Studies

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Studies in Genesis
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Belief in God Gen 1v1-26
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Introduction
School-children are sometimes given the
opportunity to ask any question of visiting
ministers. They often ask, 'Where did God come
from?' Sometimes the question reflects a genuine
spirit of enquiry it may also reveal the
dismissive treatment given to God by the
childrens parents. Today, many people are
dismissive of God because they have supressed or
stifled their knowledge of God and any genuine
spirit of enquiry that may have existed in their
hearts. Rom. 1.21. The implication behind the
question is that people will not accept Gods
existence without understanding his origins. How
do we respond to such a question and all that
lies behind it?
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A Flawed Question
The approach of such individuals is flawed for a
number of reasons. First because it is
inconsistently applied. We don't hear people
saying, 'I won't believe in the existence of the
world unless I know how it came into being! The
materialistic scientist will explain the
existence of the world in terms of the big bang
theory of the universe, which states that the
universe was created by a gigantic explosion and
all that we observe today was produced within the
first few minutes after the big bang. The
extremely high temperature and the density of
matter are said to have turned subatomic
particles into the chemical elements.
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A Flawed Question
The high density of the primeval atom would have
caused the rapid expansion of the universe. As it
expanded, the hydrogen and helium would cool and
condense into stars and galaxies. There are
significant pieces missing from a purely
materialistic big bang theory. E.g. Where did
the matter come from that created the big bang?
The lame response of the materialist is that 'it
was always there!' Here is a glaring
contradiction. It seems that some are prepared
to accept unquestioningly the eternity of matter
but they refuse to accept the eternity of God.
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A Flawed Question
Secondly, we need to ask, how men by dismissing
God can then adequately explain the order and
design found in the universe. We are closed into
one of two choices, either we believe ourselves
to be the product of a vast cosmic accident or we
recognise that they are the product of wise
design. Imagine an explosion in a printworks,
which resulted in paper, ink, glue and letters
being blown skywards. But as they returned to
the ground they had amazingly and accidentally
arranged themselves into 29 beautifully bound
volumes of Encyclopaedia Britannica.
Statistically that scenario is much more
probable than it is to accept that the order
and design of the universe came about as a
result of an accident.
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A Flawed Question
Tony Holland, Professor of Chemical Engineering
at the University of Salford was a scientific
humanist up to the age of 30. Then he was
challenged by the question, Is there a God? He
concluded On consideration it was inconceivable
to me that the complex system of which we are a
part could have occurred without a creator. Just
as a great symphony testifies to the skill of a
composer, the world and the universe testify to
the wisdom and power of God. Science is but a
description of God's work. Now the case for the
origin of the universe is often mischievously
presented as accepting on the one hand the
findings of reason and science, or on the other
that of faith and the Bible.
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A Flawed Question
You are either a 'big banger' who has evolved
from an accident in space and time or you accept
that, 'In the beginning God created'. In reality
both these views involve faith. The vital and all
important difference being the object of that
faith. One the one hand there are those who place
their faith in, a cosmic theory, while others
place their faith in a Creator God. A
contemporary writer commenting upon the view that
we are merely creatures of chance says At
some remote point in history nothing became
something, by chance the ingredients occurred
for a spontaneous creation. Of course this view
presupposes the existence of the basic
ingredients of matter, which seems to leave us
where we were. Frankly I think it takes more
faith to be an atheist than to believe in God.
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A Flawed Question
The ordinary man in the street often has greater
confidence in scientific theory than do
scientists themselves. Let me quote from a
contemporary British Scientist Many people
wishing to bolster an argument will declare 'The
scientist says'. Such an approach is based on two
fallacies. The first is to believe that the
scientist lacks any prejudice. Nothing in history
supports that view. Take the field of medicine
Lord Lister introduced antiseptics to surgery.
You might have thought that he would have been
hailed as a great innovator by the profession
and that honours would have been heaped upon
him. The reverse was true he was vilified mocked
and scorned. His views would never have gained
ground were it not for the fact that his
patients lived and those of his detractors died.
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A Flawed Question
The second fallacy arises from a failure to
recognise that by its nature science is always,
changing. No scientist can arrive at certainty.
It used to be taught in school that matter could
neither be created nor destroyed. However
Einstein postulated that if you could destroy
mass the energy released would be equivalent to
the product of that mass destroyed and the speed
of light squared E mc2. People did not laugh
at him. Eventually over the Nevada desert, arose
that sinister mushroom cloud as it was
demonstrated that man had learned to split the
atom and the mass of the residue was less than
the original. We therefore need to guard
against investing upon the findings of modem
science a quality of infallibility.
