The audio and notes for Part One of this message can be found here.

To recap:

1. God’s Intention for Man v.26

To bear His image in relationship and in responsibility.

2. God’s Celebration over Man v.27

3. God’s Commission to Man v.28

The first emphasis of God’s mandate relates to our purpose as procreators.

The second facet of God’s mandate for man in Genesis 1:28 relates to his image-bearing responsibility on and over the earth. Men were made not only to enjoy creation, but also to work it and keep it. God commanded men to subdue the earth and have dominion over the animals, establishing divine cause for exploration and study of the earth and using that knowledge to develop it. In other words, God commissioned us to change the world.

Nancy Pearcey describes this “Cultural Mandate” in her book Total Truth.

In Genesis, God gives what we might call the first job description: “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it.” The first phrase, “be fruitful and multiply” means to develop the social world: build families, churches, schools, cities, governments, laws. The second phrase, “subdue the earth,” means to harness the natural world: plant crops, build bridges, design computers, compose music. This passage is sometimes called the Cultural Mandate because it tells us that our original purpose was to create cultures, build civilizations–nothing less.

To our shame, we have largely ignored our human calling to “to order, develop, and embellish God’s splendid creation, to realize the multifarious potentialities which were embedded within it.” (David Hageman, Ploughing in Hope, 29). Christian young people are often the worst culprits of laziness and low aspirations. More pagan young people have vision for accomplishing goals, even if only out of pride. Christians (in the OT, God-fearers) should be the most eager, motivated, and wise workers. We recognize that changing the world isn’t a burden; it’s a privilege. We should be the best teachers, the best scientists, the best artists, the best widget-makers because we have the proper perspective on what it means to be human.

The Cultural Mandate involves making and shaping everything on earth as God’s image-bearers. To that end, God has given each one of us different desires and talents to be used. No matter what our skill or skill level, we are to take God with us we go, build, and organize. Sometimes it is said that the only thing we can do on earth that we can’t do in heaven is evangelize. Not true. Man was given a purpose on the planet before the need to evangelize existed. When we die, we will find the culture in heaven is already in place. We dare not waste our limited time opportunity here.

I think Adam and Eve would be proud of the world wide web, zippers, recycled paper, the interstate highway system, MacBook Airs, and the wheel. In the mandate to fill the earth, we anticipate society and cities and culture as well as government. In the mandate to subdue the earth, we anticipate science and technology, research and development, schools, art, music, architecture and agriculture, and medicine after the fall.

Here are couple of stray implications that come out of this paragraph.

1. The motive for making and managing is not money. Money is too small of an incentive. Hard work and good work is only sustainable when driven by theology that knows a big God. Low effort and low quality are a product of anti-God thinking, either ignoring or intentionally disregarding God. Instead, we work to bear His image. That is a calling because God is worth displaying.
2. Taking dominion over the virtual or imaginary world doesn’t count. Young people seem especially susceptible to this distraction. Video games may be fun for a while, but they are not the true work of image-bearers.

Those of you who are always asking your teachers if you’ll use this or that piece of information later in life are not thinking right. That question betrays a low vision of what you’re going to pursue or accomplish in your life. The response should be “Wow! I better figure out a way that I can use this later in life because this is really amazing that God has made the world to work in this particular way. How can I use that for God’s sake, to show off His image?” When we ask “What is the minimum amount I need to know to pass the test?” that is a pathetic, superficial outlook on your God given purpose on earth.

What are you doing to change the world? Or at least, how are you preparing now to change the world later? Are you working to figure out your God-given skills so that you can maximize your image-bearing? What are you dreaming about? What is the direction of your life? Is the image you’re bearing in those pursuits an accurate reflection of God?

We are not worthy to enjoy the condition of our first father, who was to live in a pleasant setting without having to work hard. Nevertheless, before sin entered the world, and before we were condemned by God to painful and difficult work, it was necessary for men to occupy themselves with some work. Why? Because it was against our nature for us to be useless blocks of wood. (John Calvin quoted in Ploughing in Hope, 41, emphasis added)

4. God’s Provision for Men vv.29-30

Man needed food if he was going to be doing all this dominion taking and culture-making. There are a couple pieces of really good news in these two verses.

And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so. (verses 29-30)

The word Behold is an attention getter, kind of like when Pastor Z says “Watch this.” I get the sense that, now that man has been created, God can’t wait to show man all the things He’s made for him. That’s exactly what the previous days have been about: preparing a place for man. God starts by showcasing the lush and abundant provision of food. “I made all this for you!”

The liberty and variety of choice man has is astounding. In chapter two we learn that God did place one restriction on their food, but otherwise they were free to eat from every plant yielding seed…and every tree with seed in its fruit. This also implies that the mandate to have dominion over living creatures did not include, at this point, killing them for food.

I have no doubt that this the best vegetarian eating ever. Miracle Grow has never produced fruit like was on those trees. I’m positive I’ve never been presented with a salad that could compare with the greens in the garden. The first fruits needed no added high fructose corn syrup to make them sweet and the vegetables needed no melted cheese sauce to make them palatable.

Vegetation was also food for the animals. A different Hebrew word is used in verse 30 translated every green plant. Initially I thought this was an odd place to mention the animals’ diet. Wouldn’t it have been easy enough to explain what animals would eat when the animals were created, or maybe when Adam was naming the animals? Why talk about it here?

