“What is the biblical Creation story?”……The basic creation story is found in Genesis 1 and 2, with the account of the Garden of Eden in chapter 3. Genesis 1 begins before the existence of anything except God Himself. Since this is the case, there is no such thing as a "pre-historic" time. God's revelation of Himself and His will for mankind is the beginning. In this beginning, God created everything in the universe in six literal 24-hour days. This includes all the heavenly bodies (including every star and planet), as well as everything on the earth. While the triune nature of God is not explicit in the Genesis account, God does reveal an "us" within the Godhead Genesis 1:26Then God said, "Let us make human beings in our image, to be like us. They will reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the livestock, all the wild animals on the earth, and the small animals that scurry along the ground."

The Spirit is active in creation…Genesis 1:2The earth was formless and empty, and darkness covered the deep waters. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters.as is Christ …John 1:1-3 (Prologue: Christ, the Eternal Word)…In the beginning the Word already existed.The Word was with God, and the Word was God. He existed in the beginning with God. God created everything through him, and nothing was created except through him.…Colossians 1:15-17…Christ is the visible image of the invisible God. He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation,(Or He is the firstborn os all creation)…for through him God created everythingin the heavenly realms and on earth.…He made the things we can seeand the things we can't seesuch as thrones, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities in the unseen world.Everything was created through him and for him.He existed before anything else,and he holds all creation together.…In the six days of Creation, …Day 1.God formed the universe and the earth …Day 2. The sky and the atmosphere …Day 3. Dry land and all plant life…Day 4. The stars and heavenly bodies including the sun and moon …Day 5. Birds and water creatures …Day 6. All the animals and man. Mankind is special above all other creatures because he bears the image of God and has the responsibility to steward and subdue the earth. All of creation was completed in six days in all its vast array and wondrous beauty.

The six literal 24-hour dayshave no time spans separating the days. God announced that His creation was very good. Genesis 2 sees the completion of God's work and gives a detailed account of the creation of man.…Day 7. The seventh day is marked by God resting. This is not because God was tired, but He rested or ceased from His act of creating. This establishes a pattern of taking one day in seven for rest and sets the number of days in the week still in use today. The keeping of the Sabbath will be a distinguishing mark of God's chosen people

Exodus 20:8-11"Remember to observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. You have six days each week for your ordinary work,but the seventh day is a Sabbath day of rest dedicated to the Lord your God. On that day no one in your household may do any work. This includes you, your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, your livestock, and any foreigners living among you.For in six days the Lord made the heavens, the earth, the sea, and everything in them; but on the seventh day he rested. That is why the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and set it apart as holy.……Genesis next takes a closer look at the creation of man. This passage is not a econd creation account (See explanation below), nor is it contradictory to Genesis 1. The account simply takes a step away from a linear report to refocus the reader on God's work concerning man. God formed man from the dust of the earth He had previously created. After forming man, God breathed life into him. The fact that God chose to form man this way shows His great care in this process. God next placed the first man, Adam, in a special place, the Garden of Eden. Eden was beautiful and bountiful. Adam had almost everything he needed including food and productive work. However, God was not done with man. ……God helped Adam to see his need for a mate by having him review all the other creatures and naming them. Adam understood that he needed a mate. God caused Adam to sleep and then formed Eve with as much care as he formed Adam. Eve was made from Adam's rib. When Adam saw her, he understood that she was special. She was his counterpart, his complement, and flesh of his flesh. God made both Adam and Eve in his image .

Genesis 1:27So God created human beings in his own image. In the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.

This passage establishes the family as the basic building block of society

Genesis 1:24Then God said, "Let the earth produce every sort of animal, each producing offspring of the same kind-livestock, small animals that scurry along the ground, and wild animals." And that is what happened.

Matthew 19:5-6And he said, "'This explains why a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one".'Since they are no longer two but one, let no one split apart what God has joined together."

As a God-ordained institution, marriage is to be only between one man and one woman. Adam and Eve were created in a state of innocence and had not committed any sin.

Genesis 1:25God made all sorts of wild animals, livestock, and small animals, each able to produce offspring of the same kind. And God saw that it was good.

