Truth is questioned these days and always has been. As Pilate said to Jesus, “What is truth?” That is, “Quid est veritas?” Beyond the “what” is the relativism; is truth relative to the observer? Do individuals have their own truth? Can debate or argument win the point in a discussion over what is true? Naturally, not everyone agrees on this topic. The world has multiple faiths, which in different ways are mutually exclusive in their basic tenets. Can they all be true at the same time?

Exploring the Bible can help us arrive at a good measure of truth, and some would even say all the truth you need – enough to convince yourself that what you are exploring in the sacred writings are indeed true. We examine the evidence and go from there. Here is my goal, quoting from the Apostle Paul:

11 And He [that is, Jesus] gave some as apostles, some as prophets, some as evangelists, some as pastors and teachers, 12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the building up of the body of Christ; 13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. 14 As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of people, by craftiness in deceitful scheming; 15 but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, that is, Christ….

– Eph. 4:11-15 (NASB)

As a teacher, and also as a learner, I am therefore searching God’s Word like you in order that together we attain the unity of the faith, and the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man or woman, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. By “the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ” the Apostle meant maturity in the knowledge of our Lord, and by knowledge he meant that we know our Lord – not just giving a mental acknowledgement, but we know Him as our friend, just as Jesus said to His disciples, “I call you friends” (John 15:15). 

Genesis: The First Sentence

Let’s begin at the beginning, with Genesis chapter one. The first sentence of Genesis – Genesis 1:1 – says, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” The English name Genesis in fact comes from the Greek geneosis, meaning history of origin. The Hebrew title of Genesis is more literal and takes the first Hebrew word of the book, bereshith, meaning in the beginning.

Bereshith is foundational to the whole of Scripture. Without that stated fact firmly in place – the fact that in the beginning God created the world –everything falls apart. The basis of our faith lies in the nature of God, the omniscient, omnipresent Creator of the universe. This fact is diametrically opposed to atheism, the idea that nature somehow created itself. “Out of nothing” can mean either all matter, the elements, compounds, gases, liquids, and solids, and life itself, came into being by chance and eons of change thereafter; or “out of nothing” means that God spoke the world into existence, and creation came into being from His command. As Romans 1:20 says:

 For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, that is, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, being understood by what has been made, so that they are without excuse. 

Who is without excuse? In the context and the verbiage prior to verse 20 of Romans 1, it is those people who “suppress the truth in unrighteousness.”

Putting the creation event in another way, let us take a peek at Hebrews 11:3:

By faith we understand that the world has been created by the word of God so that what is seen has not been made out of things that are visible. 

The Hebrew word for created, ba-ra, in the context of Genesis 1, means that God created the world out of nothing, from His spoken word.

For a moment, let us look at the world from the viewpoint of the unbelieving scientist. (There are believing scientists, too, but here our focus is on unbelief.) Suppression of the truth takes place with their focus on the origin of the world. It does not occur from controlled experiments or the scientific method, but from inference or “thought experiments” that hypothesize back to the beginning of things under the assumption that the supernatural does not exist – that only the material world exists. Of course, it would take a long time indeed for order to come out of nothing, by itself, and by extension, for the chaotic beginning to become organized into higher forms, and for life to evolve into higher life forms – all, of course, by chance or “random selection.” I venture to say there is no such thing as “random selection,” because selection means a conscious choice. The principle of the godless origin of the universe assumes spontaneous existence. It seems peculiar to use reason thereafter, a method of reasoning known as “inference to the best explanation,” as the basis for evolution of the universe, of geology, and of life forms, especially since there is no “best explanation” for spontaneous creation without a cause. Two scientific laws are broken from the outset – the law of entropy in the case of evolution, and the law of Cause and Effect. In the case of entropy, this means that things become disorderly over time without the aid of an outside agent, most logically by an intelligent Being steering things along. In the context of Christ the Creator, He holds all things together (Colossians 1:17). The universe falls apart and becomes disorderly without some kind of assistance to correct the chaotic effects of entropy.

The law of Cause and Effect says there is no effect without a cause. Bible believers say that God is the First Cause, the reason for everything else coming into being. As the Scripture says, God is infinite (Psalm 147:5), and God is everlasting – He was, He is, and He ever will be (Genesis 21:33). God’s name for Himself, I AM (Exodus 3:14), is basically saying I AM and ever will be.