IN THE BEGINNING GOD
In Genesis chapter one, we read, “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.”
An old philosopher made the observation that that verse, the very first verse in the Bible, approaches the sublime. The philosopher got it almost right. That verse does not approach the sublime; it is sublime.
I sit and read this book, and I tremble at the majesty of it. I stand amazed at the majesty of the language of this book, the majesty of its expressions, its symbols, its metaphors.
“Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth; for the Lord hath spoken,” Isa. 1:2. What other book would dare use such language? It would be ludicrous in any other book, than that one book written by God himself.
“In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” I suppose I preach on that text as often as I do any text in the Bible. And I expect I will preach on it more often in the future, than I ever have in the past.
It doesn’t bother me near as much as it used to, that I preach on some texts over and over. For one thing, I learned long ago that I am not bright enough to come up with a new text, and a new subject, every time I go into the pulpit.
For another, I believe there are some subjects, and some passages, that need to be preached on over and over . This verse is one of them.
For a long time now, we have been told that we are all an accident. We just somehow evolved. Millions of years ago, our ancestors started out as a little, tiny something on the order of an amoeba. Then, they evolved into something more like a salamander. Before long, they crawled out on dry land and turned into monkeys. Finally, our distant ancestors became what we are now. Just look how far we have come, and can you imagine what we are going to be in ages to come?
It seems that I remember somebody else preaching that same doctrine long before Charles Darwin ever saw the light of day. That ancient evolutionist promised his students, “Ye shall be as gods,” Gen. 3:5. When Charles Darwin published his ORIGIN OF THE SPECIES in 1859, he just gave a little more information on how we were supposed to go about it.
By the way, you might be interested to know that the original title of that book was THE ORIGIN OF THE SPECIES and the Preservation of the Favored Races in the Struggle for Life. Darwin, Nietzsche, and those other early evolutionists believed the lighter races were so much more highly evolved than the darker races, and the darker races so poorly evolved that the darker races were still closer to animals than they were to humans. Darwin and his friends went on to teach that the darker races were so different to full humans, that the darker races ought not be allowed to reproduce. Later, they taught that the darker races ought not be allowed to survive. They ought to be exterminated to make room for the superior races.
Adolph Hitler was an ardent admirer of Friedrich Nietzsche and Charles Darwin. That aspect of the evolution doctrine became virtually the state religion of Germany during the 1930’s and early ‘40’s. Ideas do have consequences. Nazism is simply what evolution becomes when it is made into state policy.
Life did not evolve from any lower form of life, but you can be sure the doctrine of evolution has evolved. That aspect of the doctrine has had to be laid aside. Darwin is virtually worshiped as the Messiah of evolution, but nobody would dare teach Darwin’s form of evolution in the schools of today. That doctrine has evolved, but it has not disappeared, by any means. It has simply adapted itself to the times.
We are told we are part of a grand accident. We evolved. We might have evolved into horses, or birds, or roach bugs. As it happened, we evolved into human beings.
In school, our little ones are taught that doctrine over and over, and it is drilled into our own minds on such a daily basis, that it, sometimes, becomes a part of our thinking, without our realizing it. It creeps into our language almost undetected. If we are not mighty careful we find ourselves using expressions such as, “Man is the only animal that…….” That is pure evolution, and yet it is a rare person who has never used the expression—usually without realizing what he has said. That doctrine is like water dripping on a rock; it has its effect even on those who are the most sound in the faith.
In its very first verse, the Bible comes directly to the point. It sweeps that doctrine aside. Where did this universe come from? God created it. “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.”
In the first chapter, God refutes the doctrine, and in the third chapter, he tells us where the doctrine came from, and who its first advocate was.
Sometimes I like to preach on just the first four words of that verse. In the beginning God. I am not really fond of the word theology. That sounds too much like biology, and zoology, and paleontology. It makes it sound like Bible truth is simply another of man’s …ologies. I prefer the simple expression Bible truth. No doubt, that is just another of my prejudices. We all have our prejudices, and that is one of mine.
