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i find creationism especially offensive for a similar reason: it binds god by a universe the creationist made up.
Before i start, i want to say that creationists do not believe blindly, desperately trying to prove a God. They stand proud because their hearts believe logically, & rationally in the evidence of God, the evidence of the Bible, & the evidence of science. Even if you dont believe in what creation science teaches, or are against creation/creationists, then its just fair that you yourselves realise that no matter how right you think you are. Theres always other opinions, & i hear so often how evolutionary humanistic philosophy, is the rational way of thinking. Its pretty much taken over society (secular humanism). Anyway, to my reply... The reason we even decided to chase a literal genesis, is because we are reading the Bible, and interpreting it, in what it meant to the original readers. What genesis meant, how God intended for the text to be interpreted, what it meant to the Jews, & early church fathers. And heres what we found...
In the beginning (Heb. Bereshit) marks the absolute beginning of the temporal and material world. The traditional jewish and christian belief is that Genesis 1:1 declares that God created the original heaven and earth from nothing (Lat. ex nihilo), and that verse 2 clarifies that when it came from the Creators hand, the mass was "without form , and void", unformed and without any life. There is no evidence in the Hebrew text for long ages of evolutionary development or a gap time between verse 1 & verse 2. "God" (Heb. Elohim), this form of the divine name occurs 2,570 times in the OT. The plural ending "im" indicates a plural of majesty and takes a singular verb. "Created" (Heb Bara), this verb is used exclusively with God as its subject. It refers to the instananeous and miraculous act of God by which He brought the universe into existence. Thus, the Genesis account of Creation refutes atheism, pantheism, polytheism & evolution.
"Without form, and void" (Heb. tohu wabohu, 'unformed and unfilled'). Describes the condition of earth after the initial act of creation. It does not describe a chaotic condition as a result of judgement. Thus "was" (Heb. hayetah) is correct and should not be translated "became". "The spirit of God" is a clear reference to the creative activity of the Holy Spirit. John 1:3 indicates that Christ created all things with the father thus all 3 persons of the Trinity are active in the Creation. This undoubtedly accounts for the plural pronouns "us" and "our" in verse 26 (genesis) which take singular verbs in expressing the tri-unity of God.
Verse 1:3 says 'And God said'. This is the first highly structured series of succinct and formulaic sentences expressing the creative commands of God. Thus, creation is accomplished by his word. Each command consists of (1. an announcement, "God said" (2. a creative command, "Let there be" (3. a summary word of accomplishment, "And it was so" (4. a descriptive word of accomplisment, "The earth brought forth" (5. a descriptive blessing, "God blessed" (6. an evaluative approval, "It was good" & (7. a concluding framework, numbering each day. Simultaneously giving mankind a 'temporal' framework (Exodus 20:11)
Thats as far as i can go today, in studying Genesis. But you can now see the framework creation builds itself on. What Gods word says and can we trust in it or not. The world which of course wants independence from God and doesnt want to live under 'his rules' have put God out of society. Thats probably a different topic discussion altogether. In a nutshell, creationists havent made up any sort of 'recent theory'. That would be evolution. Creation has been fact since the beginning premeval history, & Israel. Regardless of who believed in Elohim or not (1 Samuel 4:7-8).
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