Lenox Federated Church - Firm Foundations, Creation to Christ

Lessons Menu Top of Page Online Bible Bible Dictionary

Firm Foundations

Creation to Christ

Lesson 4 - God Created the Heavens and the Earth - Part 1

Questions for the LFC Firm Foundations Coordinator may be emailed to firmfoundations@lenoxchurch.org

For this online lesson you may wish to open another window in your browser to view the Online Bible from the link above. A third window may be opened to view the Bible Dictionary as well. During your lesson you can toggle between the windows in your browser. Also, you can open a Word or WordPad/Notepad or other word processing program and use it to record answers to text questions or as a place to jot other questions that come into your mind during the study. Minimize your notes window while you are viewing pages in your browser and then maximize it to record more notes. You will see as you study that God has the marvelous ability to reveal His answers to us at just the right time and when He does, you may record this information into your notes.

REVIEW QUESTIONS:

1. Who is the only one who lived before the beginning? God.

2. Where did all the spirits come from? They were all created by God.

3. Did God create the spirits with bodies of flesh and bones? No.

4. Did God create all of the spirits good, or did He create some good and some bad? God created them all good.

5. Why did God create the spirits? To be His servants.

6. How many spirits are there? More than can be numbered.

7. Where did they all live in the beginning when God first created them? With God in Heaven.

8. Who was the most intelligent and beautiful angel created by God? Lucifer.

9. What position did God give Lucifer? Leadership over all of the other angels.

10. What did Lucifer do? He planned to be like God and to take God’s position.

11. Who else followed Lucifer in His rebellion against God? Many of God’s angels.

12. Did God know what Lucifer and his followers were planning? Yes.

13. What did God do? He removed Lucifer and the angels who joined him in rebellion from their position as God’s servants.

14. Is there anything that God doesn’t see, hear, and know? No! God sees, hears, and knows everything.

15. What place did God prepare as a punishment for Lucifer and his angels? The Lake of Fire.

16. What is Lucifer’s name now and what does it mean? Satan, which means “enemy, adversary, opponent, or accuser.”

17. Whom is Satan against? He is against God.

Many theories exist about what happened in the beginning.

- There are many theories about how the earth was formed.

- There are many theories about how life started.

As we mentioned in our last lesson, questions may come to your mind as we study.

- We won’t be able to take time to discuss the various theories that men are teaching.

- We do have some reference materials to recommend to you after class.

What we are going to do in this lesson is examine what God has told us in the Bible about creation. Keep in mind that the things taught in Genesis are upheld throughout the rest of Scripture.

- God never changed His mind about His record of creation (or about any other part of the Bible!).

- Genesis is an ancient book, but even the New Testament writings affirm the Genesis account of creation. Genesis has often been criticized as being a book of myths.

- But recent archeology has confirmed many exact details, including names of people and cities back as far as the early chapters of Genesis.

- We will refer to some of those discoveries in later lessons.

We need to listen to what God says in the Bible.

- It is not a book of “myths.”

- It is a true history.

This lesson will cover what God says happened at the beginning.

- We have already learned that God created the spirits.

- Now we will study God’s creation of the physical universe.

The word “genesis” means “beginnings” or “origins.”

- All things had a beginning.

- Nothing/no one (except God) existed before the beginning.

- What then did God use to make the heavens and the earth?

“Created” means “to make out of nothing.”

- “To make something out of nothing” is an idiom in our society.

- Discuss:

If we want to build a house, what do we need? If we want to bake a cake, what do we need? Can you think of anything you can make without first having materials to use?

- God literally made the heavens and the earth out of nothing!

- God alone can make something out of nothing.

How was it possible for God to make the heavens and the earth out of nothing?

- The Bible tells us that nothing is too hard for God.

- God’s power is beyond our comprehension.

- Is anyone stronger than God?

Angels?

Satan?

Demons?

- No! God alone is all-powerful.

How did God know how to make the heavens and the earth?

- Consider:

We had to learn how to do all the things that we do.

- We are not born with knowledge and understanding.

- Most of us have gone to school to learn.

- We continue to learn throughout life. By trial and error The school of hard knocks

- Some things require highly specialized training which we have not had.

- There are still many things we don’t know.

Did God need someone to teach Him?

- Was anyone else living in the beginning who could teach God?

