Are We Restricting God?

RE: Taking Back Astronomy: The Age of the Universe, Part 1 by Dr. Jason Lisle on March 13, 2008

“Then again, many of those same people will ridicule a belief in Jesus Christ being the one true God, or even the very belief in a Creator.”

Please get Biblical teaching/scripture correct. Jesus has the same God you do. John 17:3.

Are you not also assuming that God did not preexist the creation of the Earth and Human life, as we know it? Why would you preclude any previous creative work? Why could not the Universe exist in the most part or partially with the earth and its solar system and the Milky Way perhaps added to the initial creative work? You are restricting God to your own conception.

—A.A., Canada

Thank you for contacting Answers in Genesis. Some of your comments were unclear to me, but I will do the best I can to address your concerns.

RE: Taking Back Astronomy: The Age of the Universe, Part 1 by Dr. Jason Lisle on March 13, 2008

“Then again, many of those same people will ridicule a belief in Jesus Christ being the one true God, or even the very belief in a Creator.”

Yes, many people who deny creation also deny Christ. It makes sense that they would do this; after all, if God did not get the details right in Genesis, why would we assume that He got the details right in the Gospels? This is one reason why compromised positions (such as day-age, or gap theory) do not make sense for a Christian.

Please get Biblical teaching/scripture correct.

Yes, we agree it is very important to make sure that everything we teach lines up with God’s Word. Too many Christians have compromised with millions of years and other evolutionary notions rather than accepting what the Bible teaches.

Jesus has the same God you do. John 17:3.

Jesus is God (John 1:1,3,14,17, 8:58; Exodus 3:14; Isaiah 43:11; Philippians 3:20). Please also see Is Jesus the Creator God?. Yet in his earthly ministry, Christ was obedient to God the Father, and so we should be as well.

Are you not also assuming that God did not preexist the creation of the Earth and Human life, as we know it?

God did pre-exist the creation in the sense that God is beyond time. However, nothing within the universe can exist before the beginning of the universe. Even time itself has a beginning, since it was made by God (John 1:3).

Why would you preclude any previous creative work?

The Bible tells us that in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. If God had done something before this, it wouldn’t really be the beginning.

Why could not the Universe exist in the most part or partially with the earth and its solar system and the Milky Way perhaps added to the initial creative work?

This cannot be the case because God has told us that He made the heavens and earth and all that is in them in six days (Exodus 20:11).

You are restricting God to your own conception.

Simply put, we’re just repeating what God has said about Himself and what He has done. We restrict ourselves to the Bible, rather than accepting secular ideas about origins that are contrary to God’s Word. How sad that Adam and Eve did not restrict themselves to God’s instruction! They chose to treat God’s command as merely one possibility; and they chose to determine “truth” for themselves. It is interesting (and also quite sad) that so many people make this same mistake today. Please also see Creation: Why It Matters and find out how Genesis is relevant to the gospel of salvation in Jesus Christ.