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October 16, 2022 · 1 hr 5 min · Pray Radio
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0:00 Thanks for listening to this sermon from pastor Mark Driscoll. For more free content such as sermons, study guides, daily devos, more, visit real faith dot com.0:09 We started a brand new book of the bible today. We're in the book of Genesis. If you've got a bible, it's really easy to find. Just go to page 1. That's all you gotta do. Alright. Now, hey, as we get into the book of0:21 Genesis, we're gonna spend about 9 months looking at this incredible book, and we're gonna begin in the beginning with this year at the beginning of the year. It is absolutely perfect sequencing0:33 and timing. And today, we're gonna talk about our planet. Do you like our planet? Yeah. It's a great planet. Hey, you know what? It's better than the options. Right now, it's 10000 degrees on the0:45 sun. Aren't you glad you don't live there? Can you imagine living in that kind of heat? If you're here in July, a little bit. You kinda can. Yeah. And then other planets are so cold you can't live there. Right now0:57 on Neptune, it's 360 degrees below 0. That's as cold as a Trump Biden double date. That's freezing. Nobody could live there. That's uninhabitable.1:08 Instead, we have this amazing great planet. And it's so much better than the options. I've been to, I think, at least 14 nations. I've been to most of the 50 states. And with the1:20 world being closed here recently in the last few years, I bought a Bronco. And, I love going out into the mountains. I like exploring God's creation. It's been in the snow. It's been in the rain. It's been in the mud.1:32 It's been in the woods. Today, had the top off and I drove in and I got to watch the sunrise. Just continually reminded in this breathtaking place that we live, the greatness, the glory,1:44 the goodness, and the grandeur of God's creation. As you as you look around at the world that God made, the question is, well, where did this begin, and how did this start, and why is it here and and was there a1:55 designer? So that's the question we're going to answer together in this sermon. Does the Bible teach creation or evolution? And we're gonna do so by looking at this ancient2:07 literature. You think about it, the book of Genesis, it's about 3 and a half thousand years old. Just consider right now all the books that are being written and all the concepts that are being shared in 3 and a half2:18 thousand years, most of them will be utterly and totally forgotten. But here we are looking at ancient Eastern literature 3 and a half thousand years after the fact. And the book of Genesis gets its name from the2:30 first line. In the beginning, God created. Beginning is another word for Genesis. It is, in fact, the beginning. The book is written, I believe, by Moses about 1400 years2:41 before Jesus Christ walked on the earth. It's 1 of the first 5 books of the Bible called the Pentateuch, the book in 5 parts. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. He is2:53 writing to Hebrew slaves who have escaped from the clutches of pharaoh, and they are in the wilderness between, Egypt and the promised land in the book of3:05 Exodus heading toward the home that God designed and created for them. Now when it comes to Genesis, it is not exhaustive. As you read Genesis, there's gonna be questions that it simply3:16 does not answer. Some of you are like, oh, what does it say about the dinosaurs? Nothing. What does it say about tacos? Nothing. What does it say about taco3:28 dinosaurs? Nothing. It's just there's things that it doesn't tell us. So it is a selective theological telling of our planet and human life on it in relationship to God.3:40 It's a big picture that then hones in to Adam and Eve and our first parents in our relationship with God. Now, before we jump in, 1 thing I want you to know as well, as you're reading Genesis, and I would encourage you3:51 to read it, to continually read it, grab the study guide, either a free copy here or a digital copy at real faith dot com, and just start to get into Genesis. But as you read it, just remind yourself, it covers about4:03 2000 years of human history. It covers roughly the same amount of time as the rest of the Bible in totality. So sometimes when you turn a page4:15 in Genesis, you're actually skipping hundreds of years. And so it's this magnificent overview of the planet. And so here's what we read. We're gonna start in Genesis 1 1.4:27 In the beginning, God created. So Genesis 1 1 and 2. We're gonna start right here. In the beginning, God created. Not to get super nerdy on you, and and I'm not a language scholar. I mean, I am4:39 bilingual. My second language is pig Latin. But but the the Hebrew word here, this is originally written in Hebrew. And sometimes as we go from 1 language to another with the translation, we could lose the meaning.4:50 I'll explain all this in a moment. But God created or Bahad, the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the spirit of God, there's the holy spirit, was5:01 hovering over the face of the waters. So we'll look at all of these amazing statements in succession. He says, in the beginning. What this says is that the planet that we enjoy, the the5:13 