Location and Service Times
CommUNITY church
  • HOME
  • CONNECT
    • Ministries >
      • Kids
      • Youth "UnWritten"
      • Life Ministries at Elmcroft
      • commUNITY Groups
      • Creative Arts
      • Worship Workout
    • Sermons >
      • The Gospel Story
      • Philippians
      • Greater Love
      • How Do I
      • 1st John
      • Rooted
      • Daniel
      • 5 Steps in the Christian Life
      • Habakkuk "WHY"
      • Titus
      • Passion
      • Ruth
    • Stepping Stones
    • Events
    • Another Berry Long Run
    • Devotional Series
  • VISIT
  • ABOUT
    • Jesus
    • What We Believe
    • Who We Are
    • Leadership Bios >
      • Jason Adams >
        • The Heart of a Pastor
      • Nik Sloan
    • Leadership Opportunities >
      • Elders
      • Deacons
      • commUNITY Group Leaders
    • Location & Times
    • Contact
    • Store

A Look in the Book, part 2

1/11/2016

0 Comments

 
Second in a series of studies on some key verses in the Bible

Genesis 1:1
Picture
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” This is an extremely important verse. 
It’s a foundational verse. It’s foundational to the book of Genesis. It’s foundational to the whole 
Bible. One of the most well-known verses in scripture, it is also one of the most disbelieved. In 
our last blog (read it here), we studied the first four words in Genesis. We continue now with the 
next word in Genesis, and move on through the remainder of the first verse. 
​
“In the beginning God created…” The English word “created” comes from the Hebrew word 
bara (buh-rah), which means something from nothing. Bara does not mean made. It is a different 
word in Hebrew and has a different meaning than “made”. Let’s illustrate: With a few pieces of wood, a person could “make” a rocking chair (if that person was good at woodworking). But a person could not “create” a rocking chair in the sense of the Hebrew word, bara. Creating something is different than making something. Therefore, in Genesis 1:1, God did not “make” the heavens and the earth using pre-existing matter. God “created” the heavens and the earth from nothing at all! This truth flies in the face of the belief system of many science professors, but it IS a Bible truth. And the Bible can be relied upon for its accuracy. “In the beginning God made…” is not accurate.  “In the beginning God created…” is the true interpretation of the verse in Hebrew, the original language. The heavens and the earth [universe] were created. Where nothing had been--something became!



The Webster’s Dictionary defines the word “create” as, “to cause to come into existence.” 
Interestingly, the English dictionary definition of create and the Hebrew word bara do not 
contradict each other. But many scientists, and evolution theorists, believe that the world was 
made by “the big bang.” In other words, a bunch of molecules that already existed (they can't 
explain why the molecules pre-existed) came together at the perfect time, and this earth and this 
galaxy and this universe were fully formed by a big explosion that sent particles out from the 
center of the explosion, and those particles became planets or stars, etc. 

To the Bible believer this is foolishness because we know what the Bible clearly teaches. But 
many believe the universe came into existence by accident—an unsolvable, mysterious event 
that just happened--and weren’t we lucky to have a planetary ball upon which to evolve! The 
teaching that the universe came into existence by accident is a false doctrine! Many wrongly 
believe God had nothing to do with the existence of the universe. The absolute truth is that God 
had EVERYTHING to do with it! He CREATED it! Now, let’s look at what God created. 

“In the beginning God created…the heavens and the earth.” 

This is fascinating to think about: God SPOKE the world into existence! I remember this truth 
being taught in a Bible class when I was a teenager. I can remember thinking that God must have 
extended His arm out over the nothingness of space and with a slow, sweeping motion of His 
mighty hand willed the universe to come into existence. He may have motioned in that manner. 
We don’t know. The Bible doesn’t give us that much detail. But it does say elsewhere in 
scripture that God SPOKE the world into existence, including later in Genesis One when 
multiple times we find the words, “And God SAID…” (emphasis mine). See Genesis 1:3, 6, 9, 
11, 14, 20, 24, 26, 28, and 29. Consider also Psalm 33:6 and Hebrews 11:3. 

Genesis 1:1 is a summation verse. It summarizes everything God did in the beginning. All of the 
remaining verses in chapter one are details of what occurred in verse one. The Bible clearly 
teaches that the heavens and the earth came into existence by the spoken Word of God. God 
spoke, and what He said…what He willed…happened! Because He’s GOD! 

Take just a moment today and delight yourself in our God—the mighty God of creation. 
Praise His name!

Picture
Darrell Nichols is an Elder and Pastor of Education at commUNITY church in Muncie, IN.
He can be reached at darrell.nichols@beincommunity.com or on Twitter @_nichols_dimes
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Darrell

    Elder / Teaching Pastor

    Read Darrell's Bio

    Archives

    October 2017
    August 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    March 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    August 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    January 2016
    February 2015

    RSS Feed

Join our mailing list for occasional updates and blog posts:

​Contact
​
Give
Location & Times 


admin@beincommunity.com
©2014 commUNITY church