But if you don’t mind the word, I will tell you there is an entire system of theology in those four words—In the beginning God.
When you come to think about it, that sums up our entire system of doctrine doesn’t it? God gave the entire system in just four words. I wrestle with a subject for an hour, and, sometimes, never get much of anything said.
God says it all in four words. The rest of the Bible is commentary. The rest of the Bible explains those four words—in the beginning God.
In the beginning of what? In the beginning of everything that had a beginning. Not everything had a beginning. God did not have a beginning. Rather, he is the beginning. He always has been. He always will be. He is the eternal one. Everything is one eternal now with him. In the beginning of the natural creation there was God.
In the beginning of the spiritual creation, there is God. All the time I was growing up, I was told, “God wants to save you; he is trying to save you; he is doing the best he can to save everybody he can. He would save a lot more if he could just get better financed, if he could get better organized, if he could get more assistance. If we would just pitch in and help him, he would save more people than he ever has.”
And then there was always that old challenge, “God wants to save you, but you will have to take the first step.” I am sure you have heard that one. God knew somebody would come along with that notion long before anybody ever thought of it, and he nipped that doctrine in the bud before it got started.
Does man have to take the first step? No, no, no, a thousand times, no. The very first verse in the Bible tells us it is, “In the beginning God.” That was the first false doctrine God dealt with.
So far as our home in eternal heaven is concerned, he takes the first step, the last step, and all the steps in between.
In the prophecy of Isaiah, he tells us, “I have trodden the winepress alone, and of the people there was none with me,” Isa. 63:3. I have no idea how many steps it takes to tread a winepress, but no matter how many steps that is, he took them all—there was nobody with him.
He is the alpha and the omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end. I don’t know what somebody else may think, but to me that sounds like he is all of it.
I like an expression I borrowed from a godly, old black preacher out in Texas. The good brother tells it right most of the time. Some of you have heard his tapes; we have passed them around often enough. He said, “God stood on nothing, because there was nothing to stand on. He reached out into nowhere, because there was nowhere to reach. And he laid his hand on nothing, because there was nothing to lay his hand on. And he took nothing, and out of that nothing he made everything there is.” I get very nearly on shouting ground every time I hear that old brother come over that.
If evolutionists can look at the majesty of this universe, and believe it’s just an accident, I am not going to say they are a bunch of idiots, but they must think we are, if they think God’s prayerful, obedient children are going to swallow that doctrine.
There are probably more people, nowadays, claiming to be atheists than there ever have been in the history of the world. I am not sure whether there are any real atheists. There is an old saying, “There are no atheists in foxholes.” Even an atheist prays, when he is in immediate danger. He may insist he is an atheist five minutes before, and five minutes after; but when he is facing immediate danger, it is very likely he will pray.
Somebody wrote a book recently entitled THE ATHEIST’S SYNDROME. At least, to the best of my memory, that was the title. I did not read the entire book, but I did read enough to get the gist of it. The contention of the book was that there is a clear connection between atheism and insanity. He argued that no truly sane person can be an atheist—other than on a superficial level. He argued that any truly sane person who thinks he is an atheist believes that way, only because he has never taken the time to think it through.
I think he was probably right. I appreciate anybody who confirms my prejudices. I don’t see how any sane person could ever look at this universe and imagine it is all an accident.
If by atheist, you mean somebody who believes there is no god of any kind anywhere in the world, by definition, there are not, and cannot be, any true atheists.
There are simply people who believe in a different kind of god than you and I do. The universe itself prevents any sane person from being an atheist. This universe is very nearly infinite, very nearly boundless. It is not infinite; only God is infinite, but the universe is very nearly so. It reflects infinite wisdom in the design and construction of it. It reflects infinite power in the construction and preservation of it.
