Thursday, July 5, 2012

Created by the Creator Youth Bible Study Lesson

Brief: Exploring God’s process of creation

(Printable Student Sheet)

Needed: picture of the Mona Lisa, picture of a museum (included in previous lesson)

Recap
Last time, we talked about the Big Bang, and we asked the questions, “Where did all that matter come from for it to be so densely packed at the beginning of the Big Bang?” “How did all of those quarks and atoms know how to fit together to make planets and animals and people?”

It didn’t quite make sense to us, so we posited that the Universe had been created by some kind of “outside force” that designed the Universe to fit together.

We’ll talk about other religions and other possible creators of the Universe at another time, so for now, let’s just name that “outside force” that created the Universe as God, the God of the Bible, and see if that makes any more sense to us.

Scripture: Genesis 1:1-25 and Revelation 21:22-27

Genesis 1:1-8: In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light. 4 God saw that the light was good, and He separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light "day," and the darkness he called "night." And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day.

 6 And God said, "Let there be an expanse between the waters to separate water from water." 7 So God made the expanse and separated the water under the expanse from the water above it. And it was so. 8 God called the expanse "sky." And there was evening, and there was morning—the second day.

What is going on these verses? What does it mean that God separated water from water? And what is this expanse that God named sky?

God took some of the water from the earth’s surface and gathered it above the earth into a hydrosphere, a layer of water that completely surrounded the earth in the sky. (We’ll talk more about the hydrosphere later.)

Genesis 1:9-10: And God said, "Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear." And it was so. 10 God called the dry ground "land," and the gathered waters he called "seas." And God saw that it was good.

How many places was the water under the sky, which means on the earth, gathered to? (One.)

Which means that there was one ocean. But don’t we have at least four oceans now?
When God created the world, He created it as one continent and one ocean.

We call that first continent Pangea.

Genesis 1:11-19: Then God said, "Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds." And it was so. 12 The land produced vegetation: plants bearing seed according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good. 13 And there was evening, and there was morning—the third day.

 14 And God said, "Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark seasons and days and years, 15 and let them be lights in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth." And it was so. 16 God made two great lights—the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars. 17 God set them in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth, 18 to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. And God saw that it was good. 19 And there was evening, and there was morning—the fourth day.

Okay. There’s a mistake here, right? What day was the sun created? (The fourth day.)

And what day did it say there was light? (The first day.)

And what day did it say there were plants? (The third day.)

So how could there be light and plants, which need sunlight to live, before there was the sun?

Do we have light in this room? (Yes.) Is it from sunlight? (No.)

The sun is not the only source of light. In fact, the Bible talks about another source of light that’s even better than the sun.

Revelation 21:22-27: I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. 23The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp. 24The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it. 25On no day will its gates ever be shut, for there will be no night there. 26The glory and honor of the nations will be brought into it. 27Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb's book of life.

The glory of God is radiant. God Himself, shining down on His creation, could have been that first source of light.

Genesis 1:20-25: And God said, "Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the sky." 21 So God created the great creatures of the sea and every living and moving thing with which the water teems, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 22 God blessed them and said, "Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the water in the seas, and let the birds increase on the earth." 23 And there was evening, and there was morning—the fifth day.

 24 And God said, "Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: livestock, creatures that move along the ground, and wild animals, each according to its kind." And it was so. 25 God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.

The Bible keeps talking about God making all kinds of plants and fish and birds and animals. Do you think God really made every species of plant and animal that we have today?

God did not make every species of plant and animal. God made one of each kind of plant and one of each kind of animal and then allowed those kinds to evolve into other species. Christians don’t completely reject evolution. We believe that one kind of berry can evolve to produce another kind of berry. A horse can evolve to make a zebra. A monkey can evolve to make another kind of monkey. But a berry cannot evolve to become a bird, and a horse cannot become a cow, and a monkey cannot become a person. God created each of those kinds to be separate.

So how do we know what modern animals that we have today came from one of those kinds that God created?

If two animals can breed together and create offspring, we’re pretty sure that means that those two animals belong to the same kind.

Can a donkey and a horse interbreed? (Yes, it’s called a mule. So they all belong to the horse kind.)

Can different kinds of cats interbreed? (Sure. They’re all part of the cat kind.)

Can a black human and a white human interbreed? (Yes. All people are people. They’re all the same kind.)

But can a human interbreed with a monkey? (No. And, in fact, a scientist tried illegally to artificially inseminate human women with various kinds of monkey sperm, and it just didn’t work. Humans and monkeys are not part of the same kind.)

God created each kind of species to adapt within their species. But the kinds of plants or animals can’t evolve into other kinds of plants or animals.



 

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