universe that we inhabit, it had a beginning. It's not eternal. And this corresponds with 2 primary concepts within science. The first is the Big Bang Theory. And and we5:25 we're not against science, but sometimes what science does, it doesn't want to come to the conclusion that God did something, so it will instead have faith in chance and accident. But the Big Bang Theory is basically5:35 this. Somehow, a bunch of matter came into being. We we don't know where. And it was all together. And for some reason, it blew up. It exploded. Big bang. And then5:47 it organized itself in a perfect way to where now we can enjoy life. And what I would say is interesting. That's a very interesting5:58 concept. And what I would say is, if you believe all of that, you have faith too. You have big bang, we have big God. Either way, we both believe that there was some sort of6:10 massive event that set in motion the world that we enjoy. Both would agree that there was a beginning. In addition, 1 of the most well established and accepted,6:22 posits within science is the second law of thermodynamics. And that is that things are winding down, that they are deteriorating. And that would indicate that there was a beginning and there will be a conclusion.6:34 And so whether or not you believe in the bible, here the bible agrees with even what general scientific inquiry and conclusion would determine, and that is the world that we live in had a beginning. It6:46 is winding down, and eventually, it will come to a conclusion. Now that being said, from this line, in the beginning, God created comes 2, what I will call arguments for the6:58 existence of God. 1 is called the Kalam cosmological argument. It's popular among those who are more Muslim. And it says the fact that we have time indicates that we have a beginning because you can't measure time unless7:09 there's a starting point. So I'll give you an example. I'm 51 years of age. And I know I don't look good. I know I look I look like I'm aging in dog years, you know. But so but but nonetheless, the reason I7:21 know that I'm 51 is I I've had a beginning. And then I can trace my time from that beginning. The reason that we have time is because our world had a beginning.7:33 In addition, the other argument that comes out of this is something called the Kalam not not the Kalam, but the cosmological argument from First Cause. And that is that for there to be an effect, there needs to be a7:44 separate cause. So for example, if I push the pulpit, and I won't, but if I push the pulpit and it fell over, that would be the effect, I would be the cause. So the world exists.7:56 That's the effect. The cause, someone had to do this. Someone had to start this. Someone had to design this. Someone had to push the first domino as it were. That being said, things don't create themselves.8:08 Things don't architect and organize themselves. There's an outside force that enables and allows that to happen. The world that we enjoy is not something that architected itself or was designed8:20 by us. It was designed for us. Now that being said, it tells us who the designer is. Says in the beginning, God. And the point is this, nothing makes sense until you start with God. And as we read8:32 Genesis, you're gonna meet all kinds of interesting characters and events. You're going to meet the Nephilim. And people and and and that week, you're going to see some weird UFO8:43 people show up with tinfoil hats, and they're going be like, I know who it is. No, they don't. Don't listen to those people. You're gonna see a massive ark. And you're gonna wonder, was it a real ark? You're gonna you're8:55 gonna you're gonna see all kinds of interesting people and things in Genesis. But don't get distracted. It's a book about God. It's first and foremost about God. In the beginning, God. Here's the big9:06 idea. Nothing makes sense unless you begin with God. Your day doesn't make sense unless you begin with God. Your life doesn't make sense unless you begin with God. Your marriage doesn't make sense unless you begin with9:16 God. Your family doesn't make sense unless you begin with God. Nothing makes sense until you begin with God. If you don't understand God, you don't understand anything or anyone. And the problem that we have in our day,9:27 we don't start with God. We start with us. We know far more about our personality than God's attributes. We take a lot of selfies, and we're not thinking about a savior. And so what Genesis does, it9:38 reorients us and says, start with God, begin with God. And until you understand God, you don't rightly understand yourself or anyone or anything else. Now that being said, the name for God here is9:50 Elohim. Not to get super nerdy on you, but in Genesis, there will be 2 different primary names of God that are used, Elohim and Yahweh. Elohim is a more general term in reference10:02 to God's relationship with all of creation. So here, it's Elohim because human beings have not yet been created. When God's people come along, they use the word Yahweh. It's more of a10:14 personal, endearing, intimate, private, worshipful name for God. So for example, some of you will call me Mark. Some of you will call me pastor Mark. Some of you will call me other things that I can't say10:26 in church, which is