You can be sure that whatever has infinite wisdom, whatever has infinite power, whatever is eternal, is God. If the universe created itself, and that is what the evolutionists want us to believe, then the universe must have infinite wisdom and power. And if that is true, the universe must be God. That doctrine is called pantheism. That is the generic name for the old pagan religion called Gaia. That was the doctrine Paul was talking about, when he referred to those who “worshiped and served the creature more than the Creator,” Rom. 1:25. They could not tell the difference between the Creator and his creation. But that doctrine is not true; God is the one and only Creator.
The universe came about somehow. Either God created it, or some-body else created it, or it is eternal—it created itself. Those are the only three options available.
The evolutionist believes the universe was produced by the properties, and energies, and forces, inherent in the universe.
That is, they believe the universe produced itself. Bear in mind that whoever, or whatever, produced the universe, of necessity, had to have infinite power and wisdom. If the universe was produced by the properties, energies, and forces inherent in the universe, those properties, energies, and forces must, of necessity, have infinite power and wisdom.
So the evolutionist attributes the universe, the very earth under our feet, with having virtually infinite power, and wisdom. Bear in mind that the earth is made up of a little water, but mostly rock and dirt. And it is this earth the evolutionist would have us believe evolved itself into all we see around us today. They believe the earth, and all the rest of the universe, for that matter, created itself.
Now we are getting to the real difference between the Bible-believing child of God and the evolutionist. The Bible-believing child of God believes in the almighty, creative power of God. The evolutionist believes in the almighty creative power of rocks and dirt. And they have the audacity to call us fanatics.
We hear a lot about the ecology, nowadays. Environmentalists have ever so much to say about how the ecology is so perfectly in balance, how every aspect of the ecology has its own particular place, its own little niche to fill. They tell us if we get the ecology out of balance—if something is removed from its place— it just messes up the entire scheme of things.
I wonder who they think put the ecology in such balance in the first place? Who put our own bodies in such balance, that if some little part of it gets out of balance we are in so much trouble?
I had a friend several years ago, who died because the copper in his system got out of balance. I never hear much about copper in our system. I hear a lot about iron deficiency, and other kinds of deficiencies, but I rarely hear about copper deficiency. But somehow or other, the very tiny amount of copper in his system got out of balance, and it killed him.
God put these bodies of ours in balance when he created Adam. But the evolutionist would have us believe it is just an accident that every trace element in our system happens to be perfectly balanced with every other trace element.
God has given us all kinds of evidence of what he has done. The very complexity of the universe is its own evidence.
One of the grandest proofs of the depravity and blindness of the human heart is the fact that scientific men are no more religious than most of them are. They ought to be. Scientists ought to be the most religious people walking this planet.
Studying the wonders of the universe as they do, why do more of them not believe in the power and the majesty of God? Why is that? It is because of the blindness of the human heart.
I remember, when I was in school, we studied the various kinds of rock. Among all the others, we studied sedimentary rock. By definition, sedimentary rock is rock settled out of water. They talked about a time, millions and millions of years ago, when the earth was covered with water. They love to use those big figures. They know if they use those big figures, there are not going to be any eyewitnesses still around to contradict what they say. So they can make up just about anything they want to.
But, anyway, they told us there was a time when, for millions of years, this entire continent was under water. They explained that during those millions of years ever so much sediment settled out of water. That is what sediment is; it is stuff that has settled out of a liquid. They told us the result was the sedimentary rock we see all around us. Somehow, they didn’t seem to realize they had just described the Genesis Flood. Anyway, they were sure those waters could not have been the Genesis Flood, because they were sure the Genesis Flood is only a myth. Besides, their waters covered the earth millions of years ago, and nobody claims it has been that long since the flood of Noah’s day.
“There are none so blind as those who will not see.”
I know next to nothing about hydraulics, or geology, but anybody with enough sense to come in out of the rain knows that if you stir up a mess of dirt and rocks in water, it is going to settle out in fairly short order. It does not take millions of years. But these evolutionists are sure it really did take millions of years for all that mess to settle out and make sedimentary rock.
