For the past year I’ve been a part of a teaching team at my church for a series called God and Creation – Understanding God’s Relationship to His Creation. Spanning four weeks, the series discusses God’s attributes and his relationship with creation.
One of my favorite discussions occurs during the third session when we discuss God’s role as Creator of all creation. I like to begin this discussion by presenting the Bible’s assertions with regards to God as Creator:
- God created everything that has been created (Neh. 9: 5-6; John 1:3; Rev 4:11).
- God, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit were all active in creating all that has been created (Gen 1:2; Psalm 104:30; 1 Cor 8:6; Col 1:16).
- God created everything that has been created without the use of any pre-existing material or means except his own power (Heb 11:3; Psalm 33:9).
- God created “the heavens and the earth and all that is in them” in six days (Gen 1).
- God created a first, literal, historical man and woman, named Adam and Eve, through which the whole human race has its origin and inherits its sin nature (Gen 3:20; Rom 5: 12-21; Acts 17:26; 1 Cor 15:22; 1 Tim 2:13).
Then, one thing I ask is: Do those Scriptural propositions agree with what we are able to observe in nature? Should they? Does it matter? This gets us talking about the role and purpose of Scripture, the nature of truth, the intersection of science and faith, and the ways other Christian thinkers have worked out this issue.
As you might imagine, these topics provide a fertile ground for much enthusiastic discussion and debate. I enjoy the opportunities I get to help class members think about perspectives they may not have considered before, and I never fail to take away new insights that I glean from the discussion. It is my desire for our time together to spur one another on towards further study and wrestling with this topic. To that end, what follows is my list of recommended resources for further study:
Websites
- The BioLogos Forum (www.biologos.org) – Founded by Francis Collins, current director of the NIH, former head of the Human Genome Project, this group believes “that evolution, properly understood, best describes God’s work of creation.” Their view on God’s role in creation is most commonly referred to as Theistic Evolution.
- Answers in Genesis (answersingenesis.org) – The Answers in Genesis group promotes a literal reading of Genesis 1 – 11. Therefore, among other things, they defend a young Earth/young Creation view with the Universe being thousands rather than billons of years old.
- Reasons to Believe (reasons.org) – Reasons to Believe calls themselves a “science/faith think-tank” comprised of scientists, theologians and philosophers. They present a “testable creation model” approach which means they present a scientific model which is open to criticism, debate and further refinement based upon further scientific discover. Their theories posit an old Earth/old Universe creation (i.e. billions of years old) brought about by specific miraculous acts of God throughout history.
- Stand to Reason (str.org) – Stand to Reason (STR) doesn’t exactly fit the topic here; however, I include them because they are a great organization for sharpening your mind for Christ. Through their website, weekly radio show/podcast and other resources, they train Christians on how to be effective ambassadors for Christ. Their focus is most often not on what you think, but how you think.
- Blog Post: The Creation-Evolution Debate in a Nutshell – This post presents an overview of 5 (possibly 6) different views on God’s role in creation.
Books
- The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief – “combines [Francis] Collins’s faith and experiences as a genetics researcher with discussions of science and spirituality.”
- Who Was Adam?: A Creation Model Approach to the Origin of Man – Reasons to Believe’s Fazale Rana and Hugh Ross “introduce a testable scientific model for humanity’s origin — a Biblical model — that sheds light on the latest findings on evolution and the origins of man.”
- Origins of Life: Biblical and Evolutionary Models Face Off – “Two researchers [RTB's Fazale Rana and Hugh Ross] reveal a testable creation model for life’s earliest beginning that makes sense of the scientific evidence.”
- Signature in the Cell: DNA and the Evidence for Intelligent Design – Stephen Meyer of the Discovery Institute makes a case for the intelligent design of living organisms as evidenced by the specified and complex information contained in DNA.
- Beyond the Cosmos: What Recent Discoveries in Astrophysics Reveal About the Glory and Love of God – RTB’s Hugh Ross provides a survey of recent scientific discoveries and what they imply about God.