One simple explanation is that God created men with a curiosity to know about things and how things work. But I wonder if this wasn’t also a veiled comfort. This was before sin and death and so before killing. Men had no reason to, or experience of, fear. But some of those beasts and pterodactyls were big. Maybe this was a way for God to communicate to man that they would be okay, without raising their suspicions. Men don’t eat animals…yet (v.29); animals don’t eat men…yet (v.30).

Men are specifically allowed to eat meat after the flood in Genesis 9:3. Genesis 1:29 doesn’t forbid the eating of meat, which probably began after the fall, but formally authorized in chapter nine.

And it was so. What God wanted is exactly what happened.

5. God’s Conclusion on Creation v.31

After adding man as the last piece of the creation puzzle, God observes His work.

And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day. (verse 31)

Verse 31 includes most of the same story elements we’ve seen at the end of days one through five. But now God considers everything that He had made. Of course, that implies that He was done. And when He looked, behold, it was very good. The idea is, “Have you seen this? Take a look at this!”¹

God pronounced other things good (vv. 4, 10, 12, 18, 21, 25), but now that man is on the stage, in His place as steward and subduer of the earth, everything is very good. All of the planets were in alignment. Too bad it didn’t last that long. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.

Conclusion

God chose to reveal Himself most in men. While every intricate part of the universe shows God’s handiwork, men and women are the only parts of creation that bear His image. There is nothing like a man. What is man? He is the imago Dei, the image of God.

There will be more to talk about once sin enters the world through Adam. Before the fall, we were made in God’s image. After the fall, Christians are transformed into the image of God’s Son. Before the fall, we were commissioned to take dominion over the earth. After the fall, we are commissioned to make disciples of all nations. But there are human responsibilities that existed before sin. Christians should be better equipped to fulfill them.

This passage FRAMES OUR BELIEFS about:

1. Creation
   • All of creation is to be enjoyed.
   • All of creation is to be used/stewarded.
2. Other Humans
   • Each human being has intrinsic value and dignity because of being made in His image and breathing His life.
3. Ourselves
   • Each of us has a job to do: change the world. Whether by investigating, imagining, or inventing, we’re to bear His image.

What a privileged position and serious responsibility He’s given us. Our primary work is to worship in our work by bearing His image.

Genesis 1:26-31 is undoubtedly one of the three most important paragraphs in all of God’s Word.¹ Though it is the longest, most detailed description of any day in the creation story, it is astonishingly short for the significance of truth it contains. Without this paragraph, the question, What is man? cannot be answered accurately. It reveals truth about man, his place and purpose on the planet, as God finishes His part in filling the creation He’s formed.

It it hart to estimate how much we need a renewed understanding of these things. Here we learn about man’s created value. This is where true esteem comes from. Here we learn about man’s created capabilities. Here we learn about man’s created purpose.

As amazing as all of God’s creative work in the previous days of week one, this paragraph is the climax, the peak of the story. Not only does the creation of men get the most attention in that Moses uses the most amount of space to describe it, it now becomes apparent that all of the other creative elements are for man. The light was made for man to work and to set the pattern of his life cycle. The atmosphere was made so man could live and breathe. The dry land was created for man’s home and for his sustenance. Even the birds and sea creatures and land animals are placed under man. Man is the masterpiece and crown of creation.

And for the first time, a part of God’s creation is made “in His image.” As we’ll discuss, for whatever that “image” means exactly, it doesn’t mean less than that man is framed in a unique way and with a privileged place.

This paragraph, at least a correct understanding of it, would change our laws: we would stop killing babies and we’d certainly be more concerned about human babies instead of baby whales. This paragraph would give us a new understanding for living on a green planet; we would recycle as stewards not because the trees are our family. This paragraph would help us recognize that men and women are different; they are not made the same though they both have value in God’s image.

1. God’s Intention for Man v.26

New things in verse 26 grab our attention like a pop-up book.

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” (verse 26)

Every other time in chapter one, “And God said” is followed by a creative word, “Let there be [light (v.3), an expanse (v.), etc.].” But in verse 26, “And God said” is followed by a conversation.

The obvious question is: who is God talking to?

It wasn’t that God was talking to Himself per se, because He doesn’t go on to say, “Let Me make man in My image.” It also wasn’t that Gods were talking to each other, because in the following verse the pronoun is singular again, “God created man in His own image” and not “in the image of Gods they created him.”

Most scholars (many of whom are, unsurprisingly, Jewish scholars) think that God was talking in the heavenly court to angels. But, nowhere in the Bible does God “counsel” with the angels. Also, men are nowhere said to be made in the image of angels.

There isn’t much evidence in Genesis one itself related to the Trinity (maybe verse 2 where the Spirit of God hovers over the face of the waters). But the plural is unmistakably clear. Not only is it clearly “Let us make man,” the image is our image and the likeness is our likeness. I’m not sure exactly what Moses was thinking about, but knowing what we do now in light of the rest of Scripture,² it is easy to envision the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, in their eternal relationship, talking and deliberating with one another about the plan.

Here now is the first part of that plan in verse 26: Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. Forests of trees have been sacrificed to make the reams of paper it’s taken to print the books and articles written on the subject of the words “image” and “likeness” and what that means about man.

Even though “image” and “likeness” may have nuanced differences, Moses clearly uses them as synonyms. The key word seems to be “image” as it is repeated two addition times in verse 27. “Likeness” (to be like, to resemble, but not the same as) seems to be a way for Moses to stress what image is.

So what does image mean? An image is a form or reflection or representation of something. A penny has the image of Abraham Lincoln’s head on one side. That image represents Lincoln, but it obviously isn’t actually Lincoln himself. At the right angle you can see your image in the water as it reflects your face. You’re not in both places, but the water shows what your face looks like.

