Confessing Creation

Exodus 20:11

“For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.”

In recent years, there has been a renewed interest among Christians in a variety of denominations in the use of the historic confessions of faith, such as the 1648 Westminster Confession and the 1689 London Baptist Confession. Sadly, I have noticed that many such people are precisely those who have decided to reinterpret Genesis, usually as an allegory inspired by Ancient Near Eastern mythology. One Presbyterian leader, for example, has described Adam and Eve’s expulsion from the Garden of Eden as an allegory of the captivity of God’s people to Babylon.

In view of such ideas, it is interesting to look at the confessions in question. The Westminster Confession contains the following words in Chapter 1 §I:

It pleased God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, for the manifestation of the glory of His eternal power, wisdom, and goodness, in the beginning, to create, or make of nothing, the world, and all things therein whether visible or invisible, in the space of six days; and all very good.

Identical words are used in chapter 4 of the 1689 London Baptist Confession.

In these words, both confessions confirm the importance of believing in a literal six-day creation.

Moreover, they point out that the creation, when complete, was “very good” – the biblical words used to imply that there was, as yet, no sin or death in the world when initially created. This creation was made by all three persons of the Trinity – one God – for His own glory!

It should be a good thing to return to the confessions of our forefathers. While doing so, let us not overlook both chapter 4s – the creation confession.

Prayer: We thank You, Lord, that You created everything “for the manifestation of the glory of Your eternal power, wisdom, and goodness.” This we believe and confess with our mouths. Amen.

Ref: Westminster Confession of Faith (1848), < http://www.reformed.org/documents/wcf_with_proofs/ >, accessed 1/22/2018. Image: John Rogers Herbert, Assertion of Liberty of Conscience by the Independents of the Westminster Assembly of Divines; license: Public Domain.