With more new people coming into our congregation,
which is as it should be, I believe there is a need to share our background and
story as people of Peace Mennonite Church, particularly focusing on our
Mennonite/Anabaptist history and how we look at and understand the Bible. In our Anabaptist Mennonite way of
interpreting Scripture, we have adopted a Christ-centred way of reading and
studying scripture. This means that we do not read our Bibles as a ‘flat’ book,
in which every part, from Genesis to Revelation, is taken at equal value to
every other part. Rather, we read all of Scripture in the light of Jesus’
revelation, the clearest revelation of God to the world. We read the whole
Bible in the light of Jesus’ teaching and example.
The ultimate purpose of this series is to learn how
the story of The Bible became the story of the Church.
To try and do a good job of this all, I thought we
should start at the beginning of the Bible and go through some of the key
stories, trying to point out particularly how we as Anabaptists might look at
and understand them. This will take us through some of the Old Testament, then
the New Testament, and finally we will end up looking at church history from
the end of the biblical era to the present.
Again, part of our Anabaptist belief is that we look
at and study the Bible together as a community. We don't simply accept what is
said by others, by those who might be seen as our leaders. This was what
happened with the church to a large part prior to the Reformation in the 16th
century. Everyone just listened to what the priests, the bishops and the Pope
said and believed it. They didn't check the Bible for themselves. Of course,
most of them could not even read, let alone have their own Bible. That all
changed with the introduction of the printing press a couple of decades before
the Reformation started.
So, I welcome your questions and your input. It is
just as valuable as what I might say and might sometimes be more important and
to the point.
A. THE STORY OF THE BIBLE begins
with what we call…
1. The Old Testament, the first
39 books or divisions of The Bible. Altogether, these actually make up the
whole Bible as far as the Jews are concerned.
Read Genesis
chapters 1-2.
Now, do any
of you have any questions about what you have read? Do you have questions about
whether God, as described in the Bible, is really the creator of everything? Do
you question the existence of God? Do you wonder about that six-day bit? Of
course, you would not be alone with all of those questions. Many people have
asked them over time. Some people simply cannot accept these statements and for
them, the stumbling block preventing them from going on and receiving the
blessings that faith in God can provide takes place right here, at the
beginning of the Bible.
Why do you
think that happens? In many instances it is, shall we say, another explanation
for the beginning of things, and that is what is referred to as the theory of
evolution. Does that need to be a problem? Does there need to be a conflict
between what we read here and what the theory of evolution teaches? Most of you
probably were exposed to teachings about evolution in your science classes in school.
If you remember them, you will realize that the sequence of development that is
included in that theory is the same as the sequence of development here in
Genesis. That should not be surprising. If God created the world and scientist
are left to look at the evidence, they will come to conclusions that are
similar to the record spoken of here.
As far as
the Bible goes, it depends on how we understand the Bible, and particularly how
we understand some of these passages from the Old Testament, especially the
first 10 chapters of Genesis. What is the Bible? What does it say about itself?
According to some writers whom we except as writers of some portions of the
Bible, for example the Apostle John, says in chapter 20:31 of the gospel that
bears his name, that "These are written so that you may come to believe
that Jesus is the Messiah, the son of God, and that through believing you may
have life in his name." The Apostle Paul, in his second letter to his
young convert Timothy, in chapter 3:15-17 writes, "You have known the
sacred writings that are able to instruct you for salvation through faith in
Christ Jesus. All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for
reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, so that everyone
who belongs to God may be proficient, equipped for every good work."
So what are
these verses from the Bible telling us about the purpose of the Bible?
It is
written so that we might believe in Jesus and therefore have salvation through
faith in him. It is written for training in righteousness, for how to live, and
what to believe about life. It nowhere in the Bible says that it is written as
a history book or a science text. It was not written to be a book in one of
those fields of study.
Just look at
what Genesis 1:1-2: 23 say. If you want to get hung up on facts in a scientific
or concretely historic way, you will quickly run into trouble. Can you find
some of those places?
What about
versus 1-5 and 14-19? On the surface, it doesn't seem logical that there could
be light and dark, night and day, as we understand it, before the creation of
the sun and the moon. And how could they be vegetation growing, which it talks
about in 1:11-13, the third day, before the sun, whom we understand as making
it possible for things to grow, is created on day four, according to how it is
written here.
