IN THE BEGINNING

Gen. 1:1, “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” We sometimes fail to recognize the various themes from this first verse in the Bible.

Psa. 33:6-8, “By the word of the LORD were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth.   He gathereth the waters of the sea together as an heap: he layeth up the depth in storehouses.   Let all the earth fear the LORD: let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him.” 

Psa. 89:11, “The heavens are thine, the earth also is thine: as for the world and the fulness thereof, thou hast founded them.”

1. Creation - the belief that living things were created by God in a short period of time in the relatively recent past. 2. Organic evolution - the belief that man evolved from lower animals, which had themselves developed from simpler animals, over millions of years, entirely by natural processes (without God). 3. Theistic evolution - the belief that man evolved from lower animals gradually over millions of years, but the process was guided by God. THREE BELIEFS

I. BEGINNINGS AND ENDINGS

The first theme covered in Genesis 1:1 is the fact that God is the beginning and origin of all things created.

Eccl. 3:1, 2, “To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted.” Eccl. 3:11, “He hath made every thing beautiful in his time: also he hath set the world in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end.”

The Bible is about beginnings and endings The Bible is about beginnings and endings. Time began in Genesis 1 and ends in Revelation 22. Psa. 90:10, “The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.” 

II. A DIVINE CREATOR VS. CHAOS

Here is the second theme to Genesis 1:1 Here is the second theme to Genesis 1:1. God alone is the Divine Creator.

God does not explain the details of creation God does not explain the details of creation. He simply says He created not by some big bang, not by altering what had already existed, but by words.

John 1:1, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Heb. 11:3, “Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.” 

Anything created is under the control of the Creator. Why does God have the right to kill and destroy? Because He is the privileged Creator. Rev. 22:13, “I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last.”

Psa. 33:4, “For the word of the LORD is right; and all his works are done in truth.” Every day 50,000 people die. They are etched on the calendar of God. Heb. 9:27,  “And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment.”

Eccl. 12:1, “Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them.” CREATOR

Isa. 40:28, “Hast thou not known Isa. 40:28, “Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his understanding.” CREATOR

GOD CREATED Isa. 41:20, “That they may see, and know, and consider, and understand together, that the hand of the LORD hath done this, and the Holy One of Israel hath created it.”

Exodus 12:23, “For the LORD will pass through to smite the Egyptians; and when he seeth the blood upon the lintel, and on the two side posts, the LORD will pass over the door, and will not suffer the destroyer to come in unto your houses to smite you.” DESTROYER

III. NOTHING TO SOMETHING

The Third theme of Genesis 1:1 shows that God created something out of nothing.

The atheist cannot comprehend the concept of creation because their minds can only grasp the construction of a thing from existing matter. Logical concept is that there must be an eternal architect.

We sometimes think the same way We sometimes think the same way. Some want to take the miraculous out of the story of Jonah. That fish was created for the purpose of doing God’s will. Yet, there are multiple miracles in the story (chapter 2). JONAH

God has power over the winds and sea: Jonah 1:4, “But the LORD sent out a great wind into the sea, and there was a mighty tempest in the sea, so that the ship was like to be broken.”  JONAH

Not only does God prepare a fish to swallow Jonah (1:17), The word prepared is used again in Jonah 4:6-8 when the Lord prepares a gourd, a worm, and the East wind to teach Jonah a lesson. JONAH

THERE IS NO LIMIT TO GOD’S POWER Luke 3:8, “Bring forth therefore fruits worthy of repentance, and begin not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, That God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham.” John believed in a God who was omnipotent!

Out of the dust God formed every creature, even man Gen. 2:19, “And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof.” Gen. 3:19, “In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.”