Also, bear in mind that those layers of sedimentary rock are sometimes hundreds, or even thousands, of feet thick. In order for there to be that much material gathered up in the water, the water had to be moving with a lot of force, and it had to continue to move with that same force for millions of years. They cannot tell us what kept the water moving with that kind of force for so long a time. After all, they tell us it took millions of years for all those layers of rock to form; so the water must have been in motion all during that time.
But, that thought seems never to have occurred to them, and if you ask one of them about it, all of a sudden he goes blind and dumb.
Then one day, as a little boy, I realized the Bible told us exactly how and when all the sedimentary rock came about. That is some (just some) of the evidence God has left us of the Genesis flood. The waters were not disturbed for millions of years; they were disturbed for forty days, and forty nights (Gen. 712). And it did not take millions of years for the sediment to settle; it took part of one year, from the six hundredth to the six hundred and first year of Noah’s life (Gen. 7:11, 8:13).
The evolutionist tells us there never could have been such a flood as the Bible describes. They tell us that if you could wring out every drop of moisture in the atmosphere, you could only cause a world-wide flood somewhat less than knee deep.
There can be no question. Meteorologists have equipment capable of measuring the water content of the atmosphere accurately enough to make that statement, and we can be sure they are telling it right. All the water vapor on earth is insufficient to cause a knee deep world-wide flood.
Then the evolutionist wants to know, “Does that fact not bother you?” No, of course not, why should it? That is just one more of those instances where they think they know what we believe better than we do. They forget that the Bible talks about the waters coming down; it does not say a word about the waters going back up again. Those waters that came down were “the waters which were above the firmament (the atmosphere)” we read about in Genesis chapter one. Before the flood they were up there, now they are down here.
If you would like to see the waters of the Genesis Flood, it is a very simple matter. From any point in the United States, you can get in your automobile, and drive east, west, or south, and eventually you will come to the waters of the Genesis Flood. We call them the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, and the Gulf of Mexico. Those, along with the other oceans of the world, are where the waters of the flood came to rest.
In the book of Psalms chapter 104, beginning at verse 5, we read, “Who laid the foundations of the earth, that it should not be removed for ever. Thou coveredst it (the earth) with a deep as with a garment; the waters stood above the mountains.” That’s talking about the Genesis Flood.
“The waters stood above the mountains. At thy rebuke they fled; at the voice of thy thunder they hasted away. They go up by the mountains they go down by the valleys,” vss 6-8. Where did they go? He goes on to tell us, “….unto the place where thou hast founded for them.”
Where did the waters of the flood go? The Bible does not say one word about the waters of the flood evaporating. That is simply a ruse others have used to discredit the Bible. The Bible says clearly enough that the waters came down. It says nothing at all about their going back up.
The text reads, “They go up by the mountains; they go down by the valleys unto the place which thou hast founded for them.” The language could not be clearer; God founded (prepared) a place for the waters of the flood. Then at his rebuke, at the voice of his thunder they hasted (hurried) to the place he prepared for them.
He goes on to say that after the waters of the flood came to rest in the place he founded for them, “Thou hast set a bound that they may not pass over; that they turn not again to cover the earth,” vs. 9. He founded a place them; he rebuked them; they hasted to that place; then he ordered them to stay put. With all that information provided by God himself, it does not take a rocket scientist to discover where the waters of the flood went.
If you want to know where the waters went, just find out where all the water is. It is a simple matter to see that the oceans of the world are the very waters that covered the earth in Noah’s day.
But, how did they go from covering the earth to filling the oceans of the world? Again, the text tells us. “At the voice of thy thunder they hasted away….unto the place thou hast founded for them,” vss. 7,8. God founded a place (prepared a place) for the waters; he simply increased the capacity of the oceans to receive those waters, and at his rebuke they hasted to that place.
