Skip to content Genesis 1 - Part B Feb 20 · 26 min ...more
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The Intersection of Faith and Science 0:01 Welcome to connect with Skip Heitzig. We're glad you've joined us for today's program. Connect with Skip Heitzig exists to connect you to God's never changing truth in ever changing times through verse by verse0:13 teaching of his word. That's why we make messages like this 1 today available to you and others on air and online. Before we kick off today's teaching, we wanna let you know that you can stay in the know about what's0:25 happening at connect with Skip Heitzig when you sign up for email updates. When you do, you'll also receive Skip's weekly devotional email to inspire you with God's word each week. So sign up0:37 today at connect with skip dot com. That's connect with skip dot com. Now let's get into today's teaching from pastor Skip Heitzig.0:47 A scientist by the name of Herbert Spencer categorized all that is knowable into 5 categories. That is he said and he was the 1, by the way, who came up with some of those0:58 taxonomic phyla categories for biological life. But he said everything knowable can be placed in 1 of 5 categories, time,1:11 force, action, space, matter. Now, I wanna say congratulations, Herbert. That was really1:23 good. We applaud you, Herbert. Wonderful that you could add to the scientific knowledge of the world. However, you just articulated, Herbert, Genesis 1 1.1:35 In the beginning, that's time. God, that's force. Created, that's action. The heavens, that's space. And the earth, that's matter.1:48 And what we start discovering as we go through the book of Genesis is that it's very precise. And these scientists come along go, wow. Look what I just discovered.2:00 Everybody goes, wow. Give you a prize dude, a Nobel prize. And yet, I submit to you that the man or woman of faith is miles ahead of the man or woman of2:12 science. You see it says in Hebrews chapter 4 or Hebrews chapter 11, by faith, we believe that the worlds were framed by2:24 the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible. Did you hear that? You just made a statement of faith. By2:36 faith, we believe that everything in the material world is made up of materials you can't see. We call those atomic and subatomic particles. If somebody came along and discovered2:47 that all matter is broken up into these invisible particles and that's what everything's made out of, and they come along and they say, we just made a discovery. And we go, we've always known that.3:01 The bible tells us plainly that everything we can see wasn't made up of visible, but invisible particles. So the person of faith will be further3:13 ahead than even the person of great science. So if you can combine science and faith, and I believe you can quite well, you can be pretty far ahead of the game.3:26 In the beginning, God created I know that we've just barely covered 1 verse, and we'll we'll speed it up as we go, but this is pretty foundational.3:39 Something else. 1 of the things we discover, and I'm milking it for this reason, God doesn't tell us a lot about his creative process. He doesn't give us much3:51 information. If you were to count, there's only 630 words God uses to describe the origin of everything. This is an abridged4:03 version of creation. He spent far more time and space talking about Abraham, far more time and space talking about the tabernacle, Just a4:15 few words speaking about creation. But the purpose of Genesis isn't a biology lesson. How many in in Moses' day or Abraham's time would have understood it if it were?4:27 God and the author through the Holy Spirit has an agenda to show us briefly the origin of all things, and then to take us quickly to the origin of the Hebrew nation through which4:40 genealogy would come, the savior of the world, the Messiah. So the book has a definite agenda as it takes us through. So in the beginning, God4:52 created the heavens and the earth. Okay. This is where you lose most people. The modern mind today believes5:06 that evolution is such a done deal and such a closed case, it can't even be argued. And if it is argued, it's by idiotic fundamentals who happen to stupidly believe in the literal5:18 inspiration of the bible. And I'm 1 of them. But they think it's such a done deal. Everybody knows. Try it. Talk about this publicly with someone.5:30 Everybody knows, they will say. That evolution is a fact. It's a known fact. It's a done deal. It's a closed case. Not so fast.5:41 Some of the most brilliant minds in the scientific community would say, not so fast. It is not a closed case, it is not a done deal, it is still a theory and it is still speculative.5:54 For example, molecular biologist Michael Denton said, and I quote, the evolutionary theory is still, as it was in Darwin's time, a highly speculative hypothesis6:06 entirely without direct factual support. Close quote. If you studied the origin of the species by Darwin and some of his other writings, you6:18 know that 1 of the glaring problems Charles Darwin saw with the evolutionary theory was the fossil