Genesis 1:1 The Biblical Worldview

Genesis 1:1 The Biblical Worldview
The book of Genesis is a book of beginnings. It tells of the beginning of our material world, which Genesis calls the heavens and the earth. Genesis proclaims the origin of life, specifically, the life of earth’s creatures. The book not only explains how human life came to be, but it also speaks about the progression of human life into families, clans, tribes, and nations.
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Within the pages of Genesis, we see the beginning of another element or reality. I speak of the reality of sin; the term used for mankind’s rebellion against the God who created all things. This book of beginnings also describes sin’s effect upon the created world.

Moses was used of God to pen the book of Genesis. The Almighty inspired Moses to write of the early days of the material world, giving Moses the knowledge and wisdom to do so. Moses wrote about things which span over 2000 years.

There is so much to glean just in the first verse of the first chapter of Genesis. It is this particular verse that I wish to direct your attention.

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
Genesis 1:1

The book’s first action takes place “in the beginning”. The term “beginning” holds more than just one meaning, a fact that is important to note. The most direct meaning certainly does mean at the start, at the beginning of the material world. But another meaning of the term refers to a time before the beginning, a time prior to the creation. This time prior is correctly called eternity past. It is what was before anything was. In John’s gospel, we know that God was in the beginning which was before the world and heavens existed (John 1:1, 2).

At a certain point in eternity past (the beginning), God began the beginning of the material world. He created the heavens, earth and everything else. He was the creator because He was before them. He was in the beginning, which is eternity past. He could create all things for another reason. God created because He was of higher rank than all things (Colossians 1:17). He was the God and Master, the One of higher rank, power, and being.

Genesis begins with an important lesson about God. The God who created is the supreme God. All other things are of lower rank because they are created. No created thing is higher than the Creator. As the supreme God, the Creator is the cause or reason for the material world. Only God can cause things to come into existence. Nothing of the creation can make this claim. This is the Biblical worldview.

Human beings are that which are created. We cannot cause our own existence. Thus humanity is of lower rank than the God who created. As such, people have a call, a command to submit themselves to the One who is greater, the supreme God. We obey this command when we submit to the Biblical worldview.

Pastor Randy