VERNA HARGROVE: Excellent Beginnings
Excellent Beginnings
The Big Bang Theory -- from the Bible's point of view! John and Verna Hargrove take you back in time to the story of Creation and a study of the earliest men in the Book of Genesis. Since there is a Grand Design, there must be a Grand Designer. Since Creation has taken place, there is obviously a Creator. There is. He is God. In the Bible, we will see that God does not speak verbally to everyone, but chooses specific people to talk to, and asks them to go as prophets for him. Those were usually men of great faith. We soon learn that the Bible is not a story of great men, but of a great God. God still communicates with us today. In this study, we will assume the Creation story is the true one. If you are not sure about that, we invite you to settle down and read what God has to say about it.
Order Excellent Beginnings here:
THE CREATOR
“What is faith? It is the confident assurance that what we hope for is going to happen. It is the evidence of things we cannot see,” (Hebrews 11:1). You are entering a study of the Bible that depends on your faith. This study is for those who believe that the Bible is the Word of God and that it is true. We have taught the Bible to both adults and children for over 50 years. Children have no problem believing that God is spirit and that he is so mighty that he could do anything, including creating the universe. Adults have to work at having faith. On the other hand, if you are willing to give God a chance and approach His Word like a child, I think you will find this study an interesting journey.
In this study, we will assume the creation story is the true one. If you are not sure about that, I invite you to settle down and read what God has to say about it in his Holy Word. We learn in the Bible that God is personal and cares for us. If we ignore him, he may choose to ignore us. The Bible says that when we talk to him we get close to him. We find that place where we meet with him to be our secret place of strength. We invite him to live inside us and he does. Jesus made it possible. God’s love for us was so great that he asked Jesus, the darling of heaven, to come to earth, live a perfect life of love, then die in our place.
Since there is design, there must be a designer. Since creation has taken place, then there is obviously a creator. He is God. In the Bible, we will see that God does not speak verbally to everyone, but chooses specific people to talk to, and asks them to go as prophets for him. Those were usually men of great faith. Men of faith still listen for his voice today. When they chose to believe God, they received supernatural faith from God. We soon learn that the Bible is not a story of great men, but of a great God. God still communicates with us today. He usually speaks to us in our hearts, where hi spirit resides. As we allow him to open the doors to every room in our hearts, we learn more about him. He is already aware of our secret sins, and wants to minister to us in those secret corners of our hearts. “The voice of the Lord is over the waters; the God of glory thunders; the Lord is over many waters,” Psalm 29:3.
The Bible starts with, “In the beginning God.” So, we who believe the Bible is true assume there is a God. Next, it says that God “created the heavens and the earth.” God gave his approval to people “in days of old because of their faith,” (Genesis 11:2).
GOD SPEAKS
God spoke light into the darkness and separated day from night, and water from dirt. He immediately told the land to produce vegetation, and called the sun, moon and stars into existence. He made fish, birds and animals. He would not be satisfied until he made humans, which he did on the sixth day. Then he rested on the seventh day. “By faith we understand that the entire universe was formed at God’s command, that what we now see did not come from anything that can be seen,” (Genesis 11:3).
From Genesis 1:1-25, we see a tremendous miracle as God created the heavens and the earth. The mighty waters had to be calmed. The stars had to be put in place. As quickly as God thought of a different kind of fish, bird, tree, or flowers, he spoke it into existence. God is mighty. God refers to himself as “us”. He said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness,” (Genesis 1:26). Turning to the New Testament, we see in the Gospel of John, that Jesus made all things.
One might ask how anyone in their right mind could believe that God could make all of this in six days. I would say that it depends on how big your God is. The God of the Bible is big and powerful enough to do it. If he gave a small atom the power to vastly explode for miles around, then he can do the opposite. He can work and speak with such exactness to cause what should take millions of years to be reduced to six days. Heaven is his throne and the earth is his footstool.
