What Just Happened?

Congratulations! You’ve just made the single most important decision of your life! Your choice to receive Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior is something that has absolutely changed everything - everything in your life now and everything in your eternal future! This one moment in your life has changed so much, it’s easy to miss some of it. So grab your Bible and take some time to walk with me through what has just happened to you.

(I encourage you to look the Bible references up in your own Bible. This will help you learn to navigate this precious book - and once you see these references in your own Bible, you can highlight them if you’d like)

Because You’ve Made Jesus Your Lord

#1 - You’ve been delivered from Hell

Matthew 25:46 And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.

Without Jesus, every person on earth is going to Hell. That’s simply how it is.

It’s not that God wants them to go to Hell. On the contrary, God didn’t make Hell for humans - He made it for Satan and his fallen angels. (Matthew 25:41) No, God has done everything He could to save people from Hell! And He has saved you out of there!

Look at Romans 6:23: For the wages of sin is death (this isn’t about your body dying, it’s referring to Hell itself), but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Glory to God!

You’ve been saved from eternal death and have been given eternal life!

In fact, you may have already heard a verse that says this same thing - John 3:16. For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him (the Son - Jesus) will not perish but have everlasting life.

You don’t have to be afraid of leaving this life anymore. Once you check out of this life, you go instantly to be with Jesus! This wasn’t true before salvation - your sin wouldn’t allow it. But now Jesus has wiped out everything that was separating you from Him!

#2 - Your past sins have been completely washed away

This is why you came to Him, right? You knew you were a dirty, rotten sinner. David said it this way in Psalm 51, “My sin is always right in front of me…” And this is why you came to Jesus for help.

Well I’ve got good news for you - He has helped you!

Every single sin, every single bad decision, every time you hurt someone, every time you knew right but chose wrong...all of it has been washed away! You now stand before God as someone with no trace of sin...completely righteous!

2 Corinthians 5:21 says that God “made Him who had no sin (Jesus) to become sin for us so that we may become the righteousness of God in Him.” Jesus took all that filthiness and sin to the cross. In return, He gave you His own righteousness! As far as God is concerned, you are just as righteous as Jesus Himself.

He carried your sin, so that you can carry His sinlessness (1 Peter 2:24).

Now, God says that He won’t even remember those things that you did wrong (Hebrews 10:17).

And what’s more...this forgiveness doesn’t just extend to what you did before your salvation. 1 John 1:9 says very clearly that if you sin from this point forward, you need only to confess it to Him and He will once again wash away all of it!

You, my friend, are permanently righteous! Hallelujah! (That means “Praise the Lord!”)

#3 - You’ve been made into a brand new creature

Now, obviously you still look the same. You still have the same hair, the same scars, and even the same tastes. You still enjoy the same things (although as you grow in faith, some of these desires will be curbed by your righteousness). If you liked football before you were saved, you’ll still like it after salvation. If your thing was comic books - you’ll still have that interest afterwards. If this is the case, then how can we say that you’re a brand new creature? Doesn’t all of this prove that you’re still just the same person?

Not at all!

You were created with three parts. They are your spirit, your soul, and your body. (1 Thessalonians 5:23).

What other people see as the real you - what they see and hear and touch - is your body. That is the “suit” that you live in - a temporary “tent” that functions as your home here on earth. One day, you’ll take that tent down and move to your new home. 2 Corinthians 5:1 NLT “For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed (that is, when we die and leave this earthly body), we will have a house in Heaven, an eternal body made for us by God Himself and not by human hands.” So you are living in the same body as you were before you were saved.

You have also been given a soul. This is what you use to connect with other people. Your soul is made up of three things; what you think (your mind), what you’ve always wanted to do (your will), and the things you feel (your emotions). Just like you have the same body, you still have the same soul now as you did before you got saved.

The fact that you still have the same soul is sometimes a good thing - all the things you’ve learned, all the memories you have, and even the skills you’ve honed in your lifetime...these are all housed in your soul. So you wouldn’t want God to wipe that all out upon salvation.

But you’re going to discover that these things in your soul are going to start giving you problems. All the sins you enjoyed, can still cause pleasure (Hebrews 11:25). The ungodly entertainment that you fed yourself with can still entertain you. And all the wrong kinds of relationships that you were a part of still feel binding on you. Thankfully, God has provided a way to overcome these conflicts, and we’ll talk about that in point #7. Don’t give up my friend!

The real you is your spirit. God is a spirit (John 4:24), and you were made in His image (Genesis 1:27). This means that you are a spirit. So the correct way of thinking is this; you are a spirit, you have a soul, and you live inside a body.

Before you were saved, you were dead in your spirit. Ephesians 2:1 says this, “Once you were dead because of your disobedience and your many sins.” With your spirit dead, you were left to live by your natural soul and fleshly desires - like a brute beast. But when God called you out of that mess, and you gave your life over to Him, look at what happened! Ephesians 2:4-5 “But God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so much, that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead.”

