Introduction

God's "good" creation now "groans."

Eight times in Genesis One God describes His original creation as being "good"; but it was soon to be marred by sin and is more accurately described from that point forward as "groaning" - -

Romans 8:22 "For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now."

Creation "groans" because Adam's sin in God's Garden brought God's creation under a curse - -

Genesis 3:17-19 "Then to Adam He said, "Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, 'You shall not eat of it': "Cursed is the ground for your sake; In toil you shall eat of it All the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, And you shall eat the herb of the field. In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground, For out of it you were taken; For dust you are, And to dust you shall return."

God's creation was "good"; now it "groans." I would like to suggest that - - even in its groaning - - the goodness of God is reflected in creation! God said that He was putting His creation under a curse "for your sake." The curse is presented as being beneficial; the groaning of creation is good for the human race. Why is it good? What purpose does it serve? God's curse on man, and on his whole environment, forces you to recognize the seriousness of sin and your helplessness to save yourself or your environment from decay and death. This condition is intended to encourage you in repentance toward God and in your desire for God to redeem you and restore your world to its original condition.

All things, living or nonliving, eventually wear out, run down, decay, grow old, and pass into the dust. Christians call this the curse. This condition is so universal that it was formalized by scientists about a hundred years ago into a fundamental scientific law, now called the Second Law of Thermodynamics. This law states that all systems, if left to themselves, tend to become degraded or disordered.

The general theory of evolution is in direct conflict with this universally observable and accepted Second Law of Thermodynamics. Creation, on the other hand, is in perfect harmony with this universally observable and accepted Law of science. If the general theory of evolution is in conflict with science, why don't people reject evolution? Because the only alternative is God's special creation as revealed in Genesis - - and, as we learn in Romans 1:28, "they did not like to retain God in their knowledge."

The true origin of this law is man's sin. The secret of all that is wrong with the world is that man is a sinner and has brought God's curse on the earth. That curse, with its decay and death, is for your sake - - for you to see the goodness of God. Creation, "good" and "groaning," reflects God's goodness to you!

With this in mind, we can explore the next several days of the creation week in verses 6 through 25.

Genesis 1:6 Then God said, "Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters."

Genesis 1:7 Thus God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament; and it was so.

Genesis 1:8 And God called the firmament Heaven. So the evening and the morning were the second day.

On the second 24 hour day of creation the "waters which were under" were divided from the "waters which were above" by a firmament. The word "firmament" is 'a stretched out space'; it refers to the atmosphere surrounding the rotating earth. It is called "heaven." The Bible refers to three "heavens" - the first heaven is the earth's atmosphere, the second heaven is what we call space, and the third heaven is the dwelling place of God. The waters under this atmosphere are the watery matrix of matter God created; the waters above are a vapor or ice canopy many scientists believe once surrounded and protected the earth.

Dr. Henry Morris, in his book, The Genesis Record, says that this idea of a vapor or ice canopy appears in many ancient writings. He then lists some benefits of such a canopy:

1 - The canopy would serve as a sort of global greenhouse, maintaining a uniform pleasant warm temperature all over the earth;

2 - With nearly uniform temperatures, great air movements would be inhibited and there would be no windstorms;

3 - The combination of warm temperature and adequate moisture everywhere would be conducive to lush vegetation all over the earth, with no barren deserts or ice caps;

4 - A vapor or ice canopy would effectively filter out any harmful radiation from the sun or other astronomical bodies in space;

5 - These waters above in the vapor or ice canopy would provide part of the reservoir from which God would send the great Flood of Noah's day.

Genesis 1:9 Then God said, "Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear"; and it was so.

Genesis 1:10 And God called the dry land Earth, and the gathering together of the waters He called Seas. And God saw that it was good.

The lower waters were still a shoreless mass in which probably all other material elements were either randomly dissolved or suspended.

Now certain chemical reactions were activated which produced the solid earth - its crust, mantle, and core.

The "seas" would be the great basins that water collected in. They would have no bearing upon today's geography, since everything changed after the worldwide flood. In fact, the dry land on the third day was probably one giant continent.

Genesis 1:11 Then God said, "Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb that yields seed, and the fruit tree that yields fruit according to its kind, whose seed is in itself, on the earth"; and it was so.

Genesis 1:12 And the earth brought forth grass, the herb that yields seed according to its kind, and the tree that yields fruit, whose seed is in itself according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.

