Piper on Genesis 1-2

Piper's three key points:

1) We should teach without any qualification that God created the universe and everything in it. It wasn't always here. It didn't spontaneously emerge from a big bang alone, however God did it. God did it. That's clear, and everybody who believes the Word should preach that.

2) Secondly, I think we should preach that he made it good. There was no sin in it, when he first made it.

3) Thirdly, I think we should preach that he created Adam and Eve directly, that he made them of the dust of the ground, and he took out of man a woman. I think we should teach that. I know there are people who don't, who think it's all imagery for evolution or whatever.

And we should teach that man had his beginning not millions of years ago but within the scope of the biblical genealogies. Those genealogies are tight at about 6,000 years and loose at maybe 10 or 15,000. So I think we should honor those genealogies and not say that you can play fast and loose with the origin of man.

That's not the age of the earth issue there. That's the origin of what is a human being, when did that human being come into existence. I think we should say he came into existence by God's direct action and that it wasn't millions of years ago. That was within the scope of these genealogies.

Now, when it comes to the more controversial issues of how to construe Genesis 1-2 about how God did it and how long it took him to do it, there I'm totally sympathetic with a pastor who is going to lay his view down, having studied it, and is going to say to his people, "Here is my understanding of those chapters. These six days can't be anything other than six literal days, and so that's how long God took to do it. And this universe is about 10 or 15,000 years old. Though it looks old, that's the way God made it. He made it to look old," or something like that.

Or he might take another view that these days are ages.

Or he might take Sailhamer's view, which is where I feel at home. His view is that what's going on here is that all of creation happened to prepare the land for man.

In verse 1, "In the beginning he made the heavens and the earth," he makes everything. And then you go day by day and he's preparing the land. He's not bringing new things into existence; he's preparing the land and causing things to grow and separating out water and earth. And then, when it's all set and prepared, he creates and puts man there.

Oldest Animal Fossils Found in Lakes

There is an interesting article on a recent find in South China.

Charles Choi writes:

Conventional wisdom has it that the first animals evolved in the ocean.

Now researchers studying ancient rock samples in South China have found that the first animal fossils are preserved in ancient lake deposits, not in marine sediments as commonly assumed.

These new findings not only raise questions as to where the earliest animals were living, but what factors drove animals to evolve in the first place.

For some 3 billion years, single-celled life forms such as bacteria dominated the planet. Then, roughly 600 million years ago, the first multi-cellular animals appeared on the scene, diversifying rapidly.

The oldest known animal fossils in the world are preserved in South China's Doushantuo Formation. These fossil beds have no adult specimens - instead, many of the fossils appear to be microscopic embryos.

"Our first unusual finding in this region was the abundance of a clay mineral called smectite," said researcher Tom Bristow, now at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. "In rocks of this age, smectite is normally transformed into other types of clay. The smectite in these South China rocks, however, underwent no such transformation and have a special chemistry that, for the smectite to form, requires specific conditions in the water - conditions commonly found in salty, alkaline lakes.

"The researchers collected hundreds of rock samples from several locations in South China. All their analyses suggest these rocks were not marine sediments.

"Moreover, we found smectite in only some locations in South China, and not uniformly as one would expect for marine deposits," Bristow said. "Taken together, several lines of evidence indicated to us that these early animals lived in a lake environment."

Read the entire article HERE.

I'll be honest. I'm not a big fan of the creation science movement. In my opinion they tend to insist that the Bible says more about scientific matters than it truly does. For instance I am satisfied that the biblical record does not insist upon a relatively young earth. But some of my brothers in the creation science movement read the biblical genealogies in a wooden literal sense. By this standard they reason that the Bible teaches that the earth must be approximately ten thousand years old. This presupposes that the biblical genealogies are not abridged or abbreviated which in fact was a common practice.

There is also the matter of the creation account itself. Does the biblical language insist on a single week of seven 24 hour "days"? Some insist that it does. I do not believe the Bible insists on such a time frame. That said, I do not think we should be dogmatic on the issue. We certainly should not divide over the issue. I believe God created man uniquely. I do not believe mankind evolved from lower life forms (although there are godly, Bible believing people who do). Also, I believe Adam and Eve were historical figures and the garden a real place and the fall as described in Genesis a real event.