Your spirit, the real you, was just re-created when you were saved. This is what it means to be “born again” (John 3:3). God has become your Father (1 John 5:4) and you are a brand new creature. Look at 2 Corinthians 5:17 and know this means you! “This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!”

#4 - You were separated from the world you’re living in

As we’ve already said, the world is going to Hell without Jesus. We were all a part of the fray. We were by nature “children of wrath” (Ephesians 2:3). But when you got saved, you were separated from all of it.

True, we still live here - we have a job to do here now - but we don’t belong to this world any longer. In John 17:16, Jesus had this to say about you and I: “They are not of the world just like I am not of the world.”

Jesus came down from Heaven to earth to live here and fulfill God’s plan. He was here in the world, but He didn’t come from it. That’s the way it is with you and I now. Our new spirit was made by God in Heaven and sent to the earth with a plan. We live here, but we’re not from here.

1 Peter 2:11 tells us “Dear friends, I warn you as "temporary residents and foreigners" to keep away from worldly desires that wage war against your very souls.” You’re a foreigner here. This means you’re never going to blend in with them any longer. You’re different now - in the same way an ambassador from another country is different from the country he lives in.

This is where your responsibility now lies - you are now called to live out your separation from the world. 1 Corinthians 7:31 tells us that we should be using the things of this world, but 1 John 2:15 says that we should not love the things of this world. This is major - if you’re going to live in God’s system, you’re going to learn to depend on Him and not the things of the world that you used to look to.

You’ve been brought out of the kingdom of darkness and have been brought into a new kingdom - a kingdom of light. (Colossians 1:13). You are now as different from your old worldly buddies and the culture you were raised in as light is different from darkness.

#5 - You’ve been given the same measure of faith as every other believer

Romans 12:3 “...as God has dealt to each one the measure of faith.”

You probably think that you made the choice to believe in God, right? But the truth is, God gave you that faith! And He didn’t give any one of us more than another. We have all received the same measure of faith, it’s the faith that you used to believe what you heard about the Gospel and what Jesus had done for you.

Romans 10:17 tells us that faith comes by hearing. That’s how it worked with you, my friend. You heard someone talk about God and how good He was, and hearing that brought faith. This is how we all received the faith that we have.

As you grow in the Lord and go one in your Christian walk, you’re going to notice people that seem to have no problems believing God in every situation. It will seem like their faith can move mountains and change bad situations around in an instant. When you see these people walking in faith like this, you may even end up saying something like, “I wish I had that kind of faith!”

But look back up to Romans 12:3...we all received the same measure of faith! How is then that some people have more faith than others? That’s simple, they have grown and strengthened their faith over time.

The Bible compares faith to a seed (Matthew 17:20). Like any seed, it can be grown into something bigger and stronger than it was at the beginning. God gave you the same faith as everyone else...now, what you do with it is up to you! Are you going to keep it as a seed in your pocket, or are you going to grow it and become “strengthened in the faith?” (Romans 4:20)

How do you grow your faith into something more, something stronger? It’s simple; faith comes by hearing! You continue to grow your faith by continuing to hear God’s Word (another term for the Bible). This is why getting into the pages of the Bible is so important. It will feed and strengthen your faith as you read it and keep it on your mind each and every day!

#6 - Every promise that you see in the Bible has been freely given to you

There are some amazing promises that God has given to his people! This is one reason you need to spend daily time reading the Bible, you will never have faith in a promise that you don’t know.

Think about this, if you never heard that God would save you from your sin, would you believe it? No you wouldn’t. You didn’t receive that promise of salvation until you knew about it!

There are more promises in the pages of the Bible that also are received by faith. This is why reading that book each day is so important. It’s similar to a legal contract or a will - studying it will reveal the new entitlements (or blessings) that you have access to!

There are so many promises of God in the His word! Peace instead of fear, joy instead of sorrow, triumph in the face of trouble, healing from sickness, prosperity and provision...all of these are now available to you! As you read these promises in the Bible, keep your faith out there!

Just like salvation came by faith, each of these promises are received by faith! (Hebrews 6:12) You my friend, have so much more at your disposal than you know right now...but as you grow in the Lord, you will begin to stretch out faith and see these promises be kept in your life.

Lastly, whenever you see a promise from God in the Bible and you wonder “does this apply to me?” - remember 2 Corinthians 1:20 NLT “For all of God’s promises have been fulfilled in Christ with a resounding ‘Yes!’”

#7 - You’ve been given the grace to completely obey God

God’s grace saved you. Ephesians 2:8 says that you were “saved by grace through faith.” That grace invaded your life, washed away your past sins (Ephesians 1:7), and pointed your life in the right direction. But that wasn’t the end of it! He didn’t leave you to walk alone!

