Beginnings

“In the beginning, God”. Genesis 1:1

The Bible starts with a double whammy. Two words which are either loved (by the believer), or loathed (by the unbeliever). The words in this short entry to the Word of God cause heart problems, for good or ill, but cannot be ignored so let’s face them head on.

Firstly, we have the word “beginning”. When exactly was the beginning then? Do you know? Was it thousands, or perhaps billions of years ago? This has been the major topic of conversation at times, both in the pub and the church, and each is divided perhaps 50/50. Bible purists (is there any other kind?) say around 6,000 to 8,000 years, and those led and guided by science and a measure of common sense say millions, or even billions of years. God has given us all freedom of choice and a common sense of the obvious. Based on this alone, is it unreasonable to eliminate the ‘thousands of years’ argument? Oh, I can hear these Bible purists shout, “so you don’t accept the Bible as the inerrant and infallible Word of God then? 

Secondly, we have the word, “God”. Who says there is a God anyway? Which God? After all there are lots of religions and they all have their own God. Since we are talking about God in this context, we mean the Christian God. Yes, the triune God of the Father, Son and the Holy Ghost. That may be hard to get our minds round, but it is the sure ground where we take our stand. Those of us who profess to having a clear relationship with this Triune God, have no question over the validity of this choice. Once again, there are as many others, outside the believing church, who will question their God, as those who are within the camp of believers.

It’s when Scripture (yes we have to consider this as ‘Scripture’) puts these two words into the same phrase, that we have trouble. It’s bad enough that we disagree over the age of the earth, but that is only compounded by the choice of the word ‘God’. If we accept and believe that God was right there in the beginning, we have a sure foundation for our Christian faith, but we also have a certain root for an argument with those who disbelieve. It would be nice if we really could enter into a discussion, but invariably this always starts and ends as an argument, in much the same way as the topic of creation v evolution. But maybe that’s for another day. We have enough to chew on for this day.