The Importance of Origins (Part 2)
8 Pages - 120K

Understanding the importance of origins in developing a DVP was the topic of our last lesson. We discovered how the following foundational questions will be answered through our study of Genesis:

• Who is God and what is He like?
• Who am I? Where did I come from? Where am I going?
• Is truth absolute and where does it come from?
• Where did evil come from? Is there any escape from it?

The answers to these questions form what we would call our ultimate assumptions or beliefs needed to know anything. Without answers to these questions you would never attempt to gain knowledge on anything.

So much of what we need to make sense of this world is found in God’s first book of the Bible. Also, we looked at several passages in Revelation to see the symmetry of the Bible. The Creation event was such a monumental event that we will still be praising God for it in heaven. This event will be remembered and recalled eternally!

We also looked at how origins is really at the heart of all men. It’s very important to realize that whenever you discuss origins you’re really discussing a person’s ultimate belief, and that ultimate belief is part and parcel with their view of God. A person’s view of origins will always reveal a persons view of God (or god) - they are that closely related.

Our last lesson also covered the importance of origins for meaning. All communication requires a certain set of basic truths. We looked at three:

1. Meaning Requires Classification - What are the necessary conditions of the world needed to classify things?
2. Meaning Requires Stability - Is the universe stable so that I can depend on my classifications remaining the same.
3. Meaning Requires Context - Does my classification fit in the immediate context of what I see and ultimately to the entire context of the universe?

As we learn more about the doctrine of Creation we are going to see how God created man in His image so that man comes with the needed abilities to understand his environment. Because man is made in God’s image he can classify things with language that is meaningful. Because the universe is stable we can be sure that what we learn about our classifications isn’t going to transmute into something else later. And because God created the entire universe, our classifications can be meaningful within their contexts. This context only makes sense in light of ones view of origins.

Let me briefly expand this idea of how meaning is found in context. We always classify things with the context in mind, this is the only way to get the meaning. If I’m going to get meaning in life I’ve got to push the boundaries of context out all the way to eternity. However, the problem for the unbeliever is that when you push as far as you can go there’s nothing there. According to their worldview there is only mystery and chaos and you don’t get meaning from mystery and chaos.

We summed up our thoughts on the importance of origins for meaning when we said: you can't say anything about anything without saying (by implication) something about everything. The term "everything" points unmistakably to origins our ultimate context. If this is true, then is it possible for anyone to be neutral on the origins issue?

In this lesson we want better understand the idea of neutrality so that we can avoid buying into its agenda. This will greatly help us to make sense of the controversy surrounding origins and how it robs us of real meaning.

Finally we will turn to what God has said in His Word concerning all of mankind’s heart desire to understand the issue of origins and their place in it. Download the full lesson