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A Flawed Question
The scepticism of our age has deepened as man has
increasingly placed more faith in himself, in his
reason and developed mind. Causing him to say,
'If I cannot understand God to my satisfaction I
will not believe in his existence.' But this
contemporary approach is also flawed because on
a daily basis we exercise faith in many things we
do not understand. As a non-medical person, I do
not understand the digestive system, but it does
not stop me from eating. I do not understand
all about our respiratory system, but I
continue to breathe.
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A Flawed Question
The approach which says, I will not believe in
God until I can understand him, is further
flawed in that it attempts to bring God down to
our tiny finite level. It is merely another way
of saying, 'I will not believe in a God who is
greater than I am. In one of his plays, George
Bernard Shaw describes one of his characters as
'a self made man who worships his creator.' When
we close our minds to what God discloses about
himself and so close God out then, and this is
Paul's argument in Rom 1, we worship the
creature instead of the Creator.
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A Better Approach
Is there another approach which might be taken in
order to answer the childs question Where did
God come from? or that of the adult who looks
out into the cosmos and asks, 'Is there anyone
there?' The Bible reminds us that 'without faith
it is impossible to please God and that anyone
who comes to him must believe that he exists
Heb. 11.6. This does not mean that we have to
kiss goodbye to our brains. Biblical faith is
not a leap in the dark, or even whistling in the
dark hoping that God is there. Rather it is
faith in a God, who has made and continues to
make himself known.
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A Better Approach
Paul makes it clear in Rom 1. 19-20 just 'what
may be known about God. In the first place God
has made himself known in the created order, and
the Psalmist reminds us that 'the heavens declare
the glory of God Psalm 19.1. The order and
design of the universe argues for the existence
of a wise designer. Our earth is 93,000 miles
from the sun, any nearer and the planet would
burn up any further away and it would freeze.
But our knowledge of God is not only external
it is also internal. In Ecclesiastes 3.11 we
read that God has placed eternity in the heart
of man. There is a holy dissatisfaction in the
heart of man telling him there is more to life
than his treadmill existence down here and
persuading him that the grave is not the end.
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A Better Approach
But our internal knowledge of God is more than a
sense of destiny. God has made man in his
image. That involves among other things creating
him as a moral being. Wherever you go in the
world you will find evidence of the fact that
God's law has been written on man's heart. Men
instinctively know right from wrong. Whether you
stay in Tokyo or Tehran no one needs to tell you
murder or stealing is wrong. Of course all of
our God-knowledge can be suppressed. We can
suppress God's truth in our consciences, when it
tells us that a particular code of conduct is
wrong.
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A Better Approach
In Rom 1.18 we read of men who suppress the
truth about God by their wickedness. Knowledge
of what God is like floats like a piece of wood
in the surface of human consciousness but that
knowledge can be held under the surface, just as
a piece of wood held under water becomes
waterlogged and sinks. But even then God can
reveal himself with unmistakable clarity and
power despite our best efforts to blot him out.
Some time ago, a Serbian soldier, who had
entered a Croat village to engage in ethnic
cleansing, found some Christian literature. He
read it and as a result came to faith in Christ.
He discovered for himself the God who is there.
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A Better Approach
There is one final piece of information that we
need, which causes us to face our origins. In
making man like himself, God did not only make
man a moral being he made him a personal and
spiritual being. Man has been made for fellowship
with God and when he is not enjoying that then he
experiences an inner restlessness which nothing
else can fill. Augustine put it this way, 'my
heart was restless till it found its rest in
you.'
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A Better Approach
Pascal described man as having a 'God shaped
blank' in his life and until that spiritual
vacuum is filled he experiences a significant
emptiness. No other adequate explanation has ever
been given for the spiritual dimension that
exists in man's life. This is what separates him
from the rest of the created order. Have you ever
seen a field of cows praying? Have you ever found
a herd of cows who were keen to attend church?
There is something quite different about man and
it is this - he has been made for fellowship
with God. He has been made to enjoy God's
company. He either possesses a God shaped blank
in his life or is possessed by God and has
begun to realise the purpose of his existence.
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A Better Approach
You may be thinking, 'I have no problem accepting
Gods existence, for many reasons including some
of those mentioned. I am happy with the idea.
But we need to go further. When some people say
they believe in God often what they mean is, 'I
believe in my kind of god - a god who suits me, a
god who has been shaped by my thinking. And
in their thought process God is often reduced to
a benevolent heavenly grandfather, someone who
is there to cater to their every whim and grant
their every wish. In other words a god built to
their specifications, a god made in their image.
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Conclusion
In answer to the question, Is there anyone
there?' God replies, 'Yes, I am the one who has
created you for myself, the one who alone can
equip you to live life to the full, a God worth
searching after. When you find me you will
discover that before you started your search for
me, I began mine for you. I long to draw you to
myself. I am not found by accident but if you
seek me with your whole heart you will surely
find me. Jer.29.13
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