And do we
talk about the sun ruling the day and the moon ruling the night?
We just
referred to God creating plants on day three. If we go to chapter 2:4 it says
there was as yet no plant, and no one to till the ground, suggesting that man
was to play a role in plant growth, and that it had not yet begun to rain
either. Here, it does not talk about creating plants but simply about planting
a garden, in verse eight, with further description of what was in the garden in
verse nine. Then it talks about rivers that were to water the garden
I believe we
do these passages the most justice if we look at them, also in the light of
what the rest of the Bible might say about them or on similar topics, including
what Jesus said, and take from them what is important in regards to our
believing in God and Jesus so that we might have the life that God created us
to have.
I have
called this:
I. In the
Beginning – The Creator Creates All Things Good
… And it may
be that is getting ahead of myself a little. That little phrase already says
four things. Can you identify them?
1. As
we already said, we are already talking about the beginning. As it says in chapter 11: "In the
beginning." Indeed, that is the meaning of the name given to this very
first book of the Bible, Genesis. It means beginnings. So, this writing claims
to take us back to the beginning - of what? Everything? The universe? Just the
earth?
2. What
is the second point of the title? It mentions the creator. The creator is identified in the fourth word of that
first verse: “In the beginning God.” God, of course, is simply our English word
for The Creator, or whom sometimes we refer to as The Supreme Being. A basic
belief that surfaces here from our reading of The Bible is that God is, and secondly that God is one. It does not talk about many
gods getting together to create, or different gods creating different things
God is one of many.
3. What
is the third point? It is probably obvious by now and comes up immediately
following in the verse we are talking about, "In the beginning God created.” So, according to the
Bible, God is identified as the creator, and the following verses tell us what
he created and how. What they don't tell us, really, is when. They do make
reference to seven days, but not when in time those seven days were.
4. And
finally, the fourth element of that title line says what? The creator, God, created all things good. Where do
we get that idea from?
We can see
that because that is what the text says after describing the creative events
that took place during the creation, e.g, 1:4, 1:10, 1:12, 1:18, 1:21, 1:25 and
1:31.
So, if we
simply stop at accepting that God created everything, what other truth might
flow out of that?
1. Would
it not be that everything belongs to God?
The world and what is in it does not belong to us. We are only another part of
his creation living within the creation that he made.
2. What
about the order and structure we see
here? Does not this story tell us that God created order and structure and
indeed, life, out of chaos and darkness.
3. And
let's take another look at that statement, God created everything. God is over
here and he created creation out here. God
does not equal the creation, nor is God in all his creation. This is a very
fundamental and important fact. Those
are indeed some ideas different thinkers have tried to promote throughout
history, but especially in the last 50 years again. Many religions and belief
systems would promote the idea that God is simply the sum total of a spiritual
essence in everything in the universe. One word for that kind of thinking is
pantheism, that everything is equal to God. The other beliefs that many promote
is that if we try hard enough and follow certain behaviors or pathways to
enlightenment, as in Buddhism, we can become part of this God or supernatural
force. However, we can see clearly from this account that, according to the
Bible, all of those beliefs are wrong.
And what is
in these passages that pertains to us as human beings? For that we need to look
at chapter 1:26-29 and 2:15. What do they say?
1. First
of all, according to verse 26, we are made in God's image. What might that
mean? For that, we need to know something of what God is like.
What can we say about God
simply from what we have read so far?
a. God
creates. He seems to do this just by his word, which certainly gives the sense
that he is much more powerful than we are.
If
we think about what he created, we can obviously see there is a lot of
b. knowledge
and
c. intelligence
behind that. There is also a lot of
d. diversity,
and what else?
Something
we perhaps do not think enough about when we study the Bible and God's role in
the
universe
- he created
e. beauty.
And
what else have you been referring to all along? What is spoken of at the end of
every part of creation? That God thought it was
f. good.
What
else is here? Is God not…
g. planning?
Is he not thinking and reasoning? We also have those skills.
So, how much
power do we have? How intelligent are we? How creative are we? Do we like
beauty? Do we understand goodness? Are the things we like and do good?
But we also
see here a God who is concerned about our psychological
and social welfare. What does it say in 2:18? “It is not good that the man
should be alone; I will make him a helper as his partner.” And he made woman.
And, according to verse 24, that was the beginning of marriage.
