In the beginning...
בְּרֵאשִׁ֖ית בָּרָ֣א אֱלֹהִ֑ים אֵ֥ת הַשָּׁמַ֖יִם וְאֵ֥ת הָאָֽרֶץ׃ So begins Holy Scripture in the Hebrew Text, in English "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." Genesis begins with two creation stories that seem to be complimentary. This week our church is hosting its Summer Art Camp and creation will be the main theme of it. In connection with that I will be preaching on the first of the creation stories next Sunday. As I do from time to time, I thought I would address some things related to creation that won't fit neatly into one sermon. One of the questions that many ask in considering the Genesis 1 creation account is when? How old is the earth? Bishop James Ussher in the Church of Ireland back in the mid 1600s is famous for dating creation to 4004 BC. He did this by simply adding up the ages of all the ancient patriarchs mentioned in the genealogies of Genesis, and by assuming the days of creation in Genesis 1 were twenty-four hour sola