They enjoyed communion with God in Eden. Part of the relationship was the inclusion of one simple rule. Adam and Eve were forbidden to eat from one tree and only one tree in the entire Garden

Genesis 2:16-17

But the Lord God warned him, "You may freely eat the fruit of every tree in the garden– except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If you eat its fruit, you are sure to die."…At some point Eve was tempted by the serpent to eat from this one tree, which she did. Adam also ate from the forbidden tree. Adam and Eve sinned against God and lost their innocence

Genesis 2:8-12Then the Lord God planted a garden in Eden in the east, and there he placed the man he had made.The Lord God made all sorts of trees grow up from the ground-trees that were beautiful and that produced delicious fruit. In the middle of the garden he placed the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.A river flowed from the land of Eden, watering the garden and then dividing into four branches.The first branch, called the Pishon, flowed around the entire land of Havilah, where gold is found.The gold of that land is exceptionally pure; aromatic resin and onyx stone are also found there.

Sin brought consequences. God cursed the serpent to crawl forever on the ground and be hated by men. God cursed Eve to pain in childbirth and conflict with her husband, and He cursed Adam with toil and hardship in his labors

Genesis 3:14-19 Then the Lord God said to the serpent, "Because you have done this, you are cursed more than all animals, domestic and wild.You will crawl on your belly,groveling in the dust as long as you live. And I will cause hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring.He will strike your head, and you will strike his heel."Then he said to the woman,I will sharpen the pain of your pregnancy,and in pain you will give birth.And you will desire to control your husband,but he will rule over you."And to the man he said,"Since you listened to your wife and ate from the treewhose fruit I commanded you not to eat,the ground is cursed because of you.All your life you will struggle to scratch a living from it.It will grow thorns and thistles for you,though you will eat of its grains. By the sweat of your browwill you have food to eatuntil you return to the groundrom which you were made.For you were made from dust,and to dust you will return."

Part of the consequences for their sin included Adam and Eve being expelled from the Garden

Genesis 3:22-24Then the Lord God said, "Look, the human beings have become like us, knowing both good and evil. What if they reach out, take fruit from the tree of life, and eat it? Then they will live forever!" So the Lord God banished them from the Garden of Eden, and he sent Adam out to cultivate the ground from which he had been made. After sending them out, the Lord God stationed mighty cherubim to the east of the Garden of Eden. And he placed a flaming sword that flashed back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.

But also included in the consequences is a message of hope. The first mention of the coming Messiah is found in

Genesis 3:15

And I will cause hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring.He will strike your head, and you will strike his heel."

He would come to crush the Serpent (Satan), but not before Satan bruised Him at the Cross. Even in the midst of sin and its dire consequences, God shows Himself to be a God of grace and mercy and love.

Second creation account……Genesis 1:1 says, "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth." Later, inGenesis 2:4, it seems that a second, different story of creation begins. The idea of two differing creation accounts is a common misinterpretation of these two passages which, in fact, describe the same creation event.

They do not disagree as to the order in which things were created and do not contradict one another.

Genesis 1 describes the "six days of creation" (and a seventh day of rest), Genesis 2 covers only one day of that creation week-the sixth day-and there is no contradiction.……In Genesis 2, the author steps back in the temporal sequence to the sixth day, when God made man. In the first chapter, the author of Genesis presents the creation of man on the sixth day as the culmination or high point of creation. Then, in the second chapter, the author gives greater detail regarding the creation of man.……There are two primary claims of contradictions between Genesis chapters 1-2. The first is in regard to plant life, it records God creating vegetation on the third day.

Genesis 1:11records God creating vegetation on the third day.

Then God said, "Let the land sprout with vegetation-every sort of seed-bearing plant, and trees that grow seed-bearing fruit. These seeds will then produce the kinds of plants and trees from which they came." And that is what happened.

At this point prior to the creation of man "no shrub of the field had yet appeared on the earth and no plant of the field had yet sprung up

Genesis 2:5

neither wild plants nor grains were growing on the earth. For the Lord God had not yet sent rain to water the earth, and there were no people to cultivate the soil"

So, which is it? Did God create vegetation on the third day before He created man (Genesis 1), or after He created man (Genesis 2)?

The Hebrew words for "vegetation" are different in the two passages.

Genesis 1:11 uses a term that refers to vegetation in general.

Genesis 2:5 uses a more specific term that refers to vegetation that requires agriculture, i.e., a person to tend it, a gardener. The passages do not contradict. Genesis 1:11 speaks of God creating vegetation,

Genesis 2:5 speaks of God not causing "farmable" vegetation to grow until after He created man.……The second claimed contradiction is in regard to animal life.