So many people think of Christianity as an attempt to reform your life. But that couldn’t be any further from the truth. The reality is, you have been given a grace that will completely transform your life! His grace will empower you to follow His directions. You couldn’t obey God before salvation - your fallen nature wouldn’t allow it. But now, by grace you are completely free to do whatever He says to you!

Hebrews 12:28 says that we serve God by grace. 1 Corinthians 15:10 tells us that His grace will actually work through us. This is complete freedom from sin!

So yes, your soul still likes to do things its own way. Yes, you still have all the habits and hangups that you had before salvation. But the great news is you now have all the grace you need to completely annihilate all of that old mess!

If you fall back into sin, God’s grace will catch you. Just turn back to Him again and allow His grace to start working in you all over again. Sin’s grip has been broken off of our lives...praise God!

#8 - You’ve been made a part of Jesus’ body on Earth

Ah yes...now we come to what you were expecting. Now let’s talk about church. Do you really need to attend a church? Absolutely! But there’s more to it than that. It isn’t that you are now required to go to church. You have been made a part of Jesus’ church!

Ephesians 1:23 tells us that the church is also called the Body of Christ. This is exactly how it functions. Jesus is the head, He’s in charge. Like the body working with the head, we go where He sends us and do what He tells us. And now you have been made a part of this body.

You need to gather together with other believers. You grow from them and work with them. There are gifts that Jesus gave to the church (Ephesians 4), men and women who teach us and help us grow in the faith. The church is where the truth is made known and Satan’s lies are exposed. You need a church to connect with!

Hebrews 10:25 “...not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but encouraging one another, and so much the more as you see the day [of Jesus’ return] approaching.” God makes it clear to us in this verse, gathering together with other believers isn’t optional - it’s absolutely necessary for us.

But this isn’t about the rules, it’s about who you are now. 1 Timothy 3:15 calls the church “the house of God.” It’s where we come together to meet with Him together. Now look at 1 Peter 2:5, “...you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house…” Do you see that? We are compared to spiritual stones that together make up a house for God.

God has a church for you, and He’ll lead you to it. Once you get there, make this decision; “I am not moving from this spot - this is where God placed me, and this is where I’ll grow!”

So welcome to the family brother/sister! Thank God for your decision to follow Him, and He is faithful to finish the good work He started in you!

I want to leave you with one final thought. Luke 15:7 “I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.” That moment you prayed and confessed Jesus as your Lord, Heaven erupted in shouts of joy over you! Right now, my friend, angels are celebrating your salvation!

Identity - Part 3

“I AM”

When we read through the Old Testament, we see the word “LORD” in all capital letters hundreds of times. When we see this, we need to understand that we're not merely talking about “the Lord” here. “LORD” is actually the respectful way to write God's sovereign name – without actually using it carelessly or casually. The actual word that we read “LORD” is “Yahweh”...sometimes said as “Jehovah.” This is the eternal, awe-inspiring name of almighty God – It is “I AM THAT I AM”! It's the name that God revealed to Moses from the burning bush, it's the name that Jewish people still refuse to write for respect – it's the name of the Great I AM!

Of course we already know that the name of Jesus has this name hidden inside of it – Jesus means “Yahweh Saves”. But did Jesus ever claim the name of Yahweh for Himself? Let's look and find out.
In Mark 14, we see the account of Jesus' trial before the Jewish leaders. Unable to find a single wrongdoing, they brought several false witnesses before the council. These men made some off-the-wall accusations against Him. The problem was, not one of these witnesses agreed with another. By law, the priests needed two witnesses to testify to the same accusation before they could condemn Jesus as guilty. Desperate for any grounds of conviction, the high priest then attempted to goad Jesus into condemning Himself.

In verse 60, the High Priest demanded, “Do You answer nothing? What is it these men testify against you?” In response to that question, Jesus said nothing. This must have outraged the High Priest even more! Who does this Man think He is to ignore the question? Finally, the priest asked a much more direct question - seen in verse 61 - “Are You the Christ (the Messiah) the Son of the Blessed?”

To be sure, this was a loaded question – but there was no answer that would've made Jesus guilty. There were two parts to this question: One, are You the Messiah? Two, are You the Son of God? Saying yes to either of these questions wouldn't be wrong for any man to say

Everyone believed that the Messiah was going to be a man. Claiming to be the Messiah may have made a man crazy, but it wouldn't have been a crime. As far as being the Son of God; and any Jew could claim to be a son of God. In fact, the Pharisees themselves made this claim in John 8:41. If the high priest knew these claims weren't crimes in themselves, why ask the question? I believe he was fishing for something more substantial, something serious to accuse Jesus of...and he got that in Jesus' response. 