record. He knew that there were huge gaps inexplicable6:30 by him in the fossil record. That paleontology did not agree with his theory, but he also believed and stated that time would vindicate him. That6:41 the more we study the fossil record, the more we will know that evolution is a fact. Well, been a hundred and 20 plus years since Darwin's time, David Raup,6:54 curator of the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, writes, and I quote, we are now over 120 years after Darwin, and the knowledge of the fossil record has been greatly expanded.7:06 We now have a quarter of a million fossil species, but the situation hasn't changed much. We have fewer examples of evolutionary transition7:18 than we had in Darwin's time. Now I'm gonna tell you a story. Billions of years ago, and this thing took a7:30 long time, billions of years ago, There were gases and explosions and fluids and other explosions and great upheavals and cataclysms7:41 and eventually, a tiny particle of rubber was formed. It took a long time and it took a lot of processes, but a little tiny particle of rubber was formed. And then7:53 over thousands and even millions of more years, a tread formed on the rubber. It became more complex. And8:05 4 of these things formed sequentially, and then other explosions and gases and metal formed. And anyway, over billions of8:17 years, a car formed and came up out of the earth. Now you're laughing and that is the right response. It's stupid. It's silly. You look8:29 at a car, you look at a beautiful automobile, it it it it belies design. It's been designed. And if it's been designed, there has to be a a designer. It's the teleological argument8:41 for creation. Anything designed must have a designer. So if that's true of a car or a watch, what about a brain? A complex human being.8:54 Just happened, a fortuitous occurrence of accidental circumstance, randomness over billions of years, that's not smart. That defies logic. It defies9:06 good science. Now I will also admit something to you because I studied the sciences. I discovered in my classes, in my courses, in my work before I got into the9:18 ministry, that most intelligent people do believe in evolution. And that stunned me. It was an eye opener. But then I discovered why.9:29 I I I truly believe this. Most intelligent people believe in evolution because they believe most intelligent people believe in evolution. They don't wanna be an9:41 outcast. They don't wanna be considered controversial or stupid. Easier to fit in instead of go against the system that many scientists dare to do.9:55 If you believe in evolution, I will congratulate you right here and right now. You have way more faith than I have. You're a great man or woman of faith. For you to say that10:07 over billions of years, just randomness is responsible for a highly complex carbon life in this biosphere takes more faith than to believe in the beginning,10:20 God, the first uncouth cause, created, for us, the heavens and the earth. And that's how the Bible begins. And that's what the Bible appeals to.10:32 Can I just say this too? So so maybe we won't make it through Genesis 1. But but but let let me just say this too. Do do you realize10:44 do you realize what you will be able to live through in life with great confidence if you believe this? Can can you10:56 fathom the kind of stability you can have if you believe this?11:00 You're listening to connect with Skip Heitzig. Before we return to Skip's teaching, misunderstandings about Jesus abound. Some see him as a prophet, others as a moral teacher, and still11:12 others as just a myth or mere historical figure. But the Bible tells a different story about who Jesus is. We wanna help you know the real Jesus of the Bible by sending you Skip Heitzig's 911:24 message CD series, Who is this Jesus? In this eye opening series, Pastor Skip addresses common misconceptions about Jesus, clarifying both Jesus's humanity and his divinity11:35 to equip you to confidently answer questions about who Jesus really is. We'll send you the who is this Jesus series, as well as Skip's booklet for new believers titled life change, as thanks for your gift11:47 of 50 dollars or more to reach more people with God's love through connect with Skip Heitzig. Go to connect with skip dot com slash offer, or call 809 2 2 18 88,11:59 and request your copy when you give. Now, let's get back to Skip for more of today's teaching.12:06 You know, in Acts chapter 4 when they were arrested in Jerusalem, and the the heat was on. Do you remember how they prayed? Lord, you are God.12:18 You created the heavens, the earth, the sea, and everything that is in them. That's how they begin their prayer. Now they're gonna pray for a pretty hefty thing, but they couldn't have prayed for that12:30 pretty hefty thing unless they made that beginning statement. You created the heavens, the earth, the sea. And if you did that, then that is is my basis of my prayer. If you did that, then you can12:42 certainly answer this. Here's my issue. And before I bring to you my issue, my problem, I'm recognizing who you are. And if you