Lesson 3 The Origin of the World

 

  It has been the question and interest in the minds of many how the world was created. How the plants and animals were put on this earth and how man was created. The question was not just out of curiosity. It set a foundation on how to view the world and how to live the right life. We will study the three ways that men interpret this question.

 

 

  First, there is Thomas Henry Huxley who claimed "agnosticism" which meant, How do we know what happened in the past? Secondly, there was Charles Darwin who created and claimed the evolution theory, which claims everything was created from a single form or from a chaotic status (Big Bang). Thirdly, as said in the Bible, God created the heavens and the earth. Scientifically the third theory is impossible to prove. Natural science relies on facts and but how are we to prove the fact that Superior being just created the universe from nothing, with nothing? God said "Where were you when I laid the earth's foundation? Tell me, if you understand." (Job 38:4) How are we to prove the creation of the earth when we were created before we had any kind of scientific tools? The creation of the world is not something that can be studied in a lab by scientists using the scientific method. The only way to understand the creation of the universe is by using inductive or deductive reasoning, but it cannot be guaranteed that it will conclude with a precise and correct answer.

 

 

  The evolution theory was studied back in the Hellas era; but was released by an English biologist named Charles Darwin, who wrote the book, "Origin of the Species." The evolution theory is based on assumption and believes in the survival of the fittest which means creatures that can adapt and survive with its natural environment continues on with life and others just disappear. We can only say that evolution is just another theory and cannot be proven. "The trends of the evolutionary theory" are recorded in the encyclopedia published by the Pyungbum Co. in Japan and it says " The evolutionary theory is not accepted widely by people in the field of biology. There are many people who believe in the theory who still research the work but find the data to prove the evolution theory is insufficient to be proven fact." We must be aware that the evolution theory is not truth. It only claims that an unexplainable organism evolved into a human being. In the matter of the origin of the world, claiming agnosticism we don't even have to consider the matter nor can we find a satisfactory conclusion in the theory of evolution. Then there is only one more matter to research about which is the theory of creation by God in the Bible. It is a more reasonable method to find the truth about creation through a religious or philosophical way rather than through a scientific method.

 

 

  In Genesis 1:1 it says "God created the heavens and the earth." It is simple, clear and to the point. Also, in the book of Psalms it says, "By the word of the Lord were the heavens made, their starry host by the breath of his mouth"(Psalms 33:6). There is no contradiction. It only accepts and claims the truth.  Let us see how long it took for the world to be created. In Genesis 1:2 it says, "Now the earth was formless and empty. Darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the water." We reckon that before there was earth it was a dark, empty space and a lot of water.

 

 

  In the first day God said "Let there be light" and there was light. "God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. God called the light "day," and the darkness he called "night." And there was evening, and there was morning- the first day"(Genesis 1:4,5). The concept of this morning and evening, day and night is a result of the rotation of the earth in a 24 hour time period. However, some scholars claim that a day in the creation week actually signifies thousands or millions of years, so that the creation story may be in harmony with the evolution theory.  This kind of understanding, however, is contradictory to the Bible, and seems caused by the doubt of God’s creating power, and by the lack of confidence on the Bible as the word of God.

 

 

  "So God made the expanse and separated the water under the expanse from the water above it"(Genesis 1:7). God created the air and separated the water from the earth. There was an evaporated water band, so the temperature was same all over the world without any separation of the tropics and the frigid zones. The water band that surrounded the earth is supposed to have disappeared after Noah's flood. (One piece of evidence is a body of the mammoth that was found in Siberia. The mammoth is a tropical elephant and it was found frozen under an ice field).

 

 

  God set the water under the sky and water was put to one side and on the other was dry land appeared and the land produced vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees.

 

 

  "And let them be lights in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth"(Genesis 1:15). On this day the sun, moon, and stars were created to give light to the earth.

 

 

  God created the fish of the sea and birds of the air.

 

 

  God created living creatures of land: livestock, creatures that move along the ground, and wild animals. God created the wild animals according to their kind, the livestock according to their kind, and all the creatures that move along the ground. (Genesis 1:25) This proves Mendel's law, which claims that living creatures do not change into another species; it only changes to a certain extent.

 

 

  God said; "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground." So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground"(Genesis 1:26-28). Man was created to be the most valuable, created as example of God's love. When we are aware of this fact our view of life changes.  

 

 

  God created the world in six days. "God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning- the sixth day"(Genesis 1:31). God created the heavens and the earth in six days and God set aside the seventh day as a memorial of creation. The seventh day was given to man to remind them of God's work, worship Him and be blessed through praising Him. Therefore if man had kept the Sabbath, holy distrust and theories such as atheism or evolution would never have been brought up.

 

 

 

  We need to remember that Genesis is not a man made story but a recorded facts. There are recorded dates, real places and people even the genealogy of the time. Every record expresses its fidelity in it.

 

 

  As the field of science developed and materialism grew, the evolution theory and atheism have spread widely all over the world. People even came up with an idea that religion is a superstition and said " God is just a man made idea and is only imaginary." In the history of materialism, their belief is that they do not believe in things that they can't see. However, a lot of undeniable evidence points out, that God really exists.

 

 

  First of all, the human conscience acknowledges the existence of God. Furthermore we, the Korean people accepted and believed God to be the Ruler of the world because we know that our minds feel satisfaction only when we trust in the Lord almighty. Every human being has the spiritual knowledge to distinguish and understand God. In the New Testament it is said, "Since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them"(Romans 1:19). There are experiences in life that cannot be seen through the naked eye, but can be felt in our hearts and thought about in our minds. Through these experiences we cannot deny the existence of God.

 

 

  Secondly, by looking at the world around us, we cannot deny that God exists because there is no result without a cause and there is nothing without a Creator. There was once a man named Robert Ingersoll, a believer of agnosticism who visited the home of Henry Wad, a famous preacher. Inside the living room was a celestial globe in which the heavens were drawn and the man asked the preacher, " This is fantastic, who made this?" and the preacher said, " It came into being by itself." Ingersoll was not clear about the answer, but later he answered his own question. It is difficult to comprehend that the awesome and perfectly created heavens just came into being one day, but a reasonable explanation is that a Superior Being, God created the heavens and the earth. "For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities have been clearly seen- being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse"(Romans 1:20).

"Lift your eyes and look to the heavens: Who created all this? He who brings things out the starry host one by one, and called them each by name. Because of his great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing." (Isaiah 40:26) As said in these two verses, when we see all the wonders of the universe we cannot deny God's divinity and unlimited power.

 

 

  In the first verse of the Bible there is a solemn record; "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth"(Genesis 1:1). Does this verse set a firm foundation of belief for our confused minds? This verse establishes a clear view of life and a view of the world for all Christians.

 

 

  We as Christians must seek for the true God and worship Him only. There are many gods in this world, which is the true God?  "But the Lord is the true God; he is the living God-the eternal King. When he is angry, the earth trembles; the nations cannot endure his wrath. Tell them this: These gods, who did not make the heavens and the earth, will perish from the earth and from under the heavens. But God made the earth by his wisdom and stretched out the heavens by his understanding"(Jeremiah 10:10-12). There are many gods in this world, but if their gods did not create the heavens and the earth it is not a true God and does not deserve respect nor does it need to be worshipped.