Genesis 1:13 So the evening and the morning were the third day.

After the land formed, God organized certain chemical elements of the matter He had created into tremendously complex systems, each with an information system built into it which specified the reproduction of others like itself.

This word "kind" is extremely important. Creationists maintain that organisms only reproduce after their "kind," allowing for variations and mutations but never for evolution from one "kind" to another. In other words, the dog "kind" can include Danes and Dachshund, but never Dinosaurs! As of today, there is absolutely no evidence of any "kind" of plant or animal evolving into another "kind." There is no missing link to support the chain of evolutionary theory, no proof whatsoever. What evidence there is, such as that in microbiology and genetics, either confirms what God did on the third 24 hour day of creation or it confounds the evolutionist.

Genesis 1:14 Then God said, "Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs and seasons, and for days and years;

Genesis 1:15 "and let them be for lights in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth"; and it was so.

Genesis 1:16 Then God made two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night. He made the stars also.

Genesis 1:17 God set them in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth,

Genesis 1:18 and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good.

Genesis 1:19 So the evening and the morning were the fourth day.

Generators of light are made to replace the glory of God which has been the earth's light thus far. The sun, the moon, and the stars have a threefold purpose: To provide light, to provide a basis for the calendar, and for signs. The statement that they are for "signs" is intriguing. Some suggest that in the very constellations of the stars you can read the story of God's plan for man, beginning with Virgo (the Virgin) and ending with Leo (the Lion).

Verse 16 is startling where it says, "He made the stars also." Only 5 words describe the making of the stars! God's perspective is earth and man and redemption. While the earth physically revolves around the sun, the earth has positional superiority in God's plan and purpose. On it man would be created to have fellowship with God.

Genesis 1:20 Then God said, "Let the waters abound with an abundance of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the face of the firmament of the heavens."

Genesis 1:21 So God created great sea creatures and every living thing that moves, with which the waters abounded, according to their kind, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.

Genesis 1:22 And God blessed them, saying, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth."

Genesis 1:23 So the evening and the morning were the fifth day.

On the fifth 24 hour day God created all marine animal life and all the birds. In verse 21, "sea creatures" is "tannin," a word meaning 'dragon.' These were probably the ocean dinosaurs.

Dinosaurs continue to intrigue and fascinate us! According to the Bible, the ocean dinosaurs were created on the fifth 24 hour day of the creation week and the land dinosaurs were created on the sixth 24 hour day, along with the other animals and man. The Bible even describes dinosaurs - -

Job 40:15-19 "Look at the behemoth, which I made along with you and which feeds on grass like an ox. What strength he has in his loins, what power in the muscles of his belly! His tail sways like a cedar; the sinews of his thighs are close-knit. His bones are tubes of bronze, his limbs like rods of iron."

Man and dinosaur lived together - - not separated by millions of years. The dinosaur described in Job is probably a Diplodicus.

People object to the idea that dinosaurs lived alongside man, but not for factual reasons. They object because they have been conditioned by evolutionary theory:

- -They object because of the fossil record. Just because something is "fossilized" does not mean that it is millions or even thousands of years old! When conditions and materials are right, a bone can fossilize fairly quickly. The conditions are: quick burial, suitable amounts of water, and suitable minerals. Conditions during Noah's flood were ideal for fossilizing millions of animals and plants - - including dinosaurs! As a matter of fact, many dinosaur remains are still not completely fossilized.

- -They object because dinosaurs were too big to take on the Ark. There is evidence that dinosaurs lived after the time of the Flood; Job saw dinosaurs after the flood, and ancient peoples all over the world have told of unusual, reptile-like creatures that once roamed the earth after the Flood. The Ark actually had plenty of room! There are currently around 17,600 species of mammals, birds, reptiles, and amphibians. Their average size is that of a sheep! The Ark was so huge that 522 modern railroad boxcars could fit inside! Two each of all the air breathing creatures in the world today could be comfortably carried in only 150 boxcars! There was plenty of room even for dinosaurs - - especially considering that even most dinosaurs are relatively small and figuring that Noah would have brought younger dinosaurs, not full-grown ones. Most dinosaur fossils are less than 15 feet long; some, like Saltopus, were no bigger than a common housecat.

There are other objections - - but we welcome them! All of the evidence is compatible God's special creation. The dinosaur only confirms special creation and confuses evolution.