So men are a reflection of God Himself. They are made in such a way as to show something about God. They are not God, but the bear a resemblance to Him in such a way that by viewing man we get a picture of God. Sometimes we talk about how the Bible represents God anthropomorphically, that is, with human characteristics. “More accurately, a human being is theomorphic, made like God so that God can communicate Himself to people. He gave people ears to show that He hears the cry of the afflicted and eyes to show that He sees the plight of the pitiful (Ps. 94:9)” (Waltke).

But what part or parts about man represent God? In particular, what is man? What is it about man that separates him from the rest of creation since he’s the only part made in God’s image?

Bearing God’s image doesn’t mean that men have life. Birds and fish and animals have life. Being made in God’s image doesn’t necessarily mean that man has a body. Again, the animals have physical bodies, and, God doesn’t have a body, or thumbs. Other suggested definitions for “image” range from:

• eternal soul
• moral consciousness (capable of shame)
• abstract thinking (rationality, intelligence, judgment)
• facial expressions
• speech (verbal communication given and received)
• royal representatives (as ambassadors of the King)
• capacity for fellowship with, worship of, and love for God

On one hand, it seems like Moses doesn’t give a precise definition; he just states the fact. But I think two things must be included in what it means for man to be made in the image of God from this context.

First, that man is made in God’s image means that man is made for RELATIONSHIP. I think that because it is the Triune God that discusses making man. The three Persons are conversing. Our God was a personal God before He created, with eternal relationships between the Persons. Though each Person is different, there is an enjoyment of one another in unity. And the basis of human relationships is the relationships between the Godhead. Creatures live together, fish travel in schools, but they don’t fellowship as friends.

The relationship aspect also seems to be the point of saying male and female He created them in verse 27. The emphasis is not only that both men and women bear God’s image, but that they do that together in relationship. Man is personal and interpersonal. He is a social creature made for community, not isolation, just like His Maker.

Second, that man is made in God’s image means that man is made for RESPONSIBILITY. Unlike the other parts of creation that are made for certain smaller tasks, man is made for oversight and stewardship and making and progress. As soon as God decides to patter man after Himself He says Let them have dominion. We are made for relationships and we are made for responsibility.

In making man for dominion, that is, for ruling, God has assigned man a place over creation, though man is part of creation. It is not (necessarily) arrogant to act like we are better than birds. It is arrogant to act like we are better than God. And keeping in mind our position before God helps us maintain the proper perspective of our job regarding His creation.

So God’s eternal plan was revealed and accomplished. He made us to work. He made us to be unique. He made us for relationship and responsibility. Of course things including rationality and ability to communicate are important for relationships and responsibility, but those are the two broad ways men reflect God that stand out in the passage.

2. God’s Celebration over Man. v.27

Verse 27 stands out in the flow of this paragraph, interrupting God’s discourse with the narrator’s (almost) lyrical summary.

So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them. (verse 27)

Three times in verse 27 the word bara (created) is used. Like I’ve mentioned, only God is the subject of bara in the OT; only He creates like this. The only times bara is used in Genesis one relates to brand new things or new stages of creation, like the universe (v.1), living things (v.21), and now humans.

Also notice that image is again the emphasis. God created man in His own image and then the exact same thing is said again in the opposite order, in the image of God He created them. That not only clarifies why man is the way he is, but even more, I think the repetition and syntax celebrate man. God is exalting over this finishing touch.

The last phrase in verse 27 could be problematic in light of chapter two. Why? Because this verse says male and female He created them, in addition to God said to them and God said to them, Be fruitful and multiply. Whereas chapter two describes that man, that is, Adam, was created first. Only after Adam named all the animals did God create Eve.

But actually, seeing 1:27 as the general work of creation solves the fact that God said it was not good for man to be alone (2:18), but at the end of day six God said it was very good. So there really is no problem, and in fact, the more detailed description of how God created man and then woman in chapter two emphasizes even more that man is the focal point for God.

Man is not broken down by species or made “according to its kind,” rather, man is designated by sexuality. Sexuality “is not an accident of nature, nor is it simply a biological phenomenon. Instead it is a gift of God” (Hamilton, p. 138).

3. God’s Commission to Man v.28

At some point later on day six, God addressed the first couple.

And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” (verse 28)

Like with the birds and the fish in verse 22, blessing precedes the commission to reproduce. The mandate to multiply was energized and empowered by God.

Blessing them, God said to them, the first act of speaking with His creation (since in verse 22 His commission to birds and fish was not to the birds and fish) and then a string of five imperatives:

1. Be fruitful
2. Multiply
3. Fill the earth
4. Subdue the earth
5. Have dominion over the earth

The first three are linked to procreation, to reproduction, and the final three are related to responsibility, with the middle command (“Fill the earth”) functioning as the hinge, since the more humans the easier for cooperating and taking dominion.

The commission to reproduce would have been especially meaningful to the first two people on the planet. [This was the first application of the principle "focus on the few to reach the many," where the many are a result of the first couple. This is also why Genesis 1:28 is not the poster verse for one28, because we've got to get you married before we get you obeying this.] The genealogies in Genesis (5, 9, 11, 25, 36, 46) provide testimony to the .

For the emphasis on life and abundance in chapter one, this verse should not be used as a basis for believing that you must have as many children as possible, especially if the pregnancy or labor threatens life. Remember that at this point, there was no sin, no death, and no pain in child birth! Things are different after the fall. This verse should not make barren couples feel guilty or ashamed.