In verse 62, we read Jesus' answer to the priest's question: “I Am. And you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Power, and coming with the clouds of heaven.” When Jesus said those two words - “I Am” - He wasn't merely giving a “yes” answer to the High Priest's question. He was claiming God's eternal, sacred name for Himself! He was calling Himself THE I AM! We know this is true based on the response of the council. Verse 63 tells us, “Then the high priest tore his clothes and said, 'What further need do we have of witnesses? You have heard the blasphemy! What do you think?' And they all condemned Him to be deserving of death.” Claiming to be the Messiah was not blasphemy. Yet these highly religious men heard blasphemy in Jesus' response...why? Because they knew what Jesus was actually saying! He wasn't saying "I am the Messiah." or "I am the Son of God." Jesus was clearly saying "I AM"!

This was not the only time Jesus made this claim about Himself. To see more, we need to move into the book of John. In John 8:24, we read these words from His own mouth, “Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; for if you do not believe that I am He, you will die in your sins.” Notice that the word “He” is italicized. This means it was added by the translators, but it wasn't actually what Jesus said. What He said was “You have to believe that I AM, or you will die in your sins! What a statement to make about Himself!

But He wasn't done there...He claims this name for Himself two more times in the same dialogue! Verse 28 says, “When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I AM, and that I do nothing of Myself; but as My Father taught Me, I speak these things.” Verse 58 profoundly says, “Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM.” We can clearly see that Jesus wasn't confused about Who He was, and He didn't shy away from saying so.

Perhaps the most powerful of Jesus' “I AM” claims came in the Garden of Gethsemane. As the Jewish soldiers arrived to arrest Him, they announced that they were looking for Jesus of Nazareth. In response, Jesus declared those two simple, earth-shaking words - “I AM” When He pronounced that powerful name, it dropped these men flat on their backs. Can you see this picture? Jesus, after stating Who He was, had to wait for the guards to get back up so that they could arrest Him! Even in His arrest, His power could not be hidden!

The Savior

Recently, the world spent a month (as they do every year) celebrating the birth of Jesus. During this time we talk about “the night of our dear Savior's birth” and the fact that “Jesus Christ our Savior was born to us this day”. Through the month of December, you'll hear Luke 2:11 quoted often. In this verse, we read the words of an angel to a group of shepherds, “For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior...” But what Americans hear in that verse is drastically different from what those shepherds heard!

Being Jews, these shepherds knew the scriptures. When they heard the word “Savior” they must have remembered the words of God in Isaiah 43:11, “I, even I, am Yahweh, and besides me there is no Savior.” Knowing this, these shepherds must have been overwhelmed by the angel's next statement, “Who is Christ the Lord.” Those words - “the Lord” - had to have resonated with these simple, God-fearing men. After all, Jews referred to God as “the Lord", since His name was too sacred to use. This angel just announced to these men that “the Lord” was just born to be their Savior!

In agreement with what the angel said, Paul also declares that our Savior is no one less than God Himself! In Titus 2:11-12 we read, “For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ...” Our God and our Savior are one and the same – Jesus Christ! This is also why Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 15:47, “The first man (Adam) was of the earth, made of dust; the second Man (Jesus) is the Lord from heaven.” This Lord from Heaven, the one who came to be our Savior, is the same one that the angel called "Christ the Lord."

After the angel announced the birth of the Savior to the shepherds, we read that a multitude of heavenly hosts joined that angel in the sky and praised God, saying “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men.” Just how many angels were in the sky that night? Hebrews 1 :6 tells us: “But when He again brings the firstborn into the world, He says: 'Let all the angels of God worship Him.'” That night every angel in Heaven appeared in the sky over Bethlehem to praise God. It's amazing to me that only the shepherds saw this! And how did this multitude of angels praise God? By worshiping the Son!

The Incarnate Word

John chapter one tells us more about what happened that night in Bethlehem. Let's take a close look, starting in verses 1 and 2 
In the beginning was the Word... – So God's Word was already there in the beginning. The Word had no beginning, there was never a time when the Word wasn't!

...and the Word was with God.. - The literal meaning is that the Word was face-to-face with God. Now we see that the Word wasn't merely a thing, but it had a face (It's own face) and was together with God.
...and the Word was God. - Uh oh, this is where Christians are separated from every other world religion. The Word - Who was a person that was face-to-face with God – was also God Himself!
He was in the beginning with God. - Another look at the person-hood of the Word. The Word was a “He”. 

Now let's move on and read verse 10, “He was in the world...” - Now we see that this Word/Person who was God, was personally in the world.

...and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. – If the world was made through the Word, then why didn't it know Him when He was in it? Why didn't they know their Creator?

The answer is found in verse 14, “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us...” - Now we see why they didn't know Him, because He became flesh. This Word/Person Who was God became a flesh and blood man! What an amazing concept, God became a man!

Lastly, let's look at verse 17 so find the identity of the Word, “For the law came through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.” The Word made flesh is Jesus Christ! This is the incredible meaning of what happened in Bethlehem - God humbled Himself to be born as a baby!

