THE DOCTRINE OF
CREATION
A
Look at what the Bible Says
Since God
has revealed Himself to us in
Scripture, and the doctrine that He wants taught in His church is
nothing other
than what the Bible says; it should be obvious that those who refuse to
teach what
the Bible says, or affirm that it is true, do
so because another authority has replaced the authority of Scripture in
their
lives.
Genesis 1:1-2:25
1 ¶ In
the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
2 And the earth was without form,
and empty;
and darkness was upon the face of the
deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
3 ¶ And God said, Let there be
light: and there was light.
4 And God saw that the light was good: and God separated the light
from the darkness.
5 And God called the light Day, and
called
the darkness Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.
6 ¶ And God said, Let there be
an
open expanse in the midst of the
waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.
7 And God made the expanse, and
separated the
waters that were under the atmosphere
from the waters above the atmosphere: and it was so.
8 And God called the expanse Heaven.
And the
evening and the morning were the second day.
9 ¶ And God said, Let the
waters
under heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let dry land appear: and it was so.
10 And God called the dry land
Earth; and the gathering together of the waters he called
Seas: and God saw that it was good.
11 And God said, Let the earth bring
forth
grass, plants yielding seed, and the
fruit tree yielding fruit after its kind, whose seed is
in itself, upon the earth: and it was so.
12 And the earth brought forth grass,
and plants yielding seed after their own
kind, and trees bearing fruit, in which is their seed, after their
kind: and
God saw that it was good.
13 And the evening and the morning
were the
third day.
14 ¶ And God said,
Let there be lights in the expanse of the heaven to separate the day
from the
night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and
years:
15 And let them be lights in the
expanse of
the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so.
16 And God made two great lights; the
greater
light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also.
17 And God set them in the expanse of
the
heaven to give light upon the earth,
18 And to rule over the day and over
the
night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good.
19 And the evening and the morning
were the
fourth day.
20 ¶ And God said, Let the
waters
team with living creatures that have life, and let birds fly above the
earth in
the open expanse of heaven.
21 And God created great whales, and
every
living creature that moves, which the waters brought forth abundantly,
after
their kind, and every winged fowl after its kind: and God saw that it was good.
22 And God blessed them, saying, Be
fruitful,
and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in
the
earth.
23 And the evening and the morning
were the
fifth day.
24 ¶ And God said, Let the
earth
bring forth living creatures after their kind, cattle, and creeping
things, and
beasts of the earth after their kind: and it was so.
25 And God made the beasts of the
earth after
their kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creeps
upon the
earth after its kind: and God saw that it
was good.
26 ¶ And God said, Let us make
man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over
the fish
of the sea, over the birds of the air, over the cattle, over all the
earth, and
over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.
27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he
created him; male and female he created them.
28 And God blessed them, and God said
to them,
Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and
have
dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and
over every
living thing that moves upon the earth.
29 ¶ And God said, Behold, I
have
given you every seed bearing plant, that is upon the face of all the earth, and
every tree, with seed in its fruit; to be your food.
30 And to all the animals of the
earth, and to
all the birds of the air, and to every living creature that creeps upon
the
earth, I have given every green plant
for food: and it was so.
31 ¶ And God saw every thing
that
he had made, and, behold, it was very
good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.
Genesis 2: 1 ¶ Thus the heavens and the
earth, and everything in
them, were finished.
2 And on the seventh day God ended
his work
which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work
which he
had made.
3 And God blessed the seventh day,
and made
it holy: because on that day he had rested from all the work he did in
creating
the world.
4 ¶ This
is the history of the heavens and of
the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the
earth
and the heavens,
5 And every plant of the field
before it was
in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew: for the LORD
God had
not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there
was no man to till the ground.
6 But there went up a mist from the
earth,
and watered the whole face of the ground.
7 And the LORD God formed man from the molecules of the earth, and
breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living
soul.
8 ¶ And the LORD God planted a
garden eastward in
9 And out of the ground the LORD God
made
every tree to grow that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food;
the tree
of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of
good and
evil.
10 And a river went out of
11 The name of the first is
Pison: it flowed around the whole
12 And the gold of that land is good: there is bdellium and the onyx
stone.
13 And the name of the second river is Gihon: it
flowed around the whole
14 And the name of the third river is Hiddekel:
which flowed toward the east of
15 And the LORD God took the man, and
put him
into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.
16 ¶ And the LORD God commanded
the man, saying, Of every tree of the
garden you may
freely eat:
17 But of the tree of the knowledge
of good
and evil, you may not eat of it: for in the day that you eat of it you
will
surely die.
18 ¶ And the LORD God said, It is not good
that the man should be
alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him.
19 And out of the ground the LORD God
formed
every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call
them: and whatever Adam called each living creature, that was
its name.
20 And Adam gave names to all cattle,
and to
the birds of the air, and to every beast of the field; but no helper
was found
for Adam such as he needed.
21 ¶ And the LORD God caused a
deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his
ribs, and
filled up its place with flesh;
22 And out of the rib, which the LORD
God had
taken from the man, he made a woman, and brought her to the man.
23 And Adam said, This is
now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called
Woman, because she was taken out of
24 For this reason a man will leave
his father
and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one
flesh.
25 And they were both naked, the man
and his
wife, and were not ashamed.
[NOTE: Verse 7: In ancient Hebrew, the word,
“dust’
signifies those minute wind-born particles stirred up by feet,
individual units
of which are often microscopic. For that reason, if we were translating
the
word, “molecules” into ancient Hebrew we
would
translate it as, “dust”.]
Exodus 20:11
11
For in six days the LORD made heaven and
earth, the sea, and all that is in
them, and rested the seventh day: therefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and set it apart.
THE
SPIRITUAL SIGNIFICANCE OF CREATION
Genesis
Ecclesiastes
Genesis 9:6 Whoever sheds man’s blood, by man
shall his blood be shed: for in God made man in His own image.
Ephesians
Genesis
[Comment: These
verses tell us that man was not created with a sinful nature.]
Isaiah 64:8 But now, O LORD, you are
our father; we are the clay, and you our potter; and
we all are the work of your hand.
Romans
Isaiah 33:22 For the LORD is our
judge, the LORD is
our lawgiver, the LORD is our king;
he will save us.
Romans
[Comment: These
verses tell us that because God created us He has a right to judge us,
and we
are accountable to Him.]
THE
PRACTICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF CREATION
Matthew 19:4
And he
answered and said unto them, Have you not read, that he who made them in the beginning made them male and
female,
5
And
said, For
this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall cleave
unto wife:
and the two of them shall be one flesh?
6 Therefore they are no longer two, but
one flesh. Do
no let man separate what God has joined together.
[Comment: These
verses reveal the significance that creation has for marriage, and
God’s will
for it.]
Acts 17:24-26 God who made the world and all things
in it… has made of
one blood all nations of men to live over all the
surface of the earth, and has determined their appointed times, and the
boundaries they live in.
[Comment:
Because all men are the descendants of Adam and Eve, one race is not
genetically superior to any other, but we all belong to the same
family.]
CONCLUSION
The
historical record of creation is just as much a doctrine of Scripture
as
anything else that the Bible says (2Timothy
“The pure doctrine is simply nothing else,
absolutely
nothing else, than the pure Word of God.” (Law and Gospel, page 349)
“Neither
ought any doctrine be taught or heard in
the church
but the pure Word of God, that is to say, the Holy Scriptures;
otherwise
accursed be both the teachers and hearers together with their
doctrine.”
(Martin Luther)
Gary
Ray Branscome