02: Creation: Forming the World – Thought Starters
The first three days of creation (Genesis 1:1-11)
[Thought questions for Creation: Forming the World January 9, 2013]
Image © Steve Creitz from GoodSalt.com
1. He formed the earth. What does the Creation belief do for you as a Christian? Does the fact that the God who made you loves you with an everlasting love affect your worship of Him? Has it ever been hard for you to accept the belief that God formed the earth and all the universe with His own hand? If so, how did you overcome that struggle? How does love compare with power in God’s acts of creating this world?
2. Empty and formless. The Celestial Times reports that a dark, nondescript sphere of rocky soil submerged deep in water is available for development. What brings value to this empty and forlorn piece of real estate? How long do you think this soggy mass of soil hovered in the darkness before Creation Day? Why doesn’t the Bible give us that fact? Why are scientists always searching for water in their explorations of outer space? What would honest scientists probably tell us if they “discovered” a planet with a description like the one in Genesis 1:1?
3. Light. Do you think there was no light anywhere before Creation Week? What, if anything, does Jesus’s statement later in Scripture, “I am the light of the world,” have to do with Creation? How did God divide the light from the darkness and keep both of them on the planet? How could there be day and night without the sun to mark sunrise and sunset? Some say that the physical presence of God provided light until the fourth day. Your lesson authors call this a “mystery.” What do you think and why?
4. The Firmament. Since God divided the “waters…from the waters,” does that mean He placed water from the earth in the atmosphere above it? If so, how did He do that? What is “firm” about the “firmament” that God created? Does rain come from the firmament? Snow? Thunder? Why do we feel dizzy or sick when we climb to very high elevations on earth? Even with oxygen and protective gear, is there a limit to how far we can penetrate space? Should we thank God for the protection and blessings that come from our atmosphere?
5. Real estate. Did God make the dry earth moist? The wet earth dry? From where did He obtain the rich soil that nourished plants that He also created? Once He had developed a base for growing nutrients, what did he make of this real estate? Did He create a “mother plant” that produced seeds that developed into the varieties of plant life we enjoy today? Why not? If God is not limited by time, should we be perplexed that He invented millions of plant life forms that appeared at once on earth?
6. God’s Word. Have you enjoyed this introduction to the earth’s first three days? Did God create this world out of nothing? If so, why does Moses describe the earth before Creation in physical terms in the first verse of the Old Testament? What is the source of all matter? How many works of nature did not come from the hand of God? What about the devil? Does the devil create matter or does he manipulate matter that God has created? Do you believe in the infinite power of God? How is such a belief a blessing to you?
7. Time line. Did the universe exist before Creation week on earth? What evidence do you have to establish this belief? How long has there been a universe? Does it matter? Have you ever heard the logic, “Given enough time, anything can happen”? Why can’t you or I comprehend the idea of eternity? Will our knowledge and understanding multiply when we live in the sinless ages to come?
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Amen
I use to believe that God created through evolution. To me it just made sense, but since God opened my eyes to His Truths I started believing in Creation, believing His Word as is, nothing added and nothing taken away.
Blessed Lord
My comment and question is on the creation week. Genesis 1:1-5 says, "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
Gen 1:2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
Gen 1:3 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
Gen 1:4 And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.
Gen 1:5 And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day".
verse one is connected to other verses, so heaven and earth were created on the first day but the earth was created without a form. and the hovering of the spirit for the light and darkness was done on that first day.
Just a cursory look at the first account of creation shows that each day begins with “Then God said...” hence verse 1 is like a title, and verse 2 is like an introduction. If verse 1 describes the actual creation of heaven and earth, why would verses 6–8 (Day2) describe in details creation of the expense that God called heaven? To me, God did not begin to create anything related to heaven and earth before the first occurrence of the words “Then God said...” Verse 2 was added by Moses (exactly as John the revelator did) based on the information given to him by God. Since the Bible does not specifically say that God created water or soil, Moses assumed that the matter has already existed (the ancients believed that matter is eternal) and this is how he described it. If he did not, than the creation story would not be credible to Moses’s contemporaries. I will just add that the earth mentioned in verse 2 (ארץ) does not mean the planet, but soil as in verse 10 or 11.