Does that
make you think of something else we read? Up till now we have been talking
about whom or what God and we are.
Now we are
beginning to talk about what we are to
do. We are beginning to talk not about what we are as beings, but what we
are as active beings. Indeed, back in
1:28,
1. God
blessed the male and female he created and said be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth. God evidently likes a
lot of people.
So
now, what we are to do. Here we have just read that we are to reproduce.
But
what does it say as verse 28 continues?
2. subdue the earth and have dominion
over every living thing that moves upon the earth.
How do we
understand that?
Some would
say that in some ways that gives us permission to do what we want with every
other living creature and with what is above, on an even under the earth or the
ground we walk upon. We can kill other life is we see fit. We can kill the
wolves and grizzlies just to put their heads up on our wall as a trophy or
their furs in front of our fireplaces to be comfortable on. We can kill all
elephants we want for the ivory we want. We can kill all the rhinoceros we want
for what we think their ground-up horns will do for our vitality. We can do
what want with the lakes and rivers. Fish them till there is nothing left. We
can mine everything that we find underground. Cut down the forest like there's
no tomorrow. Farm the land until it is no longer fertile and we have to keep on
pouring on fertilizers and herbicides to keep growing our crops.
But hold on.
What did we say earlier? As it says in the Psalms 24:1 "The earth is the
Lord's and the fullness thereof." So we
are here as stewards of God's creation. We have to keep in mind what kind
of a creation God made, what he might feel or think about it, and act
accordingly. It is not ours to do with as we please. Part of that replenish the
earth, subdue it and have dominion over it means that we to be partners with
God in preserving and renewing what he has made.
What else
does this tell us about God?
4. With God giving us something to
do, we can see that God gives meaning and
purpose to life.
Finally, it
appears from verse 29 and 30 that…
5.
God gave every living thing that he had made in terms of animal life including
humans, plant life as food. It sounds kind of like we all started out as vegetarians. Indeed, after mentioning this
part of creation, the writer says that God said it was very good. God is good
because he provides everything that
we need for life.
6.
Can we not also conclude from this that God
cares about relationship? He created humans to be in relationship with them
and also saw that it was important that relationship established between
humans, beginning with marriage and the family.
7.
We can also conclude from this that God created everything out of his abundant
and overflowing love. One could
almost say he needed to create a lot to fill with his love.
8.
If we look beneath this, we can also see a gain that if God is all-powerful,
all-knowing and all-present, he has the
power and freedom to create whatever he wants.
9.
It is also evidence again if we look at this whole story that God has revealed himself through his
word and what it created. This is also another important and fundamental
truths. Unlike many of the other gods of those days that were distant and
uninterested, uninvolved with humans, unreachable by humans, who only imagined
things about them, and who didn't seem to care about what happened to people,
this God took great care in creating people and also revealed himself to humans,
indicating that he wanted to be in a relationship with them.
10.
Finally, if we look at the day following the sixth day, we see that God rested.
This was the beginning of the Jewish day
of rest or Sabbath, in which they were not to work, is God evidently did
not work on that day.
Somehow,
perhaps to differentiate itself from the Jews in the early days, the church
seems to have placed the same value on Sunday that the Jews place on Saturday,
and we now consider that our day of rest. Of course, we know that in our modern
increasingly godless society, there is not much difference between Sunday and
the rest of the week in terms of how much people are still working, especially
in the retail, entertainment and service sectors. You may know the story of how
Communists wanted to do away with the day of rest. It didn't work. Even they
proved that we humans need a day to rest and regroup for the next week.
Some of
these latter points are those made in what we call the Confession of Faith from
a Mennonite Perspective. That a document, a small book really, that catalogs
all the Anabaptist/Mennonite beliefs. It is for us something like The Apostles'
Creed is to many other churches. However, it is much more extensive, and much
of that has to do with how we live, because that was one big distinction made
at the time of the Reformation. The church at the time, Roman Catholic, as we
know it now, really demanded little more than that its members be baptized at
infancy, confirm their baptism at a later age, attend mass and give to the
church.
