Meditations on Creation
Earlier this summer, John Mincy began a series of meditations on the Bible, posted via his Facebook page. He shares them with us for your edification. For this post, I am leaving the format as daily journal entries for you to get a sense of the flow of thought brother Mincy offers us. We hope you find it a blessing.
June 16, 2019
In the beginning God — The three Persons of the Trinity are the only three “scientific” witnesses of the beginning of all things, and God has spoken. (John 1:1-3 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.”)
NOTE: The “scientific” method requires observation. The only observer was God the Trinity: Sovereign yet sacrificial Father (John 3:16); Suffering yet satisfied Son (Isa. 53:11); Serving yet still serving Holy Spirit (Rev. 22:17). The Bible assumes the existence of God.
June 20, 2019
In the beginning God created all things: (Colossians 1:16) “For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him.”
Why did He create? To Manifest His glory and character: (Isaiah 43:7) “Everyone who is called by My name, Whom I have created for My glory; I have formed him, yes, I have made him.” How did He create all things? By His spoken word and out of nothing: (Hebrews 11:3) “By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible.” All was “very good” (Gen. 1:31) with no sin or death until Genesis 3. Everything reproduced after its “kind” (Gen. 1:11, 12, 21, 24, 25).
June 21, 2019
God’s creation act includes all creation including man in the image of God (Gen. 1:26). The creation is staggering in its known immensity: our Milky Way is one of innumerable galaxies, and traveling at the rate of 1000 miles per hour it would take 67 billion, 320 million years to cross just our galaxy.
Genesis 1:1 is a summary verse in normal Hebrew style. Details will follow in chapters one and two. The Bible (genealogies) and the facts of true science indicate that the earth is relatively young. The huge dates suggested by modern “science” often stand on the belief (faith) in Lyell’s theory of uniformitarianism.
Genesis 1:1 supplies a refutation of all major world philosophies:
- atheism (no God),
- polytheism (many gods),
- fatalism (god of chance),
- evolution (infinite becoming),
- pantheism (God equivalent to nature),
- and materialism (eternality of matter).
This would include any kind of anti-supernaturalism or systems that would deny absolute knowledge.
The theory of evolution has some major problems (absence of intermediate species, origin of life, complex relations between plants and animals, Second Law of Thermodynamics, contemporaneous forms of life that according to evolutionary theory are impossible, and evolution’s own Cambrian outburst of life (supposedly 500 million years ago).
June 22, 2019
What does the concept of creation teach us practically? We are His creatures. We are created for a specific purpose (Colossians 1:16) “For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him.”
Redemption is necessary because of sin (Gen 3). There is a lifelong process of sanctification for the Christian. He has all power. He has the right to hold us accountable (Romans 14:12) “So then each of us shall give account of himself to God.” We have no right to object to His purposes.
We have value (John 1:12) “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name.”
John Mincy was a church planter in Singapore and California and is now pastor emeritus of Heritage Baptist Church in Antioch, California.
Earlier Meditation: