• Home
  • About This Blog
  • Contact Me
  • Subscribe
  • Comment Policy

Attempts at Honesty

Reflections on the interplay of the Bible and Culture

  • Westminster Shorter Catechism Series
  • Sermon on the Mount Series
Home Church Leadership Discipleship What is creation?

What is creation?

Posted on October 30, 2016 Written by Mark McIntyre Leave a Comment


Question 9Question 9 of the Westminster Shorter Catechism asks, “What is creation?”

The answer is, “Creation is God’s making everything out of nothing by His powerful word in six days – and all very good.”

It is probable that most people that read this question in the catechism in 2016 zoom in on the words “in six days.” So let me say from the beginning that it is OK for believers to disagree on how the word day should be interpreted. Some hold to a literal 24 hour day and others think day represents a much longer period of time.

How I interpret the word day in Genesis 1 is not going to cause me to break fellowship with other believers who take an alternative view. The one thing on which Christians should agree is that God is the cause for the world in which we live. God created it and we are his creatures.

At then end of Genesis 1, it says that God was satisfied with what he created, he declared that it was all “very good” (Genesis 1:31). Even though we have marred creation through rebellion, it still carries the marks of intrinsic goodness and creativity. God is a very gifted artist.

Take any category of plants or animals and look at the variety within that category. God didn’t make one kind of dog or one kind of fish or kind of bird. In each of these animals, there is incredible diversity. At my bird feeder we get such a variety of birds; chickadees, sparrows, nuthatches, finches, woodpeckers, jays, doves, cardinals and blackbirds are regular visitors.

Why did God build such variety into his creation? I believe it is to delight man, his highest creation. The variety is a clue as to how much God loves us.

At present we see the goodness of creation though it carries the scars caused by man’s failure to obey. But Jesus has promised to one day return and set it all right again. One day the taint will be removed and we will see the universe how it was meant to be.

In that day, we will then say with God that it is “all very good.”


Filed Under: Discipleship Tagged With: Creation, good

About Mark McIntyre

A follower of Jesus Christ who shares observations about how Scripture should impact the church and the world. Mark is the original author and editor of Attempts at Honesty.

Follow Attempts at Honesty

Honesty in your Inbox

Oswald Chambers

Oswald Chambers on the disciplined life

Oswald Chambers points to Our Lord Himself as the example of a disciplined life.

Wheat and Tares

Which are wheat and which are tares?

My experience is that sometimes there are people who have come to faith in such a gradual way, that it may be difficult to distinguish wheat from tares. What if the delay is not to only protect the wheat but to allow the harvesters to more accurately identify the tares.

School Prayer

Thoughts on Prayer inspired by C. S. Lewis

The desperate posts in the great battle often are given to those whose faith is strong enough to weather seemingly unanswered prayer. So says C. S. Lewis in the essay on which this post is based.

A little Niebuhr to give perspective

We can, if we exercise the faith of Jesus, become as anxiety-free as Jesus was. We can, if we exercise faith in Jesus like Paul, be as anxiety-free as Paul.

This is so whether there is an “R” or “D” behind the president elect’s name on November 4.

Why don’t we do better at this?

It seems to me that this answers the question of why we don’t do better at loving others. I fail to love others when I fail to appreciate how much I am loved by God.

Post Series

  • Westminster Shorter Catechism Series
  • Sermon on the Mount Series
January 2023
SMTWTFS
1234567
891011121314
15161718192021
22232425262728
293031 
« Dec    

Categories

Archives

Blogger Grid
Follow me on Blogarama

Copyright © 2023 · Focus Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in