Pastor, I Have a Question July 2012

QUESTION: What did God create the first day?
ANSWER: Light is an amazing thing especially when all creatures see the same tiny wavelength of the electromagnetic spectrum. Of course, some creatures are able to see a larger range of wavelengths and others are limited to a lesser range, but all sight is centered on and around these same wavelengths.
Moses wrote about God creating light: In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. So the evening and the morning were the first day (Genesis 1:1-5).
God’s first words to us speak of the beginning. The Bible does not argue about the existence of God, it opens with “God.” Before the beginning there is only God. God exists from eternity, as the Psalmist wrote, “Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever You had formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God” (Psalm 90:2).
Dr. Francis Pieper wrote: “The phrase ‘In the beginning’ refers to things outside God. When they came into existence, time and space began.” Time is a creation of God. Again, Dr. Pieper wrote: “God is the Creator of time without becoming temporal. He accompanies times without becoming subject to time or its laws. God’s relation to time is the same as His relation to space. For though God created space and place and is present everywhere, He does not become local, but remains exalted above space and place” (Christian Dogmatics, Vol. 1, page 446). These concepts are beyond the comprehension of this pastor.
On the first day of creation, God created the heavens and the earth. This is Moses’ way of saying that God created the universe, everything on the earth, and everything above the earth.
The term “heavens” has several Biblical meanings. The first thought that comes to the minds of Christians is that place Jesus earned for every sinner. By His life, death, and resurrection, Jesus redeemed sinners and made us worthy of being with God forever. When believers die, Jesus promises us a place with Him in heaven.
“Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also” (John 14:1-3). The heaven promised by God and earned for us by Jesus is not a created place. It is the blessed presence of God, the uncreated One.
Dr. Pieper writes, “The light which God created on the first day was the ‘elemental light,’ which, on the fourth day, was concentrated in the celestial bodies.”
All God’s creation is amazing. It is truly wonderful that God’s creatures see the same light waves.
Rev. Charles Keeler
Resurrection Lutheran Church
Winter Haven, FL
cjohnk@aol.com