In the field of journalism, the news reporter's job is to tell what happened. Ideally the function of the historian is the same. The fundamental differences are (1) the reporter reports on the events of the time while the historian writes of past events and (2) the historian has the luxury of being able to write volumes while the reporter is often very limited to column inches of space available. The reporter of news is therefore quite concise in his presentation.
The news reporter will often begin with a lead paragraph designed to answer just the facts. He always answers the questions who and what and when and where... and, if possible and when appropriate, he answers how it happened and why it happened.
Who did it? What happened? When was it done? And where did it happen? Those are the interrogatives which, when answered, supply the information that the readers need -- to tell the facts of real events. This is the way real events are told and it is the beginning of the correctly written historical record.
Now let me turn to the Bible. I never cease to be amazed by the succinctness of the Holy Spirit -- indeed how brief the library of God's Word is and how completely our God tells us all that we need to know (the news) in few words!
Look at the beginning of the good news of the inspired record.
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth (Gen. 1:1).
In the beginning (when) God (who) created (what happened) the heavens (where) and the earth (what).
Now let us briefly examine the Bible answers to these news worthy questions about creation. We begin with when? The answer is "in the beginning." That tells us that matter is not eternal. Matter, energy, all things, and life itself have not been going on, in some kind of recycling of universes (or lives), for an infinite amount of time. God's report is that there was a beginning. There was a time before which the heavens and the earth did not exist, and there was a time after which they did exist. That time is called "in the beginning."
In the beginning of "when?" In the beginning of things -- the beginning of the creation. In the first chapter, it is in the beginning of "days." Genesis one is divided into six days and the day is defined by its first usage.
And God called the light day, and the darkness He called night. And there was evening and there was morning, one day (Gen. 1:5).
The inspired reporter continues in Genesis 1:8, "And there was evening and there was morning, a second day." Again we read Genesis 1:12 of "a third day" and so forth, until we come to the end of the chapter. Then he wrote,
And God saw all that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day. Thus the heavens and the earth were completed, and all their hosts. And by the seventh day God completed his work which He had done; and He rested on the seventh day from all his work which He had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all his work which God had created and made (Gen. 1:31-2:3).
All six days of creation were "in the beginning." The chapter begins with it and our Lord used the same word to describe the creation of man on the sixth day. In Mark 10:6 Jesus said, "But from the beginning of creation, God made them male and female."
Such an expression does not reasonably fit some event occurring millions or billions of years after the first day.
The second question is "who?" And the answer is God. God's existence is not argued and God is not a part of the things created. God is eternal. God is spirit. God is not made of the matter that He created. God, the Creator, is found in many passages in the Bible.
Praise Him, sun and moon; Praise Him, all stars of light! Praise Him, highest heavens, And the waters that are above the heavens! Let them praise the name of the LORD, For He commanded and they were created (Psa. 148:3).
Thus says God the LORD, Who created the heavens and stretched them out, Who spread out the earth and its offspring, Who gives breath to the people on it, And spirit to those who walk in it (Isa 42:5).
Thus says the LORD, the Holy One of Israel, and his Maker: "Ask Me about the things to come concerning My sons, And you shall commit to Me the work of My hands. It is I who made the earth, and created man upon it. I stretched out the heavens with My hands, And I ordained all their host" (Isa. 45:11-12).
My Lord Jesus confirmed the truthfulness of the inspired reporter's words in Matthew 19:4,
And He answered and said, "Have you not read, that He who created them from the beginning made them male and female?"
And again, as Paul wrote of Christ: "And He is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of all creation. For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities-- all things have been created by Him and for Him" (Col. 1:15-16).
The gospel writer, John, also identifies the Christ as God, the Creator,
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being by Him, and apart from him nothing came into being that has come into being (Jn. 1:1-3).
The use of Word implies intelligence, because it takes intelligence to convey thoughts using words, and with intelligence comes design.
No one else and nothing else has ever brought anything into being. For brevity, we will combine the what? and where? questions in the usual question: What happened? What did God do? He created the heavens, the earth, and all things.
God's act was creating. Creation was the making of things, all things, out of that which did not before exist. Creation is not procreation. Creation is not making again that which already exists -- not naturally nor by mutation. Creation is not manufacture. Manufacture is the synthesis of a thing from the parts which make it up. To create is to make all things... from no pieces, from no parts, out of nothing. To create is to put into being all things, with all their parts, fully functional, operational, working just exactly as the creator intended. Is that not the meaning of "and it was good"?
This is the issue in the conflict between atheistic evolution and the Biblical record. This is the reason there is no place in the heart of Bible believers for theories of theistic evolution.
Nature did not create nature. Things did not and do not create things. Things were created by God. As John reported, "apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being."
The inspired reporter of Genesis 1 answers these critical questions: When? Who? What? and Where? The very method of the language indicates the passage to be a report of events which literally took place. To question the historicity of the text is to question the authenticity of the text, because if the passage does not consist of facts reported, it could only belong in the realm of fiction.
--- Continued Next Week ---