The Form of God, The Appearance of a Man

In our last look at Jesus' incarnation, let's go to Philippians 2:6-7. This passage of Scripture should be added to our list of Christmas time traditions – this is, after all, the true meaning of what we celebrate. 

Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God... - Jesus knew that calling Himself God wasn't taking anything away from the Father. He and the Father were one, so to exalt the Son is to exalt God – we don't rob our Heavenly Father when we put the Son on equal footing. Why? Because there is only one God, and He is Jesus! 

...but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. - Do you see this? Jesus was God first and then became a man. This runs contrary to the cult of Mormonism, which says that He was a man first and then became a god. Jesus was the Word that was God and took on the form of a flesh-and-blood servant.

We'll look at the rest of this passage later on, because there is so much more to Jesus' divinity in the next few verses. Let's end this section with one last quotation by Paul, from 1 Timothy 3:16. “And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifested in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen by angels, preached among the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up in glory.” Jesus, the Man Who was born in Bethlehem, was the direct manifestation of the eternal God. He was the flesh-and-blood expression of God's own nature!

In The Beginning, Chapter Two - What Believers Should Believe

What Believers Should Believe About Creation

There are certain things that believers should believe about the creation of the world.

Let me illustrate why this is important. Is it necessary for someone to believe that Jesus was born of a virgin to become born again? Not at all! Why? Because someone may not have heard that doctrine before or understood what it meant. But - let me be clear - once this new believer learns what the Bible says about the virgin birth, then his only option is to believe it!

Although the belief of a young earth and a literal creation isn't necessary as a prerequisite for salvation; once a believer learns what the Bible says about this topic, it then requires their faith. Not knowing what the Bible says may be excusable, but knowing it and choosing not to believe it is not!

We Believe The Bible

The Bible is the inerrant, infallible, unchanging Word of the God Who cannot lie. Everything it says is truth, from the first verse of Genesis to the last verse of Revelation. In it, God's character is revealed and His acts are made known. Every believer should have complete faith in it's trustworthiness - after all, it is this very Word that brings their salvation!

Sadly, instead letting God speak for Himself on the topic of creation, too many believers are taking outside ideas and reading them into the Bible. Whenever these compromising Christians see a contradiction between the secular interpretation of the natural world and what the Bible says - they feel free to butcher the plain reading of the Bible to preserve the integrity of fallen man's opinion. What audacity! It's simple; is God's Word true or isn't it? If it is, then it's completely true - there is no gray area here!

As believers, we have the responsibility to start with the Bible and line up our world view with what it teaches. This is true of the Old Testament as well as the New. We cannot embrace the spiritual concepts of the New Testament without first accepting the natural concepts of the Old. Jesus (God in the flesh) believed in a literal Genesis and a young earth, as did Paul. Peter wrote about an actual global flood, and Jude wrote of a real person named Enoch. Can you see that a historical Genesis was a major part of what the New Testament writers believed?

It is vital to know that, when we are forming our worldview, we must start from the Word of God. When someone’s interpretation of evidence disagrees with the Bible, we as believers don't get a choice in what to believe!

Later on, we will see that no scientific evidence by itself disagrees with the the Bible - only a person's interpretation of that evidence. For example, the rock layers themselves do not disagree with the Bible, only the interpretation that those rock layers are millions of years. We, as Christians, don't deny the evidence of science - we simply have a different interpretation of that evidence!

When we start from God's Word, we can see that we won't have any problems with the real science - and this is true from the Bible's very first verse.

We Believe In God At The Very Beginning

Genesis 1:1 "In the beginning, God..."

The Bible never tries to explain God's existence, it simply asserts that He is. He always has been. There has never been a time when He hasn't existed - in fact, He was the one who started the clock of time!

Genesis 21:33 "Then Abraham...called on the name of the LORD, the Everlasting God."

Psalm 90:2 "Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God."

God doesn’t need a reason to exist. He doesn’t need a cause. He is the cause of every effect. He is the eternal, pre-existent One! God was. God is. God will always be. It's just that simple!

Werner Gitt and the Law of Information

A German engineer (and a young-earth creationist) named Werner Gitt developed a scientific law known as the Law of Information. Simply put, this law states that information in general can only come from an intelligent source. When you think about it, this is a very simple concept. This law is the reason we can see the difference between an arrowhead and a pebble. It's the reason we appreciate a fine sculpture and not wind-eroded boulders. We understand and recognize when intelligent effort is used.

The law of information is seen in every part of our world. Think about this:

• The earth is exactly the right distance from the sun; not too far, not too close.
• It spins at the precise speed necessary.
• Its atmosphere is the perfect balance of elements needed to support life
• The moon is at exactly the right distance from the earth to control the tides
• Of all the planets we've seen, the earth is the only one known to have water - vital to our survival.

