(Ver 3.4)  This will be an advanced Bible study of God’s supernatural divine creation.  This study will involve an in depth analysis of the information given to us by God from within the pages of the Holy Bible concerning the events surrounding the creation of our universe and our world.  And those are two different events in our history as we will learn.  This series may or may not be what you currently believe to have occurred, but it will be what the Bible says, if we will seek to find the truth, to see it and understand it.  I have been criticized because I pull verses from all over the Bible and put them together in a logical way that helps to reveal their hidden meanings.  I did not write the Bible so I cannot help to explain to you why the clues found in the Bible are in such widely dispersed and random patterns.  I cannot fully explain why a single verse of information found in John, Isaiah or Jeremiah can reveal something that was hidden by God simply by the words being omitted. , I believe that in the first chapter of Genesis, God gives us truthful and factual information designed for a specific introduction to the subject of creation.  But I further believe from studying the Bible that Genesis 1 is incomplete information.  I found that God wrote about creation from Genesis to Revelation and these other creation verses were written by God’s prophets and New Testament writers hundreds or thousands of years later.  Because people do not understand how God designed the Bible with an enumerable number of hidden facts and clues, they simply criticize and like to call things heretical when they do not understand them or just because they are something new that they have never heard before.  Coming into this lesson with a preconceived prejudice will cause anyone to close their spiritual eyes and ears to anything that God wants to say.  But, that of course is an old religious spirit that got the Jews in trouble when Jesus walked among them, and they killed Him for no good reason.

There is a major debate raging in the Body of Christ about the age of the universe.  Because science has declared the universe to be billions of years old, Christians have suddenly determined they need to believe in a young earth and universe and they have gathered their own scientists to counter what they view as a naturalistic perspective for the existence of all matter.   The young earth proponents have developed a semi-convincing theory but it is really full of holes not unlike the evolutionist’s theory that is equally full of holes.  As you can tell I do not endorse either theory.  I am a proponent of letting the Bible interpret the Bible and that will be my goal in this series of lessons.  What we need to do is start out by asking ourselves is our God a deceiver?  I asked some young earth believers this question and they ignored it and tried to explained it away.

What is deception? According to the Bible deception is appearing to be who or what you are not. You can find this in the story of Jacob in the book of Genesis when he dressed up like his brother Esau and went in to get his brother’s blessing from his father Isaac. Jacob was fearful of being called a deceiver if his father discovered his acts deception. Wow, is that a lesson in itself.  Again in another story of Genesis we find the deception of Tamar who dresses up like a prostitute to make Judah give her what was promised to her. In both of these stories clever deception was used by taking on the appearance of what they were not in order to gain what they felt they deserved. Ok, what do these stories have to do with creation?  The problem with the young earth theory is that the scientists in the world can clearly see that light takes 2.5 million light years to reach earth from the galaxy of Andromeda. When a Bible teacher comes to us and says that the earth and the universe are only 6000 years old, they have in effect made God to be a liar and a masterful deceiver. They claim that God created something that looks very old, but that is actually very young. That is an act of clear deception no matter how you want to slice it.  If the earth is not old then God is the primary contributor that has deceived many people into believing it not young.  That is a major problem upon our reflection of the character of God, the nature of God, the love of God, the truth of God and I could go on and on.  Rather than ignore this problem like Christians want to do, I’m going to address the problem in this series to see if God solves it in His Word.

If the universe has the appearance of millions or even billions of years and it is only 6000 years old God has deceived a tremendous number of people.  Is that your God because that is not my God!  The young earth theorists like to explain this by saying that God created the world and the universe in a mature state.  They have concluded that creating light rays that take on the appearance of age is not and impossible feat for an omnipotent God.  You know I understand that logic, God is certainly omniscient and omnipotent and He is certainly able to do anything.  But, just because God is able to do anything does not mean that God has done any of these things that people give Him credit for doing.  I’ll ask a new question. If God is able to do anything then can He lie? We all know from reading the Bible that it is impossible for God to lie. Keep this in mind when studying creation.  If the universe was created 6000 years ago and the speed of light is 186k miles per second and it takes light from many galaxies billions of years to reach us we are clearly viewing events that took place a long time ago.  This would be very clear deception and lies and this is impossible for God to do.   However, we must find Bible verses that confirm our beliefs or we will find we are just believing in someone’s opinion.

