Creation

Précis

      I.     The God-universe distinction

     II.     The people-animal distinction

    III.     The man-woman distinction

An Interpretative Approach

            God maintains contact with his creation and control over it. Especially in contrast to deism, God did not create the universe and leave it to operate entirely according to built-in laws for self-perpetuation. God is actively involved with what he made. There is built-in NATURAL LAW such as gravity that apparently operates “on its own” now that God has set it up to work in a particular way. But in addition, there is SUPERNATURAL INTERVENTION, where God enters the natural process and brings about results that would not have occurred had he not intervened.

    I. Preliminary Definitions and Concepts

    I.  Genesis 1:1, Caption for the Creation Account (Hebrew construct form)

         God controls his universe and directs its functioning by the operations diagramed below. (1) Reality combines freedom and determinism with freedom occurring inside the determinism. 

          The doctrine of creation is unique to the Judaeo-Christian and Islamic heritages.

            The presentation in Genesis is from Moses’ viewpoint in time and place.