”The God Who Made Everything”

The God Who Is There
Written By D. A. Carson

Chapter One: “The God Who Made Everything”

Introduction

• Rise of biblical illiteracy
• Bible: collection of Christianity’s foundation documents
• Bible is a diverse collection of documents
• The Bible reveals “the God who is there”

Genesis 1-2

• Record of the creation of the universe by God
• God creates an orderly world and fills it with living creatures
• The climax of God’s creation is human beings, made in His image

Genesis 1-2 & Science

• More ambiguity in the interpretation of these chapters than some Christians recognize
• More ambiguity in claims of science than some scientists realize
• Challenge of “irreducible complexity” points to Designer
• “However complex the debates over Genesis 1-2…there is an irreducible minimum that these chapters must be saying for the Bible to have any coherence at all…”

Some Things about God

• God simply is.
• God made everything that is non-God.
• There is only one of Him.
• God is a talking God.
• Everything God makes is good.
• God comes to an end of his creative work, and he rests.
• The creation proclaims his greatness and glory.

The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. (Psalm 19:1, NIV)

Some Things about People

• We are made in the image of God.
  • In a finite way, we reflect God.
  • Creativity
  • Capacity to work
  • Capacity to rule
  • Capacity to serve as God’s stewards
• We were made male and female.
• The man and his wife were innocent.

Some things about How Genesis 1-2 Fits into the Bible

• Form necessary background to Gen. 3 and rest of Bible
• Doctrine of creation recurs throughout the rest of the Bible and finds fulfillment in “new creation”
• Shapes our worldview
• Grounds human accountability