Creation: Critical to Biblical Faith

The Master’s University invited me to speak in chapel on February 21, 2024 as part of the 30th Creation Summit. For that chapel I chose to address the student body and faculty on the topic of biblical faith as related to biblical creation. My text: Hebrews 11:1–3. You can watch the chapel session at this link. Below you will find my outline — follow along as you listen.

Creation: Critical to Biblical Faith (Hebrews 11:1–6)

Introduction

Lead in from Hebrews 10:19–31

v. 22: “let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith”
v. 23: “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering”
v. 24: “And let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds”

The world we live in treats the Son of God like road kill
and shouts insults at the Spirit of God (v. 29).

The previous context: Hebrews 10:32–39,

Remembering the Beginning of Your Faith (10:32–34)
Receiving the Conclusion of Your Faith (10:35–39)

#1: Don’t throw away your faith! (v. 35)

#2: Don’t give up your faith! (vv. 36–38)

#3: Don’t be timid about your faith! (v. 39)

“The Roll Call/Examples of Faith” (chapt. 11):

I. Faith Is Hope (Hebrews 11:1)

In things not seen — past, in the beginning, the first (the Alpha)
Not in what is unknown, unrevealed by Scripture, Psalm 19. Creation and Torah give instruction for living righteously, Romans 1:18–32.
Defines true faith — future, at the end, the last (the Omega)
A belief in God’s absolute truth that results in trusting Him totally and Him alone.

II. Faith Is a Good Testimony (Hebrews 11:2–3)

First example (“By faith”): the people of ancient times
First event: creation

1. God created (“prepared”) the whole universe.

According to Schmid, “the belief that God has created and is sustaining the order of the world in all its complexities, is not a peripheral theme of biblical theology but is plainly the fundamental theme.”[1]

“the doctrine of creation, which teaches that everything that is not God has its being only by virtue of the past creation of God, his present conservation, and the directedness towards perfection that they together involve.”[2]

“Creation is not merely through Christ, but to him: from the beginning, it has an eschatological thrust.”[3]

“For in Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been created through Him and for Him.” —Colossians 1:16

2. God created by His Word, by speaking all things into existence.

God spoke all things into existence: Today many have deified evolution putting it in the place of God and performing God’s work in creation without the existence of God as Creator and Sovereign over His creation. Evolution, not God, takes the initiative from the “Big Bang” through to the “Big Crunch” or “Big Chill.”

3. God created the visible by the invisible.

Our environment (“the visible”) is not the original creation — it is the restoration of earth after God judged it by the global catastrophic Flood of Noah’s time.

We do not worship the creation; we worship the Creator.

God did not make creation in His image; He created man and woman in His image.

Conclusion

By faith I can gain God’s approval/have a good testimony.

I must not throw away that faith!
I must not give up that faith!
I must not be timid about that faith!
I must live out that faith and stand up for it!

Footnotes

[1] H. H. Schmid, “Creation, Righteousness and Salvation: ‘Creation Theology’ as the Broad Horizon of Biblical Theology,” in Creation in the Old Testament, ed. by B. W. Anderson, 102–17 (London: SPCK, 1979), 111 quoted by Colin E. Gunton, Christ and Creation (Milton Keynes, UK: Paternoster, 1992), 20.
[2] Gunton, Christ and Creation, 90.
[3] Gunton, Christ and Creation, 97.