Genesis 1:24-25

Then God said, "Let the earth produce every sort of animal, each producing offspring of the same kind-livestock, small animals that scurry along the ground, and wild animals." And that is what happened. God made all sorts of wild animals, livestock, and small animals, each able to produce offspring of the same kind. And God saw that it was good.

Genesis 1:24-25 records God creating animal life on the sixth day, before He created man.

Genesis 2:19-20, in some translations, seems to record God creating the animals after He had created man. However, a good and plausible translation of Genesis 2:19-20 reads, So the Lord God formed from the ground all the wild animals and all the birds of the sky. He brought them to the man to see what he would call them, and the man chose a name for each one. He gave names to all the livestock, all thebirds of the sky, and all the wild animals. But still there was no helper just right for him.

The text does not say that God created man, then created the animals, and then brought the animals to the man. Rather, the text says, "Now the LORD God had [already] created all the animals." There is no contradiction. On the sixth day, God created the animals, then created man, and then brought the animals to the man, allowing the man to name the animals.……By considering the two creation accounts individually and then reconciling them, we see that God describes the sequence of creation in Genesis 1, then clarifies its most important details, especially of the sixth day, in Genesis 2. There is no contradiction here, merely a common literary device describing an event from the general to the specific.

“What happened on each of the days of Creation?”……The creation account is found in Genesis 1├ö├ç├┤2. The language of the Genesis account makes it clear that all of creation was formed from nothing in six literal 24-hour periods with no time periods occurring between the days. This is evident because the context requires a literal 24-hour period. The description specifically describes the event in a manner that a normal, common-sense reading understands as a literal day: …Genesis 1:5…"God called the light "day" and the darkness "night." And evening passed and morning came, marking the first day.

Further, each sentence in the original language begins with the word "and."

This is good Hebrew grammar and indicates each sentence is built upon the preceding statement, clearly indicating that the days were concurrent and not separated by any period of time.

The Genesis account reveals that the Word of God is authoritative and powerful. Most of God's creative work is done by speaking, another indication of the power and authority of His Word. Let us look at each day of God's creative work:……Creation Day 1

Genesis 1:1-5…In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.(Or In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, . . . Or When God began to create the heavens and the earth ) The earth was formless and empty, and darkness covered the deep waters. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters. Then God said, "Let there be light," and there was light. And God saw that the light was good. Then he separated the light from the darkness. God called the light "day" and the darkness "night."…And evening passed and morning came, marking the first day.

God created the heavens and the earth. "The heavens" refers to everything beyond the earth, outer space. The earth is made but not formed in any specific way, although water is present. God then speaks light into existence. He then separates the light from the dark and names the light "day" and the dark "night." This creative work occurs from evening until morning ├ö├ç├┤ one day.……Creation Day 2

Genesis 1:6-8…Then God said, "Let there be a space between the waters, to separate the waters of the heavens from the waters of the earth."And that is what happened. God made this space to separate the waters of the earth from the waters of the heavens.God called the space "sky."…And evening passed and morning came, marking the second day.

God creates the sky. The sky forms a barrier between water upon the surface and the moisture in the air. At this point earth would have an atmosphere. …This creative work occurs from evening until morning ├ö├ç├┤ one day.……Creation Day 3 …Genesis 1:9-13…Then God said, "Let the waters beneath the sky flow together into one place, so dry ground may appear." And that is what happened.God called the dry ground "land" and the waters "seas." And God saw that it was good.Then God said, "Let the land sprout with vegetation-every sort of seed-bearing plant, and trees that grow seed-bearing fruit. These seeds will then produce the kinds of plants and trees from which they came." And that is what happened.The land produced vegetation-all sorts of seed-bearing plants, and trees with seed-bearing fruit. Their seeds produced plants and trees of the same kind. And God saw that it was good.…And evening passed and morning came, marking the third day.…God creates dry land. Continents and islands are above the water. The large bodies of water are named "seas" and the ground is named "land." God declares that all this is good. …God creates all plant life both large and small. He creates this life to be self-sustaining; plants have the ability to reproduce. The plants were created in great diversity (many "kinds"). The earth was green and teeming with plant life. God declares that this work is also good. …This creative work occurs from evening until morning ├ö├ç├┤ one day.