believe that that's who12:54 God is, you're gonna find faith comes quite easily. You have a relationship with the 1 who made the heavens and the earth, sky is the limit.13:05 Okay. Verse 2. The earth was without form and void. 2 Hebrew words, tohu13:17 vabohu. Tohu means ruined or empty. Bohu means vacant. The earth was ruined, empty, vacant.13:30 And darkness was upon the face of the deep and the spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. It was without form and void. It was unfinished in shape. It13:41 was uninhabitable by creatures. That was in the beginning. Now some people see a gap between Genesis 1 1 and Genesis 1 2.13:54 They see an initial creation in verse 1, and then a subsequent recreation in verse 2. And that is because the word in14:05 verse 2, the earth was you see the word was? It's the Hebrew word hayatah, which can be and often is translated became.14:18 And the earth became without form and void. It wasn't made that way in the beginning, but it became that way. Now follow me here. They will then point to Isaiah14:29 45, and I'm gonna read a section of scripture to you, Isaiah 45 verse 18. For thus says the Lord who created the heavens, who is God, who formed the earth and made14:41 it, who established it, who did not create it in vain. He did not create it, tohu is the Greek is the Hebrew14:53 word. He did not create it in vain. Who formed it to be inhabited, I am the Lord, and there is no other. So many will point15:05 to some cataclysmic pre Adamic catastrophe between verse 1 and verse 2. And this is where they will fit the fall of Satan, the fall of Lucifer.15:17 Lucifer, son of the morning, light bearer, who fell with a third of the angels and was cast to the earth. And some will even say there was a whole human race headquartered in the Garden of Eden over which Lucifer,15:29 was overseeing and then, he fell. And there's all sorts of stories. Now it is possible that Satan did fall between verses 1 and 2, and that15:41 the earth became without form and void. There was a subsequent judgment before a recreation. But I just gotta say, I don't know. I wasn't there.15:54 Again, the question of Job, where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? I have to say, I wasn't there. So it is a possibility. It is a theory. It's called the gap theory. I'm not16:05 sure. So let's keep going and look at the 6 days of creation beginning in verse 3. Then God said, let there be light, and there was light.16:17 It's even more emphatic in the original. God said, light be. You know, God didn't go, now how am I gonna do this? What what is the recipe again for light?16:29 How do I work this out? Just he spoke. Very first words of God recorded in scripture here. Let there be light, and light happened. Light16:41 was. And God saw the light, that it was good, and God divided the light from the darkness. And God called the light day and the darkness he called night, and evening and morning16:53 were the first day. Now notice the phrase, let there be. If you were to count them up, I've counted them for you,17:05 they appear 10 times in this chapter. We call these the 10 commandments of creation. Let there be, let there be, let there be, let there be. God said that 10 times, and17:17 he framed it by his word and it happened. God said, let there be light and there was light. Notice in verse 5, God called the light day day.17:29 K. Can I just give you a little bit of pre information for the rest of the bible? You're gonna find 3 usages of the word day in the bible. Hebrew word is yom. You've heard of Yom Kippur, the day of atonement?17:41 Yom is day. 3 ways it's used in the bible. 1 is the portion of the 24 hour period where there is light. That is called the day. That's number 1. Number17:53 2, the bible uses the term day for a period of time that is several days, or weeks, or months, or years. The term the day of the Lord is such a18:05 usage. It covers a whole bunch of events that don't happen in a 12 hour or 24 hour period. But years, the day of the Lord or the day of Christ is another. But then18:17 the third usage is, I believe, this usage, a 24 hour period. And whenever you find a numerical adjective, like first day, second day,18:29 third day, fourth day, fifth day, like you do in Genesis, it refers to a 24 hour period. Thus, I do not believe in theistic evolution. You could see where I was going with that. I don't18:41 believe that it took God millions of years and billions of years, and he called that period a day, and then more stuff took place and he called that a day.18:53 God did it in 6 24 hour periods. And I think that was a long time. I mean, God could have done it in 6 seconds. He took a whole day to do that. So he took his time. So I19:05 believe in these 6 days, 24 hour periods because it says, and evening and morning were the first day, and evening and morning were the second day.19:17 Now in hearing that, you might think, didn't the author get that backwards? Shouldn't it be and morning and evening were the first day instead of an evening and morning were the first day? Well, apparently not.19:31 In fact, the