Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals,[ and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”
So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”
Genesis 1:26-28
My Father, God, has so many characteristics. It is very tempting to start with “God is Love” because that is the first thing you experience when you start building a relationship with Him.. Still, I think I will start in the same place the Bible starts: “My Father, the creator.”.
- God is holy, which means set apart from anything impure or sinful. From this, we know God cannot lie or speak an untruth. I will look at this facet of God’s characteristics in a later blog. But for now, I will simply take this as a given truth.
- The whole of the Bible is the word of God, and therefore, using point 1 above, it must be true. This is not to say God cannot use allegory to explain the truth in a way that his beloved children, us, could understand some or all of that truth
In the first two chapters of the book of Genesis, God describes how He created what science tells us is an infinite universe of an endless number of galaxies and planets and all that there is therein. Moreover, God says he did it in 6 days. If you follow the genealogies in the early books of the bible, this implies that God created humankind around 4,000 – 10,000 years ago. Most scientists claim this to be impossible, that an expanding universe would have taken 13.8 billion years to reach its current stage, and that mankind has existed for approximately 200,000 years. I am a mere computer specialist, so I won’t comment on this, except to say that my faith in my Heavenly Father leads me to believe the Bible.
I have heard lots of theories from scientists claiming perfectly plausible scientific theories of how the universe formed over 13.8 billion years starting with the “Big Bang”, a super particle suddenly just appearing. Apparently, quantum physics allows for this to happen. I have heard theories stating it was God who started the Big Bang, by creating the super particle and guiding the creation of the universe. Finally, I have heard arguments about the Hebrew Word “Yom”, which is the word used in Genesis 1 for “Day”, which can mean Age in certain contexts.
Again, as a simple computer engineer, these concepts are truly beyond my understanding, so I will not comment on them, as I don’t know the truth. What I do know is that they are far less important than the message God conveys to us in Genesis chapters 1 and 2. This message is that a loving God created a universe and made us in His image of love, holiness, and righteousness to rule over all His creation. In short, He gave us the responsibility for His creation—the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, and every living creature that moves on the ground. I will leave you to ponder how well we have taken on that responsibility.
For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.
PSALM 139:13-14
However, I will finish by saying we threw away our holiness and righteousness, losing our image of God, breaking His creation and separating ourselves from Him, the loving God and Father who made us.
I don’t know how God made the universe and everything in it, but I am so glad He did. And I’m very, very thankful that he sacrificed Jesus to remove the separation between us, letting me be with Him once more.
