Chapter 1
In the
Beginning
IN THE beginning God created
the heavens and the earth.
No,
it is not that there is a whole lot of confusion in the Christian community
about where everything has come from. For aside from there being a few
debates on just how He actually did certain things, there is little
disagreement over our Heavenly Father truly being the Creator of all that
exists apart from Himself [Colossians 1:16].
It
is a different story in regards to what happened in the days soon after He
placed Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, however. For almost all of the
doctrines of almost all of the major Christian denominations are based (in one
way or another) upon the premise that our Heavenly Father’s great plan went
terribly awry in paradise—especially in regards to sin entering into this world
[Genesis 3:1-19].
No,
there are not many sermons to be found on the subject. That is, at least
not expressed in as many words.
Nonetheless,
what is implied should be all too painfully clear to those who have been given
ears to hear [John 6:63-65].
For it has been widely taught that it is the result of sin entering into
this world that much of what has happened down through the ages was never meant
to be [2 Timothy 4:2-4].
Shamefully,
this even tarnishes the glory of the sacrifice that our Heavenly Father made
for us. For if sin was never meant to enter into this world, the paying
of the price in full that was required for our sins was just the partial
righting of what had gone wrong in the Garden of Eden instead of something that
He had planned on doing since long before He created us [Revelation 13:8]!
For there would not have been any
price to pay if sin had of never entered into this world [Romans 6:23].
Yes,
it is good that our Creator would want to clean up His own mess. That is, if there was one to clean up, of course [Job 34:10-15].
On
the other hand, there is another little matter to consider. For if it was
possible for things to go so very wrong before—who is to say that it could not
happen again?
Subsequently,
if it is possible for things to go wrong again—just how secure can eternity
really be for any of us [Numbers 11:23]?
So, I would think that we would desperately want to believe everything
truly has been in accordance to the plan that our Heavenly Father set into
motion long before He created us [Romans 11:32-36].
Of
course, we could just depend upon ourselves to make the difference—right?
For it is written: This is what the LORD says:
"Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who depends on flesh for his
strength and whose heart turns away from the LORD. He will be like a bush
in the wastelands; he will not see prosperity when it comes. He will
dwell in the parched places of the desert, in a salt land where no one lives.
But blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, whose confidence is in
him. He will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots
by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always
green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear
fruit." The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure.
Who can understand it? "I the LORD search the heart and
examine the mind, to reward a man according to his conduct, according to what
his deeds deserve." [Jeremiah 17:5-10 NIV]
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