the apes became human like, God gave the humans the moral law on their hearts so they became different than all the other animals. (Paraphrased from Ch 10 of The Language of God 2006. Their views may have changed since then).

Now, this is too much for me to swallow as an explanation for creation. But, what it did do was help me realize that this debate over creationism doesn’t have to be defended when witnessing to others about my faith. And yes, there are some who do get convinced God is real from an argument of creationism because the Holy Spirit works in different ways for different people.

But the main point I want to make is that the focus should be on Jesus and who He is. Convincing someone that it took a literal six days to create the world does not save them from the wrath of God nor help them become a better disciple of Jesus. Focus on Jesus and how the entire Bible points towards His coming and our need for a savior. Genesis is full of prophecies and metaphors to His coming and we will be going through these during our studies of this book in the Bible.

²⁷ And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.

Luke 24:27 (ESV)

Once a person is saved and wants to learn more, then a fruitful discussion about creation can be had because the foundation of faith is already established.

Application

Genesis has so much to teach us about who God is and why the stories were written as they were. Remember, the idea is to point everything back to God and His plan for redeeming humanity to Himself, which will ultimately be through Jesus’ death on the cross and subsequent resurrection.

As we delve into Genesis as a church, let yourself be open to what God wants to teach you through these verses and help you grow in faith. Every word and paragraph has something important to show us as we read through it together.

Are you ready for this journey?

Prayer

Father in heaven, let my eyes be open to what You want to teach me through Genesis. Let Your Holy Spirit guide me. Let my faith grow as a come to know You more in every way. In the name of Jesus I pray, amen.