Distinctions in Creation

Creation Day Three from Emmanuel

And God said, "Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear." And it was so. God called the dry ground "land," and the gathered waters he called "seas." And God saw that it was good. (Genesis 1:9-10)

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At the beginning of Day Three of Creation we see again that God is making distinctions in His creation. Here he is separating the seas from the dry ground. We take such distinctions for granted because we see them all the time.

Astronomy is a wonderful tool to show us how important such distinctions are. The "gas giant" planets in our solar system are examples of places where there is no distinction between "earth" and "sky" and where there is no "dry ground" and "seas." God did not create such distinctions for His benefit. God existed for eternity before there was any created thing or any created place. All the work that God did (and still does) in creation He did (and does) for the benefit of his "crown of creation," which He made last of all things. Creation isn’t for God’s benefit. It is for us. God created all things to serve us and our needs.

From Emmanuel

Then God said, "Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds." And it was so. The land produced vegetation: plants bearing seed according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening, and there was morning--the third day. (Genesis 1:11-13)

Now that God had prepared the world for living things he begins to create them. God again puts everything in its proper order. You should remember, however, that on this Day Three of creation God had not yet created the Sun, so any light is provided by God Himself. We will one day see this again as Christ tells us in His revelation to St. John. "The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp. The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it. On no day will its gates ever be shut, for there will be no night there." (Revelation 21:23-25)

Once again, on this third day of creation we see a God who is neither distant nor uncaring, and certainly not malevolent. We see that God has great attention to detail because He cares for those for whom He is making the universe. God cares for us, and we can see it in everything He does in creating this Paradise for us. Even when we later rebel against God and corrupt His gracious creation through our disobedience, God cares enough to send a savior to redeem us and rescue us from the eternal punishment that our sins deserve.

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The Seven Days of Creation

In the Beginning
The Orderly Creation
Distinctions in Creation
The Center of the Universe
Designed by God
The Crown of God’s Creation
A Sabbath Day Rest

The Orderly Creation

Creation Day Two - From Emmanuel

"And God said, ‘Let there be an expanse between the waters to separate water from water.’ So God made the expanse and separated the water under the expanse from the water above it. And it was so. God called the expanse ‘sky.’ And there was evening, and there was morning--the second day."Genesis 1:6-8 (NIV)

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God is with us in the orderliness of His creation, and we should give thanks to Him for this gracious gift. On Day Two of creation we see God beginning to create order in His creation. On Day One God created the heavens and the earth, but they were "formless and empty" and contained light without a distinct source such as the sun and stars. This has been described by commentators as "chaos." God brings order to the chaos beginning on Day Two when He separates the water on the earth from the water above the earth with an expanse called "sky" (see v. 8).

Here is where the proponents of a godless "big bang" origin of everything run into trouble explaining their theories. Almost by definition explosions are exercises in entropy, which is to say that when you have an explosion you will always move from a state of order to chaos and never the other way around.

This is why the study of scientific intelligent design is becoming more and more popular among scientists who truly have an open mind and desire to learn all that can be known about how creation works. Conversely, this is also why intelligent design is attacked with fervent religious zeal. Those who must imagine a creation without a creator know that this is where their theories are weakest, so many feel that they must not permit further inquiry into intelligent design, lest they begin to lose funding for their research.

Science does not contradict creation, though many scientists pursue it as if it does. Actually, true scientific pursuit of knowledge actually assumes an orderly creation such as described in the Holy Scriptures. If all that exists is truly the result of a series of accidents which contradict the law of entropy, then there is no way that truth can be known because there is no way to test theories and reproduce results which came about by accident.

However, in Genesis 1-2 we see God creating an orderly world in an organized way. The world works according to certain laws which God has set in place for our benefit and comfort. Science works because of who God is, and how He has set up our world according to certain laws which do not change. God is not bound by those laws, but we see the grace of God in the fact that we can always go to bed secure in the knowledge that out of His love, God will keep the law of gravity in effect while we sleep, and we will not wake up and find ourselves flying off into space toward the sun because the "accident" of gravity has suddenly corrected itself.
Sleep well, but before you go to sleep tonight give thanks to God for His gift of an orderly creation.

