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The Story of Creation

Genesis 1.1-5

Good News Translation (GNT)

1  In the beginning, when God created the
   universe, (a)
2  the earth was formless ;and desolate.
   The raging ocean that covered everything
   was engulfed in total darkness, and the Spirit
   of God (b) was moving over the water.
3  Then God commanded, "Let there be light" -    and light appeared.
4  God was pleased with what he saw.
   Then he separated the light from the darkness,
5  and he named the light "Day" and the
   darkness "Night." Evening passed and
   morning came - that was the first day.

   Footnotes
   Genesis 1:1
   In the beginning...the universe;
   or
   In the beginning
   God created the universe;
   or
   When God began
   to create the universe.

   Genesis 1:2
   the Spirit of God;
   or
   the power of God;
   or
   a wind from God;
   or
   an awesome wind.

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Taken from 'word-on-the-web' supplied by the
Scripture Union

The Story of Creation

We mostly think of this chapter as telling us about creation and, of course, it does.

Such a focus may distract us from the central character in the story: God himself.

From this creation account, Christians can learn a host of vital truths about their Creator.

First, our God was not only there at the beginning but active and available. His Spirit was moving in an eternal, incomprehensible existence before we were made.

Second, there is a firm sense of God being utterly in control of events.

How simple, yet profound, is the narration of God's richly diverse creative work. The start may be 'formless and empty', with covering 'darkness', but 'the Spirit of God' is present.

The simplicity of the repeated statements 'and God said, "Let there be" . and it was so; God saw that it was good', without the need to describe processes.

The drumbeat asserts that everything is here because God willed it so, and, in the way that God willed it.

The 'beginning' sets the foundational reality: God's creational goal is not 'darkness, chaos and emptiness' but a rich, ordered 'good' diversity.

Accounts come from well before 1000 BC. All Christians would agree that they teach truths about God.

Not all would agree that they teach science, believing that Genesis answers questions about why we are here and where we came from while science explains the details of how we got here.

The Bible presents a picture of a God who acts powerfully in the world.

Solutions which remove God from the picture (naturalism) don't really do justice to what the Bible teaches about God.

Good theology and good science do not contradict one another.

None of us has complete understanding and arrogance is best avoided.

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