The reason I linked to the article on the discovery of ancient fossils in a lake environment is that it underscores the need for humility in the discipline of scientific research. The discoveries in South China depart from the conventional wisdom regarding evolution. Scientific paradigms seem to be in a state of frequent flux. What is "settled science" one day may have to be completely rethought the next. I offer this as a word of caution against whatever tendency we may have to subordinate the Bible to the changing paradigms in paleontology.

Talking back to my inner Nimrod

Tomorrow I am preaching from Genesis 11:1-9. It’s the account of Nimrod, the people of Shinar, and their quest to build a great city with a tower reaching into heaven. They were building, we are told, in order to make a name for themselves. They were seeking to bridge the gap between man and God by their own power and ingenuity. They were seeking to erase the distinction between creature and Creator. The account tells us almost everything we need to know about mankind. We are a prideful lot. We seek lives of independence from God.

But I probably shouldn’t write in generalities. The fact is I am a prideful man. I love my independence. I am far too interested in my own name while not nearly as interested enough in God’s great name. I find God’s interests often competing with my own. It is in those times when my inner Nimrod rises up within me. My inner Nimrod wants recognition and respect. He wants to be served. In those moments the only voice that can adequately talk back is that of Jesus.

The person and words of Jesus are an open rebuke to my inner Nimrod. Paul tells us in Philippians that Jesus, though in very nature God, nevertheless put away His divine rights and became a servant. In His teaching ministry Jesus turned upside down the prevailing attitudes about greatness. In the kingdom of Christ greatness is not about who finishes first or gains the most but who serves in anonymity.

As He was explaining to His disciples that His time had come to offer up His life Jesus said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit” (John 12:24). Obviously, Jesus is referencing His coming death which would bear the fruit of redemption. It makes sense that histories most significant death bore histories most significant fruit. But there is, it seems to me, an application to be had for all of us who know Jesus. Fruitfulness for God involves a kind of death.

Humility is hard to come by. Everything in us resists humility. We resist with all our might those things that make us humble. And so I have been thinking about Jesus’ metaphor of the grain of wheat. Seeds are put into dark, dank holes and covered over. They are drowned with water and then left to rot in the soil. Only then, after enough time has passed does the fruit come. It’s never pleasant but it’s good.

God of Creation

Living in Genesis for months has been incredibly rewarding. It is a thrill to see all of the doctrines of the New Testament in seed form in the first book of the Bible. One of the books I have been studying is "The Gospel of Genesis" by Warren Gage of Knox Theological Seminary. Earlier this afternoon I was reading some of his thoughts on the opening words of Genesis. I pass them along to you.

"Creation from nothing is a power proper to diety (John 1:3). It is the jewel in God's crown; it constitutes the divine claim to universal kingship. The creation trumpets God's imperial majesty for heaven is his throne and earth his footstool (Isa. 66:1). Creation heralds God's royal counsel for he established the world by wisdom and stretched out the heavens by understanding (Prov. 3:19). Creation presents the king with royal honor for the heavens declare his glory and the earth speaks his praise (Ps. 19:1). Creation also reveals the sovereignty of his scepter for upon earth must his will be done as in heaven (Matt. 6:10) and all things, in heaven and earth, must finally be summed up in his Son (Eph. 1:10)...

"Though the doctrine of creation is the cornerstone of biblical revelation, to unbelief it has ever been a stone of stumbling. Scripture teaches that the world was born of the womb of God's will, fashioned from the frame of nothing (Heb. 11:3). Consequently, the creation is everlastingly distinguished from its Creator and ever dependent upon him. Scripture also affirms that all men know from nature both of God's eternal power and divine person, though they suppress such natural testimony through unbelief (Rom. 1:20). Those who would follow persently popular 'scientific' alternatives to biblical creationism inevitably find themselves transferring these two universals from the Creator to the creation, for to accommodate their theories they ascribe a practical eternality to the creation and invest the impersonal universe with notions of purposive progress. Thus the creation itself is invested with the eternal power and divine person of the Creator and the glory of the incorruptible God is changed for the image of man, birds, beasts and creeping things. Professing to be wise the secularists become vain in the their reasonings and their new science merely perpetuates the ancient mysteries. The priest of nature survives in the evolutionist, the priest of mammon masquerades as the naturalist, and the priest of man has become the secularism of today and the dawn of the modern scientific age finds the sun rising upon nothing new" (p. 76).

