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Starting Over

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UnchartedSpirit

New Member
Have you ever tried to make the decision to kick back into bible study and had trouble finding where to start? Well, there's a simple solution! James Vernon MgGee's Thru The Bible Study is starting over again! We just got through the first chapter in the Book of Genesis, but you can always review archives at oneplace dot com!

Anyway I still got a few questions....

People always assume we say the Universe was made from nothing...is it a mistake to make this claim? I though the God made the universe. Isn't God enough material to build a universe from?

MgGee mentioned a passage about man being called to "redeem," the earth and speculated that there was somthing else living there that wasn't anymore. Could he mean that angles had first inhabited the planet?

Also I think God rested and commanded us to rest in order for us to appreciate what we do or are doing. This especially works if what we do is for the Lord. Then we can better evade the trap of ceaceslly doing things and forgetting our purpose..then we start working under the feeling of meaninglessness, and our output begins to suffer becuase of it. Of course this didn't apply to God, since he just stopped becuase everything he had done was perfect and he just wanted to admire it. Still, this command to take a day of rest is still in our best interests, since after all, we are made in his image (Gen 1:26).

Thats All,

Mike
 
E

epistemaniac

New Member
if you believe that God is the "stuff" of creation you are a pantheist... God and His creation must always be kept seperate, or else you could end up with pantheism or panentheism.... God didn't need any "material" to create with, He is God


as far as the next point, you are right.. speculation....

and yes, taking a break is a good thing


blessings,
Ken
 
U

UnchartedSpirit

New Member
I didn't mean that God is a part of the creation, but that since God existed, there was somthing there to bring forth the universe. There may have not been a comsmic egg required, but that dosen't mean that there was compleately nothing before the universe was made. There was God and there wasn't a time where there wasn't God. Therefore, something, indeed someone, was there, in existence, to create the universe.
 
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donnA

Active Member
God always existed and nothing else existed with Him, no matter, no materials of any kind was needed for Him to create with, By His very power He formed all matter, as scripture says He spoke what exists into exsistance.
 
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genesis12

Member
There is an argument that there is a pause between Genesis 1:1 and Genesis 1:2, perhaps of thousands, even millions of years. There is another view that Genesis 1:1 should read "In the beginning God RE-created the Heaven and the Earth." These may relate to the "redeemed" concept.
 
J

Joseph_Botwinick

<img src=/532.jpg>Banned
Originally posted by genesis12:
There is an argument that there is a pause between Genesis 1:1 and Genesis 1:2, perhaps of thousands, even millions of years. There is another view that Genesis 1:1 should read "In the beginning God RE-created the Heaven and the Earth." These may relate to the "redeemed" concept.
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The first argument I have heard of and even understand the textual basis for it. The second one is completely new to me. Who actually believes that?

Joseph Botwinick
 
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Hope of Glory

New Member
Joseph, the concept is there in between Genesis 1:1 and 1:2, but I've never heard anyone think that Genesis 1:1 is anything other than the very beginning.
 
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ituttut

New Member
Originally posted by UnchartedSpirit:
Have you ever tried to make the decision to kick back into bible study and had trouble finding where to start? Well, there's a simple solution! James Vernon MgGee's Thru The Bible Study is starting over again! We just got through the first chapter in the Book of Genesis, but you can always review archives at oneplace dot com!

Anyway I still got a few questions....

People always assume we say the Universe was made from nothing...is it a mistake to make this claim? I though the God made the universe. Isn't God enough material to build a universe from?

MgGee mentioned a passage about man being called to "redeem," the earth and speculated that there was somthing else living there that wasn't anymore. Could he mean that angles had first inhabited the planet?

Also I think God rested and commanded us to rest in order for us to appreciate what we do or are doing. This especially works if what we do is for the Lord. Then we can better evade the trap of ceaceslly doing things and forgetting our purpose..then we start working under the feeling of meaninglessness, and our output begins to suffer becuase of it. Of course this didn't apply to God, since he just stopped becuase everything he had done was perfect and he just wanted to admire it. Still, this command to take a day of rest is still in our best interests, since after all, we are made in his image (Gen 1:26).

Thats All,

Mike
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All we know is the beginning. We know nothing of eternity.

Could Genesis 6 point to angels (sons of God) mating with woman? Will God replace the rebellious angels? Are we not sons of God? Isn't this our destiny? Aren't we that are in the Body of Christ, the "very Son of God", to be made like Him. John 3:2, " Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is." If not angels, then we will be something better.
 
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doulous

New Member
People always assume we say the Universe was made from nothing...is it a mistake to make this claim? I though the God made the universe.
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You're correct. God created the universe. He did so ex nihilo(out of nothing). Before the physical universe existed there was God. God willed the universe into existence and it happened. This is the essence of ex nihilo. God willed it into being.

MgGee mentioned a passage about man being called to "redeem," the earth and speculated that there was somthing else living there that wasn't anymore. Could he mean that angles had first inhabited the planet?
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I don't agree with that theory (pre-Adamic race), but it is a theory held to by some. But this theory can be debunked if one holds to a literal six day creation period.
 
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Hope of Glory

New Member
That's not quite true. The only non-humanistic theory of creation that is not compatible with Scripture is an absolute six-day creation.

In the beginning, God created everything. But, some time between this and Genesis 1:2, some stuff happened. We don't know how long and we don't know what.

Genesis opens with the story of creation, ruin, restoration, and rest, and Scripture in its entirety is brought into view. Scripture, from the Hebrew perspective, deals more with what happened than the when or the how. They found it sufficient to credit it to God.

That's what I do. My personal opinion is that in the restoration, God did the work in six literal days. But, you cannot take Scripture and disprove the day-age theory, theistic evolution, nor any other mainstream theory of creation except for natural evolution.

We do know that things simply did not happen. (Isaiah 45:18 tells us that God did not create the world "without form and void".)
 
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npetreley

New Member
Originally posted by doulous:
I don't agree with that theory (pre-Adamic race), but it is a theory held to by some. But this theory can be debunked if one holds to a literal six day creation period.
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The jury is out for me. I'm fine with either a literal six day creation, or the theory that the world was mostly in ruins when the story of the Bible starts. I'll be happy to wait to find out which is true (or if it's some third option that's true).

The reason the jury is still out for me is that the Hebrew expression for "without form and void" appears in one other place in the Bible (I can't remember where - Jeremiah?), and it is used to describe a world with destroyed and desolate cities, etc.
 
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doulous

New Member
I am familiar with most of the popular theories regarding a pre-Adamic race, I just don't buy into any of them. I believe in six literal twenty-four periods in which God created the heavens and the earth. I'm also a young-earth guy.
 
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johnp.

New Member
Hello Hope of Glory.

God created the universe.
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JN 1:3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.

In the beginning, God created everything. But, some time between this and Genesis 1:2, some stuff happened. We don't know how long and we don't know what.
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Ex 20:11 For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

Speculation must not lead away from scripture. :cool:

Genesis opens with the story of creation, ruin, restoration...
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Not ruin, God had yet to mold the Earth to His specs. All the ingredients were there waiting to be sorted. Isaiah 45:18 ...he did not create it to be empty, but formed it to be inhabited... (NIV) About 6000 years ago.

But, you cannot take Scripture and disprove the day-age theory, theistic evolution, nor any other mainstream theory of creation except for natural evolution.
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You can if you believe what the scriptures say without making them mean other than what they say. Proved to myself that is. Ex 20:11 For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth...

john.
 
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