In this study, we will see a holy God that demands perfection, then provides his son to satisfy that requirement. “What a difference between our sin and God’s generous gift of forgiveness. For this one man, Adam, brought death to many through sin. But this other man, Jesus Christ, brought forgiveness to many through God’s bountiful gift,” (Romans 5:15).
ADAM
The man God first created was named Adam. God placed him in the Garden of Eden and gave him the job of naming the animals. He then gave him a wife, Eve. God put the two people he made in a gorgeous garden and gave them everything good they could desire. He gave Adam and Eve so much love that one would think they would be overjoyed. Yet he made humans with the power of choice. In order for this to be he put a forbidden tree in the garden to see if they would obey him and not eat of it. The negative force behind the tree aroused their curiosity. When they were tempted to eat the forbidden fruit, they ate it without giving it a second thought. “When Adam sinned, sin entered the entire human race. Adam’s sin brought death, so death spread to everyone, for everyone sinned.”(Romans 5:12).
God had told them the day they ate the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they would die. Up to that point, they were saturated with the love of God in their spirit. Sin separated them from God and their spirit died. Filled with guilt and shame, they made fig leaves to hide their nakedness.
∞
God told them the day they ate
The fruit from the tree
Of knowledge of good and evil
They would die
∞
God immediately showed his mercy as he sacrificed the lives of two small animals and made the humans coats of skin. The animal died in their place. Adam and Eve would eventually die, but not now. Punishment was in order for all three sinners, including the serpent that allowed Satan to speak through him. As sinners, God drove them out of the garden. They no longer had free fruit and vegetables, but had to labor to grow their own food. Sin would be ever present, and self-centeredness was the escape. Animal sacrifices was the only relief from the pain of guilt.
Adam as an Old Testament character is mentioned in the New Testament nine times. Luke mentions him seven times in his gospel. The Apostle Paul speaks of him one time, and he is in the Epistle of Jude one time. We believe he is just as much a historical character as Moses, Joshua, David, or Daniel. These all believed Adam was the first man.
Adam was real. It is interesting that recently some anthropologists have concluded that the human race began with two people. Moses could have told these scientists this fact 3500 years ago! Adam’s story is told in the Bible in the Book of Genesis. Moses is the author.
The passage in Genesis 1 refers to the general creation of humankind, while Genesis 2 gives information that is more specific. Critics of the Bible have seen a contradiction in these two accounts. However, these critics should study more literature in Hebrew. It is common in Hebrew literature to mention something first in a general way, and then later describe it more fully. It does not seem likely that Moses would be confused in his recording the origin of man in Genesis chapters 1 and 2 of his first written book!
God put Adam to sleep, took out a rib, and created Eve. It is of note to mention that Eve is mentioned only two times in the New Testament, (both by the Apostle Paul). Yet, her existence is accepted by all. The two are often referred to as a couple. Almost everyone knows about Adam and Eve. Pictures of them eating an apple are common.
Jesus was of such magnitude that he was called, “The Word” by John the Apostle. No other Word could describe him. Jesus, the Word, was with God the Father from the beginning, and he was God. He made all things. The Bible says that God is a triune God. God the Father, Son, and Spirit is one God. “Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hast formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God,” Psalm 90:2.
∞
“The voice of the Lord is over the waters;
the God of glory thunders;
the Lord is over many waters,” Psalm 29:3.
∞
Regarding the beginning of the earth, Genesis says, “The earth was without form and void and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters,” Genesis 1:2. Then God spoke. He made strong statements with His thundering voice, “Let there be light,” he said. “Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters and let it divide the waters from the waters.” The atmosphere must have vibrated as he proclaimed, “Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear.” Each time He pronounced a new creation, he concluded, “It is so.” Each time God saw his work was good.
John says in the New Testament that all things were made by the Word, and without Him, nothing was made. He created grass, plants and trees; the sun, moon and stars; fish, birds and animals. Repeatedly, the Bible says, “And God saw that it was good.”
