Created by the Creator Youth Bible Study Lesson

Brief: Exploring God’s process of creation

(Printable Student Sheet)

 

Needed: picture of the Mona Lisa, picture of a museum (included in previous lesson)

 

Recap

Last time, we talked about the Big Bang, and we asked the questions, “Where did all that matter come from for it to be so densely packed at the beginning of the Big Bang?” “How did all of those quarks and atoms know how to fit together to make planets and animals and people?”

It didn’t quite make sense to us, so we posited that the Universe had been created by some kind of “outside force” that designed the Universe to fit together.

We’ll talk about other religions and other possible creators of the Universe at another time, so for now, let’s just name that “outside force” that created the Universe as God, the God of the Bible, and see if that makes any more sense to us.

 

Scripture: Genesis 1:1-25 and Revelation 21:22-27

 

Read Genesis 1:1-8

What is going on these verses? What does it mean that God separated water from water? And what is this expanse that God named sky?

God took some of the water from the earth’s surface and gathered it above the earth into a hydrosphere, a layer of water that completely surrounded the earth in the sky. (We’ll talk more about the hydrosphere later.)

 

Read Genesis 1:9-10

How many places was the water under the sky, which means on the earth, gathered to? (One.)

Which means that there was one ocean. But don’t we have at least four oceans now?

When God created the world, He created it as one continent and one ocean.

We call that first continent Pangea.

 

Read Genesis 1:11-19

 

Okay. There’s a mistake here, right? What day was the sun created? (The fourth day.)

And what day did it say there was light? (The first day.)

And what day did it say there were plants? (The third day.)

So how could there be light and plants, which need sunlight to live, before there was the sun?

Do we have light in this room? (Yes.) Is it from sunlight? (No.)

The sun is not the only source of light. In fact, the Bible talks about another source of light that’s even better than the sun.

 

Read Revelation 21:22-27

The glory of God is radiant. God Himself, shining down on His creation, could have been that first source of light.

 

Read Genesis 1:20-25

The Bible keeps talking about God making all kinds of plants and fish and birds and animals. Do you think God really made every species of plant and animal that we have today?

God did not make every species of plant and animal. God made one of each kind of plant and one of each kind of animal and then allowed those kinds to evolve into other species. Christians don’t completely reject evolution. We believe that one kind of berry can evolve to produce another kind of berry. A horse can evolve to make a zebra. A monkey can evolve to make another kind of monkey. But a berry cannot evolve to become a bird, and a horse cannot become a cow, and a monkey cannot become a person. God created each of those kinds to be separate.

So how do we know what modern animals that we have today came from one of those kinds that God created?

If two animals can breed together and create offspring, we’re pretty sure that means that those two animals belong to the same kind.

Can a donkey and a horse interbreed? (Yes, it’s called a mule. So they all belong to the horse kind.)

Can different kinds of cats interbreed? (Sure. They’re all part of the cat kind.)

Can a black human and a white human interbreed? (Yes. All people are people. They’re all the same kind.)

But can a human interbreed with a monkey? (No. And, in fact, a scientist tried illegally to artificially inseminate human women with various kinds of monkey sperm, and it just didn’t work. Humans and monkeys are not part of the same kind.)

God created each kind of species to adapt within their species. But the kinds of plants or animals can’t evolve into other kinds of plants or animals.