From the beginning to the end of time God has been, is, and will be actively involved with His creation. It is part of God’s nature to have care and compassion for what He has made. Specifically, for the purpose of this paper we will look at God’s guidance in the interactions of His prized creation: man. “The Lord looks from heaven; He sees all the sons of men; from His dwelling place He looks out on all the inhabitants of the earth, He who fashions the hearts of them all, He who understands all their works” (Ps. 33:13-15).
God, by His power, created the world and everything in it. According to deists that is the end of the story. The classical comparison of God with the clockmaker says, “God wound up the clock of the world once and for all at the beginning, so that it now proceeds as world history without the need for His further involvement.” As far as Deists are concerned, God is no longer plays an active role in guiding His creation. Towns further clarifies the Deist’s view point, “He has imparted to His creatures certain properties, placed them under His invariable laws, and left them to work out their destiny by their own powers.” This is not the view of God we learn from the Bible.
The Bible declares God’s involvement in creation (Gen. 1:1; Ps. 102:25; Rom. 1:20; Col. 1:16; Heb. 11:3), but he does not stop there. In the first chapters of Genesis, God gives commands to take care of the land, then He institutes sacrifices to make atonement for sin, the whole time
The Bible’s point of view starts with a god as well. The Christians call it Genesis 1 and they had it written down, unlike the Onondaga, who used word of mouth. The Earth had already existed in Onondaga myth. There were birds and fish already swimming around in the ocean. There was no Earth yet, just water. “[Water] stretched as far as anybody could see, and in that water there were birds and animals swimming around.” (The Earth on Turtle’s Back, paragraph 1) In Genesis I, God had created the heavens and then the Earth. Then He created the light and the dark. Then, God created the sky. Unlike the Onondaga’s myth, where the sky was already in place. The gods lived in Skyland, where the Great Chief’s wife had a dream about the great tree being uprooted. The Chief then said, “I am sad that you had this dream. It is clearly a dream of great power and, as is our way, when one has such a powerful dream we must do all that we can to make it true.” (The Earth on Turtle’s Back, paragraph 3) This is a reflection upon the culture of Onondaga as much as it is a part of the story. Unlike the Bible, where the God had no dreams, just inspiration to make something
Throughout Genesis 1-11, one of the main subjects covered is the natural world. Genesis 1 in particular provides crucial information for understanding the origin of the natural world. In the first verse of the entire Bible (Genesis 1:1), the reader is immediately told that “God created the heavens and the earth.” Additionally, the reader is informed that “there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day” (Genesis 1:31), showing that God’s work of creation took six days. Because I believe that God created the world in six literal days, the foundation of my worldview is entirely different than the foundation of an atheist’s worldview. When I look at the world around me, I do not view everything around me as the product of random chance and evolution; instead, I see everything around me as the handiwork of God.
When you look around and gaze at the beautiful creation before you, do you reflect on how amazing God is? God made the creation, man, and everything surrounding the two. There are many different worldviews. This paper will focus on the Christian worldview. The Christian worldview involves God, humanity, Jesus, and restoration.
“In the God created the heavens and the earth.” (Genesis 1:1) God existed before all of His creation, therefore He is the sovereign creator. He created all to be good in His perfect wisdom. Though God is invisible, He has several distinct characteristics; compassionate, faithful, infinite, just, wise and all-powerful.
In the book of Genesis, the creation story begins with a God, alone. There was nothing but him. When he wanted to make something, all he had to do was speak and it
God does not hold Himself distant from His creation, but He embraces it; He walks with it. He engages with that which He created. The story of Creation shows that the author of it all is personal, intimate, and cares about what He created. Act one gives us a glimpse of how the world was supposed to be; a beautiful, intimate, God –in –the –midst life of perfect satisfaction with the absence of sin. However, this all crumbled in Act two when Adam and Eve decided to disobey God and take their lives into
God’s role in the Bible is characterized in several different ways, with dramatically competing attributes. He takes on many functions and, as literary characters are, he is dynamic and changes over time. The portrayal of God is unique in separate books throughout the Bible. This flexibility of role and character is exemplified by the discrepancy in the depiction of God in the book of Genesis in comparison to the depiction of God in the book of Job. On the larger scale, God creates with intention in Genesis in contrast to destroying without reason in Job. However, as the scale gets smaller, God’s creative authority can be seen in both books, yet this creative authority is manifested in entirely distinctive manners. In Genesis, God as
With recent technology offering a more comprehensive perspective of the current global atrocities, the existence of evil has never been more prevalent. If evil is defined as extreme suffering, premature death, and moral corruption, its existence questions the Christian view of God. The Christian God is an all-seeing, all-powerful being of moral perfection. Because these two truths cannot coexist, the fact that evil exists disproves the existence of the Christian God. If God is omnipotent, He could prevent any injustice. Since injustice does exist, it is necessary to modify either our perception of God 's morality of, the extent of his power, or the limitations of human understanding.