fine. And then my kids call me dad. So there's a general name that everybody can refer to me, And then there's a special name that my10:37 kids use to refer to me. So it is with God his father. Elohim is a general term that we find here. Later on, they will refer to him as Yahweh in relationship. And here's the big idea. Everyone10:49 comes from God. Everyone and everything comes from God. Everyone and everything belongs to God. Everyone and everything is dependent upon God. Everyone and everything is returning to God. Everyone and everything will11:00 give an account to God. That we begin with God. In the beginning, God and here, this God is the Trinity. Not shocking. You're at Trinity Church. We believe in the Trinity. The11:12 father, son, and spirit is the doctrine of the Trinity. It is the unique belief of Christianity. No other religion has this concept. 1 God, 3 persons in relationship, sharing all the divine11:24 attributes, loving and serving together forever. And what happens throughout Genesis, you will see certain doctrines, certain beliefs that are introduced in bud form, and then they blossom11:36 throughout the rest of scripture. It's called progressive revelation. That an idea is introduced and that it is progressively unveiled. And here, we have the beginning of the doctrine of the trinity. So in the beginning,11:48 God, most commentators believe that that is in reference to God the father. And it says that the spirit of God was hovering over the waters. There's God the Holy Spirit. In addition,12:00 the pre incarnate Lord Jesus Christ is present. And the way that God does his work of creation in Genesis 1 and 2 is through the power and presence of his word.12:12 So the word of God goes out, and then creation comes into existence by the sheer authority and force of the power of God's word. Well, who is God's word? It's12:24 Jesus Christ. John picks this up in his gospel and says in John 1, in the beginning. He starts where Genesis starts. In the beginning was the word.12:36 And the word was with God, and the word was God. He was with God in the beginning. So Jesus Christ is our creator. He is not created. He is God,12:48 and he preexists creation. He was with God in the beginning. All things were made through him. So Jesus is the word of God bringing creation into existence, and without him was not anything13:00 made that was made. Then it says the word became flesh, that our creator entered creation in the God man Jesus Christ. So what we see here, in the beginning, God, and this God is the father, son, and spirit13:12 working together to bring creation into existence, and it says that they created. Now there are 2 words in Genesis 1 and 2 and elsewhere in scripture that refer to13:23 creation. 1 is sparah. 1 is zaza. Part of the confusion is our English translations will translate both words the same, created.13:36 And Bahra and Asah are different words. Bahra means to make or create from nothing. Assa is to prepare something that is comprised of elements13:48 that already existed. So for example, if I wanted a ham sandwich, and I do. If I wanted a ham sandwich, I can't just say ham sandwich and get a ham13:59 sandwich. That would be a ham sandwich. And I wish I could do that. Instead, I need to a ham sandwich. I need to go get all of the ingredients. So I gotta go find ham,14:11 and bread, and lettuce, and cheese, and pickles, and mayo. And then I need to do the work of assembling all of the different pieces of my ham sandwich. Only14:23 God and we and God. Only God can make something from nothing. We need to take what God has made and then use it to make something that14:35 we desire, And God, likewise, can do the same. And so the reason that I tell you this is some of the confusion and conflict that comes in defining how creation is happening is14:46 translating those 2 simple words. So what it is telling here is that God, Bahrat, he created out of nothing. This is amazing. See, only our God14:58 needs nothing. Only our God needs no 1. Isn't that good news? So if you're looking at your life, you're like, I have nothing. God's like, that's not a problem. I can do something with15:10 nothing. That's what our God can do. And the language here that the theologians will use, and a lot of theology, theology is theos, god, logos, study. Theology is the study of15:22 god. We use Latin terms because a lot of the original scholastic work was done in the language of Latin, and they would use this phrase, ex nilo. It means out of15:34 nothing. And this is exactly what we read in Genesis. God, Bahrad, created out of nothing. And it is also commented upon in Hebrews chapter 11 verse 3, by faith.15:46 And the point is this, everyone has faith. If you believe that nothing created matter, that chaos created order, and that unintelligence created intelligence, you15:58 have faith too. We just have faith in God. You have faith in chance and accident. It says by faith, by faith, we understand that the universe was16:10 created by the word of God. This shows you the power of the word of God. So that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible. God didn't take16:22 something that existed and then cause it to be or organized. That would be what secular, atheistic, evolutionary process would tell you. That somehow