One God & One Lord

I am a young earth creationist; I believe the physical heavens and earth were created in six days as accounted for us in the book of Genesis. Answers in Genesis (AIG) is a large, worldwide creation ministry, based in the United States and Australia. In recent years AIG has opened a huge creation museum in Kentucky, which I would like to visit one day. I have attended talks by AIG speakers; they are extremely knowledgeable and engaging. I have financially supported AIG in the past and have subscribed to their magazines.

A couple of years ago I made the decision to not support AIG anymore and not to renew my subscription to their magazine. Why? Because they apparently decided to branch out from their focus of teaching about creation, to promoting in their magazine a specific flavor of theology, namely, Calvinism. I disagree with Calvinism and choose not to support ministries that promote it. However, AIG’s Calvinistic teachings are not what this article is about.

I am a young earth creationist. I am also a preterist. It was on a preterist website that I read about AIG’s craftiness, which I then personally verified for myself.

Charles Haddon Spurgeon is a well-known Calvinist preacher from the 19th century. Content of his sermons and writings are quoted by many, Calvinists, Arminians, and others. At the start of this year, 2009, Answers in Genesis began posting Charles Spurgeon’s sermons to their website in a section entitled, “Charles Spurgeon—Reloaded.” One of those sermons, article #30 posted on 26 February 2009, is titled, “The Power of the Holy Ghost.” Here is a quotation from that sermon on the AIG website:

But if you will look in the first chapter of Genesis, you will see there more particularly set forth that peculiar operation of power upon the universe which was put forth by the Holy Spirit; you will then discover what was his special work. In Ge 1:2, we read, “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.” Our planet has passed through various stages in creation, and different kinds of creatures have lived on its surface, all of which have been fashioned by God. But before that era came, when man should be its principal tenant and monarch, the Creator initially created the world as a chaotic mass on the first day of creation. It was entirely without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep.

I quoted a bit more than necessary because I wanted to make sure I include surrounding context. Below is a quote from the same sermon, copied from The Spurgeon Archive:

But if you look in the first chapter of Genesis, you will there see more particularly set forth that peculiar operation of power upon the universe which was put forth by the Holy Spirit; you will then discover what was his special work. In the 2d verse of the first chapter of Genesis, we read, “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.” We know not how remote the period of the creation of this globe may be—certainly many millions of years before the time of Adam. Our planet has passed through various stages of existence, and different kinds of creatures have lived on its surface, all of which have been fashioned by God. But before that era came, wherein man should be its principal tenant and monarch, the Creator gave up the world to confusion. He allowed the inward fires to burst up from beneath, and melt all the solid matter, so that all kinds of substances were commingled in one vast mass of disorder. The only name you could give to the world, then, was that it was a chaotic mass of matter; what it should be, you could not guess or define. It was entirely “without form and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep.”

If you compare the two quotations, you’ll note that some of the language was updated or abbreviated, such as instead of saying “In the 2d verse of the first chapter of Genesis,” the AIG version simply says, “In Ge 1:2.” I don’t have a problem with that. But another thing you’ll notice is that the AIG version is considerably shorter than the original version. Why? What’s missing? Well, here is the original quotation again, this time with the portions highlighted in dark red that were omitted from the AIG version. The bracketed text in green were {added} to the AIG version.

But if you look in the first chapter of Genesis, you will there see more particularly set forth that peculiar operation of power upon the universe which was put forth by the Holy Spirit; you will then discover what was his special work. In the 2d verse of the first chapter of Genesis, we read, “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.” We know not how remote the period of the creation of this globe may be—certainly many millions of years before the time of Adam. Our planet has passed through various stages of existence, and different kinds of creatures have lived on its surface, all of which have been fashioned by God. But before that era came, wherein man should be its principal tenant and monarch, the Creator gave up the world to confusion. He allowed the inward fires to burst up from beneath, and melt all the solid matter, so that all kinds of substances were commingled in one vast mass of disorder. The only name you could give to the world, then, was that it was {initially created the world as} a chaotic mass {on the first day of creation.} of matter; what it should be, you could not guess or define. It was entirely “without form and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep.”

It does not take a college professor to see that AIG has removed the parts of Spurgeon’s sermon that disagree with the teachings of AIG, and they have reworded portions to agree specifically with their teaching.

Friends, that is dishonest. And that’s all I’m going to say on the matter.

In chapter 1 of Revelation, John uses many descriptive terms to describe his vision of Christ. Those same terms, using almost identical terminology, are used by Christ himself in the letters dictated to the seven churches. These terms are compared side-by-side in the following table. Credit goes to the late William Hendriksen, who used the same chart (but different Bible translation) in his book, More Than Conquerors.

The very last comparison, Revelation 1:5 and Revelation 3:14, is the one I want to concentrate on in this article. William Hendriksen recognized that “the firstborn of the dead” and “the beginning of the creation of God” were synonymous attributes applied to Jesus Christ. Further confirmation of this can be found in Colossians 1:18.

• Colossians 1:18 NASB
  (18) He is also head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything.

As the firstborn of the dead, Jesus is the beginning of God’s new creation.

In the beginning of God’s first creation, the creation of the heavens and the earth (Genesis 1:1), God created light by His spoken word, “Let there be light” (Genesis 1:3). Then a bit later, in Genesis 1:14-18, God created lights in the heavens to give light upon the earth and to separate the light from the darkness.

In the second, or new, creation, God’s word is also instrumental. Let’s jump over to John chapter 1 to see how this works. John 1:3 says that all things came into being through God’s word, just as in the Genesis creation. In His word is life, and the life was the Light of men (John 1:4). The Light shines in the darkness, just as it did in the first creation (John 1:5). But this time, the Light that God creates to give light to the world, to enlighten every man (John 1:9) is a man, the man Christ Jesus, who brings God’s Word of Life to the world. God’s word becomes flesh, the True Light (John 1:9). Not the physical light of the Genesis creation, but the true light of the new creation. A spiritual light of life. “The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life” (John 6:63).

The larger concept here is expressed by Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:46 when he is talking about resurrection:

• 1 Corinthians 15:46 NASB
  (46) However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural; then the spiritual.

The natural is first. The natural was the first creation, the Genesis creation of the physical heavens and earth. Then comes the spiritual. The second creation is the spiritual creation. This is the creation of which Jesus is the beginning, the firstborn of all creation.

This is not a complex concept, but it is a big and important one to understand. There are two creations of God described in the Bible and many people confuse verses in the New Testament that speak strictly of the new creation, as speaking of the original Genesis creation. Those with Arian and Trinitarian beliefs interpret Jesus being “the beginning of the creation of God” (Revelation 3:14) as meaning he pre-existed his earthly birth to Mary (though they give different meaning to the Greek word arche). However, this “beginning” refers to the new creation, which began with the firstborn from the dead, Jesus the Christ.