- God did not need someone to teach Him how to make the heavens and the earth.

There is nothing that God doesn’t know and completely understand.

The earth was formless and empty.

- We will see God form it.

- We will see God fill it.

The earth was covered by darkness.

- Imagine:

Try to imagine what it would be like if there were no light anywhere. Have you ever been in a cave with no lights? The darkness is so absolute that you can “feel” it. Imagine this kind of darkness everywhere.

The earth was covered with water.

- There was no dry land.

- Water covered the entire world.

- There was no life anywhere on earth.

God is all-powerful, and He was about to unleash His mighty power to create.

- The Bible says that the Spirit of God “moved upon the face of the waters.”

In Henry Morris’ book, The Genesis Record, he notes that the word “move” used here is also translated as shake, flutter, or hover. The word suggests the tremendous creative power of God, the Prime Mover of all things.

- He alone sets things into motion.

- He alone is the source of all energy.

God the Holy Spirit was moving, hovering, fluttering over the waters, vibrating with dynamic energy to create all things.

- God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit all participated in the mighty act of creation.

- God is one, yet God is three in one, the Almighty God, the Creator of everything.

- We cannot comprehend the Trinity; we cannot comprehend God’s awesome power.

Only God could create light by simply speaking!

- Imagine:

Wouldn’t it be something if we could simply speak and have light appear? But it doesn’t work that way. No, we are totally dependent on light that was created by God from the beginning of time. Whenever we see the light of the sun, the moon, or the stars; flip on a light switch; or light a match or a candle; let’s remember that it was God who in the beginning created light. He alone could do that because He alone is all-powerful and all-knowing. He created light out of absolutely nothing. Scientists can evaluate some of the characteristics of light. All of us experience and use some of the effects of light. But God alone understands light, for He created it.

The light God made was very good.

- You will notice that each time God created, He said, “It is good.”

- Consider:

- Even though things are usable, they still:

Need repair

Wear out

Are replaced because someone designed something better.

- What we make can always be improved upon. Even the best state-of-the-art stereo equipment is labeled to indicate the amount of sound distortion it will produce. Everything man produces is flawed. But everything God made was perfect because:

- God is perfect.

- God is flawless.

- In other words, God is holy.

Psalm 18:30 says, “As for God, his way is perfect....”

Isaiah 6:3 says, “...Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD....”

God divided the light from the darkness.

- He called the light “day.”

- He called the darkness “night.”

- This was the first day in the beginning of the world.

On the second day, God created the air and the sky.

- Above this “firmament” or “thin, stretched-out space” that we call the atmosphere, God placed some of the water from the world He had created.

- It is important to remember this point in God’s account of creation because it will be an important factor in a later story

- Again God merely spoke, and the firmament was created.

- Imagine:

Look at the vastness of the sky. We can only see a tiny portion of what encircles the earth. Yet God spoke and created all of the earth’s atmosphere, and it was perfect.

Unlike man’s theories, God’s written account of creation has not changed.

- He was there before the beginning.

- He is the Sovereign Creator, and He alone knows how all things came to be.

- God has told us throughout His Word that He created everything.

As we study the Bible, we see that God is absolutely sovereign, greater than all and more powerful than all. Nothing is too hard for Him.

- He is the source of all energy and the Creator of all matter.

- He made everything from nothing.

We have covered the first two days of creation. We will explore the rest of creation week in our coming lessons.

- As you go about your duties in the days ahead, think about what we have studied thus far about God.

- He is infinitely greater than we can imagine, but He has given us the Bible, His Word, so we can know Him.

QUESTIONS:

1. Who, in the beginning, created the heavens and the earth?

2. What did God use to make the heavens and the earth?

3. Why was God able to make the heavens and the earth?

4. How did God know how to make the heavens and the earth?

5. Who taught God how to make everything?

6. Is there any person or any spirit who knows everything like God does?

7. What was the condition of the earth before God began to prepare it for people to live in?

8. What did God do in order to create everything?

Suggested Daily Bible Readings:

Day 16: Genesis, Chapters 31 and 32

Day 17: Genesis, Chapters 33 and 34

Day 18: Genesis, Chapters 35 and 36

Day 19: Genesis, Chapters 37 and 38

Day 20: Genesis, Chapters 39 and 40