Creation in Genesis Relates to Efficacy in Isaiah
The Christian abandonment of
Creation, among most Protestant and Catholic leaders, undermines God’s purpose
but even more, empties God’s Word of its power and efficacy.
Genesis 1 In
the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. 2 And the earth was without
form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of
God moved upon the face of the waters. 3 And God said, Let there be light: and
there was light. 4 And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the
light from the darkness. 5 And God called the light Day, and the darkness he
called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.
John 1 is a commentary on
Genesis 1, clarifying what was implied. The Logos – the Son of God – is the
Creating Word. When God the Father commanded, God the Son executed the command.
John 1 In the
beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 The
same was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made by Him; and without Him
was not any thing made that was made.
The opening verses of the Fourth
Gospel not only invoke the Trinity, and pre-existence of the Son, but also
Creation through the Logos, the Son. Therefore, separating the Son from the Six-Day
Creation is also an attack upon the majesty and power of the Word. No wonder
the professors have so little to say about the wonders of God’s universe and
the efficacy of the Word. Many worry about whether this program or that method
works, searching anxiously everywhere for effectiveness except its source – the
Word of God.
Although the Bible is filled
with references to the efficacy of the Word, no passage is clearer than this
one:
Isaiah 55 For
my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the
Lord.
9 For
as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways,
and My thoughts than your thoughts.
10 For
as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither,
but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give
seed to the sower, and bread to the eater:
11 So
shall My Word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto Me
void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the
thing whereto I sent it.
This passage establishes
beyond a doubt the permanent union between the Word and the Holy Spirit. Do the
members and pastor worry that the Scriptures are not adequate for their
ministry, that something must be added to make it interesting, appealing,
relevant?[1] The Word is never without
the divine power of the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit is never separated
from the Word, as if it wanders from place to place, fickle in making something
happen on its own.
The passage is especially
clear to those who garden and farm, so it is obscure and dark to those who
limit their Creation experiences to buying potted plants already in bloom. Snow
and rain are the planter’s dream and fixation. Flowers and crops may survive
with watering and irrigation, but that only keeps them alive, as a Minnesota
farmer told me. Rain makes them grow. Yellow lawns green up during a rainstorm,
and plants germinate, bud, grow, and fruit. The effect of snow melt and rain is
impossible to deny.
Our problem with God’s Word is
that our thoughts are not His, and our plans are not orders given to Him. But
that too is revealed in this passage.
Like Creation, all activities
of God happen only through His Word. Just as evolution is excluded by the plain
meaning of the Scriptures, so are the other alleged improvements, such as
sugar-coating the Gospel, watering down the Word, compromising with today’s
culture, and using a bait (like entertainment) to make people come to church.
Justification in Genesis
To understand the impact of
the Old Testament in the centuries before Christ, one must consider the reach
of the Greek Septuagint (LXX), named for the 70 scholars who translated the Old
Testament from Hebrew to Greek, from 200 to 300 years before the public
ministry of Jesus. Because Alexander the Great conquered the civilized world of
his time, Greek rapidly became the universal language of trade and literature.
The Baby Boomers were still taught Latin in public school, but the educated
Romans we studied were fluent in Greek, the culture and achievements they
admired and copied.[2]
“The Romans had the drains, but the Greeks had the brains.”
More people would have known
and understood the term Justification in Greek rather than in Hebrew. That would
include those educated people who sought wisdom from the Jewish Old Testament,
which they could read in their cosmopolitan language.
Genesis 15 And,
behold, the word of the Lord came unto him, saying, This shall not be thine
heir; but he that shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir.
5 And he brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell
the stars, if thou be able to number them: and he said unto him, So shall thy
seed be. 6 And he believed in the Lord; and he counted it to him for
righteousness.
Γένεσις 15:6 καὶ ἐπίστευσεν ῞Αβραμ τῷ Θεῷ, καὶ ἐλογίσθη αὐτῷ
εἰς δικαιοσύνην.[3]
This verse in Greek is even
more important when it is quoted in Romans 4. All the proofs for the Messiah were
already embedded in the Hebrew Scriptures, and they became even more
significant when they could be read or heard by anyone interested in this
monotheism which was so different in the face of tired, bawdy, and polytheistic
pagan religions.
Abraham was promised more than
a son. God promised him a kingdom that would be everlasting and ever-growing.
No earthly kingdom has ever lasted; the world powers of the Renaissance are pygmy
states now – Portugal, Italy, Spain. God promised that the Messiah would come from
Abraham’s line, so the patriarch believed the Gospel Promise and it was counted
as righteousness, the righteousness of faith.
Moreover, Abraham rather than
Moses became the chief Old Testament figure in the New Testament.
Abraham’s faith in offering
Isaac, Genesis 22
His faith and works Isaiah
41:8, 51:2;
Matthew 1:17
Faithful Jews sons or daughters
of 13:16; 19:9
Luke 16:23 Father Abraham in
heaven
John 8:33
Acts 7:2
Romans 4
Galatians 3:6 and Gal 4
Hebrews 11:8 and 19
James 2:21[4]
[1]
Donald McGavran, “God wants His Church to grow!” This little slogan has been
powerful in fixing attention on material success rather than fidelity to the
Word, failing both at the same time. Few realize McGavran was a sociologist, a
numbers man with a PhD in sociology from the left-wing Columbia University.
[2]
Our Western Civilization owes Athens and Ancient Greece for these foundational
disciplines: democracy, the law, literature, sculpture, poetry, drama, comedy,
architecture, engineering, and mathematics. By spreading the influence of
Greece, Alexander made Greek the world’s language. All our New Testament
documents are in Greek, not in Aramaic.
[3] https://www.septuagint.bible/genesis/-/asset_publisher/l5tBRlYCzctt/content/kephalaio-15?inheritRedirect=false&redirect=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.septuagint.bible%2Fgenesis%3Fp_p_id%3D101_INSTANCE_l5tBRlYCzctt%26p_p_lifecycle%3D0%26p_p_state%3Dnormal%26p_p_mode%3Dview%26p_p_col_id%3Dcolumn-1%26p_p_col_pos%3D1%26p_p_col_count%3D2
[4]
Oxford Cyclopedic Concordance, as recommended by Alec Satin.
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| Going to see Father Abraham |
I ran into some trivia on the Smurfs, loved by our daughter Erin Joy. When I saw Father Abraham singing with a bowler hat, I thought, "He has to be Jewish." That was correct.