Some Reflections on Genesis 7

Since the time of Adam and Eve’s rebellion the earth had steadily gotten worse. Some 1600 years had passed from the time of Adam to Noah. During that time sin increased not only in number but in intensity. In Genesis 6:5 we are told these incredibly sober words about mankind: “every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” A more grievous statement about the condition of unregenerate man cannot be found in Scripture. It is the bitter fruit of original sin. What could be worse than being in a condition where everything within you is inclined toward evil continually?

And yet the people of Noah’s day are completely unbothered by their disobedience. Their conscience is seared. Everything is going just fine as far as they’re concerned. They are working and partying and marrying. Nothing about their sin and rebellion against God bothers them in the slightest. What is more, the furthest thing from their minds is judgment.

In the past God gave the world men like Enoch to show that there is a better way to live. God demonstrated through Enoch that there was a way to have eternal life. But God goes even further in Noah’s time by giving the world an additional 120 years to repent during which Noah diligently works at building the ark and preaching the righteousness of God. In 1 Peter 3 the apostle calls this the patience of God.

In Genesis six we are told that the whole situation of man’s sin grieved the heart of God. This is not the insecure grief of man. It is the righteous and justified grief of a holy God. He is not dispassionate. He is not aloof and detached from the condition of those He created. The increasing degradation of mankind cried out for divine judgment. Only a morally ambiguous universe would leave such depravity unanswered.

The reality that drives God’s judgment in Genesis seven is His purity. He is radically free of sin. He is 100% pure. He is undiluted holiness. He is unadulterated righteousness. Not only is it not wrong for God to judge this way but it is good and right for God to judge this way. And so in verse four God announces His intentions to Noah: “For in seven days I will send rain on the earth forty days and forty nights, and every living thing that I have made I will blot out from the face of the ground.”

The rain fell and the ground waters burst forth for 40 days and forty nights. For 150 days the earth would be covered with water. Every land and air animal except for what was on the ark died. Every man woman and child on earth except for Noah’s family died. This bothers many people which is appropriate. We ought to be grieved by the death of the wicked.

What is not acceptable, however, is to move from grief to disbelief or accusation. For some the solution to dealing with Divine judgment is simply to dismiss the biblical teachings of God’s wrath as relics of primitive thinking. This is certainly common in our own day. Far more people believe in heaven than hell. Some of the most influential “evangelicals” today deny the biblical teachings on judgment and hell. How foolish for frail, finite, and sinful men to sit at a distance and critique the ways of God.

Noah built and preached for 120 years and no one listened. No one except Noah’s family believed. No one believed themselves to be sinners. No one believed that judgment was coming. This is our culture, our neighbors, our friends, our co-workers, even some within our church family.

In chapter seven we are that God shuts the door on the unrepentant. “And those that entered, male and female of all flesh, went in as God had commanded him. And the Lord shut him in.” (v. 16). This is an interesting detail. In the Gilgamesh epic (the most well known of the Mesopotamian flood myths) the hero is depicted as closing the door himself. What a seemingly small detail upon which the two accounts should differ. But the Bible does not waste our time with meaningless details. The inspired writer wants us to know that it was the Lord Himself who shut the door to the ark.

If it had been left up to Noah, that door may not have shut. He may have kept the door open too long not because he is more kind than God but because as a sinner he was less pure than God. We identify with the wicked. Noah had far more in common with the wicked facing judgment than he did with his holy God. Could you have closed the door? Would you have waited until the drowning began? Again, this is not because our kindness exceeds that of God. It surely does not. It was left for God to shut the door because His purity so exceeds ours.

Our hearts are divided. As Calvin said, our hearts are veritable idol factories. We are like what Paul describes in Romans 1. We end up worshiping what is created rather than the Creator.
In chapter eight we are told that the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat (Turkey). The people groups of that region worship Mount Ararat as a god. It is tragic irony that the people living in the shadow of one of the great reminders on the planet of God’s justice and purity worship what is created rather than the Creator. What does this say about the human heart?

Who will be able to accuse God of injustice when He once and for all judges? The purity of God ought to draw out of us a love for purity; a love for holiness. Jesus pronounces blessing upon those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. In both Old and New Testaments God calls us to “be holy for I am holy.” Just as in Noah’s day the world needs to see something of the purity of God. For some it will be a means toward their repentance and salvation. For others it will be further evidence against them as they stand before God’s bar of justice.

In The Beginning

This is an exellent forum on the importance of the doctrine of creation from the Southern Baptist Journal of Theology (http://www.sbts.edu/pdf/sbjt/SBJT_2007Spring6.pdf).