And yet, this verse should confront those of you (and those in our culture) who think you don’t want any kids, or you’re going to wait as long as possible so that kids don’t get in the way. Genesis 1:28 does indeed confront that selfishness by reminding us that God’s intention and command was that we be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. Even with 6.8 billion people we haven’t filled the earth. There’s no need to get worried about overpopulation.

We’ll study the second part of God’s commission to man and the rest of the paragraph next week.

Notes for this sermon will be available shortly.

Notes for this message will be available shortly.

See Night and Day (Pt 1) here.

4. Defined Days

The hope of theistic evolutionists hinges on the word “day.” In order for evolution to fit in Genesis one, “day” must represent long periods of undefined time, more than likely covering millions of years.

The Hebrew word for “day” is yom. The question is, does yom ever refer to a period of time other than 24 hours? The answer is yes. Even in the first two chapters of Genesis, “day” is used at least three different ways.¹

1. “God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night.” (1:5) Here, Moses uses yom to indicate a 12-ish hour period.
2. “God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. And let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years” (1:14). Here, Moses uses yom to indicate 24-hour days as they make up years.
3. “These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens” (2:4). Here, Moses uses yom to indicate the entire creative week.

But note first of all, that even though there are different definitions, none of them involve ages or eons.

Second, the context establishes how long a day is in Genesis one. Every single (stinking) day in the chapter is defined. It starts in verses 3-5, God creates light, separates it from darkness, calls the light Day and the darkness Night. And there was evening and there was morning the first day. The light/darkness, evening/morning, the [ X ] day formula is repeated for each of the first six days (verses 5, 8, 13, 19, 23, 31).

Third, day can’t be figurative, a metaphor or symbol of something else. Nothing else in the chapter is figurative. If “day” doesn’t mean “day,” why does “earth” mean “earth”? Why doesn’t “vegetation” represent something else? How can “man” mean “man”? It is strange, and inconsistent to suggest “day” means something other than what it typically does.

How do theistic evolutionists answer this?

According to young earth theory, the Sun was not created until Day Four, thus there could be no sunrise or sunset for the first three days of creation. However, God uses the terms evening and morning for those first three days. Therefore, they cannot be actual evenings and mornings. We are left with only one option. The words for Evening and Morning can only represent the beginning and ending of the creative period, and not actual sunrise and sunsets. (See Answers in Creation)

As if God could not create light or establish light/dark cycles apart from the sun, they simply ignore Moses’ account and force their assumptions into Genesis one.

Days are defined as solar days, 24 hour days as we know them today. It wasn’t millions of light/dark transitions in verse five that made the first “day.” Saying that a “day” represents long ages casts suspicion on every word in the account. The only reason to even suggest a day isn’t a day is because of presuppositions outside the text, and is the worst kind of eisegesis.²

5. Breeding Boundaries

This shoots as big a hole in theistic evolution as any of the previous bullets. Everything that reproduces, every plant, every animal, every fish, every bird, every insect, (even every human in a similar way), all reproduce according to their kinds.

On day three (verses 11-12), God created vegetation (remember that in the evolutionary timeline plants are not the first sort of organic life), and the phrase according to its kind is repeated three times. Apple trees produce apple seeds that grow into little apple trees. Orange trees produce orange seed that don’t grow into oak trees.

On day five (verses 20-23), God established that each individual type of water creature would reproduce according to their kinds (demonstrating that there were multiple kinds in the water), and every winged bird multiplied according to its kind.

Then on day six (verses 24-25), God established that livestock and creeping things and beasts of the earth all would multiply according to their kinds. God made them distinct, and made them to reproduce keeping those distinctions. Humans may have successfully bred cocker spaniels and poodles into cockapoos, but i. We’ve never mated mosquitos with goldfish or squirrels into mosquish or squirritos.

And even though the phrase “according to their kind” isn’t included when God made men and women, they were the only creatures fashioned in the likeness of God’s image. Men are of a different kind altogether.

No kind jumps out its kind, there is no mutating across breeds or progression up the food chain. God placed limits and boundaries on the light and darkness, on the sea and the seashores, and on living creatures breeding according to their kinds. Fish belong in the water; flying is for the birds; men and animals were made for land. God creates, God separates, God distinguishes and defines and sets boundaries.

6. Bad Good

At multiple points throughout week one, God declared His work “good.” When He gathered the waters together to make dry land, God saw that it was good (verse 10). When He made plants and trees yielding seed and bearing fruit, God saw that it was good (verse 12). When He set the sun and moon to rule the day and night, God saw that it was good (verse 18). When He created fish and fowl, God saw that it was good (verse 21). When He made livestock and insects, God saw that it was good (verse 25).

As He prepared the earth for life, specifically life for His image-bearers, God pronounced His own approving evaluation of creation’s goodness. That is, God declared creation’s beauty and quality and acceptability and desirability. (As a side-note, setting up the earth for life is not the same as making little-life and causing it to mutate into more complex life.)

Then, God saw everything that He had made, and behold, it was very good (verse 31). There was nothing about His creation that was deficient or defective or hurtful. So here’s the question: if killing and death prevailed on the planet, with weak and mutant and in-between-stages creatures, as evolution requires, how could God claim “everything was very good”? Theistic evolution must imply that death is an acceptable good, that as long as the fittest survive and overall progress is being made, everything is okay. But in biblical terms, that is a very bad kind of good, and really no good at all.