Notice he says, “At the voice of thy thunder they hasted away” vs. 7. We cannot begin to imagine what it must have been like when God thundered in the heavens, dropped the bottoms of the oceans, and the waters of the flood rushed to the place he had founded for them.
More than that, can you imagine how those waters must have sloshed back and forth until God finally “set a bound that they may not pass over; that they turn not again to cover the earth,” vs. 8.
To give just one more proof text about that day when God commanded those mighty waves to stay put, in Job we read, “Or who shut up the sea with doors, when it brake forth, as if it had issued out of the womb . . . . . And brake up for it my decreed place, and set bars and doors, and said, hitherto shalt thou come, but no further: and here shall they proud waves be stayed,” Job 38:8,10,11.
Can you imagine what great gashes (canyons, if you will) those waters cut in the earth, when they were sloshing back and forth, before God finally commanded them to stay put.
To give just one illustration, the Colorado River, as wild and rugged as it is, does not carry enough water to cut a canyon a mile deep, five miles wide, and two hundred miles long—but the Pacific Ocean does, and it did. I don’t want to offend anybody, but anybody who can believe the Colorado River cut the Grand Canyon is not the brightest person to come down the road.
But they tell us, “It took millions of years.” That might explain how the Grand Canyon got so deep, but it can never explain how it got so wide. Did it, perhaps, work like some sort of giant lathe, moving back and forth, from right to left, then left to right, so it could make such a wide cut? It is amazing what bizarre explanations evolutionists can come up with, trying to prop up their ridiculous theories.
When God dropped the bottoms of the oceans, all that displaced material had to go somewhere. Where did it go? God has provided us with an entire world full of evidence as to where all that displaced material went, and that expression, an entire world full, is not a figure of speech. The world is literally full of the evidence.
Bear in mind that sedimentary rock is rock settled out of water. Wherever you go, in the mountainous areas of this country, you can see those layers upon layers of sedimentary rock. Each layer is different from the layer above, and the layer below it. That is because, when those sedimentary rock layers were forming, the waters of the flood were still sloshing back and forth. They would slosh in one direction, and they would deposit the material they gathered in that direction. They would slosh in the other direction, and deposit a different kind of material they had gathered in that direction, until finally, according to Job, God said, “Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further; and here shall thy proud waves be stayed,” Job 38:11. After those waters had done their work, God commanded them to stay put in the place he had founded for them (Psa. 104:8).
Also bear in mind that sediment goes down; it settles on the floor; it does not settle on the wall. Depending on the surface on which it is accumulating, it settles in a fairly even pattern. It does not settle at steep angles, and it does not settle in long, wavy, undulating patterns, like corrugated roofing. But, when we look at those layers of sedimentary rock in the mountains, that is exactly what we do see. The layers of sedimentary rock are in every pattern imaginable. Some of it is in smooth, level layers, but more often than not, it is at some kind of an angle. Sometimes the layers are almost vertical; some-times they are in long, wavy patterns; and sometimes they are all out of joint.
Sometimes they look, for all the world, like a giant quilt somebody has pushed from one side until it is all crumpled and folded. And there is the answer to our question. After all that rock had formed, while it was still somewhat soft, God thundered in the heavens, his mighty hand dropped the bottoms of the oceans to found a place for the waters to haste away to, and that same mighty hand that dropped the bottoms of the oceans, pushed aside all that soft, pliable rock, like a gigantic quilt, to found a place for the waters of the flood.
Then, all over this planet, he laid bare his mighty arm in exposing that sedimentary rock, so that no matter where we may go, before long, we come face to face with undeniable evidence of what he did.
In some places so much material was pushed aside to make room for the waters, the displaced material was pushed up into lofty mountains. It is in the mountains those layers of sedimentary rock take on such strange patterns. And it is in those mountains that we see the clearest evidence they have been pushed from somewhere—pushed aside to make room for the waters of the Genesis Flood.
“That in all things he might have the preeminence,” Col. 1:18.
“Saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last,” Rev. 1:11.
THE END