Lesson 2: Where on Earth are We?

In part 2 of his study on worldview, Dr. Naugle explains why it is so important that Christians be clear about the origins, nature, and purpose of the cosmos in which we live.

“Once upon a time”

Everybody loves stories! Whether it’s a passionate romance, an exciting adventure, a complex mystery, a disturbing tragedy, or a tale in which the underdog wins or an evil villain loses, stories get our attention like nothing else. Whether in a book, on stage, through film, or around the table or the camp fire, stories have great power to entertain, challenge, explain, mystify, inspire, and even change us. From their opening “Once upon a time,” the irresistible force of stories resides in a quest pursued by the central character to get a desired object despite many obstacles in route to a hoped for “happily ever after.” Could it be that all such well-crafted stories that touch us so deeply are the gifts of God, graciously pointing us to the characters, plot, and action of His own story that He wants us to embrace as our very own? Probably so![1]

“I wonder what sort of tale we’ve fallen into?” said Sam to Frodo in J. R. R Tolkien’s The Two Towers.[2] That’s a good question for each of us to ask and answer as well. The tale that we Christians have fallen into by the mercy of God is His very own story, a drama of cosmic proportions. It is the narrative key that unlocks the secrets of the universe. It is the master plot that explains the meaning and purpose of life. It is the source of Jesus’ incomparable wisdom. In fact, He is its true hero who overcomes a tremendous foe and leads us to a happy ending!

There is a very close connection, of course, between God’s story and a biblical worldview. We can rightly say that they are, for all practical purposes, one and the same. To study the one is to study the other, for both are about creation, fall, and redemption. Regardless, it must shape our perspective on reality and provide the framework for our lives. Only when we make our own stories a subplot within God’s larger description of things do our lives make sense. Only when God’s view of the cosmos becomes our own do we walk in the light of truth. Consequently, we ought to inhabit the biblical story as if it were our home. The truth of the Christian worldview ought to dwell in us as we live out our lives from day to day.

Unfortunately, because of the overwhelming power of secularism — a story that banishes God from His own universe — our modern world, and even the contemporary Church, has lost its story.[3] Our goal in this lesson, therefore, is to begin the process of recovering it by investigating the doctrine of creation in Genesis 1 as first major aspect of a biblical view of life.

Life is best understood through a story — God’s story. It is a story that transcends and explains our experiences, our questions, our deepest yearnings, our greatest hurts. It is about God the person. His passions. His hopes. His heart. It is a story that includes a cherished beloved, a seductive villain, a hero’s journey, and a broken heart. It begins with “Once upon a time” and ends with “happily ever after.” It is a story with which our own can be told.

—Kurt Bruner, The Divine Drama: Discovering Your Part in God’s Story

Beginning at the beginning

Undoubtedly, our Christian experience begins when we understand the message of the gospel, repent of our sins, and trust wholeheartedly in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. However, Christianity as a worldview or comprehensive belief system does not begin with Jesus and salvation. Rather, it begins where the Bible itself begins: in the beginning in Genesis 1 with God and the doctrine of creation.

Here is how Francis Schaeffer makes the point in his own inimitable style: “Christianity as a system does not begin with Christ as Savior, but with the infinite-personal God who created the world in the beginning and who made man significant in the flow of history.”[4] So in Genesis 1, along with the second chapter of this first Biblical book, we discover God’s original intentions for creation. In Genesis 3, we learn how sin has corrupted God’s purposes for human life in this world. Only against this background will the Old Testament promise of redemption and its New Testament fulfillment make any sense. Only then will we truly understand Jesus Christ: where He came (to the earth), how He came (in the flesh), and why He came (to redeem His people and all the earth).

Creation, therefore, is the underlying foundation of it all![5] Otherwise, everything will be out of context. We might easily misunderstand the mission of Jesus, the character of our salvation, the role of the Church, and the purposes of the Christian life. How important it is, therefore, that our starting point be exactly the same as God’s!

Creation is the biblical starting point. Jesus Christ and the redemption he brings are undoubtedly the focus of the Scriptures. The biblical message is a call from sin to reconciliation with God. But what is sin? And what do words like salvation, redemption, and reconciliation mean? It is impossible to offer an answer to these questions if we do not have an implicit idea of creation. For it is creation that is affected by both sin and salvation.