Earth is truly a masterpiece of engineering!

But even the life on earth is wonderfully complex and intricately designed. Life's simplest building blocks are the cells. But, as simple as these structures seem - they are incredibly complex and organized! The simplest single cell is easily as complex as any one of our major cities. They each have hundreds of systems working together in complete harmony and precise order. As if that weren't enough, each cell works together with other cells to form the intricate organs, bones, muscles and tissues of every plant and animal species - as well as our own bodies. Each of us is made from 60 trillion of these complicated structures!

The center of each cell holds something even more amazing - DNA. DNA is like the program of the body. Each strand is capable of holding massive amounts of information. Amazingly, this information is coded, written in its own language! For decades, scientists have been working to understand our own DNA, but they are still far from being able to read what is written on it.

Just how much information does our DNA hold? If you were collect a single tablespoon of DNA, that tablespoon could hold enough information to fill 15 trillion CDs! That's 1.2 quadrillion (the number after trillion) megabytes of coded information - on a spoon! Even more amazing is the fact that the very code that is needed to read the information, is also written on the DNA! Without that one code, all of the rest would just be gibberish!

So who wrote all of this? This is a major issue with the theory of evolution. According to the law of information, the complex genetic code had to come from an intelligent source. Coding like this cannot write itself, just ask any one of the thousands of programmers we hire to write our computer codes. And yet we have something vastly more complex written on every part of our bodies! Someone had to write it!

“All information comes from an intelligent source.” As believers, we have no problem with this - because we believe, "In the beginning, God.."

We Believe That Creation Was Accomplished in Six Actual Days

Whether you simply read through the creation account in Genesis 1 or you study every word of it in depth - you would always get the impression of literal, 24-hour days. You would never develop some other theory if the Bible is your only starting point. Sadly, there is a theory inside the church that isn't an interpretation of God's Word, but an attempt to harmonize the secular theory of millions of years and the biblical account of creation. This theory is known as the day-age theory.

Let's briefly examine again what the day-age theory proposes. In an attempt to make the Bible agree with the secular idea that the rock layers have recorded extremely long ages of time, a geologist named Arnold Guyot formed this theory. His taught that each day of creation wasn’t actually a 24-hour day, but a different “epoch in time.”

2 Peter 3:8 “But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.”

Day-age theorists base their theory on this verse - claiming that this could mean that the creation week was actually six different ages of creation. They also bring out the fact that the Hebrew word for day (yom) doesn’t always apply to a 24-hour period of time. These two Biblical truths (the Hebrew word for day and 2 Peter 3:8), combine with a secular interpretation of the rock layers to form the pillars of the Day-Age Theory.

So What's Wrong With The Day-Age Theory?

We've already established that believers should always start from the Bible, and use what the Bible says to form their worldview. However, let's be clear about this - the very foundation of the Day-Age Theory (i.e. the idea that millions of years can be seen in the rock layers) is fundamentally flawed to begin with! When you see large fossils such as trees, whales, and others that are buried in several different rock layers - it's obvious that those layers could not have formed over millions of years. In fact, the very existence of a fossil implies a rapid, watery burial - covering the creature before it could decompose and decay.

It's obvious, then, that the supposed scientific argument for the Day-Age theory is unnecessary. But what about the Biblical arguments? It is true that 2 Peter 3:8 tells us that with God "one day is as a thousand years." Does this mean that the creation week was actually several long periods of time? Not at all! This verse has absolutely nothing to do with creation! Whatever ground they could have taken with the first phrase, is lost with the second: "...and a thousand years as one day." The point of this verse is that God doesn't see time same way we do - that's all!

It's also true that the Hebrew word "yom" doesn't always apply to a literal, 24-hour day. Sometimes it can mean an indeterminate amount of time. But, the Bible is always clear when it means a true day and when it means a period of time. If there is a number attached to the day ("the fourteenth day of the month" or "the spies searched the land for forty days") it is always talking about a real, 24-hour day. So when you look at Genesis 1 and see:

"the first day"

"the second day"

"the third day"

"the fourth day"

"the fifth day"

"the sixth day"

You don't have to wonder if they were real days! Using this law of interpreting "yom" we can see that these were simply "days."

But God makes this fact even more clear in Genesis chapter 1. A second rule for interpreting "yom" can also be seen in the scriptures. Any time this word is used with a time of day or a time of night - the word always carries the meaning of a 24-hour period of time. Look at these verses for example:

Exodus 18:13 "And so it was, on the next day, that Moses sat to judge the people; and the people stood before Moses from morning until evening."

Judges 20:26 "They sat there before the LORD and fasted that day until evening."

1 Samuel 30:17 "Then David attacked them from twilight until the evening of the next day."

When we see a time of day in each of these verses, we can be sure that the word "yom" is referring to an actual day and not a period of time.