Let me include
a couple of paragraphs from the section on God and creation:
We speak of creation as an
"expression" of God because of biblical references to creation by the
divine word (Gen. 1; Ps. 148:5; John 1:1f.; Rom. 4:17). In many creation stories of other religions in Bible times, the world
comes into being as an extension of the god or gods. In these accounts, the
world shares in divinity, or is itself divine. In contrast, the biblical
account of creation by the word of God clearly distinguishes between God the
Creator and what has been created. The biblical refusal to confuse the created
with the Creator, or to ascribe divinity to the world, fits with the Bible's
rejection of idolatry in all its forms (Isa. 45:12-21; Acts 17:22-29).
When we confess that
God is the Creator of the universe, we reject the idea that the world came into
being without God. Nor do we accept the view that God made the world out of
something which had existed before the time of creation or the view that matter
is co-eternal with God. Scripture is clear that God was before anything else
existed. Thus, both the Old Testament word for create and the witness of
Scripture as a whole imply what theology has called "creation out of
nothing."
We therefore are called
to respect the natural order of creation and to entrust ourselves to God's care
and keeping, whether in adversity or plenty. Neither the work of human hands,
nor the forces of the natural world around us, nor the power of the nations
among which we live are worthy of the trust and honor due the Creator on whom
they depend.
We speak of creation as an
"expression" of God because of biblical references to creation by the
divine word (Gen. 1; Ps. 148:5; John 1:1f.; Rom. 4:17). In many creation stories of other religions in Bible times, the world
comes into being as an extension of the god or gods. In these accounts, the
world shares in divinity, or is itself divine. In contrast, the biblical
account of creation by the word of God clearly distinguishes between God the
Creator and what has been created. The biblical refusal to confuse the created
with the Creator, or to ascribe divinity to the world, fits with the Bible's
rejection of idolatry in all its forms (Isa. 45:12-21; Acts 17:22-29).
When we confess that God is the
Creator of the universe, we reject the idea that the world came into being
without God. Nor do we accept the view that God made the world out of something
which had existed before the time of creation or the view that matter is
co-eternal with God. Scripture is clear that God was before anything else
existed. Thus, both the Old Testament word for create and the witness of
Scripture as a whole imply what theology has called "creation out of
nothing."
As Creator, God is ultimately owner
of the earth. God has given the earth to human beings to care for as God's
stewards. See "The Creation and Calling of
Human Beings" (Article 6) and "Christian Stewardship" (Article 21).
God continues to sustain and care
for the world rather than leaving it to itself. Although sin and evil have
damaged God's original creation, God continues to use the natural order,
family, culture, and social and political systems to sustain life and to limit
the forces of evil (Gen. 4:15; Ps. 34; Isa. 19:12-25; Matt. 6:25-30; John 5:17; Col. 1:15-17). Even though natural disasters cause havoc in the world, God continues
to preserve creation and humanity from total destruction (Gen. 8:21-22). Therefore, we need not be overcome by the fear of natural forces and
other human beings which may cause suffering, persecution, or even death.
Because God works in ever new and
surprising ways, creation is open to change. God also works to bring newness
into creation for the sake of the covenant people and for all nations (Isa. 42:5-9; 44:21-28). See "Salvation" (Article 8) and "The Reign of God"
(Article 24) on the renewal of creation in
Jesus Christ and, through the work of the Holy Spirit, in the church and the
world.
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Article 6. The
Creation and Calling of Human Beings
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We believe that God
has created human beings in the divine image. God formed them from the dust
of the earth and gave them a special dignity among all the works of creation.
Human beings have been made for relationship with God, to live in peace with
each other, and to take care of the rest of creation.
We believe that
human beings were created good, in the image of God. 1 As creatures according to the divine likeness, we have been made
stewards to subdue and to care for creation out of reverence and honor for
the Creator. 2 As creatures made in the divine image, we have been blessed with the
abilities to respond faithfully to God, to live in harmony with other human
beings, and to engage in meaningful work and rest. Because both Adam and Eve
were equally and wonderfully made in the divine image, God's will from the
beginning has been for women and men to live in loving and mutually helpful
relationships with each other. 3
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According to Genesis 1:26-27, God created both man and woman in the divine image. Both are equal
in relation to God and are created for relationship with each other. Woman's
relation to God is not derived from man, and man's relation to God is not
derived from woman. Genesis 2:18 describes woman as man's "helper," but this does not imply
one-sided subordination. The same Hebrew word is most often used for God as
"help" or "helper" (for example, in Deut. 33:7, 26; Ps. 33:20; 54:4; 70:5; 115:9-11). The rule of man over woman is a result of sin (Gen. 3:16) and is therefore not an acceptable order among the redeemed (Gal. 3:28; 1 Cor. 7:4; 11:11-12).
