Page 17 - Through New Eyes

O N E

INTERPRETING THE

WORLD DESIGN

What do we see when we go outside and look at the world?
Has it become so familiar to us that we pay no attention to it at
all? Or perhaps when we look at the blue sky do we think of the
refraction of light? When we notice the sun, do we think of a
nuclear furnace? When we see a fox in a zoo, do we think of
what we learned in biology class about its bones and organs?
And beyond this, when we step back and view the world, how do
we see it? Blue sky, green fields, brown earth, blue water — does
this set of images mean anything at all, or is it “just the way
things are”? How do we uiew the world?
The Bible is concerned to give us a basic worldview model
and begins with it right away. The first chapter of Genesis tells
us about the design of the world, as it came from the hand of the
Designer. There is a separation of light and darkness. There is a
blue sky as a ceiling over the earth, a sky that becomes black and
filled with stars at night. There is a separation between land and
sea. Moreover, there are creatures apportioned to each of these
environments: lights and birds for the sky, beasts and creeping
things for the earth, fish and great “monsters” for seas. And over
them all, yet under God, is man himself, the captain of creation.
In this chapter we want to start becoming familiar with the
nature of this worldview grid.

The Six Days of Genesis 1
From time to time in the history of the Church, the interpre-
tation of Genesis 1 has been obscured by a tendency to read it in
terms of current science. Bringing a scientific worldview to Gen-
esis 1 has resulted in two errors. One is to take the chapter liter-
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