preexisting16:34 things were formed. What it says here, God made everything out of nothing, and he made it orderly because our God does order, not chaos. Out of this, in the beginning God created, we get something called16:46 the teleological argument from design. And that is, if you look at our body, it is fearfully and wonderfully made, to quote the psalmist. How many of you have looked at the human body and you're like,16:57 it is what an engineering marvel. There are a few medical doctors in this church family that went into medical school as atheists, and they've shared their story with me. They17:09 became Christians in med school. As they're studying the Bible, they're like, somebody put this together. They just came to the inevitable conclusion that somebody intentionally17:21 architected our human body and all of its systems for life. In addition, what they would tell you, those who would hold this position of the17:33 teleological argument from design, is not only is our body custom built for life, so is our environment. That all of the variables that enable and sustain human life on our17:44 planet, if they were altered just a bit, human life would cease to exist. I'll give you just a few. We'll get more into this next week. We'll get into further details. And even if you get a headache today, come17:56 back. Pretty soon, there's a guy drunk naked in his tent. You'll understand that. His name is Noah. But what they would tell you is that things like gravity and18:08 gravitational force and carbon monoxide levels, that those are so specific in our environment that what they would call it is a fine tuning argument.18:21 And that is not only did god design the world in our body, he finely tuned the environment in our body so that we could live exclusively and solely in this environment.18:33 So it include distance from the sun and so many other variables that we enjoy. Now that being said, I wanna give you a quote. It's from the physicist Freeman Dyson. He studied at18:45 the Institute for Advanced Studies at Princeton. This is where the Nobel laureates, the greatest minds come together as a think tank of sorts to share ideas and to18:57 seek to answer the biggest questions of humanity. So these are the top research scientists and minds in the history of our nation at the very least. He19:09 started serving there in 19 53 as professor of physics, and 1 of his colleagues was a guy named Albert Einstein. He served there until he died at the19:20 age of 96. He was not a Christian. He did like the ethic of Jesus. Oh, be nice to people, feed people, forgive people. But he didn't believe in a personal God. Instead, he talked about God as the19:32 universal soul. He didn't believe that Jesus was God. Didn't believe in the resurrection of God. Didn't believe in the virgin birth. But looking, looking at creation, here's what he says. The19:44 more I examine the universe and the details of its architecture that's a crazy line. If there is architecture, you know what there is? An architect.19:57 I've never walked up to a building and thought, good job building. I'm wondering who architected it. The more I examine the universe and the details of its architecture, he says, the20:08 more evidence I find that the universe, in some sense, must have known we were coming. What? Yeah. It was so crazy.20:20 It's like, here's my hand, and then there's a glove that perfectly fits my hand. It's like the glove knew that the hand was coming. It got itself ready. If you see design, assume20:32 a designer. If you see architecting, assume an architect. If you see life, assume that there is a god who is the source of life. In the beginning, god20:44 created and what did he create? The heavens and the earth. I believe that here in Genesis one:one, God created everything. Now, we'll get into the 6 days of creation. And20:56 some people will think that he created other things on those days. I don't. Now, you can disagree with me. And you will. You will. So when we come to these issues, there are closed handed and open handed21:08 issues. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. That's what we believe. How long ago? How old is the earth? You know, what happened on each of the 6 days open handed? So we can discuss and debate and21:19 dialogue, it's super fun. And some of you have very strong opinions. Some of you have no idea what I'm talking about. Some of are like, I heard there's a funny guy in a carnival. I don't know. It's what I'm here. And21:29 some of you are like, oh, I've been up early. I got charts and graphs. I put on my dockers. I got my compass and my protractor, and, I'm taking notes, and I'm gonna be criticizing you later. Great. We're glad to have you21:40 too. We're gonna have a whole range of opinions on these things, and here's what you need to know. You need to study. You need to learn. And we need to love each other. So but my view is21:51 this. And, of course, it's the right view. So my view is that in, see if you're still paying attention. Genesis 1 1, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. I believe everything is created there. And22:01 this is a thing called a merism. Within literature, a merism is you take parts of a whole and you use them to denote the whole. So if I stay from stem to stern, that's