Whodunit?

Genesis 1:1

 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

 

Genesis 1:20-27

And God said, "Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the sky." So God created the great creatures of the sea and every living and moving thing with which the water teems, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. God blessed them and said, "Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the water in the seas, and let the birds increase on the earth." And there was evening, and there was morning—the fifth day.

And God said, "Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: livestock, creatures that move along the ground, and wild animals, each according to its kind." And it was so. God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.

Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground." So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

 

The word whodunit is actually in the dictionary. It means 'detective story'. The most important whodunit of all time is the question of creation.

 

Some people wish the Bible said, "In the beginning God wasn't needed." To them it's unacceptable to say, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth" or "Let us make man in our image". Instead they believe that, after an explosion of energy and matter, somehow an atmosphere conducive to life was formed. Then, single-celled organisms morphed into the exceedingly complex life forms that we have today. No need for God, they say, for it all happened naturally. On an earth and in an atmosphere not of anyone's making, forces with a blueprint designed by no-one joined together to place the earth perfectly for life to thrive.

 

What we do with "In the beginning God" is at the centre of it all. We must either believe His Word – and everything His Word claims – or we must believe that our meaningless lives resulted from an accidental, mindless chain reaction. What a stark contrast to "Let us make man in our image"!

 

In the beginning. Was it God? Or was it chance? Our answer to this whodunit reveals whether or not we worship the awesome God of creation.

 

Only God could create the cosmos out of nothing.