Through the Word: the Beginning

I read the Bible from begining to end, a chapter at a time. This time I’m sharing my Bible reading journey with you. God promised if we call to Him, He will show us great and marvellous things. This is what I’ve gleaned, I hope you can share what you have gleaned too.

Genesis 1:1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

So here we are at the beginning. The Heavens were stretched out like a tent, according to Isaiah 40:22. If you stretch out space you get red shifted starlight and background radiation – two major components of the ‘Big Bang,’ with tremendous gravity pulling toward the centre. At the centre there would be a tremendous dilation of time. A researcher said taking into account the expanding universe and how time goes faster the further you go out, the most distant point would be about six days ago, while here on earth it would be about 6,000 years.

“But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.

2 Peter 3:8 and Psalm 90:4

There’s a lot in the first sentence of the Bible.

Sometimes our language can rob us of meaning. What can we learn from the original language?

The Hebrew word for created is bara.

Bara is made up of three hebrew letters, aleph, reysh, beyt. Hebrew reads from right to left.

Beyt is a house, tent, son, family, dwelling place, the physical tent/body, inside, within, first letter in the Torah that identifies the Son of God.

Reysh means difference, good or evil, division, Living Word, second, second person of the Godhead, to come alongside to hinder, to come alongside for help, God the Son.

Aleph is represented by an ox. The letter means strong leader, strength, leading, the first, aloof or separate, gentle, the beginning, the head of the family, God the Father.

The person who comes out of the house or tent is the son, and the house or tent belongs to God the Father. Creation is the revelation of the Son of God.

He was there at the beginning. God created everything through Jesus.

The Hebrew Word Study

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 were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.  In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.  And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. John 1:1-5

This was what is written of the Son of God by John, who said this of himself, “There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.  This man came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all through him might believe.  He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light.  That was the true Light which gives light to every man coming into the world. John 1:6-9

Earthrise

Apollo 8 was the first crewed spacecraft to successfully orbit the Moon and return to Earth. The Apollo 8 crew were also the first to witness and photograph an Earthrise.

On Christmas Eve 1968 the astronauts orbiting the moon on the Apollo 8 mission witnessed the earthrise, taking this famous photo. To mark this auspicious occasion, the great words from Genesis 1 were read in space.

Apollo 8 astronauts read a passage from the Bible

Unfortunately they were sued by an atheist from Dallas, Texas who said it was not appropriate.

“And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.” Nevertheless, the light still shines, the day will dawn and the rightful owner of this world will return.

Jesus is the Light of the World. The father of John the Baptist called Jesus “the Dayspring from on High“;

“The Dayspring from on high who has visited us; to give light to those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death, To guide our feet into the way of peace.” He saw it with his heart, Peter saw it with his eyes.

Peter was there when Jesus turned into a being of light on the mountain. He said, “For we did not follow cunningly devised fables when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of His majesty.” He wrote, “We also have the prophetic message as something completely reliable, and you will do well to pay attention to it, as to a light shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.” 2 Peter 1:16-19

We are going into the darkness now, but good will ultimately triumph over evil and there will be a new day. May the day dawn in your understanding and the morning star rise in your heart. May you believe it and see it.

Links

Amazing geometrical symmetry of Genesis 1:1 and John 1:1 (cont’d)

Seeing in the mirror darkly

After discovering the Higgs Boson particle, the “God particle”, the physicists at Cern want to find dark matter.  Is dark matter mentioned in the Bible?

Here’s a verse that hints of the dark matter;  “Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.”  Hebrews 11:3 (KJV).

How does that work?  Even through faith, we have a hard time understanding just what God did when He made the universe through Jesus.  We’ve had bad science – for centuries.

When I first started reading the Bible I used to skip over Genesis because it was at odds with science.  I felt I couldn’t take God at His word.  I had doubts about science too.  On the highest hill on our farm, I’d dig sea shells out of an exposed cliff – and they were exactly the same as the ones on the beach.  “How can that be?” I’d ask myself.  Clearly they weren’t 65 million years old.

I approached everything about the world’s beginnings with distrust, until the day I read a book by a couple of scientists explaining Genesis; “The Genesis Flood”.  The authors answered all the nagging questions I’d been left with.  I read Genesis after I finished that book, and then of course I had more questions … like why did God create the vegetation BEFORE the Sun?

Non believers could seize on that alone as a reason not to believe Genesis.  So I asked God why He did it that way, and through various Bible passages, He showed me I could take Him at His Word.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

It’s all about “THE WORD”.

For the first three days, the Lord provided the light for the world.  When He said “I AM the Light of the World” (John 8:12), He wasn’t kidding.

God created by speaking.  He created using light.  When He said “Let there be light”; the Light appeared – the firstborn over all creation. (Colossians 1).  And the light was good.  

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was with God in the beginning.  Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.  In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind.  The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not understood it.  John 1:1

The Light was with God from Day One.  Can you imagine the glory of the sunset and sunrise of the first three days, when the Son ruled the day and the night?  Can you see the plants and trees created on the third day growing in the light, sustained by the Son who is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being?  Can you see the tree of knowledge and the tree of life grow in the light of the creator and bring forth their fruit?

Time didn’t kick in until Day Four when the Sun, Moon and stars were made.  That would explain why the metamorphic rocks appear to be ageless.  I’m not talking about the more recent sedimentary layers that are full of fossils from Noah’s flood.

Why can’t Science at least consider this?  The Bible says unbeliever’s minds have been blinded by the god of this age.  The god of this age would be the horned god of the underworld.  His Celtic name is Cernunnos – Cern for short.

The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.  2 Corinthians 4:4.

Dark matter isn’t ‘dark’, it’s just invisible.  In Isaiah 5:21 it says; “Woe to those who put darkness for light and light for darkness.  Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight.”

It’s the glass or the mirror that we’re looking through that’s dark; “For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.”  1 Corinthians 13:12.

In all the noise and obfuscation of science, will you hear Him speak?

The light shines in the darkness

Panting harshly, we hurriedly left the river to scramble up the steep bank to gain the top of the ridge near the Mangaehuehu hut on Mt Ruapehu. 

Fog rolled down the mountain’s slopes just as we’d finished washing the last of the dishes in the clear mountain river, touching us with its damp fingers.  It conquered the evening sun that lit the folds and ridges of the land, leaving us disoriented and lost.  Dropping down to our hands and knees, we crawled down the ridge hoping to find the hut.  No landmark was visible, nor could we discern the track. We were caught out.

When we reached the ridge we stood to our feet in the grey void, unnerved and too afraid to move.  The feeling of fear was clammier than the air.  Our packs and sleeping bags were in the hut.  The majestic volcano that crowned the hills near the land I lived was my friend, a great playground for skiing and tramping, but it was complex and had rules.  Confident of the mountain’s good mood, we’d gone out clad only in our shorts and T-shirts.  Even though it was mid-summer, we knew the peril from exposure if we were forced to spend the night in the open.  How were we going to get back to safety?

Just as we were debating what to do, a light appeared, beckoning us to safety.  That light that someone, recognising our peril, had put in the hut window, was our salvation.

That is what Jesus, the Light of the World, is for me.  The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined. Isaiah 9:2

He promises that “whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” John 8:12.

The King, the great ‘I AM’, is mightier than the light in the hut, mightier than the cyborg robot played by Arnold Schwarzenegger in Terminator 2, who reached out his hand saying “Come with me if you want to live.”