As a foundation for this mature creation belief my young earth theorists have stated that Adam was created a mature man and thus this helps us with our beliefs of a mature universe creation.  They have also further concluded that all the trees were created as mature entities.  They have further concluded that all animals originated as mature entities.  You know I absolutely agree with at least part of their reasoning for the necessity of maturity.   You see if God would have created Adam as a newborn baby he would have died and never survived without a mother caretaker.  Therefore, I believe God chose by His sovereign will to create a mature man, a mature woman along with mature birds, fish and animals.  But here is where their theory begins to fall apart if you really start to analyze logically that type of thinking.  Why didn’t God create a mature earth in Genesis 1:1?  Instead of a fully mature earth God describes an earth that is uninhabitable and chaotic. This new earth had to be changed into an inhabitable planet by the end of the chapter in order to support life. That is the complete opposite of creating a fully engaged human male from the beginning.  Isn’t it? Please answer the question, if you are able.  Why didn’t God create a fully mature earth that was fully sustainable for all the soon coming life?

You can clearly see that there was no life on the earth in Genesis 1:2 and then at the end of the chapter there was organized structured inhabitation.  Why didn’t God create it the way that He wanted it to begin with?  What we are going to find out by studying the Bible is that God did create it this way and something major happened to destroy it in Genesis 1:2.

So I want to start this study by establishing Biblically that the universe that we currently exist within, had a stated beginning or a starting point somewhere in time past.  Modern scientist have predominately ascribed to the notion of a historic concept that they  refer to as the “big bang”. They say this occurred somewhere in our distant past probably close to13.8 billion years ago.  They have concluded this based upon scientific observation of our rapidly expanding universe. The universe can be observed to be expanding in every direction around us and thus reversing this reasoning it can be logically deduced to have had a single point of origin.  By reversing where we are right now and putting everything back to its original point of origin, science has concluded that there was a beginning point of all matter and time.  Something occurred at this point in this beginning point of time to cause all matter to appear and to be accelerated into a widely dispersed explosive pattern of a powerful fashion that fast-tracked the chunks at astronomical rates of speed outwardly.   Did you know that is what the Bible tells us also, that the heavens are expanding.  Look at this verse found in Isaiah:

Isa 40:22  It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in:

You can again see that true Bible interpretation and true science will always agree.  The Bible recorded that the earth was a spherical circle long before man could prove the earth was not flat.  Early religious leaders would excommunicate a scientist who thought the world was round and not the center of the universe.   They had in their minds how it ought to be and if anyone disagreed they would reject them.  Who was right back then?  We are experiencing a very similar behavior in parts of the church today.  Many claim the earth to be only 6000 years old and scientists today say the complete opposite.   Knowing that the light that we see from distant stars took much longer than 6000 years to even reach us to see, who looks foolish?  How can we attempt to reach a secular man with the salvation message who obviously knows more than we do about creation?

Then there is the “who spreads out the heavens” in that verse.  This verse claimed that the universe that we can observe is expanding long before anyone had an idea that it was.  The Hebrew word here means to “stretch out” to “spread out”.  God told us that the heavens were expanding long before anyone could prove it.  This verse also claims that the heavens are like a curtain of fabric.  A fabric has closely joined threads that are woven together and this again describes the condition of what many scientist have reported.  The fabric of space and time is a widely publicized scientific discovery.  God wrote about it 1000’s of years before any man came up with this idea.  So we must learn what the Bible really says and learn to accept God’s words as the truth.  Here is another verse found in the Bible about the earth being round that was written long before man discovered it:

Pro 8:27  When he prepared the heavens, I was there: when he set a compass upon the face of the depth: 

This verse says the “compass” of the depth.  The word “compass” means a circle.  So again God declared the world to be a circle long before man discovered it.  This verse was written by King Solomon hundreds and hundreds of years before Christ was born.  How was Solomon smart enough to write this information if it was not given to him by God.  Here is another verse about the expansion of the universe:

Job 9:8  Which alone spreadeth out the heavens, and treadeth upon the waves of the sea.

Again we see a reference to the an expanding heavens.  This is the same word that means to stretch forth and to spread outwardly.  This is clearly words that were written down for our benefit to see and understand the nature of creation and its harmony with the true scientific observation and study of many.

Job 26:7  He stretcheth out the north over the empty place, and hangeth the earth upon nothing.

There are many Bible verses that can be found that say things that only a creator God could have written.  In ancient times, many men believed that the world was held up by a god named Atlas and on his shoulders the world revolved.  This was clearly a fantasy attempt to explain what they did not understand about the power of God to create the gravitational planetary and solar system that we live within.  When the Bible declares that the earth hangs upon nothing within the time space continuum it clearly was written by someone who knew more than any man in the past could imagine or make up.  This verse is clearly factually accurate based upon scientific observations of men and it was written in the oldest book of the Bible.  You cannot deny that these facts not found in Genesis are truly amazing.