Hebrews, because of this verse, reckon the beginning of their day at twilight. Sun goes down, they see the first 3 stars, that's the beginning of the day, and it goes all the19:42 way through to the next evening when it's twilight again. So if you're in Israel and you wanna celebrate Shabbat, Sabbath, which is Saturday, it begins Friday evening.19:54 You better get home quickly. And evening and morning were the first day. Brings up a question.20:06 God said, let there be light, yet we don't find the sun, moon, and stars created until the fourth day. So how could there be light in our universe20:18 without everything that we know as the source or the reflection of light to be present? That's a good question. I can only answer it by saying,20:31 I don't know. But I can speculate. And I do wanna say I'm giving my opinion now. There's a couple of things here. The bible says God20:43 dwells in unapproachable light. There was in the old testament this thing called the Shekinah glory of God, this visible light filled20:54 presence of God that appeared in the tabernacle later in the temple for a period of time. It was this manifestation of God and it was in light. It could have been that before God created21:06 the sun, moon, stars in day 4, that day 1, it was simply his Shekinah glory. If you've studied the electromagnetic spectrum, you know that radiation that travels at a21:18 hundred and 86000 miles per second photon energy goes all the way from radio waves, up through infrared, then visible light, and then ultraviolet,21:30 rank and graphic rays, gamma rays, cosmic rays. But even in that visible light, there's there's a range of of size21:43 and and and length of of waves. So that even without the sun, even without the moon, there certainly could have been just God emanating. Here's another explanation,21:55 that on day 1, God created the sun, stars, moon, etcetera, but they didn't become visible because of the canopy, the shroud around the earth until day 4. That's what22:06 many speculate. But I'll just say, I don't know. God called the light day, and the darkness he called night. So evening and morning were the first day.22:18 Now here's day 2. Then God said, let there be a firmament or a vault or a dome is the Hebrew translation of the word rakia. Let there be a22:30 firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. Thus God made the firmament and divided the waters which were under the firmament and the waters which were22:42 above the firmament, and God called the firmament heaven. And so evening and morning were the second day. Now it's believed that there22:53 was, at this time, a canopy, a water canopy, a vapor canopy, like a dense fog above the atmosphere, in the ionosphere that that23:05 did a number of things. It it encircled the earth. It created sort of a greenhouse or hot house effect. You'd have temperate mild warm climate worldwide. You'd have no barren deserts. You'd have,23:17 no polar ice caps. There was this uniform temperature created by this hot house effect because of the vapor canopy that watered the earth. By the way, there's a lot of water up there even23:29 without the canopy. Kauai, there's a rain forest in Kauai that boasts of 200 inches of rain per year.23:41 There's a lot of water up there. Well, at 1 time, it is believed that this canopy of of vapor of water that watered the whole earth, It would keep23:53 mass air movements from being created, winds, hurricanes, etcetera. It would filter out the ultraviolet radiation, that very short wavelength radiation that24:06 either causes or helps in, shortening the lifespan of man so that would account for the longevity of people upon the earth. And so that24:18 there was the earth, this unformed mass. God created light. Then God separated the vapor canopy above the atmosphere creating this24:30 greenhouse effect so that carbon based life could flourish upon the earth. And he called the firmament heaven.24:39 We're glad you joined us today. Before you go, remember that when you give 50 dollars or more to help reach more people with the gospel through connect with Skip Heitzig, we'll send you pastor Skip's series, Who is This24:51 Jesus? And his booklet Life Change to help you better understand both who Jesus is and why you can trust what the Bible says and who you are as a believer in Christ. To request your copy of these25:02 resources, call 809 2 2 18 88. That's 809 2 2 18 88. Or visit connect with skip dot com slash offer. For more25:14 from Skip, be sure to check out the many resources available at connect with skip dot com slash store. Come back next time for more verse by verse teaching of God's word here on Connect with25:26 Skip Heitz25:30 It.25:49 Connect with Skip Heitzig is a presentation of connection communications, connecting you to God's never changing truth in ever changing times.In this video 0:00 The Intersection of Faith and Science565K followers
Skip Heitzig ministers to over 15,000 people as senior pastor of Calvary Church in Albuquerque. He reaches out to thousands across the nation and throughout the
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