the whole22:13 ship. If I say from head to toe, that's the whole body. You're like, what about the kneecap? It's counted in there. If I say lock, stock, and barrel, right, that means Arizona. And22:25 or it means gun. Sorry. But it denotes the whole gun. K. Here it says the heavens and the earth. That is a merism speaking of everything. Everything up there in the heavens and everything down here on the earth and22:36 everything in between. God made everything. In the beginning, God made the heavens and the earth. The word here for earth in some of your English translations will be translated land. It's22:48 the original Hebrew word, Eretz. Now this is very interesting because how you define this 1 little word determines in large part how you interpret the beginning of the23:00 world in Genesis 1 and 2. It appears this word does for land or earth about 400 times in the Old Testament. It's a very significant word. Sometimes it means the23:12 whole planet. Sometimes it means the promised land. Now my view is that it is most likely referring to not the whole planet,23:24 but the promised land. Then what happens in Genesis, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. And then what happens is the camera moves in to 1 place called the promised land and to our first parents23:36 because God's focus is on his people in his place. The promised land, you're gonna see this if you come back, in Genesis is where God gives us the borders and23:47 boundaries for the nation of Israel. It's the only country in the history of the world that God has told us what the boundaries are. That's why there's always a fight over the boundaries of Israel. Because God said it,23:58 and Satan's always trying to reset it. But when it comes to the land, I don't believe that they would have had the same perspective as us. Because we live in the day of the telescope and the microscope. We24:10 live in the day when astronauts go up and they take a photo of the Earth, and we think, okay, that's the land. That's the Earth. They didn't have that perspective. In fact, this will blow your mind. For the first24:22 1600 years of human history, everybody lived in the promised land. It's not till Genesis 11 at the Tower of Babel that God24:34 scatters people that they start living in other places. So for the first 1600 years of human history, we all lived in 1 place. There was nobody in Apache Junction. There's nobody in Detroit. There's24:46 nobody there. There's nobody in Taipei. They're not there. And so when they think of land, they're thinking of their land. Furthermore, the original recipients of Genesis were those who had been enslaved24:58 for 440 years in Egypt. They have been delivered by God, and they're in the wilderness walking home toward The promised land. The promised land. When they hear land, they're thinking about25:09 their land. And they're trying to get back to their land. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. This would include the planet, but here, I believe the focus25:21 is starting to shift toward the promised land. And it says that at this time, that the world or the earth was without form and void.25:33 Some of you I can tell you, you're trying to take notes, you're going to get carpal tunnel. So let me just give you a little secret. So if you go to realfaith dot com, my sermon notes are there. The transcript will be25:42 there. Audio and video will be there. Daily devotions to sign up for will be there. And a free study guide will be there. And you're going to have a lot of other questions. And so I would just point you to a resource25:52 called the Doctrine Book. It's got about 1000 footnotes. It's a systematic theology that I co wrote. And there's a whole chapter on creation. You're like, I got questions. There's a whole chapter. Alright. What about the26:04 Trinity? Whole chapter. What about sin in the fall when we get into Genesis 3? It's in there. What about Adam and Eve and our first parents and marriage and gender and sexuality? There's a chapter. What about covenant26:14 relation? It's all there. Just go to real faith dot com if you got more questions, you want more resources. I love teaching the bible. It's all free. Just click on the store and get free copies digitally. But when it26:26 says that the earth is without form and void. Again, in the original language, it's bohu and tohu. And what happens is, it says first and foremost that there was darkness.26:38 Well, there are 2 options here. Number 1, God has not yet created the sun, the moon, and the stars, so it's dark. Again, I believe, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. I believe that the sun, moon,26:49 stars were created there. The second option is that God begins his work at night. Question, is it darker at night? Even if you're not a Christian, you're like,27:01 I think I know this 1. Yes. So it may be telling us if it's dark, it could mean that there was not yet light, or it could mean that God starts his work at nighttime when it is dark out.27:13 And no 1 is here except for God, so he's revealing to us what happened through the Holy Spirit. He was present. Now when it says that the world was without form and void, that the earth was without form and void,27:25 what sadly affects English translations of the Bible all the way back