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Genesis 1 tells the story of how God created the world. This, the first chapter in the Bible, lays a foundation for what will come after. If we take God’s creation out of our doctrine, we have opened ourselves to doubts about the authority of the Bible, because this truth is stated clearly in Scripture, and if it can’t be understood, it’s probably impossible to understand many other important truths which are not stated in clearer language. When we try to build a house without a foundation, we are making an awful mistake. Even so, if we try to build a theology without the foundation provided by the true story of Creation, we will fail to create a Biblical theology.

However, if we build a foundation, but never build the house, we have not succeeded either. “Lest haply, after he hath laid the foundation, and is not able to finish it, all that behold it begin to mock him, Saying, This man began to build, and was not able to finish.” (Luke 14:29-30. While this passage is not specifically dealing with Creation, the principle still holds true.) Many “Creation ministries” spend a lot of time and money trying to “prove” Creation and disprove evolution from science, or trying to convince people that science has already done this.. Supposedly this will help people to find salvation, but the strong central focus on Creation can lead—and has led—to compromise with non-Christian groups which support the idea of special Creation, but do not support the Bible (for example, the Intelligent Design movement). In the end the reason that people will not believe Genesis is the same reason that they will not believe the rest of the Bible—a lack of faith. “But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.” (Hebrews 11:6) Science cannot produce faith; thus, it cannot produce salvation.

The worldly church can spend its money how it wants, and, for the foreseeable future, it will probably give “Creation ministries” all the money that they need to continue their work, but for those of us who are following Jesus Christ, there are ways to spend our money that probably have a much better chance of furthering His gospel.

When we think that the Bible must be in agreement with science, we are wrong. Science is based on the fallible ideas of men, and most or all of it is, in the end theoretical, as the American Heritage Dictionary’s definition should make rather clear: “The observation, identification, description, experimental investigation, and theoretical explanation of natural phenomena.” On the other hand, the things that God has told us are infallible truth: “The words of the LORD are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times.” (Psalm 12:6) “Every word of God is pure: he is a shield unto them that put their trust in him.” (Proverbs 30:5) “And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful.” (Revelation 21:5) When we compare true and faithful words with a “theoretical explanation of natural phenomena,” it should not be a surprise when there is a disagreement. Science is not definitive, as should be obvious from the multitude of times when science has been wrong. God’s Word is definitive.

Focusing for too long on one passage of Scripture, at the expense of other portions, can also cause one-sidedness, and even bring up problems that really don’t exist, simply because the Scripture was written to be read, not picked apart word by word. An example is the problem of the stars—how light from stars millions of light-years away can reach the earth. The answer to this seems fairly clear—that God created a universe in motion, that is, one that was already in a state as if it had an erstwhile existence. Even so, “defenders of the faith” insist on making a big problem out of this question, probably as a result of spending too much time on this one single passage. An issue of a major Creationist magazine actually tried to prove that creating a fully formed world was outside of God’s character, because it would be like lying and saying that things had already happened! This argument doesn’t really even need to be answered.

There are many lessons that we can learn from Genesis, and we should strive to learn them, but focusing too hard on the scientific aspect of this book can actually lead to missing these lessons. We need to have faith in God, and move beyond the basics of the Bible, toward the fullness of God’s truth.