Now you can either be an ostrich Christian and bury your head into the ground or you can look and see if the Bible also says anything that will match the well-known scientific observations that are being taught today.  What we must embrace as true Christians is the fact that true science and the true interpretation of the Bible will always agree.  You might ask me, why do these have to agree?  Because God created both of them and God does not make any mistakes nor does He ever contradict Himself.  So what God says in the Bible must match what we find scientifically from what God has created and vice versa.  Too many times I have seen preachers and theologians teach something that is 180 degrees opposite to what science has reported.  I therefore, know that  one of these two positions is wrong and potentially both are incorrect.  For example, many scientists embrace a theory of evolution for the existence of the human race and all living things in our world.  However, I know this directly contradicts the Bible and so the theory of evolution is man’s attempt to explain away the existence of a God as a creator.  This is an example of Bible teachers being right and ignorant scientists being wrong.  However, I have also heard many Bible teachers teach that the earth is only 6000 years old and scientist have estimated the age of the earth to be in the billions of years.  There is a major difference between these two positions again and this time I tend to agree more with the scientists and not the ignorant Bible teachers.  Nowhere in the Bible does it say that the earth is only 6000 years old!  Nowhere in the Bible does it say that the earth was created 6000 years ago!  If you think it does, you are ignoring a lot of scriptures that says otherwise.  This is a religious man’s attempt to prove a theory of young creation by not reading what the Bible actually says about God’s creation.  We must make true science and true Bible interpretation agree or we will be viewed as ignorant men and women.  So I have given you two examples of the debate between Bible vs. Science where each side is right one time and wrong one time.  So let’s find some more scriptures that speak of the existence of a beginning and for now we won’t worry about when this occurred.

Isa 40:21  Have ye not known? have ye not heard? hath it not been told you from the  beginning? have ye not understood from the foundations of the earth?

In this verse found in Isaiah we can see that God is clearly telling us of a starting point.  Two direct references are established.  The beginning and the foundation of the earth.  The foundation of the earth would imply the beginning of our planet.  A foundation would also imply a structure that holds everything else together.  So who created this structure and this system of the time and space fabric that holds it all together?

Joh 1:1  In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

This Bible verse states that the universe had a point of origin.  This Bible verse implies God existed prior to the existence of time and space as we currently know it today.  This Bible verse gives us some insight into the creation of the world by this Supreme Creator.  This creator God is called the Word.  God is described in a paradoxical term, being both the Word and God simultaneously.  How can God be the Word and the Word also be with God?  I think that is one of the mysteries of God and I do not have a good explanation for it, I just accept it as being true.  This Word God is said to have created everything that we can see in this next verse of scripture:

Joh 1:3  All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.

All things were made by Him!  Who is Him?  It is the Word of God!  God gives us some amazing information to how things were created in the world around us.  By God speaking, things suddenly appeared.  Do you understand that things were not created from nothing?  I’ve heard preachers claim that everything appeared from nothing, in other words nothing became substance and now exists in the physical dimension of time.  But, this is not what the Bible says happened and I believe we should become very picky to see exactly what God is revealing to us in the Bible.

Isa 48:3  I have declared the former things from the beginning; and they went forth out of my mouth, and I shewed them; I did them suddenly, and they came to pass.

The Bible declares that the universe was made by the Word of God.  God spoke and it came to pass.  Things sprang forth from the words that God had spoken.  So, if you can read you can see things were made by Words and words are not nothing.   The earth and the stars in heaven were made from words.  Let’s explore another verse about this important subject of God’s Word:

Heb 11:3  Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of  things which do appear.

We have to understand what this verse is saying.  It implies that all of creation was accomplished by God’s Words.  It does not say that the things that we can see came from nothing.  It actually technically says that the things that we can see came from things that we can’t see.  Have you ever seen anyone speak?  I know you can see their mouths move, but, you do not actually see any words coming out of their mouths do you?  These sound waves are things that you cannot see with your natural eyes.  The voice of God caused all matter that we can see to exist in the natural realm.  Sound waves from God are the basis of all of creation.  In this verse the Greek word translated as “worlds” comes from “aion” which means “an age”.  This word refers to a span of time, either in the past, the present or the future.  Time can always be viewed within one of these three descriptions, even though Einstein claimed this to be a convincing illusion.  Einstein believed that all time occurs simultaneously, past, present and future.  But our view of this illusion is that we have all had a past, we live in the present now and tomorrow is our future.  In my next blog on creation I will expand this word for “worlds” and explore it with additional scriptures.  But, for now let’s continue to look at the beginning of creation.

The verse in John 1:3 says that nothing that we can see came about by evolution or by accident.  This verse implies an intelligent design by a very highly intelligent creator God.  I have heard some scientists who have tried to analyze and  prove the most rudimentary makeup of the elements in our physical world and heard what some now are saying.  These scientist have split atoms, and examined parts and components of the most minute levels that they can measure and observe, and guess what they have said makes up every atom that we see in this universe?  Sound waves!  I have actually heard some report that it appears that sounds hold all things together.  Did you know that this is what the Bible actually says?