Now, there are times when the word "yom" does mean a indefinite period of time. Phrases like "the day of judges" and "the day of trouble" are not talking about literal days. How do we know? Because there is no number attached to "yom" - and there is no time of day used in connection. There is no excuse for confusion on this issue, the Bible is always clear about what definition of "yom" is being used.

So what about Genesis 1? In addition to the six specific numbers that are attached to the days, there is always a time of day connected as well!

"There was evening and morning, the first day"

"There was evening and morning, the second day"

"There was evening and morning, the third day"

Every one of the six days of creation have a number and two times of day attached to them. So there are three times in each day that God made a point to show us that they were real days! How much clearer could He have been?

Let's use a little bit of common sense. If each of these days were actually long amounts of time - hundreds of millions of years - why would God make plants on day three, the sun on day four, and pollinating insects on day five? How long was this period of that the plants had to exist without the sun? And then, did they have to wait another long period of time before they had insects to pollinate them?

We Believe That The Beginning Was Around 6,000 Years Ago

Do you remember what every believer's starting point should be? The Bible! You see, the Bible isn't vague about when creation happened. There are strings of dates and lifespans that stretch from the beginning of the Bible to the end. It is extremely simple to find out the approximate date for creation - if you take the Bible for what it clearly says!

First of all, you take the first event that we have a solid, historical date for. This happens to be the construction of the first Temple. We know from extra-biblical sources that construction began in 970 BC. Working from there, we move backwards through the Bible:

• We know that the Temple was begun 480 years after the exodus
• We know that the exodus occurred 430 years after Abram left Haran
• We know that Abram left Haran 429 years after the flood
• We know that the flood occurred 969 years after Methuselah was born
• And we know that Methuselah was born 687 years after creation

When we work the numbers, we can see that the flood of Noah’s day occurred about 4,500 years ago. We can also see that creation occurred no later than around 4,000 BC, or 6,000 years ago.

This is extremely simple. It is based on a straight-forward reading of what the Bible says, and is not in any way contradicted by a deeper study of God’s Word. The only times this has ever been confused is when simple-minded believers try to reconcile the ideas of fallen man with the truth of God’s Word. As a believer, we must start from the Bible - not a theory, opinion, or idea. As the scripture says, “Let God be true, and every man a liar.”

What about the Gap Theory?

Genesis 1:1,2 "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."

We've seen that the Gap Theory has tried to force millions of years between these two verses. Their claim that God never makes anything formless and void has led them to invent an entire mythology. A world that existed before the creation week was inhabited by, a pre-adamite race of beings. These beings were ruled by Lucifer himself for eons of time. When he got puffed up with pride, he led a rebellion from earth to Heaven to fight against God. In response, God kicked Lucifer from heaven and sent a global flood to judge the world. This, they say, accounts for Satan's fall, demons (the disembodied souls of the pre-adamite beings), and the water-covered world of Genesis 1:2. They also claim that “Lucifer’s flood” accounts for the fossil record.

Many preachers and well-meaning Christians hold to this view of creation. It's taught in Bible colleges around the world. But very few believers know that its founder (Thomas Chalmers) developed it as a compromise with Charles Lyell's godless theory of an extremely old earth. The Gap Theory is not based on the Bible, but on a secular interpretation of the earth's rock layers. One well-known theologian said this after promoting the theory, "Let the rocks say what they may." In other words, "let's interpret the Bible so that it doesn't disagree with the secular idea of millions of years."

There are two major arguments that Gap Theorists use to promote their theory:

1. "God never makes anything formless and void; therefore, something had to happen to cause it to be that way. The only other time the world was covered in water was when God judged the world in Noah's day. So the water-covered world could have been the result of judgement."

2. "God told Adam and Eve to 'replenish' the earth - meaning to fill it again. This means that the world was populated before Adam. This race of beings was probably wiped out by the flood of Genesis 1:2"

These arguments can sound convincing, but a closer look shows their flaws.

First, the state of the earth had nothing to do with judgement. The earth was formless because God hadn't formed it yet! All He did in verse one was lay its foundation! It was void (or empty) because He hadn't filled it yet!

Where I live, there was a running joke about a particular restaurant. The owner of this particular restaurant wanted to build at a new location - but do it all debt-free. So, he only built as much as he had money for. For months, the foundation and framework sat, unformed and unfilled...waiting for the next step of the project. While this attracted a lot of ridicule, it serves as a perfect example of what we see in Genesis 1:2. This verse is not talking about a judged earth, it's talking about an unfinished earth - there's a huge difference!

Secondly, God never told Adam and Eve to "refill" the earth! The King James translated the Hebrew word "male" (mal-ay) as "replenish." But this is a poor translation of "male" - this word simply means to fill! In the Hebrew, there is absolutely no indication of mankind populating the earth again! They were simply told to fill the earth and bring it under their control.

There are actually much stronger arguments against the Gap Theory than for it.