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The Seven Days of Creation
In the Beginning
The Orderly Creation
Distinctions in Creation
The Center of the Universe
Designed by God
The Crown of God’s Creation
A Sabbath Day Rest

In the Beginning

From Emmanuel

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. God called the light "day," and the darkness he called "night." And there was evening, and there was morning--the first day. Genesis 1:1-5 (NIV)

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This is how everything began. There was no destructive "BANG." There was only God saying, "Let there be …" and it was just as He planned it to be, and it was good.

Notice that already here in the first few verses in the Holy Bible we see the Triune God. Do you see Him? When we see the word "God" we take for granted that it refers to God the Father, and that is true. In verse two the Holy Spirit is said to be "hovering over the waters." The eternal Son of God is there in the Word that God speaks as described by the Evangelist, St. John: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made." (John 1:1-3)

From Emmanuel

The Triune nature of God is also seen in the original Hebrew language where the word for "God" is found in the plural form. In Hebrew the singular form of the generic word for a "god" is "el." This elsewhere can refer to anything that is seen to be a god, whether true or false. The Hebrew Scriptures refer to the true God using the plural form "Elohim" but the contextual pronouns refer to this God in the singular as "He" and not "They." Jewish scholars, and others who do not wish to acknowledge the Triune nature of God explain this away as simply a literary convention where the majesty of God is demonstrated by using the plural form, while simulataneously refering to Him in the singular, as there is only one God.

From Emmanuel

Another interesting thing to note about the seven days of creation is that God does everything in an orderly manner. This reflects God's nature as a rational, orderly, intelligent being, who is involved with His creation, and not absent or uncaring. "The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands." (Psalm 19:1) And, "God is not a God of disorder, but of peace." (1 Corinthians 14:33) This refutes the idea of creation as an "accident" which miraculously evolved over an impossibly long time. Science does not contradict the account of creation in Genesis, and actually confirms it in many ways, as long as the scientists are not ignoring any evidence which suggests that creation is God's handiwork. Unfortunately many scientists (though by no means all) use their God-given talents to vainly try to disprove God through God's own creation.

You may find it strange that God creates light several days before He creates a natural source for the light. This wonderful fact shows us that God is in control of His creation and not the other way around. God can separate light from darkness so that there is "day" and "night" without any natural source for either light or darkness. This is very reassuring that God is with us through the gift of His creation. This is not to say that creation is God -- it is not. However, God remains active in keeping creation from going the way of all entropy, and He does it out of love for us. God does not need His creation, He is above it. We need creation and God's power to sustain our lives, and God provides that for all people, even all those who do not acknowledge Him as creator. Note also that "day" and "night" clearly denote one day, and not an impossibly long period of evolution.

"God saw that the light was good." Everything that God created was good, as God Himself is good. Whatever we see in this world that is not good did not get that way because of any deficiency in God. Many ask the question, "If God is so good, then why is there so much evil in the world?" That is the wrong question to ask because it assumes that God is the cause of everything in the world, and if you answer this question you will always get the wrong answer.

A better question to ask is, "Why is there so much evil in the world?" People rarely ask this question because if they honestly seek the answer they will find that God is not the cause of any evil. We are the cause of all evil in the world. All people have rebelled against God and are sinners and have brought sin, death, and destruction into God's beautiful creation. I will discuss this more in the post on Day Six of creation, but here is the good news: Even though we rebellious, sinful people have corrupted God's good creation, God Himself has fixed the problem of our sin by sending Jesus Christ to redeem us from our sin and its deadly consequences. We are not perfect yet, but we live by God's grace in this wonderful world that God made for us and we still may enjoy God's blessings until we reach that new earth where we will live forever free from the evils of this world.