to William Tyndale in 15 23, and he did a great job, and we're forever grateful for him, is ancient Greek27:37 cosmology. Ancient Greek cosmology says that God went from or or rather that the world we inhabit went from chaos to cosmos. It went from hunk of mud or primordial27:48 soup to order. And the truth is that that's not how our God works. Our God doesn't create chaos. He creates order. Our God doesn't create something that's not good. Everything he makes, he28:00 says is good and very good. Our God doesn't start with something that is a total mess. Our God gets it right the first time. And so within this, some would look at this and say that the world28:12 was like a hunk of mud or a primordial soup. I don't believe so. These same Hebrew words for without form and void, I've got it in the notes, but it's in Deuteronomy. It appears in the prophets28:24 Isaiah and Jeremiah. And it refers to barren wasteland that is not able to sustain human life. K? And so here's what I believe. And you could disagree with me.28:36 God bahraud the heavens and the earth. He made it from nothing. And then at some point, he usaud it and prepared it for human life and flourishing. I was thinking of how to explain this to you. It's like a28:48 developer. I've got buddies of mine that are developers. What they'll do, they will obtain a large amount of land and at some point, they develop it so people can move and live there. Right? If you're new to Arizona,28:59 just drive around. This is exactly what's happening. You're in a desert. Right? No 1 can live here unless we get it ready for you. Like, if you just moved here, you're like, hey, I can't afford to29:11 live, you know, high cost of living, fast growing city and county in America. I'm just gonna go out to the middle of a desert and live there. For 15 minutes, you'll live there. If there's no water, there's no shelter,29:23 there's no food, there's no you. So what the developers need to do, they need to develop, I saw the land. So God created the land, but we are now assawing the land, preparing29:35 it so that as people move here, they have places to live where they can actually survive and flourish. The truth is there are still places on earth that if you just dropped a human being and didn't prepare it, they would29:46 die. I believe that's exactly what it's talking about. I'll give you an example. Right now, if we just parachuted you over and dropped you in Antarctica, how long would you live?29:57 Minute. There are places that you can't live like Portland. It's not it's not fit for human life. You can't survive30:09 there. K? It's funny unless you just moved here from Portland. And the fact that you moved here proves my point, so don't get so offended. So30:21 what I believe it's saying here is that the the land may have been something that could sustain plant life or animal life, but not human life. So God prepares it. He is developing30:33 it. Now what this does, this allows us to still believe in 6 literal days, we'll get into this, that God created the heavens and the earth, and that Adam and Eve are the first human beings that30:45 God made. And God could have done the Bahrain and the sawing at the same time, or he could have left a period of time in the middle, which would account for the appearance of an old earth30:57 and young humanity on the planet. I'll get into that a little more in a moment. But what we know is, again, Hebrews 11 3, the universe was created by the word of God. Not preexisting matter, but God the31:09 Creator. And it's not made out of things that are visible. So the barren and empty wasteland was made by God, Ahrod, and then Assad by God for us.31:21 Now, boy, this leads to all kinds of questions. 1 of the questions that now comes up. We're going look at the 6 days of creation. And the first question is, are these literal 24 hour days? That's a big question.31:33 If you say yes, there are a few options for what team you're on. And if you say no, there are other options for the team that you are on. It's a big issue, interpretive issue. Again, open handed31:44 issue. Because the word for day is oftentimes referred to as a literal 24 hour day in the original Hebrew, and sometimes it means an extended period of time. So if you come to either of these31:55 conclusions, you still are interpreting the Bible. You're just coming to a different conclusion, but it doesn't mean necessarily that you're into some sort of false teaching. So that being said, here's the question. Are32:07 the days of creation literal 24 hour days? I would say yes. For this reason, each day is numbered. