Before you take two steps into Scripture, God draws an enormous line in the sand:
“In the beginning, God created the Heavens and the earth.”
Do you believe that?
It says a lot about your willingness to adapt your worldview to what God says in those first ten words. You either believe that God created the heavens and the earth in the beginning, or you don’t. It’s as simple as that.
Those that do will find the rest of the Bible much easier to swallow. The passages that talk about the earth swallowing up people whole and the Red Sea being divided as people walk through on dry land won’t seem as crazy compared to the idea of creating every single piece of matter by a simple sentence.
What Else Was Created in the Beginning?
Saying that God created matter is difficult enough, but think about all the other things that go with the idea of creation
- Morality: Before the world existed, nothing was there (that we know of). Once people entered the picture, there had to be some kind of code that handled how we interacted. God created that by setting up rules and boundaries and ethics.
- Curiosity: God didn’t just create dirt, He created the stars too. How many times have you sat and stared at a single piece of light and pondered the intricacies of the universe? That all began with the first week of creation.
- Time: I have zero understanding of how time works outside of a linear process. To say that God created the entire world in seven days doesn’t sound jarring to us, but think about the fact that “a week” probably didn’t exist (as we know it) beforehand.
- Order: When it says that God created these things, it automatically creates a hierarchical structure. There is God, then there are the things that He created. Not a lot of room for ambiguity there.
Start at “In the Beginning”
If you’re looking for a great place to start your journey of faith, start where the Bible starts:
“In the beginning, God created the Heavens and the earth.”
Think about all the issues that arise from that simple statement. Once you have that settled in your mind, feel free to progress through the rest of the Book.