The book of Genesis presents the reader with a relational God. In particular, Genesis focuses on the relationship between God and man and “thus Genesis does not present a static theology of God’s involvement with humanity, but regardless of his mode of engagement, God is present and active”. However, the sin of man arrived into the world and these relationships were fractured. Again, God exhibits judgment, but also mercy when in Genesis three He sends Adam and Eve out of the Garden for their transgression, yet provides clothes as an act of grace.
Do you believe in God? How? "Nobody likes to be proven wrong and theologians are certainly no exception." What is your idea when you hear the word "God or gods?"
The Bible discloses God’s creative movement as he artistically and architecturally formed and created a meaningless and formless mass into a work of artistry. His powerful voice called into existence a newness of life in the heavens and the earth. God authoritatively summoned certain occurrences to transpire which effortlessly took place because he simply said it. God said, “Let there be…and there was...” (Gen 1:3-24) throughout the new earth. However, the climax of the entire restoration process came when the Godhead deliberated and consented to making humankind in the image and likeness of God. Humankind in God’s image and likeness does not correlate to a physical likeness of him, but a spiritual conformity through a relationship of fellowship, obedience and love.
The doctrine that God is actively involved in His creation is stated and supported throughout the Word of God declaring the Lord’s involvement in three ways: by His revelation through nature, by the personal relationship we have with God and through His Holy Spirit. As the Creator of the moon and stars, the land and sea, and the birds and fish, we see a glimpse of God as soon as we open our eyes. Psalm 19 (NIV) states by looking towards the heavens, we see His glory, and by looking at the skies, we see His personal handiwork. As we walk through life, whether on our way to the grocery store or hiking a mountain, we are constantly surrounded by God’s creation that came directly from His hands. When we see God’s creation, we see God.
Is it crazy to believe that there is a God out there that wants to partner up and do life with us? It may seem crazy, but it is true. God wants nothing more than to help each of us reach our full potential, but in order for Him to do that we have to let Him in. Sometimes the only way to progress to the next stage in our journey is to admit to ourselves that we cannot do it on our own. This is a crucial step in our walk with God because it is the time when we have to start relying wholly on Him. This is what all the trust building in the observation stage was for. The trust we built there is the foundation for this new partnership with God.
In Old Testament, Genesis is considered as history of the earth and human creation. Only from very first few chapters, we can notice that “God [with the power of His voice] created the heavens and the earth” (Gen 1:1). He created everything on six literal days, including universe, nature, night, day, animal, and human beings. God showed us how to conduct our weeks as working six days per week, but then He gave us one day, the seventh day, to rest. In other words, after productively working on six successive days, we should spend Sunday to go to church, to hang out with our beloved ones and to glorify the Great I Am. Beyond that, it is such a bless that “God created man in his own image” (Gen 1:27), which also means that He is not distant from His creation. Therefore, we should believe that we inherit some virtues from the Lord God, and He always gets involved in human lives. Applying those virtues in behaviors will help us grow good relationships with other people. Undoubtedly, relationships are life’s biggest joys and biggest sorrows. There are various types of relationships including a superior one, the relationship with God. The very first relationship mentioned in the Bible was the marriage of Adam and Eve. They first lived happily together in the garden until the sin came. However, when God asked, neither of them admitted it. Another broken relationship mentioned in the Bible was between Cain and Abel, the two
Some may promote the idea that philosophy is the single greatest invention of man in the history of human evolution. Philosophy is perhaps the only way in which to answer the most troubling questions mankind may present to itself. Where are we going? Where have we been? These mysteries of life have challenged thinkers into developing a method of dealing with something so immense and so intimidating.