For the first argument, look at what Ezekiel 28:13 says about Lucifer: "You were in Eden, the Garden of God..." Before he fell, Lucifer had been in the Garden of Eden. This means that he couldn't have fallen between Genesis 1:1 and 1:2, because God created the Garden in Genesis 2 - on day six!

Second, look at Jesus' own words in Matthew 19:4 - "And He answered and said to them, 'Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning made them male and female?'" Jesus, quoting from Genesis 1, said that the creation of Adam and Eve was "at the beginning." This is easily understood if the creation of mankind occurred on day 6. But if Adam and Eve were created at the end of a long age of time (as the Gap Theory states) or during the final era of creation (as the Day-Age Theory states), then this statement doesn't make sense. Clearly, Jesus believed in a straightforward reading of Genesis, with Adam and Eve created at the beginning of the world.

Blind Dating

Too many Christians are easily swayed by the so-called "dating methods" used by secular scientists. They seem to under the impression that these dates are literally stamped on the rocks and are indisputable. The fact is, every radiometric dating method is fallible and riddled with assumptions

In simple terms, radiometric dating measures how quickly a unstable radioisotope (like carbon-14, potassium-40 and uranium 238) decays into its daughter element (nitrogen-14, argon 40, and lead 206 respectively). The theory is this; if this radioactive decay occurs at a consistent pace (and it does), we can look at how much of the daughter element is left in a rock and calculate backwards to find out when it first formed.

Think of it this way: Someone walks into a room and finds a candle already burning. At the time he entered the room it was three inches tall. After studying it for an hour, the burning candle was two inches tall - thus he determines that this candle burns at a speed of one inch-per-hour. He then uses this data to determine how long ago the candle was lit.

Can you see a problem here?

The problem is, the scientist only knows two parts to a four-part equation:

1 - How much of the daughter element (lead-206 for example) is present in the rock? [Or how tall is the candle right now?) This is one of the factors that scientists know, as it can be easily observed in the laboratory.

2 - What is the present speed that the radioisotope (uranium-238) decays into the daughter element (lead-206)? [Or how fast does the candle burn down?] Again, this is easily observable and testable; it’s the second part of the equation that scientists know for sure.

3 - Has the speed of decay been constant in the past? [Or has this candle always burned at one inch-per-hour?] Scientist can’t know this for sure. Has there been an environmental shift that caused the decay speed to slow down or speed up? Could more of the radioisotope or the daughter element have been added to the rock at some point in the past? Both of these factors could give a completely wrong date!

4 - How much of the daughter element was present to begin with? [How tall was that candle before it was lit?] This is a very important factor in this equation. Two different assumptions about how much lead-206, for example, was originally in a rock could bring two dramatically different dates for formation!

Because of these unknown factors, no scientist just sends the rock into a laboratory to be dated. They also send additional information to help “aim” the dating process. Information like what layer of rock it was found in and what fossils were around it are also sent with the fossil to the lab. This gives the technicians a minimum and maximum range of possible dates. For example, if a T-rex fossil was found in the same layer of rock, then the laboratory will already assume that the rock “must be” 67-65 million years old. Fossils like these that help with the dating process are called “index fossils.” Because their age is known (supposedly), they can help to date the different rock layers. You see, radiometric dating (supposed “proof” of the theory of evolution and an incredibly old earth) is based on their already-formed assumptions on the age of a particular fossil.

Simply put, the evolutionist’s “silver bullet” of radiometric dating doesn’t hold up to simple scientific scrutiny. So why in the world would Christians feel the need to compromise the perfect word of God to agree with it?

The Biggest Problem Of Old-Earth Compromises

Do you believe that God calls suffering and pain good?

Do you believe that He thinks diseases like arthritis and cancer are good?

Did God call predation, bloodshed and natural cruelty good?

Not at all! In fact 1 Corinthians 15:26 calls death an enemy that is going to be destroyed. God hates death because He is life! The God of life couldn't look on the world as it is today and call it "very good."

And yet, this is exactly what every old-earth compromiser is saying when they try place the formation of fossils before Adam's sin. In the fossil record, there is evidence of death, diseases, widespread violence and predation.  Romans 5:12 tells us that these things entered the world through one man's (Adam) sin. As believers, we cannot have death before sin...not if we are starting from God's Word!

Not only was there no death in the world when God called it "very good" - there was no devil yet either! Look closely at Genesis 1:31 "And God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good." Everything means everything. Lucifer was made by God - logically, this means that he was still good on day six of creation. The fall of Satan had to occur after mankind was created. We'll find out later that this order of events actually makes perfect sense and provides a stronger motive for Lucifer's pride and rebellion. For now, we can clearly see that it was six days from the first verse of Genesis 1 to the last. There just isn’t any room for us to believe something else!

Now that we see what believers should believe, let’s take a look at what happened during the first week of the world!