Series - Why Creation

The Book of Revelation records Christ’s words to the Apostle John about “the things which are, and the things which shall be hereafter” (Re 1.19). Four times John includes a creation reference.

Two of these epistles are by Peter, and one of those contains the only substantial reference to Creation theology in this section of the Bible. That’s in 2 Peter 3.

Hebrews resents a picture of the person and work of Christ that is unrivaled for breadth, depth, and expression anywhere else outside the Gospels. The author points three times to the centrality of Creation in his theology.

First, note that Paul views the creation account as history, as non-fiction; he accepts its historicity outright. Second, he determines the appropriate protocols for corporate worship, a contemporary morality, if you will, from that ancient historical account.

Paul notably includes Creation theology in two of his sermons, both addressed to practicing pagans. The first is in the city of Lystra, in modern Turkey, on his first missionary journey.

Paul notably includes Creation theology in two of his sermons, both addressed to practicing pagans. The first is in the city of Lystra, in modern Turkey, on his first missionary journey.

Jesus does not see this event as allegory, myth, or fable. He alludes to the Genesis account and then even quotes a portion of it (Gen 2.24 in Mt 19.5).

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What we call the Minor Prophets the Hebrew canon calls The Book of the Twelve, a single book in the Latter Prophets with Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel. Within this book I’d like to focus on 3 Creation passages, 1 each in Amos, Jonah, and Zechariah.

Amos 5.8

Jeremiah uses Creation as evidence for the Creator’s power and sovereignty in 4 passages. Because 2 of them are quite similar, I’ll discuss them together.

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I commented in the previous post that there’s a lot of Creation theology in the Latter Prophets, what Protestants call the Major and Minor Prophets. Something I didn’t mention last time is that the passage discussed in that post, 2 Kings 18.9ff, has a close parallel in Isaiah 37.14ff; the same event is described in both passages.

I’d like to spend this post looking at Isaiah’s Creation theology; the next post, looking at Jeremiah’s; and the third taking a dip into the Minor Prophets.