Conclusion

All six bullets I’ve mentioned come from observation of the biblical story itself. In light of how obviously they refute theistic evolution, let alone naturalistic, I wonder if Darwin didn’t concoct his theory by sitting down with Genesis one in front of him and consciously writing an anti-Genesis story. Since he grew up in a professing Christian home, I think it’s reasonable to suppose he knew exactly the truth he was rejecting.

And while we’re wondering out loud, could Moses have written the story in any other way that would have been more beyond doubt that he was referring to six 24 hour days? Henry Morris put it this way:

If the reader asks himself this question: “Suppose the writer of Genesis wished to teach his readers that all things were created and made in six literal days, then what words would he use to best convey this thought?” he would have to answer that the writer would have used the actual words in Genesis 1. If he wished to convey the idea of long geological ages, however, he surely could have done it far more clearly and effectively in other words than those in which he selected. (The Genesis Record, p. 54)

If the assignment was to leave open the possibility of evolution in chapter one, Moses failed.

No matter how a person might attempt to fit evolution into Genesis by saying that God is responsible for it, he still must deny the Bible on some level. Either Scripture or “science” is wrong. We cannot eat evolution cake with Genesis one icing.

Finally, let me acknowledge that our belief in a literal six-day creation is built and framed by revelation. But belief in God’s Word is not the same thing as belief based on never seen, never proven guesswork. Those are blind beliefs, nothing better than stabs in the dark. God’s Word, on the other hand, is light in the darkness. The biblical account of creation is night and day from theistic evolution.

According to Genesis 1:1, the universe was launched in an instant, due to the initiating, intelligent, omnipotent, creative work of Elohim. In the first verse of the Bible our beliefs are framed about God, the one God, the only eternal God, the God who is distinct from, yet involved with His creation. He created time, space, and substance out of nothing. And as quickly as the second verse in the Bible, amidst this new and vast universe, God focuses His work on the earth. Genesis 1:2 describes the earth’s early condition, setting the scene for a week’s worth of forming and filling so that man could live on His planet.

Another opportunity like this might be rare, and it is the story, so let’s read the whole story of the first week.

Genesis 1:1-2:3

Not only was this the first week ever, it was the original W.O.W. Week (“week of wow” week). There was nothing except for God before “wow” week. In that week, all things were made through Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made (cf. John 1:1-5).

I emphasize the word week because it seems that a very small minority believe there was only one, 24-7 week in Genesis chapter one, and the majority I’m concerned about are not those who reject the Bible altogether. A person who doesn’t believe in God and who has no commitment to Scripture certainly won’t hitch their wagon to the creation account. Naturalistic evolution, that is, the development of life apart from God, presumably the result of a big bang, using the formula “nothing times no one equals everything,” is not the problem (besides the fact that it is clearly ruled out by Genesis 1:1). It seems most scientists don’t even cling to that theory any longer.

But I am concerned with those who desire to reconcile Scripture with science, specifically those who desperately want to squeeze the millions of years required by the evolutionary theory into the Genesis one story. The problem is with professing Christians, those who believe in God, those who claim allegiance to the Bible, who struggle to cram a version of evolution into creation.

Like I mentioned last week, some try to fit all these years in between verses one and two. One of the key elements of the Gap Theory, however, is that the strata are identified by different fossil records that supposedly unearth progressive development. But what does it take to make fossils? At least two things: 1) it takes living things. However we don’t learn anything about created life, like plants or animals, in verse 1. And equally important, 2) it takes dead things. Death doesn’t come into the story until chapter three after Adam sinned. Besides, fossils don’t form from burying something in your backyard, it requires something cataclysmic (like the volcanic eruption and Mt. St. Helens demonstrated.)

For that matter, the strata overlap. There isn’t even solid scientific evidence for it. So everything about the Gap Theory is a guess, and it is a guess based on a faulty premiss that reads into creation in verse 1 things that clearly don’t take place until later in chapter one or even chapter three.

Some of these persons attempt reconciliation through what is called the “revelation theory.” They suggest that when Moses talks about “days” and “evenings and mornings” in Genesis one that he is referring to 24 hour days, but that those are days when God revealed the story of creation. So it took God one day to give Moses the information about Day and Night (verses 3-5). It took God another day to tell Moses about the expanse (verses 6-8), a day to tell him about making dry land and plants (verses 9-13), and so on. Either it was a short work day, or Moses just wrote a summary of all the details.

However, when God speaks in Genesis one, it is creative speaking, not reporting on creation. Moses doesn’t mention himself anywhere in the story, because he wasn’t there. This is the story about the week when God gave the universe a beginning and when He formed and filled the earth, not a story about the week when God told Moses about evolution.

Most who desire to reconcile science (granting for the sake of argument that evolution can even be considered “science”) with Scripture call themselves theistic evolutionists or progressive creationists, but both of those approaches make a similar scrambled mess of exegesis. Those persons want to keep both science and the Bible, so they look for ways to fit evolution into God’s design. They believe God worked through minute mutations and gradual development.

I don’t remember this being a popular position when I went to public high school. Back in the day, you were on one side or the other. You either believed God and the Bible and creation, or there was no god at all and the Bible was stupid and evolution was scientific fact.

Yet theistic evolution appears to be the common, Christian way of thinking today. By far, the majority of Genesis commentaries I’ve read presume theistic evolution to be the proper interpretation of the chapter. Even in the comment thread on my blog [here at the Void], a loyal reader wants to “leave the door open” for God’s work through evolution, and suggested that theistic evolution gives God more glory.