THE POWERFUL TRIUNE GOD
God got everything ready before he put man in the garden. “Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our own image.’” Let us make man is an interesting term. Whom was the Father referring to when He said, “Let us make man”? Many believe this is a very early reference to the Holy Trinity. God the Father is speaking to His Son, the Lord Jesus, and to the Holy Spirit. In the very first verse of the Bible, the word “God” in our Bible is Elohim in Hebrew. Elohim is called a uni-plural noun in the Hebrew language. The first verse of the Bible is an indication that the personalities in the Godhead are plural.
Look closer as to what God means when He says “in our image”, since the Bible says explicitly that God created man in His own image. Just to what does the image of God refer? It can scarcely refer to the Heavenly Father’s physical body; because we are told, God is a Spirit who fills all things in every way. The “image of God” is more than that. It must mainly refer to a spiritual moral dimension that God imparts to man.
Paul, in Colossians, tells us that believers have a new nature created by Christ himself. We grow to be like him as we learn more about Him. The Bible says, “Put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him,” Colossians 3:10. We are all children of faith that believe God loves us. We love to have a sense that our Heavenly Father is near us. Jesus said he would not leave us orphans, and we believe it. He is with us all the time to help us through the rough times. He wraps his loving arms around us.
NON-BELIEVERS
Secular scientists believe man descended from lower forms of life. It is an article of faith among them that man evolved from soup. This theory of evolution teaches that man evolved over a period of hundreds of thousands, to even millions of years. A skull bone will be uncovered and then a reconstruction of an entire man will be made and it will be called conclusive evidence. Why is it so important to natural man that there not be a God? Is man so proud that he cannot visualize someone greater than he is? This seems to be the case of many atheists. Verse 27 gives as a fact the creation of man. The word translated “life” is actually in the plural. It could read that God “breathed into his nostrils the breath of lives.” Adam was given physical life, mental life, and spiritual life. He was the first human being, and all people came from him. This is the truth that non-believers refuse to acknowledge.
Christians who believe the Bible is the Word of God recoil from this presumption, and they should. We need only look at a tree and see that there is a creator. We gaze at the stars at night and know there is life beyond our view. We look in our hearts and find God’s law written there. We know we should not steal, kill or swear violently. We have a conscience that guides us away from evil and toward what is good. The Bible says that God is good. His powerful love draws us toward him.
∞
Jesus said he would not leave us orphans,
and we believe He is with us all the time.
He wraps his loving arms around us
and helps us through the rough times .
∞
CAIN AND ABEL
The children of Adam knew the sacrifice system to be true, because Abel sacrificed a flawless lamb to die in his place. Cain was angry when his vegetables were not accepted, but God gave him a second chance to do it right. He killed his brother instead, and sin began to permeate throughout the land. “It was by faith that Abel brought a more acceptable offering to God than Can did. God accepted Abel’s offering to show that he was a righteous man. And although Abel is long dead, he still speaks to us because of his faith,” Genesis 11:4).
We are aware that we are alive. Yet, when we look at an animal, we know we have a depth of life unlike any creature on earth. We look at the stars and read scientific magazine about life on those planets, we are aware that we are different. It becomes obvious that man has knowledge unlike any other creation. Once we have been born of the spirit, we realize we had always had a lifeless spirit inside us, waiting to be set free. Life on earth had begun. “Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them,” (2:1). Man on earth had decisions to make. It was essential that he obey God. We have the capacity to love. The Bible teaches us that God is love. We get our ability to love deeply from God, and we love God. We love people. Those who have received Christ as Savior become aware that we develop his characteristics of faith, peace and joy.
When you read the Word of God, you see a kind Heavenly Father that wants to be our friend. Those who learn to get alone in a quiet place with their Bibles in their laps find that as they pour out their hearts desires in prayer, God will speak to them from his Word.
QUESTION: Do you have a hard time believing the story of creation found in the Bible? Why or why not?