For example: If evolution is true and if dinosaurs went extinct millions of years ago, how do you explain reports of dinosaurs throughout human history, even up to our present day and age?

In 1977, the nets of a Japanese fishing ship caught the decaying body of a large, strange reptile near New Zealand. Photographs and measurements and tissue samples all show that is was probably a Plesiosaurus!

Remember: Both Evolutionary Science and Creation Science are biased interpretations of existing, observable evidence. Ours is a better science! You don't have to put your brains on the shelf in order to be a creationist. Dr. Arno Penzias holds a Ph.D. in physics from Columbia University. He won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1978. As far as I can tell he is not a Christian. Nevertheless he says,

"...people...don't want to accept the observational evidence that the universe was created - - despite the fact that the creation of the universe is supported by all the observable data astronomy has produced so far...the observations of modern science seem to lead to the same conclusions as centuries-old intuition..."

As with plant life, reproduction after their "kind" was programmed in to the animals - -

Genesis 1:24 Then God said, "Let the earth bring forth the living creature according to its kind: cattle and creeping thing and beast of the earth, each according to its kind"; and it was so.

Genesis 1:25 And God made the beast of the earth according to its kind, cattle according to its kind, and everything that creeps on the earth according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.

What came first, the chicken or the egg? The chicken! God created full grown, mature animals, capable of reproducing after their own "kind" - - and incapable of evolving from one kind to another!

This takes us up to the creation of man, which we want to look at next week. Up to this point we would agree with God that "it was good." Yet we must say that creation is now "groaning."

Even though it has gone from "good" to "groaning," creation still reflects God's goodness.

The world you see today is very different from God's intention in creation. Nevertheless decay and death is for your sake - - to reflect on His goodness when you understand that He redeems man, that He will restore creation, and that He will even recreate the universe!

God Redeems Man:

We will see this clearly in chapter three. Adam and Eve were in a hopeless condition, unable to save themselves from sin and death. God came to them with His offer of salvation: The blood and covering of a slaughtered animal that spoke of God Himself coming as a man to be the substitute for your sin!

God Will Restore Creation:

In the "groanings" of the universe, in its decay and death, is the hope of restoration - -

Acts 3:19-21 "Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that He may send Jesus Christ, who was preached to you before, whom heaven must receive until the times of restoration of all things, which God has spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began."

Creation reflects the goodness of God in His centuries old promise through the prophets to restore all things! This restoration is the Kingdom of God on earth, a 1,000 year reign upon the earth by Jesus Christ. Creation longs for it:

Psalm 96:11-97:6 "Let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth be glad; Let the sea roar, and all its fullness; Let the field be joyful, and all that is in it. Then all the trees of the woods will rejoice before the LORD. For He is coming, for He is coming to judge the earth. He shall judge the world with righteousness, And the peoples with His truth. The LORD reigns; Let the earth rejoice; Let the multitude of isles be glad! Clouds and darkness surround Him; Righteousness and justice are the foundation of His throne. A fire goes before Him, And burns up His enemies round about. His lightnings light the world; The earth sees and trembles. The mountains melt like wax at the presence of the LORD, At the presence of the Lord of the whole earth. The heavens declare His righteousness, And all the peoples see His glory."

God Will Recreate The Universe:

Revelation 21:1 "Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away..."

Hebrews 1:10-12 "You, LORD, in the beginning laid the foundation of the earth, And the heavens are the work of Your hands. They will perish, but You remain; And they will all grow old like a garment; Like a cloak You will fold them up, And they will be changed. But You are the same, And Your years will not fail."

Creation reflects God's goodness to you in that it speaks of His promise of a new creation.

Conclusion

Almost all scientists, indeed almost all people, are today convinced that the universe began with the Big Bang. Theoretical physicist Dr. Robert Jastrow puts it bluntly:

"The fact that the universe was once in a dense, hot state is considered proven by almost every scientist... the universe began in a cosmic explosion fifteen billion years ago..."

It might surprise you, but you believe in the Big Bang, too! Only from the standpoint of creation, the Big Bang is still in the future:

2 Peter 3:10 "But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up."

The universe we observe today didn't begin with a Big Bang, but it will end with one!

Inbetween Jesus Christ is redeeming men, women, and children to spend eternity with Him in a New Heaven and on a New Earth.

Creation is good - - even in its groanings - - because your God is good!