Genesis 1 is God on the Front Foot

Found here

In our western scientific prejudice mindset, we can fall into two dangers. Either:

1. Writing off Genesis 1 as "naive mythology" or 
2. (if we are Christian) Allowing ourselves to be hijacked into only ever seeing how it rebuts/confirms evolutionary theory (or any other origin story you care to mention).

Whilst no.2 is important to consider, we need to be rescued out of those avenues of enquiry that have long become cul-de-sacs.

There's so much more to it than this. God is on the front foot, setting the agenda, not answering queries.

Here are a few things to healthily provoke your thinking. Genesis 1 is about introducing the true God and the way they are at work in history:

1. The Hebrew word for God used here is Elohim - literally means Gods, but the Hebrew verbs connected to this Elohim are singular i.e. "he created" - That's the diversity and unity of trinity in a nutshell.
2. We see God (Father) speaking - sending forth his Word through Breath. (You can't speak without breath). Jesus is sent forth to do the work of the Father, in the power of the Spirit.
3. There is a conscious movement during the days from darkness, chaos, death, and water-weightlessness, to light, order, life and land-solidity.
4. It's a game of two halves. God forms spaces in days 1-3, which they then fill with life in days 4-6.
5. Light is declared before the sun is created. What could that mean?
6. The biblical day started not at midnight, but with the fall of night time and finished at twilight the following day. God's rhythm is different to ours. This is significant. Why?
7. Unlike all the others, day two is not "good." Why?
8. It takes the creation of multiple persons to reflect the image of God. This is because God is loving community - trinity, not a bored mono-deity twiddling his thumbs in eternity, surrounded by nothingness, waiting to show himself off in front of grovelling, servile creatures.
9. Man is given seed bearing plants to eat, the animals are given the grass. Why the distinction?

For answers to these and more, join us at the RFC Biblical Thinking Forum 2011 ;-)