—Brian Walsh and Richard Middleton, The Transforming Vision: Shaping a Christian Worldview

Certainly the best theology in the history of the Church has always recognized creation as the place to start for accurately understanding matters of faith. Unsurprisingly, the most widely shared summary of Christian doctrine in the world — the Apostles’ Creed — begins by affirming belief in God’s existence and His role as Creator: “I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of Heaven and Earth!” Therefore, we must take a fresh look at Genesis 1 where a wonderful rediscovery awaits us!

The joy of rediscovery

Where are we? That’s the really big question that the doctrine of creation answers. This question has to do with our present location, the nature of the world around us, our external environment. However, many people, even some believers, are virtually clueless when it comes to understanding their cosmic address. They are, we might say — “lost in space” — to use the title of an old TV program and relatively recent movie. To employ an ancient saying from the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius: “He who does not know what the world is, does not know where he is. And he who does not know for what purpose the world exists, does not know who he is, nor what the world is.”[6]

Through His divinely revealed Word, however, our gracious God has not left us “lost in space” or without knowledge of “what the world is” or “where we are.” Through the doctrine of creation, “which is known only from revelation and is understood by faith (Heb. 11:3),”[7] God informs us of our exact location. On the basis of Genesis 1-2, we can look past sin’s corruption and Satan’s usurpation — things that now are, but were not supposed to be — and make the joyful rediscovery of the world as God’s creation!

We know precisely where we are: God’s very good world! God almighty exists. He is the omnipotent and omniscient Creator of heaven and earth. Out of His extravagant love He created the universe and prepared this world for you and me. He gave it to us as a gift of His goodness and grace. This is my Father’s world! He owns it! It is not the Devil’s. As Isaiah the prophet says,

For thus says the Lord, who created the heavens, He is the God who formed the earth and made it, He established it and did not create it a waste place, but formed it to be inhabited, “I am the Lord, and there is none else.” (Isa. 45:18)

Unfortunately, the Church often neglects this basic Biblical fact. Sometimes she even seems to teach against it in her crusade against worldliness. But that is to make the grave mistake of confusing the creation itself with sin. Wrong! The creation is not sin or bad in itself. Instead we must affirm God as Creator of a great universe. He created this very good world called planet earth. He made it to be our home. We belong here, believe it or not! A brief survey of Genesis 1 demonstrates this and explains why!

The earth was created to be our home, and God intends to give it back to us. In the words of Oswald Chambers, “Redemption is not only for mankind, it is for the universe, for the material earth; everything that sin has touched and marred has been completely redeemed by Jesus Christ.” What should be our response? With all your senses, take in the wonder of God’s spectacular creation, a tangible reminder that God’s redemption — and mankind’s responsibility — extends not only to the hereafter, but to the here and now as well.

— Paul Marshall, Heaven Is Not My Home: Living in the Now of God’s Creation

A cosmological account of creation

Of course, we cannot deal with all the technical issues that Genesis 1 raises. For these matters you will need to consult a good commentary.[8] What we can do is try to grasp the big picture of God’s creative work set forth in this chapter.

Overall, Genesis 1 presents a cosmological account of creation, for it describes the origin and development of the whole universe, but especially planet earth. In fact, the bulk of Genesis 1 shows how God prepared the world for human occupancy through a variety of creative acts over a six “day” period. This creation chronology in vv. 3-31, however, is prefaced by the first two verses in the Bible that tell us exactly where everything came from and what the earth itself was like originally.

If you have ever wondered, “Why something is here rather than nothing at all,” then Genesis 1:1 provides the answer: “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” In this summary statement, we learn the simple but profound truth that “all things originate from God” (cf. 1 Cor. 11:12b). In fact, the Bible clearly teaches that God the Trinity is the exclusive Author of creation apart from any intermediary being (Gen. 1:1; Job 38; Psa. 96:5; Isa. 37:16; 40: 12-13; 44:24; 45:12; Jer. 10:12). The Father provides the initiative and is the first cause of creation. The Son is the personal Word and Wisdom in whom, by whom, and for whom everything is created (Prov. 8:22-31; John 1:1-3; Col. 1:16). He is the One who holds all things together (Col. 1:17; Heb. 1:3) and is the source of all wisdom and knowledge (Col. 2:2-3). The Holy Spirit is the personal, immanent cause by which all things have their form, the sphere in which all things live, move and have their being (Gen. 1:2; Psa. 104:30; Acts 17:28).

