Old Earth, Young Earth? Active God, inactive God? These questions boil down to one topic; the Sabbath. What is the Sabbath all about? The Hebrew word for sabbath is "to cease". But what did God cease doing that day? To understand you have to read not Genesis 1, but Genesis 2. 1 And the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. 2 And on the seventh day God finished his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. 3 And God blessed the seventh day, and hallowed it; because that in it he rested from all his work which God had created and made.
Here are the results to last month's poll: When the Bible says that "on the 7th day, God rested", what does it mean? 40% said God no longer creates. This is the correct answer. When God rested, He ceased creating. All that we know, all that we see and don't see has been created. Things since have gone extinct. Things have been discovered, but they have always been here. Things may have adapted to the environment (in a non-evolutionary way), but they have always been here. Phil Fairchild, a minister of Christ in West Virginia ( http://str8heartphil.blogspot.com/), says this, "I had trouble with this (topic) until I read the whole text...God rested or finished creating because He was finished, thus the correct answer is God no longer creates...". He goes on to say that he belives a better answer to this question is God is finished creating, meaning He is done with all the beginning stuff, not making things new like new borns and changing lives of people, hence you are a new creation. 40% said Other. What???? 13% said God no longer gets involved with His creation. This is what Deists believe. People from the Enlightenment times like John Locke, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Francois-Marie Arouet (Voltaire), and even Thomas Jefferson had this idea that God created and has walked away leaving the laws of nature to run time, space, and lives. They believed everything could be explained. Then why do we sin? Why do we die? Why do we live? What is our purpose? They may have had an answer for these questions but they could not prove it by their own standards. How do we explain the super-natural if God does not get involved? 6% said The whole thing is just a metaphor. This answer is by those who are stubborn as a mule. 0% said God doesn't exist so what does it matter. Says the atheist. You have the answer twisted. It's not God doesn't exist so what does it matter, it is if God doesn't exist, then nothing matters. 0% said God literally let the world alone for awhile. This is actually the second best answer. God does intervene here and there. But the main problem with this it is not Biblical. When He said I AM, it just doesn't mean that He exists in the here and now. It means He is everywhere, omniscient, and omnipotent.
The Sabbath is all about what God did during the days of creation. He spent six literal 24-hour periods, or something equivalent to that, creating the universe, galaxies, earth and all life as we know it, and then some. He is the Creator, the Almighty. Most who believe in an old earth also believe in an inactive God. One who may have created but took 15 billion years to actually do something else or allowed the laws of nature to run its course. Most who believe in a young earth also believe in an active God, one who never leaves, Hebrews 13:5.
The Sabbath is now a holy day because God rested, or finished His creation. It is a day of celebration. It is a day to look back and marvel in what has been done. Here is an interesting article on the Sabbath, http://www.truthseek.net/sabbath.html. |