So how do you answer that? What can you say to those who want God as the evolution mover? There are at least six bullets from Genesis chapter one alone that shoot down any notion of evolution, over six days or over millions of years, and prove it unbiblical. There are other biblical and scientific evidences available to the Christian apologist. But mathematical formulas about DNA strands or cracks in the fossil record are not as convenient or authoritative as a well-reading of the story itself. I want believers to be able to take anyone to Genesis one and show that God Himself says He didn’t create via evolution. Over the next six days I’ll post the biblical bullets.

1. Narrative Genre

The bulk of the book of Genesis is in the narrative genre. “Narratives are stories, purposeful stores retelling the historical events of the past, that are intended for a given people in the present” (Fee and Stuart, How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth, p. 90). Moses is telling a story, but it is a non-fiction story, an historical record of actual events at specific times in particular places with real characters.

Nothing in Genesis smacks of myth or fable, with fanciful, fictional events. There are no potions, no princesses, and no magical golden coins. Instead, this is a matter of fact account. Even if Genesis one were considered poetry, as a few current scholars suggest, that wouldn’t change its truthfulness. Though I think Genesis one is prose anyway, it wouldn’t make an exegetical difference, since the Psalms aren’t make-believe.

If Genesis one does not describe real events and real days, when does the pretend story stop? If chapter one is figurative, then reality can’t materialize until at least after chapter three, after the story of the fall, of Adam’s sin, and the coming of death. Evolution demands death, the “survival of the fittest,” creatures evolving in order to survive harsh environments and predators, which means that for evolution to take place, death must have also been occurring during those millions of years. So at least the first three chapters of Genesis are untrustworthy. When can we start depending on the straight stuff? If Moses isn’t (always) reporting actuality, and since he gives no indication of switching back and forth between what’s figurative and what’s fact, then he is a great deceiver, and by implication, none of Scripture can be trusted. The truth is, theistic evolution doesn’t stand in light of the narrative genre.

2. Chronological Sequence

Every verse in Genesis one (except for verse 1) begins with the conjunction “and.”¹ Moses doesn’t skip through the story, he moves step-by-step, directly from one work to the next and from one day to the next. Not only are his readers intended to feel the immediacy of the progression, Moses leaves no empty space for long, indefinite periods of time. We go to bed, so to speak, and there’s more creative work by God the very next morning.

The immediacy of movement is one piece of evidence, but perhaps even more conclusive is that the sequence of evolution is contrary to the order of creation in Genesis one. For example, Moses describes the creation of vegetation on the third day (the third “age” according to most progressive creationists), the creation of birds and fish on the fifth day, and the creation of animals and insects on the sixth day. Evolution, however, supposes that the sequence started with simple cells (3 billion or so years ago), that gradually developed into to complex cells (2 billion years ago), then into multicellular life (1 billion years ago), to simple animals (600 million years ago), to ancestors of insects (570 million years ago), to complex animals (550 million years ago), to fish (500 million years ago), and then to land plants.².

That means even if God did use evolution to form and fill the earth, the sequence of development is off. Maybe Moses jumped around, but that seems unlikely in light of the genre and the flow of thought. The crux of the matter is that the creation account, as it’s told in Genesis, can’t be made to correspond with the evolutionary chronology.

3. Immediate Fulfillment

Seven of the eight creative acts in Genesis one include a follow up phrase of immediate fulfillment.

• Verse three, And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.
• Verse six, And God said, “Let there be an expanse….” And it was so (verse seven).
• Verse nine, And God said…and it was so.
• Verse eleven, and it was so.
• Verse fourteen, and it was so.
• Verse twenty-four, and it was so.
• Verse thirty, and it was so.

God said it, and it was done. No time passes. No development or evolution discussed. God commanded by His word and the creation was completed without interval. The repetition of and it was so is a rhetoric device that demonstrates God’s power to create instantaneously, and rules out small, gradual adaptations over indefinite ages.

See Night and Day (Pt 2) here.

Genesis 1:1 is the “opening statement of the world’s most often printed book” (Morris, p. 37). It may be the most read and well-known verse in the the Bible, and certainly in the Old Testament. It is also probably the most important verse in history; without this foundation, there is no such thing as history. It may contain the most discussed and debated ideas ever. And as Henry Morris remarks:

It has often been pointed out that if a person really believes Genesis 1:1, he will not find it difficult to believe anything else recorded in the Bible. That is, if God really created all things, then He controls all things and can do all things. (p. 37)

I’ll admit, meditating on Genesis one, and especially verses 1 and 2 this last week, have blown me away all over again. I am newly sensitive to each song we sing about God as Lord of heaven and earth. As much as ever I’ve been bowed and lifted by considering how indescribable and uncontainable God–our God–is. How do you create space in no place? My mind can’t comprehend the idea of God existing without being in a particular location. And how do you create time? If there was a day one, yet God existed before day one, then why don’t we start counting backwards? God does not fit in our finite minds. The best we can say is that God existed before time and before space, apart from sometime and somewhere.

As we move into the Genesis story, we reach Act 1 Scene 1, where God creates His stage to display Himself. This is an amazing chapter, presenting the process of creation with tight structure and elevated style, but every part of it is fact. We can’t skip this or write it off as fiction without serious consequences. This is the beginning.

The Creation of the Entire Universe v.1

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

God’s book opens with a sweeping declaration of God’s creating of everything.

The Time of Creation

The first phrase in the Bible, In the beginning, refers to the beginning of time itself, so to the start of the history of the world. As I said, the only thing or person in existence prior to the beginning was God. In 1:1 we’re standing at farthest left point on the timeline; this is the dawn of a new day, the grand opening. This is literally the defining moment.

