From Dean Ohlman on August 23, 2011

Today we look at four more beliefs arising from the Genesis creation account that all Bible believers can agree on regardless of what opinions they hold about the age of the earth or what literary genre the first eleven chapters of Genesis may be.

KEY SCRIPTURE:
He has made the earth by His power, He has established the world by His wisdom, and has stretched out the heavens at His discretion (Jeremiah 10:12).

4. When we declare that the Genesis account of creation is true, we’re saying we believe that the order of our material world has its source in the purpose and plan of an all-wise and all-powerful Creator.

By the design and loving intent of God, the astronomical features of the universe, as well as the oceans, land, and atmosphere of the earth were formed. The Creator progressively invested His genius in the formation of the elements, plants, and animals of the natural world and established their interdependencies. By His willful and purposeful plan, God created all life-forms and enabled each of them to reproduce “according to its kind” (Gen. 1:24).

The book of God’s special revelation explains what we see around us: Nature’s mathematical precision and operation is the result of God’s purposeful and intelligent design. “He has made the earth by His power, He has established the world by His wisdom, and has stretched out the heavens at His discretion” (Jer. 10:12). It was this great awareness that inspired the songwriter of Israel to declare, “O Lord, how manifold are Your works! In wisdom You have made them all. The earth is full of Your possessions” (Ps. 104:24).

This belief that the abundance of life on earth is inherently valuable, meaningful, purposeful (beyond the perpetuation of evolution)—and that life is the gift of God’s Spirit—is in radical contrast to the naturalistic worldview, which states that the existence of the cosmos is accidental and that the features of the earth, including life, are merely the unintended and unplanned result of matter plus time plus chance.

5. When we declare that the Genesis account of creation is true, we’re saying that the triune God constantly oversees and sustains the creation and continues to grant life to all living things.

After singing to the One who laid the foundations of the earth, the psalmist celebrated the sustaining work of the Creator when he wrote: “He sends the springs into the valleys; they flow among the hills. They give drink to every beast of the field; the wild donkeys quench their thirst. By them the birds of the heavens have their home; they sing among the branches. He waters the hills from His upper chambers; the earth is satisfied with the fruit of Your works. He causes the grass to grow for the cattle, and vegetation for the service of man, that he may bring forth food from the earth . . . . These all wait for You, that You may give them their food in due season. . . . You hide Your face, they are troubled; You take away their breath, they die and return to their dust. You send forth Your Spirit, they are created; and You renew the face of the earth” (Ps. 104:10-14,27,29-30). [See also Colossians 1:15-17]

This belief in a creating God who also sustains His creation by the word of His mouth is in contrast to the naturalistic worldview that fundamental natural laws and mathematical principles of unknown origin sustain and maintain the integrity of the universe. That no deity is required for either energy or matter to exist is a fundamental presupposition of philosophical naturalism.

6. When we declare that the Genesis account of creation is true, we’re saying we believe that the personhood of man and woman has its origin in a personal Creator who made us in His own image.

To crown His creation, God used the nonliving matter of the earth to create a living man. Then, to provide man with a companion and complement that would assure the perpetuation of the race, He took living tissue from the man to create a woman [The first act of genetic engineering by the Chief Engineer!]. The Bible calls this original, morally accountable human pair Adam and Eve.

The book of God’s special revelation says, “So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them” (Gen. 1:27); “and the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being” (Gen. 2:7); “then the rib which the Lord God had taken from man He made into a woman” (Gen. 2:22).

This belief that of all God’s creatures only man and woman were made in God’s likeness is in contrast to the naturalistic worldview, which emphasizes that mankind is merely the product of unguided evolution and that mankind has no special nature related directly to the personhood or loving intention of a supernatural Creator. In the view of naturalism, people are merely the most evolved of animals and have no special relationship to a personal God.

7. When we declare that the Genesis account of creation is true, we’re saying we believe that the relationships we enjoy with all creation have their origin in a God who is eternally relational (the Trinity).

The result of God’s purposeful creation was a series of relationships that explain much about the meaning of human life. Not only did God create people, He entered into a personal relationship with them. In the beginning, He was in fellowship with Adam and Eve and walked with them in the Garden of Eden (Gen. 3:8). The relationship of God to the earth was ownership. The people of Israel declared their acceptance of this claim when they sang, “The earth is the Lord’s, and all its fullness, the world and those who dwell therein” (Ps. 24:1). The relationship of mankind to the earth was stewardship. From the first days of man’s life on earth, he understood that his responsibility was to care for the earth that his Maker entrusted to him: “The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it” (Gen. 2:15).

This belief that we were made for relationships that have their origin in our triune Creator is in contrast to the naturalistic worldview that does not acknowledge God. Naturalism denies the existence of any interpersonal or authoritative relationships or responsibilities aside from those necessitated by the animal drive to survive.