The Square Corner

    If you have ever tried to build something and made just a little mistake at the beginning in your measurements, you soon find that the mistake will be compounded the more you build.  After I retired, I tried a few hobbies.  One of them was wood working.  I tried to make a few simple things like a wooden try to transport a crock pot to church.  Being a Baptist, we spend a lot of time eating at church and it seems like we need to have something to transport the food to church.  All it had to be was something square with enough of a side to keep the crock pot from sliding all over the car and something with simple handles on it.  I took by trusty saws and began cutting the pieces.  I have "squares" to make the corners right, but something must have slipped at some point.  The bottom of the tray wasn't perfectly square.  In fact, it was way off.  I kept going, determined to make it fit.  Well, eventually it was completed, weighs as much as the crock pot and seems to be square, but it isn't.  If you put enough wood filler in it, it will look square.  Just a little mistake at the beginning affected the whole project.  Genesis 1:1 says, "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth."   
     Now, the question comes up about your belief in God's Word?  Do you accept what He says?  Some have stated that you belief in Genesis 1-11 will determine how you approach the whole Bible.  Indeed, the first verse, mentioned above, makes the first statement that answers the questions of the critics as to how all things began.  If you do not believe this first statement, then you will have problems with every other passage in the Scriptures.  There was a term I heard many years ago called, "Theistic Evolution."  It basically said that God started things out and then it took millions of years to finish.  It was the "gap" theory which said that there was a huge gap between Genesis 1:1 and Genesis 1:2.  One can have this belief and then go on to question or to explain away other portions of Scripture that seem to present a problem for people to comprehend, such as the virgin birth of Christ, the universal flood, Jesus being raised from the dead or God supplying manna for 40 years to over a million people in the wilderness.  Galatians 4:4 reminds us the the Lord Jesus Christ came to this earth so many years ago at exactly the right time or as the Bible states, the fullness of time.  My non square tray had a little flaw in it that caused it to be "not perfect."  By not accepting God's account of creation, your theology might be just a little off down the road.  It is going to boil down to whether or not you accept God's inspiration of His Word.  Praise God today that we have a copy of His Word and that it has the answers to all of life's questions.