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The Seven Days of Creation

In the Beginning
The Orderly Creation
Distinctions in Creation
The Center of the Universe
Designed by God
The Crown of God’s Creation
A Sabbath Day Rest

A Word about the Windows

The photographs of the windows on this site are all from Emmanuel Lutheran Church in Dearborn, Michigan, where I am a member.

• The windows are more than just colored glass.
• The windows are more than just decoration.
• The windows are more than just a distraction when you don't want to listen to a perfectly wonderful Law and Gospel sermon.
• The windows don't show you how to live a better life or how to become rich and successful.

The windows tell a story. Actually they tell many stories, but all the stories that they tell are about God. These aren't mythic stories about just any god, but they tell the true story of the one, true God who came to earth and was born as one of us to redeem us from our sins. Jesus Christ is God in the flesh. He did not come to condemn us for our sins, instead He came to redeem us from our sins and rescue us from the punishment we deserve. That is why the evangelist Matthew described the birth of Jesus with these words, "The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel" --which means, "God with us." (Matthew 1:23)

My name is Pastor Paul Wolff. I am a Lutheran Pastor, but I am not serving a congregation at the present time. My connection to Emmanuel is only as a member. While I am awaiting a call to serve elsewhere it is my privilege to receive God's Means of Grace (His holy Word and Sacraments) from the faithful pastors at Emmanuel, and it is my honor to serve God's people there as a fellow believer who is redeemed by Christ.

I made these photographs in September 2008 and I began this blog to share the Gospel message that is found in these beautiful images.

I pray that you enjoy the photographs and the accompanying messages. May Christ bless you as you contemplate His Word along with the beautiful visuals on this site.

Pastor Wolff

Emmanuel = “God With Us”

From Emmanuel

“The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” --which means, “God with us.” Matthew 1:23

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Note that the angel in Holy Scripture doesn't say anything about “us with God” or “look at how good we are that God came to us and not you.” That is not how it is at all. When God almighty became incarnate as one of us it was because we could not even make the first step to go to Him. We could not please God. We could not do as God wished. We had no free will to do anything except rebel against God and incur His wrath and judgment against us. (See Romans 10:6-7; Ephesians 2:1-3; and Romans 5:8)

If this sounds hopeless, well, it is -- to a point. That point is where we must despair of any hope of saving ourselves and trust that God Himself will have mercy on us and save us unworthy sinners. Humbling? Yes, but the eternal comfort is that God has had mercy on us sinners and has rescued us from our sin through the life and death of Jesus Christ. That is why the birth of Jesus is such an amazing event in world history. We could not go to God, so God came to us. He didn’t come to us because we were somehow worthy of such great an honor. God came to us in Christ for at least two reasons: 1) to do (as a man) the good things which please God -- which we sinners couldn't begin to do because of our inherent sinfulness; and 2) to take the punishment for sin (as God and man) in our place so that we could be rescued from everlasting torment, which is the punishment for sin.

From Emmanuel

You can search every religion in the world and will find no other god in this wicked world who would humble himself and suffer and die for the sins of his creatures. Only the one, true God -- the Triune God (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) would do this, and has done this for us. All the other gods of this world are false creations from man’s imagination, and it shows. All the gods of the world require some work from man to prove himself worthy of God’s favor. Though in many religions this seems tough, it is never impossible, so the followers of these religions are tormented by being required to do what is only nearly impossible. It is true that some who falsely call themselves Christian also make this claim of the Christian God -- that God requires us to attain a certain level of holiness before receiving God’s favor and forgiveness -- but that is not true. In true Christianity God recognizes that man has no hope of saving himself from his sin, so God works out our salvation for Himself by sending Jesus Christ to redeem the world, then gives forgiveness and eternal life in Paradise to us at no cost to us. This is the beauty of the Christian Gospel. This is the amazing Grace of God in Christ Jesus. This is why it is not a frightening thing that “God is with us” in Jesus. It is a comfort and a blessing.