Genesis 1:1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. I. THEN ATHEISM IS A FOLLY. Atheism is proved absurd — 1. By the history of the creation of the world. It would be impossible for a narrative to be clearer, more simple, or more divinely authenticated than this of the creation. The very existence of things around us is indisputable evidence of its reality. 2. By the existence of the beautiful world around us. The world standing up around us in all its grandeur — adaptation — evidence of design — harmony — is a most emphatic assertion of the Being of God. Every flower is a denial of atheism. Every star is vocal with Deity. 3. By the moral convictions of humanity. There is probably not an intelligent man in the wide universe, who does not believe in, and pay homage to, some deity or other. II. THEN PANTHEISM IS AN ABSURDITY. We are informed by these verses that the world was a creation, and not a spontaneous, or natural emanation from a mysterious something only known in the vocabulary of a sceptical philosophy. Thus the world must have had a personal Creator, distinct and separate from itself. III. THEN MATTER IS NOT ETERNAL. "In the beginning." Thus it is evident that matter had a commencement. It was created by Divine power. It had a birthday. IV. THEN THE WORLD WAS NOT THE RESULT OF A FORTUITOUS COMBINATION OF ATOMS. "In the beginning God created." Thus the world was a creation. There was the exercise of supreme intelligence. There was the expression in symbol of great thoughts, and also of Divine sympathies. V. THEN CREATION IS THE OUTCOME OF SUPERNATURAL POWER. "In the beginning God created." There must of necessity ever be much of mystery connected with this subject. Man was not present to witness the creation, and God has only given us a brief and dogmatic account of it. God is mystery. The world is a mystery. But there is far less mystery in the Mosaic account of the creation than in any other, as it is the most natural, the most likely, and truly the most scientific, as it gives us an adequate cause for the effect. The re-creation of the soul is the best explanation of the creation of the universe, and in fact of all the other mysteries of God. (J. S. Exell, M. A.) Parallel Verses KJV: In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.WEB: In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. |
    |