So, when exactly did creation take place, or, when was the beginning? There are a number of things that make determining the precise date of creation difficult. For example, different cultures, like the Jews, have defined the length of a year differently. It is also possible that generations are missing in the genealogies in the OT (especially in Genesis 11). Additionally, scientific methods, such as carbon dating, are unreliable.

The best estimates use the Bible, taking the chronological details we do have from the beginning of creation to man (Genesis 1), from man to the flood (Genesis 1-6), from the flood to Abraham (Genesis 7-11), from Abraham to the captivity (Genesis 12-2 Chronicles), and from the captivity to restoration (books like Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Daniel). Using the biblical figures, conservative chronologies range from men like Luther (3961 BC) to famous scholar James Usher (4004 BC) to those who assume some gaps in Genesis 11 and guesstimate creation around 10,000 BC. But there is no evidence to get us 3,000,000 BC.

So we don’t know the precise date. Nor do we need to. The time of creation is important in so far as we recognize it had a beginning, and that God determined it.

The Act of Creation

In the beginning God created. God is the first subject of the first sentence in Scripture. Of course, He had to be, since there was no one else to do anything. But He is clearly the emphasis in all of chapter one. “The first chapter…is one of the most God-centered chapters in all the Bible” (Phillips, p. 35). He is the subject of almost every verb. He speaks. He commands. He names. He pronounces good. God is named at least 32 times in the first 31 verses of the story, and if we include the pronouns, He’s mentioned even more.

The Hebrew word for God is Elohim (‏אֱלֹהִ֑ים). It is not a personal name or proper noun. Like our English word “God,” it is the title given to deity, emphasizing supremacy and sovereignty and bigness and majesty and distinctness from whatever is not God. Yahweh is the primary personal name that God reveals for Himself, and we’ll see Yahweh as “LORD” as early as chapter two. But Elohim and Yahweh are one and the same in Genesis. There is no confusion about who or which Elohim is doing the creating. Israel’s national LORD is the (one and only) universal God.

I should also point out that Elohim is plural in form, but singular in meaning. We shouldn’t read a full treatment of the Trinity into Elohim simply because it is plural, but it certainly allows for persons in the Godhead. That truth is also hinted at in verse 2 (with the Spirit of God hovering over the face of the waters) and verse 26 (where God refers to conversation among Himself, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness”).

He brought things into reality that previously had no existence. The Hebrew word translated created is bara (so 1:1 begins bereshit bara), and is used only of God in the OT. It stresses freedom and power on the part of the creator. Sometimes the word refers to God’s work of making or forming things out of pre-existing materials, so a remodeling or renovation. But when that happens, the materials are always mentioned. Here in verse 1, however, no pre-existent materials are mentioned. That leads to the other way bara can be used, to refer to creating something entirely new, not just improved.

No man has ever made something from nothing. Man can create in the sense of forming one thing into something different or more complex, but no person can make something out of nothing. Perhaps you’ve heard the Latin phrase ex nihilo, meaning “out of nothing.” Even though verse 1 doesn’t explicitly say creation was out of nothing, the context definitely teaches that truth.

That means God alone is eternal. He alone is self-existent. He alone has the sovereign creativity and capability to make something from nothing. And that He created teaches us that the universe had a beginning and a Creator; it did not exist eternally nor did it come into being by random cause.

That also means our world is not a result of chance, random variation, stray molecules, or willy-nilly gods. Genesis 1:1 shows God’s initiative (He moved first), independence (God moved apart from external influence) intention (God created with purpose), and intelligence (God created with creativity and order).

The Objects of Creation

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. “It is characteristic of many languages to describe the totality of something in terms of its extremes” (Wenham, p. 15). So, in other words, by saying He created the heavens and the earth, Moses means God created everything; the entire universe. Heavens refers to what we think of as the atmosphere or the sky; those things that are above. Earth refers to the planet, a place; what is below. In creating the universe, God created space and then focuses on a particular (and relatively small) place within that space.

To take a step back for a moment, I think it is particularly interesting to consider how in Genesis 1:1 we see SPACE, TIME, MATTER, and ENERGY, the things that define our existence. Herbert Spencer, an evolutionary philosopher and early advocate for Darwin, “outlined five “ultimate scientific ideas”: time, force, action, space, and matter. These are categories that (according to Spencer) comprise everything that is susceptible to scientific examination. …Genesis 1:1 accounts for all of Spencer’s categories. “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.” (MacArthur, The Battle for the Beginning pp. 40-41)

Genesis 1:1 also frames our beliefs about God in such a way that certain other ideas are ruled out. For example,

• Atheism, the belief that there is no god. Verse 1 assumes God’s existence. There is no proof provided, or apparently necessary. It is taken for granted. I guess the point is, only a fool would say there is no God (cf. Psalm 14:1). God exists.
• Polytheism, the belief that there are many gods. Verse 1 makes plain that there are not multiple gods responsible for the universe as the result of of their petty fights. His is one God.
• Pantheism, the belief that god is part of creation. Verse 1 reveals that God is distinct from His creation
• Dualism, the belief that both good and evil are eternal and have been battling forever. Verse 1 reveals that only God was around, therefore, only good was around.
• And while we’re at it, verse 2 rules out Deism, the belief that God created and then doesn’t intervene after.

In just (seven Hebrew words) ten English words, Genesis 1:1 reveals that God exists, that God is one God, that God is separate from creation, and that He made things out of nothing. The origin of the universe is attributed to the only ever-existent, omnipotent, initiating Elohim.