The entire universe, therefore, originates simultaneously from the Father, through the Son, and in the Spirit. As a result, creation bears the imprint of the Trinity throughout.[9]

The implications of Genesis 1:1, and this teaching associated with it, are total! The cosmos is not neutral in character. It comes with preordained theistic meaning. Everything in the universe must be interpreted with God in mind. He is the infinite reference point for all reality. Creation and human existence are deeply religious in nature. Reality possesses profound theological and spiritual significance from the very beginning. Any other view of things is simply wrong.

Our attention is immediately rifled to this planet in verse 2 where it is described as “formless and void.” This expression does not indicate that something was wrong with what God made initially. It was not under judgment. There was no evil associated with it. Rather, this second verse of Scripture simply explains what the raw materials of the world were like when they first came forth from the hand of the Creator. Theologians call Genesis 1:1-2 together the “primary creation” (creatio prima), for it provides information about the origin of all things and what they were like initially.

Now if you have ever wondered why things are the way they are on the earth and not different, then the rest of Genesis 1 provides the answer. In the following six days, God takes this original chaos, which was unformed but not deformed, and fashions it into a cosmos! Theologians refer to this next aspect of God’s creative work as the “secondary creation” (creatio secunda). Here He takes what He has already made and shapes it into the pattern He desires. During the first three days of this “secondary creation,” He forms the formless earth, and creates the various realms that will be occupied by their respective rulers (Gen. 1:3-13):

• Day 1 Light
• Day 2 Water and sky
• Day 3 Land, seas, vegetation

In the second three days of the “secondary creation,” God fills the empty but newly formed earth, and places rulers in the realms He has just created (Gen. 1:14-31):

• Day 4 Luminaries (sun, moon, stars)
• Day 5 Fish and birds
• Day 6 Beasts and human beings/food

Notice that the way God formed the earth on days 1-3 prepared the way for how God filled the earth on days 4-6. There is an amazing symmetry in this literary description, pointing us to the beauty of the creation itself in all of its wonder and symphonic order. Our truly amazing God created a truly amazing world as Neal Plantinga helps us to understand in this description.

In creation God graciously made room in the universe for other kinds of beings. And then, out of his limitless and self-sustaining resources, God began to work. Expending vast resources of ingenuity, power, and love, God expanded the realm of being, generating ten to one hundred billion galaxies, each galaxy a stupendous bonfire of as many as one hundred billion stars, and many of the stars loaded with their own orbital systems. . . . On our own planet, God devised processes of his own imagination to make salamanders and sandhill cranes and fringed gentians. As zoologists and botanists show us . . . God’s creation, as we now observe it, includes more than 750, 000 species of insects and 250, 000 species of plants. It includes grasshoppers that look like leaves and beetles that hitchhike on the backs of bees. Perhaps revealing a whimsical side of God’s nature, creation includes duckbilled platypus, and also ‘gooney’ birds, a member of the albatross family found around Midway Island in the South Pacific. With their great wingspans and set-back leg placement, gooneys are champion fliers, but they visit land so seldom that, when they do, they come in for some truly foolish landings.[10]

Now once God completed His creative work, He stepped back and contemplated it, just like we do after we finish a big project! So what did He think? Genesis 1:31 supplies the answer. Here we have one of the most important verses in all of Scripture for developing a biblical view of life: “And God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good.”

That the “creation before and apart from sin is wholly and unambiguously good”[11] is true in at least two ways. First, it is good in its very essence or nature. There are no bad atoms or molecules in the world! The material creation reflects God’s own good and holy character. We can rejoice in and give thanks for the physical creation! Second, it is good for us as people, providing everything necessary for genuine human happiness. As the Hebrews would say, God created the world to bless us and for shalom! This was paradise. It was a good place to be!

These important facts about the goodness of creation distinguish the Christian worldview from every other religion and philosophy known to humanity. They deliver us from ingrained “gnostic” attitudes that tend look questionably upon the material universe as the source of our most fundamental problems. God’s very good world cannot be the cause of our pervasive difficulties. The true cause of our struggles is explained in Genesis 3 through the story of our fall into sin. So we must conclude that human existence in this world is an unmitigated good. We rejoice in God’s handiwork and give thanks for our divinely revealed rediscovery of where we are — God’s very good world!