Col 1:17  And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.

This verse in Colossians again states that Jesus Christ existed before all things that we can see in our world.  We can again conclude that this means there was a beginning.  Jesus Christ was called the Word of God in John and other places in the Bible and we can see that in this verse in Colossians that Jesus Christ causes everything that we see to exist.  This Greek word that is translated as “consist” in this verse means “to set together” or “constitute”.   This verse is telling us that the world and the universe is held together with God’s Words.  God’s words are the rudimentary component to everything that we can see around us.  Let’s discover an additional verse concerning God’s Word holding things together.

Heb 1:3  Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;

In this verse in Hebrews we can see that God is revealing to us the source of all of His power.  This verse is primarily about Jesus Christ, but it also says that God is causing all things to be held together by His Words of Power.  God’s Word is the source of all creation and everything exists because of sounds that came out of God’s mouth.  These sounds represents God’s power and they surround us in everything that we can see, touch, taste, smell, perceive and sense around us.  Words created all of the universe that we can see.    I hope you understand this concept, because it is a very important part of the Bible to know.

Gen 1:1  In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

This is now the third Bible verse that I have given you today in this lesson that states the earth and the universe had an observable origination point also known as a beginning.   In this very first verse in Genesis, we can see clearly that God is again referred to as the creator of the things that we can now see.  It very clearly says that there was a defined starting point of all matter and time.  Now here is where Bible teachers start to get confused and make many wrong assumptions.  They have concluded that because you can mathematically calculate the duration of time from Jesus backwards to Adam that the world is now only approximately 6000 years old.  What they have done is assumed that Genesis 1:1 goes with the rest of the chapter in a relative short time sequence.  However, they do err, because they ignore what this verse says and many other verses found in the Bible that shows us other information and clues to a much older history of creation.

I want to point out one key Hebrew word in this verse that is very important to understand.  The Hebrew word translated as “earth” is a word that means “to be firm”.  It is used in the Old Testament in over 2000 verses.  Therefore it is a widely verifiable word that can easily be understood by reading God’s usage of it.  Over 1500 times in the Old Testament it is tranlated as “land” as in the land of Egypt.  Therefor God is informating us that in the beginning He made our planet earth with inhabitable dry land.  We can actually get God’s definition of this word earth simply by reading down in the chapter in verse 10:

Gen 1:10  And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the  waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was  good.

The same Hebrew word is given to us that we observed in Genesis 1:1 and it is again transalated as earth but this time God defines what the word earth means.  God called the dry land earth and the water He called seas.  Why is this so important?  If you read Genesis 1:2 you will begin to discover why this is so controversially important.  The planet as described by God in Genesis 1:2 is said to be fully covered in water.  There is no dry land mentioned in verse 2.  Since we understand and can read in Genesis 1:1 that God states explictiy the earth (dry land) was created in the beginning, we have a major contradiction that needs resolution in a young earth theory.  This little detail is simply ignored by most young earth theorists because they cannot explain it.  To ignore God’s definiton of the words forces them into inventing their own definitions and this is why they are so vastly confused.  If God says “earth” is dry land, then earth is dry land and I refuse to call it anything different.  I guess you are free to do what you want and that will be between you and God.

Genesis 1:1 tells us clearly that there was a stated beginning and God created everything, but it did not say when this occurred.  If you assume something and base your faith upon your assumption, most of the time you will be wrong.  We must base what we believe only upon the scriptures found in the Bible and correctly put all of the clues together to see what God has been trying to show us.  Unless you can find specific Bible verses to support your young earth theory, then I would reccomend you use wisdom and look for the truth.  The Bible does not tell us anywhere the age of the universe and that is where Bible teachers start to fall into error.  Teach only what the Bible says and quit guessing on what you think it means.  I also started teaching you the imortance of getting God’s definitions to the words that are used in the Bible and this will greatly assist you in learning what they mean and what they say.  So far we know from the Bible that there was a beginning of matter and time at some point in our past.  We know that God created everything by speaking it into existence.  But, we do not know when this occurred so please stop telling people that you do know.

So far let’s review the facts that we have learned about creation:

1. God is the Creator!
2. God Created Everything By His Word!
3. God is the Word!
4. The Universe had a point of Origin.
5. All matter exists because of God’s Word
6. Time had a Beginning!
7. God Existed before Time!
8. We do not know when the beginning of Time and Matter occurred!
9. God defines earth to be dry land!

These are the basic concepts from Bible creation that you need to know for now!  In my next blog I will talk about some new concepts and introduce you to some very new things to consider, but for now review what you have learned and go find more scriptures that talk about these 9 things that you learned today.

If you would like to continue reading in this series you can go to “Part 2“.