We believe that God intends human work to be a way of caring for and
ordering rather than exploiting the world which has been created. Work is
necessary to sustain and enhance human life. It can also be a way to serve
and witness to others in the spirit of Jesus Christ (Gen. 1:28; 2:15, 19-20; 2 Thess. 3:6-13; Eph. 4:28; 6:5-9). According to God's design, we are to balance work and rest, for our
own good and for the good of the rest of creation. Above all, regular rest
from work is intended to remind us of God's presence and of God's creating,
liberating, healing, and saving activity (Exod. 20:8-11; Deut. 5:12-15; Mark 3:1-5; Heb. 4:9-11).
Because we are called to serve God in all of life, we also seek to
follow Jesus Christ in the work we choose and in the way we carry out our
work. See the articles on "Discipleship and the Christian Life"
(Article 17), "Christian Stewardship" (Article 21), and "The Reign of God"
(Article 24).
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Q: If man is made in God’s image, what does that
say about him or her? Look at what we believe about God to answer that
question. Maybe the next statement of judgment or value that is applied to
creation can help us answer that question.
Genesis 1:31” And God saw every thing that he
had made, and, behold, it was very good.”
We are familiar with the creation story and we
know – we can check our Bibles - that this was said at the end of the 6th
day, the day in which God created humankind.
Q.: If God says humankind is good, how does that
mean we ought to view our fellow humans?
I know we can argue mankind fell into sin, and
that therefore we are all in some way he spoiled. However, that doesn’t negate
entirely what lies beneath, the good that we were created as, what Christ came
to save.
We ought to be thinking that this one too was
created in God’s image. This one too was created good. We are therefore all
equal. We are brothers and sisters.
When we see everyone we meet as made in God’s image - all day - every day -
God’s spirit in us can shine forth through our eyes, our faces and reach out
through our hands and touch. Hopefully then
people will also be able to say to us “You really like me don’t you? To which we can then hopefully move on to
reply as to why we do indeed like – or love – them. That would give us a chance
to say a word for our Lord. As brother David Harder said in our Bible study the
other night, ‘We have to believe in people’.
God believes in us and has entrusted us with being his ambassadors on
earth. Let’s not let him down after all
that he has done for us. Let us start every day he by asking God to help us see
people as his creatures, made in his image, many also needing restoration of
the relationship with their Creator. Asking Him also to give us the words they
need to hear to take the steps they need to to have that image restored.
If you are a Christian, protecting
the environment is part of your identity, not an ideological option, Pope
Francis has said:
“When we hear that people have meetings about how to preserve creation, we
can say: ‘No, they are the greens!’” Francis said in his homily at morning
Mass, using a common name for environmental activists.
“No, they are not the greens! This is the Christian!” he said.
“A Christian who does not protect creation, who does not let it grow, is a
Christian who does not care about the work of God; that work that was born from
the love of God for us,” Francis continued. “And this is the first response to
the first creation: protect creation, make it grow.”
The pope — who took his name from
St. Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of the environment — has made care for
the environment a hallmark of his papacy since he was elected nearly two years
ago. In fact, the pontiff is preparing a major document, called an encyclical,
on the environment. It is likely to reiterate his frequent calls for
governments and individuals to take steps to combat climate change, a
phenomenon he attributes in part to human activity.
That conclusion, and his focus on
protecting creation, as he calls it, has angered some conservative Catholics in
the U.S., who see it as further evidence that Francis is pushing a liberal
agenda that slights traditional Catholic talking points on issues like abortion
and gay marriage.
The issue is likely to get more
heated in the coming months: The encyclical is expected by July, and Francis
will be making his first visit to the U.S. in September.
In his homily on Monday in the
chapel at his Vatican residence, Francis dwelt on the first reading of the
Mass, the passage from Genesis that recounts the creation of the universe.
“In the ‘first creation,’” the pope
said, “we must respond with the responsibility that the Lord gives us.”
“Even for us there is a
responsibility to nurture the Earth, to nurture creation, to keep it and make
it grow according to its laws,” he said. “We are the lords of creation, not its
masters.”
God reveals himself through his WORD and his WORLD, but
first and foremost through his Word.
Therefore, what we understand about his world must be
understood in light of his Word.
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