"This is my Father’s World”

By Maltbie B. Babcock

∞§§∞

This is my Father’s World,

And to my listening ears;

All nature sings and

‘round me rings

The music of the spheres.

This is my Father’s world.

I rest me in the thought.

Of rocks and trees, of skies and seas,

His hands the wonders wrought

Conclusion

To catch the meaning and power of this opening chapter in the Biblical story, may I suggest that you conclude by reading it aloud in its entirety all the way through from beginning to end. What is your basic response? What a wonderful philosophic treatise! What a great resource to defeat evolutionists! Let’s hope not!

While Genesis 1 has clear philosophic and scientific implications, it is primarily a spiritual and theological document, not an academic one! It is designed to teach us about God as the infinite, personal, powerful, good, wise Creator of everything! Hopefully, your reading of Genesis 1 generates a response of worship, a desire to praise and thank Him for His marvelous work! This is the wonder-filled note upon which God’s story, and ours, begins!

O Lord, how many are Thy works!

In wisdom Thou hast made them all;

The earth is full of Thy possessions (Psalm 104:24)

Worthy art Thou, our Lord and our God,

To receive glory and honor and power;

For Thou didst create all things,

And because of Thy will they existed and were created! (Rev. 4:11)

Coming up next: Who on earth are we? Genesis 1:26-28

For Study or Discussion

1. Review Dr. Naugle’s overview of the origins of the cosmos. How do unbelievers account for our world? What would they likely offer as an explanation for all things? Is this really a viable explanation? Why or why not?

2. Why does it matter so much that we understand the world as having been created good? What does this reveal about God’s intention for the world as He made it? How should that intention inform our own being-in-the-world?

3. Why is having a cogent and coherent story about the origins of all things so important to our Christian worldview?

4. Explain the role of each member of the Trinity in the creation and ongoing sustaining of the creation. Is God still active in the world He has made? In what ways? To what ends?

5. How does understanding the origins of the cosmos and life affect the worship of a believer? His or her daily life? His or her witness for the Lord?

Dr. David Naugle is Professor of History at Dallas Baptist University and author of the book, Worldview: The History of a Concept.

For additional insight into the meaning of worldview, order the book, How Now Shall We Live?, by Chuck Colson and Nancy Pearcey, available through the online store at TheColsonCenter.org.

[1] Aspects of these first two paragraphs are taken from ideas in Kurt Bruner, The Divine Drama: Discovering Your Part in God’s Story (Wheaton: Tyndale House Publishers, 2001), ix-xi, 7.

[2] J. R. R. Tolkein, The Two Towers (New York: Quality Paperback Book Club, 1995), 321; quoted in Bruner, The Divine Drama, p. 136.

[3] Robert W. Jenson, “How the World Lost Its Story,” in The New Religious Humanists: A Reader, ed. and intro. Gregory Wolfe (New York: The Free Press, 1997), pp. 135-49.

[4] Francis A. Schaeffer, Genesis in Space and Time: The Flow of Biblical History (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1972), p. 97.

[5] Brian J. Walsh, and J. Richard Middleton, The Transforming Vision: Shaping a Christian Worldview (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1984), p. 44.

[6] Quoted in The Great Ideas: A Syntopicon of Great Books of the Western World, eds. Mortimer J. Adler and William Gorman, in The Great Books of the Western World, vol. 2 (Chicago: William Benton Publisher, 1952), p. 1118.

[7] Herman Bavinck, In the Beginning: Foundations of Creation Theology, ed. John Bolt, trans. John Vriend (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1999), p. 25.

[8] For a start, try Gordon Wenham, Genesis 1-15. Word Biblical Commentary, gen. eds. David A. Hubbard and Glenn W. Barker; OT ed. John D. Watts, vol. 1 (Waco: Word, 1987).

[9] Bavinck, In the Beginning, pp. 39-45.

[10] Cornelius Plantinga, Jr., Engaging God’s World: A Christian Vision of Faith, Learning, and Living (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2002), 23.

[11] Albert M. Wolters, Creation Regained: Biblical Basics for a Reformational Worldview (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1985), p. 41.