The Condition of the Early Earth v.2

Except for verse 1, every verse in Genesis chapter one begins with the conjunction “and.” This is one time where the ESV doesn’t help itself by trying to make a smoother read. The NASB sometimes uses the word “then,” which is fine. But the point is, Moses is moving us by step by small, sequential step. Each new thing follows closely on the heels of the previous verse.

So Moses moves from the creation of the universe, to the earliest condition of the earth. He focuses on one little part in the universe. In fact, it is interesting how earth-centric Genesis one is, and I don’t think the reason is that the earth or what ends up being on it is so special, but because the earth is where God chose to tell His story and make His name known.

Though the ESV doesn’t include the conjunction, verse 2 steps immediately after verse 1.

[And] the earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.

Three successive and coordinate phrases focus on the early condition of the earth.

Unformed and Unfilled

First, And the earth was without form and void. Some of you know that the phrase, “without form and void” is the title of my blog. It’s the Hebrew phrase tohu va bohu. The word tohu means formless. It describes something in disorder like the wilderness or desert. The word bohu means empty like a barren wasteland. The point is that the earth was uninhabitable at this point, inhospitable to life.

This first phrase in verse 2 sets the stage or the following six days. Days 1 (light), 2 (sky, seas), and 3 (dry land, vegetation) are God adding form to the unformed world. Days 4 (lights), 5 (birds, fish), and 6 (animals, humans) are God filling the void. “First, it must be shaped and formed into definite molds; secondly, it must be peopled with all kinds of inhabitants or beings” (Leupold, p. 47).

A number of “Christian” scientists have taken tohu va bohu to say that the earth deteriorated between verse 1 and 2. They say creation was complete and pristine in verse 1, and that the earth “became” without form and void. The biblical reason they give is that Isaiah 45:18 claims the LORD “did not create it formless (tohu)”.

The problem is that Isaiah appears to be talking about God’s goal in creation, Moses is writing about the process.

Besides, the scientists who make this argument come at it with the presupposition that the discoveries of “science” must be made to fit with Scripture. One of their key scientific “evidences” is that of geological strata, suggesting corresponding geological ages. They claim it took thousands of years for each strata to form. Scientists suggest that between verse 1 and 2 there was a huge gap in time to make room for those thousands of years, so called the Gap Theory.

One of the key elements of the Gap Theory, however, is that the strata are identified by different fossil records. But what does it take to make fossils? At least two things: 1) it takes living things. However we don’t learn anything about created life, like plants or animals, in verse 1. And equally important, 2) it takes dead things. Death doesn’t come into the story until chapter three after Adam sinned. The gap theory is biblically impossible.

For that matter, the strata overlap. There isn’t even solid scientific evidence for it. So everything about the Gap Theory is a guess, and it is a guess based on a faulty premiss that reads into creation in verse 1 things that clearly don’t take place until later in chapter one or even chapter three.

Instead of all that, Moses moves simply from the general statement in verse 1 to the specified beginning and a focus on the earth. In its very beginning condition, God made it unformed and unfilled.

Darkness and Deepness

The second description in verse 2, and darkness was over the face of the deep. Deep is a reference to “deep water,” but this is not a kind of primordial ooze. It wasn’t until day three that dry land was separated. So it appears that the early formless condition was primarily water. It is also dark. Light doesn’t appear until verse 3.

Present and Poised

And then the third description of the early earth is And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. There is some possibility that Spirit could be “wind” but the idea seems to be that God is present and poised for His next creative action. Besides, ruah is modified by Elohim, and every other time Elohim is used in Genesis one refers to God. The “phrase really does express the powerful presence of god moving mysteriously over the face of the waters” (Wenham, p. 17). We are about to see the increasing beauty and grandeur that God will create over the next six days.

Everything in chapter one is successive, close in sequence. Creation in the beginning (verse 1), the early condition of the earth (verse 2). Then with the creation of light (verses 3-5) all on day one, through the rest of week and the chapter into 2:3, the unformed is formed and the unfilled is filled.

Conclusion

If you get verse 1 right, you’re on the right road to get right the rest of the Bible. If you understand that one, sovereign, initiating God created everything and controls it all, then you understand that you owe your life to Him. We are part of His story.

In the bigger story, Genesis 1:1-2:3

declares that the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is no mere localized or tribal deity, but the sovereign LORD of the whole earth. The apparently petty and insignificant family stories that occupy the bulk of the book are in fact of cosmic consequence, for God has chosen these men so that through them all the nations of the earth should be blessed. (Wenham, p. 15)

However, as is obvious in the world we live in, not everyone takes Genesis 1:1 and the rest of chapter one as truth. Is it because there isn’t enough evidence? Is it because the information is unclear? Is it because Moses seems like he’s speculating or making up a fairy tale? No. Moses treats this as pure history (as does the rest of the Bible, cf. Exodus 20:11; 31:17; Psa 8; 104; Matt 19:4-6; 2 Pet 3:5; Heb 11:3-4). God’s creation of the heavens and earth is not something to be proven, it is something to be believed. That is exactly the point in Hebrews 11:3.

By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.

Creation is an issue of faith. The revelation of intelligent design, from an initiating, powerful God as the first cause is there to be believed. You will never argue someone into creationism. They have all the information and evidence they need (cf. Romans 1:18-23). What they don’t have is faith.

So let me remind you, our world is not a result of chance, random variation, stray molecules, or willy-nilly gods. Genesis one shows God’s creating initiative, independence, intention, and intelligence. It frames our beliefs and inflames our worship. This isn’t an academic exercise, it is an adoration exercise.