Original Experience - part 1

It is with considerable interest in some postings by @gavvet about the subject of the account of creation documented in the Biblical book of Genesis that this post is being published. While growing up in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania, our family regularly attended church for thirteen years, and I went to a public school. In all that time, I don't recall ever being told anything about the origin of life. The only memory I have of anything regarding the subject was in third grade when we were studying dinosaurs and cavemen. At one point, I approached the teacher privately and told her that I wanted to know where and when human beings arrived on this planet. She suggested that I go to college, and learn to be an anthropologist. That sounded like too much work, so I dropped the subject until I was 21 when the circumstances of life were putting me in a place where I needed to know this. That prompted me to start doing my own research as I didn't go to college after graduating high school. Part of that research involved reading the Bible for the first time. What follows is not meant to be argumentative but are some conclusions from my research, and the effects those conclusions have had on my life's experience.

To begin with, there is one thing learned in school that did have a considerable impact on how I approached the Bible, and that is the scientific method. The way it was presented at the time is that you start with a hypothesis, which is a synonym for an idea. From there, you test the hypothesis by asking questions and/or performing experiments. This process is called a theory. If the hypothesis passes all known tests, and there is nothing left to question its validity, it is then a law. With that, I simply examined each individual sentence as its own hypothesis, asked God the questions that came to me, then moved on until reaching the end. It turns out, the Bible agrees with using this process. "O taste (tasting is an experiment) and see that the LORD is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him." Psalm 34:8. Some answers came immediately, some came later, some came from other source material, and some didn’t come at all. So I started reading through again, and more questions would come. And again, more answers would come, and some wouldn’t right away. This went on again and again for the next twenty years when the answer to the final question (which was one of my first questions chronologically) came: why was the Bible written in the first place? Many people could answer that question if I had thought to ask people, and they could all possibly be right. But since they were not the one who inspired the people who did write it, their responses wouldn't truly answer the question. The effect of receiving that answer gave me the thing that I was looking for my entire life, and didn’t know it until it came. And that was an identity. In other words, I now know who I am in relationship to who God is. And because of that, I know who everyone else is in relationship to God also. And that knowledge is what empowers me to love others in fulfillment of the law Jesus gave to his disciples.

With that, it is written, "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth."

This opening statement from Genesis, while sounding simple, is actually full of information, and presents some rather pertinent questions such as, who and what is God? And, what does it mean to create? Energy and matter form the basis of our environment, and are the two items which form the material source of all things that are evident to our senses. Scientists have learned that they are convertible, and have succeeded in converting matter to energy. When this is done, the conversion is instantaneous with no in between stage. Molecular formation is also instantaneous when the conditions are met. But no one has been able to produce matter from pure unborrowed energy, and have it remain intact. This is an act of creation, and it makes me ask, how else can something coming into existence except by creation?

The conventional interpretation of this verse is that God made everything out of nothing. Institutionalized Christianity (particularly the Roman Catholic church) came up with the Latin phrase, "ex nihilo" to describe this event. This is one of the reasons the scientific community scoffs at this account of origins. The notion of everything coming out of nothing is unexplainable, and irrational. After all, how can nothing be nothing if something can come out of it? This term is not in the Bible because the Bible does not uphold this position.

"For the LORD thy God is a consuming fire." Deuteronomy 4:24, Hebrews 12:29. "By the word of the LORD were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth. For he spake, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast." Psalm 33: 6,9. Fire is a type of energy. But God is not simply an energy field that surrounds us, binds us, and holds the galaxy together like "the force." He is a personality (Hebrews 1:3). He has a name (Amos 4:13), a will (Romans 12:2), feelings (Genesis 6:6), and even a sense of humor (Proverbs 1:26). At the appointed time, God released the necessary energy from himself. Concentrations of energy moving in perfect harmony with the perfect will of the Creator, combined in awesome and unspeakably explosive force. Countless numbers of sub-atomic particles formulated by the Creator appeared on the scene. Applying his great creative energy according to specific physical laws which he had ordained, these bits of matter were organized into atomic nuclei. Electrons began their ceaseless orbits of the neuclei creating completed atoms. These atoms came together suddenly into countless arrangements we call molecules, and matter took on observable mass. The conditions were met, and the formation of matter was instantaneous once begun.

It is popularly believed among advocates of creation that the entire universe was created at this time. This is another reason for scoffing from astronomers, and other observers of intergalactic phenomena. And again, the Bible bears witness that this is not the case. "To him that rideth upon the heavens of heavens, which were of old; lo, he doth send out his voice, and that a mighty voice." Psalm 68:33. The term "of old" in this verse is translated from the Hebrew word qedem and is also used in the following verse regarding the Messiah. "But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting." Micah 5:2. Here, qedem is used to speak of the quality of eternity that characterizes the Messiah. When looking at this in relationship to the verse from Psalms, it can be seen that there are heavens (plural) that possess this same quality. Therefore, the creation of the heaven mentioned in Genesis is strictly referring to that part of heaven that is directly assoicated with the earth. In other words, our solar system, and probably the rest of the Milky Way galaxy too.

Mind you, I didn't know all this upon reading the Bible for the first time. These conclusions are the results of a two decade study as mentioned already. At that time, all I knew is that something inside of me jumped for joy, and I experienced a connection with God that had never occurred before. Part of this is due to the fact that although I had always believed in the existence of God, I had no idea what his relationship was to the universe, or our planet prior to this time. Ministers, and other people would talk about Jesus dying for the sins of the world, but that didn't mean much to me since I wasn't even sure what sin was. Some tried to convince me that it was something that I was guilty of regardless. I didn't encounter such people until I started attending a church out of state after my first reading, but that is another subject. For now, I will stick with the creation account.