Thoughts on the Beginning of a New Year and of Creation itself

2025 marks a new season for Julie and me as we have now fully transitioned from over fifteen years of ministry and service to Asbury Theological Seminary and am now beginning a new chapter at Beeson Divinity School.   I now serve as the Methodist Chair of Divinity at Samford University.  My wife and I thought it would be fitting if we read the Bible afresh this year, starting with Genesis 1:1 and reading all the way through to Revelation 22:21 (we highly recommend this practice which we have done many times during our 41 years of marriage).

So, when we got up on January 1, 2025 we read our scripture readings for the day, which included the creation account in Genesis.  I am sure I have read this account dozens of times, but as always happens when we read Scripture, I was struck by something new.  Over the years when I have interacted with unbelievers they would sometimes bring up the creation account as a way to scoff at my faith.  One of the common statements which I have heard (and still hear from time to time) is how unbelievable it is that God creates light and darkness on the first day, calling the light “day” and calling the darkness “night” (Gen. 1:5), but does not create the sun, moon and the stars until the fourth day (Gen. 1:16-19).  My friends would scoff and say, “How can you have light and darkness without the Sun, moon and stars?”

Today, as I read, the following points seemed quite clear.

First,  it was so obvious that since God is the source of all light, he is not dependent upon the sun, moon or stars to give light.  In fact, when the Apostle John has his vision of the new creation in Revelation 21:23 he says, the New Jerusalem has “no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb.”   God is light (1 John 1:5) is a very important beginning lesson.  He is the source of all light, not any heavenly body.

Second, it is theologically important for us to know that God’s glory and light precede the created order and will outlast it.  The book of Hebrews declares (quoting Psalm 102) that the entire created world will perish and wear out like a garment (Heb. 1:10,11).  This entire created order is going to pass away, so it is important that we focus on our union with the Triune God, who alone is eternal.  In fact, the very promise that we will live eternally does not mean, as some suggest, that when we die God does something ontologically to our bodies so that they never decay.  No, the entire created order is subject to decay and there are no exceptions.  The reason we will live forever in the presence of God is that we are in union with Him.  In other words, we will live eternally because we will eternally be drawing our life from his eternal life, as opposed to us having some independent source of eternal life.

Third, if God had created the Sun and Moon on the first day, as my skeptical friends seem to think would make more sense, then the creation would have turned and worshipped the sun and the moon, as the source of light and life.  The human race has always been tempted to worship the creation rather than the creator.  So, God purposely reveals the creation of the sun and the moon on the fourth day so that they can be like icons or subordinate channels which brings light and life to the world, but it is set within the larger context of God as the only One worthy of praise and adoration and the true source of all light and life.  Our own history in the West proves the propensity to worship the creation rather than the creator.  The names of our days of the week give testimony to our early pre-Christian history in the Nordic religion.  Sunday was the “Sun” day, when the Sun was worshipped.  Monday was the “moon” day when the moon was worshipped.   Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday were dedicated to their gods, Tiew (Tiew’s Day) Wooden (Wooden’s Day, later shorted to Wednesday, Thor (Thor’s Day), and Frig’s Day, later shorted to Friday.  Saturday was back to the worship of the heavenly bodies since Saturday was dedicated to the worship of the planet Saturn (Saturn’s Day became Saturday).  I hope you get my point.  The gospel delivered us from all of this, so we would worship the true and living God, creator of heaven and earth.  The creation account is marvelously revealed in precisely the way God wanted it, for His glory and our good.