Creation Day 4 …Genesis 1:14-19…Then God said, "Let lights appear in the sky to separate the day from the night. Let them be signs to mark the seasons, days, and years. Let these lights in the sky shine down on the earth." And that is what happened. God made two great lights-the larger one to govern the day, and the smaller one to govern the night. He also made the stars. God set these lights in the sky to light the earth, to govern the day and night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good.… And evening passed and morning came, marking the fourth day.…God creates all the stars and heavenly bodies. The movement of these will help man track time. Two great heavenly bodies are made in relation to the earth. The first is the sun which is the primary source of light and the moon which reflects the light of the sun. The movement of these bodies will distinguish day from night. This work is also declared to be good by God.…This creative work occurs from evening until morning ├ö├ç├┤ one day ……Creation Day 5…Genesis 1:20-23…Then God said, "Let the waters swarm with fish and other life. Let the skies be filled with birds of every kind." So God created great sea creatures and every living thing that scurries and swarms in the water, and every sort of bird-each producing offspring of the same kind. And God saw that it was good.Then God blessed them, saying, "Be fruitful and multiply. Let the fish fill the seas, and let the birds multiply on the earth."…And evening passed and morning came, marking the fifth day.…God creates all life that lives in the water. Any life of any kind that lives in the water is made at this point.God also makes all the birds. The language allows that this may be the time God made flying insects as well (or, if not, they were made on day six). All of these creatures are made with the ability to perpetuate their species by reproduction. The creatures made on Day 5 are the first creatures blessed by God. God declares this work good, and it occurs in one day.……Creation Day 6 …Genesis 1:24-31…Then God said, "Let the earth produce every sort of animal, each producing offspring of the same kind-livestock, small animals that scurry along the ground, and wild animals." And that is what happened.God made all sorts of wild animals, livestock, and small animals, each able to produce offspring of the same kind. And God saw that it was good.Then God said, "Let us make human beings (Or man; Hebrew reads adam) in our image, to be like us. They will reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the livestock, all the wild animals on the earth, and the small animals that scurry along the ground."…So God created human beings (Or the man; Hebrew reads ha-adam) in his own image.In the image of God he created them;…male and female he created them. Then God blessed them and said, "Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and govern it. Reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, and all the animals that scurry along the ground."…Then God said, "Look! I have given you every seed-bearing plant throughout the earth and all the fruit trees for your food. And I have given every green plant as food for all the wild animals, the birds in the sky, and the small animals that scurry along the ground-everything that has life." And that is what happened.Then God looked over all he had made, and he saw that it was very good!…And evening passed and morning came, marking the sixth day.…God creates all the creatures that live on dry land. This includes every type of creature not included on previous days and man. God declares this work good.…God then takes counsel with Himself, "God said, 'Let us make man in our image, in our likeness'" …Genesis 1:26.…Then God said, "Let us make human beings (Or man; Hebrew reads adam) in our image, to be like us. They will reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the livestock, all the wild animals on the earth, and the small animals that scurry along the ground."

This creative work occurs from evening until morning ├ö├ç├┤ one day.…This is not an explicit revelation of the trinity but is part of the foundation for such, as God reveals an "us" within the Godhead. God makes man, and man is made in the image of God (men and women both bear this image,(see article on the Image of God) and is special above all other creatures. To emphasize this, God places man in authority over the earth and over all the other creatures. God blesses man and commands him to reproduce, fill the earth and subdue it (bring it under the rightful stewardship of man as authorized by God). God announces that man and all other creatures are to eat plants alone.

God will not rescind this dietary restriction until Genesis 9:3-4.… I have given them to you for food, (God is speaking to Noah) just as I have given you grain and vegetables. But you must never eat any meat that still has the lifeblood in it.

God's creative work is complete at the end of the sixth day.The entire universe in all its beauty and perfection was fully formed in six literal, concurrent, 24-hour days. At the completion of His creation, God announces that it is very good.…

Creation Day 7 …Genesis 2:1-3…So the creation of the heavens and the earth and everything in them was completed. On the seventh day God had finished his work of creation, so he rested(Or ceased) from all his work. And God blessed the seventh day and declared it holy, because it was the day when he rested from all his work of creation.

God rests. This in no way indicates He was weary from His creative efforts, but denotes that the creation is complete. Further, God is establishing a pattern of one day in seven to rest. The keeping of this day will eventually be a distinguishing trait of the God's chosen people.

Exodus 20:8-11…"Remember to observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. You have six days each week for your ordinary work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath day of rest dedicated to the Lord your God. On that day no one in your household may do any work. This includes you, your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, your livestock, and any foreigners living among you. For in six days the Lord made the heavens, the earth, the sea, and everything in them; but on the seventh day he rested. That is why the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and set it apart as holy.