Session 2
The Apostles Creed Study
1.
I believe in God,
the Father almighty,
creator of heaven and earth.
“1 ¶ In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 The
earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering
over the face of the waters. 3 ¶ Then God said, "Let there be light";
and there was light.” (Genesis 1:1-3 NKJV)
This
is not only the first part of the Creed it is the first part of the Bible and
the foundation of all of our other beliefs.
Every doctrine of Christianity is founded upon all that is recounted in
Genesis 1-11.
The word for create is bara which
means to create, choose, make, complete
and make fat. Put those words together and what do they
tell us about God?
Today we accept
evolution as the mode of “creation” but that is very different from what we see
in the Bible. Evolution is progress by
mutation and death while creation is an act of life by a living and loving
God. Evolution can explain how things
change, but in truth only God can create ex nihlo (from nothing).
There is a
story that scientists took dirt, chemicals and with electricity they formed
life. When they called out to God to
show what they had done he told them next time to start with their own
dirt! In truth they can’t even form life
but just manipulate or evolve it!
Think about the
words “In the beginning”. That assumes
there was a before! That God existed out of time and even created time itself!
But maybe even
more amazing is that this all powerful, creating God is also our Father. Yes, God is Father Almighty, but this awesome
God is also a loving God. This section shows us the balance of God.
Righteous and merciful
Holy and gracious
Powerful and loving
Glorious yet involved
Looking at the meaning of bara write what this tells you about
God.
Describe what it means that God is Father and Almighty.
What does it mean to you that God can create ex nihlo (from
nothing?
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