In the Beginning, God...

In the Beginning…Genesis One Verse One 

Some people today claim that the Biblical account of creation is a myth, in an otherwise true book. Is this consistent with the rest of Scripture? In other words, can you believe in evolution, even in a limited way, and also believe in the God of the Bible? 

Read through and consider carefully what the Bible teaches. None of these verses have been chosen to fit a preconceived idea; they are chosen simply because they refer to how and why the universe came to be. It is left to you to ponder and consider if and how it matters: 

References to creation are sprinkled throughout the Bible. In Job 38-39, in poetic style, God identifies Himself and speaks:  
Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind and said… Dress for action like a man; I will question you, and you make it known to me: …Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding.Who determined its measurements—surely you know? Or who stretched the line upon it?On what were its bases sunk, or who laid its cornerstone? …Or who shut in the sea with doors when it burst out from the womb… and said, 'Thus far shall you come, and no farther, and here shall your proud waves be stayed' …Has the rain a father, or who has begotten the drops of dew? 

 In reference to the lunar/solar cycles:  
Do you know the ordinances of the heavens? Can you establish their rule on the earth?

Regarding man: Who has put wisdom in the inward parts or given understanding to the mind?  
Regarding idols such as the wild ox worshipped for its fierceness: Do you have faith in him that he will return your grain and gather it to your threshing floor?

Throughout these chapters, God speaks and clearly claims full responsibility for creation in all its intricacy. This is in poetic form, though, could it be mere imagery? Are there further non-poetic claims in the Bible?  
For behold, he who forms the mountains and creates the wind, and declares to man what is his thought, who makes the morning darkness, and treads on the heights of the earth— the LORD, the God of hosts, is his name! (Amos 4:13)  

He who made the Pleiades and Orion, and turns deep darkness into the morning and darkens the day into night, who calls for the waters of the sea and pours them out on the surface of the earth, the LORD is his name; who makes destruction flash forth against the strong, so that destruction comes upon the fortress. They hate him who reproves in the gate, and they abhor him who speaks the truth. (Amos 5:8-10) 

In Isaiah 42:5, God, identified specifically as the Creator, speaks again and does not refute Who He is: Thus says God, the LORD, who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and what comes from it, who gives breath to the people on it and spirit to those who walk in it:  

In Isaiah 44:24, God Himself claims to be the only one who created and sustains His creation: Thus says the LORD, your Redeemer, who formed you from the womb: "I am the LORD, who made all things, who alone stretched out the heavens, who spread out the earth by myself, 

In Isaiah 45:12, God (verse 1 reveals who is speaking) specifically and unequivocally claims: I made the earth and created man on it; it was my hands that stretched out the heavens, and I commanded all their host. 

Again in Isaiah 45:18, which specifically claims that the earth was not created to sit empty, but formed for a specific purpose: For thus says the LORD, who created the heavens (he is God!), who formed the earth and made it (he established it;he did not create it empty, he formed it to be inhabited!):"I am the LORD, and there is no other. 

In Jeremiah 5:22, in a stern warning from God (against those who turn against Him), God identifies Himself as Creator of the sea: Do you not fear me? declares the LORD. Do you not tremble before me? I placed the sand as the boundary for the sea, a perpetual barrier that it cannot pass; though the waves toss, they cannot prevail; though they roar, they cannot pass over it. But this people has a stubborn and rebellious heart; they have turned aside and gone away. They do not say in their hearts,' Let us fear the LORD our God, who gives the rain in its season, the autumn rain and the spring rain, and keeps for us the weeks appointed for the harvest.' 

David, described by God as a man after His own heart, indicating that God approves of him, in Psalm 33:6, also testifies that God spoke creation into existence, just as claimed in Genesis: By the word of the LORD the heavens were made, and by the breath of his mouth all their host.  

While many of David’s songs of praise are written in poetic style, the claims to God’s authourship of creation are clear: The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. Day to day pours out speech,and night to night reveals knowledge.There is no speech, nor are there words, whose voice is not heard. Their voice goes out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. 

Again in Psalm 136:5 and 104:8, among many others: …to him who by understanding made the heavens, for his steadfast love endures forever …The mountains rose, the valleys sank down to the place that you appointed for them. 

Psalm 104:9 references the flood, and God’s promise to Noah to never again destroy the earth with a flood: You set a boundary that they may not pass, so that they might not again cover the earth.  

The New Testament also speaks of creation and its Creator, never disproving what Genesis clearly says. John 1:1-3 clearly says that nothing happened by chance in creation, nothing was made without a Creator: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. 

In Acts 14, Paul and Barnabas preach that man’s understanding is without value or life (vain), that only God is to receive worship. …we bring you good news, that you should turn from these vain things to a living God, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all that is in them. 

In Paul’s famous speech at the Aereopagus (the place in Greece for philosophical discussion), when he had the opportunity to speak to learned people, this is what he unhesitatingly claimed: The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man…  

Hebrews 11:3 recognized that it takes faith to believe what we were not there to see. It also confirms that what is was made out of what is not (something made from nothing). 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.  

In 2 Peter 3, the writer speaks of a time coming (now) when people would refuse to believe that God did create the universe, just as recorded in the Scripture. It also explains why those people would refuse to believe: …I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder, that you should remember the predictions of the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles, knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires. They will say, "Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation." For they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God, and that by means of these the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished.