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  God's Creation

  Looking at the Biblical Account

Introduction
Contents
Principal Contributor
Helps
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The doctrine of Creation is foundational to Seventh-day Adventist beliefs.  To recognize that the earth and its inhabitants came about by creation, not by chance, is to recognize the existence of a Creator.  To acknowledge God as our Creator is fundamental to recognizing both His power to redeem us and His right to judge us.  Creation also is intricately tied to our belief in the Sabbath, which is a memorial to God's Creation and a sign of the believer's faithfulness to God at the close of time (Rev. 14:7).

Seventh-day Adventists take Genesis 1-11 as an accurate historical account of the origins of life on earth.  We accept the biblical account's straightforward testimony that the creation of life on this planet and its various habitats occurred in six literal, 24-hour days.  Based on the available biblical data, we also believe that the period of time since the Creation has been a short chronology of a few thousand years, as opposed to millions of years required by the general theory of evolution.  Further, we accept the account of the Fall, which brought a radical change to life on this planet, as well as the world-wide Flood, which destroyed that life and dramatically altered the physical face of the planet.

The conclusions one reaches about what the Bible teaches on this crucial subject depend much on the method of interpretation one brings to the Bible. Our church has historically rejected external authorities that claim to supersede what the Bible itself says.  We affirm that the Bible has final authority in matters of origins.  We accept the Bible as it reads in its most straightforward manner.

Maintaining the historical-biblical view of Creation is not simply based on an uncritical or apathetic disregard for modem science.  Denial of the historicity of Genesis 1-11 undermines the very essence of Christianity-the plan of salvation-for it necessarily denies the historical Fall and death resulting directly from it.  Acceptance of biblical Creation reminds us of our desperate need of a Savior and gives us insights into God's love and power to redeem us.  Join us this quarter as we study what the Bible and the Spirit of Prophecy say about God's Creation.

"God is Creator of all things, and has revealed in Scripture the authentic account of His creative activity.  In six days the Lord made 'the heaven and the earth' and all living things upon the earth, and rested on the seventh day of that first week.  Thus He established the Sabbath as a perpetual memorial of His completed creative work.  The first man and woman were made in the image of God as the crowning work of Creation, given dominion over the world, and charged with responsibility to care for it."—SDA Fundamental Belief 6.


Contents: 

No. Study
Date
Topic

1

July 3 God the Creator

2

July 10 God's Two Books: Scripture and Nature

3

July 17 But Did It Really Happen?

4

July 24 Creation in Six Days

5

July 31 A Recent Creation

6

Aug 7 A Closer Look at the Creation Story

7

Aug 14 Paradise Lost: The Fall's Impact on Creation

8

Aug 21 Was There Death Before Sin?

9

Aug 28 Creation and the Flood

10

Sep 4 The Master Designer

11

Sep 11 God's Power in Nature

12

Sep 18 Sabbath and Redemption in Creation

13

Sep 25 God's Re-creation:  The Earth Made New


Meet the Principal Contributor to This Quarter's Guide

Randall W. Younker is associate professor of Old Testament and Biblical archaeology and director Authorof the Institute of Archaeology at Andrews University.  He is also director of the Ph.D./Th.D. program at the Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary at Andrews.  He received his B.A. in religion from Pacific Union College in 1975 and an M.A. in biology from that same school in 1977.  He later earned a second M.A. and a Ph.D. in Near Eastern archaeology from the University of Arizona.

Dr. Younker has taught a number of courses in science and religion on the undergraduate and graduate level for several years.  In addition to teaching, Dr. Younker has been a field archaeologist for nearly twenty years, working in both Israel and Jordan.  Currently, he directs excavations for the Madaba Plains Project at Tell Jalul, a major site from the biblical period located near Mt. Nebo in Jordan.  He has authored or coauthored over fifty scholarly and popular articles.  Dr. Younker and his wife, April, have four children: Rebecca, Michael, Elizabeth, and Sarah.


Giardina Sabbath School Study Helps

Jerry Giardina of Houston, Texas, prepares a series of helps to accompany the Sabbath School lesson.  He includes all related scripture and most EGW quotations. These are provided in three wordprocessing versions Wordperfect; Microsoft Word;  RFT for our MAC friends; and HTML (Web Pages).


Editorial Office: 12501 Old Columbia Pike, Silver Spring, MD 20904.
Principal Contributor: Jack J. Blanco.
Editor: Philip G. Samaan.
Associate Editor: Lyndelle Brower Chiomenti.
Editorial Assistant: Soraya Homayouni Parish.
Art and Design: Lars Justinen.
Pacific Press Coordinator: Glen Robinson.

Copyright © 1999 General Conference of Seventh-day Adventist. All Rights Reserved.


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