A Bible Synopsis with Commentary: The Beginning
In the year 2025, I propose to write a synopsis of the Bible with my personal commentaries appended. Whether I turn out to be the hero of my determination or whether that station will be held by someone else, time will tell.
The Bible tells the story of God and His relationship with humankind. Using the New International Version translation, it begins with these words:
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.
This passage reminds me of the first words in the Gospel of 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. In him was life, and that life was the light of man. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.
These verses are not incompatible with The Big Bang that occurred 13.8 billion years ago. God spoke The Big Bang into existence.
When I was a loose-jointed, toe-headed, jeans-clad, countrified cub of about 5 or 6, I would lie on the grass under the towering oak trees surrounding my grandfather’s house. These noble trees produced a diffused light in the afternoon sun that suggested the mystery of the supernatural. I would look up through the green-tinted mist of those leaves and contemplate the mind of God. When did eternity begin? How long was eternity? What was God doing before he created the world? I didn’t know about the Big Bang then, but if I had known, I would have asked what God was doing before He spoke the world into existence.
As I grow older, I continue to ponder the same questions. Quantum physics—the study of atomic and subatomic matter—may provide answers. Quantum physics, string theory, and M-theory predict the possibility of multiple universes. Maybe God exists in those multiple universes. Before God created our universe, perhaps He was in another universe. These are boyish thoughts, I know. But it is fun to ponder.
Our finite minds are incapable of comprehending the infinite. Shakespeare had a way of defining our limits. “I could be bounded in a nutshell and count myself king of infinite space.” Hamlet Act II, scene II.
In other words, if we live in a nutshell, we may understand everything about that nutshell yet remain unaware that other worlds exist beyond it. Instead of accepting the reality presented within our confines, we have the ability to break through our shells and explore the vast universe with our minds.
Of course, it is foolish to ponder the mind of God. He mocked Job for trying to understand His glorious ways:
Who is this that darkens my counsel with words without knowledge? Job 38:2
Have you comprehended the vast expanses of the earth? Job 38:18
Can you bring forth the constellations in their seasons? Job 38:32
Do you know the laws of the heavens? Job 38:33
Would you condemn me to justify yourself? Job 40:8
In Romans 11: 33-36, Paul wrote of God as the source and sustainer of all knowledge:
Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God.
How unsearchable his judgments,
and his paths beyond tracing out!
Who has known the mind of the lord?
Or who has been his counselor?
Who has ever given to God,
that God should repay him?
For from him and through him and to him are all things.
To him be the glory forever!
Although we will never comprehend the mind of God, we can, with our finite minds, ponder the creation narrative. I do not believe that evolution contradicts the creation account found in the Bible. Evolution suggests that everything we see today has developed over time through natural processes. The Bible states that God created plants and animals. Is it possible that God designed the processes that allow these plants and animals to evolve through natural selection?
A literal interpretation of the Bible presents a view that diametrically opposes evolution.
Young Earth creationism is a religious belief that the Earth and all life on it were created by God in a short period of time, specifically between 5,700 and 10,000 years ago. Christians and Jews who adhere to Young Earth creationism believe that the biblical account of creation in Genesis is literally true and that God created the Earth in six 24-hour days.
These ideas are merely exercises in futility. I believe that God created the universe and man and that the method of creation doesn’t matter.