Title: The Heavens and the Earth

Scripture: Genesis 1:1-31

Speaker: Tim Spanburg, TimS@ChristCommunityKC.org

The very best time to be an intellectually satisfied atheist was one hundred years ago, circa 1917, and it has been getting gradually harder ever since. And second, one hundred years from now, circa 2117, it is entirely possible that the most intellectually coherent account of the cosmos, on the basis of all that we know, will be in deep continuity with biblical, trinitarian faith.

"In the Christian story, the material world came into existence at the point of speech, and that speech was ex nihilo, from nothing. God did not look around for some cosmic goo to sculpt, or another god to dice and recycle. He sang a song, composed a poem, began a novel so enormous that even the Russians are dwarfed by its heaped up pages. You are spoken. I am spoken. We stand on a spoken stage” - ND Wlison

Evolutionary biologist Jeffrey Schloss traces the the ways that life becomes more and more relational over time, more and more deeply capable of recognizing and bonding to one another, and ultimately more and more capable of altruism, sacrifice and love. - Andy Crouch

Is it actually possible that an impersonal world could give rise to persons? Does it not make far more sense to suppose that such a world is in some mysterious way not just capable of personhood but defined by it, not just capable of life but defined by life? - Andy Crouch

“He exists on two planes. He sees the story as He tells it, while He weaves it, shapes it, and sings it. And He stepped inside it. The shadows exist in the painting, the dark corners of grief and trial and wickedness all exist so that He might step inside them, so we could see how low He can stoop. In this story, the Author became flesh and wandered the stage with Hamlet, offering His own life. In this story, the Author heaped all that He loathed, all that displeased Him, all the wrongness of the world, onto Himself.” - ND Wilson