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. That seems to indicate an actual week. We'll deal32:18 with that in a moment and refer to as evening and morning. Hebrews, Jewish people have always seen the day starting at sunset, not sunrise. So their Sabbath begins at32:30 sunset. Evening and morning is how the Hebrew people would see a day. In addition, here's what we read in Exodus chapter 20 verse 11. Also written by Moses, also32:42 given to the refugees in the wilderness who received the book of Genesis, says for it 6 days. The original Hebrew word there is yom. And it can mean, again, 24 hour day or extended period of32:54 time, but it goes back to creation. And I believe this commentary shows that it was 6 24 hour literal days. The Lord made heaven and earth, he's quoting Genesis 1, the sea and all that33:06 is in them, and he rested the seventh day. What it says here is that here's how God worked. He set up a 7 day week. 6 days, he works. Seventh day, he's33:17 Sabbaths. This sets in motion for us a 7 day week. We'll deal with this next week. But ultimately, there are nations, particularly atheistic nations in the history of the planet,33:29 that have sought to have something other than a 7 day week just to kind of protest against God. And you know what they find? It doesn't work. And even the atheistic nations go back to a 7 day week. Here's why.33:41 Ultimately, God created us and the world, and things don't work unless we obey his divine design. So, yes, I believe that it is 7 literal33:53 days. Now, we have different names for our days. Some of you say, pastor Mark, how did we get different names? Thank you for asking. We name our days after Norse pagan34:04 gods. God numbers them. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. Day 1, we call Sunday. That's the sun's day. Not the Phoenix sun's, the sun's day. Day number 2 is34:16 Monday, that's the moon's day. Day number 3 is Tuesday, that is Twy's day. Wednesday is Woden's day or Odin's day. Thursday, day 5, is Thursday,34:28 Thor's day. Day 6, we call Friday as Friday's day, and day 7 is Saturday, Saturn's day. So God creates these 734:40 days and 1 eSabbath since 6 eworks. So 1 more thing I want to do, I want to look at all the teams for how we view Genesis 1 and 2, and then we'll look at34:52 the 6 days of creation. So there are 5 basic themes, and these are the various Christian views of creation. Again, it's all in the doctrine book. You can study35:03 more. And here's the big idea. When it comes to interpreting Genesis 1 and 2, I'm gonna tell you that I see it as a 5 lane highway. You can be in any 1 of these 5 lanes35:15 and love Jesus and believe the Bible. Some churches, it's a 1 lane highway. And if you're not in that lane, they sideswipe you until you merge. We're not going to do that. Okay?35:27 The point is this. We tend to fight over some things that are maybe less important and then not fight for some things that are more important. In the beginning, God created the35:39 heavens and the earth. And he created the heavens and the earth so that we could live together in love. And if we're arguing and fighting about how we made the place we live, we're sort of violating the point for which35:49 he made it. Furthermore, when Jesus returns to his creation, it would be nice if he didn't have to break up a church fight with people arguing over Genesis 1 and 2. I think it was Galileo who said, the Bible is36:01 not intended to tell us how the heavens go, but how to go to heaven. So as we get into this, you you will say, pastor Mark, okay, I disagree with you. Can36:13 I still be at the church? Answer, my wife disagrees with me on this issue. So not only can you be at the church, you can be married to me. I mean, I I some people ask, like,36:25 you and Grace ever disagree? Has there ever been a time you disagree? Yeah. Day 1, day 2, day 3, day 4, day 5, day 6, day 7, we disagree all the time. But we agree to love Jesus and36:37 love each other. So we want this to be an issue where you can dialogue and debate and discuss, and that's great. But don't divide. Okay. Here are the 5 ways that Christians interpret Genesis36:49 1 and 2. Historic old earth and young humanity creationism. This is 1 of the positions of the earliest church fathers all the way back to Augustine before37:01 the scientific revolution. And the point is this, they would say that God bahraud the heavens and the earth, that there may have been animal and plant life. This might even37:13 explain the dinosaurs, just throwing it out there. And then at some point in 6 literal days, God saw the creation and prepared it for human life. Like a developer, he owned the37:24 land and then he developed the land because he was making us to put us in the place of the promised land that he created for us. This would allow the possibility of an old earth37:37 and young human life on the earth. It requires 6 literal days for the creation of a sawing and preparing. Furthermore, part of the debate is37:48 often those who would really hold scientific ideology and methodology, they would say that the Earth is old because of radiocarbon dating. And38:00 they would say that the Earth is, let's say, 4500000000.0 years old. And those who are honest in their scientific pursuits would also say that human life on the earth is38:12 young. Human life as we know it. Living in towns or organized communities, farming, not just foraging,38:24 growing our own food, raising livestock, living together in community like people do today. They would say, human life like that is around 10000 years old.38:36 What I like about this view, and this is my view, that's why I put it number 1. It's number 1 to me. That ultimately, what it allows is it allows us not to38:48 argue over the age of the earth. It's like, okay, will you believe the earth is old? That's possible. And you believe that human life on the earth is young. That is what the Bible teaches. The genealogies in Genesis, 5,Show more
Mark Driscoll
